# Future Sharks > The new business publication for the founders building what comes next. Site: https://futuresharks.com --- ## Highest-Paying Self-Employed Jobs in 2026 URL: https://futuresharks.com/highest-paying-self-employed-jobs-2026/ TL;DR: Ranked by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics median wage data, the highest-paying self-employed paths are personal financial advising ($102,140), management consulting ($101,190), and web development ($90,930). These are national medians for the full occupation, not just the self-employed slice, and none of them include the 15.3% self-employment tax or the cost of benefits you'd otherwise get from an employer — both of which change the real math. Search "best self-employed jobs" and you'll get a wall of listicles ranking freelance writing, dog walking, and virtual assistant work side by side, with no indication of which one actually pays. Some of that is fine as a menu of low-barrier options. It's not useful if you're trying to figure out where your time is worth the most. This list uses a narrower, more useful filter: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, which publishes national median annual wages by detailed occupation. The figures below are the May 2024 OEWS release — the most recent complete dataset across the occupations covered here — except for tax preparers and personal financial advisors, where the May 2025 release was already available at time of writing and is cited instead. These are medians for the entire occupation, employees and self-employed workers combined, because the BLS doesn't publish a self-employed-only wage series for most job categories. Treat them as a credible floor for what the work is worth, not a guarantee of what you'll personally bill. The occupations included share one trait: no employer is structurally required to do them. You can build a client base, get licensed, or freelance your way into every one of these without ever being on someone else's payroll. ## The ranked list ### 1. Personal Financial Advisor — $102,140 median Financial advisors who go independent typically register as an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) or join an independent broker-dealer network rather than staying at a wirehouse. You need a securities license (Series 65, or Series 7 and 66 depending on how you're compensated) and, increasingly, a CFP designation to compete for clients who can now get basic portfolio management from a robo-advisor for free. The self-employed version of this job is a relationship and trust business first, a numbers business second. ### 2. Management Consultant — $101,190 median The BLS files this as "management analyst." Independent consultants in this category advise companies on operations, strategy, or cost-cutting, usually billing $150–$400/hour once they have a specialization and a track record. The barrier to entry is credibility, not credentials — most independent consultants spent 5–10 years inside a firm or an industry before going solo, and that history is most of what they're selling. ### 3. Web Developer — $90,930 median Freelance and contract web development is one of the most liquid self-employed markets that exists — there's a client on Upwork or a referral network for nearly every skill level. The wage spread is enormous: a WordPress theme customizer and a senior full-stack engineer are both "web developers" by BLS classification, and their independent rates can differ by 5x. Specializing (e-commerce builds, a specific framework, accessibility compliance) is what moves you toward the top of that range. ### 4. Real Estate Broker — $72,280 median A broker license (beyond the base sales agent license) lets you operate your own brokerage or work with a larger commission split instead of handing a cut to a managing broker. It requires additional coursework and, in most states, 1–3 years of experience as a licensed agent first — so this is a second-stage move, not a starting point. ### 5. Writer / Author — $72,270 median This category folds in freelance copywriters, ghostwriters, technical writers, and published authors, which is a wide range of business models. The independent writers earning near or above this median are almost always working retainer or project-based B2B contracts (technical documentation, executive ghostwriting, brand content) rather than pitching per-word blog posts, where the market rate has been pushed down hard by AI-assisted competition. ### 6. Tax Preparer — $60,930 median Tax prep has one of the lowest licensing bars on this list — an EA (Enrolled Agent) credential or, in some states, just a PTIN and state registration — paired with genuinely recession-resistant demand, since taxes are due every year regardless of the economy. The catch is seasonality: most of the income is compressed into a few months, which means either building a slower income floor with bookkeeping work the rest of the year, or accepting a very front-loaded work schedule. ### 7. Insurance Agent — $60,370 median Independent (as opposed to captive) agents represent multiple carriers and earn commission plus renewal income, which means the first two to three years are the hardest — you're building a renewal book with little residual income yet. State licensing is required per line of insurance you sell (life, health, property & casualty), and each adds both revenue potential and compliance overhead. ### 8. Interpreter / Translator — $59,440 median Certification requirements vary sharply by specialty: court and medical interpreting typically require formal certification (state court certification, or CCHI/NBCMI for medical), while general document translation has a much lower bar to entry. Certified court and medical interpreters consistently earn toward the top of this range; uncertified generalist translators competing on marketplaces like ProZ are usually well below it. ### 9. Real Estate Sales Agent — $56,320 median The most accessible licensed profession on this list — most states require only a pre-licensing course and an exam, no degree. It's also 100% commission with no salary floor, and the BLS median understates how skewed the income distribution actually is: a small share of agents in high-value markets pull in multiples of this figure, while a large share of newly licensed agents earn near zero in their first year before their pipeline matures. ### 10. Bookkeeper — $49,210 median The lowest median on this list is also the steadiest: every business, regardless of size or industry, needs its books kept, and the work is largely recession-proof. QuickBooks ProAdvisor or Xero certification is optional but functions as a credible signal to prospective clients. Bookkeepers who specialize by industry (e-commerce, restaurants, real estate) and move to fixed monthly retainers instead of hourly billing tend to out-earn the median by a wide margin. ## The math these numbers leave out Every figure above is a gross wage for someone who might be salaried. Go independent in any of these and two things change immediately. First, you owe self-employment tax — 15.3% on top of ordinary income tax, covering both the employer and employee share of Social Security and Medicare that a salaried job would split with you. Second, you're now buying your own health insurance and funding your own retirement account, both of which an employer was quietly subsidizing before. A reasonable rule of thumb: treat 25–30% of self-employed gross revenue as spoken for before it ever reaches your personal account. That's also why the accounting habits matter as much as the rate you charge. [The Profit First method](/profit-first-method-for-founders/) exists specifically to stop self-employed people from spending the tax and benefits portion of their income before it's set aside — it's the most direct fix for the specific trap that catches new freelancers and independent contractors in their first year. If you're planning the jump from salaried to self-employed more broadly, [Jeffrey Shaw's *The Self-Employed Life*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1774580047) is a useful read on the personal-development and business-systems side of the transition — the part most "best jobs" lists skip entirely. ## Picking the right one for you Sort the ten above into three buckets, and the decision gets simpler: - **Licensed and regulated** (financial advisor, real estate broker/agent, insurance agent): higher ceiling, but you're paying in upfront time and exam costs before you can earn a dollar, and renewal/compliance work never stops. - **Skill-based and portable** (web developer, writer, translator/interpreter, consultant): fastest to start if you already have the underlying skill, most exposed to global competition and, in writing's case, AI-assisted competition compressing rates at the low end. - **Process-based and steady** (bookkeeper, tax preparer): lower ceiling but the most resistant to economic cycles, and the easiest to build into recurring monthly revenue instead of one-off projects. If none of these fit your skills or you want a lower barrier-to-entry starting point instead of a wage-ranked one, our broader roundup of [the best self-employed jobs for today's market](/the-best-self-employed-jobs-for-todays-market/) covers more accessible gig-economy options. But if the plan is to replace or exceed a full-time salary, start from the wage data, not the vibes. --- ## 7 Best Productivity Books for Entrepreneurs in 2026 (That Address the Real Problems) URL: https://futuresharks.com/best-productivity-books-for-entrepreneurs/ TL;DR: The real productivity problem for founders isn't a lack of hours — it's the quality and intentionality of the hours they have. These 7 books address the specific failure modes: constant distraction, doing too many things at once, systems that never stick, and the mental resistance that stops meaningful work from starting. Most productivity advice is written for knowledge workers with predictable schedules. Founders don't have those. A typical founder day involves context-switching between sales calls, product decisions, investor updates, team issues, and customer escalations — often before noon. The productivity systems designed for someone with a calendar and a to-do list frequently collapse under that pressure. The books on this list are different. They each address a specific failure mode that founders run into at a predictable stage. Some are philosophical — they change how you think about time. Some are operational — they give you a concrete system to install. All of them are genuinely useful, not just inspiring. ## 1. *Deep Work* — Cal Newport **The problem it solves:** Your highest-value work never gets done because everything else fills the time. Newport's central argument is that "deep work" — cognitively demanding, distraction-free work on tasks that create real value — is becoming increasingly rare and increasingly valuable at the same time. For founders, this lands particularly hard. The work that actually moves a company forward (thinking through strategy, writing a serious investor memo, building the architecture of a product, doing real sales work) is deep work. The work that keeps you busy but doesn't compound (Slack, meetings without agendas, email triage) is what Newport calls "shallow work." The book isn't about eliminating shallow work entirely — that's impossible. It's about scheduling and protecting blocks of deep work deliberately, and recognizing that the absence of those blocks is why output stalls even when hours are long. Newport provides four specific frameworks for structuring a deep work practice: the monastic philosophy, the bimodal philosophy, the rhythmic philosophy, and the journalistic philosophy. The rhythmic approach — same time every day, non-negotiable — is the most practical for most founders. The chapters on "quitting social media" will feel extreme, but read them anyway. The argument is more nuanced than the headline. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1455586692) ## 2. *Essentialism* — Greg McKeown **The problem it solves:** You're doing too many things at a fraction of the impact you'd have doing fewer. McKeown's thesis is blunt: most of us spend our energy on things that are not essential — not because we're lazy, but because we haven't built a system for deciding what's essential in the first place. The result is a diffuse, scattered effort that produces activity without progress. Founders are especially vulnerable: the number of things a founder *could* do on any given day is effectively unlimited, and without a disciplined filter, default mode is to do all of them poorly. Essentialism isn't about doing less work — it's about doing the right work. The book teaches a three-step loop: explore (identify options), eliminate (cut everything non-essential), execute (build systems that make the essential things nearly effortless). What makes it more than a motivation book is the specificity: McKeown addresses how to say no to a boss, how to handle social pressure to take on more, how to protect sleep and rest as performance inputs, and how to navigate the organizational dynamics that create non-essential work in the first place. The section on "the clarity paradox" — how success breeds options that breed distraction that erodes the focus that created success — is one of the most useful diagnoses of what kills early-stage companies at the moment they start working. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804137382) ## 3. *Atomic Habits* — James Clear **The problem it solves:** Your company's operating habits are either accidental or broken. Most founders read *Atomic Habits* for personal productivity. The more valuable application is organizational: the way your team does stand-ups, how your sales process runs, how code gets reviewed, how decisions get made — these are all habits at the company level, and they compound or decay in exactly the same way personal habits do. A company with a bad decision-making habit doesn't make one bad decision; it makes thousands. Clear's framework — cue, craving, response, reward — is simple enough to teach in a team meeting, and his concept of "habit stacking" (attaching new behaviors to existing ones) is the most practical implementation technique in the book. For founders building culture in the early days, the principle of identity-based habits is particularly relevant: "We are the kind of company that ships on Fridays" is more durable than "We should try to ship on Fridays." The underlying message is that small, consistent changes compound into large outcomes over 12–24 months, and that trying to install too many habits at once is the fastest way to install none. Pick one, build it into a system, then add the next. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735211299) ## 4. *Getting Things Done* — David Allen **The problem it solves:** Your brain is full of open loops that distract you from anything you're trying to focus on. GTD is the oldest system on this list — first published in 2001, substantially revised in 2015 — and it is still the most complete methodology for managing the volume of inputs a working professional receives. The core insight is deceptively simple: your brain is bad at storage but good at processing. When you use it for storage — keeping track of everything you need to do in your head — it has no capacity left for the thinking that actually matters. The solution is to externalize everything into a trusted system and then make clear decisions about what each item means and what to do about it. For founders, the most immediately useful concept is the "two-minute rule": if an action takes less than two minutes to complete, do it now rather than capturing it for later. The more structural insight is Allen's distinction between "projects" (outcomes requiring more than one action) and "next actions" (the very next physical step). Most to-do lists conflate these, which is why items sit there indefinitely: "Launch email campaign" isn't a next action, but "Draft subject lines for A/B test" is. Read the revised 2015 edition, which incorporates digital tools and updated examples. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143126563) ## 5. *Make Time* — Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky **The problem it solves:** You follow the standard productivity advice and still end the day feeling like nothing important got done. Knapp and Zeratsky are the creators of the Design Sprint methodology at Google Ventures, which means they've worked closely with hundreds of founding teams and observed a common pattern: ambitious people with good systems still fail to protect the most important work because they underestimate the structural pull of two forces — the Busy Bandwagon (the cultural norm that equates busyness with productivity) and the Infinity Pools (apps like email, Slack, news, social media that infinitely refresh and absorb attention). *Make Time* is not a comprehensive productivity system — it doesn't try to be GTD. Instead, it offers a lighter, more sustainable framework built on one daily decision: pick a single "Highlight" — the one thing that, if you accomplish it today, you'll consider the day a success. Then design the rest of the day around making space for that Highlight. The book is organized as a collection of 87 tactics, all opt-in, and readers pick what works for them rather than implementing a rigid protocol. What makes it particularly well-suited for founders is its realism: the authors explicitly acknowledge that most productivity advice ignores the fact that the systems you're fighting against — constant connectivity, always-on communication norms — are features of the work environment, not personal failures. Changing the environment is more effective than applying willpower against it. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525572428) ## 6. *Four Thousand Weeks* — Oliver Burkeman **The problem it solves:** Your productivity system is optimized for a goal you can never reach. The premise of the book is uncomfortable: the average human lifespan is approximately four thousand weeks, and virtually every productivity system on the market promises — implicitly or explicitly — that if you use it correctly, you will eventually reach the bottom of your inbox, finish your task list, and "get on top of things." Burkeman's argument is that this promise is structurally impossible. Doing more efficiently simply surfaces more to do. The problem isn't a lack of optimization; it's a foundational misunderstanding of what time management is for. This isn't a nihilistic book — it's a deeply practical one that arrives at different conclusions than most. Burkeman draws on philosophy, psychology, and ancient texts to make the case for accepting finitude, making deliberate choices about the things you will *not* do (because you genuinely cannot do everything), and finding meaning in limited time rather than racing to escape it. For founders who have been running hard against an undefined finish line, this book can be disorienting in the most useful possible way. Read it when you're successful enough to feel busy and unsatisfied at the same time. It will reframe what you're actually trying to accomplish. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374159122) ## 7. *The War of Art* — Steven Pressfield **The problem it solves:** You know exactly what needs to get done and still don't start it. Pressfield names the thing that no productivity system fully addresses: Resistance. Not lack of time, not lack of knowledge, not lack of tools — the internal force that manifests as procrastination, distraction, and rationalization specifically when you're about to do your most important work. Resistance, Pressfield argues, is most powerful precisely when the work is most meaningful, which is why the tasks with the highest stakes are the ones that most frequently don't get started. The book is short — under 200 pages — and structured in three parts: defining Resistance, becoming a professional (which Pressfield defines as someone who shows up regardless of how they feel), and the spiritual dimension of creative work. The middle section is the most useful for founders: the professional mindset treats work as a craft practiced consistently, not an inspiration that strikes occasionally. A founder who waits to feel ready to make a hard hire, have a difficult conversation, or start a new initiative is being defeated by Resistance. Pressfield gives you language for recognizing that dynamic and practical philosophy for overcoming it. Pair it with *Deep Work* — Newport tells you how to protect the time, Pressfield tells you how to actually use it. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936891026) ## A Note on Sequencing These books solve different problems at different stages. If you're in the first year of building something, start with *Essentialism* and *The War of Art* — they address the prioritization and resistance failures that kill early momentum. If you're managing a growing team, *Atomic Habits* and *Getting Things Done* become more relevant as the habits you've installed (or failed to install) start to multiply through the organization. *Deep Work* and *Make Time* are relevant at any stage but hit hardest when you've built something big enough that distraction becomes structural. *Four Thousand Weeks* is for whenever you're ready to have an honest conversation with yourself about what the work is actually for. The common thread: productivity for founders is not about squeezing more into the same hours. It's about building the conditions — habits, systems, protected time, and an honest relationship with what matters — that make the hours you do have genuinely count. For more resources on building a high-leverage business, explore [more startup strategy on FutureSharks](/category/startups/). --- ## 6 Best Sales Books for Founders (From First Customer to Repeatable Pipeline) URL: https://futuresharks.com/best-sales-books-for-founders/ TL;DR: Most sales books are written for account executives managing a pipeline someone else built. These 6 are written for founders: from closing your first 10 customers through founder-led selling all the way to building a repeatable machine and hiring your first rep. Read them in this order and they cover the whole arc. Most sales books are written for account executives working a pipeline someone else built, on a product someone else figured out, with a CRM populated by someone else's work. None of that is your life as a founder. You're approaching potential customers before the product is finished, running deals alone, improvising scripts on the fly, and then — if things go well — trying to figure out how to eventually hand this off without breaking everything you built. The conventional sales canon doesn't help much with any of that. The six books below are matched to where founders actually are. They cover the full arc: from your first cold outreach to the moment you're managing a sales team you didn't have to teach how to sell. Read them roughly in this order. ## 1. *Founding Sales* — Pete Kazanjy [Founding Sales](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1734505117) is the book the sales genre was missing for founders. Kazanjy wrote it specifically for technical and product founders who have to figure out selling on their own — people who didn't come up through sales and never expected to be doing it. It covers everything: how to build an outbound list from scratch, how to structure discovery calls to actually understand why prospects would buy, how to close without feeling like you're pressuring someone, and — crucially — how to transition out of founder-led selling by documenting what works and hiring someone who can replicate it. The chapter on how to know when you're ready to hire your first sales rep alone is worth the purchase. Most sales books treat the reader as a manager. This one treats you as the person in the seat. ## 2. *To Sell Is Human* — Daniel H. Pink The mindset shift comes before the tactics. [To Sell Is Human](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594487154) by Daniel Pink is the book to read when you're still convinced that "sales" is something that happens to you rather than something you already do. Pink's core argument — backed by behavioral research — is that almost everyone spends a significant portion of their working day moving others: persuading, influencing, and convincing, whether or not they have a "sales" title. Founders especially. You're selling your vision to early hires, selling your roadmap to investors, selling the product to customers, and selling yourself as a reliable partner to advisors. The practical half of the book updates classic sales wisdom for a world where buyers have as much information as sellers. The "Attunement" and "Clarity" frameworks are particularly useful for founders who are still figuring out how to pitch. ## 3. *SPIN Selling* — Neil Rackham [SPIN Selling](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0070511136) is the most rigorous book on how to have a sales conversation. Rackham's team studied more than 35,000 sales calls over twelve years to figure out what separates the ones that close from the ones that don't. The result is a framework built around four types of questions: Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff. The finding that will change how you sell immediately: top performers ask significantly more Implication and Need-Payoff questions than average performers. They don't lead with features. They help the prospect understand the cost of their problem and then connect your solution to the future the prospect actually wants. For B2B SaaS founders especially, this is the closest thing to a script that still feels like a real conversation. ## 4. *Gap Selling* — Keenan [Gap Selling](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732891001) is the modern complement to SPIN Selling, and in some ways a more aggressive one. Keenan's argument: every sale is about the gap between where the customer is now (their "current state") and where they want to be (their "future state"). Your job isn't to explain features. It's to make that gap vivid, measurable, and emotionally real. The tactical instruction is unusually specific. Keenan tells you exactly how to run a problem-impact-root-cause discovery that gets buyers to identify their own urgency rather than you having to manufacture it. He also dismantles a few sales myths that many founders carry around — that rapport-building is the key variable, that price is why deals stall, that closing techniques matter as much as diagnosis. This is a particularly good read early-stage, when you're still trying to understand why prospects buy (or don't) and you don't yet have a feature set comprehensive enough to rely on. ## 5. *Predictable Revenue* — Aaron Ross & Marylou Tyler [Predictable Revenue](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0984380213) documents the outbound sales model Aaron Ross built at Salesforce.com that added $100M in recurring revenue to the business. The central idea is that founder-led deals, while valuable for learning, aren't a business model — they're a dependency. Sustainable revenue requires a system that generates pipeline independently of any single person. The book introduces the concept of Cold Calling 2.0: replacing random outbound calls with targeted, sequenced email campaigns that ask for a referral to the right person rather than a pitch. It also argues for splitting the sales function into specialized roles (prospecting, closing, account management) rather than having one rep do everything. This is the book to pick up once you've closed enough founder-led deals to know what the pitch looks like and you want to build something repeatable. ## 6. *The Sales Acceleration Formula* — Mark Roberge [The Sales Acceleration Formula](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119047072) is the book for when you're hiring your first sales team. Roberge was HubSpot's first sales hire and built the function from zero to $100M ARR with a data-driven, engineering-minded approach that most founders find immediately legible. The book covers how to write a hiring scorecard for sales candidates (instead of hiring on gut feel), how to build a training program that gets new reps productive in weeks instead of months, how to set quotas that are challenging but not demoralizing, and how to use data to manage a team without micromanaging. Every chapter reads like a system, not advice — which is exactly what you need when you're building something you'll eventually hand off. Roberge also documents his own mistakes openly, which is rare in this genre. ## The Reading Order There's a natural sequence here. Start with **Pink** to fix your mental model around what sales actually is. Move to **Kazanjy** to build the mechanics for your first 10–20 customer conversations. Layer in **SPIN Selling** and **Gap Selling** to sharpen how you run those conversations and diagnose why deals stall. When you're ready to stop depending on yourself for top-of-funnel, read **Predictable Revenue**. And when you're building a team, read **Roberge**. None of these books overlap much. Each one covers a distinct problem at a distinct stage. Together they're the closest thing to a complete sales education for someone who didn't plan to become a salesperson. --- ## Unit Economics for Startups: The Founder's Guide to LTV, CAC, and the 3:1 Ratio (2026) URL: https://futuresharks.com/unit-economics-for-startups-ltv-cac-guide-2026/ TL;DR: Unit economics measure whether your business is profitable at the level of a single customer. The two metrics that matter most are Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). A healthy LTV:CAC ratio is 3:1 or higher. If yours isn't, this guide explains how to diagnose the gap and fix it. The phrase "unit economics" sounds like something a finance professor invented to scare undergrads. In practice it answers the most important question any founder needs to be able to answer: *Does your business make money on a single customer?* If the answer is yes, scaling makes sense. If the answer is no, scaling just means losing money faster. Investors in 2026 have stopped handing out passes on this question. The "grow now, figure out the economics later" era ended somewhere around 2022. Today, if you can't articulate your unit economics clearly in a first meeting, most institutional seed investors will pass without a second one. This guide covers everything a first-time founder needs to understand: what unit economics are, how to calculate LTV and CAC, what the 3:1 benchmark means and when it doesn't apply, the payback period as a companion metric, and a concrete playbook for improving your numbers. No MBA required. ## What "Unit" Actually Means A unit is whatever your business sells or delivers to one customer in one transaction cycle. For most B2B SaaS companies, a unit is one customer subscription. For e-commerce, it's one order. For a marketplace, it might be one transaction or one active buyer-seller pair. For a usage-based product, it's one user account. The point is to isolate the economics of a single repeatable transaction so you can determine whether that transaction is profitable before you try to replicate it at scale. ## Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) **CAC** is what you spend, on average, to acquire one paying customer. **Formula:** > CAC = Total Sales & Marketing Spend ÷ Number of New Customers Acquired In a given month (or quarter), add up everything you spent on acquiring customers — paid ads, sales salaries, marketing tools, agency fees, event sponsorships, content production — and divide by the number of new paying customers you added in that period. The most common mistake founders make is being too narrow in what they count. If your head of growth is spending 80% of their time on acquisition, 80% of their salary belongs in the numerator. If you're running paid search, the ad spend *and* the cost of whoever manages those campaigns both count. **CAC by business model (2026 benchmarks):** | Model | Typical CAC Range | |---|---| | B2B SaaS (SMB) | $300–$1,500 | | B2B SaaS (Enterprise) | $3,000–$50,000+ | | E-commerce (DTC) | $25–$150 | | Marketplace (consumer) | $5–$75 per transacting user | | Consumer subscription | $20–$100 | These are rough ranges — the right number for your business depends on your average contract value and how long customers stay. ## Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) **LTV** is the net revenue you expect to generate from a single customer over the full duration of their relationship with your business. **Formula (subscription):** > LTV = Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) × Gross Margin % ÷ Monthly Churn Rate If your average customer pays $100/month, your gross margin is 70%, and you lose 3% of customers per month: > LTV = $100 × 0.70 ÷ 0.03 = **$2,333** **Formula (transactional / e-commerce):** > LTV = Average Order Value × Purchase Frequency × Gross Margin × Average Customer Lifespan (in years) If customers spend $80 per order, order 3 times per year, your gross margin is 40%, and the average customer stays for 2 years: > LTV = $80 × 3 × 0.40 × 2 = **$192** Notice that gross margin is in both formulas. A common error is calculating LTV on revenue rather than gross profit — which overstates it significantly and leads founders to spend more on acquisition than the economics support. ### What churn does to LTV Churn is the lever founders underestimate most. A business losing 8% of its customers per month has an average customer life of about 12 months. A business losing 2% per month has an average customer life of nearly 4 years. With the same $100 ARPA and 70% gross margin: - 8% monthly churn → LTV ≈ $875 - 2% monthly churn → LTV ≈ $3,500 Same product. 4× difference in lifetime value. This is why improving retention is almost always a higher-leverage move than increasing acquisition spend. ## The LTV:CAC Ratio and the 3:1 Benchmark The LTV:CAC ratio puts these two numbers together: > LTV:CAC = LTV ÷ CAC A ratio of **3:1** — earning $3 in lifetime gross profit for every $1 spent acquiring a customer — is the standard benchmark for a healthy SaaS or subscription business. Why 3:1? It's not arbitrary. It leaves enough margin to cover overhead costs that aren't captured in gross margin (engineering, support, ops), to fund the next round of growth, and to produce a return for investors. A 3:1 business, run well, is profitable at scale. A 2:1 business might be breakeven. Below 2:1, you're likely destroying value with every dollar you spend on growth. **What the ratios actually mean:** | LTV:CAC | What it signals | |---|---| | < 1:1 | Existential: you lose money on every customer | | 1:1–2:1 | Unsustainable: growth destroys cash, hard to fund | | 2:1–3:1 | Marginal: viable if you can improve it | | 3:1–5:1 | Healthy: fundable, scalable | | > 5:1 | Could be underinvesting in acquisition | The last row matters: a very high LTV:CAC ratio isn't always a good thing. It may mean you're leaving growth on the table by underinvesting in sales and marketing when you could afford to spend more and capture market share faster. ## CAC Payback Period The LTV:CAC ratio tells you how *much* you make relative to what you spend. The **CAC payback period** tells you *when* you make it back. > CAC Payback Period = CAC ÷ (ARPA × Gross Margin %) Using the example from above (CAC = $750, ARPA = $100/month, 70% gross margin): > Payback = $750 ÷ ($100 × 0.70) = **10.7 months** The benchmark for B2B SaaS is typically under 12 months. Consumer businesses often target under 6 months. The payback period is especially useful for fundraising conversations — investors want to know not just whether you'll make money on a customer, but when you'll start. A long payback period means you need more working capital to fund growth. A short payback period means growth is self-funding faster. The difference shapes how much equity you need to raise and when. ## How to Improve Your LTV:CAC Ratio There are two levers: make LTV bigger, or make CAC smaller. In practice, the highest-leverage moves usually combine both. ### To raise LTV **Reduce churn.** This is almost always the highest-leverage move for subscription businesses. Identify your highest-churn customer segments (often: wrong-fit customers acquired via broad targeting), and either cut acquisition from those segments or build onboarding that captures value faster. One percentage point of improvement in monthly churn can double LTV over a long horizon. **Increase expansion revenue.** LTV climbs when customers upgrade, add seats, or buy adjacent products. Net Revenue Retention (NRR) above 100% — meaning your existing customers grow faster than they churn — is the strongest signal of a healthy subscription business. Build upgrade paths and land-and-expand motions into the product from the start. **Raise prices.** Most early-stage founders undercharge. If you can raise ARPA 20% without materially increasing churn, LTV goes up 20% immediately. Test higher price points earlier than feels comfortable. **Improve gross margin.** Gross margin in software is typically 70–85%. If yours is lower, examine your infrastructure costs, human-assisted delivery, and any professional services bundled with the product. ### To lower CAC **Prioritize channels by payback.** Not all acquisition channels produce the same economics. Track CAC separately by channel (paid search, content/SEO, outbound, partnerships, events) and cut spend from channels with poor payback before scaling channels that work. **Improve conversion rates.** A 2× improvement in your trial-to-paid conversion rate cuts CAC in half with no additional spend. Run conversion rate optimization on your signup flow, onboarding, and sales process before scaling acquisition. **Build organic distribution.** Content, SEO, community, and referrals have near-zero marginal CAC once the engine is running. They take longer to build, but a business with strong organic acquisition has a structural cost advantage over competitors relying entirely on paid channels. [*Traction*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591848369) by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares is the best framework for identifying which of nineteen customer acquisition channels will work for your specific business — read it before you commit your acquisition budget to any single channel. **Shorten your sales cycle.** Every week a deal sits in your pipeline is a week of sales salary being counted against CAC. For B2B, a well-defined ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and a faster qualification process can dramatically reduce the time-to-close and the people-cost per deal. ## When the 3:1 Rule Doesn't Apply The 3:1 benchmark is a useful default, not a universal law. A few situations where the math looks different: **Marketplace and network-effect businesses.** These often need to acquire both supply and demand sides before generating revenue, making early CAC look terrible. The right frame is cohort LTV over a longer time horizon, once the network effect kicks in. **Enterprise SaaS with long sales cycles.** An 18-month payback period might be perfectly acceptable if the ACV is $120,000 and churn is nearly zero. The absolute dollar size of the LTV changes the tolerable payback duration. **Regulated or capital-intensive industries.** Fintech and insurance businesses often have structurally higher CAC because of compliance, trust-building, and longer buying cycles. Investors in these spaces use adjusted benchmarks. **Early-stage pre-product-market fit.** Before PMF, your unit economics are noisy — churn is high, conversion is inconsistent, and the customers you're acquiring don't yet represent your long-term target segment. Don't optimize for LTV:CAC before you've found PMF; focus on retention signals that predict what the economics will look like. ## Building Your Unit Economics Dashboard You don't need expensive software to track these numbers in the early days. A spreadsheet updated monthly works fine. At minimum, track: - **New customers added** by channel - **Sales & marketing spend** by channel - **Monthly churn rate** (customers churned ÷ customers at start of month) - **ARPA** (average revenue per account, monthly) - **Gross margin %** (revenue minus cost of goods sold, divided by revenue) From these five inputs, you can calculate CAC by channel, LTV, LTV:CAC, and payback period. As you scale, most subscription analytics tools (Stripe Billing, ChartMogul, Baremetrics) will calculate these automatically. But doing it in a spreadsheet first is valuable — it forces you to understand what goes into each number and catch errors before they compound. ## FAQ ### What's the difference between blended CAC and paid CAC? Blended CAC includes all customers, regardless of how they found you (organic, referral, paid). Paid CAC includes only customers acquired through paid channels. Blended CAC looks better because organic customers are "free," but it can be misleading — if your paid channels have a terrible LTV:CAC ratio, blended CAC hides the problem. Track both. ### How do I calculate LTV before I have enough data? For early-stage companies, use the best data you have. If you've been operating for six months and average monthly churn is 4%, that's your churn rate. If you have 20 customers, your average ARPA is your average ARPA. The formulas work the same regardless of sample size — just be explicit that your numbers are estimates based on limited data, and update them quarterly. ### My LTV:CAC is below 3:1. Should I stop growing? Not necessarily. You should stop *paying* to acquire customers if every incremental dollar you spend on acquisition destroys value. But if you have organic growth or low-CAC channels, keep growing while you work on improving the ratio. The priority order is: fix churn → improve organic acquisition → optimize paid channels → then scale. ### Does LTV include the cost to serve the customer? It depends on how you define "gross margin." If your gross margin calculation includes customer support costs, infrastructure, and any direct service delivery costs, then LTV already accounts for them. If your gross margin only captures COGS in the traditional sense (e.g., cloud hosting), you may need to layer in support and success costs separately to get an accurate picture. ### What's a good LTV:CAC for raising a Series A? Most Series A investors want to see a proven 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio with the payback period under 18 months for B2B SaaS. More important than the ratio itself is the trajectory — a company moving from 2:1 to 3:1 over 12 months tells a better story than one stuck at 3:1 for two years. --- Unit economics are the operating system of a fundable business. Investors look at them to determine whether growth creates value or destroys it. You should look at them monthly to see if the machine is improving. [*The Lean Startup*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0670921602) by Eric Ries introduced the concept of validated learning — building and measuring in tight loops rather than guessing at scale. The same discipline applies here: measure your unit economics rigorously, run experiments to improve them, and only scale acquisition once the numbers show the machine works. That's how startups build businesses that last. --- ## 5 Best Pricing and Finance Books for Founders (Beyond Profit First) URL: https://futuresharks.com/best-pricing-and-finance-books-for-founders/ TL;DR: Profit First tells you how to allocate the cash you already have. These five books solve the problems upstream of that — what to charge, which clients are actually worth keeping, and how to read your numbers well enough to make good decisions on both. Most founders learn pricing and finance the same way: badly, and after the fact. You set your first price by guessing what felt reasonable, you kept clients you should have fired because the revenue was too scary to walk away from, and you looked at your bank balance instead of your numbers because the bank balance was the only report you knew how to read. [Profit First](/profit-first-method-for-founders) fixes one piece of that — it forces discipline on how you allocate cash once it lands. But it doesn't tell you what to charge, which customers are quietly bleeding you dry, or how to read a P&L well enough to catch a problem before it's a crisis. These five books cover that ground. ## 1. *Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!* — Greg Crabtree **Best for: founders who avoid their financials because they don't trust their own numbers** Crabtree is a CPA who has spent his career inside small-business books, and it shows — this is the least theoretical finance book on this list. His central argument is that most founders are looking at the wrong numbers entirely. Revenue growth feels good and means almost nothing on its own; what matters is labor efficiency, the ratio of what you pay people to what they produce, and whether your business can survive on 2% margin swings without a crisis. The most useful framework is his "four accounting truths" test — four quick ratios that tell you, in about ten minutes, whether your business fundamentals are sound regardless of how the top line looks. For founders who've been avoiding their own financial statements because they don't trust what they'll find, this is the book that makes the numbers legible again. [*Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1608320561) ## 2. *The Pumpkin Plan* — Mike Michalowicz **Best for: founders whose real problem is client mix, not pricing** Written by the same author as Profit First, but this one solves a different problem: most founders don't actually have a pricing problem, they have a client problem. Michalowicz's framework, borrowed from competitive pumpkin farmers who cut away every fruit but one to grow a giant, is to systematically identify your best clients — the ones who pay well, refer easily, and don't drain your time — and deliberately narrow your business around serving more of them. The book's most uncomfortable exercise is ranking your current clients by profitability and hassle, then actually firing the worst ones. Most founders know intuitively which relationships are underpriced and exhausting; Michalowicz's contribution is making you do the math and act on it instead of just complaining about it. Read this one when the problem isn't "what should I charge" but "why does growth keep making me more tired instead of more profitable." [*The Pumpkin Plan* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591844886) ## 3. *Confessions of the Pricing Man* — Hermann Simon **Best for: founders who've never deliberately set a price in their life** Simon spent four decades as a pricing consultant to companies from farmers' markets to the Fortune 500, and this book is the closest thing to a master class in why price is the single highest-leverage decision a business makes — a 1% price improvement typically moves profit more than a 1% improvement in volume or cost, and almost no founder manages price with anywhere near the rigor they apply to the rest of the business. The most practical takeaway is his repeated point that price should be set from the customer's willingness to pay, not from your costs plus a margin — a habit most first-time founders default to because it feels defensible, even though it systematically leaves money on the table or prices out customers who'd have happily paid more. [*Confessions of the Pricing Man* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/3319203991) ## 4. *Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business* — Gino Wickman **Best for: founders whose finances are fine but whose business has no operating rhythm** Wickman's EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) isn't a finance book in the narrow sense, but it earns its place here because most founder "finance problems" are actually operating problems wearing a finance costume — nobody owns the numbers, nothing gets measured on a consistent cadence, and issues surface only when they're already expensive. The single most transferable piece is the *Scorecard*: five to fifteen weekly numbers, owned by named people, reviewed on a fixed schedule, that catch a problem while it's still a data point instead of a fire. Founders who adopt just this one piece of Traction — without touching the rest of the EOS framework — typically report catching cash and margin problems weeks earlier than they used to. [*Traction* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936661845) ## 5. *The Millionaire Fastlane* — MJ DeMarco **Best for: founders still mentally pricing their business like a job** DeMarco's central argument is aimed squarely at the founder who built a business that pays them a good salary but that they personally can't leave for a week without revenue stalling — what he calls the "Slowlane" trap dressed up as entrepreneurship. The book is a deliberate provocation against treating your company as a better job instead of an asset with its own value, separate from your hours in it. It's the least numbers-heavy book on this list and the most mindset-heavy, which is exactly why it belongs here: founders who've absorbed the other four books' frameworks but still price and run their business like they're still trading hours for dollars need this one to close the loop. [*The Millionaire Fastlane* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0984358102) --- ## Where to Start If you've already read Profit First and want the next step, start with *Simple Numbers* — it's the fastest way to get comfortable with the actual mechanics of your financial statements. Follow it with *The Pumpkin Plan* the moment you notice growth is making you busier without making you more profitable; it's the client-side complement to fixing your pricing. Read *Confessions of the Pricing Man* before your next price increase, not after — most founders raise prices reactively, out of necessity, instead of proactively, out of strategy, and Simon's book is the fastest way to close that gap. Add *Traction* once your numbers are legible and the bottleneck has shifted from "I don't understand my finances" to "nobody on my team is accountable for them." And keep *The Millionaire Fastlane* on the shelf for the moments — and there will be several — when you catch yourself pricing your own time like an employee instead of building something with value beyond your hours in it. --- ## How to Value Your Startup in 2026: The Methods That Actually Matter URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-value-your-startup-2026/ TL;DR: Startup valuation is not one method — it is the right method for your stage. Pre-revenue: use Berkus or Scorecard to get to a defensible number. Post-revenue: let ARR multiples and comparable transactions anchor your ask. In every case, VCs work backwards from the ownership they need; knowing that math gives you real negotiating leverage. Founders ask "what is my startup worth?" as if there's a single correct answer sitting in a spreadsheet somewhere. There isn't. Startup valuation is a negotiation informed by method, market context, and the specific investor across the table from you. The number you arrive at matters — it determines your dilution, your future round headroom, and how much of your own company you take home at exit. Getting it wrong in either direction costs you. This guide covers the methods that actually get used in 2026: what applies before you have revenue, what applies after, and how to understand the VC math that underpins every term sheet you'll ever receive. ## Why Valuation Matters More Than Founders Think Every funding round sells a percentage of your company. The valuation sets that percentage. Raise $500K at a $5M pre-money valuation, and the investor owns about 9.1% post-money. Raise the same $500K at a $2.5M pre-money valuation, and they own about 16.7%. Same check. Dramatically different outcome for you, compounded across every round that follows. A founder who gets squeezed on valuation in a seed round enters a Series A with less leverage, more dilution pressure, and less room to attract future capital on favorable terms. Valuation also cascades forward. Setting an artificially high valuation to win a round sounds smart until the next round requires demonstrating enough growth to justify a higher number. Founders who overprice a seed wind up doing flat or down rounds at Series A — and the signals that sends to the market are punishing. The goal isn't to maximize your valuation in a vacuum. It's to get to a number that's defensible, fair given your stage and traction, and sets up the next round well. ## The Stage Problem: One Method Does Not Fit All Valuation methodology depends almost entirely on where you are. A company with $2M ARR and 120% net revenue retention gets valued differently than a company with a prototype and three letters of intent. Conflating the methods — or applying a revenue-multiple framework to a pre-revenue company — produces a number with no basis in how investors actually think. The clean division is pre-revenue and post-revenue. Within each, there are a few methods that matter. ## Pre-Revenue Valuation: Making Defensible Estimates Without Data Pre-revenue companies have no financial history to discount or multiply. Every method at this stage is really a structured way to translate qualitative factors into a number. The quality of the method is the quality of the inputs. ### The Berkus Method Developed by angel investor Dave Berkus, this assigns a dollar range to five risk factors: the soundness of the core idea, the quality of the prototype or MVP, the caliber of the management team, existing strategic relationships, and early product rollout or sales. Each factor can contribute up to $500K–$1M to the valuation (the original model caps at $2M total; updated versions stretch to $2.5M or higher for software). The total of the five ranges becomes the pre-money valuation. Berkus is widely used in angel rounds because it is transparent, teachable, and forces a structured conversation about the real risks. Its weakness: the ranges are inherently subjective, and investors will have their own read on how much each factor is worth. ### The Scorecard Method The Scorecard method (also called the Bill Payne method) starts from a baseline: the average pre-money valuation for comparable seed-stage companies in your sector and geography. It then multiplies that baseline by a weighted set of factors. A typical weighting looks like: - Strength of the management team: 30% - Size of the opportunity: 25% - Product / technology: 15% - Competitive environment: 10% - Marketing / sales channels / partnerships: 10% - Need for additional investment: 5% - Other factors: 5% Each factor is rated relative to a typical comparable company (1.0 = average, 1.25 = strong, 0.75 = weak). Multiply the baseline by the composite score. The result is your valuation estimate. The Scorecard method is more grounded than Berkus because it anchors to real market data — but only if you have reliable comparable data for your sector and stage. In markets where deal data is scarce, that anchor is hard to find. ### Risk Factor Summation This method starts from a baseline (same as Scorecard) and adjusts up or down based on twelve risk factors: management, stage of the business, legislation/political risk, manufacturing risk, sales and marketing risk, funding/capital raising risk, competition risk, technology risk, litigation risk, international risk, reputation risk, and potential lucrative exit. Each factor contributes a fixed increment (often +$250K for positive, −$250K for negative) to the baseline. Risk Factor Summation is more comprehensive than the Scorecard but more cumbersome to explain in a room. Most angel groups use it internally rather than presenting it to founders. ## Post-Revenue Valuation: Where the Math Gets Cleaner Once a company has recurring revenue — particularly predictable, subscription-based ARR — valuation moves from estimation to comparison. The core question becomes: what are comparable companies in this space, at this stage, trading at? ### Revenue Multiples (ARR or MRR × Multiple) For SaaS and recurring-revenue businesses, the primary method is simple: **valuation = ARR × multiple**. The multiple reflects growth rate, net revenue retention, margin profile, market size, and competitive moat. In 2026, after several years of multiple compression following the rate environment that cratered 2021–2022 valuations, the private market multiples for early-stage SaaS have roughly stabilized. Broad benchmarks: - **Pre-Seed / Seed (sub-$1M ARR):** 5–15× ARR, heavily weighted by team, growth velocity, and market size rather than pure revenue. - **Series A ($1M–$5M ARR):** 8–20× ARR for companies with strong growth (100%+ YoY) and healthy NRR (110%+). Lower multiples for slower growers. - **Series B+ ($5M+ ARR):** 10–25× ARR for best-in-class; 4–10× for the median. Growth rate is the dominant variable. These ranges are medians and averages — individual deals diverge significantly based on investor competition, category narrative, and founder leverage. A company growing 200% YoY in a hot category commands a premium. A company growing 40% in a crowded market gets discounted. The key variable inside the multiple is **net revenue retention (NRR)**. NRR above 110–120% — meaning existing customers expand faster than they churn — is the single metric that most reliably justifies a premium multiple. It is proof that the product gets more valuable as customers use it. ### Comparable Transactions Alongside multiples, investors triangulate against actual deal data: what did comparable companies in this space raise at, recently, and at what valuation? Founders often don't have access to private deal data directly, but the information moves through investor networks, founders who've recently raised, and databases like PitchBook or Crunchbase (behind a paywall for precise terms, but useful for ranges). Your investors have this data — knowing that the last three companies in your space raised Series A rounds at 12–15× ARR helps you walk into the negotiation with a realistic anchor. ### DCF (Discounted Cash Flow): Why It Rarely Applies to Early-Stage Startups DCF — discounting projected future cash flows back to present value — is theoretically the most rigorous method. In practice, it is almost never the primary method for early-stage startup valuation, for a simple reason: the projections are too speculative to be meaningful. Discount rates for startups range from 40–80%, reflecting the high probability of failure, which collapses any reasonable multi-year cash flow forecast to a negligible present value. DCF appears in later-stage or growth equity deals where the company has years of financial history and more predictable trajectories. For seed and Series A, it's a secondary check at best. ## How VCs Actually Arrive at Valuations Understanding how professional investors set valuations gives you real negotiating leverage. The key insight: VCs work **backwards from ownership targets**, not forwards from an objective assessment of your company's worth. Here's the math. A typical early-stage VC fund needs to return 3–5× its fund capital to its limited partners. For a $100M fund, that means returning $300–$500M. Because most portfolio companies fail or return minimal capital, the model requires a few large winners to carry the fund. To get a 3× return on a $100M fund, the fund needs to return roughly $300M in distributed proceeds. If the fund has 30 companies, and the top 5 must carry 80% of returns, each winner needs to return ~$48M in proceeds. For a company that exits at $200M, the fund needs to own ~24% at exit to hit that number. Working backwards: if the fund targets ~20–25% ownership at exit, and assumes 2× dilution from future rounds, it needs to own **40–50% post-money at entry**. That ownership target, not your company's intrinsic worth, drives the valuation math. This is why investors say "the valuation follows the check size." If a fund writes $2M checks and targets 20% post-money ownership, the math implies a $10M pre-money valuation regardless of your growth rate — unless you can credibly command otherwise. Knowing this, founders can work backwards too: if you're raising $2M and you think a fair ownership stake is 15%, you need to defend a $13.3M pre-money valuation. Knowing the investor's ownership math helps you understand whether their offer is fund-formula or genuinely reflects your company. ## Common Mistakes Founders Make **Anchoring to a round size, not a valuation.** "We're raising $1.5M" is not a valuation. Specify the pre-money valuation you're targeting, so you know exactly what ownership you're selling. **Conflating post-money with enterprise value.** The post-money valuation is a venture convention, not a market appraisal. A company valued at $8M post-money seed is not necessarily sellable for $8M — it reflects what a single investor paid for a small stake under specific terms. **Setting valuation based on financial projections.** Investors don't buy your projections; they price your traction. A projection-based valuation argument ("we'll be at $5M ARR in three years, so we're worth $50M today") is almost never convincing as a primary anchor. **Pricing too high for the stage.** A seed-stage company with $100K in ARR priced at $15M pre-money creates a difficult Series A bar: you need to 10× to justify a $30M A at a reasonable multiple. Founders sometimes win a high seed valuation and lose the next round. **Ignoring the cap table.** Valuation is not the only term that determines your economics. Liquidation preferences, participation rights, and anti-dilution provisions can all reduce founder proceeds at exit even when the valuation looked favorable at close. Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson cover the full mechanics in [Venture Deals](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119594820) — one of the few books that actually explains how these terms interact in practice. ## What Investors Will Ask You to Justify At any fundraising conversation, come prepared to defend your valuation on at least three of these dimensions: - **Comparable transactions:** What have similar companies at your stage raised at, and why should your company command parity or a premium? - **Revenue multiple:** If you have ARR, what multiple is implied by your ask, and why does your growth and NRR justify it? - **Market opportunity:** Is the TAM large enough that a venture-scale outcome is credible? Investors need to believe a path to 10× exists. - **Team:** Do you have domain expertise, prior wins, or unique access that reduces the execution risk? - **Traction trajectory:** Is growth accelerating or decelerating? A company growing 15% month-over-month commands different pricing than one growing 5%. You don't need a perfect answer to all five. But you need a story that holds up on the dimensions most relevant to your stage. ## A Quick Valuation Framework by Stage | Stage | Method | What investors weight most | |---|---|---| | Pre-product / idea | Berkus, Risk Factor Summation | Team, market size | | MVP / early users | Scorecard, comparable transactions | Team, early signal | | Pre-revenue with strong LOIs | Scorecard + comparable | Team, strategic relationships | | $100K–$500K ARR | ARR multiple (5–12×) + comps | Growth rate, early retention | | $500K–$2M ARR | ARR multiple (8–18×) + comps | NRR, growth rate, GTM efficiency | | $2M+ ARR | ARR multiple + DCF check | NRR, margin, competitive position | ## FAQ ### How do I know what multiple my ARR deserves? Growth rate is the dominant variable. A rule of thumb: your multiple approximates your growth rate as a percentage. Growing 150% YoY suggests a 10–15× multiple might be defensible; growing 50% YoY suggests closer to 5–8×. Adjust up for outstanding NRR, strong competitive moat, or category leadership; down for margin weakness, concentrated customer risk, or founder-dependent revenue. ### Should I always maximize my valuation? No. A too-high valuation creates a steeper bar for your next round, signals desperation or inexperience if the number isn't grounded, and can strain your investor relationship if growth disappoints. A fair valuation that closes the round quickly, preserves future optionality, and sets a realistic A-round bar is worth more than a stretched number that barely closes. ### What does pre-money vs. post-money valuation mean? Pre-money valuation is your company's value before new investment arrives. Post-money is pre-money plus the capital raised. If you're valued at $8M pre-money and raise $2M, your post-money valuation is $10M and the investor owns 20%. Watch out: some term sheets express valuations as post-money (especially SAFEs with post-money caps) — the dilution math looks different. ### Do SAFE notes have a valuation? SAFEs (Simple Agreements for Future Equity) typically include a **valuation cap** — the maximum conversion price if the company raises a priced round. If your SAFE has a $6M cap and you raise a Series A at a $15M pre-money valuation, SAFE holders convert at $6M, getting more shares than Series A investors. Understanding cap math before you issue SAFEs is critical to avoiding a cap table surprise at your priced round. ### How long does a typical valuation negotiation take? For angel rounds, often one to three weeks of conversation after initial interest. For institutional seed or Series A, the formal diligence process runs four to eight weeks from term sheet to close. Valuation is usually agreed early in the process — it's the downstream terms (option pool, preferences, board seats) where negotiation extends. --- Valuation is not mystical. It is a structured negotiation between what you can defend with data and story, and what an investor needs to make their fund math work. Founders who understand both sides of that equation — their traction, their comparables, and the ownership arithmetic their investor is working backwards from — close better rounds on better terms. For more on how the underlying deal terms interact with your valuation, the most useful resource is still [Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119594820) — it explains the full machinery of a VC financing in plain language. For more on the decision of whether to raise at all, see our breakdown of [bootstrapping vs. venture capital in 2026](/bootstrapping-vs-venture-capital-2026-honest-math/). --- ## How to Turn Your Side Hustle Into a Full-Time Business in 2026 URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-turn-your-side-hustle-into-a-full-time-business/ TL;DR: Most founders quit too early or wait too long. The decision has a clear financial trigger: 75% income replacement for three straight months plus six months of personal runway. Build both before you hand in your notice — and set up the LLC, business account, and quarterly taxes before you do. Quitting a stable job is one of the most emotionally loaded decisions a founder makes. It is also one of the most analytically tractable — if you separate the decision from the feeling. Most people who make the leap successfully did not do it when they *felt* ready. They did it when the numbers cleared a specific threshold, when the legal and financial foundations were in place, and when the transition was planned rather than reactive. Most people who regret the leap did it impulsively: their side hustle was growing, their day job felt stifling, and they told themselves the discomfort would motivate them. Sometimes it does. More often, it introduces a cash stress that degrades decision-making at exactly the moment clear thinking matters most. Here is what the data and the founders who have done it successfully say about when to go, how to prepare, and what to set up before you resign. ## The Financial Threshold: When the Numbers Say Go There is a recurring benchmark in the founder literature, and it holds up in practice: **your side hustle should consistently generate 75% of your current take-home pay for at least three consecutive months** before you give notice. Why 75%, not 100%? Three reasons. First, your side hustle revenue will likely grow when you dedicate full attention to it — most side hustles are partially constrained by the limited hours available around a day job. Second, removing that constraint typically produces a near-term growth bump. Third, a small income gap is manageable; it creates constructive urgency without becoming an existential threat. The second threshold is runway. **Before you resign, you need six months of personal living expenses in liquid savings** — money that is not invested in the business, not earmarked for equipment, not tied up in receivables. This is not a conservative suggestion; it is the floor. Business revenue is never as predictable in your first full-time year as your models suggest. Slow months happen, large clients pause, invoices come in late. Six months of runway means you can navigate those moments without being forced into bad decisions — discounting your rates out of desperation, taking clients you should not, or cutting costs that actually drive revenue. If your side hustle has not cleared the 75% threshold for three months and your savings are below six months of runway, the answer is not to quit — it is to work backward from those numbers and set a target date. ## Three Signals Your Side Hustle Is Ready Beyond the financial floor, there are three operational signals that separate a side hustle with real momentum from one that will struggle without the stability of a primary income: **Demand is turning you away.** If you are regularly declining work, referring clients elsewhere, or limiting new inquiries because your day job leaves no capacity — that is the single strongest signal. The constraint is not the market; it is your time. Removing it by going full-time releases that pressure directly. **You have repeat customers or renewing contracts.** One-time sales are encouraging. Repeat business and renewals are structural. If a meaningful portion of your current revenue comes from customers who returned or clients on retainers, you have demonstrated that the value you deliver is defensible — not just a first-sale phenomenon. That significantly de-risks the full-time transition. **Revenue has grown consistently for at least two quarters.** A single strong month is noise. Two quarters of consistent growth is a signal. It validates that your distribution — referrals, content, outreach, whatever is working — is replicable, not just producing peaks around unusual circumstances. If all three are true alongside the financial threshold, the argument for staying becomes weaker with each passing month. ## Building the Runway While Still Working Full Time The most common obstacle between a founder and their transition is insufficient savings. Here is the fastest path to building that runway without waiting for the side hustle to cross a higher revenue threshold. **Ruthlessly cut fixed expenses for 90 days.** This is not permanent austerity — it is a sprint. Every dollar not spent on subscriptions, dining, and discretionary categories over the next 90 days goes directly into the runway fund. Most people underestimate how much non-essential spending is happening on autopilot. **Route all side hustle profits to savings.** Every dollar of side hustle income, after taxes and operating expenses, goes to the runway account. This is easier to enforce when those funds live in a separate savings account that you actively choose to withdraw from. **Take on a time-boxed high-revenue sprint.** Some side hustles can be throttled up temporarily — taking on additional client projects, running a short promotion, offering an intensive service package for a fixed window. The goal is not sustainable forever; it is a burst of revenue that accelerates the runway build. **Model bad-month cash flow, not average-month cash flow.** When calculating your target savings number, use 70% of your current average monthly revenue — not the average itself. If you can survive a bad month on your runway without touching business cash, your runway is genuinely adequate. ## Legal and Financial Setup: Do This Before You Resign The unsexy work of launching a full-time business is best done while you still have a stable income and no urgency. Once you quit, every hour spent on admin is an hour not spent on revenue. Set up the infrastructure in advance. **Form your business entity.** For most solo founders, an LLC is the right starting structure: it provides liability protection that separates business risks from personal assets, is straightforward to maintain, and offers flexibility on how you elect to be taxed. The cost is typically $50–$500 depending on state, plus a few hours of paperwork. Do it now, not after you have your first large client payment. If you are unsure whether an S-Corp election makes sense for your revenue level, consult an accountant — it becomes material above roughly $80,000 in annual profit. **Open a dedicated business checking account.** Business and personal finances should never share an account. This is true for tax clarity, liability protection, and your own sanity when modeling cash flow. Open it the same week you form the LLC. **Understand quarterly tax obligations.** When you move from W-2 employment to self-employment, your taxes shift materially. You become responsible for both the employee and employer portions of Social Security and Medicare (totaling 15.3% of net profit), and you must make quarterly estimated tax payments if you expect to owe $1,000 or more annually. Set aside 25–30% of every payment received in a separate tax savings account from day one. Do not spend it on anything else. **Review your employment agreement.** Many employment agreements include IP assignment clauses that could claim ownership of work created while employed — sometimes even work done outside business hours if it relates to the employer's business. Before scaling your side hustle's profile, understand what your current employer owns and what they do not. If there is ambiguity, a brief consultation with an employment attorney is worth the cost. **Set up health insurance before your last day.** If you are currently covered by employer-sponsored health insurance, you will need to replace it. Options include COBRA coverage (expensive, but seamless), a spouse or partner's plan, ACA marketplace plans (income-dependent), or a health sharing arrangement. Research your options before your last day — not after you have a gap in coverage. ## The Transition Plan: How to Leave Well The manner of your departure from employment has real consequences for your professional relationships, your reputation, and your future referral network — which is smaller than you think. **Give standard notice.** Two weeks is the minimum. Four weeks is appropriate if you are in a senior role or the primary owner of a significant process. Burning bridges on exit is never worth the short-term satisfaction. **Document a clean handoff.** Write down every project, process, and ongoing relationship you own, with enough context for someone else to continue. Do this for your employer — because how you leave defines how people remember you, and your industry network will matter more in your entrepreneurial years than it did inside a company. **Do not poach.** Do not solicit your employer's clients or recruit colleagues to your new venture during the notice period or immediately after. This is often prohibited by your employment agreement and always reputationally costly. Build your client base through your own channels. **Plan your first 90 days before you quit.** Before you hand in your notice, have a written plan for what you will do in your first 90 days of full-time operation: which existing client relationships you will develop, which new outreach you will run, which revenue milestones you are targeting by day 30, 60, and 90. Going full-time without this plan turns freedom into drift. ## Three Mistakes That Kill the Transition **Quitting before the business has proven unit economics.** You should know, before you quit, the actual cost to acquire a customer and the margin on each sale. If these numbers are not understood — if you have been operating on optimism about future pricing power or scale — the full-time transition will surface every weakness in your model simultaneously, with no salary buffer underneath. **Letting the income gap pressure you into bad decisions.** Cash stress is the enemy of good judgment. If your runway is below three months, you will take any client, discount any rate, and chase any lead. The resulting compromises — low-margin work, difficult clients, scattered positioning — cost far more than they earn. Build the runway specifically to protect your decision-making capacity in the early months. **Confusing activity for revenue-generating work.** Many new full-time founders, liberated from the constraints of a day job, fill their schedule with productive-feeling work: redesigning their website, refining their positioning deck, attending networking events. Most of this does not generate revenue. In the first 90 days of full-time operation, the majority of your time should go to sales and delivery. Everything else can wait. ## Further Reading Two books stand out as practical guides to the mechanics of this transition. Chris Guillebeau's [*Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1524758841) walks through the early-stage process of validating and launching a side income stream — useful both for founders still in the building phase and for those sharpening their model before going full-time. The 27-day framing is intentionally tight; it is a forcing function for action over analysis. Mike Michalowicz's [*Profit First*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/073521414X) addresses one of the core challenges of full-time entrepreneurship: most business owners spend what is in their account, then pay taxes on whatever is left. Michalowicz inverts the system — you allocate profit, taxes, and owner pay as percentages of every revenue deposit first, then operate on what remains. The discipline it builds is particularly important in the first year of full-time operation, when income is variable and the temptation to see all revenue as available spending is high. ## FAQ ### How do I know I'm financially ready to quit my job? The threshold most consistently cited by successful founders: three consecutive months of side hustle revenue at 75% or more of your current take-home pay, plus six months of personal living expenses saved as liquid runway. Both conditions matter — revenue alone without runway leaves you exposed to the first slow month. ### Do I need an LLC before going full time? You can operate as a sole proprietor, but forming an LLC is generally worth the cost. It provides liability protection separating business risks from personal assets, costs $50–$500 depending on state, and signals professional credibility to clients. Form it before you go full time — ideally while you still have a salary and no urgency. ### What if my employer owns my side hustle IP? Review your employment agreement carefully. Many agreements include IP assignment clauses covering work created during employment, sometimes including work done outside business hours if it relates to the employer's field. If there is ambiguity, consult an employment attorney before raising your side hustle's profile. The cost of legal clarity is far lower than the cost of a dispute later. ### When is the wrong time to go full time? When the business has not proven repeat revenue, when your runway is below three months, or when you are quitting primarily to escape the day job rather than to run toward the business. Escape-motivation is understandable, but it leads to poor decisions early on. The best transitions happen because the business needs more of you — not because the day job has become intolerable. ### How long does it take to replace a full salary as a full-time founder? The realistic range is six months to two years. The variance depends almost entirely on how close your side hustle is to a fully validated, replicable sales model before you quit. Founders who go full time with existing clients, a working acquisition channel, and understood unit economics hit income parity significantly faster than those who go full time to figure it out. --- The moment most founders look back on most clearly is not the day they launched their business — it is the day they went full time. Done well, it is a leveraged bet: you bring your full attention to something you have already proven has market demand, and the results tend to compound quickly. Done impulsively, it trades one form of financial pressure for a worse one. The difference between the two is almost always preparation. For more founder strategy and business-building content, explore [Future Sharks](/category/business/). --- ## How to Start a Consulting Business in 2026 URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-start-a-consulting-business-in-2026/ TL;DR: Consulting is a $407 billion market dominated by specialists, not generalists. The practices that grow share three traits: a tightly defined niche, value-based pricing, and a first-client pipeline built on warm relationships and consistent content rather than cold outreach. The US management consulting market reached $407 billion in 2026. Independent consultants and boutique firms now account for more than 40% of that spend — a share that has grown every year since 2020 as companies compress headcount while preserving project velocity by buying external expertise instead. The market is large, the barrier to entry is low, and the income ceiling is high. The problem is execution. Most new consultants undercharge by 50–70%, spend their first year doing work they could have automated, and build their entire practice on the goodwill of one or two relationships rather than a repeatable client pipeline. This guide covers the non-obvious moves: how to position your practice for premium pricing, how to land clients before you have a website, and how to structure the business so it grows by design rather than by accident. ## Step 1: Define a Niche Narrow Enough to Matter The single most common mistake new consultants make is positioning themselves as generalists. The logic feels sound — broader positioning means more opportunities. In practice, it has the opposite effect. When your offer is relevant to everyone, it is compelling to no one. The consulting market rewards specialists at a structural level. A "marketing consultant" competes with thousands of identical listings for every engagement. An "email marketing consultant for B2B SaaS companies with $1M–$10M ARR" competes with almost no one, commands two to three times the fees, and earns referrals because they're the only person doing exactly that work. A strong consulting niche has three components: - **A specific domain**: the functional area or discipline you're expert in (supply chain optimization, technical recruiting, pricing strategy, enterprise sales) - **A specific audience**: the industry, company size, or buyer type you serve - **A specific outcome**: what measurably changes for a client who works with you The test: can you complete the sentence — *"I help [specific buyer] achieve [specific outcome] by [specific method]"* — without using the word "various"? If not, the niche isn't tight enough. Narrowing down is uncomfortable. Do it anyway. You can always expand once you have a track record. Starting narrow gives you the case studies, the referral network, and the pricing confidence that make expansion possible. ## Step 2: Validate Demand Before Building Anything Do not register an LLC, build a website, or design a logo until you have had at least five real conversations with people who match your target client profile — and ideally, until at least one of them has committed to pay you. The validation sprint takes two to three weeks: 1. Identify 20 people through LinkedIn, former colleagues, or communities in your niche who fit the buyer profile you defined. 2. Request 30 minutes to get their perspective on a problem you're studying. Not a pitch — a research conversation. 3. Ask: what does the problem cost them, what have they tried, and what would a solution be worth? 4. At the end of three or more positive conversations, offer a paid pilot engagement (5–10 hours at a discounted rate). A yes backed by a credit card is the only meaningful signal. Alan Weiss built his approach to early-stage practice validation around the same principle: **lead with their problem, not your solution.** His framework for value-based positioning is the core of *[Million Dollar Consulting](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1264264917)* (now in its sixth edition and still the definitive playbook for anyone building an independent practice). ## Step 3: Price on Value, Not on Time Hourly billing is the most widespread and most expensive mistake in consulting. The structural problem: it creates a ceiling on what you can earn (you can only sell so many hours), it misaligns your incentives with your client's (you are rewarded for inefficiency), and it frames your expertise as a commodity that can be compared and shopped. Value-based pricing is the alternative. The fee is set based on the measurable impact of the engagement, not the hours it takes to deliver. If a client believes a specific project will generate or protect $400,000 in revenue, a $25,000 project fee is obvious. The same deliverable billed at $175/hour across 80 hours would have generated $14,000 — 44% less, for identical work, simply because of the frame. The pricing conversation that makes value-based fees work: *Before we discuss what I'd charge, I'd like to understand the stakes. What's the revenue or cost impact if this problem doesn't get solved in the next six months?* Most buyers have never been asked this question by a consultant. It repositions you instantly. Realistic benchmarks for 2026: | Stage | Hourly equivalent | Typical project fee | |---|---|---| | First-year practice | $75–$150 | $2,000–$8,000 | | Mid-level specialist (3–7 yrs domain expertise) | $150–$350 | $10,000–$40,000 | | Senior authority in a recognized niche | $350–$600+ | $30,000–$150,000 | | Ongoing advisory retainer | — | $3,000–$20,000/month | For the full methodology on positioning your practice to command upper-tier rates, *[The Consulting Bible](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470928085)* by Alan Weiss is the most complete operational guide available — covering everything from proposal writing to fee negotiation to managing client relationships at scale. ## Step 4: Set Up the Business Foundation Once you have a paid commitment from a client — or a strong signal that one is coming — build the legal and operational foundation. In this order: **Legal entity.** A single-member LLC is the correct starting structure for most US-based independent consultants. It separates personal assets from professional liability, allows flexible tax treatment, and costs $50–$500 to form depending on the state. Once your annual consulting income consistently exceeds $60,000, consult a CPA about S-Corp election — the payroll/self-employment tax savings often justify the administrative overhead at that threshold. (See our [LLC vs. S-Corp tax guide for founders](/llc-vs-s-corp-tax-math-for-founders/) for the full breakdown.) **Contracts.** Before your first engagement, have a consulting agreement template reviewed by an attorney. It should define scope, deliverables, payment terms (50% upfront is standard for project work), IP ownership, confidentiality obligations, and a termination clause. Investing $300–$500 in a proper contract review once is far cheaper than one disputed engagement without one. **Invoicing and banking.** Open a dedicated business checking account for the LLC. Use Wave (free) or FreshBooks for invoicing. Set net-15 payment terms for project work; net-30 is too long for a cash-flow-constrained early practice. **Your website.** Build it last, not first. A one-page site with your niche, your positioning, one or two testimonials or case studies, and a contact form is enough — and you do not need it to land your first three clients. Your first clients will come from people who already know you, not from organic search. ## Step 5: Land Your First Clients Without Cold Outreach Cold outreach — LinkedIn messages to strangers, cold email sequences — is a viable channel for scaling a practice once you have case studies to reference. It is almost never the right first-client strategy. The first clients come from warm networks. **The reactivation list.** Write down every professional contact from the last 10 years who works in or adjacent to your target industry. Former managers, colleagues, clients from previous roles, classmates in relevant fields. Send a personal message — not a mass email — to each of them: *"I've started a consulting practice focused on [niche]. I thought of you because of your work in [area]. Would you be open to a 20-minute call to reconnect and hear what I'm working on?"* A 2–3% conversion rate on 200 contacts is four to six client conversations. **One substantive post per week on LinkedIn.** Not general tips. Not motivational content. Specific frameworks, counterintuitive findings, or case analyses that prove you understand the problem better than most. LinkedIn's organic algorithm in 2026 still rewards consistent, specific, expertise-driven content with significant reach in professional networks — and the compound credibility effect over six to twelve months is substantial. **Referrals by design.** After every successful engagement, ask explicitly: *"Is there one or two people in your network who are dealing with a similar challenge you'd feel comfortable introducing me to?"* Most consultants never ask this question. Most satisfied clients are willing to say yes if asked directly. **Speaking and adjacent channels.** One relevant podcast appearance, webinar slot, or conference panel per quarter accelerates trust-building in a way that content alone does not. Third-party endorsement is asymmetric: a 40-minute talk to 60 relevant people outperforms 60 cold emails with the same audience, every time. ## Step 6: Build Systems Before You Need Them *[The E-Myth Revisited](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0887307280)* by Michael Gerber describes a trap that kills most small service businesses: the owner becomes a technician in their own practice — personally delivering every engagement, managing every client relationship, and doing every administrative task — until growth becomes impossible without burning out. In consulting, this trap is structural. You are the product when you start. The only way to break the ceiling is to build systems that separate the business from your direct labor. For a solo practice, this means: - **Standardized discovery and onboarding**: a repeatable intake process so every new client starts the same way, on time, with the right context - **A proposal template**: a document structure that allows you to scope new engagements in 2–3 hours instead of 10 - **A monthly review rhythm**: one hour per month reviewing revenue, pipeline, and utilization before it becomes an unexamined blur - **A capacity rule**: never allow a single client to exceed 50% of your working hours; concentration risk in a services business is as dangerous as it is in a portfolio For the firm-building path — hiring, managing, and delivering quality at scale — the first hire should be operational: a part-time project coordinator who handles scheduling, status updates, and administrative follow-through, freeing you to focus on the high-value client work only you can do. Both paths (deeper solo practice and small firm) are legitimate. The mistake is drifting between them without deciding. ## Common Mistakes That Keep Consultants Stuck **Winning the engagement, losing the scope.** Scope creep is the most common revenue leak in consulting. Define deliverables precisely in writing and hold the line. "Additional requests outside the agreed scope will be billed separately at [rate]" in your contract is not aggressive — it is professional. **Treating the website as the strategy.** A polished website is not a client pipeline. Too many consultants spend their first three months on brand identity and positioning language and zero months on conversations. The website follows revenue; it does not precede it. **Underpricing to win the first engagement.** Discounting to close your first client sets a rate anchor that is very hard to move. The better approach: price at what you believe is correct, explain the rationale, and accept the risk that the first client says no. A few rejections at the right price teaches you more than a dozen engagements at the wrong one. **Building dependency, not outcomes.** Some consultants create work for themselves rather than solving the client's problem and exiting. This wins short-term renewals and destroys long-term referrals. Clients who achieve clear outcomes on a defined timeline refer. Clients who feel perpetually dependent do not. ## FAQ ### Do I need certifications to consult? In most industries, no. Consulting is unregulated. What you need is a demonstrable track record of results — in a role, a previous project, or a business — that a buyer can verify. Certifications matter in a narrow set of fields (financial advisory, HR, certain government-facing work). For the majority of business consulting, a compelling case study outperforms any credential. ### How long until the practice is profitable? A solo practice with correct overhead structure should be profitable from the first paid engagement. Meaningful annual revenue — $150,000 or more — is achievable in the first 12 months for consultants who price on value and pursue the right buyers. The ceiling at $300,000–$500,000 annually as a solo practitioner is reachable within two to three years in a well-defined niche. ### Should I consult while still employed? If your employment contract allows it: yes. Building first client relationships and completing initial engagements while employed reduces financial pressure, validates the niche, and provides the case studies you need before going fully independent. Review your contract's non-compete and moonlighting clauses. In most jurisdictions, consulting for non-competing companies in your personal time is permissible — but verify before you start. ### What's the fastest path to $10,000/month? Two to three clients on advisory retainer at $3,500–$5,000/month each. Getting there: identify ten people in your network who face the problem you solve, have six honest conversations, run one well-scoped pilot engagement, and deliver a clear outcome. One satisfied client at that level typically generates one or two referrals within six months. The math compounds quickly. --- ## How to Build a Startup Pitch Deck That Gets Funded in 2026 URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-build-a-startup-pitch-deck-2026/ TL;DR: A great pitch deck doesn't sell your product — it sells the investment thesis. The best decks in 2026 are shorter than founders expect, heavier on traction than vision, and crystal-clear about why now and why you. Most investors who receive a cold deck spend fewer than four minutes on it before deciding whether to take a meeting. That is not cynicism — it is how pattern-matching works at scale when a single fund reviews thousands of decks per year. In that window, a founder's job is not to explain the entire business. It is to answer one question clearly: *is this worth an hour of my time?* Understanding this changes everything about how you should build a pitch deck. The deck is not a business plan. It is not a product tutorial. It is not a proof of your intelligence or your domain mastery. It is a sequenced argument for why a specific investment opportunity exists right now, why your team is positioned to capture it, and why the upside is worth the risk. Here is how to build one that actually does that job. ## What a Pitch Deck Is Selling Before you open any slide tool, get this clear: you are not pitching your product. You are pitching an investment thesis. Investors buy equity in businesses they believe can return 10x or more on their capital in a five-to-seven-year window. Every slide in your deck should be in service of that argument. Slides that explain features, describe your development process, or showcase company culture are useful in other contexts — they slow down a pitch deck. The right question to ask for every slide is: *does this make the investment case stronger?* If the answer is no, cut it or move it to an appendix. ## The 10 Slides That Matter The ideal seed-stage pitch deck has between 10 and 15 slides. More than that signals a founder who hasn't done the work of deciding what matters. The core structure: 1. **Cover** — company name, one-line description, your contact 2. **Problem** — the specific pain you're solving and for whom 3. **Solution** — what you built and why it works 4. **Market size** — TAM, SAM, and your realistic entry wedge 5. **Product** — screenshots, demo, or key workflow (not a feature list) 6. **Business model** — how you make money and your pricing 7. **Traction** — the most important slide for 2026 8. **Team** — why you, specifically, are positioned to win this 9. **Financials and roadmap** — 18-month plan and use of funds 10. **The ask** — how much, at what valuation, and what it gets you In practice, you may split or combine some of these. A pre-revenue company might merge Product and Solution. A company with complex go-to-market might add a dedicated slide. But this is the skeleton. Everything you add should earn its place. ## Slide-by-Slide: What Belongs and What Doesn't ### Problem The problem slide is where most founders lose investors in the first 30 seconds. Common failure modes: the problem is too vague ("businesses waste money on software"), the market definition is so broad it's meaningless ("every company"), or the framing is inside-out — describing the product behavior rather than the customer's actual pain. A strong problem slide: - Names a specific customer (job title, business type, or demographic) - Describes what that customer is currently doing to cope with the problem - Makes clear why existing solutions are inadequate If you have a data point — survey result, customer quote, or market research number — about how widespread or expensive the problem is, put it here. One credible stat beats a paragraph of framing. ### Solution One or two sentences on what you built, followed by the single most important thing it does for the customer. Resist the urge to list capabilities. The solution slide is not a feature matrix. The clearest format: *We built [X] that allows [customer] to [outcome] in [timeframe or conditions] without [current pain].* ### Market Size Drop the "$50 billion TAM" bubble chart if it comes from a market research report that aggregates your entire industry. Investors have seen thousands of those slides and they carry no signal. What works better: a bottom-up calculation. Start with the number of potential customers, multiply by what you plan to charge, and explain what portion of that market you can realistically reach in the next 18 months. Show your math. "There are approximately 140,000 commercial property managers in the US. At $99/month, if we capture 1%, that's $16.6M ARR" is a more compelling market slide than "The property management software market is $14B and growing at 8% annually." ### Traction This is the most important slide in any 2026 deck. The funding environment has tightened significantly since the 2021 peak. Investors at the pre-seed and seed stages still bet on teams and ideas — but the bar for what counts as evidence has risen. Traction means different things at different stages: - **Pre-launch:** letters of intent, paid pilots, waitlist sign-ups, customer discovery interviews with specific evidence of willingness to pay - **Post-launch, pre-revenue:** active users, engagement rates, retention data (D30 or D90), early usage patterns - **Revenue-stage:** MRR or ARR, month-over-month growth rate, churn rate, CAC and LTV Show month-over-month charts, not cumulative totals. A cumulative revenue chart that flattens is worse than showing the flat monthly numbers directly — investors will notice. If your most impressive traction metric is organic, say so and show the channel breakdown. Organic growth that compounds is a signal of product-market fit in a way that paid acquisition-driven growth is not. ### Team The single question your team slide needs to answer: why are you — specifically — the right people to build this company at this moment? Pedigree and credentials matter less than founders assume. What actually signals quality to experienced investors: - **Domain expertise:** you have spent years inside the industry you're disrupting - **Prior relevant building:** you've shipped a product, grown a user base, or managed a team before - **Insight advantage:** you know something about this market that is non-obvious and hard-won Advisors with impressive titles but no operational role in the company rarely move the needle. If you have a strong technical co-founder or an exceptional first hire, lead with that. If your team has a relevant gap — no technical co-founder, no sales experience — address it proactively rather than hoping the investor won't notice. ### The Ask Be specific and connect the raise to milestones. "We're raising $1.5M to reach $1M ARR by Q1 2027" is a fundable ask. "We're raising $1.5M to grow the team and expand our product roadmap" is not. Investors want to understand what the company will look like when you come back for the next round, and what risks this round de-risks. Show them the path: this money gets us to these specific milestones, which positions us for a Series A at these metrics. ## What's Different in 2026 The fundraising environment of 2026 rewards proof over projection. Three shifts that matter: **AI needs a defensibility story.** In 2024 and 2025, many decks could call themselves "AI-powered" and receive significant investor interest without further explanation. That era is over. If AI is core to your product, your deck needs to explain where it creates a durable advantage: a proprietary data flywheel, a workflow integration that creates switching costs, or a cost structure advantage that improves with scale. "We use GPT-4" is not a moat. **Unit economics are scrutinized at earlier stages.** Metrics like CAC (customer acquisition cost), LTV (lifetime value), and payback period used to be a Series A conversation. In 2026, seed-stage investors routinely ask about unit economics even for pre-revenue companies. If you don't have real data, show your assumptions transparently and explain how you'll validate them. **Narrative alone doesn't fund rounds.** "We're building the operating system for X" was a sufficient frame in a market where capital was abundant and conviction was cheap. Today's investors want to see that you've tested the thesis, that customers have given you money or meaningful commitment, and that the business works at small scale before asking them to fund the growth. ## Design Principles That Actually Matter Slide design is not decoration — it is clarity infrastructure. The goal is to eliminate friction between the investor's eyes and the argument you're making. Practical rules: - **One idea per slide.** If a slide has three main points, it is probably two or three slides that haven't been written yet. - **Use a slide title that makes the point, not just the topic.** "Traction" is a label. "Revenue grew 40% MoM for the past six months" is a point. - **Make numbers large and comparisons explicit.** If your key metric is 42% month-over-month retention, that number should be large, in contrast with an industry benchmark, or visualized in a chart. - **Consistent visual language.** Two or three colors, one or two typefaces, no clip art, no stock photos. If you are not a designer, use a minimal deck template (Pitch.com and Canva both have clean options) and don't deviate from it. - **Appendix for everything else.** Due diligence materials, competitive landscape deep-dives, full financial models — these belong in an appendix you walk through in a meeting, not in the main deck. ## Common Mistakes That Kill Deals **The "spray and pray" send.** Mass-emailing 300 investors with a generic outreach note is almost always a mistake. Your warm network — second-degree connections to relevant investors — converts at dramatically higher rates than cold outreach. Spend 80% of your pre-raise time building your investor pipeline through introductions. **Hiding the ask.** Some founders bury the valuation and raise amount at the end of a two-hour meeting. Experienced investors find this frustrating. State your ask early in the conversation, not because it's the first thing, but because clarity about the terms demonstrates that you understand how fundraising works. **Solving the problem investors don't have.** Investors are not confused about your industry. They understand the category. The problem they actually have is determining whether *your company specifically* is worth investing in. Your deck should spend more time on what's unique about your approach than on explaining the industry to someone who has likely seen dozens of companies in the space. **Optimizing the deck before optimizing the business.** The most common version of this is founders who spend a month perfecting a pitch before they have any customer data. No deck — regardless of quality — compensates for a weak or missing traction story. Investors fund businesses, not decks. Get the evidence first. ## Three Books Every Founder Should Read Before Pitching **[Pitch Anything](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071752854) by Oren Klaff** is the definitive book on the psychology of pitching. Klaff's core insight — that the brain's threat-response system filters out information before the rational mind processes it — reframes the entire challenge of presenting to investors. His concept of "frame control" has practical implications for how you open a meeting, how you handle objections, and how you create urgency without desperation. **[Zero to One](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804139296) by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters** is not a pitch-deck book, but it teaches you to think the way great investors think. Thiel's central question — "what important truth do very few people agree with you on?" — is essentially asking you to articulate your investment thesis. If you can answer that question clearly, you already have the spine of a deck. **[The Mom Test](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1492180742) by Rob Fitzpatrick** teaches customer discovery conversations, not pitching — but the discipline it builds is essential pre-pitch groundwork. Founders who have done real customer discovery speak about their market and customers with a specificity that is impossible to fake. Investors notice the difference immediately. ## FAQ ### How long should a pitch deck be? For a cold deck sent via email, aim for 10–12 slides. For a live pitch meeting, 12–15 slides gives you room to breathe without losing attention. If you cannot make the case in 15 slides, the issue is usually that the argument hasn't been sharpened enough. ### Should I include financials in my deck? At the pre-seed stage: a 12–18 month operating forecast showing key assumptions (headcount, burn rate, and revenue milestones) is useful in a slide or two. A full three-statement financial model belongs in the appendix or in a separate data room document. At seed, investors expect more financial clarity — unit economics, projected ARR growth, and cash requirements through to your next raise. ### What's the right valuation to put in my deck? For pre-seed rounds on SAFEs or convertible notes, it is common to list only the raise amount and the valuation cap, not a post-money equity percentage. For priced rounds, work with an attorney or a cap table tool like Carta before finalizing your term sheet. A realistic 2026 pre-seed valuation cap for a first-time founder with early traction is typically between $8M and $15M; earlier than that or without traction, expect downward pressure. ### Do I need a demo in my pitch deck? You need to show the product — screenshots, a short video clip embedded in the deck, or a live demo in the meeting. Slides that describe features without showing the product are a red flag that the product may not exist or may not be compelling. Showing beats telling at every stage. --- The mechanics of a pitch deck are learnable in a weekend. What takes longer — and what most investors are actually evaluating — is whether you understand your market deeply enough to have earned a strong conviction, whether you've validated that conviction with real evidence, and whether your team is positioned to execute on what you're claiming. A clean, well-structured deck makes it easier for an investor to say yes to a fundable company. It cannot make a non-fundable company fundable. Get the business right first. Then build the deck. For more on the fundraising process from first pitch to term sheet, see our guide to [raising a seed round in 2026](/how-to-raise-a-seed-round-2026/). --- ## How to Start a Paid Newsletter Business in 2026: The Complete Guide URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-start-a-paid-newsletter-business-in-2026/ TL;DR: A paid newsletter is one of the most capital-efficient businesses you can build in 2026 — low overhead, zero inventory, and you own your audience. The hard part is niche selection and consistency. The money follows both. Substack passed 5 million paying subscribers in early 2026. beehiiv processed over $100 million in creator payments in 2025. The median time for a new newsletter creator to earn their first dollar has dropped to 66 days. These are not flukes — they reflect a structural shift in how people consume information and who they trust to filter it. The broader media context explains the acceleration. Algorithmic feeds have become noisier and less predictable. Brand-safe advertising pressures have homogenized mainstream journalism. Trust in large media institutions has declined for the fifth consecutive year. Into that gap, individual writers — operators who genuinely know a subject and speak to a specific audience in a direct voice — have built subscriber bases and revenue that rival traditional media properties running ten times the headcount. The other underappreciated fact: you own a newsletter in a way you will never own a social media following. The list is yours. If you leave beehiiv for Substack, or Substack for a self-hosted setup, your subscribers come with you. No algorithm reduces your reach. A change in platform policy does not zero out years of relationship-building. For any founder thinking seriously about building an owned media asset in 2026, email remains the highest-leverage channel to start with. Here is a practical guide to doing it right. ## Why the Newsletter Business Model Works in 2026 Before the tactical steps, it helps to understand what makes the economics of a paid newsletter genuinely attractive. **Overhead is near zero.** Your primary costs are a platform subscription ($0–$99/month), a domain, and your time. There is no inventory, no fulfillment, no physical space, no cost of goods sold in the traditional sense. Gross margins routinely exceed 80%. **Revenue is recurring.** Paid subscribers pay monthly or annually. Sponsorships are typically booked in multi-issue packages. Both revenue streams have compounding characteristics: each new subscriber who stays increases your baseline before you write the next issue. **You are not dependent on any platform.** Social media reach is rented. Newsletter reach is owned. Your subscriber list is a business asset you can take anywhere. **The TAM is larger than it looks.** According to beehiiv's 2026 State of Newsletters report, creators with diversified revenue streams — subscriptions plus sponsorships plus digital products — earn roughly 3× more than those relying on a single monetization method. A newsletter with 10,000 engaged subscribers generating $40,000/month is not unusual once all revenue streams are active. ## Three Newsletter Business Models — Pick One Operators who struggle typically try to build all three at once. Operators who succeed usually commit to one model for the first 12–18 months. ### The B2B Intelligence Brief Format: concise, dense, curated. You track a specific professional domain — SaaS growth, supply chain logistics, healthcare policy, fintech regulation — and distill what matters into a weekly or biweekly brief. Readers are busy professionals who will pay to not miss important signals. Revenue structure: paid subscriptions ($19–$49/month, or $199–$499/year), often supplemented by industry sponsorships from vendors serving the same audience. Target audience size for profitability: 500–2,000 paying subscribers can be a full-time income. B2B audiences are smaller but pay significantly more per head. The Morning Brew B2B properties, The Diff, and Lenny's Newsletter all operate in this quadrant. ### The Creator-Led Newsletter Format: longer, more personal, voice-forward. Your perspective and taste are the product. You might analyze trends, share lessons from your professional experience, or report from the intersection of two fields no one else is covering well. Revenue structure: blend of paid subscriptions and sponsorships. Paid tiers are often lower ($7–$10/month) because the audience is broader, but sponsorship CPMs can be high if you cultivate a specific professional demographic. Target audience size for profitability: 3,000–8,000 subscribers with 30–40% open rates generates meaningful sponsorship income. Paid conversion rates typically land between 5–12% for this model. ### The Content Marketing Flywheel Format: the newsletter is genuinely valuable, but the primary purpose is driving higher-ticket revenue — a consulting practice, a course, an agency, a software product. You are not trying to get people to pay $10/month for the newsletter itself; you are nurturing a relationship that eventually converts at $2,000, $5,000, or $50,000. Revenue structure: newsletter is free or low-cost; revenue comes from upsells. This model has the lowest overhead and the highest per-transaction value. Target audience size for profitability: 1,000–2,000 engaged subscribers can generate significant consulting or course revenue if niche selection is right. ## Picking a Niche That People Will Actually Pay For The most common mistake new newsletter operators make is starting too broad. "Marketing" is not a niche. "B2B SaaS demand generation for companies under 50 employees" is a niche. Specificity is not a constraint — it is a competitive advantage. It makes you easier to find, easier to recommend, and harder to replace. The most profitable newsletter niches in 2026 share a few traits: - **Clear professional audience** — readers have a job title that correlates with willingness to pay for relevant information - **High velocity of news or data** — something is always changing, which gives you a reason to publish and a reason for subscribers to stay - **Underserved by mainstream media** — large publications cover large audiences; the gaps are where specialists thrive - **Monetizable sponsor base** — vendors, SaaS tools, or services exist that want access to the same audience you are building The strongest categories by these criteria: B2B technology, finance and investing, real estate (especially commercial), healthcare administration, supply chain and logistics, legal tech, climate and energy, and local business news in mid-sized markets. If you are not sure which niche to pick, start with a simple question: *What do I know that a specific group of professionals would pay to learn faster?* The answer is more often credentialing than passion. Expertise — real, earned expertise — converts better than enthusiasm. ## Platform Comparison: beehiiv vs. Substack Both platforms are legitimate choices. The decision depends primarily on your business model and growth ambitions. **Substack** is the easier entry point if you are starting from zero and want built-in discovery. The Substack network drives meaningful organic subscriber growth for new writers, particularly in popular categories like finance, culture, and politics. The trade-off: Substack charges 10% of subscription revenue — not a platform fee, a revenue share. At $10,000/month in subscriptions, that is $1,000/month you do not keep. Substack also has limited customization, no native referral program, and no built-in ad network for newsletter monetization. **beehiiv** is the platform most serious newsletter operators migrated to in 2025–2026. Revenue share is 0% — you keep everything beyond payment processing fees. beehiiv's native tools are stronger for scaling: a built-in referral program, Boosts (you earn money recommending other newsletters, and pay to get recommended in theirs), a native ad network that matches you with sponsors, and a web archive with SEO optimization. The trade-off: no built-in discovery marketplace to the same degree as Substack. **Practical guidance:** If you are starting from zero and need organic discovery to find your first 500 subscribers, Substack lowers the barrier. If you have any existing audience — LinkedIn followers, Twitter/X following, even an email list from a previous project — start on beehiiv. The economics compound significantly at scale. ## Building Your First 1,000 Subscribers One thousand subscribers is the meaningful threshold. Below it, you are learning and experimenting. Above it, with decent open rates, you have enough leverage to test monetization. Here is how the strongest-growing newsletters actually get there. **Start with the people who already trust you.** Your first subscribers should be people in your existing professional network — colleagues, former clients, LinkedIn connections, Twitter/X followers. Send a personal invitation, not a mass announcement. Personal outreach has a 10–30× higher conversion rate than a generic launch post. **Write issues people want to share.** Every issue that gets forwarded to a new reader is organic distribution. The structural way to earn forwards: include one clear, genuinely surprising, specific insight that readers cannot easily find elsewhere. Not an opinion on a well-known trend — a specific data point, a counterintuitive claim with evidence, or a framework they have not seen articulated this way. **Cross-post to one other channel.** Pick LinkedIn or X, not both. Share each issue's key insight as a native post on that platform, then link to the newsletter for the full version. LinkedIn in particular has delivered strong newsletter conversion rates in 2026, particularly for B2B newsletters. **Use referral programs.** beehiiv's native referral program (subscribe → refer two friends → unlock reward) is one of the most efficient growth mechanisms available. SparkLoop integrates with both platforms for more sophisticated referral structures. Referral-driven subscribers have higher retention rates than discovery-driven ones because they were recommended by someone they trust. **Swap recommendations with adjacent newsletters.** Once you have 500 subscribers, you can approach newsletters in adjacent (not competing) niches about recommendation swaps — you mention them to your list, they mention you to theirs. beehiiv Boosts formalizes this into a paid marketplace; recommendation swaps are the organic equivalent. **Build a SEO-indexed web archive from day one.** Every issue published to your web archive is an indexable page. Over 12–18 months, newsletter archives with consistent publication on specific topics accumulate significant organic search traffic. This becomes an asymmetric compounding advantage: early issues contribute to your authority as you scale. ## How to Monetize (and When) The most common monetization mistake is going paid too early, before you have demonstrated consistent value. The most common mistake after that is waiting too long and leaving revenue on the table. The right moment varies — but the right signal is consistent: you should have evidence that readers are sharing your newsletter without being asked. ### Paid Subscriptions Start with a single tier. Complicate pricing only after you understand what your audience values. The most common price point for B2B newsletters is $19–$29/month or $199–$249/year. For creator-led newsletters, $7–$10/month or $70–$99/year. Offer an annual discount of 15–20% — annual subscribers have dramatically lower churn. Gate your *best* content, not your *most* content. If paid subscribers get 20 emails while free subscribers get 4, you are competing on quantity. If paid subscribers get the insight that the free subscribers wish they had gotten, you are competing on value. ### Sponsorships Sponsorships are typically available earlier than most newsletter operators think. A newsletter with 1,500 engaged subscribers at 42% open rates represents 630 guaranteed opens per issue — that is meaningful, targeted reach for a relevant sponsor. Benchmark rates in 2026: primary placement (top of issue) runs $30–$60 CPM (cost per thousand subscribers) for email; secondary placement runs $15–$30 CPM. A newsletter with 3,000 subscribers charging $40 CPM for a primary placement earns $120 per sponsored issue. Three sponsored issues per month is $360 — not transformative, but it covers your infrastructure costs and starts compounding. beehiiv's Ad Network removes the sales burden for early-stage newsletters by matching you with advertisers automatically. The trade-off is that rates via ad networks are slightly lower than direct-sold sponsorships — but the time savings are significant until you have the infrastructure to sell directly. ### beehiiv Boosts Boosts allow you to earn money by recommending other newsletters to your subscribers after they sign up. Advertiser rates range from $1 to $3 per confirmed new subscriber you send their way. For a newsletter with 500 new subscribers per month, this can generate $500–$1,500/month in largely passive income without degrading the reader experience (because readers are opting in, not seeing ads). ### Digital Products and Consulting For newsletters built on genuine professional expertise, the natural upsell is depth. A B2B SaaS newsletter can sell an annual benchmark report ($49–$299). A real estate finance newsletter can sell a modeling template ($99). A healthcare policy newsletter can sell consulting access. The newsletter is the top of the funnel; these are the high-margin conversions. ## Revenue Benchmarks at Each Stage These are realistic ranges based on a consistent mix of paid subscriptions, sponsorships, and Boosts, assuming 35–45% open rates: | Subscribers | Monthly Revenue Range | |-------------|----------------------| | 500 | $200–$600 | | 1,000 | $600–$2,000 | | 3,000 | $2,500–$6,000 | | 5,000 | $5,000–$12,000 | | 10,000 | $12,000–$35,000 | | 25,000+ | $40,000–$100,000+ | The ranges are wide because niche, pricing, and monetization mix matter enormously. A 5,000-subscriber B2B intelligence brief charging $29/month with 10% paid conversion generates more than a 5,000-subscriber lifestyle newsletter with lower paid conversion and commodity CPM sponsors. ## The Operational Reality The newsletters that fail do not usually fail because the niche was wrong or the platform was wrong. They fail because the operator underestimated what consistent, long-term publishing actually requires. You need a publishing system before you need a monetization system. Specifically: a consistent issue structure (readers should know what they are getting before they open), a research or sourcing workflow (where does each issue's content actually come from), and a time commitment you can sustain through your slow months, not just your motivated months. Most successful newsletter operators schedule one dedicated deep-work block per issue. A weekly newsletter typically requires four to six hours per issue for research, writing, and editing. A biweekly newsletter at the same quality requires the same per issue, but spread across two weeks — which is easier to sustain and still produces 26 quality issues per year. AI tools have reduced the research and first-draft phases significantly. A workflow in which you use Claude or ChatGPT to synthesize research, then spend your deep-work time on original insight and editing, can reduce per-issue time to two to three hours without sacrificing quality. What AI cannot do is provide the original perspective, the earned credibility, or the consistent voice that makes readers feel the newsletter is genuinely from *someone* rather than *something*. ## Books Worth Reading Before You Launch If you want to go deeper on the underlying business and communication skills: **[Company of One](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1328972356) by Paul Jarvis** — the most clear-eyed book written about building a profitable one-person business without the pressure to scale. The mental model applies directly to the newsletter business model. **[Building a StoryBrand](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0718033329) by Donald Miller** — the best framework for clarifying what your newsletter is actually about and why someone should subscribe. Most newsletter pitch pages and about pages fail at exactly the problem this book solves. **[Superfans](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1949709469) by Pat Flynn** — the tactical guide to turning subscribers into advocates. The insight that converts occasional readers into paying subscribers is almost always relationship depth, not offer structure. Flynn documents how to build that depth deliberately. ## The Bottom Line The paid newsletter is not a new idea. What is new is the infrastructure, the payment processing, the platform economics, and the audience receptivity that make it viable at much smaller scale than it required five years ago. A newsletter with 2,000 paying subscribers at $10/month is a $240,000/year revenue business. That outcome does not require a publishing house, a VC check, or a pre-existing media platform. It requires a specific subject, a consistent voice, and the discipline to show up every week. The operators who are building those businesses right now are not exceptional writers or uniquely connected personalities. They are people who picked a specific problem a specific audience has, stayed consistent long enough to earn trust, and built the revenue infrastructure as the audience grew. That sequence is repeatable. The only question is whether you will start. --- ## How to Build a Micro-SaaS in 2026 (With or Without Coding Experience) URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-build-a-micro-saas-in-2026/ TL;DR: A micro-SaaS is a small, narrowly focused software product run by one or two people. In 2026, AI coding tools have slashed the technical barrier to near zero — the new edge is problem selection, fast validation, and disciplined pricing. Somewhere between "I have a product idea" and "I have 200 paying customers," most solo founders stall. In 2026, that gap is shorter than it has ever been. AI-assisted development tools — Cursor, Lovable, Claude — can turn a plain-English description of an app into a working MVP in a weekend. Total monthly infrastructure costs have dropped from roughly $5,000 in 2019 to $50–$150 today. According to data from Indie Hackers' 2026 SaaS Market Report, 34% of micro-SaaS products launched in Q1 2026 were built by founders with zero prior programming experience. This is not a "passive income" fantasy piece. Micro-SaaS is a real business model with real customers and real churn. But it is also one of the most accessible paths to generating meaningful revenue as a solo founder in 2026 — if you execute in the right order. ## What Is Micro-SaaS? A micro-SaaS is a small, narrowly focused software product typically run by one or two people. Think a scheduling tool built specifically for tattoo artists, an invoice generator for freelance illustrators, or an AI-powered review response tool for hotel managers. The defining traits: - **Niche audience**: you are not building "a CRM for everyone." You are building a CRM for independent music teachers. - **Recurring revenue**: a subscription model, usually $9–$99/month per seat. - **Low operational overhead**: no sales team, minimal support surface, mostly automated. - **One founder**: you don't need co-founders, offices, or a roadmap for 2030. The niche is the moat. A narrower audience means less competition, cheaper paid acquisition if you run it, and customers who refer because your product actually speaks their language. ## Step 1: Find a Problem Worth Solving The biggest mistake first-time micro-SaaS founders make is falling in love with a solution before understanding the problem. The market does not care about your idea — it cares whether you solve something it actually pays to fix. **The customer discovery sprint (two weeks, no code):** Identify 15–20 people in a niche you understand — a former industry, a community you're part of, a job you've held. Ask them three questions: What is the most frustrating part of your workweek that software is supposed to handle but doesn't? What do you currently pay for that you hate using? What would you pay $50/month for if it actually existed? Rob Fitzpatrick's *The Mom Test* ([amazon.com/dp/1492180742](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1492180742)) is the definitive field manual for these conversations. The core principle: ask about the past, never the future. "Would you use this?" is a useless question. "What did you do the last time this broke?" is gold. A problem is worth building around when you hear the same friction three or more times unprompted, when at least one person says they've tried to solve it themselves (duct tape = real pain), and when there is an existing solution people pay for but actively complain about. ## Step 2: Validate Before You Build Before writing a line of code or prompting an AI to write it for you, validate that someone will pay. This takes two to five days. **The landing-page test:** Build a single page (Carrd, Framer, or a hand-coded HTML file) that describes the product, names a price, and has a "Buy now" or "Join the waitlist" button. Run $100 in targeted ads or post in relevant communities. Track clicks-to-intent, not "interest." **The pre-sell:** Tell five people from your customer discovery conversations that the product is launching in 30 days at a discounted price. Ask for a credit card. Even two or three yeses at $29 is enough signal to build. The goal is to find out if the problem you heard is *acute enough to pay for* — which is a different question from whether it exists. Skip this step and you risk building something real people tolerate but won't buy. ## Step 3: Build Your MVP With AI Coding Tools This is where 2026 is genuinely different from any prior year. You no longer need to know how to code to build a functional, production-ready web app. **Vibe coding** — a term popularized by OpenAI researcher Andrej Karpathy — describes writing software by describing what you want in natural language and iterating with an AI until you get it. Tools like [Cursor](https://cursor.sh) (an AI-native code editor) or [Lovable](https://lovable.dev) (a full-stack app builder) let non-technical founders ship working products. A minimal viable micro-SaaS stack in 2026: | Layer | Tool | Monthly Cost | |---|---|---| | App / product | Lovable, Bubble, or Cursor + Next.js | $0–$25 | | Auth | Clerk or Supabase Auth | $0–$25 | | Database | Supabase or PlanetScale | $0–$25 | | Payments | Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction | | Support | Crisp or Intercom (starter) | $0–$19 | | Domain | Cloudflare | ~$10/year | Total before first dollar of revenue: under $100/month. For non-technical founders, start with Lovable — you describe your app in plain English, it generates a full-stack application with authentication, a database, and Stripe integration. You can deploy a working product in a weekend. For founders who are comfortable with code or want more control, Cursor paired with a modern framework (Next.js, Remix) and AI assistance reaches professional-grade output fast. **Scope discipline is everything.** Your MVP should do one thing well. If you can't describe the core value proposition in a single sentence, cut features until you can. The worst MVPs have five half-finished features; the best have one that works flawlessly. ## Step 4: Price Like Your Business Depends on It Because it does. Most first-time founders underprice by 40–60%. Common anchoring mistakes: setting price based on what you'd personally pay, copying the cheapest competitor, or starting low to "get traction." The right framework: 1. **Price on value, not cost.** If your tool saves a freelancer four hours a week at their $75/hr rate, charging $29/month is a bargain — not an imposition. 2. **Use three tiers.** A low entry tier ($9–$15/month), a core tier ($29–$49/month) that is the obvious choice, and a "power user" or "team" tier ($79–$149/month). Make the middle tier feel like the right answer. 3. **Raise prices before you think you should.** The 2026 micro-SaaS benchmark: if you have fewer than 50 customers and no one has complained your price is too high, you are underpriced. Test a 25–30% increase on new signups. Arvid Kahl's *Zero to Sold* is the most practical guide to bootstrapping a SaaS from zero to acquisition. His chapter on pricing is worth the price of the book alone. ## Step 5: Get Your First 10 Paying Customers Your first 10 customers will not come from SEO, Product Hunt, or cold email blasts. They come from the people you already talked to. **The founder-to-customer pipeline:** - Go back to the 15–20 people from your discovery sprint. Tell them the product is live. Offer them a 30-day free trial or a founding member discount (20–30% off for life). Ask them directly. - Post in the communities where your target customers live — Reddit, Slack groups, Facebook groups, Discord servers, LinkedIn. Not a pitch: a "built this tool for [X problem], curious if anyone else runs into this" post with a link to your landing page. - Ask every early user for one referral. At this stage, word-of-mouth inside a tight niche is your best channel. Getting to 10 paying customers validates that people will exchange money for your product. That is the first real milestone, and nothing before it truly matters. ## Step 6: Build Retention Before You Build Growth Churn will kill a micro-SaaS before any acquisition problem does. For a product at $49/month with 5% monthly churn, you lose roughly half your revenue base in 13 months without adding a single new customer. The levers: - **Onboarding:** does a new user reach an "aha moment" within the first session? Build a simple checklist or guided setup flow. - **Usage triggers:** if a user doesn't log in for seven days, send one email with a specific, useful thing they can do with the product. - **Talk to churned users:** every cancellation deserves a one-sentence reply asking why. Most will tell you. The honest answers are worth more than any analytics dashboard. Rob Walling's *Start Small, Stay Small* ([amazon.com/dp/0615373968](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0615373968)) is the original playbook for this model — written in 2010 but updated for relevance, and still the most grounded perspective on building a profitable micro-SaaS without outside capital. ## What the Numbers Look Like To make micro-SaaS worth your time, you need enough MRR to either replace income or serve as a meaningful side income. Some realistic benchmarks for solo micro-SaaS in 2026: - **$1K MRR** (~20–30 customers at $39–$49/month): achievable in 3–6 months with focused execution. Validation point. - **$5K MRR** (100 customers at $49/month or fewer at higher price): a meaningful side income or the start of a full-time income in many markets. - **$10K MRR**: the point at which most founders either double down or attract acquisition interest. Typically 12–24 months with a retained, growing customer base. These are not guarantees — they are the numbers from founders who shipped fast, priced correctly, and obsessed over retention. ## FAQ ### Do I need to know how to code? No. Tools like Lovable and Bubble let you build full-stack apps without writing code. If you want more control or lower costs at scale, learning the basics of a modern framework (Next.js, TypeScript) will accelerate you — but it is not a prerequisite for your first product. ### How is micro-SaaS different from a regular SaaS startup? Scale and ambition. A VC-backed SaaS startup is designed to grow to $10M ARR or more, raise multiple rounds, and build a team. A micro-SaaS is designed to generate $5K–$30K MRR profitably, run lean, and stay independent — or exit at a 3–5x multiple on revenue. Neither is better; they optimize for different outcomes. ### What niches work best for micro-SaaS? Industries with recurring operational pain and underserved tooling: real estate agents, independent professionals (lawyers, accountants, therapists), content creators, small e-commerce operators, restaurant owners. Look for niches using spreadsheets or manual workarounds where a $30–$50/month tool would obviously win. ### How do I handle support if I'm a solo founder? Use Crisp or Intercom for in-app chat, and set expectations upfront: email support within 24–48 hours. Build a searchable FAQ. For the first 50 customers, over-invest in personal support — the conversations will shape the product. --- The window for micro-SaaS is as open as it has ever been. Infrastructure is cheap, AI coding tools have eliminated the technical barrier for most problems, and the market for niche software is growing faster than any single category of enterprise software. The founders winning in 2026 are not the ones with the biggest vision — they are the ones who talked to 20 customers before they wrote a line of code, shipped something useful in four weeks, and raised prices before they felt comfortable doing so. For more on how solo founders are building profitable businesses without outside capital, explore [more founder stories on FutureSharks](/category/startups/). --- ## LLC vs. S-Corp: The Tax Math Every Founder Should Run URL: https://futuresharks.com/llc-vs-s-corp-tax-math-for-founders/ TL;DR: An S-Corp election cuts self-employment tax by splitting profit between salary (taxed for FICA) and distributions (not taxed for FICA). It only saves money after clearing ~$2,500/year in compliance costs. The math typically works at around $80K in net profit — higher in California and other states with entity-level taxes. "Just form an LLC" is the single most common piece of startup advice on the internet. It's also incomplete. The LLC is the right default for most early-stage founders — but at some point in the growth curve, a single tax election can cut your tax bill by thousands of dollars a year without changing your legal structure at all. That election is S-Corp status. Most founders never run the numbers. Here's how to do it. ## First, Clear Up the Confusion The LLC vs. S-Corp comparison trips people up because they're comparing different things. An LLC is a **legal structure**. An S-Corp is a **tax election** — you can be an LLC that's taxed as an S-Corp, which is exactly what most small business owners mean when they say "I have an S-Corp." Almost nobody forms a true S-Corp corporation from scratch anymore. What's actually happening: by default, a single-member LLC files taxes on Schedule C and pays self-employment tax on all its net profit. The S-Corp election tells the IRS to treat your LLC like an S-Corp for tax purposes — which unlocks a split between salary (subject to payroll taxes) and distributions (not subject to payroll taxes). That split is where the savings live. ## The Self-Employment Tax Problem Self-employment tax is the part of the tax code that hurts more than founders expect. In 2026, it's **15.3%** on the first $184,500 of net self-employment income — 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare — with 2.9% continuing beyond that threshold (plus an additional 0.9% Medicare surcharge above $200,000 for single filers). A regular W-2 employee pays half that rate (7.65%), because the employer pays the other half. When you're self-employed, you're both the employer and employee, so you pay the full 15.3%. On $100,000 of net profit as a single-member LLC, your SE tax is approximately **$14,100**. That's a meaningful number, and it scales directly with revenue — there's no deduction, no phase-out, no planning opportunity within the LLC structure itself. ## What S-Corp Election Actually Does When you elect S-Corp status, the IRS requires that you pay yourself a **reasonable salary** for the work you do. That salary gets hit with normal payroll taxes (same 15.3%, split between employer and employee, but functionally the same). Everything *above* that salary — what's called a distribution — is **not subject to self-employment or payroll tax**. The math in plain terms: you're converting some taxable-for-FICA income into non-FICA income. You still pay income tax on all of it. The only tax you're actually cutting is the 15.3% on the distribution portion. ### A Real Example at $100K Net Profit | Scenario | SE / Payroll Tax | |---|---| | Single-member LLC (default) | ~$14,100 on all $100K | | S-Corp, $60K salary + $40K distribution | ~$9,200 on $60K salary | | **Annual savings** | **~$4,900** | Deduct $2,500–$3,000 in added compliance costs (payroll processing, additional tax prep), and the net savings land around **$2,000–$2,400 at $100K in profit**. That's real money — but not enormous. The savings grow significantly as profit increases: - **$150K profit / $80K salary / $70K distribution** → net savings after costs: ~$5,500–$6,000/year - **$200K profit / $90K salary / $110K distribution** → net savings after costs: ~$9,000–$10,000/year Above $200K, the math becomes more nuanced because SE tax already stops applying at $184,500 for the Social Security portion, so the advantage narrows on the Medicare-only portion. The cleanest benefit window is roughly $80K–$200K in net profit. ## The Compliance Cost You Can't Ignore The S-Corp election isn't free. You're taking on real obligations: - **Payroll processing.** You must run actual payroll — quarterly deposits, W-2s, 941 filings. A payroll service (Gusto, ADP, QuickBooks Payroll) typically runs $500–$1,200/year for a one-person company. - **Additional tax prep.** Your accountant now files a separate S-Corp return (Form 1120-S) in addition to your personal return. Expect to pay $1,000–$2,500 more per year. - **State fees and returns.** Many states charge S-Corps extra — California is the starkest example, adding an $800 minimum franchise tax plus a 1.5% net income tax on the S-Corp itself. - **Formalities.** You need to run payroll on schedule, keep the salary reasonable and documented, and file the election itself (Form 2553) with the IRS by the deadline. Total added burden: roughly **$2,000–$3,500/year** for most solo founders outside California. That's the hurdle your FICA savings need to clear before the election makes sense. ## The Breakeven Point Based on current self-employment tax rates and typical compliance costs, the S-Corp election starts saving money at approximately **$75,000–$80,000 in net profit** for most founders. Below that, the compliance costs erase the FICA savings. **California founders face a higher threshold.** The combination of the $800 franchise tax, the 1.5% S-Corp net income tax, and higher accountant fees typically pushes the California breakeven to **$100,000–$120,000 in net profit**. Some California founders at $100K are better off staying as a single-member LLC. Other states with entity-level taxes on pass-through businesses (New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey) similarly shift the threshold upward. ## The "Reasonable Compensation" Requirement This is the part the IRS watches carefully. The whole savings mechanism depends on the salary-to-distribution split — so there's an obvious temptation to set your salary to $1 and take everything as a distribution. The IRS explicitly prohibits this. Your salary must reflect what you'd pay someone else to do your job. The IRS looks at: - What comparable roles pay in your market - How much time you spend in the business - The company's revenue and profitability - Your experience and qualifications There's no bright-line rule, but CPAs generally use 40–60% of net profit as a reasonable starting range for a working owner. Setting a $40K salary on a $200K business invites scrutiny. Getting caught paying unreasonably low wages means back payroll taxes, penalties, and interest — which can wipe out several years of savings in one audit. ## When to Elect (and How) The mechanics are straightforward. You file **Form 2553** with the IRS, signed by all members. To have the election apply to the current tax year, you must file it by the **15th day of the third month** of that tax year (March 15 for a calendar-year entity). If you miss that, it applies to the following year, or you can file for late relief if you have a qualifying reason. Make the election when: 1. **Net profit is consistently above $80K** (not just one good quarter). 2. **You have a CPA** who handles S-Corps and can set up payroll correctly. 3. **You're outside California** or have confirmed the math works in your state. 4. **The savings are recurring** — one-time high-revenue years don't justify the permanent overhead. For deeper reading on how tax structure fits into overall wealth building, Tom Wheelwright's [*Tax-Free Wealth*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947588052) is the best-written argument for why founders should treat tax strategy as a core business function, not an afterthought left to an accountant once a year. ## What S-Corp Election Doesn't Change A common misconception: electing S-Corp status doesn't change your liability protection, your operating agreement, or how the business is managed. You're still an LLC. The change is purely on your tax return. Your bank accounts, contracts, and legal structure stay exactly the same. It also doesn't change your income tax rate. You're still paying ordinary income tax on your salary and distributions. The only tax you're cutting is the payroll/SE portion. ## A Simple Decision Framework **Step 1:** Estimate your annual net profit (revenue minus business expenses, before owner compensation). **Step 2:** Run the FICA savings: (net profit − reasonable salary) × 15.3%. **Step 3:** Get a quote from your CPA for the added cost of S-Corp (payroll + extra return). **Step 4:** Check your state for entity-level taxes. **Step 5:** If step 2 minus step 3 minus step 4 is positive and persistent, the election makes sense. If you're not sure what "reasonable compensation" is for your role, look at Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data or what a role equivalent to yours pays in your area. That's what the IRS looks at. ## FAQ ### Can I convert my LLC to an S-Corp mid-year? Yes, but the election only takes effect at the start of a tax year unless you file within 75 days of formation or the start of the year. If you file Form 2553 after the 75-day window, the election will typically apply to the following calendar year. Late-election relief is available in some cases if you can show you intended to file on time. ### Do I need to pay myself a salary right away? Once the S-Corp election takes effect, yes. If you're an active owner providing services to the business, the IRS requires reasonable compensation to be paid through payroll. You can't wait until year-end and do it as a retroactive adjustment. ### What happens if my profit drops below the breakeven? Nothing catastrophic — you'll just be paying compliance costs without saving enough to cover them. If your profit drops significantly and stays low, you can revoke the election, but there are restrictions on re-electing later. Don't elect S-Corp status speculatively based on projected income; wait until the profit is real and consistent. ### Is an S-Corp the same as a C-Corp? No. A C-Corp is a separate legal and tax structure with its own tax rate (21% federal flat rate in 2026) and the double-taxation issue — profits taxed at the corporate level, then again as dividends at the shareholder level. The S-Corp election is a pass-through structure: all income flows to your personal return, taxed once. The two are not interchangeable, and most small business owners and founders should not default to C-Corp unless they're on a venture track that specifically benefits from C-Corp treatment (institutional VC investment, stock options at scale, Delaware incorporation for preferred stock rounds). ### What's the deadline to elect S-Corp status for 2027? For a calendar-year business, you need to file Form 2553 by **March 15, 2027** for the election to take effect in 2027. File it in January or February to give yourself a margin. Your CPA can file it for you and attach it to an existing S-Corp return if you're already operating. --- The LLC vs. S-Corp question isn't about which structure is better in the abstract — it's arithmetic. Run your numbers, confirm your state's costs, and make the election when the savings clearly outpace the overhead. For more on how founders manage cash and structure compensation, explore the [finance section on FutureSharks](/category/finance/). --- ## Pickleland Founder Alejandro Rioja Is Building an AI-First Operating System for Clubs — Starting With His Own URL: https://futuresharks.com/pickleland-founder-alejandro-rioja-builds-ai-first-club-os-courtlines/ [Alejandro Rioja](https://alejandrorioja.com) spent years running Pickleland, his indoor pickleball facility in Austin, before deciding the biggest problem in his business wasn't pickleball at all — it was the software running it. "Every booking system out there is the same — CRUD screens, a dashboard, good luck," Rioja says. "None of it's AI-first. I wanted something that runs itself and gets better on its own, not something I babysit." That frustration became [Courtlines](https://courtlines.com), a club operating system Rioja is now building for racquet and court-sport facilities — pickleball, tennis, padel, squash, badminton, with room to extend into adjacent spaces like volleyball and CrossFit. Booking, memberships, point-of-sale, and scheduling, all in one place. Unlike most software founders building for an industry from the outside, Rioja's been inside this one the whole time. "I wasn't guessing at the pain points — I was living them," he says. "Different kind of insight when you're the operator, not just building software for one." The feature he keeps coming back to isn't a screen, it's a routine. Every morning, Courtlines' AI advisor reviews a club's numbers and tells the operator what to actually do about them. "Favorite part's the AI advisor — every morning it tells you what to actually do with your numbers instead of just showing you a dashboard," he says. "Software that improves itself, not software you babysit." Pickleland runs on Courtlines end-to-end, not as a pilot bolted onto its old tools, and has seen roughly a 25% revenue increase since making the switch — a number Rioja credits as much to the morning recommendations as to the booking flow itself. His ambitions for Courtlines go past racquet sports. "Short term, club OS for racquet sports," he says. "Long term I want this running any small business that lives on time slots and memberships — gyms, salons, whatever. Started with courts because that's the world I know. But the itch was never just pickleball, it's 'why is this software so dumb.'" It tracks with how he talks about Pickleland itself, which he calls the hardest business he's built. "High fixed costs, hands-on customers, nowhere to hide," he says. "Building the software myself wasn't a side project, it was the only way to get something that fit how we actually run things." He's spent the past year going deep on AI automation more broadly, and Courtlines is where that interest collided with his day job. "The advisor's basically me handing other operators the same leverage." Courtlines is early. Pickleland is the proof of concept; the real test is whether it works as well for clubs Rioja doesn't personally run. --- ## How to Get Your First 100 Customers: The 2026 Founder's Playbook URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-get-your-first-100-customers/ TL;DR: Most startups die before 100 customers — not because the product is bad but because distribution is an afterthought. The playbook: start with your personal network for customers 1–20, mine communities for 21–60, add cold outreach for 61–90, and layer in content for 91–100 and beyond. Do things that don't scale — and don't touch paid ads until you understand why people buy. Distribution kills more startups than bad products. The graveyard of well-built companies that nobody knew about is larger than the graveyard of companies nobody wanted. The difference between a startup that survives and one that dies in obscurity is almost always the founder's willingness to do the unglamorous, unscalable work of finding customers one at a time. This playbook is about that work. Not the paid ads, the viral loops, or the "growth hacking" tactics that look good in slide decks — those come later. This is the manual, messy, and surprisingly effective process of getting from zero to one hundred paying customers. ## Why 100 Customers Is the Right First Goal A hundred customers isn't arbitrary. It's the threshold where patterns start to emerge — who your actual buyer is (vs. who you thought it was), what language they use to describe the problem, which features matter to them, and what makes them churn. Below 100, you're still testing whether the business concept holds. Above 100, you're operating a business. More practically: investors, partners, and potential early employees respond differently once you have a hundred paying customers. It signals that the idea has been externally validated by people spending real money — not just people who said they would. ## The One Principle That Overrides Everything **Do things that don't scale.** Paul Graham wrote this in 2013 and it's more true now than when he published it. Your job in the first 100 customers is not to build systems — it's to *manually recruit* customers one at a time, understand them deeply, and use that understanding to build the systems that will work at 1,000. Founders who skip this phase and jump straight to automation and paid acquisition almost always build a leaky bucket. They can drive traffic; they can't convert or retain it. The founders who grind through the first 100 manually emerge with a product and a pitch that actually work — because they've been stress-tested by real humans who weren't doing anyone a favor. ## Phase 1: Your Network (Customers 1–20) The fastest path to your first customers runs through people who already trust you. This isn't a shortcut — it's the most effective channel available at day one, and most founders underuse it out of embarrassment. Make a list of 50 people: former colleagues, classmates, clients from previous jobs, people you've helped, people who've asked you about this problem. Don't filter for "perfect fit" at this stage — filter for people who trust you enough to give honest feedback and refer you to someone who might pay. The message is simple. Not a pitch. A question: > *"I'm working on [problem]. I know this has been an issue for [type of company/person]. Do you know three people I should talk to?"* The goal isn't to sell to your network — it's to be introduced to the people your network knows who have the problem. Your network's referrals are warm; they convert 5–10x better than cold outreach to a stranger with the same job title. **Target:** Customers 1–20 through direct network introductions. ## Phase 2: Organic Community (Customers 21–60) Your first 100 customers are already somewhere online. There's a subreddit, a Slack group, a Discord server, a LinkedIn community, or an industry forum where people with your target problem gather and complain about it. Your job is to find it and show up with genuine value before you ever mention your product. The playbook: 1. **Identify 3–5 communities** where your ideal customer is active. Reddit, IndieHackers, Slack group directories, and LinkedIn groups are the best starting points. 2. **Participate for 2–3 weeks before promoting anything.** Answer questions, share useful things, build a small reputation. Members notice who's genuinely helpful vs. who just showed up to pitch. 3. **Post a problem-focused "story post"** — not a product launch, but an account of the problem you're solving and what you've learned from talking to people. *"We've been building X. Here's what 40 customer conversations taught us about why [problem] is so hard. Open to feedback."* This generates replies from exactly the people you want. 4. **DM the people who engage most deeply.** They self-selected as high-interest. The pitch-to-call conversion from these conversations is dramatically higher than cold outreach. In 2026, quality community contributions also show up prominently in AI-assisted search. A detailed, useful post on Reddit or Hacker News gets surfaced in both Google and AI-summary answers — useful community engagement compounds in ways it didn't three years ago. **Target:** Customers 21–60 through community engagement and direct DMs. ## Phase 3: Cold Outreach Done Right (Customers 61–90) Cold outreach has a bad reputation in 2026 because it's been weaponized by AI tools generating mass, contextless emails. That means the bar for standing out has dropped to almost nothing: send something personalized and specific and you immediately look different from 95% of your competition. The framework: **Build precision, not volume.** Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, or Clay to identify targeted prospects — 50 well-chosen contacts outperform 500 generic ones every time. The list is the work; the email is secondary. **The 3-line structure that works:** 1. A specific reason you're writing *to them* — one sentence referencing something real about their situation. 2. The problem you solve in plain language. 3. A low-friction ask — a question, not a meeting request. > *"I noticed [Company] recently expanded to mid-market accounts. We work with teams making that transition who find manual onboarding becomes a bottleneck. Does that map to anything you're dealing with right now?"* No jargon. No deck attached. One question. Response rates for this style run 15–25% for well-targeted lists; generic pitches average 2–3%. **Follow-up is not optional.** Most replies come on the 3rd or 4th touch. Not stalking — a short follow-up 4–5 days later, acknowledging the first message and giving them an easy out. The majority of people who eventually respond to cold outreach respond on a follow-up, not the original message. **Target:** Customers 61–90 through targeted cold outreach. ## Phase 4: Content and SEO (Customers 91–100 and Beyond) Content doesn't work fast enough to get you customers 1–10 — it takes months to compound. But if you start it alongside your manual outreach, the first meaningful organic traffic arrives exactly when you're closing in on 100 customers and trying to build the engine that will get you to 500. The highest-ROI content for an early-stage startup isn't a blog — it's a handful of deeply useful articles on the specific problem your product solves. Not "intro to [category]" posts that compete with Wikipedia. Specific, tactical, problem-focused content: - "Why [specific workflow] breaks at [specific company size]" - "What [type of buyer] gets wrong about [specific process]" - "[Number] reasons [type of person] keeps making [specific mistake]" These rank for long-tail queries with low competition, pull in exactly the right readers, and build a content moat that larger, slower competitors can't easily replicate. The book that systematically maps this territory — 19 customer acquisition channels and a framework for testing them in sequence — is Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares's *Traction*. Every founder building a distribution engine should read it. [Get *Traction* on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591848369) **Target:** Content compounds — 91–100 arrive from organic search, and the flywheel starts building toward 500. ## What Kills Most Early-Stage Customer Acquisition Efforts **Paid ads before you understand the message.** Running ads without a proven headline, a proven audience, and a proven conversion path is donating money to the platform. Paid ads amplify what already converts. If you haven't validated your message through manual outreach, you don't know what converts — and the result is expensive noise. **Building features instead of closing customers.** Most founders are more comfortable in their product than on the phone with a prospect. Every hour spent adding a feature that "would probably help with sales" is an hour not spent on actual sales. At this stage, the product is probably good enough — the constraint is distribution. **Treating distribution as a later problem.** The most expensive mistake is getting to launch day without any customer development done. If you haven't spoken to 50 potential customers before you have a product to sell, you're discovering your messaging, your ICP, and your sales process simultaneously — and from a position of desperation. The founders who close their first 100 customers fast almost always started talking to people months before they had anything to sell. ## The Sequencing That Works | Phase | Channel | Customers | Effort Level | |---|---|---|---| | Weeks 1–4 | Network introductions | 1–20 | Very high — manual, 1:1 | | Weeks 3–8 | Community engagement | 21–60 | High — consistent daily presence | | Weeks 6–12 | Cold outreach | 61–90 | Moderate — systematic list-building | | Weeks 8+ | Content / SEO | 91–100+ | Compounding — results in 3–6 months | These phases overlap. Start community engagement before you've finished the network phase. Start your content before you've finished cold outreach. The earlier you start the slower-compounding channels, the sooner they deliver. ## FAQ ### How long does it take to get 100 customers? For B2B SaaS at a $50–500/month price point with a well-defined ICP, founders running this playbook aggressively typically reach 100 paying customers in 3–6 months. Consumer products at lower price points may take longer because each customer is worth less and volume requirements are higher. The variable that matters most isn't the channel — it's the founder's willingness to make manual outreach a daily non-negotiable. ### Should I offer free trials or deep discounts to hit 100? Early customers — the first 20 or so — are often offered a "founder's rate" in exchange for detailed feedback and case study rights. That's reasonable. Giving the product away for free, however, almost always backfires: users who don't pay don't engage, and free users can't validate willingness to pay. A discounted but paying customer is worth ten free users for learning purposes. ### What if customers are churning before I hit 100? Stop and diagnose before adding more. Early churn is almost always a signal — onboarding is broken, the product doesn't deliver what the pitch promised, or you've acquired the wrong buyer. More acquisition won't fix a retention problem. Fix the leak first, or you'll spend your energy filling a bucket with a hole in it. ### When should I start paid ads? When you can answer three questions with data from organic customers: Who buys? (specific enough to target an audience), What headline makes them click? (validated through outbound), What does the first conversion step look like? Once you know those three things, paid ads amplify what already works. Before you know them, they're expensive experiments that could've been run for free. --- Getting to 100 customers is the hardest stretch of the startup journey — most products never get there, not because they're bad, but because founders treated distribution as an afterthought. For more on building the growth engine after 100, explore [more founder strategy on FutureSharks](/category/startups/). --- ## Alejandro Rioja Built a Pickleball Court Directory That Refuses to Go Stale URL: https://futuresharks.com/alejandro-rioja-the-court-scout-verified-directory-never-stale/ Most pickleball directories get built once and then quietly go wrong. [Alejandro Rioja](https://alejandrorioja.com) got tired of dealing with the fallout. "Every pickleball directory gets scraped once and left to rot," says Rioja, who runs Pickleland, an indoor pickleball facility in Austin. "Wrong numbers, courts that closed years ago. I built agents that check every club weekly instead. Living directory, not a snapshot." The result is [The Court Scout](https://thecourtscout.com), a directory covering pickleball, padel, tennis, and badminton courts, built and maintained by the same team behind Pickleland. Instead of a one-time research pass, it runs on an ongoing verification loop — agents that revisit every listing on a set cadence and confirm details against primary sources, rather than letting old data quietly expire. "Verified court directory — pickleball, padel, tennis, badminton," Rioja says. "Difference is freshness. Most directories are a one-time scrape. Ours gets re-checked weekly against primary sources. What you see is true right now, not whenever someone last hit Google Maps." It's the re-checking — the unglamorous part of the job — that most competitors skip once the initial listing goes live. Rioja doesn't pretend it's more complicated than that. "Same itch as [Courtlines](https://courtlines.com)," he says, referring to the club software he's also building. "I don't fix things halfway. A directory that's wrong half the time isn't hard to beat — you just have to keep checking instead of walking away." The Court Scout started in Texas and has been expanding state by state since, deliberately, given how much manual verification sits behind each listing. Rioja's bar for success isn't size. "Want it to be the default — not the biggest list, the most current one," he says. "Same team running Pickleland runs this. Not a side project we forgot about." Between Pickleland, Courtlines, and The Court Scout, a pattern shows up: Rioja picks the part of an industry everyone's agreed to do lazily, and does that part properly instead. --- ## How to Validate Your Startup Idea (Before You Waste Your Savings): A 2026 Playbook URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-validate-your-startup-idea/ TL;DR: 42% of startups fail because nobody wanted what they built. Before you spend a dollar on development, run 20 customer interviews, a $200–400 landing page ad test, and pre-sell to 3+ paying customers. The framework: identify your riskiest assumption, test it with real humans, measure willingness to pay, and set kill criteria in advance. The CB Insights post-mortem on 35,000+ failed startups tells the same story every year: **42% died because there was no market need**. Not because the product broke, not because the team imploded — because nobody actually wanted the thing. The good news? That's a problem you can solve before you build. The framework exists, it works, and in 2026 — with AI-assisted research and sub-$500 ad experiments — it's cheaper and faster than ever to find out whether your idea has legs. Here's the playbook. --- ## Why "Just Build It and See" Destroys Founders The intuition to ship fast is good. The mistake is skipping the part where you talk to real humans first. Most first-time founders are solving a problem they personally felt. That's actually the right instinct — the best startup ideas come from lived frustration. But there's a gap between "I had this problem" and "enough people have this problem and will pay to fix it." Skipping validation means you find out which side of that gap you're on after you've spent your savings, recruited a team, and built twelve months of product. Validation means you find out in four weeks for under a thousand dollars. --- ## Step 1: Write Down Your Riskiest Assumption Before you talk to anyone or run any experiment, write one sentence: > *"My idea only works if [specific assumption] is true."* For a B2B scheduling tool: *"My idea only works if operations managers at mid-market companies are the ones losing time to scheduling conflicts, not their assistants."* For a D2C supplement brand: *"My idea only works if keto athletes in the 35–50 age band are actively shopping for magnesium glycinate and not finding what they want."* This is your north star. Every validation step you run should answer this one question first. If you can't state the assumption, you can't test it. --- ## Step 2: Get Out of the Building Twenty customer interviews. That's the minimum viable research. Not surveys (people lie on surveys). Not Slack polls. Phone calls or video calls with people who match your target profile, where you ask about the past rather than the hypothetical. The canonical rule comes from Rob Fitzpatrick's *[The Mom Test](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1492180742)* — a short, essential read that should be on every first-time founder's desk. The core insight: never ask "would you use this?" because people will say yes to spare your feelings. Ask instead: - "Walk me through the last time this problem came up for you." - "What did you do? What did you try first?" - "How much time or money did it cost you?" - "What's the closest solution you've found? Why didn't it stick?" You're listening for pain, not permission. If they can't remember a specific recent instance, the problem probably isn't acute enough to build a business around. **How to find the 20 people:** LinkedIn cold DMs with a specific ask ("15-minute conversation about how you handle X"), your existing network, subreddits, X (Twitter), niche Slack groups, or industry Discord servers. A $50 Amazon gift card for 30 minutes goes a long way. --- ## Step 3: Run the Landing Page Test Build a single-page site that describes your product as if it already exists. Not vaporware — position it clearly as "coming soon" or "waitlist." The copy should do three things: 1. Name the specific problem. 2. Describe who it's for. 3. Tell the visitor what outcome they get. Then run a small paid experiment: $200–400 on Google Ads or Meta targeting your ICP, driving traffic to this page. Measure: - **Click-through rate** — are people clicking on the ad at all? Low CTR usually means the problem framing doesn't resonate. - **Email capture rate** — are people entering their email for the waitlist? Below 5% means weak interest; above 15% is a strong signal. - **Pricing page behavior** — if you show a pricing tier and track clicks, you learn willingness to pay before you've built a checkout. The goal isn't to launch. The goal is data. A $300 ad test that tells you "nobody wants this version" is the best $300 you'll ever spend. --- ## Step 4: Pre-Sell Before You Build The strongest validation signal is money. Everything before this is evidence; a credit card swipe is proof. Pre-selling looks different by market: - **B2B SaaS:** Close 3–5 design-partner contracts at a discount in exchange for early access and feedback. Aim for $500–$2,000 MRR before you write a line of code. - **Consumer product:** Run a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign. If you hit 30% of your goal in the first 48 hours, you have a market. If you raise $800 and set a $50K goal, you have data too — just different data. - **Info product or course:** Pre-sell a live cohort. Charge a reduced price, deliver it as a live workshop, then productize what worked. Pre-sales aren't just validation — they're capital. Early revenue lets you move without dilution. --- ## Step 5: Map the Beachhead Market Even if demand exists broadly, you can't serve everyone at once. Your job is to find the smallest possible customer segment that is: - Feeling the problem most acutely - Reachable through a focused channel - Likely to refer others like them This is your beachhead. You dominate the beachhead before you expand. Peter Thiel calls this the "last mover advantage" — become the definitive solution for a small, specific segment first, then use that reputation to move into adjacent markets. His book *[Zero to One](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804139296)* covers this logic in depth if you want the full thinking. The biggest mistake is targeting "small business owners" or "marketers." That's not a segment — it's a TAM slide. Your first customers should be so specific that you could find and name 500 of them right now. --- ## Step 6: Define the Kill Criteria in Advance This is the step most founders skip because it requires admitting that the idea might not work. Before you run your experiments, write down what a **pass** and a **fail** look like: > *"If I get fewer than 3 pre-sales in 30 days of outreach, or if my landing page drives fewer than 8% email captures from a targeted audience, I will pivot the positioning or abandon the idea."* Writing this down matters because founders are optimists — and optimists without criteria will keep moving goalposts. "Four more interviews," "one more test," "let me try a different ad creative." The kill criteria gives you permission to stop without guilt, or to stop second-guessing your results without confidence. --- ## The Framework at a Glance | Step | What You're Testing | Signal You Need | |------|--------------------|--------------------| | Customer interviews (×20) | Is the pain real and acute? | 6+ people describe the same problem unprompted | | Landing page test | Does the positioning resonate? | 10%+ email capture from targeted traffic | | Pre-sales | Is there real willingness to pay? | 3+ paid commitments before launch | | Beachhead definition | Can you reach and win a segment? | A named list of 200+ ideal customers | --- ## What to Read If you do nothing else, read these two books before you build your next product: - **[*The Mom Test*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1492180742)** by Rob Fitzpatrick — 130 pages on how to run customer interviews that surface honest signal instead of polite encouragement. The clearest treatment of customer discovery anywhere. - **[*The Lean Startup*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307887898)** by Eric Ries — the foundational text on building in validated learning loops. Some of the specific tactics date to 2011, but the core build-measure-learn framework remains the best mental model for early-stage product development. --- ## The Bottom Line Validation is not about proving you're right. It's about finding out you're wrong as cheaply and quickly as possible — and then using that information to build something people actually want. The founders who skip this step often have the most conviction. That conviction is an asset when you're selling and recruiting. It becomes a liability when it drowns out the market signal telling you to change course. Four weeks. Twenty conversations. Three hundred dollars in ad spend. That's the cost of knowing. It's a bargain compared to twelve months of the alternative. --- ## 5 Best Negotiation Books for Entrepreneurs (Matched to the Deals You're Actually Doing) URL: https://futuresharks.com/best-negotiation-books-for-entrepreneurs/ TL;DR: Founders negotiate more than almost anyone — but most negotiation books are written for lawyers and M&A bankers. These five are different: each one maps directly to a specific deal type you'll face building a company, from closing your first customer to raising a round. Every founder negotiates constantly, and most of them have never studied it. You negotiate when you close a customer, when you pitch an investor, when you make your first hire, when a vendor quotes you 40% above what you intended to pay, and when a co-founder conversation turns uncomfortable. Negotiation isn't a skill you use twice a year in a conference room. It's the background noise of building a company. The problem with most negotiation books is that they're written for deal lawyers and M&A bankers — people doing one enormous, formal transaction at a time. Founders are doing the opposite: dozens of smaller, messier, more personal negotiations constantly, often with people they want to maintain long-term relationships with. These five books address that. Each one is matched to a specific type of deal founders actually face. ## 1. *Never Split the Difference* — Chris Voss **Best for: customer negotiations, pricing conversations, and any deal where emotion is running high** Voss spent two decades as the FBI's lead international hostage negotiator. His insight — that the tactical empathy techniques honed in hostage situations transfer almost perfectly to business — sounds gimmicky until you read the first chapter and realize he's right. The core technique is what Voss calls *tactical empathy*: understanding the other person's emotional state and making them feel genuinely heard before you ever ask for anything. His "accusation audit" (preemptively naming every negative thing the other person might be thinking about you) and the "calibrated question" framework ("How am I supposed to do that?") are tools that work precisely because they're counterintuitive. Most people expect you to argue or concede. When you do neither, they become curious about what you will do. For founders, this book is most valuable in pricing conversations with customers who push back and in any negotiation where you feel pressure to make the first concession. Voss's central premise — that splitting the difference is almost always the worst outcome for both sides — reframes how you think about the entire structure of a deal. Read this one first. It changes your instincts fast. [*Never Split the Difference* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062407805) ## 2. *Getting to Yes* — Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton **Best for: partnership negotiations, co-founder agreements, vendor contracts — anywhere you need a long-term relationship to survive the deal** Published in 1981 out of the Harvard Negotiation Project, this is still the single most cited book in negotiation research. Where Voss teaches you to win a deal, Fisher and Ury teach you to build a deal that holds — which is a different problem, and often the more important one for founders. The framework is called *principled negotiation*: separate people from positions, focus on underlying interests rather than stated demands, generate options before committing to any of them, and use objective criteria to evaluate outcomes. It sounds obvious when summarized, but the applications aren't. The key insight is the difference between a *position* (what someone says they want) and an *interest* (why they actually want it). A co-founder who says "I need 45% of the company" has a position. Their underlying interest might be security, recognition, or not being outvoted. When you negotiate at the position level, you get stuck. When you negotiate at the interest level, you often find solutions neither party had considered. This is the right book for any deal where the relationship matters as much as the outcome. [*Getting to Yes* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143118757) ## 3. *Pitch Anything* — Oren Klaff **Best for: investor pitches, board presentations, high-stakes sales meetings** Klaff has raised over $400 million in deals using a framework he calls STRONG — Setting the frame, Telling the story, Revealing the intrigue, Offering the prize, Nailing the hookpoint, Getting a decision. It's an unusual book because it's less about negotiation in the traditional sense and more about how to control the psychological frame of any high-stakes room. His central concept is *frame control*: the idea that every interaction has a dominant narrative frame, and whoever sets it wins. When you walk into an investor meeting and immediately begin justifying why your company is worth their time, you've accepted a subordinate frame — the investor as judge, you as supplicant. Klaff teaches you to invert it. The most practically useful section is on what he calls "prizing" — creating the perception that you are the prize being sought rather than the one doing the seeking. This runs contrary to how most founders behave in fundraising, which is exactly why it works when you do it correctly. Klaff's writing style is aggressive and occasionally over-the-top, but the underlying neuroscience (he draws heavily on research about the crocodile brain and how decisions are actually made) is solid and the tactics are testable. [*Pitch Anything* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071752854) ## 4. *Negotiation Genius* — Deepak Malhotra and Max Bazerman **Best for: fundraising terms, acquisition conversations, complex multi-party deals** Malhotra and Bazerman are Harvard Business School professors, and this book shows it — in the best way. Where Voss gives you tactics and Klaff gives you psychology, *Negotiation Genius* gives you structure. It's the most analytically rigorous book on this list, and the one that pays off most in high-stakes, multi-issue deals where the math matters. The most useful framework is the *BATNA* — Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. Most founders have heard of it; far fewer actually use it correctly. Malhotra and Bazerman show you how to strengthen your BATNA before you enter a negotiation, how to assess the other party's BATNA, and how the relationship between both BATNAs determines the actual range of negotiable outcomes. They also do a particularly good job on *contingent contracts* — deals that include provisions tied to future performance, like earn-outs in acquisitions or milestone-based investment tranches. These structures are common in startup deals and misunderstood by most founders until they're already committed to one. Read this one before a term sheet conversation or any deal where you're not sure you fully understand the structure being offered. [*Negotiation Genius* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553384112) ## 5. *Negotiating the Impossible* — Deepak Malhotra **Best for: deals that seem stuck, renegotiating terms with an existing investor or customer, getting out of a bad agreement** Malhotra's second book is different from the first. Where *Negotiation Genius* is a framework for how to structure deals from the beginning, *Negotiating the Impossible* is about what to do when a deal seems dead — when someone has publicly committed to a position they can't walk back from, when relationships have broken down, when the numbers just don't add up. The framing premise is that truly impossible-seeming negotiations (he draws on examples from peace talks, labor disputes, and commercial crises) share structural similarities with the stuck negotiations founders face: one party has made a public commitment to a position, both sides have dug in, and the relationship is deteriorating while the standoff continues. Malhotra's core insight is that in these situations, the path forward almost always requires one of three tools: a better *process* (change the sequence of concessions, add a mediator, break the problem into smaller pieces), a better *framing* (find a way for both parties to get what they actually need without either side needing to publicly back down), or a *package* deal that trades across issues neither party cared about separately. For founders, this book is most useful during investor renegotiations, disputes with early co-founders, or customer relationships that have gone sideways and need to be restructured rather than terminated. [*Negotiating the Impossible* on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1626566976) --- ## The Reading Sequence That Makes Sense If you're new to negotiation as a discipline, start with *Never Split the Difference* — it changes your instincts fastest and has the most immediate practical applications. Then read *Getting to Yes* for the structural counterweight: Voss is better at winning; Fisher and Ury are better at sustaining the relationship afterward. Add *Pitch Anything* before any fundraising round or high-stakes sales push. Pick up *Negotiation Genius* when you're starting to do term sheet conversations or acquisition discussions. And save *Negotiating the Impossible* for the moment a deal that matters to you seems to have hit a wall. The founders who negotiate well are not the ones who push hardest. They're the ones who understand the structure of the situation better than the other side does — and these five books, taken together, give you that structure. --- ## How to Become a Solopreneur in 2026: The Complete Guide URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-become-a-solopreneur-in-2026/ TL;DR: Solopreneurship is a legitimate business strategy, not just freelancing rebranded. The AI leverage available in 2026 means one person can now reach revenue levels that used to require a team — but the model, pricing, and positioning have to be right from day one. The numbers are no longer small-scale. There are now 29.8 million solopreneurs operating in the United States — accounting for 82% of all small businesses — generating $1.7 trillion in economic activity annually, roughly 6.8% of U.S. GDP. That number has not stalled: solo-founded startups have grown from 23.7% of all new ventures in 2019 to 36.3% today, and 77% of solopreneurs report becoming profitable within their first twelve months. This is no longer the gig economy with a rebrand. It is a legitimate business strategy, and 2026 is arguably the best moment in history to attempt it. The reason? AI leverage. The operating cost of running a full solopreneur stack — marketing automation, customer communications, content production, bookkeeping, scheduling — has collapsed to between $3,000 and $12,000 per year: a 95–98% reduction compared to what building equivalent capacity required five years ago. Three out of four solopreneurs now use AI for at least one core business function. The economics have shifted fundamentally. Here is a practical guide to what the most successful solopreneurs are doing right now. ## Solopreneur vs. Freelancer vs. Startup Founder: The Distinction That Matters These three models often get conflated, and conflating them is expensive. A **freelancer** sells time. Revenue scales with hours, the relationship ends when the project ends, and there is an inherent ceiling. A freelancer who stops working stops earning. A **solopreneur** builds systems. Revenue can be decoupled from time — through productized services, digital products, subscriptions, licensing, or affiliate income. The business has value that exists independently of any single client project. This is the critical structural difference. A **startup founder** builds to scale — typically toward a large team, venture funding, or a formal exit. The solopreneur is *not* trying to build the next unicorn; they are building a highly profitable personal enterprise that they control. The solopreneur model optimizes for profit per hour of work, owner autonomy, and low overhead — not headcount, market share, or revenue multiples. Understanding this shapes every other decision. ## Why 2026 Is the Inflection Point The structural driver is AI, but it is more specific than "AI is useful now." Prior to roughly 2023, the solopreneur's hard constraint was functional capacity. One person could not produce an acceptable volume of marketing content, manage inbound customer questions, run financial reporting, and deliver client work simultaneously. Something always broke. You either hired, stagnated, or burned out. AI has largely dissolved that constraint. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and specialized agents handle research, first drafts, customer service responses, and data analysis. Automation platforms connect those tools to your business workflows. The result is a solopreneur who operates at the effective output of a small team without the coordination overhead, HR compliance, or equity dilution of actually hiring one. 74% of solopreneurs now report using AI for at least one core function — content, customer service, research, or operations. The ones who have integrated AI deeply are not merely more efficient; they are structurally more competitive than solo operators of any prior era. ## The 5 Most Profitable Solopreneur Business Models in 2026 The business model you choose determines your income ceiling, your time requirements, and how you grow. These five produce the strongest economics for solo operators right now. ### 1. Productized Services You deliver a defined scope of work at a fixed price on a repeatable basis — an SEO audit, a landing page, a pitch deck review. Because the deliverable is standardized, you can systematize delivery, price more confidently, and serve more clients without scope creep. The key discipline: resist custom work that pulls you off-model. ### 2. Digital Products Courses, templates, guides, tools. High effort upfront, near-zero marginal cost to distribute. A well-positioned digital product can generate significant recurring revenue with minimal ongoing maintenance. The challenge is positioning and distribution, not production — you need an audience or a channel before you build. ### 3. Paid Communities and Memberships A recurring subscription model that delivers education, networking, or access. Churn is the primary risk; the economics work best when you have genuine expertise and a defined audience that values peer connection or accountability over time. ### 4. Consulting and Advisory Retainers High-expertise, high-value work on a monthly retainer. Fewer clients, stronger relationships, and predictable revenue. This model favors solopreneurs with deep, demonstrable domain expertise — typically built through a prior career. The goal is to price based on outcomes delivered, not hours logged. ### 5. Hybrid: Service + Product Revenue The most durable solopreneur businesses combine two or more of the above models. A consultant who also sells a course has a hedge — when client project demand drops, product revenue provides a floor. The combination also attracts different customer types at different price points, and gives you a path toward reducing service hours as the business matures. ## Your Minimum Viable Tech Stack The goal is functional capacity, not feature count. A lean, well-integrated stack beats a sprawling collection of underutilized tools. **Core categories to cover:** - **Payments and invoicing:** Stripe handles billing, subscriptions, and invoicing with minimal friction. Start here before you have anything else. - **Email list:** A modest email list is your most durable audience asset — no algorithm controls it. ConvertKit and Beehiiv are the most common choices for creator-adjacent solopreneurs. - **Scheduling:** Calendly eliminates the back-and-forth of booking and integrates cleanly with payment collection. - **AI assistant:** ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity for first-draft content, research synthesis, and communications at scale. - **Automation layer:** Zapier or Make connects your tools and eliminates repetitive data work between platforms. - **Accounting:** QuickBooks Self-Employed or a bookkeeper on a platform like Bench. Do not manage this by spreadsheet once revenue reaches any meaningful level. Total cost: well within the $3,000–$12,000 annual range cited across 2026 solopreneur surveys. You do not need all of this at launch — start with payments and delivery, add layers as revenue justifies them. ## How to Launch: A Practical Sequence **Step 1: Define a specific problem you can solve for a specific type of person.** Generalists struggle. "I help businesses grow" is not a business. "I help B2B SaaS companies reduce churn through email onboarding sequences" is a business. The narrower the niche, the easier distribution becomes and the stronger your positioning. **Step 2: Validate before you build.** Talk to ten potential clients or customers before creating any product or service offering. Ask about their actual problem, their current solutions, and what they would pay to solve it. You are not pitching — you are listening. A single paying customer before you finish building is worth more than any market research. **Step 3: Price for profit from day one.** The most common solopreneur error is underpricing. You are not competing on cost; you are competing on expertise and specificity. If you can deliver a $50,000 outcome for a client, a $5,000 retainer is not expensive — it is a 10x return for them. Price based on value delivered, not on hours spent. **Step 4: Land your first clients through direct outreach.** The fastest path to early revenue is not content marketing, SEO, or social media — it is a short, direct message to people who have the problem you solve. Referrals from your existing network come next. Organic content and inbound channels come after you have validated the model with paying customers. **Step 5: Document and systematize what works, then automate.** Before you think about hiring or delegating, document every client-facing process you repeat. This creates the foundation for automation and ensures quality stays consistent as volume grows. ## Three Pitfalls That Kill Solopreneur Businesses **Mistaking activity for revenue-generating work.** Content creation, networking, and tool setup all feel productive. They are not the business; serving clients or customers is the business. In the early stage, the majority of your time should go to sales and delivery — not brand building. **Not separating business and personal finances from day one.** Open a business checking account before you receive your first payment. File the LLC (or equivalent in your jurisdiction). These steps take a few hours and cost little — the alternative, a commingled mess at tax time and personal liability exposure, costs far more. **Scaling inputs before systems are in place.** The worst version of solopreneur growth is adding more clients before you have figured out delivery. You get busy, quality drops, referrals stop. Get the delivery system repeatable and documented before you push volume. Growth that breaks your operations is not growth — it is debt. ## Further Reading Two books stand out as genuinely useful for solopreneurs at any stage. Paul Jarvis's [*Company of One*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1328972356) argues that staying intentionally small — optimizing for profit and autonomy rather than headcount — is a legitimate and often superior long-term strategy. It is the intellectual framework behind the solopreneur model, and it makes the case clearly without romanticizing it. Elaine Pofeldt's [*The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/198485836X) is more operational: how specific solopreneurs have crossed seven-figure revenue, which business models they used, and what the mechanics look like at that scale. The two books are worth reading in sequence — *Company of One* for the philosophy, Pofeldt for the how. ## FAQ ### How is a solopreneur different from a freelancer? A freelancer sells time — revenue stops if work stops. A solopreneur builds systems that generate revenue independent of active hours, through products, subscriptions, or scalable service models. The structural goal is different, and that difference shapes every decision from pricing to business model to daily schedule. ### Do I need an LLC to start as a solopreneur? You can operate as a sole proprietor initially, but an LLC is generally worth the setup cost for liability protection and tax flexibility. The specifics vary by state and business type — consult a local attorney or accountant before making the call. ### How long does it take to become profitable as a solopreneur? Survey data puts 77% of solopreneurs at profitability within their first 12 months. "Profitable" here means revenue exceeds operating costs, not necessarily that the business fully replaces a prior income. That milestone typically takes 12–24 months depending on the model and whether you already have an audience or network to draw from. ### Is solopreneurship viable long-term, or does it eventually require hiring? Many solopreneurs never hire and build businesses with strong margins indefinitely. Some choose to bring in contractors for specific functions. The model is fully viable at scale — the key is that growth must be driven by systems and AI leverage, not by defaulting to headcount as the response to volume. ### What's the best solopreneur business model to start with? The model with the highest probability of early success is the one closest to expertise you already have. A productized service — a fixed deliverable at a fixed price — is the most common successful starting point because it requires no product to build upfront and can be sold directly to people you already know. --- The 29.8 million solopreneurs already operating in the U.S. are not all running identical models or chasing the same income target. What they share is the deliberate choice to keep the business lean, keep ownership at 100%, and build systems that make that sustainable over time. The economics have never favored that choice more than they do in 2026. For more founder strategy and business building content, explore [Future Sharks](/category/business/). --- ## How to Raise a Seed Round in 2026: The Founder's Complete Guide URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-raise-a-seed-round-2026/ TL;DR: Seed rounds in 2026 require real traction ($10K–$50K MRR for B2B SaaS, or equivalent proof for other models), a clear 18-month runway plan, and a deliberate investor outreach process. SAFEs close faster but priced rounds signal maturity. The median raise is $1.5M–$4M at an $8M–$15M pre-money valuation. This guide covers every step. Raising a seed round in 2026 is not the same process it was five years ago. Investor expectations have recalibrated sharply. What used to be a bet on a slide deck and a founding team is now a bet on early evidence — and the bar for "early" keeps rising. The average time between seed and Series A has stretched to around 616 days, meaning investors know they'll be waiting longer for a signal that the bet is paying off. They're pricing that in. This guide is for first-time founders navigating the process from scratch: when to raise, how much to ask for, which structure to use, how to build an investor list, and how to close the round without giving up too much of the company. ## Before You Raise: Are You Actually Ready? The single most common mistake first-time founders make is raising too early. An underprepared raise does two things: it takes longer, burning weeks or months of your time, and it often results in worse terms because you're negotiating from weakness. The clearest signal that you're ready to raise a seed round is meaningful, verifiable demand for what you're building. What "meaningful" looks like depends on your model: - **B2B SaaS:** $10K–$50K in monthly recurring revenue, or a strong pipeline of signed LOIs with named enterprise customers. - **Marketplace or consumer:** clear evidence of repeat usage and retention — not just downloads or signups. - **Deep tech or biotech:** a working prototype or data from a proof-of-concept study, plus a defined path to a first commercial application. - **Pre-revenue:** a founding team with a specific and rare combination of domain expertise and technical ability that would otherwise be extremely hard to hire. This gets harder to pitch every year. If you can't describe your traction in one factual sentence that would survive scrutiny from a skeptical investor, keep building for another quarter. ## How Much to Raise — and at What Valuation The standard seed raise in 2026 sits between **$1.5M and $4M**, with median pre-money valuations hovering between **$8M and $15M** for US startups. AI and Climate Tech companies trend toward the upper end of that range; consumer apps and services trend lower. Two principles should anchor your raise amount: **Raise for 18 months of runway.** Not 12 — 12 months is too tight once you factor in the time to deploy the capital and start generating returns from it. Not 24 — that's too much dilution at seed if you can get to Series A metrics in 18 months. Model out your monthly burn at the team and spend level you need, multiply by 18, and that's your floor. Add a 15–20% buffer for the unexpected. **Tie the raise to a specific milestone, not a vague plan.** "We'll use the capital to grow the team and build the product" is not a use of funds — it's a description of what startups do. Investors at seed are evaluating whether you can take $X and produce a specific, measurable outcome by a defined date. Know what that outcome is and be able to defend why $X is what it takes. ## SAFE vs. Priced Round: Which One to Use The vast majority of seed rounds — roughly 88–92% of pre-seed financing in 2026 — use SAFEs (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) or convertible notes rather than priced preferred stock. There are good reasons for this, and some cases where a priced round makes more sense. **SAFEs** let you close quickly (sometimes in two to three weeks) without negotiating a valuation. Investors get the right to convert their investment into equity at your next priced round, usually at a discount or a valuation cap — whichever is more favorable to them. They're the default for early checks precisely because they're cheap and fast: no significant legal fees on either side, no board seats, no liquidation preference to negotiate. **Priced rounds** require agreeing on a specific valuation now, issuing preferred stock, and setting up your cap table formally. They're slower (eight to twelve weeks) and more expensive ($15K–$25K in legal fees), but they give founders and investors complete clarity on ownership from day one. Some institutional seed funds require priced rounds. If you're raising from angels only, SAFEs usually make more sense. If you do a SAFE raise, two parameters matter most: the **valuation cap** (the maximum valuation at which investors convert) and the **discount rate** (typically 15–20%, applied to the price per share at the next round if conversion at the cap would be less favorable). Keep the cap honest — setting it too high to minimize dilution is a strategy that backfires when your Series A valuation reveals a mismatch. If you go priced, read [*Venture Deals*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119594820) by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson before negotiating anything. It's the best single resource on what the terms actually mean and which ones matter. ## Building Your Investor List A seed round is a sales process, and like any sales process, it's a numbers game with a qualification step. Most founders raise from a mix of angels, micro-VCs, and traditional seed funds. Knowing which type to target at which stage of your raise changes the outcome significantly. **Start with angels and operators.** Individual angels who are former founders or executives in your industry move faster than institutions, check smaller ($25K–$200K), and often bring genuine domain value. Finding them via warm introductions — through your network, your accelerator alumni, or advisors — converts at a dramatically higher rate than cold outreach. **Add micro-VCs.** Firms writing $250K–$1M checks at seed are usually easier to access than large funds, move faster on decision timelines, and are actively looking for the check sizes that fit your raise. **Target institutional seed funds selectively.** Funds like YC, Sequoia Arc, Bessemer, and First Round Capital run competitive processes and have high rejection rates. Apply only when you have a meaningful connection to the firm — a partner who knows your work, a portfolio founder who can make an introduction, or direct accelerator acceptance. Build a spreadsheet with 50–80 targets, organized by check size, thesis fit, and your connection strength. Prioritize firms and individuals who have backed companies directly comparable to yours — they already understand the space and have a pattern to match you to. ## The Outreach Process **Never cold-email a VC.** The response rate on cold outreach to venture investors is close to zero. Warm introductions are not just preferable — they're essentially the only channel that reliably produces meetings. Work backwards: who do you know who knows the investor you want to reach? If the answer is nobody, the path is to build that connection through an accelerator, an event, a mutual portfolio founder, or a shared advisor. When you get a meeting, your job in the first 30 minutes is to answer three implicit questions the investor is evaluating: 1. **Is the market big enough?** Not just your current addressable market, but the realistic total available market in 5 years if you execute well. 2. **Are you the right team for this specific problem?** Credentialing matters less than demonstrated ability — show, don't tell. 3. **Is there evidence this works?** Real customers, real usage data, or real experiments that de-risked a key assumption. Create urgency without fabricating it. Fundraising works best as a compressed process — running multiple conversations in parallel over a 4–6 week window rather than stringing them out over months. When one investor expresses serious interest, use that to accelerate conversations with others. ## What Investors Are Actually Evaluating Beyond the deck and the pitch, seed investors are forming a view on four things: **1. The market.** They want a market that can support a large company — typically $500M+ TAM at minimum, with clear evidence that it's growing or about to be disrupted. Most founders underestimate what "large market" means at the venture scale and pitch markets that, even at full capture, would produce a small exit. **2. The team's edge.** Why are *you* the right people to win this market? The best answer is specific: you have a technical background nobody else combines with the domain knowledge you've built, you have distribution relationships that would take years for a competitor to replicate, or you've already been in the customer's seat and built this for yourself first. **3. Early evidence.** Traction is the de-risker. Even imperfect traction — paying customers who are happy, organic growth without paid acquisition, high retention numbers — shortens the conversation dramatically. Investors spend less time on risk and more time on potential when the evidence is real. **4. The founder.** Seed investing is deeply personal in a way that later-stage investing isn't. Investors are betting on a five-to-ten-year relationship with you through the hard parts. They're evaluating whether you listen and learn, whether you're honest about what you don't know, and whether you have the resilience to keep going through the inevitable periods where nothing is working. ## Term Sheet Basics: What to Watch If you're doing a priced round or get a term sheet from an institutional investor, four clauses deserve the most attention: **Valuation and option pool.** The pre-money valuation sets your dilution, but watch how the option pool is treated. Some term sheets require you to expand the option pool *before* the investment closes, which effectively increases dilution for existing shareholders, not the incoming investor. **Liquidation preferences.** A 1x non-participating liquidation preference is standard and founder-friendly — investors get their money back before common shareholders in an acquisition, but don't double-dip on the upside. Participating preferred or 2x liquidation preferences are red flags at seed; they significantly reduce founder payout in anything but a home-run exit. **Board composition.** Giving up board control at seed is unusual and should be resisted. A typical seed board is two founders, one lead investor, or a 2-2 structure with a mutually-agreed independent seat. Giving a single investor majority board control means they can remove you as CEO. **Pro-rata rights.** These give investors the right to maintain their percentage ownership in future rounds. Granting them is generally reasonable for lead investors who believe in the company; granting them to everyone in a crowded SAFE round can create complications at Series A when you need to allocate limited allocation among many who want it. ## The Timeline A realistic seed raise for a prepared founder: - **Weeks 1–2:** Finalize materials (deck, one-pager, data room), confirm your target list, line up introductions. - **Weeks 3–8:** Run parallel outreach and first meetings. Try to get 20+ first meetings into a 4–5 week window. - **Weeks 6–10:** Second meetings, due diligence, and term negotiation with interested parties. - **Weeks 8–12:** Legal docs, closing, and wire receipt. The process rarely moves faster than eight weeks from first pitch to closed round. It often takes longer. Build your schedule accordingly — most founders burn more runway in the fundraising process than they planned. ## FAQ ### Do I need an accelerator to raise a seed round? No — but accelerators like Y Combinator meaningfully improve your odds by compressing the timeline, providing validation that sophisticated investors recognize, and introducing you to a network of angels and funds. If you get into a top accelerator, take it. If you don't, it's not a prerequisite. ### Should I talk to many investors or just a few? Run a parallel process. Sequential fundraising — pitching one investor at a time, waiting for a no, then moving to the next — adds months to your timeline and removes the urgency that makes investors move. Run 15–25 conversations simultaneously and let them create natural momentum. ### What if I get a term sheet from an investor I'm not excited about? Don't accept it just because it's the first one. A seed investor becomes a long-term partner in your company — they sit on your board or are on your cap table for years. A bad fit at seed creates friction at every subsequent inflection point. If the terms are acceptable but the fit isn't, use the term sheet to accelerate conversations with investors you actually want. ### How do I find out what valuation to target? Research recent comparable deals in your space using Crunchbase, AngelList, or by asking founder peers who have raised recently. Founders who have raised in the past 12 months in your category are your most reliable data source; anything older than that is less relevant given how quickly conditions shift. ### What's the most common reason seed raises fail? Raising too early — before there's real evidence of demand — accounts for most failures. The second most common reason is running a bad process: too few meetings, too much time between conversations, no urgency, and no lead investor to anchor the round. Fix the process before assuming the company isn't fundable. --- Fundraising is not a measure of your company's worth — it's a tool to accelerate growth once you've de-risked the core assumptions. The founders who raise well treat the process like a product sprint: they prepare obsessively, run it at a tempo that creates momentum, and make decisions quickly when good options appear. For the deeper mechanics of term sheets and investor dynamics, *Venture Deals* remains the essential read — [pick it up on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119594820) before your first term sheet lands on your desk. --- ## 7 Best Business Books for Entrepreneurs in 2026 (That Actually Change How You Think) URL: https://futuresharks.com/best-business-books-for-entrepreneurs/ TL;DR: Most entrepreneur reading lists are recycled from other lists. These 7 books are different: each one solves a specific, painful problem founders face at a predictable stage — from crafting your first offer to leading a company through genuine crisis. Most entrepreneur reading lists look the same because most lists are copied from other lists. You'll find the classics — the Carnegies, the Coveys, the management frameworks — that are good but disconnected from the chaos of actually building a company. You won't find someone telling you which chapter to read the week before your biggest deal falls apart. This list is different. Each book here addresses a specific, painful problem founders face at a predictable stage. The sequence isn't arbitrary: reading them roughly in this order tracks the journey from zero to a company worth selling. ## 1. *$100M Offers* — Alex Hormozi **The problem it solves:** Your product is good but not converting the way it should. Most founders go to market with what Hormozi calls a "commodity offer" — a service or product priced against competitors, sold on features, and haggled over on calls. His core insight is that the right offer makes price almost irrelevant: if the value stack is large enough and the risk is removed for the buyer, the sale happens before the conversation turns to cost. The book walks through exactly how to build that stack — bonuses, guarantees, urgency, delivery — in ways that sound obvious in retrospect but most founders have never been shown explicitly. It's short, opinionated, and immediately actionable. If you've read it and haven't revisited your pricing and packaging in the last six months, you haven't applied it. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1737475758) ## 2. *Never Split the Difference* — Chris Voss **The problem it solves:** Losing deals, accepting bad terms, and leaving money on the table. Voss spent 24 years negotiating hostage situations for the FBI before writing this book, which means his techniques were tested under conditions where being wrong was catastrophic. Founders negotiate constantly — with investors, customers, partners, employees, and landlords — and most learn to do it by accident or instinct. Voss offers a specific system: tactical empathy, mirroring, calibrated questions, the "Black Swan" information that changes every deal. Each technique is counter-intuitive enough to change how you conduct your next conversation. The chapter on anchoring alone is worth the cover price. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062407805) ## 3. *Zero to One* — Peter Thiel **The problem it solves:** Building a business that competes instead of one that creates. Thiel's central argument — that the greatest businesses create new categories rather than compete in existing ones — is easy to nod at and easy to miss the implications of. Read it slowly. The chapters on competition (how it destroys value for founders while benefiting customers), secrets (what valuable truths most people aren't saying out loud), and power law distributions (why the best venture outcome matters more than the sum of all others) are some of the most structurally useful pages in any startup book. This is the book to read before you define what your company does. It will push you to build something harder and more defensible. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804139296) ## 4. *The Hard Thing About Hard Things* — Ben Horowitz **The problem it solves:** Leading a company when the frameworks run out. Most business books offer frameworks. Horowitz's book is about what to do when the framework doesn't apply — when you're laying off 30% of your staff, when your best executive quits a week before a board meeting, when you're running out of cash with no clear path out. Horowitz calls this "the Struggle" and devotes significant space to both describing it honestly and offering tactical guidance for situations other CEOs won't admit they've been through. The writing is unusually direct. Read it before you need it, so you recognize the moment when it arrives. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062273205) ## 5. *Built to Sell* — John Warrillow **The problem it solves:** Building a business you can never exit. Most service businesses are traps: they depend entirely on the founder's relationships, judgment, and daily presence, which means the moment the founder steps back, the value evaporates. Warrillow argues — through a business parable that's more engaging than it sounds — that the fastest way to increase the value of your company is to make it run without you. He walks through how to pick a standardized offering, hire to a process, and build systems that a buyer could acquire and operate without the founder in the room. Even if you have no plans to sell, building a company that *could* sell changes every decision you make. Start this one the moment you hire your first person. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591843979) ## 6. *Atomic Habits* — James Clear **The problem it solves:** Knowing what to do and still not doing it. The gap between a founder who understands the right behavior and one who executes it consistently isn't motivation — it's system design. Clear's framework (habit loops, identity-based habits, the two-minute rule, environment design) gives a practical architecture for changing behavior that compounds over months and years. The under-discussed business application: the routines you install in your company are habits too. The weekly review, the sales process, the way your team ships features — each is a habit at the organizational level, and *Atomic Habits* gives you a repeatable way to install and refine them deliberately. Readable in a weekend. Its effects take a year to fully notice. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735211299) ## 7. *Shoe Dog* — Phil Knight **The problem it solves:** The motivation to keep going when nothing is working. Technically a memoir, not a business book — but *Shoe Dog* earns its place on this list because it portrays something business books almost never show honestly: the prolonged, uncertain, nearly broke early years before a company becomes a success story. Nike almost went bankrupt multiple times. Knight survived on personal loans, supplier trust, and an irrational commitment to the mission for over a decade before the business became stable. He describes moments where he could have — should have — quit, and didn't, without making it sound clean or inevitable. Read this when the hard part is motivation rather than knowledge. It's the best counter-programming to the polished founder narratives that make everyone feel behind. [Get it on Amazon →](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1471146723) ## A Note on Order Pre-revenue: start with Hormozi and Warrillow — they're the most immediately operational. Raising money or closing enterprise deals: Voss and Thiel first. Deep in company building or management: Horowitz. Clear and Knight are for whenever you need them, which is probably more often than you'd expect. The books you finish and apply outperform the ones on your nightstand by an enormous margin. Pick one, read it in two weeks, change one thing about how you work, then pick up the next. --- ## The Profit First Method: How Founders Stop Going Broke While Making Money URL: https://futuresharks.com/profit-first-method-for-founders/ TL;DR: The Profit First method reverses the accounting formula — you allocate profit before expenses, not after. Set up five bank accounts, transfer on a fixed schedule, and Parkinson's Law keeps your spending in line automatically. Revenue is up. Sales are strong. The business is growing. And yet, somehow, there's never any money left at the end of the month. If that sentence describes your company, you don't have a revenue problem — you have an accounting problem. And it's one that Mike Michalowicz solved with a system called Profit First. The method has since helped tens of thousands of small businesses build real profitability. This is how it works, why it works, and how to implement it starting today. ## The Problem: The Traditional Formula Is Rigged Against You Every small business owner inherits the same accounting formula without being taught it explicitly: > **Sales − Expenses = Profit** The problem is structural. Profit in this model is whatever happens to be left over after you pay for everything else. And there's a psychological law — Parkinson's Law — that ensures almost nothing is left over: *work expands to fill the time available, and spending expands to fill the cash available.* When you have $40,000 in your operating account, you will find $40,000 worth of things to spend it on. Profit ends up at or near zero. Most business owners assume the fix is more revenue. It isn't. Higher revenue just produces a bigger pool of money to consume. The problem isn't the number — it's the order of operations. ## The Fix: Flip the Formula Michalowicz's insight was simple and borrowed directly from personal finance. "Pay yourself first" — setting money aside for savings before you pay any bills — is the oldest proven strategy for building personal wealth. Why not apply it to business? Profit First flips the formula: > **Sales − Profit = Expenses** You take your profit allocation *before* expenses are paid. What's left is what you run the business on. Instead of hoping profit survives the month, you guarantee it happens first. ## The Five-Account System Profit First isn't just a mental shift — it requires a physical structure. Michalowicz's method uses five separate bank accounts, each with a specific, single purpose: 1. **Income** — Every dollar the business earns lands here first. This is your holding account, not your spending account. 2. **Profit** — A fixed percentage of every deposit gets moved here. You treat this account as untouchable except for quarterly distributions. 3. **Owner's Pay** — A separate allocation for your salary as the founder. Paying yourself as a business expense keeps the business financially honest. 4. **Tax** — A fixed percentage reserved for income taxes. When tax season arrives, the money is already sitting there. 5. **Operating Expenses (OpEx)** — Everything left over funds the actual running of the business. This is the only account you pay bills from. The separation is the mechanism. When your operating expenses account runs low, you feel the constraint immediately — and you make better decisions about what actually needs to be spent. ## Target Allocation Percentages (TAPs) The percentages you assign to each account are called Target Allocation Percentages, or TAPs. Michalowicz's research across hundreds of businesses produced a tiered table based on *real revenue* — your total revenue minus the cost of materials and subcontractors, not top-line gross revenue. Here are the standard TAPs by revenue band: | Real Revenue | Profit | Owner's Pay | Tax | OpEx | |---|---|---|---|---| | $0 – $250K | 5% | 50% | 15% | 30% | | $250K – $500K | 10% | 35% | 15% | 40% | | $500K – $1M | 15% | 20% | 15% | 50% | | $1M – $5M | 10% | 10% | 15% | 65% | | $5M – $10M+ | 15% | 5% | 15% | 65% | If your current percentages (your CAPs — Current Allocation Percentages) are far from these targets, Michalowicz recommends not jumping immediately. Instead, move toward TAPs in 1–2% increments each quarter. A sudden shift would strangle your operating budget. The goal is progress, not perfection from day one. ## The Rhythm: Transfer Twice a Month The method runs on a simple cadence. Twice per month — on the 1st and the 15th — you log into your income account and distribute the balance across the other four accounts according to your current percentages. Then you zero out the income account. That's it. Two transfers a month, fifteen minutes of work, and your business runs on a financially healthy structure automatically. ## Why It Works: Parkinson's Law, Working for You The genius of the system isn't the percentages — it's that it weaponizes Parkinson's Law instead of fighting it. Your operating expenses account will always run lower than it would have before. And that constraint is exactly the point. When your OpEx account only has $18,000 in it instead of $40,000, you stop buying software subscriptions you don't use. You delay hires that aren't truly necessary. You find creative solutions instead of expensive ones. Constraints force discipline in a way that spreadsheets and intentions never do. Profitable companies run lean not because their founders have superhuman willpower, but because the structure of their finances requires it. Profit First builds that structure. ## Quarterly Profit Distributions Every quarter, you take half of the balance sitting in your Profit account and distribute it to the business owners. The other half stays as a buffer — a "rainy day" reserve that grows slowly over time. This matters psychologically as much as practically. Receiving an actual profit distribution — a real check that is not your salary — reinforces that the business is working. It changes your relationship to the company from "the thing that consumes my money" to "the thing that pays me." The quarterly distribution also gives you a clear signal. If your Profit account has almost nothing in it after three months, that is honest feedback from your business about whether the model is working. No accounting tricks can hide it. ## How to Start You don't need to read the whole book before you start (though it's worth it — pick up a copy of [*Profit First* by Mike Michalowicz](https://www.amazon.com/dp/073521414X) for the full detail). The fastest way to begin: 1. Open two new bank accounts at your existing bank — one labeled Profit, one labeled Tax. Most banks allow free additional business checking accounts. 2. On your next two transfer dates, allocate just 1% to Profit and 10–15% to Tax from whatever comes in. 3. Run the business on what's left. 4. Each quarter, increase your Profit allocation by 1–2%. The goal at the start isn't the ideal percentage split. The goal is to make profit allocation a *habit* — one that runs automatically on a schedule, regardless of what else is happening in the business. ## The Instant Assessment One of the most useful exercises in the book is the "Instant Assessment," a quick calculation that tells you whether your current finances are healthy: 1. Add up all income your business generated in the past 12 months. 2. Calculate what percentage you kept as profit, paid yourself as owner's pay, set aside for taxes, and spent on operating expenses. 3. Compare those percentages to the TAPs table above. Most founders who do this discover they are paying themselves far below market, carrying no profit, and running their business almost entirely on revenue. That's not a judgment — it's a starting point. ## FAQ ### Is Profit First only for small businesses? Michalowicz designed it primarily for businesses under $5M in revenue, where cash management is most chaotic and the founder is often managing finances personally. Larger companies with full CFO teams use more sophisticated tools — but many founders of $20M+ companies report still running Profit First principles alongside their formal accounting. ### Do I need an accountant or bookkeeper to do this? No. The system runs on bank accounts you manage yourself. That said, your accountant should know about the setup, particularly the Tax account, so they can help you calibrate the tax allocation percentage accurately for your business structure. ### What if my business has very high COGS or subcontractor costs? This is why the system uses *real revenue*, not gross revenue. Strip out materials and subcontractors first, then apply the percentages. A construction company with $1M in revenue but $700K in subcontractor costs has $300K in real revenue — the TAPs above apply to that $300K. ### What if there's not enough money left in OpEx after allocating profit? That is the system telling you the business is not yet profitable at its current cost structure. You have three options: grow revenue, cut costs, or reduce the profit allocation temporarily while you fix the economics. None of those options are comfortable — but all of them are better than ignoring the problem by pooling everything in one account. ### How is this different from just budgeting? Budgets are plans. Bank account balances are reality. Most founders set a budget and then override it the moment a "critical" expense comes up. Profit First uses physical separation to make overriding the structure deliberately difficult — you have to consciously move money between accounts, which creates a natural friction point that budgets never do. --- Profitability is not an accident you hope for at the end of the quarter — it's a structure you build before the money arrives. Profit First gives founders that structure. For more on the financial decisions that separate growing businesses from stagnant ones, explore [more founder finance content on FutureSharks](/category/finance/). --- ## Bootstrapping vs. Venture Capital in 2026: The Honest Math URL: https://futuresharks.com/bootstrapping-vs-venture-capital-2026-honest-math/ TL;DR: Neither path is universally better — the honest math hinges on dilution, exit size, and growth speed. VC can make a huge outcome bigger but a modest one worse; bootstrapping keeps ownership and optionality but caps speed. "Should I bootstrap or raise venture capital?" is the most consequential financial decision a founder makes, and it's usually argued with ideology instead of arithmetic. VC evangelists call bootstrapping small-minded; bootstrap purists call VC a Faustian bargain. Both are selling a worldview. The truth is in the math — your ownership percentage multiplied by your exit value, adjusted for the probability and speed of getting there. This piece runs the honest numbers for 2026 so you can decide based on your actual business, not someone's Twitter bio. ## The Core Tradeoff in One Sentence Venture capital buys you **speed and scale in exchange for ownership and control**. Bootstrapping keeps your **ownership and control in exchange for speed and scale**. Everything else is detail. The question is never "which is morally superior" — it's "for *this* business, which path produces the better risk-adjusted outcome for me?" ## The Dilution Math Nobody Walks You Through Here's the part that gets hand-waved. Each venture round sells a slice of your company. Stack a few rounds and the founder's share shrinks fast. A simplified but representative path for a venture-backed founder: - Start: founder owns **100%**. - Seed round (sell ~20%, plus a ~10% option pool): founder down to roughly **65%**. - Series A (sell ~20%): founder around **50%**. - Series B (sell ~15–20%): founder around **40%**. - Further rounds and pool top-ups: founder commonly lands in the **15–30%** range by a late-stage exit. Now the comparison that matters. Run two scenarios: - **Bootstrapped founder** owns ~100% and sells the company for **$20M**. Take-home (pre-tax): ~**$20M**. - **Venture founder** owns ~20% and sells for **$80M**. Take-home: ~**$16M**. The venture company is *four times larger* — and the bootstrapped founder still nets more. This is the math VC culture rarely puts on a slide: a bigger company does not automatically mean more money for *you*. It only does if the funding pushes the exit value up by *more* than it dilutes your stake. Where VC clearly wins: the genuine outlier. A founder who keeps even 15% of a company that exits for **$500M** nets ~$75M — an outcome bootstrapping almost never reaches. VC is leverage. It magnifies the top end and worsens the middle. ## When the Math Favors Venture Capital Raising makes sense when these conditions actually hold — not aspirationally, but really: - **Winner-take-most market.** If the category consolidates around whoever scales first (network effects, marketplaces, platforms), being capital-starved means losing to a funded competitor regardless of how good you are. Speed isn't vanity; it's survival. - **Large, fast-moving TAM.** The opportunity is big enough that a venture-scale outcome ($100M+) is plausible, and the window is now. - **Upfront capital is structurally required.** Hardware, deep tech, biotech, heavy R&D — businesses that can't generate revenue until significant money is spent. - **You're optimizing for a swing-for-the-fences outcome** and accept a higher chance of zero in exchange for a shot at enormous. VC is venture *capital* — investors need outlier returns, which means they will push you to grow fast and aim huge, even at the cost of your optionality. If that pressure aligns with your goal, it's fuel. If it doesn't, it's a trap. ## When the Math Favors Bootstrapping Bootstrapping wins when: - **The business can reach profitability on revenue** in a reasonable timeframe. If customers can fund your growth, external capital is optional, and optional capital is the best kind. - **A "modest" outcome is a great outcome for you.** A founder who owns 100% of a $5M–$30M business — or simply runs a profitable $2M/year company indefinitely — is wealthy by most measures and beholden to no one. - **You value control and optionality.** No board pressure to raise the next round, no forced sale, no growth-at-all-costs mandate. You can sell when you want, or never. - **The market doesn't reward being first-and-biggest.** Plenty of durable, profitable categories don't consolidate around a single funded winner. The 2026 wrinkle that supercharges bootstrapping: AI-driven leverage. Lean tooling and AI agents let small teams reach meaningful revenue with far less capital than even a few years ago, widening the range of businesses that can credibly bootstrap to scale. We cover that shift in depth in [more founder strategy](/category/business/). ## The 2026 Funding Reality The environment shapes the choice. After the zero-interest-rate exuberance corrected, venture in 2026 is more disciplined: investors scrutinize burn multiples, capital efficiency, and a real path to durable revenue — not just top-line growth. "Growth at all costs" is out of fashion. Per the data tracked by firms like the [National Venture Capital Association](https://nvca.org/), capital is more selective and concentrated. Two implications for founders: 1. **Raising is harder and the bar is higher**, so the "just raise" default is weaker than it was in 2021. 2. **Capital efficiency is now a virtue investors reward**, which means even venture-track founders are expected to behave more like bootstrappers — lean, efficient, revenue-focused. The two cultures have converged somewhat. ## The Hybrid Paths Most People Ignore It's not binary. The most pragmatic 2026 founders mix approaches: - **Bootstrap first, raise later.** Get to traction on your own dime, then raise from a position of strength — better terms, less dilution, more leverage. The strongest fundraising position is not needing the money. - **Raise a small pre-seed, then stay disciplined.** Take just enough to reach profitability or a strong milestone, then avoid the treadmill of perpetual rounds. - **Revenue-based financing and venture debt.** Non-dilutive or low-dilution capital that funds growth without selling equity — increasingly available for companies with predictable revenue. - **Grants and competitions.** Non-dilutive money that's pure upside if your business qualifies. The binary framing ("bootstrap vs. VC") is itself part of the trap. The real skill is sequencing capital to keep ownership high while funding the growth you actually need. ## A Decision Framework Ask, in order: 1. **Can this business become profitable on revenue within ~18–24 months?** If yes, bootstrapping is viable — default there unless speed is existential. 2. **Does the market punish slow?** If a funded competitor would crush you, that pressure favors raising. 3. **What outcome am I actually optimizing for?** Life-changing-but-modest with control, or shot-at-enormous with dilution and pressure? Be honest — both are legitimate, but they point to different paths. 4. **What does the dilution math say at realistic exit values?** Run your own version of the $20M-at-100% vs. $80M-at-20% comparison with numbers that fit your market. The founders who regret their choice almost always skipped step 3 or step 4 — they raised because it was the cultural default, or bootstrapped out of ideology, without doing the arithmetic. ## FAQ ### Does raising venture capital mean I'll make more money? Not necessarily. You make more only if the capital increases your exit value by more than it dilutes your ownership. A bootstrapped founder owning 100% of a $20M exit can out-earn a venture founder owning 20% of an $80M exit. VC magnifies outlier outcomes but can leave you worse off on modest ones. ### Can you still build a big company by bootstrapping in 2026? Yes, and AI-driven leverage makes it more feasible than ever — lean teams reach meaningful revenue with far less capital. Bootstrapping caps your *speed*, not necessarily your ceiling, especially in markets that don't reward being first-and-biggest. Many large, profitable companies took venture money late or never. ### Is it bad to raise a little money and then stop? No — that's often the smartest path. Raising a small pre-seed to reach profitability, then declining the treadmill of perpetual rounds, keeps ownership high while funding the growth you need. The danger isn't raising; it's raising more than your business model requires and committing to an escalation you didn't want. ### How do I know if my market is "winner-take-most"? Look for strong network effects, high switching costs, or economies of scale where the leader's advantage compounds (marketplaces, platforms, social networks). If being twice as big makes you structurally hard to beat, speed matters and VC may be justified. If customers happily use several competing products, the market likely supports multiple profitable players — favoring bootstrapping. --- The right answer isn't bootstrapping or venture capital — it's whichever the math supports for your specific business and your specific goal. For more honest breakdowns of how founders fund and scale, explore [more founder stories on FutureSharks](/category/finance/). --- ## The Gen Z Founder's Guide to Raising Your First $500K URL: https://futuresharks.com/gen-z-founder-guide-raising-first-500k/ TL;DR: Raising your first $500K as a Gen Z founder means building enough traction to be fundable, choosing the right instrument (usually a SAFE), targeting the right angels and pre-seed funds, and running a tight, time-boxed process. Raising your first $500K is a rite of passage — and for Gen Z founders in 2026, it's both easier and harder than the mythology suggests. Easier, because the tools, templates, and capital sources have never been more accessible. Harder, because investors have seen ten thousand pitch decks and your age is not the asset you think it is — your traction, clarity, and execution are. This guide walks through exactly how to raise that first half-million: what to build before you ask, which instrument to use, who to target, and how to close without lighting six months of runway on fire. ## First, Decide If You Should Raise At All The default assumption that every startup needs venture money is wrong, and it's expensive. Raising $500K means selling roughly 10–20% of your company and committing to a growth trajectory that *requires* more rounds. If your business can reach profitability on revenue, or grows fine on a small amount of capital, raising may cost you more than it gives you. For a fuller breakdown of that tradeoff, see [more founder strategy](/category/business/). Raise $500K when: - You have a credible shot at a large market and venture-scale outcome. - Capital will *accelerate* something already working, not fund a search for what works. - The 12–18 months of runway it buys gets you to a milestone that materially de-risks the next round. If those aren't true, a smaller friends-and-family round, revenue, or a grant may serve you better. ## Earn the Right to Raise: Traction Before the Ask The single biggest mistake young founders make is pitching an idea instead of evidence. In 2026, "I have an idea and I'm hungry" raises nothing. What gets a $500K pre-seed done is *proof that the dog will eat the dog food*: - **A working product**, even ugly, that real users touch. - **Early users or revenue** — 50 engaged users, a waitlist that converts, or your first few paying customers. - **A wedge insight** — something you understand about this market that others don't, often from lived experience (a real Gen Z advantage when it's genuine). - **Velocity** — evidence you ship fast and learn faster. Investors at this stage bet on the founder's rate of progress more than the current state. You don't need all of it. You need enough that the conversation is about *how big this gets*, not *whether it works at all*. ## Know the Instruments: SAFE vs. Note vs. Equity At the $500K pre-seed stage, you almost certainly want a **SAFE** (Simple Agreement for Future Equity), not a priced equity round. - **SAFE** — Pioneered by [Y Combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/documents), a SAFE lets investors give you money now in exchange for equity that converts at your next priced round. No interest, no maturity date, minimal legal cost. The standard post-money SAFE is the market default for a reason: it's fast and founder-friendly. You set a **valuation cap** (the max valuation at which their money converts) and sometimes a **discount**. - **Convertible note** — Similar, but it's debt: it accrues interest and has a maturity date. More common a few years ago; mostly superseded by SAFEs for pre-seed. - **Priced equity round** — A full valuation, a lead investor setting terms, more legal work and cost. Usually overkill for a first $500K; save it for seed or later. For a first round, a post-money SAFE with a fair cap keeps your legal bill in the low thousands and lets you close investors one at a time as they say yes — no waiting for everyone to align. ## Setting a Valuation Cap You Won't Regret Your cap is a negotiation, not a science. Price too high and you'll struggle to close, then face a brutal down-round later. Price too low and you give away too much. In 2026, pre-seed caps for software startups commonly land in the **$4M–$12M** range, drifting higher for AI-native companies with strong technical teams or real traction, and lower for unproven first-timers. The honest framing: your cap is whatever a credible investor will actually fund. Talk to a few, anchor to comparable deals, and don't let cap vanity sink the round. Raising $500K on a $6M cap means selling ~8%, which is healthy. Stretching to a $20M cap you can't defend just to dilute less usually backfires. ## Who Actually Writes the First Checks For $500K, you're assembling a mix: ### Angel investors Individuals writing $5K–$50K. The best angels are operators or founders in your space who bring intros and advice, not just money. Find them through warm intros, founder communities, and AngelList-style syndicates. A round of 10–20 angels is common and gives you a network, not just capital. ### Pre-seed and micro VC funds Small funds that lead or anchor pre-seed rounds, often writing $100K–$300K. One fund anchoring with $250K and angels filling the rest is a clean structure. A fund lead also signals to angels that someone did diligence. ### Accelerators Programs like Y Combinator, Techstars, and many regional accelerators invest a standardized amount for equity and, more importantly, compress your network and credibility. For a first-time Gen Z founder with no network, a top accelerator can be the single highest-leverage move — the demo-day momentum alone can fill a round. ### Where NOT to over-rely Friends and family can seed the very first money, but a round built entirely on people who can't afford to lose it carries real personal weight. Be honest about risk. ## The Deck and the Story Your deck is a conversation tool, not a novel. Ten to twelve slides: 1. **One-liner** — what you do, instantly clear. 2. **Problem** — quantified, specific, urgent. 3. **Solution** — your product, shown not told. 4. **Why now** — the shift that makes this possible/necessary in 2026. 5. **Market** — big, with a credible bottom-up sizing (not "1% of a $100B market"). 6. **Traction** — your strongest evidence, front and center. 7. **Business model** — how you make money. 8. **Go-to-market** — how you reach customers. 9. **Team** — why *you* win this. 10. **The ask** — how much, the SAFE cap, what the money achieves. The narrative beats the design. Investors fund a story they can repeat to their partners. If they can't summarize why you'll win in one sentence after your pitch, the deck failed. ## Run the Process Like a Sales Funnel Fundraising is sales, and the same discipline applies: - **Build a pipeline** — list 60–100 target investors, ranked by fit and likelihood. - **Get warm intros** — a referral from a portfolio founder or co-investor outperforms cold outreach 10x. Map who knows whom. - **Time-box it** — run the raise in a concentrated 6–10 week sprint. A round that drags for six months signals trouble and bleeds your focus. - **Create momentum** — start with the investors most likely to say yes, then use that commitment to pull in the fence-sitters. "We're 60% committed, closing in three weeks" is the most powerful sentence in fundraising. - **Track everything** — a simple CRM of every conversation, stage, and next step. Expect a low yes-rate. Hearing "no" 40 times to get 15 yeses is normal. The process is a numbers game executed with relentless follow-up. ## Closing and Not Screwing It Up Once an investor verbally commits: - Send the SAFE promptly (use the standard YC post-money template — don't pay a lawyer to reinvent it). - Keep terms identical across investors in the same round; surprise side deals erode trust. - Get the money wired before you celebrate — verbal commitments evaporate. - Keep a simple cap table from day one. Disorganized ownership records create painful, expensive cleanup at your seed round. Then, the part founders forget: **update your investors**. A monthly email with metrics, wins, and asks turns angels into an active network that helps you fill the *next* round. ## FAQ ### Do I need a co-founder to raise $500K? It helps but isn't mandatory. Many investors prefer teams because startups are brutal solo, but strong solo founders raise pre-seed rounds regularly. If you're solo, your traction and velocity need to be more convincing to offset the perceived risk. ### Is being a young/Gen Z founder a disadvantage with investors? Age itself is neutral — investors back young founders constantly. What matters is whether your youth comes with a genuine edge (native understanding of a market, technical skill, speed) rather than just enthusiasm. Lean into the real advantage; don't ask anyone to fund potential alone. ### How much equity will I give up for $500K? Typically 8–20%, depending on your valuation cap. On a $6M post-money cap, $500K is roughly 8%. Avoid giving away more than ~20% at pre-seed — you need room for future rounds and an option pool without diluting yourself into irrelevance. ### What if I can't get warm intros to investors? Join the ecosystem deliberately: founder communities, accelerator programs, demo days, and angel syndicates exist precisely to manufacture warm intros. Cold outreach can work if it's sharp and personalized, but your first priority should be earning one credible champion who opens doors. --- The first $500K isn't about being the loudest founder in the room — it's about showing the clearest evidence that you're already moving. For more on how today's builders raise and scale, explore [more founder stories on FutureSharks](/category/startups/). --- ## How Founders Use AI Agents to Run Leaner Companies in 2026 URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-founders-use-ai-agents-to-run-leaner-companies/ TL;DR: Founders in 2026 are using AI agents to automate support, sales ops, content, coding, and back-office work — pushing revenue-per-employee far higher by deploying agents on bounded, measurable workflows with human review. The "billion-dollar one-person company" is no longer a thought experiment. In 2026, founders are running companies with a fraction of the headcount their predecessors needed, and the reason is AI agents — software that doesn't just answer questions but takes multi-step actions: triaging tickets, drafting and sending outreach, writing and shipping code, reconciling invoices. This isn't about replacing your team with a chatbot. It's about deploying agents on the specific, repetitive, bounded workflows that used to eat your first ten hires, so you can stay lean far longer and put capital toward what actually compounds. Here's how founders are doing it, what's working, and where it still breaks. ## What an "AI Agent" Actually Means in 2026 The term gets thrown around loosely, so be precise. A traditional chatbot responds to a prompt. An **agent** is given a goal, plans the steps to reach it, and uses tools — APIs, your codebase, your CRM, a browser — to execute, often looping until the task is done or it hits a checkpoint. The practical distinction for founders: a chatbot saves you typing; an agent saves you a hire. The leverage comes from agents that *do the work*, not ones that merely advise. Most useful agents in 2026 are narrow and tool-equipped — a support-resolution agent wired into your help desk and database, not a vague "do everything" assistant. ## The Lean Math: Revenue Per Employee The metric quietly driving every "stay lean" decision is **revenue per employee**. For decades, a great software company might generate $200K–$400K per head. AI-leveraged startups in 2026 are reporting multiples of that, because work that required a team now requires a founder plus a fleet of agents. The logic is simple. If an agent handles the workload of a role for the cost of API calls and oversight, every function you can responsibly automate is a salary you don't pay, equity you don't dilute, and management overhead you don't carry. For an early company, this can mean reaching meaningful revenue with five people instead of twenty-five. The constraint shifts from *headcount* to *how many workflows you can safely hand to agents*. For more on capital-efficient growth, see [more founder strategy](/category/business/). ## Where Founders Actually Deploy Agents The wins are concentrated in workflows that are high-volume, rule-heavy, and measurable. ### Customer support and success The most mature use case. Support agents read the ticket, pull account context, check documentation, and resolve or draft a reply — escalating only genuine edge cases to a human. Founders report deflecting a large share of routine tickets while keeping a human in the loop for anything sensitive. The result: you scale support without scaling a support team linearly with customers. ### Sales and go-to-market operations Agents research prospects, enrich CRM records, draft personalized (not spammy) outreach, schedule meetings, and update pipeline stages. The founder or one rep stays the closer; the agent eliminates the administrative drag that consumes most of a salesperson's day. Note the 2026 reality: mass AI-generated cold blasts are dead — buyers filter them instantly. The edge is agents that do deep, genuine personalization at a scale a human couldn't. ### Engineering and product AI coding agents now handle real chunks of the development cycle — writing features, fixing bugs, reviewing pull requests, and generating tests under a developer's direction. A small technical team ships like a much larger one. The human role shifts toward architecture, judgment, and reviewing agent output, not typing every line. ### Content and marketing Agents draft, repurpose, and schedule content across channels, run SEO research, and produce first drafts at volume. The discipline that separates good from spammy: a human edits for taste, accuracy, and brand voice. Founders who publish raw agent output at scale get penalized; those who use agents as a drafting engine with human curation win. ### Back office and finance Invoice processing, expense categorization, basic bookkeeping reconciliation, contract review, and scheduling are increasingly agent-handled. These unglamorous workflows are exactly where lean companies claw back the most founder time. ## The Build vs. Buy Decision Founders face a constant choice: adopt an off-the-shelf agentic tool, or build custom agents on a foundation model. - **Buy** when a category-leading vertical tool already nails the workflow (support, sales engagement, coding assistance). Faster, cheaper, maintained for you. - **Build** when the workflow is core to your differentiation, touches proprietary data, or no good tool exists. Frameworks and model APIs from major labs make custom agents far more accessible than even a year ago — see the [Anthropic developer documentation](https://docs.anthropic.com/) for how tool-use and agent loops are structured. The pragmatic default: buy for commodity workflows, build only where an agent *is* your product or your moat. Don't burn engineering time rebuilding a support agent you could license. ## Guardrails: How Lean Doesn't Become Reckless Agents that take actions can take *wrong* actions at scale. The founders who succeed treat guardrails as non-negotiable infrastructure, not an afterthought. - **Bound the scope.** Give each agent a narrow, well-defined job with clear success criteria. Vague mandates produce expensive, confident mistakes. - **Human-in-the-loop for high-stakes actions.** Refunds, contract terms, anything irreversible or customer-facing-sensitive gets human approval before execution. - **Log and observe everything.** You can't trust what you can't audit. Track every agent action so you can catch drift and debug failures. - **Set spend and rate limits.** An agent in a loop can rack up API costs or hammer a system. Cap it. - **Protect your data.** Be deliberate about what customer and proprietary data agents can access, and ensure your tooling meets your security and compliance obligations. - **Keep a kill switch.** You should be able to pause any agent instantly. The mental model: treat each agent like a fast, tireless, literal-minded junior employee. You wouldn't give a brand-new hire unlimited authority on day one. Same logic. ## A Practical Rollout Sequence Don't "AI-transform" everything at once. Founders who get real leverage move methodically: 1. **Audit your time and your team's time.** Find the highest-volume, most repetitive, most rule-bound workflows. Those are your first candidates. 2. **Start with one bounded workflow** where errors are low-stakes and success is measurable (e.g., drafting support replies for human approval). 3. **Measure honestly** — time saved, quality, error rate, cost. Keep the human review on until the data earns trust. 4. **Expand the agent's autonomy** as it proves reliable, and only then move to the next workflow. 5. **Reinvest the savings** into product and growth, not just a lower burn — the point of staying lean is to move faster, not merely cheaper. This sequencing matters because the failures come from over-automating too fast: handing an unproven agent a sensitive, irreversible task and discovering the problem in production. ## The Strategic Shift: Agents as Org Design The deepest change isn't tactical — it's how founders think about building a company. The old playbook was "hire to scale." The 2026 playbook is "automate to scale, hire for judgment." Your headcount becomes a deliberate choice about where human judgment, relationships, and creativity are irreplaceable — and everything else becomes an agent question. This keeps you lean through stages that used to force big, premature teams. It also means the founders who win are increasingly those who are best at *designing and supervising* fleets of agents, not those who can hire the fastest. The skill of the era is orchestration. ## FAQ ### Will AI agents actually replace my early hires? They replace *tasks*, not necessarily people — but the net effect is fewer hires for a given output. The workflows that used to justify your first support, ops, or admin hires can now run largely on agents with human oversight. You'll still hire, but for judgment, relationships, and creative work that agents can't own. ### Are AI agents reliable enough to trust with real work? For bounded, well-defined workflows with human review on high-stakes actions, yes — many founders run them in production today. They're not reliable enough for vague, open-ended mandates without oversight. The reliability comes from how you scope and supervise them, not from blind trust. ### How much does running AI agents cost? Far less than the salaries they offset, but not free — you pay for model API usage, the tools you build or buy, and the engineering/oversight time to run them. Set spend caps and measure cost per task against the human alternative; for high-volume workflows the math is usually dramatically favorable. ### What's the biggest mistake founders make with AI agents? Over-automating too fast — handing an unproven agent a sensitive or irreversible task with no human checkpoint, then discovering the failure in front of customers. Start narrow, keep humans in the loop, measure, and expand autonomy only as reliability is proven. --- The leanest companies of 2026 aren't the ones that cut corners — they're the ones that put agents on the right workflows and reinvested the leverage. For more on how today's founders build smarter, explore [more founder stories on FutureSharks](/category/startups/). --- ## How to Build a $10M Brand Without Tech: Lessons from Consumer Founders URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-build-a-10m-consumer-brand-without-tech/ TL;DR: Building a $10M consumer brand without software comes down to a product people repurchase, healthy unit economics, a sharp brand and audience, profitable acquisition, and disciplined operations and retention. You don't need to build software to build a fortune. Some of the most valuable companies founded in the last decade sell physical products — drinks, apparel, supplements, skincare, food — and a $10M-a-year consumer brand is a genuinely achievable, often more accessible goal than a venture-scale tech startup. It demands no engineering team and no code, but it does demand mastery of a different stack: product, margins, brand, distribution, and retention. This is the playbook consumer founders actually use to get there, with the numbers and the traps spelled out. ## The Math of a $10M Brand Start with the destination. $10M in annual revenue is, for example: - **A $40 product sold ~250,000 times a year** (~685 orders a day), or - **A $120 product sold ~83,000 times a year**, or - A blend across a small product line. That volume is reachable, but only if the *unit economics* work — which is where most consumer brands quietly die. The brands that scale obsess over four numbers: - **Gross margin.** You want 60–80%+ on consumer packaged goods. If your product costs $10 to land and sells for $40, that's 75% gross margin — healthy. Below ~50%, paid acquisition becomes nearly impossible to sustain. - **Customer acquisition cost (CAC).** What you pay to win a customer. - **Average order value (AOV)** and, critically, **lifetime value (LTV).** - **Contribution margin** — what's left after product cost, shipping, payment fees, and acquisition. This, not revenue, is what funds the business. The single most important relationship: **LTV must comfortably exceed CAC**, ideally 3:1 or better. A brand that loses money on the first order can survive only if customers come back. Which leads to the real secret. ## Sell Something People Buy Again The fastest path to $10M is a **repeat-purchase product**. Consumables — beverages, supplements, coffee, skincare, snacks, pet food — let you spend to acquire a customer once and earn back through repeat orders. This is why so many breakout consumer brands are things you run out of. If your product is a one-time purchase (furniture, a gadget), $10M requires constant, expensive new-customer acquisition forever, and the math is brutal. If it's something a happy customer reorders monthly, every cohort compounds. When you evaluate a product idea, ask first: *will the same person buy this again, and how often?* That answer largely determines whether $10M is plausible. ## Find a Sharp Audience and Become Their Brand Generic products for "everyone" lose. Winning consumer brands own a specific audience and a clear point of view. The pattern behind breakout brands of the last decade — across beverages, apparel, and personal care — is the same: a tightly defined customer, a product engineered for them, and a brand identity that customer is proud to be seen with. Your brand is not your logo. It's the *promise and identity* customers buy into. To build one: - **Pick a specific person**, not a demographic. "Health-conscious millennial men who lift and read ingredient labels" beats "adults 18–49." - **Have a real point of view** — a stance, an enemy (a tired incumbent, a bad ingredient, a lazy category), a reason to exist beyond "it's good." - **Make the product itself marketing.** Packaging, naming, and unboxing that people *want* to photograph and share turn every customer into a channel. - **Be consistent everywhere** — the voice on your site, your ads, your emails, and your packaging should feel like one coherent thing. A strong brand is what lets you charge a premium, survive competition, and build the loyalty that powers repeat purchase. For more on positioning and growth, see [more founder strategy](/category/business/). ## Master One Acquisition Channel First You scale to $10M by finding *one* channel where you can acquire customers profitably, then maxing it before adding more. Spreading thin across six channels at $1M revenue is how brands stall. ### Paid social Meta and TikTok remain the workhorses for consumer brands in 2026. The model: creative-led performance marketing where the *ad creative* — short video, UGC-style content, founder storytelling — does the heavy lifting. Winning here means testing dozens of creatives to find the few that convert, then scaling spend behind them. Creative is the variable that matters; the targeting algorithms are commoditized. ### Organic and creator content Short-form video (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) can drive enormous low-cost reach when content resonates. Many modern brands were built substantially on organic content and creator seeding before they spent serious money on ads. Founders who can make content themselves have a structural advantage. ### Influencer and affiliate Paying creators on performance, or seeding product to micro-influencers whose audience matches your customer, can acquire customers efficiently and build social proof simultaneously. ### Retail and wholesale The often-overlooked accelerant. Getting into the right retail stores (or Amazon) can add a revenue layer that pure DTC can't match. Many brands cross $10M by combining a strong DTC engine with retail distribution — DTC builds the brand and data, retail adds volume and reach. The rule: prove you can acquire profitably on *one* channel, then layer the next. Don't diversify out of weakness. ## Retention Is the Real Growth Engine Acquisition gets the attention; retention builds the company. A brand that keeps 40% of customers buying again is worth multiples of one that keeps 15%, at the same acquisition cost. The levers: - **Email and SMS.** Owned channels you don't pay a platform to reach. Welcome flows, post-purchase sequences, replenishment reminders, and win-backs routinely drive 20–35% of a mature consumer brand's revenue. - **Subscriptions.** For consumables, a subscribe-and-save option converts one-time buyers into predictable recurring revenue — the closest a physical brand gets to SaaS-like economics. - **Product quality and experience.** The cheapest retention lever is a product that genuinely delivers. No marketing fixes a product people don't want to rebuy. - **Community.** Brands that build genuine community — not just a customer list — earn referrals, repeat purchases, and resilience against competitors. Every point of improvement in repeat rate raises LTV, which raises how much you can afford to spend on acquisition, which lets you outbid competitors for the same customer. Retention is the flywheel. ## Operations: The Unglamorous Part That Kills Brands Physical products mean physical problems software founders never face. Underestimate these and growth becomes a liability: - **Cash flow and inventory.** You pay for inventory *before* you sell it. Fast growth can bankrupt a profitable-on-paper brand that ties up all its cash in stock. Manage purchasing carefully and respect the cash conversion cycle. - **Supply chain.** Reliable manufacturers, backup suppliers, and quality control. A single stockout during peak demand is lost revenue you never recover. - **Fulfillment.** A 3PL (third-party logistics provider) handles warehousing and shipping so you don't drown in boxes. Get this right before you scale volume. - **Margins under pressure.** Shipping costs, returns, discounts, and platform fees erode margin. Model your *true* contribution margin, not the sticker gross margin, or you'll scale yourself into losses. Boring operational excellence is a genuine competitive advantage in consumer goods. It's where many well-marketed brands fall apart. ## The Realistic Path to $10M A workable arc: 1. **Validate** — launch a tight product line, get to your first ~$50K–$100K in sales, prove people repurchase. 2. **Find the channel** — identify one acquisition channel where CAC is comfortably below LTV. Push toward $1M. 3. **Build retention infrastructure** — email/SMS flows, subscriptions, a reason to come back. Lift repeat rate. 4. **Scale the engine** — pour budget into the proven channel, expand the product line thoughtfully, push toward $3M–$5M. 5. **Add layers** — a second acquisition channel, retail or marketplace distribution, and operational scale to cross $10M. Each stage builds on proven economics from the last. The brands that blow up (in the bad sense) usually skipped step 1 or step 3 — they scaled spend on a product people didn't rebuy, or on unit economics that never worked. ## FAQ ### Do I really not need any technical skills to build a $10M brand? Correct — you need no coding or software development. You'll use off-the-shelf platforms (a store builder, email/SMS tools, a 3PL) that require no engineering. The skills that matter are product, brand, marketing, and operations. Plenty of $10M-plus consumer brands were built by non-technical founders. ### How much money do I need to start a consumer brand? Less than you'd think to start, more than you'd think to scale. Many brands launch with a few thousand to low five figures for initial inventory and branding. The real capital demand comes later, funding inventory and acquisition as you grow — which is why cash flow management and strong margins matter so much. ### What's the most important factor in reaching $10M? A product people repurchase, sold at healthy margins, to a specific audience that loves the brand. If those fundamentals are right, acquisition and retention become solvable. If the product doesn't earn repeat purchase or the margins are too thin, no amount of marketing gets you to $10M sustainably. ### Is DTC dead — should I just sell on Amazon or retail? DTC isn't dead, but pure-DTC-forever is rarely the fastest path to $10M. The strongest 2026 playbook combines DTC (which builds brand, owns the customer relationship, and generates data) with retail and/or marketplace distribution for added volume. Lead with the channel where you can profitably acquire, then add others. --- A $10M consumer brand isn't built on a breakthrough technology — it's built on a product people love, margins that work, and relentless attention to brand and retention. For more on how today's builders create lasting companies, explore [more founder stories on FutureSharks](/category/ecommerce/). --- ## How to Get to $1M ARR: A B2B SaaS Playbook for 2026 URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-get-to-1m-arr-b2b-saas-playbook/ TL;DR: Reaching $1M ARR in B2B SaaS comes down to a sharp ICP, a single repeatable GTM motion, disciplined pricing, and a handful of metrics (NRR, payback, magic number) you optimize relentlessly. The first $1M of annual recurring revenue is the hardest million you will ever raise, sell, or build. It is the line that separates a project from a company, and in 2026 it is the de facto qualifier for a serious seed or Series A conversation. The good news: the path is more repeatable than founder mythology suggests. Get five things right — your ideal customer, one go-to-market motion, your pricing, your retention, and the math behind your sales engine — and $1M ARR becomes an execution problem, not a miracle. This is the playbook. No fluff, no fake case studies — just the framework, the benchmarks, and the levers that move the number. ## What $1M ARR Actually Requires ARR is annual recurring revenue: the predictable, subscription-based portion of your revenue, annualized. One-time setup fees, services, and usage spikes you can't count on don't belong in it. Investors care about ARR precisely because it is durable. There are infinite ways to slice $1M ARR, and the slice you choose dictates your entire company: - **100 customers at $10K ACV** (annual contract value) — a classic mid-market motion with a real sales team. - **1,000 customers at $1K ACV** — a self-serve or product-led motion, low touch, high volume. - **10 customers at $100K ACV** — enterprise, long cycles, heavy founder-led sales. None is "correct," but mixing them incoherently is the most common way founders stall at $300K. A $1K product sold through six-week enterprise sales calls loses money on every deal. Pick the slice your ACV can actually support, and design everything around it. ## Nail Your ICP Before You Scale Anything Your ideal customer profile (ICP) is the single highest-leverage decision pre-$1M. The companies that stall almost always sell to "anyone with the problem." The ones that compound get narrow. A usable ICP is specific on four axes: 1. **Firmographics** — industry, company size, geography, tech stack. 2. **Trigger** — the event that creates urgency (new funding, a hire, a regulation, a tool migration). 3. **Economic buyer** — who controls the budget and what number they're measured on. 4. **Quantified pain** — the dollar cost of the status quo. The test: can you name 50 specific companies that match, and explain in one sentence why each loses money without you? If not, your ICP is a fantasy. Narrow until you can. Counterintuitively, a tighter ICP accelerates growth because referrals, messaging, and product feedback all compound inside a homogeneous group. ## Choose ONE Go-to-Market Motion Founders love to run three GTM motions at once: a bit of outbound, some content, a self-serve trial, maybe a partnership. Before $1M, that's a recipe for three half-built engines and no momentum. Pick one primary motion and make it repeatable. ### Founder-led sales (the default) For ACVs above ~$8K, the first $1M almost always comes from the founder selling directly. This isn't a weakness to outsource — it's how you learn the objections, the language, and the real buying process. Do not hire a "VP of Sales to figure it out" before you've personally closed 20–30 deals. You can't delegate a sales motion that doesn't exist yet. ### Product-led growth (PLG) For low ACVs and bottom-up adoption (developer tools, productivity, design), a free tier or free trial that delivers value before any human contact can scale efficiently. PLG only works if a single user reaches an "aha moment" fast, and if there's a natural path from individual use to team and company expansion. ### Outbound Cold, targeted outreach works when your ICP is specific and the pain is acute. In 2026, generic AI-blasted sequences are dead on arrival — buyers pattern-match and delete. Personalized, trigger-based outbound to a tight list still converts. Whichever you pick, the bar is the same: a motion is "working" only when it is *repeatable* — when a non-founder, given your playbook, could produce a similar result. For the broader strategic context, see [more founder strategy](/category/business/). ## Price Like You Mean It Underpricing is the most common self-inflicted wound in early SaaS. Founders anchor on cost or fear, not value. The fix: - **Price on value, not features.** If you save a customer $50K a year, $12K is a bargain, not an insult. - **Use tiers to segment.** Three tiers (entry, core, scale) let small buyers in cheaply while capturing more from larger ones. The middle tier should be the obvious choice — make it so. - **Pick a value metric that grows with the customer** — seats, usage, records, transactions. This is what powers net revenue retention later. - **Raise prices deliberately.** Most early SaaS companies can raise prices 20–30% with minimal churn. Test it on new customers first. A simple heuristic: if no prospect ever complains your price is too high, it's too low. ## The Metrics That Actually Matter You don't need a 40-line dashboard before $1M. You need five numbers, watched weekly. ### Net Revenue Retention (NRR) NRR measures revenue from existing customers over time, including expansion, minus churn. Above 100% means your existing base grows even if you add zero new logos. Best-in-class B2B SaaS targets 110%+; per industry data from firms like [Bessemer Venture Partners](https://www.bvp.com/), strong NRR is the single biggest driver of long-term valuation. Below 90% means you're filling a leaky bucket. ### Gross churn The percentage of revenue lost to cancellations. For SMB, monthly logo churn of 3–5% is common but dangerous; for mid-market/enterprise, target low single-digit *annual* churn. ### CAC payback period How many months of gross margin it takes to recover the cost of acquiring a customer. Under 12 months is healthy at this stage; under 6 is excellent. ### The magic number New ARR added in a quarter divided by prior-quarter sales-and-marketing spend. Above ~0.75 means your GTM is efficient enough to pour more fuel in. Below 0.5 means fix the motion before you spend more. ### Burn multiple Net burn divided by net new ARR. In the leaner 2026 funding environment, investors increasingly want this under 2 — every dollar of burn should be buying meaningful recurring revenue. ## Build the Revenue Engine, Then Add People Once founder-led sales is repeatable, you scale by *cloning the motion*, not by hoping a hire invents one. - **First sales hire:** an account executive who runs *your* playbook, not a strategist. You stay the sales leader. - **Document everything:** ICP, qualifying questions, demo script, objection handling, pricing guardrails. A new rep should ramp from your docs, not your calendar. - **Add a pipeline source before you add closers.** Two AEs with no leads is just expensive idle time. - **Layer in customer success early.** With NRR doing the heavy lifting, an onboarding and expansion function pays for itself fast. A reasonable shape at $1M ARR: founder + one or two AEs + one CS person + a part-time or fractional growth/marketing resource. Lean is the point. ## The 12-Month Sketch Every company differs, but a workable arc to $1M: - **Months 0–3:** Lock ICP, build/sharpen the product to a clear wedge, founder closes the first 5–10 paying customers manually. - **Months 3–6:** Reach ~$250K ARR, document the playbook, raise prices, instrument the five metrics. - **Months 6–9:** Hire the first AE, prove a non-founder can close, push toward $500K ARR. - **Months 9–12:** Add pipeline capacity, formalize customer success to lift NRR above 100%, cross $1M. If a stage isn't working, fix the motion before scaling it. Adding headcount to a broken engine just burns the runway faster. ## FAQ ### How long does it take to reach $1M ARR? For focused B2B SaaS startups, roughly 12–30 months from first paying customer is common. Speed depends far more on ACV and motion repeatability than on team size — a tight ICP and disciplined pricing routinely beat a bigger headcount. ### Should I raise money before hitting $1M ARR? You can, but you don't have to. Reaching $1M ARR with capital efficiency gives you dramatically more leverage in a fundraise. If you do raise at seed, raise to *accelerate* a proven motion, not to discover one. ### What's a good ACV to target? Whatever your GTM motion can profitably support. If you're doing founder-led or sales-led motions, push ACV above ~$8K–$10K so each deal justifies the human effort. For self-serve/PLG, lower ACVs work because acquisition cost is minimal. ### Is product-led growth better than sales-led for getting to $1M? Neither is universally better — it depends on your buyer and ACV. PLG scales cheaply for low-ACV, bottom-up products; sales-led wins for higher-ACV, top-down purchases. The fatal mistake is running both half-heartedly instead of committing to one. --- The companies that cross $1M ARR aren't the ones with the cleverest product — they're the ones with the sharpest focus. For more on how today's builders are scaling smart, explore [more founder stories on FutureSharks](/category/startups/). --- ## Nick Riley of Driftwood Builders Roofing on Building Trust in Austin URL: https://futuresharks.com/nick-riley-driftwood-builders-roofing-austin/ We sat down with **Nick Riley**, owner of Driftwood Builders Roofing — an Austin-based roofing and exterior contractor serving homeowners and businesses across Central Texas. A CPA and former KPMG and Deloitte strategy consultant, Nick blends hands-on craftsmanship with business discipline across roof replacement, repairs, storm-damage restoration, metal roofing, and more. ### Quick Facts - **Hometown:** Columbia Falls, MT - **Favorite quote:** “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” - **Online:** [Driftwood Builders Roofing website](https://driftwoodbuildersroofing.com/pickleland-members/) · LinkedIn · Instagram · About ## Tell us about Driftwood Builders Roofing. How did you come up with this idea? I did not come up with the idea — I bought an existing business from a retiring baby boomer. Driftwood Builders Roofing is an Austin-based roofing and exterior company that helps homeowners and business owners make smart decisions about their roofs. We handle roof replacements, roof repairs, storm and hail damage restoration, metal roofing, siding, gutters, commercial roofing, and insurance-related roofing projects across Austin and Central Texas. I grew up around home services and construction. I started working with my dad and uncle when I was eight years old, so I learned early how much pride goes into doing work the right way. Later in my career, I became a CPA and spent nine years as a strategy consultant with KPMG and Deloitte. That background gave me a different perspective on the roofing business. I saw an opportunity to combine old-school craftsmanship with clear communication, documentation, systems, and a better customer experience. A roof is not something most customers buy often. It can be confusing, expensive, and stressful. Our goal is to simplify the process, educate the customer, document what we find, and help them feel confident in the decision they are making. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? In the early days, the focus was local relationships, referrals, and showing up consistently. Roofing is a trust-based business, especially in a market like Austin where homeowners have a lot of options. We worked hard to build relationships with homeowners, Realtors, property managers, insurance agents, and local business owners. We also leaned into content. Instead of only saying “call us for a roof,” we started creating educational content around real projects, common roofing problems, hail damage, roof leaks, roof replacement costs, metal roofing, siding, and exterior repairs. A lot of customers are searching questions before they ever call a contractor. If we can answer those questions honestly, we build trust before the first phone call. Future Sharks has published stories about entrepreneurs growing through niche expertise and marketing, like this [roofing-related article on Tim Nussbeck](/tim-nussbeck/) and this local business article on [Nick Ponte’s community resource platforms](/nick-ponte-creates-two-community-resource-platforms-for-local-businesses/). That same idea applies locally: be useful, be visible, and become the company people think of when they have a problem. ## How have you been able to grow your business? Get specific. The biggest growth lever has been combining great field work with better communication and documentation. A lot of roofing companies can install a roof, but not every company explains the process well, documents the job clearly, follows up quickly, and makes the customer feel taken care of. Specifically, we focus on four things: 1. **Detailed inspections** with photos and videos so customers can see exactly what we see. 2. **Clear estimates** that explain the scope of work instead of confusing people with vague line items. 3. **Referral relationships** with Realtors, property managers, homeowners, and local service providers. 4. **Strong follow-up** after storms, roof inspections, and completed projects. We also treat every completed job as a marketing asset. If we replace a roof in Westlake, repair tile in Austin, inspect hail damage in Bee Cave, or complete a roof replacement in Bastrop, that job can become a project page, a Google post, a short video, a social media post, and a proof point for the next customer in that area. ## What are some secrets to virality or sales on your most successful platform? For us, the best “platform” is local trust. That includes Google, our website, YouTube, social media, referrals, and our Google Business Profile. The secret is not trying to go viral for the sake of going viral. The goal is to be useful to people in our market. The best roofing content usually answers a real question customers already have. Examples include: “Why is my roof leaking?”, “How much does a roof replacement cost in Austin?”, “Do I need a new roof after hail?”, “Can I switch from shingles to tile?”, or “Is this roof repair worth doing?” Good content is specific. A generic post that says “we do roof repairs” is not as strong as a real story about a homeowner in Tarrytown who thought they needed a $25,000 metal roof replacement, but only needed an $800 pipe reseal. That kind of story is educational, local, trustworthy, and easy for people to understand. The same applies to sales. People do not want to be pressured. They want clarity. If you can explain the problem, show photos, give options, and be honest about what they do and do not need, you will win more trust. ## Teach us something we don’t know about local SEO for home service businesses. Local SEO is not just about ranking one page for one keyword. For home service businesses, the best strategy is to build a web of trust around your service area. For example, a roofing company in Austin should not only have one page that says “Austin roofing company.” It should also have pages and content around roof replacement in Austin, roof repair in Austin, metal roofing in Austin, tile roof repair in Westlake, hail damage in Bee Cave, roof inspections in Lakeway, and real project pages from completed jobs. Project pages are especially powerful because they show real work in real neighborhoods. A page about a completed roof replacement in South Austin or a tile repair in Westlake is more credible than a generic service page. It gives Google, customers, and even AI search engines more context about what you do, where you do it, and why people should trust you. This is similar to what a lot of strong online marketers focus on: useful content, niche authority, and proof. Future Sharks has covered entrepreneurs sharing marketing lessons, including [Katie Melissa’s marketing and e-commerce tips](/katie-melissa/) and Ethan Norville’s online advertising story. For local contractors, the same principle applies, but the content needs to be local, practical, and tied to real customer problems. ## What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? I think I’m good at connecting the field side of construction with the business side. A lot of people are strong in one area. Some people understand roofing, crews, materials, and jobsite problems. Others understand marketing, sales, operations, finance, and strategy. I try to bring both together. My background helps. I grew up around the trades, so I respect the work and understand how important craftsmanship is. I also spent years in consulting, so I think in terms of systems, process, documentation, communication, and long-term growth. In roofing, that combination matters. A customer does not just need shingles installed. They need someone who can inspect the roof, explain the options, coordinate materials, manage the crew, communicate clearly, protect the property, handle unexpected issues, and stand behind the work. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? My favorites are *The ONE Thing* by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, *The Alchemist* by Paulo Coelho, and *Can’t Hurt Me* by David Goggins. Each one has shaped how I think about focus, purpose, discipline, and pushing through hard things in both business and life. ## What is one thing homeowners should know before hiring a roofing company? Homeowners should know that the cheapest roofing estimate is not always the lowest-cost option long term. A roof protects the entire home. If the contractor cuts corners on materials, ventilation, flashing, underlayment, installation, or cleanup, the homeowner may save money upfront but pay more later. The better question is not just “How much does the roof cost?” It is “What exactly is included, what materials are being used, how will the property be protected, what happens if bad decking is found, what warranty applies, and who is actually managing the project?” A good roofing company should be able to explain the scope clearly, provide documentation, answer questions directly, and make the customer feel confident before the work starts. ## Where do you see yourself and Driftwood Builders Roofing in a few years? What’s the dream? The dream is for Driftwood Builders Roofing to become one of the most trusted roofing and exterior companies in Central Texas. I want homeowners, Realtors, property managers, and business owners to think of us when they need honest roofing advice, a detailed inspection, a high-quality roof replacement, or help after a storm. In the next few years, I see us continuing to grow our team, improve our systems, publish more educational content, and serve more customers across Austin and Central Texas. I also want us to be known not just for roofing, but for how we communicate, how we document our work, and how we take care of people. At the end of the day, roofing is a local reputation business. My goal is simple: do great work, tell the truth, build trust, and make Driftwood Builders Roofing a company people are proud to recommend. --- ## Danny Pouladian and the Accumulation of Responsibility URL: https://futuresharks.com/danny-pouladian-and-the-accumulation-of-responsibility/ Careers are often described as climbs. Titles rise, authority expands, visibility increases. That framing misses how responsibility actually grows in serious professional environments. Responsibility does not arrive all at once, and it is rarely granted on promise alone. It accumulates. Danny Pouladian’s career reflects this quieter reality. His professional standing has been shaped by a gradual expansion of scope, earned through demonstrated readiness rather than ambition. This article examines how responsibility entered his work incrementally, how it changed the nature of his role over time, and why that accumulation defines his professional identity more accurately than any title. **Starting With Defined Scope** Early in his career, Danny Pouladian worked within clearly defined boundaries. The scope was limited, the expectations specific, and the margin for error narrow. This stage mattered. It established a baseline for accountability. Work at this level requires attention to detail and respect for process. There is little room to delegate blame or obscure outcomes. Results are visible and traceable. He learned to operate within constraints and to treat completion as non negotiable. This phase built reliability at the most basic level. Responsibility here was simple but absolute. Tasks either held up or they did not. **Proving Readiness Before Expansion** Responsibility did not expand automatically. It followed evidence. As Danny Pouladian demonstrated consistency within a defined scope, additional responsibility was layered on. This did not take the form of sudden authority. It came through added coordination, judgment, and decision making. At this stage, the work shifted. Success was no longer about completing tasks alone. It involved managing dependencies and anticipating consequences. Small decisions now affected others. Readiness became visible through behavior. How issues were handled. How information was communicated. How pressure was absorbed without disruption. These signals mattered more than speed or confidence. **Moving From Tasks to Systems** As scope expanded further, Danny Pouladian’s role became increasingly system oriented. Individual tasks gave way to overseeing processes. Responsibility now involved ensuring that work moved smoothly across people and timelines. This shift required a different kind of attention. Problems were less visible at the surface. They appeared in delays, misalignment, or repeated friction. Addressing them required pattern recognition rather than reaction. He began focusing on how work flowed rather than how it was assigned. This perspective allowed him to identify inefficiencies and intervene early. Responsibility at this level meant protecting the system, not just completing outputs. **Managing Responsibility Under Constraint** Greater responsibility also brought constraint. Decisions carried higher stakes and fewer easy reversals. Time, resources, and attention became limited. Danny Pouladian learned to manage tradeoffs deliberately. Not every issue required escalation. Not every decision required consensus. Knowing when to act and when to wait became critical. Responsibility under constraint also required restraint. Over involvement created bottlenecks. Under involvement created risk. Finding balance was an ongoing process shaped by experience rather than rule. This phase refined judgment. Responsibility was no longer about doing more, but about doing less with greater precision. **The Weight of Dependence** As others came to rely on his decisions, responsibility acquired weight. Outcomes affected teams, timelines, and reputations beyond his own. This dependence changed how choices were evaluated. He became attentive to second order effects. How one decision altered incentives. How clarity in one area reduced confusion elsewhere. Responsibility now involved foresight. Dependence also required steadiness. Emotional consistency mattered. Predictability mattered. People needed confidence that decisions were grounded and deliberate. This level of responsibility is rarely visible from the outside, but it defines professional maturity. **Responsibility as a Signal of Trust** Over time, the accumulation of responsibility reflected trust. Trust that decisions would be sound. Trust that risks would be managed. Trust that priorities would be respected. This trust was not declared. It was demonstrated through expanded scope. More complex work. Fewer guardrails. Greater discretion. Danny Pouladian’s career shows how trust operates structurally. It appears in what someone is allowed to handle without oversight. Responsibility becomes both a privilege and a test. **Where That Responsibility Stands Today** Today, Danny Pouladian’s professional role reflects layered responsibility built over years. His work involves judgment across multiple dimensions rather than direct execution alone. He operates with awareness of impact beyond immediate tasks. Decisions are evaluated for durability and alignment. The scope of responsibility is broader, but the approach remains measured. Rather than seeking expansion for its own sake, he works within a range that allows for clarity and control. This restraint preserves effectiveness at scale. **Responsibility as Career Shape** Viewed over time, Danny Pouladian’s career is best understood through the responsibilities he has absorbed rather than the positions he has held. Each stage built on the last. Each expansion was earned. Responsibility shaped his skills, his judgment, and his professional identity. It limited certain paths and opened others. It created coherence. This pattern reflects a career built through readiness rather than pursuit. --- ## Anantharaj Appanan’s Professional Journey: From Law to Leadership URL: https://futuresharks.com/anantharaj-appanans-professional-journey-from-law-to-leadership/ Business success often stems from a blend of vision, strategic decision-making, and a constant focus on continuous growth. Anantharaj Appanan implemented this formula and transitioned from a legal scholar to a successful entrepreneur in telecommunications, business process outsourcing (BPO), and technology. His career reflects discipline, adaptability, and a keen understanding of market trends, making him a notable figure in Malaysia’s corporate sector. Born in Malaysia, Appanan’s early academic qualifications revolved around legal frameworks and business regulations. He recognized the importance of legal literacy in commerce and undertook a foundational law program in Malaysia before continuing his studies in London, where he earned a Bachelor of Laws (LLB Hons). His legal education equipped him with a sharp analytical mindset and an understanding of regulatory frameworks. To bridge the gap between finance and corporate governance, Anantharaj pursued a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with a specialization in Finance from Australia. This academic blend of law and finance provided him with the knowledge base to navigate complex business environments. In 1997, Anantharaj took a leap of faith into Malaysia’s telecommunications industry, founding ‘Infohibur Komunikasi Sdn Bhd.’ At a time when digital communication was rapidly growing, his company introduced premium telephony services that quickly gained traction in the entertainment sector. Infohibur Komunikasi’s approach to premium-rate phone services ranked it among the top names in Malaysia. Leveraging his market insight, Anantharaj expanded the company’s service portfolio through strategic partnerships and a strong understanding of consumer behavior, driving sustained growth in an increasingly competitive landscape. His efforts in entertainment-based telephony upscaled his reputation as an industry disruptor and made the way for his next business move. With the telecommunications sector evolving and competition intensifying, Anantharaj attempted to diversify his business interests. In 2001, he acquired ‘Biz Suria Management,’ a business process outsourcing (BPO) and contact center company. Recognizing the rising global demand for outsourcing solutions, he transformed Biz Suria into a major player in the BPO sector. Biz Suria Management began offering specialized customer service, back-office operations, and multilingual support services. Under his supervision, Biz Suria Management expanded its clientele across various industries, including finance, telecommunications, and e-commerce. By integrating technology with customer service solutions, he ensured that Biz Suria remained ahead of industry trends, solidifying its position as a trusted outsourcing partner in Malaysia and beyond. Anantharaj’s most notable entrepreneurial venture came in 2019, when he co-founded Xanderia Berhad, an Islamic digital financial services company with a workforce of 200. As the principal co-founder and Group Chief Executive of Xanderia Group, he recognized the untapped potential in Shariah-compliant fintech solutions and developed a suite of financial products that adhered to Islamic banking principles while leveraging modern digital technologies. He merged Islamic finance principles with cutting-edge digital solutions to position Xanderia Berhad as a unified service-providing company in Malaysia’s Islamic fintech sector, offering ethical and inclusive financial products. Anantharaj’s vision for financial inclusivity and technological integration positioned Xanderia as the most utilized service in the industry. In 2021, Anantharaj expanded his impact beyond business by launching God’s Kitchen, a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative under Xanderia Berhad. Dedicated to feeding the destitute and homeless across Malaysia, India, and Pakistan, this movement is built on the principle of unconditional love and service. Each week, volunteers gather to distribute 200 packed meals, with over 300,000 food packs delivered across Chennai, Lahore, and Jakarta. As the initiative continued to grow, God’s Kitchen aims to connect with compassionate Individuals worldwide, fostering a community of giving that transcends borders. His contributions across telecommunications, BPO, and leading technology have earned him various awards. His work in digital entertainment services earned him an Asian Television Award, and in 2024, he was honored with the Small and Medium Enterprises Business Award (SEBA) for his leadership in driving growth and innovation in Malaysia’s SME sector. From legal studies to launching industry-shaping enterprises, Anantharaj’s career showcases strategic foresight, business understanding, and a passion for growth. His ability to adapt to shifting market dynamics while maintaining a customer-centric and ethically driven approach sets him apart in Malaysia’s corporate sector. As Xanderia Berhad continues to expand its footprint in Islamic fintech, Anantharaj’s entrepreneurial growth continues to be an inspiration for aspiring business leaders. --- ## The Evolution of Minimally Invasive Surgery in Cancer Treatment: A Retrospective with Dr. Miguel A. Cuesta URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-evolution-of-minimally-invasive-surgery-in-cancer-treatment-a-retrospective-with-dr-miguel-a-cuesta/ Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has revolutionized the field of cancer treatment, particularly in gastrointestinal oncology. Among the pioneers of this technique is Dr. Miguel Angel Cuesta Valentín, whose contributions have helped establish MIS as a viable and effective alternative to open surgery in complex cancer resections. When Dr. Miguel Cuesta began exploring minimally invasive techniques at the beginning of the ´90s, MIS was largely unproven in cancer treatment. Initially used for diagnostic purposes and benign conditions, laparoscopy was viewed with skepticism by many oncologists and surgeons alike. Traditional open surgery was seen as the gold standard for achieving complete tumor resection with adequate oncological margins and lymph node dissection, especially in gastrointestinal cancers. In 1989, during a stage at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri with Dr. N. Soper, Dr. Cuesta had his first exposure to laparoscopic techniques. At that time, this method was being cautiously applied to general surgeries like cholecystectomy but not yet to malignant diseases. Dr. Cuesta saw the potential of laparoscopic surgery to reduce trauma, expedite recovery, and improve overall patient outcomes. However, the oncological community feared that smaller incisions and limited visualization might compromise the quality of cancer resections. Upon returning to the Netherlands, Cuesta accepted the challenge of proving that MIS could be a safe and effective option for oncological surgeries. His breakthrough moment came in 1991 when he performed the first laparoscopic left colonic cancer resection in both the Netherlands and Spain. This milestone established him as a leading advocate of MIS in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. The initial skepticism surrounding MIS was not unwarranted. In cancer surgery, the primary goals are to achieve negative resection margins (R0 resection), ensure appropriate lymphadenectomy, and minimize the risk of tumor dissemination. Open surgery was widely regarded as the best way to achieve these objectives, given the direct visualization and tactile feedback it provided surgeons. Laparoscopic approaches, by contrast, raised concerns about the adequacy of tumor clearance and the potential for port-site metastases. Dr. Cuesta’s early efforts were focused on demonstrating that MIS could meet the same oncological standards as open surgery. This required technical precision and a commitment to meticulous post-operative follow-up and data collection. By presenting evidence of shorter recovery times, reduced postoperative complications, and equivalent oncological outcomes, Cuesta helped dispel many of the early concerns about MIS. A key turning point came in 1993 when he published the book Minimally Invasive Surgery in Gastrointestinal Cancer, the first comprehensive works on the topic. This publication played a critical role in legitimizing MIS for cancer treatment, compiling early research and case studies that demonstrated its efficacy. By highlighting the benefits of laparoscopy—such as reduced postoperative pain, quicker patient mobilization, and shorter hospital stays—Cuesta helped build the case for MIS as a feasible option in oncological care. Dr. Cuesta’s commitment to evidence-based medicine played a vital role in advancing the use of MIS in cancer surgery. He served as a principal investigator in several landmark clinical trials that provided the robust data necessary to validate MIS in the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies. Additionally, Dr. Cuesta was the principal investigator in the TIME trial, which examined minimally invasive versus open esophagectomy for esophageal cancer. This trial demonstrated that MIS was associated with significantly lower rates of postoperative complications without compromising the oncological efficacy of the resection. His participation in the STOMACH trial, which compared laparoscopic versus open total gastrectomy for gastric cancer, further reinforced the benefits of MIS in treating complex gastrointestinal malignancies. Today, minimally invasive surgery has become a cornerstone of gastrointestinal cancer treatment. Thanks to advances in laparoscopy and robotic surgery, procedures that were once exclusively performed via large open incisions can now be completed with small keyhole incisions. The introduction of high-definition imaging and 3D visualization systems has greatly improved the precision of MIS, allowing surgeons to navigate complex anatomical structures with greater ease. Dr. Miguel’s work has had a profound impact on the evolution of minimally invasive surgery in cancer treatment. His early efforts to push the boundaries of MIS, despite initial skepticism, paved the way for its widespread acceptance and implementation in gastrointestinal oncology. By combining technical innovation with a commitment to evidence-based medicine, Cuesta demonstrated that MIS could not only meet but often exceed the standards set by traditional open surgery. Today, MIS is the preferred approach for many gastrointestinal cancers, offering patients improved outcomes and quality of life. As the field continues to advance with the integration of robotic systems and artificial intelligence, Dr. Cuesta’s contributions will remain a cornerstone of the ongoing evolution of cancer surgery. --- ## Aleksandar Saša Trajkovski: A Macedonian Literature Maestro URL: https://futuresharks.com/aleksandar-sasa-trajkovski-a-macedonian-literature-maestro/ Aleksandar Saša Trajkovski is a prominent figure in Macedonian literature, renowned for his roles as a poet, translator, and influencer within the literary community. His unique contributions have reformed the contemporary literary sector of North Macedonia and have facilitated cultural exchanges. Trajkovski’s writing journey began during his university years, a period that ignited his passion for poetry and translation. Over the years, he has produced several notable works related to themes of identity, history, and the human experience through the lens of the Balkan perspective. His major publications include “Lyrical Elegies,” “Anatomy of Poetry,” “Different Worlds,” and “Poems from the Balkans,” each offering a unique exploration of life’s complexities. “Lyrical Elegies” is by far one of Trajkovski’s most personal collections, connecting his intimate reflections with broader existential questions. “Different Worlds” juxtaposes the everyday with the ethereal, inviting readers to reconsider their perceptions of reality. Through his poetry, Trajkovski provides a voice that resonates with a wide audience, addressing universal themes through the specificities of Macedonian culture and history. Trajkovski’s impact extends beyond his original works into literary translation, an area where he has made significant contributions to cultural exchange. Fluent in Romanian due to his medical studies in Bucharest, he has become a pivotal figure in translating Romanian literature into Macedonian. His translations serve as cultural bridges, enriching the Macedonian literary scene with fresh perspectives from Romanian authors. His work as a translator is not just about language conversion but also about contextualizing foreign texts for Macedonian audiences, thus building a deeper understanding between the two cultures. Through his in-depth translations, Trajkovski has introduced Macedonian readers to a diverse range of Romanian literary works, from contemporary poetry to classic novels. Trajkovski is deeply embedded in the literary community, both in North Macedonia and internationally. He is an active member of several literary associations, such as the Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society in Bitola and the Writers’ Club “Kosta Solev Racin” in Veles. These associations are crucial in promoting literary activities and nurturing young talents in Macedonia. Furthermore, Trajkovski’s participation in international festivals, such as the Struga Poetry Evenings and various other cultural events, shows his commitment to the global literary community. His presence at these festivals enhances his reputation and brings Macedonian literature to the international stage, encouraging dialogue and collaboration among poets and writers worldwide. Trajkovski’s literary excellence has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades. He was awarded the “Soul of the Bazaar” for his poignant collection “Lyrical Elegies” and “Poems from the Balkans.” He also received the Best Poetry Book award for “Lyrical Elegies” at the event “Art Translated into Music and Poetry” event in St. Nikole in 2023. These awards highlight the emotional depth and artistic mastery of his work. In 2023, he also received the Golden Plaque for the “Best Poetic Work” at the same event, further cementing his status as a leading figure in Macedonian poetry. Such recognitions honor his individual achievements and spotlight the vibrant literary culture of North Macedonia. Trajkovski remains a versatile individual in Macedonian literature. His work as a poet and translator has significantly influenced the cultural phenomena, providing both a mirror and a window to view the complexities of Balkan identity and beyond. As he continues to engage with both the local and international literary communities, his legacy promises to endure, inspiring future generations to explore and appreciate the rich collection of Macedonian literature. His ongoing contributions reflect not just his passions but a vibrant dialogue with the world crafted from the heart of Macedonia. --- ## Sunglass Hut: How a Small Business Became an Eyewear Powerhouse URL: https://futuresharks.com/sunglass-hut-how-a-small-business-became-an-eyewear-powerhouse/ For many years, sunglasses have been a crucial tool for keeping UV rays at bay. Demand for them continues to grow across the globe for that reason, but nowadays, people are looking for more than just sun protection. Today, shades are seen as a modern lifestyle accessory and fashion statement, and more people are searching for a high-quality and stylish pair to elevate their looks quickly and effectively. As such, the sunglasses market is estimated to be valued at $23.32 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $32.20 billion by 2029, according to Mordor Intelligence. The fashion and function they offer have made them daily essentials for many. Though many eyewear and sunglasses brands have emerged over the decades to attract consumers with an eye for fashion, very few have seen the success of Sunglass Hut. What started as a small business became a huge player in the eyewear industry, and the influence and innovation they pursued have kept them relevant and thriving to this day. Here’s how Sunglass Hut established itself in the sunglasses scene: ## The history of Sunglass Hut Standford Ziff founded the first-ever Sunglass Hut, which opened in 1971 as a kiosk in a Miami mall. The store’s success quickly propelled the opening of more locations, and by 1986, 100 outlets opened. By 1996, Sunglass Hut ventured outside the United States and entered the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2000, the company joined Luxottica and its family of iconic brands, boosting the company even further and shifting its brand identity to focus on fashion. The business expanded to more locations in Europe and Asia, such as India, Spain, China, and Portugal, by 2015. Today, around 3,000 Sunglass Hut outlets are in operation worldwide. ## Early expansion into e-commerce E-commerce has become a booming industry over the past few years, and eyewear is no exception. But while many retailers struggled to develop their online prowess, Sunglass Hut emerged as a pioneer in the scene, launching their e-commerce website in 1998. The company had a headstart in refining its online shopping presence, which helped expand the reach of luxury sunglasses on Sunglass Hut. Shopping for brands like Ray-Ban, Versace, and Persol became easier and more accessible as people could browse the company’s website instead of visiting a store. E-commerce allowed the business to grow beyond its physical locations and reach more people, boosting success. The company has also addressed common limitations of shopping online by offering various digital tools to enhance the experience. The virtual try-on tool allows consumers to use their devices to simulate how the sunglasses will look on their faces, helping minimize returns and refunds by enhancing customer confidence. ## A focus on the digital and physical Despite the growth of Sunglass Hut’s online presence, the business didn’t limit innovation and development to e-commerce. Its physical locations are still going strong and bringing in business worldwide. Since it sells luxury and designer shades, it makes sense for stores to also exude luxury. The Sunglass Hut in Sydney’s George Street underwent revamping in late 2023 to provide a welcoming environment with care and attention to detail. This Australian outlet is Sunglass Hut’s biggest location, so ensuring it is taken care of and improved can make an impression on more consumers. Sunglass Hut also hasn’t been skimping out on more digital ventures. The business recently announced a collaboration with the avatar platform Ready Player Me. This first-of-a-kind initiative merges virtual worlds and physical retail, allowing users to equip their virtual avatars with digital sunglasses by visiting Sunglass Hut locations in the US. Users can express their style in the virtual world, improving immersion and personalizing the experience. ## Adapting to changing demands Sunglass Hut has been steadily improving and expanding its product line, taking note of top fashion trends and consumer demands to offer the most relevant items to customers. One such example is by providing sustainable sunglasses options for eco-conscious consumers. Bio-acetate shades like the EA4176 from Emporio Armani or the Ray-Ban RB4397 Corrigan Bio-Based are made with eco-friendly materials. Offering these options can enhance the company’s appeal as demands for sustainability in business continue to grow. Our [“Sustainability Strategies And Benefits For Business Owners” post](/sustainability-strategies-and-benefits-for-business-owners/) highlights that sustainability strategies should be ingrained in the business model to make them more impactful and reap more benefits for the company, employees, and the planet. Sunglass Hut’s parent company, Luxottica, is also embarking on a journey to advance sustainability in its retail stores. It’s implementing a three-year plan from 2024 to gradually improve its retail banner spaces, including Sunglass Hut. Sunglass Hut’s journey showcases how taking a chance on innovation, nurturing existing resources, and adapting to change can make for a successful business. Thanks to these smart moves, the company has maintained a top spot in a saturated market and may continue to see more success in the future. --- ## Breaking the Chains: Removing Stigma from Mental Health and Embracing Healing with Dr. Brian Alman URL: https://futuresharks.com/breaking-the-chains-removing-stigma-from-mental-health-and-embracing-healing-with-dr-brian-alman/ In a world that increasingly recognizes the importance of mental health, the persistent stigma surrounding mental health issues remains a barrier for many. Breaking free from the chains of stigma is not only crucial for individual well-being but is a collective responsibility to foster a society that values and supports mental health. Dr. Brian Alman, with his expertise in stress care and transformative healing, stands as a beacon in the journey toward destigmatizing mental health and encouraging individuals to seek the help they deserve. ## The Weight of Stigma: A Barrier to Healing Stigma, often rooted in misconceptions and societal biases, casts a heavy shadow over the field of mental health. It manifests in the form of judgment, discrimination, and shame, creating an environment where those grappling with mental health challenges may hesitate to seek the help they need. This reluctance often stems from fears of being labeled, misunderstood, or marginalized, perpetuating a cycle of silent suffering. Dr. Brian Alman recognizes the profound impact of stigma on mental health and well-being. In his three decades of experience, he has witnessed the transformative power of seeking help and breaking through the stigma that can shroud mental health concerns. His mission to make the world a happier and healthier place is inherently tied to dismantling the barriers that prevent individuals from seeking the support and care they deserve. ## Dr. Alman’s Approach: A Catalyst for Change Central to Dr. Alman’s approach is the understanding that mental health is an integral part of overall well-being. His expertise in stress care and trauma healing extends beyond clinical settings, reaching individuals globally and locally. By acknowledging the interconnectedness of mental and physical health, Dr. Alman’s work dismantles the artificial divide that often contributes to the stigma surrounding mental health. Dr. Alman’s commitment to personalized care and tailored solutions resonates with individuals who may feel disenfranchised by the one-size-fits-all approach often associated with mental health care. By recognizing the unique challenges and experiences of each person, Dr. Alman empowers individuals to embrace their journey toward healing and getting beyond the burden of judgment or shame. ## Your Inner Voice: A Guide to Personal Transformation One of the powerful tools in Dr. Alman’s arsenal for combating emotional health stigma is his book, “Your Inner Voice.” This transformative guide delves into the intricacies of the mind, offering a pathway for individuals to explore and understand the sources of their thoughts and emotions. By creating a dialogue with one’s inner self, individuals can gradually release the burdens they carry, including the stigma associated with mental health challenges. “Your Inner Voice” serves as a timeless source of inspiration and healing, inviting individuals to revisit its wisdom regularly. It becomes a companion in the journey toward self-discovery and acceptance, dismantling the internalized stigma that may have taken root over the years. Through this book, Dr. Alman extends a compassionate hand to those navigating the complexities of their inner worlds, fostering an environment of understanding and self-compassion. ## ACEs and the Path to Healing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) often contribute significantly to mental health challenges, creating a foundation for stigma to flourish. Dr. Brian Alman’s role as an ACE Treatment Solution Expert is particularly crucial in addressing the root causes of mental health struggles. By acknowledging and healing from past traumas, individuals can break free from the chains of stigma that may have been ingrained since childhood. Dr. Alman’s personalized approach in working with ACEs recognizes that each person’s journey is unique. By carefully designing sessions based on personality and specific life challenges, he provides a safe space for individuals to explore their experiences without judgment. This tailored approach not only accelerates the healing process but also contributes to dismantling the stigma associated with seeking help for childhood traumas. ## Changing the Narrative: Sharing Stories of Triumph A powerful tool in eradicating mental health stigma is the sharing of personal stories. Dr. Alman’s clients, who have experienced profound transformations under his guidance, become ambassadors for change by sharing their journeys. These stories not only inspire hope but also challenge societal perceptions about mental health. By highlighting the diverse paths to healing, these narratives contribute to the normalization of seeking help for mental health concerns. Dr. Alman’s role as a facilitator in these stories is pivotal, demonstrating that the journey toward mental well-being is not a solitary endeavor but a collaborative process guided by compassion and expertise. ## Community Engagement: A Collective Responsibility Dismantling mental health stigma is not an individual task but a collective responsibility. Dr. Brian Alman actively engages with communities, both globally and locally, to foster a culture that prioritizes mental health. His commitment to making clinical outcomes accessible to anyone speaks directly to the need for inclusivity in mental health care. Community engagement initiatives, led by Dr. Alman, serve to educate, raise awareness, and create spaces for open dialogue about mental health. By breaking down the barriers of silence and fostering an environment of understanding, these initiatives contribute to the destigmatization of mental health on a broader scale. ## The Path Forward: Embracing Healing, Seeking Help As we navigate the complexities of mental health, Dr. Brian Alman emerges as a guiding force in breaking the chains of stigma. His expertise, compassionate approach, and commitment to personalized care create a ripple effect that extends beyond individual sessions. Through his work, Dr. Alman paves the way for a future where seeking help for mental health concerns is not only accepted but celebrated as a courageous step toward healing. The journey toward mental well-being begins with acknowledging the interconnectedness of mind and body, understanding the impact of past experiences, and embracing the support available. Dr. Brian Alman’s work exemplifies that seeking help is not a sign of weakness but a testament to one’s strength and resilience. In a world that is gradually awakening to the importance of mental health, let us join hands in breaking the chains of stigma, embracing healing, and creating a future where mental well-being is a shared priority for all. --- ## Unpacking Frequently Asked Questions For New Entrepreneurs URL: https://futuresharks.com/unpacking-frequently-asked-questions-for-new-entrepreneurs/ Embarking on the startup journey is going to involve endless questions about tackling obstacles effectively as fledgling founders. This article is going to break down some of the most frequently asked and give you some tips and advice for ensuring that your company gets off to a secure start. ## What Are The Main Challenges For Entrepreneurs? Beyond obvious actions like registering business names or opening working capital finance, unexpected legal, accounting and insurance considerations quickly compound workload stresses facing new business owners. Key recurring pitfalls include: - Securing robust trademarks, patents, and intellectual property protections that legally formalize new offerings correctly from launch. They should protect against copycats replicating almost identical offerings. You don’t want anybody taking your big ideas. - Navigating tax registration nuances and determining appropriate classifications as sole proprietors, partnerships, or limited company structures. You need to find the liability protections and annual deduction claims that could save thousands in the long-term. - Budgeting realistic fiduciary responsibilities like reliable payroll during unpredictable periods. It can take a while before your first client wins which will ultimately finance your daily overheads consistently month to month. Planning helps weatherproof financial sustainability. That’s where business insurance comes in. ## Do I Need Business Insurance? In short – yes absolutely! According to insurance experts at The Hartford, unlike personal policies, a business owner’s policy safeguards against catastrophic company-wide incidents that threaten to dissolve fledgling enterprise prospects entirely. These events can happen through no direct fault of your own following random and unforeseen events. Specialist covers like general liability insurance create financial buffers when customers get injured on-premises and then sue for compensation. Equally, business income insurance protects sales dropouts arising after unforeseen equipment breakdown failures or office access restrictions from nearby fires next door. Risks face elimination without business continuity or public liability cushions shielding sustainability. ## What Should My Business Insurance Cover? Core coverage areas found on most startup policies should encompass: - General Liability – Protecting legal claim damages from a member of the public for bodily injury or property damage caused through business negligence. - Professional Indemnity – Defending clients’ claims for poor advice or inadequate services provided breaching contracts. - Employers Liability – Funds damages if employees get injured located at work through no direct fault of their own. - Commercial Property Insurance – Repair or property replacement in the event of damage through incidents like floods, fires, or storm devastation. - Stock & Equipment Insurance – Covers cost of replacing commercial goods, components, or operational technology damaged or destroyed on-premises. Ensure limits adequately buffer potentials facing your sector. ## Are There Different Types Of Business Insurance For Different Businesses? Absolutely. Certain industries demand additional infrastructure safeguards. For example, restaurants would need Temperature Change coverage to rapidly remedy safety-breached perishable goods until fixed professionally. Likewise, retail businesses often enhance delivery risk protections with Dependent Properties insurance. Every enterprise should undergo specific risk assessments identifying worst-case scenarios and then align suitable policies protecting against exposures likely faced through unique working environments. Doing so provides bespoke buffers giving peace of mind rather than relying solely on generic off-the-shelf packages. ## Do I Need Workers’ Compensation Insurance? Most states require businesses to have insurance for their workers. That includes workers’ compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance. This will ease the financial stress on your workforce and their families, and it will take the pressure off your business if you are missing some of your most valuable employees. As we mentioned, most states mandate workers’ compensation insurance activation before even hiring an initial employee so don’t risk hefty non-compliance fines or lawsuits. Instituting worker accident protections demonstrates leadership caring for contributors’ well-being from foundations upwards. --- ## Be Unstopable and Rajeev Bhatia: Unveiling the Unstoppable Journey of Empowerment and Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/be-unstopable-and-rajeev-bhatia-unveiling-the-unstoppable-journey-of-empowerment-and-success/ In the realm of business, resilience, innovation, and unwavering commitment are the cornerstones of success. Be Unstopable, under the visionary leadership of its founder, CEO, and Director, Rajeev Bhatia, exemplifies these qualities to an extraordinary degree. This article takes you on a captivating journey through the ethos of Be Unstopable, showcasing how they empower startups, guide established companies through challenges, strategically plan in ever-changing business environments, and foster diverse partnerships. We delve into the heart of Be Unstopable to understand what makes Rajeev Bhatia and his company truly unstoppable. ## Empowering Startups to Industry Leaders One of the key missions of Be Unstopable is to empower startups and guide them on their journey to becoming industry leaders. Startups often face numerous challenges, from securing funding to navigating the competitive landscape. Be Unstopable acts as a beacon of support for these budding entrepreneurs. Through Rajeev Bhatia’s visionary leadership, the company offers startups expert guidance, strategic insights, and access to valuable resources. This assistance helps startups overcome hurdles that might otherwise thwart their progress. Be Unstopable’s belief in the potential of startups is reflected in its portfolio of successful partnerships and collaborations, which have nurtured many small businesses into thriving industry players. ## Guiding Established Companies Through New Challenges Established companies are not immune to the ever-evolving dynamics of the business world. They, too, encounter new challenges, be it from changing market trends, technological disruptions, or shifts in consumer behavior. Be Unstopable, under Rajeev Bhatia’s guidance, assists these companies in navigating uncharted waters with expertise and resilience. By providing a fresh perspective and innovative strategies, Be Unstopable helps established companies adapt to these challenges and continue their journey towards success. The company’s ability to address these challenges head-on is a testament to Rajeev Bhatia’s commitment to staying at the forefront of industry trends and leveraging that knowledge to guide his clients effectively. ## Strategic Planning for Ever-Changing Business Environments In today’s fast-paced business environment, adaptability is the key to survival. Rajeev Bhatia and Be Unstopable recognize the importance of strategic planning in ever-changing landscapes. The company’s approach is centered on the development of comprehensive strategies that address current and future challenges. Be Unstopable’s emphasis on strategic planning ensures that their clients are well-prepared to face uncertainty and volatility. By analyzing market trends, assessing risks, and crafting tailored strategies, Be Unstopable helps its clients stay ahead of the curve. Rajeev Bhatia’s visionary leadership is instrumental in guiding the company’s strategic initiatives, making them a reliable partner for businesses looking to thrive in dynamic environments. ## Team Building In their repertoire of services, they offer engaging team-building activities, impactful mentorship programs, and inspiring keynote speaking sessions. With a wealth of experience, their expertise in fostering teamwork, guiding personal development through mentorship, and delivering compelling keynotes creates a transformative experience for diverse audiences. Whether igniting collaboration, providing mentorship insights, or delivering motivational talks, they are committed to enhancing organizational dynamics and individual growth. Be Unstopable is not just a company; it is a commitment to unlocking the full potential within individuals. The mission is to empower people on their journey of personal growth, offering a diverse array of inspiring content and transformative services. Through articles, videos, in-person training, and Zoom webinars, Be Unstopable tailors its offerings to various facets of personal development. ## Inspiring Content 1. Articles and Videos: Individuals can delve into a rich repository of articles and videos that explore the principles of determination, perseverance, and the right mindset. They learn from real-life stories of individuals who have triumphed over challenges, providing tangible insights and motivation. 2. Motivational Workshops: Participants can engage in hands-on workshops designed to ignite their motivation and drive. The interactive sessions create an immersive learning environment, fostering personal growth and development. 3. Keynote Speaking: Event organizers can bring impactful keynote speakers to their events or conferences. The speakers share powerful narratives, leaving a lasting impression on the audience and inspiring them to overcome obstacles. 4. Leadership Development: Individuals unlock their leadership potential through tailored leadership development programs. They acquire the skills and mindset needed to lead with confidence, resilience, and vision. 5. Content Creation: Clients leverage Be Unstopable’s expertise in content creation to tell their stories. Whether through articles, videos, or other mediums, the company helps craft compelling narratives that resonate with the audience. 7. Team Building: Teams can forge strong bonds through Be Unstopable’s team-building experiences. The activities are designed to enhance collaboration, communication, and trust among team members. 8. Business Branding: Clients establish a powerful and authentic brand identity with Be Unstopable’s business branding services. The company guides them in creating a brand that reflects their values and resonates with their target audience. 9. Coaching and Mentorship: Individuals receive personalized coaching and mentorship from seasoned professionals. Be Unstopable’s mentors provide guidance, support, and insights to help navigate challenges and achieve goals. Individuals are invited to join the Be Unstopable community and embrace the transformative power of determination, perseverance, and the right mindset. Together, they’ll journey towards success, unlocking the extraordinary potential that resides within each person. Be Unstopable. ## Trust as the Cornerstone For Be Unstopable, trust is the cornerstone of every interaction with their clients. The moment a client engages with them, trust is established. This trust emanates from Be Unstopable’s focus on providing secure and confidential solutions. Clients recognize Be Unstopable as a partner who prioritizes finding solutions rather than dwelling on problems. This approach fosters a sense of security and confidence that is invaluable in the world of business consulting. The trust that clients place in Be Unstopable is a testament to Rajeev Bhatia’s leadership and the company’s unwavering commitment to their clients’ success. Be Unstopable, under the visionary leadership of Rajeev Bhatia, exemplifies the qualities of resilience, innovation, and unwavering commitment that are essential for success in the business world. Their dedication to empowering startups, guiding established companies through challenges, strategic planning, and diverse collaborations has made them a formidable force in the business consulting industry. Be Unstopable’s fully customizable solutions and unwavering commitment to client success set them apart in the industry, and their existence is fueled by a genuine care for their clients and a commitment to delivering measurable value. Trust is the cornerstone of every client relationship at Be Unstopable, and this trust is the foundation of their success. Rajeev Bhatia and his company have undoubtedly demonstrated that being unstoppable in business is not just a goal but a way of life. Be Unstopable’s journey is a testament to the fact that with the right vision and dedication to client success, any business can rise to the top and remain unstoppable in the face of challenges. --- ## The Crucial Role of Cybersecurity Policies and Reforms: Insights from Kazi Monirul Kabir URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-crucial-role-of-cybersecurity-policies-and-reforms-insights-from-kazi-monirul-kabir/ In today’s digital age, the importance of cybersecurity cannot be overstated. With an ever-increasing reliance on technology, both in our personal and professional lives, the potential risks and threats to our digital assets have also grown exponentially. Kazi Monirul Kabir, a renowned tech entrepreneur and founder of Spider Digital, has been recognized as a leading figure in the cybersecurity field. His expertise and achievements shed light on the critical role that cybersecurity policies and reforms play in safeguarding our interconnected world. In this article, we will explore the significance of cybersecurity policies and reforms, with a focus on the insights provided by Kazi Monirul Kabir. **The Evolving Cyber Threat Landscape** As technology continues to advance, so do the capabilities of cybercriminals. Cyberattacks are no longer the work of isolated individuals; they have evolved into complex, organized operations that target individuals, businesses, and even governments. These threats come in various forms, such as malware, ransomware, phishing attacks, and data breaches. The financial, reputational, and legal consequences of such attacks can be devastating. To counteract this evolving threat landscape, robust cybersecurity measures are essential. Kazi Monirul Kabir, as an entrepreneur with a strong focus on cybersecurity, recognizes the ever-changing nature of cyber threats. He emphasizes the need for continuous adaptation and innovation in cybersecurity strategies. This adaptability extends to the development of cybersecurity policies and reforms that can effectively respond to emerging threats. **The Role of Cybersecurity Policies** Cybersecurity policies are a set of guidelines and rules that organizations and governments establish to protect their digital assets and sensitive information. These policies outline the procedures and practices that need to be followed to mitigate cyber risks and ensure data security. The importance of cybersecurity policies can be summarized in the following key points: 1. Protection of Sensitive Data: Cybersecurity policies establish the framework for safeguarding sensitive information. This includes personal data, financial data, intellectual property, and government secrets. Such data is often targeted by cybercriminals and must be protected through robust policies. 2. Compliance with Regulations: Many industries and governments have specific regulations and compliance standards related to cybersecurity. Adhering to these regulations is not only a legal requirement but also crucial for maintaining trust and credibility. 3. Risk Management: Cybersecurity policies help organizations identify, assess, and manage risks associated with cyber threats. By having a clear plan in place, organizations can proactively respond to potential threats. 4. Incident Response: In the unfortunate event of a cyber incident, policies provide a structured approach for response and recovery. This minimizes downtime and reduces the overall impact of an attack. Kazi Monirul Kabir’s Spider Digital, with its expertise in cybersecurity, understands the significance of comprehensive cybersecurity policies. By assisting organizations in developing and implementing these policies, they contribute to a safer digital environment. **The Need for Cybersecurity Reforms** Cybersecurity is a dynamic field that constantly evolves to meet new challenges. Therefore, static policies alone are not enough to address the ever-changing threat landscape. Cybersecurity reforms, on the other hand, involve updating and enhancing existing policies and strategies to stay ahead of cyber threats. Key reasons for the need for cybersecurity reforms include: 1. Technological Advancements: As technology evolves, so do the tools and tactics used by cybercriminals. Reforms are necessary to ensure that cybersecurity measures remain effective in the face of new technologies. 2. Increasing Sophistication of Attacks: Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, making it crucial to revise and improve cybersecurity policies to counteract these advanced threats. 3. Global Connectivity: The interconnected nature of the digital world means that cyber threats can originate from anywhere in the world. Reforms in cybersecurity policies should take into account this global perspective. 4. User Awareness: Reforms should also address the human element in cybersecurity. This includes educating users about potential threats, best practices, and their role in maintaining a secure digital environment. Kazi Monirul Kabir’s recognition as a cybersecurity star is a testament to his commitment to adapting and innovating in the field of cybersecurity. His expertise reflects the need for constant reform in cybersecurity policies to keep pace with the ever-evolving threat landscape. **The Case of Spider Digital** Spider Digital, founded by Kazi Monirul Kabir, stands as a shining example of how a tech entrepreneur can make a significant impact in the realm of cybersecurity. Established in 2015, the company quickly gained recognition as one of the fastest-growing startups in Asia. Their innovative approach to cybersecurity solutions has set them apart in the industry. Here are some key aspects that make Spider Digital noteworthy: 1. National Level Content Management: Spider Digital offers advanced content management solutions that help organizations manage and secure their digital assets. This is a critical aspect of cybersecurity, as content management plays a central role in data security. 2. AI-Driven Decision Engine: Artificial intelligence has become an indispensable tool in cybersecurity. Spider Digital’s AI-driven decision engine enhances threat detection and response, making it a valuable asset in the fight against cyber threats. 3. Security Infrastructure Design and Integration: Spider Digital collaborates with cybersecurity organizations to co-create security infrastructure that is robust and tailored to the specific needs of their clients. This proactive approach is vital in preventing cyberattacks. Kazi Monirul Kabir’s leadership in Spider Digital reflects his dedication to enhancing cybersecurity in a world where threats continue to evolve. The company’s focus on innovation and adaptability aligns with the changing nature of cyber threats, emphasizing the importance of ongoing reforms. **The Global Perspective** In a world where digital connectivity knows no boundaries, a global perspective on cybersecurity is essential. Cyberattacks can originate from anywhere and target anyone. Recognizing this, Kazi Monirul Kabir has been an advocate for cybersecurity on a global scale. 1. Global Collaboration: Cybersecurity threats are a global concern, and international collaboration is crucial in addressing them. Monirul Kabir’s involvement in global forums and organizations highlights the importance of working together to tackle cyber threats collectively. 2. Emerging Markets: Monirul Kabir’s work in emerging markets is particularly significant. These regions often lack the resources and expertise to combat cyber threats effectively. His commitment to enhancing cybersecurity in such areas demonstrates a dedication to global security. 3. Forbes Technology Council: Monirul Kabir’s role as an official member of the Forbes Technology Council is indicative of his influence in the tech and cybersecurity sectors. His insights and expertise are recognized and valued on a global scale. In a world where every aspect of our lives is increasingly digital, cybersecurity is not an option but a necessity. The recognition of Kazi Monirul Kabir as one of the Top 25 Cybersecurity Stars of the Year serves as a testament to the significance of cybersecurity in our interconnected world. As a tech entrepreneur and founder of Spider Digital, his work in the field reflects the importance of cybersecurity policies and reforms. Cybersecurity policies serve as the foundational framework for protecting sensitive data, ensuring compliance with regulations, managing risks, and responding to incidents. However, the dynamic nature of the cyber threat landscape necessitates constant reform in these policies to adapt to new challenges. The case of Spider Digital demonstrates how innovation and adaptability are key in the cybersecurity sector. The company’s services, from content management to AI-driven decision engines, showcase their commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions in a rapidly evolving field. --- ## AdMedia: Revolutionizing Digital Advertising and Media Landscape URL: https://futuresharks.com/admedia-revolutionizing-digital-advertising-and-media-landscape/ AdMedia. is a trailblazing American tech-driven advertising and media company, leveraging technology and innovation to provide performance-based advertising solutions to brands and agencies. Established in 1998 by Danny Bibi and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, this company has become a prominent player in the online advertising realm, assisting advertisers, publishers, and consumers to optimize their Return on Investment (ROI) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). **The Genesis and Growth** AdMedia. began its journey with a vision to revolutionize the advertising and media landscape. With an experienced team comprising marketers, publishers, advertisers, developers, designers, and more, the company swiftly gained momentum. Acting as a connecting bridge, AdMedia. facilitated connections between advertisers and consumers through various channels like email, domain, social, and search networks. Over the years, they’ve amassed a vast network, garnering the confidence of numerous esteemed brands such as Edmunds, Hearst, Keen, Meredith, ZipRecruiter, and Sears. The company’s forte lies in its ability to utilize advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning to optimize advertisements and offer an edge to its clients in the competitive digital advertising sphere. By leveraging these technologies, AdMedia. can create new advertising strategies without heavy reliance on major platforms like Facebook or Google Ads. **Unveiling the Technology** One of AdMedia.’s remarkable aspects is its patent-pending technology, a tool to study consumer response. This technology ensures that users receive highly relevant ads while remaining anonymous, enhancing the overall advertising experience. Additionally, AdMedia. employs an advertisement filtration environment that identifies and filters potential malicious web traffic, ensuring a safe and secure advertising environment for users. **Milestones and Acquisitions** Throughout its journey, AdMedia. has achieved significant milestones and strategic acquisitions that have propelled its growth and expanded its capabilities. In the year 2000, the company made a noteworthy acquisition, securing a Eurekster patent titled “Adaptive Search Engine -WO2006011819A1.” This acquisition underscored AdMedia.’s commitment to advancing technology in the advertising domain. In 2006, the company unveiled a data management platform boasting over 200 million profiles in the U.S., rich with detailed demographic information. This platform empowered digital marketers by granting access to an extensive domain and audience reach beyond major search engines and ad networks. The information included age, gender, location, income level, and FICO score, providing valuable insights for precise targeting across channels and devices. In 2008, AdMedia. continued its strategic growth by acquiring Accoona, a B2B search engine, bolstering its capabilities and expanding its service offerings. This acquisition marked another milestone in the company’s journey to becoming a comprehensive digital advertising and media solutions provider. **Community Engagement and Educational Initiatives** AdMedia. is not only committed to advancing the advertising industry but also to enriching the community it serves. In 2021, the company launched a groundbreaking initiative, the Virtual Lunch & Learn Program, in collaboration with Doordash. This program not only educates qualified professionals on crucial marketing techniques and information but also provides them with a nourishing meal, enhancing their overall educational experience. The company has actively engaged with the Las Vegas Innovation Marketing Association (LVIMA), establishing a meaningful partnership that underscores their commitment to innovation and collaboration within the marketing community. **Diverse Service Offerings** AdMedia. offers a vast array of advertising and marketing services, catering to diverse business needs and objectives. These services include Search, Native Advertising, Contextual Advertising, Mobile Advertising, Video Advertising, Shopping, Supply Side Platform (SSP), Remarketing, Display, Email Marketing, Eurekster Swicki, Demand Side Platform (DSP), Data Management Platform (DMP), Cross Channel Advertising, SEO, Metaverse Strategies, and Quick Launch options. AdMedia. has undeniably emerged as a key player in the digital advertising and media landscape, leveraging cutting-edge technology and strategic acquisitions to offer comprehensive and tailored advertising solutions. With a strong focus on community engagement and educational initiatives, the company continues to shape the industry while empowering advertisers, publishers, and consumers alike. In a constantly evolving digital world, AdMedia.’s commitment to innovation and client success positions it at the forefront of the advertising revolution. --- ## The Best Self-Employed Jobs for Today’s Market URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-best-self-employed-jobs-for-todays-market/ As technology transforms the world of work, the idea of a traditional nine-to-five job is becoming a thing of the past. If you have an independent, entrepreneurial spirit, self-employment may be an appealing option. The good news is many self-employed jobs are well-suited to today’s gig economy with low barriers to entry. Whether you want to earn extra money or launch a full-time [solo venture](/the-importance-of-being-an-expert-at-multiple-things/), here are some of the best self-employed jobs to consider. ## 1. Freelance Writer According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 5,000 freelance writing jobs in the U.S., and freelance writers can earn $35 per hour. To thrive as a freelance writer, you must develop expertise in a niche, like tech, health, or business writing. Build up clips and samples of your work to show clients. Many freelance writers uncover jobs on websites such as Upwork, Fiverr, or Flexjobs. Some of the most in-demand types of freelance writing include: - Blog Writing: Writing blog posts for companies and individuals. Topics can range from marketing to travel. - Copywriting: Writing sales and marketing content like website copy, email campaigns, and ads. - Technical Writing: Producing instructional materials, manuals, and documentation for firms. ## 2. Graphic Designer Many graphic designers have a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, visual communications, or a related field. Coursework usually includes studio art, design principles, computerized design, and printing techniques. Some complete internships at design or advertising firms. Key skills for graphic designers include: - Excellent IT skills and proficiency with design and photo-editing software like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. - Exceptional creativity to develop engaging visuals. - Strong communication abilities to collaborate with clients and learn their needs. ## 3. Real Estate Agent As a real estate agent, you help clients buy, sell, and rent residential or commercial properties. Real estate agents are independent contractors who work under the supervision of a broker by law. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics casts a 5.3% employment growth between 2021 and 2031. To become an agent, you need a high school diploma and must complete pre-licensing training, pass an exam, and obtain a license. Many agents have at least a bachelor’s degree as well. Strong sales and negotiation skills, knowledge of the local real estate market, and networking abilities are important for this career. ## 4. Virtual Assistant If you’re an organized self-starter who enjoys problem-solving and helping others, a career as a virtual assistant may be ideal. Virtual assistants are self-employed individuals who provide administrative and clerical services remotely to clients. As a virtual assistant, you handle tasks like: - Answering emails and scheduling meetings - Making travel arrangements - Data entry and word processing - Researching topics for clients Aside from that, some benefits of working as a virtual assistant include: - A flexible work schedule. - Exposure to different industries. - You don’t need an office, so overhead expenses are minimal. However, there are some downsides like: - Work volume can fluctuate, leading to periods of little or no work. - Without co-workers or an office environment, you can feel isolated. - Pay varies and can be inconsistent if you have periods without clients. ## 5. Product Creator As a product creator, you have the freedom to design digital or physical products for clients on your schedule. Many product creators work as freelancers, finding clients through websites like Upwork, Fiverr, or 99Designs. Some benefits of working as a self-employed product creator include: - Flexible schedule: You can work when and where you want. - Higher pay potential: Product creators can charge $50-$200 per hour or more for their services. - Creative freedom: You can choose projects that align with your interests and skills. - Varied work: Product creators work with clients on different projects to avoid boredom. ## 6. Personal Trainer As a [personal trainer](/how-can-a-personal-trainer-transform-your-life-physically-and-mentally/), you help clients achieve their fitness goals through customized exercise programs and guidance. You evaluate each client’s fitness level, skills, and goals to create a tailored training plan. Plans may focus on strength, endurance, weight loss, or sports performance. You even show proper form for each exercise and motivate to help clients stay on track. Aside from that, personal trainers typically need certification. Well-known certification organizations include the American Council on Exercise and the American College of Sports Medicine. Certification shows you have the knowledge and skills to train clients properly. ## 7. Photographer As a photographer, you use technical and artistic skills to photograph people, places, events, and objects. Photographers typically market or advertise their services to attract clients, then meet with clients to know their needs before a photo shoot. As a matter of fact, creativity and technical photography skills are key for photographers. It would be best to have proficiency with cameras, lenses, lighting, and design techniques. Strong communication and interpersonal abilities are also important for interacting with clients. ## 8. Career Coach A career coach helps clients advance their careers by guiding job searches, resume writing, interviewing, and career planning. As a career coach, you can work with individuals from various backgrounds and experience levels. Many coaches work as self-employed entrepreneurs or as part of a coaching organization. To be an effective career coach, you must stay current with job market trends, tools, and strategies. Continuous learning and improving your skills through courses, certifications, and memberships in professional organizations are important. Strong knowledge about various careers, companies, and hiring practices will make you a better coach and resource for your clients. ## 9. Transcriptionist As a transcriptionist, you convert audio files into written text. This freelance role provides flexibility and decent pay. According to the PayScale, the median pay for transcriptionists in the U.S. is over $25 per hour. Actual pay will depend on factors like your experience, certification, and the difficulty of the audio. Most transcriptionists work part-time, around 20 hours a week, though full-time work is also possible. The job can often be done remotely on a flexible schedule. To become a transcriptionist, you’ll need: - Proficiency in English grammar, spelling, and punctuation - Fast and accurate typing skills, around 60-70 words per minute - Familiarity with style guides like AP Style or AMA Style for medical transcription - Optional certification in medical or general transcription, though not always required ## 10. Lodging Managers With many hospitality professionals looking to advance their careers, becoming a lodging manager can be a rewarding goal. The job outlook is positive, with employment of lodging managers projected to grow 7% over the next ten years. As a lodging manager, you are responsible for jobs like: - Assign duties to housekeeping and maintenance staff and schedule their shifts. - Coordinate front-office activities like check-ins/outs and handle any issues. - Resolve problems or complaints from guests and ensure high satisfaction. - Manage budgets, set rates, and maximize profits and occupancy. - Recruit, hire, train, and supervise lodging staff. - Ensure compliance with licensing laws and health and safety standards. ## 11. Lawn Care Specialist With many people too busy to properly maintain their lawns and the growing demand for landscaping services, the job outlook for lawn care specialists is quite positive. A lawn care specialist, also known as a lawn mower or gardener, maintains lawns and gardens for residential and commercial properties. Your duties as a lawn care specialist may include: - Mowing, trimming, and edging lawns - Applying fertilizers and pesticides - Raking leaves and clearing debris - Pruning shrubs and trees - Planting flowers, trees, and shrubs - Aerating and dethatching lawns - Watering lawns and plants ## 12. Home Organizer As a home organizer, you help individuals declutter and organize their living spaces. Many people struggle to keep their homes tidy and efficient, so your services are in high demand. According to Forbes, the average hourly rate for a professional organizer is around $55. Most home organizers work as solo entrepreneurs or start their LLCs. This allows you to set your hours and fees. However, it also means you must market your services and find new clients. Starting an LLC helps shield your assets should any legal issues arise. To become a home organizer, you typically need a background in organizing, decluttering, and efficiency. Some complete professional organizer certification courses. Aside from that, strong interpersonal and communication skills are essential as you work directly with clients in their homes. ## 13. Tutor Tutoring is a flexible job that allows you to set your hours and work from anywhere. It can also be quite lucrative, with many tutors charging $20-$50 per hour or more. There are many ways to find tutoring students. You can advertise your services on websites like Care.com, Wyzant, and Chegg Tutors. You can also post ads on community Facebook groups and Nextdoor. Other than that, letting friends, families, and local schools know about your tutoring business can also help you find new students through word-of-mouth recommendations. ## Be On Top Of The Market As you’ve seen, there are many promising self-employment opportunities available today if you have the motivation and skills to pursue them. While self-employment isn’t easy, it can be immensely rewarding. With hard work and persistence, you can gain independence and become your boss. The jobs are out there – now find the one right for you. --- ## How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing the World URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-social-entrepreneurs-are-changing-the-world/ In today’s society with tough problems, there is a trend called purpose-driven entrepreneurship to raise hope. What are social entrepreneurs? They are people who use business smarts and creative ideas to make the world better. In addition, they care about making a positive difference in society and the environment. They are not just out to make money; they want to help solve important problems and make life better for everyone. ## Understanding Social Entrepreneurship Social entrepreneurship is a multifaceted and dynamic concept that combines elements of business entrepreneurship with a strong commitment to social and environmental impact. These individuals and organizations apply innovative and sustainable solutions to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems. Several key characteristics define social entrepreneurship: ### Mission-Driven Social entrepreneurs are guided by a clear and compelling mission to make a positive difference in society. Their primary focus is creating social and environmental value rather than maximizing profits. ### Innovative Solutions These are a group of innovative thinkers who approach problems with fresh and creative perspectives. Their solutions often involve novel business models, technologies, or approaches to existing challenges. ### Sustainable Impact Social entrepreneurs aim for long-term, sustainable impact. Their interventions are designed to generate lasting change rather than providing short-term fixes. ### Empowerment Many social entrepreneurs focus on empowering communities, individuals, and marginalized groups. Their work often involves capacity-building and promoting self-reliance. ### Collaboration Collaboration is a cornerstone of social entrepreneurship. These change-makers actively seek partnerships with governments, NGOs, businesses, and other stakeholders to maximize their impact. ## A New Way of Doing Business with a Purpose Usually, when people think of starting a business, it is all about money making. However, things are changing as there is a new way of doing business that is all about having a purpose. Take Patagonia as an example. This outdoor clothing company, started by Yvon Chouinard, isn’t just about selling clothes. They are on a mission to be kind to the planet. In addition, they use eco-friendly materials, reduce waste, and even give a part of their earnings to environmental projects through “1% for the Planet.” So, they are not just making money; they are making a difference too. ## When Profit and Purpose Work Together Although some people believe that making money and doing good things do not mix, social entrepreneurs have demonstrated that they may cooperate to achieve great things. They combine their businesses with a worthwhile cause, which draws devoted workers and patrons who care deeply about what they are doing. Profiting while doing good things piques people’s interest and inspires innovation, which propels these mission-driven companies to great success. Here is a great example: four buddies, Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Andrew Hunt, and Jeffrey Raider, founded the eyewear brand Warby Parker. Their business strategy is known as “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair.” By working with nonprofit organizations, they donate a pair of spectacles for every set of glasses they sell to a person in need. In this way, they are simultaneously generating income and improving society. ## The Transformative Impact of Social Entrepreneurs ### Alleviating Poverty Social entrepreneurs are at the forefront of the fight against poverty. They create jobs, empower marginalized communities, and provide access to resources that can help people escape the cycle of poverty. The Grameen Bank, for instance, has provided millions of impoverished individuals with the means to start and grow their businesses, thus reducing poverty rates. ### Improving Healthcare Access to healthcare is a fundamental human right, yet millions lack this access. Social entrepreneurs are working to bridge this gap by developing innovative healthcare solutions, from low-cost medical devices to telemedicine platforms. In India, Aravind Eye Care is an excellent example, providing high-quality, affordable eye care to millions. ### Addressing Environmental Issues Climate change and environmental degradation are among the most critical challenges facing the planet. Social entrepreneurs are developing sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions to mitigate these problems. Companies such as The Ocean Cleanup are actively working to remove plastic from the oceans, while organizations like The Green Belt Movement focus on reforestation and environmental conservation. ### Quality Education Social entrepreneurs are transforming education by making it more accessible, affordable, and effective. They develop: - Innovative teaching methods - Create e-learning platforms - Build schools in underserved communities. Bridge International Academies is a noteworthy example, providing affordable and high-quality education in Africa and Asia. ### Empowering Women Social entrepreneurs recognize the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment. They develop initiatives to: - Uplift women economically and socially - Creating opportunities for education - Leadership, and entrepreneurship. Solar Sister and organizations like Women for Women International are playing significant roles in this field. ### Community Development Social entrepreneurs often work in underserved communities, focusing on comprehensive development. They address multiple aspects of community life, including: - Housing - Sanitation - Economic development Habitat for Humanity is a globally recognized organization working to provide decent housing to those in need. ### Technology for Good Technology is one of the powerful tools for social change. Social entrepreneurs leverage technology to create solutions that can address a wide range of issues, from access to clean water to financial inclusion. Organizations like Code for America and Digital Green are harnessing the power of technology to drive positive change. ## Challenges and Obstacles While social entrepreneurship can bring about significant change, there are obstacles to overcome. Several challenges confronting social entrepreneurs may impede their advancement: - Financial Sustainability - Scaling Impact - Government and Policy Barriers - Social and Cultural Barrier - Resource Constraints - Competition and Collaboration ## Future Trends and Opportunities Despite these challenges, the future of social entrepreneurship looks promising. Several trends and opportunities are shaping the landscape: - Artificial intelligence, blockchain, and other emerging technologies are being leveraged to create more efficient and impactful solutions. - Impact investors are willing to invest in organizations that generate both financial returns and social or environmental impact, providing much-needed capital. - Collaborations between governments, corporations, and social entrepreneurs are increasing, which can amplify the impact of social enterprises and drive systemic change. - Global awareness is prompting consumers, businesses, and governments to support and engage with social entrepreneurs. - Some governments are recognizing the value of social entrepreneurship and are creating supportive policies, including tax incentives, regulatory frameworks, and funding opportunities. - Many young individuals are eager to combine their entrepreneurial ambitions with a desire to create positive change. ## Inspirational Stories of People Making a Difference Here are some incredible individuals who are changing the world through their purpose-driven initiatives. First, there is Tony Elumelu. He is not just an entrepreneur; he is a visionary philanthropist. Tony started The Tony Elumelu Foundation to help entrepreneurs in Africa make a real impact. His flagship project, the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP), has trained and funded thousands of young African entrepreneurs. By providing mentorship and seed funding, he is helping them bring positive change and growth to the continent. Then there is Kiva, an amazing online platform co-founded by Jessica Jackley and Matt Flannery. It is all about connecting people who want to make a difference with entrepreneurs in developing countries. You can lend as little as $25 to support these business owners. This peer-to-peer lending model is like a hand-up, not a handout. It helps these entrepreneurs start or grow their businesses and, in turn, lifts them out of poverty. These stories show you the incredible impact that social entrepreneurs can have on the world. They prove that small actions can lead to big change, making the planet a better place for all. ## Embracing the Dawn of a Purpose-Driven World Social entrepreneurs are the change-makers who are redefining the future. They address some of the world’s most pressing issues with creativity, innovation, and a commitment to social and environmental well-being. Their work is not just about charity; it is about sustainable solutions that empower communities and individuals to shape their destinies. As social entrepreneurship continues to gain momentum, you can look forward to a world where profit and purpose go hand in hand. Also, where businesses are measured not only by their financial success but also by the positive impact they create. The future of social entrepreneurship is bright, and it holds the promise of a better world for all. --- ## Nathan Hirsch, Founder of FreeeUp, Teaches us How to Hire URL: https://futuresharks.com/nathan-hirsch/ ## Hey Nathan, I’m very happy to have you here today. What experiences growing up shaped you into the entrepreneur you are today? When I was younger, when I was in high school, my mom got me internship with the Errins Corporation which is kinda like a rental center. I got to learn firsthand under the CEO. I learned a lot about business, about how to treat customers, on what to do, what not to do. I also saw the CEO, how much flexibility he had, how much he loved his job. And I also got to experience the 9 to 5 grind and working weekends and all of the things that go into corporate life. And it made me really not want to do that, but to get to that CEO level, where he had the freedom to be on the golf course and still run his business from his phone. I always wanted to aspire to do that because I knew that the alternative was getting into the 9 to 5. My biggest influencer was my mom.  She started a business, when I was very young.  She was a teacher and she didn’t like the school that she was working on. She thought that it wasn’t great for the kids and the parents weren’t happy. So, she ended up starting her own school and a lot of the parents switched over. And I kinda saw her grow her school and move to different locations that were bigger and bigger as I continue to grow up. And she recently retired last year. So, I got to experience not only how hard she worked but the dedication it took, how much she loved her job, what kind of things to do, what kind of issues and problems she ran into, like leases expiring, and stuff like that. I really got a feel for what it was like to run a business. Right now, I am working on FreeeUp.com, the hands-on way to hire remote workers. What I wanted to do was to make it easier to hire. Because in my first company, I realized, I was spending so much time on HR, and I just didn’t want to do that anymore. And I always wished that there was a better solution than going on job boards and posting jobs and getting a lot of applicants and then not having to do that whole interview process. So, what I did at FreeeUp was I made it so we do all the work for you. We have a great interview process that I created myself. We have 15 pages of communication guidelines that workers have to memorize and get tested on. So we know that these workers are pre-vetted before we get them first come, first serve to our clients. > *It really is an awesome experience when you start a new company, you’ll never know what the feedback is going to be like. It’s been overwhelmingly positive and it is something that I am really dedicated to for years to come.* *The start of my project is I kinda mentioned before, I ran an Amazon business for years. I started a multi-million Amazon business out of my college dorm room. And I just didn’t like the whole hiring-interview process. I remember being in a room with my business partner Connor doing interview after interview, first round, second round, and then just sitting in a meeting afterwards being like, “Is this person good?” And we’ll be looking into more resumes, and then spending time doing that. It took up so much time. I remember getting so frustrated when we would spend all that time and then all of a sudden that worker would quit two weeks into the job. Then we’ll just start right over. I hated that experience and I wanted a solution.* *Our products and services are unique because there is nothing else like it out there that does that pre-vetting for you. But also, it is hands on along the process to make you have a good experience. A lot of the companies are just too big. They don’t have that hands-on approach. They also don’t have that turn-over guarantee. If you use our platform and a worker quits, you just have to start right over. They don’t help you in anyway. They don’t get you someone new. They don’t cover any of the costs. And on top of that, we’re also the only fast hiring platform that I know of. We allow our workers to interview with our clients for 10 to 15 minutes because we have already prevetted them. And just like clients come to us to skip interviews and to make that process faster, our workers come to us to avoid long interviews as well. So it’s the only fast hiring platform that I know of.* ## Who are your potential customers? Our potential customers, right now are focused on ecommerce but we have a lot of non-ecommerce clients as well. It’s really business owners that for one way or another, either they hate doing interviews, hate the whole HR process – don’t have the time for it, or people that just need access to talent quickly. If you have a one-time project, you don’t want to spend a week recruiting for that 2-hour project. It would just take so long. So, those are really our clients – business owners. ## Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. *The best advice I have is to diversify. I learned this lesson the hard way back in my first Amazon company. We were completely relying on one vendor and then all of a sudden when I was on vacation, and I tell this story to a lot of podcasts, our vendor dropped us and then we really had to start over. So two years’ worth of work was out the door. And so, I learned from this to diversify in all aspects of your business. That means on the hiring side, make sure your whole business isn’t relying on one person, and I they quit you’re screwed. On the revenue side, make sure you’re not dependent on one thing. Make sure you have multiple sources of revenue. Make sure you have different suppliers. Don’t make your business completely relying on one person or one thing.* ## Which tools do you use? I use Skype. I’m the fastest person on Skype I’ve ever met. It’s a go to for me. I can talk to people from all over the world very quickly, have calls, have chats. And that’s really the go to for me. I also use Jira for our developers because organizing developers is a little bit of a process. And it’s a new tool that I was put on to really help with that sort of thing. ## Teach us something about hiring. So you have to motivate your team because the biggest thing that kills companies is turn over. So, the goal when you hire someone is you want them to be there long term. Even if they are not full time, even if they are one-time projects. You want someone you can give work back to in the future. Someone you can depend on. It’s just like having a really good mechanic or really good plumber that you want, you want these people in your back pocket. So, the way that you do that is by treating them well and a lot of clients don’t realize that there are two sides of it. Yes, you are paying them and they  need that money to survive. But they also have lots of opportunities from other people. So, what separates you? What separates you is building a really great company culture where people want to work, people want to deliver, where they feel like their work is rewarded. So, just doing the little things like telling them how much you appreciate them. getting their feedback, ask them what they like and don’t like. Really introducing them to a team, rather than just letting them do specific tasks that they have no idea how it affects the company. And also let them know when they do something well,  help increase your sales or does something else. Show them how their work affects the overall big picture. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple of years? I really see FreeeUp growing. We’ve been growing at a very rapid pace. We obviously are only as good as our workers, so we want to continue to recruit high level workers to help us along the process. And I really see this growing. I mean, there is no one out there that has those hands on solution to all the hiring nightmares that we have today. And the end goal – I don’t know. I’m very much a short term business person, I’m always looking at the next day, the next week, the next month, more than next five years because if you had told me five years ago that I wouldn’t be selling as much on Amazon, and that I’d be more focused on FreeeUp, I wouldn’t have believed you. So, I don’t know what the future has in store but I’m extremely excited about what FreeeUp has to offer. --- ## Mastering Leadership Communication URL: https://futuresharks.com/mastering-leadership-communication/ Effective leadership communication is a crucial skill in professional settings, as it directly influences how others perceive and respond to us. Speaking like a professional involves more than just using technical jargon or industry-specific language. It encompasses overcoming fear, asserting oneself, understanding the importance of body language, and mastering the art of having a charming presence and personal magnetism. In this article, we will delve into the research-backed strategies and techniques that can help individuals develop professional communication skills that captivate and engage their audience. We take insights from Laurie Schloff, a globally recognized speech and communication coach who has throughout her career helped successful CEOs and other notable executives build their communication prowess. With over three decades of experience, Schloff is a highly regarded trainer and coach specializing in presentation skills, executive coaching, leadership training, conference coaching, and facilitation. Schloff co-founded electionspeakers.com and developed the Presentation Coaching Certificate Program to train future presentation coaches. Her extensive client list includes prominent organizations such as Bain Capital, Fidelity Investments, Michelin, Allstate and TJX Companies. Schloff is an advisor to the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. Schloff has also authored several books, including “He & She Talk: How to Communicate with the Opposite Sex,” “Smart Speaking: Sixty Second Strategies,” and “Speech Gems.” Additionally, she developed the online microlearning program called “Conquer Your Fear of Speaking” for the Myquest.co platform. Notably, Schloff’s first children’s book, “Twenty Twinkling Stars,” serves as both a fundraiser and educational resource for National Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE), and is currently utilized by Sandy Hook Promise, the nation’s largest anti-violence organization. **I. Communication Excellence** In an article, Schloff shared thoughts on getting complex information across in the most effective manner. Schloff’s article greatly focuses on the importance of communication excellence, especially for healthcare and technology leaders, who often need to simplify complex and technical information to engage others and achieve the best results. The key takeaways are as follows: 1. **Communication Empathy:**Experts should understand that their audience might not be as interested in the technical specifics as they are. Therefore, it is crucial to approach communication with a listener-centered mindset, considering what matters most to the audience and what can be omitted to streamline the message. 2. **Check-in with Listeners:**Before any important meeting or presentation, it is essential to communicate in advance and ask the audience what they would like to cover. Understanding the audience’s level of knowledge about the topic is also crucial to avoid speaking over their heads or providing irrelevant information. 3. **Master Verbal Organization:**Effective speakers convey their message concisely and with focus. Creating impactful verbal headlines and using the HEC Model (Headline-Example-Comment) can help present ideas clearly and engagingly. 4. **Make Ideas Easy to Understand:**When introducing new ideas or terminology, it is important to explain and simplify concepts for those outside the field. Clearly stating terms, providing brief definitions, and offering examples can help enhance understanding. The key to successful communication lies in preparation, understanding the audience’s needs, and presenting information in a clear, concise, and relatable manner. By developing communication empathy and mastering verbal organization, healthcare and technology leaders can better influence and engage others, leading to increased career and organizational success. **II. Importance of Body Language:** 1. Nonverbal Cues and Emotional Expression: Numerous studies emphasize the significance of nonverbal cues in communication. Body language, facial expressions, and gestures can influence how messages are received and interpreted. Research shows that individuals who use open and relaxed postures, maintain eye contact, and exhibit appropriate facial expressions are perceived as more confident and trustworthy. 2. Vocal Tone and Modulation: The way we speak also plays a critical role in professional communication. Research indicates that vocal tone, pitch, and modulation influence the perception of authority and credibility. Speaking with a clear and well-modulated voice, emphasizing key points, and varying vocal tone can add depth and impact to the delivery. **III. Mastering the Art of Charismatic Presence:** 1. Authenticity and Genuine Connection: Studies have shown that authenticity is key to building rapport and establishing trust. Authenticity involves being true to oneself, expressing genuine emotions, and connecting with others on a personal level. Engaging with sincerity, showing empathy, and actively relating to the audience’s needs and interests create a sense of connection and increase the likelihood of being heard and respected. 2. Developing Personal Magnetism: Personal magnetism is an intangible quality that draws people’s attention and captivates their interest. Research suggests that certain traits contribute to personal magnetism, such as confidence, charisma, positive energy, and enthusiasm. Engaging in activities that cultivate self-confidence, practicing positive thinking, and adopting an optimistic outlook can enhance personal magnetism and create a lasting impression. Speaking like a professional requires a combination of skills, including confidence, assertiveness, understanding body language, and developing a charismatic presence. Overcoming fear and building confidence through preparation and visualization techniques are essential steps. Being assertive involves clear and concise communication, active listening, and effective questioning. Understanding the significance of nonverbal cues and utilizing appropriate body language enhances communication impact. Finally, cultivating authenticity and personal magnetism establishes genuine connections and leaves a memorable impression. By incorporating these research-backed strategies and techniques, individuals can develop their professional communication skills and become effective communicators who captivate and influence their audience. --- ## The Complex Interplay Between Grief and Trauma: Understanding, Processing, and Approaching Healing URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-complex-interplay-between-grief-and-trauma-understanding-processing-and-approaching-healing/ Grief and trauma are profound experiences that can significantly impact an individual’s emotional well-being. Although grief and trauma are distinct concepts, they often intertwine, exacerbating the challenges faced by those who endure them. In this article, we will explore the link between grief and trauma, delve into the processes involved in their aftermath, and provide insights into how one can approach healing in the face of these emotional burdens. This article is developed using insights from Holly Margl, the esteemed author of “Witnessing Grief; Inviting Trauma and Loss to Our Coaching Conversations, An Enneagram Perspective,” is a highly regarded professional in the field of coaching, mentorship, and training. With a specialization in grief, trauma, and the Enneagram, Holly has established herself as an expert in navigating these complex areas. As a testament to her expertise and dedication, Holly holds the prestigious title of Master Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation. Holly has achieved two Professional Enneagram Certifications and Accreditation through the International Enneagram Association, showcasing her profound understanding and utilization of this powerful personality typology system. Her comprehensive knowledge and practical application of the Enneagram contribute to her ability to guide individuals through the healing process of grief and trauma. To complement her coaching prowess, Holly has also earned an Advanced Mentor Coach Certificate and Board Certification with the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching. These certifications further validate her commitment to professional excellence and her comprehensive skill set in assisting individuals in their journeys toward healing and well-being. ## The Link Between Grief and Trauma Grief, often associated with the loss of a loved one, encompasses a range of emotions, including sadness, longing, and pain. Trauma, on the other hand, stems from distressing or life-threatening events that overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope. While grief is typically associated with loss, trauma can arise from a myriad of experiences, such as accidents, abuse, or natural disasters. The link between grief and trauma lies in their shared emotional impact. Traumatic events can result in profound losses, leading to grief. Similarly, grief can be traumatizing in itself, as the pain and anguish associated with loss can be overwhelming, reminiscent of the distress experienced during a traumatic event. ## Processing Grief and Trauma Processing grief and trauma involves acknowledging and understanding the emotions associated with these experiences. Both grief and trauma can elicit a wide array of emotional responses, including anger, guilt, fear, and numbness. Individuals may also experience physical symptoms, such as sleep disturbances, loss of appetite, and fatigue. When it comes to grief, it is important to allow oneself to mourn and express emotions openly. This can be achieved through talking to supportive individuals, engaging in grief support groups, or seeking professional help from therapists specializing in grief counseling. Additionally, engaging in self-care activities, maintaining a healthy routine, and engaging in creative outlets can aid in the grieving process. In the case of trauma, it is crucial to create a safe space for healing. This can involve finding supportive environments and seeking professional help from trauma-informed therapists. Therapeutic approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) have been proven effective in helping individuals process and integrate traumatic experiences. ## Approaching Healing Recovering from grief and trauma is a deeply personal journey, and each individual’s process will vary. However, there are several approaches that can be beneficial in facilitating healing. 1. Self-Compassion: Practicing self-compassion is crucial in the face of grief and trauma. Recognizing that experiencing pain is a natural part of the healing process and treating oneself with kindness and understanding can help in navigating these difficult emotions. 2. Seeking Support: Building a strong support system is essential. Connecting with understanding friends, family, or support groups can provide solace and validation. Professional help from therapists experienced in grief and trauma can offer specialized guidance and tools for healing. 3. Embracing Resilience: Cultivating resilience can help individuals bounce back from adversity. Engaging in activities that foster personal growth, such as mindfulness, exercise, and journaling, can enhance resilience and aid in the healing process. 4. Patience and Time: Healing from grief and trauma is a gradual process that requires patience. It is important to allow oneself the time needed to grieve, heal, and rebuild life. Understanding that healing is not linear and that setbacks may occur is crucial for maintaining a compassionate approach towards oneself. Grief and trauma are complex emotional experiences that can have a profound impact on individuals’ lives. Recognizing the interconnectedness between grief and trauma is essential in understanding the depth of emotional pain they entail. By acknowledging the emotions, seeking support, and embracing healing approaches, individuals can navigate the journey towards recovery. While grief and trauma may leave lasting imprints, it is important to remember that healing is possible. With time, support, and self-compassion, individuals can embark on a path of healing and reclaim a sense of hope and well-being in their lives. --- ## What Does Dr Peter Polack Say About Ophthalmology Marketing in His Book? URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-does-dr-peter-polack-say-about-ophthalmology-marketing-in-his-book/ Peter J. Polack, MD, is a board-certified ophthalmologist who specializes in laser refractive and cataract surgery. He is also the founder of Emedikon, a venture marketing firm that helps medical practices enhance their marketing strategies using his proprietary Polack Practice Marketing Protocol™. As the son of a well-known ophthalmologist, Dr. Polack has a firsthand understanding of the changes that have impacted American practices. He has a keen interest in the role of technology and marketing in the medical field and has been sharing his insights with medical professionals through his blogs on ophthalmology marketing, which are featured on industry publications like Healio Ophthalmology, Eyes on Eyecare and Ophthalmology Management. Additionally, he is a prominent contributor on Quora.com, where his posts have amassed over 4 million views, solidifying his reputation for understanding today’s patient experience. Dr. Polack has explored the concepts of using the right marketing to build practice resistance and resilience in economically challenging times. Resistance refers to a practice’s ability to withstand a disturbance in “normal” elective or premium services revenue. Resilience refers to a practice’s ability to recover after suffering great harm from a serious revenue disturbance and their ability to continue to operate in a devolving economic situation. Marketing is an essential component of any successful ophthalmology practice. However, many ophthalmologists fall victim to common marketing myths, such as the belief that new revenue requires new patients, that buying a la carte marketing services will suffice, or that revenue growth demands heavy investment in branding. The truth is, these myths are often counterproductive. In his book, “The Ultimate Ophthalmic Marketing Guide,” Dr. Polack introduces the concept of Scientific Marketing Funnels™. This approach is data-driven and uses metrics that matter, rather than misleading clicks and likes, to measure marketing efforts. By implementing The Polack Protocol™ and creating Scientific Marketing Funnels™, ophthalmologists can turn marketing expenses into investments (or, at the very least, self liquidating liabilities), prevent bleeding of advertising dollars misspent and untraced, increase their bottom line, and automate marketing to make it easier to manage, monitor, and scale. This approach allows ophthalmologists to manage their marketing department like they run their clinical department, with an evidence-based approach, just as they practice evidence-based medicine. One of the hardest marketing myths to “unlearn” is the belief that more revenue is only done by acquiring new patients. This myth can lead practices to waste money on expensive marketing campaigns to attract new patients without considering the value of existing patients. The Polack Protocol™ is based on his 7R Marketing Strategy™ which is the crux of his “Ultimate Ophthalmic Marketing Guide.” His approach focuses on maximizing the value of existing patients and encouraging them to return for premium services. Another common myth is that buying a la carte marketing services is sufficient for a practice to succeed. This approach can lead to spending money on unnecessary services that do not contribute to the practice’s bottom line. Polack’s 7R strategy and Polack Protocol marketing operations roadmaps provide a comprehensive and strategic approach that considers the unique needs of each practice and tailors marketing efforts accordingly. Given that too many practices think an annual marketing budget is a marketing plan (when it is actually a spending plan), Polack asks marketing directors to take a look at these key marketing insights. First, review your strategy with the 7Rs method. Next, plot how you will deploy marketing operations to achieve those strategic results. Lastly, adopt, adapt and apply them for your specific issues and opportunities. The final myth that Polack seeks to dispel is the belief that revenue growth requires overweighted investment in branding. Instead, focus on measurable and data-driven processes rather than branding efforts that may not provide a return on investment. In conclusion, Polack hopes to help his colleagues maximize the value of their existing patients, tailor marketing efforts to their unique needs, and focus on KPIs that move the revenue, reputation and referral needles. By implementing Polack’s strategy and operations programs, ophthalmologists can turn marketing expenses into investments while they supercharge revenue growth. --- ## How Can a Personal Trainer Transform Your Life, Physically and Mentally? URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-can-a-personal-trainer-transform-your-life-physically-and-mentally/ Physical fitness has been a crucial aspect of human life since ancient times. People have always been drawn towards various forms of physical activities, be it hunting, farming, or even just walking. However, in modern times, with the advent of technology and sedentary lifestyles, physical fitness has taken a back seat. It has become a luxury rather than a necessity for most people. This is where a personal trainer can make a significant impact on your life. A personal trainer is a qualified fitness professional who can help you achieve your fitness goals. They are experts in creating customized workout plans and providing nutrition guidance based on your individual needs and preferences. However, their role is not just limited to physical training. Personal trainers can also have a profound impact on your mental and emotional well-being. One of the primary reasons why people fail to achieve their fitness goals is the lack of motivation and accountability. A personal trainer can provide the necessary motivation and hold you accountable for your actions. They can push you to work harder and go beyond your limits. This not only helps in achieving physical fitness but also develops mental toughness, which can be applied to other areas of life. A personal trainer can also help in reducing stress and anxiety. Exercise is known to be a natural stress reliever, and with a personal trainer, you can customize your workout plan to include activities that specifically target stress reduction. Additionally, the one-on-one attention and support provided by a personal trainer can help alleviate any anxiety or stress related to working out in a group setting. Here are some key numbers that demonstrate how personal training can help individuals improve their physical and mental health: 1. **Weight loss:** According to a study by the American Council on Exercise, individuals who worked with a personal trainer lost an average of 2.7% more body fat and 4 pounds more than those who exercised on their own. 2. **Improved strength:** A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that individuals who worked with a personal trainer increased their strength by 45% more than those who exercised on their own. 3. **Decreased risk of injury**: A personal trainer can help individuals learn proper form and technique when exercising, which can reduce the risk of injury. In fact, a study published in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness found that injury rates were significantly lower among individuals who worked with a personal trainer. 4. **Better mental health:** Exercise has been shown to improve mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. A personal trainer can help individuals develop a fitness plan that incorporates exercises that promote mental wellness. 5. **Improved adherence to exercise:** According to a study published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, individuals who worked with a personal trainer were more likely to adhere to their exercise program and continue exercising in the long term. Overall, personal training can be a valuable tool for individuals looking to improve their physical and mental health. By working with a personal trainer, individuals can achieve their fitness goals, reduce their risk of injury, and improve their overall quality of life. Working with a personal trainer can also improve your overall health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. They can assess your current health status and create a workout plan that is tailored to your needs. Personal trainers can also provide nutrition guidance, which is a critical component of a healthy lifestyle. Another significant benefit of working with a personal trainer is the accountability factor. A personal trainer can keep you on track and make sure that you are making progress towards your goals. They can also make necessary adjustments to your workout plan and provide feedback to ensure that you are achieving optimal results. A good example of a personal trainer is Hans Hartleben. Hans, a highly accomplished and passionate sportsman, established F.I.R.E. Fitness Camp® in late 2013, and has since taken the helm as the CEO of this rapidly expanding company. With a wealth of experience and expertise under his belt, Hans has dedicated many years of his life to studying with the prestigious American College of Sports Medicine, and is now a certified Group Personal Training Specialist with the highly respected National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). Hans’s commitment to excellence is unparalleled, and this is reflected in the quality of his elite personal training services. He is highly selective when it comes to his clients, working only with individuals who meet his rigorous standards of qualification. Under Hans’s expert guidance, clients can expect to receive personalized and highly effective fitness training that is tailored to their unique needs and goals. As a Group Personal Training Specialist with NASM, Hans is trained to design and deliver group fitness programs that are safe, effective, and enjoyable. He is well-versed in a variety of training techniques, including strength training, cardiovascular conditioning, and flexibility training, and he knows how to incorporate these elements into well-rounded and balanced fitness programs. In addition to his extensive training and expertise, Hans has a deep passion for fitness and an unwavering commitment to helping others achieve their goals. He is dedicated to creating a supportive and empowering environment at F.I.R.E. Fitness Camp®, where clients can feel motivated and inspired to take their fitness to the next level. With Hans at the helm, F.I.R.E. Fitness Camp® is poised for continued growth and success, and is well on its way to becoming a leading force in the fitness industry. In conclusion, a personal trainer can have a profound impact on your life, both physically and mentally. They can help you achieve your fitness goals, reduce stress and anxiety, improve overall health, and provide the necessary motivation and accountability to stay on track. Investing in a personal trainer is an investment in yourself and your well-being. So why wait? Take the first step towards a healthier and happier life and hire a personal trainer today. --- ## The Importance of Being an Expert at Multiple Things URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-importance-of-being-an-expert-at-multiple-things/ In today’s fast-paced world, the ability to specialize in a particular field is highly valued. We are encouraged to become experts in one field and dedicate ourselves to honing our skills in that area. However, there is also something to be said for being a jack of all trades. Being able to perform a variety of tasks and have a diverse range of skills can be incredibly beneficial in many areas of life. In a world that values specialization, it can be tempting to focus on mastering a single skill or area of expertise. However, there are also benefits to being an expert at many things. Having a broad range of knowledge and skills can offer unique advantages both in personal and professional settings. In this article, we will explore the importance of being an expert at many things and how it can be beneficial. Firstly, being an expert at many things can lead to greater flexibility in both personal and professional settings. When one has a broad range of skills, they can adapt to different situations and tasks more easily. For example, in the workplace, an employee who is able to work in different departments and perform a variety of tasks can be highly valuable to their employer. They can fill gaps in the company and take on responsibilities outside of their main role. In a personal setting, being an expert at many things can be useful for managing household tasks or tackling projects around the house. Being able to repair a car, build a bookshelf, and cook a gourmet meal can save time and money by avoiding the need to hire specialists. Secondly, being an expert at many things can lead to a more well-rounded perspective. When one has a broad range of knowledge and skills, they can approach problems and challenges from a variety of angles. This can lead to more creative and innovative solutions. For example, someone with expertise in both finance and marketing may be able to create a more effective advertising campaign by considering the financial implications of the project. They can bring a unique perspective to the project that combines both skill sets. A fine example of someone who is an expert in multiple areas is Brandy G. Robinson, a compliance and regulatory expert, who, in her early career, was also a governmental lawyer. Since 2002, she has worked in a multitude of companies and NGOs and explored her professional acumen in diverse industries including compliance and regulatory, auditing, law, biotech, auditing, project management, entrepreneurship, quality assurance, intellectual property and licensing, cross-functional team leadership, product development, strategic planning, commercialization, nonprofit, human rights advocacy, etc., making her a sought-after professional as well as an “unicorn” of professional skills and experiences. Additionally, being an expert at many things can lead to greater job satisfaction and career opportunities. When one has a broad range of skills, they are more likely to find a job that aligns with their interests and passions. They can also pursue career opportunities in a variety of industries and roles. This can lead to a more fulfilling career and greater job satisfaction. Furthermore, being an expert at many things can lead to a stronger sense of self-confidence and self-reliance. When one has a broad range of skills, they are less reliant on others for help or guidance. They can take on tasks and projects independently and feel a sense of accomplishment when they complete them. This can lead to greater confidence and self-esteem. However, it is important to note that being an expert at many things does not necessarily mean being a master of all. While having a broad range of skills can be advantageous, it is important to also develop a deep level of expertise in at least one area. This means dedicating time and effort to developing skills and knowledge in a specific area of interest. This deep level of expertise can serve as a foundation for a career or a specific project. In conclusion, being an expert at many things can offer unique advantages in personal and professional settings. It can lead to greater flexibility, creativity, job satisfaction, and self-confidence. However, it is important to also develop a deep level of expertise in at least one area. By balancing a broad range of skills with a strong foundation in one area, one can truly become an expert at many things. --- ## Sustainability Strategies And Benefits For Business Owners URL: https://futuresharks.com/sustainability-strategies-and-benefits-for-business-owners/ It is currently the most critical decade for the planet, and we all need to take some action. We are all human, and we all have the same basic needs. We might have different aspirations, but we have the same need to live on a planet that is free of garbage and pollution in order to go about our lives. Businesses can help with this! As a company, you have the power and willingness to make a difference. You can become more sustainable through evaluation, strategizing, and execution. This will have a beneficial effect on both individuals and the environment, boost employee involvement, offer a competitive edge, and optimize revenue. Becoming more sustainable could take some time, effort, and money at first, but once you have all your systems in place, the benefits that you could reap are more than you could imagine. ## The journey toward sustainable business The implementation of a sustainability strategy cannot be seen as a mere add-on, a policy, or a newly established department or role within a company. It is essential that the strategy is ingrained in the business model, and we can work together to identify how it can create opportunities and mitigate risk. Whether the strategy calls for minor adjustments or substantial changes, we can assist in building a solid business case that considers both short-term gains and long-term objectives. Having a comprehensive sustainability strategy in place is crucial to ensuring that every member of the organization understands its significance. Through workshops and training, individuals and teams will be encouraged to embrace the strategy and comprehend its relevance in different functional areas, such as logistics, product development, client services, finance, R&D, marketing, and HR. Sustainability is a multifaceted and often perplexing area, and “greenwashing” can damage people’s perceptions of a business. It is important to acknowledge that no individual or organization is perfect and to be truthful about any shortcomings without making exaggerated claims. Being genuine about your sustainability journey will help build trust with your stakeholders. Find moregreen initiatives for businesses! ## How can I make my business more sustainable? It takes time, patience, effort, and money in the beginning, however, transitioning to a more sustainable approach, but the potential benefits make it a worthwhile endeavor. Successful entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders view difficulties as opportunities. This is your chance to embrace sustainability and adopt innovative strategies that work for your organization. Here are some suggestions to help you get started. ### Introduce Recycling in the Workplace Recycling is an effective way to prevent waste from ending up in landfills or incinerators while also creating job opportunities. If your workplace does not already have a recycling program, consider implementing one. If you already have a recycling system, ensure that it complies with the relevant recycling laws in your area. To encourage recycling, provide appropriate bins and ensure that they are clearly labeled for different types of materials. If your city has a composting program, take advantage of it. ### Promote Green Commuting Daily commuting has a significant impact on the environment, with billions of gallons of gas wasted and lost productivity. Encourage employees to engage in eco-friendly commuting options, such as carpooling, biking, or taking public transportation, to reduce daily emissions. You can also offer electric bikes or inexpensive scooters to help those who live too far away to bike to work. ### Provide Remote Work Options Allowing employees to work remotely is another effective way to reduce the environmental impact of commuting. If feasible, provide the option of working from home. Remote work eliminates a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions that occur because of daily commuting. Additionally, it helps employees avoid potential health risks associated with commuting. ### Adopt Digital Practices Despite the advances in digital technology, many businesses still rely on paper. Take advantage of computers, smartphones, and other devices to reduce paper usage. Try to avoid unnecessary printing and opt for digital copies of documents. ### Form a Sustainability Committee Creating a team of volunteers who are responsible for sustainability initiatives can significantly enhance your efforts. A sustainability committee provides accountability and ensures that someone is responsible for driving sustainability practices in the workplace. Furthermore, it encourages a culture of sustainability, and the committee can engage with other employees to generate new ideas and address challenges. Empower the committee to make decisions and take the necessary actions to promote sustainable practices. ## Are there any challenges to look out for? Implementing sustainability strategies in business can be challenging due to various barriers, including a lack of resources, unengaged personnel, the inability to assess success, and a lack of focus or planning. However, businesses can start small and make affordable changes, engage employees by asking for their input and creating incentives, measure success by assessing the impact of sustainability initiatives on costs and sales, and focus on one or two key issues to narrow their plans and increase profits. Each business will have its own timeframe in which they would be able to implement this initiative, as every business owner has different resources and abilities; however, making the start and working towards a more sustainable business is beneficial for everyone involved. ## In Conclusion In conclusion, incorporating sustainability strategies into your business model is crucial for the planet, your employees, and your revenue. It may take some time, effort, and money, but the benefits outweigh the costs. To get started, consider implementing recycling, promoting green commuting, offering remote work options, adopting digital practices, and forming a sustainability committee. While there may be challenges, businesses can start small and make affordable changes, engage employees, measure success, and focus on key issues to increase profits. Acting towards sustainability is not only the right thing to do but also a smart business decision. --- ## A look inside the surreal success of Dom Smith URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-look-inside-the-surreal-success-of-dom-smith/ The trade union movement in the United Kingdom originated from the idea that a disparate group can speak with one united voice. Regardless of their background, race, religion, gender, age, or sexual orientation, we work hard to ensure that all musicians are fairly represented. More than just a level playing field is necessary for true equality. No one, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic, should be denied the basic decency to which they are entitled. A fair approach may, however, require a personalized strategy for each individual to ensure that they can all participate on an equal footing. A musician who is able to see clearly does not need Braille scores, and a transgender musician may have needs that are not met by the standard music industry. When we talk about equality, we imagine a world in which everyone has access to the same resources. East Yorkshire native and UCLan alumnus Dom Smith (who has Cerebral Palsy) is a digital journalist and licensed person-centered counselor. Previously named one of the happiest people in the country by the Independent on Sunday, he won the National Diversity Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence in 2012. He has also served as York’s Paralympic Flame Bearer. After working as, the MIT Journalist in Residence in the United States, 2022 finds Dom based in Yorkshire and the North of England, where he is responsible for running the music magazine Soundsphere. Originally based in Manchester, Chester, and York before relocating to Hull, the project has since assisted with festivals all over the world, including Sziget in Hungary, Exit in Serbia, Leeds and Download in the United Kingdom, and South by Southwest in the United States. Soundsphere promotes national and local charities such as CALM (The Campaign Against Living Miserably), Accessible Arts and Media (York), and Samaritans through live music showcases that are funded by advertorials from clubs, bars, and academic institutions looking to run work placements (at academic institutions in Hull, Preston, Chester, Leeds and more). In addition to his work with the Creative Condition, Dom also promotes disability and mental health awareness through his work with Wobbling About and Rocking Out. Dom has spent much of his career as a mentor to young people, working with organizations like The Warren Youth Project in Hull and giving talks and workshops to students all over the country on topics related to entrepreneurship, the media, and journalism. To name just a few of the publications that have published his work over the years, Dom has contributed to Metro, Rock Sound, WhatCulture, The Quietus, T3, NME.com, Stuff, and Metal Hammer, among others, and has conducted interviews with such notables as Rammstein, Placebo, Alice in Chains, Judas Priest, 1975, McBusted, and Yungblud. Dom has recently begun penning pieces for pop culture journalism and has collaborated with a wide variety of international performers, such as the magician Dynamo, the wrestler Ric Flair, and many others. A touring drummer, Dom has performed with many different bands across the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia (in the bands The Parasitic Twins, Seep Away, and Mary And The Ram). --- ## Unfolding The Life Of Michael Bach And His Voyage To Success   URL: https://futuresharks.com/unfolding-the-life-of-michael-bach-and-his-voyage-to-success/ Michael Bach is the finest example of people who lives most of the time of his life in an effort to help others and advocate for their happiness. Bach is well known nationally and internationally as a thought leader and subject matter expert in the fields of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility, bringing a vast knowledge of leading practices in a live setting to his work. Besides being an enthusiastic advocate, Bach is also an award-winning and best-selling author. He has authored two books, ‘Birds of a Feather: Doing Diversity and Inclusion Right’ and ‘Alphabet Soup: The Essential Guide to LGBTQ2+ Inclusion at Work,’ that describe his public views regarding the nuances of economics and diversity inclusion. Bach is a talented individual who gave the utmost importance to his education. He knew that to bring a change in the world, he needed one of the most empowering tools: education. In 2012, he received a Master’s Certificate in Diversity Management from Cornell University. Bach also holds the Cornell Certified Diversity Professional/Advanced Practitioner (CCDP/AP) designation. ## A Diverse Career Bach’s career can only be described as “diverse” and eclectic. He began his work with AT&T in 1995 as a Product Trainer and Floor Supervisor when the telecom giant was first entering the online world. He subsequently spent two years as the Associate Director of Regional Technical Support at CIBC Wood Gundy before leaving in 1997 to become the General Manager of Sweet City Bakery, where he stayed until 1999. He then became the deputy campaign manager for George Smitherman, Ontario’s first and first LGBTQ+ member of parliament. . As a result of the victory, Bach was employed as the Special Assistant to the Chief Whip of the Ontario Liberal Caucus in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, a position he held until 2001. Then came the period when Bach resolved to go off on his own. Bach founded an IT and web consulting firm and remained self-employed until 2005. In March 2005, Bach was hired as the Manager of Operations Improvement Advisory Services at KPMG Canada. He managed KPMG’s fastest-growing Advisory Services function, growing it from 20 to 85 FTE in less than 18 months. His role at KPMG changed the direction of his career altogether. Bach had worked primarily in the IT space, but at KPMG, he and a group of 7 individuals created pride@kpmg – the employee resource group for the firm’s LGBTQ+ population and their allies. That work garnered him the attention of the CEO and the firm’s senior leadership, which presented an opportunity. As he describes it, while IT had been his day job, he had spent all of his adult life working toward LGBTQ+ inclusion – or what he calls his “gay job.” With the attention of the firm’s leadership, he presented the business case for creating a role that focused on diversity and inclusion. In 2006, Bach started as the National Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for KPMG Canada. In this capacity, He was in charge of planning and implementing all diversity-related programs and initiatives for the company’s activities. He developed the firm’s national short- and long-term diversity and inclusion plan and collaborated with local offices to establish objectives and activities. Bach also designed and launched various diversity-focused educational initiatives and crafted the firm’s strategy around defining targets for the advancement of women and people of color in Partnership. From 2007 until 2010, he was also the Deputy Chief Diversity Officer at KPMG International. He wrote the white paper and business case to establish KPMG’s Global Diversity Team (GDT) and worked with over 150 KPMG member firms. He founded and ran an internal center of excellence, serving as a subject matter expert and advising country-based KPMG operations in 150+ countries worldwide. Bach established the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) in November 2012 and, in February 2013, became its first CEO. CCDI is a charitable organization dedicated to educating Canadians about the importance of diversity and inclusion. He led the organization until April 2021 and was in charge of establishing and implementing the organization’s vision. Bach established the company from the bottom up, and it now provides services in 18 communities across Canada, with over 700 Employer Partners. The enthusiasm and compassion did not end just there; in January 2014, Bach launched CCDI Consulting Inc, CCDI’s consulting arm, and still serves as its Chief Executive Officer. CCDI Consulting offers a broad range of consulting services in inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility. ## Awards and Recognition It is widely assumed that a person’s success is judged by the number of awards and recognitions they have received. Bach has not been left behind in this regard. In 2011, he received the LGBT Workplace Advocate award from Out on Bay Street and the Catalyst Canada Honors award for Human Resources/Diversity Leader. He received the Pride at Work Canada Leadership Award in 2012, Women of Influence’s Canadian Diversity Champions in 2011 and 2012, and the Inspire Award as LGBTQ person of the year in 2011. Bach has been quite engaged in the LGBT community for decades and vocal about LGBTQ rights, particularly in the workplace. He is the founder and former chair of the Board of Directors of Pride at Work Canada, an LGBT workplace advocacy organization, and a previous board director for the LGBT Youth Line (both for six years). He is also a previous board director of executive, an organization that connects LGBT professionals, executives, and seasoned entrepreneurs. When listing this incredibly successful person’s contributions, words just do not suffice. There is no limit to the impact Bach’s efforts and contributions have on the world. In a nutshell, Michael Bach is one of the most precious gifts that the universe has bestowed upon this globe. --- ## Turning Dreams Into Reality | Technopreneurial Journey of Syed Abdullah Jayed URL: https://futuresharks.com/turning-dreams-into-reality-technopreneurial-journey-of-syed-abdullah-jayed/ **At the time, when others were daydreaming about achievements out in the bush, Abdullah Jayed had already built a****global Fi****ntech business group, working with hundreds of professionals to create a revolutionary change in the retail trading industry.** In recent years, proprietary trading firms have become a sensational phenomenon due to their undoubted popularity in the forex industry. Cracking through the giant competitors, **FundedNext** has notched up in the global trading community while serving thousands of international traders with a robust trading platform and a trader-friendly environment. The man behind this robust trading solution is the CEO of FundedNext, **Syed Abdullah Jayed**. He is one of the youngest yet most successful technopreneurs at present in the retail trading industry, carving his own unique path of success. Jayed is the founder of **NEXT Ventures** (parent company of FundedNext), a digital venture builder and fintech business group, operating from the UAE and Bangladesh. NEXT has its five global registered offices in multiple countries, including the USA, the UK, the UAE, and Bangladesh. Starting with an e-Commerce business, Jayed foresaw a slight glimpse of a silver lining in the retail trading industry. From the beginning, he aimed to introduce technologically advanced solutions and a smooth trading experience for the traders of the world’s biggest financial market, forex. “*Although the initial years were distant from the trading world, we have had an anchored eye to pursue our service in trading since the inception. Our delegated Research and Development team dived in and scrutinized the curable loopholes in the forex industry. Today we have turned our goal into reality,*” states Mr. Jayed. ### How Has NEXT’s Journey Been Thus Far? NEXT is not just a brand but embedded in the lives of 250+ professionals. The journey of NEXT Ventures started with just a small group of highly enthusiastic experts conquering the e-commerce sector globally during its highest peak. While working closely with the global clients and serving them with the most robust e-com solutions, Jayed was exposed to the world of foreign exchange market. He says, “*We came to the realization that the E-commerce industry was becoming oversaturated, and we, as a company, would run out of room to grow as a brand. And since we always had the anchoring eye to enter the retail trading industry, our team did their magic to find out how we could not only enter, but also dominate the market.”*  Since 2017, NEXT Ventures has been dedicatedly working with global traders, educating and assisting them with leading-edge technological solutions. ### FundedNext: The Beginning “*While working closely with traders for years, we discovered an inflaming demand for funding capital by skilled retail traders**,*” says Mr. Jayed. “*The growing popularity of trading has created a massive scope for opportunity seekers and attracted millions of trade enthusiasts.**This is followed by a great number of excellent traders lacking healthy capital to invest in and earn a living from trading. And Voilà, we got our breakthrough right there and there**,*” he adds. After two intense years of research and testing out many trading capital solutions, FundedNext, the proprietary firm, came into light on March 18, 2022.   FundedNext is a robust trading solution, built on advanced technological resources to assist skilled retail traders. Within less than half a year of directly participating in the prop industry, FundedNext has already onboarded thousands of international traders. “*We started FundedNext with the vision of providing the most exceptional service and user experience. And our vision will always remain the same. I can confidently say that FundedNext will soon become the default, the go-to prop firm for any trader looking to be funded to realize their dreams*.” ### How Has FundedNext Impacted NEXT’s Journey? “*There is so much sweat, sleepless nights, and undefinable hard work put into building NEXT Ventures. We have come this far; it has not been done in a day. With a vision to create sustainable solutions for our clients, we kept on inventing new solutions**,*” states Mr. Jayed. He adds, “*FundedNext has become NEXT’s another breakthrough in the envisioned goal that we have been persistent to achieve*.” FundedNext has onboarded thousands of international retail traders, and its web visitors have reached 1.2 million/month within just six-months since its launch. For the first time in the history of the proprietary trading firm, NEXT Ventures, under the banner of FundedNext, arranged the international prop-firm traders’ meet-up on June 25, 2022, in Bangkok, Thailand. --- ## ZAJIL EXPRESS—AN ICON OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SAUDIA ARABIA URL: https://futuresharks.com/zajil-express-an-icon-of-entrepreneurship-in-saudia-arabia/ ***According to a recent report, the logistics sector in Saudi Arabia is worth $18 billion and is recognized as one of the most appealing growth industries in the GCC.*** In Saudi Arabia, transport is a key factor in economic growth. The government has strongly emphasized the logistics strategies of moving goods by land, air, or sea. As a result, industry leaders are implementing technology, procedures, and standards to carry it out. Zajil Express is one such leader, taking action to remain competitive by leveraging its strengths and skills in keeping up with the digital transformation, consumer expectations, new market entrants, and shifting business models. ## How does Zajil Express Contribute To The Advancement Of The Logistic Industry? The Saudi government has invested heavily in transportation to explore new ways to extract and use the country’s valuable logistic resources. Zajil Express is one of the leading shipping and delivery networks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company is a Saudi Arabian privately owned and operated postal company, offering both domestic and international goods shipping. Zajil Express has a large fleet of vehicles constantly on the move, delivering packages worldwide. The company has developed an excellent reputation for reliability and speed and is considered one of the best shipping and delivery companies in Saudi Arabia. Zajil is a true pioneer in the rapidly growing field of dynamic logistics. By harnessing the latest technology, Zajil is revolutionizing shipping and delivery in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company is known for its courier and package delivery, strength in handling customer inquiries and complaints, and accelerated expansion plan locally, in GCC, and globally. ## Zajil Express—Awards & Achievements Zajil Express has been delivering top-notch service since its establishment. The company has a long list of awards and accolades, including the KSA Express Service Provider of the Year Award (Private Sector) for 2018 and the Best Company in the International Cargo Category for 2020. Zajil Express has an impressive complaint rate of only 19 per 100,000 shipments, which is a testament to its commitment to customer satisfaction. The company offers a wide range of services, from same-day delivery to express shipping, and its team of experts is always on hand to ensure that your shipment arrives on time and in perfect condition. ## Exceptional Logistic Services Worldwide Zajil was established in 1999 with just two delivery outlets in and around Unaizah. The company has since expanded into a global shipping and logistics solutions provider, operating in more than 110 outlets across Saudi Arabia. In addition to express delivery, Zajil now offers air freight, land freight, sea freight, customs clearance, fulfillment, 3PL, store-to-store express, door-to-door services, last-mile delivery, line haul/fleet shipping, and chilled delivery. Zajil also offers a wide range of services serving different sectors, including B2B, B2C, and C2C. Whether you are a business owner looking to streamline your shipping process or an individual consumer seeking fast and reliable package delivery, Zajil is your go-to company. ## Zajil Express’s Commitment To Its Customers Zajil Express provides efficient, reliable, and cost-effective shipping and logistics solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of its customers. The company strives to be the leading provider of end-to-end shipping and logistics solutions in the region and beyond. Zajil Express provides customers with a one-stop solution for all their shipping and logistics needs. With its cutting-edge technology and outstanding customer service, Zajil is setting the standard for dynamic logistics companies around the world. --- ## Co-Founder of Victory Starts Now, Kasey Stinson Is Dedicated To Helping Others URL: https://futuresharks.com/co-founder-of-victory-starts-now-kasey-stinson-is-dedicated-to-helping-others/ Kasey Stinson is an entrepreneur from California. Since he offers a variety of business services, his career currently revolves around business consulting. Having worked as a highly sought after tax professional in Los Angeles for over a decade, his business and finance skills have been refined. He is also highly involved in developing media properties for licensing and sale in addition to being a business consultant. A passionate learner, Kasey Stinson began researching everything he could find in Forbes magazines that he did not understand. Eventually, he acquired knowledge and started multiple media ventures, including one that landed him in prison for eight years. After he was released from prison, he founded the group Men Of Change, which provides men with tools to help them transition from illegal activities to legal ones. As cofounder and Chief Financial Officer of Victory Starts Now, Kasey Stinson leads the organization. This is a nonprofit organization that is the leading provider of community based restoration services for the Los Angeles County’s Office of Reentry and Diversion. Kasey has a passion for helping people since a young age. The meaning of “help” has evolved over time, but the purpose remains the same: Kasey thrives on leaving people, businesses, and even animals better off than they were. A nonprofit organization, Victory Starts Now provides alternatives to incarceration and helps the once incarcerated become productive citizens again. During his tenure at the company, he helped the company grow from 1 facility in 2015, serving 20 clients, to 21 facilities by 2020. In the next 5 years, Kasey Stinson believes that he will be elevating his organization to be able to broker more deals and create more opportunities. --- ## Competitive Advantage for a New Business: A 2026 Playbook URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-ways-your-new-business-can-gain-a-competitive-advantage/ TL;DR: In 2026, AI tools are table stakes — everyone has them. Real competitive advantage for a new business comes from a narrow niche, faster execution, a brand and community competitors can't copy, switching costs that make leaving painful, and using AI to run lean so you out-iterate bigger, slower rivals. Here's the uncomfortable truth in 2026: the tools that used to be your edge are now everyone's edge. AI writes your copy, drafts your code, answers your support tickets, and builds your landing page — and it does the exact same thing for the competitor launching next to you this week. McKinsey now calls AI a "table stake," not a differentiator. So if your plan for standing out is "we use AI," you don't have a plan. A real competitive advantage for a new business is something a well-funded competitor can see, understand, and *still* not copy quickly. That's a moat. Below are seven ways to build one when you're small, new, and outgunned on budget — which, in 2026, is more winnable than it has ever been. ## 1. Build a moat, not just a feature Features get cloned in a weekend. A moat is the structural reason a customer can't or won't leave even when a cheaper option shows up. The classic sources still hold: **switching costs, network effects, proprietary data, and brand.** What changed in 2026 is which ones are actually defensible. Model access is not a moat — anyone can call the same APIs you do. According to McKinsey and multiple VC theses this year, the durable moats now are **proprietary data that compounds with use** and **deep integration into a customer's workflow** so that leaving means ripping out something painful. Practical translation for a brand-new business: - **Get into the workflow.** A tool customers open once a week is replaceable. One that holds their data, their templates, their history, and their team's habits is not. Make leaving feel like moving houses. - **Capture data others don't have.** Every customer interaction should make your product measurably better for the *next* customer. That feedback loop is something a copycat starting today simply doesn't have yet. - **Stack two small moats.** No single moat is unbreakable when you're new, but a narrow niche plus a loyal community plus real switching costs together are very hard to attack on all three fronts at once. If you want the canonical framework, Peter Thiel's [Zero to One](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804139296) is still the sharpest argument for why you should aim to be the only one doing something, not the cheapest one doing what everyone does. ## 2. Go narrow before you go big The single biggest advantage a new business has is that it's allowed to ignore most of the market. Incumbents can't. They have to serve everyone, which means they serve no one perfectly. Pick a niche so specific it sounds too small. "Project management software" is a graveyard. "Scheduling software for drywall contractors" is a business. When you narrow this far, three things happen: your marketing speaks directly to one person, your product fits their workflow exactly, and you can charge more because you're the obvious choice rather than a generic option. How to actually define it: - **Name the customer, not the category.** Not "small businesses" — "two-person dental practices in towns under 50,000 people." - **Find the underserved edge.** Look at where the big players' reviews complain. Those one-star reviews are your product roadmap. - **Validate with real money fast.** Before building, get five people in that niche to pre-pay or commit. If you can't get five, the niche is wrong, not the world. W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne's [Blue Ocean Strategy](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1625274491) makes the case better than anyone: stop fighting in a bloody, crowded market and go create an uncontested one. A new business doesn't win the existing game — it changes which game is being played. ## 3. Win on speed and execution When everyone has the same AI tools and the same access to capital-light launches, your remaining edge is how fast you learn. VCs in 2026 talk about "learning velocity" — the rate at which you ship, measure, and adjust — as the moat that actually scales. You will never out-resource an incumbent. You can out-iterate them. While their feature request crawls through three planning meetings, you can ship it, watch real users break it, and ship the fix again — all before their meeting ends. The mantra this year is blunt: **ship in days, not quarters.** How small teams make this real: - **Talk to users weekly, not quarterly.** Five real conversations beat any survey. Build directly against what you hear. - **Default to shipping ugly.** A live thing you can learn from beats a polished thing you're still guessing about. - **Cut your decision latency.** Most startups don't die from bad decisions; they die from slow ones. If a choice is reversible, make it today. Speed isn't recklessness — it's compounding. A business that learns 1% faster every week pulls away from a slower competitor permanently. ## 4. Make your brand and story the thing they can't copy A competitor can clone your features. They cannot clone the reason people trust you. In a market where AI makes products converge toward sameness, **brand is becoming the most durable differentiator left**, precisely because it can't be prompted into existence. Brand isn't your logo. It's the specific feeling and belief people attach to your name — and for a new business, that comes almost entirely from story and point of view. Why does this company exist? What do you believe that your competitors are too cautious to say? Founders who take a sharp, even polarizing, public stance build brands that AI-generated competitors can't manufacture. Concretely: - **Have an enemy.** The best brand stories define what they're *against*: bloated software, predatory pricing, the way the incumbents treat customers. Pick yours. - **Put a human face on it.** Founder-led content — your actual voice, your actual takes — outperforms faceless brand accounts in 2026 precisely because people are drowning in AI-generated content and crave the opposite. - **Be consistent everywhere.** The same voice in your emails, your support replies, your packaging, your error messages. Consistency is what turns a name into a brand. ## 5. Turn customers into a community There's a strategic difference between having customers and having a community, and in 2026 it might be the most underrated moat available to a small business. A customer buys from you. A community defends you, recruits for you, and creates value you didn't have to make yourself. The reason it's such a strong moat is that **the value lives in the members, not in you** — so a competitor can copy your product but cannot copy your community, because they'd have to copy all the relationships inside it. Figma, Lululemon, and Sephora built community into the core of their strategy for exactly this reason, and they raise switching costs every time a member shows up. For a new business, this is achievable from day one because you're small: - **Start a space and show up in it daily.** A Discord, a Slack, a comment section, a recurring local meetup. Small and active beats large and dead. - **Give members status, not just access.** People stay where they feel known. Spotlight customers, ask their advice, ship features they requested with their name on it. - **Let them connect to each other, not just to you.** A community where members help members keeps running even when you're asleep — and the switching cost of leaving their peers is far higher than leaving your product. ## 6. Compete on customer experience Big companies are structurally bad at customer experience. Their support is outsourced, scripted, and measured on ticket-closing speed. This is a gift to a new business, because experience is the one area where being small is an advantage rather than a handicap. In 2026, the winning move is counterintuitive: as competitors automate support into AI chatbots that everyone finds frustrating, **the human touch becomes a premium differentiator.** Use AI to handle the boring, repetitive 70% — and then use the hours it frees up to give real, fast, personal attention to the moments that matter. Solo founders report AI handing back one to four hours a day; spend that surplus on customers, not on yourself. What this looks like in practice: - **Reply faster than anyone reasonable would expect.** Speed of response is the easiest experience moat to build and the hardest for incumbents to match. - **Use AI for triage, humans for the hard parts.** Let automation route and draft; let a real person own anything emotional, ambiguous, or high-stakes. - **Treat onboarding as the product.** Most churn happens in the first two weeks. A new business that obsesses over the first session beats one with more features and a worse start. Great experience compounds into your brand and your community — the three reinforce each other, which is exactly why they're hard to attack. ## 7. Use AI to run lean and out-leverage bigger teams Here's the inversion that defines 2026: AI doesn't help the giants most — it helps you most, because it erases their headcount advantage. A one-person business can now run functions that used to require a team of ten. The numbers are real. Industry analyses this year put a full solo operator's AI stack at roughly $3,000–$12,000 a year, doing work that traditional staffing would have cost dramatically more. The Fortune and Entrepreneur coverage of the 2026 "solopreneur" wave describes founders running marketing, support, and operations largely on automation — with the caveat that going fully solo has real limits, so use AI to remove busywork, not judgment. The point isn't to use AI to do the same things cheaper. It's to use the leverage to do things your competitors can't justify: - **Automate the back office entirely.** Bookkeeping, scheduling, invoicing, first-draft content, data cleanup. Reclaim the hours. - **Spend the surplus on the moat.** Pour the reclaimed time into customer conversations, community, and brand — the things in #4 through #6 that AI *can't* do for you. - **Stay systematic, not speculative.** The durable AI-powered businesses use automation deliberately for defined tasks, not as a magic wand. Map a workflow, automate it, measure it, keep it. The trap to avoid: if all you do with AI is produce more generic content faster, you're racing toward sameness with everyone else. Use the leverage to be *more* human and *more* specific, not less. ## The bottom line A competitive advantage for a new business in 2026 has almost nothing to do with the tools you can buy, because your competitor can buy the exact same ones tomorrow. It comes from the things that take time, judgment, and relationships to build — and that's why they're worth building. Go narrow until it feels uncomfortable. Ship faster than anyone expects. Build a brand with a point of view, a community that defends you, and an experience that makes leaving feel like a loss. Use AI ruthlessly to clear the busywork, then spend every reclaimed hour on the moats no algorithm can dig for you. Do two or three of these well and stack them, and you won't just survive next to the incumbents — you'll be the one they're worried about. --- ## How This SAG Actor Turned Digital Content Creator Leveraged Social-Media to Grow Her Brand? URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-this-sag-actor-turned-digital-content-creator-leveraged-social-media-to-grow-her-brand/ Throughout her time in Hollywood, Megan Nager has made a name for herself both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Beginning her career as a SAG actor, Megan spent her first five years in Hollywood auditioning and landing roles on networks such as TruTV, Amazon, and Kevin Hart’s LOL Network. When she wasn’t working as an actor, Megan would seek out work producing, directing and editing, as she wanted to learn as much as she could about all aspects of filmmaking. This is when she discovered her love for content creation, so she began creating her own comedic digital content for her social media channels, which, today, have racked up millions of viral views. Her digital content has been used to depict the comedic side of unrealistic societal and beauty standards that many find totally ridiculous yet hilarious. Megan’s deep interest in researching the internet’s latest societal and cultural trends is what led her to partner with fellow comedian and podcaster, Erin Darling, to create a series where the two spend each episode covering a popular cultural theory, and then either tracing it back to its origins or debunking it. The goal of the show was to encourage people to think critically before believing something they read online or see on social media. They decided to test out their concept on TikTok and launched their own account. Seven days a week, Erin and Megan would switch off making videos covering the strangest theories like, Finland isn’t a real country (yes, some people actually believe this) or Tupac is still alive. The concept was a hit. Within two months, Erin and Megan grew to 100,000 followers. Their hard work and determination paid off. Not only did they harness TikTok to build a following, they also work with brands on campaigns, and partnered with Spotify, on Spotify Live, where they do a weekly show based on the same concept called POPSPIRACY. Today, their TikTok channel has nearly 200,000 followers and they’re continuing to enjoy writing and producing their long-form show POPSPIRACY. “Looking back on when I first started, it’s really cool to know that I built all of this myself,” says Megan. “I think my success as an artist and entrepreneur is a testament to the power of social media and how creating your own content can take you really far,” Megan says. When Megan isn’t auditioning or researching the internet’s wildest conspiracy theories for POPSPIRACY, she’s continuing to grow her own marketing and production company, Wake & Make Media, that she owns with partner, Corey Turner. Originally started as a production company, today, Wake and Make Media has grown into a nationally acclaimed marketing and production house that caters to 20 plus clients spanning an array of industries. Some of the brands Wake and Make Media has worked with include MTV, Miss Universe, PBR, Cîroc, TikTok, and more. “When I entered the entertainment industry, I was told by almost everyone that my focus was too wide and that I needed to pick just one thing to focus on. But I knew in my gut that this just didn’t work for me, so instead of listening, I decided to learn all aspects of filmmaking. This is what allowed me to write, produce and edit my own digital content that has led to the launch of my own production company, Wake and Make Media, and my own Spotify Original podcast,” Megan says. The sense of adaptability, innovation, and the ultimate thirst to achieve the best in her life was the catalyst that pulled Megan towards success in the entertainment industry and on social media. Megan’s love for creating content is undeniable. From sketch comedy to web series and even television shows, you can’t escape her influence if it comes down to anything creatively-comedic-related! Her most recent project was launching *Verified* on Amazon Prime, which gained high praise from critics alike because of its clever writing style. **FROM MEGAN HERSELF.** *‘It’s really easy to give up when so many doors are closed, and you’ve been said “no” to so many times. However, I was lucky enough to have a few mentors who were really encouraging and always reminded me of why I started and why I would be upset if I quit. I look back at all the days I struggled with the anxiety of not knowing when my next gig would pop up or how I’d establish myself and think of how proud I am of myself that I didn’t quit.’* --- ## The Honor Society Foundation: Reshaping Lives of Those Making an Effort URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-honor-society-foundation-reshaping-lives-of-those-making-an-effort/ Every individual has the potential to achieve greatness. With their knowledge and expertise, humans can transform the world around them. This implies that every person is a genius but only needs little polishing to bring out their best qualities. This intrinsic quality of a person is nurtured by proper education and good institutes. They assist people in honing their abilities and discovering their life’s passions. Unfortunately, not every genius can afford an education or the opportunity to develop their skills. From a young age, some people are often saddled with family responsibilities. Some struggle to make ends meet, while others have never heard of the school. While numerous charities, trusts, funds, and organizations help the poor in various ways, financing one’s education has always been one of the most effective ways to help individuals improve. One of the most expensive gifts one can give to oneself, and others are education. It’s the key to unlocking all kinds of opportunities. The Honor Society Foundation is one platform that enables students to be a step closer to their dreams by offering them scholarships. Knowledge, as they say, is power. If used correctly, it has the potential to change countless lives. Some of today’s most successful people are good illustrations of how education can transform lives. The Honor Society Foundation has taken a significant initiative to grant scholarships to students, realizing its importance and influence on people’s lives. The Honor Society Foundation has also grown its importance as a philanthropic resource. It was founded in the United States of America in 1999. Mike Moradian established the society intending to provide scholarships to anyone who desires to pursue higher education. The Honor Society Foundation gives scholarships to high achievers to pursue their aspirations, create value-driven educational content, and preserve the honor societies’ illustrious heritage. Students with big dreams have received scholarships from the Honor Society Foundation. Many of the students who approach them do not come from wealthy families, but they have a tremendous longing to pursue their education. They have a burning desire to go against the tide for something they can’t give up owing to financial restraints. The charity also aids in the bridging of societal divides. It provides poor students with equal opportunity and educates aspiring students about the various academic alternatives while obtaining a scholarship. Setting up a charity foundation and managing it administratively is similar to creating and managing a corporation. Mike Moradian is an internet entrepreneur who founded the ‘Honor Society Foundation’ to bring the concept of philanthropy and social service to reality. The foundation’s mission is to recognize those members of society who are left hanging helplessly. It provides support to those whose own community or family has rejected them. It also honors the academic and professional achievements of those who have benefited from the Honor Society Foundation. Young adults mostly operate the Honor Society Foundation. These folks have discovered the most intelligent and efficient strategies to assist the young generation since they share the same mindsets and views. They are well aware of the social ills and bad behaviors they could engage in if given money. The main objective of assisting students in obtaining scholarships is to keep them away from potentially dangerous activities and steer them in the correct direction. Since most of the staff at this foundation is young, they realize how difficult it is for students to balance employment and academics. The faculty organizes member outings to provide them a break from their routine. These travels allow members to gain new knowledge and establish rapport in preparation for future connections. By embarking on trips and traveling with their friends, each member is given an equal opportunity to carve out an extraordinary experience for themselves. The team also puts on fascinating and immersive educational activities that help them improve personally, professionally, and academically. One of the foundation’s missions is to give education and develop professional personalities who can best represent themselves and their backgrounds. The Honor Society Foundation, functioning solely on donations, is a glimmer of hope in these trying times. This foundation makes a difference for the persons who will become future leaders and motivators by supporting leadership, scholarship, prestige, community, and personal achievement. The foundation achieved GuideStar Platinum Rating non-profit recognition in 2020, in honor of the significant impact it has made to the community. It is also listed among Great Nonprofits’ Top-Rated non-profit organizations for the outstanding work and success stories carried out under the banner of the Honor Society Foundation. It also manages the Honor Society Museum, which is dedicated to preserving honor society history. Nearly 155 honor society relics are preserved in the museum. The foundation’s exemplary contributions have not gone ignored, and many people have contributed to the cause. The founder’s and team’s determination has brought it this far and contributed value to so many lives. In its inaugural year, the Honor Society Foundation awarded over 20 scholarships. With each passing day, the numbers have continued to rise. The foundation also contributed to creating videos with a powerful message that makes a difference. The Honor Society Foundation was founded to award each participant $1,000-$5,000. Although the group receives 4,000 applications every year, it could only accept 50 of them at first. With time, the contributions and investments made to the organization’s investment rose to the point where it can now welcome further applications. The organization takes precautions and prioritizes openness by providing a legitimate receipt for funds distributed directly to students for educational purposes solely. The organization distributes all scholarship-related information through the financial aid offices of universities, colleges, and high schools. It also has a strong web presence, with information on applications and awards for academic aspirations. All excess undistributed gifts are used for investment to ensure continual fund growth and financial support for students, making the sponsorship process seamless and ongoing. --- ## A Beginner’s Guide to nnn Properties for sale URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-beginners-guide-to-nnn-properties-for-sale/ If you’re new to the world of real estate, you may have heard the term “nnn property” but not know what it means. In this article, we’ll explain what nnn properties are and how they work. We’ll also discuss the pros and cons of investing in nnn properties for sale, so you can decide if this type of investment is right for you. So, what is a nnn property? nnn stands for triple net, which means that the tenant is responsible for paying all expenses related to the property, including taxes, insurance, and maintenance. The landlord simply collects rent and doesn’t have to worry about any other costs. This can be a great arrangement for both parties since it eliminates many of the hassles and expenses that come with traditional property ownership. There are nnn properties for sale in the market today. Each property has its own unique set of characteristics that make it ideal for different types of buyers. If you’re looking for a property with nnn features, then you’ll want to consider these listings. Each nnn property is different, so it’s important to take the time to learn about the different options that are available. With so many nnn properties for sale, you’re sure to find the perfect one for your needs. Start your search today and find the perfect nnn property for you. ## Pros and Cons There are many benefits to investing in nnn properties for sale. For one, they offer a high degree of predictability. This is because the tenant is responsible for all of the property’s expenses. As a result, the landlord knows exactly how much they will be receiving each month in rental income. Another benefit of triple net lease properties is that they tend to be less expensive to maintain than other types of properties. This is because the tenant is responsible for paying for all repairs and maintenance. Lastly, nnn for sale can provide a great source of passive income. This is because once you have leased out the property, you will not have to do any work in order to receive rental income. The tenant will be responsible for everything. However, there are also some downsides to nnn properties. One is that they can be more expensive to purchase than other types of real estate. Another is that you may have a harder time finding tenants since they’ll be shouldering all of the responsibility for the property. ## Risks associated with  nnn Properties for sale When it comes to purchasing a property, it’s important to be aware of the risks involved. Here are some of the key risks to look out for when considering nnn properties for sale: 1. The property may not be worth the asking price. It’s important to get a professional valuation before committing to any purchase. 2. There may be hidden structural problems that could end up costing a lot of money to put right. Always get a professional surveyor to check over the property before you buy. 3. The local area may not be as desirable as you think. It’s worth doing your research on crime rates, schools and other amenities before buying a property in an unfamiliar area. 4. You may not be able to sell the property later. It’s important to consider your exit strategy before buying an investment property. 5. You may end up with a bad tenant who doesn’t pay rent or damages the property. Screen potential tenants carefully and always get references. Following these tips will help you avoid some of the risks associated with nnn properties for sale, but there are no guarantees. Always do your own research and seek professional advice before making any decisions. ## Final Thoughts If you’re considering investing in nnn properties for sale, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons carefully to decide if this type of investment is right for you. But if you do decide to go ahead with it, remember that you’ll need to find quality tenants who are willing to take on the triple net lease agreement. With the right tenants in place, a nnn property can be a great investment. As you can see, there are many things to consider when buying an nnn property. But with the help of a good real estate agent and some careful research, you can find the perfect investment for your needs. Have you ever purchased an nnn property before? What tips would you add to this list? --- ## A Voice against Injustice – Kuzzat Altay’s stand against Oppression URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-voice-against-injustice-kuzzat-altays-stand-against-oppression/ People can only become winners after having experienced loss. True success can only be obtained after one comes to know failure. Hardships in life are what mold a person to become headstrong and independent. Many times, people face situations that can assure their belief in the futility of life. Life can be ruthless, having no mercy when it comes to the difficulties that a person experiences. Many lose hope and resign themselves to fate. However, at the same time, there are those herculean personalities that rise against these challenges and face them head-on to the bitter end. A great example of these personalities is the American businessman, entrepreneur, and human rights activist Kuzzat Altay. Racism and Oppression have spread their roots globally, being openly seen in the most developed places. Even China, an increasingly progressive country, is filled with race-induced Oppression. Kuzzat hailed from Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. As a child, he had no real sight of the differences set by the world in regards to ethnicity. He spent his early days happily in China, which are depicted by his own words “My days in Beijing were pleasant, and I felt like a fully enfranchised Chinese citizen.” His family background was one of stable financial status. Their family-owned several businesses such as restaurants and import and export ventures. His family belonged to an Uyghur ethnical background and practiced liberalism and secularism. He completed his high-school education at a prominent school in Xinjiang. Each day was more fulfilling than the last, but unfortunately, it was short-lived. As time went on, Kuzzat started to see the bitter truth of his surroundings. He never dreamed that he would be oppressed by his own government. He came to understand the government propaganda of them trying to erase the Uyghur culture completely. He saw the expansion of concentration camps in his hometown and the people close to him being targeted by them. His world came to an abrupt stop on the day he found out his father was being taken by the concentration camps. The loss of his father brought a very heavy burden on his shoulders. Losing one’s guide and role model in life is a hard fall to recover from. Disgusted by the situation of his country, he fled from China at the age of 21 in 2005 to Turkey. He reunited with his girlfriend in Turkey shortly after, and they both got married sometime later. After spending three years in Turkey, he got instructions from his aunt to move to the US to be closer to some family. Therefore, in 2008 he moved to Fairfax, Virginia, with refugee status. Even with the recent changes in life, the horrors of his home country were fresh in his mind, and he now had a burning determination to bring some change to the situation in China. After coming to the US, he was exposed to the environment there and came to know that race-induced Oppression was a global concept. He decided that he would voice out the reality of the global condition and bring a change to them. Being an intelligent individual from the beginning, he knew to accomplish his goal. He would need to become more stable and accomplished. He worked hard in the US, utilizing his expertise in IT to obtain employment in the booming technology sector. Over his career, he has worked with many top-tier IT consulting firms such as CGI and Accenture. He also played a vital role in major projects such as HealthCare.gov. Determined to gain more recognition in society, he took part and graduated from the Harvard Business School’s General Management Program (GMP). Throughout his successful career, he found many aspiring people that inquired about Kuzzat’s secret to success. They wanted to know how he being of a minority ethnic background and a refugee to add, became this successful in the IT field. Kuzzat had found a way to empower minorities by teaching them how to succeed in the field of IT. His thoughts later turned to the launch of **Cydeo**in 2015. The goal behind Kuzzat’s new venture was to empower people of all backgrounds to reach new professional heights. His school aimed to groom its students with the help of industry-experienced teachers. He wanted to educate and empower people of disadvantageous backgrounds. He took every opportunity to voice his concerns about the situation in China and all around the world. He became part of many humanitarian societies which shared his thoughts. Kuzzat’s determination to better the world is emphasized by the fact that he was pursued by Chinese sectors for expressing his thoughts. Even after Kuzzat’s father was freed in 2020, he was not allowed to meet his son. Even after that heart-breaking occurrence, Kuzzat did not falter and carried on to work for the upheaval of humanity. --- ## 6 Things Pennsylvania Businesses Need URL: https://futuresharks.com/6-things-pennsylvania-businesses-need/ Pennsylvania is a great place to start a business. It’s America’s heartland, and many excellent companies began there. Pittsburgh still produces ketchup at the Heinz facility, and you can find Aramark and Comcast there. If you want to start a Pennsylvania business, you’ll need a few different things. We’ll talk about some of them right now. Know that you’ll need each of these if you’re thinking about setting up shop in the Keystone State. ## Insurance You will need the proper insurance if you want to operate in Pennsylvania. You will probably need general liability insurance, commercial property insurance, and business income insurance. You might also require vehicle insurance if you have any company cars or trucks. You must legally have worker’s compensation insurance as well. Pennsylvania worker’s comp covers $7,000 in burial expenses, and you never know when someone might have an accident on the job. If you’re not sure what insurance you’ll need for your Pennsylvania-based business, talk to a lawyer. They will fill you in on what you legally require and what additional policies you should at least consider. ## Funding You will need money to start your business. You can get that in many different ways. For instance, you might approach a bank or credit union and ask for a business loan. You can also fund the company yourself if you have enough in savings. You can liquidate your assets if you feel strongly enough that you have a winning idea. You can cash in your CDs or fund the business with your retirement savings if you have any. You can ask a relative to give or loan you the money. You might also look into crowdsourcing. You can approach an angel investor or a venture capital firm if you feel you have an idea they can get behind. ## A Business Plan To approach an entity like a venture capital firm, bank, credit union, etc., you need to develop a business plan. You can learn about what goes into business plans and set one up that will entice the right individual or entity into supporting and funding it. Your business plan should talk about what you plan to do and how. It should talk about how much money you need to start your company operating, and it should also mention when you expect to turn a profit. It might talk about your ad campaigns, products, and how you plan to compete with others in your niche. The more detail the plan shows, the better the chances you can get someone to back it. You need to write about your company in a way that gets people excited about it. ## The Right Employees You will always need the proper employees to get your company off the ground and solvent. That means knowing where to hire the right people. In Pennsylvania, you will find many great colleges. You might want to approach individuals right out of college if they’re looking for jobs in your industry. You can be there for college career days when students who are about to graduate come and talk to prospective employers. You should offer competitive salaries and excellent benefits. You might want to provide a 401K program and paid vacation days. You can offer paid paternity and maternity leave. You can look for the right candidates on LinkedIn or Upwork. You can scour social media platforms to see if anyone on there needs work and matches the qualifications you want. ## IT Help It’s very likely you’ll need IT help for your company. IT stands for information technology. It’s a blanket term that often includes servers, computers, or any other technology your company uses to maintain functionality. Your IT workers can help you set up and maintain your company’s website. They might help you with social media marketing as well. They can talk to you about whether your company needs onsite servers or whether you want to operate with a cloud-based backup system. They can look into security for your company’s computer network if you have one. They can set up company emails and implement online security features. It’s very rare that a business can get away with no IT help, so you’ll need to pay attention to this area. ## Marketing Campaigns You’ll want to have a marketing plan ready to go. Marketing means a great deal to companies, especially in the early going. You want to come up with ideas that will generate interest in your business and get people talking for all the right reasons. You can hire a marketing team and tell them to figure out where to market your new company. They will likely want to use social media, but you’ll need them to figure out what platforms to utilize. You can’t use all of them, since you don’t have enough money for that. Besides, you only want to target platforms where individuals spend time who will likely buy from you. You can also think about creating some radio spots, TV commercials, and maybe putting up some billboards. All of that comprises old-school advertising, but you may want to sink some money into those time-tested methods. You can talk to your marketing team about other measures as well, like email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and also SEO to help your new website rank. You need your site to show up at the top of the search engine ranking positions when people search for terms having to do with your niche. Your marketing campaigns should help you boost your early sale numbers, but only if you run them the right way. Make sure you hire experienced individuals who have run successful campaigns before. They can instruct you on what to do and what to avoid. If you can secure everything that we mentioned, your Pennsylvania-based company should do well. You can start getting your name out there, and soon, you should see the results you want. You can begin to dominate your niche and possibly expand into other territories. --- ## Should Your Business Ship Internationally? URL: https://futuresharks.com/should-your-business-ship-internationally/ For small businesses, shipping and fulfillment can also be major expenses and challenges. This is especially true when a business doesn’t have an automated fulfillment platform it can rely on. If smaller organizations want to think about shipping internationally, the challenges can become even greater. At the same time, not doing so can leave you without the ability to take advantage of opportunities. So what’s right for you as a business? Should you ship to international customers or not? ## Reasons to Sell Internationally When you sell past your own country’s borders, it can be a big growth area for you. Even if you’re only offering some of your products for shipping internationally, you still are creating new opportunities for yourself. A lot of shoppers expect international shipping, and many eCommerce businesses are rising to the occasion. International shipping comes with other business advantages, as well as possible business growth. For example, you might be able to enjoy year-round sales if you sell seasonal items. The seasons in Australia are different from America, so you might be selling winter items in the middle of your summer when otherwise you’d be in a slow period just as one scenario to consider. When you enter new markets, the needs of those customers vary from the ones who are located in your country. You can meet their needs by offering more products or services and boosting sales in different areas depending on the market you’re in. Of course, international shipping also means you’ll have a bigger customer base. You are opening yourself up to new target marketers and prospective customers. While there are opportunities, there are a lot of challenges. For example, a recent survey found that 62% of international shoppers still expect free shipping, in spite of unpredictability in items crossing the border and higher costs. ## How to Get Started If you’ve weighed the pros and cons of international selling and shipping, the following are tips to help you get started. - Learn relevant rules and regulations. Every country is going to have its own guidelines. You need to know if certain items or approaches to advertising or marketing are prohibited in a location. Along with learning about how the product is regulated in new targeted countries, you also want to consider whether the demand exists for it and how customs regulations could affect you. - Prepare for extra duties and taxes. You will need certain customs documentation to ship abroad because the duties and taxes you pay are determined by what you put on your customs forms. The things that affect duties can include the costs of shipping, associated insurance, and the value and quantity of the products you’re shipping. Duties can apply as DDU, which is delivery duty unpaid, and DDP, which is delivery duty paid. DDU means customers have to pay their own customs and taxes. DDP means that merchants pay this upfront. - Value Added Tax or VAT is another thing you’ll think about. VAT only applies to certain generated amounts of revenue. You’ll have to provide a commercial invoice with orders, so customs has access to information like payment and shipping method, quantities and descriptions of the item, the seller and customers’ addresses, and carrier information. - You’ll need to decide the specific companies you’re going to ship to because you can’t ship to them all. It’s best to start out with countries that speak your native language. This will help you avoid having to change the languages on your site or do marketing and customer service in a different language. It’s also a good idea to think about your current typical customers and countries that might have a demographic similar to them. If you aren’t sure which country or countries to choose, you can analyze your current traffic. Doing so will help you find the locations where there’s already interest in your brand. - When you’re just starting with international shipping, Mexico and Canada can be good starting points. The cost to ship to those countries is less expensive than places far away, and items won’t take as long to arrive to your customers. If you choose any country with a free trade agreement with the U.S., it’s going to mean lower rates and simpler customs processes. - Along with where you’re going to ship, you want to think about what products you’re going to specifically make available to your international customers. Choosing to make smaller and lighter-weight products available is going to save you on shipping and packaging costs. You want to think about durable a product is since it’s going to have to make a long trip. Again, you also have to consider the regulations of the country you’re going to ship to. ## Shipping Costs One of the biggest challenges or hurdles to offer your products to international customers is the shipping costs. If you include free shipping on every purchase, you are going to have to integrate the price of international shipping into your products. If you currently offer flat shipping rates, you want to avoid complicating things too much. Using a fulfillment software solution can be a good way to manage your shipping costs even when you are sending products to other countries. When you sell and ship internationally, in general, the fulfillment, inventory management, tracking, and labeling tools you have in place are essential to your success. If you don’t have the right tools, you’re not going to be able to manage an expansion into international markets. Shipping automation and fulfillment software let you have more predictability. ## Tracking and Insurance Finally, if you have a fulfillment platform that’s end-to-end, tracking is automated and simplified. Most carriers also provide shipment tracking, and you can add ePacket tracking, so customers have full transparency. Insuring international shipments is a good idea for a lot of retailers, and it’s offered by most express carriers throughout the world. If it’s not automatically included in your shipping costs, it’s pretty inexpensive and simple to add. When you’re expanding to international customers, just take it as slow as you can at first, and then grow from there once you figure out the ins and outs. --- ## Turista Jackson, Owner of 1 Body Med Spa, Is  Spreading Body Positivity by Sharing her Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/turista-jackson-owner-of-1-body-med-spa-is-spreading-body-positivity-by-sharing-her-story/ Plastic surgery, body sculpting, and contouring have recently been rising in demand among women who are fearless and want to face the world with their chin up. Once considered a stigma, these methods have become increasingly accepted among women who want to regain their self-confidence with the body they have always dreamed of. Turista Jackson realized the power of body sculpting and med spa services in transforming women’s lives, so she started her own venture with 1 Body Med Spa. With this venture, Turista opened one of the first African American female-owned med spas in Houston, TX. Turista started her entrepreneurial journey at the age of 20 with a daycare center. Despite being new to the business, Turista wanted to start on a grand scale, not with a home daycare, but with a building with her cousin Jasmine Hampton. The daycare center, Smarty Pants DayCare, grew to an enrollment of a hundred children within their first year and is still going strong. She started her next venture with a body studio where she helped women redefine or enhance their physical features through body sculpting. Unfortunately, the business found itself in trouble during the pandemic when social distancing became the norm, so Turista had to shut it down, only to emerge with the idea for a better venture. Today, Turista is the owner of 5 successful businesses in different areas like childcare, beauty and wellness, transportation, and real estate. Seeing her business crumble during the pandemic made her realize the importance of choosing recession-proof interests. Turista earned her real-estate license and purchased trucks to run a transportation business. 1 Body Med Spa is the most recent addition to her list. Founded by Turista, 1 Body Med Spa is a best-in-class med spa that offers a host of services ranging from body contouring to lip injections/fillers. Turista wants women to know that they are gifted with one body that they should love and adore. They have the power and right to change whatever features they desire but should never abuse their bodies in the name of beauty. The goal of 1 Body Med Spa is to help women achieve their dream appearance with some simple non-invasive measures to help them along the way or with invasive treatments such as cosmetic surgery. After several months of intensive training at a med spa, Turista was confident she could deliver the most desired results to her clients to boost their body positivity. Being a single mother, it has not been easy for Turista to manage 5 businesses, but she made it through many tests and trials. She is working hard to give her child the kind of life she always wanted for herself. Apart from that, Turista also wants her story to inspire millions of women around the world to follow their dreams and never let the opinions of others weigh them down. Turista noticed how mothers and women struggle to find body positivity, so her goal is to make them realize how perfect they are. Besides that, 1 Body Med Spa is also a humble initiative to erase the stigma associated with plastic surgery and body correctional procedures. With a mission to transform women’s perceptions of themselves, Turista plans to expand 1 Body Med Spa with franchises across major cities in the U.S. She will continue her mission for years to come while transforming millions of lives along the way. --- ## From The Streets to Starting His Own Academy: the Story of Jimmy Bennett URL: https://futuresharks.com/from-the-streets-to-starting-his-own-academy-the-story-of-jimmy-bennett/ Sometimes there are people in life that much isn’t expected from. From failing early on or not meeting the standards of traditional “success,” these individuals may actually have incredible potential that hasn’t been unlocked. Jimmy Bennett is one of those people. Jimmy is a thriving serial entrepreneur and the founder of Simply Success Academy. He is a self-made success with a remarkable story of overcoming seemingly impossible odds to achieve massive financial success. Because of this, his story has been a source of inspiration for many. Jimmy wasn’t the academic kind who would succeed in education. He dropped out of high school and took for the streets. True to his teacher’s predictions, Jimmy did not find life on the streets appealing. He often found himself in trouble with the law, hanging around in gangs and escaping his deep-rooted pain with alcohol and narcotics. It was only when he had an epiphany whilst working a dead-end job that paid a minimum wage that he realized he didn’t want to live that way anymore. He was tired of street life and wanted to do something meaningful. It took him a while of soul searching and trying to figure out his next move. Jimmy’s innate entrepreneurial spirit led him into the business world, where he believed he could succeed. Jimmy swiftly ventured into the eCommerce world, selling products on eBay. With no defined client base, Jimmy would sell anything he could get his hands on. To his surprise, he had some success doing so. This spurred him on further to try and develop himself as a budding entrepreneur. He immersed himself in countless books that he proclaims changed his mindset. Jimmy’s hard work and relentless passion for success helped him overcome the many hurdles on his way. The high school dropout has now transitioned from living on the streets to owning a thriving business. Jimmy has also made his mark, notable as a prolific serial entrepreneur. He now considers his success a living proof that anyone can make even their wildest dreams come to life, provided you are committed and dedicated. The path can sometimes be tough, but it’s during such moments that you should press on the gas. Success is never meant to be easy, and that’s why you need to work hard every day. Through the Simply Success Academy, Jimmy mentors and empowers the younger generation to chase their success. His objective is to facilitate a community of like-minded individuals with a common goal. Simply Success Academy is known as a place of progression, where members aren’t ridiculed for failing. Rather the group understands the notion that we can fail our way to success, and the invaluable lessons we take are of paramount importance. “What they don’t teach in school, we will teach you; that was my plan and purpose for this,” Jimmy shared. “School failed me. They failed to see my potential as I think the system fails to so often. I’ve assembled a team of top educators in order to change countless lives.” It’s with this ambitious perspective and knowledge of succeeding in the business world that Jimmy is forging forward and inspiring people along the way. --- ## Seattle-Native Entrepreneur Nick Jordan Helps SaaS Companies Build Content Teams URL: https://futuresharks.com/seattle-native-entrepreneur-nick-jordan-helps-saas-companies-build-content-teams/ Nick Jordan is an entrepreneur and founder of Workello, a new startup that helps ambitious startups hire remote roles. With a background in SEO, Nick drove 4 projects from 0 to 100k organic visitors/month, with the biggest one generating 1.5m. Now he helps others get the same results **City where you’re from:** Seattle **Favorite quote:**Careers are measured in decades, not months or years **Social accounts** LinkedIn Facebook ## Tell us about Workello. How did you come up with this idea? **Nick Jordan:** I started an SEO agency with only one editor. We started building a content team to service our clients and soon realized that there is no tool built specifically for hiring writers. Fast forward two years later, one night in Barcelona while I was sitting with my, now, two cofounders, it just came to me — if the solution doesn’t exist, I will make it. And so Workello was born. We spent 1,000 hours building and iterating a better way to hire writers, because our content agency growth was capacity constrained, meaning we could only grow as fast as we could hire new good writers. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? **Nick Jordan:** We started building a community 3 years ago knowing that we will one day launch a SaaS product. We didn’t know what the product would be, but we knew that we wanted to focus on community-led growth. We wanted the people in our community to be our first users, so we shared a lot of advice for free, we were building in public and included our community in our growth journey. We use LinkedIn to share our journey of building in public, and our Facebook group to keep close to our community and help each other learn. ## Teach us something we don’t know about building successful content teams, **Nick Jordan:** The biggest secret to building a successful content team is to hire people who care. In content writing, every single word is a liability and an opportunity to mess up. If you hire people who truly care about the content they are putting out, if you work with editors who want to be proud of their work, and with content managers who thrive when things are organized and streamlined, 90% of the work is done. All you have to do is set them up for success with documentation and good values and company culture. ## How can SaaS founders and growth managers get out of editing? **Nick Jordan:** Many SaaS and agency founders and growth marketers suffer from one plight: editing content instead of focusing on growth and business development. During their growth phase, it’s very difficult for founders (and growth managers) to give up editing content and delegate it to someone else. The best thing they can do is work with a lot of writers, figure out who the best of the best are, figure out who cares the most, and then promote them to an editor. Then, once the editor is comfortable in their role, they should let their editors have autonomy over the writers they work with. Our editors have the complete freedom to hire whomever they want and continue to work with them if they feel that the writers are a good fit. We also promote from within, so every writer has an opportunity to advance their career with us, learn new skills, and grow at their own pace. Document everything you do and delegate to your team. It’s the only way to keep people happy and give them autonomy to be masters of their careers, instead of just being employees in a company. ## What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? **Nick Jordan:** Empathy. Spotting the next big product category. I truly believe that Workello is going to be the next big thing in the content and SEO niche. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Nick Jordan:** [Atomic Habits](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735211299) by James Clear Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Nick Jordan:** I see us helping companies hire writers using Workello, but our goal is to be the go-to infrastructure for remote teams. We want to help ambitious brands hire any role and spend less time on people ops so they can spend more time building their business. --- ## The Secret to Finding Lasting Peace: 5 Steps Towards Utmost Serenity URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-secret-to-finding-lasting-peace-5-steps-towards-utmost-serenity/ **“Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm.”** -S A Jefferson Wright In the busy and chaotic whirlwind of life, peace of mind might seem like a friend one rarely gets a chance to catch up with. Peacefulness can be described as inner calm that refers to an internal state of tranquility. Ease within oneself, a sense of self-compassion, unruffled by everyday worries, and welcoming towards whatever life tosses in the way are some of the traits found in the one who experiences the greatest peace. The demands of everyday life can lead to stress and other emotional turmoil, especially if one is going through a rough patch. One cannot escape the challenges that life offers, and inner peace certainly won’t make them disappear. People might mistake peace with an absolute trouble-free life. However, it often works the other way around. Peace of mind contains great significance as it aids one to remain calm even in the extreme face of distress by easing feelings of worry, anxiety, and overwhelm. Abraham Sannoh, the author of the book *“The Inner Light”,* includes the secret to attaining peace of mind regardless of ample difficulties that one faces. Despite having to go through tremendous struggles in his life, he identifies the way to achieve tranquility and defies every obstacle that comes in his way to success. In his book, he sheds his knowledge on the readers to unlock ease of mind even in the darkest times. Let’s discuss a few of them: ## Accept That Life Is Uncontrollable Life is uncontrollable, and so is the mind. One cannot dictate his mind to be at peace when it’s all over the place. Life cannot always be happy; it brings in complications and miseries with it. And reacting to them is natural. However, fixating on those feelings might take over one’s mind, leaving them in a disrupted state. One might think of a solution by suppressing their emotions, but it won’t do any good except for intensifying the feeling, making them more restless. Therefore, accepting the reality and bravely facing it certainly mild the pain away, leaving them with absolute contentment and at peace. ## Practice Forgiveness Feeling hurt and angry at someone who wrongs them is an understandable response. However, holding onto the grudges will ruin the inner peace. Nursing feelings of disappointment, anger, and resentment drain a lot of emotional energy. However, the act of forgiveness helps bring serenity and satisfaction to one. ## Practice Mindfulness Meditation Meditation, in general, can help people acknowledge, accept and let go of their emotional and physical distress that might otherwise stir the waters in their minds. It will help bring self-awareness, reduced stress, positive brain changes, and hence, ultimate peace in life. ## Get Friends with Silence and Solitude While too much time alone can lead to loneliness, spending just the right amount of valuable time with oneself could drastically benefit their well-being. Solitude promotes a chance to reflect on personal values, explore self-identity, reconnect with one’s needs, reevaluate their boundaries, embrace the creative side within oneself, and enjoy their favorite pastimes, thus offering a deep sense of contentment over time. ## Look Forward Attaining peace of mind does not happen overnight but is possible for everyone. Inner tranquility can help one with life’s changing seas by employing more resilience and emotional fortitude. Offering oneself kindness, patience, and compassion while looking forward to the brighter side of life can make all the difference.The book, *The Inner Light*, serves as an ultimate guide to peace for the readers that transcends their lives to nothing but absolute peace while exhibiting a powerful message: Everything passes, nothing remains. Loosen your grip and find serenity. --- ## 5 Tips to Prepare for Ecommerce Launch URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-tips-to-prepare-for-ecommerce-launch/ Preparing for your new ecommerce business launch is exciting. What pre-launch checklist items are top priorities for brands in this competitive market? Here’s a shortlist of 5 to add to your action plan: ## 1. Become obsessed with your target audience You can’t sell products to an audience you know nothing about. You can be passionate about launching your product or service, but it doesn’t mean your audience is going to share that same sentiment. The top reason startups fail is because they failed to gauge and understand the market, so eliminate this pitfall by obsessing about your target audience from the beginning. Learn about where they are, when they like to shop, what their preferred channels are, who they’re influenced by, and why they must adopt what you’re offering. Ask detailed questions about what problems your audience is facing, and identify the different ways they’re described. This will also help you create marketing messages that resonate, and a brand story customers can appreciate. ## 2. Create early demand Creating a demand before launch will only help your business. If your audience wants whatever you have to sell, have them sign up for a waitlist. The longer the waitlist gets, the more fear of missing out there is, which is highly influential in consumer behavior. Millennials are the highest effected by FOMO, with nearly 7 in 10 (69%) of millennials experiencing it, and they purposely try to create the same urgency amongst their peers. Develop a landing page that is easy for consumers to sign up for early access or to the waitlist, partner with influencers to generate buzz, promote early-bird specials, encourage sharing, and send exclusive previews. This will help create early interest and curiosity. ## 3. Gamify Consumers want to feel engaged with your brand and inspired to take the actions you want them to, but they don’t want to feel forced. Games and gamified campaigns are great way to build engagement. Incentives to share offers in exchange for discounts, social media contests, and surveys are smart ways to identify who is browsing your store off of a whim or if they are purposely interacting with you. Companies like ContentChest and I Love Giveaways make the process simple to offer promotions. This will also help you grow a strong network of engaged followers which could later become some of your highest-quality influencers. ## 4. Set up your technology stack Businesses need to make sure their website and tools can help create better experiences for customers. If your store is connected to multiple marketplaces, it’s critical to create consistent, personalized experiences. From marketing data analytics to chat bots to augmented reality to sales funnel triggers, it’s critical to go down the checklist of what technologies will be needed to support your goals and set them up before launch. Because your technology stack will evolve as your business does, setting up the foundations from the start will help jumpstart you in the right direction. ## 5. Revolve around data Build a data strategy. Every decision made in your business should be driven by data. Whether it’s deciding what products to launch, who to partner with, what keywords to include in marketing campaigns, or how to reach target audiences faster, data is the best guide to the business. Data tools like Google Analytics and CLEVR AI can help create visibility around brand performance and how audiences are interacting. Don’t make rash decisions based on fads or overnight trends – always check to see if there is data that can back it up. Every question you have about growing your business, from what to add to your site, how to invest in ads, and how to increase sales, should have answers guided by data. Launching an ecommerce store is no easy job but is immensely rewarding when you start seeing success. These tips will help you start on the right track. --- ## Is Sports Radio Still Relevant in 2026? URL: https://futuresharks.com/are-sports-radios-still-a-popular-medium-for-information-in-2022/ TL;DR: Sports radio isn't dying—AM/FM still captures the majority of U.S. sports-audio time and in-car listening keeps it sticky. But podcasts and YouTube now own discovery and the under-35 audience, so the smart play is a radio-plus-video strategy, not radio alone. Every few years someone declares sports radio dead. Podcasts were going to kill it. Then YouTube. Then TikTok highlights and the second-screen scroll. And yet, in 2026, the medium that supposedly cannot survive the smartphone is still the single largest way Americans consume sports audio. That is the surprise buried in the data. Sports radio is not collapsing. It is being *recomposed*—losing the discovery battle to video while quietly holding the one piece of real estate no app has taken: the car, live, in real time. So the honest answer to "is sports radio still relevant" is yes, but with a shrinking moat and a clear deadline to adapt. Here's the full picture. ## What the 2026 data actually says Start with the headline numbers, because they cut against the obituary narrative. - **AM/FM radio captures roughly 61% of all U.S. sports-audio time spent**, with podcasts at 27% and SiriusXM at 12%, according to a Westwood One study published in February 2026. - In a separate **Crowd React Media "State of Sports Media 2025"** survey of 775 U.S. sports fans (September 2025), **59% of sports-audio listeners reached for AM/FM radio versus 36% for podcasts.** - Over the past decade, the number of **sports-formatted AM/FM stations grew 14%**, and sports-radio revenue share, as measured by Miller Kaplan, **surged 38%**, per the same Westwood One report. A format adding stations and growing ad revenue is not a dying format. Compare that to print sports sections or regional sports networks, which are genuinely shrinking. Radio's problem isn't disappearance—it's aging and a narrowing role. ## What radio still does better than anyone The reason sports radio persists comes down to four jobs it does unusually well, and three of them are structural advantages that podcasts and video cannot easily copy. **The car is radio's fortress.** In-car listening accounts for **57% of over-the-air sports-radio time spent** (Westwood One, 2026). Drive time is a captive, hands-and-eyes-busy window where a live audio feed beats any video format by default. As long as commuting exists, this moat holds—and even as dashboards go digital, AM/FM remains the path of least resistance for a driver who just wants the game on. **Live and local is the product.** A national podcast can break down the league. It cannot tell you that your team's left tackle is questionable, take a furious call from a fan in your area code, and react to a blown call in the same breath. Local sports radio is the connective tissue of a fan base—part information, part group therapy, part town square. That immediacy and locality is exactly what on-demand audio trades away. **Call-ins create belonging.** The call-in show is participatory media that predates the comment section by decades. It gives fans a stake and a voice, and it generates the kind of unscripted, emotional moments that clip well and travel. Radio's most durable asset isn't information delivery—it's community. **It paints the picture.** A broadcaster's voice still does work no scoreboard can. The classic example endures: longtime Cleveland announcer Jimmy Dudley once recounted a letter from a blind fan written in Braille—"Jimmy, you are my eyes. Don't ever let me down." That's a use case streaming video simply cannot serve. The same logic applies to anyone whose hands and eyes are occupied—runners, cooks, parents, anyone at work—where audio is the only option and video is dead weight. There's also a cost angle worth naming. A single television or cable package rarely carries every game at once, and pay-per-view for a marquee boxing or combat event runs into real money. A free broadcast that lets you follow a game you can't see—or can't afford to watch—is a feature, not a fallback. For a lot of fans, radio is still the most accessible live feed there is. ## Where radio is losing—and it's the part that matters most Here's the uncomfortable half. The four strengths above describe *retention*. They say nothing about *growth*, and growth is where sports radio is quietly bleeding. **The audience is aging into radio's core, not out of it.** Westwood One's own breakdown shows the generational split plainly: among adults 35+, sports radio's 5.4% total audience share roughly doubles to **11.4% in streaming**, while among 18–34s the format posts just a 3.7 overall share—but a **13.9% streaming share**. Translation: younger fans who do engage with sports audio are nearly four times more likely to do it via a stream or app than via a tuner. The next generation isn't tuning the dial; it's tapping an icon. **Discovery has moved to video, and it's not close.** The under-35 sports fan now meets their content on YouTube, in clips, and increasingly in *video* podcasts. Deloitte's 2026 prediction pegs global podcast and "vodcast" ad revenue at roughly **US$5 billion this year, up nearly 20% year over year**, and notes that **27% of U.S. consumers now watch video podcasts weekly** (Deloitte Digital Media Trends, Fall 2025), with Gen Z and millennials leading. YouTube alone crossed **one billion monthly video-podcast viewers in early 2025.** Sports is among the most popular podcast genres for men—and the new front door to it has a screen. **Weekly podcast listening is climbing fast.** Industry trackers put weekly podcast listening at **39% in 2026, up from roughly 24–25% in the prior two years.** Importantly, several analyses note this growth has *added* to total audio time rather than purely cannibalizing radio. The pie is bigger. But the new slices are going to formats radio doesn't natively own. Put together: radio keeps the existing listener in the car, but the discovery layer—where the next fan forms a habit—has shifted to video-first, on-demand platforms. A format can hold a majority of *time spent* while still losing the future if it owns none of the *acquisition*. ## The dashboard is the real battleground If you want to know whether sports radio survives the next decade, watch the dashboard, not the audience charts. In-car listening is the single biggest reason AM/FM holds its lead, and the car is being rebuilt around screens, voice assistants, and streaming apps. Every new vehicle that surfaces Spotify, YouTube, or a podcast app as prominently as the FM tuner chips away at radio's default-button advantage. So far, radio has mostly held that ground—AM/FM remains the easiest thing to summon in a moving car, and broadcasters have pushed their live streams into the same apps drivers already use. But this is a slow-motion contest, and it's the one that matters. The format's fate is less about whether podcasts are "better" and more about whether the live AM/FM feed stays one tap away once the dashboard becomes just another app store on wheels. ## What this means for media companies The winners in 2026 aren't choosing radio *or* podcasts *or* YouTube. They're running the same live show across all three. - **Treat the broadcast as raw material, not the finished product.** A four-hour show is a content factory: the live feed for the car, the full episode as a video podcast, and a dozen vertical clips for Shorts, Reels, and TikTok. Stations that still publish audio-only are leaving their biggest growth channel—video—on the table. - **Put a camera in the studio.** Video podcasts reach dramatically larger audiences than audio-only equivalents, and YouTube has become the primary discovery engine for the format. A talk show with no video presence is invisible to the listeners it most needs to recruit. - **Lean into the moat you actually have.** Live reaction, local intel, and call-ins are radio's differentiated product. National podcasters can out-produce a local station on polish, but they can't be local. Double down there. ## What this means for brands and advertisers For marketers, the practical takeaway is that sports audio is now a *portfolio* buy, not a single channel. - **Radio still delivers reach and in-car attention**, especially for adults 35+ and for live, appointment-style sports moments. The midday, morning-drive, and afternoon-drive dayparts (roughly 33%, 29%, and 24% of listening, per Westwood One) remain efficient for broad local reach. - **Video podcasts deliver intent.** Deloitte found about a quarter of U.S. podcast watchers—and more than a third of Gen Z and millennials—say they often buy products advertised on podcasts. Host-read endorsements in sports pods convert. - **The right mix is layered:** radio for live reach and the car, video podcasts for engaged younger audiences and conversion, and short-form clips for cheap, scalable discovery. Buying only one of the three means missing either the reach or the next generation. One note specific to sports media: a meaningful share of sports-audio content now orbits betting. Plenty of fans tune in for analysis and play-by-play, full stop—brands should weigh whether a given show's audience and tone actually fit before associating with it. If you want to go deeper on how attention has fragmented across audio and video, Nicholas Carr's [*The Shallows*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393339750) remains a sharp lens on what on-demand, screen-first media does to how we consume anything—including the game. ## The bottom line Sports radio is still relevant in 2026—more than the doom takes suggest, and for concrete reasons. It owns the car, it owns live and local, it owns the call-in, and it still captures the majority of U.S. sports-audio time. The format is adding stations and growing revenue, which is not what death looks like. But relevance and dominance are different things. The discovery layer has moved to YouTube and video podcasts, the under-35 audience listens through a screen, and a station that publishes audio-only is recruiting no one. Radio's future isn't radio versus podcasts. It's the live show, distributed everywhere—on the dial for the commute, on YouTube for the next fan, and in clips for everyone in between. Bet against sports radio and you'll probably lose. Bet against sports radio that refuses to put a camera in the studio, and you'll probably win. --- ## Music and Emotions – Music Connects and Unites Us URL: https://futuresharks.com/music-and-emotions-music-connects-and-unites-us/ Ever wondered why singing is such a strong social bonding tool? Most of us are exposed to music from the time we are born, often through lullabies, and throughout our lives, from graduations to weddings to funerals. Something about music seems to bring people closer together and help communities unite. There’s no denying that humans are musically wired. Researchers recently discovered that we have a separate part of our brain dedicated to processing music, bolstering the theory that it serves a unique and vital purpose in our lives. Several studies have shown that listening to music and singing together directly impacts neuro-chemicals in the brain, many of which are involved in feelings of closeness and connection. New research suggests that singing or playing music together may be particularly effective in promoting social closeness by releasing endorphins. Researchers discovered that performing music—singing, drumming, and dancing—resulted in participants having higher pain thresholds (a proxy measure for increased endorphin release in the brain) than listening to music alone in one study. Furthermore, music performance resulted in increased positive emotion, implying that endorphin release is one mechanism by which people feel closer to one another when playing music together. Researchers compared the effects of singing in a small choir (20-80 people) versus a larger choir (232 people) on measures of closeness and pain thresholds in another study. They discovered that singing increased both choir groups’ pain thresholds. However, the larger group experienced greater changes in social closeness than the smaller group. This led the researchers to believe that endorphins produced by singing could be used to bring large groups together. Music has also been linked to the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in mood regulation and craving behavior, which appears to predict music’s ability to make us happy. Music, especially when we make it, seems to make us feel good and connect with others, perhaps due to the effects on endorphins. All of this evidence supports the role of music in enhancing our social relationships. Perhaps this is why music is a natural resource for uniting people. Music helps us connect, cooperate, and care for one another, whether at concerts, social events, or conferences. This suggests that we should continue to include music in our—and our children’s—lives if we want to live in a more harmonious society. ## David Mobley’s Music David Donald Mobley was born in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex in Texas, United States, on October 22, 1953. He is a businessman, songwriter, and producer from the United States of America. He is best known for founding Wonder Wafers International and co-founding “Crosswindz” (pop/rock non-touring studio recording group). Throughout his 50-year music career, he has also produced, financed, arranged, and composed a slew of hit singles, albums, and movie soundtracks. Oldies Goldies Radio, The David Mobley Show, Songwriters Webcast, Mobley Products, Inc., and David Mobley Productions were also created and produced by David. He recently co-founded Tyson-Mobley (a pop/rock non-touring studio recording group) in 2021. You can read more about David Mobley on his website www.davemobley.com. --- ## Contribute to Future Sharks 🌊 URL: https://futuresharks.com/contribute/ When we launched [Future Sharks](http://futuresharks.com) we envisioned it to be a place where entrepreneurs could find useful information regarding starting a business, growing social media accounts, and reading about the stories behind the people that are doing it. To get one step closer to that mission, we decided to open up our contributor section so that entrepreneurs can share their expertise in brand building, SEO, social media advertising, and more. We can’t wait to see what you have to share! ## ## 3 easy steps to contribute 1. Head to our [submission page](/contribute) 2. Write your post and add a featured image 3. [Submit your post](/contribute) following our guidelines below and Boom! It goes live after a quick editor review. — 🥳 BTW you can also contribute to SoInfluential, Remarkable, Total GirlBoss, Absolute Baller, and AuthorityDaily! ## Very simple contributor guidelines 1. You must write **original content** not published elsewhere. It must be at least 800 words and include one image (1200x680px, < 1Mb, ideally). 2. The content must be something actionable and not overly promotional. You may highlight your success but it’s better to reflect on the lessons you learned so that others can apply those. 3. Do not post false, racist, sexist, harmful, or otherwise offensive content. 4. By posting, you agree to our contributor [rules](/terms-and-conditions/). 5. **If you violate any of the rules, your account will be terminated, and no refunds will be issued. Previous posts could also get deleted.** 6. Here’s a handy link if you want to interview someone: futuresharks.com/interview ## How to make your article look good and be SEO friendly 1. Add a Featured Image showcasing a big smile (less than 1Mb) 2. Use your name or company name in the title (i.e. “Meet John Doe, the founder of XYZ”) 3. Use H2/H3 headings, blockquotes and bold text 4. Add other images, Youtube videos, etc 5. Pick a good category 6. If you write about someone (i.e. John Doe) use their name a few times throughout the article 7. Read other SEO tips to get the most traffic to your article. The instructions on how to post can be found above. ### Reasons why your article was rejected or deleted 1. You published the content somewhere else. 2. It was too short, had no images or was poorly formatted. 3. It was overly promotional or was not related to the core theme of Future Sharks (which is stories about people and their ventures). ## Why contribute? - Get your content in front of our 80,000 monthly readers - Earn a powerful mention from a DR60+ site - Grow your brand and nameIn most cases, we will SEO #1 for your name, bringing you great press and recognition ## Ready to share your story? [Submit your post](/contribute) If you have any questions, please message me via Facebook. --- ## 5 Fast-Rising Spaces for Entrepreneurism and Investment URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-fast-rising-spaces-for-entrepreneurism-and-investment/ As the world around us keeps changing, with it comes unforeseen problems that need innovative modern solutions. Companies that come up with solutions that embrace and adapt to changing times are the ones that flourish and are worth investing in. Here are five fast-rising spaces for entrepreneurism and investment. ## 1. Education Technology Education technology, or EdTech, is one of the fastest-growing industries globally. Grand View Research pointed out that the industry was worth approximately $89.49 billion in 2020 and is estimated to grow by 19.9% from 2021 to 2028. As education for all levels are transitioning from the classroom to an online forum, education entrepreneurs see this transformation as an opportunity to help improve the system, as well as make money. Many organizations across the U.S are investing heavily in new technologies to make education easier for both teachers and students. While the industry may still be in its infant stage, there seems to be a lot of talk about further innovation and expansion. ## 2. Next-Gen NRT Nicotine patches and gum are old, stale products and somewhat ‘un-cool’, whilst nicotine pouches are on the rise as appealing alternatives, making for a budding industry with significant growth potential. These nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products are worth taking a deeper look into. A breakdown of the industry on Prilla points out that nicotine pouch sales in the U.S. reached about $216.89 million in 2020. The rise in popularity reflected extremely satisfied customers. Factors that stand out are the different flavors the pouches come in, such as mint or coffee, as well as a variety of nicotine strengths. Other users appreciate the fact that these next-gen NRT products are not obvious when used, so they don’t feel the unwanted social stigma from blowing smoke. With about 57.3 million people using nicotine in the U.S. every day, this market is something to keep an eye out for. ## 3. GameFi Winning prizes is fun and crypto is seen as trendy, so the combination of the two is the next big thing in the world of cryptocurrency. GameFi is a new concept in cryptocurrency where players can trade, lend, or rent out their winnings or even borrow against them. This sector is called blockchain gaming and is a space where players earn tokens in a game and the value of the tokens increase as the game gains popularity. It has already attracted over 6500 investors during the first few days of its launch. Based on the last decade’s growth of crypto, NFT and blockchain, this market has great potential for growth and development. ## 4. Non-Alcoholic Beer Many times, social situations call for drinking — and no one wants to feel like an outsider standing there with a bottle of water. Therefore, many people opt for non-alcoholic beer to fit in with the crowd and still stay sober. In an article by Paste Magazine, non-alcoholic beer increased 38% in 2020, which is about $188 million, in total sales. As a result, big companies like Heineken and Brooklyn Brewery joined in on the movement and began brewing non-alcoholic beer. This cultural cache is a rising fad, especially with Millennials and Gen Z consuming less alcohol, showing that this market is certainly one to watch. ## 5. Patient-Monitoring Devices Tele-consultations for healthcare are the new norm, and this has sparked a rising demand for remote patient monitoring devices. With these advanced technologies, doctors can monitor their patient’s health in real-time from anywhere. These solutions are ingenious, and investors wasted no time in showing support. According to Globe Newswire, the telehealth market was estimated to be worth $40.3 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $224.8 billion by 2030. This market is obviously growing and is a great opportunity for any entrepreneur. Opportunities for investments are always around us. If you do your due diligence and thorough research, there are companies out there that are worth the risk and investment. We’ve identified five opportunities for growth, and while exact predictions are impossible, if you can anticipate possibilities, you can jump on the wagon and cash in. --- ## An Unwavering Allegiance To Distinction: IVAR By Ritika Ravi URL: https://futuresharks.com/an-unwavering-allegiance-to-distinction-ivar-by-ritika-ravi/ **This jewellery company takes a steady approach to sustainability by setting a vision for generations to come. ** In a kaleidoscopic world with constantly evolving fashion trends, creating a brand that sparks steady interest cannot be easy. Yet, IVAR by Ritika Ravi, a fine jewellery brand from India, takes inspiration from the laidback Maldivian lifestyle and marries it with age-old Indian traditions, to create contemporary jewellery designs that stand the test of time. IVAR’s designer, Ritika Ravi, believes that every timeless piece deserves careful curation to ensure the finest quality. In order to deliver an exquisite range of jewellery, IVAR’s pillars of excellence reinforce lofty ideals of ethical and transparent sourcing while building relationships with likeminded suppliers and manufacturers whose policies align with the brand’s. Ritika’s commitment to integrity instinctively extends to her brand. IVAR’s jewellery is made by some of the finest traditional craftsmen of polki and enamel, who blend years of longstanding heritage with contemporary aesthetic to deliver unique appeal. Furthermore, Ritika’s natural responsibility towards social inclusion and diversity means that women form a significant part of the team, both in retail and corporate roles. IVAR aims to create equal employment opportunities and develop a healthy work culture by letting women explore their unique and untapped talents. Ritika is particular about her brand’s impact on the environment. Since its launch, all of IVAR’s catalogues and packaging use only recycled paper, in order to reduce the strain on the planet that suffers from unrestrained deforestation due to bulk manufacturing. In the same vein, IVAR has consciously decided to slow down its consumption of raw materials by manufacturing only made-to-order jewellery, that combats fast fashion’s impact on the environment. This not only ensures a sustainable approach to leaving behind a fashion footprint, but also provides customers with bespoke jewellery where every piece has a story to tell. Most importantly and above all, IVAR puts its people first and strives to provide healthy and safe working environments for all its employees. Ritika’s deep-rooted beliefs of social equality sees action with the brand donating to and working with the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, to empower people and communities through education and inclusive learning. The many contributions by IVAR towards creating a sustainable brand fortifies the belief that fashion has the ability to transform and build a responsible industry for posterity. --- ## The Story of the Iranian-American Pastor and Executive Music Video Producer Ara Torosian URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-story-of-the-iranian-american-pastor-and-executive-music-video-producer-ara-torosian/ **“Every moment of your life is a second chance.”** **– Rick Price** Everyone on this planet is narrating a unique story about who they are and what they can achieve in life. The stories people tell can be nostalgic and reminders of the pain they might have experienced in the past. Still, they can also be tales about the future that they might have imagined for themselves. It is important to note that the narratives people repeat to themselves, fiction and non-fiction, are what they internalize and create their self-identity from. Ara Torosian, much like everyone else in this world, has his own story to tell. Born on the 21st of January, 1979, Torosian, having completed his Bachelors in Theology, is an Iranian-American pastor and executive music video producer who advocates for Christian persecution. **How Stories Impact People’s Lives** The stories people tell about their failures and shortcomings give rise to negative self-talk that leads them to accept the single narrative myth, which is the belief that people’s lives have just one version. The people who engage in negative self-talk cast themselves as characters who are trapped in inescapable mazes, saddled with baggage that they cannot remove, and riddled with imperfections and impossible challenges. It is crucial to understand that people’s interpretation of their past and how they project the future eventually determine the roads they take to their tomorrows. The thing worth noting about Torosian is that despite having a humble background, where his parents worked hard to give him and his siblings the best of whatever they could give them, he did not let tough times in his life affect his story. Much like all great people, Torosian also faced challenging times in his life. Still, he did not let negative self-talk overpower him. His mother was only an elementary teacher. There was a time in his life when his father, a welder, died in an explosion at his workplace in the year 2000. But nothing stopped Torosian from pursuing his passion and eventually success in life. Life’s challenges and hurdles did not stop Torosian from aspiring to success. His parents’ struggles fueled his passion for working even harder. His story is not a reminder of the pain he has experienced in his past and instead offers inspiration to all those who are reading about him. No matter how tragic a death his father shared, Torosian only wishes him to be alive to see how the fruit of his parents’ sacrifices have finally blossomed and how all the hard work that his father did in his life and has eventually led Torosian to success. Torosian’s life story is undoubtedly a tale about the future that he had always imagined for himself. **A Story of Great Passion and Success** Torosian’s life story is imbued with great passion and success. This can easily be understood because he did not let any setback in his life stop him from aspiring for and achieving success. After he graduated high school in Tehran-Iran, Torosian went to Bible college in England and graduated from there in the year 2003. It was after his graduation that Torosian started his music career and ministry. Today, he is an Executive Producer who loves to create and do things that inspire people. In doing all these things, he also wishes to see a change in the world Torosian believes in the power of music and understands how modern music is making people fearful, turning them into drug addicts, and giving rise to broken relationships. As a pastor and follower of Jesus, he wishes to carry forward Jesus’s message of love, hope, and faith. Torosian intends to spread Jesus’s meaningful message to people worldwide. Because of this, he even funded various projects to deliver the message of love and hope to people. Coming to Los Angeles has been a transforming experience for him too because he has been able to connect with people of Hollywood and has also been able to start his YouTube career. The experiences Torosian has lived through have led him to choose music as his career. **Seeking A Worshipful Spirit** Worship songs have played a crucial role in Torosian’s life, and they even form the theme of his story. The songs have empowered him and made him a better person, strengthening his belief in God and motivating him to help others. Worship songs have not only elevated Torosian’s mood but also his status. They have driven Ara Torosian to grow emotionally and spiritually and choose music as his career. --- ## ENTREPRENEUR TRAVIS CHAPPELL’S GUESTIO APP SETS PODCAST INDUSTRY UP FOR SUCCESS URL: https://futuresharks.com/entrepreneur-travis-chappells-guestio-app-sets-podcast-industry-up-for-success/ Since the pandemic grasped the world in early 2020, statistics in all kinds of facets and forms shot up or declined as people were forced to find ways to cope with self-isolation. For many, podcasting became a positive solution to spend spare time whether it be through listening to one or launching one. Consider a report from Podcast Insights: There are currently over 2 million active podcasts with over 48 million episodes. This statistic represents an exponential amount of growth in such a short period of time given that in as recent as 2018 there were only 500 000 active podcasts. While podcasting short was already a climbing industry before Covid, it certainly grew leaps and bounds with the onset of the pandemic. With any kind of industry, as it grows so does financial increase. Edison Research has predicted that podcast advertising revenue will have spilled past the $1 billion mark by the end of 2021 and will double past the $2 billion mark by the end of 2022. For those trying to monetize their efforts in the podcasting profession it can be proven difficult to say the least with such heavy emphasis placed on trying to market your show in order to set it apart from others. Show hosts may wonder how any podcaster has been able to successfully monetize and build a lifestyle around their brand without losing most to all of their money in the process. While said process has never been easy, it is possible and thanks to entrepreneur Travis Chappell, it has been made so much easier for the future of podcasting. Chappell is his own seasoned podcaster of his own rite with an acclaimed show, *Build Your Network*, featuring a slew of impressive guests such as Shaq, Rob Dyrdek, Matt Barnes, Tomi Lahren, etc. Subjects ranging of all kinds of topical interest have graced Chappell’s episodes with a primary focus being on building connection, encouraging personal growth, and placing immense value on the concept of networking. It’s no wonder then that Chappell’s audience boasts a 46.5K Instagram following with a whopping 2 million downloads on his show. His professionalism and absolute authenticity lend to the substantial charm his show remains nestled in, supplemented with the content he produces for his social media. With experience as vast as his alongside the stamina required to build such an authentic, successful brand, Chappell certainly turned heads when, in the middle of the pandemic, he launched his app, Guestio. Guestio, appropriately named, is a marketplace built for businesses and show hosts alike looking to promote themselves in an environment that, like its creator, places significant value on networking. Guestio allows for show hosts to connect with and book top level talents that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to in one easy swoop through customized pitches unique to their brand. In addition to that, Guestio’s software allows for show hosts to earn revenue based on their efforts and audience building. The marketplace was, and currently remains, the only solution of its kind today. Chappell’s mission statement is to “access the inaccessible,” a bold mantra exemplified through both the launch and success of Guestio. His desire to help others, whether they be up-and-comers or long term show hosts looking to pursue an active lifestyle alongside their brand, shines through. Guestio’s vision of creating a solution out of nowhere certainly builds a distinct bridge over the floodgates that only existed before for those trying to jumpstart their shows. Constructing and then utilizing a network to connect your brand to others has proven successful for Chappell’s own show, hence why cultivating the tools given directly from him would prove to be wise for anyone desiring to take their show to the next level. For the 2 million podcasts out there, and for realistically anyone who has launched a business, Chappell advises that “If you build a good product, you don’t have to spend as much on marketing.” Putting emphasis on the quality of what you do allows for the desired audience you build to be based on the attraction and loyalty given to the product you’ve actually made. It seems to make all the more sense that in order to grow a community you need to invest in your own network to surround you. Chappell offers that “The number one factor that contributed to my ability to think bigger than myself was getting around high level people and being a fly on the wall. The way they communicate, the numbers they talk about, the people they know—it’s all way bigger than I had ever thought. You can only achieve to the level that you believe you can.” Investing in your network and cultivating that to build a more quality product will surely lead to significant results, and Guestio’s tried and true method is the way to do it. Instagram: @travischappell Twitter: @traviscchappell www.guestio.com @guestioapp --- ## JIINAN’s Founder, Jessica Sinclair On How Rebranding Has Taken The Brand To New Heights URL: https://futuresharks.com/jiinans-founder-jessica-sinclair-on-how-rebranding-has-taken-the-brand-to-new-heights/ The presentation of a brand talks volumes about its core values, success, and the ideas it represents. However, like the world, ideas are constantly evolving. When the core values of a brand change, the representation also changes. Rebranding the identity can help bring the brand into new times. Having been through the process with her brand JIINAN, Jessica Sinclair is a firm believer in evolving brand identity when required. An entrepreneur who is conscious of the ecological and social environment around her, Jessica wanted to create products sensitive to the environment and humans while also being visually appealing. She started her journey with Flirty & Fit, a company that manufactured biodegradable, environment-friendly, and cruelty-free yoga mats. Her venture was a huge success worldwide, with customers on all the major continents. The success motivated Jessica to do more. Hence, she started working on JIINAN, an activewear brand that she envisioned to be eco-conscious and innovative. The brand uses recycled materials as a base for the fabric, taking out almost 70 plastic bottles from the sea per garment. The brand is focused on making a difference in the marine climate. By making conscious decisions, Jessica wants JIINAN to inspire an eco-conscious mindset in the subconscious of people. Since this was a giant leap forward, Jessica rebranded the project and gave it a fresh face. But the rebranding was not limited to the visuals or copy. Jessica Sinclair believes in walking the walk, and hence, her rebranding included major changes in the functioning of the brand systems. The packaging of JIINAN is waste-free and eco-conscious, and a portion of the proceeds is donated to humanitarian causes that work against human trafficking, urban development, and in favor of the environment. Manufactured in Bali and Italy, JIINAN products are of the highest quality, made with love and years of expertise. All of this is reflected in the brand’s new presentation. Emoting the brand DNA through the presentation gives customers a clear idea of what they will get. In today’s world, where attention spans are dwindling, conveying the most through the least is of great importance. And looking at Jessica Sinclair’s success at rebranding JIINAN to be a brand that perfectly embodies her thought process while saving the planet, we, too, are firm believers in the superpower of rebranding. --- ## Katina Stefanova – The Genius Of Global Investments URL: https://futuresharks.com/katina-stefanova-the-genius-of-global-investments/ **“To be an effective leader, you need to know what you don’t know. We need to focus our time on what we don’t know and don’t see, which is an incredibly important quality for any leadership position.” – Katina Stefanova, CEO and CIO of Marto Capital.”** **How Katina Stefanova began with her journey in the financial services industry** Katina Stefanova is a strategic leader in asset management and financial service. She has extensive global investment and management experience in the asset management market. Being a versatile keynote speaker, she attended many conferences and events across the globe and spoke on topics including investing, technology, and entrepreneurship. As a result, she came up as a thought leader in the asset management industry. Stefanova possesses an investment management genius with 20 decades of experience in this discipline. Presently, she is serving as CIO and CEO of Marto Capital. **Education** Originally belonging to Bulgaria, Stefanova came to the United States at 18 with a one-way ticket purchased by her grandfather and $200 in her pocket. After arriving in America, she studied in a college with all the profound training in English. In 1998, she received a bachelor’s degree in Faculty of International Relations from Brigham Young University. Then she planned to study the areas concerning finance and technology. According to Stefanova, **“I was in the right place at the right time, on the West Coast during the dot-com boom,”** Continuing to gain her knowledge in asset management, investment, and the market world, Stefanova joined the master’s program the Harvard Business School. **A Career in********International Business Development** After graduation, Stefanova began her career by joining a global organization named Arthur Andersen’s M&A division. Working in an accounting firm, she specialized in mergers and acquisitions, advisory services, and valuation. To accelerate her business and management skills, she worked for Ad Relevance in 1999, leading international business development for a media startup. The company was eventually sold to Media Metrix. Stefanova served there for two years, following the sale of the company compelled her to move to London. Her next initiative was to become Director in IBM’s Business Strategy team in the EMEA region. At IBM, she led large post-merger integration initiatives for financial services clients in Europe and Asia. She also engaged in IT and consulting solutions and advised the tech companies to acquire dot-com businesses. Since 2005, Stefanova began initiating investment goals. She served as an advisor of an investment finance Berkeley Capital Partners in Russia. Being a senior investment associate at Account Management, she fulfilled her duties as account management. She reported directly to the CEO and Founder, Ray Dalio, overseeing various departments, including customer service, fund accounting, core management, and operations. She also managed back and middle office teams during major transformation and outsourcing. By coordinating the management committee, she developed an investment strategy that brought revenue and profit to the company. She worked with the commitment that led this firm to grow from approximately 20 to 160 billion dollars, increasing its efficiency by 30 percent. Her career goals took a new turn as she launched Marto Capital in New York, a multi-strategy asset management firm. Her new small business goal was to meet the unmet demands of investors by providing systematic, efficient, and cost-effective investment options. **Launching Marto Capital** From 2016 to the present, Stefanova has served as the CEO and CIO of the New York Marto Capital. Along with making significant strategic decisions and ensuring sustainable development of her company, her responsibilities include solving the organization’s technological problems and ensuring information security. By establishing this company, she strives to understand how a changing world works. She initiated a new way of thinking for investment success. The new investment process based on dynamic models captures economic linkages, technology, social disruption, and structural market flows. Stefanova, a systematic multi-strategy asset manager, an investor, and a strategic adviser, sees a misalignment of interests between asset managers and investors, particularly a lack of transparency and a lack of alignment of economic incentives. Her goal is to rebuild a sense of trust by developing a comprehensive business model. The corporate governance mechanisms include a system of controls intended to help align managers’ incentives with those of shareholders and other stakeholders. Being the owner of Marto Capital, she acknowledges that the goals set by the company and the fellow shareholders enable the company to make changes and align goals. Putting faith in her ability to make wise decisions, many investors have trusted their funds and investments with her. Having a team of experienced investment professionals with state-of-the-art technology in an adaptable investment ecosystem, Stefanova focuses on limiting the downside risk of her clients while maintaining maximum profits/returns. All the assets get maximum exposure to calculated risks but are aligned with the client’s objectives. These risks are taken based on multiple market signals. Her analytical skills and extensive experience have attracted investments and created customized portfolios for several clients. Stefanova shared her formula for investment success that beat the market competitors and created customizable solutions for its clients. Emphasizing the role of Marto Capital, she said, **“Historically, when you consider successful asset management firms and financial institutions, you think of optimizing for financial capital,” she points out. But at Marto, they add social capital into the equation. Through that prism, they are working to address current problems such as underfunded pension systems by implementing smarter investing for pensioners and retirees.”** ​ Having strategic and management experience, Marto Capital has been able to tap into various fields and industries, gaining insight into every aspect of the marketplace. The leading practices from software engineering to the design of our investment platform, the investment professionals of Marto Capital, specializing in research, portfolio construction, and trade execution. This allows investments in lucrative opportunities, benefiting the organization as well as the clients. Further stating she said, **“Everything else follows if you keep positive social outcomes as your goal. We are here to make money for our clients, but we also are focusing on operating with a level of integrity and transparency that allows us to avoid prevalent ethics issues.”** ​ At present, Stefanova has successfully built her investment and consulting company through Marto Capital and AcordIQ, where she is presently a co-founder. In addition, she knowingly practices conducting masterclasses and briefs at conferences and pitch meetings, where she shares her experience in consulting investments and businesses. In her interview with EURObiz magazine in 2015, she said, **“Our team has applied the same lessons that I have learned from my experience at Bridgewater Associates. AccordIQ was spun out of Oktay Technology is working as a strategic technology advisor to the financial services firms, large banks, and asset managers.”** --- ## Matt Dixon of Greenville, SC, on Strategies For Developing Financial Goals For Your Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/matt-dixon-of-greenville-sc-on-strategies-for-developing-financial-goals-for-your-business/ At the end of the day, the financials are most important for the vast majority of businesses. A well-run company should have a financial plan, and there are several strategies for developing your business’ financial goals. **Consult the Owners** Things will be different if you work for a massive publicly traded company versus a small business. If you’re the owner of a tiny business, the financial goals will largely depend on you. Many business owners see no need to prioritize expansion. Instead, they focus on serving their existing customer base and being a good employer. On the other hand, if you answer to the owners of your firm, things are very different. Return-on-investment likely will be very important to them. Marketshare is an important figure for large businesses and corporations. Sometimes it’s smart to sacrifice profitability for market share. It’ll hurt your competitors and you can use the increased sales to spend on things like marketing and research and development. However, growing too fast might make your company unwieldy to run. Some owners might want to keep their company a boutique firm. **Growth** Wall Street loves growth. If you work for a publicly-traded company, stock analysts might demand you focus on it. People like working for a growing company and in some ways, it’s a measure of company health and success. You have to ask yourself, at what cost? Are you financing the growth with debt? That could hurt you in the long run. If your small business is rapidly expanding, you might be taking on more than you can chew. **New product market** If your business is in a new product market, you should try to capture as much market share as possible. Market leaders are often determined very quickly. **Your company** You have to consider your internal resources. Can your factory handle the increased volume? How is your staff holding up? **Impossible dream** Although it’s fun to use blue-sky thinking, dreams are often in conflict in reality. Your competition and conditions will set limits on you. Make sure your goals are realistic. **Supply of funds** How much access to additional capital do you have? Can you tap the debt markets or ask investors for an infusion of cash? **Debt** If you have a lot of outstanding debt, maybe you shouldn’t focus on growth. Paying off debt might be abetter decision than investing in a new marketing campaign. Every business is unique. To develop your financial goals, you must look at each of these parameters. A well-run business has a financial plan. There are many strategies for developing financial goals. --- ## Meet Jason Bowers URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-jason-bowers/ # The Man Behind Rosemont Partners In 2016, the idea forRosemont Partners was brought to life, and the company was simply born from Bowers’ professional experience within the corporate services and trustee industry.  Jason foresaw a good future with the on-boarding of a client within the first month of operations with whom Rosemont Partners still works closely today.  The company that is now Rosemont Partners, changed its name as part of a management buy-out in April 2020; it has four offices located in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and the Virgin Islands.  Their multilingual team of experienced and expert professionals is trained to help families and businesses around the globe prosper and plan for the future.  Jason’s elite team of highly trusted professionals have helped design, implement, and administer family trusts, foundations, and other legal structures, delivering robust estate and succession planning solutions every family deserves to have in place! ## Jason Bowers & Entrepreneurship Emotional intelligence and self-awareness are what Bowers believes to be the core competency of his values, and with his greatest role model being his grandfather, he observed all the core principles of how a man should conduct himself in terms of family, business, and health.  His entrepreneurial superpower is successfully understanding what people want, which in turn has a positive influence on all areas of your business.  The best entrepreneurial advice Jason would like to give someone starting a new business venture is to “Be ready to outwork everyone around you. If that is not you, then do not expect to be a successful entrepreneur.” – Jason Bowers  A book every entrepreneur must read is,  **Dragons Den**, **Success from Pitch to Profit**, this book was significant to Bowers, as it was his first influence of self-employment, and the first realization and of deep desire that he wanted to be a successful entrepreneur thereafter.  He shared some of the biggest lessons he has learned thus far as an entrepreneur; after a valued team member left, and he failed to provide a framework whereby that team member could have happily stayed, he felt it was important to make a change.  A valuable lesson learned the hard way, that must be extended to every company, was that the people within your business are the most valuable asset of the business, and you must be pro-active and not reactive to their needs.  Implementing a plan is of utmost importance for keeping a positive workplace environment and keeping your most valued team members feel valued.  Luckily Jason has been incredibly successful at building his team since then and feels that it is of utmost importance to build a team and business with a high-value culture where every individual wants to come to work every day and continue to grow as individuals and also as a business.    What is the number one thing an entrepreneur should focus on?  Bowers’ number one focus is Growth.  A great idea, product, service, culture, or team is all irrelevant unless you have a proven concept, and the only way to do that is to generate revenue and growth. All of the other important things will follow.   ## The Future of Rosemont Partners & Jason Bowers Currently, Rosemont Powers is working on developing the KSA market entry services solution.  As 2021, came to an end, the past milestones have been aplenty; however, the future looks even brighter for the Rosemont Partners’ entrepreneur, as he just opened the doors to a new business venture.  Rosemont Partners’ just launched a real estate arm calledRosemont Partners Real Estate.  It will be a small boutique luxury agency for its private clients, and it will be headquartered in Dubai just like Rosemont Partners.  With the past success that Jason and his team has seen thus far, it is no wonder one would be surprised that Bowers’ and his team have done little to no formal or creative advertising, and has relied mostly on organic growth via existing clients’ word of mouth and referrals via professional intermediaries. Moving into 2022 and years to come, the goal of the company is to continue to develop an exceptional internal team culture that makes them unique, disruptive, and the market leaders of the high-end corporate service providers space. Eventually, they have aspirations of branching into Asia and other territories where they are currently not physically present.  They also hope to continue to stand out from their competitors by providing an overall client experience approach, aligned with diverse service offerings, making them unique in their market space.   Jason’s dream for Rosemont Partners is to successfully develop further business concepts and solution-based models across various industries and simultaneously build disruptive, innovative, and talented teams of people. Jason’s advice for a newbie or anyone in his industry would be, > “A word I came up with which became our internal policy in the early days of the business was ‘SYNFIOL’ –  Say Yes Now Figure it Out Later. In other words, never dismiss a client mandate straight off the bat. You can commit to ‘looking into it for them without promising you can deliver and ultimately give yourself every chance to win the business if you feel you can deliver a solution.”-Jason Bowers For more on Jason Bowers and Rosemont Partners and their latest industry news, check them out on the web atRosemont Partners orRosemont Partners Real Estate. --- ## “The Entrepreneurial Mind” – An Interview With Successful Entrepreneur Andrew Duplessie URL: https://futuresharks.com/andrew-duplessie/ If there is one thing entrepreneurs have in common, it’s that they are all willing to try. The entrepreneurial mind gravitates towards ideas, creativity, and a will to turn an idea into an enterprise. Andrew Duplessie has these qualities in spades. “It’s tough to summarize my journey as an entrepreneur. All I can say for sure is that I’ve embarrassed myself enough that I’m sort of numb to it. You have to be willing to put yourself out there. Release a product. Don’t hold it like a jewel. Take the tough feedback and use those beta points to develop something important.” ​Duplessie might have had a few embarrassing entrepreneurial flops along the way, but mostly, he’s on a winning streak. Still in his 20s, Duplessie has dabbled in acting, appearing as a co-star on the wildly popular show American Horror Story, he founded Tipster, a popular app incubated through Stanford University’s StartX program aimed at connecting users to style experts in the fashion industry, he’s a writer of popular horror stories, and currently he is the Chief Innovation Officer at Flowcode, a company that enables users to instantly connect with the digital world by scanning a QR code. “After COVID-19 hit, everyone was scanning”, reflected Duplessie. “We were at the right place at the right time with a great product that could help people.” Duplessie sold his startup Tipster in 2019. Duplessie has a lot churning in his entrepreneurial mind, but for him it’s perfectly natural. “I love watching. Sitting at a coffee shop and simply observing people has been instrumental in my journey. That’s when you get the best information as an entrepreneur.” A lot of people observe Duplessie, too. He has nearly half-a-million followers on Instagram, and he uses his online rapport to get direct feedback and data around certain ideas percolating in his mind. “When I pitch an idea to an investor, I know in advance that I’ve got the feedback and data points. It’s really effective and cool” says the former Founder-In-Residence at Science Inc., a venture capital and private equity firm focused on solving everyday problems. Duplessie graduated from Tulane University with a degree in finance and math. A few early post-graduation rejections in the world of banking set him on fire to go the startup route. Since then, he’s never looked back. “Thankfully”, he reflects, “those early fails enabled me to get to a creative place, which is where I am most myself.” Andrew Duplessie has a lot going on. He’s just finished a new book, Flowcode is launching a big commercial campaign, and he’s ruminating on other ideas that can help people make more sense of their lives. Most recently appearing in an interview talking about the future of the metaverse. For the outsider, it’s a rather dizzying pace, but for Duplessie’s supple entrepreneurial mind, it’s just daily life on an exciting journey. “Entrepreneurialism is like a muscle” he quipped, “you have to stretch, build, fail.” For Duplessie, the mental workout is pure joy. Follow his career on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewduplessie Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@storiesbyandrew Instagram: www.instagram.com/andrewduplessie --- ## Tyler Poteet, a young entrepreneur owns multiple successful companies at just 23 years of age. URL: https://futuresharks.com/tyler-poteet-a-young-entrepreneur-owns-multiple-successful-companies-at-just-23-years-of-age/ At only 23 years old, Tyler Poteet has already jump started his life into a success story. At the age of just 16 years old, the young entrepreneur started a T-shirt company called Killer Instinx with his best friend in high school. Tyler began his career in marketing at only 18 years old, with the goal of establishing an accomplished marketing company. He then created his now very successful digital marketing company at just 21 years old. Poteet Digital is a full service digital marketing company based out of Medford, OR. They help both small and large businesses grow online through SEO, pay per click, web design, and social media management. Poteet Digital aids business owners not only in the short-term, but creates sustainable, long lasting results for them. Tyler believes in upholding relationships in not only his personal life, but in his professional life as well. When you put your business’ online presence in the hands of Poteet Digital, you know that you will be taken care of. When starting a business, you never know the outcome or realize exactly how much work it will take. Just a year later now in 2021, Tyler runs his 6 figure digital marketing company at just 23 years of age. How did he end up in the position he is in? Tyler didn’t just get here without putting in the work. Through many sleepless nights, countless hours of working hard, and many months of trying to make ends meet, he learned exactly what it takes to run a successful business, and even two at once. The passion Tyler puts into everything he does radiates, and does not go unseen. Everyone that surrounds him can see the amount of effort he puts into his clients. He does not care about the money he is making from these businesses, but the results that each one of his clients sees. Tyler puts everything he has into his Poteet Digital clients, always in a selfless manner. There is not a time where the young business owner is not grinding and trying to look inward to see how he can improve his business as an owner. And that, he believes, is the key to a successful company. The team behind Poteet Digital is incredibly experienced and has worked with over 100 businesses across the United States. Many of these include well known successful companies, including Kraft, Arm & Hammer, HP, and more. The digital marketing company not only values these large businesses they have worked with, but every small business they have seen grow. This is where the heart of Poteet Digital lies, and where Tyler truly sees his hard work pay off. Tyler and his team are eager to personalize the experience for every client, because all industries are different, and every single business is unique.  Not once does Tyler stop putting in the hard work. Day in and day out, Tyler is either working with his clients for his digital marketing company, booking rides with his start up limo company, and he even has held a daytime construction job while running both of his companies. He is extremely dedicated and will do everything he can to live a happy and healthy life with his fiancée, Carley. Interested in what Poteet Digital can do for you? Check out their website at poteetdigital.com and get in contact with Tyler now. To learn more about his limo company, check out Southern Oregon Limousine. --- ## Yael Eckstein, President and CEO of IFCJ Reviews How to Create Lasting Change in the New Year URL: https://futuresharks.com/yael-eckstein-president-and-ceo-of-ifcj-reviews-how-to-create-lasting-change-in-the-new-year/ As President and CEO of IFCJ*,* Yael Eckstein oversees all ministry programs and serves as the international spokesperson. Prior to assuming her present role, Yael served as Global Executive Vice President, Senior Vice President, and Director of Program Development and Ministry Outreach. With over a decade of non-profit experience in multiple roles, Yael has the rare distinction of being a woman leading one of the world’s largest religious charitable organizations. Yael Eckstein is a published writer and a respected social services professional. She has contributed to *The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel*, Townhall.com, and other publications, and is the author of three books: Holy Land Reflections: A Collection of Inspirational Insights from Israel, Spiritual Cooking with Yael, and Generation to Generation: Passing on a Legacy of Faith to Our Children. Her thoughts on the Jewish faith and Jewish-Christian relations can be heard on *The Fellowship*’s radio ministry programs, including *Holy Land Moments* and *Israel Today*, which are broadcast on nearly 1,000 radio stations around the world. In 2021, she launched her weekly podcast, Nourish Your Biblical Roots, in which she shares spiritual insights and lessons from the *Torah*. And each month, Yael invites leading Christian and Jewish thought leaders to her podcast to discuss Jewish-Christian relations and Israel’s significance on the world stage on *Conversations with Yael*. Yael Eckstein has partnered with other global organizations, appeared on national television, and visited with U.S. and world leaders on issues of shared concern. She has been a featured guest on CBN’s *The 700 Club* with Gordon Robertson, and in 2015 served on a Religious Liberty Panel in Washington, D.C. The same year, Yael’s influence as one of the young leaders in Israel was featured as the cover story of *Nashim* [Women] magazine. In 2019, The *Algemeiner* named Yael to the Jewish 100, citing the positive influence she has made to Jewish life, and referring to her as “the world’s leading Jewish interfaith activist.” In 2020 and 2021, she was named to the *Jerusalem Post*’s list of 50 Most Influential Jews. Born just outside of Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, Yael was well-educated at both American and Israeli institutions, including biblical studies at Torat Chesed Seminary in Israel, Jewish and sociology studies at Queens College in New York, and additional study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is based in Israel with her husband and their four children. In this interview, Yael Eckstein, President and CEO of IFCJ reviews how to create lasting change in the New Year. **Tell us about your podcast!** I have two podcasts. In my weekly podcast, Nourish Your Biblical Roots, I explore the ancient Jewish roots of Christianity and their relevance to people’s lives today. It’s a unique journey through the Bible that I hope will deepen your personal connection with Israel and offer inspirational insights into your Christian faith My second podcast, which airs monthly, is called Conversations with Yael, and it takes my teachings on the Jewish roots of Christianity and it translates that understanding into ongoing support for the state and people of Israel in a practical way. Each month, I’m inviting influential guests to discuss the importance of Israel to the world today. We’ll discuss the historical and biblical significance of Israel, the state of Jewish-Christian relations, and the critical need for Christians to support Israel, particularly now as anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment continues to increase. **You talk about the significance of 30-day commitments. How can 30 days lead to significant change in our lives?** There are 30-day challenges for everything, from decluttering your house to getting in shape, to cleaning up your finances. Each of these challenges is meant to help us create significant change in 30 days. But I want to introduce you to a 30-day challenge that the Jewish people have been taking part of every year for thousands of years. It’s a 30-day program to take our spiritual lives to the next level as we enter the new year on the Jewish calendar. The entire month before the high holidays, *Rosh Hashanah*, the Jewish New Year, and *Yom Kippur*, the Day of Atonement, is actually designated as a time for introspection and change. This month on the Hebrew calendar is called *Elul*. And during *Elul*, we take 30 days to upgrade our spiritual lives before the new year begins. According to Jewish tradition, *Rosh Hashanah* marks the anniversary of the creation of the world. It’s a time to celebrate. But of course, it’s also a time to evaluate. The same way that we need to have an annual checkup of our physical health, we need to have an annual check-in to support our spiritual health. Taking this time to reflect on our lives helps us stay on the right path, headed in the right direction. If we don’t take this time, it’s easy to find ourselves way off track later down the line. **How can Elul lead to lasting change?** During the month of *Elul*, the Jewish people blow the *shofar*, the ritual trumpet mentioned in the Bible, every day. Its purpose is to wake us up from the spiritual slumber that we fall into during the year, so that we become aware of where we are spiritually and what we might need to change. We blow the *shofar* every day for a month before the Jewish new year because change doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process that takes some time. And if we wait until *Rosh Hashanah*, it’s too late. True growth is a gradual process, a process that happens over time, a process the Bible says happens over a month. The month of *Elul* gives us enough time to lay the groundwork for real and lasting change. According to Jewish tradition, every day during the month of *Elul*, a heavenly voice calls out. “Plow the fields. Don’t plant for the thorns and weeds.” What does this mean? It means that we need to attend to our inner garden during the month of *Elul*, so that the seeds we plant for the new year will grow and thrive all year round. **How can we make the best use of Elul?** The 30 days of *Elul* are our time to ask ourselves some important questions like, what bad habits are holding me back from what I want to be, and what do I need to remove from my life because it is holding me back spiritually? It can be intimidating to think about staying away from gossip forever, or getting rid of anger permanently. But can you do it for just 30 days? That’s enough time to make a significant change. Getting rid of behaviors and beliefs that harm us is one aspect of preparing our inner garden during *Elul*. The other is nurturing and nourishing our spirit so that our inner environment is conducive to growth. During the month of *Elul*, Jews set aside more time for Bible study, prayer, and developing our relationship with God. This is the call of *Elul*, to examine where we are in our life’s journey and to take steps in the right direction. I hope that you will join the Jewish people this month or whenever you are reading this and heed that call. When you take 30 days and dedicate them to God, you set yourself up for a successful year and a blessed life. --- ## Dan Herron on Overcoming Challenges and Growing Professionally URL: https://futuresharks.com/dan-herron-on-overcoming-challenges-and-growing-professionally/ Dan Herron is the former pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church, a gospel-centered church community for Bloomington, Indiana, and Indiana University.  Dan Herron was turned to Jesus in 1997 while an undergrad at Illinois State University. In 2000, he graduated and married his wife, Erica, who he had been dating since high school. They moved to St. Louis where Dan taught high school history to at-risk youth, while Erica completed her Master’s degree in Physical Therapy.  After a move in 2011, Dan Herron helped to start Hope Presbyterian Church.  He says, “My identity has these themes of personal character threaded throughout: grit, steadfast endurance in the face of great obstacles, awareness of my weaknesses and mistakes, and movement forward to an expansive and successful leadership vision.”**Currently, Dan Herron is focused on his work at VisionQuest Labs in Indianapolis, Indiana, a state-of-the-art health, fitness, and performance testing lab and indoor cycling training center. We had the opportunity to learn how Dan Herron has overcome specific challenges in his life and the strategies that keep him growing professionally.   What is one strategy that has helped you grow as a professional? Please explain how.** In 1959, the Volkswagen motor company launched a revolutionary ad campaign. In a culture that had a growing financial sector and desired everything to be big, Volkswagen’s ad simply stated, “Think small.”  It pictured a Volkswagen Beetle set back in the distance on a simple white background.  Our culture still tends to think “big.” My tendency, as a person with a highly intuitive personality and gifts that lean toward strategic thinking, is also to think “big” and stay in that space. There is a time and a place for “big” thinking and there is an importance to being able to picture the final destination one is working towards. Seeing “big” is vital. But, if one’s vision remains fixed on the bigger picture, the small picture that involves doing the next thing can get neglected.  If you’re thinking “small,” you’ll have the ability to focus on the thing right in front of you and remain focused on that task until it is complete. You won’t be concerned with the thing that’ll come next or what might be on the horizon.  Thinking “small” is also vital. But, if your vision remains fixed on the small picture, the big picture can get neglected.  So, the strategy I’ve learned that has helped me grow is to “see big” and “think small.” I always begin with the big picture, primarily because this is the way I’m wired. I like to see the grand map before I get technical with the immediate pieces involved in bringing that big picture to life.  This sort of “big” and “small” dynamic has also helped me to grow personally. I have learned how important it is to tend to the daily disciplines, interactions, relationships, and practices.  These end up being the concrete stuff of life that goes into shaping one’s entire worldview and character in the moment-by-moment scenes of a “big” life story.  Because these “small” moments are what make up a “big” life in the aggregate, these are what is so important to invest in as we rehearse and build toward a productive and beautiful life.  **What is one failure you had, and how did you overcome it?** When I started grad school at Covenant Seminary in 2007, I planned to prepare to serve as a “church planter.” This is someone whose specialized ministry focus was on starting churches. I served with a church planting network and focused my thoughts on that trajectory. Over the next two years, I experienced a negative culture that particular organization was known for at that time, and my desire for church planting soured as a result. I resigned from that job, and after much consideration, I decided to move toward a path of academic leadership and scholarship for my future career.  I focused the Fall of 2009 and Spring-Fall of 2010 on preparing for the rigors of a Ph.D. program. I sought out more challenging research-based classes, did extra course work, was more detailed and thorough in my research papers, and assisted three different professors. I studied hard for the GRE test and applied to six different Ph.D. programs in theology—all of the top programs in the U.S. I invested money and time in visiting my top program choices and interacting with my favorite professors at Yale, Duke, and Notre Dame. Plus, I had phone interactions with other professors at Marquette and Princeton. My seminary professors were assuring and encouraging, my grade point average was near the top of my class, my GRE scores were great, and everything looked lined up for me to get into one of these top programs. In December I began receiving response letters to my applications. One by one, the letters came. I would open them with anticipation, glimpse the shiny and elaborate school seal at the top of the page, as each letter (essentially) read, “We think you’re great, a top student, and very promising, but we don’t have the space in our program at this time. Good luck with your future…”  By the time March 2011 rolled around, I had heard “no thank you’s” from all six of the schools I had applied to. I was heartbroken. My professors were dismayed, yet remained encouraging, and my wife, Erica, remained supportive and encouraging as well. By this time, I had three months left until graduation, no job to move to, and no plans to begin. We had two kids at the time, and my hopes felt like they had been crushed. I didn’t know what to do, and I saw this grand attempt toward something great as a grand failure. I had a desire, I shaped that into a goal and then into a plan. I worked diligently to make that plan happen and I couldn’t do it.  I felt sad, ashamed, confused, fearful, and lonely. I prayed night after night and communicated all of these emotions and thoughts to God. I grieved and continued moving toward graduation.  A friend of mine at the time had recently written a song called “Emmanuel.” We were near the Easter holiday when Christians celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. So, I played that song again and again, and meditated on the chorus, “Emman—ue—el, God is with us…” I read through the gospel writers’ accounts of Jesus being with them, even after the resurrection, and promising the Holy Spirit of God to be with them after his ascension. Even as the grief of my failure and loss of my dream persisted, the assurance and joy of not only knowing, but experiencing the presence of God in my life in those moments persisted more greatly. I was assured that God was with me in my grief, shame, confusion, fear, and loneliness. He would take all of this and bring something better and more beautiful out of it. This is what God does, and he’s proven this through taking the crucifixion and humiliation of Jesus and bringing the most beautiful thing out of that—the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, and spiritual renewal for people through this same power.  My hope began to return. I sought out people to talk to and share my grief with. I had the honor to preach a sermon in Chapel on Luke 24 where the resurrected Jesus renews the dashed hopes of his disciples after they thought all had been lost in the crucifixion. And, then I began to see how I had been so fearful several years ago when I departed from the church planting track, and how my Ph.D. hopes had become a convenient and attractive place to run to in order to avoid my calling. I was fearful to lead in that area because I doubted that God would be with me as I entered into the many challenges, temptations, and conflicts that church planting inevitably entails.  Here is when the opportunity to begin a new church in Bloomington, IN came into confluence with my story. God had truly shown himself to be with me, and had walked with me through that entire journey. In the process, he shaped my joys, desires, gifts, and character not only to fulfill a calling to Bloomington but to fulfill a calling into a deeper relationship with himself. --- ## How Vladdy’s Diamonds Is Competing With The Best URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-vladdys-diamonds-is-competing-with-the-best/ In the heart of New York City, where the very best in the Jewellery industry converge on the infamous 5th avenue, there’s still plenty of room for newcomers. Located in Manhattan’s Little Italy, Vladdy’s Diamonds is one of those newcomers. Boasting a hard-hitting celebrity clientele, and bold, highly customised work, Vladdy’s diamonds represents a new age of Jewellers rising to the surface, changing the industry one flipped Rolex at a time. Founded in 1998 by Russian immigrant, Vladdy Aminov, Vladdy’s Diamonds is positioned to set a big impression. Their work is fearless, diamond encrusted, and their family-orientated ethos shines through their long-lasting relationships with their clients. Did we mention this is a clientele that includes the likes of Cardi B and G-Eazy? ‘“It never fails to amaze me how precious metals and stones with brilliance become family heirlooms and I’m humbled to be a part of that.” Today, the highly competitive global jewellery market is fragmented between large manufacturers facing tough competition with local manufacturers. Businesses like Vladdy’s represent the majority of Jewellers in the US. When asked about the success of his business, Vladdy attributes it to a combination of workmanship, positivity and the ability to recognise failures as an essential part of business and growth. “Every business has ups and downs. The journey thus far has made me strong, patient and blessed.” Vladdy immigrated from Russia to the US when he was a mere 8 years old. After a short stint in high school and tough internships at local jewellers, he found his spark in Vladdy’s Diamonds and today, looks to the future for expansion of his flagship store in New York to other US states. Keep up to date with Vladdy and his business via their socials @vladdysdiamonds. --- ## ARTBYMRNICE is Redefining the Boundaries of Modern Pop Art with Innovation, Creativity, and Originality URL: https://futuresharks.com/artbymrnice-is-redefining-the-boundaries-of-modern-pop-art-with-innovation-creativity-and-originality/ By its very nature, pop art has always been defined by its willingness to lock horns with established norms, think outside of the box, constantly innovate, and reimagine what is possible. Since its birth in the mid-1950s and coming of age in the 1960s, pop art has appealed to an audience that was left in the cold by traditional art and felt it didn’t speak for them or represent their life in any way, shape, or form. Pioneers such as Andy Warhol connected with a mass market that was engaged and fascinated by pop art’s dynamic and transformative use of familiar and everyday objects and themes. Its legacy has been both enriching and profound, and subsequent generations have been inspired by an art form that best represents the vitality and vivaciousness of their culture. Sonny Henty, aka Mr. Nice, is one such individual who has been deeply influenced by the infinite possibilities of pop art. His brand ARTBYMRNICE is currently taking the art world by storm and looks set to take its place in the pantheon of pop art greats. For those not in the know, ARTBYMRNICE is building a formidable reputation as a brand that is redefining the boundaries of modern pop art with creativity, originality, and innovation. Mr. Nice’s unique integration of neon into pop art has made the world sit up and pay attention, including celebrities such as Kesha, Harry Jowsey, Deontay Wilder, and Juice Wrld, who are all proud owners of original pieces by ARTBYMRNICE. When asked why his company has been such a hit with people from all walks of life and all four corners of the globe, Mr. Nice explained, “The beauty of pop art is it’s never exclusive but always inclusive. People relate to it because it speaks of their life, experiences, and culture. It also has to be engaging, eye-catching, and possess an aesthetic beauty all of its own, but its appeal lies in how relatable it is to the masses, and I am happy to say that ARTBYMRNICE ticks all those boxes and more.” --- ## Ayurcann Holdings Corp. Is Continuing to See a Prosperous Growth In Their Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/ayurcann-holdings-corp-is-continuing-to-see-a-prosperous-growth-in-their-business/ Toronto-based companyAyurcann Holdings Corp. continues to dominate the Canadian cannabis industry by showing an increase in revenues more than ten-fold. Ayurcann’s fiscal year ended on June 30, where the company reported an increase in revenue valuing over seven-million dollars. That’s 1,149 percent over their 2020 fiscal year. The company has reported substantial growth in their Operating Income which valued over two-million dollars, with an increase of 440% compared to their 2020 fiscal year. “We are thrilled to see our revenues growing consistently. Our margins are robust, and we are increasingly profitable. We are proud to be one of the very few in our peer group showing growing revenues and a positive operating income with a consistent path of profitability,” Igal Sudman, CEO of Ayurcann said. Receiving their license in 2020, Sudman and Roman Buzaker founded the company in 2018. Their processing facility located in the GTA offers many services for Canadian licensed cannabis producers. Recently they finished the Phase 2 expansion, allowing them to increase production and process up to 300,000 kg of biomass and up to three-million fill product for co-manufacturing vapes, topical and tinctures per year. Sudman’s 20 years of experience in founding and developing businesses which have been featured on Canadian Profit 50, has allowed him to think outside-the-box and achieve sales volumes that top his competition. Over the past year selling over one-billion milligrams of THC and CBD distillate into the Canadian market through high volume manufacturing and distribution agreements. Another avenue that is being established by Ayurcann is the Ayurcann Marketplace, where patients can easily access a variety of products, while giving them the privacy, security, support staff and health practitioners that will help educate and prescribe the cannabis that addresses the patient’s needs. “The marketplace is a patient only portal where medical patients with prescriptio_ns can be educated and learn more about the various cannabis products available, interact directly with our patient support staff and create a customized product selection to address their needs” said Sudman. Those searching for new cannabis products will see Ayurcann’s exclusive partnerships with national and international brands including the Xplor brand. The Xplor brand offers high potency active components in both THC and CBC at an exceptional value proposition, making it unique to the market. Compared to other CBD products which have a potency of 100-200mg per container, the Xplor line of products can offer up to 1500mg per container, at a value price. Sudman and Ayurcann holdings are not slowing down any time soon. They’ve signed multiple international brands to manufacture and distribution agreements which include Innocan Pharma from Israel, Green Bee Botanicals from California, and Her Highness from New York. --- ## Women Leading the Way by Reforming Campaign Strategy URL: https://futuresharks.com/women-leading-the-way-by-reforming-campaign-strategy/ ## Zee Cohen-Sanchez and Amani Wells-Onyioha innovate a revolutionary political startup called Sole Strategies Sole Strategies, a team of political experts and activists, is spread across the U.S. Despite working remotely, Sole’s staff exhibits tight camaraderie. Operations Director Amani Wells-Onyioha kicks off weekly meetings with team builders, and Zee Cohen-Sanchez, founder and executive director, focuses on staff development. “As Sole’s leader,” Cohen-Sanchez says, “I want people to feel they’re truly growing as a team and as individuals. One of the things we talk about in our weekly meetings is fear. We’ll ask each other what we’re doing that scares us. We use our fear to grow.” In terms of growth, this political startup has an impressive story. ### Sole Strategies offers the edge to progressive candidates Sole Strategies is a startup comprised of political experts building grassroots campaigns. These young progressives are doing something entirely new. They aren’t just consultants, and they offer more than a hired staff. Cohen-Sanchez explains, “Normally, your campaign runs less than a year. By the time you’ve raised the money to hire staffers, you’re three to six months back. We bring a solid team to the table. We know each other, we work together, and we trust each other. When we get in, we get right to work.” Sole Strategies offers clients political expertise in four primary departments: - Fundraising - Customizable digital packages - Public relations and endorsements - Field operations Candidates can take advantage of as much or as little as they need. “Sometimes we’re the whole backbone of a campaign,” says Cohen-Sanchez. “Then other times, the candidate just comes to us for a logo or a website.” ### From field to founder—Cohen-Sanchez finds her place Cohen-Sanchez entered the political arena with a deep desire to bring about change. “I’ve always been interested in politics,” she reflects, “but I was radicalized in college. I went to school at Wagner, and During that time, I saw the beginnings of Occupy Wall Street. It really piqued my interest in what was going on in the world.” Cohen-Sanchez worked seven years as a consultant and field operative before breaking off on her own. She says Sole was born out of her frustration with the industry. “I took my work in the field seriously, but I saw so many consultants who had no idea how to do fieldwork. They were just there to make money. I was pushed around by older men who thought they knew what they were doing but wouldn’t lift a finger. One day I asked myself, ‘What if we did something that was full-service and actually beneficial to candidates?’” ### Sole Strategies finds a niche in political activism The hands-on approach inspiring Sole Strategies is unique. “Many consultants just don’t care,” she explains. “They make their money, retire to Florida for the season, and then come back to do it again. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do for the candidates or for the communities.” In fact, Sole’s name comes from Cohen-Sanchez’s on-the-ground experience. “Our team wore their shoes thin,” she remembers. “We were wearing our soles down. But then also, there’s the play on words. You have to have soul to win a race.” Cohen-Sanchez started Sole, but she doesn’t carry the team alone. Wells-Onyioha keeps everyone impassioned and ensures things run efficiently. Before joining Sole, the shooting of Trayvon Martin emboldened Wells-Onyioha to attend grad school and obtain a master’s in political journalism. She remembers, “I wanted to be someone who gave a voice to the voiceless, who uplifted people through writing, who spread the facts, and who helped people get activated.” ### Sole Strategies rethinks the model for campaign management Getting Sole Strategies off the ground was challenging. Field operations isn’t high-paying work. Cohen-Sanchez wanted to implement effective movement campaigns, but she also wanted to take care of her staff. “It wasn’t responsible for me to run a progressive organization but not pay my workers a living wage or make sure they had benefits. I knew I couldn’t start an organization like Sole if I didn’t change the model. In our first month, we made almost $20,000 in sales. From there, I realized it was a big idea.” Sole Strategies began as an idea and a website. Remembering those early days, Wells-Onyioha says, “We didn’t have any loans. It was literally Zee saying, ‘I want to try this, and we’re going to see what happens.’ As the clients came, we brought on people to service those clients.” ### Sole Strategies’ success fosters rapid growth Sole Strategies went from 0 to 25 employees in under one year. “It’s been a wild ride,” says Cohen-Sanchez. From its first website, Sole Strategies has grown to an office in the heart of New York City. Wells-Onyioha describes Sole’s new home as quaint. Plants brighten the room, and activist posters trim the walls. Throughout its non-stop expansion, Sole has sought out a diverse staff that doesn’t fit the mold. Most political organizations hire based on résumés, but an impressive CV isn’t essential to Sole. “We’re looking for people who have a diversity of life experience,” Cohen-Sanchez explains. “When people live in the communities they’re working with, that’s skin in the game. We can teach the technical side of things, but we can’t teach you how to be a person who cares about the movement we’re trying to grow here.” ### Sole Strategies attracts people-powered campaigns In just over one year, Sole has taken on 187 projects, and every candidate who’s signed on with Sole for petitioning has made it onto the ballot. Despite the numbers, Sole Strategies commits to remaining selective about the campaigns they represent. “We definitely want to be picky because we work best when we’re passionate about what the candidate is doing,” says Wells-Onyioha. Sole Strategies seeks out campaigns supported by the community. The term Sole uses to describe these campaigns is “people-powered”. “We’re talking about candidates people want to follow and candidates who are activated in their communities,” Wells-Onyioha explains. Sole brings a team to the field that cares about each campaign as much as the candidates do. Cohen-Sanchez says, “We always go in expecting a win, but we fight like the underdog. That’s the way we do it for every campaign.” To learn what Sole Strategies is doing now, readers canvisit their website andfollow them on Twitter. --- ## How Marco Kozlowski Restarted His Business and Brand From Scratch URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-marco-kozlowski-restarted-his-business-and-brand-from-scratch/ Starting and launching any entrepreneurial venture is inherently daunting. Challenges and barriers can often arise faster and in greater numbers than opportunities are unlocked, and with as many as 9 in every 10 businesses failing within 10 years from the time they are started, it’s little wonder why so many entrepreneurs end up never seeing their ventures succeed. As difficult as launching a new business venture can be, doing so again is an even more daunting undertaking, especially when an entrepreneur has no choice but to pack up their bags and try again from the ground up. Unfortunately, real estate investor Marco Kozlowski is no stranger to this himself. In 2009, while navigating his divorce and trying to be the best father he could be to his four children, Kozlowski’s now-ex-wife took almost everything he had—monetary or otherwise— leaving him with nothing except the clothes on his back and the will to keep going. Left in shambles, it took Kozlowski the better part of a decade to build himself and his business back up and into some semblance of operating order. While it indeed has been far from easy, Kozlowski’s drive for success has allowed him the opportunity to restart his business and personal brand from the ashes of ruin. Now, he wants to help other entrepreneurs like him understand the ways they can manage to do this for themselves and their own businesses as well, even when it feels like the entire world is against them. ## 1. Double-down on what you know The reason why so many entrepreneurs also hold the title of “subject matter expert” and/or “thought leader” is because they devote themselves to becoming a true master of their craft, regardless of what that craft is or the industry realm it falls under. When life hit Kozlowski hard in 2009, he knew that trying to start a new business in an area he was not familiar with or knowledgeable in would inevitably lead to chasing shiny objects, a common distraction that befalls entrepreneurs who get distracted by new ideas rather than focusing on the skills and knowledge they already have. “Instead of letting myself get caught up in ‘shiny object syndrome’,” says Kozlowski, “I had to stick with what I knew — real estate — and double-down on creating an even better business than I had before.” Initially, Kozlowski tells us, he began this process by restructuring his entire business model to pinpoint areas where it could most be improved upon. Over a decade later, he has not only been able to recuperate his financial losses from his prior business, but build and grow a better and more successful business while also instructing aspiring real estate investors and entrepreneurs in his specific field of expertise. ## 2. Never rely on your own money or credit Most entrepreneurs are familiar with the age-old adage of, “you need to spend money to make money.” While in certain situations this can prove to be true, this saying no longer applies to a broad spectrum of entrepreneurial ventures or businesses existing in today’s hyper-digitized world. For those looking to make a name for themselves in the realm of real estate or similar areas, however, this adage holds absolutely no water. “In my native Canada,” Kozlowski clarifies, “there are only five banks. All five of these are credit-based, so for entrepreneurs who find themselves in situations similar to the one I was in in 2009, there are zero chances of acquiring a loan from these institutions. In the US, however, there are more than ten thousand banks, including secondary banks, private equity firms, and private lenders.” The thing is, as Kozlowski explains, all of these institutions in the US operate on one key principle: risk. The lower risk an investment poses—including real estate investments—the higher the chances are of an entrepreneur receiving funds. For entrepreneurs looking to restart and rebuild a business in real estate, this means that going after targeted properties that pose lower risks with higher potential rewards to your lender better positions you to make more money in less time; all without putting any of your own cash, credits, or assets on the line. ## 3. Understand your process inside and out, then execute it As an entrepreneur, no one will ever understand how you work better than you do. Building a successful business never comes overnight, but neither does recognizing and understanding your internal processes when it comes time to sit down, put your nose to the grindstone, and put in the work in order to make your business successful. “When I was forced to rebuild my business and brand from scratch,” Kozlowski adds, “I knew that I couldn’t simply rely on falling back into the processes or systems that I had relied on in the past. I needed to find a new way to operate a new business that I could apply my knowledge, expertise, and skill set to in order for that new business to become successful. This is ultimately what led to me avoiding real estate tactics like property flipping and instead focus solely on profiting from rental properties that would require none of my own money to acquire.” Kozlowski posed no qualms in saying that, at first, doing this was extremely difficult. Sometimes, it even felt impossible; like he was searching for a needle in a haystack. If nothing else, Kozlowski mentions that he wishes the takeaway from this article to be this: restarting and rebuilding your business from nothing is difficult, but it can absolutely be done through dedication and perseverance. If your business or brand means as much to you as his own did, and still does, then your entrepreneurial spirit will help guide you along the way to creating an even better business venture than you had originally dreamed of. --- ## Digital Advertising Trends in 2026: The Definitive Guide URL: https://futuresharks.com/digital-ad-trends-for-2021-beyond/ TL;DR: In 2026, AI runs the campaigns, Meta overtakes Google, retail media and CTV soak up the new money, the cookie deadline is dead, and incrementality testing exposes what your dashboard has been overstating all along. The digital advertising business crossed a line in 2026 that it had been approaching for a decade: machines now run the campaigns, and humans manage the machines. Global digital ad spend is on track to hit roughly $740 billion this year, more than 73% of all media spending worldwide, according to industry forecasts. But the headline number hides the real story. The money is moving fast between channels, the levers advertisers used to pull by hand have been automated away, and the metrics everyone trusted are being quietly exposed as inflated. If you are still optimizing keywords and audiences manually, you are working against the platforms instead of with them. Here are the eight trends that actually matter in 2026, what changed, and what to do about each. ## 1. AI now runs the campaign, not the marketer The biggest shift is also the simplest to state: Meta's Advantage+ and Google's Performance Max have moved from optional automation to the default way you buy ads. You feed the system a goal, a budget, conversion signals, and a pile of creative. It handles targeting, bidding, placement, and creative rotation. The adoption numbers are decisive. Performance Max usage among Google advertisers jumped from 60% in 2024 to 71% in 2025, and PMax now drives roughly 45% of all Google Ads conversions, with about 78% of total Google spend flowing through Smart Bidding or PMax, per [Fluency's 2026 benchmarks](https://www.fluency.inc/blog/2026-trends-and-performance-benchmarks-google-ads-meta-ads). On the Meta side, Advantage+ has been the single biggest driver of the company's ad growth and crossed a $20 billion annual run rate. That automation reorders your job. The controls that matter now are upstream: clean conversion signals, a strong and varied creative library, and accurate tracking. You are no longer tuning bids. You are feeding the algorithm better inputs and judging its output honestly, which leads directly to trend #8. **What to do:** Treat creative volume as a media lever. Give the system 10 to 20 distinct creative variations per campaign, keep your conversion API feed clean, and resist the urge to over-segment, the algorithm punishes fragmented signal. ## 2. Meta overtakes Google for the first time ever For the entire history of the open web, Google has been the largest digital ad business. That ends in 2026. EMARKETER projects [Meta will pull in $243.46 billion in global ad revenue against Google's $239.54 billion](https://www.emarketer.com/learningcenter/guides/meta-to-surpass-google-in-digital-ad-revenues-for-first-time-ever/), taking a 26.8% share of global ad spend to Google's 26.4%. The gap is a growth-rate story, not an absolute one. Meta's ad revenue is forecast to grow about 24% in 2026 versus Google's roughly 12%, and Advantage+ is the engine. The strategic read for advertisers: Meta's machine-learning stack is currently converting raw budget into return more efficiently than anyone else, which is why money keeps flowing there. It does not mean abandon Google. It means stop treating "search vs. social" as a strategy debate and start treating both as automated conversion machines you feed and measure. ## 3. Retail media is where the new money goes Retail media networks (RMNs) are the fastest-growing major channel in advertising, and 2026 is the year they became unavoidable. US advertisers are expected to spend [$71.09 billion on retail media in 2026, up from $60.32 billion in 2025](https://www.emarketer.com/content/faq-on-retail-media-networks-how-marketers-should-allocate-budgets-2026), roughly 18% growth. The catch is concentration. Amazon and Walmart will capture 89% of all incremental retail media spending in 2026, with Amazon commanding an estimated 77% of US retail media spend and Walmart Connect around 7%. Target Roundel, Kroger Precision Marketing, and the long tail of smaller networks are flat or declining. If you sell physical products, Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect are not optional line items, they are where purchase intent actually lives. Retail media is also escaping the shelf. Retail-data-powered social ads are pegged at $7.76 billion and retail-powered CTV spots at $6.10 billion for 2026, meaning retailer first-party data is now targeting ads across the whole internet, not just inside the store. ## 4. Connected TV crosses over from linear 2026 is the tipping-point year for television. US CTV ad spend is projected at about [$37.95 billion, a 15% jump](https://www.emarketer.com/content/faq-on-converged-tv--understanding-linear-connected-tv-landscape-2026), and for the first time CTV upfront commitments (~$17.7 billion) are forecast to exceed primetime linear upfronts (~$17.0 billion). Streaming hit a record 47.5% of all US TV viewing in December 2025, per Nielsen. The competitive scramble matters for buyers. Amazon, Disney, Google's YouTube, and Roku each generate over $3 billion in annual US CTV ad revenue. Netflix's ad tier passed $1.5 billion in 2025 and is expected to roughly double in 2026, and Amazon Prime Video's ad tier now reaches the vast majority of Prime subscribers. That flood of new inventory pushed CPMs down hard, Netflix's average CPM fell from around $42 to about $31, and Prime Video's from roughly $35 to $28 by late 2024. **What to do:** CTV is now a performance channel, not just a brand play. Cheaper inventory plus better measurement means you can run lower-funnel CTV campaigns and actually attribute them. Test Amazon and Prime Video first if you sell products, the retail-data targeting is the differentiator. ## 5. The cookie deadline is dead, but the privacy shift is not For five years the industry organized itself around a single deadline: Google killing third-party cookies in Chrome. That deadline no longer exists. In July 2024 Google announced it would [not deprecate third-party cookies](https://www.didomi.io/blog/google-chrome-third-party-cookies-april-2025), in 2025 it dropped the planned user choice prompt, and in October 2025 it began retiring most of the Privacy Sandbox initiative, including the Topics API and Attribution Reporting API, citing low adoption. Do not mistake the reprieve for a reversal of the underlying trend. Apple's tracking restrictions, browser defaults, regulation (GDPR, CCPA and its successors), and plain consumer distrust all still degrade third-party signal every quarter. The smart money never paused its first-party data build-out, it just stopped tying it to Google's calendar. **What to do:** Own your data. Invest in first-party and zero-party data collection (email, loyalty programs, on-site behavior, surveys), a clean server-side conversion feed, and durable identity through logged-in relationships. That foundation is what makes every other trend on this list work better, because the AI campaigns in trend #1 are only as good as the signal you give them. ## 6. Short-form video is the format that prints Short-form vertical video, TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, remains the highest-engagement, highest-demand ad format, and the spend reflects it. TikTok delivers the strongest average influencer engagement of any major platform (roughly 4.3% to 5.5%), Reels averages about 3.7% (versus 0.48% for standard feed posts), and YouTube Shorts content keeps generating traffic far longer than short-form on rival platforms, according to [creator-economy data compiled by inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/creator-economy-statistics). The production bottleneck that used to make video expensive is gone. AI video and image generation, voiceovers, and catalog automation now live directly inside Meta Ads Manager, TikTok Ads Manager, and Google Ads. You no longer need a separate tool or a production budget to ship 20 creative variants, which is exactly what the algorithm in trend #1 is hungry for. ## 7. Creators are a media channel, not a campaign Influencer and creator marketing stopped being a brand-awareness side quest. Global influencer marketing spend is forecast to land between roughly [$40 billion and $48 billion in 2026, up from about $33 billion in 2025](https://theinfluencermarketingfactory.com/creator-economy/), and Goldman Sachs Research expects the broader creator economy to approach half a trillion dollars by 2027. The tactical shift is toward scale and authenticity at the same time. Brands are running portfolios of micro- and mid-tier creators rather than betting on a few celebrities, then licensing the best-performing creator content to run as paid Advantage+ and PMax creative. Creator content has become the cheapest source of the high-volume, native-feeling video that the automated platforms reward, closing the loop between trends #1, #6, and #7. ## 8. Measurement gets honest: incrementality over attribution Here is the trend that should change how you read every number above. As AI takes over campaign execution, the platforms also report their own performance, and a growing body of evidence says those reports are inflated. Sophisticated advertisers running independent holdout tests are [routinely finding platform attribution overstates true impact by 25% to 40%](https://www.emarketer.com/content/faq-on-incrementality-how-prove-your-ads-actually-work-2026). One analysis of 55,000+ Meta campaigns found that real new-customer acquisition cost through Advantage+ more than doubled between May 2024 and May 2025, while Meta's reported ROAS held steady. The response is a return to rigor. Roughly 47% of US marketers plan to invest more in marketing mix modeling (MMM) over the next year, over half already run incrementality testing, and MMM is now rated the single most reliable measurement methodology, ahead of multi-touch attribution. Meanwhile, AI Overviews now appear on an estimated 47% of Google searches, reshaping the search click and forcing advertisers to rethink what a "conversion" from search even looks like. **What to do:** Stop grading the algorithm on its own homework. Run geo holdout tests or lightweight incrementality experiments on your biggest channels, and use MMM to allocate budget across channels rather than trusting any single platform's last-click math. The advertisers who win in 2026 are the ones who can tell the difference between spend that drives sales and spend the dashboard merely claims credit for. ## The bottom line 2026 advertising rewards a different skill set than 2021 did. The manual levers, keywords, audiences, bids, are gone, automated into Advantage+ and Performance Max. The new edge comes from three things: feeding those systems clean first-party data and a deep creative library, putting budget where intent actually lives (retail media, CTV, short-form, creators), and measuring honestly with incrementality and MMM instead of trusting inflated platform dashboards. The platforms are doing the optimizing now. Your job is to give them better inputs, point them at the right channels, and keep score with numbers you can actually trust. Do that, and the machines will work for you instead of around you. --- ## Property Investment As A Safe Haven During A Crisis? Real Estate Expert Gary Nash Weighs In URL: https://futuresharks.com/property-investment-as-a-safe-haven-during-a-crisis-real-estate-expert-gary-nash-weighs-in/ Is now a good time to invest in housing? According to real estate expert Gary Nash, it depends. “Residential real estate activity will depend a lot on local market conditions. Most major cities nationwide saw a general decline in real estate activity at the beginning of the year. But there will be other areas–likely those hit harder by the pandemic–that experienced steeper drops,” he begins. Health concerns and stay-at-home orders ultimately contributed to fewer property buyers, which in turn led to fewer sellers willing to list their homes and host house visits amid an on-going pandemic and a volatile market. Yet, despite this trend, home sales saw a rise in demand. After an initially tough start, real estate activity began to improve at the end of the first quarter and mid-year, and even started to reach pre-pandemic levels by summer. Interested buyers began to boost their search in earnest, which led to improved purchase activity by the end of May. At this point, home showings adapted, and the listings rose in number as online, and socially distant viewing rules and procedures were announced. As a result, pending sales in U.S metropolitan areas rose by almost30% compared to the same period last year. Did you expect this outcome for real estate? It’s hard to predict exactly where the market is headed, especially when a lot of it hinged on how factors such as the pandemic will reshape the nature of work set ups and home ownership. Housing is a long-term investment and a major purchase decision for many households–one that requires guidance from an expert who understands the nuances behind market conditions and how it will affect real estate demand and supply. This is something that Nash can offer through hisGenius Investing Academy program. With a career spanning over forty years in house flipping and real estate investment, he is the go-to guy for advice. His ten-step course, designed to help people avoid making costly mistakes, is the best resource for investors to maximize their profit margins and deal flow. Listed as one of the top fifty in the country by Remodeling Magazine, he knows what to look for in properties and when the time is right to shell out. He has a well-proven track record of success and wants to share that success with others so they, too, can start living their dreams. “I now enjoy a freedom most investors only dream about. I share this with you not to brag but to illustrate if someone like me who began as a bricklayer can do this, I know you can as well,” he says. Genius Investing Academy provides the structure required to build a solid foundation in the world of real estate. Gary explains everything, from renovation topics, best approaches, strategies, procedures, and techniques. Combined, the program offers a mastery of the housing market and business that helps you make the most informed decisions for major investment. --- ## TikTok Star Keemo Kazi Debuts to the Music Industry with His Album “Keemo VS. Kazi” URL: https://futuresharks.com/tiktok-star-keemo-kazi-debuts-to-the-music-industry-with-his-album-keemo-vs-kazi/ “Wise musicians are those who play what they can master.” – Duke Ellington Music has been food for the soul for time immemorial. It is one of those art forms where the artist can connect with the audience without even speaking directly to them. Over the last few years, the music industry has experienced insane growth and transformation. Modern music no longer depends on traditional genres to charm the audience. With the advent of digital media, a fresh crop of aspiring musicians has revolutionized the industry with contemporary tracks and cross-genre beats. Keemo Kazi, a budding contemporary musician, is already creating waves in the industry with his debut album *Keemo VS. Kazi*. He originally shot to fame on TikTok by creating engaging comedic content through skits and pranks. He started uploading quality videos on TikTok in a series that he called “Freestyle Fridays.” Keemo’s videos of him pranking his family went viral on social media almost instantly, earning him millions of views within a short period. Within a year, the entertainer was able to break the internet earning 20 million followers. What followed was a series of 6 singles over 6 consecutive months. Each song from *Keemo VS. Kazi* became a major hit on social media, earning him millions of views. Thanks to the TikTok star’s popularity, it was easy to grab the attention of millions to showcase his new talent. His album presents unconventional music that is unique to Keemo and much adored by his huge fan base. Keemo’s music has pleased people of all age groups and is now taking the internet by storm. From being a TikTok sensation, *Keemo Vs. Kazi* has officially marked Keemo’s entry into the professional music industry. The young artist became a millionaire at only 18, a feat achieved by only a few people of his age. With his newfound success as a music artist, Keemo was able to help his parents retire and take care of his siblings. Currently, he is planning to release one song and music video every month on social media. He is putting every effort into making it different from the past while also living up to his audiences’ expectations. Keemo has always followed his heart as a content creator on social media. He has never believed in sticking to one thing to create a niche. He’d rather explore his talent and showcase it in the best way possible to his fans. The performer is using his musical talent to bridge the gap between being an influencer and an artist. He wants to show the world that a social media figure can also rock the music industry if they have the talent. Keemo has always been a daring creator with no concern for standards or what’s trending. This is reflected in his music videos, too, which have managed to connect with the audience on a personal level. He is always experimenting with his style to create something new and fresh. Consistency has always been his key to success in whatever he does. From creating TikToks to music videos, Keemo ensures that his audience’s interest never dies due to lack of content. Going forward, he wants to continue storming both TikTok and the music industry as an entertainer. He wants to explore more avenues for his talent and inspire many others to live their dreams. --- ## Plan Your Next Trip with Carmen’s Luxury Travel URL: https://futuresharks.com/plan-your-next-trip-with-carmens-luxury-travel/ Vacations are exciting and many individuals love to travel in their free time. Carmen Edelson turned her love of travel into a thriving travel blog, Carmen’s Luxury Travel. On her blog, Carmen shares reviews of travel destinations. Carmen’s Luxury Travel stands apart from other travel blogs. Unlike other blogs that focus on budget-friendly trips for younger audiences, Carmen tailors her reviews to fit her older audience. She curates five-star travel experiences for successful business people and well-to-do retirees. **Carmen’s First Taste of International Travel** Carmen’s parents moved from Cuba to the United States in the late 1960s, where Carmen’s Cuban-American family settled in New Jersey. Although Carmen’s parents worked hard to provide for her family, they didn’t have enough money to travel. Because of this, travel wasn’t a part of Carmen’s childhood. When she was in her early thirties, Carmen had the opportunity to go to Spain. She made the last-minute decision to take her first international trip. After visiting Spain, Carmen knew she had to travel more. **From Hobby to Successful Business** When Carmen returned from Spain, she knew she wanted to start making plans for her next international trip. As she visited more luxury vacation destinations, she started her blog, CarmensLuxuryTravel.com. On this blog, she shared reviews of vacation destinations and accommodations. Over time, this hobby blossomed into something more. In 2013, she began her brand, Carmen’s Luxury Travel. With over 250,000 followers, her social media pages and blog are helping individuals around the world make travel plans. Many travel blogs focus on young adults, but Carmen’s blog focuses primarily on people over the age of 35. Her reviews are written with hardworking professionally and financially well-to-do retirees in mind. Instead of looking for cheap vacation spots, Carmen helps readers plan a five-star travel experience. **Challenges with Social Media** Although Carmen’s blog has become a source of full-time income, she is always learning and always searching for ways to improve her brand. Social media and its ever-changing landscape are major challenges. Carmen feels like she has become pretty comfortable creating content for Instagram. However, TikTok and Instagram Reels pose new challenges. She is learning to create compelling videos for social media, although her full plate makes this a real challenge. As she creates content, Carmen is always looking for hidden gems, unique activities, and options that allow her readers to get the most for their money. Because her audience is often well-traveled, she puts extra effort into finding new locations and experiences for them. **Carmen’s Luxury Travel Today** From the beginning, Carmen has shared reviews of hotels, destinations, cruises, restaurants, and other vacation experiences. As she’s built up an audience on social media, she has broken into social media content creation. She uses her Instagram profile to share her travel experiences in real-time. Pictures and short videos are uploaded to Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels, giving readers a glimpse into her travel experience. As much as Carmen loves creating content for social media, she doesn’t let it distract from her blog’s content. Carmen views her social media posts as the headline and her blog as the full-length article. Although readers can get a feel for her experience with her posts on social media, the in-depth reviews on her website continue to draw readers. Because of her success, Carmen has had the opportunity to partner with various travel brands. These tourism boards, cruise companies, and hotels provide vacation packages in exchange for her in-depth reviews. Since Carmen’s readers trust her recommendations, they also trust her feedback on sponsored posts. Both readers and sponsors know that Carmen only recommends quality experiences, sponsored or not. **Future Plans for Carmen’s Luxury Travel** When the pandemic hit in 2020, international travel came to a standstill. During restricted international travel, Carmen promoted domestic travel for tourists within the United States. She hopes to return to international travel experiences soon as restrictions are lifted. Carmen is confident that there will be a travel boom in the near future. As people have resumed vacations and partaken in domestic travel, she has seen a small preview of the boom that is to come. Despite the setbacks of the pandemic, Carmen was able to grow her team to include two full-time employees. As travel opens up and her business grows, Carmen hopes to add more people to her team. With the extra help, Carmen hopes to find more time to dedicate to creating video content. Carmen advises passionate entrepreneurs to invest in themselves, follow their passion, and invest their energy on strengths instead of weaknesses. Instead of using your energy on things you aren’t good at, Carmen suggests hiring people to help manage these tasks. If you’re constantly stretching yourself beyond your limits, you’ll quickly burn out. With Carmen’s sage advice in mind, maybe you can find a way to make your passion into a full-time income! --- ## Gilberto Rosas Making Waves In The Referral Marketing Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/gilberto-rosas-making-waves-in-the-referral-marketing-industry/ **Based in Los Angeles, California, Gilberto Rosas is one of the leading referral marketing experts in the country today. Backed by over 7 years of experience in professional marketing, he has already achieved success in 30+ States and counting.** Gilberto Rosas has a philosophy on life. He believes that living is the most important part of being human. And to live, we must constantly push ourselves and be open to change. Gilberto Rosas’s Maverick Approach will help you achieve the life you want to live by showing you how to simplify your life, be more truthful with yourself, and look at things in a new light. Over the years, Gilberto has worked with several industries such as mortgage, real estate, financial advisory firms, insurance, and so on. Gilberto founded Maverick Media Lab to help businesses grow revenue through his proven Referral Marketing System that helps to generate qualified leads through strategic partnerships. Maverick Media’s Referral Connector Blueprint system has already helped businesses to double (and in some cases triple) their referrals and revenue. Maverick Media’s Referral Connector Blueprint system has already helped businesses to double (and in some cases triple) their referrals and revenue. For testimonials, and to see what others are saying about Maverick Media Lab, check this video: Gilberto lives by Terrence McKenna’s view that > “Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it’s a feather bed.” We sat down with him to learn more about his background and what led to his rapid growth and success. ## How did you come up with the idea of Referral Connector System? My company is Maverick Media Lab and our core service is the Referral Connector System which is a 3 pillar process that helps businesses generate more referrals without networking events, cold calling, or advertising. The idea for the Referral Connector System stemmed from listening to the market and what its needs were. I noticed a lot of competitors were doing the same thing which, in turn, has made the service of lead generation a commodity. As I talked to many business owners I began to notice that there were common problems that came up for various business owners. I then sought out to create a productized service that solves a very specific problem for a specific type of client. You’ll notice the keyword there being “specific.” And that’s what I’ve found to be a key to growth, is to have focus as in one flagship service to one ideal client. That has given us not only the ability to solve that specific problem to a much higher degree but also from an operational standpoint, it increases profit margins and decreases any bottlenecks in service delivery. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? We use a multi-channel approach when it comes to getting clients. We’ve found that using Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, and email has been the most effective in terms of client acquisition. At first, it was a bit frustrating but the biggest thing that created a breakthrough was knowing our niche, crafting a relevant message to that niche, tweaking and testing that message, and then being very consistent. Once these things were in place, we were off to the races and saw a consistent flow of leads coming in. We also started putting out content consistently on social media, specifically video. When you show up consistently, it builds trust and when you do through video it builds trust even faster especially considering how much time people spend on their social media, it creates so much exposure for your business. We regularly have people reaching out because they found our videos or our articles and as a result of the value they got, they want to work with us. ## How have you been able to grow your business? When I reflect on the last couple of years of growth, I feel like it really comes down to being customer centric and listening to what the market wants along with having a proven and predictable process for client acquisition paired with a streamlined client delivery system that can support scale. I would also say that grit and perseverance played a huge role. Like many other business owners, there have been many times where I’ve felt like throwing in the towel but those very moments are what defined and made me level up and take bolder actions in business. What I’ve learned is that our darkest times come right before our biggest leaps. As long as you decide not to stop then you are unstoppable and nothing can get in your way. ## What are some secrets to sales in your most successful platform? Honestly, we just zigged when everyone else zagged. My mentor taught me something about business that has always stuck with me. He said “The end is secure and business is not hard at all… it’s mechanical. It’s a game of iterations. You have a hypothesis and you test it in the marketplace and the market gives you feedback. You then take that feedback and double down on what works or you iterate again until you find something that works.” So that’s what we did. We’ve tested so many things over the last years until we found processes that worked and we continue to do that even now. It never stops because there can always be improvements that can be made. ## What is something that changed your view completely about doing business? When I was in the beginning stages of my business I went to a seminar and one of the speakers had broken down a simple concept that forever changed the way I view business and serves as the foundation for our own client acquisition process. It’s called the KLT funnel. I remember like it was yesterday, he showed on the big screen the picture of a funnel and at the top had the letter K then L in the middle, and at the very bottom of the funnel was T. It stood for Know, Like, and Trust. The basic premise being that the more eyeballs you can have on your brand, the more people know about you, and the more people that know about you, the more people that will like you depending on the value you put out, and the more value you put out, the more they will trust you and do business with you. At the end of the day, business is a game of relationships, and having concepts like the KLT funnel is what has made the backbone of our current marketing efforts so that we can provide more value, show proof or results, and get our brand in front of more eyeballs so that we can impact more people. ## What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? Our core strength has always been prospect and appointment setting. We’ve been able to nail down a system and create an infrastructure that allows us to bring on any client and within a week of launching their campaign start bringing in qualified appointments. We’ve been able to do this by 1. Having the right people in the right positions where they are set up to win 2. Having a proven prospecting process for each platform that allows us to predictably generate qualified appointments 3. Implementing a culture of constant growth and innovation so we continue to improve and adapt with the changes that come in today’s rapid age of technology. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? 1. Reality Transurfing by Vadim Zeland – This book for me opened my eyes to a new way of thinking and viewing the world. For those with an open mind and hunger for learning, I highly recommend this book. 2. Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza – The journey of entrepreneurship will require a better version of yourself and reading this book (get the Audible version too) sheds light on how to transform into the person you were meant to be. 3. The Alchemist – I read this back in high school and it’s still one of my favorite non-fiction books. It’s perfect for anyone who is looking to start a business. There’s a lot of wisdom and golden nuggets to be gained from this book. I’ve read it twice now! ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? The vision I see for Maverick Media Lab is to continue bringing innovation and creativity into industries that need it the most. One of our biggest company values is the impact so it leads our decisions when we decide on the next steps of the company. Our most recent big change is expanding our reach to Canada where we’re now taking on clients and implementing our systems which have brought incredible results so far! These are really exciting times and we’re looking forward to not only the growth of our company but the growth of our client’s businesses as they grow with us! For more details, go to https://www.maverickmedialab.com/ or follow Gilberto on Instagram and LinkedIn --- ## Brian Ngo: Crushing The Real Estate Industry Through Innovation And Technology URL: https://futuresharks.com/brian-ngo-crushing-the-real-estate-industry-through-innovation-and-technology/ Brain Ngo has over 10 years of experience in Real Estate working in South Brooklyn and Staten Island. Now, he has a large media presence where he explains what he does through videos and posts. To better understand what it’s like to work in real estate and what it takes to be successful, Brian explains that it’s not all glam and riches, it’s a lot of failing (90% failure for the 1st year). You have to be unafraid and confident. Build over time, plant seeds, and find a mentor. When you’re not selling, you’re trying to brand yourself, market yourself, etc. Content creation, reaching out to people, etc is the most important way to grow. > Brian uses the latest technology to understand the market. Working predominantly with multi-family homes, his goal is to simplify the process of buying and selling. It is vital to satisfy everyone’s needs as effectively and efficiently as possible. In real estate, it takes time to develop relations and skill levels. Brian relates it to becoming a doctor and going through different rotations in hospitals. There are so many aspects of Real Estate that need to be explored. This is one of the many reasons why Brian recommends having a mentor to every budding real estate agent. We had a chance to interview Brian about what motivates him and what he intends to achieve going forward. Let’s just jump right into it. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantngo/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/bidasaint/featured TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsbrianworld8?lang=en Website: https://brianngo.exprealty.com/ ### How long have you been in real estate? **Brian Ngo:** Over 10 years ### Why did you decide to become a real estate broker? **Brian Ngo:** The most valuable asset to many people is their home. The trust and confidence someone must bestow while someone handles their most valuable asset is immense. Real estate is all about helping people adjust their image, refinance their lives, build their dreams. It’s incredible being a part of their lives in such an impactful way. Real estate is also a great opportunity to manage your own finances and schedule. ### What languages do you speak and how does that help you in your line of work? **Brian Ngo:** I speak English, Vietnamese and Chinese. This knowledge of language and culture helps connect me to relate and really understand my client’s needs. ### Other than real estate, what other things do you do and how does that help with real estate? **Brian Ngo:** In addition to being a luxury real estate agent, I am also a content creator. With a background in the restaurant industry and a passion for food, I enjoy building my social platform because it allows me to be familiar with how to promote my craft. Social media is very effective when you’re consistent and willing to put in the work. ### What do you do differently that has people gravitate towards you as a real estate agent? **Brian Ngo:** I think being relatable and approachable is very important in any client-facing profession. With both business and life experience, people gravitate to the ability to provide information and knowledge to others. Being kind and understanding is the core of how I choose to live my life and treat others. How I act helps others feel comfortable around me. Do you have a team? If so, How many people are on your team? a. I have an immediate team of 10 people under EXP, a company that consists of over 60,000 agents. ### What is that team dynamic like? **Brian Ngo:** We are open with one another and have a universal mindset of achieving the same goal, helping others achieve the most from our services. ### What are some things you wish you knew when going into real estate? What would you like to tell someone looking into becoming a real estate agent? I wish I knew how involved it was. Building your brand and working with clients is something that’s a full-day job. Find a good mentor/ team leader that’s willing to show you the craft. Money doesn’t come flowing in immediately. It takes time to build skill, clientele and brand awareness. ### How do you market homes and properties to potential buyers? I use different platforms to showcase properties to potential buyers. I’ve mainly used Multiple Listing Service (MLS). ### What ways have you tried that did not work and what ways do you swear by? I would recommend the core basics, cold calling and doorknocking. Starting like this is how you get people to know your name. It’s necessary to plant seeds in the neighborhood you work in. Once people start knowing who you are and what you can provide them, the business will come more naturally. ### Do you have an average list price-to-sale-price ratio? On average, people buy for the full asking price. It usually takes around 45 days to sell a home. ### Why do 90% of people fail within the first year? What are some pitfalls some agents go through? 90% of people in real estate fail within the first year because of a myriad of reasons. Financial burden, issues with consistency and lack of guidance can all be factors. These, along with unrealistic expectations, are major pitfalls. If you expect to be extremely successful right off the bat, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Maintaining consistency and having a mentor are ways to avoid these professional snags. ### Why do you think it’s so important to show your viewers the content creator side of you? It’s important to show the live point of view so a potential client can see you as someone more than any average agent. First impressions are the most honest and valuable. As a content creator, I am able to present myself to my followers and content viewers. ### Are there any stats or figures we can add to make the story more powerful? In the last 3 months, Our team has closed over 25 million dollars worth of real estate. ### What business advice are you uniquely suited to give? The core values of sales and service are: be available and work hard. Regardless of the industry, hard work always pays off. The more available and willing to put in effort and time, the more you will get out of any professional experience. ### What do you want to teach readers? give us detailed examples of how you learned these lessons / What is the key takeaway? I want to teach readers how to have the freedom to take financial risks. I learn these hard lessons through trial and error. I have been through everything first hand. Every workplace experience has been seen and felt, firsthand. The key takeaway is to look at failure as an opportunity to grow and build for a stronger foundation. The more you experience, the more you learn and the better you can share with others. ### Do you have someone you look up to in your field? Yes, my first broker. I considered him a mentor. He taught me a lot, especially during the time I needed it most. The reason why one of my biggest tips is to get a mentor is because of how much my mentor taught me. ### Do people often reach out to you personally for advice? Yes, and I feel very fortunate because I am so able to give them a sense of calmness with my advice. I am humbled by the fact they trust me enough to guide them through their personal journeys, whether personal or professional. ### How many conversations over the internet (or communication with new followers / viewers) translate into deals for you? Is it lucrative to your real estate company being present on social media? The internet is a vast collection of resources. Viewership is so high and there is always someone who needs a real estate agent. I love being their go-to contact. Social media is the present and future of any business. Having a presence on social media can only help spread the word about your ventures, goals and purpose. ### I can see that you have a lot of passion for what you do. Do you hope for your kids to follow in your footsteps? My kids are still in the process of figuring out what they have a passion for themselves. All I hope is that my kids can be in a field that is fulfilling for them both mentally and financially. --- ## Tatu Panda: Rising Tattoo Artist URL: https://futuresharks.com/tatu-panda-rising-tattoo-artist/ Spontaneity is not everyone’s game when it comes to tattoos, but when you’re Miami tattoo artist Marlon Cubero, aka Tatu Panda, it’s the best part. Having tatted up everyone from social media celebrities to rappers, YouTubers to Latin icons, Panda’s work has taken on a form all of it’s own – a culture in itself that captures the very essence of the high life. It’s fast paced, free spirited and he does it on the fly. Panda’s journey to tattooing Miami’s upper echelon began at a mere 14 years old. As soon as he could hold a pencil, the Miami native was drawing commissioned portraits, dabbling in ink by tattooing his friends after school, “I was very rebellious when I was young and I always loved to draw… A lot of my friends growing up had tattoos and they were like 12 to 14 years old and when they saw I had talent in drawing, they asked me if I would tattoo them… I said HELL YEAH!”. Panda was banging out free tattoos until he dropped out of school at 19 and began an apprenticeship of sorts, during which time Panda says he learned more about the grind than he did about honing his skill. Panda attributes the evolution of his artistry to the streets and culture he grew up, but it was his love of hyper realistic artists such as Nikko Hurtado that provided him with the level of artistry with which to aspire to, “what he did on skin was what I thought was impossible, he tattooed at a level of quality that I sought after”. Panda’s own micro, hyper realistic style quickly became renowned for its detail, honesty and emotional energy, “I don’t cut corners during any part of my process”. Panda was visiting his clients and tattooing them in the comfort of their homes, tattooing the likes of Marc Anthony, Jake Paul and Lil Pump. Today, Panda co-owns one of Miami’s most famous haunts, Inked Miami, alongside Rolling Loud co-creator Matt Zingler. Opened in collaboration with Inked Magazine, Inked Miami is a fusion of modern culture that attests to the rise of tattoo culture. It is there that Panda takes his artistry to a whole new level, drawing on the energy of his clients to create unique, sentimental art pieces that his clients take with them everywhere. Keep up with Panda’s work, by visiting his instagram @Tatu_panda. --- ## Passion grows where we discover our true desire – Juris Bruvers URL: https://futuresharks.com/passion-grows-where-we-discover-our-true-desire-juris-bruvers/ I get it, you have exciting dreams and big goals to achieve, but do you have all the energy, desire, and motivation you need to achieve them? This is what happens to most people – they lack a strong and burning desire to achieve whatever they want in life. Juris Bruvers is a social media influencer from Riga, Latvia. At the young age of just 18 years, he has earned a huge name & fame in the social media industry and has become one of the top-notch social media influencers. His advice to new content creators and composers is to work hard. “If you have the desire and the effort to achieve something, you will surely find success,” he said. You have a goal in mind. You dream about it. It’s a nagging thought. It’s always on the top of your mind. It’s a constant; but, can it become a reality? We all have dreams and aspirations; however, it takes a desire to turn them into reality said Juris Bruvers. As the popular saying from Eric Thomas goes, “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful.” He says, burning Desire is the starting point of success in one’s life. There is no proper success without proper desire. If one’s desires and beliefs are true, there is nothing that can’t be achieved. One of the most fundamental things that define every human being is desire. We all desire something and we are all defined, for the most part, by that which we desire said. In all ways, it helps us to reach our success with no turnbacks. Since burning desire is very important to human actions, one should find their desires and focus on them. The journey of success always leads to giving two faces in human life, one is Loser and the other are the winner. Eventually, success belongs to winners. But it’s necessary to be aware of the reasons what make the one win and other losses. Without desire, there is no hope. Without desire, there is no goal. Without desire, there is no spirit. Without desire, there is no flame. Our fire of desire needs to be lit because it is the driving force behind our own success. So, what do you really want? Remember: passion grows where we discover our true desire, quoted Juris. --- ## How Aaron Rian became one of the most successful Real Estate Brokers in the nation URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-aaron-rian-became-one-of-the-most-successful-real-estate-brokers-in-the-nation/ Aaron Rian is an American Business Professional and Active investor based out of Portland, Oregon. In Aarons impressive career, he has successfully grew a company to a 100 million valuation and exited, sold billions of dollars real estate and trained and employed thousands of professionals.  Starting out his career as a real estate developer Aaron quickly moved from development to brokering real estate deals. During the 2008 market collapse Aaron Rian began selling properties at a high level. The switch happened when banks stopped lending money, so Aaron switched to brokering real estate.  During the next decade Aaron Rian began building a local powerhouse real estate brokerage now known as the Brokerage House Realtors and took the company nationwide. When asked what type of clients Aaron Rian works with he said: “I work with all types of clientele, from first time home buyers to MLS Soccer players, NBA Players, and high end executives. One thing that is for sure is that I treat everyone the same, I treat their money like it is my own. By doing so I have been able to successfully advise and negotiate the best deals and opportunities for those I have represented in real estate transactions”.  To learn more about Aaron Rian and the Brokerage House Realtors, click here. --- ## How Christopher Saint Used Creative Marketing, Arts, And Spirituality For His Message URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-christopher-saint-used-creative-marketing-arts-and-spirituality-for-his-message/ With a passionate heart and soul to effect positive changes, Christopher Saint makes use of various means to make these changes happen. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and a Master’s degree in Communication Management from the University of Southern California. At the age of 32, he has launched several companies, all of which are growing in both impact and success. “I’ve always seen myself as an entrepreneurial and creative thinker. Whether it’s in business or the arts, I’m obsessed with breaking new ground and transcending boundaries. I’m extremely passionate about creating new structures that can help uplift and empower people,” he said. Christopher is a businessman, marketing specialist, music artist, and social activist who is conquering different industries in a very short period. As a musician, he won the Choice Music Video during the 2017 OutWeb Fest, a yearly film festival in Los Angeles, California. The event was sponsored by YouTube and REVRY, the biggest global streaming network for LGBTQ+ movies, TV series, and music. During the same year, Christopher’s music videos were also selected for a screening presentation at the Mix Brasil LGBT Film Festival held in Sao Paulo. Relevant: Check out the best webinar services of 2021 Christopher said, “I’m so grateful for pioneering media companies like Revry that have provided spaces for LGBTQ+ artists to grow and thrive. I was one of the first artists on their platform over 4 years ago and to see how much they’ve grown globally is nothing short of remarkable. I feel fortunate to have powerful allies in the queer community supporting me and my dreams.” In 2019, he was chosen from thousands of performers to be one of 40 acts to perform at the LA Pride. This exposure led Christopher to sign a production deal for his first- ever music album. “Over the last three years, I’ve written and recorded more than 30 songs and the list keeps growing. It’s been so healing getting to share my story through song and I can’t wait to be able to release my music out in the world.” This year, with tons of new songs ready for release, Christopher was also featured in a global campaign for “House of Pride,” a first-of-its-kind event sponsored by restaurant chain McDonald’s. Christopher performed alongside a few other queer artists in a musical performance set inside a McDonald’s restaurant. “It was pretty surreal having McDonald’s use my song for the campaign. This was the first time that they leaned into the queer community at this magnitude, so I felt so appreciative to be a part of this historic initiative. My song, We’ve Got Love, was the anthem of the performance and at its core, the message was that love is the most powerful force that unites all of us,” said Christopher. Besides his music career, Christopher is also an activist for causes affecting LGBTQ+ and POC communities. A passionate humanitarian, Christopher wants equal opportunities for all. He started a movement called Made In Love Movement because he wanted to build awareness in people about the daily struggles of queer people. The younger generation of people experiencing crises is the main target audience of Christopher’s movement. “People on the sidelines of society must be empowered and uplifted. Having a visible level of support in the public conversation for me and my identity growing up would have drastically changed my world. I find purpose in being the change I wish to see. I want to use my voice to continually carve out a path for the queer community and POCs in our society,” said Christopher. Approximately 42% of LGBTQ youth believe that they are not accepted in their community. Furthermore, surveys show that the younger people who consider themselves gay are three times more likely to commit suicide as compared to non-LGBTQ people. Also, 40% of the over 1.7 million young people in the US who are homeless are identified as LGBTQ. With these statistics in mind, Christopher felt the need to do more to help his fellow LGBTQ+ friends live their lives better. “Enterprise and business is a path that we must take to gain ground in the modern world. If we can innovate with our resources and cultivate community in a meaningful way to generate more wealth and impact, we can develop legacy and new systems that serve people that have been traditionally ignored by the establishment,” said Christopher. A recent honoree on the Forbes Next 1000 List honoring top entrepreneurs in the country, Christopher built his first business in 2015. Palette Studio LA is a creative marketing agency in his hometown of Los Angeles, California. As a queer founder of color, he knows that he is breaking ground for others to walk in his path. Furthermore, Christopher maintains that love is the element that could bind all humanity and bridge the differences that break relationships and mutual respect. Spirituality is his way of expressing his love, so he recently partnered with an LA-based collective focused on healing, wellness, and spiritual empowerment. Also, Queer POC owned, Mostly Angels LA is a platform for spiritual seekers as well as a retailer where people can buy a variety of products to attract blessings and positivity. Christopher has brought his marketing strategy recently to Mostly Angeles to identify new opportunities for growth for the company. The business ethos is to encourage anybody who feels fractured from their authentic selves to rise from the depths of despair and seek the empowerment that lies within them. “I think addressing our spiritual yearning is the great purpose we seek to explore here on Earth. Across our country, we have become disconnected from the aspects of humanity that are sacred. It is when we tap into the divine forces of love within us can we evolve to an expression of higher consciousness. This is what the arts need today. This is what business needs today. This is what politics needs today. We need a new consciousness of love and a renewed message of empowerment. Each one of us is worthy and belongs.” To stand up for LGBTQ+ rights, Christopher used his music career, fine arts through his movement, marketing through his agency, and spirituality through a much-needed community. This tirelessness and perseverance from Christopher have made him a new business leader to watch. Like many of us chasing the pursuit of our purpose, Christopher dreams that his impact will continue to elevate people who see themselves in his story and be inspired to co-create a better future and a better world together. --- ## How Bradley Drake Is Completely Redefining The Luxury Watch Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-bradley-drake-is-completely-redefining-the-luxury-watch-industry/ Bradley Drake is the founder of Lux Watch Supply, a company based in the United Kingdom that has spent the last few years putting high-end luxury timepieces on the wrists of his clients for less than 1% of their retail cost. Sounds too good to be true? Bradley has revolutionized the premium raffle sector, meaning his players need only purchase one ticket (around $77 USD) to win the watch of their dreams. We recently spoke with this creative entrepreneur to learn more about his story and company. Bradley has always had a hustle about him, something that he put to use during his past ventures. But he wanted to combine his knack for entrepreneurship with his passion for luxury watches. After working out the logistics, marketing costs and profit margin, he launched Lux Watch Supply, and the company’s rapid success has been impressive: in less than two years, they’ve given away nearly $4 million worth of the world’s most sought after timepieces. While most high-end jewelry and watch brands cater to upper echelon customers, Bradley wanted to give the average consumer the chance of owning an iconic timepiece. As such, Lux Watch Supply operates on an accessible model, sharing weekly raffles with prizes ranging from $15,000 to upwards of $50,000. He’s also ensured that the company seeks to do some good in the process, donating a portion of each sale to charity. A large component of the company’s success has been Bradley’s dedication to making the raffles a personalized experience. He makes an effort to hand deliver as many watches as possible to the winner of the giveaway. He also personally hosts each drawing live on the company’s social media pages, using a randomizing software to show the results in real time. When asked what advice he’d give to someone looking to get started in business, Bradley says, “Don’t let other people’s failure in a particular area stop you from pursuing something you want to do. The raffle space was struggling when I got into it, but I focused on how I can improve it and make it work for the business I had in mind.” It’s clear that his willingness to take on the risk and disrupt a stagnated industry has paid off in a tremendous way, and Bradley is focused on expanding his success within the space. He says he has plans to blow out Lux Supply Group’s success with similar raffles for more premium goods, including handbags, wine and even automobiles. Lux Watch isn’t just stopping there – they’ve partnered with Ecologi, planting 1 tree for every ticket sold, the plan is to plant at least 100,000 trees this year. On the company’s expansion, he says: “This is just the beginning. I think there are a ton of angles for this business model, and I have no plans of slowing down anytime soon.” *Learn more at Luxurywatchsupply.com and follow Bradley Drake’s companies on Instagram (*@luxwatchsupply*and*@luxcarsupply*)* --- ## A Workplace for All, OC&C Strategy Consultants URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-workplace-for-all-occ-strategy-consultants/ Today’s workforce is increasingly diverse, or rather it is now more *openly* diverse, as more companies strive to provide an inclusive and safe workplace for employees, regardless of their se-xual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, race or social background. Fulfilling the human right for individuals to feel supported and equal, has been proven to result in better business outcomes. A 2019 report shows that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 per cent more likely to have above-average financial returns. This trend will likely transfer to other, less studied, diversity groups such as age, social background, se-xual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. The global strategy consultancy, OC&C Strategy Consultants is one of the many companies leading the way for diversity and inclusion. It runs several diversity and inclusion networks across its business including the OC&C Women’s Network, LGBTQ+ Network, and Ethnic, Cultural & Social Diversity Network. The LGBTQ+ Network exemplifies how these are set up and run. Its purpose is to build and maintain an environment in which all individuals feel able to bring their whole self to work and feel empowered to succeed, regardless of se-xual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Importantly, its membership includes both (self-identifying) LGBTQ+ employees and allies, including (but not limited to) bise-xual people, trans and non-binary people, LGBTQ+ people of colour and of faith. The group arranges activities ranging from global networking events during OC&C’s International Training Week, to local networking events both internally and with peers, as well as talks from prominent LGBTQ+ role models. It also has a mentor system to provide advice and support for those who seek it. A spokesperson for the group said: “As the former Worldwide Managing Partner of OC&C, I have always aspired for this firm to be a place where people can be the best version of themselves. From my own experience of being gay, I know that you perform at your peak when you can be open and relaxed about who you are. Our LGBTQ+ network celebrates the diversity of all the people who make OC&C special.” OC&C’s commitment to LGBTQ+ issues goes beyond the workplace. It works in partnership with Just Like Us – a charity enabling LGBTQ+ young adults to go back into schools to run events and share personal accounts of their experiences. This is a vital opportunity to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ issues and tackle homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in schools. In addition to this , OC&C is also a member of Stonewall’s Global Diversity Champions programme. Founded in 1987, OC&C Strategy Consultants is a global strategy consulting firm that advises clients in the retail, FMCG, leisure, media, communications and technology, industrial products and business services, and private equity sectors. Its agile business model has allowed it to adapt and lead the way in progressive thinking on initiatives such as the above. This has paid off, in 2020 OC&C rated 4.6/5 on Glassdoor, confirming it as a workplace of choice. Headquartered in London in the UK, the firm has eleven offices and approximately 500 employees in different parts of the world. OC&C has offices in the Boston, New York, Paris, Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Milan, Warsaw and Munich, as well as strategic partnerships in India. --- ## Samuel Leeds Spills The Beans About Making Six Figures Profit On Property Deals In His Bestselling Book URL: https://futuresharks.com/samuel-leeds-spills-the-beans-about-making-six-figures-profit-on-property-deals-in-his-bestselling-book/ Samuel Leeds is one of the UK’s most renowned property developers and entrepreneurs who has been making six-figures on big property deals and has a hundred million pounds worth of property development deals in the pipeline. His company “Property Investors” was founded mainly to train people on property investing and has some intensive courses and mentorship programs. His students have been able to achieve great results and have become financially independent. Samuel has also written many books on property investing and development and all have got great response and readership from around the globe. His latest book “The Secrets of Property Development” is especially focussed on Samuel’s journey of making six-figures on every property deal in the last 5 years. He talks about his transition from being a property investor to a property developer and what all it takes to make that shift happen. **How Does The Book Help?** The latest book by Samuel Leeds is an easy read, around 125 pages long, where Samuel has openly talked about property development for the first time ever in his career. The book helps readers smash their limiting beliefs around property and money and actually walks them through the reality of how big property deals can bring them 10x more profits than small deals, with even lesser amount of work required from their end. Samuel walks his readers through his experiences all these years and reveals all his inner secrets of property development and the exact deals he has sealed that made him big bucks. He busts this biggest myth around the industry that you need to have loads of money to get started in this business. He shows the exact calculations and methodologically explains how building houses can be more profitable than buying houses. Moreover, he helps aspiring property developers put together a robust marketing plan for making six-figures down the line. He also teaches the ways in which property developers can minimise their taxes and draw up to seven figures profit from their business. Basically everything about the good, the bad and the ugly in the field of property development has been covered in the book, which will help beginners to get started and others to grow and scale their property portfolio. **Massive Response From Readers** Samuel’s book has gained massive readership and great response from readers all around the globe. Within a few hours of its launch, the book got a readership of over 3000 and hit the number 1 spot on the Kindle Catalogue under real-estate division. It also became a bestseller on Amazon within a few days of the launch. Samuel is also an award-winning speaker who has inspired many people to take the very first step to enter the lavishing industry and build impressive portfolios. By means of his youtube channel, he shares videos related to strategies, tips and insights from his business and experiences to inspire many lives and empower them to become financially-free. His signature online crash course’ or ‘Samuel 365’ program has taught more than 170000 students about real-estate investing and setting up their own empires. --- ## How Bryce Atkas Lit The Ignition Towards ACI Dynamix’s Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-bryce-atkas-lit-the-ignition-towards-aci-dynamixs-success/ It takes a certain amount of determination and drive to make your passions and dreams a reality. When starting ACI Dynamix, Bryce Atkas had his faith and determination behind him, and now sees himself operating one of the busiest auto body shops on the east coast. Offering full-service auto work, Bryce Atkas has built his brand and business from the ground up, and now operates a 10,000 sq foot space in Connecticut, which is quickly becoming a destination for motorists on the east coast. Focusing on providing their customers with the highest quality services has opened up multiple avenues of business for ACI Dynamix, which has recently found itself working with more high-profile clients every day. Recently, they curated automobiles for the New York Auto show, and have spent the past two years working on a project with Indy racer Santino Ferrucci. Including services such as vinyl wrapping and windshield protection, automotive performance, tuning, repairs, and customization, their one-stop-shop approach to car servicing has lent itself to them being able to facilitate any kind of client that drives through the door. In Bryce Atkas’s journey towards success, he has fond memories of starting. Dropping out of college two semesters in to pursue his goals and dreams was an incredibly tough, but rewarding decision for Bryce, he encourages everyone to take the risks to follow their dreams. “Let your losses and wins define you, not just one or the other. Put God first and always remember where you came from” Bryce says. Having a strong faith in God, himself, and his team, Bryce has built a brand and business around this culture. In the spirit of good faith and light of ACI Dynamix’s success, the company has begun to give back to its local communities. Having teamed up with multiple charities, two of the biggest being The Hometown Foundation and Rally 2 Give, Bryce plans to continue contributing alongside him and his company’s growth. With faith and determination, Bryce has his sights set high for ACI Dynamix, as he pushes towards growing his company and brand into a globally recognized name. --- ## How Co-Founder Wayne Zhou Built His Real Estate Empire URL: https://futuresharks.com/wayne-zhou/ Wayne Zhou is one of the brilliant minds behind Prospes Real Estate Corps and began his real estate career by helping his family manage properties in Queens and Brooklyn. With a degree in Accounting, Business, and Finance from Baruch College coupled with over 4 years of hands-on experience in his family-owned business, making the transition into Real Estate was seamless and natural. When Wayne Zhou works with his clients, his goal is not only to help his clients buy or sell properties but also to create close life-long relationships with his clients. Wayne is a shark in every sense of the word and works hard to better himself every day in his personal and professional life. ## What are some goals you’re currently focused on? **In my personal life my goals are to maintain my physical and mental health in addition to creating time to read the books that will help me improve my time management skills.** **Professionally, my first goal is to focus on growing my team; while also helping people around me and guiding them to success. I am a true believer in giving back to my community. Another goal of mine is to expand my property management/rental business. I currently own and manage 30 units (both in residential and commercial), and in the next year or so, I am looking to expand my portfolio by 10X. ** > **My definition of success is closely associated with being able to contribute to society in a beneficial way. If I can effectively create jobs and help others within my communities, I will have been successful. A happy family and a life worth living is another attribute of success.**Wayne Zhou ## Tell us how you organize, plan, and prioritize your work. **They most efficient way I’ve found that helps me organize, plan, and prioritize my work is to always have my planner in hand. Because of my busy schedule, I review my schedule the night before so I can plan everything out and ensure a smooth day! This has allowed me to create time for family and friends in between my busy work weeks. ** ## How have you managed to work through a stressful situation in your career? **While working hard to make sure I have my days planned out, it is unrealistic to not expect issues to spring up out of nowhere. I am someone who has dealt with many stressful situations in life and over the years, I have learned how to focus on the big picture instead of stressing over the little obstacles that come my way. ** **Many people get anxious or stressed out about small things but for me, I am a problem solver. When obstacles come my way, I figure out ways to overcome them.** ## What motivates you? **What motivates me is my life partner. I have been extremely lucky to have met the love of my life who is extremely successful. Being with her makes me feel like we could conquer anything and her journey has motivated me to become a better person every day.** ## Have you ever had an experience when you applied new technology or information in your job? How did it help your company? **Hubstaff is a new technology I recently applied and this not only helps the management team monitor everyone’s performance but also helps the team understand their work efficiency. ** > **My favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur is creating jobs that help others grow and become the person they dream of becoming**…Wayne Zhou ## What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur? **My favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur is creating jobs that help others grow and become the person they dream of becoming and providing that job security that so many strive for.** **At a corporate job, an employees’ pay is always capped but as an entrepreneur/business owner, the sky is my limit. It is just a matter of making your money work for you, as opposed to working for money.** ## Name a time when your advice to management led to an improvement in your company. **Flexible commission structures. The market rate for real estate commission structure is usually 80/20 or higher on the brokerage side but at Prospes Real Estate, we allow our agents to choose their commission structure based on their level of maturity. The highest commission rate for the brokerage side at Prospes is 15% which is already 5% lower than the market average rate. Having been a real estate agent for over 1 decade, I understand how difficult it is to make it in this industry so both my partner, David, and I agreed to offer a lower-than-market commission cut to all Prospes agents.** ## Tell us about an experience in which you analyzed information and evaluated results to choose the best solution to a problem. **Agents come to me every day about different problems. My job is to help them resolve their problems with my expertise and knowledge in the industry. For example, one of my recent listings in Woodhaven was listed for 699k and because of its private driveway, which is rarely seen in this neighborhood, it indeed is a very decent listing. However, the home is built in the early 1900s and the backyard is badly laid out, so not too many competitive offers were received. ** **After putting it on the market for some time and having done a couple of open houses, I decided to suggest the owner do some minor renovations which cost them less than 10k. The listing then was sold at the full asking price**! ## Share an effective approach to working with a large amount of information/data. How has your approach affected your company? **Data on specific listings helps me understand the true market value of a property and I never look at a listing price thinking that is the true market price of a property, I do the comps to evaluate the home on my own when I see a new listing and this allows me to strategize the next steps. ** ## How do you define success? **Success is not only reliant on occupational status. My definition of success is closely associated with being able to contribute to society in a beneficial way. If I can effectively create jobs and help others within my communities, I will have been successful. A happy family and a life worth living is another attribute of success.** --- ## Elie Zeschkowski Talks About His Events And Concierge Services Company, Elyzée Events Agency URL: https://futuresharks.com/elie-zeschkowski-talks-about-his-events-and-concierge-services-company-elyzee-events-agency/ Elie Zeschkowski is a talented entrepreneur and businessman. His company, Elyzée Events is one of the leading companies in the events and concierge services industry. He is here to tell us about his business and why it’s quickly climbing up the ladder of success. **Tell us about your business.** Elyzée Events Agency first appeared in the United States in 1995 and is known over time to create its own place in the field of events. In a few years, we have become a major player in the events and concierge services of luxury in the United States. Our know-how and our ability to respond to the most complex requests have enabled us to build a growing reputation. Building on its success, our urge to expand grew stronger and stronger. In 2003, we dropped off our luggage in the canton of Geneva. Now, building on our success with our prestigious clients, we have developed agencies in Paris and London. **Why should people choose your company over other concierge services?** Unlike most of the concierge services around the world, we have a direct relationship with the service providers with whom we work. This proximity allows you to have total control of the services we offer to our customers. Through our various agencies located around the globe, we are able to respond to all the requirements of our customers, while satisfying the least of their desires. **What are your company’s strengths?** Our business model was developed on an international scale and our marketing policy allows us to offer our customers all types of services, without having necessarily the obligation to subscribe to a monthly or annual subscription. This model economic is one of our strengths. With Elyzée Agency, you only pay for the services operated by us. With more than 500 employees worldwide, we offer quality offers, sometimes impractical, and at a price consistent with the market. So this is the reason why in most cases the customer calls on us rather than another concierge. We also won the Golden palm with Paris Match for the luxury brand of services. **What are your long-term strategy and future plans?** Like any business owner, I want to expand my activity and broaden my range of benefits. With the world of luxury growing and constantly changing, we must offer our customers even more new features and challenges. In the coming years we wish to develop our various agencies, and thus in open new ones in Japan or in Russia. Check out their  Instagram and  Website to know more. --- ## How Jason Alvarez-Cohen has impacted the technology industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-jason-alvarez-cohen-has-impacted-the-technology-industry/ Jason Alvarez-Cohen is a name that people should begin to get used to hearing. With the start of his own business, Popl, Jason Alvarez-Cohen is someone that many people want to be like. Jason completed his studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, after growing up in Berkeley, California. He grew interested in the entrepreneurship side of life after completing his computer science degree, and decided to start a technology company with his best friend Nick Eischens. Jason is currently the CEO, Co-Founder, and Chief Engineer at Popl, a Los Angeles-based technology business. Jason’s company Popl comes with many different factors that make it different from other companies. One of the unique traits about Popl, is their culture. The company has a strong list of core values that the entire team has memorized. Jason was kind enough to summarize the Popl core values: Move the needle daily Popl is a family and we appreciates each other Celebrate small wins (& sunsets) Launch, iterate, repeat Focus on solutions, not problems #DoItNow Be a self starter Jason says that since college his co-founder Nick and himself have always been incredibly social. When they first learned about NFC technology, their first thought was to use it to share information with others so that they could connect with people that they met instantly. This thought process evolved into a fantastic business card replacement for professionals. Popl is on track to being the next-generation business card. Jason may be found on social media (@jasonalco on Instagram and LinkedIn), where you can monitor his progress in the technology space. Jason provides various business ideas and tactics, as well as information about his company. Keep an eye out for Popl and stay up to date on the most cutting-edge technologies. https://instagram.com/jasonalco?utm_medium=copy_link https://instagram.com/popl?utm_medium=copy_link --- ## Travis Steffen – Serial CEO, Author, and Poker Guru URL: https://futuresharks.com/travis-steffen-serial-ceo-author-and-poker-guru/ Travis Steffen wears many hats. Today, he is perhaps most popularly known as the CEO of GrowFlow Corp., a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company aimed at helping hemp and cannabis startups with compliance, inventory management, and scaling. Before he settled into his role in GrowFlow, Steffen kept himself busy with learning everything he could about entrepreneurship. After 7 profitable exits and a couple crash-and-burns on the way to success, he became famous as a viral entrepreneur and business advisor for startups. A lot of entrepreneurs know him as the author of the marketing book Viral Hero, in which he details everything he learned while managing (and mismanaging) several companies. In a nutshell, Viral Hero is an explanation of how Steffen reverse-engineered viral loops for marketing new products. After identifying what makes certain products go viral, he focused on finding the product details that fitted within those loops. He then put together Viral Hero as a way to teach other entrepreneurs how creative product architecture can be used to scale any type of business. It would be an understatement to say that Steffen knows a thing or two about weighing risks versus the potential for profit. In fact, before Steffen became a mentor for new business owners, he was a professional poker player. And while there are many [poker-playing chief executives](/byron-johnson-a-boss-worth-following/) out there, he actually wrote a book about the game. It’s called Peak Performance Poker: Revolutionizing the Way You View the Game, and it combines Steffen’s expertise as a former poker player and strength and conditioning coach. Unlike most other poker books, this one doesn’t focus on poker tips alone. Instead, Peak Performance Poker is about optimizing a player’s physical and mental health to be able to consciously enter a state of ‘flow,’ wherein one can play to the best of their ability. In the book, you’ll find tips for winning at poker, such as playing a balanced range and how to control your emotions. But they’re interspersed with nutritional advice and mental sharpness exercises, which further raise the effectiveness of tried-and-tested winning tips. The wisdom found in Peak Performance Poker has earned Steffen niche followings in poker, health, and business circles. These are the roots of the man’s fame and success. And from these roots, Steffen has grown into his own brand as a celebrity-entrepreneur. Apart from inspiring others to follow their business dreams, he actually gives people the tools they need to accomplish this gargantuan task. If you need help creating viral content to grow your business, Viral Hero can start you off on the right path. And if you want to be a successful poker player or make positive changes for your mental and physical health, there’s Peak Performance Poker. And if you want to stabilize or streamline the growth of your startup, GrowFlow’s SaaS tools can expedite the process. Steffen has found several ways to become rich while helping others in the process. And if you have similar goals as an entrepreneur, you can learn a lot from studying his career. --- ## Model Mandy Milano is planning a destination shoot for her upcoming photos URL: https://futuresharks.com/model-mandy-milano-is-planning-a-destination-shoot-for-her-upcoming-photos/ We are often awestruck with celebrity photos from various locations across the globe. Such pictures gives everyone a feel of the place through photos. There are numerous influencers who traveled from place to place for their destination photoshoots. It not just give them a good experience but also gives a good treat to their fans. It looks like our favorite Mandy Milano who is also referred to as Sassy Mandy is going to give us the same kind of treat. The beauty is holding a big surprise for her followers as she plans her destination photoshoots. The diva will explore various kinds of places for her shoots and give a matching look that would perfectly complement the place. “When I first heard the idea of destination photoshoot, I thought it’s amazing. I am super excited for it and have already penned down some of the places I want to explore”, said Mandy. Mandy thinks this is the best way to take time for yourself as well as keep on working. Mandy is also planning to mention something unique about every place she visits after posting her photo of that place. It would make a lot of her fans as they are going to love the stunning photos of the diva at some of the most beautiful places across the globe. When you are in the glamour business you need to be flawless in every you do, as many eyes are watching you. Not everyone can survive in this industry. Still, there are models like Mandy Milano who has kept up the pace with her hard work and dedication. Her amazing looks and bubbly nature have won a lot of love from social media. --- ## Ela Duys: How To Grow Your Instagram For Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/ela-duys-how-to-grow-your-instagram-for-business/ Sales are the lifeblood of business. It is impossible to sustain a company without them. And in our rapidly-evolving world full of ever more advanced technology, social media has become a vital tool in the hunt for sales. Instagram has become the biggest platform of all. Seemingly every business has a profile these days. And if you are not on there and grabbing your own slice of the profits to be gained from Instagram, then you are missing out. The thing is, you can’t just put your brand on Instagram and expect sales. Selling to people doesn’t work that way. We are so much more particular about what we buy in today’s age, especially with the information available to us. If you are hoping to grow your Instagram following to help you sell your products or services, you need to have a clear strategy. Instagram expert Ela Duys recommends the following: ## Be Authentic Work hard to build trust with your following. Initially they are strangers who potentially could become really good clients, so everything you do on Instagram should either educate, provide value, or entertain them, all while remaining true to yourself and your principles. It is also important to get to know the people who engage with your posts and learn what they are interested in and what’s important to them. Remember, there is no point in growing your account if your current followers aren’t actively engaged with you yet. Work on that first. ## Post Video Content Part of building trust is introducing yourself and your product/service to the world. Video is a great way to do this because it enables you to speak directly to your audience. They can see your body language and hear your tone of voice, which will allow them to get to know you more quickly and trust what you are offering. Instagram offers one-minute videos on the grid, thirty-second reels, and IGTV’s. Aim to do video content as much as possible to improve engagement and increase your reach and impressions. ## Nail Your Content Make sure all of your captions are either valuable, educational, or entertaining. Gone are the days of one-liners that mean nothing about your brand. You have 15 seconds to capture someone’s attention, so make sure your starting line is enough to make someone stop and read the rest. If you are unsure what to say, then write from the heart. Share something you believe in. It does not matter whether it is a thought, a philosophy, an opinion or an anecdote. If what you share is interesting and authentically you, then your followers will keep coming back to see what you share next. ## Use Your Geotags Instagram users are savvy, and we use location tags to explore what is around us. If your business is virtual or product-based with a delivery option, make sure you use your geo-tag to place yourself wherever your ideal client is. ## Keywords Instagram gives us the opportunity to use keywords to help us with organic reach. Use them in your Instagram name (bolded title), in your guides and in your hashtags. ## Nurture Your Following If you start following the five steps above, you will begin to see growth. Remember, bigger numbers doesn’t always mean a higher ROI. Really take care of the following you have, and the sales will take care of themselves. It takes strategy, dedication, and an understanding of the app to get the most out of Instagram for your business. If you are lacking in any of these areas, follow Ela on Instagram and send her a DM. She would love to help. --- ## How Social Media Took the Cummins Cowgirl from Wrenching on Trucks to Modeling URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-social-media-took-the-cummins-cowgirl-from-wrenching-on-trucks-to-modeling/ For most people, a time will come when they’re expected to choose between employment and entrepreneurship. While the majority of young adults who find themselves in that situation will go the employment route, some few outliers will opt for entrepreneurship and wealth creation. Entrepreneurship will always be the more difficult and torrid path to take, but this fact will not be enough to deter those who are passionate and ambitious. Those were the factors that pushed The Cummins Cowgirl to deviate from her career as a mechanic and become a content creator, leveraging on her status as a social media sensation with a large following.  Chloe Yonker (popularly known on social media as The Cummins Cowgirl) is a heavy duty diesel mechanic turned content creator and entrepreneur. Chloe has over 350,000 followers and counting on her Instagram and over 3.2 million likes on TikTok, where she posts car content, wrenching videos, and her adventures. Raised in Michigan, she moved to Texas as fast as she could and is a graduate of West Texas A&M University.  When asked what separates her services from her competition, she said, “Personally,  I  donʼt  think  that  itʼs  about  being  competitive  with  what  I  do  because  at  the  end  of  the day,  Iʼm  friends  with  of  lot  of  the  people  I  work  with  or  alongside,  and  itʼs  awesome  that  we  can help  one  another  out  without  being  jealous or malicious  towards  one  another.” She considers her brand special because even though it came from nothing and was basically born out of her desire to pay bills, at the level where she is now, she considers her moves a success because she has successfully built a business that can support her and her needs.  Noting that she doesn’t necessarily have a target audience per se, she says, “I want to be a positive influence on everyone, but I especially want to reach women and the younger generations to show them that you can be a female in a male dominated industry and succeed as well as showing young ones that being hands on and working on things is worthwhile and an amazing trade/skill to have.” Though The Cummins Cowgirl is not quite where she wants to be, she believes that with hard work, no height is impossible to reach. She believes everyone can find a niche in something they are passionate about and find ways to monetize it. “For  me,  itʼs  been through  social  media.  I  market  everything there  and  now  that  I  have  a  larger  following,  Iʼm  able to  leverage  that  with  companies  to  advertise  for  them  as  well.” On her plans for the future, she said, “I  would  love  to  be  able  to  have  a  full-time  automotive  customization  shop  open  to  the  public! Right  now,  I’ve  only  been  working  on  my  own  vehicles  and  close  friends,  but  I’d  love  to  make peopleʼs  dreams  a  reality  one  day.” To connect with The Cummins Cowgirl, follow her social media pages via Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, or visit her website. --- ## Starting a Record Label in a Pandemic: Aundre Myles & the Growth of Blvck Hoodie URL: https://futuresharks.com/starting-a-record-label-in-a-pandemic-aundre-myles-the-growth-of-blvck-hoodie/ While it can be said most people probably did things like learning to tie-dye or bake banana bread during the first part of quarantine, Rising Midwestern hip-hop artist Aundre Myles decided to grow his business to foster and develop musical talent. Putting the focus on the music, the hard work, and the talent has put him at the forefront of one of the only growing industries during the pandemic. Because of the heavy emphasis on streaming and the online presence aspect of the business, Myles was able to grow in a time where everyone else was static. He realized that staying in his house wasn’t going to be sustainable for him. He recognized that if he got moving while everyone else was still, he’d have a competitive edge that others did not, so he did exactly that. In comes the Midwestern label Blvck Hoodie, Aundre set out to form an independent record label that focuses on highlighting hip-hop and RnB acts with a promising and unique sound. Though they’re based in the Midwest, their reach is far beyond. They currently represent eight different acts, each with its own distinctive style and tone. Aundre aims to create a tight-knit community in his label of artists to support each other and the music they create. It has been far from easy though, as the number of man-hours and research put into starting a label are demanding. Myles says that he’s been using the pandemic to grow his business, leveraging his online interest with his tangible assets of good music and talented artists, he’s created a network complete with his own distribution deal for the artists on his label, a studio to work in, and a content creation center. With over 14k followers himself, Myles understands the value of social media and online presence. Blvck Hoodie boasts both a videographer and photographer, allowing its clients to create it all in-house, truly letting the artists be their authentic selves and have all the tools at their disposal. Even including a 24/7 online radio station for Midwestern Hip-Hop, RnB, and Lo-Fi, allowing him to at least sign people to his label to distribute their music and get them started with the buzz from his station. The truest artistry is taking a time that was unfortunate for everyone, difficult for the entire globe, and making it into something beautiful. Aundre didn’t pick the name Blvck Hoodie arbitrarily or because it was glitzy, he picked it because it represented the simplest of uniforms, one he dons daily and realized even the simplest of uniforms can hold the most power. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got on a suit or a hoodie, as long as you show up ready to work, that’s all this is about. Beyond that, Myles says Blvck Hoodie is an ode to the early days of hip-hop when you could catch most rappers rocking hoodies and gold chains. In an era that’s always changing though, Aundre also notes how a Black Hoodie has been an icon as well during a time of change and solidarity. Showing that anyone, no matter your background can have the potential to do big things. Those same big things are what Aundre hopes to accomplish in the music industry. “I started this all with a small dream, and watching it grow so far has been wild beyond belief.” the South Dakota artist says. “I would love to make music all day, and that’s what my long-term goal is, but Blvck Hoodie is more than just the music. The more this grows and generates profit, the more I want to use my platform to give back and strengthen communities, starting with my own. I’ve always wanted to use music to help people the way it helped me.” What makes Blvck Hoodie so unique however is Aundre didn’t learn this structure from anyone though, he figured it out on his own, putting in the determination and grind that truly makes an artist successful. In doing so Aundre Myles has created a platform for a new era of music entrepreneurs. He’s learned that the lessons are in the hustle, and if he keeps his head down, he’s going to create something great. Through hard work and staying committed, he’s found success and shared that with young artists he believes deserve a shot. Though he may just now be gaining some attention, one thing is clear. Aundre Myles hit the ground running and personally, we can’t wait for what we’re going to see come out of Blvck Hoodie and its founder. --- ## Self-Taught IT Expert by Day, Rising Star and Indestructible Stuntman by Night URL: https://futuresharks.com/self-taught-it-expert-by-day-rising-star-and-indestructible-stuntman-by-night/ > “Like all good actor origin stories, this one started in the 4th grade”. Jeffrey Marshall laughed about tackling his debut acting performance of a flower-loving bull in “Ferdinand the Bull.”. He never imagined that four decades later, his love of acting would take him to significantly more frightening pursuits than smelling flowers. Today, Jeffrey can be found spending time with his family, working as a computer engineer, or on-screen, imitating secret agents and jumping off buildings. Let’s say he’s not often bored. Through his fascinating life and triumphant return to acting in his forties, Jeffrey has learned a few pieces of invaluable advice. It’s never too late to chase your dreams. “You should always be ticking items off your bucket list. Your mind wants to quit far before your body needs to”, Jeff states before sipping his coffee. Here’s the (hugely simplified) journey of how he came to those realizations. Growing up in Upstate New York, Jeffrey loved acting in school theater and musicals. After high school, Jeffrey went on to study Criminal Justice for a year. Still, Jeffrey soon discovered he didn’t learn well in a classroom environment. Jeffrey dropped out of college, and in 1993 he joined the US Army, where he enjoyed the thrill of adrenaline and became a paratrooper. Jeffrey served in South Korea for a challenging but rewarding year in which he made lifelong friends and widened his perspective on life. Before leaving South Korea, Jeffrey picked up a magazine that was on a table. The cover had a headline about a strange thing called “The Internet” and “Information Technology.” He was so intrigued by the article; it changed his life and gave him a new calling. Jeffrey was struggling with money at the time, but he used the money his late grandma left him to buy a desktop computer. Not only was he broke, but the computer was constantly breaking. Being unable to afford someone to fix it, Jeffrey taught himself to do it himself. Soon, it became clear he was a natural with technology. Jeffrey started fixing his friends’ gadgets and picked up a part-time job as a telephone tech support technician for a printer company while still enlisted in the Army. He continued to read trade magazines and constantly tinkered with technology. He learned even more from volunteering for small computer companies. After receiving several awards for his service and a “Soldier of the Year” title, Jeffrey finally left the Army. He was then hired as a computer technician for a major technology company. On reflecting how he managed to break into an industry with only self-taught skills, he said, “Others constantly challenged my credentials. But I was able to prove my abilities. It was a struggle, but it pushed me to work harder and keep learning the newest technology.” > “Now, I’m a Senior VP at an IT company and work on everything from handheld devices to artificial intelligence.” Despite being incredibly proud of the IT career he had carved for himself, Jeffrey still had unfinished business with acting. After he put his acting passion aside to pursue his Army career, he focused on earning a reliable living and raising a family. He knew Hollywood would have to wait. It wasn’t until his mid-forties that Jeffrey seriously considered giving his dream a second shot. He joked that he lovingly refers to stunts, car racing, and acting as his midlife crisis. Some people settle down and try to live relaxing lives in comfort. Jeffrey opted for falling from high heights, action-packed training sessions, and facing harsh critics and the brutal world of acting auditions. In his typical style of bucking trends, Jeffrey managed to thrive in the entertainment industry when it was facing the unprecedented challenge of the coronavirus pandemic. He took advantage of the fact that he now had access to the world’s most sought-after acting schools. Each was now accessible to anyone with Zoom and started studying online with various coaches. Though 2020 was a horrifically devastating year in so many ways, Jeffrey managed to join the SAG-AFTRA actors union and got both a manager and an agent. His determination and hard work paid off. Remarking on his time in the Army, Jeffrey said it paved the way for his later work as a stuntman. > “The Army gave me a lot of confidence,” he said. “You start seeing what you are capable of, both physically and mentally.” One of the most challenging yet therapeutic aspects of starting acting was learning to show real and raw emotions to imaginary events. Jeffrey’s son had sadly died while he was serving in the Army. The trauma of that loss, some painful, botched military medical procedures, combined with his challenging experiences of serving in the military, forced him to suppress emotions. > “I learned to shut down emotionally at that point to some degree.  It was how my mind dealt with the trauma and was my coping mechanism,” Jeffrey said. > “You hear people say that if you hold emotions in, they build up and eventually come out in one form or another. I think all my experiences, Army and non-Army, have helped me not only become a better actor but have been a therapeutic emotional release for me.” Through studying the wide-ranging emotional spectrum of humans, he learned to face his own buried emotions. He said he was glad to “let some of that go.” One powerful emotion he seemed to have control over was fear. While only just starting in stunts, Jeffrey has had his fair share of adventures. His favorites include stunt driving, stunt fighting, high falls, being lit on fire, racing cars, and scuba diving. He stressed that the stunts are all designed safely, well-rehearsed, and handled by highly-trained professionals. Some days he’s “banged up and bruised,” but that comes with the territory. Stunt work is a highly competitive and challenging field to break into. Jeff keeps working on his skills, networking with his peers and picking up stunt jobs when possible, > Despite all the training stunt work requires, Jeffrey said, “the most challenging part of starting in stunt training is to fight your basic human response to danger.” > “You have to fight your mind’s natural reaction to tell your body ‘NO,’ like jumping off a building the first few times,” he said. “Then it gets easier over time. Same with fire; it takes a little getting used to feeling the flames wrap around you.” Serving in the Army, self-teaching IT engineering, and acting in several Hollywood movies is a lot for anyone to achieve, even without suffering personal tragedies. When asked what helped him keep set and accomplish his goals, Jeffrey said he ensures he is always working on adding and subtracting items on his bucket list. > “It doesn’t have to have record-breaking activities on the list,” he said. “For every item I take off the list, I add three back on. Once you have the list, prioritize; set goals and timelines.” Jeffrey has learned “to want your goals so badly that you can taste them.” Ensure you have a mix of easy and challenging goals, and then reward yourself with an easy one when you’re struggling or need some self-appreciation. He always has a “random act of kindness” on his list to keep for a rainy day. Balancing his many commitments has been the most challenging part of Jeffrey’s journey as a family man, a technologist, an actor, and a stunt person. But he makes it work. He always puts his family first, then takes classes and auditions on weekends and evenings. His day job has been generously supportive of his other career and has a flexible environment for a remote workforce. Through determination and grit, Jeffrey has even managed to merge his two lines of work. He recently had the opportunity to combine his engineering and acting skills by writing, producing, and acting in a promotion for the multinational technology company NVIDIA. To this day, he is still innovating the technology world, even without a degree. As for his future in the entertainment industry, Jeffrey holds a realistic level of optimism. That is to say, he obviously would love to act full-time but understands that it is a statistical longshot. Plus, he enjoys his computer engineering and feels he has the best of both worlds. > “Even if I don’t make it ‘big,’ I hope I can entertain someone, make someone laugh, make new friends and have fun. I like the camaraderie and support the acting and stunt community offer,” he said. > “But if acting does take off, I wouldn’t say no to Tom Cruise-Like money.” > After all, no mission is impossible. For more information on Jeffrey Marshall, please visit www.jmacting.com of on Instagram at @Jeffrey_A_Marshall --- ## Ariel Carr’s Guide on How to Monetize Your Passion through Social Media URL: https://futuresharks.com/ariel-carrs-guide-on-how-to-monetize-your-passion-through-social-media/ Social media has been a game-changer for many industries with the rise of technology. It allows for free advertising and direct interaction with customers, something that businesses once only dreamed about. Social media expert Ariel Carr has successfully leveraged the potential of social media to not only make a comfortable income for herself but also to help others find the same level of success. With her Instagram monetization course, Ariel Carr has helped three of her students scale their businesses to six figures in less than a year. She stresses that multiple sources of revenue are a must in our current economy, especially if one seeks financial independence. Ariel describes her work as being communal in nature and strives to build a business network of like-minded people. She finds her work empowering as it allows people to scale their incomes, thus giving them more freedom. Ariel Carr’s tactics are simple and easy to learn. Through her online courses and e-books, she has vastly increased her social media footprint, which allows her to reach out to even more people. Initially starting off in the field of music management, Ariel left this career to get her real estate license and become an entrepreneur. The prospect of being her own boss was an alluring one, and it has turned out to be equally prosperous. Upon realizing she made the right choice, Ariel rebranded herself, and what she once thought was a career failure ended up netting her a six-figure revenue in just a few months. In fact, her e-book brought in $100,000 in just 90 days. With over 100,000 followers on Instagram, Ariel takes genuine joy in helping her followers learn to sustain themselves by monetizing and leveraging their social media accounts. Seeing that she had the power to change her fate, Ariel Carr is on a mission to help others do the same. She does this through empowering others and sharing her personal story. Today, Ariel shows others how to make a great living by sharing their passions with the world. --- ## 3 Tax Tips For Soon-To-Be Retirees, With Reginald Clark, Certified Financial Planner URL: https://futuresharks.com/3-tax-tips-for-soon-to-be-retirees-with-reginald-clark-certified-financial-planner/ In the next decade, 10,000 Baby Boomers will enter retirement each day. Memphis based, Certified Financial Planner, Reginald Clark, has dedicated himself to serving those retirees and ensuring that they enter into retirement prepared, educated, and set up for success. Originally from Jackson, Tennessee, Clark attended the University of Memphis and was majoring in finance when was first exposed to the world of financial planning. 23 years later, Clark is the founder of P3 Financial Group and has guided hundreds of happy clients through their retirement process. P3 stands for Plan, Protect and Prosper. In addition to providing exceptional financial advice, Clark and his devoted team educate their clients along the way. Clark believes that each client should take an active role in their retirement planning so he ensures that they have the tools, resources, and knowledge to make informed decisions. Retirement, and particularly tax planning, can be overwhelming, but with the right strategy, it can become a streamlined, efficient process for anyone. Reginald Clark shares his top three tips for individuals that are approaching retirement. 1. **Be wise with how you allocate your funds.**Traditional financial advice typically encourages individuals to max out their 401K. Clark takes a different approach. He advises his clients to match what their company contributes to their 401K and then put the remainder of their investment funds into an after-tax vehicle such as a ROTH IRA or LIRP. By contributing to an after-tax retirement plan, those funds will come back tax-free, as opposed to the taxes you’ll pay down the road on your 401K. People are motivated to contribute to their 401K because of the instant gratification they receive from their income tax deduction. However, that entire contribution will be taxable down the road. It is much wiser to allocate some funds after-tax, which will be exempt from future taxes. 2. **Know the rules to make sure you don’t pay penalties.**One of the most recent changes to tax law requires that after age 72, a retiree must take money out of their taxable accounts each year. Say a client has money in a taxable place such as a 401K or traditional IRA, they are required to take a distribution from the account annually and pay taxes on it. annually. If they fail to do so, there is a 50% penalty on what they should have taken out. This is one of the steepest penalties in the tax code! Many retirees may not even know about their minimum distribution obligation, and if they’ve handed over their financial management to an advisor, they should check in with their advisor to make sure they’re meeting this requirement. 3. **How to avoid the 59.5 Penalty.** Most retirees know that if they withdraw money from their retirement plan before 59½ that they may be subjected to a 10% penalty and have to pay taxes on their withdrawal. However, there is an exception in which you can access that money before 59½ without the penalty and hardship. This exception is called Rule 72(t) and it allows for individuals to access their retirement funds early by setting up a systematic withdrawal from the account. Once they set up this withdrawal, they can’t alter it for 5 years or until they reach the age of 59½, whichever is longer. In his book, “Don’t Take That Cheese”, Reginald Clark explores his predictions for taxes in the next several years and offers poignant advice for how to prepare. “With the proper planning and strategic investments, we can set up anyone for a more successful retirement, free from unnecessary tax burdens.” To learn more about financial planning with P3 Financial Group, visit www.p3financialgroup.com. To buy Reginald Clark’s book, head to www.reginaldclark.com/store, Amazon, or your local bookstore. --- ## Model Gemma Walshe plans to spread her magic on Youtube URL: https://futuresharks.com/model-gemma-walshe-plans-to-spread-her-magic-on-youtube/ In today’s ever-changing world, social media has become a platform to showcase talent and grow businesses. Many influencers and models are utilising online platforms to put forward their tips for their followers. Gemma Walshe, a wonderful model who is adored by her followers for her gorgeous looks and fashion sense is planning to create videos on platforms like YouTube for her followers. The videos would technically focus on several exercises and tips for maintaining a healthy life. Relevant: As Gemma Walshe ventures into the world of YouTube, aspiring entrepreneurs who are inspired by her success and want to start their own channels or businesses in the media industry can benefit from setting up a California LLC to ensure a strong foundation for their creative projects The model is planning to create content to help people with their health regime. Besides proving tips on health and wellness, Gemma will also work on motivating people about happiness and life. The diva is often seen comforting her followers on social media platforms by generating some helpful words of wisdom. Gemma Walshe is a noteworthy name in the fashion business, the chanteuse has worked with some giant brands like FashionNova, Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing, and Savage Fenty. The model was born and raised in the United Kingdom by both her father who is Irish and her mother who is Jamaican. The model then migrated to the states to cherish her dreams to be an extremely successful model where she also finished her graduation in Marketing and Graphic Design. --- ## NU Media’s Success as Defined by Ada Hu and Eva Jiang URL: https://futuresharks.com/nu-medias-success-as-defined-by-ada-hu-and-eva-jiang/ While setting a goal, you may find yourself looking for signs that you have succeeded through other people’s achievements. Co-founders Ada Hu and Eva Jiang of NU Media begs to differ and offers a fresh perspective on this. They believe that success is personal and specific to each individual in varying ways. For them, it’s ending a day being fulfilled and happy knowing they each gave their full effort for a client. It is reflected in the reputation they’ve built with NU Media’s customers and how they rely on their referrals. Word of mouth is a huge element in their success, coupled with the contributions of the sales team and affiliates. They acknowledge how her clients’ recommendation of NU Media to their circles has helped them become successful. The reputation NU Media has built did not happen overnight, especially with the competition in their industry. Ada emphasizes the positive result of knowing one’s niche and digging deep in meeting her clients’ requirements. Making more effort in understanding more about how their company can differentiate itself from her competitors is key. To build a successful database, she says, “A client needs to see why hiring you is the best decision they will make.” > “If you haven’t failed, you haven’t tried.”The motto that has helped Ada Hu become successful With the reputation Ada and Eva built with their clients, and in their industry, there were numerous satisfying moments throughout her career. They say that seeing their team members flourish is one satisfying moment in her business. Another is when clients thank them for the service they have provided. Finally, they share that conquering COVID-19 despite the challenges is another satisfying moment in their careers. Ups and downs in businesses are normal but may be discouraging for some entrepreneurs. Being optimistic and dedicated are two things that Ada Hu and Eva Jiang both do better than most. She acknowledges that her mindset is what differentiates her from others. Many people may feel hesitant in sharing their failures, but Ada Hu describes them as ones that make her stronger. She shares that in business, things don’t always work out despite putting in your best efforts. More importantly, it’s ok to fail and embrace it to change your perspective and not define you. Her motto, which helped her become successful, is: “If you haven’t failed, you haven’t tried.” Get in touch with NU Media‘s Ada Hu and Eva Jiang by following them on Instagram: @adayoada_ and @numedia.usa Don’t miss more content by Ada, Eva, and their team! Check them out on Vimeo andYouTube!🔥 --- ## Hannah Pereira’s Bath Box is Changing The Australian Bathroom URL: https://futuresharks.com/hannah-pereiras-bath-box-is-changing-the-australian-bathroom/ In our fast-moving world, life-changing innovations are being introduced daily. One such innovation in the bathroom, is coming quick and with positive customer feedback. This is from the multi-million dollar Australian company – Bath Box – founded by Aussie entrepreneurs Ashton Jude, Hannah Pereira, and Kim Pereira. Together, they bring the experience of “true comfort” to the bathroom, allowing customers to take at-home relaxation to the next level. Founded in 2017, Bath Box was born from Hannah’s desire to bring natural and handmade bath goods and skincare to all Australians. What started as a hobby, making products for herself, friends and family, quickly grew into a nation-wide frenzy. And with this, a small hobby turned into a million-dollar Australian company, now with dreams to sell worldwide in the next 12 months. Bath Box prides itself on using natural ingredients, keeping their products handmade in Melbourne, Australia, and of course, strictly sells vegan-friendly and cruelty-free products. Their bath bombs and bubble bath collections are eloquent and luxurious, with many colors, fragrances and biodegradable glitters available. According to Ashton Jude, the best-selling products at Bath Box are those that enhance the relaxation and comfort experiences in the bathroom. Specifically, this is led by their bath pillow and bath caddy offerings. Ashton claims Bath Box was one of the first retailers bringing these innovations to the Australian market, and still maintains an edge to competitors in the market with a far superior product design and build. At Bath Box, every product is created and then tested with customers at the forefront. They believe their fast growth and great success is due to putting their customers first. Ashton informed us that they ‘keep their customer feedback loop very short’, and ‘listen to every piece of feedback, positive or negative’. This allows them to perfect product offerings, optimize customer service, and eventually improves their bottom line. In today’s world of stress and chaos, especially in recent times, life can be quite challenging. This is something that Bath Box continues to target with their product lines – providing a solution to a long, hard day. They make relaxing at home, conveniently in the comfort and privacy of your bath, a reality. And with more Australian homes containing a bath, this is a reality that it going to come quickly, even for those who may not currently have a bath in their home. Selling Australia’s most popular bath pillow and bath caddy during the recent years was a huge success for Bath Box, with both products going viral on social media. They are so unique and at the time of launch, there was nothing like these products around. One thing Bath Box continues to invest heavily in is their social media presence. As people are becoming more conscious in their shopping experience, searching for customer reviews, feedback, and even videos online before buying, Bath Box believes it’s important to build a strong, and ever-improving, social media presence. Bath Box post all of their products on social media and thus the option of assessing, evaluating and analyzing products for customers is easy and transparent. It is amazing to see how far Bath Box has come in just a few years, but more importantly, how fast the business has grown. As they say, try to walk before you can run, but for them, there was no other option other than to run and even then, it was more of a sprint, because they were struggling to keep up with the amount of orders from the beginning. Led by strong entrepreneurs, Ashton Jude tells us he has many growth plans for Bath Box, eventually wanting to take the brand worldwide. --- ## Digital Marketer Patrick Sargis’ Advice To People Who Want To Follow Same Career Path As Him URL: https://futuresharks.com/digital-marketer-patrick-sargis-advice-to-people-who-want-to-follow-same-career-path-as-him/ Digital marketing is considered cost-effective and measurable for businesses who want to increase their target audience. But to achieve this enormous goal in the best way possible, it is important to have the right person/agency backing you. For the past few years, Patrick Sargis has been working as a full-stack digital marketer and has changed the fate of many big or small businesses for the better. At the age of 24, Patrick Sargis started earning money by providing online services that would help a person and their brand reach a big audience. He was a college dropout who wanted to create something of his own as he always wanted to be independent with his work. To accomplish his goals as a digital marketer, Patrick attended many conferences, read hundreds of books, and paid to learn from the best marketers in the world.  While honing his skills, Patrick Sargis kept working too and helped several businesses to increase their conversions online through better strategy, copywriting and advertising. It is a known fact that the internet is a great place to earn money and build a huge customer base. But that can be only possible if your brand/business has creative and eye-catching branding and promotions in the form of ads, articles, creatives etc. By helping these companies and businesses, Sargis has also made a better livelihood for himself. With his first project, the digital marketer made a sale of more than $100,000 in just 40 days. Eventually, he gained lots of confidence in his skills as he began attracting a bigger client base. So, he started his digital marketing agency called Marketers Edge that provides his clients’ services such as copywriting, conversion strategy, optimization, and sales funnel creation services.  While helping other businesses to flourish, Patrick Sargis went through the journey of simply being a digital marketer to an entrepreneur. Presently, he has clients with 7, 8 and 9-figure businesses. He is an inspiration to many young minds bursting with potentials. For such people, Sargis has some good advice. **Marketers Edge founder Patrick Sargis’ advice to people who want to follow the same career path as him** Become the best in the world at your skill-sets.  Find the best people/experts in your industry and pay to learn from them.  Be committed, consistent, and patient – massive results come over time from the compound effect.  Check out the services provided by Sargis’ company Marketers Edge. --- ## Helping health professionals and practice owners do more and be more – Ace entrepreneur James Neilson-Watt. URL: https://futuresharks.com/helping-health-professionals-and-practice-owners-do-more-and-be-more-ace-entrepreneur-james-neilson-watt/ **Through his entrepreneurial spirit and uniqueness in business, James Neilson-Watt has positioned himself at the forefront of the healthcare business niche.** There are a few people in this world who believe in following set rules in life, while there are some others who believe in going with the flow, learning things each day as they come and applying the same at work to excel beyond boundaries and create their unique footprint. People from the latter category go ahead in honing many skills due to the many failures and challenges along their path. These individuals, however, eventually learn how to keep a firm eye on their goals, face challenges and come up with solutions that can make a profound difference in their industry. James Neilson-Wattstands as a classic example of one such entrepreneur who was driven to make it big in the healthcare space and today is making other practitioners successful as well with his training program ‘Health Business Accelerator’ and his one of a kind podcast & book. He confesses he did not have it easy and how as a new graduate, he struggled to pay his bills. He purchased his first practice with a loan from his mother-in-law and hustled his way through, so much that in three months, he and his now wife Delsey, tripled their patient volume and hit 7-figures in revenue in just two years. James Neilson-Watt had started his career as a chiropractor and failed to flourish early in his career. He saw how the other health professionals viewed practice growth and saw numerous flaws. Hence, he decided to learn everything about growing a successful business and go his own way. Going deeper to understand the ‘tricks of the trade’ in doing business, he scaled his practice and took it to greater heights of success in a short period as he was able to attract and convert high-quality new clients and also build his authority in the community with his incredible solutions. In just two years of graduating, he owned two practices, had generated over $1,000,000 in revenue and gained success that once seemed unimaginable to him. Today, James Neilson-Watt has immersed himself in the entrepreneurial world by teaching and guiding other health professionals and practice owners on how to learn and master online marketing in order to grow their practices faster & easier through modern-day approaches and methods for gaining new clients and building the system necessary for sustainability. James Neilson-Watt is the same guy who, till 25 years of age, struggled with severe generalised anxiety, and today, he is a health professional who has built a multi-7-figure online business before age 30 without an ounce of anxiety insight, because as he put it “there came a time when I had to accept that I was the only person in my way”. Ask him who has inspired him to reach the level of success he enjoys today and he quickly replies, “My baby boys and my wife”. Adding further, he says that they have pushed him to be a better man, a better husband, and a better father and through this personal growth, he believes he has been able to push ahead and help his clients, the healthcare industry and become the success story he is today. James Neilson-Watt looks unstoppable in his quest to turn underpaid practitioners into well-paid and successful business owners through his book “Healthcare Business Secrets – A Step By Step Guide to Building a Massively Successful Practice” and his podcast show ‘Healthcare Business Secrets‘ which is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, YouTube, and many other online platforms. --- ## Jennifer Neville Transitions from Golfing to Life Coching URL: https://futuresharks.com/jennifer-neville-transitions-from-golfing-to-life-coching/ Nothing is as scary as a career change, because in reality, it is like a change of professional identity, which involves going back to start from scratch, coupled with the fac3t that there are no guarantees involved. A career change is a dreaded topic for many, and there is a huge chunk of people who feel there is no need to change one’s career, especially if one is doing fine in their current career. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” However, Jennifer Neville did not only switch careers, but she also did so even though she was doing remarkably well. She was hugely popular in her former profession.  Jennifer Neville, born in Bradenton, Florida, is half Dominican and bilingual. She is currently living in Tampa, Florida. Jennifer describes her job as empowering the feminine in life, love, and business, using techniques such as astrology, tarot, and intuitive coaching to help people understand how to tap into their creative power and design offerings around what feels present for them or most inspiring. As a person who is always driven by her passion, she also had the unique ability to design her life around that pursuit. “I played golf competitively my whole life and then professionally for four years after school. I was always fascinated with mindset development and knew that I wanted to one day have a platform to help others feel confident in pursuing their dreams,” she said of her uniqueness.  Recalling her journey to where she is, she pointed out that some of the best qualities, such as winning spirit, success and discipline, were taught to her by golf. Despite this, she left golfing and started her YouTube channel (dedicated to tarot and astrology) immediately. Fortunately, she was able to build a platform and help other coaches find similar success.  Jennifer owes her inspiration to people like Gabby Bernstein and other public speakers who talk about spiritual notions such as the law of attraction and the abundance mindset. Though she was able to find success in her coaching practice, Jennifer admits that she had to face a lot of trial and error, especially considering how she divorced something she had dedicated most of her life to and had to disconnect from her  identity as Jen the golfer. Growth and expansion in themselves are often very painful, as we have to face hard truths and make sacrifices for our awakening process. On her motivation, she said, “Working with those soulmate clients. Getting to be present for these people has these huge shifts from taking my course, my 1:1 coaching, or even watching my YouTube video. That is one of the best feelings that I don’t ever want to give up.” On her plans for the next five years, she said, “At the moment, I’m hoping to finish my book and officially become a published author. I am loving the digital course space and would like to continue to create online offerings as well as in-person experiences and more speaking engagements.” Learn more about Jennifer by visiting her instagram or subscribe to her YouTube Channel. --- ## Houston Golden Tells Us How Small Businesses Made it Big Last Year With a Little Growth Hacking, LinkedIn and Grit URL: https://futuresharks.com/houston-golden-tells-us-how-small-businesses-made-it-big-last-year-with-a-little-growth-hacking-linkedin-and-grit/ It’s been well over a year since most of us felt that sinking feeling in our gut. Everyone who owned a business in 2020 knew that it was bad, bad news, and in just a couple months everything that we thought was normal was turned upside down. But, here’s what. There were still a lot of guys who made it big. You see, I run a growth hacking agency that specializes in lead acquisition and LinkedIn, and what surprised me the most was the number of people who managed to grow, despite the circumstances that they were faced with. The Problem With Going Digital The first option on everyone’s minds was to go digital. Physical contact became taboo, but we could all still hangout via the internet where it was safer. Overnight, work from home arrangements, online meetings, and Zoom-powered classes, all started becoming a thing. People were spending increased amounts of time online, so coincidentally business started moving a bulk of their arrangements online. However, there was a problem with all of this. Things started getting saturated. I’m Not a Digital Marketer, I’m a Growth Hacker The problem is people started flocking towards a “digital marketing” solution. People wanted to go online for the sake of going online. It doesn’t work like that. Take for example my business which was already “online” to begin with. We realized that we needed to reduce costs and we couldn’t continue working in our offices altogether because of COVID-19, we adopted new practices, changed out our targeting, refocused our messaging, and re-pivoted the business. We didn’t care too much about winning ad spends or getting the most sessions, what we craved for was growth. We looked at each area of our business and tried to determine how to grow it. Then we started to do same with our clients. While a lot of people were figuring out how to advertise or market online, we were looking at the products that our clients were putting out, trying to pivot the way they’ve branded themselves, and creating new avenue for growth. One of these avenues was LinkedIn. Why LinkedIn? A quarter of a billion active users. That’s how many people are on the LinkedIn platform. Everyone from newly minted college grads to Bill Gates had a LinkedIn account, some used it for job-seeking, while the rest use it as sort of a “professional” Facebook. But, think about it, how many people use the platform for targeted B2B lead generation? It’s not exactly the platform you think about when you hear the word “social media marketing” being thrown around. It remained to be an untapped market with a lot of potential for growth. How Did They Do It? So, this is what we started doing. Targeting – our small clients took a look at their ideal customer profiles, and realized that those didn’t exist anymore. They needed to adjust for the pandemic. This meant that there were new customer profiles that had to be built out and new modes of messaging put out. Hyper-personalization – if you’re in the B2B field you already know about Account-based Marketing or ABM, we took the theories of ABM to another level. We made sure that generic messages were a big no-no. Everything had to be personalized, if small business owners could write each email personally, they did it. Multidimensional campaigns – yes, LinkedIn is a Blue Ocean for many of the niche clients we have, but this doesn’t mean it’s the only medium. To succeed, they adopted multidimensional campaigns, we prospected on LinkedIn, cold-emailed, then hit everyone up with a custom audience for brand awareness on Facebook. Passive lead generation – people hate this, but it was one way we generated so many new leads for smaller organizations. It involved full optimized LinkedIn profiles turning normal assets into “mini” landing pages. Engineering virality – think you can’t go viral on LinkedIn? That’s what our smaller clients thought, instead of thinking of virality as a bonus, we strived to make sure that each post they had was written for virality. Why? This ensured that we had maximum reach all the time. Thought-leadership – we run an influencer academy, but when I say that in passing it almost sounds as if I need to turn B2B specialists into TikTok stars – although I wouldn’t be against that. Our influencer academy is focused on turning normal business owners into thought leaders in their industry. This is one way we’ve allowed our clients to build trust in the market. Throw in a Little Grit Of course, it’s not enough that they knew where and how to look for growth opportunities. In my line of work, that’s just the first part of the equation. The second part has always been, “what are you going to do about it?” I’ve consulted for various Fortune 500 companies and a lot of smaller startups, and I’ve seen a lot of them grow tremendously, but not without the fair share of companies that just plateaued. The common denominator between all of the successful organizations I’ve witnessed? Grit. Now a lot of people describe grit in different ways, but I like Dr. Angela Duckworth’s definition of grit – in her book of the same name – it’s passion and perseverance. During the pandemic a lot of the clients I onboarded wanted to survive, they naturally wanted to “persevere”, but that wasn’t enough. The pandemic was also a test if people were really passionate in what they were doing. There’s a lot of magic in the work that we do in the office, but if our client, or you for that matter, lacks passion in the organization, it won’t survive. Takeaways (The Results) In 2020, we managed to generate millions of dollars of leads for our smaller clients. LinkedIn provided a new market, growth hacking provided a new mindset, and a little grit provided them with enough capital to keep moving forward to 2021. But, you want to know what’s one thing that kept the smaller guys going? It was compassion. They understood that the clients that they were talking to were – just like them – now in a different place altogether. --- ## How Kissa McCarty Turned A Chance Opportunity Into a Full Career URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-kissa-mccarty-turned-a-chance-opportunity-into-a-full-career/ At the age of 22, Kissa McCarty is one of the few that has managed to take a small chance and turn it into a driving force behind her life. Following a repost from Barstool Sports, she has found a way to amass a following of 1.3 million on Instagram and has decided to take on becoming a social media influencer as a full-time job. Following Instagram, she has also started to conquer Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, and Onlyfans as well.    From the young age of 7 years old, Kissa McCarty was engrossed in the world of gymnastics and was ushered into the spotlight from childhood. Despite being born and raised in a small town, Kissa was ready to branch out and grow into becoming a globally recognized influencer.    By the age of 14, Kissa took a job at her local pizza parlor, taking the opportunity to do so as soon as she reached the legal age to work. With a strong mentality and work ethic, she eventually decided to pursue an education in electrical engineering.    In high school, Kissa was balancing work and school while maintaining high GPAs in all of her AP classes, and building towards her own career. It was after graduating high school that all of her hard work would pay off, as she set off to college to study electrical engineering.   While working at an internship learning how to PCB (Print circuit board), one of Kissa’s Instagram posts was reposted by Barstool Sports, launching her small following into the thousands overnight. Kissa, seeing an opportunity to hone in, used this to launch a fitness and influencer brand for herself, and began to grow her pages massively.   Now, a senior in college, Kissa McCarty is poised to enter adulthood as someone who has a very promising path to follow. Through hard work and belief in herself, she has taken herself from a small-town girl to an icon ready to be recognized worldwide. Through events like being invited to Kevin Durant’s 31st birthday, she will be able to build the connections she needs to take her career to the next level. --- ## Laura Lang On Women in Business and Work, Family Life Balance URL: https://futuresharks.com/laura-lang-on-women-in-business-and-work-family-life-balance/ Laura Lang is a Senior Mortgage Banker and Sales Team Leader at Cardinal Financial Company in New Jersey. Out of the office, she is a wife, mother, friend and Chester, New Jersey homeowner. Oftentimes reminding herself that it is really possible to have it all!  In an industry that is flooded with men, Laura is a leading professional in the mortgage industry, and a role model for women hereafter. Furthermore, Laura aims to teach others how she successfully balances her high profile business life with her family life. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States workforce is made up of approximately 32% women, in which more than 75% are mothers with children under the age of 18 years old. In addition to having to balance a 9-5 job with kids and a husband, women are oftentimes left without pay when a leave of absence is taken. The U.S. Census Bureau also reported that in 2018 the most common reason for joblessness in women was the need to take care of children. While it may not be the direct reason for women only making up for 32% of the workforce in the United States, it is definitely one of the major contributing factors. With first hand experience in overcoming the norms of her industry, Laura is paving the way for other women, while teaching them that it is possible to be successful in business and personal life. Laura’s desire to achieve greater things started at an early age. She was a competitive swimmer which entailed a vigorous training schedule from the age of 10 and went on to earn a college scholarship as a division 1 athlete. Laura explains that a key factor in building success is to never stop hustling. She upholds a positive mindset towards everything and backs it with an unsurpassed work ethic. Laura takes great pride in serving clients with the utmost dignity and care, and works to truly understand the needs, desires, and unique situations of each and every one. She has worked in the mortgage industry since 2003 and has broken gender norms, as well as inspired and empowered women to do the same. Laura spoke on the topic saying, “I think as women we all have a harder time with work life balance. We put so much pressure on ourselves in trying to be perfect in every way. We don’t need to be perfect, we just need to be the best version of ourselves that we can be! I feel truly blessed that I love what I do and I believe it makes me a better person to my family and friends. I work hard but also make my family and friends a priority. It is possible to have success in personal life and in business if you surround yourself with people that support you and believe in you.” Today, the mortgage industry is made up of more than 68% men, whereas women account for only 32%. Laura is a leader in this male dominated industry and has built her success by continuing to educate herself, putting in the work and focusing on a positive mindset. Proving that she can stand the test of gender barriers, she continues to show up and coming professionals that they are capable of doing the same. “I believe striving for success as a woman in business makes me a better role model for my daughter. It is so important to embrace the next generation of women and be a mentor in order to help them succeed even further and break new barriers. It is important to me for my daughter to understand that she can do anything as long as she puts the work in.” --- ## Let’s Talk About Tigerlilly Hill, Your Favorite Celebrity Stylist URL: https://futuresharks.com/lets-talk-about-tigerlilly-hill-your-favorite-celebrity-stylist/ Fashion is a big industry, and it has so much creativity and talent to offer. This is one of the reasons why we like talking about it and some of its prominent names. Today we are going to talk about the talented and famous Tigerlilly Hill. Her name has been heard about a million times in the fashion industry and her clothes from her clothing line, Crown Atelier, have been worn by some of the very famous people such as Keira Knightley, Hillary Duff, Taryn Manning, Haley Bennet, Carla Gugino, Catt Sadler, and Maria Menounos. Born in the Cayman Islands to a Jamaican mother and British father, Tigerlilly is an astounding fashion designer famously known as a celebrity wardrobe stylist and TV personality having featured in VH1’s Glam God with Vivica A. Fox where she ended being among the top two finalists. Tigerlilly attended the University of Iowa and completed her bachelor’s degree at the Richmond, The American International University in London while doing a stint at Central Saint Martins Her work has been seen in a good number of award shows, music videos and films as a wardrobe stylist and costume designer. In June 2012 she won the Emerging Designer Award at Caribbean Fashion Week. The Cayman National Cultural Foundation awarded her the Star for Creativity in the Arts Gold on February 25, 2016. The award is given to individuals who have attained the highest level of merit in the artistic discipline, contributed to arts, culture and heritage in the Cayman Islands. She has gained a lot of fame over the years with her unique and artistic designs. She uses the Cayman Islands as inspiration for most of her work and this is where her originality and talent Is seen. People love her work because they come from the heart, they are not just designs that hop on the current trend of copy-pasted from other designers. They are entirely unique and convey a message of uniqueness, originality and self-love. Her swimwear brand makes swimming costumes inspired by the fishnet as used in the Cayman islands for fishing activities. They are amazing designs that have gained a lot of fans and customers over the years. She has gained fame and success and continues to be one of the best celebrity stylists you will ever come across. Not only is she a stylist but also a businesswoman. She has both skills and experience which she has gained from being in reality TV. She has gathered the skills of being original and commercializing that originality. She doesn’t only make designs, she makes designs that sell. She inspires a lot of upcoming stylists out there and ensures them that there is a reward in creativity and originality. Tigerlilly Hill is amazing at what she does and she never ceases to amaze us. It is no wonder that she is a celebrity and people’s favourite in general and has received some prestigious awards throughout her work. --- ## NuWave – Bringing Modern Strategy to the Entertainment Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/nuwave-bringing-modern-strategy-to-the-entertainment-business/ Traditionalism and futurism can co-exist in harmony. In fact, both remain necessary to effectively introduce new talent, content, and brands to the marketplace. By leveraging tried-and-true business philosophies and best practices, yet implementing strategy through modern platforms, an artist gets a shot at a much longer window in the spotlight than the 15-60 seconds afforded by TikTok and other social platforms. Today, the combination of an online *“moment”*and long-term planning proves to be a recipe for the sort of success that translates to decades-long careers, platinum plaques, and even awards show recognition when it comes to artists. In the cases of brands, it means R.O.I., palpable social impact, honest credibility, and consistent growth. For as much as NuWave Media operates on the cutting edge of music, entertainment, and brand culture, the creative agency pursues enduring excellence for its esteemed high-profile clientele. Led by business partners Rafael Rocha and Harry *“Rez”*Resnick, the firm’s mixture of innovative digital strategy and visionary creative consulting coupled with a breathtaking network proves indispensable and, often game-changing, for major and indie labels, monolithic and developing companies, and athletes alike. “For music, we believe viral hits and artist development aren’t mutually exclusive,” says Rocha. “There’s always a space for old school development. We just see it through a digital lens. The goal is the same: sustained long-term success. We’re thinking beyond today and even tomorrow. We’re thinking a year from now or five years from now.” That sort of thinking established NuWave as a trusted partner for some of the biggest names in culture, at large. Labels such as Atlantic Records, Epic Records, Republic Records, Alamo Records, Interscope Records, and more will lean on their expertise when it comes to the ever-changing online space. Among many services, they advise resource allocation for influencers, reposts, animations, and more with an unbeatable track record. You’ll find Rocha and Resnick behind collaborations that exceed even the bounds of the internet. Recently, they aligned rapidly rising Columbia Records rapper 24KGoldn with jewelry maker Aporro to giveaway 24 exclusive gold chains. The campaign yielded millions of impressions, successfully acquired data, and reached an extensive demographic. Generation Now and Atlantic Records rapper Jack Harlow just made it on to the Hot 100 with “WHATS POPPIN.” However, as far back as 2018, NuWave worked on building his digital profile and presenting him to the marketplace as a three-dimensional personality to augment his brand. In 2019, they also tirelessly worked on one of the year’s most impactful compilations. In tandem with UK-based Plug Records, Resnick and Rocha bridged the gap across the pond by securing features, handling clearances, and, of course, supervising marketing for *Plug Talk*—which featured the likes of Offset, Tory Lanez, and Roddy Ricch as well as Fredo, Nafe Smallz, and D-Block Europe. It ended up going #1 on the Top Hip-Hop Rap Chart on iTunes UK, and *Complex* cited it as *“One of 2019’s Best Rap Albums*.*”* Crystallizing their grasp of experiential marketing and digital inventiveness, they launched an animated video contest for XXXTentacion’s “Bad” in conjunction with the late artist’s estate, label Bad Vibes Forever, and EMPIRE. Sourcing eight animators to direct 15-second clips, countless fans worldwide voted on the best entry with the winning filmmaker creating the final official video. The song eventually went platinum as the visual tallied a staggering 91 million views to date. Additionally, NuWave sought out artists on four continents to paint murals of XXXTentacion for the “Global Mural Project,” which now grace walls in London, Japan, Australia, and beyond. “That was one of my favorite things we’ve done so far,” smiles Resnick. “You could really feel a worldwide impact. It was truly the project that put us on the map with creative work.” This creativity can be traced directly to the founders’ shared timeless passion for artists and records. It wasn’t just a fad or fleeting dalliance for either. Instead, they both committed themselves to music wholeheartedly at a young age. The New Jersey-born Resnick admits to *“tearing computers down with too many Limewire downloads”*as a kid. He points to Kid Cudi’s *Man on the Moon: The End of Day*as an ultimate escape during his high school and college years. “When I was stressed over exams, a breakup, or whatever, I’d always bump that album,” he elaborates. “I’d be in a college class not even paying attention, just listening to the record. I’d always wanted to do something in music.” Post-school, he worked as a Creative Director for the German publication Flavor Magazine in addition to designing t-shirts of his own *“in order to meet artists*.*”*Consulting for producer Chef Pasquale [known for Drake’s “KMT”], Resnick made his way into the major label ecosystem and started consulting for the likes of Atlantic Records and more. Rocha cultivated a similar deep love for all things music. The Brazil native admits to *“using [his] dad’s iPod more than he did*.*”*He too downloaded countless songs and magnetically gravitated to music’s power. In between attending University of Miami, he cut his teeth by launching a digital agency before founding NuWave in 2017 with early successes for various independent acts. An impromptu meeting at a New York City hotspot initially brought Rocha and Resnick together back in 2018. They immediately hit it off with Resnick becoming a partner at NuWave a few months later. “We became this two-headed monster,” Resnick goes on. “I’m really good at connections, linking people, getting into rooms, and then delivering the goods. Raf has a really amazing vision.” “We really feed off each other,” agrees Rocha. “We always get to the same page, because of the complementary skills and personalities.” Comprised of a team of digital savvy experts, NuWave’s services continue to expand. They notably seeded *“the munchies pack”*and VIP passes to New York-based influencers when *Rolling Loud*came to the Big Apple, magnifying visibility for the festival dramatically. Among many other victories, they aligned LG with TikTok superstar Addison Rae—one of the platform’s top five most popular talents. In order to launch the LG G8X two-screen phone, Rae touted the technology on her page organically, generating tens of millions of organic impressions. “We were able to tap LG into an audience they hadn’t really explored, so the campaign went really well,” adds Rocha. “We try to fit brands into open spaces, much like an artist. TikTok and other youth-driven apps are effective for not just artists to promote their music, but for companies to promote their products.” Ultimately, NuWave moves at the speed of culture, but it does so by looking ahead with patience. “For as fast as things move, it’s always about establishing an impact that will last,” Rocha leaves off. “In the internet era, there are no restrictions in terms of what you can accomplish and where you can go. It’s just about looking past the moment though. In terms of sticking around, development shouldn’t be overlooked. We come from a digital background and see things from the *‘new wave’*, pun intended, yet we believe there’s still space for old school tactics to work. You can use this unlimited scope to build something timeless. We’re grateful for these limitless opportunities. Especially amidst times like these, we can make the most of the internet as a canvas and help our clients be heard.” --- ## How Stefan Katanic Built and Scaled a 7-Figure Marketing Agency in a Short 2-Years URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-stefan-katanic-built-and-scaled-a-7-figure-marketing-agency-in-a-short-2-years/ *Stefan Katanic is a 28-year old savvy entrepreneur from Toronto who likes to help pave the way forward for others. He started out as an entrepreneur by helping agencies scale over millions of dollars in revenue, and today operates Veza Digital, a premier white-label marketing agency. Stefan is a part of Forbes Agency Council and 25 Young Entrepreneurs To Watch.* **City where you’re from:** Toronto **Favorite quote: “***To get the best out of people around you, you have to clearly and forcefully articulate the opportunities you see for them” – 50 Cent* **Follow Stefan on**: Instagram – Twitter – LinkedIn  ### ### Tell us about your agency, Veza Digital. How did you come up with this idea for white labeling? **Stefan Katanic:** I’ve been a marketing consultant for the past 7 years, and I never thought that my next project would be a white label agency. But here I am sitting at my kitchen table with my best friend and a clean white piece of paper staring back at me. It all started when one of our agency friends approached us about developing their own proprietary software to sell as opposed to outsourcing it out where they were paying someone else’s team to do it. We brainstormed some ideas and came up with Veza Digital White-label Agency – an agency that provides white label services to agencies who want something tailored just for their clients, under their own brand. They wanted us to create everything from the design process through development, testing, and launch day strategy! It took around 6 months but we managed to finally get it off, and today we have over 40 white-label agencies who leverage our back-end service to scale their agencies. ### ### How did you promote your agency in the early days? **Stefan Katanic:** In the early days before we even thought of a white-label agency, it was mostly word of mouth, cold email, and LinkedIn. Today, we primarily get a ton of organic traffic to our site and practically own the top of the funnel for the space.  ### ### How have you been able to grow your agency? **Stefan Katanic:** It’s always fun to see the look on people’s faces when they find out we offer free consultations and feedback. If they know how much we charge, that is.  I’m a believer in going over and beyond for good people, we want to make sure they feel confident about the choice! This motto has been shaped over the years and really embedded as a value in our company culture. Although we’re first on Google search for our services, once people do become dedicated partners we work and plan to work with them all for the long term.  ### ### What are some secrets to virility/sales in your most successful platform? **Stefan Katanic:** For our clientele, the great results have been a mixture of advertising on social media platforms coupled with a sleek website design that gives people a premium brand experience that blows their competition out of the water.  ### ### Teach us something we don’t know about digital marketing. **Stefan Katanic:** Marketing doesn’t happen overnight. Most people think that ads are the final step towards enabling sales and closing more deals. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I would say that your brand is the most leveraged asset you will ever create. The term Brand Equity is something that I always preach to our clients and partners. It’s an evolving project initiative that will never end. Put your brand first and all your other activities such as Ads, PR, Funnels, and cold outreach will have 10x the effect.  ### ### What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? **Stefan Katanic:** I’m not the most talkative person, but with certain people, I can do it. Sometimes being quiet and observant is all you need to know about how others feel. For me, speaking to someone, in particular, was a second nature thing. If I had an idea of what they wanted or needed then that’s where my words flowed from because I knew just what they were looking for. For example, if someone who worked in marketing asked me how their campaign should go, I would speak from the experience knowing which words would work for them as well as their audience because it felt like such a natural fit for me. ### ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Stefan Katanic:** The 5 am Club by Robin Sharma, Hustle Hard, Hustler Smarter by Curtis Jackson (50 Cent), and the 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch. ### What advice would you give to other agency owners? **Stefan Katanic:** Most agency owners are in it and want to exit. If that’s the case you need to focus 80% of your efforts on the top 20% of activities that generate your results such as sales, negotiations, marketing campaigns, and other high-ROI activities.  ### ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple of years? What’s your dream? **Stefan Katanic:** I see myself operating our eCommerce brands at Veza and focusing more on my investments. I’m not going to go into details but just know I got my next few moves planned out. --- ## Andrew Molen — New Restaurants Are Redefining Creativity & Innovation URL: https://futuresharks.com/andrew-molen-new-restaurants-are-redefining-creativity-innovation/ We took the time to interview executive level entrepreneur Andrew Molen to gain insight on everything you need to know about his imminent plans. After having managed multiple restaurants and hotels, Andrews decided to branch off and take everything he learned from the beginning of his career to do two things — create and innovate. Answering all of your questions regarding his new restaurants, & goals for this upcoming is Andrew himself. **What are the plans for your upcoming restaurants?** “I have three new properties coming. Two located in Boston and one in Southampton, NY. One Boston restaurant will be a cigar lounge with food, beverage, and smoking combination. The second in Boston is a street bistro theme with modern American cuisine combining a fun bar element. This summer, I will be opening a membership only, private club located in the heart of Southampton, New York with a fun mixture of executives, business people, and the everyday entrepreneur.” **What do you want to accomplish this year?** “This year I am looking to accomplish every goal I set for myself. I have been very fortunate to have achieved almost everything I have set forth to this point. I will be turning 40 in August, and I decided it was time to step out on my own and create new goals and a new vision to incorporate everything learned in the past, making something new, fun, and adventurous.” **Where do you see yourself in 5 years?** “In 5 years, I will still be on the same path. Someone asked me what I will do if I retire. I love what I do and will continue until I check out from this planet.” **What’s one thing you want to improve this year?** “Personally, to combine everything that I’ve been doing and finding a way to intertwine them all to coexist with each other. From different cities, venues, and concepts, I want to keep it all on a level playing ground and succeed.” **Is there anyone you’d like to recognize in this article?** “My mother, who introduced me into the industry. From the day I was born I lived in the restaurant. Most parents take their kids home from the hospital, but she took me straight to the restaurant. The school bus picked me up and dropped me off there. I was 5 years old when I popped open my first beer bottle and from then on continued in the industry. If only you can imagine how that continued to progress to where I am now.” Guided by the life his mother created, Andrew has taken it upon himself to not only innovate, but create and thrive in the restaurant industry. Utilizing the skills and knowledge he absorbed in his early years, his career is launching into the reality he always dreamt about. Molen’s three new restaurants are unique in every sense and he is ecstatic to provide the ultimate dining experience for all of his customers. Andrew Molen’s executive status in the restaurant industry remains inviolable and he is destined for eminence. --- ## “Find your passion. Nothing in life is worth doing without love and passion.”-Dr Alexis Parcells URL: https://futuresharks.com/find-your-passion-nothing-in-life-is-worth-doing-without-love-and-passion-dr-alexis-parcells/ Dr. Alexis Parcells is a board-certified plastic surgeon, a wife, and mother of two young daughters. Her passion has always been to advocate for women’s health and empowerment. She specializes in breast and body cosmetic surgery such as breast lifts, breast augmentation, mommy makeover, tummy tuck, liposuction, and labiaplasty. She also performs breast reconstruction. Aside from her surgical expertise and prowess, she also has a skincare studio called SUNNIE. The services of the skincare studio include Botox, fillers, and CO2 laser to protect and correct fine lines and sun damage. She also offers clean medical-grade skincare products like SPF, cleanser, eye cream, and correctible creams. Having a father who is a physician, Dr. Parcells grew up knowing she wanted to help others. She became interested in plastic surgery through her volunteer work with Operation Smile. She went on her first medical mission at the age of 16 to Morocco. While at the mission, she witnessed the lives of children and their families changed with a simple 1-hour medical operation. Ever since then, Dr. Alexis has become passionate about enacting that type of change in the lives of future patients and focused her studies on a career in medicine.  She studied at St. George’s University in Grenada along with many US and international medical students. Upon her graduation, she matched into the Plastic Surgery residency program. In the course of her practice, she realized how much she enjoyed treating the members of her community (just as her father had while she was growing up). She focused her practice on breast reconstruction and aesthetics (cosmetic surgery). She has since expanded her practice to other areas with the same goal of empowering all her patients to make positive changes in their lives.  Part of her mission is to change the stigma of plastic surgery. She wants women to feel empowered and not guilty or ashamed of their choice to have Botox treatment or breast lift. Creating a culture of self-love and positivity is one of her main goals as a plastic surgeon.  During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Alexis opened her own private practice. She had to learn how to build a business from scratch. She states, “If you wish to achieve anything worthwhile, you will have to step outside your comfort zone.”  In addition to her cosmetic procedures, Dr. Parcells is passionate about her breast cancer patients. She treats women with breast cancer from all walks of life and is currently involved with several breast cancer organizations and serves on boards and foundations. --- ## Interview with Brian Underwood, CEO of Prüvit URL: https://futuresharks.com/interview-with-brian-underwood-ceo-of-pruvit/ At Future Sharks, our goal is to give you useful, actionable insights from some of the brightest minds in business and entrepreneurship. Much of our mission comes from the basic fact that it is often difficult to identify which advice to take to heart, or if the person giving it is a credible source. The subject of this interview, Prüvit CEO Brian Underwood, brings with him a statistic that is an unimpeachable earmark of a proven track record: $1 billion in total sales in just 5 years. We sat down with the 47-year-old Louisville native to learn more about his background and what led to his company’s rapid growth and success. ## Future Sharks: When did you first know that entrepreneurship was the path that you wanted to take? Brian Underwood: It’s certainly something that I’ve always known about myself, even when I was a kid. I was into basketball growing up, so competition always attracted me, and there are a lot of parallels between sports and business. But when I think about the first time I was hit with the realization that entrepreneurship was for me, I’d have to say it was in high school. My coach at the time was a distributor for a direct sales business, and I saw a guy making many-times his standard salary by hustling on the side and it just clicked with me. And I knew that carving my own path was something I wanted for myself. At the time, I didn’t know exactly what form that would take, but I knew that a standard 9 to 5 was definitely not in the cards. ## FS: Early in your career, what kind of challenges did you face? BU: It’s hard to nail down one thing – after 25+ years, I’ve been through it all. Impatience, negative attitude, companies that didn’t take off the way I wanted them to. I’ve experienced all of that. And that isn’t something specific to me. I imagine that many of your readers are nodding their heads right about now, because it happens to everyone who chooses to be an entrepreneur. But that initial failure is not only inevitable, it’s vital. You need to get a bloody nose and a black eye every now and again and see yourself overcome those obstacles if you want to be great. ## FS: Obviously we know now that Prüvit has been a massive success, but what inspired you to start it back in 2015? BU: My co-founders, Terry LaCore and Christopher Harding, and I were first introduced to ketone technology several years ago and were blown away by the potential. We knew that this was a product that would resonate with the customer. So once we found our hero offering, we set out to create the branding, education and culture behind it, and that’s what led us to Prüvit. The name is a spin on “prove it,” which we all agreed was a powerful theme. Want to be a better parent, spouse, friend, etc. You fill in the blank. Then prove it! And almost as much as our products, that core principle has shaped our company.  ## FS: How important is the culture of a company? And what role has that played in Prüvit’s success? BU: It’s importance can not be overstated. If you have the best product in the world, but the people within the company aren’t driven, passionate and positive, it’s going to fail. And what we’ve tried to do here is create a culture of like-minded people who push each other to excel. I always say that we should strive to become 1% better every day and that is exactly what our internal team and community does. They’re constantly improving. When it comes to our culture, I couldn’t be prouder, and I know that we wouldn’t be where we are today without it. ## FS: As anyone who follows you on social media will see, you’re a big fan of the rhinoceros. Why is that? BU: A rhino-mentality is something that I tap into daily. If you’re an entrepreneur, you want to be successful, you need to be a “rhino.” Thick-skinned, focused, confident, willing to charge after your goals, and completely unrelenting in your pursuits. Think about it – a rhino can’t charge at two things at the same time. So when you are charging, make sure it’s something worthy of that effort and attack it with full force. ## FS: What is the best piece of advice that you’d give to would-be entrepreneurs? BU: That’s a hard question to answer because we’d be here all day! But I’ll try to boil it down to two things that are vital. The first is patience. Everyone likes to focus on Prüvit today, and I get that. But what they don’t see is the 20 years of trials and tribulations that went into getting here. Sure, the company has had immense success over just 5 years, but I’m 47. A lot of patience went into waiting for the right opportunity and scaling it to what it is now. And the second is this: become comfortable with failure and adversity, because it’s going to happen a lot. You can’t stop that. Change is in the challenge. What you can do is make sure that when it does happen you don’t let it flatten you. And more importantly, that you learn from it and adjust. Failure, big or small, is a learning opportunity and if you perceive it the right way, you’ll get a little stronger and smarter each time. ## FS: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received from a mentor? BU: When I was younger, one of my mentors was an executive for Proctor and Gamble. As I worked for him, he began to notice that when I was around some of the other, less motivated employees, I would begin to pick up on their bad habits. And thankfully, he pulled me aside and told me that embracing their negativity was impeding my growth and progress. He actually yelled at me to “get out of the gutter!” And that was a crystalizing moment for me – I realized that if I wanted to operate at a higher level, I needed to surround myself with the right people. I’ve carried that with me ever since, and I choose to always be with people who are going to push me to be better. *To learn more about Brian Underwood and his business advice, follow him on Instagram (@BrianUndy) and listen to his podcast “Be You with BU”* --- ## Music, Muscles, and Motivation, How This Young New Yorker is Following His Dreams URL: https://futuresharks.com/music-muscles-and-motivation-how-this-young-new-yorker-is-following-his-dreams/ From a young age, Oren Segal had always aspired to be great, to spread kindness, and to leave his mark on the world. Born and raised in New York, his parents from Israel, Oren has found himself placed into a world filled with opportunities, and he isn’t afraid to take the risks to accomplish his dreams. Playing the violin at the young age of six taught Oren discipline and showed that practice and perseverance eventually yield results. Following his passion for music eventually led Oren to showcase his own band with the world-renowned Kronos Quartet, and he continues to play the violin today.  Music continues to be a huge part of Oren’s life and eventually led him to the fashion and modeling world, naturally. Oren had always taken an interest in clothing and the modeling industry from a young age. He’s found himself often in front of the camera, modeling for friends, and has begun creating his own personal brand. Meanwhile, he maintains being a full-time student and despite the slowdown of brand growth during the pandemic, has persisted in accomplishing his dreams and goals.  Not following the hottest fashion trends is a big part of Oren’s perspective. His advice to someone starting his own personal brand is: Don’t follow the crowd. Nothing good comes from following a herd of people who also don’t know where they’re going, and I think a lot of people follow into this category whether it be fashion, behavior, or life in general. You always need to be unique and distinguishable. While I’ve seen people and some friends start going the route of buying “streetwear” clothing and wanting to rock the baggy clothing, it made it easier for me to stay on my path and keep doing my thing. Oren’s biggest challenge was finding a way to “raise the bar” to match people’s expectations and to achieve greatness. Despite already accomplishing more than most people do in their whole life, his hunger and desire for more is the driving force behind his brand and his lifestyle. With discipline from being a young musician, to knowing how to push through pain and discomfort in the gym, Oren is equipped and ready to push the bar on his way to the top. --- ## Strong Mentality On and Off The Court: Ronald Hohmann Serves His Way to the Top URL: https://futuresharks.com/strong-mentality-on-and-off-the-court-ronald-hohmann-serves-his-way-to-the-top/ Becoming a nationally ranked tennis player at the age of 18, Ronald Hohmann shares a story of hard work and dedication to get there. Starting out with a passion for the game at a young age, Ronald held his first tennis racket at the age of four in his grandparent’s backyard tennis court. Fast forward two years and Ronald had already begun entering in tournaments and started taking lessons daily. It was when Ronald turned fourteen that he decided to take tennis as a serious career path, and moved to Florida to train full time. Backed by his parents’ support, Ronald set off on a journey to become a professionally ranked tennis player.  By age fifteen, he was entering almost every national tennis tournament, by sixteen he had won the prestigious “Eddie Herr Junior Tournament”. This started catching the attention of top-ranked tennis players, who would invite Ronald to train with them. “My main role model has always been Gael Monfils so when I had the opportunity to train with him it was one of the best moments of my life on the tennis court because he has always been my favorite tennis player. The way he interacts with his fans and his love for the game I found astounding” says Ronald recalling his experiences. This sparked a fire inside of Ronald, who would begin training rigorously to compete with the best of the best.  It was in the Easter Bowl that Ronald proved himself to the national tennis world in a big way, being the first and only player in the tournament’s 52 years of existence to win out of the qualifier bracket. Winning 9 matches in 9 days solidified Ronald in the tennis world, where he would shortly after become nationally ranked at age 18. He is currently the number 1 player on LSU’s tennis team. “Since starting, I have become more disciplined with everything in my life. I realized that not just with tennis but with everything in life you need to work hard,” says Ronald. With a love for the game and a desire to work hard to be the best, Ronald Hohmann has a bright future ahead of him in the tennis world. --- ## Conquering Music and Business with Arturo Knight URL: https://futuresharks.com/conquering-music-and-business-with-arturo-knight/ To begin with, it needs to be clearly stated that Arturo Knight thinks every music artist should become a business person/entrepreneur. Being one himself, he knows exactly what it is and how it feels to merge these two and he has done that super-well. According to Knight, entrepreneurship and music have similar objectives. Music is business. Yes, the business of arts. Entrepreneurship is a little more detailed as it has almost nothing to do with artistry but with wit and knowledge. However, to succeed in any of these two, one must be able to choose a marketable niche and sell it like it’s all they know how to do. In short, Knight opines that everyone should become entrepreneurs but music stars and other artists should consider it even more. This will help them know how to grow their brand, while still helping them get some more bucks in their bags. Whether one is entering the music industry simply for passion or for the love of it, one thing remains constant; they need money to carry it on and up to the level where they’ll be heard. Nobody wants to do music for just their family members. The more people hear your songs, the more encouraged you are to keep doing it and money is that extra factor that can help you promote your music the way you want. Arturo suggests that every artist should delve into the juicy pockets of entrepreneurship as it guarantees them not just followers but high-quality loyalty and an extra source of income. You don’t want to depend on the art for your income, especially when you’re just starting. Doing this can be detrimental to your career as a lack of money could burn out the passion and determination you have. So, get into the business, make some money, pursue your music dream and career, and don’t give up on it. As a wise man once noted, “Music and business are just like cooking a meal, you string up several ingredients to come up with a masterpiece.”  It never comes easy. In music, the ingredients you’re stringing up could be the instrumentals, the phrasing, the timing, the vocals, and all the other small things that make the music a masterpiece. In business, you pay more attention to learning the trade, following a mentor who has been in the industry long enough and is willing to help, choosing a product, creating a brand, and several others. What’s common between art and entrepreneurship Music and entrepreneurship have so much in common. However, one of the most common things that behoove you is creating and building a brand. In doing this, you want to ensure that you’re focusing on staying unique, focused, and determined to meet success.  The bottom line is, Arturo Knight worked his way up, carrying both his music career and dropshipping business along, side by side. He achieved success on both sides and is completely sure anyone can do it too. Including you. --- ## The Face Bible: the most exhaustive online skincare course URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-face-bible-the-most-exhaustive-online-skincare-course/ When it comes to skincare, the need to achieve in-depth knowledge to put together a perfect daily routine is essential. Tatiana Cutelli, Face Coach and facial skin expert, with over 20 years of experience in the field, is well aware of that. That’s why she decided to create The Face Bible, the first online course for facial skincare dedicated to non-professionals: a guide to learn more about your skin type and set the correct beauty routine tailored to your peculiarities and needs. The Face Bible is the first comprehensive online skincare class designed to help you prevent common mistakes and unhealthy false promises of low-skilled consultants. **The importance of a skincare class for non-professionals** After years of working with many clients, Tatiana Cutelli decided to share her know-how with skincare enthusiasts and non-professional figures to spread greater awareness of the main issues related to facial skin and how to treat them properly.Why? The answer is simple: skincare is a practice of well-being and self-care that everyone should have the opportunity to practice at their best, based on concrete knowledge to prevent buying the wrong products or choose harmful treatments for their dermatological peculiarities. In fact, as an expert Face Coach, one of the main critical issues of Tatiana’s work is taking care of customers who have not had access to a guide to the skincare designed specifically for them, with consequences that can go from giving up a healthy routine to the worsening of facial skin conditions. The Face Bible was created for this reason: to make available a complete, accessible, and exhaustive guide to navigating the complex and fascinating world of skincare, learning the products, the best practices, and treatments to increase your physical and psychological well-being. **How will you grow from this skincare class?** The Face Bible was designed by Tatiana Cutelli to provide you with the ABC of daily skincare, through a step-by-step educational path accessible from any device at any moment. The class deals with some of the most important skincare issues, such as teaching the basics to recognize your skin type and the most suitable treatments, how to spot the right products and tools and their methods of use, what mistakes you should avoid, and the secrets to creating the perfect beauty routine to take care of your skin over time. The class provides you with essential bases that will prove useful not only for immediate care, but also to learn how to treat your skin with love and awareness in the long term, because skincare is a path that you choose to take forever and, if you do it with the right tools, can give invaluable results. Hundreds of passionate and non-professional clients who have followed The Face Bible have already been able to verify the results, demonstrating that the mission of Tatiana welcomes the needs of an increasingly large audience, that puts knowledge and awareness first in the daily skincare as well as in the choice of the right professional treatments. **A simple, digital, personalized skincare course** The Face Bible is an online cross-platform skincare course, designed as a step-by-step guide and as a tool that can be used anytime and anywhere. In addition to the video tutorials, Tatiana Cutelli has created a starter kit for those who want to deepen the secrets of their skin, with a 90-day program personally designed by Tatiana to learn how to build the right skincare step by step, and with a set of beauty routine cards designed by Tatiana to always have a tool to organize daily treatments. The Face Bible is a simple and innovative tool to fully share the best practices of one of the most important forms of interior and exterior well-being: the care of your skin --- ## Consciously moving forward with keeping his identity mysterious is rising rapper – Lil Conscious. URL: https://futuresharks.com/consciously-moving-forward-with-keeping-his-identity-mysterious-is-rising-rapper-lil-conscious/ Lil Conscious’ life story has truly inspired many other lives who wish to make it huge in America’s vast musical field. Isn’t it amazing to know and learn about all those people who work with a clear aim in mind and that is to not only excel in their chosen fields but also create an impact with what they do? These individuals, especially young talents, have shown what it really takes to become the best versions in their respective fields. The music industry is a world of its own and it has so far welcomed innumerable talents, but only a few have been able to go beyond boundaries to create their unique niche. We came across one such young musical talent and rapper, whose unique way of rising to the top in the industry by keeping his identity mysterious has also earned him great momentum; he is Lil Conscious (originally Stefan Islas Ross), but the one who adopted the stage name Lil Conscious and has gone ahead in creating a special place for himself in all the music lover’s hearts. - Turning passion into a profession: Since the very beginning, if anything, that attracted Lil Conscious the most; it was the world of music. Amidst many things that happened in his life, music was something that gave him his calm and always helped him meet his higher self, where he could be himself and completely immerse himself in the art form and take out the best music out of him. This passion of his was something he turned into his profession, which today has made him a hitmaker in the industry. - Keeping the identity mysterious: Though Lil Conscious always felt he was just like any other kid from the neighbourhood, he still felt there lived a double life inside him. To control his alter ego, he created Lil Conscious to release all his thoughts, emotions and creative ideas through music. He confesses that this has helped him mentally in the process. Even after being so mysterious, his songs have gone ahead in creating records and how. - Freestyling his way to the top: Lil Conscious in 2019 released his first singles, ‘Ashes’ and ‘Bojak’ across platforms, which has gained him a million streams so far on Bojak alone on SoundCloud. At 17, he had released his first mixtape called ‘Barley Conscious’, keeping his identity mysterious. The next year he dropped a mixtape named ‘Conscious’ and another project the following year called ‘Phase 1’, which is a beautiful compilation of freestyles. All his songs have done extremely well, so much that even ace Canadian rapper Drake danced to his tunes. - Facing and overcoming obstacles: There was a point in Lil Conscious’ life where he suffered from mental health issues and, in 2016, completely disappeared from social media platforms, only to make a social comeback two years later with still keeping his identity a secret. Initially, he faced rejections in the industry, but artists like Drake supported his talent by posting snippets on stories and dances on videos. While keeping his identity a secret, Lil Conscious still has managed to earn his loyal fan base that eagerly waits for his songs to get dropped and truly love him for his passion and talent as a rapping artist. Do follow him on Instagram, @lilconscious. --- ## Meet Comedy’s Superstar Abby Roberge URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-comedys-superstar-abby-roberge/ Most avid fans of comedy around the world have already met the scintillatingly humorous Abby Roberge and experienced first-hand, the joy and excitement triggered by his awesome performances. Undoubtedly, if you are one of the few fans of comedy who haven’t seen Roberge in action as yet, you’re likely to experience his comedic genius soon as his fame is spreading like wildfire. Consider this brief introduction a precursor to something mind-blowingly awesome that is coming your way… fast. ## A Little Bit About Roberge’s Background Roberge is Canadian by birth, having origins in Vancouver B.C., but has been living in the US since migrating to California at the age of 12. This move was critical in his development as a comedian because it helped to shape his perspectives on life and the world. The experience of different backgrounds put Roberge in a perfect position to enter comedy as he was able to compare multiple cultures and make poignant observation about them at the same time. ## Roberge’s Work in Entertainment This comedian has an impressive body of work and a powerful reputation for awesome performances. He has performed in numerous physical locations as well as on various virtual platforms. Audiences around the world have been awestruck by his sheer knack for comedy as well as his ability to pull off awesome performances. The millions of views he has amassed on the platforms that showcase his work is proof enough that this comedian hast struck gold. Roberge’s standup genius has been on display at the Comedy Store and Laugh Factory since 2016 racking up millions of viewers and amassing new dedicated fans by the minute. He also has a pretty impressive tour reputation having been featured on tours with comedy greats such as Bill Burr, Steve-O and Bob Saget. The Northwest’s Just for Laughs is among the tours of note that he has under his belt. He has also had his own tours, the most recent being dubbed ‘The Badboy Sweetheart’ which took place in January of 2019 and drew crowds from all over the country and the world. In addition to being a standup superstar, Roberge is making big waves in television. His every expanding career has stretched into numerous arenas in the world of acting including television, podcasts and social media based programs. He guest starred in season 10 episode 16 of ABC’s popular mockumentary Modern family as the character Ben and appeared in the pilot of NBC’s So Close playing the character Gideon. And by all indications, his television appearances are on the verge of taking off again as Roberge never rests and never settles when it comes to his acting career. ## Another Side to the Comedy Superstar In addition to wowing audiences in live streamed and televised appearances, Roberge has been wooing audiences with his charm at booked appearances. He has added his uniquely humorous touch to numerous local and international events… some social and others of a more corporate nature. Regardless of the nature of the event, the talented performer has been able to adapt to deliver world class entertainment acts. As if that weren’t enough to prove that Roberge is a multi-dimensional star, there’s more. In addition to having a powerful career in comedy and acting, he is also an entrepreneur. His most recent business venture, Melrose Podcasts, is the result of collaboration with his business partner Ari Mannis. The podcast debuted just a week before the COVID19 pandemic hit the world, and has been a golden opportunity to allow Roberge to keep reaching out to his fans around the world despite numerous lockdowns and restrictions. Abby Roberge is, without a doubt, a phenomenal force in the entertainment world. --- ## How Gen Z Entrepreneur Kyle “Stromedy” Godfrey’s Successful YouTube Career and Business Proves That People Can Thrive During the Pandemic URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-gen-z-entrepreneur-kyle-stromedy-godfreys-successful-youtube-career-and-business-proves-that-people-can-thrive-during-the-pandemic/ Not everyone has suffered a major loss during the pandemic. For many, particularly entrepreneurs focused on making a name for themselves leveraging social media, the pandemic has only served to propel them to the next phase of their careers.  One of the platforms that has seen the greatest surge in engagement is YouTube, with viewership, and subscribers, both up considerably in 2020 compared to the previous year. With people confined to their homes, it only makes sense that people would hunker down and begin consuming content at higher levels. A lot of this content, invariably, has been content that can elicit some laughter. Considering how tough the year was, most people enjoy finding content, particularly video content, that can make them laugh.  Kyle “Stromedy” Godfrey, is in close contact with this need— so he regularly puts out funny, outlandish videos on his latest YouTube channel“Stromedy.” Now with close to 3 million subscribers, the channel’s videos often include pranks, and wild off the cuff humor.  Godfrey, at only 22, views YouTube not just as a branding tool but a potential lifeline for other young people seeking an opportunity to make money— and find freedom—as content creators.  Kyle Godfrey was born and raised in Canada, and knew he was meant for something more than what his family and friends expected of him. So by the time he was a teenager, he began playing around with YouTube while working a part-time job, determined to make a name for himself.  “Many people in high school and in life would advise me against doing YouTube,” Godfrey commented. But his persistence paid off. His first channel became so successful that he was not only able to purchase a property in Canada, but relocate to Los Angeles, California and start a social media incubator, “Prime Capital” for other creators eager to follow in his footsteps. Now, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, he and the 12+ creators signed to Prime Capital are all on the path to growth.  “Currently over 12+ people are signed to Prime Capital and all of them have gone from $0 earnings on YouTube to now seeing minimum 5 figures a month.”  Godfrey plans to continue producing regular content to scale his Stromedy channel, while, of course mentoring and growing the creators working alongside him with Prime Capital. With hard work and creativity, even during a pandemic, anything is possible. --- ## Meet Jared Sanborn, A Tech Entrepreneur Set To Disrupt The Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-jared-sanborn-a-tech-entrepreneur-set-to-disrupt-the-industry/ Risk tolerance is the name of the game in the entrepreneurship space. Being able to pursue a venture with no fear of failure is a common trait amongst successful entrepreneurs, and it’s something Jared Sanborn has always possessed over his 16+ years of experience. Jared believes that failure is the only way to learn in business, and he loves facing and overcoming the challenges that are associated with being an entrepreneur.  **Who He Is**  Jared Sanborn has founded and owned 5 previous companies, raised nearly $2 million in Series-A Investment for a previous tech startup, and has worked in virtually every executive role that exists through ownership or involvement in start-ups.  He has an incredibly diverse set of skill sets, from marketing and R&D to operations management and leadership. Oh, and a little bit of everything else in between. He’s spent years reading countless books and studying others, so he knows that companies without a “why” will never be able to reach their maximum potential. This is why he founded all of his ventures with a distinct purpose and end goal in mind and the results have spoken for themselves.  **What He’s Currently Working On** At the moment, Jared is the founder and Chairman of Eyefuel PR. Eyefuel PR is a full-service marketing agency, offering various marketing services like SEO, press, social media management, ad campaigns, and lead generation. With such a diverse set of services, Jared has become incredibly skilled at all facets of marketing for companies and personal brands.  Outside of Eyefuel PR, he is putting in 14 hour work days towards his new startup, Pure Technology, Inc. The company is still in its early stages and is largely a secret, but it’s set to disrupt the AI, big data, and consumer electronics industries for good. Jared’s already over halfway through a $1 million round of funding that in all likelihood will oversubscribe, and has his sights set on breaking ground in the next 30 days.  **His Inspiration** Jared feels that he didn’t start entrepreneurship, rather he was born to be an entrepreneur. He’s never fit the status quo or the “norm” of the people around him, and he’s become comfortable with not fitting in with most people. Most people don’t share his vision or his drive, as he wakes up each and every day with a desire to make the world a better place.  Not only is he addicted to the rush and the freedoms associated with entrepreneurship, but he is also driven by a desire to provide for his family and show his daughter that she’s capable of accomplishing anything in her life. With so much inspiration to draw from, Jared will be operating at the highest levels for years to come. --- ## Women Supporting Women Is More Than Just a Cool Catch Phrase at Good Girl Mafia URL: https://futuresharks.com/women-supporting-women-is-more-than-just-a-cool-catch-phrase-at-good-girl-mafia/ Good Girl Mafia founder Diana Perkovic not only talks the talk, but she walks it as well. Women supporting women is something she has made into a life mission. As someone who struggled to find support on her own growth and empowerment journey, she has decided to create a way for other women to have just that. Diana was a well known TV personality, who interviewed such stars as Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Mary J Blige and countless others. She was on live TV for over a decade, speaking into 100 million homes. She was loved for her lighthearted nature, leading her to enjoy widespread acclaim.  By all accounts, she had achieved her lifelong dream of working in television. Yet, she was left feeling that she wanted more from her life. She felt that there was more to her life’s mission than being a TV personality. On the outside, it appeared as if she had it all, yet internally she felt stuck and completely disempowered. In fact, she felt like a cliché.  It wasn’t until her father passed away that Diana was pushed to make a significant shift in her life towards becoming empowered. Within a single year, Diana buried her father, left her marriage, left her career, and moved across the country. After radically changing her life in these ways, she established Good Girl Mafia. GGM would go on to become a leading encouragement, empowerment, and entertainment company geared towards helping women everywhere. As someone who struggled to find her own inner power, Diana knows how bumpy the road to finding it can be. That is why she has created a novel approach to female empowerment called the Good Girl Mafia Empowerment Bootcamp, under her Good Girl Mafia brand. The idea of women supporting women is huge for Diana. This program is a step-by-step system that involves using proven techniques to accelerate the journey and make it as painless as possible to become empowered. The six-week empowerment program provides women with what she herself wishes she had on her journey. Diana has been coaching women throughout the pandemic who are now thriving, even though times are difficult for many. Many of them have expanded their businesses, gotten new jobs, and even overcame long held fears. The first step inside of Diana’s GGM Empowerment Bootcamp is to have every woman define empowerment for herself and set her intentions. She helps women create their personal Empowerment Profile, which helps them chart their future course. All of the inner and outer resistance is methodically released inside the program, allowing women to approach life in a way that puts their newfound empowerment into motion. Diana works with women to help them engage their tape recorder and press delete. She has encountered countless women who are holding onto outdated beliefs that are keeping them stuck. Women emerge from the GGM Empowerment Bootcamp feeling totally empowered and excited about the future because they are able to change the patterns they know aren’t working for them. Diana teaches women proven techniques for releasing internal resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies. Because of the big breakthroughs that are experienced, creating new standards and increasing resiliency has become the standard with women who complete the program. Women are raising their self-esteem by discovering their true value, which results in genuine and unshakable confidence that propels women forward toward their greatest vision. As an experienced and trained Empowerment Coach, Diana understands how to tactically calibrate a woman’s current empowerment position and guide them towards maximizing how empowered they are. This is all done to ensure her clients are living the best life possible. Diana believes women are significantly underutilizing the power they already have within them. She firmly believes that when they tap into and embody it, the whole world will be radically transformed. GGM is a breakthrough leader in female empowerment today, thanks to Diana Perkovic’s year-long dedication to crafting a program that delivers results. This is what sets her program apart from so many other courses and programs that “coaches” are pushing onto people these days.  You can head over to the Good Girl Mafia website to learn more about what female empowerment looks like through the lens of Diana Perkovic’s Empowerment Bootcamp. You can read testimonials from other women who have gone through the GGM Bootcamp here. You can also check out the Good Girl Mafia YouTube channel. --- ## Huff & Puff Burger shows that hard work and perseverance brings success URL: https://futuresharks.com/huff-puff-burger-shows-that-hard-work-and-perseverance-brings-success/ Every business has the tendency to grow if you are passionate about what you are doing. Huff & Puff Burger is a typical example that success can be achieved in a short time if you are focusing on your goals. Huff & Puff Burger is a concept that began in 2016 with one location. Today, they have expanded their horizon to 17 locations adding value to lives through their burgers and fast food. Even though Huff & Puff Burger was an instant success, they faced many challenges to ensure business survival. In fact, some competitors tried to steal their recipes, but they failed with all attempts. Dealing with people is one of the biggest challenges of huff & puff Burger. As a favorite destination for Burger lovers, you would have to engage different people daily. According to Huff & Puff owner, Nada Alshamsi, there are many lessons to learn while running a business. Some might be glaring, while others may not. However, no lessons should be ignored if you want your business to stand firm in times of adversity. She said her tough childhood made her realize this, and it was one of the forces that shape her decision. As a successful restaurant in the UAE, Huff & Puff would go the extra mile to help the needy by providing free meals for the less-privilege. This is their way of giving back to the society that accommodates their business. Huff & Puff made us understand that their success didn’t come on a platter of gold. They had failures while trying to expand their business. A notable one was a café that got closed after a year of opening it. Huff & Puff has become famous across UAE, given their branches in 17 locations. The focus now is to become an international restaurant with branches worldwide. They took a giant step in that regard with an international trademark registered in 165 countries. Huff & Puff’s concept is a true representation of innovation and creativity. They believe uniqueness is a key to achieving success. Huff and Puff Burger opined that giving up should not be an option for anyone in life. There are always alternatives to get things done. They had to close all their branches for three months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, they didn’t give up, and they came back stronger. Huff & Puff Burger’s owner, Nada Alshamsi, is passionate about enriching lives by giving the right advice and the needed encouragement to keep them going. She developed this attitude from her family, who were supportive when she needed them the most. She was a government worker before she eventually found her dream. Huff & Puff Burger’s owner attributes her success to Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi for over 30 years. She advises that finding your passion is important, and it could be the driver that pushes you to achieve your life goals. She said you should never listen to pessimists who don’t believe you can achieve your dreams. Consistency and hard work are the recipes for success for anyone who wants to be great in life. --- ## How Ocean Ronquillo-Morgan of Geistwear Built and Scaled a College Merchandise Brand URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-ocean-ronquillo-morgan-of-geistwear-built-and-scaled-a-college-merchandise-brand/ Ocean Ronquillo-Morgan is a three times founder and serial entrepreneur from Los Angeles, California. Currently 23, she is a college senior at the University of Southern California. Being unstoppable, Ocean became a Forbes Under 30 Scholar and LinkedIn growth hacker. Additionally, Ocean is the founder of Kaivent Media, co-founder of Geistwear, and a blogger at Ocean Morgan. Despite being a college senior and her age, Ocean wields power via multiple income streams. Today, she shares the story of one of her brands as a motivation for fellow Gen-Z’s and other innovative entrepreneurs. ## How Did Geistwear Come to Be? *”My co-founder, Clarence Diogo, and I were tired of the cookie-cutter college apparel options at USC.”* One of her earliest memories of the origin of Geistwear was the feeling of frustration at limited options for college clothing items. She shared that she remembered paying $60 for a gray sweatshirt with a plain red logo at the bookstore. They were paying a premium for merchandise that did not do a great job of portraying their identity. Even the school’s primary colors did not do justice to her co-founder’s skin tone. Geistwear was born over the summer after a facetime to share their frustrations. Together with her co-founder, Ocean began creating a game-day collection that displayed their love for pop culture. The brand name Geistwear was fitting for their designs’ personality as it translates literally to “spirit wear.” Geist is the German word for “spirit.” ## Their Promotional Strategy for Geistwear Ocean mentioned that their initial focus was solely on USC. After they made their first inventory bulk order in July 2018 from their internship savings, getting word out was the next issue. Ocean shared that their promotional strategy involved: 1. Following as many sorority and fraternity students as they could find on Instagram. 2. Liking each of their Instagram posts for a few hours each day to build a social media presence before launching the products. 3. By the time they were returning to campus, people were reaching out to them for photoshoots. 4. Some students were posting them also in exchange for free merchandise. Eventually, they started getting preorders and selling from their dorm rooms. Then they were offering free on-campus delivery. ## How They Grew Geistwear Since Then They were selling at pop-ups, sororities, and on the streets before football games before the pandemic hit. At some point, they earned a whopping $1,000 in revenue in three-and-half hours. Most of their growth resulted from hard work in the trenches studying customer behavior among their target audience. They also had a lot of organic growth on Instagram that serves as a massive source of revenue. Eventually, they expanded to UCF, UW-Madison, and COFC and started running Facebook ads to reach their target audience in these schools. Today, they target consumer behavior and release core product lines and limited apparel depending on a cultural event or occasion. Geistwear eventually outgrew their dorm to a warehouse that does most of the work. Now, they have branched out from just apparel to selling other merchandise because of a robust supply chain. ## What Are Some of Their Ecommerce Sales Secrets? One of their significant targets was consumer behavior and human psychology. They observed that most buyers of their merchandise were emotional buyers. Most purchases were made due to relatable stories, fear of missing out (FOMO), and other emotions. They capitalized on these factors and released limited items that showcased a sense of urgency in purchasing the products. Additionally, Ocean stated that they did not merely rely on consumer behavior for their brand growth. A significant part of their growth was investing in brand building and promotion via social media and emails. ## What Sets Ocean Apart and How Does She Do it? *“Never asking for permission to do something, and being scrappy.”* Ocean remarks that she and her partner excel at being intuitive and creative. Being 100% bootstrapped meant that they had to make their way themselves and never ask for permission to do anything. Entering a highly competitive industry without prior credentials required a delicate balance of artistic expression, business mindset, and intuition. ## What Sets Geistwear Apart from Other College Merchandise Places? Being a pair of co-founders that represented students from minority cultural groups, they wanted to avoid selling only a commodity. They wanted to release products that resonated with the entrepreneurial community and the people of color. Their lack of an official license helped them create designs that expressed creative freedom. Their brand’s core value is from the German term “Zeitgeist,” which means the “spirit of the times.” Their core value indicates their willingness to adapt to the changing times and trends with a fluid cultural landscape. They seek to portray what it means to be a student and grow into adulthood. ## Their Dream and Where They See Themselves and Their Product in a Couple Years *“Being a household name would be cool. Engineering new trends and cultural movements would be brilliant.”* They are working hard to secure more sustainable, eco-friendly products. They understand the dichotomy between fast fashion and sustainability, so they are exploring new manufacturing methods that are safer for the planet. You can connect with Ocean on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for inquiries or more details. --- ## How Chris Burke Overcame All The Odds And Became A Music Sensation? URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-chris-burke-overcame-all-the-odds-and-became-a-music-sensation/ **Being Renowned in Pop, EDM, and Trance** The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Like every field, music and performing arts also demand quite a lot of practice and polishing before you can claim to be a connoisseur, even at one of the genres. The success story of Chris Burke, a young musician hailing from Scotland, is filled with moments that truly challenged him and pushed him to the limits, and even made him take some hard decisions. You may now recognize Chris as an EDM and Trance sensation, but he has come a long way to reach here. Graduating North East Scotland College, Fraserburgh, with a degree in mechanical engineering, Chris decided to start his own technical and recruitment agency. The business was going well as he was a state-of-the-art engineer. He knew all the technical stuff and was also pretty good at dealing with people. It made him at home with his job, providing people with employees and technical solutions for their businesses and firms. Even before this, he had a solid technical background as he did PR work at The Garage in Aberdeen when he was in high school; that was his first job. Anyway, life was going well with all its shebang, but there was this emptiness inside his heart that he could not fill unless he opted for music as a full-time profession. This passion for music was not an overnight fever for Chris. Right from his childhood, he had some exquisite taste in music. He listened to Eminem, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Biffy Clyro. All those legends were also becoming popular in the online music scene at that time. The early 2000s were when both, the music scene and the dot com scene, were being revolutionized. Chris used to hear Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana on loop those days. He went to his first concert with his father in 2007, where Foo Fighters were performing. To actualize all his musical inspirations, he found no better way than to start his band. So, he and a few of his homies sat down one afternoon and found Cold California, a band still remembered for its symphonious pop and country tunes. The boys decided to keep it all simple and focus on quality instead of quantity. Hence, during the first few years, they were merely experimenting, refining their skills, and finding an innovative way to express their inspirations. All the components, including the lyrics, the beat, the tune, and whatnot, were developed in-house. Eventually came the time when they became so good at this that they started making some fat stacks. Their name was on the tongue of every pop and country music enthusiast in Scotland. It was back in 2017. Chris also collaborated with David Chappell for a single pop-rock ambient album under the name of Tenaya. Chris got into the EDM scene through Calvin Harris. He had not met Calvin at that time. He just found his music on Bebo, a social networking site, and found it to be quite touching. EDM, when produced right, can make the crowd dance on your fingertips. It can be the plus point of a DJ as well as his worst nightmare. With so many options and effects available, sometimes it becomes quite overwhelming for you to decide what to do. Chris handled dilemmas like these quite smartly and released his first two singles, Space and Time and Dreamers, in 2019, and both of them went blockbuster. Among his next track, Never Really Liked You, was also featured on Club Life, a weekly radio show by Tiesto. Listening to Gareth Emery at a concert in Orlando, Florida, while Chris was on vacation, was how he jumped into trance music. That day, Gareth’s performance amazed him quite a lot, and he decided why not give it a shot, and the rest is history. His collaboration, The Night, with Eximinds, released on Suanda Records in March 2020, was a BIG HIT! It further increased his confidence that he was working in the right direction and that people appreciated his music. It’s the reason that nowadays he is working day and night to complete his new project, Hey Child, on time, that he is going to release on Tribal Trap. Venturing through different genres of art and music is not a bad thing. As some purists may call it not being true to the roots, I call it becoming the jack of all trades. You should be at the pinnacle of your field. Within the first year of his career, Chris has generated more than 3.5 million streams on Spotify. Much like Bukowski said, go all the way or do not even try! Let us see what this young mind is up to more? --- ## Mark Rios a.k.a. Mr Dripping does a Portrait with The Fresh Prince URL: https://futuresharks.com/mark-rios-a-k-a-mr-dripping-does-a-portrait-with-the-the-fresh-prince/ Imagine meeting your role model. The person who has inspired you, majorly impacted you, personally and professionally influenced you. Now imagine performing for this person… Mark Rios recently experienced this mixture of elation and apprehension as he dripped a portrait for actor, rapper and film producer Will Smith. From his native Barcelona to Los Angeles to Dubai, Mr. Dripping, né Mark Rios, is upending the international modern art scene. Self-taught, his technique furthers Jackson Pollock’s method, he paints without physically touching the canvas. From dripping lines of paint emerge a realistic portrait, a striking image of the human figure. Mr. Dripping brings the formless to form, he captures the essence of his subject’s personality and emotions.  What’s most incredible is Mr. Dripping does this live. He has pioneered an interactive cultural experience which allows clients to participate in the creation of art. Mr. Dripping’s immersive performances have been commissioned by Paul Pogba, Chris Brown, Sara Sapio and Neymar. Nine months ago, when he discovered his childhood icon Will Smith was staying the same hotel, Mr. Dripping was determined to put on a show for The Fresh Prince.  He dripped a portrait, along with a video of the process, and arranged their delivery to Will. When Will Smith and his team of management, staff and security entered the room, Mr. Dripping stunned them by revealing a blank canvas. To their astonishment, he said “If you weren’t here, I’d have no choice but to deliver a painting to you, dry and in a box… but the beauty of it lies in the process and you’re standing right here, so please I ask you to sit and enjoy.” The legend Will Smith smiled and sat. Between jokes and laughter, Mr. Dripping did what he does best, he performed his exceptional art and they shared an unforgettable experience. Mr. Dripping is still amazed, he never fathomed hearing claps of praise from the one person he’s always admired. It’s an inexplicable feeling, one that motivates Mr. Dripping to keep creating. To connect with Mr. Dripping, find his artwork on Instagram @MrDrippingOfficial or explore his website . As a fashion designer, he continues to explore his craft through wearable art, invest in the limited editions there. Its an inexplicable feeling, one that motivates Mr Dripping to continue to create. --- ## Did a Desire for More Practical Boy Hanboks Lead to the New Hanbok Project? URL: https://futuresharks.com/did-a-desire-for-more-practical-boy-hanboks-lead-to-the-new-hanbok-project/ If you’ve ever put on a boy hanbok and think to yourself that this outfit just isn’t practical for your child to be in for hours? The New Hanbok project is looking to change how people view hanbok by redesigning them for a trendy look that anyone can wear. People still wear hanboks for cultural reasons such as celebrating a Korean baby’s first birthday and showing respect to elders and family members during the Lunar New Year. However, these traditional clothes that were only used for traditional occasions are now becoming adopted worldwide due to a recent Hanbok movement project. # Boy Hanboks Redesigned as New Hanbok Project Gains Steam Boy hanboks have long been considered to be for special events, but there’s now another option out there thanks to the New Hanbok Project. This project is possible through the Korean Hanbok Advancement Center and it’s gaining a lot of attention lately. Teaming up with many famous designers, this project is aimed at making hanbok a fashion trend all over the globe. There will be new designs released for both men and women, which means that boy hanbok is going to see redesigns of classic traditional Korean culture. ## What is the New Hanbok Project & How Does Boy Hanbok Change? The New Hanbok Project aims to redesign hanbok into clothing items that can be trendy, but yet at the same time show that hanbok can be a style for all cultures. While traditional hanbok will always have a place in the culture, the redesigns are geared towards the current generations, such as updating the boy hanbok for a more progressive look. These modernized hanboks are commonly referred to as modern boy hanboks and they are being adopted and worn by Korean celebrities which have influenced their follows to follow suit. Famous Korean pop bands like BTS are regularly seen wearing modern hanboks to advance the awareness of Korean culture to their fans which is seeing a global effect. Korean online stores that were once start-up e-commerce such as Joteta Korean Online Store are thriving and growing exponentially due to the heavy increase in demand for modern hanboks. Boy hanbok used to be worn for festivals, ceremonies, and celebrations, but it can now be worn to school or out playing with friends with these updated designs. In essense, modern hanboks have become casual wear for anytime and with the adoption of hanbok , other bystanders who are curious about this new style of clothing are asking what they are and unintentionally learning a piece of Korean culture. The New Hanbok Project is hoping that it can convey that the future is now and hanbok has a place in the future of fashion for children and adults not just in Korea but worldwide. Modern hanbok is becoming more popular in Korea, and it’s also becoming a trend for American and other countries. ## What Do Hanbok Colors Signify? In modern clothes, colors merely represent the wearer’s taste in fashion. It’s not too common that you will come across another individual wearing clothes that have colors with an underlying meaning. With hanboks, it’s the opposite. Traditional hanboks were categorized by color and each color had a unique representation. Modern hanboks too are made with different colors in mind to hold the same unique representation that traditional hanboks carried. There are multiple colors of hanboks available and boy hanboks also have several more options than in the past. As we move forward with redesigns and new hanbok creations, it’s going to be important to remember what each of the colors signifies in the Korean culture. - Sky blue can be found in many boy hanbok items and it signifies clearness, purity, and luxury. - You’ll find pink mostly in female apparel but it symbolizes femininity, kindness, and love. - Red and yellow combined represents someone who is a strong person but has a positive and friendly attitude. - Pink and yellow combined mean optimism and femininity. - Blue means east, which is where it all begins and where the sun rises out of each day. - Red is symbolizing strong vitality and it means full of positive energy. Vitality could be blood, fire, and the sun. - Green is a representation of the youth. - Orange is enthusiasm, happiness, and fascination. It’s also determination and creativity. All of these colors are still going to be represented in the updated designs of boy hanbok and other hanbok items. These colors are meaningful to the Korean people and the significance will not be lost on the designers that are a part of The New Hanbok Project, according to the group itself. And with the New Hanbok Product ongoing, a rise of Korean eCommerce have occurred which may also indirectly promote Korean awareness globally. --- ## Nick Ponte Creates Two Community Resource Platforms For Local Businesses URL: https://futuresharks.com/nick-ponte-creates-two-community-resource-platforms-for-local-businesses/ Lending a helping hand to the local businesses, Nick Ponte has created two online directory websites – Hawaii Thrive and We Deliver Maui. The former helps people to find local island businesses offering services and products in their area and the latter offers a similar service for searching for Maui restaurants.  The main purpose behind the creation of Hawaii Thrive was to promote and recognize Hawaiian businesses. The financial repercussions of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, like the slash of tourism to the state, was so dire local businesses in Maui, Hawaii Island, Oahu, and Kauai, were finding it hard to get back on track. To facilitate driving traffic to these businesses during the shutdown, Hawaii Thrive created a platform that allows these businesses to communicate with their audience.  Relevant: Check how texas llc formation is easy and affordable The ultimate goal of every customer is to save money without compromising on the quality of the product. Hawaii Thrive does precisely this by offering a broad range of offers for every business on their platform. Depending on the choice of industry, county, or services, the customers can search on the platform to support local all year long. We Deliver Maui works around the same concept for offering a list of restaurants or food joints that offer services like home delivery, curbside pickup, or takeout.  The founder of these websites Nick Ponte recently says that these companies will certainly become Hawaii’s one-stop search engine for finding the best local businesses. The easy-to-use user interface of the website makes the searching process easier while the interactive map easily outlines the specifics of what local business is near you. --- ## UK’s OnBuy Reveals Keys to Success in Online Marketplace Sector URL: https://futuresharks.com/uks-onbuy-reveals-keys-to-success-in-online-marketplace-sector/ The late American industrialist Henry Ford said that “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” The founder of Ford Motor Company (currently ranked No. 12 on America’s Fortune 500) suggested that a company must serve customers and stakeholders well to be a good business and do good for society. OnBuy.com is now the world’s fastest-growing marketplace. Undoubtedly, Covid and the new normal have helped to boost traffic and sales for the England-based eCommerce company as shoppers worldwide turn to online purchases. But there’s more to OnBuy’s success than the shift to ecommerce. **Upholding fair, transparent and ethical values** OnBuy.com was recently named eCommerce Company of the Year in the 2020 U.K. Business Tech Awards. Founder and CEO Cas Paton shared how the U.K. company differentiates itself from other marketplace platforms to capture explosive growth and brand awareness among consumers. According to Paton, it’s about consistently upholding the fair, transparent and ethical values the business was founded upon, which results in a better experience for customers and retailers. “Our incredible growth since launching in 2016 has been powered by our transparent, fair and ethical way of doing business. We don’t sell in competition to independent sellers who trade with us, meaning that our success is their success.” In December, he was awarded Founder of the Year 2020 by online media publication Just Entrepreneurs. After achieving an impressive 605% YTD growth in 2020, the business achieved an enormous 800% year-on-year growth in January 2021, highlighting its unmatched upward trajectory and increasing popularity with customers and sellers alike. **Constant innovation and industry-leading initiatives** Organizers of the 2020 U.K. Business Tech Awards searches for the best tech businesses in Britain. And winning the top recognition reflects the meteoric rise of OnBuy, which was launched just over four years ago. Since 2016, the online marketplace has grown 24,000% and is rolling out a global expansion into 42 territory-specific sites in early 2021. Paton says the company will expand to more than 140 countries in total by year-end 2023.  So what are examples of its innovative business practices? The marketplace company recently generated widespread attention by launching the biggest discount day seen in retail in late 2020. During Black Friday, OnBuy gave over £50 million in discounts to customers across every product category.  “We covered the discounts to allow retailers to have the best possible sales day at no extra cost to them, as well as simultaneously offer customers even better deals.”  OnBuy is the only marketplace to cover the cost of its site-wide sales itself, rather than simply pressuring its retailers to lower their prices. Within a 24-hour window during Black Friday, OnBuy.com helped sellers reach £2.5m in sales. **Unparalleled growth through its unique approach** During the pandemic, OnBuy has created unmatched growth: Revenue increased from a run rate of £24million to over £200million in just one year. The company has also invested in IT systems that improve the user experience. For example, OnBuy has partnered with leading ecommerce integrations and solutions providers to make selling as seamless and simple as possible, which results in a better experience for customers. Cas said, “[The eCommerce Company of the Year Award] proves that the ecommerce industry is ready to recognize a better and fairer way of selling through online marketplaces. I’m delighted that OnBuy is at the forefront of a more ethical way of trading, and I’m determined that our continued growth will always benefit our loyal sellers and customers in equal measures.” With its seller base increasing by 10% each month, the company is on track to achieve over £1billion in GMV by 2023. As Ford said nearly a century ago, a profitable business should also do good.  Or maybe it does good, and that’s why it’s profitable. --- ## Penji Review: An On-Demand Graphic Design Service For Your Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/penji-review-an-on-demand-graphic-design-service-for-your-business/ Aside from rates that are within budget, graphic design services provide immediate designs with excellent quality. There are many design companies available, but let’s check out Penji today! In review, we will see what they are and what their company is offering. Good graphic designs are essential for business success since they play a role in advertising. Still, some businesses find it hard to get an excellent graphic design quality because of the expensive costs of getting designers. If you have the same problem, then graphic-design services are the answer to your needs! ## The Basics of Penji Penji is an on-demand graphic design service that provides extensive and unlimited graphic design opportunities to its users. It enables users to gain connections to the top 2% of graphic designers in the world. Business owners, agencies, and other companies can find the graphic design service they need when using Penji. The design company offers a subscription to its potential users. There are several plan options where users can choose. Satisfy your business advertising needs at an affordable price. Additionally, you can enjoy customized graphic designs at a fixed monthly rate without any additional charges. ## Penji Function and Features Penji functions to provide the best graphic design materials to its users. It features unlimited stock photography, brands, design projects, and revisions for its clients. The company uses a web platform to deliver high-quality design projects. Penji’s website also ensures that the design process runs smoothly and hassle-free. Users can guarantee that navigating through Penji’s service feels easy! Penji is the “Google of graphic design services.” You will get everything that you need regarding graphic design services in Penji. There is a series of steps that users must follow whenever they use this service. Here is Penji’s graphical design service procedure: 1. Users can begin using Penji’s services by signing-up on Penji’s website. 2. After signing-up, put in the log-in information to gain full access. 3. Go to the Penji Dashboard, where you can do a design project. 4. Users must fill out the form with the necessary information regarding the upcoming project. 5. After accomplishing the form, you will have a designer based on your design category. 6. Designers will send the first draft of your project that is open for feedback and revisions. 7. If you require no further modifications, the design will be available for download. 8. You can send your next project in mind for processing. 9. Monitor your dashboard regularly to know whenever a design is finished. ## Get to Know Penji Users With more than thousands of partnerships, Penji already has many existing users throughout the world. Users of Penji come from a variety of fields, all with the same goal of finding high-quality graphic design services that suit their needs and budget. Here are the different Penji users who use Penji’s graphic design services: ### Startups Business startups might find it hard to begin their business without any designing background. Don’t worry! Penji can help you with your business logo, cards, website, and project designs. Aside from their accommodating personnel, Penji’s graphic design services are affordable, perfect for any startup business. Widening your target audience reach is essential for any business startup. You want to get more viewers and attract more customers without overspending and by maximizing what you have. Penji can help you with everything that your startup business needs when it comes to increased advertising. ### Marketing Teams Searching for designers that provide high-quality designs can be challenging. Not to mention, the process is also expensive and demanding. Individual designers can demand high rates depending on the difficulty of a project and their years of experience as designers. It is not a smart choice to hire designers individually whenever new projects call the need for advertising. Through the use of Penji, the marketing team can increase their performance by having immediate yet quality graphic designs. You get to market your brand at an affordable cost without sacrificing efficiency and quality. Penji’s monthly subscriptions allow unlimited plans within a single month, which can you’re your marketing team from spending too much on advertising. Penji is recommendable for marketing teams. One of the great features of Penji is that it enables many users for a single plan as its feature. Business owners can choose to allow their marketing team members to handle the subscription to maximize its use. ### Small Businesses and Agencies Small businesses and agencies require advertisements for their brand as well. In advertising brands of small companies, it is crucial to have materials that are of high-quality. You would want to market your products and services with only the best advertising materials from the best designers. Small businesses and agencies that need immediate graphic designers can also use Penji. Managing and handling one’s business is already a tough job, and you do not want to add more trouble to your work. You can skip the burden of finding suitable designers by purchasing Penji’s design services within your budget. ### Influencers Many influencers use social media as their platform. Great content equates to more subscribers and viewers. Of course, influencers will require any visual materials since they cater to the audience using visual tools. Some influencers might find it hard to select photos that fit their content. Most bloggers resort to using stock photos to prevent copyright claims; however, there is a better solution! Influencers and bloggers alike will find Penji very helpful in finding engaging solutions for their blog needs. Penji caters to graphic designs that are perfect for attracting more viewers and followers. Viewers enjoy seeing appealing visual content. Moreover, viewers are more likely to support bloggers and influencers with delightful visual content on their platforms. With Penji’s services, bloggers and social media influencers will improve their posts on social media. Influencers can save time from searching numerous stock photos by using customized visual materials from their Penji subscription. Better graphic material and content can help boost an influencer’s social media performance. ## Penji Services Penji has the best designers that can help make numerous graphic designs for your needs. The services are unlimited, which means you will have many design types available to your liking. Penji also allows customization and is always open to users’ inquiries regarding personalized designs. Here are some design types you can expect from Penji’s designers: 1. Design for Apps/ Websites 2. Infographics 3. Packaging design 4. Customized illustrations 5. Print materials 6. Business cards 7. Social media graphics 8. Brochures 9. T-shirts 10. Catalogs ## Available Penji Plans and Rates Penji offers various plans for potential users. There are three plan options for users on Penji’s website: Pro, Team, and Agency. All of the three offer unlimited stock photography, brands, design projects, and revisions. The three differ in their ratesand inclusions that each of them has. Here are some brief descriptions of each Penji Plan Option: ### Pro The first plan that Penji offers is the Pro Plan. You can purchase the Pro plan for $399 monthly. Two users can use this plan, which caters to graphic design, unlimited projects and brands, and a designer. ### Team The next plan that is available on Penji’s website is the Team plan. You can purchase the Team plan for $499 monthly. Five users can use this plan, which caters to the graphic web, app, and UX or UI designs. Moreover, it allows infographics and personalized illustrations, and customer support available all day. Like the Pro plan, it also comes with unlimited projects and brands and a designer. ### Agency The last available plan in Penji is the Agency plan. You can purchase the Agency plan for $899 monthly. Ten users can use this plan, which caters to the same inclusions of the Team plan with two designers. The agency plan’s advantage is that its customer support has priorities. It is suitable for users who want to increase their average output. There are no contracts in Penji, so users can cancel their monthly subscription whenever they feel like it. What’s even great is that Penji will not require you to pay for services you are not using! No contract means that if users cancel their plans, they won’t have to pay for anything. Additionally, Penji users can enjoy a 15-day 100% money-back guarantee by purchasing monthly plans. Or you can grab its exclusive deals for its users! Use the code ALEJANDRO15 to avail a 15% discount on your purchase. ## The Advantages and Disadvantages of Penji Now that you have a background in Penji’s basics and function, you might already know how Penji works. It is vital to know the advantages and disadvantages of Penji to gain a better understanding of their graphic design services. Here are Penji’s advantages and disadvantages: ### Advantages #### Affordable Graphic Design Service If you are tight on budget, Penji can be the answer to your graphic design needs. Save yourself from overspending by choosing a Penji subscription. For only $399 per month, receive the best graphic design services hassle-free! There are no additional charges other than the $399 itself. Get quality designs that are suitable to your taste by paying only for the affordable subscription. You will get to save more than hundreds of dollars when you opt for a subscription. If you want to have other inclusions, you can also check out the other Penji plans available for higher rates. #### Unique and First-Rate Designs Penji’s pride is that they can connect users to the top 2% of all designers in the world. With this, Penji offers the best graphic design services by providing unique and first-rate designs. Users can expect to receive only the best designs from Penji. Moreover, users can review past projects of available designers. Users can also give feedback on their creative designs. #### Cooperative and Considerate Designers You can enjoy Peji’s services better with the help of its cooperative and considerate designers. Everyone at Penji sees to it that all users get the most out of their subscriptions. Designers and account managers ensure that the users’ requests and queries are sorted immediately. The staff is approachable and easily reachable through email. #### Subscription-Based with No Contracts Penji’s services are available for monthly subscriptions. Users are free to end their subscriptions whenever they want. There are no binding contracts, payment penalties, and agreements between the users and Penji other than the subscription itself. Companies, agencies, and business owners can take their leave without worrying about any commitment. ### Disadvantages #### Limited Communication Platform Penji has a limited communication platform as it only uses emails. The company does not allow the use of chat and calls for communication. Relaying your project descriptions can be challenging in written form. Some users might find it challenging to channel their ideas and thoughts into words through email. Thus, Penji is only recommendable to those who are comfortable in using emails. #### Not Suitable for Limited Design Projects Penji only offers monthly subscriptions for its users. The price is $399 monthly regardless of the quantities of the projects. If you seldom use Penji’s graphic design services, then think twice before availing of the subscription. You should make the most out of the cost of your subscription. Since you have to pay for the service fees monthly, ensure that you will use it regularly for many projects. ## Penji for Starters Many starters are new to Penji’s graphic design services. Here are some things for beginners to remember: 1. Avoid repeatedly revising design projects by starting with a complete and specific project description. 2. Prepare other design requests while your existing project is still in progress. 3. Keep an eye on your Penji dashboard to regularly receive the latest updates on your projects. 4. Be open to the suggestions and criticisms of Penji designers who have extensive experience and knowledge in graphic design. 5. Exercise the use of constructive feedback to Penji designers who delivered exquisite and quality work. ## To Wrap Up! Penji’s services are ready to help you find the best graphic design that suits your needs! Get a graphic design that is more convenient and worry-free. You will also save yourself from the unnecessary burden of repeated revisions and stagnant projects. Give feedback easily and finish projects faster with Penji’s graphic design services. Receive quick and affordable tools with the best quality you can imagine with Penji. Try Penji’s on-demand graphic design service today! Fore more useful guides and reviews, check these posts: - The Best SEO Tools for 2021 (Free and Paid) - BigCommerce Vs. Shopify: What’s Right For You? --- ## Erin Helle, Real Estate Investor And Coach, Shares Why Real Estate Investing Is Crucial For Building Wealth URL: https://futuresharks.com/erin-helle-real-estate-investor-and-coach-shares-why-real-estate-investing-is-crucial-for-building-wealth/ In 2020, Erin Helle achieved awe-inspiring results in her real estate investing career. Her income was about $200,000 and she had a portfolio valued at almost $3M. While that might not seem like a lot to everyone, Erin is proud of what she’s been able to accomplish in less than three years working just a few hours a week. Over the last two years, she has dedicated herself to teaching others the tips and tricks to build wealth through real estate investing. According to Erin, there are 4 main ways to accumulate wealth as a real estate investor. 1. **Taxes:**Once you begin investing in real estate, you are considered a business owner and you qualify for a whole host of tax write-offs. According to Erin, this is reason enough to purchase even just one single rental property. Tax write-offs include your cell phone, internet bill, your home office, etc. While these write-offs alone aren’t necessarily going to make you rich, they are a step in the right direction toward building and retaining wealth. 2. **Loan amortization:** Real estate is unlike any other investment in the sense that you can leverage other people’s money to start investing. Furthermore, if you’re doing it properly, someone else (your tenant) is going to be paying your mortgage. While this isn’t the case in every market, there are markets around the nation in which the rent you generate will cover your mortgage principal and interest, taxes, insurance, property management fees and even repairs! 3. **Cash Flow:** Imagine having extra cash in your pocket, your very first month of investing in real estate! Your cash flow refers to the money you as the investor will take home after all the expenses are paid. The majority of the time, a good investment will yield a cash flow. Of course, there are always months in which repairs may come up, or a unit may sit empty in which this is not the case. However, in most cases, you should see a positive cash flow month over month. For Erin, most of her properties average around $300 a month and her goal is to bring in $3,000 a year in income per property. While this may not sound like a lot on its own, there is unlimited potential to duplicate this until you’ve reached your income goals. 4. **Appreciation:** If you make a good investment, in the right area, you can expect to have someone paying down your loan each month, and hopefully, leaving you with a little extra in cash flow. In addition to this benefit, in most cases, your property will be increasing in value each year. According to Erin, a conservative appreciation rate for the average property in the United States is 3% each year. In certain markets, appreciation could be much more. Investing in real estate is one of the best ways for anyone to begin building wealth. Erin trains and mentors her clients to invest in the right properties, in the right areas, in order to take advantage of all four ways to build wealth in the real estate industry. To learn more about real estate investing or to access Erin’s free educational resources or coaching program, visit www.bcglobalinvestments.com. --- ## 4 Secrets To Success With Serial Entrepreneur Ali El Gamrini URL: https://futuresharks.com/4-secrets-to-success-with-serial-entrepreneur-ali-el-gamrini/ Success is not a one fits all formula. However, history has shown that many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs have adapted similar habits and systems. According to entrepreneur Ali El Gamrini, founder of 4 extremely successful companies, his success was the direct result of investing in himself, building strong relationships, thinking long term, and creating multiple sources of income. Originally from Cairo, Egypt, Ali Gamrini lived with his parents in the Middle East for 13 years before moving to New York to live with his uncle. He chuckles recalling his hustle in those early years which he spent bussing tables and earning bringing home hundreds of dollars in tips each week. By the time he was graduating high school, his parents had moved to Ontario, Canada. He joined them and spent the next several years attending high school and college to obtain an engineering degree. It wasn’t long before he realized that a traditional career wasn’t in the cards for him and in his mid-twenties, he founded his first two businesses, a clothing company, Pushers Collective, and not long after, Blanche Lounge, Windsor, Ontario’s hottest nightclub. When he got the chance to take over a popular Instagram account, NoChillMedia, he utilized this opportunity as an additional revenue stream and means of driving traffic to his online store. By early 2019, Gamrini started his most recent business venture, Gamrini Homes and Construction. In just a few short years, he has rapidly scaled this business and presently rents out and buys and sells property all over the greater Windsor area. He recently acquired 34 acres of property and plans to develop over a hundred homes in the next few years. However, Gamrini’s success did not happen overnight, rather he spent years learning, growing, and developing the strategies and mindset that have gotten him to where he is today. According to Ali El Gamrini, four practices have directly contributed to his success. ## 1. Invest In Personal Education. When Gamrini was first starting out, he took the time to learn all he could about the industries he was diving into. “Don’t discount the power of online research,” he advises, explaining that much of his knowledge simply came from putting in the time reading articles and watching videos. ## 2. Build Strong Relationships. Gamrini sought out a mentor in both the real estate industry and the clothing industry when he was in the early days of his businesses. Having a mentor to support your business venture, guide your decisions, and offer tactical advice is invaluable, if possible, find a mentor who has a wealth of experience in your industry. However, according to Gamrini, this shouldn’t be a one-sided relationship, look for ways that you can benefit your mentor and contribute to their success as well. ## 3. Always Think Long Term. Although quick money grabs can seem appealing at first, those will nearly always fizzle out. “Don’t go after short term gratification, always think about the end goal and work back from there,” says Gamrini, “Once you have decided what your end game is, you can take the steps necessary to get there.” However, this requires a great deal of discipline. As with anything in life, one must utilize willpower to see the fruits of their labor. Success won’t be overnight, but if you make daily decisions, those eventually add up. “Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals can make this journey a lot easier too,” recommends Gamrini. ## 4. Don’t depend on one source of income. As soon as Gamrini began to experience his first taste of success, he immediately began to diversify his business ventures. This approach paid off majorly in the last year. Although Blanche Nightclub was massively successful for the first years, and Gamrini has plans to open a second location, the impact of COVID-19 has been devastating to nearly everyone in the hospitality industry. Retail has experienced a similar fate, and although Pushers Collective’s e-commerce business is flourishing, the loss of their sales from the brick and mortar stores was not a gentle blow. Fortunately, Gamrini’s real estate company is doing better than ever as the housing market thrives in Ontario, Canada. One cannot know what the future holds, but by creating multiple sources of income, business owners can protect themselves, their families, and their financial futures. As Ali El Gamirini contemplates the near future, he is eager to continue to scale his real estate business with plans for a 100 home development on a brand new 34-acre plot of land. As the world returns to normal, he hopes to revisit his plans to open a secondary nightclub and re-open his brick and mortar retail stores in Ontario and Atlanta. Through it all, he continuously returns to the same pillars that brought him success and prioritize his education, relationships, long-term thinking, and multiple income sources. --- ## Anmol Singh: Entrepreneur, Stock Trader, Author and Angel Investor, Discusses the Path to Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/anmol-singh-entrepreneur-stock-trader-author-and-angel-investor-discusses-the-path-to-success/ With so many advances and developments taking place around us, it is imperative to notice the kind of revolution the digital world is bringing about in every industry. This has paved the way for many young people to come up with new ideas and concepts, disrupting the current business landscape for the better. However, the journey to excel at such a rapid pace and reach one of the top positions is never a cakewalk for any individual. Every life journey comes with a set of problems and struggles that people need to face to further grow, not just professionally but as an individual as well. Facing the adversities and rising above them describes one such young man and entrepreneur, who chose to never give up but instead help others in their journey to achieve their goals; he is Anmol Singh, a renowned entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. But, there is more to Anmol than meets the eye. He is an online influencer in finance and investing, an author as well as a humanitarian. **From Humble Beginnings to World Class Investor** Anmol was born in Delhi, India, on April 23, 1992. After completing his high school education, Anmol studied abroad in London, gaining a degree in Business and Management from Brunel University. Very early in life, Anmol had realized that, to “make it big” in life, decisions had to be made so that he could commence his journey into entrepreneurship. To also support his family, he first entered the world of real estate and later developed an affinity for trading. He continued to work hard and hone in his trading craft, consistently advancing on his path to creating a real-estate portfolio. His trading career opportunities expanded quickly, and in a few short years he discovered a formula to help him trade profitably. *“The stock market always goes up. Up and down – but historically, it always goes up. The difference between profit and loss comes down to your understanding of how to trade and your ability to make logical and fast decisions based on constantly changing data.” – Anmol Singh* **Esteemed Author Helping Aspiring Entrepreneurs Achieve Their Life Goals** Anmol recently published *Prepping For Success: Ten Keys for Making It in Life*, an inspirational, light-hearted guide to help readers put their plans into action. It offers an understandable and relatable step-by-step approach to discovering one’s true self and achieving true personal success. In this book, he brings a unique view on success and shows how the same concepts that he has used to help million-dollar traders are applicable to the day-to-day lives of ordinary people, irrespective of the industry or career they are in.  Anmol’s hard work and dedication have rewarded him with a strong company and the sense of accomplishment that comes with being able to positively affect thousands of careers.  **Establishing a Reputation as a Successful Forex Trader and Entrepreneur** Anmol was able to acquire such admirable trading skills, and it wasn’t long before several investors identified his potential and hired him to do their trading for them. It was a milestone in his life, and propelled him as a top stocks and Forex trader. Meanwhile, Anmol continued to build a reputable portfolio in the real estate and automotive sectors. He became a well-known entrepreneur.  In 2015, Anmol Singh, along with Jared Wesley, founded Livetraders.com, an educational institute that offers training courses not only for Forex trading but also for stocks and other forms of trading. Since its establishment, LiveTraders has helped more than 10,000 students. The platform even offers a live session where Anmol, along with his partners and students, trade live. Livetraders.com is considered the top-ranked Stock Market, Forex, and Options educational platform.  “My team and I at Live Traders can show you how to ride the emotional roller coaster that trading can be. And for those that are patient, disciplined, and hardworking, the financial rewards are unbeatable. If you want to be a successful trader, we can show you how to execute trades, review the different scenarios you’ll be up against, and most importantly, how to remove the emotion from it”  **Launching A Scholarship Program to Give Back** Singh stepped in the trading industry to achieve financial independence and to help his family, and he wanted to provide other people a similar chance. Singh had to face difficulties while he was becoming a profitable trader, but he wanted to change things for the younger generation. Two years after the platform was created, Livetraders.com announced a scholarship program. The program was an attempt to ‘give back to the financially less fortunate.’ Through this scholarship, deserving and qualified students get a chance to be a part of the training program for free or at great discounts.  Today, at the age of 28, Anmol has achieved success in diverse fields as trader, educationist, entrepreneur, writer and angel investor, and stands as a true inspiration for many who are still dreaming of “making it big.” Anmol’s official website is www.livetraders.com, where traders can learn successful strategies by enrolling in Live Traders’ various training programs. --- ## How Chad Ehlers Is Changing The World Through Dance and Laughter URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-chad-ehlers-is-changing-the-world-through-dance-and-laughter/ Chad Ehlers, also known by his influencer name da_chad, has dealt with immense hardship in his young life. He lost his wife to depression, he was homeless at 17 years old.  He put himself through college while raising his daughter.  Last July his youngest daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. Rather than dwelling on all of the hard circumstances life has thrown at him, Chad has used the story of what he’s been through to save as many people as possible.  After leaving his career as a nurse to pursue a full-time role as an influencer, Chad started the Chad  Change movement with the intention of changing as many lives as he possibly could using his growing social media platform. He has been able to grow the movement, and has over 350 influencers on board using their platforms to let people know that they have a voice and are supported with whatever challenges they’re facing.  Managing the Chad Change while taking care of his daughter has been incredibly difficult, but the constant outpouring of gratitude from people saying Chad saved their lives makes it more than worth it. Chad has heard firsthand that his movement has saved lives, and being able to have such a positive influence on his followers gives him daily motivation to continue growing his platform.  Not only does the Chad Change make a positive impact on a large scale, but it’s also extremely interactive and lighthearted. They give support to a different charity every month.  Chad hosts Zoom sessions where he teaches his fans new dances, and anyone from his audience is welcome to join. He is able to connect with his audience on a personal level, and each class is filled with fun and laughter. Crazy enough, his dance sessions even attracted someone as influential as Coolio. He said he was amazed at how upbeat and fun the sessions were and loved that Chad was using dance to make people laugh and forget about the stress of the day.  Now that Chad has a massive platform on Tik Tok, his one regret is not building a following on all social media platforms at the same time. His growth on Tik Tok has been tremendous, but he is just now realizing the power of using all social media in unison and connecting them all as an influencer. While this isn’t a major problem, it’s a testament to Chad’s continued commitment to growing his brand and making the Chad Change big enough to impact people by the millions. --- ## Inside Mohamed Abdelhay World Of Creativity URL: https://futuresharks.com/inside-mohamed-abdelhay-world-of-creativity/ Mohamed Abdelhay is a 24-year-old Egyptian digital artist who has been doing some great creative work using his outstanding photography and digital art skills. Most of his creative work focuses on various realms of real-world issues. If you have a glance at his official Instagram profile, it will create a spellbound impact in your mind with his strong visual and aesthetic skills—that he adds to his digital art. He is also offering some great community services. Send him any photos–and he will add his *Midas touch *to the same—free of cost. He believes in bringing smiles to the face of people for he sees art as the quintessential element of creativity that makes people happy and satisfied. ## Art Is Much More than Making Money When the media asked him about this endeavor, he explained, “I want to become one of the most famous digital artists in the world and make my country—Egypt—feels proud of my achievement.” Mohamed Abdelhay takes a keen interest in offering free image-editing services to the people, because of his relentless passion for designing and photography. He believes no image can be fully perfect. Still, he tries his best in bringing out the best picture quality and other key technical aspects in his edited photos. “When it comes to photography, everyone has their own version of ideation, perfection, and level of thinking. I re-edit photographs to the best of my creative abilities and imagination,” Mohamed Abdelhay said. ## Mohamed Abdelhay Loves Experimenting with His Photography Skills The 24-year-old feels that when a photographer successfully utilizes their artistic skills and creativity while taking a photograph or even during re-editing the same, it makes the image more impactful. “Such images tend to resonate more with the people for a long-long time,” Mohamed Abdelhay claimed. Egypt has a glorious tradition of photography for ages. Egyptian pharaohs were a great patron of photography and art. They preserved art and photography though in rudimentary form for the future generation. Mohamed Abdelhay wants to showcase Egypt’s legacy in painting and photography to the world through his digital creation and photography with his meticulous graphic designing skills ## To Conclude Mohamed Abdelhay received an internationally-recognized certificate for his hard work and innovative designing skills. However, like a true artist, he feels it’s just the beginning. He has much more to accomplish in his life and professional career. As a professional international digital artist, Mohamed Abdelhay wants to take his country’s heritage of Egyptian art to a new level and on a global platform to acquaint people with the country’s glorious legacy of preserving ancient art and crafts since time immemorial. “Pictures are more than what appeals to the eye. They are part of a person’s life-long memory. They stay inside mind and heart forever,” Mohamed Abdelhay concluded. Check his Wiki Profile here --- ## How A Passion for Music Catapulted Floyd “Timeless” Thomas’ Career URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-a-passion-for-music-catapulted-floyd-timeless-thomas-career/ Following your passions is advice that is often overplayed today, as it is said time and time again but people still decide to settle for less than they deserve in their careers. For Floyd “Timeless” Thomas, his passion for music drove him to be a force in the music and entertainment industry if it was the last thing he did. Growing up, both of his parents were church musicians and his father was especially tied to music being a producer and writer for a record label. By the age of 2, Floyd was already playing the drums and by 14 was fluent on the piano. His passion for music collided with entrepreneurship during his childhood, as he saw his mother take a cleaning business to multiple six figures. Having both of these things rooted so deeply in him, he decided to pass up on a full ride music scholarship to top music schools in favor of pursuing entrepreneurship. Immediately out of high school, Thomas toured with renowned, multi Grammy award winning production label Pjam. During his time, Thomas would go on to become a 35 time billboard charting producer, writer, and arranger. At 19, he had his own record company, A10 records. It was very apparent at an early point in Floyd’s life that his passion for music combined with his raw talent had set him up for sustained success in the industry. He has invested tens of thousands of dollars into himself and his label, and even refused a close to 7 figure production deal with Virgin records to make sure his artists kept momentum under his label. Given all of his musical abilities, Floyd was destined for success. But, he still had his business related slip ups along the way, investing money in the wrong places. Rather than becoming frustrated with investments and generating multiple income streams, he learned from his mistakes and would wind up investing in super successful ventures including HVAC, parking lot striping businesses, and real estate. His mother was his inspiration to start entrepreneurship, and he has been driven to go harder ever since he was a boy watching his mom support him and his 6 siblings. What has also pushed him to reach greatness is the ability to help his friends escape hardship and struggle. He has taken it upon himself to thrive in business so he could then turn around and help his friends out, and this has worked wonders to this point in his career. Since he has started his career, Floyd has made more money producing music than anything else. Paul Black, his sisters’ husband, granted him virtually unlimited access to the studio so he could work on his craft and become great. Thomas owes a lot to Paul, and is truly appreciative in believing in him and his abilities. Floyd Thomas has already made everyone close to him proud, and he will continue to work as hard as he possibly can to inspire others. --- ## Nick Scolaro: One of Toronto’s Youngest Entrepreneurs Making Power Moves URL: https://futuresharks.com/nick-scolaro-one-of-torontos-youngest-entrepreneurs-making-power-moves/ This past year has been the downfall for millions of people and businesses. Fortunately, for Nick Scolaro, this young and hungry entrepreneur utilized his free time and began a startup media agency that has risen far above competition and even surprised his predecessors. Despite dropping out of college due to a lack of finances, The 20 year old photographer opened up his own media agency, “Scolaro Creative” and within the first year has serviced hundreds of clients and generated revenue at the 6-figure mark. Although it seemed like an overnight success, things weren’t always easy for Scolaro. “At the age of 17, my parents gave me some tough love and kicked me out of the house to teach me a valuable lesson. I deserved it.” He says to the sharks. He credits the struggles he went through for giving him the inspiration and the drive he used to make his business successful. > “The struggles I experienced were such a key piece to my success because it opened my eyes and developed a work ethic I never would’ve found otherwise.”Nick Scolaro In the early days of his career, Scolaro had the technical skills of shooting and editing, but he was unable to generate enough leads to make consistent revenue which is a common problem among creators trying to get a foot into the industry. According to Scolaro, what separates him from the rest of the competition was educating himself in the digital marketing space. “While working with one of of my biggest clients, Variance Marketing, I learned how to flood my calendar with sales appointments using an automated sales process Variance calls Dealflow.” By implementing these marketing strategies, tons of new clients and deals came in on autopilot while Scolaro focused on servicing the existing clients, and building the brand. Scolaro says his next big move is to launch an online masterclass that teaches any creator to travel anywhere in the world while working with brands. “This is a question I’ve been asked a lot so I thought I’d package it into a training, and start selling it so anyone can learn. The masterclass is scheduled to release at the end of next year. As a young man with big dreams, Nick Scolaro is a strong believer in hard work and perseverance. > “If you’re insanely passionate about something and devote 90% of your time towards building a business around that passion, you will succeed regardless of whatever your passion is.”Nick Scolaro Scolaro is an inspiration for many young creators his age because of his successes so far. He tries to give back as much as possible by pushing others to do the same as him. “Ninety-nine percent of the world is convinced they’re incapable of achieving greatness so they aim for mediocrity. My goal is to decrease the number of people who think they’re unable to actually achieve their dreams. Anyone can do it. You just need to want it badly enough.” --- ## LOTANNA EZEIKE – THE MAN BEHIND UK’S #1 APP FOR INFLUENCERS URL: https://futuresharks.com/lotanna-ezeike-the-man-behind-uks-1-app-for-influencers/ Everyone wishes to be successful, but not many put in the effort to be successful. **Lotanna Ezeike** is not one of those people. The 23-year-old Londoner spent his days and nights working on his app – XPO and now he’s a leading force in the creator economy. Lotanna’s app XPO helps smaller creators get paid for their work instantly. Usually, influencers have to wait 30-120 days before getting their payments for endorsements. Through XPO, this wait time is removed. The influencer puts in a payment request with XPO, XPO pays the influencers within 24 hours after charging 10% of the total invoice amount, then the brand pays XPO within 30-120 days. XPO requests the capital – that they pay to the influencers – from their partner Sonovate, the FinTech leader in the UK. XPO’s innovative approach helps foster a healthy relationship between brands and influencers. Constant late payments demotivate an influencer, and losing an influencer is very harmful to the brand. But if a brand is always paying upfront then it risks losing cash flow. When XPO is involved, the influencer gets instant payouts, and the brand pays at its pace without any pressure – hence everyone involved is happy. However, XPO’s horizons are set on expanding. Lotanna wishes to scale up XPO through investments. He also has plans to partner up with big brands and offer XPO as an alternative payout option to influencers and agencies they work with. XPO has already worked with big brands like Nike and Experian and also has over 2000 influencers. --- ## Quickbooks Vs. NetSuite- A Comprehensive Comparison And Review URL: https://futuresharks.com/quickbooks-vs-netsuite-a-comprehensive-comparison-and-review/ One of the critical factors that directly influence your business’ success is how you handle your financial management. There is, at times, an overwhelming amount of decisions that have to be made to keep your business to an excellent professional level. One of those decisions is how to choose the right business accounting software that will assist you in your daily tasks. A good solution will help you automate mundane tasks, give you a good overview, manage your brooks, and help you create plans for the upcoming periods. If you have been thinking about this and started to look into different accounting software, you are probably aware that there are many options out there with different specificities. You’ve likely come in touch with two of the biggest names in the industry- Quickbooks and NetSuite. Both tools will help your business manage the accounting processes, however, they do have quite different features. If you are not sure what your business needs, keep reading my thorough comparison of Quickbooks Vs. NetSuite.Quickbooks and NetSuite. ## The biggest difference between Quickbooks and NetSuite Quickbooks and NetSuite are both cloud-based financial management software that are created to assist businesses with running their processes effectively. The biggest difference between them is that QuickBooks mainly focuses on small business’ accounting solutions, whereas NetSuite provides a variety of enterprise-grade applications that cover areas outside of accounting and finance as well. That is why for many years QuickBooks has been the software that most of the small businesses start with, but as their business scales, they start searching for something more. ## Quickbooks Overview Quickbooks was founded in 1998 and to this date more than 1.8 million customers use it, which makes it the largest provider of accounting software when it comes to small businesses. The services that are offered by Quickbooks are used to managing payrolls, inventory, sales, paying bills, preparing taxes, generating reports, and other accounting and finance needs of small entities. There are several types of solutions offered depending on the size of the business and the specific needs. Both an individual freelancer and a mid-sized business can find what they need within the alternatives. Quickbooks offers three main plans for businesses and they are: 1. **Simple Start-** which will cost you $7.5 per month (price applicable at the time of writing of this article). The functionalities that you will get with this plan are: - Track income and expenses - Send custom invoices and quotes - Connect your bank - Track VAT - One user + accountant 1. **Essentials-**which will cost you $11.5 per month (price applicable at the time of writing of this article). The functionalities you’ll enjoy by purchasing this plan, in addition to the ones from the Simple Start plan, are: - Reports and insights - Managing employees - Multi-currency - Three users + accountant 1. **Plus-**which will cost you $15.5 per month (price applicable at the time of writing of this article). Additional functionalities in addition to all the previously mentioned are: - Recurring transactions - Inventory tracking - Projects and locations tracking - Budget management - Five users + accountant ### Quickbooks Enterprise If your business needs more than just accounting, Quickbooks offers their Quickbook Enterprise addition with which you can do inventory management, build reports, do sales, time tracking, and do payrolls. 135.000 companies are using Quickbook Enterprise. It has a capacity of one million customers, vendors, and inventory items. Additionally, 40 users are allowed to use it. It can be customized to some extent according to the needs of specific businesses. Quickbooks enterprise is a desktop program and if you prefer to take it off-premises, you would need to get a third-party hosting company. This can complicate things, and force you to manage one more vendor. There are some shortcomings with Quickbooks Enterprise like for example it does not automate processes like asset management, multidimensional reporting, subscription billings, etc. It just offers a more traditional-like chart of accounts that is aiming to make things less complex, however, sometimes it does quite the opposite. ## NetSuite Overview NetSuite can be considered the leading cloud-based ERP solution for automating many of your business’ processes like managing your finances, revenues, order management, billing, management of inventory, and much more. With NetSuite, businesses that are into any stage of the growth process can get a platform with real-time data, customization, and dashboards connected to their finances. In other words, NetSuite is not only about the accounting of a business, but it provides a wide array of other functionalities throughout the whole business. NetSuite, moreover, meets global accounting and compliance standards which are very important for businesses. Brex also uses NetSuite to ensure it’s meeting global accounting and compliance standards while delivering corporate credit cards to startups. Things like eCommerce, CRM, HR management software, automation of services, and much more. Since it’s a cloud-based solution, real-time data without additional IT infrastructure is available to the businesses. With just one solution, you can pretty much run your whole business without having to include other types of vendors. Relevant: Also read here Top Reasons That Make NetSuite The #1 Cloud ERP NetSuite lets you choose solutions by different parameters like: 1. By the business type (whether you’re a startup, a fast-growing business, a family-owned business, a small, midsize, PE-backed, enterprise, or VC backed. 2. By role (CEO, CFO, Controller, CIO) 3. By current software (Quickbooks, Microsoft, Sage, Intacct, SAP, Deltek, Epicor) When it comes to pricing, their prices are determined separately for each business and are based on a lot of factors such as total user count, extra required modules as add-ons, ERP configuration, and other things. The base license is $999 per month with a cost for access per user for $99 per month. You can renew it on a yearly basis or for longer periods. If you have general needs, some pre-bundled editions can be quickly fitted with your needs. ## Quickbooks vs NetSuite If you are a very small business or a startup, Quickbooks might be the obvious choice for you because it will take care of your basic accounting needs like paying bills, managing invoices, and basic tracking of cash flow. It’s a simple software for simple needs like businesses with minimal accounting demands that just need to generate monthly or yearly reports and take care of taxes. On the other hand, NetSuite offers all of that, and a complete financial management solution for businesses whose needs become more diverse and complex with time. As I previously mentioned, NetSuite can be tailored to suit the specific businesses’ needs and offers a much more complex set of functionalities. ### Feature comparison Both platforms check off some important boxes for accounting and financing purposes, but the main difference is in the specific features that they offer. If we compare them, we will notice that NetSuite is by far the superior software solution. This is especially true for companies that are growing or are expecting to begin growing soon. The wide array of functionalities in the accounting and finance sectors can have a significant impact on the time and resources spent in the working of the business. 1. In the area of **financial management**, Quickbooks offers some basics like - accounts payable - account receivable - general ledger - Multi-currency - budgeting. NetSuite offers all of those and *additional features* like: - revenue recognition - subscription billing - forecasting - financial planning - financial analysis - and much more. 2. When it comes to **supply chain management**, with Quickbooks you will get - Inventory management - Order management - Procurement NetSuite offers those, and *additional features* like - Production management - Demand planning - WIP and routing - Work orders and assemblies - Warehouse and fulfillment - And more. 3. Moving onto the **e-commerce and retail** industry, Quickbooks offers its assistance by giving you features like - Point of sale - E-commerce NetSuite additionally offers - Order management - Inventory management - Product content management - Ecommerce marketing automation 4. Another target area is **human capital management**. Quickbooks offers only payroll. Netsuite on the other hand has something more to offer like human resources management, employee center, and analytics. In addition to all of this, when it comes to professional service automation, Quickbook lacks to offer any functionalities which can be a big minus. NetSuite offers functionalities like project management, resource management, timesheet management, and expense management. This is a very big plus on the side of NetSuite because in this day and age businesses aspire to automate as many processes as possible. With that, they will minimize the time and resources spent on several tasks within the organization. ## The take-away If there is one thing you take away from this article is that you have to consider the future growth of your business when choosing the right accounting and finance solution. Right now, your business might be a startup or a small business with basic needs that can be covered pretty much with any solution out there. But as your company grows, the number of employees and customers increases, you will need to have automation and data analysis. Choosing Quickbooks for a startup or a small business can seem like a great idea; it will for sure take care of your basic needs. However, once your needs increase and you need to add vendors, have data in Excel sheets, or include additional accounting or finance tools, that’s when it gets difficult. Managing all these different sources can be time-consuming and cost you more recourses than necessary. The probability of errors is increased in this case, and creating reports or analysis can be downright impossible or very complex. With NetSuite, you can achieve that on one platform, with a few clicks. That is why it is not rare to see companies that have settled for Quickbooks to mitigate their business to NetSuite just within a year or two because they expanded in that period growing their need significantly. What do you think it’s the most important thing for a software like this to have? Drop a comment below letting me know! If you liked this article, check more informative and useful posts here: - What Is Online Marketing? A Digital Guide --- ## Charles and Stacey Wells Share the Secret to Balancing Successful Careers and a Family URL: https://futuresharks.com/charles-and-stacey-wells-share-the-secret-to-balancing-successful-careers-and-a-family/ Successfully navigating the tightrope between a demanding career and building a family is a balancing act most find challenging. To find that sweet spot between having a successful career and a happy, healthy family is the holy grail of modern life. Discovering that balance and adjusting your life accordingly is something that Charles and Dr. Stacey Wells believe in fervently. As a real estate entrepreneur, Charles works long and unsociable hours, but it’s an industry he’s passionate about, and he’ll tell you straight that he was happy to work around the clock in the early days because it was an investment in his future. Charles explains, “I was working as an IT professional, and it was a job I loathed. It was going nowhere fast, and I spent more and more time away from my wife and children. I wanted a life where I would have full autonomy over my schedule and income, so I entered the real estate industry and never looked back. Initially, I worked way too hard to secure a passive income to spend more time with my family and leave a legacy for my children. Like any loving father, I wanted them to have the best, and working in real estate was the way to do that.” As someone who now makes well over 6-figures a year without clocking in and clocking out every day, Charles is in an extremely comfortable financial situation that allows him to spend more time with his eight-year-old daughter Taylor and three-year-old son Charles. This is something his wife and physician Stacey definitely appreciates. Stacey has always been an extremely family-focused person and found her calling to medicine after watching her beloved grandfather suffer from a prolonged illness. She explains, “I missed valued time with my grandfather because he became so ill. I knew his illnesses were not Uhg just k in by and large preventable, so I went to med school to learn how to stop others suffering a similar fate.” As someone who spends her time working in a busy hospital helping and comforting other families, Stacey is adamant she will never let the demanding, but rewarding work interfere with spending time and looking after her own family. She said, “In both my professional and personal life, I give my all, but I’m careful to keep the two areas separate and not let them intrude or interfere with the other. There needs to be that balance.” Charles adds, “Absolutely. You should always leave work issues at the front door when you go home, so you can be the person your family needs you to be, but when you leave for work, you should be completely focused on the task at hand, with no distractions. It’s not really a secret, but it’s a definite recipe for success.” --- ## How Costas Polycarpou Has Single-Handedly Improved London’s New Housing URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-costas-polycarpou-has-single-handedly-improved-londons-new-housing/ Next to food and water, having a place to call home is the most basic necessity we all need to survive. This need is mirrored in financial value as real estate and housing projects are among the most consistently lucrative investments one can make. Nothing is bulletproof however, and conditions can change for the worse in even the most promising ventures. It takes a steady hand and keen eye for detail to make a positive impact anywhere, let alone in one of the most storied and fast-paced cities in the world – London. Costas Polycarpou has been at the helm of Polyteck since 2005 when it was founded. By instilling strong core values throughout the company early, and keeping them consistent as they grew, they have enjoyed considerable success in the housing market. Over the years Polyteck has proved to be a powerful force that has helped shape the UK housing market. We had an interview with Polycarpou in which we talked about how he has navigated the property sector over the years, and as a result, dramatically improved the quality of London’s property sector. ## Collaborative From the Start From the onset of Polyteck, there’s been a cooperative element which has served them well as they scaled to revenues over £30 million in only 15 years. “Back in 2005 I started this company with my father, I was only 27 at the time, and there were plenty of challenges in getting my feet under me and gaining the necessary first-hand experience. I have a background in Engineering and Building Services, and used this knowledge to help other companies just starting off themselves with consulting and private investing.” Trust, partnership, and loyalty are three of Polyteck’s highest held values, and upon these solid foundations, the company flourished. Without the bedrock of understanding of both the technical and human aspects of the property business, it would have been impossible for him to deliver for those crucial first few clients with his consultation services. “It takes time to get to know a client’s unique strengths and goals and then being able to offer actionable advice. There are countless factors to consider, everything from how to streamline processes to knowing when to go all-in on a unique opportunity for growth. Developing this insight has become one of my most valuable tools over the years.” It took Polycarpou over a decade and a half to hone his craft, but this patience paid off in the long run. In a multi-faceted industry like property development, the ability to effectively connect and communicate is paramount to get the job done efficiently. Whether it was in the public or private sector, the passion and expertise of Polycarpou fueled and served him well. Eventually, this led to taking an even more involved hand in the UK property market to outstanding effect. ## Big Leaps In London Since setting up shop in London so many years ago, Polyteck has enjoyed a bevy of success in both their home base and beyond that’s inspiring to say the least. “Over the past five years, we’ve been growing at a healthy rate on a number of levels. We’ve developed property with GDV’s of up to £100M, and worked with the most innovative joint venture firms which led to some incredible results of which we are truly proud.” There’s no doubt the accolades have come to match Polycarpou’s ambitions. Their recent Bernard Works development won the coveted 2018 New London Architecture award, but the success didn’t stop there. Polyteck was selected to develop the Royal Exchange, an important heritage site dating back to the 16th century. With Polycarpou’s effective leadership and eye for unique projects, the scope of Polyteck has expanded overseas. “We have worked with everything from high end residential to social housing spaces in London,” Polycarpou explained. “After those successes, we capitalized on the momentum to extend the Polyteck Group’s reach all the way into the Middle East with offices in both Dubai and Qatar. When it comes to property development, we pride ourselves on being able to offer expert-level workmanship to suit any project’s need virtually anywhere in the world.” Polyteck has made an indelible mark upon the housing and property development of London, and are well poised to have a hand in property development around the world for years to come. ## The Next Step … While Polyteck has left its mark on the property development market both in the UK and aboard, Polycarpou certainly doesn’t seem content for them to rest on their laurels anytime soon. “I have a genuine joy working in the property sector. It’s a constantly evolving industry, and I love digging into the newest and best practices of Engineering, Facility Management, and Technical Service. Regardless of where we go or what we build, I’m excited to bring the whole wealth of my experiences to the table and add value wherever I can.” Whether by consultation or construction, Polycarpou has all the pieces in place to make a real difference in housing markets around the world. The future for him and Polyteck looks bright as can be and serves as a stirring example of how to break into and thrive within any industry. --- ## Master Barber Turned Entrepreneur Charlie McCoy Has Two Thriving Businesses in NYC URL: https://futuresharks.com/master-barber-turned-entrepreneur-charlie-mccoy-has-two-thriving-businesses-in-nyc/ Charlie McCoy is a Master Barber whose entrepreneurial mindset has results in him establishing two successful businesses in New York City. Both of his businesses are barbershops and salons, and have become the go-to place for a haircut for a growing clientele. Artisan Barber, a unisex luxury salon in the Upper East Side and Orchard & Ludlow in the Lower East Side have continued to become increasingly popular, and it’s not hard to see why. As a Master Barber who has spent years working for L’Oreal’s Kiehl’s Since 1851 before venturing out on his own, he was able to hit the ground running by taking his most loyal clients with him. What Charlie was able to do is establish a community around his businesses. He did this with the help of local artists living in the area where his barbershops were located. Today, his salon Orchard & Ludlow doubles as an art gallery that showcases some extraordinary art, such as that my NY native artist Mark West. As many businesses are struggling due to COVID-19, Charlie has seen the opposite. His businesses are thriving, and he’s been able to keep the momentum going. In fact, this year, he has launched three new brands outside of the haircare industry entirely. One of these is Artisan Luxury Brands, which is a consumer goods company functioning as the parent company to Artisan Barber, Orchard & Ludlow, and his two other new brands called The Grooming Alchemist and Artisan Media Group. The Grooming Alchemist is a sort of hub for men’s lifestyle. It is especially focused on catering to former Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religious denomination he himself was once a part of. It is his way of providing guidance and inspiration for those who have left the insular sect. Artisan Media Group is the creative marketing agency Charlie founded that focuses on creating different types of content to use as promotional material on social media. Everything he has learned over the years gets channeled into a brand new passion of his. It sure does appear as if Charlie McCoy is a multifaceted man who was able to adapt after leaving his faith, thriving in a completely different world than the one he was raised in. Charlie’s company reflects his own personal traits, which include overcoming adversity and being able to achieve success with anything he places his focus on. His two brick-and-mortar businesses have not only survived the pandemic-related economic fallout, but they have been thriving. The product lines of these businesses include cruelty-free products. Also, these barbershops and salons cater to their clients’ needs and wants in a way that provides a truly unique experience. Looking forward, Charlie wants to expand beyond NYC. He’s already managed to expand to Chicago, but eventually plans to have salons and barbershops across the US. Charlie wants others to know that anything is possible, as long as you apply yourself and recognize the immense opportunities that exist for you. You can head over to Artisan Luxury Brands to learn more about Charlie and his thriving businesses. --- ## No Degree? No Problem. 19-Year-Old Jason Shipway is Making More Money by Scrubbing Toilets Than Some of the Highest-Paid College Graduates URL: https://futuresharks.com/jason-shipway/ Debt-free and making six-figures a year: it’s safe to say that for 19-year-old *Enhanced Home Cleaning* founder Jason Shipway, school is a thing of the past. In just six months, Shipway built a residential cleaning business from the ground up – ironically after being rejected from numerous cleaning job openings. Now, his company is generating more revenue than most of the businesses he was applying to work for. So, how was someone who dropped out of school, lacked experience, and struggled to land a job able to build a six-figure business in an industry he knew nothing about? The answer lay within a skill which they don’t teach you in school. A skill that will allow a high school dropout like Shipway to ascend to the top of the entrepreneurial world, earning more money than some of the highest-paid university graduates. That skill is direct-response marketing. According to industry leaders, direct-response marketing is vastly different from the typical image-based advertising that you see regularly, the key difference being its response mechanism. Direct-response advertising aims to motivate readers into acting. This device used is commonly known as a call-to-action, which could be something as small as clicking “like” on a Facebook post, following a page, signing up to a newsletter, watching a video, or it could be a bigger call-to-action, such as asking someone to pull out their credit card to make a purchase. If you start paying close attention to the advertisements around you, the difference between traditional and direct-response marketing will become very apparent. So, because everything is left to chance with traditional, image-based advertising, advertisers are unable to predictably scale a campaign due to its volatile nature. Contrary to conventional marketing, direct-response advertisers can predict with almost absolute certainty how an advertisement will perform, thus allowing for cheaper, quicker scaling. This is the tool small businesses and startups need to outperform their established industry leaders. Upon taking a closer look at *Enhanced Home Cleaning*’s advertisements, it’s obvious why the company has experienced rapid success. As a result of his innate ability to write outstanding advertisements that encapsulate everything his prospective clients are looking for, whilst incorporating many of the core direct-response principles, Shipway’s advertisements have consistently garnered big results with a low ad-spend. To this day, *Enhanced Home Cleaning*continues to dominate its local market, an accomplishment rewarding Shipway with a generous six-figure income. Despite dropping out of school and choosing not to pursue a university education, Shipway has the opportunity to live a financially-free life on his own terms, bereft of the debt and claustrophobia that comes with a college degree. Follow Jason Shipway online: Instagram Twitter Snapchat Website --- ## Byron Johnson – A Boss Worth Following URL: https://futuresharks.com/byron-johnson-a-boss-worth-following/ #### # # Byron Johnson – A Boss Worth Following #### Byron Johnson has been successfully building teams and scaling businesses in the insurance, construction, and commercial real estate investing industries since 2008. Leaders like Byron Johnson are not born, but made. Leadership is something that you are taught or you learn through experience. It’s as much a product of your environment as everything else. So if you want to become a leader worth following, this article has a few nuggets of wisdom to share.  **** Too many folks don’t seem to have a good grasp of what leadership actually means. They believe that they should be followed by the simple virtue of their position. The result of a lack of leadership is resentment, disorder, and eventually, failure. ****To avoid those outcomes, be sure to pay attention to the following. ### ### Inspire, Don’t Order There have been many famous leaders in history with diverse backgrounds and origins. However, despite their differences, all of them had one thing in common. They could inspire their followers like no other.  **** While a lot of this does come down to charisma and personal charm, it’s more than that, according to Byron Johnson. It’s also about leading by example. Always arriving first and departing last. Sacrificing willingly before anyone else and asking for nothing in return. **** **** These are the figures that people would look up to, both today and in the past.  **** If you want to be an effective leader worth following, you must strive to inspire. If you do, you will rarely have to order anyone to do anything.  **** How can you do this, you ask? Byron Johnson’s answer is to show your followers that you are willing to do as much or more for them than they are for you.  **** Yes, a big part of running a business is to make money. But that should not come at the cost of your workers’ safety and well-being.  **** If your people can see that you are looking out for them, they’ll look out for you. ### ### Show Respect to Get Respect Too many executives believe that their position automatically merits respect and authority. But that’s yes to the latter and no to the former. Respect is earned and you can never demand it from anyone.  **** Your best bet to gain the respect of your employees is to show them respect. This can be a bit tricky simply because your position does come with authority. As such, certain interactions will just automatically be awkward.  **** **** First of all, you need to speak to your workers with dignity. Condescension, shouting, insults, and snide remarks will only result in negative sentiments.  **** It would also be good if you can provide your employees with all of the rights and privileges as mandated by the law. This means adequate break time, privacy, and the occasional free coffee.  **** You might also want to avoid having a dismissive attitude towards them. Remember, your employees are not Victoria Era servants where they are seen but not heard.  **** Listen to them. Express sympathy when necessary. Say words of thanks and appreciation when appropriate.  **** As Byron Johnson points out, even small gestures of respect can have wonderful results. It also helps if you can show your people that you can empathize with their troubles.  **** While it is a part of professional courtesy to leave personal problems at the door, it would be unreasonable to expect compliance with this practice all the time.  **** Showing your workers that you are sensitive to their plight and are not belittling them for it can go a long way toward earning their respect and trust.  ### A Bit of Trust Goes a Long Way Having employees means needing to trust them, at some point. Not just to keep the store running but to also handle projects without your deep involvement.  **** This is a very important point to drive home, Byron Johnson says. You need to let employees handle the day-to-day operations. They will make mistakes, but that’s just part of the process. **** Your role will be to show them what they did wrong and how they can fix it. Giving workers a chance to learn and grow is crucial.  **** **** You can’t be expected to get involved in the nitty-gritty details, after all. They would take up too much of your time, which you should be spending to grow your business.  **** If you don’t let your employees polish their skills, they’ll become too dependent on you and nothing gets done.  **** On that note, this does not mean that you are giving up control completely. You still need to look over the results of their efforts. This will allow you to identify which of your workers are doing their jobs and which are not.  **** Finding earnest employees who truly want to learn and improve is how you can fill your ranks with competent, trustworthy people. Likewise, weeding out the bad eggs is how you can avoid future troubles that will disrupt workplace harmony.  **** You definitely want to maintain the smooth teamwork and happy air among your people. That’s still part of your job as the boss.  ## About Byron Johnson: **** Byron Johnson is a founder, entrepreneur, and CEO known for founding a number of businesses which include an insurance agency, construction, and remodeling company. Additionally, Byron Johnson is also an investor in commercial real estate. Since relocating to Tampa, FL in late 2007, Byron opened his first Liberty Tax Franchise in 2012, and in 2014, founded Star Nsurance, a respected Auto insurance company in the heart of Tampa and Cheap Car and Homeowners Insurance, an online platform for insurance quote comparisons.  Byron Johnson also owns Embassy Construction and Remodeling, a top-notch contractor for home improvement and remodeling needs, and is also an owner of a 50+ unit commercial property located in the up and coming Seminole Heights area close to downtown Tampa. To give back, Byron Johnson has a popular YouTube channel where he shares free tips and valuable insurance info daily. You can find him under the name “Cheap Car Insurance Guru” YouTube channel.  Byron Johnson also has a passion for playing poker. He has played poker competitively since his college days back in 2003. Recently, in February of 2020, he won a major WSOP event (World Series of Poker Event) bringing home a prestigious Gold WSOP championship ring. For more information on Byron Johnson, visit his website or follow him on social media. Connect with Byron Johnson here:  Byron Johnson on Linkedin Byron Johnson on Facebook Byron Johnson on YouTube Byron Johnson Instagram --- ## Staying Grounded After Success — Being Charitable With Yad Senapathy of PMTI URL: https://futuresharks.com/staying-grounded-after-success-being-charitable-with-yad-senapathy-of-pmti/ No matter how successful you become in life, if you grow up from humble beginnings it sticks with you. Experiencing struggles early in life is a foundation that keeps you humble and grounded — and it also makes you generous with your gifts later in life. This is the case with Yad Senapathy, a globally celebrated force in the Project Management arena and founder and CEO of the Project Management Training Institute(PMTI). Yad grew up in an Indian city with supportive parents who catered to his American Dream. Although they were considered poor, they worked hard and instilled that work ethic into Yad. They told him he-could do anything he wanted if he got a good education and focused on his dreams. And his parents were right. After completing his undergraduate degree in Engineering in India, Yad received a full scholarship to further his education at Kansas State University. His dream had come true. He would travel to the United States and continue to study Engineering and later go on to be one of the premier Project Management experts in the world. But all of this success has not changed Yad at his core and made him forget his difficult upbringing. He continues to give back to his adopted hometown of Dallas community and his native India, which still holds a special place in his heart. In 2016, Yad and his wife Shobha founded the Yad and Shobha Senapathy Foundation to recognize and promote responsible entrepreneurial philanthropy because they understand how important it is to give back. And this venture is not their only charitable cause. In these most uncertain times, it is important to give what you can to help others because you never know when you will be the one in need. As we approach the National Day of Giving on December 1, 2020, Yad has shared a shortlist of the charitable organizations he personally contributes, which could also use your help this holiday season. ## North Texas Food Bank Yad has worked with the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) in Plano, TX, for many years, donating time and more than 200,000 meals. Every dollar donated to NTFB provides access to three-healthy meals for hungry North Texans, and 95 percent of every dollar goes-directly to hunger relief programs. These contributions give food to children, seniors, and families. Information on donating is on their website, along with other vital details about their worthwhile charity.  ## VT Seva: Volunteering Together in Service The VT Sevaorganization is another worthwhile charity Yad and his wife support. It has thousands of volunteers in centers across the United States that work to rebuild and restructure underprivileged and underserved communities. Each location’s main focus lies in providing a high quality, free education and food for tribal students and the visually impaired in need. The organization also provides critical medical testing such as cancer screenings and other medical services offered at medical camps. VT Seva also utilizes its thousands of volunteers in relief efforts when natural disasters strike. ## Children’s Medical Center — Dallas Over the years, Yad and his wife have given generously to the Children’s Medical Center in their hometown of Dallas. The hospital is-always in need of volunteers and takes donations of toys, activity kits, school supplies, craft items, and other educational and recreational items. Children’s Medical Center has volunteers and contributors at many levels: individuals, organizations, and companies. Visit their-website to see how you can get involved. ### ## Epilepsy Foundation The Epilepsy Foundation exists to increase awareness and change the conversation around epilepsy, so the people affected can improve their lives. With care, advocacy, research, education, and new therapies, more people can understand the condition and support people afflicted with it and their caregivers. The foundation believes more volunteers and more donations are valuable assets to accomplishing their mission and saving lives. You can find information on how you can help on their website. 1. Mark’s School of Texas 2. Mark’s School of Texasis a college preparatory institution for young men that prepares them for assuming leadership and responsibility in a competitive and changing world. As a private school, St. Mark looks to donations and contributors who invest in the values they teach and the young men they produce. The Senapathys have made St. Marks one of their most beloved beneficiaries over the years, helping to ensure students receive an excellent education and superior moral direction. More information about St. Mark’s School of Texas is available on their website. --- ## How influencer Jessie Sims grows her personal brand using TikTok URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-jessie-sims-grows-her-personal-brand-using-tiktok/ One social media influencer taking advantage of everything TikTok has to offer is Jessie Sims. With 2.6 million followers under her belt and over 28 million likes, it would be an understatement to say she’s been making waves on the platform. To many users, TikTok is so much more than what’s perceived at face value. For some creators, it’s the chance to explore their creativity and video editing techniques, while for others it’s simply a break from their daily obligations. No matter which way you use TikTok, you might find that its addictive design and advanced algorithm can turn minutes into hours when you’re scrolling through your timeline.  **** The short-form video application previously known as Musical.ly has become one of the most successful apps around the world. With over two billion downloads and 800 million active users of all ages, TikTok has leaped ahead of the other well-known social networking sites like Snapchat, Pinterest, and Linkedin. With the large 41% of users falling between the ages of 16 and 24, it’s safe to say that Gen Z and Millennials are investing their time into an app that far outshines its long-gone predecessor Vine. **** TikTok has become a resource for individuals looking to grow their personal brands and it’s opened Sims up to a wide range of partnerships with companies like Bang Energy, FabFitFun, and NebulaHoroscope. So how did she manage to grow her following? **** “My Tiktok started growing last year. I went from 20k to 1M in a few months, then 2M within maybe around 6 months,” she says. **** After moving to LA to pursue modeling in 2016, she ran into some difficulties landing jobs without a large following on social media. Sims turned her focus at the time from modeling to content creation and began gaining traction on Instagram and YouTube. In 2018 Jessie joined the TikTok hype, and in good conscience now that it has become her most popular social media account compared to her 180k subscribers on YouTube and 716k followers on IG. **** “It is just a lot of fun especially when you get to film with friends and other creators,” she says. **** Jessie Sims put simply, is a fun-loving woman who has a knack for comedy, pranking, and a love for letting loose and partying. Contrasting to Instagram or YouTube, content created on TikTok is more likely to be served to others with similar interests, which is how Jessie has found like-minded people. Many creators like Jessie have found success on the platform either through building steady connections over time or becoming overnight viral sensations.  **** For Sims, growing views on TikTok took a lot of trial and error. A large goal for creators posting TikToks is ending up on the “For You” page (FYP), but she shares “as the platform began to grow due to COVID it became harder to gain followers due to over-saturation.” 2020 came with a slew of new users with 315 million TikTok downloads worldwide in the first quarter alone. Because of this, many genres became over-saturated with people eager to join the latest trends, creating an overload of similar content. User feed changes consistently based on the accounts followed and interacted videos, giving Sims a harder time trying to gain followers and get on the FYP during quarantine.  In her interview, Sims shares some advice that has not only helped her grow her followers but maintain her personal brand: interact with your audience.  But, having a large audience is not without its challenges. The lifestyle that comes with being an influencer includes putting yourself out there online, which comes with some negativity. Sims however, powers through and tries her best to not let comments get to her.  **** “Some days it’s harder than others. I try not to take anything personally because even in everyday life there are going to be people who don’t like me or disagree with me. I try to remember this but on a huge scale,” she says. **** The best way to rise above it? Make sure to monitor your comments and take the steps to block the critics and delete the spread of hate. Sims knows better than anyone that this can be draining but it’s worth it in the end.   **** Jessie is confident in her ability to continue growing her audience on TikTok and loves any chance she gets to put a smile on people’s faces.  **“I think it is important to be relatable and approachable to your audience. I don’t want to feel disconnected from them. I make content for my own entertainment but mainly for them. I want to make people laugh.”** --- ## Food Blogger Charisse Yu Makes Incredibly Popular and Unique Videos That Make You Hungry for More URL: https://futuresharks.com/food-blogger-charisse-yu-makes-incredibly-popular-and-unique-videos-that-make-you-hungry-for-more/ Charisse Yu is a former TV reporter turned food blogger who has struck gold by delivering unique videos showcasing her delicious recipes. Her stop motion style has become something her loyal fans cannot wait to see. As a food blogger, Charisse has had to differentiate herself from the sea of food bloggers out there today. Given nearly having 400K followers on Instagram, as well as over a million monthly viewers on Pinterest, it’s safe to say that she found her edge. Today, Charisse is a six-figure entrepreneur that spends most of her time raising her two young boys and preparing delicious meals using her own recipes. In her spare time, she also runs a vocational medical school. Charisse has succeeded in practically everything she put her mind to. Being nominated for an Emmy award while working for CBS, ABC, and CNN affiliates as a reporter and journalist wasn’t enough anymore. She left the industry around 10 years ago and decided to try something different. Once COVID-19 rolled around, she made a decision to change her focus in life even more. Making sure her two boys have the best possible childhood, while reducing her own level of stress, became very important to her. That’s why these days, you will find her cooking up something delicious, sharing self-care tips, and being an inspiration to countless others. She’s doing all of this while juggling home and school Zoom life. Thankfully, she can make it all happen due to using the power of schedules. When it comes to her recipes, her goal is to inspire others with meals that are easy to make, creative, healthy to eat, and affordable. Match that up with her stop motion editing style, and she became an instant success. Charisse has become a six-figure entrepreneur, thanks to taking a radical departure from her previous profession. She can free up more of her time to dedicate toward her own self-care, as well as her kids, due to passive income she receives from affiliate marketing. It also gives her more time to dedicate toward healthcare education. As you can probably tell by now, Charisse enjoys doing things that help others. She’s always been a helper at heart, which is what has helped cement her as such a successful entrepreneur. Given that her passions and purpose match, she has enjoyed plenty of success without struggling to achieve it. Charisse likes to keep things simple and easy. That is why her recipes don’t require hours of slaving away in the kitchen to make. Also, she has expanded her meal-making horizons from previously being focused on meals toddlers would enjoy to making food for the whole family. As someone who also wants to be a lifestyle influencer, she has begun sharing about all sorts of fun and inspirational things the entire family can do. If you want to get a daily dose of inspiration for yourself or family, then head over to her Instagram and Pinterest pages for some. Charisse also has a blog where she covers all things food and lifestyle. --- ## Mercurial Mouse Is Every Gamer’s Nerd Girl Celebrity URL: https://futuresharks.com/mercurial-mouse-is-every-gamers-nerd-girl-celebrity/ If you’re a gamer, then you’ve probably heard of Mercurial Mouse. This famous nerd girl celebrity is known for her incredible cosplay and cute style, as well as being an avid gamer. She is close to reaching a million followers on Instagram and has also branched out onto Twitch, TikTok, and YouTube. This Australian Instagram star is also a model who regularly shares pictures of her cosplay photoshoots on Instagram. When she’s not modeling, she’s either doing something cute on camera or gaming. Mercurial Mouse is known for her vibrant personality as well. While you can instantly tell that she loves to cosplay, she’s really big on gaming. In fact, she’s been a gamer for as long as she can remember. There are have been a lot of games that Mercurial Mouse has played over the years, but the one that still comes out on top is the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Even though it came out over two decades ago, it’s still her favorite. She could tell you quite a bit about the entire Legend of Zelda series of games, but nothing quite beats Ocarina of Time for her. When it comes to newer games, Mercurial Mouse enjoys playing Overwatch, even though she isn’t that good at it, which she is completely alright with. If she had to choose a favorite character from this game, it would definitely be D.Va given how adorable she is to Mercurial Mouse. It’s in her nature to just go for things with full steam ahead, so it makes sense that she would choose this character. Another game she loves to play is Fortnite. This highly-popular game has taken Gen Z by storm, Mercurial Mouse included. Her involvement in games like Overwatch and Fortnite has turned heads, especially once other gamers have seen who’s on the other side of the characters she plays. This has led her to enjoy a meteoric rise in popularity on Instagram, which is her primary platform today. When you go and take a look at her content, you will understand just why she has become as popular as she is. One thing you will soon find out about Mercurial Mouse is that she loves her privacy. In fact, nobody even knows her by anything besides this gaming alias, and she likes it that way. What we do know is that she is around 19 years old, lives in Australia, and is a proud Taurus. She’s as small as she is cute, at just 5’3″ with beautiful brown eyes and hair. When she’s not gaming, drifting cars in real life, or having fun with cosplay, Mercurial Mouse is working her body. She loved exercising and staying fit. For her, it’s all about looking great and having fun. You can follow Mercurial Mouse’s Twitch stream here if you want to see her gaming in real-time, or keep up with the latest from her on her Instagram page. If you like TikTok, then you can follow her there as well. --- ## How Fitness Mom Trixie Isla-Velez Has Become A Highly Sought After Trainer URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-fitness-mom-trixie-isla-velez-has-become-a-highly-sought-after-trainer/ Trixie Isla-Velez has had a tremendous career as a trainer thus far. In just over a decade, she’s transformed her career from being a trainer at someone else’s studio to owning her own studio, Defin8 Fitness, being a Nike Trainer, Nosh Ambassador and MyProtein partner, and has quickly become one of the most sought after trainers in all of Hong Kong. On top of her tremendous accomplishments in the fitness space, she’s a proud fitness mom and prides herself on living a well rounded life away from her studio. Trixie’s journey has been remarkable up to this point, as she left a very comfortable role at a studio to start her own brand and studio. She rented out spaces to host classes for a stretch of time, and eventually was able to open her very own studio. Her people have followed her every step of the way, as her energetic, uplifting, fun style of training has been a hit with her clients ever since she started training. Now that she has a permanent location, her client base has grown consistently as word has gotten out about her classes. With how far she’s come in her career, she wishes someone told her to take a breather, look around, and appreciate how far she’s come. Trixie has always had an immaculate work ethic, and she is just now appreciating the importance of taking a step back and really absorbing her accomplishments. Doing this has brought her a new sense of purpose, revitalized her, and has allowed her to focus on the new goals she has set for herself. Since becoming successful, Trixie has surrounded herself with positive, goal oriented people. These people have had the same uplifting vibes as Trixie, and have all been there to motivate her and cheer her on every step of the way. Trixie knows that she hasn’t been able to progress on this journey alone, and gives a lot of credit to her husband for guiding her and supporting her along the way. He’s always been there to give her advice and cheer her up, and she’s extremely appreciative of him and her entire family. Ironically enough, she’s also very grateful for her former bosses, as they’ve allowed her to realize her true potential and push her past her comfort zone when she decided to leave her old studio. --- ## 4Ever Young With The Solutions to Looking & Feeling Your Best URL: https://futuresharks.com/4ever-young-with-the-solutions-to-looking-feeling-your-best/ 4Ever Young is an anti-aging solutions company that was founded by Carlton Washington and Deniz Duygulu. Stemming from aspirations to help people make the most of their body and live better, healthier and more fulfilling lives, Carlton and Deniz founded 4Ever Young Anti Aging Solutions to accomplish that goal. Currently, with 7 locations in the tri-county area, Aventura, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, Plantation and Weston and 2 more locations coming soon, Coral Gables & Wellington. 4Ever Young serves a vast population of individuals looking to treat their aging symptoms with a wide range of aesthetic & wellness treatments. **** Looking your best is made easier by the medical aesthetic experts at 4Ever Young. Their services include Injectables and Facial Care, Botox Cosmetic, Juvederm, Kybella, Custom Facials, Dermaplaning, Alma Vshape, Coolsculpting, Hydrafacials, Dysport, Restylane, Sculptra, SkinPen Microneedling, Chemical Peels, and Sclerotherapy. Carlton and Deniz believe that looking your best opens doors to new opportunities and creates a strong self image for the individual and people who come in contact with the individual. The sad truth is that people will judge you based on your looks, so when you take care of yourself and look your very best, people are going to treat you in that manner. Looking your best will only help you in life, whether it be in a relationship or for a job interview. For Carlton and Deniz, providing people with affordable, quality services to look their best is an extremely rewarding part of their job and is something that motivates them every day. **** The other aspect of 4Ever Young is helping people feel their best. Similar to looking your best, the solutions for feeling your best stem from extensive blood panels and goal setting for what the patient hopes to achieve through treatment. The solutions offered for feeling your best include Whole Body Wellness, Hormone Replacement therapies, HGH Stimulating Peptide Therapies, Vitamin injections, 4Ever Pearl Testosterone Pellet therapy, I.V. Vitamin Infusions, Glutathione Push, and Nutrition Planning. This part of 4Ever Young focuses on solutions that help functionality and performance of different organs, muscle groups, and age related issues that come up in individuals. These methods and solutions are backed by some of the best professionals in the medical industry to ensure the safety and practice of each procedure. The solutions to help people feel their best are of the best tried and true methods available and are constantly being updated to the latest and greatest products and formulas.  **** One thing that both Carlton and Deniz have realized is that the solutions their offices offer have been proven to help slow the aging process. If you’re using the treatments they offer, you will see differences in how fast you’re aging as well as the side effects of that. Neither Carlton nor Deniz are doctors or scientists themselves, but surrounding themselves with medical experts in their field and using what they have available, they are able to help improve patients’ lives with the services they offer. Putting everything together, they are creating more and more opportunities for people to live healthy and fulfilling lifestyles. Traditional medicine and not advocating for your best health can sometimes make a 40 year old look or feel like a 70 year old, while the services and optimizations 4Ever Young offers can make a 50 year old look and feel like they are 30 years old again.  Moving forward, Carlton and Deniz are looking to expand the operations of 4Ever Young to locations all around the country and even globally. In the next five years, their goal is to be servicing patients in every state, as they realized there is a void in the market for affordable solutions to anti-aging. Eventually, they want to make their offices available to everyone in the world. To learn more about Carlton Washington, Deniz Duygulu, and 4Ever Young, click here. --- ## Joshua Brian Newman speaks on the marketing success he has had with his business URL: https://futuresharks.com/joshua-brian-newman-speaks-on-the-marketing-success-he-has-had-with-his-business/ Joshua Brian Newman is an entrepreneur who has turned his dreams into a reality with hard work and perseverance. Some of his biggest accomplishments are sales over 500,000 per month, getting his company Empire Wellness featured in high times magazine, working with celebrities and influencers on marketing campaigns, and turning one of his passions into his life work.  **** Joshua is both a successful e-commerce entrepreneur and investor in the marketplace. He found motivation to get started with his business by wanting to be the first in his family to become financially free and stable. One of the biggest challenges Joshua faced when starting his own business was the lack of initial capital. A challenge that most entrepreneurs face is leaving the comforts of a 9-5 job and W-2 to take the leap into the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship.  **** Like any entrepreneur, Joshua Brian Newman acknowledges the changing technology in the industry and is constantly adapting his business based on current world events like we just experienced in the pandemic. With the ever-changing modern world technology, it is extremely important for your business to have an online presence and focus on marketing appropriately towards your target market. Most of Joshua’s success has come from his ability to find a gap in the industry, and capitalize on this through great marketing and business skills. **** Empire Wellness is a company that works closely with a whole range of experts from farmers, chemists, doctors, and technicians to provide completely pure, clean CBD and cannabis strain specific terpenes for therapeutic, medical, and recreational use. Empire Wellness’ products are formulated using 99% CBD concentrate, so that the milligram dosage is carefully controlled, and the substance retains its potency. Their products are mostly available over-the-counter, and they are looking into expanding into a variety of exciting areas, including smoke and vape shops, dispensaries, health food stores, physicians and vets, and other medical facilities. Firstly, the team at Empire Wellness grows and harvests medical hemp on a large scale to produce plenty to go around. After this comes the processing and extraction process, to ensure that their product is as pure as it can be. It is Joshua Newman’s drive and perseverance to make a better life for himself and his family that drove him to be successful. To follow along with Joshua’s journey and learn more about his business, click here. --- ## Health Has Never Been More Important. Manna is Making Sure Your Immunity Measures Are Effective. URL: https://futuresharks.com/health-has-never-been-more-important-manna-is-making-sure-your-immunity-measures-are-effective/ Jeff Hill is a parent, and he and his wife made a conscious decision to ensure their household stayed healthy. A devotion to whole foods, plentiful portion sizes of fruits and vegetables, daily vitamin intake, and teaching their two young boys all about the importance of making healthy and nutritious choices. But, despite their focus on this as a priority, something strange kept happening: everyone in Hill’s family kept getting the common cold. In rounds. Now, the common cold is thought to be just that — common. We’ve all had a cold so many times that we start to think of it as a ‘rite of passage,’ or an annual occurrence. However, humans aren’t supposed to get sick like clockwork, or fend off the same cold time and time again. Since Hill and his wife were both into health, they started to look into why this could be. How, with so much attention to their family’s diet and nutrition, was this illness still happening? “After some digging around, I realized something: we were structuring our nutritional intake around the supplements that we were taking, thinking that we were getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals,” explained Hill. “And on closer look, the absorption rate of these vitamins were slim to none. While we were ingesting the nutrients, our bodies weren’t absorbing them, so they weren’t doing us any good.” **Creating Manna Vitamins** Hill recognizes that the lack of absorption quality of these vitamins was causing a major problem for anyone taking supplements: not just his family. “We rely on vitamins to make sure we’re getting everything we need to stay healthy and keep our families healthy, and if the products are faulty on a widespread scale, it’s detrimental to the health of the millions of people who take vitamins,” commented Hill. “I knew I had to change that.” Hill went on to spend the next several years working alongside experts to create a product with a reliable absorption rate. Manna Vitamins was born. As for what separates Manna from the other vitamins on the market, it comes down to Manna’s liposomal delivery. “We’ve employed cutting edge technology to combine the vitamins and minerals with ‘liposomes,’ which are similar to the cell membranes in the body,” shared Hill. Liposomes are the best and most effective way to deliver powerful nutrients such as Vitamin C, curcumin, glutathione, and more to the bloodstream. “These liposomes essentially protect the nutrients as they make their way through the body, ensuring they avoid digestive processes and make it into the bloodstream, which is where they can be adequately absorbed.” The work doesn’t stop when the nutrients make it to the bloodstream. The liposomes also attach better to the body’s cells, which facilitates quicker and more efficient absorption of the nutrients. And efficient it is, as some of Manna’s peer-reviewed studies have found that Manna is up to 500% more effective than store-bought, water-soluble vitamins. Some who take Manna even note that they’ve noticed a difference within 1-3 days. For others, it can take months, but one thing is for sure: the nutrients are making their way into the bloodstream, which ensures immunity is high and the chances of getting sick (or staying sick) is low. **Manna’s Products** Currently, Manna features the following vitamins and supplements with their proprietary liposomal delivery: - Liposomal COQ10 for supporting immunity and heart health - Vitamin C for improving immunity and nervous system functionality - Curcumin for anti-inflammatory measures - Liposomal Glutathione for a full body detoxification - Magnesium for brain health and memory improvement - Sleep complex for combating insomnia and more restful sleep - Vitamin B12 for boosted energy and improved memory - Zinc for immunity boosting or fighting the common cold - Vitamin D3 + K2 to protect bone and heart health All of their products are liquid, and can be taken directly from the bottle by spoonful or by being fixed in with a glass of water to dilute the taste. “While Manna Vitamins are considerably more effective than any vitamins you can buy from the store, we always return to a conversation around holistic health,” explained Hill. “These supplements are best taken alongside whole food choices, adequate exercise, restful sleep, and otherwise. We’re excited about helping people take greater charge of their health, and delivering them the security of knowing that their supplements are doing all they hope.” Their supplements serve many purposes and needs, but supplements are also a primary defense against COVID-19, the seasonal flu, and all other illnesses, which is why Manna’s efficacy is so important right now and always. --- ## Andrew Aziz of Bear Bull Traders Talks about Going Overboard while Trading and to How to Know When to Stop URL: https://futuresharks.com/andrew-aziz-of-bear-bull-traders-talks-about-going-overboard-while-trading-and-to-how-to-know-when-to-stop/ **Andrew Aziz (Ph.D., PEng), a best-selling author, trader, and founder of Bear Bull Traders shares how he made a name in the industry.** Andrew Aziz earned his Ph.D. in 2009 in chemical engineering and started working as a research assistant immediately. Things didn’t go as planned and seven months later, he was laid off. The company had to go through some changes that resulted in him and several others losing their jobs. This was a turning point in Aziz’s life as it dawned on him that life was unpredictable and he wasn’t sure he wanted to go through the same experience again. “*This was the moment I realized that the world doesn’t owe me anything. I have to make it for myself,” says Andrew.* He decided to take trading seriously and focused on learning the ropes. Suffering huge losses was a given, considering his lack of experience, and within five months he ended up losing all of his money from the severance package. Things got out of hand and he had to take another job so that he could pay the rent. However, Aziz had an advantage; his time zone. He lives on the west coast of Canada in the Pacific Time Zone, which means that the markets open at 6:30 am. He was able to trade in the morning before leaving to work at a 9-5 job. Andrew’s mornings start at 4:30 am, and by the time the market opens, he has caught up with the overnight news and has developed a solid game plan. Within an hour or so he wraps up his trading for the day. *“I’m in the habit of stopping trading after I make my daily goal, because I know I’ve done that a lot. If I keep trading, I lose my morning profits,” shares Andrew Aziz.* Andrew kept up with this same schedule for a little over a year, as he wasn’t consistent in his trading to be sure of making a living out of it yet. He strongly advises having a job that pays the rent during the learning curve. He also believes in starting with at least three months of trading simulation, and after that go live but make sure to keep it small. If in case you’re consistent in your live account, then every two weeks increase your share size. These strategies are what have made Andrew the best in the game, and he swears by them. Moreover, he has successfully created a community of independent traders that help members gain profits through learning the ins and outs of trading and achieve their desired profits. --- ## Independent Entrepreneur, Bobby Dee Presents is Making Waves in The Entertainment Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/independent-entrepreneur-bobby-dee-presents-is-making-waves-in-the-entertainment-business/ Being independent can be one of the more challenging tasks while navigating through the business world – even more so in the entertainment industry. “It takes dedication, patience, and perseverance,” Bobby Dee said. This is the type of dedication, patience, and perseverance that Bobby Dee has put into his 33 years as founder of Bobby Dee Presents, the entertainment company that produces some of the hottest concerts across the United States and internationally. Being independent can be very tricky, and that is part of why Bobby Dee explains that being independent is both a major advantage and challenge at the same time. When asked about what separates his company from his competitors, Bobby Dee said, “The fact that we are independently owned and operated, we make our own decisions.” However, in the same light, when asked about the biggest challenges that he has faced, Bobby Dee responded by saying, “My challenges along the way have consisted of, being an independent company and having to deal with major booking and talent agencies not taking you seriously.” You can see that being independent weighs heavily both positively and negatively, but Bobby Dee has certainly found plenty of success down the path of independence. Bobby Dee has great advice for young entrepreneurs. He said, “Remain patient, vigilant, and don’t let the doors slammed in your face get in the way of your goals.” Even Bobby Dee started out by doing shows for local night clubs back in 1987 when the company was first founded. Now he has partnerships with Snoop Dogg, and he works with promoters such as AEG and Live Nation. These opportunities would have never come about if it were not for the patience and dedication from Bobby Dee. If he had ever given up in his 33-year journey, then he would never have been able to work with the high-profile clients that he is working with today. What does the future hold for this successful entrepreneur? “I see myself continuing to expand our talent agency and continuing to bring unbelievable festivals across the world,” Bobby Dee said. He continued by saying, “We are going to continue to exceed everyone’s expectations and will eventually manage international artists.” The aspirations are high for Bobby Dee Presents, but there is nothing that his team cannot accomplish.   Follow Bobby Dee Presents on Instagram here --- ## Ashley Marie of A.MARIE reveals how ADHD helped her create her Fashion Empire URL: https://futuresharks.com/ashley-marie-of-a-marie-reveals-how-adhd-helped-her-create-her-fashion-empire/ *Founder of A.MARIE and popular jewelry enthusiast, Ashley Marie, talks about how she overcame  learning “disabilities” and is now the owner of a successful empire* Ashley Marie has been able to successfully disrupt the jewelry industry over the past decade, thanks to her “out-of-this-world” creations and the collections offered by her jewelry brand – A.MARIE. The experienced and passionate jewelry designer has been a creator all her life, as she started making jewelry at the age of 8. She found peace in jewelry making and would sell her pieces to family and friends at events. With the support of her mom, who enrolled the young Ashley at a local craft store to improve her skills, Ashley practically found her calling in designing jewelry– eventually leading her to create styles to make women feel beautiful and confident. Designing jewelry came natural for Ashley. However, as a child and young adult, scholastically she struggled. Ashley had a series of learning disabilities that were undiagnosed at the time which is what she contributes to her passion and need to design jewelry.  “*Turns out, I have ADHD and learning “disabilities” This whole time my brain was on overtime trying to accomplish what most people consider the simplest of tasks. Having unresolved ADHD literally sent me into a spiral of thinking so many things were wrong with my brain. Everyone thought that because I could sit still and make jewelry- that this was not even an option. Turns out that ADHD uses a completely different part of the brain which is the exact reason I was able to sit and design and make jewelry*,” said Ashley Marie. Thanks to her university, the issues surrounding her difficulty in learning were addressed and it was a 180 turnaround for the undergrad. “*NO MORE Fs! I ended up graduating with High Honors, president of Honor Society, and a double major*.. all i needed was a proper diagnosis and plan” Ashley said. “But I decided that I needed to create something on my own terms- being an entrepreneur allows me to navigate through my condition. I know what my brain can successfully process and what it cannot. I had to come up with my own thing and succeed at THAT. I was never going to fit into someone else’s box. My brain just didn’t operate that way.” It is a good thing Ashley was confident enough to make that decision as she is now, a decade later,  reaping the benefits of a successful empire. --- ## Dr. Justin Ranaan Sheds Some Light on His Philanthropic Contributions to the Community URL: https://futuresharks.com/dr-justin-ranaan-sheds-some-light-on-his-philanthropic-contributions-to-the-community/ **Dr. Justin Ranaan, an award-winning Beverly Hills periodontist and an active philanthropist, talks about his contributions to charitable organizations and his volunteering experience, to help bring smiles across the faces of many who don’t have the means and access to proper annual checkups.** Dr. Ranaan believes in giving back to the community in one way or another and actively tries his best to make a difference through his charitable organizations. He has been involved in volunteer work throughout his professional years and had the opportunity to travel on health trips organized by Christian Medical and Dental Association Mission Trips. He was one of the eight students selected to serve on an annual trip to underserved areas in Central America to provide comprehensive dental care and education. *“I have been privileged to serve with other dental students to El Salvador and Guatemala. These mission trips were very fulfilling because I was able to provide oral health care and education around the world,” says the Rotarian dentist, Dr. Justin Ranaan.* He has also worked with Queens Care Foundation in East Los Angeles, providing oral health screening and spreading oral health awareness to elementary school students in high-need areas. Dr. Ranaan is incredibly passionate about making a difference with the charitable organization, ‘Homeless not Toothless’, where he along with the other volunteers, treats the homeless and brings back their smiles. *“We are raising the pride and dignity of the homeless, foster youth, and underserved through quality dental services,” says Dr. Ranaan.* The ‘Giving a Smile Foundation’ began as an altruistic vision of Dr. Ranaan and his brother, whilst they were at Harvard. The foundation is a family-oriented operation based upon family values, as each child is treated as an extended member of the family. This kind of familial approach is exactly what drives and motivates Dr. Ranaan to revolutionize dental education and spread awareness to the underprivileged areas of Los Angeles. Dr. Justin Ranaan is also the co-founder of ‘The Bahar Foundation’ that promotes safe driving through education, community outreach, and advocacy. The foundation is also working towards providing alternate means of transportation to the ones who cannot drive. Other charitable organizations that have been privileged to have the services and dedication of Dr. Justin Raanan include Dental Mobile Clinic and AYUDA, both in Los Angeles. --- ## Nick Turner, CEO of DeliverEnd’s Rise from Humble Beginnings to Developing the App Store’s Next Unicorn URL: https://futuresharks.com/nick-turner-ceo-of-deliverends-rise-from-humble-beginnings-to-developing-the-app-stores-next-unicorn/ The next largest disruption to the App Store is here in the form of an extremely innovative delivery app called DeliverEnd. DeliverEnd is on a mission to making transactions through online marketplaces like Craigslist & Facebook Marketplace safe. You see, there are over 800 million users on Facebook that actively utilize the Facebook Marketplace and you may or may not be surprised by the amount of theft, robberies & assaults that have taken place during these exchanges. **Nick Turner is the black entrepreneur that brought this brilliant idea from personal experience to execution in delivering this efficient problem-solving app. The Founder & CEO of DeliverEnd experienced what can happen during these transactions first hand when a close friend of his was robbed during the exchange of an iPhone. This was a pivotal moment for Nick, but through that experience, he was able to develop an ingenious idea to make these online marketplace transactions safer. However, it was through his humble beginnings that he developed a call to be great.** Humble Beginnings **** Nick comes from very humble beginnings that not only keeps him grounded but also motivates him to always persevere. Nick and his family spent a few months homeless finding shelter through a local program living in churches two weeks at a time. During this time his Mom displayed grit, perseverance, and resilience which she instilled in Nick and all of his brothers and sisters. It was through this experience he quickly understood that what he wanted would be created not given. Throughout this hard part of his life, his mother continued to be positive and reminded him and the rest of his brothers and sisters daily how great they were doing and to keep believing in themselves. **It was this level of motivation that pushed him to excel in sports, and ultimately led to him playing division 1 football at Indiana University. The dedication & determination of Big 10 football led to Turner developing a deep ambition for consistently becoming better. A foundation that has transitioned well when developing DeliverEnd.** How Does It Work? **** Let’s take a quick inside look at DeliverEnd to understand further exactly how Nick and his team have been able to mitigate any risks involved in online marketplace transactions. To start off, both the buyer and seller have peace of mind understanding that both of their information is hidden from the other party. Their username is all they have in order to communicate. One of the most incredible features of DeliverEnd is its Live-Video Chat feature. This allows both parties to communicate, ask questions about the item, and decide on a fair price, allowing safe effective communication. **Once the transaction is processed, DeliverEnd holds the funds in a temporary escrow account until the exchange is completed. Once completed, the funds are quickly transferred to the seller’s account. Finally, similar to Uber and Lyft an approved DeliverEnd driver will pick up the item from the seller and drop it off at the buyer’s location. This process avoids any hand-to-hand transaction and allows both the buyer and seller to have confidence in the online marketplaces they participate on.** Next Steps for DeliverEnd**** It’s incredible how fast Nick & his team have been able to get the app up and running with efficiency. To date, DeliverEnd has made well over 25,000 item deliveries in its home city of Indianapolis and is actively raising capital to expand markets. With DeliverEnd’s flexible capabilities, they have also seen success in taking care of delivery services for B2B customers to reduce their fleet overhead and management costs. This allows B2B companies to save money on insurance, vehicles, drivers, and maintenance cost. They can even service individuals who need errands completed. DeliverEnd is at your service to deliver any items whether large or small (cleaners, groceries, furniture, etc).  **** DeliverEnd is consistently receiving attention from large companies, and most recently started working with Facebook to decide on locations to expand. The ultimate goal for the app is to integrate with the four main online marketplaces; Facebook, Craigslist, LetGo, and NextDoor. If they are able to enter that market, they have the potential to tap into a massive $5 billion annual revenue opportunity. Nick & his team members are moving fast and certainly have Silicon Valley buzzing with excitement. The service provides value, security, and peace of mind; an incredible combination. For more information, go ahead and check the DeliverEnd website or download the app here. --- ## How to Write Better Business Emails in 2026 URL: https://futuresharks.com/five-best-ways-to-enhance-business-email-correspondence-in-2020/ TL;DR: Great business emails respect the reader's time: one clear ask, a subject line that previews the decision, a tone matched to the relationship, and a CTA you can't misread. Use AI to edit, not to ventriloquize — and protect deliverability so the email actually lands. Most business emails fail before they're read. The subject line is vague, the ask is buried in paragraph four, and the reader — who has 80 other unread messages — files it under "later" and never comes back. Writing a better email isn't about sounding impressive. It's about getting a busy person to understand what you want and do it, fast. The good news: email is one of the highest-leverage skills you can sharpen, and the rules barely change year to year. What *has* changed in 2026 is that everyone now has an AI assistant one keystroke away — which means generic, over-polished email is everywhere, and the people who write with a real voice stand out more than ever. Here's how to write business emails that actually get answered. ## 1. Lead with the ask, then cut everything else The single biggest upgrade you can make: put your request in the first two sentences. Readers skim. If they have to excavate your point, you've lost them. Brevity isn't bluntness — it's respect. Aim for emails that fit on one screen without scrolling. Before you hit send, ask: *what do I want this person to do, and have I made that impossible to miss?* > **Before:** > "Hi Marcus, I hope you're doing well! I wanted to reach out because our team has been thinking a lot about the Q3 roadmap and there are a number of moving pieces we're still trying to align on, and I know you've been heads-down on the launch, but when you get a chance it would be really helpful if we could maybe find some time to sync up about a few of the open questions..." > **After:** > "Hi Marcus — can we grab 20 minutes this week to lock the Q3 roadmap? Two open questions are blocking the team. Wed or Thu afternoon work for me; here's my calendar: [link]." The second version is half the length and ten times more likely to get a same-day reply. Delete adverbs, hedges ("just," "maybe," "I think"), and warm-up throat-clearing. If a sentence doesn't move the reader toward action or understanding, cut it. ## 2. Write the subject line like a headline Your subject line is the only part of the email guaranteed to be seen. Treat it as a promise of what's inside, specific enough that the reader knows the topic and the stakes before opening. - **Vague:** "Quick question" → **Specific:** "Need your sign-off on the vendor contract by Fri" - **Vague:** "Following up" → **Specific:** "Re: invoice #2204 — payment status?" - **Vague:** "Meeting" → **Specific:** "Move Thursday's standup to 10am?" Front-load the important words — many people read email on phones where subject lines truncate around 40 characters. If the email is time-sensitive, say so in the subject, not buried below. And if your email contains a single clear decision, putting that decision *in* the subject line ("Approve $4k for the design contractor?") often gets it answered without the recipient even opening the body. ## 3. Structure for skimming, not reading Assume no one reads top to bottom. Structure the email so a five-second scan delivers the gist. - **Open with the bottom line** — context comes after, not before. - **One idea per paragraph**, two to three sentences max. - **Use bullets** for any list of options, questions, or steps. - **Bold the deadline or the decision** so the eye snags on it. - **Put one ask per email** when you can. Two asks halve your odds on each. If you genuinely need to cover several points, signal it up front: "Three quick things below." Then number them. A reader who knows the shape of an email reads it more carefully than one facing an unbroken wall of text. ## 4. Match tone to the relationship Tone is where most emails quietly go wrong. Too stiff and you sound like a legal disclaimer; too casual and you undercut your own credibility. The fix is to calibrate to the reader and the context, not to a fixed idea of "professional." A cold email to a prospective investor, a Slack-adjacent note to a teammate, and a reply to an upset client each call for a different register. Read your draft aloud — if it doesn't sound like something you'd actually say to that person, rewrite it. Some reliable defaults: - **Warm but efficient** beats formal-and-stiff for most internal email. - **Mirror the other person's style.** If they write in short, lowercase fragments, a five-paragraph formal reply feels off. - **Drop the corporate filler.** "Per my last email," "kindly do the needful," and "as previously mentioned" read as passive-aggressive. Say it plainly instead. - **Never write angry.** If a message stirs you up, draft the reply, save it, and reread it an hour later. You'll almost always soften it. ## 5. End with one unmissable call to action Every business email should make the next step obvious. A reader should never finish your email wondering "okay… what do you want from me?" Be explicit about the *what*, the *who*, and the *when*: > "Can you approve the budget by EOD Thursday so we can place the order Friday? If you'd rather discuss, I'm free at 2pm." Notice it names the action (approve), the deadline (Thursday), and an alternative path (a call). Compare that to "Let me know your thoughts," which invites a vague reply or no reply at all. When you propose a meeting, suggest specific times or share a scheduling link instead of asking "when are you free?" — every round-trip you remove is a day you get back. ## 6. Use AI to edit, not to ventriloquize By 2026, AI drafting is built into nearly everything — [Gemini in Gmail](https://workspace.google.com/) and [Microsoft Copilot in Outlook](https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/copilot) can generate a full email from a one-line prompt, and tools like Superhuman (now part of Grammarly), Shortwave, and SaneBox handle triage, summarizing, and follow-up tracking. Used well, these are a genuine force multiplier. Used lazily, they produce the bland, over-padded email everyone now recognizes and skims past. The rule that keeps AI useful without making you sound robotic: - **Draft from your own bullet points.** Tell the AI the facts and the ask; don't ask it to invent the content. You own the substance; it handles the assembly. - **Make it shorter, not longer.** AI's default is to inflate. Prompt it to cut, tighten, and de-jargon — the opposite of what it wants to do. - **Strip the tells.** Delete "I hope this email finds you well," "I wanted to reach out," "Furthermore," "In today's fast-paced world," and triumphant em-dash-laden closers. These scream auto-generated. - **Always add one human specific.** Reference the actual conversation, the real deadline, the inside detail only you'd know. That's what makes it land. - **Read every word before sending.** AI hallucinates names, dates, and commitments. You're accountable for what goes out under your name. Think of AI as a sharp first-pass editor, not a ghostwriter. The voice should stay yours. ## 7. Respect etiquette and response norms Speed and courtesy are part of the message. A few norms that mark you as someone good to work with: - **Acknowledge within a day**, even if it's just "Got it — I'll have an answer by Thursday." Silence reads as dropped. - **Use CC and BCC deliberately.** CC is for people who need to stay informed; reply-all is for when everyone genuinely needs your reply. BCC for protecting recipient privacy on group sends — never to covertly loop someone in on a colleague. - **Don't mark things urgent that aren't.** It's the email equivalent of crying wolf. - **Reply in the thread** so context stays attached, and trim quoted history when it's gotten long. - **Mind time zones and off-hours.** If you write at 11pm, schedule it to send in the morning — a late-night email can read as an expectation, not just a note. ## 8. Master the follow-up Most deals, intros, and approvals die not from a "no" but from silence. A good follow-up is the difference between a closed loop and a dropped one. - **Wait a sensible interval** — two to three business days for most threads, sooner only if there's a hard deadline. - **Reply to your original email** so the full context travels with the nudge. - **Add value or a reason**, don't just "bump." A new detail, a deadline reminder, or a simpler ask reopens the conversation. - **Keep it short and make declining easy.** > "Hi Dana — circling back on the partnership proposal from last week. Are you still the right person for this, or should I reach out to someone else on your team? Happy to send a one-pager if that's easier." That last line gives an out, which paradoxically makes a reply more likely. Two well-timed follow-ups are standard; past three, you're usually better off changing channel or moving on. ## 9. Protect your deliverability The best-written email is worthless if it lands in spam. Deliverability matters most for cold outreach and any bulk or automated sending, but the basics protect everyday email too. - **Authenticate your domain.** SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records tell mailbox providers your mail is legitimate. Since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo require these for anyone sending at volume — without them, you'll get filtered. Ask whoever manages your DNS to set them up. - **Warm up new sending domains and addresses** gradually instead of blasting hundreds of cold emails on day one. - **Avoid spam triggers:** ALL CAPS subject lines, "free!!!", excessive exclamation points, and link-heavy or image-only emails. - **Make unsubscribing easy** on any marketing or newsletter send — it's both the law in most places and better for your sender reputation than people marking you as spam. - **Keep your lists clean.** High bounce rates from dead addresses tank your reputation. Prune them. For one-to-one business email from an established account, you rarely need to think about this. The moment you're sending at scale, it becomes the whole game. ## The bottom line Better business email comes down to respecting the reader's time and attention. Lead with the ask. Write a subject line that previews the decision. Structure for the skim, match your tone to the relationship, and end with a call to action no one could misread. Use AI to tighten and edit — never to fake a voice you don't have — and mind the etiquette and deliverability basics that decide whether your message even arrives. None of this requires talent, just discipline. Pick two of these habits and apply them to your next ten emails. You'll feel the difference in your reply rate almost immediately — and so will everyone who has to read what you send. --- ## How Garrett Bair’s Constant Pursuit of Excellence Has Impacted His Career URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-garrett-bairs-constant-pursuit-of-excellence-has-impacted-his-career/ Garrett Bair has always had an affinity for athletics and fitness, and grew up with the hopes of attending college to play football. He would go on to attend The Ohio State University, but his football dreams took a back seat as majoring in pre-law had him devote all of his attention to his studies. But as he fell into a slump of alcoholism and uneasiness, his old love for fitness was rekindled when he began going to the gym with his friends. The gym was a release for him initially, but it quickly grew into an obsession. Garrett devoted his full attention to improving his physique, and he saw tremendous results. After returning home from his sophomore year at college, he received praises from his hometown friends. They all noticed how much muscle he’d put on at school, and how incredible his physique was. After that summer, Garrett began to seriously consider pursuing a full time career in the fitness industry. Putting actions behind his thoughts, Garrett decided to forego law school and begin training full time at a local gym. While working full time, he also began building a social media presence and a fitness brand. Because of his incredible work ethic and his awe inspiring physique, his brand quickly took off. Today, Garrett works as a social media influencer boasting over 200,000 followers on his Instagram, travels the country modeling for various photographers, and trains clients individually. The fitness industry is incredibly saturated, and Garrett’s ability to make powerful connections has been game changer for his brand. Aside from pursuing excellence in fitness, Garrett strives for greatness in all other aspects of his life. He’s never wanted to live an average life, and pursued entrepreneurship as a result. He was never satisfied with average grades, and achieved a 4.0 GPA in school as a result. When he created his personal brand, he was never satisfied with an average following and has hundreds of thousands of followers as a result. His relentless pursuit of excellence has afforded him the ability to live the life he wants, and he’s forever grateful for the life he’s created for himself. The only regret Garrett has at this point in his career is not pursuing fitness sooner. He knows that if he’d started years earlier he’d be much more successful now, but he knows that with the path he’s on he will be able to achieve everything he’s dreamed about and then some. --- ## Annie Luong’s The Green Light App Is A Hope For Better Living For Immigrants In America! URL: https://futuresharks.com/annie-luongs-the-green-light-app-is-a-hope-for-better-living-for-immigrants-in-america/ A lot of people wish to grow in their life and their career. Sometimes, the opportunities they seek are in different parts of the world. They do all the hard work to make sure their dreams come true. That’s exactly what Annie Luong, a Vietnamese immigrant, wanted to achieve in life. Years ago, at the age of 17, Annie left Vietnam to achieve her dreams in America. However, she had to face a lot of challenges.   We have been reading a lot about how immigrants don’t get decent treatment in many countries. For Annie Luong, the struggles in the USA were similar as she faced many issues because she wasn’t much aware of the laws there. It was quite shocked towards Annie, and she was taken aback as she had moved to America with lots of dreams and hopes. On top of that, she also struggled at school because of dyslexia not being able to read at the speed as her classmates.   In her words, Annie Luong shared her story of in the first few years. Annie said, “I was born with ( Asian Flush ) a genetic disorder prominent in Asian where a person lacks a certain enzyme necessarily for substance processing. I‘ve been suffering from it. Often time, if I get pulled over by an officer, I was always assumed to be intoxicated.”   After facing these obstacles and landing in troubles and embarrassment for not very good reasons, Annie Luong decided to help immigrants like her. She decided to help people who shift to America and are unaware of the laws in the states. Hence, she launched an app called – The Green Light App.     If one clicks on The Green Light App link, they will read several texts – Safeguard against potential injustice. Under this, she has posed numerous questions, and whoever downloads the application will get an idea of the law and the rights they have there as an immigrant.   About her venture, Annie Luong shared, “Because of a series of my misery, I understood others pain and started my project with the mission helping others.”   We truly inspired by Annie mission and especially when she said : “ I would do anything to not have one more person to suffer the ways I did. It is our responsibilities to make changes one day at a time. “   With her app, she also wants to focus on the current protests in Nigeria. Thousands of Nigerians have taken to the street and raised their voice against police’s violence (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) towards innocent people.   About the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria and how her application’s mission and visions are aligned to it, Annie shared, “We would like unity and no abusing of power to innocent people.”   Kudos to Annie Luong for trying to save lives and making a living better for other people. Despite having a rough start in America herself, she decided to use the experience for the betterment of society. --- ## Moses Mandelbaum – The Outlier Approach to Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/moses-mandelbaum-the-outlier-approach-to-business/ When Moses Mandelbaum started his company True Outliers, he understood his product would not appeal to everyone, but that is the very ideal that sets the company apart from others. After exceeding expectations and selling out of the luxury mink-lined parkas within the first year, Moses knows he is onto something special. He is building a business, while beating to the tune of his own drum, in True Outlier fashion – Unapologetically Canadian and Humans First. **** Growing up in the fashion industry, Moses always envisioned creating a beautiful winter parka made of sustainable materials that are warm enough, while being fashionable, to endure the Canadian winters. After years of testing and numerous prototypes, Moses came to the realization that the combination of a Teflon-treated cotton outer shell with a mink-lined fur parka was the winner. Although consumer preference has shifted to faux furs in recent years, Moses explains, “Real fur is environmentally responsible. From family owned fur farms to local stores and boutiques, even on a mass scale,  real fur is a renewable resource. When an old fur coat is done with, it can be sold and restyled. It has years and years of wear, before being discarded and eventually decomposed.” Moses tested a variety of furs, including rabbit and fox, and came to the conclusion that mink fur was the best option for several reasons including: warmest fur, light material, doesn’t shed and it is incredibly soft. **** Rather than attempting to appeal to a mass audience, Moses Mandelbaum opted to restrict distribution to the True Outliers website to maintain brand integrity. His methods have proven successful as there is more demand for the products than are currently available. As such, True Outliers implements a screening process. Before checkout, customers simply provide a few sentences about why they are inline with the True Outliers mission and their social media handles. This year they are offering a customized option to have the coat painted anyway desired, truly making each person who purchases a parka part of the True Outlier tribe.  **** Moses Mandelbaum doesn’t see himself as running a business, rather he views himself to be in a leadership position of like minded people. Everyone is equally valued and each opinion is important. Mandelbaum developed the True Outliers Campaign to highlight someone that demonstrates the values of a True Outlier. The definition of a True Outlier “is not only someone that doesn’t fit in. They embody a passion that is uniquely theirs. They do what they feel is right without any care of what everyone else is doing.” The company recognizes those that stand out from the crowd because they are different.  As the company and tribe continues to grow, True Outliers will offer new products such as vests, bomber jackets and mink blankets However, as he is a perfectionist Moses is only releasing them once he deems them to be perfect. Moses is on the quest to provide the perfect product for his tribe members. --- ## Youssef Amir, a Fitness Expert and the Founder of Udefy, Elaborates How His Business Helps Others URL: https://futuresharks.com/youssef-amir-a-fitness-expert-and-the-founder-of-udefy-elaborates-how-his-business-helps-others/ **Youssef Amir, a successful fitness expert and massage therapist, talks about how his business helps others achieve the same goals he achieved when he initially started his fitness journey.** After constantly battling with health issues and compromised movement due to his slouched position, Youssef decided to take the long-awaited decision that eventually changed his life for the better. He enrolled himself in a gym and hired a personal trainer to overcome his postural issues. Mostafa, his coach, had such a deep impact on Youssef that the massage therapist decided to impart his gained knowledge amongst the masses. Over the years, Amir has worked with thousands of people in the States as well as across the globe as a personal trainer. He also founded a company named Udefy, through which he helps people by giving them the tools they need to learn about their own body, bring it into alignment, and also build joint resiliency, all the while getting stronger and healthier. Youssef’s personal training business offers clients with movement assessments, personal training sessions as well as massage therapy services. *“We offer different programs that harmoniously match the person’s lifestyle and fitness goals. We reach people all around the world, and that’s what I love about the internet. It has given me the platforms to reach people all around the world and help make a difference in their life*,” *explains Youssef.* Youssef believes in constantly learning and growing, as knowledge is available in so many different forms in this age and time. He makes sure to learn as much as he can from world-class leaders in the industry and his own personal coach. *“I am also always open to new ideas, and I’m always on top of new research so I could better serve my people. Day by day try to be a better person than the day before. This adds up along the way and leads to greatness,” says Youssef.* --- ## Kagan Dunlap Shares How Befriending an Army Ranger Changed His Life for the Better URL: https://futuresharks.com/kagan-dunlap-shares-how-befriending-an-army-ranger-changed-his-life-for-the-better/ **Fitness and nutrition enthusiast, Kagan Dunlap, gets candid about his friendship with an Army Ranger who changed his life for the better and even inspired him to join the military.** Kagan Dunlap was born in Portland, Maine, and resided there from 1986 till 1998. His family then moved to New Bern North Carolina, where he attended middle school. After high school in 2006 Kagan chose to take a break from community college and started working in construction. He felt completely unfulfilled and realized he had much loftier aspirations so he decided to finish his associates’ degree at Asheville-Buncome Technical Community College. It was in Asheville, that Kagan met his future inspiration; an Army Ranger who had previously served in the Iraq war. The man had a significant impact on young Kagan and he was overwhelmed and inspired by the stories that his friend narrated to him. *“Not only did he inspire me to want to serve but he also really got me into fitness and weight training.  After I moved in with him I really started getting into bodybuilding and weight training to become stronger and better than I was before,” says Kagan Dunlap* His friendship impacted him so intensely that Dunlap even gave up all mind-altering substances – and hasn’t consumed any since 2008. Moreover, he had his mind made up quite strongly to get into the military. Kagan struggled for 7 long years for the chance to join the military service but due to the drawdown in troops after the Iraq War he was unable to get the waivers he needed to join the Army. After relentless pursuit of military service, he finally made the decision to attempt joining the Marines instead. A blessing in disguise is what Kagan describes his Marine life as. *“This ended up being one of the best decisions I’ve ever made not only because I was finally given the opportunity to serve but because of the strict lifestyle I already lived which really lined up with a lot of the standards that The Marines represented,” shares Kagan.* After his third deployment, Dunlap was selected for an enlisted commissioning program with the Marines which enabled him to remain on active duty and finish a degree. He chose to attend The University of North Carolina and major in Exercise and Sports science. Kagan is attending UNC at Chapel Hill currently and finishing his degree. He plans on getting his NASM CPT certification while he’s there as well as becoming a Certified Sports Nutritionist from the International Society of Sports Nutrition. Meanwhile, he is also working on growing his Instagram and youtube accounts where he plans on helping people through personal training experiences and recommending suitable diet plans.** ** --- ## David Albanese: Conquering the Cannabis Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/david-albanese-conquering-the-cannabis-industry/ David Albanese has ventured into numerous areas around the business world. Gaining fourteen years of experience within the real estate industry, David sought to discover a different passion to yield clear financial reward. Though the entrepreneurial field evokes fear in the beginning stages, David persevered to sustain the faith he held towards his dreams of success. David runs numerous businesses, but his most well known is High Farms where he continues to strive in uplifting merchants and growers looking to capitalize on the cannabis industry. **** High Farms is a cannabis technology and cultivation company that seeks to help new founded entrepreneurs form a successful venture business among the industry. Through the development of his career, he believes his failures and experiences have formed a well rounded work ethic in which helps others avoid those errors when forming a new business. **** High Farms’ centralized focus is around helping cannabis growers that are seeking to build their own business and formulate their transition within the legalities of the cannabis industry. The beginning process of growing a business is difficult to navigate and through David’s mission to help others, business owners are able to be connected with funding and partnerships to develop their professional brands. David has managed to lead the brand to exponential growth and is deemed the largest company of its form among their industry. High Farms work with a number of high-profile cannabis companies, including Area52, a retailer of lab-tested gummies and carts of the new popular cannabinoid Delta-8 THC. **** Through implementing research and study plans to strategically guide the business, David Albanese was able to lead the business to formulating a profitable business with respect around the industry. Patiently waiting for growth and achievements is normal, but David remained true to his mission, morals, and values. To personalize the brand, he places a strong emphasis on the need to improve the lives of those in need. Through the prominent vision of his business, a larger client base has developed overtime and resulted in higher reward overall. Customer satisfaction is crucial to maintain a regular foundation for clients, which in turn leads to further referrals.  **** David Albanese has led the High Farms executive team to expand their outreach to uplift local organizations including DRAGG, PAL, Oxnard Downtowners, and Kiwanis International. High Farms is constantly looking to carefully curate and build an integrated presence among the community and is currently vying for one of eight cannabis dispensary licenses. In terms of future plans, David Albanese plans to continue uplifting the cannabis industry and those seeking to grow as a business within the market. Following, David is seeking to further research and discover ways to innovate the cannabis industry to gather a larger customer base across the globe. To follow along with David’s business and future ventures, click here. --- ## How to Increase Sales With SEO in 2026: A Practical Guide URL: https://futuresharks.com/10-best-ways-to-increase-your-business-sales-by-using-seo/ TL;DR: SEO in 2026 means optimizing for AI Overviews and generative search, not just blue links — win by matching intent, proving real expertise (E-E-A-T), and engineering the path from click to checkout. Most "SEO for sales" advice is stuck in 2020: optimize your title tag, build some links, watch the traffic roll in. That playbook is broken. The search results page you're optimizing for no longer looks the way it did. As of early 2026, Google's AI Overviews appear in roughly 25.8% of US searches, and over 58.5% of searches now end without a single click ([SeoProfy](https://seoprofy.com/blog/google-ai-overviews/)). Pew Research found a 46.7% relative drop in click rates when an AI Overview is present. The traffic you used to count on is being intercepted by an answer box. But here's the part nobody wants to hear: **SEO didn't die — it changed shape, and it still drives sales.** Brands cited inside an AI Overview see 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than non-cited brands on the same page ([SeoProfy](https://seoprofy.com/blog/google-ai-overviews/)). The winners aren't the ones with the most pages. They're the ones search engines and AI models trust enough to recommend at the exact moment someone is ready to buy. This is how to be one of them. ## 1. Optimize for intent, not keywords The single biggest shift: stop optimizing pages for keywords and start optimizing them for what the searcher is actually trying to do. Every query falls into one of four intents: - **Informational** ("how does SEO increase sales") — they want to learn. - **Navigational** ("Future Sharks SEO") — they want a specific site. - **Commercial** ("best SEO software for small business") — they're comparing options. - **Transactional** ("buy Ahrefs subscription") — they're ready to act. Sales come from the bottom two. Informational queries are where AI Overviews dominate (they trigger 39.4% of the time) and where clicks are evaporating. Commercial and transactional queries are far safer — e-commerce queries trigger AI Overviews only about 4% of the time ([SeoProfy](https://seoprofy.com/blog/google-ai-overviews/)). **The takeaway:** weight your effort toward commercial-investigation and transactional pages — comparison posts, "best X for Y" roundups, product and category pages, pricing pages. That's where searchers convert and where AI is least likely to eat your click. ## 2. Win the AI Overview, don't fight it You can't opt out of AI Overviews, so engineer your content to be the thing they quote. Generative search runs a simple pipeline: crawl, parse, synthesize, cite. Your job is to be easy to parse and worth citing. - **Lead with the answer.** Put a direct, 40–60 word answer to the page's core question right under the heading, then expand. AI systems extract these "answer-shaped" passages. - **Use clear heading hierarchy and short, self-contained sections.** Each H2 should answer one question completely so it can be lifted as a citation. - **Add original data or first-hand experience.** Original research, proprietary numbers, and genuine expert commentary are what get cited — recycled summaries don't. - **Keep facts current.** Research from 2026 shows older articles consistently lose ground to refreshed ones on the same topic. A quarterly refresh with a visible "last updated" date is now standard ([LLMrefs](https://llmrefs.com/generative-engine-optimization)). ## 3. Extend SEO into GEO (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) People now research purchases inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is making sure those tools recommend you. Concretely: - **Publish an `llms.txt` file** at your site root — a curated index of your most important pages that gives AI crawlers a clean map of your site ([LLMrefs](https://llmrefs.com/generative-engine-optimization)). - **Check your `robots.txt`** so you're not accidentally blocking AI crawlers (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended) from the pages you want cited. - **Build presence off your own site.** AI models synthesize from across the web — get mentioned on industry roundups, comparison sites, Reddit threads, and review platforms, not just your blog. - **Track AI Share of Voice.** Test 50–100 buyer-style prompts across the major AI engines and count how often you're mentioned versus competitors ([LLMrefs](https://llmrefs.com/generative-engine-optimization)). That's your new rank tracker. ## 4. Make E-E-A-T a real thing, not a checkbox Google's quality signals — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — are now the connective tissue between traditional SEO and AI citations. The content AI models trust and recommend shares one profile: original, expert-attributed, and topically authoritative ([Keywords Everywhere](https://keywordseverywhere.com/blog/google-e-e-a-t-guidelines-an-overview/)). The "first E," Experience, carries real weight now. Google wants proof of first-hand involvement. - **Put real authors on your content** with bylines, photos, bios, and credentials that are verifiable across other sites. - **Show your work.** Screenshots, original photos, case studies, and "we tested this" data signal experience no AI can fake. - **Tighten trust signals** on money pages: clear contact info, real reviews, refund and shipping policies, security badges. Thin or anonymous content is exactly what 2026 core updates demote. ## 5. Fix the technical foundation None of the above matters if engines can't crawl, render, and trust your site. The non-negotiables: - **Core Web Vitals and speed.** Slow pages still bleed rankings and conversions. Use Google PageSpeed Insights, compress images with a tool like TinyPNG, and lazy-load below-the-fold assets. - **Mobile-first, always.** Google indexes the mobile version of your site; if it's clunky on a phone, you lose. - **Structured data.** Implement Article, Product, FAQPage, HowTo, Organization, and Breadcrumb schema, then validate with Google's Rich Results Test. Schema is how AI systems parse and attribute your content. - **Clean crawlability.** Fix broken links, eliminate redirect chains, keep a current XML sitemap, and prune thin pages that dilute your authority. ## 6. Build topical authority, not random posts Google and AI models reward sites that comprehensively own a subject, not ones with scattered one-off articles. Pick the topics where you can actually win sales and cover them in depth. Build **content clusters**: one pillar page targeting the broad commercial term ("SEO software"), surrounded by supporting pages answering every related question ("best SEO tools for agencies," "Ahrefs vs Semrush," "how much does SEO software cost"). Interlink them so authority flows to the pages that convert. Depth signals expertise; expertise earns citations; citations earn sales. ## 7. Don't ignore local SEO If you serve a geographic area, local search is the highest-intent, highest-converting traffic you can get — and AI Overviews now synthesize local answers directly from Google Business Profiles, reviews, and site content ([Alchemer](https://www.alchemer.com/resources/blog/optimizing-google-business-profile-ai-2026/)). A 2026 shift worth knowing: Google now weighs real-world engagement and profile interaction more heavily than pure domain authority — a newer business with an active, well-maintained profile can outrank an established competitor ([MapRanks](https://www.mapranks.com/2026/01/12/how-google-business-profile-rankings-impact-local-seo-in-2026/)). So: - **Complete your Google Business Profile fully** — correct categories, every service listed, hours, and fresh photos. Incomplete data gets excluded from AI answers entirely. - **Generate a steady stream of genuine reviews.** Quantity, quality, and consistency all count. Photos especially drive directions, calls, and website clicks. - **Create location pages** with genuinely local content, not templated city-swap spam. ## 8. Engineer the path from click to sale Traffic is not revenue. This is where most SEO efforts quietly fail — they rank, get clicks, and convert nobody. - **Match the page to the intent.** A commercial-query visitor should land on a comparison or category page with a clear next step, not a 3,000-word essay. - **One obvious call to action per page.** Tell them exactly what to do next: start trial, add to cart, book a call. - **Reduce friction.** Fast checkout, visible pricing, trust signals, and answers to objections (shipping, returns, guarantees) right on the page. - **Capture the ones who aren't ready.** Most visitors won't buy on the first visit. Offer a lead magnet or email signup so you can follow up instead of losing them to a zero-click world. ## 9. Measure revenue, not rankings Rankings are a vanity metric in a zero-click era. Track what ties SEO to money: - **Assisted conversions and revenue by landing page** in GA4 — which organic pages actually contribute to sales. - **Search Console queries and impressions** to spot rising commercial terms before competitors do. - **AI Share of Voice** to see whether you're gaining or losing ground inside generative answers. - **Conversion rate by intent type**, so you can double down on the page types that print revenue. If a page ranks but doesn't assist a sale, it's a candidate for a rewrite or a redirect — not a trophy. ## 10. Refresh relentlessly SEO is not a launch, it's a maintenance habit. AI engines weight recency heavily, and stale content decays fast. Set a quarterly cadence: update statistics, refresh examples, re-validate schema, fix dead links, and re-confirm each page still matches what searchers want today. Update the visible "last modified" date when you do meaningful work — both Google and AI systems notice. For the strategy behind all of this, [*They Ask, You Answer* by Marcus Sheridan](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119610141) remains the clearest framework for turning buyer questions into content that actually sells. ## The bottom line SEO in 2026 still drives sales — but only if you stop optimizing for the old search results page. Win by matching real buyer intent, becoming the source AI systems quote, proving genuine expertise, and engineering a frictionless path from click to checkout. Chase rankings and you'll lose. Chase trust and revenue, and search will keep paying you back. --- ## Sergej Heck Creates App for Decentralized Finance and Cryptocurrency URL: https://futuresharks.com/sergej-heck-creates-app-for-decentralized-finance-and-cryptocurrency/ Sergej Heck’s journey to success isn’t your typical story. His background was familiar enough: He graduated from high school, undertook an apprenticeship, and became an engineer for a large automobile company. He made good money but felt unhappy with his career. He didn’t want to answer to a boss or be bound to any particular location or office. Heck became a successful network marketer, where he learned sales and presentation skills. Then, he transferred to two unconventional fields: entrepreneurship and cryptocurrency. In 2017, Heck founded blockchain-hero.com to educate people about investing, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. He was already an early investor in many different cryptocurrencies and had experience as a multi-entrepreneur. Soon after, Heck founded Coinkurier.de, a website that informed readers about cryptocurrency news and how the world was adapting to this new technology. Three years later, Heck’s blogs are among Germany’s top cryptocurrency blogs, averaging 300,000 to 600,000 visitors a month. Heck’s latest creation is PeakDeFi, which touts itself as a “one-stop solution for taking control of your decentralized finances.” Users can create a non-custody mobile Ethereum wallet in less than a minute and enter the revolutionary world of decentralized finance. Then, users can easily borrow, lend, send, purchase, and stake cryptocurrency. PeakDeFi’s wallet offers a simple view of your assets. You can see your positions in various cryptocurrencies, how much they’re worth in different currencies, and how much your portfolio’s value changed in the last 24 hours. You can also easily find information about your tokens, create QR codes for receiving cryptocurrency, and change transaction speeds to reduce gas costs. The app also allows users to participate in other blockchain protocols, such as lenders (Compound, Aave, Maker, etc.), decentralized exchanges, or derivatives (such as Synthetix). Perhaps PeakDeFi’s most important feature is its security. Users who create blockchain-based wallets will be the only ones with access to their assets. The app stores private keys in a safety local secure vault in the device, giving it the same security as a hardware wallet. Of course, the app requires authentication to log in, meaning people still can’t access your wallet even if you lose your device. After its launch, the innovative cryptocurrency app took off at great speed. It hit 1,250 downloads after just a week on the App Store, and received over 1,000 downloads after two more days on the Google Play store. But this is just the beginning. Heck has ambitious plans for the future of his app. One upcoming feature is a decentralized exchange that will allow users to send and receive tokens. “The app will be a one-stop solution for all DeFi and all crypto businesses,” says Heck. “Users will also have the possibility to earn passive income through Staking or other apps in the near future. The PeakDeFi app will also interact with other blockchains outside Ethereum.” --- ## Meet Matt Palmquist – a 6’10” marketing Guru standing above the competition. URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-matt-palmquist-a-610-marketing-guru-standing-above-the-competition/ He started, struggled and now is finding his way to grow his agency to stand above. With a vision that may exceed normal comprehension, Matt Palmquist, is finding more ways to stand out creatively and not just physically. **A man is what he grows up to be, so how were the younger years?** Growing up just outside of Austin Texas in a small town called Bastrop, life was as normal as any childhood can be. Sure we had our ups and downs but I played basketball with a small group of friends so we were always protected in a sense. I graduated high school and moved on to the Division I level of playing college basketball at the University of Texas Pan American. I was on my way to the NBA, so I thought. I was so bad, so naive those first few months! It was definitely an eye opening experience! I found myself doing the little hustle things to get on the floor. It paid off, as I played all four years of eligibility and eventually was made the team captain for the final two years of my collegiate career and finished up in the top 10 in the program record book for blocks, minutes played and field goal percentage. It opened more doors for the NBA game, where I had a tiny glimpse of playing professionally after trying out for 3 individual teams. Devastated by not making a lifelong dream a reality, I never knew at the time how important the connections and lessons I learned would help impact my life until this day. Although playing professional basketball was not my final call, it has instilled lifelong core values of the importance of hustling and practicing good habits daily. All great habits of an entrepreneur if you think about it. I try to relay this outlook to my 19-year-old son, Evan Palmquist, now plays for McNeese State University as the point guard. I’m super excited and am extremely proud to see the legacy being carried forward. **When a normal career in marketing was not enough** I was living in Houston at the time to be closer to my son in his High School years. Things were as it should be for any normal professionals. But for me, I always felt I needed more. More for myself but more importantly for sanity. Working for a large advertising agency was getting frustrating as their business model of ‘Quantity vs. Quality’ was not satisfying. After a discussion with my then girlfriend and now wife, Tessa, the decision to start a business of my own that matches my ethos and working ethic was realized. The lessons those early years as a professional made it clear to me that clients want to be treated special. They don’t want to feel like they are just another client to us. So my approach of running their campaign with a personal touch gives them an experience that builds lasting relationships beyond the business lines! Born of this approach is, 610 marketing & PR (If you haven’t guessed yet, named after my height), my boutique ad agency. Why try to fit in, when you are meant to stand out? **The ride** Being your own boss is indeed rewarding but it comes with its own challenges. In my time, I have definitely seen wins and losses but never take either of them to heart. This business is a marathon, not a sprint. Basketball has taught me enough sportsmanship to savor the wins but never stops practicing and when you lose, there is always the next game to play. I am blessed that my business has put me in touch with many businesses, hustling to build what they believe in and it’s been a blessing to help them establish their name. It is a marathon, not a sprint. At the end of the day, I ultimately will be judged for the overall body of work we deliver at 610 Marketing & PR. **How do we tackle our business?** We started with one loyal customer, a car dealership, that valued my communication, originality, proficiency, and transparency. Starting from something small, it has grown its reach and has been servicing clients in the digital space helping build their brand by creating unique marketing strategies for close to 5 years now. Coming from a sports background, I understand I cannot do it by myself or take all the credit. I am very fortunate to have some of the best and most creative people on my team helping everyday. Everyone from Carolina, who handles day-to-day operations, to Michael Bishop and Aaron Gilliam who handle videography and photography. Their work, respectively, is on point and so crisp everytime! Chris Thornton is our S.E.O specialist and website developer and if you want to be found online, Chris is the man to get you there. I couldn’t ask for a better team, honestly! **What’s a business without a vision?** The digital world has always been ever-changing and we’re all set to keep up with it. I envision to be consistent in delivering the curated experience for each of my clients that in-turn help them make their vision a reality. From a Public Relations approach, we can personally reach out to Global, National & Regional news outlets/media from Forbes, Good Morning America, Fox News and ESPN to the Washington Post or your local TV affiliate station. With the right story and the correct budget, we can make it happen. We are blessed that we can always rely on those valued connections. From a digital marketing approach, COVID has changed the market scenario and showed us that even the greatest of economies, businesses can still struggle when the lord wields his stick. As for the business climate, it has shown that every business now has a need to build their online presence. Being digitally available is now fundamental for a business to reach its audience. Ways of servicing have been put to the test and it will be the survival of the fittest. In my opinion, the fittest would be the ones that are able to make their presence felt and be available for their customers even in quarantine. The need for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or phone apps is vital as the usage of phones and the internet has only risen at an accelerated speed. We are beyond fortunate given our vast network/contacts and proven track record, that we also will be looking to work closely with more professional athletes, individuals with political aspirations and a unique startup company, G Water LLC (their technology and revolutionary molecule they have found will change the world by the way). I am really excited to see these next few years unfold from a business standpoint. **Work-life balance is a must** Being a business enthusiast doesn’t mean that you work your life off. Although I live/breathe/eat/think work close to 15-18 hours a day, it’s necessary to have an interest other than work that helps you unwind. Giving back is fulfilling, as I currently sit on 2 non-profit Boards. A non-profit advocacy group, Verify My Lawsuit, that helps accident victims navigate the process after an accident and a coalition group, Americans for Growth, to help lobby for issue reform in Texas. To conclude, I absolutely love what I do! The everyday thrill of creating campaigns that overcome obstacles, surpass client expectations and deliver results is satisfying! There is a saying that, ‘you should be happy with what you do have versus unhappy with what you do not have.’ I agree entirely with that statement! I am blessed. But deep within my soul, is a sense of desperation to keep moving and making things happen. Similar to sharks, they move to eat, they move when they sleep but they must keep moving to stay alive. It is constant. ‘Constant Movement with Purpose’, a motto I live by sums it up the best. --- ## How To Grow A Successful Amazon eCommerce Business with Willy Lin URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-grow-a-successful-amazon-ecommerce-business-with-willy-lin/ Willy Lin is a specialist from Singapore who is recognized in the eCommerce industry with his self-created 5 Steps eCommerce System Coaching Programme. Using his set of self-taught e-commerce strategies, he successfully cleared off his debts of over $300,000, and after a bit, he crossed seven figures in eCommerce profits annually. In 2014, Willy Lin founded WAH Academy. Since then, he has focused his energy on grooming aspiring entrepreneurs to become successful by leveraging the power of Amazon FBA. ## About WAH Academy Willy stated that WAH Academy is the short term for “Work-At-Home” Academy. After the outspread of his successful Amazon eCommerce venture, many contacts would come around and ask if he could share his strategies with them to “work at home” during their free time and create their own Amazon eCommerce businesses. He thought it was a compelling idea, so he started the company to impart what he knows about creating a profitable e-commerce business. Willy never regretted his decision because helping his students achieve their desired results at Work-At-Home Academy is way more meaningful and relevant than any other job he used to have. He thought it’s so liberating to discover that he has the expertise to guide others to succeed. Willy Lin feels that he can genuinely make an impact on the world through his ways. ## Growing His Business In the early days when Willy started his business, the promotion was mainly through word of mouth, and then he leveraged on the website “Meetup.com.” After that, he converted to Facebook and Youtube Ads to market his company and its services. In the case of WAH Academy or Work-At-Home Academy, the business created a name for itself because Willy and his team have helped many students reach their desired results. When their students accomplish things, they would give them great testimonials and refer more people, which caused their company to boost their image among individuals. For the time being, his company has scaled up over the years as they qualify people before joining their coaching program. Some of their students who have developed a successful e-commerce business using Willy’s strategies also decided to join their team as coaches. This scenario results in a positive learning cycle because they will learn more about e-commerce while coaching others in their businesses. ## His Secrets To Virality In His Most Successful Platform Will shared that they can gain virality or sales, specifically through Facebook, because they can openly share their knowledge and skills. For example, they would provide bits of useful information on their Facebook and Youtube Ads, such as strategies on “How to collaborate with influencers to launch your private label products on Amazon.” What they share are real tips that people can straightaway apply to their businesses. Through this method, individuals can see that they are sincere in helping them achieve success instead of just boasting about their company’s accolades. Hence, Willy and his company gained more recognition throughout the years. ## About Marketing On Amazon In contrast to the widely-known strategies of using paid traffic on Amazon to drive sales, Willy finds that it is much more effective to work with influencers to market the products. Influencers will introduce or present your products to their followers, and their followers will suggest your products to their networks or acquaintances if they find it reliable. Willy said that this idea creates a scalability effect and helps you receive traffic from outside of Amazon, which is preferable than just using Amazon Sponsored Ads. Amazon Sponsored Ads is not a practical method to depend on in the long run because it is too expensive to keep up. When it reaches the peak shopping seasons, the amount of money you need to maintain your Amazon Ads running will burn a hole in your pockets. ## Achieving Better Success Rate Than Other Training Companies According to Willy Lin, WAH Academy has done much better than most training companies because they have a very stringent process of choosing who they work with. From his years of coaching others, he realized how essential it is to have the right attitude when starting an e-commerce business. Willy shared that people who are determined to make this venture a success will influence and spur on others around them, such that everyone can advance together. At WAH Academy, Willy wants to create this positive environment for many students so that everyone can get their desired results. He set this as his responsibility and promise to all students when they joined WAH Academy. To maintain his student community’s integrity, he implemented the “strategy call” method that allows his team to interview interested participants to join his coaching program. This technique will help them filter out people who are not serious about setting up a successful e-commerce business. Willy and his team believe they can maintain a high success rate by enrolling only the people they think are a good fit for their coaching program. Once individuals are registered, WAH Academy promises to coach them until they become successful. ## Best Books He Has Read Some of the best books that Willy Lin has ever read are the following: 1. Cashvertising – Drew Eric Whitman 2. The Will to Win – Robert Herjavec 3. Digital Millionaire Secrets – Dan Henry ## His Biggest Life Lesson From Willy Lin himself, his most important life lesson is to have consistency and determination for successful entrepreneurship. If an entrepreneur does not have the character in what they are doing every day and doesn’t have the determination to overcome any obstacle, one will fail in this journey. ## His Foresight About The Future Willy Lim foresees that there will be more people who want to build an e-commerce business for themselves. Also, he visions that WAH Academy will be helping such aspiring entrepreneurs. By then, more people will recognize the value of business coaching companies like Willy and his company. Furthermore, his dream is to continue working with some of the best entrepreneurs out there and help them achieve success. As his favorite quote by Bill Phillips says, “The difference between who you are and who you want to be, is what you do.” --- ## Tim Da Jeweler: Best in Jewelry Design URL: https://futuresharks.com/tim-da-jeweler-best-in-jewelry-design-ibt-sg/ Tim Da Jewler is the head designer behind TSV Jewelers, a jewelry design company that specializes in creating a wide range of men’s jewelry. While Tim has extensive expertise, his primary focus is on custom hip hop jewelry necklaces, earrings, and chains.  **** Tim is originally from Pittsburgh, California. This was where he first got introduced to jewelry, more specifically; he learned about jewelry aesthetic during a period that was referred to as The Hyphy Movement. “At the time I was working in insurance, but I didn’t have a real passion for it, my passion was in jewelry.” Those passions led Tim to buy and sell wholesale jewelry. Eventually, he began studying the craft so that he could design his own custom pieces.  **** Although the craft taught Tim about the aesthetics of jewelry design, the true gem was learning more about the different types of stones that were available for use. Today, Tim and his team work with a variety of stones including, CZ stones, lab simulated diamonds, real diamonds, moissanite, natural VS, VVS and more. This diversity has enabled them to develop a unique approach that caters to a wider range of budgets. “Jewelry is about making people feel and look good, I wouldn’t want to deny that feeling to someone because of their budget.” As a result, Tim works with budgets ranging from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands.  **** One of Tim’s future goals is to serve more clients across the country. From the start, he built TSV as a fully digital operation, enabling him to service clients anywhere around the world. “Being fully digital has given me a lot of flexibility in terms of servicing my clients, it’s also helped me to avoid certain overhead costs.” As a black jeweler, Tim also wants to serve as a role model for others, showing them that they too can be more than just consumers.  Learn more about Tim and TSV today. --- ## Stephen Scoggins and Achieving Personal Breakthrough URL: https://futuresharks.com/stephen-scoggins-and-achieving-personal-breakthrough/ One’s hardships and adversities throughout their upbringing mold them into the person they grow to become. The obstacles and experiences that unfold over the years teach the lessons they will encounter in the future which in turn may lead them to the greatest success. Stephen Scoggins’ adversities growing up had allowed him to build a successful empire through his many different avenues among the entrepreneurial world. **** Encountering homelessness from a young age led him to muster the courage to discover his passion to help others that would guide him in all areas of his life. Stephen Scoggins, founder of The Journey Principles Institute is a best-selling author, award-winning entrepreneur of multiple businesses with multi-8-figure revenues, a motivational speaker, and the creator of the proprietary Life-Mastery Framework affectionately named, “Transform U.”  **** Stephen Scoggins’ mission is, “People are not living a life they love not because they are incapable, but because they do not know how to get there. They are out there in the world floating on a boat – and I am the rudder to give them direction. I help people reclaim hope and give them the practical steps to help give them the transaction they are looking for to transform their lives and take them from stuck to unstoppable.” The troubles and challenges Stephen has faced has helped him guide others to achieve their versions of success through the following of his famous framework.  **** Through his Transform U, Stephen’s goal is to provide complete clarity not as a guru, but as a guide. His work allows clients to view the aha moment where all the pieces are put together. Stephen builds on organization to collect an actionable plan to reclaim hope within their lives. Though chasing dreams may be scary, Stephen believes it is imperative to understand what each individual’s highest potential truly is and how to reach that milestone.  **** At present, Stephen Scoggins owns six businesses in total including a residential services company, a commercial services company, a manufacturing company, a personal development and real estate holding company. Each of these companies embody a different framework yet contribute to Stephen’s long term goal to uplift people throughout the world. All of his businesses hold a different team and revenue lanes yet all equate to just under nine figures in top line revenues on an annual basis. In terms of future plans, Stephen Scoggins plans to continue the expansion of his businesses and further developing his most famous Transform U live, a four day live event that inspires others to bring about a plan of action. To follow along Stephen Scoggins’ businesses and future endeavors, click here. --- ## How Paulina Zelman’s Childhood Passion Is Shining Brighter Than Ever Before URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-paulina-zelmans-childhood-passion-is-shining-brighter-than-ever-before/ Paulina Zelman has always had an affinity for music, and has played instruments such as the piano and guitar since her youth. She’s always relied on music through everything she’s gone through in her life, and it continues to bring her happiness. She’s become accustomed to playing music privately in her room, and expresses some of her most personal thoughts and emotions through her music. Because of this, her decision to release her very first album wasn’t an easy one. She had to overcome the fears and insecurities of what other people would think of her, and it took great courage to reach that point. Once she did release the album, her courage was rewarded. Dubbed “One and Only”, the album was met with tremendous praise for its vulnerable, authentic lyrics and its amazing showcase of musical talent. With all of the praise she’s received, Paulina has had to deal with those who put her down or disrespected her because of her music. She said that it was challenging, but she is learning to accept that some people that she cares about just don’t have the capacity to be supportive of her music. Regardless of what anyone thinks, she now has all of the confidence in the world to release more music moving forward and continue making a positive impact on anyone listening. Now that she has the courage to release her music, the only thing she wished she knew months ago was to release her music sooner. She says that she wishes she told herself, “Believe in yourself no matter who doubts you, no matter how many times you fail and please recognize your worth.” Now that she has the confidence in herself, the sky’s the limit for Paulina in her musical career. Paulina is eternally grateful for her family, as both of her parents as well as her grandparents are musical. They have always guided her to have music as a passion, and have been by her side every step of the way ever since she first learned the piano at just 7 years old. Her family has also taught her the importance of kindness and empathy, and she was raised to always be nice to people and show compassion to everyone. Paulina’s loving, selfless personality shines through in her music, as the main themes in her music include love, friendship, confidence, and happiness. She’s never held anything back with her music, and Paulina is more inspired than ever before to continue making music and doing what she knows best. --- ## How A US Military Vet Continues Serving Others Through Entrepreneurship URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-a-us-military-vet-continues-serving-others-through-entrepreneurship/ There are many breeds of sharks in the ocean, and the same goes for the business world. One interesting breed of shark we see derives its beginnings from the public sector. These are individuals who serve the public in a service capacity, be it firefighters or US Military veterans. A career of service brings a different mindset to the shark mentality, and it can be traced back to the desire and mission of service in this shark’s entrepreneurial pursuits. After serving 8 years abroad in the US Air Force and returning as a Government Consultant in Washington D.C., Kelly Cooper is a prime example of how this desire to continue service translates into her brand mission. Kelly Cooper is the founder of Tomato Superstar, an online boutique that encourages girls to live authentically at www.tomatosuperstar.com, operated by Kelly Cooper Designs, LLC. The brand services an altruistic mission where proceeds from each sale go to non-profits combating human trafficking and the marginalization of girls around the world. This mission of service fuels the brands motivations to succeed and gives Kelly a platform to continue her service to others in the private sector. Kelly is not unlike most of us, as having children dramatically changed the shift of her focus in her career. As a successful Consultant after her military career, success began to take on a different meaning for Kelly. It wasn’t until she had her first child Hannah, and later Josiah, that she would take the full plunge into entrepreneurship. She had a strong desire to create a success that allowed her more flexibility to enjoy time vs money. Kelly knew taking her passion for fashion and combining that with her desire to help others would create a brand that she would be happy to pour her heart into day in and day out. Success takes on a different feeling at this level of altruistic brand focus. It has heart, it’s complete, and that feeling can often supersede material success. Kelly Cooper is an authentic shark in this respect. She’s balanced fashion with a strong mission while enjoying family and redefining her success. If you ask Kelly about her success, she’ll tell you about the people she’s been able to help, she’ll tell you about her family, and she’ll tell you that it’s possible for you too. She says, “Failing Forward” was her greatest strength against adversity, and a strong mission connected to a desire to continue service has been the recipe for this success story. Kelly is proof that you can come from a non business background and translate those skills and desires into a career fueled by mission and passion. Her brand Tomato Superstar continues to serve the trafficked and marginalized communities through monetary non-profit donations. Follow Kelly and Tomato Superstar on their mission of good @tomatosuperstar on Instagram. Parenting is hard enough, but starting a business during that time can prove an even bigger challenge. By focusing on the things that mattered most, her children, Kelly Cooper turned Tomato Superstar into a brand that makes the world her kids grow up in a better place. --- ## This Entrepreneur’s Ascent to Success Is One to Admire URL: https://futuresharks.com/this-entrepreneurs-ascent-to-success-is-one-to-admire/ Italian entrepreneur and leading hospitality & beverage influencer Luca Missglia knows better than perhaps anyone that the path to success is far from a straight line. While it may seem as though he took a straight path to success, what the outside observer fails to see is the hours of hard work and dedication he put into his craft to become successful. After dropping out of school in Italy, Missaglia booked a one way ticket to London to pursue his dream of working in the hospitality industry to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. He worked as a barista to support himself while he learned the English language, showing that he was willing to put any amount of work in to become successful at his passion. After getting a mixology job at a leading cocktail bar in London, his talents were quickly recognized by two respected restaurateurs. They offered him the opportunity to run the entire operation at a restaurant and club in downtown London, and Missaglia’s year of hard work to learn the English language and master his craft had paid off. He wasted little time making the most of his opportunity. His accolades quickly began to grow as he won cocktail competitions left and right, and he would go on to join a hospitality group as the bar director. He managed bars in numerous outlets worldwide, and managed to perform exceedingly well in 2 cocktail competitions and be nominated to a “Hospitality 30 under 30” list in the process. Today, Missaglia is a global brand ambassador for a leading international beverage company, works with some of the world’s leading bartenders to educate them on the trade and how to best serve their consumers, and promotes “Italian aperitivo drinking culture” around the world. Missaglia found the inspiration to become an entrepreneur from a very young age. He grew up in a family where his parents were always hard at work, and it made him come to the realization that he wanted to work smart and have his freedom rather quickly. His career path has certainly allowed him to do that, as he is still able to make use of his free time and have an international approach with his career. His career is so dramatically international, in fact, that he finds himself in several different countries in the matter of hours. He once flew into Rome in the morning, left Rome by train for Turin, and flew back to London all within a matter of hours. His career has been this fast paced and demanding ever since he got started all of those years ago, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything else. --- ## Hayden Hall: An Entrepreneur Scaling His College Startup Nationwide URL: https://futuresharks.com/hayden-hall-an-entrepreneur-scaling-his-college-startup-nationwide/ Twenty-two-year-old Hayden Hall, founder and CEO of ClassRanked, an educational technology company and college registration tool, is a trailblazer. Every year, over 20 million college students register for their semester courses. More and more, students are turning to online platforms to help with enrollment. Two years ago, Hall and his friends, Dilan Trivedi and Max Labaton, were like any other students – circled around their computer screens in a dimly lit dorm room in Edens House at Duke University deciding which classes to take. Existing sites, such as RateMyProfessors, with 10-year-old subjective and unhelpful reviews were not going to cut it. The trio asked around the hall for suggestions from friends and began messaging others using platforms such as GroupMe and Facebook. It was clear to Hall that the system was antiquated and ClassRanked was born.Two years later, Hall and his team have significantly expanded, hiring more developers and recruiting a large network of brand ambassadors. The company utilized this marketing strategy as a low cost way to reach hundreds of thousands of students by identifying student influencers and having these students promote the site to their social circles. The website that started as a hobby project to help fellow students has now launched at over 350 colleges and universities nationwide. ClassRanked has added more data and features as well. With over 450 Million individual grade distributions, the company offers concrete data on student performances in classes. They integrate that data along with end of the year surveys, user reviews, and machine learning schedule recommendation functionality to comprehensively take the guesswork out of registration. The team even enabled users to upload course resources in August – already accumulating thousands of syllabi, study guides, and old exams.Though young, with most of Hall’s team under the age of 25, they have no plans of exiting anytime soon. Hall says that as ClassRanked’s user base continues to grow, the company is focused on adding new features to revolutionize the experience of his college aged peers. ClassRanked is ready to compete directly not only with other review sites such as RMP but also larger educational technology such as Chegg and Course Hero in the future. --- ## 10x Your Life with Grant Cardone URL: https://futuresharks.com/10x-your-life-with-grant-cardone/ Grant Cardone is an international sales expert, business innovator, motivational speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. His books include *If You’re Not First, You’re Last*, *Sell or Be Sold*, and *The 10X Rule*. His latest book, Be Obsessed or Be Average, is due for release later this month. Grant is the creator of the Grant Cardone Sales Training University as well as his own television network through which he produces “Whatever It Takes,” a series that challenges job seekers to see if they make the cut to join his company, and “Cardone Zone,” where he offers business, career, and financial advice. Check out this interview with him: - **What inspired you to get involved in the sales side of business, and subsequently to ****start writing?** I got into sales decades ago after I graduated college with an accounting degree but couldn’t find much work, so I landed a sales job instead. I sucked at it until the age of 25 when I finally committed to it and became a true professional. I wrote sales training material for my own company but didn’t officially write my first book for the masses until 2008, Sell to Survive, which later became Sell or Be Sold. I knew my material needed to get out to more people. - **Tell us about the inspiration for shows like “Turnaround King” and “Whatever it Takes?”** “Turnaround King” was a TV show where I wanted to demonstrate that I could sell anything to anybody, anywhere, and that even the worst performing businesses could be turned successful if they just implement the right sales techniques. Everything in life is a sale and everything you get is a commission. “Whatever it Takes” is a motto that I hold and was the original name of GrantCardoneTV. More people need to be willing to do whatever it takes to make their dreams come true. - **You detail what it took to close deals with television executives in The 10X Rule. What have been some of the biggest takeaways or lessons from those endeavors?** It takes a lot of work to get a TV show. The lesson is that you have to be sold on something more than anyone else. If you aren’t sold on it, it’s not going to happen. The world isn’t going to come and make your dreams come true. - **What tenet of The 10X Rule do you get the most feedback on or do you believe resonates the most with people?** We all can relate to the four levels of action that the book talks about. They are: doing nothing, retreat, normal, and massive action. We all, at different times, have experienced these four stages. The book is popular because people relate to it, they know it’s true, and there is a solution to their problems. It’s not an easy solution — taking massive action — but it’s better than any alternative. The truth is, it takes more work staying poor for a lifetime than getting rich once. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/b19f47cea392.jpg) - **Are you currently working on any books?** I just finished Be Obsessed or Be Average. This book is epic. You’ve said the principles of selling can be applied to all aspects of life. How so? I wouldn’t have Elena as my wife if I didn’t know how to sell myself. I called her twice a month for 13 months before getting a date. Having been in sales for a number of years, I knew the difference between complaints and objections. There is a difference between creative persistence and stalking. Elena will tell you she never felt threatened by my pursuit. I kept it light and sweet. I never creepily stood outside her house, and never made her feel wrong for not calling me back. But I stayed persistent and sold her on letting me take her out on a date. It was a sale, though no money was exchanged. - **Of all of the books you’ve written, what is the best business/strategy tip you’ve given people?** The Closer’s Survival Guide is packed with specific closes and word tracks you can use to close the deal. It’s great, GREAT material that will jack your income up if you learn them, practice them, and use them. - **How do you maintain or find new inspiration?** I have purpose. Without purpose, it’s just a job. I’m not into just punching a time clock. I have a reason for working. My advice for anyone out there in need of inspiration: find your purpose. - **Do you have a formula for success?** # Stay positive. You will not be successful if you are a negative person. Have a no-negativity-allowed policy because those around you can drag you down with their negativity. - **What’s one rule that guides your life?** I take responsibility for everything that happens in life. Nothing happens to me, I cause things. If a hurricane hits and my home has no power, that’s not the weather’s fault — that’s my fault for not having a generator. Take responsibility for EVERYTHING in life. When you give up responsibility, you give up control. Then you are just a victim. - **What time do you usually get up in the morning?** I like to see the sun pop up. In fact, I like to beat it. I’d encourage everyone reading this to be the first one up in your neighborhood. - **Do you have any daily routines that keep you grounded?** I like consistency. I wake up, work out, eat healthy, go to work. The more consistency you can have in life, the more productive you’ll be. Don’t just wing it. - **How do you prioritize your most important tasks?** It’s pointless in my view to worry about time management and balance. I’m not interested in balance. I am interested in abundance in every area. I don’t want to sacrifice one in favor of another. Everyone’s priorities are different. But if success is a goal, then I would suggest you spend most of your time doing things that will create success. Don’t spend so much time creating to-do lists — just start taking action. - **What have been the most important contributors to your success?** When I was 25 I invested in myself with a sales training program. I’ve learned many things since, but that initial commitment, that decision to better myself, was what propelled me to where I am today. - **Do you have a mentor?** I’ve had many mentors. That doesn’t mean I sit with them in person over coffee. I can be mentored by someone through one of their books. I’ve been mentored by Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, Napoleon Hill, and many more. - **What’s the most valuable advice you’ve received that contributed to your personal or professional success?** When I was 25, I went to visit my mom and at that time was drunk and on drugs. She told me to not come back until I got my life together. Being kicked out of my own mom’s house was the best thing that could have happened to me - **What would you say to someone who’s struggling and questioning whether or not to keep going forward with his or her business or entrepreneurial pursuit?** If you believe in your product or service— I mean truly believe in it, then you will stick with it. You have to learn sales skills no matter how much belief you have, but that’s where it starts. You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to get rich, by the way. Get a job at the right company and invest wisely — not everyone needs to have a startup. - **Is there one book you’d recommend people read that’s inspired you personally?** Napoleon Hill’s [*Think and Grow Rich*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585424331). *Photos courtesy Grant Cardone* --- ## Caleb Breakey On The Four Secrets To Writing A Book That Leaves A Lasting Impact URL: https://futuresharks.com/caleb-breakey/ What is a book worth, if it does not inspire you, educate you, or help you solve a problem? My name is Caleb Breakey, and I’m a book writing consultant. My incredible clients have hit all the big lists: New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and even the #1 book on all of Amazon. My life is all about writing, and I am determined to solve the biggest problem facing writers today:*How do I get my book in front of those who need it most?* I spent 10 years winning contracts in traditional publishing. But I knew something had to change because I’d only sold 20K books. What good was a message, after all, if you couldn’t get it out to the world? Now I get to help hundreds of authors write books and build platforms so they can reach their readers and transform lives. Are you being called to write a book and impact lives? Then this article is for you and will kickstart your publishing journey. ### Start with the truth. You cannot write a great book if you haven’t *become* the book first. Some writers like the idea of being perceived in a certain way (whether or not that perception reflects reality). A good writer shares their authentic self, no matter how messy, and aims to tell the truth. This will help you connect with hundreds of thousands of people. It is your heroic cause. Think about challenges you’ve overcome and the knowledge you gained along the way. How did you move from pain to redemption? This is where great books arise from. This is where you help others step outside of their comfort zone and begin the transformation process. It helps them get through heartache. It moves them from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. ### Surround yourself with the right team. You can have all of the right ingredients for a feast but still not know how to cook. This is why I consult YouTube before I ever open my grill. I have the right food, but I am not a grillmaster. This is why lots of influential people and aspiring thought leaders partner with book collaborators. Because even though they are gifted, they lack necessary skill sets to reach massive amounts of people. Surround yourself with a team that is strong where you are weak. ### Understand your reader inside-out. If you say your book is for everybody, then it is for nobody. Sabri Suby says, as a writer, *“your focus should be on intimately understanding your readers’ deepest desires, pain, fears, hopes, and dreams.”* Picture yourself 10 years ago. If you were to give your younger self advice, knowing what you know now, what would you say? Your answer will help you understand the one person you must write for. And when you write to one, you write to thousands. ### Book publication is a beginning, not an end. Your book can be fantastic yet never be read. Think about those videos that show world-class musicians performing in subway stations, only to see unaware people walk by as though passing a starving entertainer. Authors rarely get their books in front of those who need them most. This happens because they look at their book publication as an end, not a beginning. Knowing this, and taking action on it, is what separates the 1 percent of writers who reach hundreds of thousands from the 99 percent who reach five thousand people or fewer. Book publication must be a beginning, not an end. --- ## The Law Firm That’s Making Personal Injury Law Make Sense URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-law-firm-thats-making-personal-injury-law-make-sense/ Content: Law isn’t exactly an area many of us find exciting or even accessible – unless it’s hitting the news for someone being on the wrong side of it or winning a big payout. In fact, having to deal with aspects of the law can often lead us into a spiral, and this is even worse when we’re already stressed by our personal circumstances. Fortunately, Century Park Law Group is changing this for the better. There are approximately 278,000 personal injury cases each year nationwide. That means there are over 1000 US getting hurt each day. This is a difficult statistic to swallow, especially when something happens to you and you feel like you’re the only person in the world who doesn’t know what to do next. If you’re in California, however, you need not worry. Century Park Law Group has revolutionized the personal injury space by making it more accessible and understandable for California residents. With the tagline, “We’re Making the Law Make Sense”, they are 100% dedicated to making personal injury law easy to understand. They’re not just forward-thinking in how they’re approaching personal injury law, either. They have three offices across California, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland and have been completely paperless to better communicate with clients. Client care is their absolute number one priority, which is crucial if you’re dealing with a personal injury claim. When you or a loved one has been injured, there are often physical injuries to deal with, medical bills, mental anguish, and other aspects of life that have been turned upside down. You need an attorney that is going to fight for you and give you the support and time you need to get back on your feet – sometimes literally. That’s exactly what Century Park Law Group does. With the sole focus on injury claims, they work tirelessly to ensure their clients get the full compensation they deserve. One of the ways they’ve become so easy to talk to and contact is because they’re doing the majority of their marketing through Instagram, which makes them extremely accessible for anyone who has been injured and is scrolling through their phone as they recover. Better still, anyone who follows them gets frequent updates on what they should do if they are in a circumstance where they may decide to claim – such as an auto accident. This kind of knowledge isn’t something many people know, but the evidence you collect in the seconds, minutes, and hours after an accident (when possible) are the most important. Century Park Law Group have experienced attorneys and staff that understand what it’s like to fight for either side of the personal injury argument, so they can anticipate the ways in which an insurance company may try to avoid paying out the compensation you need to get your life back on track. Only 28% of personal injury claims in the US go uncontested, so you must be ready with the right people in your corner to advise you on when you should take an offer to settle out of court, and when it’s time to push it so you get what you’re due. Sometimes, just having an accomplished attorney on your side will be all you need to get the right settlement fast – allowing you to relax and get on with your life. So, if you live in California you absolutely must follow Century Park Law Group on Instagram to learn all the vital information you may need to know or pass on to a friend in the future, and so you know where to head should the worst happen. Unfortunately, things like auto accidents happen every day, and so you need to be fully prepared so you don’t have to wonder what to do when you’re stressed to your limit. Click here to follow them @cplglaw, or see their website here. --- ## Off the Ice and Into Hollywood- Pierre Balian Continues to Build His Accomplishments URL: https://futuresharks.com/off-the-ice-and-into-hollywood-pierre-balian-continues-to-build-his-accomplishments/ No matter what he dives into, Pierre Balian never fails to be wildly successful. His competitive, creative and authentic abilities are what sets him apart from other entrepreneurs.  With the extraordinary combination of fashion, music and marketing, there is no doubt that Pierre’s name will go down in history. Although born and raised in the sunny city of Los Angeles, California, Pierre spent most of his childhood and early adulthood on the ice. Starting at the age of nine years old, Pierre worked tirelessly to become an olympic figure skater. Working towards his dream, he spent every early morning and late night at the rink. His whole life was solely dedicated to figure skating, leaving him no time for other activities. But at the age of 26, Pierre’s life was turned upside down. During the European Championship, a competition to qualify for the Olympics, he sustained an injury that ultimately ended his figure skating career. For 16 years, figure skating dominated Pierre’s world. Despite this massive curveball life threw at him, Pierre persevered and enrolled himself in the design program at The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandise. “*I dedicated most of my life to a particular sport- a certain career and then it didn’t work out quite how I wanted it to. But even starting midway through that at 27, I was able to reinvent myself, spark a new career and become successful at it. The message of that is that it’s never too late to do what you really want to do*,” said Pierre. Pierre made great strides in the fashion industry immediately after graduation as he became the stylist for Jeremih, an American singer, songwriter, rapper and record producer in 2012. Quickly moving up the rungs of the Hollywood ladder, he became the assistant stylist for the cover shoot of Chris Brown’s album “X”, opening up his world to rare opportunities that most only dream of. Through his love for music and dedication to the industry and his career, he was able to create long-lasting connections with not only Chris Brown and Jerimih, but Justin Bieber, G-Eazy and many other billboard artists. “*My favorite part of what I do is being in the studio, creating music and changing people’s lives- one song at a time*,” said Pierre. Being constantly in the studio surrounded by amazing musical talent, Pierre quickly learned the ins and outs of the industry. His knowledge expanded immensely, to the point where Pierre diverged from styling artists to managing them. In 2017 he created his own LLC, a musical management and production company called “For the Culture Couture”. In addition to being the founder of this company, he is also the co-founder of “The Viral Marketer”, a company that helps brand and advertise smaller-budgeted artists. “*In our business, we have a lot of clients that come in and say ‘Hey we paid this person to do this for us but they disappeared on us after receiving payment’. We are different- we are in the art of taking care of our team and also making sure people feel at ease and know they are in good hands. We want people to feel comfortable doing what they are doing, which is giving us money, and knowing that we are gonna deliver satisfactory results*,” said Pierre. But Pierre is not stopping here. He is beginning to dive into the international music world, specifically working with Latin artists. His main focus is to bridge the gap between Latin and American artists. He is currently working with Maffio, a Grammy award-winning music producer, composer to help achieve this goal. Recently, Pierre was in Miami to work with Maffio and two Latin artists on the rise. One of Pierre’s most amazing qualities is his ability to work and connect with different types of people. Not only has this helped him expand his platform over the years and create ties with well-known artists, but also gave him the ability to help underground artists rise to the surface. With his sedulousness and painstaking skills, he is able to perfectly craft and produce multiple music projects rapidly. *“My work is very fast because I know what I want and how I would like to make it. It’s very easy for me to come up with the ideas that I do, for every particular artist according to their likes and their needs. When people work quickly, things move a lot faster*,” said Pierre. Expanding his horizons over the years, it is almost unquestionable that Pierre will create a successful record label in the near future, as he sees himself doing. His long lasting connections with various artists and wide ranging platform gives him more than the ability to do so. With his inspiring work ethic and dedication, Pierre continues to strike multiple industries for the better. --- ## The Benefits of Switching from Twitch to Facebook for Streaming URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-benefits-of-switching-from-twitch-to-facebook-for-streaming/ Many are unsure where to begin their streaming careers, between Twitch and Facebook. Twitch is the original streaming platform and is still the largest, whereas Facebook Gaming is on the rise and synced with Facebook profiles. Ummer Naviwala, aka “Omareloff”, made the decision to move over to Facebook for his streaming career, and now has 220,000 followers on Facebook.  **** Many new and aspiring streamers look for recommendations on which they should start on, or the key differences between the two platforms and how those differences can affect a streaming career, Naviwala shared his key reasonings for his switch. “While it’s certainly a matter of personal preference, the following points of differentiation factored greatly into my decision to switch to Facebook,” he said. **** 1. The culture.  **** “It’s true that the culture of the two platforms are different, and I believe this comes down to anonymity available to gamers on Twitch. Since everyone flies under the radar with made-up usernames and the absence of real photos, there are higher rates of toxicity within the viewer’s comments and in messages with other streamers and viewers,” Naviwala reflected. “This ‘mask’ of anonymity makes it easier to say something ill-mannered or hateful, and in my experience, made the comment sections more negative and fueled by toxicity than they should’ve been.” **** By contrast, on Facebook, both viewers and streamers participate with their actual Facebook profiles. “This means that anything they say or do can be seen by their Facebook friends, and their real identity is shown, which commands a higher sense of responsibility over what they say,” advised Naviwala.  **** Anyone can go look at viewer profiles. Anonymity can only be achieved if they’re playing or viewing from a Facebook alias account, which negates the point. ****  “As a result, I’ve found that the culture on Facebook is more respectful, and it’s also easier to make genuine friends and connections. This contributes to a sense of community. I’ve learned from growing my own audience that it’s not so much about growing your followers as it is about growing your community, which means that real and authentic conversations are had frequently. I’ve met some of my best friends through streaming on Facebook, and often felt alone or secluded when I used Twitch.” **** 2. The ability to grow an audience. **** Because growing an audience is imperative for monetizing your streaming, it’s best to focus your efforts on a platform in which growing your following is easier. Naviwala said that he was able to grow a follower base on Facebook far more quickly — at an almost exponential rate as opposed to his years on Twitch. This is, in part, due to the fact that Twitch is a niche market.  **** “Viewers on Twitch come on to watch what they want to watch, and the algorithm favors the big creators as a result. In trying to grow a Twitch following, the only real way to gain any leverage is to get a streamer with a larger audience to give you a shoutout or a raid, or to host your page while they’re offline. This is very hard — almost impossible — to secure, especially because the bigger streamers are constantly being asked for favors like these.” **** Additionally, Naviwala said that some streamers on Twitch rely on external ads to drive traffic to their channel, but even then, it’s better to be able to grow organically. “Growth on Facebook happens naturally. I asked my friends and family to share my page and my live streams, and because my friends and connections were already on the  platform, it became easier to get more views and shares.” **** As a result, since moving to Facebook, Naviwala’s audience has grown substantially and he says that he’s been able to devote his full-time career to streaming, whereas on Twitch, he could only commit to streaming as his passion project since his audience was smaller and harder to grow. In fact, Business Insider recently published an article stating that gamers reported that they’re making more money on Facebook Gaming than on Twitch or YouTube. Of course, this is if you’re chosen for Facebook’s “Level Up” program, but you can get to that stage more quickly by leveraging your current friends and family online.  **** Which is exactly what Facebook gamers are doing. And, to put this into context, Twitch is still the platform with the most number of streaming hours (both played and watched), which is a nod towards the opportunity on Facebook to more quickly grow an audience and make a potentially full-time salary streaming.  **** “I believe that streamers should switch to Facebook if they’re serious about growing their audience while also cultivating community, as the overarching difference I observed between Twitch and Facebook was the ability to scale quickly and genuinely,” Naviwala concluded. --- ## How and Why Adam Jacobs Decided to Take Over a Failing Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-and-why-adam-jacobs-decided-to-take-over-a-failing-business/ Business acquisitions happen all the time – but usually, the entrepreneur takes over a successful business and scales it from there. Adam Jacobs is the managing director of Bubblegum Casting, Australia’s longest running talent agency. But, he took it over under interesting circumstances: it was failing at the time.  However, his story as to why he made that bold choice is unforgettable. His acquisition of the talent agency was a tribute to his late younger sister. Since, he has grown the business to great heights and tremendous success, expanding into partnering businesses, too. Here’s how — and why —  he did it. His Sister’s Legacy “I first decided to take over Bubblegum casting because my sister was in it when she was a young person, and she was a very successful member of the agency – probably the most successful person in the agency’s history. She passed away sadly on my birthday and I thought this would be a way of memorialising her,” he shared. “A lot of people do different things in order to memorialise a loved one and for me, keeping this agency running was what I decided to do. Initially, this business was going to be a small side hustle because I had a bunch of other successful businesses running and doing incredibly well. I was very proud of what I was doing,” Jacobs explained.  Quickly, the side hustle became his main focus.  “Now, this business is doing tremendously well probably because I’ve fallen in love with the industry. I fell in love with the casting process, and I also think it helped that I had a really good and compelling ‘why’ for making the business work. It seems to just have organically happened,” he reflected.  **** Tips for Steering a Failing Business in the Right Direction From this experience, Jacobs learned a thing or two about how to get a business back on its feet. “I guess when you decide to take over a failing business, you have to have a vision for what the business could become,” Jacobs explained. However, he clarified: “I don’t think if you’ve never been in business before that taking over a failing business is a good idea. I think you need to be able to see very clearly the systems and processes that you would implement straight away to rectify what had originally been going amiss.”  **** This is exactly what Jacobs did, and with great success. Whereas the business was originally making $28,000 per year when Jacobs first took it over, they brought in $28,000 (the exact same amount) the first month of operations. In addition to processes, Jacobs says that “You need to be able to see the opportunities.  I realised that there were tremendous opportunities for expansion for growth. The business’s reputation was still relatively intact but it wasn’t doing well, so we rectified that and moved fast.”  **** Growth through Diversification Opportunities **** Jacobs has repeated this process as he’s launched in other cities, with locations now in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney: all through his vision of potential growth opportunities. This led to diversification: “We  launched another agency (Hunter Talent) which is the fastest growing adult talent agency in Australia. Then, we launched the photography studios to support additional revenue streams for the business and a clothing brand to facilitate other opportunities for our talent. This is how Bubblegum Casting works as the nucleus for further expansion into several other endeavours,” he explained.  **** Jacobs recently hired a general manager to oversee operations of Bubblegum Casting, but he continues running the others. “I still run the group which is Hunter Talent,  Windsor Photo Studios, Byron Babies and another business as well,” he explained.  **** As for advice for other entrepreneurs who want to take over a failing business, Jacobs once again stresses that it’s a bad idea to do so if you’re a beginner. “You need to be bringing something to the table that can fix the business,” Jacobs explained.  **** If you do have the experience, though, now is one of the best times to act quickly. “Right now, the market is absolutely right for people to be buying businesses. You can also buy  businesses from entrepreneurs who have almost given up.  There are huge opportunities!  I’m seeing amazing opportunities and I’m looking at my next potential endeavours,” he shared.  **** Jacobs’ story hopefully inspires you to look for your next potential endeavours, too.   **** --- ## Celebrity Fashion Stylist Dennis Kenney’s Rise To Fashion Fame URL: https://futuresharks.com/celebrity-fashion-stylist-dennis-kenneys-rise-to-fashion-fame/ A combination of determination sheer talent and a hunger for excellence proved to be the winning formula that propelled Denis Kenney into fashion superstardom. ## The Catalyst Kenney earned his way into the spotlight and consequently into the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world by using the resources available to him to showcase his talent. That’s right, he was able to leverage the value of social media and that plus his passion and drive got him the rest of the way. He started out by using social media platforms to display the stunning looks he’d created. This caught the attention of millions of people around the world, especially celebrities who needed a style genius to ensure that their appearance always represented what they wanted it to. Kenney is simply fantastic at this. ## A Groundswell Kenney’s popularity ballooned after his social media debut as more and more brands started to pay attention to him. He had something that was new and fresh; a willingness to step outside the fashion box and push the style envelope. The fact that all his bold fashion choices ended up being big hits led more and more people to recognize and gravitate towards him. Kenney continued to leverage thepower of social media as a means of both sharing his talent with the world and advancing his career in the industry. This resulted in the acquisition of over 70,000 followers who depend on his @stylewithden Instagram page for invaluable fashion advice. As you would expect, Kenney’s influence is growing daily, triggering contestant growth in his followership. ## The Evolution of a Fashion Entrepreneur Spurred on by this groundswell of interest in what he has to offer as well as his innate drive to reach the zenith of the fashion and design world, Kenney took another bold step. He entered the world of [fashion entrepreneurship](/omer-h-paracha/). The first step was the launch of his original fashion brand NONDK, which boasts a collection of tops, bottoms, dresses, and accessories for both men and women. His pieces are so multifunctional and attractive that they appeal to an international audience. Then he took his fashion game to the next level with the launch of his company Style With Den. Style With Den has been responsible for the gorgeous looks sported by many celebrities. He also continues to be sought out by national and international entities for his creative talents. Thanks to Kenney’s massive social media fan base the large retail store 260samplesale.com decided to recruit him to join their team as the creative director for their advertising and marketing division. As the subsequent growth in his international following shows, this was another winning move. Kenney and his brand are poised to fully dominate the international fashion scene. His millions of followers and fans from around the world know it. They’ve felt and witnessed the magnificence of his sheer talent and passion for fashion. Undoubtedly, in short order, it will be clear to the whole world. For more inspiring business case studies and articles, follow the posts below: - [Aaron Ware drops out of high school and grows a business making $20 million annually](/aaron-ware/) - [Justin Kan sold his company Twitch.Tv to Amazon for $970M](/justin-kan/) - [How to use Google My Business for SEO – With Kraig Bond Elite Results Marketing](/how-to-use-google-my-business-for-seo-with-kraig-bond-elite-results-marketing/) --- ## Frederick Hutson: A Story Of Innovation And Determination URL: https://futuresharks.com/frederick-hutson-a-story-of-innovation-and-determination/ Today millions of people know Frederick Hutson as the business maverick who is at the helm of a communications solutions company with an immense global reach. But there is a story behind this amazing success. And that story is full of inspiration and priceless life lessons. The story begins in Brooklyn New York, where Hutson spent his youth with his mother and three siblings. After leaving high school, he served in the air force and was honourably discharged at age 23. His affinity for entrepreneurship became increasingly evident while he served in the air force. He demonstrated incredible [business prowess](/tony-robbins-interview/) by launching several successful businesses, one of which he later sold. ## Challenged by Adversity His strong penchant for problem solving and entrepreneurship landed Hutson in trouble with the law. He figured out a clandestine and efficient method for the distribution of marijuana which involved the use of the USPS, DHL and Fed Ex. At the age of 23, he was caught, charged, and incarcerated to serve a sentence that would last 51 months- major setback number one. But it was a setback that Hutson would later use a stepping stone to his success. ## Pushing Past Adversity As he served his sentence, the natural entrepreneur in Hutson saw something no one else did. There was a problem that needed to be solved and solving it could earn him millions of dollars. The problem was that existing regulations and limited availability of services made it difficult and expensive for inmates to stay connected with the people on the outside of the prison walls. Hutson’s urge to solve problems pushed him to think of a solution. Upon being released from prison, Hutson ramped up his efforts to convert his business from concept to reality. Like any astute businessman he knew he needed funding in order to do so. So he reached out to potential investors. This is when he encountered major setback number two. Most investors shied away from his offer because of his background as well as the fact that the business’ target market would include incarcerated people. Did Hutson allow this to stop him? Definitely not! He remained committed to the task until he finally found willing investors. His hard work and determination paid off when in 2012 he was able to launch his company Pigeonly. There were more rewards in store though as the company under his leadership experienced industry defying growth of 30% monthly. Today Pigeonly has subscribers in over 88 countries, carving out for itself a pretty strong international presence. ## To Sum Up! Today, Hutson is a bastion of strength and inspiration for many people. Millions of people around the world, inspired by the way he worked to overcome adversities, gravitate to Hutson in both physical and virtual spaces. This is why major media outlets such as The Huffington Post, Forbes Magazine, and the New York Times have featured his story. Without a doubt, he has lived a life that represents the kind of resilience that many dream of having. If this article inspired you, check more amazing business success stories here: - [The Importance of Meeting Consumer Demands with Entrepreneur Anthony Sarandrea](/the-importance-of-meeting-consumer-demands-with-entrepreneur-anthony-sarandrea/) --- ## Gulshan Kumar Is Working To Change Consumer Behavior To Move Away From Single-Use Plastic Bottled Water In Exchange For A Healthier Planet URL: https://futuresharks.com/gulshan-kumar/ Gulshan Kumar is a first-generation American born in the San Francisco Bay Area. His parents are originally from the Fiji Islands and moved to the U.S. looking for better quality of life. He grew up surrounded by entrepreneurship and understanding the value of hard work and money. Today, he works for a company that is having a lasting impact on the world. Gulshan earned his bachelor’s degree in small business and entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University. He has always been very competitive and business-minded. Entrepreneurship was always meant for him. Today, Gulshan is the Vice President of Sales for the Pathwater Company, which is responsible for making environmentally friendly beverage bottles. Pathwater’s bottles are 100% biodegradable but they are not single-use, they can be refilled as many times as desired as they are easy to clean and are BPA free. It is calculated that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish. This is why Pathwater was founded, as a response and in order to properly care for the environment by promoting “**a path to end the consumption of single-use plastic bottles.**“ Despite the fact that many people did not believe in Gulshan’s vision or in the mission of the company, Pathwork has become one of the fastest growing sustainable beverage companies in the country. For Gulshan, this is precisely one of the biggest challenges when starting a business–understanding that not everyone will see your vision. To combat this issue it is important to have the right mindset. Gulshan believes that people have to be stubborn and persistent. Taking this into account, Gulshan sees fear as an opportunity for growth, change and to understand more about yourself. He sees success as freedom, the ability to help others and have multiple options. And when asked what advice he would give to people trying to start their own business, Gulshan emphasizes the importance of not caring about what others say. Gulshan’s next projects include growing a dropshipping business, co-owning a professional football team, building schools in the Fiji Islands, and creating an alumni program at his former university. Find out more about Gulshan and Pathwork, click here. --- ## The Importance of Meeting Consumer Demands with Entrepreneur Anthony Sarandrea URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-importance-of-meeting-consumer-demands-with-entrepreneur-anthony-sarandrea/ Anthony Sarandrea spent his youth dreaming of making his millions in health and fitness. He wanted to inspire others to change their lives for the better, but he quickly grew disillusioned with the industry’s obsession for quick fixes and ineffective fads. He soon realized that his energy was better spent elsewhere, and so Anthony moved his attentions to the finance sector. He realized that while quick fixes didn’t exist for health and fitness, they definitely existed for insurance and credit, and people were just as eager to listen to them. Before long, Anthony had built an online empire dedicated to helping Americans manage their finances. But he didn’t stop there. He moved into the education, employment, and insurance sectors, providing consumers with assistance in all aspects of their life. His sites became a go-to source of invaluable information, one where consumers could instantly be connected with life-changing financial solutions, low-cost insurance providers, and everything else they required. They were always one click away—the quick fix that everyone wants. Anthony’s unique understanding of consumer needs and trends has helped him to stay on top over the last few years. It also helped his businesses to resist some of the decline witnessed by the Coronavirus pandemic, because by focusing on the most basic financial needs of every American, he had essentially, and potentially unwittingly, made his businesses recession-proof. After succeeding with his own businesses, which are now run by a team of skilled developers, researchers, legal experts, writers, and marketers, Anthony’s services were sought by many of the country’s biggest e-commerce companies, all seeking ways to increase their ROI. The young entrepreneur spends his days overseeing his businesses, giving talks, and consulting with clients all over the world. His companies include SiteFlood, through which Anthony and his team provide an array of marketing, PPC, and SEO services, and PocketYourDollars, which forms a part of his internet empire. --- ## How to Use Google My Business for SEO – With Kraig Bond Elite Results Marketing URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-use-google-my-business-for-seo-with-kraig-bond-elite-results-marketing/ SEO can feel like a nebulous term and strategy for businesses looking to expand their online presence. And yet, it’s one of the most important tools a business can invest in for local marketing. Think of it this way: if you sell lawn mower maintenance in Cleveland and there are three other competitors nearby who sell the same service, what is an advantage you could have over the competition? Consumers like to take the path of least resistance. If they Google, “lawn mower fixer Cleveland,” it’s advantageous for your company if you’re the first search result to come up.  **** Google My Business **** One of the best ways to boost your local SEO is to claim, verify, and optimize your ‘Google My Business’ listing. In recent months, GMB has added a host of new features that makes it a must-have tool in a business’s online SEO toolbox. Think of GMB like this: if you have a new gelato shop, consumers likely won’t know about it until it’s in their Google Maps, a local finder, and Google’s Local Pack. By claiming your shop online, you help to optimize your SEO locally. This can help even if you want to optimize your SEO on a global level, because it’s been reported that 46 percent of searches are intended locally. That means that even if you sell something that can be offered virtually, from anywhere, approximately 46 percent of searches are still intending to find that service offered nearby. **** This can also be done if you don’t own a brick and mortar store. Create a “headquarters” for your online business’s office so you can take advantage of the local SEO boost. Google shared that there’s been a 500 percent increase in the number of “near me” searches that contain “can I buy” and “to buy” keywords in the past couple of years. That could include a gelato shop, or a service you offer (like UI/UX design) beyond your current city that still may stand out to someone who wants to shop local . **** GMB listings also help you stay in control of the information about your business online. Otherwise, customers may look to sites such as Yelp or other review or rate sites, where there can be false information, outdated menus or links, and sometimes, bad reviews!  **** Google My Business Key Features  **** Once your GMB listing is live, Google users can review your business and suggest edits (updates will sometimes be sent to you or your administrator, but not always, which is why checking your listing frequently is critical to make sure no detrimental or inaccurate changes have been made).  **** There’s also a functionality for you to ‘post’ on Google My Business that will also show up in the knowledge panel when people search for your business. Think of this as a place to post updates about your business (such as an upcoming event, new hours of operation, a sitewide sale, or a new product launch) with a call to action. To draw more visual attention, consider adding photos to these posts (depending on the size of the images and what Google allows). The “knowledge panel” refers to the square with information about your business that appears when a user searches for your business name in Google. This is where they can maneuver to press ‘call,’ find your website, look at your reviews, find your address, and more. Posts underneath add more dimension to this information, and according to research from Google, creates more trust with a consumer. **** Google My Business SEO Reports **** Another feature of GMB that many business owners enjoy is the monthly reports that are generated. It will provide the total number of searches on Google for your business, broken down by direct search (someone typed your exact business name), discovery (when they found your business by searching for a category or type of product), or branded (they searched for a brand connected to or similar to yours).  **** These categories alone point to the tremendous exposure boost that GMB offers. This means that if someone is more generally looking for what you offer without knowing that your business exists, they can find you because of GMB. Or, they could be searching for your competition or a brand similar to yours and find you. This can also be achieved through SEO keyword optimization indexed on your website, but is another great advantage that can lead to more eyeballs and therefore, more leads. **** GMB also offers the following insights on its monthly reports: - Maps views (how many times your business showed up in Google Maps) - Search views (how many times you appeared in Google search) - Phone call actions (how many times someone pressed ‘call’ from Google) - Local post views - Driving directions (how many times someone generated driving directions from their current location to your business) - Post searches by days of the week (which can help you determine which social media posts performed best if you post different types of content by day of the week) - Total actions (all of these actions combined and more) **** Many online businesses find this information quite valuable for comparing their performance month to month depending on new SEO strategies they’ve implemented or to measure progress made if they outsource an online marketing team or service to do it for them. These key insights and analytics can provide clarity on changes that need to be made on ads or marketing campaigns moving forward. To get started, simply go to “Google My Business” then sign up, verify your business, and answer questions from there. It’s the easiest way to boost your local SEO and provide accurate information to customers. For more help with online marketing, SEO, and harnessing Google My Business, visit my business’s website, Elite Results Marketing. --- ## Ian Northmark speaks on his struggles and how he overcame them URL: https://futuresharks.com/ian-northmark-speaks-on-his-struggles-and-how-he-overcame-them/ Ian Northmark is an American entrepreneur who has worked very hard to create a name for himself in the industry and prove the value in the service his business provides. Ian is the founder of Northmark Wealth which is an asset management, investment consulting, and financial advising business. Growing up, Ian and his family moved around a lot. His mom was and still is a public school music teacher and his dad retired early due to his disabilities after owning his own import/export business. Since he didn’t have enough money to go to college at the time and his parents were not in a good financial situation to help him, Ian decided to join the military to help pay for college and gain experience.  **** Ian served as active duty in the US Air Force and was deployed to Iraq for a year in 2004. During the Iraq war, 2004 was the bloodiest year for US troops and it was there during that time that he gained a lot of life experience that still helps him to this day. Ian explains that when you see death in front of you, everything stops for a second. It was there that he learned what true leadership was and the skill of finishing a task in a stressful environment which is exactly the qualities of a successful manager.  **** Ian Northmark has experience that many other entrepreneurs do not have based off of his past in the Air Force. Ian says “When you see death in front of you, everything stops for a second. It was there that I learned what true leadership was and the skill of finishing a task in a stressful environment. These two life skills have taught me to persevere no matter what the circumstances and to lead by faith and example.”  **** After his military service and honorable discharge, Ian Northmark went back to college for his bachelor’s degree in Finance and Wealth Management. Once he was hired as a full time advisor for a global fortune company, he earned his securities license series 7, 66, and 24. Ian Northmark believes that there are three points to a person’s overall health and wellbeing; physical health, spiritual and emotional health, and financial health.  Ian Northmark acknowledges that most people seek advice and help with their physical and spiritual health. However, many people don’t seek advice or help within their financial health and most don’t even realize financial health exists. This is where Northmark Wealth comes in. Once a person becomes healthy in all three points of their life it is much more satisfying and happier. To learn more about Ian Northmark and his business, click here. --- ## From Soccer Coach To Trainer: How Al Cairns Took A Non-Traditional Path Through His Leap Of Faith URL: https://futuresharks.com/al-cairns/ Internships can determine a lot of your future. If you fall in love with your internship, you can easily see yourself doing that thing for the rest of your life. For Al Cairns, born in Baltimore, Maryland on August 14, 1991, he did not exactly end up doing what he did during his internship, but it helped him realize that tradition paths were not for him. From here, Al decided to move to the Bay area and use his connection to work his way into the soccer and coaching world. He has taught many people the wonders of soccer that he experienced as a young kid as well who thoroughly enjoyed the world of athletics. After coaching for many years, a different kind of opportunity presented itself to Al. For Al, this was a special privilege for him and something he took up immediately. He has his own loyal clientele who come to him to learn more about fitness and soccer specifically. Al is on top of all fitness trends and helps people continue coming back to his classes by connecting to them on many levels. Al is different from many other trainers and coaches out there. As he said, he is able to make people feel comfortable no matter where they come from or what their background is, but even more so Al has a personality that helps him create bonds through his genuineness and kindness to others. Al’s piece of advice for those looking to start their own business or launch themselves into the fitness world is to not be afraid of hard work. To find out more about Al, you can check him out on Instagram @theboyskux. --- ## Beto Altamirano’s Story Shows You How To Transform Your Passion Into Your Reality URL: https://futuresharks.com/beto-altamiranos-story-shows-you-how-to-transform-your-passion-into-your-reality/ Alberto Altamirano, most commonly known as Beto Altamirano, has transformed his passion for public service into a successful business that helps better communities. From early on, he embraced the teachings of his immigrant father and took ownership of his life. Going through the harsh sadness and frustration of having his father deported at 18 years old, he turned adversity into opportunity. Beto became involved in policy and social justice and found his calling to public service as he assisted underserved communities in Southern Texas. Since then, he’s made it his mission to positively impact communities and has worked at the Texas House of Representatives, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, U.S. Senate, and the U.S. Department of State. He has been a public service innovator and through his perseverance, has grown his business exponentially. Beto has gone from co-founding Irys in 2017 to winning the VotoLatino Innovators Challenge, to now raising over $1M in venture funding and being recognized among the brightest entrepreneurs in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Irys focuses on improving the quality of life in communities through technology and is the embodiment of Beto’s vision. In a world where urban areas continue to expand, public health, environmental, and infrastructural challenges are an unavoidable issue. This is where Irys comes in. Irys makes the community’s own citizens its stakeholders, rather than leaving all of these issues up to the city’s government. When it comes to local municipal governments, reporting and communication channels are archaic and broken, causing a gap between its residents and community improvement. This is why Irys builds a collaborative and supportive community where residents can use the Irys Community app as a one-stop shop for all government information and non-emergency services. Beto explains: Beto has not only created a user-friendly app for underserved communities, but has also continued to further develop this business. With the Irys for Military product, military bases can effectively communicate service requests and housing issues. Irys for Business provides engineering design firms improved input for public projects. It is through the development of Irys that Beto continues to make economic mobility more available for urban residents. For Beto, it is important for citizens to be directly engaged in policy-making and public service delivery. He has taken time to organize communities and listen to their concerns. With great enthusiasm and a clear organizational mission, he has been able to transform his passion into a successful business. He continues to evolve and think innovatively, and plans to expand development in the military sector this year. For Beto, there is no giving up and he wants you to keep dreaming – because it all starts with a dream. To learn more about his inspiring story and work, follow him on Instagram here. --- ## One In A Billion: Meet Fashion Veteran Omer H. Paracha URL: https://futuresharks.com/omer-h-paracha/ Best known as a fashion veteran, Omer H. Paracha is the founder of street-wear luxury brand PARAVAL and is branching out as a true entrepreneur, currently serving as an executive producer on upcoming film ECHO BOOMERS. The film features the likes of Michael Shannon (THE SHAPE OF WATER), Lesley Ann Warren (“Desperate Housewives”), Alex Pettyfer (I AM NUMBER FOUR), and Patrick Schwarzenegger (MIDNIGHT SUN). From first designing PARAVAL in his college dorm to attending Hollywood red carpets, the PARAVAL brand has been worn by some of Hollywood’s top talent serving as a true reflection of who Omer is: a combination of the entertainment and fashion industry. Since PARAVAL’s inception, Omer has partnered with the Amani Hope Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to empower underprivileged children across the world by providing scholarships, school supplies and educational programs where they are needed most. With every purchase, PARAVAL gives a percentage of its sales to provide educational supplies and systems to the foundation. PARAVAL has been worn by the likes of Desiigner (Rapper), Nick Cannon (“Wild ‘N Out”), Cody Christian (“All American”), Karamo Brown (“Queer Eye”), Hayley Kiyoko (Artist), Max Ehrich (“The Young and The Restless”), Ross Butler (“13 Reasons Why”), Cameron Boyce (“Descendants 3”), Travis Mills (Artist/Actor), Jack Gilinsky (Artist), Jacob Sartorius (Artist), Calum Worthy (“American Vandal”), Froy Gutierrez (“Teen Wolf”), Lexy Panterra (Influencer), Erika Costell (Influencer), Shanola Hampton (“Shameless”), Emma Kenney (“Shameless”), Anthony Padilla (Youtuber), and Alexander Ludwig (“Vikings”). Omer came from a humble background. His great-grandfather used to make and sell food in the streets of India. When his grandfather, Khan Bahadur Hafiz Mohammed Habibullah Paracha, was young it dawned on him that he would one day have to take up his father’s business.Owing to his adventurous nature and his relentless dreams, he decided that he would one day start his own company. As it is said, your potential is only limited by your imagination. Omer’s grandfather began pursuing his dream. He began importing and exporting different fabrics, silk, satin and lumber. Through his trade in Marco Polo’s famous routes, he was able to foster meaningful business relationships with fellow merchants who imported items from Japan, China, and India. These relationships would prove to be a huge stepping stone for his business. After the partition of India and Pakistan, he created a company called ‘Paracha Textile Mills’ which is still recognized in the city of Karachi. This company was founded in the 1950’s. Due to his success, Omer’s grandfather was able to start a career in politics. He went on to become the first Lord Mayor of Pakistan. Moreover, he served as an ambassador to Malaysia and fostered more relationships with influential people. However, his success took a downturn when the recession hit. He was unable to keep his company operational and had to close it down. You might be wondering how all this ties to Paraval. Well, from the lessons drawn from Omer’s grandfather, Paraval was born. From the lessons of success, failure, determination, hard work and the ability to dream, Paraval has been shaped to what it is today. Established in 2016, our company is dedicated to bringing you high-quality fabric that is also highly aesthetic. Our brand has been formed by the principles of diversity, creativity and the unique sense of individuality that lies in everyone. Drawing from the story of Omer and his family, we would like to empower other young people to realize their dreams by providing them with an education. This is because we understand that education provides vital principles in the lives of everyone today. Through our philanthropic efforts, Paraval provides scholarships, educational programs, and supplies to people across the globe who need the help. These efforts are made possible by the Amani Hope Foundation. Omer never met his grandfather. He was only left with the stories and the legacy of his kinsman who dared to dream; who dared to be different. At Paraval, our team hoped that we could be as influential as he once was to everyone he came across. We aim to touch people’s lives through educating them and also giving them a chance to express themselves uniquely through their dressing. We hope to leave a legacy behind because all you’re left with is your legacy. To visit Omer H. Paracha’s official instagram, click here. --- ## How to Make Your PPC Campaigns More Profitable in 2026 URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-tips-for-making-your-ppc-campaigns-more-profitable/ TL;DR: Profitable PPC in 2026 is won on data quality, not bid tweaks. Feed Google clean first-party conversions with real profit values, bid to ROAS or CPA instead of clicks, fix your landing pages and Quality Score, control where Performance Max spends, and reallocate budget toward what actually returns. PPC used to reward whoever fiddled with bids the most. In 2026 it rewards whoever feeds Google the cleanest data. The auction is run by AI now, and AI is only as good as the conversions, values, and signals you hand it. Get those right and the machine prints profit. Get them wrong and it confidently spends your budget on the wrong people. If you want better results from the same spend, stop optimizing keywords by hand and start optimizing the inputs the algorithm actually uses. Here's how to build profitable PPC campaigns this year. ## 1. Bid to profit, not to clicks or even revenue Maximize Clicks and manual CPC are how you lose money slowly. The first decision that moves profit is your bid strategy, and in 2026 that means Smart Bidding tied to a business outcome: **Target CPA** for lead gen, **Target ROAS** for ecommerce. The rule of thumb that still holds: Target CPA suits lead generation where every lead is worth roughly the same, and Target ROAS suits ecommerce where order values vary. Google's own minimums are about 30 conversions in the last 30 days for Target CPA and 50 for Target ROAS ([Groas](https://groas.ai/post/google-ads-smart-bidding-strategy-guide-2026-target-cpa-vs-target-roas)). Below that, the algorithm is guessing. But revenue-based ROAS still leaves money on the table, because a $100 sale at a 50% margin is worth five times a $100 sale at a 10% margin. The fix is to feed Google **profit, not revenue**. Send your margin as the conversion value (or use custom labels to group products by margin and set product-level ROAS targets), and the AI learns to bid harder on what actually makes you money. Practitioners report that product-level ROAS targets via custom labels can lift performance meaningfully versus one blunt account-wide target ([almcorp](https://almcorp.com/blog/google-ads-advanced-tactics-to-maximize-roas-for-2026/)). One scheduling note: from **August 17, 2026**, Google is changing how budget-limited campaigns are handled, which may cause temporary fluctuations on Target CPA and Target ROAS campaigns ([Groas](https://groas.ai/post/google-ads-bidding-strategies-2026-target-cpa-vs-target-roas-vs-max-conversions)). Don't panic-edit when it lands; let the new system settle. ## 2. Fix conversion tracking before you touch anything else Every tactic below depends on this one, and most accounts get it wrong. If your conversion data is incomplete, Smart Bidding is training on a lie. **Turn on Enhanced Conversions.** It hashes first-party customer data (email, phone, name) with SHA-256 before sending it, then matches those hashes to signed-in Google accounts to recover conversions the browser tag missed. Google cites an average lift around 17% for advertisers who implement it, though most should expect a more modest single-digit gain ([Trackbee](https://www.trackbee.io/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-google-enhanced-conversions)). **Go server-side.** Pixel-only tracking matches roughly 60–70% of conversions; first-party data sent server-side through Enhanced Conversions or a Conversions API pushes match rates above 90% ([Ingest Labs](https://ingestlabs.com/blogs/the-complete-guide-to-server-side-tracking-2026/)). Server-side delivery preserves the identifier path that Smart Bidding trains on, so it isn't a fringe optimization anymore — it's the infrastructure that makes Smart Bidding, Enhanced Conversions, and modern attribution work at all ([digitalapplied](https://www.digitalapplied.com/blog/first-party-data-activation-2026-server-side-tracking-playbook)). Two 2026 housekeeping items: Google's **Data Manager API** (launched December 9, 2025) is now the single entry point for Customer Match, offline conversions, Enhanced Conversions for Leads, and GA4 purchase events. As of **April 1, 2026**, legacy Customer Match uploads via the old Google Ads API path were discontinued — everything routes through Data Manager now ([digitalapplied](https://www.digitalapplied.com/blog/first-party-data-activation-2026-server-side-tracking-playbook)). If your offline imports broke earlier this year, that's why. And import offline conversions. If you sell over the phone or close leads in a CRM, push the closed-won value back into Google Ads. A lead that becomes a $20,000 contract should not be weighted the same as a tire-kicker who filled out a form. Most lead-gen accounts optimize toward raw form fills, then wonder why the leads are low quality — they're literally telling Google to find more of the cheap ones. Send the revenue, or at least a proxy score for lead quality, and the bidding follows the money. The acid test: pull your conversion source report and check what share of conversions arrives with hashed first-party data attached. If it's under 70%, fix tracking before you spend another dollar on bid strategy or creative. Everything downstream inherits this error. ## 3. Make Performance Max work for you, not the other way around Performance Max is a black box that spends across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, and Maps from one campaign. Left unmanaged it'll drift toward cheap, low-intent placements that look great in the dashboard and convert no one. Managed well, it's the most efficient way to scale. **Feed it strong audience signals.** PMax uses your audience signals as a starting hint, not a hard target. Build them from your best-converting customer segments and first-party lists, not generic demographics. **Segment by profitability, not product.** Group products into asset groups by margin using custom labels so the AI can bid aggressively on high-profit items and conservatively on thin ones ([almcorp](https://almcorp.com/blog/google-ads-performance-max-2026-strategy-guide/)). **Match structure to your conversion volume.** A rough guide from practitioners: under ~100 conversions/month, run one consolidated campaign with 2–3 asset groups; 100–300, run 2–4 campaigns; 300+, segment into multiple campaigns ([almcorp](https://almcorp.com/blog/google-ads-performance-max-2026-strategy-guide/)). Splitting a low-volume account into ten campaigns just starves each one of the data Smart Bidding needs. **Add account-level negative keywords and brand exclusions.** Stop PMax from cannibalizing your branded search (which would have converted anyway, cheaper) and from buying junk queries. **Don't over-tinker.** Do weekly asset and audience refinements, but avoid major structural changes more than once every 2–3 weeks ([almcorp](https://almcorp.com/blog/google-ads-performance-max-2026-strategy-guide/)). Every big edit resets the learning phase. ## 4. Win the intent battle with keywords and negatives Automation hasn't killed intent — it's made it more important, because broad match plus Smart Bidding now reaches far wider than it used to. Your job is to point that reach at people who want to buy and block everyone else. **Lead with intent, not volume.** Bid up on commercial and transactional queries ("buy," "pricing," "best [product] for," "[product] vs") and treat informational queries skeptically. Someone searching "what is CRM software" is months from a purchase; someone searching "CRM software pricing" is ready now. **Run negative keywords like it's your job.** Negatives are the single cheapest profit lever in PPC. They stop you paying for irrelevant clicks, and by tightening relevance they also lift Quality Score ([groas.com](https://www.groas.com/post/google-ads-quality-score-optimization-2026-improve-expected-ctr-ad-relevance-landing-page)). Mine your search terms report weekly. Build a standing negative list for "free," "jobs," "DIY," and competitor-adjacent junk that drains spend. **Keep ad groups tightly themed.** Fewer keywords per group, with ad copy written for that specific intent, produces higher Ad Relevance — a direct Quality Score input ([groas.com](https://www.groas.com/post/google-ads-quality-score-optimization-2026-improve-expected-ctr-ad-relevance-landing-page)). One sprawling ad group with 50 loosely related terms is a Quality Score tax. ## 5. Treat the landing page as part of the campaign This is the lever almost everyone underinvests in, because it feels like a CRO problem rather than a PPC problem. In 2026 that distinction is gone. Quality Score still controls what you pay and whether you show at all. It's scored 1–10 on three components: Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and **Landing Page Experience**, which carries roughly the same weight as Expected CTR ([Lionel Z](https://lionelz.com/en/blog/google-ads-quality-score/)). The money consequence is brutal: a keyword at Quality Score 1–3 can cost up to **400% more per click** than a QS 5 baseline, while a QS 10 keyword can unlock up to a **50% CPC discount** ([groas.com](https://www.groas.com/post/google-ads-quality-score-optimization-2026-improve-expected-ctr-ad-relevance-landing-page)). Same budget, double or half the clicks, depending entirely on quality. What actually moves Landing Page Experience and conversion rate together: - **Message match.** The headline on the page should echo the ad that was clicked. Mismatch is the fastest way to bounce a paid click. - **Speed.** Slow pages tank both Quality Score and conversion rate. Compress images, defer scripts, and measure real-world load on mobile. - **One clear action.** Strip navigation and competing CTAs off paid landing pages. Give the visitor one thing to do. - **Mobile-first.** Most paid traffic is mobile. Test the form, the buttons, and the load on an actual phone, not a desktop resized to look small. - **Trust signals.** Reviews, guarantees, and real contact info lift conversion rate at no extra media cost. If you want a deeper framework for the page itself, [*Making Websites Win*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1544500513) by the founders of Conversion Rate Experts is the most practical CRO read for paid-traffic pages. ## 6. Reallocate budget toward what actually returns A profitable account is mostly a matter of putting money where it works and pulling it from where it doesn't — and most accounts do the opposite, spreading budget evenly and starving their winners. **Concentrate spend on proven performers.** Find the campaigns, asset groups, and products clearing your target ROAS and give them room to scale before you fund experiments. Budget-limited winners are leaving profit on the table every day they're capped. **Adjust targets to demand.** Raising ROAS targets in high-demand periods and easing them in slow ones can meaningfully improve overall profitability, because willingness to pay shifts with the season ([almcorp](https://almcorp.com/blog/google-ads-advanced-tactics-to-maximize-roas-for-2026/)). Plan seasonal pushes weeks ahead — your competitors already are. **Kill your losers without sentiment.** A campaign that's had enough volume to prove itself and still misses target isn't "warming up." Pause it, move the budget, and revisit later with a better page or offer. **Watch the right KPIs.** Impressions and clicks are vanity. Track ROAS, CPA against your true margin, and incremental conversions — not the platform-reported numbers that double-count assists across channels. ## The bottom line Profitable PPC in 2026 isn't won in the bid column. It's won upstream, in the quality of the data and the discipline of the budget. Send Google clean first-party conversions with real profit values, bid to an outcome instead of clicks, keep Performance Max on a leash, defend your intent with negatives, fix the landing page like it's part of the ad, and move money toward what's already working. Do those six things and the same spend that used to leak starts to compound. Skip the data work and no amount of clever bidding will save the campaign — you'll just lose money faster, with better dashboards. --- ## EntrepreneurSHIFTS: Blake Mallen’s 7 Shifts to Become the Entrepreneur You’re Meant to Be URL: https://futuresharks.com/entrepreneurshifts-blake-mallens-7-shifts-to-become-the-entrepreneur-youre-meant-to-be/ As a successful entrepreneur, Blake Mallen has built billion-dollar brands from the ground up in the health, wellness and lifestyle categories. He had no formal education in business or entrepreneurship; his college focus was on becoming a prominent attorney. But one defining day while interning at a law firm, Mallen was asked why he was working so diligently on getting the grades and building his resume. His response: “Well, isn’t that I’m supposed to do?” It was in that defining moment when Mallen realized that what he had been told all his life he was ‘supposed to do’ was not what he felt he was ‘meant to do.’ He had been following society’s prescription for success (“the script” as he calls it), which kept him stuck following a path of ‘supposed to’ and prevented him from ever even looking for his ‘meant to.’ That realization shifted Mallen’s mindset, starting him on the path to entrepreneurship. And now, nearly 20 years later, as noted in his popular TEDx Talk, he’s on a mission to help people shift their own life script and pursue their full potential. Part of making that shift is addressing the mindset towards one’s career. Mallen sees true “freedom” as an important key to unlocking potential. Financial freedom, emotional freedom, or creative freedom only happens when someone feels truly free to think and do what they want, which then starts them towards discovering what they really do want. And today, as more and more people are choosing entrepreneurship as their path to achieve that kind of freedom, Mallen believes that simply deciding to become an entrepreneur does not immediately mean you think like one. We talked to Mallen about the types of mindset shifts he advises every aspiring entrepreneur to make to discover and realize their potential—not just in business but in life. Having inspired hundreds of thousands of new entrepreneurs over the last 20 years through his companies, and personally mentoring many into phenomenal success stories, Mallen describes seven of what he calls, ‘entrepreneurshifts,’ that are essential to embrace in order to become the entrepreneur you’re meant to be. **Shift 1: Paycheck to Purpose** We need to shift from paycheck to purpose, according to Mallen, which means changing the mindset from ‘we’re doing this just because we’re making money,’ to ‘we’re doing this because of a higher purpose.’ He explains that most people are used to going to work every day—while mentally separating their ‘job’ from their ‘life’. But Mallen believes that as an entrepreneur, it’s all one thing. “When you’re working to pursue your purpose, there’s no such thing as a separation between job and life,” says Mallen. “Successful entrepreneurs shift from thinking about ‘what they do’ to focusing on ‘who they’re becoming’ and then ultimately ‘why they’re here.’ Chasing purpose instead of a paycheck will shift your lens from something you ‘have’ to do, to something you ‘get’ to do.” **Shift 2: Conformity to Creativity** In his TEDx Talk, Mallen introduces the idea of a proverbial ‘Script’ that prescribes the sequential steps (get good grades, attend a good college, get a good job, etc.) people need to follow in order to achieve success. This script evolved from the factory work script nearly a century ago that taught people to follow rules and conform. Mallen notes that most of the educational system, and even the corporate system, that still exist today were created in that system. “It’s why we’re taught growing up not to act out or get out of line, and to instead follow the rules, wait our turn, stay inside the box, etc. Entrepreneurs need to break from conformity and strive towards creativity. They need to make their own rules. My personal belief is that every human being was created to create, and that a key reason why so many people are unhappy or unfulfilled today is because they got stuck in a script without the freedom to create.” **Shift 3: Security to Opportunity** Seeking security and seeking opportunity are two very different things, according to Mallen. He explains that we’re taught most of our lives to seek security, which typically means getting a steady job working for somebody else. Two decades of business experience have taught him that security is more about one’s personal development, skills and leadership. “Successful entrepreneurs don’t have the traditional mindset that security means getting hourly wages for hourly work; they know that building brands and launching products might mean a lot of hard work and long hours with no money in the beginning,” he says. “But, they focus on the opportunity and work towards profit instead of wages. They know that investing in personal growth, skills and teams will not only eventually lead to income that equals time and effort, but over time creates exponential revenue growth.” **Shift 4: Acceptance to Desire** Mallen believes that most of us have been taught to chase approval from others. “We’re conditioned to measure our own value by other people’s opinions. It’s one of the reasons why social media is so addicting today because we measure our achievement or status by the number of likes, follows and comments.” He advises entrepreneurs to shift from seeking acceptance, to focusing on desire. “Your motivation has to come from within, not outside; what you perceive as your value has to shift from what other people think, to what you think of yourself. One of my favorite books is Napoleon Hill’s *Think and Grow Rich*. In the first chapter, he talks about the importance of “burning desire.” I believe that finding that desire—your ‘Why’—is enough to move you forward, regardless of what anybody says. You’ll become a better entrepreneur, but also inevitably a happier person.” **Shift 5: Perfection to Progress** For Mallen, perfection can be the antithesis of progress. “We tell ourselves we need to know everything before we teach others. We think we need to master something perfectly before we take the next step,” he says. “For example, ‘once I lose the weight or have the time or become an expert, then I’ll do this and that.’ It’s an all-or-nothing approach. These are just lies we tell ourselves to make us feel better for not doing the work we know we need to do.” Mallen explains that taking a step forward, any step forward, is better than no step at all. The problem with perfection is that it conditions people to fixate on weakness. “If we’re not as good as others in something, we feel we’re not good enough. Meanwhile, we forget our strengths, talents and strengths,” he says. “Successful entrepreneurs know they don’t have to be perfect at everything and find partners and teammates with strengths and skills that fill in the gaps. Shifting to a progress mindset means not trying to fix weaknesses and instead leveraging strengths. Progress means making lots of mistakes, which is awesome. The faster you do it wrong, the faster you learn.” **Shift 6: What can I*****get*****, to What can I*****give*****?** For Mallen, money is an energy, and the way energy works is that if you focus on giving more, you will receive more. Conversely, focusing on receiving more can mean never receiving what one is looking for. Success comes by shifting from ‘getting’ to ‘giving.’ “Think of giving as adding value to someone or something,” he says. “How can we add value to people? Teams? Others’ goals? Create more value and impact, and it’s impossible for that to not come back in return—and even tenfold.” **Shift 7: Where am I*****now*****… to where am I*****going*****?** Mallen would tell you that while entrepreneurs can appreciate the present; they focus on the future. “Great entrepreneurs focus on who they’re becoming and the life they’re going to have. They have a clear vision of who they want to be and the lifestyle they want. It’s not about today and their current situation—all that matters is where they’re going and their belief and confidence they’ll get there.” He adds: “Decide who you will be in a year from now and become that person today. Then don’t be afraid to say, “Here’s where I’m going; follow me.” Entrepreneurshifts don’t happen overnight, Mallen notes, and they’ll take time, but once you are aware of the shifts to make, you can start working on them today. After all, the world deserves to meet the entrepreneur you’re meant to be. To help more people become aware of these shifts, Mallen launched in 2020 during the pandemic crisis a podcast series, ALIVE by Design, created to wake people up to their purpose, passion and potential in order to shift from ‘being’ alive to ‘feeling’ truly alive. The chart-topping ALIVE by Design podcast is available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. --- ## Denying The Normal Tumor Treatment, Christopher Walker Used Natural Treatments To Heal His Brain Tumor. After Seeing The Power Of Nature, He Began His Business In The Supplements World. URL: https://futuresharks.com/christopher-walker/ Christopher Walker discovered he had a passion for medicine and the human body in his teens. However, his passion was truly ignited when he doctors discovered he had a tumor in his brain. He decided that he would not go the normal treatment route and instead, worked on healing himself through other methods. It was this life changing journey that inspired Chris to join the e-commerce world selling and creating supplements to help people live a healthier life. Their products help all different kinds of people with all different types of ailments. Their products have truly been revolutionary and life changing for many people. The biggest challenge for Christopher when starting his business was mindset. This is a point of struggle for many people when beginning their business journeys. This is because selling and creating products is such a switch up for people. It is easy to get bogged down in the details and forget the point of your business. Christopher was able to overcome this massive mindset switch and that has made him incredibly successful in his endeavors! For those wishing to start their own business, Christopher’s piece of advice to you is to find a space in the market and fill it by satisfying a need. To find out more about Christopher, you can follow him on instagram here. You can also check out his website here. Lastly, check out his youtube channel by following Christopher Walker on Youtube. --- ## How Yung Anoma1y Baird Overcame It All To Perform As The Acclaimed Yung Anoma1y URL: https://futuresharks.com/yung-anoma1y/ Yung Anoma1y has always been creative. From his start growing up in the Bronx River Projects, he was always playing an instrument, drawing, or writing poetry. After establishing a strong writing foundation and having his poetry published, he moved on to his Bachelor of Science degree and his Master’s degree – before taking a leap of faith halfway through completing. Now Yung Anoma1y is an established national recording artist and the Founder and C.E.O. of B.E.G. The Label, a record label and artist development company. The motto of the label is, “ Where Creativity Prospers”, and the mission is to provide industry level support to emerging artists to help them achieve the results they desire. Yung Anoma1y works to provide his services in bundle packages which allow for artists to get support without commitment to a contract. Yung Anoma1y’s own music is hip-hop/rap, and has been called the new generation of music. Jumping into the recording industry came from Yung Anoma1y’s first-hand experience of how difficult it is to get started in the music business. Although he had the experience and insight, Yung Anoma1y admits the road to success was not always easy. He always has needed to overcome obstacles, especially in terms of navigating logistics of operations and building a strong team around him. Yung Anoma1y also struggled with feeling like he was the underdog in the industry. This made him need to fight for his spot to be there, and to prove that he was capable and talented. Beyond needing to overcome challenges, Yung Anoma1y also says the right mindset is the key to starting your own business, especially in a competitive environment such as the music industry. Yung Anoma1y has two new singles set to release this year, and is currently booking performances for 2021. Stay up to date with Yung Anoma1y on his Instagram page. --- ## Two Cousins Started Milly’s Cutz. They Wanted To Give People More Than Just A Haircut URL: https://futuresharks.com/two-cousins-started-millys-cutz-they-wanted-to-give-people-more-than-just-a-haircut/ More than just a barber shop, two cousins Milford Bangura “Milly” and ZoKlon Wleh “Zoe” created a special kind of barbershop. They want, above all, to make others feel good about themselves and their haircut. They use creative measures to make sure that this experience is more than just a normal trip to the barbershop. The two cousins love investing and wanted to try something different. They were excited to begin the new project because to them barbers are the ones who help people look & feel good at the end of the day. They ensure that people feel good about themselves inside and out, everytime they look in the mirror. For the two cousins, the biggest challenge was finding the right team to help them get off the ground. When you are surrounded by the right team, it can help you get off the ground. The wrong team, on the other hand, can hurt your business a lot, so this was a difficult field that the cousins had to traverse. For Milly and Zoe, having the right mindset was crucial to their success as well. They needed to get into the entrepreneurial mentality in order to be able to succeed. They get this piece of advice from other businesses that they have worked in where mindset was crucial to their success. To find out more about Milly and Zoe’s barbershop, follow them on instagram here. --- ## From The Corporate World, Elzie Ross Wanted To Do Something To Help People. He Became A Financial Advisor For Those Who Needed It The Most URL: https://futuresharks.com/elzie-ross/ The world of corporate can come with many challenges. There are hierarchies and relationships that have to be mastered in order to succeed. For many people, this sort of political aspect to their job impedes their own success. This is what happened to Elzie Ross when he was working his first corporate job. He quickly realized that that life was not for him. Though this was disheartening at the time, Elzie took on mastering another skillset: the market. He realized that he was learning a lot more about finances than what had ever previously been taught to him. This inspired him to share his knowledge with others who could also benefit from this knowledge. Elzie now runs a financial services company called Ross Wealth Strategies. He focuses on helping those who need to start accumulating wealth and bettering their finances versus those who already have money. His goal is to transform how people think about money and handle their finances. As a millennial from a minority background, Elzie is used to people not expecting him to understand how money works. Many stereotypes about him prevented people from listening to what he had to say. Elzie never gave up. He worked hard to show people that he had an excellent idea that could help millions of people who were not educated on how to properly accumulate wealth. In the coming year, Elzie plans on continuing a Rossonomics series he began, which helps connect financial professionals from different field. It is a seminar that helps explain some of the trickier aspects of wealth management. To find out more about Elzie, you can follow him on Instagram here. --- ## People that inspire: Chicago’s top luxury real estate producer Aaron Gill URL: https://futuresharks.com/people-that-inspire-chicagos-top-luxury-real-estate-producer-aaron-gill/ Every week we look at people whose extraordinary career’s and stories leave us inspired and in awe about the power of humans finding their purpose in their passion. This week we are looking at Aaron Gill, Chicago’s top luxury real estate producer. Gill is a first gen American who went from medical school to Chicago’s number one top real estate producer within five years and is far from done leaving his footprint on the US market. His story is remarkable and inspiring and we believe it needs to be shared. Aaron Gill went to high school and college in Oklahoma and attended medical school in Chicago to become a physician while working in the hospital including the ICU for 4 years. At that time was passionate about helping people and the environment of a team of quick thinking links, gathering and relaying information, being part of important moments in people’s lives. As he tried making ends meet during his studies, he started working for a small boutique real estate agency, leasing luxury units. 
 What started as a side job and a secret talent soon became his biggest passion as he was able to transfer his favourite personal assets and attributes from one job to the other. So he decided to put his studies on hold for a year to fully dedicate his efforts to the Chicago real estate  market. The start of an extraordinary career. Within a year he had reached his full potential in the the agency and moved on to the next step. He founded Epoch Chicago, his own luxury real estate agency and has quickly become the city’s top producer, working closely with his development partner in the Onni Group. Onni are partners with his brokerage Douglas Elliman in Los Angeles, who invited him to work on LA’s Hope + Flower project, the prestigious complex of luxury apartments in Downtown. After establishing himself as Chicago’s go-to for class a rentals, he is now set to conquer the market in California. If that wasn’t enough, this man also runs marathons on the side. We assume that the athlete’s endurance is only beneficial in business, when there seems to be no end in sight of a long day but performance levels can’t drop. And another proof that a healthy lifestyle is one of the biggest career boosts and backbones you can actively create.  We always love dramatic positive changes in careers and lives, especially when they involve so much will power, hard work and most of all passion. This one is particularly inspirational to us, as Aaron Gill radically changed industries to find and establish success with the same ingredients of passion, work ethic and his personal soft skills. And we’re excited to see where he’s going. --- ## Wilson La Torre Teaches Us How To Take Your Passion And Make A Successful Career Out Of It URL: https://futuresharks.com/wilson-la-torre/ From an early age Wilson La Torre has always had a passion and respect for all types of cars. He decided he wanted to make a career out of it. That is when Detail Art Inc. came to be in 2009. Wilson La Torre the former owner and Director of Detail Art Inc. started his auto detailing business with only a few tools in his sisters garage. Wilson takes his work seriously and wants the best quality of detail for each vehicle that steps into his shop. When starting a business it takes some sort of motivation to get the business up and running. Everyone has different things that motivate them, for some people it can be money, making a name for themself or being their own boss. For Wilson it has always been his passion. He enjoys taking care of cars and keeping them looking as best as possible. No matter the time or patience it takes to get there. Something that can really determine the success of one’s business is the way they deal with different obstacles. In Wilson’s case it was getting his business to grow. But Wilson never let that stop him or his business.  He pushed through those hard times and made his business successful without letting the obstacles or fear stop him. He is even planning on starting a second business. In addition to how you handle obstacles your mindset plays a big role when owning business. This is something that is very important to wilson. What really has set Wilson apart from his competitors is his real love for what he does. He takes pride in every aspect of Detail Art Inc. and it is very evident in the work product he produces. Wilson has made a name for himself in the Auto Detailing industry, he is someone who started off with a love and passion for cars and turned it into a successful business while continuing to have that love and passion. He has made Detail Art Inc. what it is today with his determination, motivation and hard work. We asked Wilson what advice he would give to someone out there who is trying to start their own business. If you would like to learn more about Wilsons’ business, you can check out his website at Detailart.net or visit his instagram profile @detailartinc --- ## Richard Orlinski master to create unconventional pieces of art. URL: https://futuresharks.com/to-create-unconventional-pieces-of-art-one-needs-to-be-an-unorthodox-and-innovative-creator/ The industry of art is a universe in itself, making individuals know their higher selves by understanding the art in the artwork. The world that we see around ourselves and the world that we want to live in are two different places. This is because the ideas, opinions, thoughts, beliefs, etc. of each and every individual in the world differ and that’s what also helps define a person. When it comes to artists of the world be it in any field, like music, acting, or sculpting, they create a world of their own altogether and try to weave in a story around the art they create to make people be a part of that and see the world through the artist’s eyes. Such artists are the rarest gems of the world and the ones who have the potential to arouse the most intense feelings and emotions in people through their talents and skills as an artist. One such French-born artist that is gradually reaching the top and becoming one of the most sought-after visual artists in every sense of the word is Richard Orlinski. •Making people see the art beyond what eyes can see: Visual artists are the ones who have the magical power to make people see the art beyond what is seen through their eyes and compel them to open the doors of their soul to see the visionary creativity of the artist. Orlinski is all about this and much more and that is also one of the reasons why this passionate and talented artist today is one of the most renowned artists of the world with his name imprinted as the contemporary artist French best-selling in the world. •Changing people’s mindsets through art: If a sculpture or visual art can arouse the right emotions and makes a person feel the most profound feelings all at once by just a glance at the artwork; such masterpieces are known to be the ones that can also bring about a change in people’s mindsets towards the same. Orlinski’s efforts, passion and his drive to make people know what art stands for and how it is to be seen is something that has the power to inspire the world’s artists and popularize the industry on a much grander scale globally. •Taking inspiration in the art to an another level: An artist can grow to be a much learned one only after putting in consistent efforts in creating something different either by his various experiences of life or by taking inspirations from many other things of the world. Orlinski’s early inspiration started with the wildest animals and other exemplary objects that have, in some way, marked their generation. Artists of the world also draw inspiration from the many struggles they face in life, Orlinski’s life was no different; however, he chose to live by creating masterpieces that could make people fall in love with it completely. •Reinventing is the key: Being a sculptor and a visual artist also needs reinventing oneself and being adaptive enough to the many changing dynamics and trends of the industry, this has made world-renowned artists like Orlinski to remain at the top of their game and get represented by a long list of galleries all around the world. Orlinski has also come forward to be the reason behind youngsters’ success in their careers by guiding them and showing them the right path in their lives, opening up his talent agency called “Tomorrow Hub”. Such agencies prove to be the turning point for many youngsters who wish to draw a growth pattern like the ones of Orlinski and lead a successful life. Visual artists and sculptors need to consistently provide something new and so innovatively designed that it fills people with enough enthusiasm and positivity and give them contemporary artworks that go on to motivate the world artists. Richard Orlinski is one of those leading contemporary artists of the world who never ceases to amaze people through his masterpieces and the one who has managed to widely inspire the youth in their careers. Follow Richard Orlinski on Instagram here: https://instagram.com/richardorlinski Check out his new Talent agency here: www.tomorrowhub.com --- ## Michael Dennis Murphy advice for those starting their own brand URL: https://futuresharks.com/michael-dennis-murphy-advice-for-those-starting-their-own-brand/ Michael Dennis Murphy is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Murphy Auto Group.  Michael has gone through many challenges, obstacles, and hardships to get to the point where he is now. What differentiates Michael from the competition is that he found something he was passionate about, learned everything he could about the industry, and never settled for anything less than providing exceptional service to his customers. One of Michael’s biggest successes has been maturing and learning everything he could about the industry at such a young age.  **** Michael Murphy was only 14 years old when he started and had little to no experience which meant he had to rely on the policies, processes, and procedures that he inherited from his father. Over time, with his father’s help, he was able to adopt all of core principles and adapt them into a digital world that is heavily based on social media influence and online consumerism.  **** Another one of Michael’s strengths is his ability to innovate and adapt through crises During the height of Covid-19, Michael led his team by providing a safe working environment and training the employees at this time.  His leadership produced a stronger team and maintained sales in an uncertain environment. **** Michael Dennis Murphy is a father and husband and describes his family as his pride and joy. He wanted to be able to provide his family with the best life possible which he did so with integrity, drive, and determination. **** When asked what advice he would give to a young entrepreneur, Michael Murphy replied with “Fear equals motivation! What you are afraid of can make you stronger and grow your courage. John Wayne said ‘Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyways.’ Nothing about entrepreneurship is easy, embrace fear. That is how I became so comfortable in the uncomfortable situations of life.” An entrepreneur’s perception of fear and success is what will determine the trajectory of their business. **** Michael Murphy explains that to him fear means a lack of clarity and trying to control what you cannot. Fear will only be an obstacle if you let it be. On the other hand, success to Michael means achieving the vision and goals that you have laid out for yourself.   Michael Dennis Murphy’s advice for those trying to start their own business is to work for your competition. The exception would be if you are creating a company that innovates and is brand new. Otherwise, find out who is best at what you want to do and work for them. Learn from their successes and mistakes, and create solutions of how your company can succeed from that. Another helpful tool to have is a mentor in the industry who can help you avoid some of the mistakes they made. To learn more information about Michael and his business Murphy Auto Group, click here. --- ## How Lyra Almoite Created her Online Business Management Brand – The Homebased Worker URL: https://futuresharks.com/lyra-almoite/ Lyra Almoite is an Online Business Manager and Founder of The Homebased Worker based in the Philippines and Southeast Asia where she has helped founders and CEOs scale their businesses through the power of social media and branding. She is a top executive when it comes to project and business management. With many years of experience, she has the passion and know-how to advise any company and drive businesses towards their goals. Recently, Lyra was featured on marketinginasia.com where they listed her to be one of the Top 70 Rising Personalities to Follow on Linkedin. In the interview, Lyra gives a little information on how she has leveraged her knowledge to become one of the most sought after business managers in the Philippines. Congrats, Lyra! > “Learn to be comfortable connecting with other people and putting your face, contact information, and what you do out there. LinkedIn is one of the best platforms to showcase your expertise, so do it and take advantage of it! Lastly, be very conscious about keywords — think if the words you use is something your target market is using when they’re looking for your services.” Lyra narrates. Lyra has been spending her time building The Homebased worker and has created an amazing platform designed for overworked business owners seeking some backend help. The Homebased worker had first originated as an idea for a blog, little did Lyra know was that it would one day become a successful business. Lyra had been bouncing some ideas around thinking of a good name for what she wanted to do when she came up with the domain name thehomebasedworker.com. She had told herself she would create a blog with it in the future researching and building resources on how she could work online. Lyra began reaching out to previous colleagues, clients, family, and friends telling them about her newest business thehomebasedworker.com! > “What had first started as a small idea to start a blog has now become an even larger endeavor, a business!” Lyra recaps. With just a business name and an idea, Lyra needed to figure out how to brand herself as The Homebased Worker. She started building her idea of The Homebased Worker around her passion for digital business management specializing in female entrepreneurs and business coaches naming herself an “Online Business Manager”. > “And together, we help more entrepreneurs thrive.” Lyra Expresses. Lyra was most motivated to work with new entrepreneurs who needed help and either didn’t yet have the budget to hire part-time and full-time employees or enough of a workload to be able to outsource their work. These businesses needed 15-20 hours of support each month to help them manage their business. I was their right hand man from managing aspects of their business to ensuring that their growth kept climbing. Lyra often promoted her company in the early days why connecting through Instagram and client recommendations. She recounts that, “the first few clients were the hardest” because of the platform’s oversaturation in the business. Oftentimes she would engage with business coaches on Instagram and LinkedIn to start building her personal connections. > “The key is to know your audience, what kind of profiles they have, what’s in their bio, what do they call themselves, and to genuinely engage with them.” Lyra recounts. Building a relationship by comment on the photo of their dog, asking questions, taking an interest in what they do. By allowing people to talk about themselves, you’re creating a space that they enjoy and want to keep engaging. > “Really listen, find what they need and when you find a gap put yourself in, that’s where you strike.” Lyra details. Making sure to communicate just about everything with her clients, from updates, to documentations, and always overdelivering whenever possible. She found that when she had sparkling reviews she would receive more and more clients. With all the extra work on her plate, finding ways to outsource some of her work was vital for the survival of The Homebased Worker. > “My clients know that they can always rely on me and they can sleep at night peacefully knowing that things are being taken care of,” Lyra explains. One skill that Lyra has really honed in on since starting The Homebased Worker is the ability to problem solve. Sometimes people or business owners get stuck on a problem within their business and cant figure out what to do. That is where Lyra comes in, she is always needing to come up with ways to be creative about resolving an issue and that is why her clients love her. > “I wanted these driven people to be on my team and help them keep their financial independence even if they’re working from home.” Lyra mentions. With big dreams in place for The Homebased Worker, Lyra works to ensure its success. Her expertise and incredible abilities will surely lead her businesses to infinity and beyond. And with her team of experts right behind her, they have the capability to help those business owners in need. Read more about Lyra and her other businesses here! Find her on Linkedin and Facebook, too! --- ## Sober Superman Adam Jablin —Author Of The Best Selling Book Lotsaholic— Now Creator Of THE HERO PROJECT, Through Which He Helps Others Get From Zero To Hero URL: https://futuresharks.com/sober-superman-adam-jablin-author-of-the-best-selling-book-lotsaholic-now-creator-of-the-hero-project-through-which-he-helps-others-get-from-zero-to-hero/ Adam Jablin is an author, public speaker and spiritual coach. He has risen from the depths of the alcohol and drug world to become a life-saving Superman. Today he runs a coaching program called THE HERO PROJECT, where he helps others get from zero to hero. At that time, Adam’s family intervened and took him to The Hanley Center, where his world changed forever. In rehab, he met spiritual teachers, doctors, psychiatrists, and other people battling the same disease. For twenty-three years, Adam worked for and ran the family business. Metritek LLLP was the number one lace manufacturer in the world. He had big shoes to fill as the third generation running the business, and that pressure only accelerated his drinking and drug use. When he got clean and sober, he was finally able to lead the family business by example. “My mentor, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer—DION really influenced my thoughts to a Higher Reality, and that’s what I brought into the company everyday.” Adam inspired his employees with his unique spiritual approach to life and business. “I had the ability to see people’s strengths and weaknesses and figure out where they’d thrive. I found the power within myself to create momentum. The family did very nicely selling the business and Adam launched into his passion of helping people. Adam was motivated to start this business by seeing the gifts that awakened in himself after getting clean and sober. His biggest challenge had always been people not supporting him, which broke his heart because he knew this is what he was destined to do. But, that challenge made him stronger and more determined to fulfill his vision. Through his book, Adam shares his story, which he believes can save lives. This connects to his whole journey, since as a kid he always wanted to be Superman and help people. Now that he has written a book and worked as an inspirational speaker and spiritual coach, Adam can share what he knows about starting a business and following a calling. For Adam, fear is “false evidence appearing real,” and it simply means you should get to work. He also thinks that in order to succeed, new coming business owners need to believe in their own businesses even when others don’t. Likewise, for Adambeing financially free means simply that. He has seen people with financial freedom who still die from alcoholism or other addictions. This is why he believes people need to be free spiritually, as well. With all of this in mind, Adam has been able to overcome the biggest obstacle in his career: the fear of not truly being himself. He has learned to be okay even if someone else does not approve of who he is or what he stands for. Adam’s next projects include a book tour for “LOTSAHOLIC”, more speaking engagements, and continuing to grow THE HERO PROJECT. Find out more about Adam, the sober Superman, here. --- ## Bun Bydaway Is A Serial Entrepreneur And Prison Reform Activist Who Is Determined To Write His Own Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/bun-bydaway-is-a-serial-entrepreneur-and-prison-reform-activist-who-is-determined-to-write-his-own-story/ Bun Bydaway, is serial entrepreneur, and prison reform activist, who was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He was raised in a community once dubbed “Murdertown,” and had his own encounters with the justice system when he was young. Bun Bydaway served his time and paid his dues for his decisions as a teenager. Afterward, he evolved into a serial entrepreneur and became a prison reform activist. Today, he runs a recording studio (BDW Studios), a vending machine provider (Monroe Vending machines), a car rentals company (BDW Exotics), an entertainment corporation (CBDW), and a real estate investment and development business (CBDW Home). Bun Bydaway was inspired to get into this industry after watching people that look like him experience evolution and completely change their life around building six and seven figure businesses. Because Bun Bydaway’s past seemed to negatively impact his life, moving forward and achieving financial freedom was key. For him, financial freedom is the ability to build and design the life he wanted, with no obligation to any one person or corporation. To overcome these challenges, it is necessary to have the right mindset to understand that although things may seem unachievable, you must keep going. This is why Bun Bydaway’s advice to people who are trying to start their own business is to focus on something they are passionate about. In his case, Bun Bydaway is motivated by his desire to attain success, which for him means freedom, and the ability to operate at his maximum potential and profit from it. He wants to be able to take care of his family and do it in his own terms. This pushes him to overcome any obstacle. In the following months, Bun Bydaway’s goal is to continue to grow each business and re-adapt all his ventures to the current climate and circumstances. To find out more about this eclectic entrepreneur and activist go here. --- ## LifeOfThaParti Is An Up And Coming Recording Artist Based In Texas Who Creates All Kinds Of Music For All Kinds Of People, He Calls It New Wave Hip-Hop URL: https://futuresharks.com/lifeofthaparti-is-an-up-and-coming-recording-artist-based-in-texas-who-creates-all-kinds-of-music-for-all-kinds-of-people-he-calls-it-new-wave-hip-hop/ Joshua Wendell Grant, also known as “LifeOfThaParti”, is a recording artist and composer, born in the city of Los Angeles and currently living in the state of Texas. He likes traveling, seeing new places, meeting people, and of course, making music. When it comes to music, some producers and writers are dedicated to one genre. But this is not the case of LifeOfThaParti, since he is very versatile with the type of music he makes. LifeOfThaParti is also a sports fan. He loves football, basketball and soccer. He supports the Golden State Warriors and in football the Seattle Seahawks. In fact, he used to be a football player back in high school, and was ranked in the top 40 on max preps in his cornerback position. After he could not play football anymore, LifeOfThaParti started to get involved in music. He was surrounded by friends who were artists, and was able to see their process. Everyone has a dream that we want to fulfill and for LifeOfThaParti his dream was to have the same lifestyle as his favorite artists. This ultimately motivated him to enter the music industry. But in the music industry, like in any other, there are challenges. For LifeOfThaParti the biggest challenge he saw in the industry was networking. Despite the challenges, LifeOfThaParti never got discouraged, in part because he had the right mindset from the beginning, which he says is crucial when starting a business. In fact, his advice to those trying to start their own music career is to start their own music and keep going. There will be days where people may want to quit, but they have to keep going. It may always be better to do things in the company of someone who can bring you new ideas and introduce you to other people, but there are times when it is better to go for things alone, even if it means that it will take longer or perhaps be a little more difficult. This is how LifeOfThaParti was able to overcome his biggest obstacle, which was being able to build his own brand without any team. He was able to make a name for himself by funding himself and making his own connections, using his personality as an asset LifeOfThaParti started out of G.E.D, getting every dollar with a label started by an artist named GaTa. Throughout his career, LifeOfThaParti has worked with many Gramm award nominated songwriters and modeled for a few professional brands. LifeOfThaParti’s next project is called “on the clock”, and features other artists like music affiliate Maibach and other big names. He also has a few singles lined up that will surely be appreciated by his fans. Find out more here. --- ## Meet Nidah Barber-Raymond founder of The Peel Connection URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-nidah-barber-raymond-founder-of-the-peel-connection/ Today, I interviewed Nidah Barber-Raymond founder of The Peel Connection, a chemical peel company based out of Beverly Hills, CA. ## Tell us about The Peel Connection **Nidah Barber-Raymond:**The Peel Connection idea came about after I received a chemical peel over 10 years ago. I was in awe of the results. I was instantly brighter and tighter. I already had a communications degree from Emerson College so esthetics school was a new realm for me. On January 27th while driving with my three year old in the back seat, I pulled over and bought the name on Godaddy; I was so excited. All I wanted to do was perform chemical peels and coming up with the name was exciting for me. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? **Nidah Barber-Raymond:**I was peeling myself, neighbors, friends and relatives early on even before I was licensed. They would refer to their friends and family. I wanted to make an impact. I would hand my card out to people who had problematic skin in grocery stores and elevators. I knew I could quickly change their skin and how in-turn they looked at themselves. ## How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific. **Nidah Barber-Raymond:**I’ve been able to grow my business through word of mouth and organic online search and of course Instagram., Yelp and Google have been instrumental in my growth. Reviews are essential in my line of business. When people are researching chemical peels they are 100% reading reviews as they should. The image of chemical peels are a bit scary due to Samantha’s character from Sex In The City‘s depiction of a chemical peel. My peels are less aggressive and safe with noticeable results. ## What are some secrets you’ve found with Instagram marketing? **Nidah Barber-Raymond:** Instagram has been great because I can post photos of clients’ results. I cannot stress how much hashtags are important when posting. It makes perfect sense that if you are not hash-tagging photos people are not going to find you. People share your work so this helps your posts go viral. ## Teach us something we don’t know **Nidah Barber-Raymond:**Don’t think you can do it all. If you’re not good at social media find someone who is and hire them. Know where your talents lie and outsource the rest so you can focus on what you do best.. ## What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? **Nidah Barber-Raymond:** Assessing clients and what they need. I ask a series of questions about what their expectations and wants are, their skin history, their treatment history and I’m able to give them exactly what their skin needs based on those answers. I can almost every time predict their result. Experience has become invaluable to me. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Nidah Barber-Raymond:**Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. This is a fascinating book that shows you how you can break your habits and patterns thinking and feelings. Forming new pathways in the brain and breaking old ones. It really gives you a different perspective on what’s possible if you’re wanting to change some things about yourself that aren’t working anymore. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Nidah Barber-Raymond:**To grow my brand 1000x with professional home peels. To change where consumers can take their skin potential to the next level without having to have to go somewhere to do it. Our Peel At-Home Kits are can give intensely incremental results, unlike with traditional aggressive peels of the past. --- ## Melody Morales Offers Her Clients Pure, Safe And Beneficial Products: Find Out More About This Coach’s Health, Beauty And Wellness Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/melody-morales-offers-her-clients-pure-safe-and-beneficial-products-find-out-more-about-this-coachs-health-beauty-and-wellness-business/ The experiences we live and overcome play a big role in defining who we are. This is something Melody Morales understands and takes into account when running her health, wellness and beauty business. Melody is a big-city girl, born and raised in Los Angeles, and spending time in Reno and Las Vegas, and now central Florida. Through her life, Melody has gone through experiences that helped her see life in a different light. In order to help people, Melody started her health, wellness and beauty business, through which she serves clients by offering them pure, safe, and beneficial products, as well as personal coaching. Putting all of this together, Melody started her business in November 2019. It was important to her to have something of her own she could build and grow, given that her husband has his own business. But of course, Melody stumbled upon many challenges as we all do in our life journey. For Melody, the biggest challenges were remaining consistent and focused, which are very important for any business. In fact, consistency and focus are two words to keep in mind when you are going to start a new business, but it is also important to have the right mindset. With the right mindset, Melody was able to overcome fear, too, which for her is a state of mind that is intended to protect us, but tends to also halt our dreams or goals. If we don’t overcome fear, it can hinder our success. Now that Melody’s business is up and running, she also has some word of advice for fellow entrepreneurs who are trying to start their business. At the moment, Melody is in the process of launching a blog that she hopes will provide added value to and be a resource for people who are looking to learn more about fitness, health, beauty, and even fashion. During COVID-19 times, Melody has also been keeping up with social media, in order to stay in touch not only with her clients but also with her followers. Through TikTok and Instagram, she has made sure to upload content and tell her story. If you want to know more about Melody and her business, go****here. --- ## One Company’s Mission With Equity & Inclusion With Their Social-Emotional Curriculum URL: https://futuresharks.com/next-level-students/ “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” These precious words were spoken by the late U.S. Representative John Lewis, a towering figure of the Civil Rights Era. His viewpoints have, and are continually being echoed, through Professional Development for Educatorsin the form of “Equity and Inclusion” training. The sentiments of ensuring fair treatment and a culture of belonging are characterstics needed, especially for young people going through these recent crises and obstacles. Barriers, such as COVID-19, is the “monkey wrench” that caused malfunctions in the well-established education system. The United States is, however, full of ambitious and resilient teachers, administrators, support staff, and companies  that refuse to sit on the sidelines when it comes to the education and well-being of our students. One company, the Jeremy Anderson Group, for instance is on the forefront of addressing the widening deficits and providing resources to schools and districts in this digital age with their NEXT LEVEL STUDENTS curriculum. Standing tall alongside other giants in the educational industry, the Jeremy Anderson Group has developed content that is the direct solution to the growing concerns of the social-emotional needs of students learning virtually online. As many districts have transitioned to a 1:1 ratio of technology, for distance learning, this company immediately relaunched their K-12 Social-emotional learning Curriculum on a platform that is user-friendly, provides relatable content, and the needed rigor due to its Lexile-measured lessons. It is becoming more evident that students working from home using a digital platform is not the ideal setting for their social-emotional development, so it is imperative that resources are put in place for them. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/480ffc39ec64.jpg) The character and social development of our students can be categorized in self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, social awareness, and relationship skills. These five standards, also known as CASEL’s Five Core Competencies of Social-emotional learning, are the foundational pillars of the NEXT LEVEL STUDENTS curriculum and extensive studies have resulted with a 11% increase in student achievement with proper implementation. The user-friendly content helps make this possible as students are working more independently from home. Social-emotional learning is not only a benefit academically, but also has short and long-term benefits in the daily life of students. It helps to establish a positive towards themselves, others, and daily tasks. This leads to better relationships with their parents and siblings. It also decreases emotional distress, which we all can use some help with, during a time when social media and the news can easily make an established adult feel overwhelmed. Overall, the implementation of a SEL Curriculum, like the one offered by the Jeremy Anderson Group, will increase the likelihood of the pursuit of higher education, career success, and being a productive citizen. The company’s CEO, Jeremy Anderson, experienced many challenges such as drug and alcohol abuse and constant failure in school. He was able to transition from that to now being a powerful speaker who inspires and instructs students, teachers, and leaders on how to take their lives to the next level! Jeremy is a walking testimony of Next Level Living. He went on to receive his high school diploma as well as obtain his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Today, Jeremy owns several successful businesses, and he has authored 7 books thus far! Jeremy Anderson is a leading expert, author, and one of the premier motivational speakers in the educational arena.  Jeremy has made it his life’s work to help students and teachers become the best version of themselves. It’s his NEXT LEVEL mindset and relatable content developed by a team of highly effective educators that has catapulted his small educational consulting firm, based in Atlanta, Georgia in schools from coast to coast. For more information visit Jeremy’s official website jeremyanderson.org or visit nextlevelstudents.org --- ## Brandon Heitmann’s on the importance of mindset URL: https://futuresharks.com/brandon-heitmanns-on-the-importance-of-mindset/ Entrepreneur and business owner Brandon Heitmann managed to turn his life around and create a six-figure business. From struggling with keeping a job and drug abuse, the twenty-seven year old is now the owner of Exigent Design & Build, LLC. a successful company providing clients with the very best design team, sales team, and install team in the landscaping industry. In the spring of 2019, Brandon Hietmann had to make the hardest business decision of his life. He decided to sell his grass business that he had worked seven years to build up in order to fully focus all of the business’s attention on landscape construction. Fast forward to now, Exigent just came off its best year ever totaling $2,100,000 in revenue. Brandon was able to increase his business’s revenue from $300,000 to $2,100,000 in just one year. His business has grown by an astounding 700%.  Brandon now has over fifteen employees and is getting steady landscaping jobs, some totaling over $300,000. Adjusting one’s mindset as an entrepreneur is what will determine the trajectory and success of their business. When being asked the importance of mindset when starting your own business, Brandon Heitmann replied with “Mindset is the most important thing. It’s the only thing that will get you through the hardships and obstacles that come with entrepreneurship.” An entrepreneurs perception of fear and success is also crucial to the outcome. To Brandon, fear means nothing. It’s just a word.  Fear is not a factor that Brandon even takes into consideration because he has such drive and determination towards his goals he will let nothing get in the way of that.  Success to Brandon Heitmann means everything and he will do whatever it takes to get there. Since he was a young kid, Brandon had always wanted to be his own boss and have his own company and he made those dreams into a reality. He started out with very little, and has worked countless hours building and scaling his business to make it what it is today.  Brandon knows the reality of hard work and the determination mind set it takes to get what you really want. For Brandon, he started his own business when he was 18 years old and had the realization that college was not for him. He learned everything about the industry of his choice, became an expert in the field and is working towards being the best landscaping company in the world. As for what is next for Exigent Design & Build, their team is working towards helping 200 contractors become millionaires. Brandon is helping make this a reality through his online mentorship program where dozens of contractors join him for his advice each week.  To learn more information about Brandon Heitmann and his business, click here. --- ## Ariel Adams Made $50K in 45 Days Selling a Digital Product Online; Now She Wants To Teach Others How To Do This URL: https://futuresharks.com/ariel-adams-made-50k-in-45-days-selling-a-digital-product-online-now-she-wants-to-teach-others-how-to-do-this/ Ariel Adams is a 26-year-old businesswoman based in Virginia, who graduated from the University of Miami in 2016, where she earned a double degree in Business and Marketing. Today, she runs multiple successful businesses. Ariel has a real estate business through which she helps Virginia-based clients list and sell their homes. She also runs a digital product and consulting business, through which she helps clients scale their businesses through one-on-one sessions and courses, sharing her own experience optimizing Instagram to grow a following and sell a product. While she ran The Lotus Agency, she handled all facets of the artists’ career including social media branding, music video logistics, and album releases. Around this time, Ariel went through her own personal finance journey and decided to shift gears. Soon after, Ariel’s account gained notoriety with the success of a digital product, her e-book “From Instagram to Instant Money.” Moreover, articles started to be written about her in Yahoo Finance, Official Black Wall Street, and XoNecole. She was inspired to run her businesses by her need to develop multiple streams of income. Ariel found motivation in seeing acquaintances earn income online. She realized it was possible not just for her, but also for others to grow their own businesses and achieve financial freedom. To achieve her success, Ariel made sure not to underestimate herself and to recognize her unique potential. For her, mindset is everything when starting a business. But most importantly, Ariel’s main advice to people trying to start their own business is to don’t put it off and just do it. At the moment, Ariel is focused on launching her new course titled Digital Products to Six Figure Profits, in which she outlines a step-by-step guide to how she earned $50,000 in just 45 days with a digital product. This course will be released in mid-August. Ariel is also working on designing a free masterclass on how to turn passion and experience into a profitable digital product. All of these efforts contribute to her main goal to help others achieve success. For Ariel, success is being happy, which is tied to having enough time to be with her family, to work on herself, and to positively impact people through her work. She wants others to be able to achieve this too. Find out more about Ariel, the digital selling expert, here. --- ## A 27-year-old medical student who has a story to inspire all of us, Zachery Dereniowski URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-27-year-old-medical-student-who-has-a-story-to-inspire-all-of-us-zachery-dereniowski/ *Zachery Dereniowski the person who inspires and guides a lot of students who are willing to maximize their MCAT scores, empowering pre-medical students entering medical school.*   Zachery who is born in Windsor, “Automotive Capital of Canada”, is a city in Ontario, Canada, across the Detroit River from the U.S. city of Detroit. He has a dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship and is a 27-year-old medical student at the University of Sydney in Australia pursuing his Post-Graduation in Medicine Program. He did his Bachelor of Human Kinetics (in 2016 from the University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, and thereafter his Post-Baccalaureate in Pre-Medical Studies in December 2017 from Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, MI.   Zachery has an incredible approach towards life, someone who truly lives for nothing other than helping others. He believes life should not be only thinking about oneself but it is way more than that, moreover, it is how your experiences positively impacted the lives and the betterment of others.   His story to inspire others started with failure only, when he was in his first year of college during his Biochemistry Program, where he only managed to score a 0.59 GPA and was Required to Withdraw from the program. He was even told by the Dean that he might be good enough for the college. But Zachery never gave up. Instead of losing hope, he returned to college and completed his studies and this time scoring a 4.0 GPA over his last 9 consecutive semesters and scored over a 510 on the MCAT on his first attempt.    The idea of inspiring others came up when he received a message from a stranger stating how he can relate to Zachery’s academic story and which made Zachery realize that how he can also inspire students by his own story. He started by hosting Instagram live sessions from doctors around the world and talking about his struggle and how all students can overcome the adversities they face. Thereafter he began working as an MCAT tutor, exclusively connecting with students through Instagram. Which lead to a direct job proposal from a large test prep company, Examkrackers, as their first and only MCAT Mentor, which he happily accepted, in a belief that it will provide him with a greater reach and the ability to travel across the United States to speak with thousands of students at pre-medical conferences.   Zachery understands and has himself experienced that what students go through because of their academics scores. Therefore, he gives importance to mental health and his example to students of not losing hope in life. He speaks about how family or loved ones should support in such a situation and also seek professional support for the same. He wants to help people recognize that they matter, that they are not alone, and they are worthy of recovering from whatever they are going through. He has recently become a Tik Tok sensation with over 400k followers working as a mental advocate, helping provide people facing mental health issues, a voice to be heard.   His purpose in life is to empower others, inspiring and making a positive impact on the lives of others. At present, along with his studies, he is inspiring, motivating, and guiding pre-medical students entering medical school and helping people who are struggling with mental health issues and want to become a voice for those who are suffering from mental health issues and to disseminate a message of hope and support. --- ## Arthur Sanchez Struggled For Many Years In The Music Industry. Now He is Helping Others Avoid The Difficulties Of The Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/arthur-sanchez/ Arthur Sanchez is a musician who runs a brand that bears his name. Many of us know how difficult the music industry can be, so Arthur decided to change that by creating a way for artists to get support at the start of their journey. From a very young age, Arthur fought for what he wanted by working hard and being persistent. He had to face many challenges as a rising artist and entrepreneur. He even had to sleep on his parents’ floor when he could not make ends meet. He pushed through these hard times and now through his brand, he seeks to bring new talent from all over, and help other artists who like him have had difficult times. In the pursuit of his dream, Arthur was presented with the opportunity in 2014 to record his first song, which was called “**I’ve been watching you.**” This was a moment of impulse that led him to aim higher, so he learned how music was created from scratch. Arthur found the motivation to do what he does in the pursuit of independence and creative freedom. He wanted to be creative, have his own brand, and be out of his home with his parents. In addition, his goal was to give others help and support as they start their career, just like he wished he had had on his journey to success. Like all of us, at some point, we have had to overcome some obstacles. For Arthur, his obstacle was hate, which he was able to use as a tool to motivate him. As stated, he has never let these difficulties get him down. Arthur plans to continue growing his business and helping new artists. He wants to make sure that people get the help they need and deserve. He will also release a few of his own singles in the upcoming weeks. Find out more about Arthur here, and check him out on Instagram. --- ## Discover How Tiffaney Williams Has Assisted Hundreds Of Small Business Owners And Thousands Of Individuals On Their Journey To Financial Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/tiffaney-williams/ Ms. Tiffaney Williams is a native from Detroit’s Eastside. Growing up as a young lady she had big dreams, goals and the desire to be so much more than her circumstances and environment. She has survived every test and trial thrown her way, including depression, anxiety, addiction and much more. Tiffaney has always been an overcomer and pushed through. In her youth, Tiffaney struggled with dyslexia and was an average student. But this did not stop her from being a 3x published author with over a dozen e-books. Her life could have been defined by statistics, and things could have permanently gone down the drain, but she decided the life she had was not the life she wanted. For many people, they get trapped in the cycle of poverty and circumstance. Tiffaney was lucky enough to break that cycle. Ms. Tiffaney Williams runs multiple 6 figure financial and credit services firms. She provides services to people who do not know how to manage their credit and finances, who want to build their credit and businesses, and increase their knowledge and income. No one teaches you how to balance your checkbook, compound your money, build your business credit, or build the life you really desire. Exclusive Solutions is here to change that. Their mission is to repair, restore, rebuild, and educate. Tiffaney’s motivation was her family and the fact that in 2008, she had to declare bankruptcy due to not having any financial and credit education, which was a very hard experience. Many others experienced a tragic year due to the bursting of the housing bubble and subsequent collapse of the economy. Real estate, for obvious reasons, was a harder hit than most. To get out of the hole where she had fallen the only solution was to reevaluate and learn more. So that is what Tiffaney did. She began taking asset protection classes, credit education classes, credit law and so many others to better herself and make herself more valuable to the market and her target audience. After getting out of her credit and financial problems, she was able to help those closest to her. This way Ms. Tiffaney Williams was able to give back in a major way. She is continuing her quest to help others with a 12 year anniversary just passing. She believes if all you do is receive and not give, your successes’ lifespans will be temporary. It’s easy to get caught up in selfishness, but we must learn to be selfless. It is important to give back to the most vulnerable communities, which is a part of her mission. To learn more about Ms. Tiffaney Williams, clickhere. --- ## After Bad Luck Kept Hitting, Ivan Tapia Never Gave Up And It Has Paid Off In Millions URL: https://futuresharks.com/ivan-tapia/ Many of us dream of becoming professional sports players. We watch sports when we are young and see incredible athletes who inspire us. Ivan Tapia is a businessman from Tijuana, Mexico, who from a very young age had the opportunity to study at Southwestern College in San Diego California, and begin to achieve his dream to become a professional baseball player Unfortunately, his career did not last long. Ivan suffered a shoulder injury and he knew that his dream of becoming a professional baseball player would be out of reach. Despite attempting to come back from his injury, he focused on finding a plan “B”. Between the ages of 18 and 22 when he graduated college, Ivan bounced around from job to job. After a while, he moved to Los Angeles to study civil engineering at Cal State and from there returned to San Diego to finish his civil engineering degree. At the time of graduation, he had two job offers to start to work for a company called GLE Engineers. Much like with his shoulder industry, Ivan could not plan for what the future held for him. Right as he was graduating and entering the market, the economy entered a process of decline and many people were losing their jobs. Ivan, unfortunately, hit another bad stroke of luck and was one of the people unemployed. Ivan started to do MLM, which is a type of business that is formed by a network of independent sellers (also called distributors or representatives), who generate income from the direct sale of products that a company supplies to them. At first, Ivan started doing this more out of necessity than anything else. Finally, in 2011 things changed for the better. Ivan took off in his MLM venture, increasing his profits progressively and he was no longer doing this just to try and make ends meet, but rather doing it because it was lucrative and helping him succeed in life. In spite of his earnings, however, Ivan felt empty. He felt that something was missing from his life and he decided he wanted to do more. Today, Ivan is a professional network marketing entrepreneur, international speaker, author of Amazon’s best selling book “Antes Empleado Hoy Millonario” (Formerly Employed Today a Millionaire) and number one annual income earner in the Latino community in Network Marketing. Ivan is also a consultant for companies that want to expand in marketing, and worldwide, co-owner of different businesses such as real estate, a restaurant chain, an insurance company, and service apps. He is also an investor in technology companies, real estate, start-up companies, the stock market, the crypto market and the forex market. Find out more about Ivan here. --- ## Vick Tipnes of Blackstone Medical Services Is The Entrepreneur To Look Up To URL: https://futuresharks.com/vick-tipnes-of-blackstone-medical-services-is-the-entrepreneur-to-look-up-to/ At what age do we reach our most significant potential? The answers lie more on how we use the time that is lent to us. In fact, we are given the same amount of time every day, and what differentiates us from each other is how we use that time well.  Vick Tipnes is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker, founder, and CEO of Blackstone Medical Services. Today, Blackstone is a national company that serves in over 50 states in the US. They are an in-network provider with all the major insurances – providing an excellent level of service to patients, physicians, and insurance providers. It took a lot of sacrifices, hard work, and perseverance for Tipnes to reach where he is now. Like every entrepreneur that you look up to today, he, too, has an inspiring story to be told. Vick Tipnes was born in London, England. Then, his family decided to move to Florida when he was still young. Unlike others who found their passion when they were old, Vick already knew what he wanted to do even when he was still a little kid. He always knew he wanted to become an entrepreneur. At the age of 12 years old, he asked his father if he would invest in a business if ever he would find one. It was a spark of courage and determination, which then rippled to more productive outcomes later on in his life. In his youth, his parents pushed him for formal education, but Tipnes knew that it was a path that is not for him. As he tried for college, he then realized after six months that he was meant to do other things, he then decided to drop out and carve his own path. It wasn’t an overnight success. Tipnes was aware that in order to make it, he has to learn the necessary skills to become a good salesman. It was a test of his endurance, outside of his comfort zone and his willingness in the path to entrepreneurship. Following the learning of the business, he then becomes the salesman of the month in his days of selling cars. The experience gave him the motivation and confidence to push and work hard for better and bigger things. At 35 years old, he realized that to arrive at the destination that he has set for himself, he has to invest in himself genuinely. He took concrete action, educated himself, and spent every dollar he had left just to equip himself with the necessary skills he needed to succeed. He didn’t have enough at that time, not enough money nor enough resources, but the belief in himself is more than enough to push him further towards his goals. Back in 2012, he started Blackstone with the intention to help as many people as he can, through better cost, better access, and better quality service. He started his business in his kitchen, without revenue, only one employee, and a loan from an investor. Tipnes is aware that as an entrepreneur, holding value to your employees is crucial. He knew the fact that sometimes, there are days when he’s not paid himself, but at the back of his mind, he believed that all his hard work and sacrifices would eventually pay off.  To this day, they have over 150 employees in the company. They are valued over 50 million dollars and have grown into a national company that services all 50 states. They have contracted with over 17 million lives through several Insurance Providers, providing an excellent service to patients, physicians, and insurance providers. Every ounce of hard work that Tipnes has put in has eventually paid off.  Now, he is dedicated to helping those young and aspiring entrepreneurs to find their way towards success, just like he did. Follow Vick Tipnes’s journey through Instagram @vicktipnes, or you can visit his website through www.vicktipnes.net. --- ## Jason Lobdell’s Gym And Fitness Program Together Are A Must-See Fitness Phenomenon URL: https://futuresharks.com/jason-lobdells-gym-and-fitness-program-together-are-a-must-see-fitness-phenomenon/ Jason Lobdell is an entrepreneur who is passionate about fitness. Through his discipline, hard work, and love for helping others, he has changed the lives of thousands of people. Jason’s story is unique in that in just his first year in the business and on Instagram in 2016, he managed to win $1 million. This was able to jumpstart his business and journey into the fitness industry. Jason runs a gym calledThe Loft Athletic Club, which, aside from being a gym to help members prioritize their fitness and wellbeing, is also world renowned for its great atmosphere full of great energy. In addition, Jason offers a top-notch online fitness program calledx28fitness.com. His online program has been featured in many acclaimed publications, such as BlackFitnessToday, Huffington Post, BET, and Medium. Together with his co-founder Gee Bryant, the two have coached thousands through life-changing transformations, both mentally and physically. Jason was motivated to start his business because of his wife’s pregnancy. Naturally, pregnancy changes a woman’s physical appearance, so his wife had to lose weight and for that, they hired a personal trainer who took their bodies to another level. After some time, he was presented with the opportunity to be a member of a gym, so he took advantage of that opportunity, this has been one of the most important decisions in his life. Jason is not driven by money, but by the desire to help people, the desire to make people change their lives and be healthier. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, however. Jason understands the challenges that come with running your own business. Jason’s next projects include****a sportswear line earlier this year calledThe BodyNV, started by his wife.** ** If you want to know more about Jason, clickhere to see his website or follow him on Instagramhere. --- ## A Financial Necessity Turned World Class Business: This Is The Story Of Matthew Ferrarini URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-financial-necessity-turned-world-class-business-this-is-the-story-of-matthew-ferrarini/ Divorce and the break up of families can leave a lot of people in a difficult situation. On top of the emotional trauma it can bring to people, it often comes with financial problems for people on one end of the family. This was the case for Matthew Ferrarini and his mother after a divorce left them struggling to make ends meet. His business of luxury kitchen and bath design was started out of needing to help pay the bills. To top this all off, Matthew started off his business in 2008 at the height of the recession. This was a huge obstacle for him to overcome when starting off his business. He and his mom began working out of the back of their car as handymen just to try and keep things going. Their hard work and perseverance has paid off. Matthew is incredibly young and has been extremely successful in the design business despite his rocky start. For those wishing to start their own business, Matthew shares his secret, which is to look at the market and find something that is missing and will create value for people that they do not already have. This can be hard to do in the market nowadays, but it is the best way to find success. Though Matthew has been an incredibly successful entrepreneur and designer, he would not have gotten far without his mom, who he credits with a lot of his inspiration to get involved in this business. Many of us learn and take on interests from our parents at a young age. Matthew is exactly the same. His mother’s background in the interior design industry helped him and inspired him when crafting his own business. Matthew is excited for the year to come. Though 2020 has put a stop on most things due the current pandemic, Matthew says that 2021 will be a big year for his company, and he is excited to do some more luxury kitchen renovations in the future. To find out more about Matthew, you can follow him on Instagram @matthew_ferrarini, and you can check out his website at www.ferrariniremodeling.com. --- ## CJ Hammond speaks on the importance of mindset when starting your own business URL: https://futuresharks.com/cj-hammond-speaks-on-the-importance-of-mindset-when-starting-your-own-business/ CJ Hammond is an entrepreneur with a strong mindset and determination to reach his goals despite any setbacks. CJ is the CEO of Fit Legend Inc which is a health and wellness brand and personal training business. He has been an athlete his whole life as he started playing football at 8 years old and has played competitively for the past 22 years. This led to CJ’s passion for healthy living and working out and wanting to help others do the same. His greatest joy is knowing that he has made someone feel better with only one hour out of their busy lives. CJ describes his ultimate reward as the long lasting relationships he has with his clients. **** CJ found motivation to start his business when he moved to LA to further his career in Pro-fitness. This is where CJ Hammond found his passion for boxing and learned the art of its “sweet science.” This led to him starting his second business Fit Legend Inc in 2019 and his craft has allowed him to train some of the world’s top athletes from various sports. Fit Legend Inc is a health and wellness brand and personal training business.  **** CJ Hammond knew that he always wanted to stay around athletes and wanted to learn the science of coaching and teaching others to develop healthy lifestyles. Once he saw how he could change lives not only physically, but mentally, he knew it was what he wanted to do. Every successful entrepreneur needs to have a strong mindset in order to face the obstacles that come when starting a business. When being asked the importance of mindset when starting a business, CJ replied with “Mindset is everything. One has to be confident, strong, courageous, and bold. You have to go in knowing you will fail 10x before getting the results you want. Having that mindset will help you keep going when the times get tough. Believe in yourself and visualize success.”  **** CJ Hammond describes one of the biggest challenges when starting a business as the unpredictable outcome. He expands by saying “Going out on your own is really hard. You want to succeed instantly but it doesn’t work that way. The successful businesses weather the storms and after failing multiple times, get back up and try again. It is also crucial to adapt to the changes in culture, market, etc or you will get left behind. Continue to grow and adapt to stay ahead.”  CJ’s advice for those trying to start their own business is to do it for your love and passion for the industry and what you are trying to accomplish. When you start a business for these reasons, the money will eventually follow and the journey will become that much harder to give up on. CJ Hammond is constantly working on growing and adapting his business but one of his current projects is launching a fitness clothing/ athleisure line. He is very excited about another upcoming project which is an online fitness program platform. To continue along with CJ’s journey and learn more about his business, click here. --- ## David Nicolas Albanese on how to be successful as an entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/david-nicolas-albanese-on-how-to-be-successful-as-an-entrepreneur/ David Nicolas Albanese is an entrepreneur who has businesses in various industries and is still yearning to do more. He has been dealing with the buying and selling of real estate for 14 years. He has worked in all other businesses from opening liquor stores, selling laundromats, starting nightclubs, restaurants, landscaping and many more. Every entrepreneur has to try different areas of business to determine their skill sets, strengths and weaknesses, and knowledge of the industry.   **** David’s mother struggled for many years living paycheck to paycheck and this inspired him to work ten times harder to provide the best life for his family. He made sure that he would achieve financial stability and freedom early on so that he wouldn’t have to live in uncertainty. David Albanese says “I found motivation for my business from watching my mom struggle on a daily basis to keep us safe and put food on the table.” He knew that he always wanted a greater life for himself and he wouldn’t stop working until he achieved every one of his goals.  **** Today, David Albanese has many businesses under his control. He can afford daily requirements plus luxuries for his people. He founded High Farms, which is a cannabis technology and cultivation company along with his real estate business and a large scale pool maintenance company. David couldn’t be happier with the success he has achieved so far in his life, and there is so much more to come. David is currently helping small entrepreneurs get a hold of the market and guide them to not make the mistakes him and many other entrepreneurs have made in the past. **** One of David Albanese’s greatest joy’s is helping other people work towards their goals and jump starting their success. David feels his guidance will improve the state of businesses and in this way he can give back to the people and society at large. Some of David’s biggest accomplishments are being a real estate broker, his wife and kids, and business funding. He is always working towards something more and pushing himself to be the best version of himself in all aspects of his life.  David Nicolas Albanese stresses the importance of mindset when starting your own business because with an unbreakable mindset, fear does not exist and will not interfere with any of your goals. David’s advice for those trying to start their own business is to not quit too soon despite any obstacles or setbacks because it is easy to get discouraged, but success will come to those who have their mind set on their goals. To learn more about David and his business, click here. --- ## How Adam Reich went from fitness to financial freedom URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-adam-reich-went-from-fitness-to-financial-freedom/ Adam Reich is an entrepreneur who has what it takes to be successful in the business world. He spent a long time figuring out what his passion was and what he wanted his life’s work to be, which ultimately led him to the place he is currently. Adam founded True Credit Repair which is a credit repair business. However, each chapter in his life leading up to starting his own business shaped him and taught him many lessons. **** Adam Reich started out in the gym at a young age of 15 with his dad. His love for the gym grew so much that it led to him becoming a National Level competitive bodybuilder. At the peak of his success he fell short by only one place on becoming a professional bodybuilder. During this time competing Adam had built an online and in person training business from the ground up grossing well over 6 figures and growing. In May of 2014 his wife gave birth to his beautiful twin girls. This gave Adam Reich all the drive he could ever need to give his daughters the best life. He wanted another challenge and something he was passionate about which led him to finding the gap in the credit repair industry. Shortly after he started True Credit Repair and has been working on growing the business ever since.  **** Adam was determined to learn everything he could about the industry to be able to be a leading company in the industry and build his business based on his knowledge. By learning all of this and becoming an expert in the industry, Adam was able to build his credibility and reputation. One of the biggest things Adam Reich and his team value is their clients time and reason for choosing True Credit Repair. It is evident that as people continue to lose their jobs through the economic recession, the need to be able to run your own business directly from your phone is only becoming greater.  **** Adam Reich was inspired to get into his niche of credit repair because he wants to help entrepreneurs and individuals repair their credit which is extremely important in the business world. Adam recognizes that one of the biggest challenges that comes along with starting your own business is getting the capital to do so, and his mission is to ensure that all of his clients get the funding to jumpstart their business with repaired credit.  One of the biggest challenges Adam Reich faced when starting his own business was the people that told him he couldn’t and the fear of the unknown. It is difficult for any entrepreneur to leave the comforts of a 9-5 job to jump into an unpredictable journey, which is why it is extremely important to believe in yourself and never stop working towards your goals. As for what is next for Adam, he is working towards building out his state of the art sales office and warehouse in south Florida and continuing to scale his business at an intense speed to grow his brand nationwide. To follow along with Adam Reich and his business, click here. --- ## Meet Austin Rutherford: The Successful Real Estate Entrepreneur Shares His Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/austin-rutherford/ Cutting grass and shoveling snow, these are the kinds of things that Austin Rutherford was doing to help make money from an early age. He worked hard so that he could have funds to help support himself and others. He carried this mindset into the real estate industry where he is now making money by flipping houses. Quickly after, Austin realized that the best way to make money quickly was to get involved in the real estate business. Early on, when Austin realized he had a passion for making money, he learned that many people who had made it big had all been involved somehow in real estate. Austin knew that this was his next step. Austin then worked his way through the real estate world. At first, he was not the most successful, but he pushed through anyways. He reached out and found a mentor who helped guide him through the process. After working incredibly hard, he was finally able to flip his first house and make a massive profit. Austin Rutherford shows no signs of slowing down now. His goal in the upcoming years is to continue to build a personal brand and create his space in the real estate business and real estate education business. His advice for those wishing to start their own business is to take the leap of faith and go for it! As a young entrepreneur, Austin had to overcome numerous obstacles that consistently got in his way. The biggest challenge by far according to Austin was just getting over his lack of confidence. After conquering this huge hurdle, everything was possible for Austin. To find out more about Austin Rutherford, you can follow him on Instagram @austinrutherfordofficial. --- ## Jose Gordo on discipline and how it helps his life focus of direct sales URL: https://futuresharks.com/jose-gordo-on-discipline-and-how-it-helps-his-life-focus-of-direct-sales/ Jose Gordo is an entrepreneur who has used the disciplines he learned in the military to reach his goals and provide the best possible service to customers. He has businesses across multiple industries such as Finance/Investing, Real Estate, and High-Performance Education Platforms. Jose sees the value in expanding your skill sets and strengths throughout multiple industries so that you can spread your knowledge while creating multiple sources of income.  **** Jose is a best-selling author and worked hard to make his books a reflection of everything he has. His first book, “The 12 Gifts from Dad,” embodies a lot of who Jose is as a person from everything he learned through the process of leaving a stable job and seeking success on my own. Jose is a loving father to his kids and wants to set a good example while keeping them a priority always. Many people have a tough time transitioning from leaving a 9-5 stable job that comes with a W-2 to jump into the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship. However, Jose Gordo used his unbreakable mindset and drive towards direct sales for his business to lead him to success.  **** Jose Gordo evaluated the most successful people in the world and realized that those individuals never limit themselves to doing only one thing, which is why he was inspired to have multiple businesses. He expands by saying “Taking the first step and having your own business is the beginning to start feeling that your life completely belongs to you. I believe that this is the leading factor why people leave their 9-5 jobs to go for something better. One of the best things you can have is a relentless mind and exploring each and every opportunity and idea.”  **** As an entrepreneur paving the way for others with his unbreakable mindset and discipline, Jose Gordo puts a high importance on leadership, having a good attitude, perseverance, and working hard to achieve your goals. Jose’s direct mentor was Tony Robbins who he is incredibly grateful for. Jose loves helping other aspiring entrepreneurs get started with their businesses just like Tony did for Jose. One of Jose’s greatest recommendations is finding someone who is about 10 years ahead of you in the industry you are interested in, and asking them to mentor you. When you have a close relationship with someone who has been through everything you are currently going through, it helps eliminate some of the obstacles along the way based on what they have learned.   **** Jose’s purpose in life is to impact the lives of millions of people and have his life’s work affect people’s lives for the better. He found motivation to get started with his own business to stop being an employee to his own boss and finally be in control of his time and life’s destiny. Jose Gordo explains one of the biggest challenges of starting a business as decision making especially because you are your own boss. This is why it is extremely helpful to have a mentor helping you make these influential decisions about your business with the goal to create as many direct sales as possible.  Jose Gordo is an entrepreneur with a creative mind and remarkable heart. He describes his entrepreneurial journey as an amazing experience both personally and professionally. To follow alongside Jose’s business and future endeavors, click here. --- ## Trey Ketcham on how to set yourself apart from the crowd URL: https://futuresharks.com/trey-ketcham-on-how-to-set-yourself-apart-from-the-crowd/ Trey Ketcham is an entrepreneur who founded his own sales and marketing business called Peak Performance Development. His company is a dedicated affiliate of CUTCO, the world’s finest cutlery. The products are American Made and Forever Guaranteed. Their representatives are a varied and fun-loving group of talented individuals who embody excellence and share a passion for personal and professional development. Peak Performance is constantly looking for new young talent and whether a student works with them in a management capacity or just develops entry level skills to excel their future career, they know they are building skills for life.  **** Trey Ketcham and his team set themselves apart from the competition by daily disciplines, remaining hubble and never satisfied, but always appreciative. Trey has many goals for himself and the determination to reach them by never being comfortable with the place he is at by always pushing himself to grow more. With Trey’s creative mind and knowledge of the industry, there is no limit on the success he can achieve.  **** Trey’s advice for those trying to start their own business is to grind and work hard to make progress towards your goals every single day. He continues to say “Help people! You have to view your mission as serving your customers and the brand in order to be a leader of either. Be resolute with your standards/ goals but patient with the time it takes to get there. Take time to make it fun- for me, winning is fun and competing is fun!” Each entrepreneur has a different definition of success, what it means to them, and what they have been working towards. To Trey Ketcham, success means being the best version of himself in all aspects of his life along with being a great husband, father, leader and friend.  **** Trey Ketcham decided to start his own business at the age of 22 because he wanted to be in control of his own destiny. His father tragically passed when he was 19 years old and the advice his father once gave him was to never work for anyone but yourself because that is where the real opportunity and job security lies. Trey has worked so hard to make his father’s advice and hopes for him come true, which he has done a remarkable job of.  **** When being asked the importance of mindset when it comes to starting your own business, Trey replied with “Critical, your mindset is both your greatest asset and biggest liability. You have to tend it daily just like you would a garden. Planting seeds of growth and yanking weeds of negativity and doubt from your mind.” Trey Ketcham and his team’s motto is “No Excuses, play like a Champion!”  Trey starts every morning at 5 am which allows him to attack life with passion and intensity to make the most of every day by evaluating the different aspects of his life and putting time into what he loves.  As for what is next for Trey Ketcham he will continue working towards building a dynasty, he is looking to promote 5 division managers within his company, and creating an investment empire to take care of his family for the next several generations. Trey keeps his main goal to always help people and serve his customers first with a great respect for everyone’s time. To follow along with Trey and his future endeavors, click here. --- ## How Rudy El Patronn Treminio found his niche in the automotive industry and differentiates himself URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-rudy-el-patronn-treminio-found-his-niche-in-the-automotive-industry-and-differentiates-himself/ Rudy Treminio is an entrepreneur who has defied all odds to get to the place where he is today. Many people would have accepted the circumstances Rudy was given as an immigrant with no education, being a young father, incarcerated with nothing in his favor, but that was far from the case. It was Rudy’s never faltering dedication to the goals he set for himself and passion for the industry he is in that led to his success.  **** It takes a certain type of entrepreneurial individual to be able to see gaps or untouched industries, learn everything they can about it, and put fear aside to take the leap of faith into the industry. Three years ago Rudy put everything on the line, left the comforts of a W-2 and a 9-5 job, learned everything he needed to know to be successful, and started his own business in the automotive industry. Since Rudy Treminio didn’t receive the proper education as a child and immigrant, he felt from a very young age that he had to work harder than the rest and defy all odds against him.  **** Rudy Treminio didn’t want just to be known as the “Car guy” so he dabbled into each part of the industry and used all of our modern-world technology to become resourceful and knowledgeable. He knew that by learning every inch of the field it would make him unique and stand out from the rest. Rudy differentiates himself from the competition due to his personal branding. He branded his name in the industry as “El Patronn” so that customers recognize his Brand identity and know who he is. Brand identity is the visible elements of a brand; design, color, or logo, that distinguish the brand in the customers mind. “El Patronn” as he is known in the industry put himself out there like no other person in the automotive industry has done. His goal by doing this was to stand out in a crowd and be the hardest working person in any room.  **** Rudy Treminio made the decision to start his own social media business three years ago when he saw the opportunity to take his game to the next level. No one in his field was brave enough to take the leap, so Rudy took the opportunity and worked so hard to make his dreams a reality. His personal branding and credibility that he established in the automotive industry transferred to his other businesses and he continued to use “El Patronn” for his social media company.  Rudy views fear as a crutch holding you back from becoming successful. He explains this as “If you are too scared to try it is because you are afraid of failure. But the only way to know what you are capable of and reach your goals is to take the leap of faith and face your fears.” Taking that leap of faith was the best decision he could have ever made for himself. As for what is next for Rudy, he is working on becoming the #1 Chevy dealership in all of NYC, starting his own auto group, and publishing his second book. To follow along with Rudy Treminio’s business and future endeavors, click here. --- ## How To Build a Personal Brand in 2026: The Complete Guide URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-build-and-grow-your-personal-brand/ TL;DR: Pick a narrow niche and a clear positioning statement, commit to one or two platforms where your audience already is, build a repeatable content engine fueled by genuine point of view, stay human in an AI-flooded feed, and own your audience through a newsletter so you can monetize on your own terms. In 2026, your personal brand is the work your reputation does when you are not in the room. A recruiter Googles you before the interview. A prospect reads your LinkedIn before they reply. A podcast host scans your feed before they invite you on. The question is no longer *whether* you have a personal brand. You already do. The only question is whether you are shaping it on purpose or letting the algorithm and your oldest posts do it for you. And the stakes are higher than ever. The creator economy was valued at roughly $252 billion in 2025 and is projected to hit about $310 billion in 2026, with more than 200 million people now identifying as creators. That is both opportunity and noise. Standing out takes more than showing up. Here is how to actually do it. ## 1. Nail your positioning before you post anything The single biggest mistake is starting with tactics — "Should I do Reels or threads?" — before deciding what you stand for. Positioning comes first. The narrower your niche, the faster you build authority. "Marketing" is unownable. "Organic LinkedIn growth for bootstrapped B2B founders" is a lane you can dominate in a year. Specificity is not a limitation; it is the entire advantage. Write a one-line positioning statement using this template: > **I help [specific audience] [achieve specific outcome] by [your distinct method or angle].** For example: *"I help early-stage SaaS founders turn customer interviews into messaging that converts, without hiring an agency."* If you can't fill in the blanks crisply, your audience won't understand you either. **Three filters for a niche worth committing to:** - **Credibility** — do you have real experience, results, or a hard-won perspective here? Lived experience beats borrowed theory every time. - **Demand** — are people actively searching for, paying for, or arguing about this topic? - **Endurance** — can you talk about it for three years without getting bored? Burnout kills more brands than competition does. ## 2. Choose platforms by audience, not by hype You do not need to be everywhere. You need to be excellent in the one or two places your audience actually pays attention. Pick a primary platform to go deep on and, at most, one secondary to repurpose into. **LinkedIn** is the highest-leverage platform for most professionals, founders, and B2B operators in 2026. More than half of B2B buyers now consult creator content at the final stage of a purchase decision, and LinkedIn keeps shipping native monetization and creator tools. If you sell expertise, services, or B2B products, start here. **X (Twitter)** still rewards sharp, opinionated, real-time thinking. Best for tech, finance, media, and building in public. Lower reach than its peak, but unmatched for fast conversations with smart people. **YouTube** is the deepest moat you can build. Over 2.7 billion people watch monthly, and the platform has paid creators more than $70 billion. Video builds trust nothing else matches — but it is the highest production cost. Go here if you can commit for the long haul. **TikTok and Instagram Reels** are top-of-funnel discovery engines. With TikTok past 1.6 billion users, short video is how new people find you. Pair it with a clear path to a place you own (more on that below) or the attention evaporates. **Newsletters (Substack, beehiiv, Kit)** are where you convert attention into a relationship. Smaller audiences, far higher value. This is the asset, not the ad. Match the platform to your strength: if you write well, lead with LinkedIn, X, or a newsletter. If you are magnetic on camera, lead with YouTube or short video. Do not fight your natural format. ## 3. Build a content engine, not a streak of random posts Consistency beats intensity, but only when it runs on a system. Random posting whenever inspiration strikes is how people quit in six weeks. **Define three to five content pillars** — recurring themes you'll rotate through. A fractional CFO might use: cash-flow tactics, fundraising reality checks, finance-team hiring, and personal lessons from the trenches. Pillars stop the daily "what do I post?" panic. **Use a repeatable post structure.** The thought-leadership arc that consistently earns engagement is simple: > Here's what most people believe → here's what I actually found → here's what it means for you. That structure signals you've done real thinking, and it invites debate — which is what drives shares. **Batch and repurpose.** Create in focused blocks, then atomize. One long YouTube video or essay becomes five LinkedIn posts, ten short clips, and a newsletter issue. The "create once, distribute everywhere" model is how solo creators produce like teams. **Use AI as a co-pilot, not a ghostwriter.** Let AI handle research, outlining, scheduling, and editing — roughly the 80% of the work that is mechanical. You own the 20% that matters: the opinions, the stories, the specific numbers, the hot takes. AI-generated filler is everywhere now, and audiences can smell it. Your judgment is the product. ## 4. Stay human when the feed is full of robots As AI-generated content floods every platform, the scarcest thing online is a real person with a real point of view. That is your edge — if you don't sand it off trying to look polished. Audiences increasingly prefer unedited, honest content over glossy production; a majority of younger viewers now say raw content feels more trustworthy than perfectly produced clips. Perfection reads as fake. So: - **Take real positions.** A brand that agrees with everyone stands for nothing. Stake a claim, even when it costs you a few followers. - **Show the work, including the misses.** Specific stories — a deal that fell through, a launch that flopped, the exact number you hit — cannot be generated by a bot or copied by a competitor. - **Be the same person offline.** Your reputation in meetings and DMs eventually catches up to your feed. A personal brand isn't a costume you put on for the camera; it's who you are, broadcast at scale. Authenticity is not oversharing. It is being consistent, specific, and willing to say what you actually think. ## 5. Distribute like it's half the job — because it is Great content that nobody sees is a diary entry. Distribution is not an afterthought; it is the multiplier. - **Engage before and after you post.** Spend 15 minutes commenting thoughtfully on others' posts before you publish. On LinkedIn and X, early engagement on your own thread shapes how far the algorithm pushes it. - **Build relationships with peers at your level.** Don't only chase the big names. The people one rung ahead and beside you will share your work, collaborate, and pull you up as you all grow. - **Borrow audiences deliberately.** Guest on podcasts, write for established publications, do collaborations and "takeovers." Appearing in front of an existing audience is the fastest way to grow a new one. - **Send people somewhere you own.** Every viral moment should route to your newsletter or site. The conversion chain that works in 2026: a short clip catches attention, your bio link drives an email signup, and email turns a stranger into a subscriber, customer, or client. ## 6. Own your audience, then monetize it Here's the most important shift of 2026: the smart money has moved from chasing attention to owning the relationship. Followers are rented; an email list is owned. Recurring, community-based revenue now sits at the center of serious creator businesses, while one-off sponsorships have slipped to the periphery. Build your **owned assets** — newsletter, community, website, email list — relentlessly. A platform can change its algorithm or ban you overnight. Your list cannot be taken away. **Then layer in revenue, roughly in this order of durability:** 1. **Services and consulting** — the fastest path to real money. A personal brand that demonstrates expertise generates inbound leads who already trust you, so you spend nothing on sales. 2. **Digital products and courses** — the highest-margin scale play. A single course priced between $99 and $499 with 500 students produces $50,000 to $250,000 — often more than a mid-tier creator earns from a full year of sponsorships. 3. **Memberships and communities** — predictable recurring revenue and a moat competitors can't copy. 4. **Sponsorships and affiliates** — still the largest revenue slice across the creator economy (sponsored content is about 59% of creator earnings), but treat it as a complement, not the foundation. It depends on someone else's budget. If you want to go deeper on the strategy behind all this, Dorie Clark's [*Stand Out*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591847400) and Chris Anderson's [*The Long Tail*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401309666) are worth the read — but the truth is you'll learn faster by publishing, watching what lands, and adjusting. ## 7. Treat your brand as a living thing The version of you from three years ago shouldn't be the version online today. As your skills, interests, and results evolve, your positioning should too. The mistake isn't changing — it's clinging to an outdated brand out of fear of confusing your audience. While you're at it, audit your back catalog. Old posts, abandoned profiles, and screenshots surface when people research you. Clean up what no longer represents you, and make sure the first page of search results reflects the person you are now. One careless post from a decade ago can still do real damage; that's the reality of a permanent internet. Evolution done in the open actually builds trust. Tell your audience when you're shifting focus. People follow people, and people grow. ## The bottom line Building a personal brand in 2026 is not about going viral or gaming an algorithm. It's a compounding discipline: pick a niche narrow enough to own, choose one or two platforms where your people already are, run a content engine fueled by a genuine point of view, stay unmistakably human while everyone else automates, distribute as hard as you create, and own your audience so you can monetize on your own terms. None of it happens in a week. But almost nobody does all six with consistency — which is exactly why the few who do build reputations that open doors, attract clients, and outlast any single platform. Start today, stay specific, and let it compound. Want to go further? Read these next: - [A guide to get PR for your brand](/how-to-get-pr-for-your-brand/) --- ## Best-Selling Author Derrick Grace II is Building Towards a More Educated Culture URL: https://futuresharks.com/best-selling-author-derrick-grace-ii-is-building-towards-a-more-educated-culture/ The world of business and finances can be incredibly intimidating and ruthless for uneducated people trying to get by. It takes a good amount of knowledge to successfully navigate the real world, and unfortunately, much of the information needed to become successful and financially adept isn’t taught by traditional education mediums. Thankfully, we have people like Derrick Grace II in the world, who has put a great deal of effort into educating the masses. **** Grace is a serial entrepreneur, launching several different business ventures and reaching a level of success many never see. Grace got his first major start after selling one of the highest-rated apparel apps on the Google Play store, and went viral, gaining millions upon millions of views and growing a massive social media presence. While building great success for himself and his family, Grace has developed curriculum and educational processes that would enable others to do the same. **** Grace is a #1 best selling author, selling over 50,000 books independently, covering a wide range of topics from child education, co-parenting, gun education, and curriculum. Further pushing important education to the public, Grace also launched a board game called “In Home Banking”. The game is meant to be an entertaining, educational experience, and covers topics from financial literacy to small business ownership within the gameplay. Grace has sold over 8,000 copies of “In Home Banking” so far, quickly selling out. Taking a more direct approach to educating the masses on important life skills, Grace went on to launch a movement he calls “The Unlearn and Relearn Movement”. Taking a focus on financial independence, self will, ownership, and family business, Grace has pushed this movement to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers and created the Independent Unlearn and Relearn Academy to further fortify his movement. The Unlearn and Relearn Movement continues to expand, helping more and more people to understand how to achieve financial freedom. Find Derrick Grace II on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/derrickgracetwo/ Visit Derrick Grace II’s website here: derrickgracetwo.com --- ## A Musician, Traveler, Writer And Much More: Stephon Hendricks, aka Hendrix Sky, Shares His Story And How He Built Success Through Trauma URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-musician-traveler-writer-and-much-more-stephon-hendricks-aka-hendrix-sky-shares-his-story-and-how-he-built-success-through-trauma/ Trauma can have a profound impact on our lives. Building yourself back up after these difficult moments can be incredibly difficult. Stephen Hendricks, better known as Stephon Hendricks musically and Hendrix Sky, struggled through a number of traumas to become the successful person he is today. Born in Toronto, Canada on January 22nd, 1987, his business and music was crafted after experiencing familial loss and PTSD from returning from Afghanistan. He is a musician, author and more whose music presence is already notable online. Hendricks began his journey out of the need to heal and move on from these difficult times. However, he and his businesses became something more when he realized that he could inspire others and help them through their healing journey as well. By simply documenting his story, Hendricks believed that he could give others a source of strength, so that is what he did. Now, as an acclaimed author, musician, traveler, and much more, Hendricks is helping people start their journey through conquering their own traumas. He has been all around the world and shared his story with millions of people who have felt the impact of having someone to share their pain with and feel that solidarity. Like many others, Hendricks is on a pause due to the current pandemic. However, when the restrictions for traveling are lifted, he is excited to continue working hard to help others through his travels. In addition, he is working hard on his next book to hopefully be distributed and published soon, which details more about his personal family trauma. For those who wish to start their own business, Hendricks recommends following one simple tactic: commitment. Do what you want to grow and help others grow through your business. Like Hendricks, you may never know who you could help by starting a business and sharing your story. To learn more about about Stephon Hendricks aka Hendrix Sky, follow him on Instagram @hendrixinthesky, YouTube.com/StephonHendricks and check out his website at hendrixinthesky.com --- ## Meet Chance Cooper: The LA Artist Brings 21st Century Struggle To Life With New Pieces Tackling Life’s Most Pressing Issues URL: https://futuresharks.com/chance-cooper/ The story of the struggling artist is not new in America, but the story of Chance Cooper’srise to fame is. Born on February 21, 1991 in Los Angeles, Chance did not grow up hoping to become an artist. In fact, he never went to an esteemed art school or even took classes growing up. Instead, his now-highly acclaimed style developed out of the ebbs and flows of everyday life in the 21st century. All of the weird, wonderful and downright dirty fragments of the new millenia are wrapped up in his work, which has been displayed in galleries and collections across the world. Despite Chance’s humble answer, he has since grown quite the following in the West Coast art scene. Chance’s pieces now hang in the homes of people like film director Nick Cassavetes, an early sponsor of Chance’s work. His paintings have graced the halls of several major galleries in LA, as well, drawing comparisons to artists like Keith Haring, the New York artist who so influenced the style of the 80’s with his plays on street art and Memphis Group squiggles. Yet these simple comparisons don’t capture the true scope of Chance’s work, as he builds a far more diverse portfolio than just wall pieces. As Chance has grown as an artist, so has his following. With a sizable presence on Instagram and his art in a number of galleries and collections, Chance hopes to begin flexing his artistic muscles and diving deeper into the cigarette-studded cartoon world of his imagination. Look past the poppy Haring-squiggles and you will find an entire world underneath Chance’s pieces; a world that knows the pain of social injustice, that responds when the world cries out and offers a new point of view, instead of just another desultory commentary. Chance’s inspiring words perhaps bely a greater understanding of this messed up world than many see on the surface. As his work gains traction and followers build, Chance’s ability to connect the quotidian with the spiritual, the adult with the childlike, and the weirdness with the rhythm of normal life has captured the feelings of a whole new generation in the art scene. Instead of drawing an idealized or fantasized version of life, Chance’s abstractions instead pull us closer to reality, and force us to confront what has been right under our noses all along. *Follow*Chance Cooper*on Instagram or visit his*website*to discover his latest work and keep up to date with new shows and events.* --- ## Hard Work Always Pays Off And Entrepreneur Tony Camilleri Show Us Why URL: https://futuresharks.com/hard-work-always-pays-off-and-entrepreneur-tony-camilleri-show-us-why/ Corporate America is not for everyone. Having a 9 to 5 job in an office working for a big company is not everyone’s dream. Tony Camillerileft corporate America years ago to start investing in real estate. He had no experience in real estate investing, so he made a lot of mistakes at first. He trusted the wrong people and was not cautious enough with contracts. After a few years, he had been scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tony is very competitive and driven to get the life he desires. Today, he is an Executive Vice President at a network marketing company that sells financial services with a focus on helping people improve their credit and get in a better position financially. Besides this, he runs a real estate business through which he helps realtors make three or four times what they were making, in less time by introducing them to the fastest growing real estate model in history, which allows realtors to recruit and get passive income from their sales. He also still services his real estate clients whom he is passionate about helping. The main challenges when starting a business, according to Tony, is the fear of the unknown, the lack of a support network, and external pressures. Business owners often have to overcome family and friend pressures, as well as work on their own without an established network. Tony was inspired to get into the real estate industry naturally as it fit his interests. With the credit repair network marketing company, he found a way to help more people enjoy home ownership and make additional income. Through credit repair, he has also been able to build a team and see people in his team succeed. Mindset is an important element when it comes to starting a business, Tony argues, because things will go wrong and it is important to be positive and strong enough to withstand storms and failures. According to Tony, not having an attorney look over contracts is something anyone would eventually regret. In fact, having someone look over contracts can also tackle the fear of the unknown, which causes business owners to think that their project may not work. For him, success is to live the life he had envisioned while continuing to earn money. It is not just about the money, though, it is about the lifestyle. Tony enjoys being able to travel, for example, and having built a team of people who are growing with him. At the moment, Tony is working on some real estate projects, he will be opening an adult foster care facility, and he is also continuing the expansion of his organizations including his credit repair enterprise, as well as dedicating some of his time to public speaking. To follow his journey, go here. --- ## Learn more about Turnkey Ecommerce Stores and how it is the new best thing URL: https://futuresharks.com/learn-more-about-turnkey-ecommerce-stores-and-how-it-is-the-new-best-thing/ Steven Ridzyowski is an American Entrepreneur who is the founder of Ecommerce Marketing Agency and has worked very hard to build a team that would stand out against competition. Steven is self-taught in all aspects of his career and loves using his creative mind and passion for the industry to make his business successful. Each chapter of Steven’s life has taught him something different and he has used all of his learned experiences to better service and impact his customers.  **** Steven Ridzyowski was inspired to get into his niche because he has always been business minded and constantly looking for new opportunities in untouched industries. “Turnkey Ecom Stores” is a new service Ecommerce Marketing Agency is offering which is something that hasn’t been done before and cannot be replicated. Many of their competition under deliver if they try to compete at all. Steven found motivation to get started with his business because he combined the two things he loves to do most- marketing and advertising along with ecommerce- to create an Ecommerce Marketing Agency.    **** One of the biggest challenges Steven faced was differentiating himself from the “Self Appointed Guru’s” who don’t provide results, which their agency certainly does and prides themselves on. Steven’s advice for those trying to start their own business and brand is to choose a company that will provide a turnkey service if you want to get started in Ecommerce.  When purchasing most items, we live in a world where there is competition and a great selection of products and brands to choose from. However, one of the most crucial things that people look for when purchasing a service or product is something that will make their life easier. That is why a turnkey service is the best way to get started however it is imperative to have a plan to get you there. As an entrepreneur it is oftentimes difficult to tackle everything that will come at you in the beginning of your journey, that is why having a step-by-step plan is imperative to success.  **** Ecommerce Marketing Agency LLC’s vision is to offer a one of a kind opportunity to help ease your way into becoming an Ecommerce Entrepreneur. “We believe that Ecommerce offers everyone an opportunity whether they work from home, full-time, or want to leave their job to build a business that works for them. We want to help people build wealth and a future for their long-term life goals.” Their goal is to create an opportunity where our clients can step into a ready-made Ecommerce business and have our team experts personally mentor them through every aspect of setting up, running, and growing their internet business.  As an entrepreneur starting your own business, it is a very daunting task to take on. There are many steps throughout the process, short-term and long-term goals to make, and things to be done in order to make those dreams a reality. Steven Ridzyowski and his team are there to walk each entrepreneur through every step of the process and help your business grow. Steven has learned so much from his own entrepreneurial journey, and wants to be able to help others learn from his experiences in order to make theirs better. To learn more about Steven’s business and get started today, click here. --- ## Jack Zuckowsky Finds Big Audiences and Bigger Success With Social Summit URL: https://futuresharks.com/jack-zuckowsky-finds-big-audiences-and-bigger-success-with-social-summit/ When entrepreneur Jack Zuckowsky moved to Los Angeles, it wasn’t to find fame. Instead, Zuckowsky had a much more elusive dream: to help influencers and content creators find success in their niche through his social media marketing agency, Social Summit.  Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Zuckowsky realized the potential of marketing on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Those sites could give clients a large audience no matter where they came from, or what they wanted to do. Rather than using that information for himself, however, Zuckowsky quickly realized that he wanted to be a part of his client’s success. He could grow a large, active social media presence for people, and create success for both of them.  Social Summit specializes in growth programs and campaigns. By focusing on a client’s specific niche, social media marketing can facilitate organic growth without relying on inorganic growth, which often negatively affects one’s social media presence.  Zuckowsky builds trust with clients with transparent strategies, using comprehensive marketing to exceed his clientele’s expectations and establish active engagement with an audience. He recently moved to Los Angeles to further grow his business, understanding that many creators and influencers come to L.A. to pursue their dreams. This larger clientele meant that Zuckowsky could find even more success than he had in Nashville.  Jack Zuckowsky has a clear vision of what he wants to do and knows how to execute it. Ever since he first realized the potential of social media platforms, he has been chasing success through marketing. He dreams of growing Social Summit to be one of the top social media marketing agencies in the world and has the experience and know-how to do it.  You can find **Jack Zuckowsky** on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/jzuckowsky/ --- ## Meet Cosmina Esanu: A Lash Artist, Trainer, Licensed Esthetician, YouTuber And Podcast Host Whose Love For Lashes Has Been Her Passion Since Childhood URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-cosmina-esanu-a-lash-artist-trainer-licensed-esthetician-youtuber-and-podcast-host-whose-love-for-lashes-has-been-her-passion-since-childhood/ Cosmina Esanu was born and raised in Romania, Europe. She is a lash artist, trainer, licensed esthetician, YouTuber and Podcast Host. Eyes are the window to the soul and Cosmina makes them look and feel much better thanks to the technique she uses in applying eyelash extensions. Cosmina’s love for lashes is based on her passion for beauty products since she was a child. But when she grew older and migrated to the United States with her husband and only $500 in her pocket, she started her career as a make-up artist. So she decided to become a Professional Lash Stylist and today she offers unforgettable experiences to other professional women, brides, models and artists. Even though Cosmina started with humble beginnings as an immigrant with little money, she was able to grow her influence through her ability to master the skill of lash extensions. Today, Cosmina runs a lash salon in Boston, Massachusetts, which she has built from the ground up, all because of her passion and hard work. She breathes and bleeds eyelash extensions and helps other eyelash artists get started. Cosmina has overcome great obstacles to get to where she is today. Not only does she run her salon in Boston, but she also provides online training services through her webpage Limitless Beauty Boss. But it was not easy, although she always kept in mind her motivations: to achieve financial freedom and have the ability to travel the world. This is why Cosmina understands the importance of mindset. For her, a business can only grow as much as the owner’s potential. So, in her words, if the business owner does not have the right mindset, the business will never grow. With all her experience and potential in applying eyelash extensions, Cosmina has set herself on a mission to help as many women as she can to have a rewarding career by becoming an eyelash extension artist. To do this, Cosmina has recently launched an online course and group mentorship program. This capacity to be transparent and open is something that sets Cosmina apart from her competition. She educates her customers about every step of the lash extension process. “When my customers choose me, they don’t get just a simple lash extension set, they get a full experience that helps them feel confident.” Cosmina says. Cosmina is also always looking for ways to innovate with her business. Recently, she launched her podcast Limitless Beauty Boss, which has received high ratings, where she shares tips and tricks on how to start a business in the beauty industry. In addition, in her YouTube channel she publishes weekly videos on how to apply lash extensions and how to succeed as a lash artist. Find out more about Cosmina here. --- ## Coming To The U.S. With 500 Dollars To Becoming A Multimillionaire: Marian Esanu Is The True Success Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/coming-to-the-u-s-with-500-dollars-to-becoming-a-multimillionaire-marian-esanu-is-the-true-success-story/ Coming from an immigrant family brings new challenges than many others cannot even imagine. Marian Esanu faced many of these challenges as an immigrant beginning a business in the United States. He was able to turn around this difficult situation to become a successful entrepreneur who runs a businessin client acquisition consulting, a Youtube channel and a podcast channel. Marian’s main business revolves around teaching his clients on how to engage others in a marketplace and be as omnipresent as possible in order to attract attention from possible customers and keep clients coming back day after day. This, in turn, helps create more profit for the businesses that he helps with. Though Marian has now achieved success, it did not start out easily for him. As previously mentioned, he was an immigrant who came to the U.S. with very little money in his pocket. Marian had to push harder than others to compete and to become successful because of this hard start to his life in the United States. Marian’s advice for others to have a successful business is two fold depending on whether or not you have had experience in the business. If you have not, Marian recommends working for anyone who will offer you a position in that field whether or not it is paid because the experience will pay off. Marian has recently interviewed stars like Grant Cardone, Pat Flynn, Evan Carmichael, Billy Gene on his highly rated podcast High End Client Acquisition. Marian has recently launched some online courses to help others continue to achieve their success despite the conditions that we are all under due to the pandemic. In addition, he has also set up a mentoring program. To find out more about Marian, you can follow him on Instagram @marianvesanu. You can listen to his podcast on apple podcasts by searching Momentum. Finally, you can check out his website at www.marianvesanu.com. --- ## How Dr Kristofer Chaffin Finds Time To Give Back To Others Through Numerous Philanthropic Activities URL: https://futuresharks.com/dr-kristofer-chaffin/ Now more than ever, we look to doctors for guidance through these turbulent times. At the height of the pandemic, they were our lights leading us through the dark tunnel. Dr. Kristofer Chaffin is an incredible doctor who believes it is his mission to also give back to others as a philanthropist and as a doctor. **“Shortly after owning and operating a private practice I realized I could impact more people if I worked on my business instead of IN my business. I decided to pivot after only 5 years of being in private practice and hire doctors and nurses to run the day to day, while I focused on expanding and innovating.” Kristofer explains.** By that time, Dr. Kristofer T. Chaffin had established a track record of helping patients achieve their health goals and coaching other doctors to create their dream life. His massive success in the healthcare field attracted a waiting list of doctors and clinics who desired the same results. One of the more notable elements of this unbridled success was that he never advertised his services. All of the clients he acquired were directed his way through his proven results and steadfastly earned word of mouth recommendations alone. **“My relationships with elite professional athletes opened doors to me and I quickly learned about relationship capital. I spent the first two years of my new venture struggling to fine tune systems and really blow up. Once I figured it out, clinics from all over the country were hiring me to consult them on how to do the same thing.” Chaffin recalls.** Dr. Chaffin goes on to explain that his clients were happy to pay $30,000 just for him to come to their practices and bestow his knowledge and training upon them. He describes his product, the knowledge that he learned from his own mistakes, as a “stupid-tax”. This in turn was an easy sell as a lucrative opportunity for clientele to bypass the difficult trials and errors they would otherwise have to face themselves. **“I can proudly say that our systems and guidance have produced over thirty multi-million dollar business owners.” He muses.** Rather than just another success story featuring the typical tropes of luxurious spending and self-centered monuments built to oneself, Dr. Chaffin’s is a rare tale proudly highlighting the unsung joys of philanthropy. Though it is clear that he is a man who appreciates flashy cars and suits, he is just as quick to pull up in a flossy whip as he is to give one to a person in need. **“I gave away my Porsche Panamera, that was my daily driver. It went to a charity that provides housing for homeless women and children. The other one, I gave a car to a kid that I found out was homeless and working at a local car wash near my house.” Kristofer proudly recalls.** The evidence of Dr. Chaffin’s generosity and heart does not end there. He wanted to give back to his community in Sacramento CA, and observed Pastor Thomas Hogue feeding the homeless breakfast every Saturday morning for some time. There was one major problem that needed to be addressed: the entire operation was limited to an empty parking lot, as Pastor Tom had no brick and mortar center to function from. Always the selfless soul, Dr. Chaffin spent years finding a 10,000 square foot building from which Pastor Tom would grow his organization into one that is still helping homeless mothers find meaningful employment and secure housing to this day. **Perhaps the soft spot in Kristofer’s heart was formed through his own turbulent past, prior to his major success. He recalls the difficult times: “My wife and I lived in section 8 housing while I was in school and lived off her income. I graduated with nothing but 200K in student loan debt. I had to convince my first landlord to pay for a beautiful office buildout and give me 6 months free rent because I had no money. By a miracle he agreed. It was just after the market crash of 2008 so I feel blessed that we convinced him to put up all that money especially since I had nothing to show for it. Just a kid with a bunch of student loan debt and a dream!”** His triumphant ascension is made all the more remarkable when one fully understands from just how low he began his rise. To achieve such a feat requires a certain caliber of truly noble personality, but the proof is in the pudding. Dr. Chaffin has profound relationships with some of the most esteemed doctors and athletes in the country. Whether professional or personal, Dr. Kristofer T. Chaffin values his relationships and treats all his associates, colleagues, and friends as though they were family. It is this level of personal connection, an inherent talent for entrepreneurial success, and his obvious, loud gestures of human kindness that set him apart as a name to be known by all in his field. For more information on Dr. Kristofer Chaffin visit his official instagram account or his website. --- ## Ed Latimore on his knowledge of personal branding URL: https://futuresharks.com/ed-latimore-on-his-knowledge-of-personal-branding/ Ed Latimore not only runs his own website and is a Best Selling Amazon Author but he also loves to travel. Learning new languages and connecting with other cultures through traveling help him to realize the limitations of his own perspective and experiences. These experiences helped Ed stay humble and live with an open mind which ensures that he will always be learning what he needs to continue and improve.  Ed’s life is an example of always pushing through everything that life throws at you. Despite all the adversities he has faced, he has had many great accomplishments. Ed holds a 13-1-1 Professional Heavyweight Boxing Record, his Honorable Discharge from the United States Military, a Bachelor of Arts in Physics, and is a best selling Amazon Author. Additionally he has been sober since December 23rd, 2013. These accomplishments came after years of adversity and hardship.  Despite all of the challenges, Ed Latimore’s life is an example of what happens when you do not accept the limitations that are placed on you. He was born with nearly every conceivable disadvantage- black, poor, living in public housing, single mom- and has not let any of these hardships get in the way of his future or success. With that being said, Ed doesn’t want people to think that this was a perfect path or another generic “rags to riches” story. He went through trials and tribulations just like any entrepreneur would. He grew up poor, made money, and then lost it again.  Ed struggled with alcohol addiction and worried so much about other people’s perception of him which led to him acting in ways that caused him to lose a tremendous amount of respect. Through all of this, he learned great life lessons and paved the way for himself to keep moving forward in life. He tries to do nothing more than teach the lessons to other people that he has learned from having a hard life. Ed’s key to success is in his personal branding and social media where he tries to be as authentic and transparent as possible with his struggles and triumphs.  There are a number of articles written by Ed on his website that contain topics like sobriety, addiction, and forgiveness, all lessons he had to learn in his life. After he stopped drinking, Ed had an emotional transformation which he talks about in his book, “Sober Letters To My Drunken Self”. These transformations are what made Ed into the person he is today.  One of the biggest challenges Ed Latimore faced when starting his own business was establishing credibility by building a body of work and showing successful results. This goes hand in hand with guarding your reputation and making sure you honor your business practices. One of the other challenges Ed faced was believing that he was capable of making it. He says, “While there are a lot of technical skills that you need to succeed in many business endeavors, none of these will matter if you don’t think that you can do it in the first place.”   It is Ed’s drive to not let any obstacle he has faced in his life to get in the way of reaching his goals that makes him successful. He is also passionate about being raw and honest with his life and story in hopes of helping others on a similar path. To continue following Ed Latimore’s journey and learn more about him, click here. --- ## Andrew Covington on the importance of mindset and how he found his passion URL: https://futuresharks.com/andrew-covington-on-the-importance-of-mindset-and-how-he-found-his-passion/ Andrew Covington, is an American entrepreneur and business leader. His law firm Covington Law specializes in litigation for Businesses and Entertainment. The firm’s mission is to help artists and entrepreneurs reach career goals by handling their litigation needs with professional care. Their various solutions have helped people in both business and the entertainment industry level up their businesses and navigate the legal aspect of business the world  safely. He was inspired to get into this industry because of lawyers like Vernon Brown, Drew Findling, and Navarro Gray.  Andrew had always followed their careers and looked up to them, which inspired him to follow a similar path. What has helped Andrew stay so motivated and successful is his ability to focus on his mindset.  When being asked how important mindset is when starting your own business, Andrew replied with “Mindset is key. Never psych yourself out. You will always believe in your business more than others, so don’t get discouraged. Be disciplined and organized and your business will follow.” Andrew highlights the fact that when starting your own business, you may not always have an overwhelming amount of support, so it is that much more important to maintain self- motivation and the confidence to persevere despite any setbacks.   Andrew Covington’s advice for those trying to start their own business and brand is to write out a business plan and make sure that plan makes sense both strategically and financially. It is essential to make the plan as detailed as possible so that you always have something to be working towards. It is not uncommon for people to start doing music without a plan. However even with the music business you have to plan your music career. Andrew Covington’s mission for his business is to protect other artists from feeling uneasy about the notion of business taking over their love for music.  What differentiates Andrew from his competitors is that he has traveled down the artist road before and can empathize with the artists. Andrew provides services for script/screenwriting, song writing, producing, artist development, and branding. He enjoys his position behind the scenes of the entertainment industry. Andrew grew up business minded with the influence he got from his parents who were entrepreneurs. Since a very young age, Andrew has constantly been trying to find new ways to make money. Andrew has been part of many different industries and businesses, through each one he has learned a different skill set that has allowed him to excel with Covington Law.  It is evident that in order to succeed in business and entrepreneurship you need to have a great mindset. This mental fortitude is something that can only be developed through trial and error. Andrew is a great example of this, to learn more about Andrew and his business follow him on instagram here. --- ## An Ad Agency Built For Now – How Ryan Alford Is Building RADICAL Into A National Force URL: https://futuresharks.com/an-ad-agency-built-for-now-how-ryan-alford-is-building-radical-into-a-national-force/ Pioneering new solutions is nothing new for many entrepreneurs and that includes Ryan Alford, the founder and CEO of Radical, a fast-growing South Carolina digital ad agency. After working at some of the most well known and respected agencies in the US, he founded and runs one of the fastest-growing advertising agencies in the Southeast. Ryan has over two decades in the ad agency business and is one of the most experienced voices in digital marketing and social media. Ryan saw that client needs and technology were rapidly changing so he set out to fill the gap with Radical. These reasons motivated him to start his digital agency Radical. He knew that the industry needed a fresh perspective that tackled the core gaps that businesses have, namely content creation at scale and innovative strategy that didn’t break the bank. Ryan had just the right ideas and experience to build an agency around this. Ryan is also the co-founder of GVL Hustle, which was founded in 2017 by him and Tyler Harris as a way for two of Greenville South Carolina’s most influential entrepreneurs to offer their contribution to their locality through frequent networking events and other initiatives. Now a successful entrepreneur, Ryan recommends for anyone to start their own business that they have patience no matter what and to know that creating a business takes time. Aside from continuing to grow his Radical Agency, Ryan is also focused on expanding his podcast, which is his way of sharing his insight with others as much as he can. Ryan believes that his techniques and skills could drastically help others who are interested in similar industries. To find out more about Ryan and his various businesses, you can follow him on Instagram or check out his website. --- ## NXTLVL Services Is One Of The Fastest Growing Consulting Firms On Amazon: Find Out More About Michael Walding, The Man Who Runs It URL: https://futuresharks.com/nxtlvl-services-is-one-of-the-fastest-growing-consulting-firms-on-amazon-find-out-more-about-michael-walding-the-man-who-runs-it/ Michael Walding is a businessman who started his career as a bodybuilder at the age of 19 and became a professional at 25. By the time he was 30, he was making seven figures capitalizing off the discipline he built up over years combined with the flourishing E-commerce market . Today, Michael runs one of Amazon’s fastest-growing consulting firms NXTLVL Services. Michael’s life journey in many ways prepared him for where he is now. The discipline and obsessive focus Michael acquired during his bodybuilding career helped him transition smoothly into the business world. Michael is the oldest of three siblings who grew up in a middle-class household. He studied mass communications and media studies at Florida State University, but in many ways, what influenced his career as a businessman was his experience as a professional bodybuilder. Michael had always been a dreamer and a big thinker, but this led some of the people that surrounded him to feel differently about him and his opposition to the status quo. Today, Michael runs NXTLVL Services, a consulting firm that provides multiple services in the Amazon world. With over five years of Amazon experience, they help people create and manage their own personal Amazon stores helping their clients scale their stores and create passive income. In spite of the global pandemic, NXTLVL Services clients’ stores continue to grow rapidly with the massive influx of online shoppers as one would come to expect with a nationwide shutdown. Prospective clients can book a Zoom call with NXTLVL for a full breakdown of costs and services with the team. In the last few years, NXTLVL Services’ success has led Michael and many of his clients to achieve massive financial success. With a deep understanding of what he has achieved, he now feels he should share what he knows and what he has accomplished with others. Michael is not only an entrepreneur and professional bodybuilder, but he is also someone who thrives off networking and building relationships to connect the world. He is passionate about building businesses and helping people grow to their full potential. This is why Michael places a lot of importance on human resources and team building to achieve his personal and business goals. This makes him stand out in the industry. Find out more about Michael and NXTLVL Services here. --- ## Discover Why Emmanuel Almonor Is The Definition Of Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/emmanuel-almonor/ Once an hourly employee at Hollister & Co, entrepreneur Emmanuel Almonornow owns one of the largest business networks in Orlando, Florida. From call centers to his own Omega Music Label, Emmanuel has built up a veritable empire of small businesses and online ventures. The serial entrepreneur turned producer now works with artists and producers including Tyla Yaweh, London On Da Track, Off the Wall OTW407, Young Gambino, Easy$Jav, and Ripper De La Hoya. Almonor**was not simply handed success, however. Born on May 22, 1992 into a hardworking Miami family, he learned quickly what it takes to overcome one’s situation. By age seventeen, Almonor was working a minimum wage job at Hollister and fixing electronics in his free time. “After a few years of fixing friends’ phones and X-Boxes, I kind of had a knack for it,” Almonor recounts. “I was approached by a manager of a local AT&T store that said he liked my personality and thought I’d be a good fit for sales. I got hired and by my second month was among the top ten salesmen in the company nationwide.”** By his third month, Almonor was promoted to store manager and began to look further out than a future in sales alone. He began saving up money to start his own business, keeping it close to the chest until he found a business worth investing in. He kept expenses low, saving up cash and biding his time until the right opportunity presented itself. **Almonor’s patience finally paid off at one late-night poker game: “One night while playing poker I met a guy that was blowing his money,” he remembers, “so I asked him, ‘What do you do for a living that you’re able to spend so much on cards?’ He told me that he owned a couple of call centers, running various programs in the area. I knew nothing about call centers, but exchanged information thinking I could team up to open my own.”** Fast forward one year and Almonor had saved up enough to open a call center of his own. Now a district manager at AT&T, he was taking a major risk striking out on his own, but Almonor had been preparing, picking up business and sales skills along the way. Despite a few initial ups and downs, the call centers soon took off, and Almonor was able to invest the earnings into other small businesses. Within a year, our young entrepreneur had bought up car washes, lawn care services, prepaid phone stores and even daycares, expanding his businesses’ reach across the Orlando area. Having gained success with his call centers and later with a series of income-tax offices, Almonor looked to expand into something that had always been close to his heart: Orlando’s music scene: **“My main project now is getting Orlando to the next level in the music industry. Helping artists be successful from Orlando instead of moving to another city has become a real passion of mine.” Almonor’s**Omega Music Label**now works with artists and producers including A boogie wit da Hoodie, Migos, Tyla Yaweh, London On Da Track, Off the Wall OTW407, Young Gambino, JavTheRipper, and De La Hoya.** Past music, Almonor’s story of hustle and success has also sparked multiple speaking engagements, as he now looks to share his expertise with the next generation of entrepreneurs. Success doesn’t come easy, though, and Almonor would be the first to admit it. His drive and self-discipline took years to hone, and the time he spent learning business and people skills were just as important as the years he spent building the businesses themselves. **When asked what drove him to success, however, Almonor’s answer is heartfelt and movingly close to home. “My main motivation to success was being able to take care of my mom,” he explains. “Once I started making the income I needed to, I made sure I could help my mom retire and take care of everything she needed. She gave me her life raising me and I wanted to make sure that I could repay her the same.”** As he looks to expand his music label and partake in future business ventures, Almonor has a few words of wisdom for the generations under him: “The key to success is consistency,” he says. “Go hard for what you want and don’t be afraid to chase your dreams. If you sit around wondering, it will never happen. You got to go out and get it!” Words to live by, from one of Orlando’s truly homegrown entrepreneurs. *Follow Emmanuel Almonor on*Instagram*and listen to Omega Music Label’s newest release*here*.* --- ## Conquering The World Of Luxury: Penny Pinar Karabey Set Herself Apart From The Crowd By Creating A Different Kind Of Luxury Business With Luxury Next Season URL: https://futuresharks.com/penny-pinar-karabey/ Penny Pinar Karabey is the businesswoman who runs Luxury Next Season, a special type of online boutique that is more than just a normal luxury boutique. Penny has worked in both IT and fashion, which has enabled her with a unique skillset. This is part of what separates Penny from the rest of the competition. Penny was born on November 3, 1975, in the lovely city of Istanbul, Turkey, and was very close to her father since childhood. She has a degree in computer science, which has helped her in her business. In the fashion world, Penny is well known for her style. She has a sense of fashion unlike many others, rejecting typical and easy styles such as wearing black. It is precisely that style that helped her create her business. She has never let fear stop her from pursuing her dreams despite the fact that they may differ from others’. Penny already had the knowledge and inspiration, she was just waiting for the right moment and when it came, she did not hesitate to take it. Her opportunity came at just the right time and she conquered a gap in the market in order to form her business. One life lesson that not only applies to business but also to personal life in general is that we should always seek to be surrounded by people who complement us in our weaknesses and vice versa. That’s precisely the advice Penny gives to people trying to start their own business. Without a team behind her, her business could not have been as successful as it was. Penny has set Luxury Next Season apart from other boutiques by building lasting relationships with her customers. To her this is the most important aspect of any business. Penny’s next projects are to continue to grow her business and maintain the excellent relationships with her customers that she has built up over the years. If you want to know more about Penny, click here. --- ## Misael Guerrero’s CulichiTown has Become a Hit in North America URL: https://futuresharks.com/misael-guerreros-culichitown-has-become-a-hit-in-north-america/ Misael Guerrero has taken his humble beginnings and turned it into an impressive, massively successful restaurant franchise. Creating a vehicle of success from almost nothing, Misael has built a brand from his hard work, dedication, and instinct. **** Misael got his first exposure to food growing up in his home state of Sinaloa, Mexico. There, he spent much of his childhood working in his parents’ restaurants and grocery stores. When Misael moved to California 12 years ago, he brought his love for food with him, building his first small businesses by selling food that would bring the flavor of his home to the United States. **** Misael had his first major breakthrough after coming to the conclusion that one of the biggest delicacies of Sinaloa, Mexican-style sushi, wasn’t available in California. So, taking advantage of this opportunity, he decided to take it upon himself to bring this dish to California. Misael turned his garage into a Mexican sushi house, and people took immediate interest in the endeavor. Misael’s sushi quickly grew in popularity, and before long Misael went on to rent out his first restaurant, officially founding the first CulichiTown in Rialto, California. **** Since the sushi garage days, the restaurant has grown increasingly successful. Putting a great emphasis on keeping the experience authentic, CulichiTown imports ingredients directly from Sinaloa to deliver “100% Culichi” taste. Misael also has intensive training for his staff to ensure everything is done in the Sinaloan way. **** The CulichiTown franchise has since expanded to 15 different locations across North America, with even more being planned for the future. From small beginnings to something truly incredible, CulichiTown offers a unique experience that will continue to impress in the coming years.**** You can find Misael Guerrero on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/misael.chef/ You can find CulichiTown on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/culichitown/ --- ## Reps In The Gym And Algorithms On Social Media: Mike Bartholomew Puts His Focus On Both Aspects Of His Life URL: https://futuresharks.com/mike-bartholomew/ On the path to become a millionaire by the age of 30, Mike Bartholomew would not strike you as your normal business guy and entrepreneur. He spends almost every waking hour in the gym working on himself. This, however, is exactly what helped him become so successful is his business career as well. Mike’s two hometown environments played a major role in the shaping of his aspirations. Born in a low-income area of Fontina, CA, Mike was surrounded by crime and criminals throughout his youth. Discouraged at the bleak reality of their hostile surroundings, Mike’s family soon moved on to the more quiet and distant setting of Coeur D’ Alene, Idaho. Yet the humble, contenting, and lackluster lifestyle Mike was introduced to did not jive with his go-getter mindset. He looked around and saw the exact opposite of what he had escaped, and the other end of the spectrum was just as meaningless to him. Mike talks the talk, but he also walks the walk. By his own account, he is on track to have seven streams of income and to become a millionaire by the age of 30. The self-proclaimed “serial entrepreneur” has got it all figured out and if his dedication to his own physical fitness is any indication, he will stop at nothing until he is miles above the competition. Mike explains his obsession with finding the most efficient and effective method of accomplishing what he sets out to do, specifically in this case mastering the complex beast that is social media: Understandably, Mike does not so easily give up his exact formula for success, only touching on bits and pieces. For one thing, integrity is key. Never overpromising or under-delivering. Surrounding oneself with trustworthy and hardworking people is another crucial aspect he focuses on. Though his proprietary secret of social media mastery is his alone to know, Mike is ready and willing to impart to the world something just as beneficial: the philosophy that has facilitated his accomplishments. Doing what others are afraid to do themselves has not left Mike entirely unscathed. He readily admits that work-life balance is a struggle for him. Though he considers his wife and two children to be the biggest successes in his life, his drive for dominance in his field often competes for priority with his personal life. *To find out more about Mike Bartholomew and his road to social media success, join his more than 175 thousand followers on*Instagram*.* --- ## Courtney Yeager Does It Again! Learn How The Tox Is Changing The Health And Fitness World URL: https://futuresharks.com/courtney-yeager-does-it-again-learn-how-the-tox-is-changing-the-health-and-fitness-world/ Courtney Yeager is a season entrepreneur in the health and fitness world. After her successful development of Barresocks, a million dollar business. She’s back to take over the fitness industry. After seeing a need in the lymphatic niche, she developed a unique method called The Tox, which is a massage technique that can detoxify your body to help get you in optimal health. Courtney’s story doesn’t begin with The Tox, though. The young pioneer cut her teeth on the Jersey Shore, opening a clothing store and taking advantage of the incredible Summer tourism and lack of present competition. Although her initial venture into self-owned business went surprisingly well, she soon became immersed in the oft-cutthroat system of running a franchise. With the money she made from opening her chic boutique, as well as some significant funds that her parents had saved for the wedding she and her husband decided to pass up on, Courtney signed a five year lease in mid-Los Angeles to run a fitness studio as a franchisee. Though she recounts this endeavor as an ultimately successful one, she also recalls that her big start was never truly easy. However, innovation is born from adversity, and Courtney began to show her natural talent of extracting success from a solid block of negativity. **“Mindset is everything, not only in business but in life. We are solely responsible for our failures and successes and you have to truly believe you are capable of ANYTHING to accomplish everything.”**Courtney philosophized. While running her fitness studio, Courtney noticed that the sticky socks that so many clients were wearing failed to take advantage of an obvious opportunity, at least in her naturally marketing-driven mind. Courtney created a sock brand that replaced the cold and lifeless brand-name-on-the-bottom trope with a product featuring fun and witty phrases. Her innovative tweak led to the creation of Barresocks, and a resulting million-dollar inaugural year of business. The next chapter of Courtney’s business life, by her own admission, is an emotional one. She summarizes it thusly: **“In my early business journey, I struggled with being treated equally by large companies’ male CEOS. I am happy to see that change in our society. When I started the TOX my biggest challenge was being bullied by other women in the industry. It’s a very sad truth that this still happens, but it is very real and the power of social media isn’t always a great one.”** Not one to allow rough patches and naysayers to halt her progress, Courtney powered on with the creation of her soon-to-be empire, the Tox. Once again seeing a need in the world and seeking to fill it, Courtney developed a technique that utilizes knowledge of proven beneficial biological processes to produce the highly sought-after results of detoxification and a slimmer appearance. **“The lymphatic system is very underrated in the US,”**she explains.**“It is part of our immune system and plays a major role in optimal health. I set out to create a massage technique that detoxifies your body while ridding your body of excess water retention. After much research and study, I found my technique not only detoxified your body, but had a major long lasting aesthetic result, leaving you slimmer in a one hour session.”** The health conscious crowd of the modern era is always looking for a quick detox regimen and a way to shed that pesky belly fat. With a keen eye for voids that need filling and the natural brains needed to build upon common but lackluster practices, Courtney created the Tox and took her big idea to the heart of major cities. Her proprietary technique is currently drumming up massive business at locations in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City. However, the talented Tox touter is not satisfied with this already impressive level of exposure. **“The Tox has major expansion plans, expanding to ten additional cities by 2021. We also have a lymphatic health product line launching in the next two months.”** The bottom line is this: Courtney Yeager was born to be a titan of an industry. The only variable left up to chance is which sector she would dominate. The road she took to get where she is today was not paved with gold and lined with refreshments. It is from every pothole and slimy banana peel that tripped her up along the way that she cultivated the unbreakable mindset of success among failure that she uses to inspire entrepreneurs of all backgrounds to this day. **“In business, there is nothing that scares me. I feel that to be successful you have to truly go into every situation with an open mind and take chances.”**Courtney****mused. **“Every mistake comes with a lesson and you have to be willing to take the chance and learn from experiences.”** For more information on Courtney Yeager visit her official instagram page or website. --- ## Growing Artist Alex Castle Looks to Use Her Brand to Drive Philanthropic Work URL: https://futuresharks.com/growing-artist-alex-castle-looks-to-use-her-brand-to-drive-philanthropic-work/ Meet Alexandra Castle. Artist, activist, philanthropist, dog mom, awesome individual. With just one year in the artistic clothing industry, Castle has been able to reach thousands of people who fall in love with her brand and her values behind her mission. Her work has resonated with so many individuals, where she consistently provides joy, awareness, and inspiration to others. Let’s get to know how she has been able to touch so many souls with her work. Alexandra Castle was born and raised in Southern California where she attended the University of Southern California with a degree in communication and design. From an early age, she was exposed to various forms of art and charitable work that her family and friends participated in. Using her skills and experiences, Castle has been able to make a name for herself in the art and retail world that combines assistance to others through philanthropic work and the highest quality apparel. Alexandra Castle learned a lot through the hardships she faced when she was younger, turning those hardships into lessons and opportunities. She explains how her hardships helped her develop as an individual, “I came to realize how connected everything in life is, how one person’s actions affect everything and everyone around them. It was frustrating to not have a voice in these situations so I started creating my art style to express myself, to represent how connected everything and everyone is in life”. She focuses on staying consistent and having a set daily schedule and weekly schedule to focus on innovating and progression. Every day she finds at least one thing to be grateful for even if she is having a bad day. That’s what keeps her balanced and motivated. Through innovation, consistency, quality, and making new connections with clients or other business owners, Castle plans on only growing her business and plans on reaching millions of souls. “As cliche as it sounds, hard work and being genuine with people are the two key factors that I focus on”, Castle explains. “Alexandra Castle Art” clothing brand really focuses on providing support to other local small businesses and advocating for various causes, whether it is fundraising, donating, or raising awareness. “My mindset is based on the principle that when I’m in the situation to help individuals I do in whatever capacity they need and I am able to provide”.  Seeing the happiness and success in others is what really keeps her motivated and has her planning on being a world-known brand. The advice she gives others, “Build a support group around yourself. There will be days where everything feels hopeless and it’s hard to see the bigger picture, having positive people around you who want you to succeed will help you see past it and see all your accomplishments”. Find Alexandra Castle on Instagram, here: https://www.instagram.com/alexandracastleart/ --- ## Alex Saenz Is A Revolutionary And Trailblazer In The Wholesale Real Estate Industry. His Story Shows Us How Perseverance Can Make All The Difference URL: https://futuresharks.com/alex-saenz-is-a-revolutionary-and-trailblazer-in-the-wholesale-real-estate-industry-his-story-shows-us-how-perseverance-can-make-all-the-difference/ Grit and luck is what got Alex Saenz far in life. Real estate is a hard industry for many people to reach success, but Alex was able to persevere through. Starting from pushing grocery carts and living in a trailer park, Alex knew that he wanted more from life. This motivation helped push him to become the successful wholesale real estate entrepreneur that he is. One look at Saenz’s YouTube channel shows you how far the young entrepreneur has come on his road to real estate success. From his penthouse in Phoenix, Arizona, the 23 year-old millionaire records and produces slick videos detailing his techniques for real estate success. Saenz has founded more than ten of his own companies and regularly pulls in a six-figure monthly salary. Besides his main money-maker, a seven-figure real estate acquisition firm, Saenz also runs SolarFuse.com and the ALL IN Entrepreneurs brand. Yet while Saenz’s degree of success may seem overwhelming, his real estate empire was not built in a day. Saenz began paying his way through college by pushing shopping at a local grocery store, but he always had his eyes on something larger. That’s when he was introduced to the world of real estate investing. With only $500 in his pocket, Saenz dove headfirst into real estate, driving neighborhoods and picking up any odd-job he could. His appetite for all things real estate was insatiable – no matter how offbeat the job or difficult the task, if it was related to real estate, Saenz was there. Before another year had come to a close, Saenz started his first real estate business, Home Equity Pros. By staying lean and hustling to pick up new clients, Saenz and his team managed to close 62 deals totalling $615,000 in revenue with more than 60% profit margins. Saenz continued to grow his real estate company and soon co-founded ALL IN Entrepreneurs with partners Carlos Reyes and Sal Shakir. By twenty-two, Alex Saenz made his first million. By scaling a wholesaling business so quickly, Saenz sparked a revolution in the way fellow investors looked at real estate. As wholesale real estate took off, so did Saenz influence in the wholesaler community. His YouTube channel now boasts over six thousand subscribers, while 183,000 hopeful entrepreneurs follow his advice via Instagram. Saenz also offers a series of tailored wholesaling sources through his website, learntowholesale.com. Although Saenz may seem like he’s reached the pinnacle of his career, the young entrepreneur is far from the end of his climb. With new business ventures around the corner, Saenz looks to leverage his experience and energy into everything from solar panels to branding and marketing. In the meantime, however, Saenz is most excited to help others overcome poverty and bad programming, while helping the next generation of entrepreneurs achieve success at a young age. *Follow Alex Saenz on*Instagram*and hear his secrets for wholesale real estate success on*YouTube*.* --- ## Jason Nemes Tried The Business World And Thought It Wasn’t For Him. Years later, He Is Now A Successful Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/jason-nemes/ Jason Nemes thought the corporate world was not for him for the longest time. He had given it a chance after finishing college, but quickly realized that that world was not for him. However, something got him back into it and he began his own fitness and wellness program that has now helped thousands of people. For Jason, although he had had experience in the business world before he began his own business, he had to struggle to overcome many obstacles. Business comes with numerous challenges that any entrepreneur must tackle before becoming successful. The biggest challenge for him ended up being himself. Not only did he have to overcome the adversity that many entrepreneurs have to face, but Jason also had to also overcome a drug addiction. After overcoming these obstacles, Jason’s program for wellness has taken off. Not only does he provide weight loss tactics and products for people looking to live a healthier life, but he is also a motivational speaker and life coach who wants to help people live a more positive life. Jason and his wellness programs have succeeded at changing many people’s lives. For those starting their own business, Jason recommends that they fully understand the job commitment that they have just made. Being an entrepreneur is unlike any other profession where the average hours are 9 to 5. In general, more is expected of you and more time will be needed to be put into your business in order to make it successful. Jason has much more to come in the future. He hopes to continue earning his financial freedom and inspiring people to live better lifestyles. He is also creating a new website for his business in the future. His success has earned him a spot as one of the top earners and Jason has no plans on slowing down anytime soon. Jason proves to us that if you do not like something at first, that does not rule it out for you in the future. To learn more about Jason, you can follow him on Instagram @tattedprezzz and you can check out his website at www.tattedprezzz.com. --- ## Jaiden Vu, Founder of Black Peached, Talks Entrepreneurship & Transitioning to The World of e-Commerce URL: https://futuresharks.com/jaiden-vu-founder-of-black-peached-talks-entrepreneurship-transitioning-to-the-world-of-e-commerce/ Jaiden Vu is the founder of Black Peached, a digital sales and consulting firm that helps small businesses and individuals take their services online. Following the events of 2020, most notably COVID-19, Black Peached is positioned ideally to support a variety of businesses and freelancers to make a digital footprint in the blossoming world of e-commerce. **What inspires you? ** There are a variety of reasons why I’m inspired to pursue success relentlessly, but if I had to pin it down to one reason, I’d say being able to leave behind my own legacy for years to come. Money is great, but it’s not something I can take with me. I believe legacy is something I can leave and take at the same time. Have my cake and all the while eat it! **What’s the best part about being an entrepreneur? ** There are so many great privileges to being an entrepreneur, but one that stood out most to me and compelled me to venture out on my own, after being a corporate employee, was to gain back more freedom. What I mean by that is I now can hire individuals slowly to take over certain parts of my business that I had to manage on my own. Over time, I relinquish most of my duties to trusted personnel and find myself working less in the business and more on the overall business model. Another benefit is working less, and finding more time to enjoy my life. My goal is always to work smarter, not ever harder — life’s much more enjoyable like that. **What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs? ** To be patient. When you’re in your 20’s, you shouldn’t focus on how to be just like everyone else you see on social media; rather you should focus on picking a craft and being a sponge, absorbing as much as you can to master that craft. Then as you’re in your 30’s, you should focus on now — how you can use your craft to make an impact on the world, solving some kind of problem? Don’t run before you can walk. **Do you have a favorite quote that inspires you? If so, how has it impacted your daily life as an entrepreneur? ** Zig Ziglar once noted: *“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” * This quote has made a tremendous impact on me as the majority of my fortunate successes along the way have been due to putting my clients ahead of my own interests. At the end of the day, they are the ones who pay my bills, so why not treat them with extra attention? **What is your best productivity tip? ** What I’ve been doing for many years has really helped me stay focused and productive every day. Without it, I catch myself slipping, and the feeling grows, which throws me off balance. The first hour of my day, I stay away from my phone. I have built-in a routine to stay away from technology as we can be so consumed with all the notifications, causing us to be very reactionary, and more often than not, emotional. In the first 15 minutes of my day, I meditate. Then I spend another 15 minutes stretching. In the last half an hour, I take a cold shower, cook breakfast, and plan out what tasks are a priority for that day. After that, my day flows by like a breeze. **What e-commerce trends are you watching? ** I wouldn’t say I’m actively looking at trends, but more so at which companies shut down to a lack of social media presence during recent months. With most hardest-hit businesses in industries like travel, restaurants, and hotels, I noticed the salient trend is the lack of a robust social media presence. It sounds simple, but the companies that survive are brands that have created a loyal follower base. Social media is now stronger than ever! Businesses that want to survive during tough times need to learn how to leverage social media to reach larger audiences, even if they work in a niche subset of a small market. There are always customers out there somewhere. **What advice do you have for business owners looking to transition to e-commerce?** Focus on giving your audience free value to stand out as the expert and be trusted. The biggest mistake most companies make when transitioning to e-commerce is forcing their product onto the customers without building value and trust within their community. **How do you decide if a business is a fit for your agency?** We have a distinct focus on smaller businesses and individuals as compared to other companies that primarily focus on larger brands and influencers. We screen our customers based on the following standard metrics: - $5000/m in gross sales - At least one year in the business - Sales in at least three different products. **Why is it important for business owners to get involved with e-commerce?** COVID-19 hastened the transition to a thriving e-commerce market significantly. Consumers already have demonstrated a strong preference for online shopping that has only continued to balloon — now it has reached an inflection point. COVID-19 may have permanently changed consumer behavior. If businesses want to still run a brick-and-mortar retail operation, that’s fine. But to flourish, they need to complement it with an e-commerce branch or online shopping portal. That way, they won’t be relying explicitly on their physical retail location, which has shown its vulnerability during a crisis like COVID-19 — less exposure and risk to their bottom line. --- ## Meet Entrepreneur Eric Stein and His Path to Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-entrepreneur-eric-stein/ Everyone has a different perspective when it comes to what success looks like. For some people it’s the amount of money made, or the legacy they leave behind on this earth. We all get one shot here on this planet to accomplish our goals. For Eric, the ultimate goal is financial freedom. He dreaded the idea of ever working a 9-5 and being a part of the rat race. He also commends those who are working and those who have to exchange their time for money. He went on to say “There is nothing wrong with being a part of the working class, but for me from a young age I knew that I never wanted to be a part of it”. Eric was gifted with an incredible opportunity to join forces with his own family line, with both his dad and grandfather. The opportunity consisted of joining their family operated nursing home operation in the healthcare space. Now after taking the opportunity Eric sits on the board of the business as executive vice president. The business was founded in 1988 by his grandfather who in turn built the business to at one point owning 20 different nursing homes throughout the country. Today the family operated business runs 6 nursing homes after selling off some of their additional locations to other healthcare providers in the space. One of Eric’s most successful ventures is his company Golf Pro USA. Golf Pro USA helps golfers across the world level up their fundamental golf swing. They do so by offering various products designed to help golfers on and off the course develop and level up their game. For those who know anything about golf, the straighter and more fundamental your golf swing is the more competitive and consistent a player you become. To learn more about Golf Pro USA, check them out on their website ​here​. Eric’s next project includes building his real estate portfolio and bringing in investors who are interested in Multi-family real estate investments. To learn more about Eric or get in contact with him, click ​here. --- ## Having The Right Team Is Essential To Succeed And Terry Thayer Explains Us Why URL: https://futuresharks.com/having-the-right-team-is-essential-to-succeed-and-terry-thayer-explains-us-why/ Having a good team has made all the difference for Terry Thayer’s residential real estate company. He was able to successfully build his business and run it without many major problems because he was able to build a good team around him. His job, much like many others, requires a good deal of collaboration and teamwork to succeed. **“A lot of my business success was developed by building the right team around me. I don’t believe in self-made; it takes a team. I used to struggle with trying to find the right people to hire and would often get into the hire, fire game until I found the right person. Ultimately this ends up costing a lot of time and money. I have since developed an automated way to hire and bring in the right person every time and take a fraction of time and money that it used to.”**Explains Terry. When Terry began his career in the real estate industry, he realized it was just another high paying job. He was working many hours and not getting a lot out of the business. He realized that there was something off about the way he was running his life in terms of how much effort he put into the job and what he was getting out of it. **“I started my journey after moving to Raleigh, NC in 1995. Since then I have been a husband, father, carpenter turned into builder and ultimately entrepreneur. I like to feel that I actually own my business vs my businesses owning me. When I started, it was just a high paying job and I had no life. I love what I do, and I do it on my terms.”** Recounts Terry. Now, Terry helps teach others about gaining their own financial freedom on their own terms. He shows people how to make money without losing too much of their own free time by maximizing their efficiency throughout the day. For him, it is important that people continue to make money, but continue to be more and more efficient and build tems to create duplication. You always have the opportunity to make more money but you will never get more time. **“Now, I get to teach others to not make the same mistakes I made that cost me a ton of time and money. I can always make more money, but I will never get more time. I have learned how to duplicate time with everything I do. Mentoring people is a passion and a choice. It is probably the one thing I spend the most time on and make the least amount of money from. This is the one thing I don’t mind doing myself.”**States Terry. Terry has also made himself more successful by streamlining his processes and automating them to save him more time and money. This gives him the freedom to create other opportunities and spend more time doing the things he loves. **“I have been a residential real estate investor since 2002 and have closed over a quarter billion in transactions since then. No matter what business I start, I find a way to automate it so I can do things that I want. In real estate we do things big in the residential space.** **I would like to be perceived as the guy who helps entrepreneurs scale and automate their business.”**Says Terry. Terry would like to continue his business in the future and continue to guide people on their own journeys. He had to face numerous challenges and had to face them mostly by himself. His mission is to help as many as possible so that no one else has to do that. He learned the power of mentors himself, he is now a mentor for others. For more information about Terry Thayer visit his official instagram account @terrythayerii --- ## Meet Steve Trang: A Successful Real Estate Seller With A Background In Intel Who Has Shaken Up The Industry Through His Innovative Ideas URL: https://futuresharks.com/steve-trang/ Steve Trang is the founder of the Real Estate Disruptors movement, which helps real estate business leaders get to the next level. However, his background at Intel and engineering has helped differentiate him from others in the real estate industry by helping Steve be innovative and progressive in the industry. He is now the leader of a different kind of real estate movement, which can help guide people to their own real estate success. In addition to running a podcast that gives insight into the real estate world, Steve’s background at Intel helped him create an app that is helping people jumpstart their real estate careers. The goal of his app is to make the process easier for wholesale sellers. Steve’s list of accomplishments keeps going. In addition to this, Steve is the author of the book “Selling Your Home for Top Dollar: 12 Proven Strategies from Top Real Estate Agents for Getting Your Home Sold Fast at the Best Price.” He is a top real estate agent in the Phoenix area with his real estate company. Steve’s legacy will be to help create a hundred millionaires. His heart guides him to serve and allow people to achieve the same success that he has. He wants to be known as a serial entrepreneur that wants to help build more entrepreneurs, especially because he also had to face obstacles when he was first getting started. Despite all of these obstacles, Steve was still able to start six businesses before the age of 40 and grossed six million just in 2019. He knows that giving back to others is his duty as someone who knows what it is like to struggle. With his experience, he wants to help a hundred people get to the next level. In fact, he has a sales training program and trains some of the top wholesalers in the country. His desire to help others and share knowledge is what differentiates Steve Trang from his competition. To find out more about Steve Trang and his businesses, go here. You can also follow him on Instagram @steve.trang. --- ## CoinLinked: The Blockchain Social Media Platform of the Future URL: https://futuresharks.com/coinlinked-the-blockchain-social-media-platform-of-the-future/ Blockchain, crypto currencies and decentralization are all matters that have weighed heavily on any businessman’s mind in recent years. As the world becomes increasingly digital and develops into new, exciting forms, we must work to keep up with it, in order to grow both on a personal and on a professional level. Which is why when we heard about the launch of CoinLinked.com, we got understandably excited. CoinLinked.com is a first-of-its-kind social media platform that combines the security of a traditional, centralized platform with the freedom and opportunity of a decentralized network. CoinLinked puts a heavy focus on crypto currencies and offers users the ability to earn revenue from their content. This can be posted like links of current news, images/photos, video, and many other aspects of created content. CoinLinked also offers its users a universal market powered by cryptocurrencies. At present, it only supports Bitcoin and Ethereum, but considering those two are the single largest crypto coins on the market, we would say that it is pretty good. **The Trends of Digital Currency** The need to transact online is growing at a rapid rate daily.  People are less likely to leave their wallet at home before their phone.  So, the significance of the digital dollar is becoming more important now than ever before. You can access anything from a mobile phone now which is a lot easier to do then going to the bank. Even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic the digital dollar was introduced as part of the stimulus bill that Congress eventually passed as part of its economic relief. So now more than ever the ability to have a mobile wallet will almost be the norm which will in turn increase access to transact online for everyone.  Companies like Jenny Q. Ta’s CoinLinked is a perfect example of how the direction in which we transact is changing.  Jenny Q. Ta, the founder and CEO of Coinlinked is a serial entrepreneur and skilled businesswoman, whose vision and understanding of the market, as well as her experience as a Wall Street businessperson, have helped her become a multi-millionaire. We had the good fortune of catching up with Jenny for a quick chat and the one thing that immediately strikes you about her is how adaptable she is. And of course, adaptability is a huge factor that any businessperson who hopes to be successful should keep in mind. Constantly, in her answers, Jenny acknowledges and highlights how rapidly the world is changing and how we must learn to change with it. It is precisely this mentality that helped Jenny fashion CoinLinked into such an innovative platform. By understanding where the world was going and what future changes would inevitably bring with them, she knew what to give the world, what it needed. And this is no doubt how she came to the concept of CoinLinked. We actually took the time to check out the platform and were delighted by its ease of use, which definitely has great potential to appeal to the non-crypto-savvy masses and of course, grow. Another thing we loved about it was that after a very brief registration process, we were allowed to post information, similarly to such platforms as Instagram or Twitter, but (as we understand it), these posts could then earn crypto currency rewards that could be offset with a fiat dollar amount at a later date. Many, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, dreamed it, but only Jenny Q. Ta managed to make it a reality. Alternatively, if you’re not looking to share created content, images/photos or links or anything like that, you can create a purchase order, by filling out a form about what you’re looking for, where in the world you’re looking for it and how you’d like to pay (either through crypto or fiat).  Again, this is a huge step for blockchain technology and for the crypto currency market. We highly recommend that you check CoinLinked.com out. --- ## Meet Sheree Wright: The Attorney Helping Migrants At The Border URL: https://futuresharks.com/sheree-wright/ According to The U.S. Census Bureau, over 40 million people living in the United States were born in another country. Therefore, it is no surprise, why The United States it’s known to many as the melting pot of the world. Many of these migrants are looking for a better life, and/or running away from dangerous consequences and people. As a result of this, now more than ever, there is an increasing need of immigration attorneys that are needed across the country. According to statistics, there is a lack of legal representation at the border, or in most detention centers in general across the states. This is an issue that law firms such as IBF Law Group are trying to tackle by expanding their reach and representing some of these migrants. Sheree Wright graduated from DePaul University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science, and later went on to pursue a Juris Doctorate and a Masters of Law (LLM). During her undergraduate career, she worked as an investigator with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) in downtown Chicago. Sheree is also a volunteer member of the national civic engagement organization, Mi Familia Vota, which unites Latinos, immigrants and allied communities to promote social and economic justice through citizenship workshops, voter registration and voter participation. In addition, Sheree has served as a board member of the Black Law Student Association (BLSA), of Sports Lawyers Association (SLA), and of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. All of this before founding IBF Law Group to focus on representation of migrants. As an immigrant herself, Sheree sees immigration as her passion. This is why she also works on her mindset–because without the right mindset, work cannot get done. Similarly, Sheree had to make sure that she would work long-term on something she was passionate about, because if not it would feel like regular work rather than meaningful work. For Sheree, fear is imaginary and in order to truly succeed, you have to be fearless. In order to achieve success, which according to Sheree is not about financial gain but about helping the less fortunate, you need to be charitable. Sheree understands that usually migrants come because they are running from persecution in their home country, where they would face danger if they were to return. Unlike her competition, Sheree actually cares and has seen the results of her hard work. This has been evident with the cases she won in 2019-2020. Sheree thinks that the current immigration system “is a joke”, because it is ever changing and drastic. In addition, she also sees immigrants as crucial for the United States. In her eyes, the United States was built from the back of immigrants, who boost the country’s economic growth, and raise the general productivity of workers. This is why she is proud of winning a case against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). To follow Sheree and her work with IBF Law Group, as well as find out more about her future visit to the border, go here. --- ## Ariel Levy: Managing Athletes at Just 19 Years Old URL: https://futuresharks.com/ariel-levy-managing-athletes-at-just-19-years-old/ Many young people today follow the same route as many that came before them. The typical path is high school, higher education, and then finding a job working for a company. However, more and more young men and women are finding their own unique pathways and exploring how to make a living moving against the grain. One astounding example of this is Ariel Levy, who at just 19 years old has found himself managing professional athletes. **** Levy began his journey into athlete management at 15 years old, when he started diving into extensive research about the industry, learning what it takes to be a good manager, and what an athlete needs on a daily basis. After putting in hard work and hundreds of hours, Levy signed his first professional athlete at the age of 17. **** It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Levy. As he began to make his way into the industry, many began to criticize him, with other managers and agents telling him he was moving too fast, was too young, and wasn’t doing things the normal way. Despite his industry peers looking down on him, Levy overcame the challenge and went on to accomplish more than many of the same agents and managers that criticized him in just a few years. **** Now, at the age of 19 years old, Levy represents more than 10 professional athletes with ties to the NBA and the NFL. So far, Levy and his company represent more than $40 million in player contracts. With plans to grow and acquire top tier athletes, Levy is building himself and his business into an industry powerhouse. **** In addition to his athlete management, he is also building another company: Forever Young Management. This new company focuses on growing social media and online platforms for athletes and offers business management services for a plethora of clients. Already running two successful businesses and working with professional athletes at just 19 years old, Levy shows great promise and potential for the coming years, and will certainly be a name to keep track of. You can find Ariel Levy on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/ariellevy/ --- ## A Real Estate Team Built To Last: Melanie Dupuis And Her Husband Are A Dynamic Real Estate Duo Who Are Teaching Others How To Join The Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-real-estate-team-built-to-last-melanie-dupuis-and-her-husband-are-a-dynamic-real-estate-duo-who-are-teaching-others-how-to-join-the-industry/ Melanie Dupuis and her husband are a real estate investing team like no other. She and her husband, Dave, made a name for themselves in the industry and are unique in the fact that they do not have any joint ventures; all of their properties are only owned by the couple. Melanie’s life was completely changed after a vehicle accident that she and her husband were in. For her, this was her turning point where she was able to reevaluate her priorities and think about her greater goals in life. Many people, when they have experienced traumatic events such as this one, often reevaluate their choice much like Melanie did. Thankfully, though seriously hurt from this accident, Melanie and her husband recovered from the incident. When she was on leave, she realized that her current situation and job was not for her and wanted to change things. She decided that this was the perfect time to turn her life around and achieve her dream and of helping others grow their real estate portfolio. Mel’s real estate mentoring career exploded. With her husband, the pair is one of North America’s most respected, sought-after, and successful real estate professionals. They have won numerous awards. Also, the two have amassed a large online following that helps boost their in-person status. Melanie’s passionate about giving back to the real estate investing community because she knows how crucial guidance can be when people are starting their business. She has become a best selling author with her book on real estate, and along with 19 other women, will be launching a book on powerful women real estate investors that will be available this fall. She also is a renowned speaker who gives advice on the real estate industry. To learn more about Melanie and her husband, you can follow them on Instagram @investormeldave, and you can check out their website at investormeldave.com. In addition, you can check out Mel’s online master class on real estate at www.12in12months.com. --- ## Revolutionizing Birthing Practices, Jael Marajh Makes it Easy for Expecting Families to Get Ready For Their Next Steps Through Her Site NurtureUp URL: https://futuresharks.com/jael-marajh/ Jael Marajh, like many others who immigrated to the United States, had a difficult childhood. She was very young when her family moved to the U.S. and her life quickly became very unstable as she was left home alone so her mom could work all hours of the day to make ends meet. This was unfortunately not the end for the difficulties that Jael had to overcome. She struggled with self-doubt and dealing with a tough break up where she came out as financially unstable. She realized that many people struggled with similar problems and wanted to help them out of the situation that she had found herself in. For many others, Jael’s struggles would have been the end of their push towards success. Jael, on the other hand, kept pushing even harder. She did not let her difficult situation slow her down at all. She worked for a business that supports people through their pregnancies and founded her own business doing a similar thing called NurtureUP, which is in the last steps of being finalized. The platform that Jael is creating is the only one of its kind out there. This makes her unique in the market and she is excited that she found a way to give back to people around the country. She hopes to get NurtureUp finished up by the end of the year, so that people can start connecting to services. Jael thinks her service is particularly important now more than ever. Because of the current pandemic, many women are scared to give birth in hospitals, so they rely more on services that can come to their home instead of traditional birthing practices. This is pushing Jael to do even more to get her website up and running. To find out more about the amazing services available through NurtureUp, you can check out the website nurtureup.info and look for more information to come on the launching of the site. For more information on Jael herself, you can find her on Instagram @jael_marajh. --- ## How Entrepreneur JR Rivas Builds Companies With $3/Hr Overseas Virtual Assistants URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-entrepreneur-jr-rivas-builds-companies-with-3-hr-overseas-virtual-assistants/ Virtual assistants have exploded in popularity over the last few years with Entrepreneurs using them to build their brands and businesses. **One of these entrepreneurs is JR Rivas.** “I came from humble beginnings, I grew up with a single mother who never made more than $25,000 in a single year and managed to give 2 children a pretty decent childhood.  At a young age I realized that leverage was the only way I was going to build something great” says JR Rivas of Instantleverage.com & JRrivas.com **So what is a virtual assistant?** A virtual assistant is simply that, someone who works for a wage, virtually. Typically entrepreneurs look to countries like the Philippines for these virtual assistants because the hourly wage ranges from $2-$4/hour. I know what you’re thinking… “Isn’t that human exploitation?” Well, here’s what JR Rivas has to say about that “I get a lot of crap from people for hiring in other countries and paying $3/hr but here’s the reality of it…The economy in the Philippines works very differently than in the US. A lot of jobs there only pay $6-$9/day. To provide some contrast of the opportunity, companies like Royal Caribbean hire people in these less developed countries and require them to work 70 hours per week for $1.80/hour with no overtime pay for months on end. We pay a bit more and they get to work from home so it’s a pretty solid opportunity.” **What can a virtual assistant do?** Anything and everything that can be done virtually. A few months back JR was starting a podcast and rather than hire a $20/hour audio engineer he hired a virtual assistant instead and put them through a podcast editing course. The results have been great in terms of work quality and efficiency. Typically, JR looks for virtual assistants to do “revenue generating tasks” for example, if you’re in real estate he’ll train them to work expired listings or prospect For Sale By Owners, if you run a marketing agency he’ll teach them how to book you more appointments through prospecting on various platforms like Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram etc. JR personally uses VA’s for accounting, video production, hiring, etc. **This all sounds great but how good do they speak****English?** The Philippines teaches English at a very young age & the VA’s JR hires typically have experience working with US based companies. Of course they’ll have a very minor accent but that’s never been an issue with JR or any of his client success stories. **Okay okay, but how do I find and vet one of these VA’s?** Well, this is where everyone goes wrong. They’ll go out on a job board website and try to find a virtual assistant but then when it comes to hiring them most entrepreneurs struggle due to lack of structure. JR uses a 5 step process to vet and hire the top 1% of virtual assistants available. “Just like when you’re looking for a job you want to work for someone who’s credible and is going to be around for awhile. VA’s look for the same kind of security. So first, you need to have a legitimate opportunity for growth and advancement within your company. The role has to be exciting and fast paced. That’s how you attract top talent.” “When it comes to vetting I screen for the things that are important to me. We check for English ability (written and verbal), internet connection, ability to follow directions, competency and problem solving ability. I usually give them some kind of test task to perform and see how many questions they ask, can they use google to find the answer? Or do they need their hand held? Lastly, I screen for attitude and personality. In our company we don’t tolerate drama at all, our team needs to be united and moving towards a common goal that’s really important to me.” Says JR. Look, virtual assistants are people. They have goals, dreams and desires just like anyone else. If you treat them with respect they’ll return it and work 5x harder for you. JR typically provides paid time off for any major US holidays. Christmas is especially important in the Philippines so JR usually recommends his clients give their VA’s off from Christmas Eve to New Years Day to rest and recharge. **Culture** JR gets tons of questions about company culture. How do you build a culture when your entire company works remotely? Here’s JR’s thoughts on this… “We run a daily huddle. Monday thru Friday at 10:15AM EST we meet as a team. We’ve never missed one. We discuss wins of the day before, metrics, priorities for today and anything they’re stuck on. It creates a team effort to accomplish a common goal. This has made our company like a family and has allowed every member of the team to feel involved and important to the outcome.” **Tracking and monitoring performance** There’s plenty of tools out there for monitoring remote workers. Anything from screen capturing tools to daily check ins, JR uses a slack channel where the VA’s report what they’re working on every thirty minutes. This keeps everyone on track and allows him to monitor their productivity. “I believe when employees and contractors are happy, they’ll work hard for you. So our productivity is driven by happiness. I lead from a place of love and allow people to make mistakes without worry, my team really appreciates this.” So next time you’re looking for a hire consider a virtual assistant for the position. --- ## Discover How Joe Jitsukawa Made His Dreams Come True URL: https://futuresharks.com/discover-how-joe-jitsukawa-made-his-dreams-come-true/ If you have stumbled upon YouTube, you may know someone called Joe Jitsukawa. In fact, you may know him for being a part of JustKiddingFilms and JustKiddingNews. But who is he really? Joe Jitsukawa is a serial entrepreneur, comedian, investor and public speaker. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, and grew up surrounded by the growing gang culture in LA. He was actually labeled delinquent and a misfit growing up. Tired of the regular 9-5 job, Joe quit and co-founded JustKiddingFilms, a comedy YouTube channel in 2007. Through this channel, Joe and his team of friends shoot comedic sketches through which they teach good things “in a bad way.” JustKiddingNews has almost two million subscribers as of April 2020, with a growing fanbase that is constantly engaged, leaving thousands of comments in each video, as well as following the creators of the content, Joe included. Besides YouTube, Joe has also found success in different business ventures, such as apparel, consulting, e-commerce, and investing. He likes advising and investing in several businesses, including a growing matcha franchise in LA called Junbi. Even though these numbers sound crazy, Joe and his team have been able to achieve this while building a great lifestyle, mostly because the team is made up of friends. This is because Joe truly believes in a good work environment where everyone thrives and is happy with their work. This is why JustKiddingNews is still going strong, even despite the COVID-19 pandemic. They have been able to ensure the creation of content for dissemination, as well as the pay of their staff. Through it all, Joe wants to be the pioneer in helping those who feel trapped in a career they do not like, and help people move towards something they are passionate about. In fact, Joe has been invited to dozens of campuses throughout the U.S. to speak precisely about his life story and his achievements. Joe has always been passionate about helping others, and he attempts to always do this, both through his business and personal experience and through comedy. This is why he has created a free online education platform that now provides over 20 thousand students with basic life skills and self improvement education. Through his platforms, Joe always shared his answers to these questions when he could. But it quickly became overwhelming to answer every single question, so he decided to find a better solution and created a free online education platform called Joemalian Academy. As JustKiddingNews continues to grow, even in the midst of chaos, Joe continues to find creative ways to help others and foster his passion for comedy. To find out more about him, go here. --- ## Who Is Sasha Ray? The Ukrainian Entrepreneur And Influencer Shares Her Secrets To Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/who-is-sasha-ray-the-ukrainian-entrepreneur-and-influencer-shares-her-secrets-to-success/ Sasha Ray has made quite a bit out of her time on this earth. Singer, model, restaurateur and entrepreneur Sasha Ray has worked her way from Ukraine to Dubai, founding a series of successful businesses and brands along the way. Now based in the city of Dubai, Sasha hopes to leverage her influencer status while revamping successful ventures in music and hospitality. Sasha’s journey began soon after she finished her first Master’s degree in international business in Kiev National Economic University. Discovering her passion in hospitality, the young entrepreneur decided to pursue a second Master’s degree and traveled abroad to study luxury management at the EM Lyon Business school and at the Institute Paul Bocuse and Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne. She also completed a semester in China East Normal University, before pursuing internships in some of the most luxurious hotels in the world, including the Burj Al Arab and London’s Berkeley Hotel. Now, however, Sasha’s career has expanded far past her early dreams of being a singer. Soon after completing her second Master’s degree in hospitality, Sasha moved to Dubai to pursue her passion for business full-time. It was in Dubai that Sasha created her first restaurant brand, Vesna (which translates to “Spring”). The restaurant blended Ukrainian, Russian, and contemporary themes, offering a full service of amazing food and entertainment. Catering to travelers from the former Soviet bloc and locals alike, Vesna was one of the first restaurants in Dubai with karaoke. Maison Rouge proved to be a huge success and has since brought Sasha a huge amount of influence and followers in the Russian and Ukrainian media, as well as internationally. Sasha now considers herself a full-time influencer, as well as entrepreneur. Being involved in such a highly social business helped her build up a social media following of at least 1.5 million and she now works with some of the top brands worldwide and is often invited to highly rated events. Sasha keeps her future plans largely shrouded in mystery, although she has alluded to “future pursuits in the fashion industry, as well as new music releases and other developments within my music project.” For the time being, however, Ukraine’s woman in Dubai offers this bit of advice to hopeful entrepreneurs: “Be curious! Learn as much as you can, talk to people, meet new people, build right connections. If you are willing to build partnerships for your business you are willing to succeed!” Follow Sasha on Instagram, visit her YouTube channel or her website at SashaRay.com --- ## Joshua Crisp: Amazon Expert And Real Estate Investor Teaches Others How To Go From $7.25 to 7 Figures With his 7 Figure Blueprint URL: https://futuresharks.com/joshua-crisp/ Joshua Crisp is an Amazon expert and seller, as well as a real estate investor. He also has an accomplished online education company and a software company. But he wasn’t always the figure of success that he is today! He started out as a high school dropout making minimum wage of $7.25 an hour hand sorting through trash. With hard work and a lot of perseverance, Joshua was able to work his way up to 7 figures through his Amazon business and reinvesting back into real estate. Because he always knew there was a better life for himself out there, Joshua strived toward it. His mentor at the time pointed him toward Amazon, which he saw as the next big thing. From there, Joshua focused his efforts, and luckily, he was right. After his first three products failed, his fourth one was a big success and changed his life. Motivated by his family and wanting to provide a better life for them, Joshua was inspired to start his business. He was then further inspired to move into his current industry as he remembered where he was and knew that information could change many peoples’ lives. Joshua now teaches thousands of students how he was able to become so successful. His 7 figure blueprint shows students the exact step by step strategy that Joshua followed to become a millionaire before he turned 30, allowing them to do the same. Crips helps others start their business, applying his blueprint to success in others’ lives. When starting a new business, Joshua knows how important your mindset is to working toward success. For his students that he helps start their own business, Joshua’s biggest advice is patience. The goal for his students and those he helps is to get them to a place of success. For Joshua, this means financial freedom & location independence. Financial freedom, in turn, means doing what he wants. When asked about the most difficult challenges to starting a new business, Joshua says the biggest challenge is not giving up. He understands that in addition to the mindset when you start, tenacity and determination are essential to anyone who wants financial success. While this can certainly be difficult, Joshua is a great example of the success that can come to those who work for it. From his humble beginnings, Joshua has now built three world-recognized brands that have made millions of dollars in revenue each year. He has reinvested his profits to commercial and residential real estate and has helped over 2000 people get started or scale their Amazon business. From overcoming the big obstacles of being a high school drop out, a minority, and a felon, Joshua remained relentless, passionate, and will always give the shirt off his back to work toward success. He firmly believes that You can find more about Joshua Crisp on his website, **www.officialjoshuacrisp.com****,**including mentorship, testimonials of students, Youtube links, his podcast, free training resources, and The 7 Figure Blueprint: the AMZ Formula that took Joshua from $7.25 to 7 figures and teaches that anything is possible with his business and amazon. You can also follow Joshua on his Instagram: @officialjoshuacrisp****and you can check out his website at******www.officialjoshuacrisp.com**. --- ## Indira De Fodor Was One Of The First Wedding Planners In Latin America: Now She Is Expanding Her Business Into The United States URL: https://futuresharks.com/indira-de-fodor/ Indira De Fodor is a Latin American woman, Luxury Event Planner, wedding destination expert, and Academic Director of the Florida Events Academy. In her home country, she was the first ever wedding planner beginning her journey when a celebrity in her area needed help with her wedding. She took this experience and ran with it. Indira had to start from scratch in a new country and leave everything that she had done in her native country behind. This has been the most difficult test she has been through. The political turmoil in Venezuela has affected everyone from all different walks of life. Even wedding planners have had to move on to some place new because of the dictatorship. Making people understand the need for a wedding planner was also a challenge as she points out. For many people, either affording a wedding planner or deciding that you need one can be a difficult decision. Many families rely on past weddings or family traditions to guide their planning. However, those who want something different, actually need a good wedding planner. Indira’s wedding planning company started 19 years ago. For the longest time, Indira thought her main goal was just being a good wife, but she realized that she had already achieved that goal and wanted something more to do. She wanted to do something big and productive. Today, they have diversified her business with the Florida Events Academy, which revolutionized the old way of being a wedding planner. At her academy, Indira bases her training on real experiences from the more than 800 weddings she has planned. Indira’s next projects include growing her business further into the United States. She has helped numerous others in the bridal industry and now wants to do this big move for herself and her company. To Indira, effectively moving into the United States’ market is the next marker of success for her. Indira wants to bring IF Bridal Tea to the offices of all the wedding planners in the world so they can live the experience together. If you want to find out more about Indira, click here. --- ## How To Get PR For Your Brand: A Comprehensive Guide URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-get-pr-for-your-brand/ It has always been extremely important to get good press for your brand because that is one of the things that can make or break a company. That is why the word “public relations” is thrown out there a lot when it comes to advertising and marketing in general. PR is a buzzword that companies hear about a lot, but I have the impression that a big portion of those companies does not really understand [the potential benefits of good PR](/how-to-do-pr-and-get-featured-on-forbes/). > Whether you choose to hire a PR firm that is a professional on the subject, or you put your own personal efforts into doing PR right, the result should be reaching a vast audience and you should be doing it the right way. PR is about shaping and presenting the best image for your brand in the eyes of the public, and utilizing this with other marketing strategies to paint a good picture of your brand that will organically connect with other companies, customers, media outlets, etc. And that is exactly why PR should be really thought about when creating a marketing strategy for any company. In this article I will explain many things about PR, what are the benefits, how to do PR yourself, how to choose the right PR professionals, what are the advantages and disadvantages of PR, and much more. ## Don’t have time to read the tips and just want results? Get the package I created for you here: Get featured on PR sites for cheap ✅ ## Benefits of PR ### Better credibility Credibility is one of the most valuable possessions a brand can have. It will not only help you with your customers but also with potential collaborations, or even future buyouts. Better credibility means better reach out to the press which can feature you in different articles, magazines, books, etc. Being featured in credible sources can mean a lot for your brand especially in today’s world where social media has the power to distribute your information across the whole internet. This can be used to leverage the attention your brand is getting into making people support your cause and brand philosophy. Moreover, being perceived as an honest and reliable company in the eyes of the consumers can be a very strong competitive advantage. ### Builds up brand awareness Another important benefit of using PR strategies in an effective way is that the name of your brand will reach more potential customers. If you do it in a correct way, PR can expose you to a larger audience through many media outlets that will look at you as a response to your PR efforts. In this way, people that have never been in contact with your brand can learn about it and get interested in your story. Additionally, positive news coverage should be exploited too. Adding links of reputable sites that mention your brand, can be sent in newsletters, shared on social media, etc. ### New investors and new clients Although having a very convincing business plan is your first and most important way to get the interest of potential investors, a good brand image is pretty important too. Having good press in respected publications can be the perfect presentation of your brand’s credibility to the investors. This is a side of the businesses that investors pay attention to as well when they’re making their decisions. The same goes for potential new clients and collaborators. People tend to appreciate more organic positive press and tune out paid advertising. ### Professional talent A different perspective on the benefits of PR is the fact that also the potential talent that will be working with your company in the future might look into these things. Having good press into respectable publications in your industry is a way to make sure that highly talented individuals will want to be a part of your organization. To take this even further, some of them may notice your company through PR and decide to reach out because they are interested in working in your team. Being a brand that is desirable to professional talent is also quite important. ### Positive brand image Presenting the compilations of good press on your page is a huge plus for your company. Having consistent press releases informing your customers about new things in your company can build a strong reputation for your brand in their eyes. PR is especially important as a way of communication in times of crisis or other extraordinary situations. In situations where your company’s reputation is taking a hit, having a well-made press release can do damage control. This helps with building a positive brand image in the eyes of the customers, collaborations, investors, etc. ### Intensifies customer relationships The best PR strategies are built with having in mind the best interests of your organization. The highest goals of the organization can only be reached with the help of its customers, so building strong customer relationships is always one of the highest priorities. If the perception of your brand and company on the market is very positive, that attracts and benefits your customers and with that you. PR in this way both builds new customer relationships and intensifies the already existing ones. ## How to do PR by yourself As previously explained, the benefits of PR are vast and very important for any company. However, if you have a smaller company or a start-up that is not yet financially stable and can’t pay fees to a professional PR company or you simply don’t want to use a PR agency, then you can do it by yourself. There are some tips that I have for you if you want to do PR by yourself. ### Check if you’re ready for the press Before you start to do PR, make sure that you have something that is worth saying. I wouldn’t recommend pitching stories that don’t say anything of any value. Ask yourself why is my story relevant and exciting, and why would my readers care about this. If you don’t have a good answer to these questions, maybe it’s not the right time to be doing a press release of any type. A good tip is to create a “Press” page on your site where potential writers can find everything that they need if they decide to write about you like logos, graphics, other press articles, etc. This page can also help you with your credibility in the eyes of your readers. ### Directly contact contributors From my personal experience, I know that sometimes all you have to do is directly message the contributors on some of the social platforms. You will be surprised at how many people will just respond to a genuinely good message with a good idea. Some tips that you can use to find contributors are: 1. Search on Facebook “ *Name of publication* contributors” and you can possibly find groups of people that contribute to the publication of interest 2. Try to pick publications that you are qualified to be in and that are well into your niche 3. Do an analysis of the articles that the contributors published and try to determine if your story would be a good fit for them 4. Send a short, concise, on-point message considering that these people are probably busy 5. If they don’t reply to your message, don’t be annoying and rude. Instead, try once again in a few days or a week. ### Use HARO for PR HARO is a great tool that is used by a lot of writers as they are looking for quotes from experts and leaders in their respective industries. HARO means Help A Reporter Out and when you sign up, you will get up to 3 emails per day that will be asking for your insight on different topics. Some of these writers work for huge sites like New Your Times, NBC, Forbes, and more. If you come up with a good answer for them, then you will be featured on these sites along with a backlink. And that’s the goal! In order to be featured, try being as concise as you can and on-point with the question. Also, have in mind that the speed of answering plays an important role here. You have to be fast. A good tip is to save your answers in a Google Doc, or Word so when similar questions come up you can easily answer. Another option that you have is to hire a virtual assistant that will take care of this and be alert all the time. But you have to be careful with this. The person in charge needs to be trained properly to share your values and thoughts on different subjects. ### Be good at what you do The best version always is to have reporters and interested contributors reach out to you! To do this, you just have to work hard and be as creative and differentiated as possible. Keep selling great products or services, post relevant and helpful content, have special offers for your customers, be socially responsible, etc. ## How to choose the right PR agency If you don’t have the time or opportunities to do PR by yourself, or if you just want it done by proven professionals – you need to choose the right PR agency for your needs. It can be hard to choose the right one, especially if you are new to the industry or the business itself. That is why I have some tips for you in terms of how you can choose the best PR agency for your needs. ### Choose the right time I think that you should delay hiring a PR agency as much as you can. The best thing to do, especially when it comes to start-ups, is to do your PR by yourself for different reasons such as: 1. Nobody knows your business as good as you do which means that you have the knowledge to make the best PR efforts as long as you know-how 2. Doing PR by yourself at least at the beginning can give you a nice practice and make you realize what it is that you want to communicate 3. PR agencies can be quite expensive 4. You need to devote time for the PR professionals since they need constant input from your side about the news related to the business Moreover, when you are doing PR yourself at the beginning, you will know how to handle PR agencies later. You will know how the process works and they won’t be able to play you in any way. The best time to start looking for a PR agency is when your business expands and grows in different locations, industries, etc. At this point, it might be too much to handle by yourself or your team and a PR agency can really come in handy. ### Size of PR agency I am sure you have heard it before, that small budgets only work with small agencies, and big budgets only work with big agencies. However, sometimes when going for a big agency, you usually communicate with the senior professionals during the pitching process, and when the actual work starts, you are stuck with the junior staff. That is why, looking into small personalized PR agencies can be a good move, as long as it can cover your needs. This way, you can have senior professionals closely involved with the process and be there for your brand at all times. Of course, if you have such a large network that you need a large number of people for it, go for the big agencies. ### Compatibility with the PR agency There are a lot of PR agencies out there and some might be more compatible with your brand than others. For these purposes, you need to do the most logical thing – research! Do plenty of research into the potential PR partners, dive into their work examples, press releases, advertorials, websites, social medias channels, etc. Even if you end up not using the agencies, you can learn a lot of useful information and guidelines that you can use in your work. There are many companies that choose to collaborate with PR agencies just because they fit their budgets and preferred sizes but they don’t really gel together. Since you’ll be working closely with the agency,, choose one you believe in and that understands the personality of your brand. ### Ask people Don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations from people around you, friends and colleagues who have previous experience ofPR collaborations. Ask them about their personal experiences with the agencies and what the results were. What problems did they stumble upon, and how did they resolve them? What did they wish they knew before starting the collaborations, and are they sure they made the right choice. Word-of-mouth can be a powerful tool for gathering different perspectives. Need an agency referral and have a $5k+ budget? Message me. ### Budget The size of your budget is something that plays an important role in choosing a PR company. Before you start looking for a PR partner, have a plan on what your budget can cover and what you can get for that amount of money. There are some PR agencies that will cost more than 5K per month, and there are a lot of cheaper options with good expertise as well. Some of those are [Future Sharks](/subscription/), So Influential, or Authority Daily. These are some examples of cheaper options and they also offer different options like one post, starter offer, agency offers, etc. The amount of money is not the only thing you need to decide when thinking about the budget. You should also know how you want that budget to be spent. A good way to see if the companies are good for their value is to try one project and see how things go. ### Research their digital capabilities Lately, the lines between PR, social media, digital marketing, and content creation are all getting blurred. This is because with the development of technology, they are all interconnected with the internet. The right PR partner for your company is one that has the digital capabilities to support your goals. A lot of PR companies are very professional when it comes to traditional PR and they are putting the digital stuff in second place. True help and integration can only come from companies that embrace both, have the skill sets and they use them in their real-world practice all the time. Moreover, they should keep in touch with what’s new in the world from a technological point of view and use it to your advantage. ## Pros and Cons of PR Like literally everything in life, PR also has its advantages and disadvantages. ### Pros 1. **Cost-effectiveness**: PR can generally be achieved at quite low costs especially if you are dedicated to doing it yourself. Even if you decide to pay for it, it can be a lot cheaper than other types of promotional activities. 2. **High return on investment**: PR can have quite high ROI in the long term 3. **Exposure**: if done right, PR can expose your company and brand to many people and companies. 4. **Reaching a wide audience**: depending on the agency and their preferred media outlet, a story about your company or even just mentioning it, can reach very large groups of people which can further influence sharing the story even more. 5. **Influence**: sharing stories via PR channels can be a huge pro because the audiences are more likely to trust it when it’s coming from an objective source as opposed to paid sponsorships and ads. 6. **Credible**: PR is one of the most credible types of promotion and because of that can be very persuasive to the audiences 7. **Fast spreading**: a story that is mentioning a company can really spread very quickly through social media channels using PR campaigns. ### Cons 1. **No direct control**: when it comes to PR you have limited control over the details whereas in advertising you are in charge of how you’re being portrayed in the social media platforms, when and how your message will be spread, etc. 2. **Lack of measurability**: there is really no easy way or a completely right way to measure how effective a certain PR activity is. Media channels can mention you a lot and publish your stories, but it can be hard to exactly measure that influence over the final results. 3. **Special skills**: even though many people try to do their own PR and do plenty of research, they might find it hard to be successful since PR skills are a thing on their own. This can mean having to hire a professional. 4. **Unsure outcome**: you might do everything right and spend a lot of time and effort into writing a press release. However, when it comes to whether a story will be published and successful, there is not a lot of assurance. 5. **May be expensive**: if you decide to hire a PR agency, the expenses can get quite high depending on what you want to achieve and how many people you need working on your projects. ## Conclusion After reading this article, you should have a much better insight into PR, how it works, and what are the advantages and disadvantages. The truth is, if used right PR can be an extremely helpful tool that can increase engagement with your community and build up brand awareness. But as always, there are some risks, efforts, and disadvantages when it comes to PR. The best thing you can do is start by trying a few PR efforts and see how they work out for you. After that, you can build up on your PR strategies and make bigger decisions. If you are ready to get started on PR, get your plan here: Get featured on PR sites for cheap ✅ If you liked this post and you want to read more on how to improve your brand, check out the following: - [Biosan: Know all about the product of the future](/biosan-is-the-product-of-the-future-that-could-change-the-sanitizing-world/) - Learn how to improve CTR and traffic with Google Sitelinks - Creating a logo for your brand Leave a comment letting me know what else you would like to read about next. --- ## Olyasha Novozhylova turned her passion into a fashion and lifestyle blog to inspire young entrepreneurs URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-olyasha-novozhylova-turned-her-passion-into-a-fashion-and-lifestyle-blog-to-inspire-young/ Olaysha Novozhylova is the founder and creator of NotBasicBlonde and also a model, blogger, influencer, and a celebrity podcast host of the NotBasicBlonde Podcast. She often partners with nationwide beauty, jewelry, makeup, skincare and clothing brands such as Cartier, Revolve, TooFaced, Tarte, and many more. Not Basic Blonde is a fashion and lifestyle blog dedicated to inspiring young women to create an extraordinary style. The Russian model led an impressive ten year career in fashion and runway in Atlanta and overseas as well as enjoying several acting roles. Now a leading influencer, Olaysha shares her beauty, wellness, and fashion tips with an audience that exceeds over half a million followers. When she is not documenting her travels through the world, Novozhylova is busy educating women how to create iconic fashion looks with a mix of affordable and designer pieces, as well as offering makeup, skincare, and fitness tips to encourage her followers to live their best and most beautiful lives. Olaysha is Russian and has been a fashionista since she was a child, and has had a unique and extraordinary style since the day she started dressing herself! She came to the US when she was 17 and has been here for 14 years and started modeling when she was only 13 years old. Novozhylova’s parents put a strong emphasis on the importance of education and she graduated from Georgia State University with a BBA in Managerial Sciences. Olaysha had a successful career in IT/Project Management before she became a model, blogger, and influencer full time. The reason she decided to make this switch was because she has always had a passion for fashion and finally decided to share it in hopes to inspire other women. Since Novozhylova had such a unique and lively fashion sense and constantly got questions about her outfits, that is when she decided to start her blog and brand NotBasicBlonde. Olaysha’s motivation and inspiration for starting her business was her mom who was always a huge fashionista and still is! When Novozhylova was a child, her mother would dress her based on the latest fashion trends. Olaysha always loved an extraordinary style which inspired her to start her brand to help other women dress fashionably as well. Novozhylova started her business over four years ago and doesn’t regret it at all, she only wishes she would have started it earlier. She started her business because she wanted to share her passion for fashion with other women and create a community where women would complement and support each other while helping each other succeed. Once Olaysha got her feet on the ground with her business and established her brand, she was often complemented frequently on her voice which motivated her to start a celebrity podcast, NotBasicBlonde Podcast. The podcast is very successful and includes celebrity guests such as Forbes Public Figures, models, musicians, Bravo TV celebrities and many more. Olaysha says “Launching NotBasicBlonde Podcast in 2019 was one of the most rewarding projects! I get the chance to interview unique guests with inspiring stories. I get a lot of positive feedback, and many people have told me that it changed their life and inspired them, which was my goal!” When asked what the biggest challenges were when starting a business, Novozhylova replied with “When you’re starting a business you have to remember that it takes a lot of time and effort. The biggest challenge is that you have to be fully dedicated, committed, and be ready to make sacrifices.” Being an influencer and podcast host does require a lot of time, planning and producing content, weekly photoshoots, long hours, and even working during vacations most of the time. “When you are starting a business, you should remember that it requires way more time than just having a 9-5 job, but being an entrepreneur is so rewarding. It is crucial to be ready to invest in yourself, because it will pay off later.” When starting a business, it is always better to have savings or investors to help you jumpstart your business. Another challenge Novozhylova said you have to be ready for as an entrepreneur is to not expect to be paid or profit right away because when you are first starting, it takes time to establish your business and brand to make it well known. Olaysha says it often takes a couple years or more depending on your brand to break even and make a profitable business, so perseverance through these years is what is most important to a successful business in the long run. A strong mindset is arguably the most important thing to have when starting a business. Novozhylova says “You have to be confident and stay true to yourself, otherwise you will not succeed! You have to not be afraid to fail, otherwise you will not learn from those failures. You have to be ready to educate yourself and constantly want to further your knowledge, because that is how you will grow and bring your business to a new level.” Her advice for someone who is trying to start their own brand is that you have to be willing to work long hours for free, you have to be ready to invest in yourself, and have lots of patience because it doesn’t happen overnight. Novozhylova says “Don’t ever compare yourself to others because it lowers your self-esteem, and you never know all the work, effort, and sacrifice that people have put in to get to the place they are in right now. You have to be flexible, constantly networking and making connections, get feedback from your customers and target audience, and keep learning all the time.” Olaysha’s best advice is to not be afraid of your dreams and new ideas. If you can dream it, you can do it! If you want to start something, don’t wait for a perfect time because there is never a perfect time, just start doing it. When asked what fear means to her, Olaysha responded with “I think everyone has a fear of the new and unknown, but it is crucial to make it work for you, not against you. When fear works against you, it stops you from moving forward and trying new ways. When you get fear to work with you, it excites you and pushes you to get out of your comfort zone. Fear is what keeps me going and helps me grow, and I take it as a challenge! When you overcome fear, it definitely gives you a confidence boost.” On the contrary, when asked what success means to Novozhylova she replied with “To me, success means to have a goal, plan the steps to achieve it, implement the plan, and finally achieve the goal. Success means to produce high quality work before the deadline. Being successful means the achievement of desired visions and planned goals. Additionally, success to me means when a person is successful in all aspects of life, and not just their career.” Olaysha’s perspective of success and fear is what drove her to build her business with integrity and passion and ultimately lead to her own success. In regards to how Novozhylova differentiates herself with competitors, she always tries to provide unique and quality content that will stand out for her audience. She says “Branding plays a huge role in establishing exactly who you are and what you do. And through that, comes trust! High-quality, but most importantly, consistent branding can make you stand out from your competition, Your personal touch and your individuality is what makes you stand out.” When looking at what the future holds for Novozhylova, she says she has a few very exciting projects that she is working on, but does not like to disclose details when the projects are still in progress, so very soon we will find out more about what the future holds for her as an individual as well as her brand and business! To learn more about Olaysha through her instagram page, click here. --- ## Biosan Is the Product Of The Future That Could Change The Sanitizing World URL: https://futuresharks.com/biosan-is-the-product-of-the-future-that-could-change-the-sanitizing-world/ In the times of Covid-19, there has been a massive shortage of access to crucial disinfectant tools such as hand sanitizer, wipes, and other products that help keep people safe and healthy. The minds behind Biosan, an all natural disinfectant, want to change this by producing and selling their own product to help people stay safe in these dangerous times. This product goes far beyond just disinfectant though. It can be used in a variety of ways to help people live a healthier and cleaner life as well as assist in cleaning up water such as rivers and lakes from general dirtiness due to the passage of time as well as the compounded effects of human activity. The business started as an idea between two friends. Unfortunately, the two founders have struggled to convince some people that this is the product of the future despite robust testing that proves not only the effectiveness of the product, but also its safety when dealing with humans and wildlife in the rivers and lakes that it will hopefully help clean. Despite these hardships, the product has excelled and is the cleaning product of the future that the world could need now in these difficult times. The two co-founders hope to continue to develop the product and look for markets to sell it in. They also hope to increase production to ensure that there is enough of the product on the market. To find out more about Biosan, you can check out their website here. --- ## The Venezuelan Crisis Will Not Stop Humberto Daniel Bastardo D’Arthenay From Organizing The Best Weddings And Events URL: https://futuresharks.com/humberto-daniel-bastardo-darthenay/ The situation in Venezuela is extremely worrisome. A country once known for being rich and receiving migrants, is now home to the second highest inflation in the world and causing extreme mass migration. However, not everyone is leaving Venezuela. Some are staying and continuing their personal ventures and entrepreneurial work. As some may say, it is in times of crisis that extraordinary things happen. This is the case of Daniel D’Arthenay who runs Venclass Protocolo, a company dedicated to events and wedding planning. Despite multiple obstacles, Daniel has been able to work with renown Venezuelans such as Chino y Nacho, Sixto Rein, Oscar de Leon and Guaco, as well as produce theatre shows such as Led Varela’s stand-up comedy, Incorrecto. Daniel has also been able to exhibit his work to international crowds. In 2016 he was invited to attend the Panama Wedding Expo and in 2018 he attended the Miami Wedding Expo. Through these exhibitions and his social media, he has been able to put his work out there and be seen. Daniel got invested in his own business and wanted to grow it as much as he could. He started acquiring as much knowledge as he could on event planning. Eventually, he got to be the wedding planner for his best friend. Through this process, he earned the trust of his best friend’s relatives, who vested on him the responsibility to organize their party. After showing a high level of professionalism at wedding planning, Venclass Protocolo started organizing other types of events such as *quinceañeras*, baby showers, corporate and promotional events, concerts, theater plays, and stand-up comedy. But none of this stopped him from continuing with the job of his dreams. Since he was a child he had paid careful attention to brides when he went to church, and he was fascinated by the dress, the wedding march, and all the logistics that come with a wedding. That is why he decided to invest in his own talent, which is what he advises for those starting their own business. Even though Veneclass Protocolo has been successful, by overcoming challenges that come with each event planning and putting so much effort into each event’s organization, this success is at times bittersweet. Despite this, it is precisely because of his love for Venezuela that he keeps working. His future projects include continuing his professional growth by adding more events to his career, and broadening his frontiers by organizing events outside of Venezuela and continuing his work in The United States and beyond. It is Daniel’s youth, creativity, and charisma what set him apart from his competition. It is with this mindset that he has been able to be successful at such a young age and what he hopes to continue his dreams beyond Venezuela. For more information about Venclass Protocolo, click here. --- ## Jerjer Gibson Had Many Obstacles Throughout His Childhood That He Had To Overcome To Be The Person He Is Today URL: https://futuresharks.com/jerjer-gibson/ Jerjer Quemine Gibson has had to struggle to make himself into a successful soccer player. He experienced tragedy at a young age and was surrounded by the civil war, which consumed his home country of Libya. Though this was a difficult way for Jerjer to grow up, he was made stronger by all the challenges he had to face. Jerjer and his mom were able to leave Libya eventually, but only after a lot of difficulties with the U.S. immigration system, which relied a lot on the work that had already been done with Jerjer’s dad and their original denial for entry. Eventually, they did make it to the United States and Jerjer saw how hard his mom had to work to get the visa as well as spend their entire life savings on the trip. This helped make Jerjer into the resilient person that he is today. He played soccer professionally for a while until retiring and becoming a coach to help high school athletes. He wants young college students to better themselves not only as soccer players, but also as people and to learn the values of working hard in life. Though Jerjer has retired from his own soccer career, he hopes to continue coaching and inspiring young athletes. In the future, he hopes that he could coach at the collegiate level. For those who wish to start their own business, whether that be in soccer or whatever else, Jerjer’s advice for them is to have a positive attitude! Jerjer has an amazing support system to get him to where he is in life. He has grown and gone far for his own passion for soccer going from being picked behind his sister for soccer games to a professional player who inspires others to be their best. If you want to learn more about Jerjer, you can follow him on Instagram @jerwerlo11. --- ## The Journey Of A Thousand Steps: JC Polonia’s Take On Building And Scaling A Successful Digital Marketing Agency From The Ground Up URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-journey-of-a-thousand-steps-jc-polonias-take-on-building-and-scaling-a-successful-digital-marketing-agency-from-the-ground-up/ Family can be significantly influential when it comes to what occupation to choose. What our parents did and our grandparents before them can determine what we choose to do with our lives. This is partly the case of JC Polonia, who runs a full-service digital marketing agency. JC Polonia’s grandmother came to the United States with her mother when she was only 2 years old. Right off the bat, her grandmother started working many jobs in order to provide for her family. From cleaning homes to sewing curtains to sell to others, she was the true definition of a hustler. JC’s desire to free his family from financial struggles coupled with his love of entrepreneurship gave him the motivation he needed to start his own business. He set out on the path of financial literacy and began to operate his own digital marketing agency as a side hustle while working his 9-5 job. It was then that on December 31, 2018, JC decided to quit his job and go full force into his business. Ever since that moment, he has never looked back. Today, he runs and operates a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in branding, content production, social media management, and online advertising. Digitality Marketing LLC serves businesses and individuals looking to grow their online presence while generating new customers and increasing their bottom line. They do this through value-driven content and paid ad campaigns that drive results. JC believes that every day is a learning experience and you need to build on the previous days highs and lows. He can now focus on growing the business instead of just working inside of it because he has been able to build a great team around him. JC advises to treat your mindset the same way you would treat your body, and to train and develop it through books, affirmations, meditation and manifestation. He also believes that it is important to work on something that not only can provide you a stable income, but that it also is something you truly love. In a time where e-commerce and entrepreneurship is becoming the new norm, JC also makes clear that entrepreneurship is not easy, and you should not get caught up in the hype of social media where “being an entrepreneur” is cool. Although JC’s next goal is to compete with some of the highest level marketing agencies and work with fortune 500 companies, he will always have a special place in his heart for small businesses, as that has been the core of Digitality’s mission from the start. To find out more about JC, go here. --- ## How Financial Literacy Can Help People Escape Their Circumstances: How Latrell Goss Dedicated His Life To Helping Others Achieve Financial Literacy URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-financial-literacy-can-help-people-escape-their-circumstances-how-latrell-goss-dedicated-his-life-to-helping-others-achieve-financial-literacy/ Latrell Goss’s life has been filled with various tragedies. Growing up in Chicago was incredibly difficult for him. He was surrounded by violence and death throughout much of his early years and into his adult life. Though it was an incredibly difficult childhood, Latrell took away many lessons from those days that pushed him to become the person that he is today. Latrell knew he had to do something to prevent him from succumbing to the violence around him. He wanted to change his life for his family, which at the time consisted of his two daughters. Unfortunately, tragedy struck Latrell’s family. After this, Latrell began his financial literacy business. Through this program, Latrell hopes to create healthy financial habits for numerous people. During his own childhood, Latrell was not taught the skills needed to properly manage bank accounts. - Latrell manages his business with the idea of helping people in mind. It is his central goal. Though having good finances was crucial to his own success, he knows that it can also change the lives of many people who have struggled in the same way that he used to. Latrell has been very successful in his newfound business, but it was not easy at first to get his family on board, particularly after the tragedy of losing his daughter. Family and friends can be very supportive, but it can be hard for them to follow along when the risks are very high. Latrell thinks often about his daughter and hopes that he is making her proud every day with the new life that he has created. His next steps are to look into real estate and perhaps open up a small business to help inspire others to follow through with their own dreams. If you want to learn more about Latrell, you can follow him on Instagram @latrellgoss, and you can learn more about his financial literacy services on his websiteleveragemyscore.com. --- ## Tony Robbins Interview – How to Achieve Your Highest Potential URL: https://futuresharks.com/tony-robbins-interview/ **Tony Robbins** explains how all humans share the same 6 humans needs, and how to change your mindset to become truly successful, fulfilled and happy. Watch this interview with Tony Robbins and Tom Biyelou. ## Here’s the transcript of the Tony Robbins Interview: In people’s lives… there’s only maybe half dozen, 7-8 categories that really matter. Most people, they major in minor things. They focus on stuff that doesn’t matter. They know more about this celebrity going in and out of rehab than they do about their own personal development. But I look at it and say if you look at your body, where you are starting without that everything else is out the door. > *You don’t wanna be the richest man in the graveyard. That’s not going to do it. If there is energy, if there is vitality, if there is strength it’s gonna show up in your relationship, it’s gonna show up in your business, it’s gonna show up in your life. That’s something you got to master. You can’t dabble. It’s too important. Emotions are everything.* I mean you got a ton of money, everybody loves you and your primary emotions are pissed off and frustrated, then your life is pissed off and frustrated. Doesn’t matter if you got a billion dollars, or a million people loving you, your life is not great. Relationships. Intimate relationships especially. It’s where the most juice in life comes from, It’s where the most pain comes for most people, It’s worth mastering instead of dabbling. Really looking at what you’re gonna do with your time. And mastering your time, instead of… having a checklist and crossing all off you can mistake movement for achievement. I want to squeeze that time what matters, that creates value for me and for everyone I care about and love. What about your career or your business and the mastery of that, instead of dabbling… most businesses are dabblers. That’s why they don’t make it. 96% you know… in a 10 year period of time, 4% make it. That doesn’t even mean they’re profitable. And that does not mean they’re enjoying themselves. Or they’re getting anybody else to do good. ### Really mastering money so that it’s not a question in your life. You can do and be and give and share as much as you want and you’re not stressed about it. ## I don’t tell people what to believe spiritually but I believe that ultimately, whatever you believe you gotta live it and it should lead to growing and giving. If you’re growing, you feel alive, if you’re giving, you feel 10 times more alive.. If someone can celebrate and give in that spiritual state… So you need those years I look at mastery business for sure, but it’s the areas of life that matter most, and most of where we spend our time doesn’t make people feel fulfilled that’s why the average person is not fit and healthy, the average person is not in a relationship where they have tremendous passion… I’m not a dummy, I’m not a positive thinker, I know the truth. ## The average person is not successful in business. The average person is not earning what they want to earn. But you know what, very few people have those things, but a few do. A few are happy, fulfilled, spiritually alive, financially strong, their business is growing, they have passionate love affairs and I’m obsessed with finding the few who do and finding out what they do different and teaching it to everybody. Learning it for myself and teaching everybody else. Everyone’s going to measure themselves differently, because everyone values things differently. Some people value success or significance, some people value love more, some people value just basic levels of certainty, so when I look at the specific metrics I really look at metrics of what are the things that need to be measured to know if your life is gonna work or not so I look at it as… our whole lives are guided moment to moment by the state we’re in. Learning how to change your state, not bullshit, not fake, but to go from pissed off, frustrated, freaked out to back in your center, or creative, or determined, or something that’s gonna move you forward that’s going to create a better quality of life for you and others. That’s a critical skillset. So moment to moment our life is controlled by our states. If you’re in an angry state you’re going to respond differently than if you’re feeling playful. What controls those states longterm is your model of the world. Your world view. And I look at that as having as a metric, 3 things that I look at: I look to see first what are the targets you’re after. The target is… everyone has different goals and dreams and desires… but as I travelled around the world in 100 countries I stared going… Holy shit! I’m seeing the same problems. Whats underneath it… I began to see that there are these same six human needs that we all have The same needs. > *We all have the need for certainty, that we can avoid pain and we can have some pleasure, some comfort, we all need uncertainty. We need variety, or we feel dead inside. If you’re totally certain, you’re bored. If you have total variety you freak out. And it’s not a balance. It’s learning which of these you need more as a person? Everyone has a different set of values in that area.* The need for significance, to feel unique, special, important… the need to feel love, the need to grow, and the need to contribute. Some people value certainty at the top of their list. That’s the center of their target. I don’t want to do anything unless I know it’s going to work. I don’t want to do anything unless it’s the same, if you change anything they freak out. If certainty is the n0.1 thing on your list everyone has the same needs, but if it’s no.1 I know how your life is going to be. I can predict the direction of your life and therefore the destination to some extent. If you’re driven by love first, you want certainty too, but love is higher, you’re gonna behave very differently than if you’re driven by significance – I have to be the one. So I looked to see which of those needs are the top 2 on your list because they control your life. The 2 that most people have 90% of the planet of all these needs, which one do you really focus on most day to day? Everybody wants love. What do you focus on? Most people focus on being significant – we live in a Facebook world, where people fake their life, put new filters, make it look different than it really is, tell stories that are totally full of it to make themselves look good… because we life in this kind of false world where significance is more important than love. ### And it separates us. And the other one that we see most often is certainty. People want to be certain before they can do something. You couldn’t have started a business like you have if you were absolutely certain before you started, you could never build a business with that. You could never build a great relationship because if it’s based on certainty then everybody gotta stay the same and never change, which means you’re never going to grow, which means you’re going to be miserable. So my metrics are, I want to find out what’s driving you. And I want to see, is it healthy or unhealthy… you can have two people be driven by significance though, and do it with a different set of rules. That’s the second piece I measure. The beliefs and rules and how to fulfill that target. So Osama Bin Laden, certainly driven, love driven, contribution driven, significance driven, not hard to figure out on a 0 to 10 he was a 10 for significance. He was like the 22nd child, most people don’t know that. Totally insignificant, not skilled, took his dad’s money, went over to Afghanistan, and suddenly because he had money he became significant. And he started… he wasn’t even part of that movement at that stage. It shaped him. So what does he do? He’s going to figure out his model of the world is I’m significant if I destroy you. *Right*? On that same day of 9/11 there were men and women on the fire and police department that were also all driven by significance and contribution and they went into that building knowing they’re likely going to die to save a stranger. Both people driven to have a significant life, one is by taking life, one is by giving their own life. So once you understand the metrics, using your language, of whats driving you and then the rules or beliefs of what does it take for you to feel loved, is different for everybody. What does it take for you to feel certain? Some people need 1 million dollars some people just need to trust God. I wanna be more clear about something: ### An extraordinary life is life on your terms. And there’s two parts: Part one to have an extraordinary life is mastering the skill of the science of achievement. How do I take what I envision and make it real? And how will I do that quicker, faster, better, easier. The ability to manifest what you come up with and make it real like you’ve done with your company, that’s a skillset. I’ve spent an unbelievable amount of time helping people do it faster, quicker, better, showing them the shortcuts, teaching the strategies, modelling what works, you can save yourself a decade. But, I would submit to you that having done this for 38 years with you know, 
50 million people at this stage I can tell you that the science of achievement… There are a lot of people that are damn good and they still don’t have an extraordinary life. They have an extraordinary life, *YOU see it as extraordinary*, but I get the phone call from the multi-billionaire who tells me wants to do this thing on his business but what you really find out is he’s as miserable as hell and he’s hoping somehow, I’m going to rub off on him on that side too, and so I give him what he asked for: The change in his business, but I also give him what he needs: ### Which is the change INSIDE OF HIM. So the second skill is the ART OF FULFILLMENT. If you want an extraordinary life you can’t just achieve you gotta be fulfilled. As simplistic as that sounds but is an art, it’s not a science. It’s a science to making money, come on. Any age, any colour, any background, any gender, If you do these things you’ll have an abundance of money. You do these things you’re gonna have too much money, the end of the money… Financial stress, right? Everyone’s biochemically different but you and I both know. There’s fundamental rules, laws, there’s a science of the body. You violate that science, you’re gonna have disease, you’re gonna have low energy. If you align with that, you’re gonna have an abundance of energy. It’s gonna effect everything in your life. It’s a science. Fulfillment’s not like that. Fulfillment is as different as we are human beings. You wanna know God or the Universe likes, look at the jungle, look at at the forest. It’s diverse, right? So most people think “Well I want to get that.” Because they’re modelling somebody else and that might work on how to achieve something it will *never work for what will fulfill you* how many people you know like you got what you thought you wanted and you weren’t fulfilled and that… I always tell people: ## SUCCESS WITHOUT FULFILLMENT IS THE ULTIMATE FAILURE ### The ultimate failure! Because if you go at something and you fail and you’re an achiever. You don’t fail, you’re like “I learned something, I’ll just try something else. I’m going to still get there.” But when you succeed and you’re not happy… you’re technically screwed. So, a perfect example, I mentioned in the seminar you were there, because it hit me about a year and a month ago we lost what I consider a national treasure – Robin Williams. I asked people, “How many of you love Robin Williams?” Everyone raised their hand, all around the world. He made people laugh, people were touched by him. So how good was he at the science of achievement? I mean, he wanted to be a great comedian and make the whole world laugh – he did, he wanted to have his own tv show – he did, he wanted a number one show – he did, he wanted to make movies – he did, he wanted to have an academy award for not being funny, dramatic and he did, he wanted a beautiful family. He achieved everything, *and he hung himself*. And I know recently someone’s saying, you know, he had dementia, he had drug abuse, he had alcohol abuse through most of his life because he made everybody happy but whom? Himself. ### That’s the ultimate failure. So if I have no other message to offer your viewers then let me give it to them right now and I’ll tell you what I believe. I believe our life’s are controlled by one force: Decisions. I certainly believe in a force greater than myself call it God if you will, Grace, whatever you want to call it, the Universe. But I also believe, it gives us choices and the decisions we make, control us much more than the conditions we meet. It’s not the conditions, it’s your decisions. Decisions what to believe, decision what to do, decisions what to GIVE. I said to people think about you know, look back 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 15 years ago and think of a decision you made, that if you would have made a different decision you would have a totally different life today, better or worse I don’t know but totally different. The most important decision you could make above any on the face of the Earth is deciding that no matter what happens in your life. No matter what happens you’re going to live in a beautiful state. ### The decision to say I am not going to suffer, that if suffering arises – pain is one thing suffering is another. Suffering is when you’re like… I’ll give you an example: A friend of mine is a very famous Indian industrialist, very famous, billionaire guy and he just recently took a sport in India that’s been around for 2000 years that almost every village child plays and he turned it into a professional sport. No one had ever made it a professional sport. 2 years ago. He invested… I don’t know… I’m making the number up. 20 million dollars. In 2 years the sport is so successful in India, that 500 million people watch the finals, 2 months ago. 500 million people, right? That’s half a billion… and people are saying this is going to be as big as.. for them cricket is the ultimate thing, right? Big as cricket. So, his team valuation, I’m making the number up I think its gone up to like half a billion dollars in 2 years from $25 million and his team is number two in the whole world. He’s got these great players. So I’m with him and he gets a phone call and he was just telling me about the great success how proud he is, people are so thrilled, that it’s just become this movement in India that he created, he’s so proud of it… and the phone-call is from his management team telling him that one of his competitors has just offered 4 times as much money as he was offering to his top 3 athletes, who were the core of his whole team. And of course they all took it. He was so angry, he was like: I can’t even believe this. These guys were working in shops, I brought them here I made them stars on national TV, and they have no loyalty… And he’s suffering, and the way you suffer is you focus on yourself. Suffering comes when we obsess about ourselves, what we’re getting or not getting, what we should have done, what others should have done for us, it’s the me me me me me game. You, my dear friend, and I say this with no blowing smoke, your primary quality is a giver which is why you’re prospering, you’re not the me me me, you’re like how do I give more, do more, share more, care more, how do we do a better job for our clients, how do we do a better job for our internal customers who work with us, our partners… ### Your entire life is like this. That’s why you’re prospering and you’re not feeling suffering. But when you do suffer and I promise you do, correct me if I’m wrong, it will be because you worry about something in the future… How is this going to happen? Will this come together? Suffering could be worry, could be anger, could be frustration, it’s anything that takes you out of the beautiful state and here’s what don’t people get: **YOU CAN END SUFFERING.** Stop focusing on yourself and focus on something you want to serve greater than yourself. Your children, your wife, your mission, your life. You can get out of it in an instant, because the nature of the human mind is to constantly compare things. Your brain is a 2 million year old device, it’s not designed to make you happy. It’s designed to make you survive and that’s why it’s always looking for what’s wrong. It could be what’s wrong with a sabre tooth tiger so I can protect myself. NOW people are worried about what people think of them,
 or do they have enough money,
 when two thirds of the planet lives off $2 a day
 and you’re making $38,000.. you’re rich! The poorest of the poor in our country are considered rich. I’m not saying that it should stay that way, but you can only build on success. So my goal is to have you consider something.. ### Life is short. We don’t know how short it’s going to be, but if you only have a week to live. I bet you wouldn’t allow yourself to suffer over little crap that makes you crazy normally. I think you would probably spend time with those you love. You would do what you love. 
You would take in the sunset. You’d smell the air. You’d take in everything in these final moments
 that you possibly could. So my thing is WHY WAIT? ### Why wait? Why not just decide that if I start to suffer. I know the solution because suffering is me obsessing about me. You might say “It’s not me I’m worried about my kids, because they’re not doing well. No, you’re worried that you hadn’t done enough for your kids. It’s about you still you know, you’re worried about what was done or what you should have done or shouldn’t have done. You end that in an instant by becoming aware of it and saying I’ve made the most important decision of all I am going to live in a beautiful state. Here’s what’s going to happen: Anybody watching, you may lose a family member. You probably will, somebody may get cancer. Your business may… the government might change the rules, they might change things radically and you can’t even do anything about it. You might go bankrupt, you might get divorced. 
I’m not saying anybody will, but no one knows what’s going to really happen in your life. Life’s full of uncertainty, but here’s what you can know, you can decide no matter what happens, you’re going to have a great time. If somebody like Viktor Frankl, can be locked up in Auschwitz and come out of that and experience finding joy in the middle of Auschwitz, then human beings have a capacity they’ve undersold themselves on. We think the outside world determines how we feel If people have to behave a certain way, if your husband, your wife, your kids or your co-workers or whoever, your boss has to behave a certain way for you to be happy and if they don’t, you’re unhappy. Then you’re always going to be unhappy because the more people are around you, the more they’re going to change because they’re human. If you have to be a certain way to be happy. You’re gonna violate it too so … My invitation is as great as it is to achieve, more important to enjoy. If you can enjoy every moment in that state, when you’re feeling loving and playful and passionate and curious, in awe. You treat other people a hundred times better than when you’re feeling frustrated, pissed off, overwhelmed, worried, stressed or feeling sorry for yourself, you’re going to be a better parent, you’re going to be a better lover, you’re going to be a better business person, you’re going to be better at life. So my soliloquy is **DECIDE**. ## Decide today and actually say, “What if I cut it off, what if I said. I’m not willing to settle and I’m just going to live in a beautiful state.” Doesn’t mean you won’t feel bad, doesn’t mean you won’t stay there, you will instantly change, that’s doable. I’m on a mission to help people end suffering. But what the hell is success it’s hitting an expectation. I always tell people “Man, trade your expectations for appreciation.” It’s a whole new world instantly. If you can’t appreciate this moment, if you can’t find ecstasy in this moment, in a conversation with a friend, or looking in your wife’s eyes, being with your children, going on a run. If you can’t find ecstasy now.. I’m here to tell you: more money, more people, more love, more business, more anything is not gonna give you more… If you can’t do it here and now, you’re not going to do it then when you’ve got more. *So why not do it now*? And have a rich life right now. I tell people money is one thing, having financial abundance they are skills, that’s a science. With wealth it’s a decision, it’s like you can be wealthy right now. I live in Fiji a good portion of the time 
there’s these villagers there, they’re the richest people in the world they’re happy, they laugh, they love, they don’t give a damn about economics, other people say they’re poor. When I first went there I was trying to do things for them they were like what are you talking about?
 They’re so happy. Wealthy people come from the US and they travel around and try to figure out what to do and they’re going to spend 9 years to do this and this and this and then they can finally sit down and be happy, and the Fijian guy goes.. “Why don’t I sit on the beach right now and experience it, why spend the 9 years? Why not have it now? That’s my invitation. --- ## Learning From His Past: Sammy Samuel Uses His Own Experiences To Help Others With His Financial Literacy Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/learning-from-his-past-sammy-samuel-uses-his-own-experiences-to-help-others-with-his-financial-literacy-business/ Immigration poses many challenges to people attempting to navigate the process. If you are able to successfully conquer that system and arrive in the United States, it is still difficult to understand finances and credit card procedures. This is the problem that Sammy Samuel faced when coming to the United States from Grenada. Sammy realized that he was not the only one who suffered from these problems with finances. Not only was this something that happened to immigrants who were new to the system, but it happened to people all across the United States. Because of this, Sammy decided to start a business that was dedicated to helping people understand their finances. The current pandemic has only made Sammy’s business and job more important. The virus has stretched people’s finances and made saving even more crucial if it is possible in these difficult times. Sammy is trying to help people as much as he can to financially support themselves. Sammy knows that there are a lot of other financial literacy companies out there that offer similar services, so he has tried to differentiate himself from others by offering more than just financial counseling. Instead, he tries to connect to all of his customers having been someone who has also suffered from problems with finances. Though Sammy had to overcome many obstacles as an immigrant in the United States, and having to change his mindset completely to start his business from employee to entrepreneur, he has created a successful business. In the future, he hopes to mentor more people like himself and helping them start their own businesses. If you would like to learn more about Sammy Samuel, you can follow him on Instagram @samuel_finance or check out his website at samuelfinance.com. --- ## The Story of MindStir Media: From One Bestseller to Publishing Every Genre URL: https://futuresharks.com/mindstir-media/ MindStir Media is an award-winning, independent, self-publishing company. MindStir was Founded by J.J. Hebert, an author based in Portsmouth, after publishing his first book. The peculiar fact about MindStir media is that a MindStir author keeps the copyright and exclusive publishing rights to their book. ## The Birth of MindStir When Hebert was working with an editor in the Lakes Region of NH on the draft for his Christian themed inspirational novel, he got an agent and tried regular publishing. However, after passing the book around to different publishers in search of a good deal, Hebert noticed that their rules for the genre were too constraining. This constraint made him decide self-publishing was his best option. Hebert’s debut novel, “Unconventional,” sold over 100,000 copies and got listed as an Amazon bestseller. He worked hard after printing to market his book online through social media and paid advertisements. This book, in 2009, also marked the birth of Hebert’s self-publishing business, MindStir Media. Hebert says that becoming a best-selling author put his name out there and opened business doors. He also said that he found it interesting that one person led to the next who also brought someone else. He says he decided to open MindStir Media to the public because of the numerous requests he received from authors to try reproducing the success of his book. To expand MindStir, Hebert personally examined and hired editors and illustrators. Since its creation in 2009, MindStir has had exponential growth and has released many bestselling books of different genres and has gained the title “best self-publishing company” by many online magazines and blogs. ## Some of MindStir’s Honorable Mentions - MindStir published two books for Japanese Martial artist and actor Sho Kosugi: In 2017, Yin-Yang Code: The Drums of Tenkai-Bo and In 2018, Yin-Yang Code: Shadow of Tenkai-Bo - MindStir produced If I Could Run by Don Miller in May 2019, and this also has an award-winning movie under the same title. - MindStir published The Freaky World of Entertainment by Arnold Kane in January 2019. Kane is a writer of the TV series Love Boat and a 3-time Emmy Award-Winning Nominee. ## Kevin Harrington’s Endorsement Kevin Harrington is among the top entrepreneurs in the United States and an original shark cast from the hit TV show, Shark Tank. Kevin is also the creator of the infomercial and the pioneer of the brand *As Seen on TV*. In March 2020, Harrington spoke highly about MindStir as the one you can trust to help you get to your next level of being an author as long as you show dedication to the art. Kevin Harrington says becoming an author changed his life, and MindStir media is the place to go to and trust to “turn your manuscript into a top-notch book that you’ll be proud to sell.” Harrington has launched more than 500 products and driven more than $5 billion in global sales. Having a renowned businessman like Kevin sing Its praises shows that MindStir is in a league of its own. MindStir does not limit its publications to e-books or a single genre. They also publish paperbacks and a variety of book genres including children’s books. MindStir offers a free download self-publishing guide that answers many questions about self-publishing and marketing. For more information on MindStir, you can visit their website. --- ## Aaron Ware Drops Out of High School and Grows a Business Making $20 Million Annually URL: https://futuresharks.com/aaron-ware/ Aaron Ware started as an electrician when he was eleven years old, working in his stepfather’s electric company. He dropped out of high school, not completing the eleventh grade. Ware worked in mining and construction for years, and being observant, he noticed men twice his age who were depressed, earning so much with little to show for it. He also noticed that he was put so much time into work, and he missed his friends and important milestones in their lives. Wares quickly made up his mind not to end up like the depressed men. Aaron had big dreams of owning his business and worked hard to achieve it. He started mining mentally and waking up at 4 am and working 12 hours after which he came back home and developed himself some more. After working hard, he bought *Pedley’s electrical services* worth five hundred thousand dollars. Big dreams require hard work, which he put in willingly at an early age. In the past four years, he has grown his business from half a million to make 20 million annually. ## Why Did Aaron Give up His Twenties? *“Ware said he gave up his twenties so that he could be a millionaire in his thirties. He did not want to be living a normal mainstream life.”* *“Ware added that he gave up his twenties so that he could invest in himself and have the rest of his life off.”* The number of hours Ware put into his business cost him his twenties. Aaron started with his best friend as an apprentice, hustling, begging, and calling people to see if anyone needed an electrician. He went all out in search of customers going from door to door looking for contracts. Ware put out a notice for high profile clients looking for big jobs and deals not willing to dream small or settle for little gigs. ## Was It All Smooth Sailing? From his blog, “success can kill you,” Ware states that in not subtle terms, he reached a hard point. *“Wares stated that almost 50% of businesses fail in Australia within the first three years.”* In his first few months, he trusted and hired the wrong people, bought the wrong things, and spent money in the wrong areas, one of which was marketing adverts. He spent over $100,000 on some extravagant advertisements. He did not have proper training, culture, or a strong system. He did not have goals and did not understand accounting. “Aaron Ware stated that he was doubling month-by-month, which meant he had to pay for more installers and more materials. It was a good problem to have, yet it was a crippling problem. It kept him up at night, he almost killed himself, and nearly lost all his employees.” Eventually, he moved past this, set goals, and started growing faster. He got to a point where he had to pay workers from his pocket. The business was growing fast, and costs were doubling up. As he hockey-sticked, he was finding it difficult to gather his capital. *“He says my new goal and mission are to go from helping the homeowners to business owners where the savings are in the hundreds of thousands per system. ” * Aaron shared that he lost some of his friends to his big dreams. After changing his company, he quickly realized that he had smaller dreams than other big dreamers and made new goals. ## What Helped Ware Grow Into the Business Man he is? *“Ware said when he started to look at obstacles that came at him as awesome ways to systemize his business, he began to grow and hit the next level.”* The choice to take negative reviews and work to change it made Aaron a better businessman. He did not react angrily to negative reviews and feedback but improved on them. Wares said he once had a customer that gave a bad review on his advertisement and had never bought a product, and he chose to work on his advert afterward. Aaron noticed he started growing exponentially at the point he started listening to relevant information. He changed what he was listening to in the mornings, during a drive, and while working out. He started listening to podcasts from people like Jim Rhon, Tony Robbins, Gary Vee, and Grant Cardone. ## What will he have changed? *“Ware said that now that he has it all figured out, looking back at all the sleepless nights and palpitations, it did not have to be that hard.” * Undergoing apprenticeship in trade for four years does not prepare people for the reality of business; that’s why 90% of companies fail. He would have loved to change the lack of guidance and training. Aaron also says he would have changed his emotional intelligence if he could go back 3years ago. He would not let his surroundings and people’s actions change his emotional state. ## What does Aaron do now? Over the years, Ware has developed effective skills and processes that make him a better businessman. If Aaron had known these processes three years earlier, he would have made more than 20 million dollars annually. Ware’s passion is for business growth and uses his multiple social media platforms to share the lessons he learned with people on how to grow their businesses. He wants his research and ideas available to anyone and everyone who wants to grow their business without the headaches. He also wrote a book called **Trade Made**to share his knowledge with the world. Ware’s book is for those people who are trying to figure out business and want to grow. He said the book is for people trying to grow but are having decision problems. “*Ware said he wrote the book to help growing traders because everything they are doing has been done before.”* Aaron has social media accounts on different platforms and a website dedicated to helping upcoming business people. Ware has videos dedicated to his work of being a motivational speaker while growing his own business. To learn more about Aaron Ware’s book, check here. To see more of Aaron Ware, you can check his website, YouTube, or Instagram. --- ## Jose Cardona, Owner of No Limit Towing and Body Shops, Runs a Successful Business and Gives Back to his Community URL: https://futuresharks.com/jose-cardona-owner-of-no-limit-towing-and-body-shops-runs-a-successful-business-and-gives-back-to-his-community/ For all of us who are drivers, we know how important a tow truck can be or even the fact that they would be available to help. This sense of security is crucial to us drivers to know that if we were to get into auto trouble, there would be someone to help us out. Jose Cardona has been able to make a business doing just that; by being the person that helps out thousands of people across New York. Jose’s journey did not start off easily. He had to convince people to trust in his brand and invest in him, so he could get his business off the ground. He stuck by his business even when he lacked the belief of others because he knew that this was something he wanted to do. He recommends that people starting a business should be persistent Because of his ability to stick to his goals, Jose was able to achieve massive success for his towing business. In addition to his towing company, he now runs an Auto Body shop. He has been well recognized in all of New York as an incredible business owner and company both for his success and for his willingness to give back to the community. In 2018, Jose was recognized by his community for being businessman of the year as well as being acknowledged for all of his contributions to the community and business successes. He hopes that this success will launch him further and allow him to expand his business into other states such as California and Florida. To learn more about Jose, you can follow him on Instagram @mr_nolimit01. In addition, you can check out his website for his Auto Body Shop at nolimitautobody.com --- ## Meet Jean Kenson Laguerre: The Man Who Came To The United States To Be Free But Spent 18 Years In Corporate America Before Leaving It To Start His Own Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-jean-kenson-laguerre-the-man-who-came-to-the-united-states-to-be-free-but-spent-18-years-in-corporate-america-before-leaving-it-to-start-his-own-business/ It is hard to realize that you are just a cog in the system. Though workers pay a major part of any large corporation, there is so much infrastructure, bureaucracy, and management that it can feel like you are getting lost in the system. This is how Kenson Laguerre felt when he came to the United States and began working for large companies. Because of this, Kenson wanted to go and start his own business. He wanted to be his own boss and feel like he mattered in the work that he did. He decided to leave his job and start his own company where he could manage himself and work on his own time in a job where he could give back to his community as well as do something he loved. Kenson then began his own auto insurance agency, a financial firm, and a credit agency. All of these firms are designed to teach people in Kenson’s community about how money and insurance works in America, so they can have a better understanding on how to manage their own finances. Since switching jobs, Kenson has fallen in love with all of his occupations. He gets an incredibly high level of satisfaction by going to work every single day and helping others. He has had to face many obstacles in his path to achieve this success and enjoyment in life, but his perseverance through it all has allowed him to achieve happiness at work. In the future, Kenson hopes to work more on charitable efforts in his community. He hopes to change the lives of school dropouts and young mothers by giving them another shot in life. He hopes that this charity can change the lives of people around him much like his other businesses have. If you want to learn more about Kenson, you can follow him here. --- ## Abe Metellus Runs a Financial Education Business Through Which He Teaches People About Credit and Their Financials URL: https://futuresharks.com/abe-metellus-runs-a-financial-education-business-through-which-he-teaches-people-about-credit-and-their-financials/ Abe Metellus was born and raised in the island of Haiti and came to the U.S. when he was 12 years old. His family came in search of the American dream. Years after that, Abe is achieving the dream. Abe is the type of person that takes risks and looks at every opportunity as a chance to win at life. With this energy, today he runs a financial education business that focuses on subjects that relate to credit. The mission of Abe’s financial education business is to teach people about credit and their financials so they can achieve the same freedom he has been working towards for years. Before all of this, Abe was working at a full-time job where he felt unhappy. But this is also when he found the inspiration he needed to go away and start his own business. The main force motivating Abe to start his business was his desire to achieve financial freedom, so that he could work at his own time and pace, and help other people do so too. In order to do all of this, mindset is very important. Abe believes that without a shift in the way of thinking, many people stay stuck. In fact, Abe’s advice for those trying to start their own business is to think about big things and remain consistent in those thoughts. This is the only way that business owners can move toward success. In addition, it is crucial to be focused on the main goal. Achieving financial freedom is a goal for many people. It generally means having enough savings, investments, and cash on hand to afford the lifestyle they want for themselves and their families. This is also how Abe has been able to deal with fear, which for him is the opposite of faith. He believes both fear and faith require you to believe in something, but one is a lie and the other is the truth. He chooses to walk by faith. This way he overcomes fear and gets closer to success. With the correct mindset focused on a specific goal, and with a clear view on how to overcome fear, Abe has been able to run his financial education business and provide his services to multiple people. He has also been able to look past his biggest obstacle, which are his personal fears. Abe’s next projects include holding a seminar for youth in Homestead, Florida, where he will teach young people about credit and their financials, as they prepare to take on their life. Find out more about Abe and his projects here. --- ## Mike Ashabi Tailors His Business Coaching To Every Client, Understanding That Everyone Is Different URL: https://futuresharks.com/mike-ashabi/ Many people believe that what works for them works for others and that is not always the truth. Mike Ashabi knows this and that is why he is changing the game to provide better service to his clients through his two business ventures. Mike Ashabi is the founder and CEO of True Life Ventures, which specializes in life and business coaching. Mike is also the founder of The One Connection Network, a network made up of major entrepreneurs connected to around 60 different industries. In order to tackle this reality, Mike wanted to connect with his clients to better understand their situation and tailor solutions for them. The purpose of The One Connection Network is to make the marketplace convenient, allowing business owners and entrepreneurs get things done in one place rather than having to go different places. The idea is to find in one place resources to do promotion, content creation, sales training, software, and anything else business owners need. In The One Connection a large number of top entrepreneurs and connections to various industries come together to provide their services to business owners and other entrepreneurs. Mike reports that the number of entrepreneurs and connections are constantly growing! Through Mike’s businesses, he is able to use his biggest skill, which is communicating and connecting with people. He likes to talk with his clients and learn about their current situation and where they want to go, to make sure he can help them get there. Mike is able to connect with his clients in part because he has been where they are. Mike dropped out of college three times, moved from state to state, went through a breakup and got fired from a high-paying sales job all before starting his own business. It was after working for a tree removal company for 10 months, working 5 months in a financial industry, and working 10 months for free as a sales manager for a franchise branch of an individual who he looked up to, that Mike started to turn his life around. What was missing is tailored coaching: most coaches act as if there was something that worked for everyone, when this is not the case. What Mike and his team do through their work is figure out with their clients their goals and their “why”, and then put together a daily routine for them to execute. This way they have small wins in order to have a sense of fulfillment. Mike also helps clients understand the correlation between what happens in their personal life, and how it could affect them in their professional life. This differentiates him from his competition. Mike and his team also specialize in sales. They use a unique approach where they first understand the clients and then provide value to them by showing solutions rather than selling them. The difference between a leader and a boss is that a leader cares about the people that are with him rather than about himself. This is the approach Mike takes running True Life Ventures and The One Connection Network. Find out more about Mike here. --- ## Juan Pablo Barahona Uses His Life Experience Through Challenges To Grow His Global Businesses And Dream Life URL: https://futuresharks.com/juan-pablo-barahona-uses-his-life-experience-through-challenges-to-grow-his-global-businesses-and-dream-life/ Juan Pablo Barahona also known as JuanPa had a very difficult life from a very young age. His brother was diagnosed with a very serious illness and only given 1 to 2 years to live. The family went into crisis mode as a young Juan Pablo Barahona was forced to grow up very quickly and support his family. This led him to have very unrealistic expectations of himself. Even though this family crisis ended for Juan Pablo Barahona, it affected his outlook on life immensely and sent him spiraling in a different direction: one where he was partying all the time and losing his will to achieve. His perfection and want to do everything in life became too much for him. Thankfully, Juan Pablo Barahona was able to pull himself out of this dark time and find a balance between his two ways of living. From this, he was able to apply himself to different forms of study and learn more about different places in the world. Juan Pablo Barahona began traveling and learning as much as he could with the main goal of bringing all of this studying together to help others. From all of this learning, Juan Pablo Barahona began three different businesses. His three businesses are very different in scope as Juan Pablo Barahona was able to diversify his life and learn many different tools to create different kinds of businesses that have all been incredibly successful. Juan Pablo Barahona was able to beat the battle with himself to become a successful entrepreneur. For people looking to start their own business, Juan Pablo Barahona recommends finding something that motivates you and that you have a passion for. For him, business is not about the money, but rather about his own passions. If you would like to find out more about Juan Pablo Barahona, you can check out his three business websites: JuanPa Global at juanpablobarahona.com, Conscious Living School at www.kawoq.org, and finally, his Quantum Flow Method at quantumflow.com/home. --- ## Ricardo Jorge Pereira De Sousa Coelho Shares 4 Tips To Keep Your Team Efficient Whilst Working Remotely URL: https://futuresharks.com/ricardo-jorge-pereira-de-sousa-coelho/ While the work from home decree has completely changed the working life of many companies and their teams, companies that always operated remotely are just hitting their stride. Many of the common concerns about working remotely include holding the team members accountable, creating a sense of company culture, and the lack of ease of communication. But, there are ways to circumvent all of those concerns and create a thriving company that hits on all the major deliverables: great performance, teamwork, transparent communication, honesty, and trust. ** ** We reached out to Ricardo Jorge Pereira De Sousa Coelho who is running a very successful e-commerce company with a completely virtual and remote team of engineers and technicians, and have learned a few valuable strategies to keep the team motivated, incentivized, and excited to be a part of the work that they do. Here are the tips that he shares that he has implemented into his business plan that can help your company and team as the world continues to work from home. ** ** 1. Incentivize the employees with a Christmas or end of the year bonus. ** ** If your budget permits it, see how you can incentivize employees with end of the year bonuses. The reason for this rests partly in accountability. Because remote work provides a great deal of flexibility, this works as an incentive to encourage each team member to give their best work, even though they aren’t physically present with management at the office. We structure the bonuses differently based on how long the team member has been with us. If they’ve only worked for us for a month, we’ll give a 10% bonus for Christmas. If they’ve been with us for a while, we give up to as much as they earned in the month of November. We believe that investing in our team members in this generous way also builds teamwork and a strong work dynamic. ** ** 2. Implement strategies for accountability. ** ** It’s true, accountability can be hard to track. How can you know when your team is actually logged on and working? Freelance platforms have their own tracking tools for this. Our team uses Hubstaff.com, which is a time tracker that shows everything you need to know – how long each team member was online, when they logged in, and more. We show them how to use the platform during onboarding, then check in frequently at the beginning. ** ** However, acknowledge that it’s easy to cheat the system. It’s possible that someone can log in and leave the time tracker running while they aren’t working. That’s why it’s best to use the first few months of a team member’s work with you (or, the first few months of your team’s shift to virtual) to check in on the platform frequently, and then also ask about key deliverables. We use some other technologies to track progress on these goals which helps with accountability, too. For the most part, we’ve found that team members are inspired and committed to giving their best work thanks to the combination of these strategies. ** ** 3. Host yearly get-togethers. ** ** Team building is usually overlooked on solely virtual teams, but we know the power of relationships and getting to know one another. Strong relationships at work actually motivate team members to work a company longer, even if they have a better offer elsewhere. We host these yearly get-togethers as trips in the south of Europe, and pay for all accomodations for the team members to join us – their flight tickets and lodging. Then, we host a team dinner and some other activities for the whole team, but also give them time to explore the location on their own. This isn’t tremendously expensive as we go in the winter, when it’s warm in the south and accommodations are less expensive because of the down season. ** ** This is a great time for new team members to feel like they’re part of the family, and to strengthen relationships with long time employees, too. There’s something different about being together in-person as opposed to relying on video calls. And, when the trip is over, everyone feels rejuvenated and more excited about working together moving forward- even though everyone works remotely. ** ** 4. Prioritize transparent communication. ** ** Finally, we also prioritize constant communication. Without it, the lines can easily get crossed, accountability can weaken, and goals can become confusing. We rely on two main tools for this: messaging app Slack and goal tracker app Trello. Slack is the easiest way to communicate with the team and small sub-teams without checking your phone or opening your email, so you can stay on track. And, Trello is another great way to check on progress and make sure everyone knows what’s expected of them day to day and week to week. ** ** We tell our team members to use the Trello cards as their “white boards” to brainstorm ideas, get feedback, and keep the team in the loop on what they’re working on. The combination of these two tools with Hubstaff keeps accountability and transparency relatively easy to manage even remotely, and I recommend them to everyone. Working remotely is a big shift in many ways, but luckily, there are many technologies that make it easier. Your team can both work remotely and work effectively – and, even strengthen a team bond. Make sure to add ways to incentivize and keep communication a top priority. --- ## An Entertainer In The Time Of Covid: How Christina Hammoud Found Her New Passion While Being Stuck At Home URL: https://futuresharks.com/christina-hammoud/ In the new world of Covid-19, all of us have had to adjust to a new kind of living that keeps us indoors for the most part. Most of us have taken up new hobbies to fill our time like learning a new language or skill. Christina Hammoud, on the other hand, has started a whole new profession for herself. Christina has had a lot of work as an entertainer in various kinds of jobs. Through these jobs, she has channeled her ability to story tell, which helps her be successful in her podcast. She has always been noted for her sense of humor, which helps her create her episodes. Even though her personality and her job training has helped prepare Christina for the world of podcasts, she has still had to overcome numerous obstacles. Her biggest one has been her own self-doubt and lack of confidence. However, the current crisis has added a new layer of difficulty to the task as it makes it harder to get the necessary materials that Christina needs. Despite this, she has had a great start to her podcast. Christina’s first season of podcasts focuses primarily on nostalgia. She is connecting with her audience through her own past experiences that she thinks are universal in theme and can bring a laugh to people listening. In addition to telling her own stories, Christina has also invited on guests to help her. Christina had always dreamed of starting her own podcast, and she says that anyone who is trying to start their own business should simply follow their dreams and do the same. In addition, she wants people to focus on their own thoughts and not on the thoughts of others because they can hurt your dream. Christina hopes to keep moving forward with her podcasts. For now, her other projects are on hold, but this has been a good time for her to work towards her new dream. To learn more about Christina, you can follow Christina on Instagram@christinahamoud, on TikTok@christinahammoud, and can check out her website atchristinahammoud.com. You may check out her podcast, The Garden Journal Podcast, onYouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music. --- ## Gus Dahleh Shares 10 Principles for Commercial Real Estate Investing URL: https://futuresharks.com/gus-dahleh-shares-10-principles-for-commercial-real-estate-investing/ *Gus Dahleh is a successful real estate investor amassing over 50 million in real estate assets*. He has taken his years of experience and put together this step by step guide to help you begin building your successful commercial real estate portfolio. - You are never too young to start The first thing Gus Dahleh recommends is for you to start saving up and planning for your first down payment as quickly as possible. Once you have done this, you can then focus on finding the best rental properties that offer value for money in your area. - Understand the market To truly understand the rental market, it is essential to study market trends. Keep your budget in mind, and work within a definitive area. Choose the locality where you want to invest carefully. *Start by learning as much as you can*. This can be done by comparing potential investments and conducting as much analysis as you can before making any final decision. A visit to realtors and banks will provide you with some valuable information on areas where properties are selling for cash. - Learn to evaluate property Before you choose a property deal, you’re going to have to conduct a comparative market analysis. This can be learned by becoming friendly with local real estate agents. The result of this analysis will help you determine and evaluate the value of a property and how you can make competitive offers. - Analyze the rental expectations Once you have conducted a thorough property valuation and decided on a fair purchase price for the chosen property. The next step is to analyze the monthly payments and receipts associated with this property. Do some research on the cost of renting similar properties in the area. You should also look at the terms and conditions and if it is fair for tenants. - Take note of all your expenses Make a detailed list of all the general costs attached to purchasing your rental property. This will give you a clearer picture of the overall purchase price. You should also take into account insurance, real estate taxes, and renovations that you deem should be done in the future. - Negotiate the deal You have to be careful when negotiating your first deal. Don’t let the excitement of the process allow you to make a foolish or naive offer. Always remember that you are investing long-term and if you’re forced to offload the investment somewhere in the near future, then you will most likely incur some losses. ## Here are some tips that will allow you to negotiate a better price - Find urgent sellers The easiest way to get reasonable purchase prices is to find an owner who is desperate to sell. Local knowledge will allow you to understand how to identify properties that are in distress. For example, any commercial property that is extremely poorly maintained is generally a clear sign of one in trouble. The owner could comfortably be convinced to sell the property at lower than the current market price. - Opportunities at pre-foreclosure: Keep your ears on the ground and eyes on the lookout for properties that are about to undergo foreclosure. And if you manage to find an owner whose property is about to foreclose, then make an offer that he will not be able to refuse. There is a high chance that you will get the property at a huge discount if you play your cards right and make use of all the information available to you. - Fix and Flip or Wholesale properties Get to know your local fix and flip investors as well as wholesalers. An excellent real estate wholesaler should be able to provide you with exceptional property opportunities that are usually below current market valuations. Fix and flip investors buy properties of different prices and pump some capital into renovating the properties. These investors aren’t long-term investors and are always looking for fast turn-overs which makes them vulnerable targets to a savvy investor who knows his numbers. - Learn from others’ experiences and mistakes **The secret to success in real estate investment is to learn from the mistakes of others**. Keep a close eye or local market trends, build strong relationships in the local industry, and don’t be greedy. If you can manage all three successfully, you will surely be able to build a solid foundation. ## About Gus Dahleh Gus Dahleh is a real estate entrepreneur who specializes in commercial real estate development with a primary focus on distressed assets. Since 2010, Dahleh has acquired over $50 million of commercial real estate assets and entered into long term leases with JP Morgan Chase Bank, AT&T, Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Cubesmart. Gus Dahleh has also developed a niche in the cell antenna industry by selling lease revenue to publicly traded REITS which include American Tower and SBA Communications Corp. Gus Dahleh began his financial markets career as an equity options trader at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. Gus Dahleh has developed proven option strategies for the U.S. 30 Year Treasury Bond and Gold Futures based on seasonal and technical patterns. Gus Dahleh has a proven track record for providing direction on how to maximize the value of the commercial real estate and financial market investments. For more information, follow Gus Dahleh through his Social Media links below or visit Gus-Dahleh.com for more information. Gus Dahleh on Linkedin Gus Dahleh on Twitter Gus Dahleh on Youtube --- ## How Divorce Left Tre Davis In A Bad Place Financially. Learn About A Strategy He Used To Bounce Back And Take Control Of His Finances URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-divorce-left-tre-davis-in-a-bad-place-financially-learn-about-a-strategy-he-used-to-bounce-back-and-take-control-of-his-finances/ Credit scores can determine the next big decisions you make in your life. Depending on how good or bad your score is, you will get to live in the house of your dreams or not, or drive the car that your family needs or not. This is why the work of people like Tre Davis is crucial. Tre Davis an entrepreneur, public speaker and credit repair consultant. Through his effective credit strategy BOSS CREDIT SYSTEM, he has been able to help hundreds of people improve their credit scores with the tools he used to improve his own score. However, in 2016, as Tre became known as a barber and barbershop owner, his life came crashing down once again. He was a divorced single father with bad credit and had just lost his own dad. This is when he was forced to improve his own credit. No one had educated Tre on how to avoid making the same mistakes again, so after months of working with multiple companies, he decided to educate himself and plug into a proven system. His goal was to learn as much as he could about finances and credit so he could then help as many people as he could. Now Tre is passionate about helping people across the country and is running his successful home based credit consulting business, BOSS CREDIT SYSTEM. He is ready to help any and everybody with a positive mindset and a burning desire to start a similar business. The biggest challenge for Tre when he just got started was not procrastinating and actually starting to work. At the beginning, it is easy to make excuses and not do work. Once you move on from that and start working, everything changes. It also helps to have a clear motivation. Another factor in Tre’s success was having the right mindset. In order to do this, he had to focus on self development, map out his goals, accept challenges, follow successful entrepreneurs, be proactive and stay consistent. This will help you overcome any obstacle and not quit when things get tough, and it will lead to success, which for Tre is the achievement of desired visions and planned goals. Moreover, with success comes financial freedom, which is crucial for so many people. The desire to help others reach financial freedom motivates Tre to run his business. He differentiates himself from his competition by focusing on solutions and allowing the customer to see solutions they did not think were possible. In the near future, Tre will continue to educate people and help change as many lives as he can. Find out more about him and his work here. --- ## Katie London’s Luxury Lashes are Now Available Thanks to Dream House Lashes and their Fake Eyelash Creation URL: https://futuresharks.com/dream-house-lashes/ Fake eyelashes are a necessity to many people who are trying to get ready for work, going out, or just for their day to day looks. However, finding the right fake eyelashes can be incredibly difficult. This is because the lashes have to fit the person. Dream House Lashes is trying to create a different kind of fake eyelash to help people enjoy their look. David Connor, the creator of Dream House Lashes, wanted to create a type of eyelash that looks like a luxury brand, but is affordable for all. They are now working on increasing their brand and have recently started working with singer Katie London in order to help spread the word about their new lashes. The influencer market is very important to the brand to ensure that it is reaching a lot of people. For many people, finding fake eyelashes can be a difficult task that involves hours of research and browsing to ensure that the lashes are the right fit. Dream House Lashes hopes to revolutionize that process by offering their three lash types to make choices easy and workable for every kind of person with every kind of look. In addition, the company offers a discount to make up artists. They are especially trying to reach all kinds of clients by making lashes for people who use them all the time and those who do not consider themselves makeup people. Their goal, overall, is to empower women to enjoy their look. Dream House Lashes hopes to continue growing their brand and reach every kind of person, so that they experience the best kind of eyelash for them and their needs. In addition, the company is working on making a vegan eyelash as they continue to try and meet the demands of the eyelash market. For more information on Dream House Lashes, click here. --- ## Meet Celebrity Photographer, ZAZU URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-celebrity-photographer-zazu/ Today we caught up with celebrity photographer, ZAZU. He shares how he got started, how he turns his hustle into income, life on the road with celebrities, and finally a knowledge bomb. **1 – How did you get into photography?** Eight or nine months ago, I had come back to the states after my first visit to London Fashion week and had been influenced by a friend to purchase an instant film camera. I had owned a camera before, but it hadn’t become an extension of myself until this moment. **2 – Tell us about your business?** My business is a multifaceted social media marketing company. We focus on the message that a brand or personality wants to convey to their audience to help them convert and grow their audience. It’s truly the purest form of connection when your, personality, your message, and your content are all congruent. **3- What is it like traveling with celebrities?** Traveling with celebrities is surreal. It was never something that I thought was in the realm of my reach until it happened, but at the same time a celebrity wasn’t always a celebrity, they earned their way to fame and notoriety. Celebs are just normal people at the end of the day. They like the same things as you and I, they just get bombarded with attention. I am extremely blessed to have been recognized by Colson Baker (MachineGunKelly). He really opened up a lot of doors for me in terms of opportunity, introduced me to the people in his circle of bosses, and really helped me become self-aware of my talent. **4 – What advice do you have for artists starting out?** Artists should focus always on their art. I find that most creatives lose their way because they get too focused on making money or recognition rather than maintaining their passion. Don’t lose your passion, always push your boundaries, never stop creating. --- ## Creating A Business From Struggle: How Getting Laid Off Forced This College Dropout To Become An Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/creating-a-business-from-struggle-how-getting-laid-off-forced-this-college-dropout-to-become-an-entrepreneur/ Craig Clemens had a rough start to his business career. He was not a natural business leader and struggled to make ends meet. After barely finishing high school and then dropping out of college, Craig was struggling to even afford cheap food. However, out of his hard times, Craig was able to create a successful business despite having no investors and no experience. It was then that Craig and his brothers discovered the perfect idea for a company. Because it was a recession, the brothers had to pool together all of their money to start the business. Craig and his brothers then founded their brand creation company, Golden Hippo. They felt that with Craig’s copywriting skills, they would likely have higher conversion rates than others in the space. Golden Hippo now has nearly 900 team members, at 6 offices across the USA. Craig believes that the company’s mindset along with its atmosphere and company culture is what has made Golden Hippo successful. He and his brothers believe that without a proper mindset, a company will remain small. The key is to have every team member excited about the business. For this reason, Golden Hippo does something special that encourages ideas from every person involved on the team. For their next project, Craig is teaming up with celebrity Randy Jackson from American Idol to create a new brand of nutritional products to market, called, “Unify Health Labs”. The project has been off to a great start despite the ongoing pandemic. Craig recommends for anyone who is planning on starting their own business to look for a place in the market that needs help and expertise. Despite starting out in the difficult time of a global recession in which there was no money or support to help out businesses like Craig’s, he and his brothers have been able to be successful through their hard work, good mindset, and amazing company culture. If you would like to learn more about Golden Hippo, you can check out their website at goldenhippo.com. You can also follow them on Instagram @goldenhippo and @goldencustomercare. --- ## Mandell Wants To Connect With People Through Music: Find Out More About This Recording Artist About To Drop His First EP “Broken Vinyl” URL: https://futuresharks.com/mandell-wants-to-connect-with-people-through-music-find-out-more-about-this-recording-artist-about-to-drop-his-first-ep-broken-vinyl/ Music is universal, and it has the capacity of evoking strong emotional responses from people all over the world. Regardless of where you come from, there is music that can relate to you or you can enjoy. Especially as it pertains to upcoming artists. Mandell is one of those new artists breaking through the scene. He is an American recording artist, songwriter and designer, whose dream had always been to make music. In fact, he was born and raised in Detroit but moved to Atlanta to pursue music. Back in 2017, Mandell met songwriter Thaddeus J, at a mixer in Atlanta. He randomly started telling Mandell that he should sing and that he’d help him with his first song. This was amazing, as Thaddeus J had never heard Mandell’s voice before. The idea of love and it’s portrayal in music has always fascinated Mandell. He loves music that evokes a strong emotional response and aims to do that with his music. His debut single “Found Love”, which he co-wrote, was released on January 26th 2018. As a kid, Mandell earned the nickname Radio, since he used to sing almost every song that came on. But before he pursued music head on, he actually had been working for years as a bank manager. Moreover, Mandell knew that in order to realize his dream, a system of financial sustenance and support would be critical. Accordingly, he decided to use his experience having been a manager at one of the largest financial institutions in the world, to become an entrepreneur. At the beginning of these ventures, Mandell faced various challenges. The fear of the unknown was one of them, since when you work on your business you put time, energy and money not knowing how it will turn out. Because of this, Mandell sees fear as an enabler that crushes dreams, stifles creativity, diminishes experiences and prevents success. It can be an all-consuming comfortable place to rest, but Mandell understands that we must remember that in the end fear is self-inflicted. Once you find this something, Mandellsuggests creating a plan to monetize it. He also recommends looking at some of your favorite brands and seeing how they market. Marketing is very important and Mandell recommends devoting most of your budget to it. Mandell knows about this not just as a recording artist, but as an entrepreneur. In 2015, after a near death experience, he started his first business as a designer. For him, facing his own mortality put a lot of things into perspective. Now with the underwear business and his record label New Heights Entertainment, Mandell can take the time to think about success. For him, success derives from the satisfaction you receive knowing you’re striving to be your best self. It is knowing that you add value to anything you engage in. This differentiates Mandell from his competition. He really is just doing it for the music. He is not seeking validation, clout or social media likes. He simply wants to connect with people and evoke emotions. Mandell is currently wrapping up production on his EP “Broken Vinyl.” He plans to release it this summer, but in the meantime, his first single “I.T.I.L.Y. (I Think I Love You)” is available on all platforms. Mandell is looking forward to directing the music video for his next single and continuing to share his creativity with the world. Check his music out here! --- ## Connections Helped Ernesto Gaita Create His Brand Marketing Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/ernesto-gaita/ Connections are important to everyone who is trying to get ahead in the business world. How people remember you, who you are in connection with, and even small gestures when meeting someone new can make all the difference. For Ernesto Gaita, he was able to create valuable connections in his life through his numerous jobs which eventually helped him create his business. Out of these relationships, Ernesto began his own company, knowing that this was his true passion. At 23 years old, Ernesto began this adventure by creating a business known as Booth and Bottle, which was rebranded as Jukebox, which was designed as a directory for connecting people to concerts and other events. Unfortunately, this first venture did not work out as Ernesto had planned. Ernesto stuck by his guns and relied on his network of supporters, friends, and connections to get him through this tough time. He waited and eventually connected with another entrepreneur, Anthony Sorella. The two worked hard for two years building their relationship and their new brand. They eventually created their new company Neighbourhood Creative. Ernesto tries to differentiate his business from other marketing businesses by staying consistent more than anything. His company works with hundreds of brands and entrepreneurs on a weekly basis in helping them further their business and increase their connections. Ernesto’s consistency as well as his creativity has allowed for this growth. Ernesto is not quite sure what his next project will be, but he has had a couple of ideas that are based off of his interest in the restaurant industry. He has played with other ideas as well like opening a bar or barber shop, but whatever he is doing next, he will use his network of amazing connections to get there. Neighbourhood Creative just celebrated its one year anniversary, so if you would like to find out more about them, check out their website at neighbourhoodcreative.co. You can also check out their Instagram @neighbourhoodcreative.co. --- ## Discover How Jose Garcia Wants To Provide Value To The Lives Of Others By Helping Them Fix Their Credit URL: https://futuresharks.com/jose-garcia/ There is nothing in life like being free and able to provide value to the lives of others. This is what entrepreneur and investor Jose Garcia has done with his life–helped fix others’ credit so they can get their dream house or car, and in so doing, improve their lives. Jose Garcia is a 28 year old, whose father moved to the U.S. from Dominican Republic when he was only 12 years old. His father had to work very hard to afford the opportunity for Jose to go to a good school and college. Right after college, Jose took a job in corporate America to start paying off his student loans. After the 9 to 5, he would use the remaining hours of the day to study trading, investing, personal finance and credit. It was important for Jose to protect his credit profile, as this allowed him to invest in passive income streams like his automated Amazon business, which just did over 1.2 million in revenue last year. In fact, Jose values credit so much that it is the main focus of his company. Jose also offers credit repairs services and business funding services for those who just want *a la carte*services. All they offer is to help the many people Jose has seen throughout his life struggling after college with their finances and credit. Just two years ago, Jose started Credit & Wealth Institute because he had gotten tired of seeing the people around him living paycheck to paycheck and not having their finances and credit in order. He knows first hand the effects that these circumstances can have on relationships and everyday life and so he wanted to help. Starting the business, Jose very quickly noticed a big challenge: marketing. He realized that even if you offer a great service and provide the best results in the world, if no one knows about this, you can’t help anyone. He had to tackle this so that he could reach and help more people. Another thing Jose advises to those trying to start their own business or brand is to understand that working on your business has a compound effect. Even if you are putting in a ton of hours in the beginning without any pay, all the work will pay off in the future. In order to do this, not only is the right mindset needed, but also the right perception about challenges and obstacles around you, such as fear. For Jose, fear is false evidence appearing real, and it is based on past experiences. Jose’s biggest obstacle was overcoming his own debt. This is why he is so determined to help others do the same. Success for him is having freedom and providing value to the lives of others. By helping people build a strong financial foundation, Jose can help them buy back their freedom so they can pursue their true passions in life, which is what he did with his own life. Jose’s next projects include creating a few more lower ticket courses in travel hacking (free travel) and a Credit Blueprint course, which will show people how to repair their own credit if they cannot afford his full repair service. To find out more about Jose or find out how you can fix your own credit, click here. --- ## Andrew Ragusa Wants To Create Opportunities For People Through His Real Estate Businesses URL: https://futuresharks.com/andrew-ragusa/ Andrew Ragusa wants to provide over 100 families with work and opportunities by 2025 through his real estate brokerage and private equity fund that invests in real estate. He wants to share with these families the support that was given to him by the most important person in his life, his Aunt Lilla. Andrew went to college and earned a master’s degree in health care administration. After graduating he was $60K in debt and only making about $30K annually. Throughout his struggle, he had his Aunt Lilla who watched over him and took care of him financially while he was finding his place in the world. After some years trying to find a job that put his knowledge to work, Andrew decided to beef up his resume by taking courses and getting certifications left and right. He was certified in all of Microsoft Office and even became a Notary Public. Andrew started in real estate by October 2015, fully supported by his Aunt Lilla, who promised to help see him through this career change. And lo and behold, just after four months of getting his license, Andrew was already shining. In early 2016, Andrew won Top 40 Under 40, in 2017 he was awarded Excellence in Real Estate, he was in the Keller Williams Silver Circle in 2018, and awarded the King of Queens (NY) for 2019. Even this year, Andrew just got notified he will be awarded Top 40 Under 40 again. Once Andrew’s friends and family saw how well things were going for him, they decided to invest in his projects, which gave him more capital for flipping. This snowballed into what is now Andrew’s private equity fund called Assets for Opportunity, which is named after his Aunt Lilla. Being involved in RE has given Andrew the opportunity to do what he had always wanted: to help other people, which is why he had originally studied to be in the healthcare business. Through real estate, he is helping people with their biggest financial decision of their lives, which is what will be their home and/or how to invest in properties. Andrew is constantly looking to create more opportunities for people to invest in themselves and work hard to create an abundant productive life that feels good and accomplished. But there are several challenges that can get in the way when doing this or starting a business, such as the noise in life that can distract you or slow you down. This is why Andrew recommends understanding what it means to have integrity and stay true to yourself. Andrew also believes that fear is an indicator that whatever is in front of us is just something we have not learned how to do. Whenever we are afraid of something it is because we do not know what that something is. For Andrew, fear is the next level for his mind to grow, and as a leader to his team he needs to be able to create certainty by controlling fear and learning from it. Andrew’s next projects include working on his private equity fund, which will be pretty unique in that the people investing in it will get lump sums on a regular basis, rather than when a building is sold down the road. Both his Real Estate Brokerage and Construction projects are hiring more and more people regularly. He will also continue to care for his Aunt Lilla, and keep pushing to create opportunities for multiple families. To learn more about Andrew Ragusa’s journey on instagram, click here. --- ## Hard Work And The Right Mindset: How Michael Gould Became Successful Despite His Difficult Background URL: https://futuresharks.com/michael-gould/ Michael Gould has faced a lot of struggle throughout his life. His life growing up on the Southside of Chicago led to some difficult experiences and hard lifestyles. After dropping out of school before high school and receiving his GED, Michael had a hard time finding a nine to five job that worked for him. Though he tried multiple different jobs, he struggled with the rigid nine to five worklife. Unfortunately, Michael’s struggles did not end after this. As is the case with many people who are formerly incarcerated, it can be extraordinarily difficult to find a job due to the fact that many employers require prospective employees to check a box indicating that they have been incarcerated or convicted of a felony. Things changed after Michael had his two children. He wanted to give both of them a different kind of life with more financial freedom. After working for a railroad company for a few years and being a high achiever in this job, Michael was unfairly fired for a small mistake. He made the decision right then to change the way he worked. From there, Michael found his new passion: financial services and credit restoration. Through this business, he has been able to help a lot of people better their financial situation. Michael now earns six figures and never has to work a nine to five job again as well as he gets to spend more time with his family. From this opportunity, Michael has already started thinking of expanding his work to realestate to begin helping others in that field as well. The best advice that Michael can give to anyone starting their own business is to work hard. Despite the fact that Michael came from a very difficult past, he was able to work hard and become successful. For anyone who is interested in learning more about Michael, you can follow him on instagram @_Michael_Gould. --- ## Steve Ridzyowski Shows Us How To Master The Online Ecommerce World URL: https://futuresharks.com/steve-ridzyowski/ It is hard to keep up with trends. Technology and interests change incredibly quickly, and as soon as the new gadget is out, the next one is on its way. The internet and its ever changing ways may seem like a hard place to create a business, but Steve Ridzyowski has made a name for himself by doing just that. Steve was personally introduced to this kind of entrepreneurship by a friend in high school. After seeing how successful this person was, Steve decided to change his life plan, not go to college, and instead, pursue online business. From there, Steve has never stopped working for online advertising. He has continuously adapted with the time to make sure that he is ahead of the curve and a reliable source to help others get ahead in online advertising. When he noticed the trends shifting to ecommerce, he quickly adapted to meet the new technology. Even in the ecommerce market, Steve has challenged himself to do more. He doesn’t rely on traditional platforms and methods to make sure his customers are happy. Instead, he goes above and beyond to ensure that he is on the cutting edge and delivering the best ecommerce services possible. Though Covid-19 has affected Steve’s business like many other businesses, Steve is still trying to remain flexible and adaptable. As many storefronts shift to online platforms, Steve’s role has become more crucial than ever before. He knows that this will be his upcoming challenge: to ensure that his business is ready to assist in creating and advertising more online businesses than ever before. Steve continues to look to the future, and hopes to continue to develop his Turnkey Ecom Stores further to help continue his journey in helping others pursue ecommerce dreams. To find more information about Ecommerce Consulting Agency, click here. --- ## America, We Got This. How One Manufacturer Pivoted to Become Their Community’s Cheerleader URL: https://futuresharks.com/america-we-got-this-how-one-manufacturer-pivoted-to-become-their-communitys-cheerleader/ Across the nation, businesses are closing at a record pace as entire industries remain closed to contain COVID-19. Some companies have pivoted rapidly to manufacturing goods or providing services specifically related to the crisis, including several distilleries that have shifted from alcohol production to manufacturing hand sanitizer. But closing (either temporarily or permanently) or shifting toward a more relevant product line isn’t the only way businesses are changing direction. Brist Manufacturing—an apparel manufacturer in Bellingham, Washington, whose clients include the Seattle Mariners and Lyft—have become community cheerleaders. Brist Manufacturing entered 2020 on the heels of several successful years, with more growth planned for the immediate and long-term future. Then, as we all know, 2020 almost immediately became the most awful year in decades since your grandfather was listening to FDR’s voice come from a giant, wooden RCA radio. (Though no data on the subject is available, I am fairly certain that 2020 Q1 is the only quarter on record that included an impeachment, the death of a young basketball legend, a pandemic, a recession, and the emergence of a mulleted, meth-mouthed polygamous Tiger King in one three-month span.) In response to the crisis, CEO Brendan Pape and his team at Brist developed a campaign focused on one simple message: “America, We Got This.” “We could either wrap it up and go home, or buckle down and try to make a difference,” Pape said. “No one on our team wanted to wrap it up. We all wanted to make a difference. Because of that, we developed a message for our community, and really the world. We are all in the same boat. We all face uncertainty. But, we have faced fear and uncertainty before, and have always risen to the occasion. That’s the message we are trying to share.” The program includes the ability to design an “America, We Got This” shirt specific to individual communities, with a portion of sales going to The James Beard Foundation Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund, which supports independent food and beverage businesses. “Like almost everyone, our business is suffering because of this crisis,” said Pape. “But the need is more acute in the restaurant industry. We are trying to do our part to make sure the folks that couldn’t stay in business can survive the crisis. I think that’s what America, at her best, is really all about. We do what we can—and in business sometimes that means pivoting rapidly—to support the people who need help the most.” “Brist is an example of how important small businesses are to the fabric of a community,” said Tony Larson, President and CEO of the Whatcom Business Alliance, an economic development organization in the Pacific Northwest. “The work Brist is doing helps keep local employees working and reminds us that entrepreneurs and innovators will help lead us out of this crisis.” Federal, state, and local government COVID-19 relief programs are essential to business and community survival. But recovery isn’t just about loans, interest rates, and stimulus checks. Recovery will require strengthening our sense of obligation to our neighbors and our communities. Recovery will require the least affected to turn to their friends and colleagues and say, “I lost some things too, but I am still here to help.” Recovery will require all of us to look at each other and say, “America, we got this.” --- ## How Jesse Burrell Uses Data To Help Him Uncover The Secret of Flipping Houses URL: https://futuresharks.com/jesse-burrell-the-rei-data-king/ Many of us think of the real estate industry as a volatile industry to get involved in. It is a place where success is rarely determined by the person, but rather the market that surrounds housing. In addition, what little we know about flipping houses comes down to location of the property, but how can big data be useful for the real estate industry? Jesse Burrell has unlocked that secret. Unlike many others, Jesse Burrell has made a name for himself in this industry and found success by channeling the power of big data. Jesse Burrell, born on November 13, 1984, is better known as the REI Data King. Jesse is a Real Estate Investor who uses data to help others flip houses. His success not only has created opportunities for himself, but he has also enabled other real estate companies to be successful as well. He did all of this before the age of 30, and by the time he was 30, he was already a multimillionaire who had established himself within the real estate industry. His success is based on his ability to understand data and use it to understand the housing market. Jesse hopes that his success can be used to inspire other people to do the same. He achieved what he did by believing in data and what it could do for his business. Jesse’s experiences have allowed him to have the financial freedom and he hopes to give others the same. In addition to that, he hopes to act as a resource to help others with their own financial literacy to give people the opportunity to achieve the same results that he has. Despite the success that Jesse has now, it was not easy for him to get started. As with many other businesses, Jesse went through a period of trial and error before he reached his final outcome. He began his venture into business without any money and failed numerous times. Jesse got through these hard times by adjusting his mindset. He recommends that anyone who is trying to start their own business to have the right kind of mindset in order to get through the difficult starting point of business life. Jesse continues to pursue his goals and develop his data business to make himself even more useful in this hightech world. If you would like to find out more about Jesse Burrell, you can follow him on Instagram @jesseburrell. --- ## How Much Does a Podcast Cost to Produce in 2026? URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-much-should-it-cost-to-produce-a-quality-branded-podcast-in-2020/ TL;DR: You can launch a solid podcast for under $250 in gear and ~$19/month in hosting. Doing it all yourself runs $0–$30 per episode in software; hiring a freelance editor runs $150–$500; a full-service branded podcast agency runs $1,500–$5,000+ per episode or $3,000–$25,000/month. "How much does it cost to start a podcast?" is the wrong question. The honest answer is "anywhere from $200 to $80,000 a year," and where you land depends almost entirely on one decision: how much of the work you do yourself. This is the part nobody tells you up front. The microphone is the cheap part. The expensive, recurring part is editing — the unglamorous hours of cutting dead air, balancing levels, writing show notes, and cutting clips, week after week. That's where the money goes, and that's where you decide your budget. Here's what podcasting actually costs in 2026, broken into the four buckets that matter: gear, software, production (editing), and hosting. Real tools, real price ranges, no fluff. ## Gear: $70 to $700, one-time You need three things to record: a microphone, something to plug it into, and headphones. That's it. Everything else is optional. **Budget tier (~$70–$150).** Start with a USB/XLR dynamic mic. The [Samson Q2U](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086R6BW49) (around $60–$80) is the perennial "just get started" pick — it plugs straight into your computer over USB, comes with a desk stand and cables in the box, and sounds dramatically better than a laptop mic or AirPods. The Audio-Technica ATR2100x is the near-identical alternative at a similar price. Add a cheap pair of closed-back headphones ($20–$40) and you're recording for under $120. **Mid tier (~$250–$400).** This is the sweet spot for anyone serious. The [Shure MV7+](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTJ7PVN1) (about $279–$299) is the most-recommended podcast mic of 2026 for good reason: it has both USB-C and XLR outputs, on-board voice isolation, and it looks good on camera if you're also shooting video. It grows with you — start on USB, move to XLR later. Pair it with decent monitoring headphones like the Audio-Technica ATH-M50x ($150) and you have a setup that will outlast your first hundred episodes. **Pro tier (~$500–$700+).** The classic broadcast move is the [Shure SM7B](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002E4Z8M) (around $399) — the mic behind a decade of famous podcasts. The catch: it's XLR-only and needs a lot of clean gain, so you'll also want an audio interface. The [Focusrite Scarlett Solo (4th Gen)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C5JSHP7M) (~$120) handles a single mic; the [RODE PodMic](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MSCRCVK) (~$99) is a cheaper SM7B-style alternative if you want the broadcast look for less. **For two people in the same room**, skip the simple interface and get a podcast production console like the RODECaster Duo (~$449–$499) or the budget Zoom PodTrak P4 (~$150). They let you record multiple mics on separate tracks, add sound effects, and record phone-in guests — a real time-saver in editing. **What you can safely skip at the start:** a fancy boom arm, acoustic foam, a dedicated SD recorder. A $10 pop filter and recording in a closet full of clothes (yes, really — soft surfaces kill echo) get you 90% of the way for free. ## Recording and editing software: $0 to $30/month Recording software can be completely free. **Audacity** (free, open-source) and **GarageBand** (free on Mac) handle basic multi-track recording and editing fine. If you're recording remote guests, **Riverside** and **Zencastr** both record each person's audio locally in high quality so a guest's bad Wi-Fi doesn't wreck the episode — both have free tiers, with paid plans around $15–$29/month. The bigger decision is your editing tool: - **Descript** (from ~$24/month) edits audio like a text document — delete a word in the transcript, it's gone from the audio. Its AI Studio Sound, filler-word removal, and auto-generated social clips are genuine time-savers. This is the tool most solo podcasters should look at first. - **Riverside** (Standard ~$19/month, Pro ~$29/month) bundles recording, text-based editing, one-click audio cleanup ("Magic Audio"), and AI clip generation in one place. - **Audacity** ($0) still does the job if you have time and patience and don't need the AI bells and whistles. **Realistic software cost for a DIY podcaster: $0 to $30 per month.** AI editing tools have genuinely collapsed the time cost of self-editing over the last two years — but "faster" still isn't "free." Budget three to five hours per episode if you're doing it yourself, and decide whether your time is better spent elsewhere. ## Recording remote guests: don't use Zoom Most podcasts in 2026 are interviews, and most guests aren't in the room with you. How you capture that conversation is the single biggest quality decision you'll make after buying a mic — and it costs almost nothing to get right. **Why not Zoom or Google Meet?** Video-call apps compress audio aggressively and record a single mixed track of whatever the call sounded like in the moment. If your guest's Wi-Fi hiccups, that glitch is baked permanently into the file. You can't fix it, can't separate the voices, and can't remove crosstalk. It sounds like a phone call because it basically is one. **The fix is "double-ender" recording.** Purpose-built tools record each participant's microphone *locally*, in full quality, on their own device, then upload those clean tracks to the cloud. Your internet connection only affects the live monitoring — not the recording. You end up with one pristine track per person, which means you can edit each voice independently, balance levels properly, and cut interruptions cleanly. This is the difference between "amateur" and "professional," and it's free or near-free. The two leading tools: - **Riverside** (free tier; paid from ~$19/month) records separate audio *and* up to 4K video tracks per participant, with progressive cloud upload so a crash never loses your recording. It also bundles editing, AI clips, and transcripts — a strong all-in-one. - **SquadCast** (free tier with ~5 recording hours/month; paid from ~$12–$24/month) is the lean, audio-first option. Its progressive-upload tech continuously backs up the file in chunks, so even if a guest's laptop dies mid-sentence you keep everything up to that point. Both have usable free tiers, so a solo show recording a few episodes a month can capture broadcast-quality remote audio for **$0**. Step up to a paid plan (~$15–$29/month) when you need more recording hours, 4K video, or team seats. Either way, this is the highest-ROI ~$20 you'll spend on the whole production. ## Production: where the real money is This is the line item that defines your budget. Three paths: **DIY ($0–$30/episode in software, plus your time).** Free if you have the hours. The trap is that editing is the first thing busy founders quietly stop doing — and an abandoned podcast costs more than it ever earned. Be honest about whether you'll actually keep it up. **Freelance editor ($150–$500/episode).** The best value for most independent shows. A US-based freelancer on Upwork or directly will typically charge **$150–$500 per episode** for a standard interview format — that covers cleanup, leveling, a basic music bed, intro/outro, and often show notes and a few short clips. Rates run roughly **$40–$120/hour** of work. Narrative shows with heavy sound design run $500–$2,000+ per episode. Overseas freelancers can come in lower, with the usual tradeoffs in turnaround and communication. Many editors offer a monthly bundle — roughly **$600–$1,500/month for four episodes** is a common sweet spot. **Full-service agency ($1,000–$5,000+/episode).** An agency takes the whole thing off your plate: editing, mixing to broadcast loudness, show notes, clips, publishing, sometimes booking guests and strategy. Pricing roughly tiers as: - **Basic / editing-only:** ~$500–$1,500 per episode - **Standard branded production:** ~$1,500–$4,000 per episode - **Premium / broadcast-grade:** $5,000–$15,000+ per episode (studio time, multiple editors, custom music, full marketing) Most agencies prefer **monthly retainers**, which usually run **$3,000–$25,000/month** depending on episode count and scope. (Ranges here are drawn from 2026 agency and freelancer pricing guides; your quote will vary by market and format.) ## Hosting: $0 to $99/month Your podcast needs a host — a service that stores your audio and generates the RSS feed that Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the rest pull from. The good news: hosting is cheap and competitive in 2026. Here's how the four platforms most podcasters actually choose between stack up: | Platform | Entry price | What you get | Best for | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Spotify for Creators** | **Free** | Unlimited hosting, no storage caps, native Spotify video, built-in monetization | Beginners and video-first shows who don't mind being Spotify-centric | | **Buzzsprout** | **$19/mo** (free 90-day trial) | Tiered by upload hours ($19/$39/$79), dead-simple dashboard, great support, $5–$10 AI/mastering add-ons | First-time podcasters who want the easiest possible on-ramp | | **Transistor** | **$19/mo** | Unlimited shows, episodes, and downloads on every plan; strong analytics; private/team feeds | Anyone running more than one show, or internal/private podcasts | | **Captivate** | **$19/mo** | Growth and marketing tools, networking features, tiers at $19/$49/$99 | Creators focused on audience growth and list-building | A few notes on the tradeoffs: - **Spotify for Creators** is genuinely free and unlimited, which is hard to argue with — but you're leaning into Spotify's ecosystem, and its distribution to *other* apps (Apple Podcasts, Overcast) has historically been less seamless than a dedicated host's. Great for video; fine for audio. - **Buzzsprout** is the friendliest place to start and the one I'd point a nervous first-timer to. Just watch the upload-hour caps — long-form weekly shows can outgrow the $19 tier. - **Transistor** wins on value the moment you have (or might have) a second show, because the flat fee covers unlimited podcasts. - **Captivate** earns its keep if growth tooling matters more to you than raw simplicity. **Realistic hosting cost: $0 if you go with Spotify, otherwise $19/month.** Heavier publishers wanting premium analytics or AI mastering land in the $30–$50 range. Whatever you pick, do not host audio on your own website — it kills page speed and most site hosts will throttle you. ## Will it pay for itself? The ROI math Cost only means something against payback. There are three honest ways a podcast earns back its budget, and they're not equally realistic for everyone. **1. Sponsorships and ads.** This is the one most people imagine, and the one that takes longest to matter. Podcast ads in 2026 are priced on CPM — cost per thousand listens. Typical ranges: - Pre-recorded spots (up to 60s): **~$15–$30 CPM** - Host-read sponsorships: **~$25–$40 CPM** - High-value niches (B2B, finance): **$40–$100+ CPM**, because the audience is worth more Do the math and the catch is obvious. At a $25 CPM with a mid-roll and a pre-roll, a show pulling 1,000 downloads per episode earns roughly $40–$50 per episode — nowhere near a $300 editing bill. Ad revenue only becomes meaningful in the tens of thousands of downloads. For most shows, **sponsorships are not the business model; they're a bonus that arrives late.** **2. Lead generation (the founder's real reason).** This is where podcasts actually pay for themselves fast, and it doesn't depend on audience size. A founder-hosted interview show is a legitimate excuse to get a dream client, partner, or acquisition target on a 45-minute call. One closed deal from a guest relationship can cover a year of production. B2B shows track this with vanity URLs, unique promo codes, and CRM attribution — and a single enterprise contract dwarfs any ad CPM. If you're a founder, **judge the podcast as a pipeline channel, not a media property.** **3. Repurposing into content.** Every episode is also raw material. One hour of conversation yields a long-form audio episode, 3–5 short video clips for Reels/Shorts/LinkedIn, a transcript you can turn into a blog post and a newsletter, and a dozen quote graphics. AI tools (Riverside, Descript, Opus Clip) auto-generate most of these now. Viewed this way, a $300 editing cost isn't buying one episode — it's buying a week's worth of multi-channel content. That changes the ROI calculation entirely. The takeaway: if you measure a podcast purely on ad revenue, almost no show "works." Measure it on relationships closed and content produced, and a modest budget pays back quickly. ## Putting it together: three realistic budgets **The bootstrapped solo show** - Gear: ~$120 (Samson Q2U + headphones), one-time - Software: $0–$24/month - Hosting: $19/month - Editing: you - **Year one: roughly $350–$650**, mostly your time **The serious independent podcast** - Gear: ~$450 (Shure MV7+ + good headphones), one-time - Software: ~$24/month (Descript or Riverside) - Hosting: $19/month - Editing: freelancer at ~$300/episode, 4 episodes/month = ~$1,200/month - **Year one: roughly $15,000–$18,000** **The branded company podcast** - Gear: studio-grade or agency-provided - Production: full-service agency retainer at $3,000–$8,000/month - Hosting + tooling: bundled or ~$50/month - **Year one: roughly $36,000–$100,000+** That last tier sounds steep until you compare it to other B2B content channels. A single trade-show booth or a mid-tier paid-search campaign can cost the same, and a branded podcast produces a library of evergreen relationships and content you own outright. ## The bottom line The cost of a podcast in 2026 is whatever you decide to pay for editing. Hosting is free-to-cheap (Spotify for Creators at $0, or ~$19/month elsewhere). Remote recording is free-to-cheap too — and using a double-ender tool instead of Zoom is the easiest quality win there is. Gear is a one-time purchase you can start at $120 and never need to exceed $700 for excellent quality. Software for self-editors tops out around $30/month, and AI tools have made DIY genuinely faster than it was even two years ago. If you have more time than money, you can produce a legitimately good show for under $700 a year. If you have more money than time — which describes most founders and brands — budget $150–$500 per episode for a freelancer, or $3,000–$8,000 a month for an agency to handle everything. Either way, judge the payback on relationships and repurposed content, not ad CPMs. The single most expensive mistake isn't overspending on a microphone. It's launching, publishing six episodes, and quietly quitting because editing ate your weekends. Pick the budget you can sustain for a year before you buy anything. Consistency is the only production value that compounds. --- ## Jeffrey A. Smith is a Visionary in the Real Estate Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/jeffrey-a-smith/ Jeffrey A. Smith of JASCO Solutions, LLC & Companies, is a leading real estate owner/broker in the real estate industry. Smith first obtained his real estate license at age 19. Four years later, with just $1500 in seed money, he founded JASCO Realtors®, a full service real estate brokerage firm that became licensed in Tennessee and Mississippi. It was then that Jeffrey A. Smith became the youngest owner/broker in the entire U.S. at age 23. By 2016, JASCO Realtors® had swelled to over 150 licensed agents, ten employees and five office locations throughout the Greater Mid-South. Under Smith’s guidance, JASCO Realtors® quickly grew over 800% and ranked in the top ten real estate brokerages in the Memphis area. In just three short years since its founding, Jeffrey transformed JASCO Realtors® into a robust $10 million dollar business operating in two states. Word quickly spread that Jeffrey A. Smith was nothing short of a visionary. By mid-2018, Smith was approached by Keller Williams-Memphis Division about the possibility of a merger. As the world’s largest real estate franchise, Keller Williams was eager to join forces with the uber-successful Jeffrey Smith and his now legendary company, JASCO Realtors®. The merger took place in December of 2018, ultimately creating one of the largest real estate brokerage offices in the Mid-South. David Osborn, Keller Williams Operating Partner and Regional Owner, said at the time, “We’re very excited to announce the merger of JASCO Realtors® and Keller Williams Memphis, with Jeffrey Smith as a KW leader…Jeffrey has done a remarkable job building JASCO Realtors® as an agent-centric business and is a firm believer in making a difference in the industry. We know this will be a great move for all parties involved and the Memphis real estate market.” As anticipated, Smith exceeded expectations as a Leader and Managing Partner of Keller Williams Memphis, his current position where he oversees in excess of 350 agents across a multitude of office locations. In addition to his unprecedented achievements as an owner/broker and Keller Williams franchise owner, over the last six years Smith somehow found the time to launch and operate a number of ancillary companies under the umbrella of JASCO Solutions, LLC & Companies. He has founded or co-founded over ten different companies, including TREK Property Management, Absolute Home Services, City Roots Property Group, INCHES Taco Shop, The Fifty-Memphis, Local Title & Closing Services, TheJeffreySmith.com, ALAN Management, ALANDRY Capital, ALANDRY LLC and HRZ LLC. Due to Smith’s reputation and accomplishments, he is now a highly sought after motivational speaker. His international speaking engagements include topics on business, life success, employee management skills, the power of communication, goal setting and international investing strategies. He has captivated audiences throughout Memphis, Southern California, the Bay Area, Mexico and more. Jeffrey A. Smith is a lifetime member of the Multi Million Dollar Club (MMDC) with the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS®. He and his companies manage and rehab an average of over 80 properties a year and currently hold over $50M in a rental portfolio that encompasses single-family homes, apartment complexes and commercial properties. Smith was also named the number one stakeholder out of over 185,000 associates world-wide within Keller Williams Realty International for the last quarter of 2018. In just a few short years, Jeffrey A. Smith has established himself as a leader—not only in the real estate industry—but in the business world at large. His innovative and visionary approach to business has made him one of the top Realtors® and brokers in the nation. With Smith at the helm, the business enterprises of JASCO Solutions LLC & Companies have reached dizzying heights of success, with no end in sight. There’s no doubt that Jeffrey A. Smith is transforming what it means to be in business. To follow Jeffrey A. Smith on Instagram, click here. --- ## “Money Matters” And Businessman Mark Atalla Shows You Why URL: https://futuresharks.com/money-matters-and-businessman-mark-atalla-shows-you-why/ Entrepreneur and businessman Mark Atalla is back, this time with a brand new book, “Money Matters: World’s Leading Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Top Tips To Success (Real Estate Vol.2 – Edition 3)”. Renowned in the real estate world for his innovation in the industry, Mark is opening up about what it takes to make it in the industry. In the latest edition of “Money Matters”, Mark along with entrepreneur Adam Torres, helps readers navigate through the stressful world of real estate, helping them get closer to their goals through their inspiring stories. The book is focused on all the hard questions you need to succeed like: How to implement servant leadership to have a more successful business. Why investing in real estate is not just for rich people. How important insurance is in real estate transactions and what to look for. What legal options you have to protect your assets. And many other questions aimed at helping you navigate the real estate industry. Mark is the founder & managing partner of Carlyle Capital, a private direct lender well-renowned for their innovative solutions for complex transactions. With over 18 years of experience in the private lending space, his reputation precedes him as one of the industry’s biggest leaders with a book of affluent clients, brokers, and investors who turn to Carlyle Capital first for their lending needs. This new book is a rare chance to look inside the minds of successful real estate entrepreneurs, including Mark, and learn from their experiences. It is highly recommended to everyone from beginners, those looking to begin their real estate investment careers, to the advanced investor, already in the real estate game. There are lessons and tips inside that only those with years of experience, like Mark, are able to truly know and share.With years of experience under his belt, and a stellar track record, Mark Atalla has given readers a glimpse into what it takes to make it in the real estate industry. With valuable advice that you simply cannot get anywhere else, “Money Matters: World’s Leading Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Top Tips To Success (Real Estate Vol.2 – Edition 3)” holds the biggest secrets that can help you fulfill your goals and much more. Pick up a copy today and start your path to success here. --- ## Adam Nessim Shares How He Plans To Inspire NextGen Medical Students URL: https://futuresharks.com/entrepreneur-and-cornell-med-student-adam-nessim-shares-how-he-plans-to-inspire-nextgen-medical-students/ Today we caught up with Adam Nessim, entrepreneur and a medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Adam’s journey includes balancing med school at a top university and still having the time to follow his entrepreneurial dream, The Premed Consultants. He’s full of great advice and inspiration for others who may want to follow in his footsteps. Here’s what he shared with us…. ### Tell us about why you went into the medical field? If there is a sports injury you can think of, I’ve probably had it. Growing up I was always in and out of the orthopedists office or operating room. This was my first real exposure to the healthcare field as no one in my family is a healthcare professional. Once I started looking further into the profession, the pieces really just started to fit together. To me, the ability to help restore the most important commodity one can have, their health, could not be rivaled by any other profession. The thought that I could go into work every day and make a positive impact on patients, is one that has kept me driven throughout this difficult journey. ### How was your experience getting into med school? Even after graduating with a 4.0 from Cornell and scoring over 90th percentile on the MCAT, I would be lying if I didn’t say that getting into medical school was challenging and nerve wracking. Looking back there are changes I would have made to differentiate myself more in how I presented my application. Regardless, the medical school admission process is a rollercoaster of ups and downs. It also feels extremely unpredictable and unexplainable at times. I received interviews at schools I was surprised to get ones from, and others that I was certain I’d get interviewed at, I was flat out rejected. Overall, the process is a good exercise in having thick skin, being able to take rejection, and not take anything too personally. However, I am extremely grateful for the experience and in the end, I absolutely love the medical school I ended up at and I am able to train at a great medical school in NYC. ### Did you always have the entrepreneur gene? Looking back I realized that I was always hustling in some manner, I just didn’t always see it as entrepreneurship. Whether it was going around the neighborhood on a snow day asking neighbors to clear out their driveway for a few bucks, to refereeing soccer games, to scooping ice cream, to tutoring students. To be honest I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have at least once source of income, even all throughout my academic career at Cornell and now in medical school. However, for whatever reason, I never gave myself permission to really take a shot and start my own thing until the very beginning of medical school. I had a vision for a product that I felt could really help students across the country and decided I’m not going to wait for someone else to make it. At the same time, I truly enjoyed learning the ins and outs of business and my “downtime” from studying medicine was quickly replaced with listening to podcast after podcast episode from various top entrepreneurs. ### As a med student and entrepreneur, how do you balance your time? The best habit I ever picked up is waking up early. I think you’d be shocked at the amount of work you can get done by waking up at 5 am and grinding for 3 straight hours before the rest of the world even wakes up. Also, in a weird way being an entrepreneur is what keeps me balanced. Medical school can be extremely challenging and it’s definitely encouraged for students to find or stick with a hobby outside of medicine. For me, that so happens to be entrepreneurship. I absolutely love working on my business and meeting with students so truthfully it doesn’t even feel like extra work. When you’re watching netflix, I’m probably working on website design, or adding to my program (but don’t worry I have time for the occasional netflix show too). ### How important is social media in what you do? Social media has been crucial for both my business and my brand as it has allowed me to reach thousands of hopeful premed students to share my message. Unfortunately, many students are discouraged from continuing to pursue their dream of becoming a doctor. This may be because they had advisors that told them they should consider an alternative career, a family member that didn’t believe in them, or a lack of internal belief themselves. However, the truth is that most students with the right plan in place, proper advising, and hard work can get into medical school. Social media has allowed me to distribute this guidance where the students are and sometimes where they digest it best. With 26.5k followers on Instagram and 45k+ on TikTok I have had premed videos reach thousands if not tens of thousands of students at once and that is only possible through the power of social media. ### What is the best advice you ever received? I find mentorship through studying other top entrepreneurs. The best 3 words I ever heard came from one of my favorite entrepreneurs in the game Gary Vaynerchuk. “You’re Gonna Die”. I try to live myself knowing I have a finite amount of time, and not to waste a minute of it. ### What impact would like to have on the world? As I grow older my aspirations become bigger and bigger. Right now, my goal is to impact students across the country by showing them that they can achieve their dream of getting into medical school and becoming a doctor, regardless of where they started. It would be an honor to have just a small roll in guiding many of the future doctors of America towards this dream. --- ## Meet Herman Dolce: The Entrepreneur Working To Ensure That Businesses Emerge Triumphant From These Trying Times URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-herman-dolce-the-entrepreneur-working-to-ensure-that-businesses-emerge-triumphant-from-these-trying-times/ Herman Dolce had always dreamed of having his own company and achieving financial freedom. This was his take on the American Dream–which is different for every person. For some it is to migrate to the United States and start from zero, or being able to grow in the corporate world. For Herman Dolce, a first generation immigrant from Haiti, his American Dream was making it in the business world. In fact, growing up, his parents made sure to push him to become successful in the land of the free. Herman used to have a regular job, where he was someone else in the machine and had to follow certain rules and respond to someone else. After a trip to Italy right before his first daughter Bella was born, Herman started to consider starting his own company. He had enjoyed the trip to Italy so much that he was dreading going back to work. As he referred to how he felt about going back, his brother suggested that he start his own company and start his path to financial freedom on his own rules. Soon after the trip to Italy, Herman started Bella Sloan Enterprises a financial services company named after his first daughter. Their goal is to educate clients on credit and repair their scores. The company also helps startups and medium-sized companies get business credit/funding. The mission statement of Bella Sloan Enterprises is precisely, “the American Dream.” Just so, two years after starting the company, Herman was able to quit his six figure job and start to live life by his own rules. For Herman to achieve success, mindset was crucial. Mindset was what allowed him to understand his daily goals in building his brand and in providing the best service possible for his clients. If no one was going to believe in him, he had to believe in himself. Moreover, Herman’s main advice for those who are starting a business is to focus on what is important to yourself and on what is the mission of the business. For Herman, the American Dream was the mission–and it mattered that that was clear to him. Now that Herman is on the path to financial freedom, he can take a trip to Italy whenever he wants, just as he had hoped back when he decided to start his business. Rather than pushing aside his hopes for changing his life, or being overshadowed by fear, Herman concentrated his efforts into starting his own company. Furthermore, Herman did not just start his own company, he also made sure he had the best result and provided the best service to his clients. His consistency will continue to differentiate him from his competition. Even now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Herman is headed to his next projects, which include entering into different private sectors. He is in the process of working on multi unit buildings in Cleveland, Philadelphia and Baltimore, in order to work on his original passion: real estate. He also started a second company called the Olivia Monroe Enterprises, after his second daughter, which will focus on trucking and logistics. But in these trying times of the US economy, he is working to ensure his business is sustainable. Find out more about Bella Sloan Enterprises here or follow Herman Dolce here --- ## Giving Help to those in Need, Josh and Peter Roelofs Start their CBD Business with People-Not Profit-in Mind URL: https://futuresharks.com/day-glow-cbd/ If you worked for the eleventh best restaurant in the world, would you give it all up to start another business? This is what Josh Roelofs did when he and his brother started their own business in their hometown. Though a chef’s way of life has many benefits, Josh wanted something different for his career. He hoped to escape the long work hours that he had come to know and start giving back to people who needed relief from pain. Moving away from the money, Josh wanted to focus on how he could help people, so he teamed up with his brother to begin their company. He and his brother, Peter Roelofs, began creating a CBD business. Josh himself had seen the benefits that CBD could offer to assist in pain and even insomnia. He and Peter wanted to spread this to other people who needed it. However, in the brothers’ home state, there have been a growing number of businesses who specialize in selling CBD for use as a treatment against pain. To ensure that their business was successful,Josh and Peter knew they had to make themselves different from the competition. They knew that they had to change the traditional business model in order to ensure that the company was doing what it could to make a difference in people’s lives. Although Josh and Peter have tried to make themselves unique and change the way they conduct their CBD stores, they still have had to stand up to their family and friends who thought that they could not survive amidst the competition. Despite this, the two have been able to escape the work life they once knew and craft a successful CBD company. Josh and Peter are both surprised by their own success. They have truly been astonished that the business has taken off, allowing both brothers to achieve their goals of assisting people in California. Josh and Peter claim that a good mindset and working hard are the two best ways to reach your goals. They have had to work tirelessly to get the CBD business off the ground, but it has paid off. The two brothers also recommend that the best way to live without regrets is to listen to yourself and not let what others think get in the way. As to what their future holds, Josh and Peter plan on doubling down their efforts and become a nationwide brand and across the globe. To learn more about Day Glow CBD, click here. --- ## Chase Campbell Shares the Strategy He Followed to Breakthrough with Size Up Supplements URL: https://futuresharks.com/chase-campbell-shares-the-strategy-he-followed-to-breakthrough-with-size-up-supplements/ Most entrepreneurs in today’s severely-competitive market are thinking about how to achieve a breakthrough and accelerate business growth. The reality is, to speed up the performance of the business, one needs to focus on the roots that impact the outcome, and to attain breakthrough, transformation is needed in four key areas that encompass strategy, systems, structure, and processes. And realizing this, with the right strategic focus, the Michigan-based 26-year-old entrepreneur, Chase Campbell, made a powerful breakthrough in the supplement and nutrition market through his brand, ‘Size Up.’ Campbell’s 2011-founded supplement brand today boasts more than 8 physical stores spread across in the United States – 6 in Michigan and 2 in Florida and Las Vegas respectively – and a massive 10,000 sq. ft flexible workspace. And, in fact, competitors in the supplement industry are facing a tough time catching up to the 9-year-old Size Up, a brand whose fat burners, fitness equipment, whey proteins, and pre-and post-workout supplements are flying off an increasing number of shelves. When speaking on what helped him build a ubiquitous brand in such a short span, Campbell revealed, “It wasn’t easy to breakthrough in an increasingly crowded space. However, my marketing strategy to promote Size Up differently worked in my favor. The first step to attain the larger goal began with hosting a grand opening of the store, and in return, distributing free merchandise to guests that comprised of city’s best influencers, celebrities, models, and ardent fitness followers. Following this, to enable customers from other parts of the country to avail our products, I formed a strategy to expand online. This was implemented by selling products online on platforms like eBay and Amazon. The idea, or let’s say the strategy, was to not only sell products but build a loyal customer base that looks up to Size Up and helps to multiply the buyers.” Today, Campbell’s supplement brand has easily become the go-to choice of every fitness enthusiast. From his experience of finding leads and sourcing deals without compromising on the quality aided the young entrepreneur in establishing his own supplement brand and making it available to the audience at a relatively lower price than the standard market rate. As someone who ventured into the entrepreneurial world at the age of 19 and experienced the dynamics of the market first-hand, Campbell firmly suggests that in order to survive and succeed in the game of business growth, entrepreneurs need to adopt the best practical systems and practices. What makes this entrepreneur’s success more remarkable is the fact that he and his team have progressed and attained desired results without any external funding or advisory, and purely traditional marketing. “For now, we’re maintaining a balance between keeping everything in-store and digital. Our aim is to not just break sales records but build and strengthen our brand as an iconic one that connects millennials and lifestyle,” said Campbell. With the growing number of physical stores and an ever-expanding product line, it can be said that the young entrepreneur has successfully captured the rapidly-growing supplement and nutrition space by going against the tide. --- ## Cre8 Sounds is Changing the Wireless Headphones Market by Giving Users High Quality and Inexpensive Headphones URL: https://futuresharks.com/cre8-sounds-is-changing-the-wireless-headphones-market-by-giving-users-high-quality-and-inexpensive-headphones/ When it comes to choosing wireless headphones, the amount of options can be overwhelming. Even the most generic wireless headphones have a wide range of variety that can leave the buyer stumped on which brand to choose. Cre8 Sounds is here to offer you a different kind of wireless headphones experience that moves away from the generic and expensive wireless headphone and instead gives the buyer a headphone that is cheap, has great sound quality, and is even waterproof. Because their vision is different from the average, Cre8 Sounds struggled with finding someone who truly understood their vision. They were trying to do something different to revolutionize the business and not everyone was on board with that. The company had to find someone who was just right, so they went through many trials with different manufacturers. This pickiness and numerous attempts at finding a good manufacturer paid off for the company. Their company has found success by giving consumers what they want and trying to meet the needs of their customers. They focus on the products instead of the profit. The company has even worked with famous singers and songwriters who use their headphones. Their following has increased as they continue to put out better products to give people the best headphone experience. Though they cannot be specific on what things are coming next, Cre8 Sounds has just released a new product that has become their best seller. To make buying easier, they are selling their products right on their website with quick delivery and expedited shipping. You can follow them on Instagram @cre8sounds. --- ## Disruptor on Wheels: Inspiring Story of How Heather DeSantis Runs A Revolutionary PR Firm From Her Airstream URL: https://futuresharks.com/disruptor-on-wheels-inspiring-story-of-how-heather-desantis-runs-a-revolutionary-pr-firm-from-her-airstream/ To say that things are changing rapidly is an understatement. Everyday, various catalysts change the way people view their surroundings, react to things, and live their lives. Driven mainly by easy access to information, especially those on social media, the fast-paced transformation that our world is going through has given rise to a new kind of idealism—one that is less impressed by mindless fare, and more focused on true purpose. This is something that Founder and CEO of Publicity For Good and Press Demand, Heather DeSantis, was quick to recognize years ago. Armed with the knowledge she got from attending Georgetown University’s Institute of Philanthropy and Voluntary Service (IPVS), the Forbes 30 Under 30 Nominee saw the transformation that was happening as an opportunity to create a venture that would allow her to work on the two things she’s most passionate about: public relations and creating positive impact. “I am obsessed with public relations. I’ve always known that it’s one thing I want to pursue. PR is a very powerful tool that has the ability to influence beliefs and alter lifestyles. When I started this venture, I had a very clear vision—I wanted to be someone who cuts through the clutter by providing not just innovative solutions, but by championing positive change that will benefit not just the clients we work with but their stakeholders as well,” shares DeSantis. What started out as a small venture quickly grew to a boutique agency that services food and beverage companies, as well as wellness influencers. DeSantis’ vision of a purpose-driven agency quickly caught on. With almost 600 media mentions to date, this girl boss’ is proving that she is a force to be reckoned with, and the results of her every campaign speak for themselves. “Anyone who’s had a hand at any marketing initiative would know that purchases and other everyday decisions are heavily influenced by emotions. At a time when people demand so much transparency from brands, the way to ensure success is by living a purpose,” says DeSantis. “We don’t offer services that push for their brands or products or their person. These days, the only way to really get an unfair share of attention and be able to recruit people to your belief system is by highlighting the best and most important part of your business, and that is your purpose.” She adds, “Understanding your purpose will help you better tailor every aspect of your business so that each one is more effective. We are very fortunate to be working with clients whose purposes go beyond making profits. I wake up each day inspired to provide them with guidance, secure interviews, and get them news releases that further the public’s knowledge of what they’re all about.” **Life on the Road** Seeing how she launches back to back strategic campaigns and secures interviews with some of the biggest media outlets in the country, it’s easy to think that the former Miss Ohio International’s base of operation would be at a chic office in a high-rise building. But that can’t be farther from the truth. Currently, DeSantis’ runs from inside a 23-foot Airstream that travels across the United States. “We are traveling across 48 states because my fiancé and I are on a mission to find the perfect piece of land that we can turn into a farm before our wedding in December. That said, I am very fortunate—and immensely grateful—to be able to continue doing what I love while on the road. Our Airstream is both our home and our office, and the best thing about it is it allows us to see and better appreciate the beauty of this country.” The young CEO’s nomadic lifestyle also opens up a wealth of opportunities for her company. “Everyday I get to meet people from all over the country and it broadens my understanding of what drives them to do what they do. Whatever knowledge I get from them, I get to use in my practice as well. Also, among the people I meet are business owners and individuals who are looking for guidance as to how they can promote their movement or their company’s purpose. In a way, you can also say that I am able to bring Publicity For Good and Press Demand’s solutions closer to them.” DeSantis says the key to successfully running a company while on the road is specific goal setting and constant communication. She sets achievable goals for herself and her team on a daily basis, and they all work together to achieve them. Transparency and understanding for each individual’s unique personality and capability also plays a vital role. “You manage your team in such a way that you provide just enough guidance without preventing them from being who they are. We all work differently and communicate differently and it’s important to understand these things to create an environment where everyone can thrive.” **On Sharing Her Learnings ** In addition to running her own award-winning agency (O’Dweyr’s Best PR Firm for CPG Brands 2019 and Bulldog Awards’ Small Agency of the Year 2019), DeSantis also continues to work on her other passions. As a trailblazing marketer and businesswoman, many media outlets regularly approach her to share her opinions and the things she’s learned. She actively contributes for publications like Thrive Global, Harness Magazine, and Bezinga, among many others. Primarily, she uses her writing prowess to help people better understand public relations and social impact, and to promote positive stories as well as food, beverage, and beauty brands that are making a difference in the lives of people. “When I started out, I would get around 35 media opportunities on behalf of my clients per week. Since then, it has grown so much. Presently, I’ve secured more than 10,000, and the amount of knowledge one gains from doing this is something I’m always excited to talk about. I find that one of the best ways I can help others, even those in very far places, is by imparting them with knowledge and sharing with everyone useful information that’s communicated in a very encouraging manner.” There is no doubt that DeSantis has stumbled upon a perfect recipe for success. Her passion, business acumen, and the results she’s provided her clients are worthy of appreciation. Everyone can agree that the young CEO is poised for greater success and we can’t wait to see her grow and make bigger impact in the lives of people. #### **Got questions?** Connect with Heather on Instagram @HeatherDeSantis https://instagram.com/heatherdesantis or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/heather.desantis. You may also send an email to [heather@publiicityforgood.com](mailto:heather@publiicityforgood.com) --- ## Q&A With Now Entertainment Founder, Tony M. Fountain URL: https://futuresharks.com/qa-with-now-entertainment-founder-tony-m-fountain/ Recently we spoke with Now Entertainment founder, Tony M. Fountain and asked him to share his journey from growing up in a small town to becoming a major player in the entertainment industry. Here’s what he shared… **Q1.) What is your background?** Tony M Fountain: I grew up in the small town of Gordon, Ga. I was a typical country kid that liked to fish, go four-wheeler riding, and play video games. I lived with my grandparents for the most part of my younger years until they passed away. I stayed with my dad in my early teenage years until I was kicked out at 16. I then walked to work at a local car dealership and washed cars until I saved up enough to buy a used 91 four-door Ford Taurus then I got a full-time job as a forklift driver. I had a rebellious spirit that always landed me into trouble and bouncing from job to job but whether construction, selling drugs, or working at a mental institution, I survived. I’m self-taught in graphic design, search engine optimization, business and branding among other things. As far as music goes, I started out going to showcases and was offered a deal with a local label but they wanted me to tone down my lyrics from smoking weed while being chased by the cops to a more friendly dance type of rap. They basically said I was too young to talk about those things even though it was my reality. They wanted me to be a gimmick and I declined. I met up with others from my hometown and surrounding cities and early on I listened to their problems and found a way to solve their complaints whether it be building a custom Hackintosh computer to prevent overheating/crashing or helping artists to book shows, get press, build a website etc. It was around that time I realized my calling was more so for the business and technical side of things. I was told I should seriously think about being a manager by Nino Brown during a phone call shortly after that reinforced this notion. **Q2.) Tell us about the exact moment you found your calling. ** Tony M Fountain: In the seventh grade my friend Rico passed me a note and asked that I pass it over to Darrion. It turned out to be a written rap song. I looked at it and made the suggestion that Rico use marks to indicate the end of each bar. Somehow that turned into us writing a diss song to each other. Quincy judged the two and declared me the winner. It felt good and so that summer I practiced my ass off only to return to school the following year and have Rico kill me. Shortly thereafter I was locked up in a juvenile bootcamp and began writing songs more so about real life and less about shooting Rico with a rocket launcher or tossing his off a building. I found it helped me to deal with my anger and other issues and it became less about, “making it” and more like a rhyming diary. I’d have to say that was the start because I haven’t turned back since. But I’ve taken various turns along my journey and worn many different hats. I think we can be called to do a multitude of various things why limit yourself?! **Q3.) Who are your influences?** Tony M Fountain: When I was in college I had an assignment to interview someone in the entertainment industry but at the time I didn’t know anyone who was in the business nor how to gain their attention. I decided to reach out to a local Jazz musician, studio owner and entrepreneur by the name of Joey Stuckey. He’s a blind musician that started recording bands in his garage and now owns a full production and marketing studio in the heart of Middle Georgia. At that time he was also on the board for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and had created software for the blind. I reached out to him because I had recorded my first song with him around the age of 14 or so and I thought it’d be great to reconnect. He had come a long way through dedication and hard work. Looking around at the now multi thousand dollar commercial studio and all his accomplishments on the walls, I recalled us years ago recording a sketchy one verse demo on an ADAT 8 track recorder with a mic in the closet and took comfort in knowing that all it takes to accomplish any goal is patience, perseverance and time. As far as technique goes Bone Thugs -N- Harmony & OutKast are two of my favs but I love music and don’t prefer any one specific genre over the other. A few more are Midnight Star, Gerald Levert, Johnnie Taylor, The Fat Boys, Mack 10, Ryan Caraveo, Owl City, 21 Pilots, Kid Cudi, B.O.B., Lupe Fiasco, Fleetwood Mac and many others. **Q4.) What are your long-term career goals?** Tony M Fountain: I think as parents we all want to pass on something to our kids and put them in position to have a leg up in this crazy world. I’m taking the steps I’m taking to build something not only for myself but for them to give them more freedom. **Q5.) What was the process of obtaining your level of success like for you and what steps did you take that were necessary for the growth and maturity of your brand?** Tony M Fountain: Early on I realized it wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought it would be. I knew I couldn’t afford certain equipment or services that I would need. I was working 70+ hours a week and still barely getting by; it was really frustrating. But, I still found a way, I would stay up till 3 or 4 a.m. researching and applying then I would get up for work at six and repeat. Once I come to the realization I would not be able to invest in myself or rely on anyone else to understand my vision, I started saving up by doing things like wrapping my tennis shoes in ducktape to avoid spending the $70 or so I would need for a new pair. I then used the money to buy a non working MPC from eBay for opened it up and fixed it. I didn’t have a cell phone for a year and used what would have been the monthly data plan bill money to buy a keyboard. I learned the rules of taking a step back in order to take one forward and applied it over and over and over. **Q6.) Do You believe that celebrities and influencers have an obligation to be socially conscious?** Tony M Fountain: An obligation, no, I think that’s on an individual level. It would be nice if there weren’t so many idiots but I also believe people shouldn’t idolize so much and should take accountability for their own actions. **Q7.) Do You believe that celebrities and influencers have an obligation to give back?** Tony M Fountain: Not at all! Again, that’s on an individual level and should be based solely on what their heart guides them to do. The current atmosphere is that of a, “gimme gimme” society and I think that needs to stop. People are quick to blame their circumstances or other people for their failures in life instead of, in the words of Goodie Mob, “get up get out and get something”. **Q8.) What does financial freedom mean to you?** Tony M Fountain: I like doing my own thing. To be able to do that you don’t have to necessarily be insanely rich but you do need to find your sweet spot. Most people get a little money only to get bigger bills and still basically live check to check; I try not to do that. As long as I can wake up and do what I love, not have a boss, pay the bills and have a little left over for fun I’m good to go. **Q9.) What would you change about the industry today? ** Tony M Fountain: Stream revenue. **Q10.) Do you have any advice for up-and-coming entertainers?** Tony M Fountain: If you’re going to make a song make sure you own the rights to the instrumental and stop rapping over tagged YouTube beats you ripped. Learn how to run social media ads and use analytics. You don’t have to know every little detail about everything but become knowledgable in all aspects of your career so you can make informed decisions on who to hire and the direction you’re headed. **Q11.) What Social topics are important to you and why?** Tony M Fountain: With most topics I tend to keep my views to myself but I think mental health is a big issue among the masses and especially in the industry. It can drive you crazy if you don’t take care of yourself properly. A couple years ago we ran a campaign about mental health and asked for donations to the American Society for suicide prevention. **Q12.) Anything else you’d want to say to the people? ** Tony M Fountain: Thanks for your continued support! --- ## Meet Pam Christian: From Real Estate to Real Life Coaching URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-pam-christian-from-real-estate-to-real-life-coaching/ The events that occur in childhood have the potential to determine the rest of one’s life. Many children suffer traumatizing experiences that may affect their futures. Others experience challenges that are not quite as severe as trauma but still impede growth. It takes a certain kind of person to understand the full scope of this phenomenon. Pam Christian experienced both trauma and challenges when she was a child, and these impacted the trajectory of her life. She spent much of her adulthood working to overcome obstacles and mitigate the damage, which was a process that allowed her to grow into the person she is today. After running a successful real-estate team for 15 years, Pam decided to dedicate herself to coaching and motivational speaking with an emphasis on helping people who struggle with trauma and other life obstacles. She also hosts The Juice Podcast with the intention of motivating and inspiring people to live their very best lives. Pam knows what it is like to be in a negative headspace, unable to see past the current situation. This is why she works to encourage people to change their perspective and open up their lives. For those thinking about starting their own business, Pam recommends delving into the collective wisdom available through videos and books. There are countless business books, YouTube videos and podcasts that explore the best ways to start a business as well as what you need to know about the industry you are going into, including product information, brand recognition, marketing and finances. It is also important to carefully examine how a career in your chosen field will integrate with your life. For Pam, she had one priority: her family. Real estate allowed Pam to work from home for the most part, enabling her to be there for her kids while also running a high-powered business. It was a career that could be demanding and stressful, but it was also manageable. This didn’t mean there weren’t compromises. In any career but especially in running your own business, there are ways to make it your own. For Pam, that meant closing the door sometimes on household noise in order to meet a deadline, or passing on clients who were important but who, Pam knew, needed more of her time than she could give. Every decision was always made with Pam’s number-one priority in mind: Providing both materially and emotionally for her family. Pam adds that it is important to understand that fear can be a healthy response in some cases. However, fear can also present unnecessary obstacles that prevent us from moving forward in our careers and in our lives. When we get stuck in our head with all the what-ifs and are unable to move forward, that is a fear-driven response. In order to not give into the fear, you must first be aware of your thoughts and then challenge them. In the near future, look for Pam to publish her first book, a memoir and guide for people looking to make meaningful changes in their own lives. And until then, check out The Juice Podcast in which she interviews interesting and inspiring individuals who share their stories about overcoming hardships to emerge stronger both personally and professionally. Pam offers coaching and motivational speaking to help people reach the point where they know their value and can realize that they may have been a victim of their circumstances, but they don’t have to be a victim of life. To get to know more about Pam’s life and work, click here. --- ## Meet Tee The Barber: One Of The Most Famous Barbers On The West Coast URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-tee-the-barber-one-of-the-most-famous-barbers-on-the-west-coast/ Sometimes people find their true passion by chance. Often people think that there is a path for them to follow, but once in it they are forced another way and find out that there was something else meant for them. This is the case of Tavion Maulstby (aka Tee The Barber), who was working as an electrician but after being laid off, he had no other viable option but to work in the salon and barbershop with his Mother and Father. This was the turning point for him, as he slowly began to fall in love with barbering. More than a hustler, Tee The Barber has been an inspiration for many, showing that working hard definitely pays off. Coming from a barber/hairstylist background, Tee has mastered his technique to the point where he is considered one of the most famous barbers in the West Coast. Tee currently works at The Barbers Inc Barbershop located in San Jose, California and is also the official barber for NCAA CFP National Championship, he’s the preferred barber of San Francisco 49ers, and the International Educator & Global Ambassador for Andis Clipper Co. Game and the San Francisco 49ers. The biggest challenge for Teewas staying consistent with his efforts, as well as being patient with the business and being able to learn how to adapt. When he first started his business, he was inconsistent with things that are vital to building a business, such as marketing and building interpersonal relationships with clients. For Tavion realizing this and being able to take constructive criticism was vital in order to expand and scale his business. For this, mindset is also extremely important. Tee The Barber actually believes that without the proper mindset, there is no business. What Tee The Barber thinks is that there will never be a perfect time to start your business, so it’s best to just start now. For Tavion this eventually meant moving from Florida to California, which was the biggest obstacle he has overcome so far. A lot of people were supportive of his decision, but still some were not. He was terrified but excited about what was to come–it was a scary decision but the best decision he has ever made. Three years after that decision, Tee The Barber had already been able to establish his own hair product line and quadrupled his income. This is partly because Tee The Barber is different from his competition in many ways: he is a master of his craft and still spends countless hours on a daily basis (still to this day) on perfecting is craft. Tee The Barber’s next projects include continuing to promote his hair product line “Favored Essentials”, which was released to the public last year. He also wants to continue to grow in the entertainment industry and create even more large opportunities for other barbers and stylist throughout the country. To find out more about his work or get a haircut, go here! --- ## Tourism In The Midst of COVID-19: How Rashad McCrorey Is Holding Up URL: https://futuresharks.com/rashad-mccrorey/ In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry has been widely impacted. Only essential travel has survived–with multiple airlines and train carriers taking big hits. This also affects travel agencies and trip planners, as well as the countries with economies dependent on tourism. But in the middle of the crisis, many people have also taken the opportunity to rise up through the chaos. This is the case of Rashad McCrorey the owner of Rashad McCrorey Entertainment LLC and Africa Cross-Culture, through which he organizes tours to various countries in Africa including Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda. The inspiration behind this business venture is the “African Dream”, as Rashad describes. This refers to the many Americans whose ancestors come from Africa beginning in the 1600s and want to know their roots and explore the continent, to then return to the US with a stronger sense of self. And so Rashad started his business, only to face right away many challenges such as the various stereotypes of Africa. He claims that in the United States, Africa is almost solely portrayed as a poor and dangerous country. The commercials we see of Africa are of famished children or dangerous attacks. This is why it was crucial for Rashad to have the correct mindset when he started his business, as it is helpful when motivation is low or when things are not going your way. He also practices mindfulness to relax and take things one day at the time. All this advice is helpful particularly when it comes to fear–which for Rashad is false evidence appearing real. For Rashad, thanks to his mindset, fear is actually exciting. He sees it as an opportunity to do something great or overcome a situation. Having this thinking towards fear facilitates achieving success. This is precisely what Rashad did when he started his business: he realized he loved networking, meeting new people, being on his own schedule, and being free to live and travel to the many places he loved. This is why today he can say he is totally in love with his career. At the moment, Rashadis working on overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, which has affected all travel and tourism activities. He is focusing on finishing his book, which should be published in the next few months, and on engaging future customers. Rashadis certain that when this is all over, his business as well as travel and tourism in general will pick up rather quickly. This will give him an opportunity to continue to provide to many people the opportunity to explore the diverse African continent in a safe and fun way. If you’ve ever wondered what Africa is like, you should definitely check out Rashad and all his future projects. For that, you can go here. --- ## Meet Cindy Dikoume: The Creative Director Behind Graphiking Photography URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-cindy-dikoume-the-creative-director-behind-graphiking-photography/ Most successful businesses and projects are led by pairs or groups of people who work very well together. Having a good relationship between the business partners facilitates all planning and managing, leading to better results in the long term. This is the case when it comes to the people behind the successful photography business Graphiking Photography. The people behind this business are Cindy Dikoumeand her partner Chukwualuka Sammy Oguejiofor. Cindy and Chukwualuka met in college when they both went to study at Northern State University in South Dakota. There they fell in love and quickly after Cindy decided to invest in Chukwualuka’s photography and design skills, so they decided to start their brand, Graphiking Photography. But this was a risk given their little exposure to business. Graphiking Photography is a photography and design business that provides multiple services delivered by the artist Chukwualuka with the creative direction of Cindy. They make themselves available through their website and contact channels. Cindy believes that her main motivation to start Graphiking Photography was seeing the talent in her partner and being encouraged by her parents to chase after her goals. She has enough drive and motivation to stand on her own and believe in her skills. What was crucial for Cindy was believing in her partner’s skills and in his vision for the brand. He had always loved photography and designing and was able to awaken these skills when he came to the United States from Lagos, Nigeria to study art. Cindy’s biggest obstacle was finding what exactly she was good at, to then be able to direct her focus there. She is a hard believer of mastering all traits but overtime it has not proven to be quite helpful for her. Instead, what has been more effective is narrowing her focus. In part this is why Cindy advises those starting their business to stay surrounded by people who believe in them and if that is not possible, she advices to believe in themselves ten times harder than anyone else. At Graphiking Photography, Chukwualuka does all the “manual labor” by being the photographer and graphic designer behind the brand, while Cindy does all the socializing, making sure the art and work is disseminated and promoted, while also being the creative director of the brand. In order to achieve this, they need to keep working on their brand and putting all their efforts in leaving an impact. For Cindy, fear means failing without trying and her biggest fear is precisely leaving this world without making an impact. For Cindy, success eventually leads to or helps maintain financial freedom, which is essentially not having to live paycheck to paycheck. But instead, being able to take care of her family, afford to have her child with her and be able to raise him. It means being able to see her family and most importantly, afford to go to the hospital whenever it is needed. In order to accomplish this, it matters that Cindy continues to direct Graphiking Photography in a clear way, with a narrow focus. Part of what helps her accomplish this is knowing that the only person she really is competing with is herself. After four years with Graphiking Photography, a photography and art brand that was created in the midst of college life, Cindy is looking to continue to grow the brand and reach more people, by working with other brands and growing their resources. To follow their work, go here. --- ## Bag&bones Founder Gigi Foyle on How to Create a Leading Brand URL: https://futuresharks.com/bagbones-gigi-foyle/ Bag&bones, an innovative neon art label was founded by Gigi Foyle, alongside her Irish-based sister Cavanagh. Playful text, whimsical slogans, and pop-art style graphics characterise the stylish label. Fans all over the world are lusting after bag&bones’ beautifully simple and uplifting designs. Gigi and Cavanagh Foyle stepped away from their original careers to set up their London-based company bag&bones after two years of extensive research—to offer a new version of expressive neon art at a fraction of the cost of most similar products on the market. The sisters, Gigi who lives in London with her family, and Cavanagh, who is based in Dublin originally grew up in Galway, Ireland. Gigi graduated with a science degree from Edinburgh University before she moved to London, where she worked in health research for ten years. Gigi first fell in love with neon art on frequent visits to God’s Own Junk Yard in Hackney, East London. The idea for bag&bones’ alluring brand was conceived when founder Gigi noticed a gap in the market for a new type of beautiful yet sustainable neon art— “after two years of meticulous research and preparation, we took a leap of faith in July 2016 and launched. It has been a rollercoaster of fun (and some hard word!) ever since,” says Gigi. The label broke into a niche in the market in offering a design that is as beautiful as it is sustainable. The designs combine coloured neon tubing and LED lighting which offers a lightweight, energy-efficient and safe alternative to the traditional glass neon. “We are trying to forge our own niche in the market so we try hard to ensure that everything we do is unmistakably *bag&bones* in the hope that as soon as someone sees a bag&bones neon, they know right away that it’s us. And I suppose, there is no secret to how we do that, we just love it so much that I think that is what (hopefully) comes across.” The vibrancy and unmistakable design of the label reflects Gigi’s lifelong passion, ”I was surrounded by design growing up,” says Gigi, “Our mum always bought every interior design magazine under the sun and had been collecting them since the 1970s. She would also redesign our family home regularly and my dad was also really creative, passionate and talented. They were both always encouraging both me and my siblings to pursue all creative endeavours.” Bag&bones’ vibrant designs inspired by London’s street culture exude cool and will add a modern twist to any interior. The designs include quirky text, pop art style graphics, and whimsical slogans. Add character to any room with the bag&bones light that spells out *Let’s Stay Home *in neon lettering, or add playful interest to a wall with their vibrant *Red Lips *design. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/image.png) ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/image-1.png) The seductive glow of bag&bones’ lights has captured the hearts of fans around the world. Their Instagram page has amassed almost 100k followers and the brand has been showcased at the fashionable *Wilderness *festival and commissioned to design lights for the Kate Moss Agency, Chanel, Instagram, Soho House, Alexander McQueen, Grazia, and Liberty London. --- ## South Korea’s Sang Min Lim takes K-pop by storm URL: https://futuresharks.com/sang-min-lim/ K-pop is one of these genres that’s broadly known and easy to identify, but quite tricky to define. Technically, its definition allows for a blend of just about any ‘conventional’ styles, from classical to electronic, in any quantities. At the heart of it, though, most people think of K-pop as South Korea’s take on Western pop – taking the latter and putting a fresh, unconventional spin on it. If that’s the case, then Sang Min Lim – sometimes known in the music industry simply as SANG – is a literal embodiment of the genre. Sang Min Lim was born in South Korea and came to the U.S. at the age of 19. After studying economics at Brown University, he headed to Los Angeles to continue his education – taking law at the University of Southern California. While in L.A., he began modelling – take a look at his Instagram to immediately understand why – and dabbling in music production. His debut single and music video, *Fantasy*, involved an appearance from the dancer and performer Dytto (known as ‘robo babe’), and was directed by CeCe Frey and Chase Stockman. This was barely a year ago – and Sang has already released three further singles since then. The latest of these, *Levitate*, has actually just come out. Sang puts a South Korean twist on Western electronic and pop, and the lyrics to his songs include lines in both English and Korean. As such, it could be said that his music is as close to the definition of K-pop as we could get! As a matter of fact, it was K-pop that inspired Sang Min Lim to pursue his dream of making music. Focused on his law studies and future career, spurred on by his family, he admits he let himself share their belief that the dream of becoming a pop star was an unrealistic one, a distraction. With the increasing popularity of K-pop around the world, however, he realised that he was in the perfect position to give music a real try. In Sang’s own words: ‘I think both the US and Korea influenced me musically. When I was attending Brown University, I noticed that K-pop was gaining popularity through watching some of YouTube videos. After seeing that some of the songs that were in the Korean language were being featured in top song/album charts in the United States, it gave me a boost in confidence to pursue music.’ It’s lucky, then, that K-pop became popular at the time that it did – we wouldn’t have this talented young singer to listen to otherwise. So far, there’s no news on when Sang plans on releasing another single or an album, but *Levitate* as only just premiered, so let’s give it some time to make an impression. To listen to Sang’s music and discover more about this rising K-pop star, check out his YouTube, and Instagram. --- ## Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, Daniel Habif Gives Us Hope URL: https://futuresharks.com/daniel-habif/ There are few individuals as creative, loving, and genuine as Daniel Habif. Habif, the Mexican entrepreneur, content creator and motivational speaker who has been featured in many important events such as the Live Aid for Venezuela in February 2019, has spoken at major forums such as TEDx, Mexico’s Senate of the Republic and the recent author of his latest book, INQUEBRANTABLES, shows us that amid despair, there is always hope. In his latest YouTube video, “RETURNING HOME,” Habif shares his thoughts on the current Covid19 pandemic in an honest, candid, and unequivocally, Daniel Habif way, in which only he can express. In the video, which in less than 24 hours received over 60,000 views, Daniel starts by pointing out that because of Coronavirus there is at the moment a lot of panic because a lot of people are going to be isolated, and that all of this is okay. He also claims that the virus has shown us we are not as strong as we thought. Because people or cars are not flooding the streets as they normally are, Daniel points out the many things that we can notice now:**‘the birds chirping,’ ‘the blue and beautiful sky and not the smoke from the pollution.’** Daniel Habif continues highlighting the good things happening around us. We can now hear the sound of cutlery from our neighbors as families gather to eat together and see parents go back to telling stories to their little children. There are also those who have to stay alone, but now get the chance to talk to themselves,**‘take a longer shower, eat breakfast slowly, put on some lotion and feel your hands.’** People sing from their balconies and realize they can live their lives with less than they normally get or think they need. Everyone now also has time to clean their minds and have a **‘space to settle themselves,’**and be able to focus on the little pleasures of life we don’t always notice. In a little less than 11 minutes, Daniel is able to give us the hope we need today more than ever. With a call to go back to love, to forgiveness, and to reflection. This has been an experience for all of us, and it has undoubtedly shown us that we normally live at an unnecessarily fast speed that can lead us to a **‘spiritual heart attack.’** Daniel closes by asking people to cooperate rather than compete, and to pray for the rebirth and revival of love. He makes the point that this pain cannot be for nothing–that we should learn something from this and come out of it improved. “RETURNING HOME” has been able to move thousands of people from all over the world–drawing comments of amazement, bliss, gratefulness, reflection and unity. Check it out and share it with people who may need to be lifted up today. To watch Daniel Habif’s “RETURNING HOME” video, click here. --- ## Ambition Media Is The Social Media Firm Helping Others Make Millions By Leveraging Their Brands URL: https://futuresharks.com/ambition-media-is-the-social-media-firm-helping-others-make-millions-by-leveraging-their-brands/ Entrepreneurs Jerry and Sherri Nourse have built their multifaceted business, Ambition Media, from the ground up. They run a full service social media firm that builds brands, builds and manages social media campaigns, runs influencer marketing campaigns and social media ad campaigns. They create social media content, video content, and develop brands as a whole from ground up or brands that are already built and need social media presence and marketing. Their large platform on Instagram allows them to hit over 300,000,000 impressions per week. Their amazing portfolio of accounts include some of the very best in the industry such as @motivationmafia, @positivevibesquotes & @agentsteven. Just in the last few years alone, they have grown these accounts to over 5 million followers. When Jerry and Sherri first began, they did so with the idea of developing pages to better the lives of their audiences, for them to have a place to discuss and learn and grow. Then came their social media marketing firm to help companies develop their brands and expand their digital footprint with new audiences by providing customized individualized development including everything from visual content development to execution and conversion. Jerry and Sherri realized the power of social media and how far they could reach audiences in all communities, all over the globe. Their mission became helping others in their daily life through their large network of pages. Their secret to their massive success has everything to do with hard work and their mindset. Jerry and Sherri run a business with over 110 million followers. This requires them to have a business plan that is detailed, realistic, and contains all the details to make them succeed. This along with getting honest, motivated, and trustworthy team members. Finding individuals with a strong work ethic and the drive to make things happen has been a huge factor to their success.They carry the right mindset with them, focused on the path in front of them, never getting discouraged. Their advice to others looking to become entrepreneurs is to make sure that they spend time creating a very detailed plan of action that is attainable with steps, progress, and execution that is realistic and attainable. They also emphasize the importance of having adequate funding because of the many hidden costs that you never think of when you are diving in at the beginning. The next step for Jerry and Sherri is to continue to expand and exponentially grow the company–growing and building brands on social media and extending that into the charitable arena. They want to continue developing a teaching arm to help others grow their presence on social media. With their huge following on social media, and the brand and platform they have built for themselves, Jerry and Sherri have managed to build a successful business that is transforming the lives of their clients. They have built an audience and a community that follows and believes in their work and what they stand for. Ambition Media is truly where to go when looking to take it to the next level, and that is thanks to all of the hard work and knowledge from Jerry and Sherri. --- ## Justin Kan Sold His Company Twitch.Tv to Amazon for $970M, Now He’s Onto Whale URL: https://futuresharks.com/justin-kan/ Justin Kan is a serial entrepreneur and investor who famously cofounded Justin.tv and Twitch.tv, the latter of which he sold to Amazon for a sum close to a $1B. He is also a partner at Y Combinator. In this interview, I tried to pick his brain and learn more about him. ### Hey Justin, it’s an honor to have you on FutureSharks. Let’s talk about the beginning, what experiences growing up shaped you into the entrepreneur that you are today? I grew up with my mother being an entrepreneur. My brothers and I used to go help her and my father do projects. I learned the value of hard work at a young age. ### Who were your biggest influences? My parents growing up and Paul Graham when it comes to startups. **Always surround yourself with people that are more intelligent that you.** ### What lessons did you learn at Twitch.TV that you see most entrepreneurs struggle with? We didn’t talk to our users. We didn’t understand why they wanted to broadcast live video or what their goals were. Talk to your users. Are you making something that people want? ### What’s Whale? Whale is a Q&A community that connects you with influencers, experts, and celebrities. ### What was the spark of Whale? I started using Snapchat as a way to pass the time while doing cardio on my exercise bike. Soliciting questions from the audience was (and remains) an easy way to come up with content ideas. By recording answers to viewers questions on building product, starting companies, and life advice, I felt like I was giving back — all while getting a good workout. Snapchat content has a tendency to be disposable. They are low pressure (because they disappear) and almost like a video status update. They are constrained to ten seconds. It’s difficult to give a detailed answer to a question in 10 seconds. I would repeatedly get asked the same questions. I decided to build an app to hold a library of own answers that people can refer to, like an index of knowledge. ### What makes Whale an interesting and unique platform? Whale provides a platform distinct from that of Quora or Snapchat. It allows users to have a direct connection to an influencer or expert to receive detailed answers. ### Who are your (potential) customers? How do you find them? Initially, they came from Snapchat and our friends as well. We used that as a foundation of initial content and grew into different industries. # Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Just get started, today. If a crazy idea like Justin.TV can work, you have no excuse. ### What are the tools you can’t live without? Snapchat and Whale, does that count? ### What should an entrepreneur do? Talk to your users. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? We want to expand to different categories of content and focus on retention. ### What is the end goal? To see growth in whatever project I’m working on. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. ### Will you ever retire? I tried to do nothing for about six weeks; it didn’t work out very well. There are only so many video games you can play before you go crazy. I enjoy applying my knowledge as an investor and with startups to pursue new ideas and build companies. --- ## One interview with GeryC . URL: https://futuresharks.com/one-interview-with-geryc/ Everything starts with a dream. Geri Corosteni is a Singer. youth who knew deep in his heart that one day he’d take off in music. Back when he was 13, after a flurry of singing competitions and recitals, Geri joined the Fole Publishing, further polishing his skills. He eventually set off on his own and released his debut single “Me Dit,” a vulnerable tale of heartbreak. According to Geri Corosteni, he teased the song for seven months, lying about when it was dropping until it was finally ready. The “Me Dit” video blew up, racking up 13.000 views. Follow-up songs “Si Na” and “PrimaVera” only bolstered Geri’s momentum, leading to the mid-March release of his debut project, *Champion*. **Age:** 16 **Hometown:** Berat,Albania **I grew up listening to:** “Kidda, Noizy, Pop/Rap —he more influenced my sound. The other ones was just what I used to listen to and sing to.” **My style’s been compared to:** “A lot of people—Pop, Kidda sometimes, Majk as far as me being young and starting young. But it’s a whole bunch of people. I’m not really tweakin’ about who people say I am, at least they named me with successful people.” **My standout records to date have been:** “My biggest song is ‘PrimaVera,’ Pop. is actually doing pretty good. **My most slept-on song is:** “A song called ‘Si Na.’ It’s like an Dancehall. It’s slept-on though—it only got like 16.000 views. I don’t know why, but that song hard.” **Most people don’t know:** “In order for me to doo-doo, the shower water gotta be on. I swear to God! For real! The water gotta be on, I gotta hear that. I been doin’ that since I was like 10.” **I’m going to blow up because:** “I’m different from any other artist that you can try to compare [me] to. A lot of people usually talk about street stuff. I could talk about that—that’s where I’m from—but it’s like I go a different route with it cause that’s just what I like. That’s the type of music I listen to.” **I’m going to be the next:** “Legend.” Follow GeryC on Instagram and YouTube --- ## Meet Marc Angelo Coppola: The Entrepreneur Shutting Down His Successful Marketing Agency To Start A Farm URL: https://futuresharks.com/marc-angelo-coppola/ ### Wait what? Tell me about what you’re shutting down? And why? Marc Angelo Coppola**:** For years I have used the guise of running a marketing agency as an economic engine for me to learn what it takes to build a real movement but now that I have learnt so much about how storytelling is done online I also realize it’s time for me to move on! For the last 10 years I have been running a marketing agency to pay my bills and hiring all my friends to work with some of the biggest companies on the planet. I don’t care to name drop as it’s not the point of this interview and I want to step away from this world but let’s just say we have made websites for huge companies you interface with regularly, done social media marketing for book launches NYT bestsellers and created and promoted the content of people who every entrepreneur knows and loves just to name a few. Put in another way we have done millions in business for many of the clients we have serviced over the years out my Montreal based decentralized agency and my business has doubled in size for the last 4 years straight so I’m not shutting my doors – I am truly walking away from this world because my heart isn’t in it anymore. ## Alright, how did you come up with this farm idea? **Marc Angelo Coppola:** Well in truth the idea I am working on now has been in the works for 8 years now. I literally and figuratively was planting the seeds for a movement to bring people back to the land years ago by merging the need for mentorship based education with my love for sustainability and being a part of the solutions in the world. The reason I started my online school Superhero Academy was because I was being asked by so many how I was building this movement and how others could be a self employed entrepreneur as well and well the Valhalla Movement is an organization that has always been at the core of my heart. It’s in the research of building up a 66+ acre property into a thriving farm and eventual ecovillage that I actually learnt the ins and outs of marketing and storytelling… It’s been my sandbox for years and well it’s time for me to go back and play with the building of my new headquarters and home to legit embrace my life as a farmer. However in a bigger picture view I farm more than just fruits and veggies – I also cultivate curiosity and farm the talents of others as I believe many of the lessons in life can be thought on a farm. ### How is your endeavor different? Marc Angelo Coppola**:** Well I don’t know how many social media influencers or storytellers are also farmers so let’s just say the whole concept is a bit novel but I would say I see the need for people to reconnect with community. I have directly been behind thousands of pieces of content reaching millions, actually billions of eyeballs over the years alongside my team and well our stories, videos and memes where a farm in and of themselves. However with that comes the simple truth that people are addicted to social media and their phones and are looking for community and connection and there is no amount of memes in the world that can inspire to the scale of real world projects. For me building a farm that is meant to inspire others to learn about living a healthy lifestyle but also learning the ropes of entrepreneurship and storytelling is a HUGE opportunity. To build a farm is likely the hardest business to run on the planet and yet I am here to show that it can be fun, exciting and incredibly powerful and lucrative as well because well no millenials are striving to take over their families businesses anymore and that to me is a real shame. ### What’s the dream with your farm? **Marc Angelo Coppola:** Simply put I want to build the world’s most innovative and productive farm and mentorship based learning centre on the planet. A little more complex is the idea that to raise a child we need a village and if I am to have kids than I want to build the village I wish I could have grew up in and the school I wish I could have gone to. There is so much talk about tackling massive scale problems and very few entrepreneurs willing to step into the responsibility of ACTUALLY doing something about it. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Marc Angelo Coppola:** Simply by storytelling – versus selling. For me Valhalla and the work I am doing with Superhero Academy is about telling a positive story and walking the walk and letting the camera just capture the talk that it takes to make it happen. I am incredibly passionate about video and educational content and well I credit YouTube, documentary websites, and google for being such an empowering force in my own life but there is still a sad truth out there. That the balance between fear based or problem based content heavily outweighs the content meant to champion the solutions. Not long ago a study found that there was 80 articles talking about the problem of climate change for every 1 talking about the solution for example. This narrative problem is one that needs solving and those solutions need more than blogs – they need hands and shovels in the ground making it happen. ### What is your core competency? **Brody Cord:** Hmm good question – I think it’s the ecosystem being created here. Rather than just focusing on one core element I have approached my career in the same way permaculture approaches agriculture – which is to consider the entire ecosystem and it’s various functions versus just what I can do to “maximize” profits. We ended up with monoculture fields of GMO crops and well that has done an untold amount of damage to the world and I think the same is happening in all industries where as I see the work of someone like Elon Musk as being a multipronged approach to solving systemic issues. Our farm is an ecosystem for nature and for people on many levels and that is why I liken it to being like a village. ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Marc Angelo Coppola:** Honestly my biggest success has been in my ability to adapt to my biggest failures. I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get things going on the real estate side of this project which ended up leading me to burn out and more of a dead end than anything and I have also spent an enormous amount of time trying to muscle my way into making things work that I should have realized was not really aligned and rather should have let my time and resources flow in the path of least resistance as water would. Honestly what I would say I have learnt is that nature holds all the lessons. By running and scaling a farm and learning it all through hands on mistakes I have been able to expand so much in my life and it has always taught me that long term thinking is the best path forward for long term impact. I believe it has informed me to build real relationships, real knowledge and real plans to empower way more than just myself in the short term and I am incredibly happy to know that the seeds I sowed years ago are finally at the stage for me to put my boots on the ground further! ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Marc Angelo Coppola:** Find a mentor or a few! Someone out there is doing what you want to do or at least doing parts of it and you will accelerate through so many challenges and avoid costly mistakes by being humble and recognizing there is so much for you to learn from others. I would also add that documenting your process will be worth it in the long run too 🙂 ### Teach us something about networking: **Marc Angelo Coppola:** Simple – the interest people have in you and your projects is directly correlated to the interest you have in them and their projects. Be curious and ask questions as the number one way to scale your business is to solve the problems of others and to ask “how can I help you?” ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Marc Angelo Coppola:** Ouffff there is a ton to share but I have been diving very deep into the world of investing and real estate lately but I would say that ironically the most valuable thing I re-learnt lately was to actually slow down to speed up. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Marc Angelo Coppola:** I see people’s superpowers and potential and I am able to weave together teams of superhero’s better than most. I am a bridger of gaps and able to bring a generalists superpower into a world of specialists that seems to be quite disruptive. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Marc Angelo Coppola****:**** The hero’s journey they are creating for the people they serve. I honestly think that focus on the experience of your customer from their perspective and needs and adhering to the concept that you should never send a boring email which might seem like the most micro of interactions really does scale to every corner of what you do. How you do anything is how you do everything! ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? There are too many to name but these ones all stand out: - Atomic Habits – James Clear - Pre-Suasion – Robert Cialldini - 48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene - Money Master the Game – Tony Robbins - Trust Me I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator – Ryan Holiday ### Where do you see yourself and your project in a couple years? **Marc Angelo Coppola:** Likely sitting on a rocking chair watching the bees and the birds from my porch enjoying the sounds of nature after a hard days work with a community of 150 others working the various aspects of our budding community. That and listening to the pitches of a bunch of young social entrepreneurs looking for funding and mentorship! Let’s be real – a real entrepreneur won’t lay out their full plan to the public like that because we all know the winds blow where they may and I am aware that I am but another seed in the breeze in the grand scheme of things! --- ## Mortgage expert Daniel Goldsmith Explains the Impact of Personal Selling on Sales URL: https://futuresharks.com/daniel-goldsmith-explains-the-growing-importance-of-personal-selling-for-entrepreneurs/ Entrepreneurs create and establish a company that they’re proud of. But what role does personal selling play here? Many founders stow away without becoming the face of their company, but customers are acknowledging more than ever the efforts of leaders who share a space, and it’s translating to sales. While strengthening trust is the core advantage of creating a vigorous personal selling strategy, the outcomes ripple way beyond improved communication or increased saleability. For the California-based Daniel Goldsmith, a young entrepreneur, lead generation expert, and affiliate marketer, personal selling has been a big part of his successful professional journey. 35-year-old Goldsmith, who is associated with leading companies, including Alpha Marketing Group, Leads Solutions, Rate Texts, Mortgage.Watch, and Designer Scum, firmly believes that the modern-day business methodologies provide great potential for personal selling and that, there are several credits attached to it. As with many businesses Goldsmith has headed over the years, his first job as a club promoter helped him make a mark into the world of marketing, mainly personal selling and branding, which further laid the foundation for him to establish a platform for nightlife extraordinaire. But what has primarily facilitated Goldsmith the most through everything is the idea that building on his personal selling skills and investing in himself was crucial to his personal as well as professional growth. He emphasized, “having learned the criticality of personal selling early on in my career, I was able to leverage myself to connect more people on the platforms I had worked on. It helped me source leads in the areas of social security, mortgage, disability organizations, and auto insurance. In a way, the ability to self-promote and become the face of my brand paved the way for me to attain customer referrals, develop customer relationships, limit overall marketing investment, and deliver superior services.” Today, Goldsmith sees a significant transformation in the process of personal selling in the present age of Information Technology. He notices that in the current connected digital world, customers have a superior voice than ever – and that they can investigate a product or service with just a few clicks. Because of this, Goldsmith believes that entrepreneurs should adopt the way of personal selling with a mix of social selling to influence a customer’s buying decision. To this, he added, “Sales functions are witnessing a massive transformation mainly out of sheer necessity. This is so because the transformation is in direct response to the reality that the customer is evolving. Hence, its time organizations, as well as entrepreneurs, shift their focus towards equipping the workforce to measure the buyer interest, purchasing intent, market conditions, and level of influence needed to stimulate sales.” With feats attained in different areas of businesses, Goldsmith is now invested in expanding his reach to as many people seeking mortgage advice as possible. And if there’s one thing that Goldsmith preaches and abides by, it’s the importance of taking charge, getting started, facing people, stirring conversations, and generating profits, no matter how big or small the outcome may seem at first. --- ## Terrance McMahon’s algorithm for happiness and why one should appreciate life URL: https://futuresharks.com/terrance-mcmahon/ Often, the main message of writers and motivational speakers revolves around the idea of self-improvement. We’re supposed to review our life and identify our problem areas, ranging from the internal ones, like self-esteem, to external issues such as unstable finances or dysfunctional family life. We learn that sources of stress are most often to blame for our various failings, be it stress coming from our environment or self-imposed pressure. On a superficial level, this approach makes sense. Through this process, we narrow our issues down to one key element that we then work on changing. But all too often, just when we think we have things under control, the problem returns, putting us back in square one. Or, as is also commonly the case, a successfully resolved issue leads to the discovery of another problem, then another – and so on, ad infinitum. Then again, what else can we do, other than putting out fires as and when they become too much to bear? #### Former CEO and currently a successful motivational speaker and self-help writer Terrance McMahon’s answer is: stop repairing, start reinventing. McMahon’s revolutionary and innovative method doesn’t want you to keep fixing things that aren’t working. His intention is to start you on your way to completely recreating yourself as a functioning, balanced, fulfilled individual, rather than endlessly trying to find happiness in what you already have. Put simply, it follows the logic of ‘stop trying to be something and just be it’. It’s refreshing to be faced with self-help and self-improvement ideas that follow firm logic and take a different approach. The more you think about it, the more McMahon’s philosophy makes better sense than traditional ideas. In the long run, it’s far more efficient to reinvent than incessantly repair: if you had a car that keeps breaking down, for instance, would you keep fixing it endlessly, never sure whether it’ll let you down again, or take a step back and replace it with a new one you can rely on? McMahon’s method is more than mere theory – as evidenced by his recent TEDx talk, it was first developed as a means of survival for himself – a way of ending his battle with alcoholism once and for all and recovering after a brush with death following liver failure. During this extremely trying time in his life, he developed what he refers to as the ‘algorithm for happiness’ – a step-by-step, easy to understand process for achieving the desired result of becoming the person you want to be. This process of recreation, reinvention, and achievement of your full potential is described in detail in McMahon’s #1 bestselling book, *SuperHero Self*. This 12-week guide to learning how to understand who you need to be to reach your individual idea of happiness and how to become this person really can’t be recommended enough. And if you’ve already read the book and are looking for further insights, check out the YouTube channel Your Voice to the World, ran by McMahon in collaboration with speaker, filmmaker, and storyteller Eddie Pinero. --- ## Maximum Overdrive: Aventi’s new tourbillon is a V12 for your wrist URL: https://futuresharks.com/maximum-overdrive-aventis-new-tourbillon-is-a-v12-for-your-wrist/ **As the climate and culture of today’s world races to innovate with technology, the luxury watch industry has remained relatively unchanged. Hannu Siren, CEO of Aventi Watch, looks to challenge the world of haute horology.** **Future Sharks**: You seem very comfortable with the business of watchmaking, tell us your personal history with horology. **Hannu Siren**: I’ve always been a watch enthusiast. A quality timepiece is one of those luxury items that say a lot about the person wearing it: if they’re practical, flashy, contemporary, conservative, you’ll see that reflected in the watch they wear. That’s what I like about horology. There’s something for everyone. **Future Sharks**: How long have you been in the business side of horology? **Hannu Siren**: I started selling watches in 2011, but I sold other people’s watches. I found myself increasingly frustrated because I felt like the watches I sold, for the price point I was selling them, could be so much more. Rather than sit back and continue to sell products I felt could be better, I decided to change that and launch S-Force LTD, formerly SWOLE O’Clock in 2016. **Future Sharks**: S-Force seemed to really resonate with one audience in particular, the fitness industry, why is that? **Hannu Siren**: SWOLE was an acronym for “Strength Overcomes Limitations Every time,” when we rebranded as S-Force back in 2019, we changed it to simply “Strength Overcomes.” It speaks to my personal belief that we all have in ourselves, the power to overcome any challenge. I’ve seen people accomplish incredible things, things that everyone else told them were “impossible”. This message resonated well with the fitness world, because these are people pushing themselves every day, never accepting things as they are. Each watch we sell is inscribed with “Strength Overcomes”, a daily reminder to continue to strive for excellence. **Future Sharks**: You’ve talked about your unique business model. Can you tell us a little about how you keep your team trim yet flexible? **Hannu Siren**: The era of the physical office is over. Through technology, we can connect people from all over the world in an instant. I took advantage of this. A physical building presents a massive hindrance, limiting you to a geographical location, with an equally limited pool of professionals from which to hire. I didn’t want that for my team. I’m not one to do anything based on what’s always been done, and it’s important to me to find team members that share my vision of what could be, rather than what is. The core of Aventi Watch is a team that is hand-picked by me. They aren’t afraid to challenge what we know of watchmaking today. It spans across 10 timezones. If we encounter a problem that we aren’t able to resolve internally, we bring on expert consultants and engineers to solve them, then shrink back to our core team once we’ve got the matter in hand. The flexibility of this kind of business model helps Aventi keep our cost of production way down. Everyone working for Aventi is mission-critical. That makes us very powerful. **Future Sharks:**What are some of the challenges you faced when designing Aventi’s premier collection, the A-10 Tourbillon? **Hannu Siren**: We had several, the biggest challenge, however, was our flagship model, the Aventi Sapphire Crystal Tourbillon. The complex design of the case, combined with the rigidity of sapphire crystal, the very thing that makes sapphire so enviable, created a problem where our early tests revealed points of vulnerability in the design. My expectations are extremely high, and these vulnerabilities were not acceptable. So we brought on a team of engineers to figure out how we can make this work. I’m happy to report that we succeeded. **Future Sharks**: We noticed that your cases are not the usual watch design, circular or square. You’ve referred to Aventi timepieces as “superwatches”. Can you expand upon that? Where did you come up with the design and what makes Aventi a “superwatch”? **Hannu Siren**: The design of Aventi combines another of my passions: luxury high-performance cars. I’m drawn to the curves and angles, the aerodynamic quality of these supercars. I wanted to design a watch that emulated the power and feel of a supercar. We even refer to the various components and complications of our watches in car terms: engine, chassis, windshield, dashboard. The same feeling you get as you watch a Lamborghini roar down the street or popping the hood to witness the raw power of its engine, I wanted our watches to give you that same thrill. It’s a V12 for your wrist. **Future Sharks**: The name “Aventi” was chosen for a specific reason. What is the meaning behind your brand name? **Hannu Siren**: “Aventi” in Italian, means “Having”. Supercars, they are the playthings of the ultra-rich. Something that most of us will always want but never have. Today’s luxury watches are also exclusively for the social elite, with “entry level” watches of this caliber starting at tens of thousands of dollars and increase with complexity into millions of dollars. Our most important goal with Aventi is to bring this level of luxury to the masses. So, while they may never be able to own a supercar, they can own a superwatch. We could have gone with original quotes through the traditional watchmaking channels, but that would have pushed our price point right up to the millions that you see with other brands. That’s not what we wanted for our brand, we wanted to offer something that everyone can reasonably have. **Future Sharks**: You chose to launch Aventi via a crowd-funding platform. Why did you choose this direction for Aventi? **Hannu Siren**: Because Aventi is a brand for the majority, we wanted to launch on a platform that empowers our customers. Many watches of this caliber, you can wait seven years or more to even buy one. Through crowdfunding, that wait is eliminated. That is another aspect of “having” that we wanted to offer, accessibility. There’s also a sense of ownership, when you invest in a campaign like ours. Our customers are included in the journey, their input is encouraged, because we want them to buy a watch they feel good about, that they identify with as part of their collection. **Future Sharks**: What is something you asked for customer input? **Hannu Siren**: Our bands. We really wanted to carry the supercar theme into all aspects of its design. Our original thought was to offer a watch with authentic carbon fiber stitched into the band. No matter how many different types of carbon fiber we tested, it simply wouldn’t hold up to the demands of everyday wear. Because we focus so heavily on quality, we refused to continue with a design that didn’t fill that expectation. We came up with a couple of alternatives and rather than trying to guess what our customers would want, we simply asked them. **Future Sharks**: That really takes customer service to a personal level. **Hannu Siren**: Yes, it does. Many luxury brands, they tell you what you’re going to get. They lack a personal involvement with their customers that I feel is a disservice. The Aventi superwatch isn’t going to be for everyone, our inspiration and design is a lot of watch. However, within the parameters of our design, there are choices and influences that our customers can and should have. **Future Sharks**: With a two-barrel tourbillon movement, premium materials, this is sounding like a very expensive watch, but you talk about making a watch that is affordable. How much is an Aventi watch going to set someone back? **Hannu Siren**: We’ve spent a good bit of time researching modern watchmaking. We’ve streamlined production with our lean remote team and sourced materials and parts from non traditional sources without sacrificing quality. Like I said before, traditional channels quoted us into the millions, our customers aren’t going to even pay a tenth of that. Our early-investor offer via our crowdfunding campaign is under a $1000, currently unheard of for a true tourbillon watch. Everything about Aventi challenges what we know of luxury watches today: accessible, affordable, quality and personal attention. I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, something that many in the watch world said was impossible. We’ve engineered a superwatch, with the look, power and luxury of a supercar, at a price that’s incredible. *Be a part of this industry-changing upstart by supporting Aventi’s crowdfunding campaign, set to launch April 2020. For more information, visit* www.aventiwatch.com*and know what it’s like to have a superwatch for your wrist.* --- ## Skyrocket Your Real Estate Career With Justin Havre & Associates – RE/MAX First URL: https://futuresharks.com/justin-havre-associates/ Are you looking to expand and grow your business exponentially? Or do you want to take your business to the next level? Or are you looking to improve your lead sources or perhaps find out what sections of your business are scalable? If this is you and you have struggled to get your deals to close, then worry no more! You can grow your business to a new level through Justin Havre and Associates – RE/MAX First. According to statistics, there are over 2 million real estate agents who are active in the United States. 20% of these agents have their license for a year or even less, and around 71% of agents specialize in residential real estate. Further research has found out that there are over 50000 licensed agents and brokers in the greater Toronto area alone (that’s approximately 40% of the whole number of agents in Canada). In California, the number of active agents and brokers stands at 279,000, and over 10,000 REALTORS across the Alberta province. These results show that real estate has become a lucrative career globally, and millennial investors seem to be taking the lead in the industry. ## About Justin Havre Justin Havre is the owner and founder of the Justin Havre and Associates.The estate expert and his team stand at position five globally and are Canada’s #1 Real Estate team in 2019. With outstanding leadership, Justin has been able to make his team of 40+ agents generate over 445 million dollars in sales in 2019. Justin is also the #1 individual contributor to the children’s miracle network for western Canada. Justin educates investors on the secrets of starting and continuing to build your real estate business through lead generation. His expertise in converting leads to appointments and resulting in successful closing will help your business scale up within a short period. Moreover, Justin Havre and Associates- RE/MAX First provides you with adequate and sufficient tips on how to begin your real estate journey and get the most out of your current business trends. ## Convert Your Real Estate Leads To Appointments Real estate leads are one of the most challenging but rewarding online leads you can work with. Agents get a difficult time convincing strangers to trust them and buy or sell their homes. However, if you find a lead as an agent, and manage to close a deal, then the agreement has the potential of paying itself tenfold. What Justin does to reach out to his leads online within the shortest time possible after receiving his lead alerts. Besides, email drip marketing is another cost-effective and useful way Justin automatically reaches out to his leads. A very robust CRM system is in place because communication is a top priority for his team, they use it to manage communications between them and their leads/clients. Text, calls and emails are ways they communicate; they even use it to send video messages. It’s a must that you communicate effectively and everything is clear between you and your lead on why you are qualified, and that you are part and parcel of the vital journey. ## Discover Secrets For Making Closing Simple Closing a deal is another major challenge that Justin addresses. You may find that many agents have been mentored on the paperwork side of the business but not on professional and successful selling. Therefore, whether you are selling a $10M mansion, signing a year-long rental lease on a family, or unloading a $100K apartment, all you have to do is be careful while handling any sale. What Justin and the team do is to believe in themselves. They then keep it simple – they don’t bombard clients with facts, information, and figures or anything else that won’t impact their decision making. Next, they listen to the client, giving the client reassurance. The team then works on its script, sweeten the deal and then sell. *Related: Learn how to sell anything to anyone.* ## Develop Stronger Culture, Systems, And Strategies Justin believes in teamwork. Proper coordination with his team is what has propelled the company to success. Through cooperation, he has managed to deliver excellence in every aspect of his real estate team and to exceed their commitments to the many clients they serve. Also, Justin has developed a culture of persistence, planning, and a ‘never give up’ mindset. He has learned through failure, and it has become a self-made millionaire. Today, Justin Havre generates multiple seven figures in sales commissions every year. He and every team member understand that the best investment is in themselves. Everything from fitness, mindset and making healthy choices contribute to being a high-performance salesperson. He’s also built websites that do not rely on pay-per-click and lead purchase and has used it to create long term authority. His push for marketing innovation and these creative sales strategies have propelled the company to deliver results for their clients. Therefore, follow the trend and skyrocket your real estate career. --- ## Leading Youtuber Ralph Smart’s Journey to YouTube Success at Nearly 2M Followers URL: https://futuresharks.com/ralph-smart-infinite-waters-deep-diving/ YouTube has millions of content creators, but only few have been able to stand out the way Ralph Smart has been able to. The founder and creator of the channel Infinite Waters (Deep Diving), Ralph has amassed a huge following, catapulting himself among the ranks of the most successful YouTubers. His amazing achievements include being selected among the top five YouTubers by Buzzfeed and Hubpages writers and being the recipient of YouTube’s gold award. His channel was selected as one of the top three happiness channels to follow in 2020 by https://app.ex.co. ## The Journey Begins The statement ‘it only takes a spark to get the fire going’ is definitely true for Ralph Smart’s journey to enlightenment. Ralph started to seek answers from an early age. Even though he grew up in a very religious home he had challenges accepting the traditional notions of God among other things. This quest led him on a search for deep and meaningful truths. This quest led to some discoveries that have made his life so exceptional that he felt obligated to share with others. He is driven to help others who are struggling. ## How Ralph Armed Himself for the Journey Ralph decided to pursue formal training in psychology and criminology, two fields that centre on human thought processes and behavior. This resulted in him earning a Bachelor of Arts combined honours degree from Westminster University. But his formal education was to serve a purpose beyond the accolades earned. As Smart continued to dive deep into the workings of the human brain and study the human condition, he realized that mankind is lost and needs guidance. He also became convinced that all human beings have as their birthright, a destiny filled with health, wellness and general success. He also realized that the way people live their lives today, prevents them from attaining that destiny. He decided to make a difference starting with his own life. ## Charting a Healthy Path Ralph Smart doubled down on his efforts for a better life after his 9-5 experience left him wanting more. After becoming a psychologist and criminologist he worked in a school engaging students with disorders such as ADHD. This desire for more propelled him on a path to a way of life that would gain him more satisfaction and wellness than his current one did. Ralph experienced first-hand, the impact that modern living has on the human physical and psychological self, Ralph realized he needed a change in his own life. This included a change in diet from one that included almost everything to a vegan diet with a focus on raw food. Ralph discovered the association between diet, consciousness and well-being as his own personal experiences revealed that life was better after he left the unhealthy aspects of modern lifestyle behind. Ralph’s foray into YouTube stardom had humble beginnings. He made his early videos in his own backyard garden with his intention being to simply create his own personal video diary. He was soon inspired to share this with the world after realizing that the information was simply too inspirational to keep to himself. The world needed Ralph’s genius and it was his duty to share it. One of the reasons Ralph is such a success is the fact that he lives what he preaches and the positive effects of his journey are evident in his life. As a committed vegan who engages in healthy practices such as yoga and meditation, Ralph exudes confidence, satisfaction, self-actualization and success. He is living the ultimate life in harmony with the forces of nature. ## The Journey Continues Ralph continuously invites the world to follow him on the journey to success, desiring to see others reap the benefits he has enjoyed from deep thinking. In fact, his main goal is to reach out to millions more around the world, inspiring them to grasp the destiny that is their birthright. A goal no doubt that will be achieved. --- ## Built-in Closets Add Functionality and Aesthetics to a Bedroom – Vince Tome URL: https://futuresharks.com/built-in-closets-add-functionality-and-aesthetics-to-a-bedroom-vince-tome/ Clutter not just destroys the beauty of a house but also clutters the minds of people living in. After a tiring day at work, a bedroom is a place where one aims to relax and what could be better than an aesthetically clean bedroom. Closets play a significant role in organizing a room. Pioneers and experts of custom cabinetry – D&V Customs’ Executive Director Vince Tome explains that embedded closet systems, aka built-in closets, are in high demand when it comes to the closets market. “A built-in closet maximizes the living capacity of the room, adds tremendous value to your home, and is just as beautiful as it is functional,” he shares. “To embed the built-in closets, we tear out the existing walls of a standard bedroom closet with traditional bi-fold doors. We then insert multi-functional closet cubicles (tall cabinets) into the closet opening and finish it off with beautiful cabinet doors,” explains Vince. Behind the attractive cabinet doors that enhance bedroom décor, the closet is customized to accommodate the owner’s personal needs. From smart technologies, TV’s, drawers, shelves, hanging rods for clothes, shoe shelves, gun safes, jewelry drawers, tie racks, belt racks, hampers, etc., any and every accessory that one can imagine can be housed in the embedded closet system. “Built-in closet design totally eliminates the need for furniture and clutter in a small bedroom,” says Vince. **** Born in Royal Oak, Michigan, Vince Tome founded D&V CUSTOMS with his father in Southwest Florida, where they fabricate their signature embedded closet systems and beautiful master closet designs. By personalizing the closets to accommodate customers’ specific needs as well as maximizing their living space, they use adjustable hanging rods, shelving, different types of doors, drawers, and shelves in any color of the customers’ choosing. Tome’s D&V CUSTOMS renovates bedrooms from custom closets made of beautiful pre-finished birch and maple plywood to custom cabinetry, molding, and trim. Vince says that “in a recent study by Houzz, one-third of homeowners who did a kitchen renovation claim to be living healthier lifestyles since the renovation.” The successful businessman aims for higher by touching people’s homes first hand and changing the way they live for the better. --- ## Building a Business the Money Pug Way URL: https://futuresharks.com/building-a-business-the-money-pug-way/ If you ask any entrepreneur what they would deem to be a good opening couple of years for their start-up, they’d probably have their aims solely on breaking even. If you ask that question to Lee Whitbread, however, the answer would be a whole lot more ambitious and with good reason. Whitbread isn’t your standard young businessman with a pipedream of making it big one day. At the age of 32, he already boasts a portfolio of successful multi-million-pound businesses and the social media marketing know-how to rival any seasoned veteran. In just the short amount of time that Money Pug, a price comparison website, has been around (founded in 2018), the business has a not-too-shabby weekly reach of 10 million users, more than 100,000 unique monthly visitors to the website and more Twitter followers than household market-leaders. While 99% of entrepreneurs would settle for that, Whitbread and Money Pug have no intention of stopping there with the ultimate goal to be firmly in and amongst the top five price comparison sites in the UK in the next five to 10 years. Assuming Money Pug can maintain the upward trajectory, the business is well on track to achieve just that and maybe even ahead of time. ## Creating a Fun Brand Voice While comparing the rates of insurance and loans may not be the sexiest thing in the world when it comes to engaging with an audience, the fun tone that Money Pug projects through its social media channels certainly is. Facebook has been a juggernaut for over a decade, although it is only in the last few years that businesses have really begun to open their eyes as to the potential of a solid marketing campaign through social media. Whitbread and his team have created their own online community through sharing fun and engaging posts, most of which do not directly link to the website’s service at all. Why? Because in order to gain followers online you have to give them a reason to engage with your brand and when users are scrolling through their timelines they aren’t expressly searching for loan rates. Shareable easy to digest content is the key to building an audience via social media and gaining as many users as possible. You will find few brands that have executed a better social campaign than Whitbread’s Money Pug. ## What is the Next Phase in the Money Pug Plan? As the brand name continues to grow and more and more customers seek out Money Pug for their price comparison needs, Whitbread and the team continue to brainstorm new and exciting ideas. Television advertisements certainly feature in future planned campaigns, firmly placing the business in the minds of the consumer along with the likes of other household names in the industry such as GoCompare, Comparethemarket and Moneysupermarket.com. While focusing almost exclusively on social media has brought Money Pug this far, other channels and strands to their marketing efforts will continue the business’ outstanding exponential growth. Whitbread certainly is not one to rest on his laurels and knows that better than anyone. It is an ascendancy that anyone would be proud of, but it is just another day at the office for the founder and CEO whose venture, ultimately, serves the will of the consumer by giving the power back to them. Big things are in store for Money Pug. --- ## Dr. Ju Hearn’s High IQ Academy Presented with Funding by Associated Bank URL: https://futuresharks.com/dr-ju-hearns-high-iq-academy-presented-with-funding-by-associated-bank/ Athleticism, unbeknownst to many, is not limited to optimum physical condition and prowess. Rather, it’s multi-faceted, spanning across different disciplines, such as a healthy diet and increased mental capacity. One person who is introducing and balancing these facets for up-and-coming and veteran athletes is Dr. Julius “Ju” Hearn, who created the High IQ Academy, a nonprofit organization to address these areas. As a veteran with a plethora of academic laurels and expertise in health and business management, Dr. Hearn has created a haven for athletes who desire to train during the off-season and to help rising athletes to thrive in all aspects. Along with Dr. Hearn’s contributions, the High IQ Academy recently received funding from Associated Bank. The bank included the academy in its funding plans as part of its efforts to promote a close-knit community and to spur the creation of equal opportunities. The nonprofit organization received the sum of $10,000 from the bank earlier in February. The funding will cover young students’ academic tutoring, life skills coaching, mentoring, ACT/SAT preparation, and of course, sports activities. The High IQ Academy will utilize the funds for the designated activities and help student-athletes from the inner city of Chicago. Thanks to a long-standing relationship with local schools, the organization can keep track of their students’ academic performance. Also, a seamless transition from elementary to high school to college will aid the creation of close-knit bonds amidst students and instructors. The organization also aims to create the same effect on the court. Athletes of all levels in the sport of basketball will benefit from the extensive program by harnessing skills and experience for a lengthy career path. With an intensive program engineered to redefine the way athletes train, the High IQ Academy aims to create athletes with a high Intelligent Quotient for the game. Dr. Hearn, no doubt, has created an avenue for companies, such as Associated Bank, to help build an all-around skilled generation of athletes. --- ## Elena Cardone Just Announced 10X Ladies, a Conference For Women Who Want to Build Their Empire URL: https://futuresharks.com/elena-cardone-10x-ladies/ Many call 2020 the start of the decade of women. The next ten years are meant for women to continue growing their potential and succeeding in multiple areas, including business. To help achieve this, the iconic Elena Cardone is launching 10X Ladies. 10X Ladies is a conference designed for women who want it all. It will take place on February 24-25 in Las Vegas, with 10 amazing speakers and more. Some of the invited women are fashion designer Rebeca Minkoff, social media influencer Lisa Morales, and business coach Danelle Delgado. The idea behind the conference is to expand on the 10X Growth Conference headed by her husband, Grant Cardone, which has been voted the #1 conference for marketing by Forbes, and has taken place every year since 2016. Grant Cardone runs an empire that includes a sales training University, Grant Cardone TV, a real estate company and more. This is why both Grant and Elena’s vision has always been to build an empire. For years, Grant has been organizing conferences and attended public speaking opportunities to share his ideas and tools with people. 10X Ladies looks precisely to close the gap that exists between entrepreneurship and business-driven women who want to build an empire, and all the necessary resources to do so. It is because of the sense of responsibility that Elena feels now that she is in a position to help others, that she has gone all in into the planning of 10X Ladies, where speakers of the likes of Shay Rowbotton and Maria Conceicao will be sharing their experiences. Elena, who first came to prominence as an actress, who starred in Two and a Half Men and Days of Our Lives, married Grant Cardone in 2004. She eventually got involved in business, which had always been Grant’s ballpark, and both began to build their brands in support of each other and their common brand. But her role is mostly to support what Grant does while raising their two kids, which some people see as too traditional. With 10X Ladies, Elena is creating the perfect platform to share the tools and resources she has had access to, with other women like her who are willing to build and grow their own empire, in whatever industry interests them. There are only 500 spots to attend this fantastic one-of-a-kind conference is Las Vegas, which promises to be the first of many. To find out more about Elena’s work and 10X Ladies, go here. --- ## Fahed Al Essa Gives His Tips On How to Fail with Grace URL: https://futuresharks.com/fahed-al-essa/ Facing failure as an entrepreneur can be devastating. It hurts. You just lost your baby that you spent a year working on and nobody will get how it feels. How do you pick yourself up, and move forward? Fahed Al Essa is a serial entrepreneur and the founder ofDala Wellness based in San Francisco, a business offering a holistic approach to patient-centered healthcare. He previously founded two other businesses: one that succeeded and one that failed. We spoke with Fahed to better understand how he bounced back and how that experience has helped him succeed as an entrepreneur.   **Maintain Integrity ** When a business fails, things can get ugly. Avoiding reality or delaying communication of bad news can have negative long-term impacts greater than having founded a failed business. “Be honest,” Fahed advises. “To investors and to yourself. Nobody likes bullshit; not patients, not investors and neither do you. So, tell them the truth, no matter how hard it is; they will appreciate it.” Investors know the risk they are taking. If you maintain integrity, that relationship can survive failure. If you attempt to hide negative results or give false impressions, your reputation may be irreparably damaged. “Be straightforward, be confident, and ask for support and help when you need it.” **Reframe Failure** Fahed’s first experience as a founder of a healthcare IT business was not successful. Dwelling on the failure could have been enough to steer him away from entrepreneurship entirely. The first step in moving forward was to reframe failure. “Don’t look at it as a failure,” Fahed says, “but a hard lesson in life.” The healthcare IT business did not accomplish what Fahed and his co-founder initially intended, but there were valuable insights without which Fahed’s second startup could not have succeeded and which continue to inform the decisions he makes with Dala Wellness. Fear of failure will paralyze you as an entrepreneur. “Win or lose, you should come out of the other side a better entrepreneur. The true failure is if you are still the same entrepreneur that started on the front end of your endeavor.” **Investigate** The opportunity to learn from failure can be extremely powerful. The first questions Fahed asks a business that has failed are: “Why did it fail? What can we learn from it? What would we do differently? And how can we learn from our mistakes?” Documenting these answers from all relevant stakeholders’ perspectives will allow you to face hard truths about the business and why it failed. This investigation is something that is inevitable with failure but rarely takes place to the same extent with success. Thinking critically about what went well and what could have been improved will help you to understand your strengths as well as your blind spots as an entrepreneur and can help you avoid future pitfalls while growing your next business.  **Moving Forward** Having handled failure with integrity and thoroughly understanding what went wrong and right with the business, you will emerge from the experience a stronger entrepreneur, even if it does not feel like it right away. Hopefully, some of the relationships you have built throughout the experience are stronger as well. Identifying these trust-based relationships during a difficult time can be the key to future successes. “What you need to do is to surround yourself with people you trust, that are willing to hear you out and give you the advice you DO NOT want to hear but should,” Fahed says. “Having a circle of people that have your best interest at heart is the key.”  Maintain your confidence as an entrepreneur, focus on building on your successes and avoiding previous mistakes, and continue to build a strong, reliable network. As Henry Ford said, “Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” --- ## The Success Story Behind Shawn Henry the Solar CEO URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-success-story-behind-shawn-henry-the-solar-ceo/ Many ambitious entrepreneurs dream of building a six or seven-figure business, but many are still asking, “how does one achieve this?” Building a brand or business may not come overnight. Sometimes, it needs great patience and persistence. It is worth noting that patience is not about doing nothing. However, it is about regularly doing everything you can, but be patient about the results.  Well, meet Shawn Henry, who was born in Ontario, Canada. He grew up receiving exceptional support from his mother since she had two jobs. This meant that Henry received all the financial, moral, and spiritual support that his mother could offer. Henry enjoyed other moments like making friends, sometimes just having fun with lizards and enjoying the breeze. It was when he was 13 that his stepfather introduced him to Hockey. That when he learned how to socialize and make friends. He met his two friends who later were to become his biggest business partners.  **When Things Go Wrong** When he moved to high school, things seemed to take a turn for Shawn. All he wanted to do was smoke weed, hang with girls and other things that he was not supposed to be doing. He faced expulsions and frequent suspension in school. These experiences made Henry feel very isolated. Often, he was always on detention and, at some point, even risked his graduation. After completing his GED, he started a new life in college doing his masters. He was lucky enough to get a job after starting school. However, the job did not last longer than three weeks. He got another job working with dogs, perhaps due to his love for dogs. There too, he lost his role in a record time of a week and a half. This endless cycle of losing jobs continued until a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. Someone appeared and offered Henry a career in sales. Being a good talker and seller, this seemed to be his ‘thing’ now. He was barely 24, and at this time, his parents were facing a harrowing divorce- yet he wasn’t mature enough to run a business.  It was unfortunate, though, that Shawn Henry was deep into drinking and found himself driving intoxicated at times, and this is when his life started to spiral downward. Though not an addict, his actions as a result of often being intoxicated led to his arrest. Shawn was told he had to enroll in classes to try and help his problem but all Henry could do was violate his probation. Shawn was given warnings by his instructors, but everything he was told seemed to be falling on deaf ears. In the process, Henry even risked a ten -year jail sentence. His life then revolved around courtrooms.  **How Henry Overcame His Challenges To Become A Mega Millionaire** Nevertheless, Henry was a good seller. At one point he titled as the #1 salesman in the country. Henry worked with various companies and businesses and finally got a job at a small solar company. The company interviewed and trained him for three days, and he emerged as number one. He was doing so well and receiving essential information about how the company started, how a company gets licensed, and how the company goes about getting leads. But, unfortunately, his instructor died. However, he had gained enough information that acted as an eye-opener to Henry.  The champion could not waste any more time. Henry began brainstorming, getting more ideas since he did not have even the slightest idea on how to start a business. When the idea was ripe, and things began rolling, Henry and his childhood friends began moving door to door selling their designs. It seemed like an excellent idea to step out of the company and start their own company. They could wake up early, bang on every house that entire day in search of selling their ideas. In the process, they managed to sell their ideas and make $9000  on their first day, and this great sale was motivating for Henry. **Success Is Something You Attract** Henry got licensed, and with the confidence and trust he had gained from people, he started to get more business and make more money. However, making money was not something new for him. He had done it since he was a kid, but this time around, he wanted to make big money. The icon wished to live his life the way he wanted. He did not want to live his life around other people’s lives. Through his business, he has been able to generate more than $48 million in revenue in the last two years- something to be coveted. Today, the guru stands as the founder of Efficient Home Services– a company that helps homeowners achieve energy efficiency within their homes and already listed as the #179 company on the Inc 5000 list. The future’s still bright. Shawn Henry wants to inspire more and help small businesses grow to achieve their dreams. Therefore, don’t just sit there, do anything and everything to get started even if it involves taking a risk like Shawn did. This man is a great example of failure into success, take this story and run with it; let this be your starting point and start living your dreams! --- ## Don’t Give Up; Put together your Confidence and Grow, Believes Doctor Jarrett URL: https://futuresharks.com/dont-give-up-put-together-your-confidence-and-grow-believes-doctor-jarrett/ Any event that gets you in a close call with death can quickly help you acknowledge the real meaning and value of being alive. After facing such circumstances, people generally start making the best of their lives and live it to the fullest. Surviving a plane crash in December of 1995 made Jarrett Schanzer understand how lucky it feels to withstand such mishaps and made him value life. His flight might not have had a great start, but he is soaring high by working his favorite job and fulfilling all his ambitions. A plane crash changed 9-year old Jarrett’s outlook, while he was on a flight with his family for a vacation at the JFK airport. With bad blizzard weather, the plane lost its control during the take-off on the airstrip covered with snow. Rather than taking off, it skidded towards left and hit a transformer. With several injured passengers, it was a miracle that all people on board survived. But it sure was a traumatic and stressful event for everyone. He tags this as one of the ‘turning points’ of his life that made him take measures to become who he is now – Dr. Jarrett. After this accident, he was determined to be someone that will help people and save their lives. If you take a look at his résumé, you can see how easily it showcases Dr. Schanzer’s dedication towards saving human lives; and the commendations he’s received in the process. This New Jersey resident had transferred to the Magic City, Miami, Florida, for pursuing his career as an Attending Anesthesiologist in 2018. In his journey, he has received several awards, including Academic Honors during his graduation and under-graduation, Betty Ford Scholarship & Paul Ambrose Scholar Program for being trained in treating addictive illness, amongst others. His story is an inspiration for the young generation. Presently, most people give up when they face failure and abandon their dreams. But, even at a young age, his resolution and confidence did not quiver, making Jarrett achieve his goals. Qualified with a degree and certification from Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Jarrett has gained popularity as an Instagram Influencer. His Instagram page is flooded with amusing posts related to his profession. He places great prominence for making people and his followers realize the value of their health and wellbeing. And to add on to this, he also wants them to enjoy it. According to Jarrett, his page on Instagram was the start of his influencer position so that he can inspire people to keep working until they fulfill their ambitions. As a medical professional and health influencer, he suggests that people should focus on their wellbeing rather than on the aspects that are demotivating for them. His Instagram account is filled with posts that have a more profound sense than just being a few little jokes. He says that he started this page to bring a change in people’s life. Laughter, indeed, is the best medicine. And Dr. Jarrett’s approach is a bit unconventional towards this. He entrusts his efforts in measures that will bring up the morale of a person, and get them to cure quickly. He recommends ‘giving your best’ towards any curve ball thrown by life. People should give proper attention to their goals and take all the necessary steps to attain them. Failure will never be the determiner of the future; a person should keep trying and keep up their drive, achieving the aim. Dr. Jarrett says that the overall need and worth of this is evident since there are a lot of growing psychological issues in the world like stress and depression. These will eventually have a toll on the healthiest of bodies. Growth and success are the outcomes of efforts that a person places to get to a target. You can make your life worth every second of it if you live it on your terms, not as a tired and fragile being, but as a strong, energetic, and lively person. He has dedicated his professional life to saving people’s lives and making it better. And his social media life has become a beacon for most people who seek laughter and want to stay positive during any situation. --- ## Toronto-based Jewelry Genius Franky Diamond is Riding the New Wave of Men’s Jewelry Design URL: https://futuresharks.com/toronto-based-jewelry-genius-franky-diamond-is-riding-the-new-wave-of-mens-jewelry-design/ As men’s fashion industry becomes more exploratory, designers are taking a leap into men’s jewelry segment that breaks the stereotype. From marbled signet ring and rhodium-plated bracelets to hoop earrings and diamond-studded pendants, a new breed of modern jewelry designers and brands are creating exclusive pieces that are in no way an afterthought. The trend of men’s jewelry gained momentum when male rappers like Swae Lee, Gucci Mane, and A$AP Rocky were found adorning crystal and pearl necklaces on the red carpet. In fact, jewelry is no longer only a girl’s best friend, especially since male models, influencers, and celebrities have been wearing prominent pieces that are barely going unnoticed. Seeing a potential market for men’s jewelry and a lack of variety, Toronto-based celebrity jeweler Ali Lalani, also fondly named as Franky Diamond, introduced new collection through the means of his brainchild, White Carat Co. Franky’s statement jewelry designs and manufacturing techniques draw inspiration from ancient times, especially the jewels fabricated by his father and grandfather. Being a third-generation jewelry industry maven, Franky, a Business Administration Graduate from the University of Toronto, decided to quit his full-time job as a Financial Analyst to design jewelry and partner with White Carat Co. Today, the core category in his men’s jewelry collection is diamond pendants, rings, and bracelets plated in 10K, 14K, and 18K gold. Making classic watches and rings featuring inimitable designs like the Egyptian Pharaohs, Snapchat Ghost, and “CASH MONEY” engraved pendants is Franky’s unrivaled forte that has gained popularity, attention, and praises from Ryuk Chain, Dalton Pompey, Pressa Armani, and Burna Bandz among many others. At the center of his massive jewelry collection is a series of diamond bracelets. Each is placed with multiple mini or mid-sized diamonds carved by craftsmen with a remarkable level of detail, thereby bringing luxury and vibrancy to each jewel. Franky is often seeing modeling his exclusive men’s jewelry pieces on all of his social media platforms. He has also developed a strong interest in the digital world and the modern way of marketing online. Franky firmly believes, Instagram and Pinterest have had a lot to do with reviving the age-old trend of men’s jewelry. “Men today glance at Instagram, not fashion magazines. Male influencers and social media enthusiasts do style posts and stories and share their look with their friends. This, in particular, has changed the game in terms of making an impact and driving sales. All thanks to the millennials, followed by Gen Z and Gen X who are side-lining the stereotypes head on,” said Franky Diamond. Franky’s jewelry and accessories are anything but basic, and have managed to make the 10 letters – OUT OF STOCK – an acquainted phrase for those after his contemporary and fresh designs. His high-end jewelry pieces are priced up to $24,000 and the collection in the affordable range costs approximately $700 to $900, yet retains the star element – diamond, and originality in terms of style! Franky’s long-term vision for White Carat Co. includes appealing to younger buyers and stripping away some pre-defined styles of fashion jewelry, all while preserving its patented craftsmanship and high-end materials. “My designs are neutral and edgy so, I started receiving a lot of positive responses from men of all age groups,” Franky reveals. “This gave me a boost to design and launch more variety of jewelry for men. I want to redefine and disintegrate the age-old social norms, and what is unfolding is a much broader approach to men’s jewelry designs. It’s a joy to contribute towards the bold styling choices that men are not fearing to pursue.” It’s clear that the boundary between men and women with regard to fashion is blurring in over-all – so why should accessories and jewelry be any different? --- ## Kate Katzman On Working With Robert De Niro in ‘The Comeback Trail’ URL: https://futuresharks.com/kate-katzman-on-working-with-robert-de-niro-in-the-comeback-trail/ They say you should never meet your heroes, but actress Kate Katzman has found this isn’t true. Throughout her career as an actress, she has met legendary actors and has grown as a performer. Kate worked with Robert De Niro in the upcoming film *The Comeback Trail,*in which she plays a female movie director alongside other performers like Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, and Zach Braff. *The Comeback Trail*is a comedy remake of a film from the 80s with the same name. On her first day of filming, she had to sit at a desk opposite Robert De Niro. She was understandably nervous. As she started to get ready for the shoot in her trailer, she found a note that said, “Break a leg. – Bob.” This special message helped her get through the scene. She also says that De Niro is a “nice guy, much more mannerly and soft-spoken than his movie image.” This is far from Kate Katzman’s first brush with legendary Hollywood stars. She was a student in the late Burt Reynolds’ master acting class at his school in Jupiter, FL, which only had 20 students. She says Burt was a very encouraging teacher, and he treated his students like family. He would invite them over for dinner on Friday nights and tell them funny stories about Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood, and other stars. “He was my mentor and my acting angel, always encouraging me,” Kate said. “Burt Reynolds is the number one reason I am acting today,” Katzman said. Katzman has several other projects slated for a 2020 release. She stars in the thriller film *Adverse* with Mickey Rourke and Lou Diamond Phillips as Chloe. The coming of age comedy *This Is the Year* releases in 2020 and features Kate in the role of Sofia. And for the Christmas season, Katzman starred as an elf in *Santa in Training* (2019). Kate Katzman has learned a great deal from the fantastic Hollywood stars she’s worked with. She’s excited to book movies with more legendary actors and let her voice be heard. --- ## How Fashion Influencer Santino LoConte Found His True Calling in Sneakers & Streetwear URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-fashion-influencer-santino-loconte-found-his-true-calling-in-sneakers-streetwear/ Living in this world of fashion and trends, people from all around the globe want to stay up-to-date with the latest styles. There are people who want to keep up with the trend. But there are also few who wish to set the trend and change the face of fashion. Santino LoConte is the founder and creative director of the Reign Company. It is a boutique in New York which sets trends for people to follow when it comes to the category of worldwide streetwear and labels for sneakers. **How did it all start?** LoConte spent his childhood around footwear. At a young age, he started working in his grandfather’s shoe store in West Village, and it was his first gesture to understand shoes and fashion together. He decided to take up a career in this niche and became very curious to know more about footwear design. He became interested in how people expressed their feelings regarding particular brands and streetwear. It entirely didn’t happen in a few seconds. It took several collaborations for LoConte to establish himself and his company in the market. LoConte collaborated with companies like KITH, DKNY, Atmos on sneaker projects. He analyzed the differences and problems in the market and decided to take his own chance. Santino launched his company Reign in the year 2017, which would bring about a difference in the laid behind vibe. Fashion in footwear is in LoConte’s blood. His company is a famous hub that offers customers a different level of brand exposure by combining streetwear and luxury. Walking into the stores of Reign means feeling creativity all around you. It is not just like any other store; it is an artistic declaration and also a definition of the way of experiencing life. Reign in collaboration with Samsung is the sponsor for the New York Fashion Week. The main focus of this company is to satisfy customer needs. The team of Reign has also collaborated with other industry competitors such as Thom Browne, Rick Owens, and Issey Miyake. --- ## Success 2020 and Beyond: Inside The Mind Of Serial Entrepreneur Dennis Agalli URL: https://futuresharks.com/dennis-agalli/ Success is a formula that requires a certain set of ingredients. The combination of these ingredients AND the *knowledge* of how these ingredients go together is required to make an excellent dish. Dennis Agalli is a Future Shark and serial entrepreneur who has repeatedly created success by using these ingredients and recipe over and over again. As the founder of Leave Normal Behind™ (LNB™), I am always getting highlighting individuals who are “above normal” – meaning they are elite in what they do and are rich in character & integrity. The mission of the LNB is to influence humanity in a positive way by inspiring others to become the best version of themselves, give back, create things that matter, and encourage others to do the same. Dennis “Donato” Agalli is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully built a multi-million dollar business portfolio. Currently, Agalli is the owner of the multi-million dollar pizza business Rocky’s Pizza Group, Rocky’s Pizza Vinoteca Inc.[1]​ In addition, he is the owner of the ER Bar and Lounge, Old Country Coffee Corp, EZ Furniture Solutions Corp and Private Real Estate & Real Estate Management. I got to spend some time with him to give you this EXCLUSIVE Future Sharks Interview. **Read below & Enjoy !!** ____ #### Where are you from ? Originally from Europe but a New Yorker 1000%**#### What are some of your hobbies ? #### Art, Traveling, Extreme Sports (Free Diving, Scuba Diving) What is your favorite quote? By Conrad Hilton : “Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they dont Quit.” #### What are you working on ? Opening New Retail Business and expanding them. #### How did you come up with this idea? I’m doing what I love and have always had a passion for growing up – Pizza, Coffee, Restaurants and Hospitality. #### What brought you into the business world ? Just my inner desire of creating and running my own business. #### How are you different from other entrepreneurs and business owners ? Most entrepreneurs in my generation are very successful, yet very aggressive and have a “cut-throat” mentality meaning that they will do anything to succeed, even if it hurts them emotionally and spiritually. I am a little different, I believe in values and integrity. I have more of a “family approach” in all of my businesses. By that, I mean that I treat my workers and customers as family members. Amazing things happen when you do this. Being a successful entrepreneur requires the obligation to make sure that you lead the right way and give back to the one’s who need the most. That is what real success means to me and my generation of entrepreneurs in their thirties and older need to do this more often and realize that success goes beyond the material. I’ve made millions and have lived a lavish lifestyle, I am here to tell you that serving others with your money is the way to feel most happy. #### What makes you special? I believe we are all special in our different ways, and we all have something special to offer. My hard work ethic and perseverance is unmatched. #### What is your best tip when it comes to networking and building relationships ? For me the best tip is to be “yourself”, a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners are missing authenticity. There is no better way of connecting and building relationships in my opinion,  You must be yourself.  #### What motivates you ? #### Love and Family. A lot of people depend on me and I cannot let them down. #### Also, I love to inspire others and show them that anyone can become successful if they really want to and decide to put in the work for it. What was your biggest failure ? What did you learn from it ? I had 3 businesses that failed and lost all my investments. What I learned is that nothing comes easy – you must put in your work. After failing I didn’t give up, I tried again and again and again, and thats why I was able to build 7 successful businesses. #### Why is mentorship important to you ? It is very crucial to me because many times in my life I gained the motivation to continue going on by seeing examples of people who have gone through even more difficult times than me and made it despite their circumstances. They set a good example for me and gave me motivation to overcome challenging obstacles.  #### Have you mentored individuals in the past ? Yes – from workers to family members and others who have asked me for help. #### What are the most important values that you hold ? Integrity, honesty & loyalty.  #### How do you build a strong team ? #### By finding and attracting people who share the same values as you do.How do you build loyalty, trust, and respect within an organization ? Personally I do that by leading by example. You cannot expect all those values from any worker without you as an owner sharing the same values and acting upon those values. Workers feel it, they know. That how I build those values because it’ s what I really believe in.  __** ***Now here are some more VALUE-ADD questions !!*** __ #### What is the best piece of advice that you can share … Not giving up, it’s easier said than done, but yes never giving up is the best piece of advice I have. This singular piece of advice has kept me alive in tough and challenging times #### Teach us something (must be actionable) … I have taught myself to say “Challenge” instead of “Problem” in both my business and personal life. We all have Challenges that pass, never “Pro..” **** #### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month ? #### I have learned, and still mastering, patience in business and personal life. #### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) 1pound of coffee makes about 48 6-once coffee cups 🙂 #### What do you think you do better than most people ? Persistence  #### What is the most practical and actionable framework you can share for other Future Sharks to use in their daily life ? Prioritize your To-Do list. #### What should an entrepreneur focus on ? Growth and development, without losing authenticity and values. #### What holds most entrepreneurs back and how can they get through it ? Fear holds most entrepreneurs back. The way to break through fear is knowing that without failure there is no success. When you fail you receive feedback on how to do it better the next time. By repeating this process you will become more successful over time. It’s a formula that always works no matter you are.  ******What is the best book you’ve ever read ?** The Richest Man in Babylon  #### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years ? Expanding and growing our family of customers and employees. #### What does it take to be in the restaurant/lounge business ? A lot of work and effort – late nights & early mornings. ******How do you run a successful restaurant/lounge business ?** Quality and Service.  #### What do the words ‘Leave Normal Behind’ mean to you ? Myself – I see myself in those words. I have never been normal and this describes me and what I believe in. I believe in becoming the best version of yourself, giving back, loving others, creating things that matter, and encouraging others to do the same. **Where should we follow you on social media ?** (hyperlinked, example: Facebook):  Follow me on Instagram ! @donato.nyc ___ Dennis shared amazing insights in this Future Sharks interview and it was my pleasure to spend time with him to share this information with you. By implementing his advice you will attract more success 2020 and beyond. Remember that “failure cannot overtake you if your will to succeed is strong enough.” That is a formula that always works. If you or anyone you know is a Future Shark who is leaving normal behind then email me to connect: Rob@leavenormalbehind.com --- ## Nuoptimal: The LA-based Company Forging a New Path For Nootropics URL: https://futuresharks.com/nuoptimal/ With technology innovating at an exponential rate, and the digital landscape gaining influence over seemingly every aspect of our lives, it’s clear the world is moving at a faster rate than ever before. To keep up, one must be on their A-game at all times when it comes to productivity—whether in their professional lives, at the gym or making life-changing decisions at home.  In a climate such as this, it comes as no surprise that performance boosting supplements, lifestyle brands and other related products have gained widespread attention. Mushroom coffee, the explosive popularity of productivity gurus like Tim Ferriss, the rise of microdosing in Silicon Valley and more are all evidence of the impact of “life hack” culture, at large. Enter nootropics—supplements used to enhance cognitive functions like creativity, memory and drive. From the mental boost of ginkgo biloba to the calming effects of Rhodiola rosea, consumer interest in nootropics is clear as day, and is on the rise. In fact, Zion Market Research predicts the global nootropics market will reach $5.9 billion by 2024. However, even with this feverish hype, there are a number of problems with nootropics that are holding it back from reaching universal acceptance in the marketplace. **The Problem With Most Nootropics** Because the field is still in its earlier stages, there are a couple key issues when it comes to nootropics. For one, there is a general lack of transparency—both in terms of potential side effects of the substances and the ingredients making up the supplements themselves. Like a number of trends that came before it, many opportunists jumped in and rode the wave for a quick buck without first getting FDA approval or educating the customer on what’s inside the supplementdrug they’re purchasing. In the same way scammy Bitcoin investors have put a stain on the cryptocurrency space in the minds of many consumers, self-serving individuals in the nootropics industry have as well. This is why many products on the market today are secretive about the ingredients their products contain. Secondly, due to the novelty of the space, there is an overall lack of scientific research for most nootropics, leading many naysayers to perceive the supplements with hesitation, caution or outright avoidance. As a result, there’s also often a shortage of accompanying information, such as recommended dosages. If a nootropic were to come onto the scene and cure these issues, it would need to be unambiguous in its ingredients, fully-supported by scientists and fitness enthusiasts alike, and undeniably effective. By doing so, it could help bridge the gap between the everyday consumer and the fringe enthusiasts who are ahead of the curve when it comes to nootropics. This is the exact mindset that Mau Pan harnessed when he co-founded nootropics and lifestyle company, Nuoptimal. TWith early support from CEOs, influencers and doctors alike, the Nuoptimal team has come together to create a comprehensive set of cognitive supplements to take your mental performance to infinity. Its flagship product, metaBRAIN, contains three distinct supplements intended to boost customers’ focus, memory and overall motivation. **What makes Nuoptimal different?** There are a handful of reasons why Nuoptimal is different than other performance enhancing nootropics on the market today. Here are just some of them. - **Affordability:** Nuoptimal believes unlocking one’s full human potential shouldn’t be reserved only for those with deep pockets. This is why their products are reasonably priced relative to their competitors—without sacrificing quality. - **Transparency: Today’s nootropic market is saturated with products that are untested by third parties, “proprietary blends” that are secretive in their ingredients, and supplements containing harmful, toxic fillers. With Nuoptimal’s products, you can rest assured everything, from recipe to clinical research, will be disclosed and fully available to the public.** - **More than just supplements:** In addition to the nootropics, Nuoptimal also offers customers a lifestyle brand to help them become their most productive selves and fulfill their utmost potential. This is accomplished through informative content and a supportive community of like-minded individuals. To kickstart the journey to a better self, every customer who purchases metaBRAIN will receive a 16-page manual covering tactics to optimize life and habits to improve cognition. - **Backed by science: The ingredients  and processes used in Nuoptimal’s metaBRAIN and other products are all backed by clinical research.fully backed by science.—with  They’re also using Cambridge Brain Sciences’ brain assessment platform to gather real user data on their cognitive improvement over timequantify leading the charge in validating the while using effectiveness of metaBRAIN.** Nootropics present entrepreneurs, dedicated workers, athletes, creatives and other visionaries with a way to unlock their cognitive peak. In order for the full potential of the supplements to materialize however, companies will need to make their products affordable, effective and ensure they’re backed by research. With innovative startups like Nuoptimal helping to close this gap, the industry is in good hands. You can learn more about the company here. --- ## Eyeing Dramatic Hair Color Change? Rafi Kouyoumijian Reveals Top Things To Consider URL: https://futuresharks.com/eyeing-dramatic-hair-color-change-rafi-kouyoumijian-reveals-top-things-to-consider/ The color and shade of your hair can dramatically transform your overall appearance. A trendy, bright, or neon color can make you look vibrant and outgoing, a bombshell blonde can make you look bubbly and fun, and a luxurious brunette can make you look elegant and sophisticated. Yet, get the wrong color for your skin tone and what should be an enhanced and enchanting transformation can make you look washed out or unnecessarily harsh. Hair designer and stylist Rafi Kouyoumijian knows a thing or two about dramatic hair color transformations. After all, Rafi is one of the most sought after hair designers in the United Arab Emirates and rightly so. His skill and finesse when it comes to hair coloring have earned him international renown. The in-demand stylist believes hairdressing is both an art and a science, thereby urging anyone considering a dramatic hair color change to think carefully and pay specific attention to the following points. Firstly, under no circumstances should anyone contemplating a hair color change should do it themselves. Rafi warns that this is an absolute no-go. The shops may be awash with a tempting array of dyes, but there are a host of things that could go wrong if you attempt to apply it yourself, explains Rafi. Patchy color, the wrong shade, and damaged hair are just a few of the accidents waiting to happen for any would-be DIY enthusiasts. Rafi always advises the client to consult a professional before they make the big leap into the unknown. An experienced stylist will tell you the amount of time required and the exact cost of the procedure. They’ll also let you know what is achievable and what is not. Rafi cannot stress enough that a dramatic hair color transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It’s more of a journey and not just a one-off appointment. The health of your hair before coloring it is also a significant factor. Rafi emphasizes that for a color change to work well, healthy hair is a priority. If the hair is damaged Rafi advises any prospective clients to start working on its health before they embark on their color change journey Rafi explains you should also think long and hard about your natural color and what you intend to change it to. For example, if you are a brunette, you’re choices are limited. Going black or red is usually quite simple. Going blonde however, may take a little more time. For those blessed with red hair, it’s easier to go dark rather than light, but it is possible to go blonde. However, Rafi always advises to carefully consider the shade of blonde you’d like to be. As for blondes, the world is their oyster when it comes to color transformations. Even so, Rafi urges caution and to make sure you are committed to changing your natural hue before making an appointment. For the simple reason that although blondes can go darker with incredible results, it is often a long and complicated journey to restore their natural color. Rafi explains that time and time again, he has seen women get a new lease of life after undergoing a dramatic hair color change, and believes if done right, it’ll be one of the best and brightest decisions you can ever make. --- ## Why Dr. Garrett Wirth’s Breast Augmentation Recovery Program Is All The Rage URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-dr-garrett-wirths-breast-augmentation-recovery-program-is-all-the-rage/ Breast augmentation is the top cosmetic procedure performed in the US every year. This minimally invasive procedure surpasses the number of women undergoing liposuction, nose reshaping, or tummy tuck. Of the total women opting for mammoplasty, i.e., breast augmentation, nearly 50% fall in the age bracket of 18-34 years. As per Dr. Garrett A. Wirth, MD, MS, FACS, breast augmentation helps patients overcome health and body-image issues. As girls cross their teenage, they often face low self-esteem due to small breast size. On the other hand, obese women are mostly not happy when there’s a mismatch between their breast and body size, shape, or volume. Women also witness the loss of breast volume following weight loss as well as pregnancy. For all such cases, Dr. Wirth suggests breast implants procedure as it is minimally invasive, and patients can see the outcome, instantly. Dr. Wirth has an excellent educational background having earned his Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Masters in Science (MS) degrees from Albany Medical College in the United States of America. He is trained in General Surgery and has specialization in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery from the Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery Institute, University of California. While performing breast implants, Dr. Wirth uses ‘prospective hemostasis,’ which is a precise surgical skill that helps in creating the pocket for the implant. The technique helps in preventing excess bleeding, while the doctor makes strategic incisions. Dr. Garrett Wirth gives utmost importance to the patient’s mental and emotional condition pre and post-operation. The breast augmentation procedure at Dr. Wirth’s Plastic Surgery is elaborate and comprehensive. It begins with a one on one conversation with the doctor. Dr. Wirth and his team discuss the issues and surgery outcome expectations with the patient. This is followed by a physical examination where aesthetics and science meet with notations of size and shape differences and a large series of measurements. Once completed, Dr. Wirth suggests the best suitable procedure recommended for the patient including incision sites, the right location for the implants, type of implant (including smooth or textured, round or shaped, saline or silicone, and more. This is followed by a sizing trial to help each woman visualize and participate in any adjustments she may desire in the plans. “There is no rushing any of these steps,” says Dr. Wirth, “as we tailor each surgery to the individual with our goals of meeting and ideally exceeding expectations.” Breast augmentation surgery is usually done on an outpatient basis, meaning, the patient is allowed to go home that very day. The team not only takes care of the patient while she is in their care but also follows up regularly as full recovery is the only priority. Physical activities are usually prohibited after a breast augmentation surgery as they may cause scarring. Dr. Wirth has also devised a comprehensive 24-hour breast augmentation recovery program. With treatment as comprehensive as this, it is necessary to opt for the right medical establishment. Breast implant is indeed an important decision which doesn’t have to be distressing mentally or physically, concludes Dr. Wirth. --- ## The Oral Systemic Connection and Longevity with Dr. Konstantin Rubinov URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-oral-systemic-connection-and-longevity-with-dr-konstantin-rubinov/ IG: Dr.Rubinov The Oral-Systemic Connection – What the Latest Research Shows Dr. Konstantin Rubinov an NYC Dental Surgeon specializing in longevity and anti-ageing with a focus on regenerative and aesthetic medicine shares his opinion on the latest research in the Oral Systemic Connection. What is the Oral Systemic Connection? Dr. Rubinov: The oral-systemic connection is basically a link between the health of one’s mouth and overall health of the body. An important study in 1954 in the Post-Graduate Medical Journal found a link between oral germs such as those that lead to gum disease can actually enter someone’s bloodstream and spread rapidly throughout the body. That study paved the way for further research linking oral health to systemic health. A major breakthrough occurred in 2008 when both the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) and the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) published an article in the same month linking the oral and the systemic micro environments. This spread can lead to chronic inflammation which can lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer. Bad oral hygiene and health has also been linked to rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy complications and most recently to Alzheimer’s disease and early onset dementia. What impact could this research have on Dental Care? Dr. Rubinov: This can revolutionize the way that providers respond to periodontal disease which has been shown to lead to arterial disease and has also been shown to have a genetic correlation. Rather than only focusing on the severity of symptoms like how deep the infection is or the amount that the gums bleed,  dentists now know to measure Oral Pathogens through DNA analysis and create patient specific protocol for treatment and prevention of recurrent infection. According to the American Dental Association, Periodontal and systemic diseases share many common risk factors, including nicotine consumption as well as a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. While the idea that oral bacteria may contribute to disease in other parts of the body has been discussed since at least the late 19th century, for the last several decades a number of systemic diseases have been associated with oral health, particularly cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. There are two mechanisms which have been hypothesized to explain the observed associations. Firstly, chronic inflammation in the oral cavity may increase levels of inflammatory markers in the bloodstream affecting immune response, or adding to the body’s general burden of disease. Secondly, the oral cavity may act as a reservoir for pathogenic bacteria that can enter the bloodstream and affect distant-site or systemic pathologies (systemic endotoxemia or bacteremia). Is there Causality? Dr. Rubinov: While significant associations between oral health status and a number of systemic diseases have been established, the current evidence of these relationships is largely based on observational (i.e., case-control, cohort, and cross-sectional) studies. Associations based on observational studies do not imply causation and may be biased by confounding factors, because “any association could potentially be due to another factor that influences both conditions.” There may very well be unknown genetic and environmental factors that can hinder disease progression from local areas of the mouth to other areas of the body in some people  and it would be very difficult to create a study where participants are  allowed to walk around with active, severe periodontal disease long term just to witness direct causality. That being said, I think it’s safe to say that there is a link if you encounter 5,000 people with severe oral inflammation and active gum disease and a vast majority also have concomitant cardiovascular disease and chronic systemic inflammation. Even though many studies that do control for other potential factors have found links between periodontal/systemic diseases, proving direct causality is still very difficult because such clinical trials as those mentioned above have yet to be conducted. The best advise from Dr Rubinov for longevity is to make sure the mouth as a whole and not just the teeth themselves are kept clean and checked periodically, especially after the age of 40, when inflammatory and cardiovascular disease starts to pose a higher threat. --- ## Why You Need a Personal Shopper, Explains Rachel Choy URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-you-need-a-personal-shopper-explains-rachel-choy/ When people think about employing a personal shopper, too often, they assume that they’re too expensive, or are only for celebrities. This assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. Everyone deserves to be able to put their best foot forward, and the need for personal shoppers extends beyond celebrities. No matter what your needs are, there is a personal shopper that fits *your* lifestyle and budget. Personal shopper and fashion influencer Rachel Choy serves a broad range of clients, offering her services and expertise to all kinds of people. Born in Hong Kong, Rachel currently resides in New York where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her experience is notable, and she knows a thing or two about style. Currently a personal shopper at Neiman Marcus she has been the floor director at Bloomingdale’s, department manager at Nordstrom and a personal shopper at Barney’s. “I love working with people and love fashion. I wanted to be more hands-on with people and help them with their styles and fashion sense,” explains Rachel. Whether we realize it or not, fashion is a part of our daily lives. Our professions and personal experiences are portrayed through style. Personal style is just that, personal, and Rachel understands how personal shoppers can improve anyone’s life. “It’s almost like being a coach,” she states. “I help my clients refine their looks by finding the best pieces that work for them, which builds their confidence. I love seeing my clients’ faces at the end of a session. I know that they not only look good but feel good, too.” She believes everyone deserves the confidence that comes with a tailored wardrobe, and they shouldn’t waste their valuable personal time in achieving that. After all, that’s what she is here for. Personal shoppers are more accessible than most think. Walk into any high-end store, and the chances are that they can make one available to you. However, it is essential to find a shopper who understands your life and style. “Personal shoppers can help eliminate the anxiety of what to wear to that important meeting, that big event or a job interview. They make life a little bit easier because they have access to more brands and fits, and can find the right pieces that work for their clients,” says Rachel. “We take the guesswork out of what to wear. Saving you time and money.” The job has even gone digital. Rachel makes her fashion expertise available on Instagram at @inrachelshoes, where she shares her love of fashion, food, travel, and the finer things in life with her over-200K followers. The quintessential modern woman, she keeps it real by sharing her fashionista lifestyle alongside her day-to-day familial routines. Fresh, fashionable, and relatable, Rachel Choy is the kind of personal shopper that can open the world to you by simply cleaning out your closet. --- ## Serial Entrepreneur and Public Figure Josh Miller Announces New Project URL: https://futuresharks.com/serial-entrepreneur-and-public-figure-josh-miller-announces-new-project/ The Success Club started as an Instagram page founded by Josh Miller and Alex Lombard. Alex Lombard is now the Owner and CEO, and Josh Miller is a partner and a strategic advisor. It started with a vision to inspire millions of young entrepreneurs to be there best; it has now evolved into a movement of millennial entrepreneurs/young pros that are living their passions, achieving their dreams, and impacting many other people around them. Today, the success club is a movement of leaders and they look forward to connecting and be on this journey together. Welcome to the club! https://instagram.com/the.success.club Josh Miller is known for his following ventures: Inviogr8 Success is a company and his part in cofounding and 2 years of service as COO. invigor8branding.org, success as an investor and trader in the gold and silver options markets, and for investing and being an advocate for bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012. Additionally, Josh said this to us, ” I work with my father David Miller and guided by our core values to seek out humanitarian and philanthropic ventures to create real lasting change, positive impact, and doing so strategically to create collaboration around key issues and find solutions that have multiple benefits. within the Jacksonville community, and the wider United States. In education, poverty eradication, infrastructure, economic empowerment, rights of all human beings.” The road to entrepreneurship is often a treacherous one filled with unexpected detours, roadblocks and dead ends. There are lots of sleepless nights, plans that don’t work out, funding that doesn’t come through and customers that never materialize. It can be so challenging to launch a business that it may make you wonder why anyone willingly sets out on such a path. “I first started off with an idea of wanting to gain a skill set and Build capacities around understanding social media marketing and how the next generation and future generations are going to communicate and share ideas and information. I gained experience and had success in first network marketing, then co-founding a social media & digital marketing company, Invigor8. I am now leveraging those skillsets of I learned co-founding and growing Invigor8. Yet despite all these hardships, every year, thousands of entrepreneurs embark on this journey determined to bring their vision to fruition and fill a need they see in society. They open brick-and-mortar businesses, launch tech startups, or bring a new product or service into the marketplace. --- ## David Zhao is Reinventing Hotpot Dining with ‘The X Pot’ URL: https://futuresharks.com/david-zhao-is-reinventing-hotpot-dining-with-the-x-pot/ Sometimes to really embrace the future, you have to look to the past. Nowhere else is this as true as it is in the world of food. Restaurants are filled with old-world dishes meeting new world techniques, traditional styles redone through the lens of the modern. That’s David Zhao’s approach with The X Pot, a new eatery coming to the Grand Canal Shoppes in Las Vegas’ Venetian Resort that mixes the ancient culinary art of the hotpot with state of the art, smart robot technology. Zhao seems to have a lot of luck with hotpot dining, but he knows what he’s doing. A native of Shanghai, co-founder and managing director of the NXT Group, all-around a high-flying voice in the world of finance and investment, he has already had success in the world of restaurants and dining. And in a very similar way. His Chubby Cattle restaurants, with locations in Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Denver, have already made waves in further popularizing hot pot dining. The X Pot is taking hot pot dining into the next level. It will, for example, be one of only nine restaurants in Las Vegas that offer up certified A5 Wagyu and the only hot pot cuisine on the strip. “Hotpot dining is becoming better-known in North America for sure,” says Zhao. “I hope The X Pot will help further ingrain that. Like Chubby Cattle, we want to present it all in a modern and dynamic spirit, but without losing any of the authenticity.” The modern take is highlighted by what X Pot is calling a “multi-sensory serving experience.” Automated servers, 360 visual projections, thematic soundscapes, and even light shows that project directly onto the plate, The X Pot is a chance to use a traditional dish to project into the future. “I love this idea of a dish with such a long history being able to ride this futuristic wave,” he says. “And of course, it all tastes amazing. There’s an experience at the X Pot that is completely and one hundred percent unique.” --- ## The Family Man Who Builds Family Homes: Tom Shvadron Proves That Caring Is Crucial URL: https://futuresharks.com/tom-shvadron/ Tom Shvadron is a construction entrepreneur based in Los Angeles California emphasizing collaboration, teamwork and efficiency. He is also the Owner of Levelworks Construct & Renovate inc. Today, we dive a bit more into his story. **City where you’re from:** Los Angeles California **Favorite quote:****** *The road to success is always under construction.* **Social accounts**: - Facebook - Instagram - Levelworksinc.com ## Tell us about Levelworks. What made you start your own business? **Tom Shvadron****:** I’ve always loved the outdoors and working with my hands, creating and building something from nothing is very satisfying to me. So, the home improvement industry was always a natural fit. I spent ten years working in the business as an employee. I worked in many different positions within the field, I worked as a landscaper, I lay bricks, I worked in carpentry, eventually I moved into helping with designs and ideas, worked directly with customers and learned so much as I progressed. I excelled in everything I did, because I loved it, but was I realized to be the most important ingredient in my field, is communication with the customer. The better the communication, the more trust is built, and the easier it is to complete the job efficiently and with great satisfaction from the customer. That’s when I came up with the idea for Levelworks. A construction company that is based on customer relations. Where communication is the forefront to every decision, where we follow our customers wishes fully, explaining the pros and cons of every choice and design they choose, and our customers receive great service, and not just a great product. That’s what yields the best results. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? **Tom Shvadron:**I had a pool of customers right from the beginning. I had been working in the field for years, and eventually became the lead contractor on the jobs, this meant that the clients had the most communication with me. Most of the homeowners I worked with had previously fixed up elements of their homes with other companies, and had their mixed experiences, so when they met me, we discussed all of their concerns, and suddenly they found a person who actually cared about their satisfaction and wanted a positive experience for them. They really connected with me. When I opened Levelworks, I reached out to them and told them about the exciting news and asked that they recommend me to their friends if they felt comfortable. Fortunately, they were thrilled to do that, and so my first customers came from their recommendations. Hard work and a positive attitude really does pay off. It’s a win-win for homeowner and construction company. ## What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? **Tom Shvadron****:**Communication. We communicate better than other companies. Levelworks emphasizes on collaboration, teamwork and efficiency. Communication is key for all three. For most people construction is a job, a means to an end, a way to pay the bills. For me it’s a dream, it’s my passion, so it’s important to me that it’s done right. I care about my customers, I see them as friends, who want help creating a beautiful and peaceful home for their families, a place to be together. I go into every meeting with that in mind. I train all my employees to think that way, and to be sensitive to the clients’ needs. After all, we are in their homes, their sacred space. One of the things we’re most proud of, is our 100% customer satisfaction. We are very conscientious, because we want to turn their dreams into a reality. We recognize when the homeowners need that extra bit of attention, and when they are calm and satisfied. That awareness delivers better results and allows a positive and exciting experience for all involved, especially the client. We are constantly learning and growing. Many companies believe they have all the answers and that’s what makes them professional. I believe that that’s what makes them obsolete. The market is constantly changing, expectations change, and each customer is different. Being attentive and versatile is important, learning is vital. That is what makes a professional. ## Where do you see yourself and your company in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Tom Shvadron****:**We want to grow, growth is progress, and progression is what keeps us happy. The more satisfied homeowners we have, the more we grow, marketing through word of mouth, has been a huge asset to us. We are actually in tremendous growth right now. We are increasing our versatility, and now provide a wide range of services, which actually brings more business. A customer might want their kitchen cabinets done, but when they see examples of our glass extensions, they decide to expand the living room as well. Work begets work, as they say. We work with our own trusted crews, who specialize in different trades, so we can perform magic in kitchens, bathrooms, hardscaping, outdoor renovations, as well as the rest of the home. I’m proud to be able to provide many different products and services, while excelling in each and every one. On a more personal note, I’m a family man. I’m married and have an amazing two year old boy who challenges and amazes me every day. I want more kids, I want a healthy and happy family, and one day I want to build our own dream home, where we can spend time together and be a family too. --- ## Dr. Shim Ching on The Difference Between Plastic Surgery and Cosmetic Surgery URL: https://futuresharks.com/dr-shim-ching-on-the-difference-between-plastic-surgery-and-cosmetic-surgery/ If you’ve always thought cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery were once the same, you’re not alone. A significant number of plastic surgeons choose to focus their practice on cosmetic surgery, and as such, the terms are often used interchangeably. But this is not technically correct. Cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery are closely related specialties, but they are not the same. Dr. Ching’s medical education and training placed a strong emphasis on developing the surgical skills needed to adopt the latest innovations. That philosophy guides Dr. Ching’s approach to plastic surgery today, creating results that look natural and beautiful by combining his experience and talent with the latest devices and innovative techniques at his disposal. Dr. Ching’s passion for plastic surgery compels him to remain at the forefront of the field and continue to explore how technology can help Asia Pacific Plastic Surgery offer an even better experience to patients. Dr. Ching’s reputation as a plastic surgeon who blends artistry and skill has been honored many times, both here in Hawaii and nationwide. He has been named as one of the Best Doctors in America since 2011, a recognition reserved for the nation’s top 5% of doctors. He also earned first place in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s People’s Choice Awards since 2013 and was among Honolulu Magazine’s Top Doctors in Hawaii since 2011.  Castle Connolly Top Doctors has also awarded Dr. Ching Best Doctor status since 2016. Honolulu Magazine has also awarded our practice, Asia Pacific Plastic Surgery as the best cosmetic surgery practice in Honolulu since 2015. While both cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery deal with improving a patient’s body, the overarching philosophies guiding the training, research, and goals for patient outcomes are different. What is cosmetic surgery? Cosmetic Surgery: Focused on Enhancing Appearance The procedures, techniques, and principles of cosmetic surgery are entirely focused on enhancing a patient’s appearance. Improving aesthetic appeal, symmetry, and proportion are the key goals. A cosmetic surgery can be performed on all areas of the head, neck, and body. Since cosmetic procedures treat areas that function properly, cosmetic surgery is designated as elective. Cosmetic elective procedures are performed by doctors from a variety of medical fields, including plastic surgeons. What is plastic surgery? Plastic Surgery is focused on repairing defects to reconstruct a normal function and appearance.  Reconstruction can be for facial and body defects due to birth disorders, trauma, burns, and disease.  While many plastic surgeons choose to complete additional training and perform cosmetic surgery as well, the basis of their surgical training remains reconstructive plastic surgery. In fact, in 1999, the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons changed its name to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons to more strongly communicate the message that “plastic and reconstructive surgeons are one in the same.” Physicians who become board certified in plastic surgery are required to complete one of two routes of training: 1. An integrated residency training that combines three years of general surgery and three years of plastic surgery or; 2. An independent, five-year residency program in general surgery followed by the two-year plastic surgery residency program. Residency programs in plastic surgery may include cosmetic surgery as a portion of a surgeon’s training, but typically do not include training on every cosmetic procedure. --- ## Human Resources Expert Adam McCoy Shares Strategies to Prepare for the Future of HR URL: https://futuresharks.com/human-resources-expert-adam-mccoy-shares-strategies-to-prepare-for-the-future-of-hr/ In this day and age, HR professionals have become workforce advisors. As their roles continue to evolve it’s more important than ever to keep a pulse on the industry. Today, we had the distinct please of chatting with HR industry expert and executive, Adam McCoy, MBA, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, GPHR. 1) Can you start by telling us about your organization (Mile High SHRM) and its mission to prepare for the future of HR? **Adam McCoy:**Mile High SHRM is the largest HR association in the state of Colorado and is amongst the 20 largest in the nation. We exist to educate and connect our members, to the leading trends in HR, and to create a strong network within the area, where HR professionals turn for resources and connections. The vision of Mile High SHRM is to be the Human Resources community in Denver you turn to for cutting-edge knowledge, to build lasting connections that create a foundation for your personal success and to drive business value for the organizations we serve. Mile High SHRM is an organization of business leaders and professionals with expertise and knowledge in Human Resources who are the voice of HR in the broader Denver metro area. Our mission is: -To provide high-quality relevant education on both foundational and trending HR topics; -To offer professional-grade networking and connection opportunities that enhance the skills and visibility of our members; and -To create experiences for our members and volunteers to engage and impact the community. 2) How can entrepreneurs benefit from joining Mile High SHRM? **Adam McCoy:**Entrepreneurs who are looking to make connections with HR leaders in Denver have but one place to look, MHSHRM. We offer opportunities for in-person networking throughout the year, where HR Pros can connect with Resource Providers of all types and sizes, to help them solve their pressing HR needs. The most successful entrepreneurs use our events to make connections in a non-salesy way, but where they’re authentic desire to help HR Pros comes across, and they become a natural outlet for the HR Pro in need. 3) What are you most excited about with this year’s Mile High SHRM Annual Conference? **Adam McCoy:**This is my favorite event of the year…it’s truly an opportunity to feel the power of the HR community throughout the front range. When we all come together, you can see a group of influencers who are shaping the human talent quotient for years to come! It is an event which is full of networking and educational opportunities, where we all take time away from our busy schedules to pause and learn…something we need to do more of, but this is a start. 4) What is the single biggest change you expect to see this year and beyond with HR? **Adam McCoy:**I expect to continue to see changes in the legislative arena, as more employee friendly legislation will work its way through the Colorado State house, which will impact us all. These will likely collide with similar changes on the Federal level, and as HR Pros, we’ll need to figure this course out together. Beyond some of these changes, I do expect HR to be pressured to look for talent in more non-traditional talent pools, especially as the market begins to cool, and talent tightens up even more than now. We also will need to ensure our workplaces continue to evolve and meet the needs of the multi-generational workforce, which can create conflicts if not well managed. All this said, it will be an exciting time to come for HR Pros in Colorado, and when we work collectively as members of MHSHRM, we will shape the future together! Follow Adam on Twitter Register up for Mile High SHRM’s annual conference: here. --- ## Top Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2020 URL: https://futuresharks.com/top-entrepreneurs-to-watch-in-2020/ It’s 2020, and the entrepreneur pool is only getting bigger. There is so much interest in starting a new business, as well as side hustlers taking their once part-time gigs to new full-time heights with their own brands. With so much shuffle going on in the business world, it’s hard to know what advice to take a leave. We feel that experience trumps all. We spoke with various entrepreneurs with experience in an array of industries such as fitness, tech, and lifestyle. Here’s their advice for those looking to scale their business this year. **Emily Vavra** Emily Vavra is a renowned speaker, health and wellness entrepreneur, and expert network marketer. Emily provides people with the training, tools, and support to create residual income and find financial freedom. Her reach extends far beyond business, as she is also involved in charity. Emily recently traveled to Uganda with Just Like My Child Foundation, in a collaborative effort to improve healthcare, education and to establish empowerment programs for young women and children. “Get crystal clear on what it is that you want to do, and why you want to do it. Keep in mind that the obstacle is the way and you’re going to have a lot of things come up. What decides if you’re going to make it through is how strong your vision is and how big your why is.” **Heather DeSantis** Heather DeSantis is the CEO and Founder of Publicity For Good and Press Demand. She was also Miss Ohio International and a Forbes 30 under 30 nominee. For 2020 DeSantis will be taking PFG on the road with her Airstream around the US so she can create media mixers, get involved in influencer meetups, and meet with clients one on one. “Becoming more than the product you sell is imperative for scaling up. (*What’s your story? Why are you an expert? Why should I buy from you? How is your company giving back? Are your ingredients ethically sourced?*) All of these questions are human connection marketing tactics that must be followed in 2020. With over 627,000 businesses being launched every year businesses must enhance their brand with social media posts and media interviews that contain content that is deeper than the product itself. Adding Thought Leadership as seen with media features will support every business with scaling up.” **Megan Yelaney** Megan Yelaney is a business coach and strategist for online entrepreneurs. She helps entrepreneurs start and scale their businesses to six and multiple six figures focusing on client attraction, social media strategy, launch strategy, and client retention. “One of my tips to scale in 2020 is to hire the right help! I scaled my business drastically in 2019 and it was hands down because I outsourced a ton and was able to purely focus on my zone of genius. This not only let me show up more fully for my clients and audience, but saved me time and energy, all while increasing my revenue.” **Isabella Silverio** As the CEO of Guava Empowerment, Isabella Silverio is a business and CEO Embodiment coach who helps women circumvent the uncomfortable pressures of running an online business by guiding them through my unique framework: Foundation, Innovation, Generation. She helps women narrow down their messaging to attract qualified leads online through social media – so that they may monetize off their own expertise. “If you are an entrepreneur who is looking to scale their business in 2020, then it’s time to play a bigger game. Diversify your offerings so you can help more people and then leverage your clients results to grow exponentially by converting them into evangelists for you and your company. Hire and lead a team that is motivated to grow your business for you.” **Melissa Ruiz** Melissa Ruiz is a Registered Yoga Teacher, Mindset Expert, and Online Soulprener Business Coach. After working as a TV producer for 13 years, she left everything behind to pursue her passion and purpose. Melissa quit her 6 figure job, got a divorce and now helps other women move past their own fears so they too can build the life & spiritual businesses they desire. “Make personal connections with your ideal clients. In order to scale your business in 2020, it’s going to take personal connections and branding to really scale and sustain. What makes you different is what will set you apart in 2020.” **Evelyn’s Huynh** Evelyn Huynh is the founder of the E.V.O.L.V.E Method and CEO of EH Fitness. She is a business and life coach hybrid for her clients — with fitness, health and wellness aspects. Evelyn has been able to overcome body dysmorphia, bullying, anxiety and depression, and turned it into a multiple 6-figure coaching business supporting other women that have experienced similar challenges in life. “Stay in your own lane, because there will be many people and things along the way that will distract you from attaining your goals and dreams. It’s crucial that you define YOUR own version of success because if you are focusing on what everyone else’s idea of success is, you’ll never achieve it and you’ll never feel fulfilled.” **Dre Fox** Dre Fox is a business coach that teaches influencers how to monetize their message on social media channels. “The challenge that Instagram entrepreneurs make, is not creating scalability in their business. They hold their phones from sun up to sundown, trapped in an endless hamster wheel. Those that are most successful with scaling, have implemented tools and systems like onboarding automation, speaking one to many and creating teams with digital employees. Once the business begins refraining from trading time for money and looking beyond what’s in front of them, it’s easy to see a wider path ahead. With new systems and higher-priced offers, Insta businesses are able to rapidly scale and grow their business.” **Cole and Sonja Hatter** Thrive is an experience designed to inspire attendees to pursue success with greater enthusiasm than they ever have before, with the end goal not being a large houses and exotic cars (those can be by-products along the way), but living a meaningful life to create a positive impact, making their lives and the time they have truly matter. “We believe that money is a utility, not a destination; so, work hard to make as much money as you can then use it in an influential manner.” **Jeff Fenster – Everbowl** Jeff Fenster is the CEO and Founder of craft superfood chain, Everbowl. Jeff was named a top 100 Entrepreneur in America under the age of 35 in 2013 by Empact, named a Top 40 Executive under 40 by the Business Journal in 2019 and was also recently a finalist for CEO of the year (2019). “There are 3 main things you should focus on to quickly scale your company in 2020. The first is all about making friends and having fun! The second is to leverage your ‘relationship capital’. Lastly, make sure you are the dumbest guy or girl in the room within your company.” **Jason Greer** Jason Greer is the president of Greer Consulting, Inc. (GCI). GCI is a labor and employee relations management firm that focuses on helping companies solve issues that keep executives up at night. “In terms of scaling for 2020, businesses need to focus on tapping into the core strengths of their employees. So often Companies will outsource to compensate for perceived needs when the reality is that their employees understand the business needs just as well, and at times better, then they are given credit for. Employees want to contribute to the success of a company but they often feel as though their voices do not count.” **Sid Clevinger** The Better Leads Institute is a place to come and build a highly converting marketing system of clients that stay, pay and refer. They focus on five specific steps to selling more of their client’s stuff online and those are lead generation, lead flow, emotionless sales process (ESP), Transactional Zones and Retention. Their goal is to give every entrepreneur, coach, and agency an opportunity to discover how to rapidly grow online without spending a lot of money. “I believe in any advertising or marketing you have to go where the eyes are. In 2018, there were more eyes looking at social media advertisements than television advertisements and projects say that will continue to increase heavily in the upcoming years. With this, I believe it is essential now more than ever to create positioning online in a target-rich environment so you can be where the eyes are who are looking for your stuff, and that’s online on social media.” **Matt Sweetwood** LUXnow was created to provide the best of luxury on one convenient platform – a secure and transparent peer-to-peer marketplace to access and share exotic and luxury autos, homes and yachts – when and where you want it. Through Android and iOS apps, website and concierge services, LUXnow combines community and technology to provide an intelligent way to experience luxury. “Scaling your business requires a specific, realistic goal and a clear understanding of what it takes to achieve that target. Saying I want to ‘grow big’ to sell my company is not going to scale anything. Setting a goal of say, $5M in sales, knowing that number is what it will take to get significant financing, and knowing that you will have to hire two people for your marketing department, three for your sales department in the next 60 days, and spend $500,000 in advertising dollars is the kind of thinking that leads to scale.” **Giridhar Akkineni** AkkenCloud is the most comprehensive, enterprise, cloud-based platform available for staffing and recruiting agencies, built to streamline front office, middle office, and back-office workflow. With the use of the AkkenCloud platform, customers have seen an increase in efficiency, placements, and profitability. “It’s important for users and agencies to improve brand awareness, leverage social media to reach your target candidates, and convert site visitors into leads. This visibility will lead to increased discoverability by potential prospects via search engines and social media.” **Ben Walker** Transcription Outsourcing, LLC provides high-quality law enforcement transcription, legal transcription, academic transcription, financial and business transcription, medical transcription, and general transcription services to clients across the United States. “Make 2020 the year you ‘do’ stuff instead of just ‘talk’ about stuff. So many people put things off and say they are going to start the addition on their house, lose weight, start a new company and they never actually do it.” **Drew Canole** Organifi is a superfood company, committed to making health convenient and accessible to its clients. They distribute throughout the world, the highest quality superfood ingredients possible. “2020 is the year of omnipresence. Once you get a traffic source our two working – how can you be everywhere your avatar is? Furthermore, understanding the buying decisions of your confined will set you apart from most other online retailers.” **William Alfred** MusicDigi allows musicians to release unlimited album or songs on the world’s largest digital platforms like iTunes, Spotify, TikTok, Amazon, Tidal, and many more, all for just $39.99 a year. “Listening to music in the office has been proven by science to reduce stress and increase the productivity of workers. Nothing scales your company faster than happy and highly productive employees. Invest in great music for your office and watch your company growth begin to soar.” **Dan and Casey Fleyshman** Elevator Studio has spent more than anyone on influencer marketing and they’re able to do this because they pay so many influencers on salary every month. Influencers love them because we pay them consistently and brands love them because they get influencers at great rates. “A tip for how to scale in 2020 would be to make sure your brand is Omnipresent and can be found somehow across all platforms.” **Brandon Steven** Brandon is the founder and CEO of Steven Enterprise, LLC. Brandon is a philanthropist and successful serial entrepreneur with a focus on the automotive industry. Brandon has often said he is in the team building business and see this positive team environment as the reason for this success. Brandon employes over six thousand people in Wichita, Kansas, and spends about 35% of his time on philanthropic endeavors. “Rocketship off today. It’s great to have long term goals, but at the end of the day, you have to get going. Don’t look at the big picture every single day. Get your morning off with a win, get your day going by checking something off your todo list.” --- ## Influencer Alonzo Earle On The Process Of Being A Successful Sports Agent URL: https://futuresharks.com/influencer-alonzo-earle-on-the-process-of-being-a-successful-sports-agent/ The definition of a successful sports agent is someone with great clients. Recruiting and signing them is a skill every sports agent must master. Players in college football are coming to decision point this month regarding the agents who will represent them for the 2017 NFL Draft process. There are almost 1,000 NFLPA certified agents vying for the representation of many less draftees and players who will be undrafted. It is necessary to be certified by the NFL Players Association to be allowed to recruit and sign players. Having a strong philosophy and game plan for clients is critical to secure their trust. The NCAA rule regarding interaction between agents and college players has been badly misunderstood. Agents are allowed to talk to players and parents from the minute the child comes into the world until the end of a players career without impacting the player’s collegiate eligibility as long as they don’t violate two rules. 1)The agent cannot give something of value to the player or his family. 2)An eligible player cannot commit to an agent orally or in writing while eligibility is remaining. State laws may govern when and how contact can take place and it is important to be aware of these state limitations. Compliance departments and coaches can also restrict interaction, especially during the season, but these are university rules, not NCAA. Celebrity sports agent Alonzo Earle, an up and coming sports agent who decided to forge his own path in the ultra-competitive representation industry. He has been the genius behind cultivating many athletes’ brands and growing them into international sensations. Earle says, “How athletes decide on agents is a tale of two cities. Most athletes will empower a family member ​(Mom, Dad, Uncle, etc.) or use a university compliance department​ to be the contact point for interested agents. That ​individual​ will set up a process for discussions with agents.”  Earle continued to tell us that if an agent can establish a dialogue and relationship with the screener some time prior to decision point, it is very helpful. Waiting too long for initial contact may result in not being considered at all or perceived as not having long-term interest.​  “The ​screener​ may want to schedule meetings with the family or with the athlete himself prior to the playing season. Or that may be deferred. Players become eligible in two groups–players whose colleges are not competing in bowl games are available for signing now. The second group will become eligible from mid-December to early January. Generally, a smaller group of agents will be invited to make presentations–and those presentations are critical. The interviewing individuals may have a set of due diligence questions provided by the union or prepared themselves. Background and training, former and current clients, and philosophy will be topics. Different family members, current and past coaches, pro players, friends may all have input into the decision–so it is important to develop relationships with a village. Ultimately the agents will narrow down until a final selection is made.” Players who have no parental or university guidance may be left on their own. These situations are fraught with the potential for abuse, says Earle. It is hard for the athlete himself to effectively evaluate and conduct due diligence into the background of agents or financial planners. In these situations, money and large guarantees may be offered or transferred in violation of the NCAA rules. As long as neither agent or player reveals these arrangements, and no massive change of circumstances is obvious, the buying and selling of clients is never picked up. --- ## How to Get Started Acquiring Businesses URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-get-started-acquiring-businesses/ Many people shy away from acquiring businesses, thinking it’s far more expensive than starting up your own. However, acquiring businesses actually will take you just as much money and time as starting a business from scratch – and, it’s less risky, because starting a fresh new startup may not have the customer validation or recognition to guarantee success. You don’t need millions in the bank, or even the years of experience that you imagine when you think about the big wigs on The Profit or on Shark Tank.  I’ve mastered the art of acquiring businesses and share tips in my Acquisitions Academy, and the following are steps I’ve learned from my own experience. Like with anything you’re getting started with, the very first steps are key and lay the foundation for the rest of the process. The heart of getting started with acquiring businesses is finding business owners who are looking to sell, and making sure they can trust you. Without these initial components, it will be very hard to start acquiring businesses. 1. **Understand your skills and personal goals.** First, you have to abandon everything you may think about your capacity to acquire businesses. Even if you’re young and this is your first time doing anything remotely like it, you have to present an air of confidence. I tell students in my Acquisitions Academy all the time that most of acquiring businesses is mindset. You have to be confident about your ability to take over their businesses. So, have a list of your past accomplishments, your skillsets, and your network ready. Have them written down and taped to your wall to remind you of your capability everyday, or to rely on during a phone call. If you don’t appear confident, the business owner will sense it and the potential deal will be over. 80% of your communication isn’t actually your words – it’s what you’re communicating with your body language and vocal tone. Get into the right mindset first, and position yourself correctly. I also find it highly effective for you to have your own personal goals ready going into these conversations. Ask yourself what you’re hoping to get from the experience. Profit, of course – but do you eventually want to start your own business? Do you want to swoop up real estate businesses and become a real estate mogul? Having a long term plan will help with your acquisitions strategy, and also help you with step three. 1. **Approach business owners.** Next, finding qualified sellers is key. I don’t recommend cold calls because they can take a lot of time for very little return on investment. What I do recommend is getting out there as much as you can. I tell my students to attend events and start to talk to people – that way, they get to see your face and get to know you. Network at a local five-star hotel. Go to business networking events. Talk to people, take their numbers, and invest time in building relationships. Take them to coffee and get to know their goals. People are looking to sell businesses more often than you think – and a lot of people can be persuaded. As you meet people, you’ll also be able to filter through who is actually motivated to sell and who isn’t. Then after the first real meeting, follow up as much as possible. The first interaction won’t always be enough, even if they are motivated to sell their companies. Continue to email and call – life has ups and downs and changes frequently, so if you don’t hear back, that doesn’t mean the deal is off the table. 1. **Ensure the owner can trust you by appealing to their desired outcome.** I tell people all the time that acquiring a business requires a lot of talking….and even more listening. You’ll be speaking with business owners who are deeply connected to their businesses, and may have run their businesses for many decades. This is why listening is key: in order for the sale to go through, the business owner will want to know that you’ll keep the integrity of the company and that you’re the best person to bring the business to life. It’s scary for them to hand over the reigns of something they’ve spent so long building. It’s their lifeline. This step will also include crafting a vision for the future of the company. Business owners don’t sell only for the capital that they’ll get out of the sell – they care about their employees and the reputation of their company moving forward. So, be prepared to go into the very first conversation with the owner with a high level plan for how you’ll help the owner achieve what they really want to achieve. I’ve seen people acquire multimillion dollar businesses for hardly anything once they master this aligned objective.  These three steps comprise the beginning stages of how to get started acquiring businesses. Finding the seller and establishing trust with the seller is key. --- ## The Technology Behind Self-Driving Trucks URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-technology-behind-self-driving-trucks/ Although the technology in self-driving trucks is in its early stages of development, breakthroughs have become increasingly recurrent. Self-driving highway stunts from companies in the self-driving truck industry were reported recently through mainstream media. Plus.ai recently debuted its current progress in this technology by delivering 40,000 pounds of butter across the united states. The journey took three days to complete, which started from Tulare, California, and ending at Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Before Plus.ai’s presentation, Embark also performed their highway stunt by traveling coast to coast from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida. The journey took five days traveling approximately 24000 miles. This show served as a follow-up demonstration from their previous test route that moved from Los Angeles to El Paso, Texas. Within these demonstrations of progress, the self-driving truck industry opened the public’s eyes that autonomous vehicles are attainable. Self-driving trucks are no longer a futuristic dream. Don’t get too excited, though. The self-driving truck industry is still far from developing fully autonomous vehicles. There are five levels of autonomous driving, and this generation’s trucking tech still sits far away from nirvana. The most developed self-driving trucks still require a backup driver who will quickly take over when an unexpected issue arises. These backup drivers also need to take over when the journey reaches urban areas where driving becomes tricky. Embark, the leading company in autonomous truck technology, confirmed that their continuous development is about to reach level four. Everyone interested in the industry and niche looks forward to their next exhibit. ## What Are The Five Levels Of Autonomous Driving? Since autonomous driving technology is still at its cradle, there is currently no fully automated driving vehicle operating on the road. We may have come across vehicle units with self-parking capabilities, lane and brake assistance, etc. but they still belong to the category of partially autonomous vehicles. Self-driving vehicles have varying amounts of automation, which with five classification levels. ### Level 0 Obviously, at level 0, there is no driving automation. The driver performs all tasks such as steering, accelerating, or slowing down. ### Level 1 At level 1, the vehicle controls several specific systems. It merely assists the driver, and that’s the best it can do. Some of the most common highlights of a car with level one automation include cruise control and lane-keep assist. Cruise control keeps a secure distance between succeeding cars. Lane-keep assist, on the other hand, pushes the car back in the lane upon deviation. Although these features assist the driver to a great extent, the driver is still in control. ### Level 2 Level 2 provides partial automation. Although the system allows the driver to disengage on some tasks, the driver is still responsible for operating safety functions and monitoring the environment. Some examples of technology with level two automation are tesla’s autopilot, and Audi’s traffic jam assist. ### Level 3 At this level, vehicles drive themselves on ideal conditions and with limitations. Unlike at level two, the unit monitors its environment using multiple sensors. From the examples given above, Company Embark and Plus.ai have already shown progress at this level. Vehicles of this level can drive autonomously on highways. Although drivers remain completely hands-off, they need to take over anytime the road conditions become problematic. ### Level 4 The vehicle is fully autonomous in most environments and road conditions at this degree. The self-driving truck industry is in constant development to attain this level of automation. Other issues to consider are the restrictions and regulations the federal government will enforce on this level of technology. If there were fewer legal obstacles, the public would see driverless cars very soon. ### Level 5 Level five is where everyone can find fully automated vehicles. Self-driving trucks and cars of this magnitude can intelligently maneuver through all kinds of environments. Trucks with these capacities require no human intervention. Moreover, automobiles at this level will no longer require steering wheels and pedals. At level 5, motor units received control of all aspects, including safety-critical tasks. Drivers input the destination and leave the rest to the vehicle. Having this level of technology would bring about a significant difference in the world. There are so many possibilities this level of technology can change humanity’s way of life. Imagine passenger vehicles such as buses and taxis with the ability to carry people and drive on their own. For fleet companies that are currently facing a shortage of commercial drivers, autonomous truck technology would work as a great solution. There are countless applications for this technology once it is fully developed. ## Current Self-Driving Vehicle Extent: Level 3 Going back to the self-driving truck highway stunts performed by Embark and Plus.ai, these serve as examples of progress in the level 3 classification. These trucks showed that they could travel autonomously on the highway. Both self-driving trucks showcased the ability to monitor their environment using sophisticated sensors called Light Dependent Resistor (LDR). LDRs use lasers to measure distances. Furthermore, it also uses multiple cameras to create three-dimensional information. While GPS tells the position of the vehicle, lasers, radars, and cameras provide more accurate data on the vehicle’s environment. It allows the truck to avoid obstacles and maneuver accurately on lanes. Having multiple sensors allow the vehicle to obtain accurate info about its position. Merely having one measure doesn’t provide precise and reliable information. ## How Does The Autonomous Driving System Work? The current self-driving system gathers data from multiple sensors and filters out signals to remove the sound and obtain reliable information. Having an ideal environment allows the vehicle to pick good quality information, thus making the journey safer. The system will use the details it collected to make decisions based on detected obstacles and viable routes it finds. Companies with self-driving trucks rely on industrial solutions like Samsara to help automate tracking of hours, prevent accidents, reduce fuel consumption, discover better routes, and improve the quality of their services. While level 5 autonomous trucks aren’t born yet, such solutions to varying business needs would help increase the efficiency and sustainability of the fleet company’s operations. ## In Conclusion It is still a long way before fully autonomous vehicles introduce themselves on the road. The self-driving truck industry is continuously developing and progressing to get to the level of full automation. It is attainable, but don’t expect it to happen in a few months. Besides the current technology, autonomous self-driving trucks may also face legal issues. This mandate may revolve around the fact that current liability laws won’t apply to autonomous vehicles. Still, it makes one of the problems humanity can quickly get out of for the sake of technology and innovation. --- ## Karis Dowe on How To Dominate Your Niche URL: https://futuresharks.com/karis-dowe-on-how-to-dominate-your-niche/ With the rise of ad blockers, DVRs, and streaming music we don’t see as many ads as we used to; which is why influencer marketing is now the most effective form of advertising. Influencers have a loyal following, authenticity, and trustworthiness making them so effective in persuading consumers to buy a product. Karis, born in New York, entered the world of luxury fashion in early 2012 serving as the brand director at the luxury staple Helmut Lang. Since then, Karis has designed for a number of luxury fashion brands including Off-White, Hugo Boss, Miu Miu, Saint Laurent and so on throughout his decade-long career.  Many other renowned luxury brands based full collections off of his original creations. His exact color palettes, graphics, original fonts and garment silhouettes have been directly mimicked by many luxury brands within the past years. Karis has truly influenced the world of luxury fashion behind the scenes. We had a chance to chat with Karis Dowe to get his take on how to be an influencer.  So how do you become an influencer anyway? 1. Find Your Niche: Grab a pen and list your passions. They don’t have to fit in the normal categories, like: Travel, makeup, reviews, etc. 1. Do Something Unique: How many unsuccessful “lifestyle” bloggers are out there? Chances are that you have a friend who’s tried it. They have the passion for fashion, food, and travel but they couldn’t get a following. Why? Because they’re like everyone else. Be different than your competition. 1. Pick Your Channels: You can’t possibly be successful on all channels. Pick one channel to focus on and maybe two more to be active on. 1. Create A Social Media Strategy: Don’t just wing it. Plan out your content. Make a list of the content you want to create for the next three months. Decide how often are you going to post. When will you post? Be consistent. 1. Create Great Content: This is where you’re going to spend most of your time. Make sure you create the best content you can. It’s your brand. And don’t be afraid to invest your money. If you were starting a business, you’d invest money wouldn’t you? If you’re serious about this, you should buy some good equipment. 1. Be Consistent: My favorite podcasts come out on the same day and time every week. Your content should be the same way. I post new articles on my blog every Tuesday at 5PM. You need to give your audience a reason to subscribe. If you don’t create new content, on a consistent schedule, why would they need to subscribe? They’re not missing anything. 1. Promote: You spent all this time creating content, but what good is it if nobody sees it? Remember, it’s 20% content creation and 80% promotion. 1. Collab: The quickest and easiest way to grow your audience is by working with a bigger influencer than you. Remember, there’s more in it for you than the bigger influencer, so you’ve got to help them out to make it worth their while. I figured out this trick with my Forbes articles. If I interviewed big influencers, and let them promote what they wanted, they would share the article and it’d get a ton of views. 1. Engage With Your Audience: This will be easy at first, because won’t have a big following. Respond to every comment, follow people back, etc. 1. Look At The Data: What content is working? Who is your audience? Look at the analytics. Most platforms will give you the data but if they don’t, just look at what posts are getting the most likes and comments. --- ## Advice on Building a Team Like an Explorer From Maximus Yaney URL: https://futuresharks.com/advice-on-building-a-team-like-an-explorer-from-maximus-yaney/ ## Maximus Yaney is a disruptor, entrepreneur, engineer, and avid inventor. A serial dreamer and company builder, we were eager to sit down with him and discuss his outlook on picking the right people to bring into your business. “Before he left on his famous Antarctic expedition, explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton took out a brief newspaper ad which has since entered the halls of legend. “ > “Men wanted for hazardous journey,” he wrote. “Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, consistent danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success.” “Or so the story goes. Even if it’s more myth than legend, the ad has endured to the present day. And everyone, from space explorer to startup entrepreneurs, can learn something from it.” Maximus realizes that business is slightly less deadly than exploration, however: “ Of course, with some exceptions, it’s likely that we won’t have to face the same sort of trials and tribulations as Shackleton and his crew. Unless you’re a member of the inaugural expedition to Mars, chances are you won’t have to face long periods of time with low supplies in a hostile environment (although that does pretty accurately describe a startup). Still, the ad is a great lesson on building team culture and expectations. Also, it’s a valuable look into what people value, especially where it concerns qualities less tangible than salaries, such as meaning and excitement. For these reasons, Shackleton’s words resonate today, especially with entrepreneurs looking to build a team that will match themselves, especially in passion, skill, and ambition.” ### The importance of passion in selection Yaney says that “Building the team is the first step, and in many ways, the most important.” Whether you select people carefully or not, you will make or break your organization with your choices. A disengaged, unhappy team is the death knell for any business.  Consider this: in 2017, polling organization Gallup found that only 15 percent of employees worldwide were engaged with their jobs. In the United States, the number was slightly better, hovering at around 30 percent. There’s one caveat though: in the US, some 16 percent were actively disengaged, forming a small but vocal minority that complained about the direction of the organization, griped about coworkers, and in the words of Gallup staff, did “more harm than good.” “One remedy for this is being fast to fire. If someone is wrong for the culture and bringing the team down, they need to go, for their own good and for the team’s. I’ve seen one bad apple destroy companies when leadership was unwilling to take the short-term pain of terminating that person. I’ve tried to work with people in the past if they’re dragging the team down and being negative; in each instance, the best outcome was a temporary improvement in behavior. The bad thoughts and vibes always come roaring back later on,” continued Maximus. “In these cases, prevention is the best solution. I always select for passion, in particular, choosing people who are doing what they love–and would do it for free. To such driven people, getting paid is a benefit and a bonus, but not the primary reason for their employment.  Now don’t misunderstand me: pay and benefits are obviously important, and employees should receive adequate and comfortable compensation. What I mean is that most people choose their jobs for a narrow set of reasons: perhaps because that particular company could pay them the most for their labor, offers the best benefits, or in their minds, is the best, most strategic career choice. Unfortunately, people who think this way also tend to be unhappy with their lot in life. Those people who didn’t sacrifice their ambitions or defer their dreams, instead of following their innermost desires, are the ones who are most committed to their careers (and companies). Whether that was a designer who toughed it out through the gig economy and eventually found a full-time role, or an engineer who loves the thrill of building things, all these individuals have one thing in common: they are super passionate about their craft–and they didn’t give it up for anything.” ### The importance of “we” Maximus tells us that these dream-chasers are not only exceptionally skilled in their chosen fields, but they’re also team players. You can’t fake excitement or passion, and both are contagious: truly committed, dynamic people who love what they do infect others with the same vibrancy they carry within them.  For that reason, one easy tip to screen for the talented and passionate is to look for the use of the pronoun “we” as opposed to “I” or “you”. When a job candidate uses “we” extensively, it tells me that they are excited about the future of the organization–and are imagining themselves as part of its shared future. This isn’t to say that using “I” or “you” (when referring to the interviewer) is unacceptable. Instead, I will weigh how often a candidate uses “we” versus “I” or “you”, and then act accordingly. Is a candidate thinking of only what they will receive in incentives? Or are they already imagining themselves as part of the team? ### Build meaning and trust your employees! Before you hire a dream chaser, you have to understand several important things. First, studies have shown that meaning is actually more important than happiness, particularly where it concerns individual success. Studies conducted by a range of authorities, from universities to polling firms, have found that increasing meaningfulness at work can supercharge engagement and performance. One survey of 12,000 employees found that respondents who derive meaning from their jobs report 1.7 times higher job satisfaction and 1.4 times higher job engagement than those who do not. Yaney went on to explain: “Trust is yet another important factor. When you hire a passionate, driven individual who takes pride in their craft, you must trust them to perform at their best. This is especially true at startups and young tech companies, which often poach top talent away from larger firms not with large salaries (these companies can’t afford that anyway), but with the promise of building something new and exciting. These people are taking a below-market salary and betting on the end result: the last thing they need is for you to exert power over them like a petty dictator. Consider unlimited vacation, for instance. I’ve given all my employees this perk, simply because I trust them to take the right amount of rest that they need. I treat them as equals because I don’t want to hire a heartbeat. And if you’re going to lead a team to tackle the tough missions–those widely regarded as impossible–then you’ve got to understand that trust, meaning, and passion all go together. If not, what can you offer your team? The promise of a strictly regimented workday and a deferred reward? Good luck finding people who will do that, especially in this economy.” Maximus Yaney leaves us with a warning: “In the end, Antarctic explorers like Shackleton understood something very well. They grasped that people are willing to risk suffering and loss of life and limb if they are provided with meaning, glory, and ownership. True, you may not have to man-haul sledges of supplies over the frozen ice, but these values hold true for many organizations, and not just for explorers.”  “Ignore these at your peril.” **** *Maximus Yaney is Co-Founder and CEO of Kangaroo; Co-Founder of Mohawk; Founder, CEO, & CTO of Titan Aerospace; and an ex-Googler.* --- ## Boca Recovery Center’s CEO Ryan Montgomery on His Addiction, Relapse, & Abstinence URL: https://futuresharks.com/boca-recovery-centers-ceo-ryan-montgomery-on-his-addiction-relapse-abstinence/ It is news to nobody how destructive addiction can be. It can destroy not just lives, but all a human’s potential. Their relationships, the lives they touch, and their contributions to the world’s progress at large. Ryan Montgomery knows this better than most. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Pennsylvania-born was one of those computer whiz kids we’ve always heard about, exposed to computers at ten years old, making his way up through the hacker world and putting his skills into online marketing. In his own words, he did exceptionally well in the field. All was not well, however. Montgomery had also developed a drug addiction. It’s a common enough story, and one we’ve all heard: success mixed with drug abuse. And sure enough, it eventually landed Montgomery in jail. “That was my rock bottom,” he says. He got into recovery, got clean and sober, and along with Christopher Ferry, helped found the Boca Recovery Center in Florida. “Since then, I’ve put my skills in computers and online marketing to helping others overcome their addiction.” Skimming through Montgomery’s Instagram is to see a case study in the phrase “life after addiction.” There are all the markers of success: a house, car, lavish dinners with friends. But there is also a clear sense of purpose: photos of him at Boca Recovery, posts about the center’s scholarship program, and a general encouragement that those who need help seek it. “There’s a reason they call it rock bottom,” says Montgomery. “It really and truly feels like it. When you’re there, it’s challenging to imagine you’ll ever climb back up to where you were before. You can’t live your life with drugs, but you can’t imagine it without them. I’m proof that that life exists, though, and I’m dedicated to helping others who need to realize it too.” --- ## Fitness Guru Austin Duhnam Swears By Calisthenics URL: https://futuresharks.com/fitness-guru-austin-duhnam-swears-by-calisthenics/ We all have that moment of just not wanting or not being able to go to the gym. Let’s face it: sometimes it is simply difficult to make the journey to get there, be it because of traffic or distance or not having gas money, or other reasons. For those of us who have experienced this, Calisthenics might be a great solution.  According to The School of Calisthenics, the word comes from the Greek, Kalos and Sthenos meaning ‘Beauty’ and ‘Strength’. The word comes from the Greek, Kalos and Sthenos meaning ‘Beauty’ and ‘Strength’. It is the art and science of beautiful movement. Calisthenics is the complete package. Body and mind working together to the perfect symphony of mobility, stability, strength and play. Here is some information about the benefits of exploring your potential through bodyweight training. It is the art and science of beautiful movement. Calisthenics as a form exercise includes a variety of movements which exercise large muscle groups, such as running, standing, grasping, pushing, etc. These exercises are often performed rhythmically and with minimal equipment, as bodyweight exercises. The **purpose of calisthenics** is simple—to help you build strength, endurance, and flexibility with no equipment needed. Bodyweight training represents exercise in its most natural form and combines strength training and basic gymnastic movements that can be done anywhere.  Austin Dunham, a YouTube and Instagram famous fitness entrepreneur, swears by this method of staying fit. And his renowned program “The AD Workout” truly works in his favor as well as for this clients’. Dunham has always dedicated his time to utilizing calisthenics training since the time he was in high school. This has made him get immense outcomes like being featured in both university and local magazines. The great success that he has attained over the years has built a large and loyal audience/fitness empire for Dunham on YouTube, amassing more than 600,000 subscribers.  What kind of Exercises Can You Expect From The Calisthenics-based AD Workout? The Calisthenics/Fitness Training program offered by Dunham will enable you attain bodily fitness easily as well as grace of movement. In addition to building your strength, Calisthenics can help in enhancing also your cardiovascular fitness. Dunham’s Calisthenics/Fitness Training program can help you end up developing stamina, flexibility, and strength.  One of the calisthenics workouts covered in Dunham’s program includes ways on how to perform push-ups accordingly. Push-ups are a kind of calisthenics workout that can help enhance your strength, cardio, flexibility, endurance, as well as balance via the utilization of your personal body weight as well as resistance. The types of outcomes you get from performing calisthenics can make you fit and capable of tackling your day-to-day chores properly and in a fruitful manner.  Conclusively, using calisthenics is one thing that really helped Dunham to overcome his fear, become fit and do great things including launching a kickstarter project that grossed over 100,000 dollars. You can also start using Calisthenics/Fitness Training today if you desire to perform extraordinary things which are beneficial to the society at large. --- ## Customized Anti-Aging Treatment Plans According to Dr. Azza Halim URL: https://futuresharks.com/customized-anti-aging-treatment-plans-according-to-dr-azza-halim/ *The natural changes your body goes through as you age can leave you feeling fatigued. Unfortunately, while we can’t stop time, we might be able to slow the changes our bodies go through.* Creating customized anti-aging treatment plans and beauty solutions are a major focus of the medical practice of Azza Halim, MD, a board-certified physician/anesthesiologist. Dr. Halim has a broad and world renowned background in the field through her work with a wide range of surgeons and dermatologists.  “I realize that one size does not fit all,” she explains. “I am a perfectionist. Even though I have worked in virtually every aspect of various treatment modalities from Botox® and fillers to lasers and non-invasive procedures, I take a balanced holistic approach in creating a customized plan to fit their needs.” Incorporating a treatment monthly enhances cellular turnover, which slows as we age. Combining a treatment regimen with medical-grade skin care products will help maintain the health of your skin. What we loved with Dr. Halim in our interview was her ability to be transparent with clients, “Think carefully when recommending products. It is not wise to tell clients to throw away everything they have and purchase multiple products. Prioritize their needs and begin with the most effective products you can provide. After time, add in pre-cleansers, cleansers, toners and the like. They will appreciate your honesty and return it with loyalty.” Dr. Halim’s medical training began at Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. Halim did a research fellowship in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, she then went on to do her internship in internal medicine. Dr. Halim did her residency in anesthesiology, along with subspecialty training in critical care/trauma and pediatrics at Northwestern University. After moving to Florida, Dr. Halim joined a major healthcare group and became the National Medical Director. As an anesthesiologist, she has worked with physicians and surgeons in virtually every specialty. She has continued to build up her expertise in other areas of medicine such as integrative medicine, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and cognitive decline therapies including hyperbaric therapy protocols. Dr. Halim is constantly researching, learning and training to remain on the cutting edge of medicine.  She is also specialized in Aesthetic Medicine and has three trademark procedures which have been presented at Global Aesthetics Conference, Global Virtual Aesthetics Summit, AestheticEverything, and featured in Buzzfeed. Dr. Halim is known for her keen and artistic eye when it comes to the development of each individualized treatment plan to enhance one’s appearance. She focuses on the objectives, health and needs of the patient, rather than attacking only one specific obvious problem. Her aim is to create and implement an overall plan that will enable the patient to achieve a complete lasting rejuvenation. --- ## Finding Love in the Swiping Era with Dating Coach Elsa Moreck URL: https://futuresharks.com/elsa-moreck/ Why is it that dating nowadays is so much more complex than it was a generation ago? That’s the question that set off Elsa Moreck, an Austin based Millennial Dating Coach, on a quest for answers. After a summer hiatus across Europe and a detour in the middle east, Elsa noticed similar trends in millennial dating culture everywhere. “I was blogging online about my frustration with modern dating and the pressure I felt to be married before 30, when I noticed I wasn’t alone. There were hundreds of women echoing my angry sentiments. The dissonance between the life you pictured yourself living versus the reality of your situation can be incredibly depressing. Especially when Facebook never fails to remind you that someone you know just got married.” At the time Elsa was 23 and had plans to travel around Europe for a year to write a book, but she ended her trip early after a “romantic disappointment,” she shares. She explains that her disappointment was a result of a huge misunderstanding caused by her own battle with social conditioning. “Basically, I needed sponsorship to stay in Amsterdam, and was expecting the guy I’d been seeing for less than two months to make legal shifts to prove the validity of our relationship. An expectation completely out of bounds with my core values. But I was being pressured left and right by my family for cohabiting as an unmarried woman.” Having been raised in a traditional Lebanese household, Elsa was convinced the only way to her parents’ heart was a career in the sciences, namely, engineering or medicine, with law being a permissible runner up. Unfortunately, Elsa was drawn to neither and dreamed of being a writer or an actress. “Do you want to starve?” was the question Elsa’s parents posed to her when she revealed the career track she was exploring. After being bogged down by the same response repeatedly, Elsa finally gave up and did it their way. “I studied Marketing with a minor in psychology, and became obsessed with becoming my own boss.” But not too long after she graduated university and shared her vision of owning a coaching business, she was stunned to be met with the same ‘starving’ analogy from years prior. “That’s when I realized my parents and I simply have diverging interests. They want me to play it safe, but I’ve always been a risk taker. So I set off to Europe on a one-way ticket to figure out for myself, once and for all, what I want from my life.” It was also around that time that Elsa’s parents were poking her with questions about marriage. Her mother, concerned with Elsa’s lack of a clear professional track, was hoping she may at least secure a partner able to carry the financial load of them both. “At some level, this messaging was completely infecting my mind. I, too, became obsessed with finding a husband because I didn’t feel like I could do life on my own. This *need* turned me into someone I’m not. When all was said and done, it hit me just how much societal pressure can mold us into inauthentic versions of ourselves and drive us to pursue lives that don’t align with who we are.” Elsa confesses that she felt like an actress playing out a role during this phase of her life. She wanted to get married for all the wrong reasons, and luckily, her plans to do so completely failed. “My trip in Europe didn’t necessarily show me what I want in life, but it definitely showed me everything I don’t. I never want to date from a place of scarcity, equating my value with another person’s willingness to accept me, or from fear of being married by a certain age. It’s just so limiting.” Upon returning to the U.S., Elsa was determined to do things her way. She focused on growing her audience online by continually sharing her take on controversial topics, taught herself to speak and write Spanish, and eventually moved into her own place and started a coaching business. “It was so empowering to make a lap around the world just to end up exactly where I was before I left: eager to shake the status quo.” Now when I date men who don’t agree with my vision, I walk away. When they play games with me, I don’t waste my time. When you live life on your own terms, you channel a confidence that was unseen before. You dictate the tone of your interactions and only choose the best for yourself. That’s what I want for every client I work with. We live in a world where social media and dating apps have changed the way we interact. The dating market is saturated, but people like Elsa are reminding us that it doesn’t matter. According to her, “your only task is to stay in your lane and believe that what you deserve exists. Then, don’t waver in your faith and become the best version of you possible.” As for Elsa’s reason behind becoming a Millennial Dating Coach? “Millennials are statistically the loneliest generation in history. We’ve been taught to value love from other people over the love we have for ourselves. And with the rising use of dating apps and social media, we now have tools to feed that need for external validation more than ever! So my task as a coach is to make you fall in love with yourself and your life’s pursuit before you look for a partner. Because from that place, you can attract the love you deeply desire, and it sticks.” Elsa is currently in love and running a thriving dating coach business in Austin, Texas. Follow what she’s up to on Instagram, or get in touch with her here. --- ## How Cristine Sanchez-Cañete is Helping People from Minority Communities Fulfill Their Dreams to Own a Home URL: https://futuresharks.com/cristine-sanchez-canete/ When Cristine Sanchez-Cañete first started her business she had only $600 dollars in her pocket. She had to choose to either pay her rent for the month or be late in paying, and instead invest in an office to start her business. At that time, she was pregnant, married, and had no income. This motivated her to take a risk and invest in herself and her family. The risk paid off. Within the first year, she was buying a house and her business was growing fast. Cristine is a real estate agent and a professional translator. As a real estate agent she has had great success and has helped countless people in her community in finding their first home. During her twenty years as a real estate agent, Cristine decided to become a broker and is currently licensed in Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia. She also owns her own small business, serves as the Secretary of the US Chamber of Commerce of Guatemala, and member of D.C. for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP). She is also certified as an international real estate agent, and is currently working in Spain and Guatemala. Cristine currently runs two offices, one in Alexandria and another one in Baltimore, and is opening a new one in Fairfax, Virginia. She has several agents who are multicultural and work with minority communities to make their dream of owning their home or investing to make a better living and create wealth. Cristine also advices to continue moving forward, despite going through rough patches. She at once felt at a loss, having lost her wealth, health, some friends, going through a divorce, and being unstable. But she believes the key is to learn from this events and never give up. Cristine’s goal is to become the queen of real estate for minority communities. She wants to cross the ocean, sell in other countries, and help those who find themselves lost without a vision. This is what sets her apart from other agents. For her, it is not about the money, it is about feeling good with herself by helping others achieve their goals. Cristine Sanchez-Cañete will continue working and representing minorities in the process of buying and selling while giving them a chance at fulfilling their dreams. Cristine knows first hand how hard it is to achieve the dream of buying a home and making the right decision when doing so. This is why she has made it her life’s goal to make sure she can do everything in her power to help families achieve that same dream. To follow Cristine‘s journey, please click here. --- ## Teen Entrepreneur and Social Advocate Alyssa Shah Tackles the Vaping Epidemic URL: https://futuresharks.com/alyssa-shah-tackles-the-vaping-epidemic/ Alyssa Shah is a sophomore at The Dalton School in New York City. She is passionate about using her technical skills for social good. Alyssa was one of 20 applicants selected to attend Dartmouth Institute for Security, Technology, and Society summer program and one of 30 selected to participate in the National Security Agency and National Science Foundation GenCyber Program, where she received the award for the outstanding team member. She is a National Center for Women and Information Technology Tristate Award Winner and National Runner-up, United State of Women changemaker scholar, Kode with Klossy scholar, and Health and Wellness Ambassador for the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation. This past summer, Alyssa was recognized by the United Nations Youth Assembly for her work on the UN’s sustainable development goals related to health. Alyssa is a student ambassador for her school, a children’s book reviewer for Bank Street College of Education, a regional ambassador for CyberSensibility, a GirlUp United Nations Foundation community leader, and a presenter for Strong -The Magazine for Girls. She serves on the Congressional Youth Cabinet for Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney and is also on the New York City HRA Youth Leadership Council. When she’s not busy pursuing these activities, you can find her working on her program to educate teens on substance abuse or on the volleyball court. In the future, Alyssa hopes to inspire other young women to pursue their passions and create technologies that will transform society, making the world a better place. **City where you’re from:** New York City **Hobbies:**Playing volleyball, painting, baking, and reading. **Favorite quote:**“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi ## Hi Alyssa, Glad to have you on Future Sharks. Tell us about The DrugSense Initiative. How did you come up with this idea? **Alyssa Shah:**Two summers ago, I was selected to attend the United State of Women conference as a changemaker scholar (1 of 10 selected under the age of 16), where I learned about the vaping epidemic and the war on drugs. After this conference, I started researching the effects of vaping and learned that most teens who vaped did not know about the dangers of vaping, and in fact they thought vaping was harmless and safe. I realized that education was the first step in tackling this problem, but most schools did not have drug awareness programs. I knew that I had to do something to stop the teen vaping epidemic. I created a for the youth, by the youth online drug awareness curriculum with interactive experiences to teach students everything they need to know about vaping and to reduce its devastating effects, and recently received a grant for my program, The DrugSense Initiative. The DrugSense Initiative (www.drugsenseinitiative.org) is a free online curriculum to teach teens the facts and dangers of vaping. I partnered with middle and high school teachers, pediatricians, and addiction specialists to create the learning modules. My curriculum contains modules and interactive lessons on the brain and its response to nicotine, electronic cigarettes, JUUL, marketing tactics, and advocacy and assistance. I believe that most kids would not have started vaping if they knew how dangerous it was beforehand. By creating engaging content, I believe I can educate those who need it most. With the right balance of research and interesting material such as videos and photos, I believe these experiences can effectively inform both youth and adults about what vaping is and why it’s harmful. Each module includes two takeaway questions to make sure that the information was taught effectively and understood. Housed on an interactive platform by EThreeZone, responses to each question are recorded, and this way I can make sure that the material in my curriculum is being understood. I am driven by the notion that my programing can affect positive change. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? **Alyssa Shah:** I first started promoting my program by calling schools in the tristate area that did not have drug awareness programs. I knew that if I was able to partner with one school, then more schools would eventually hear about my program and want to use it. I was fortunate to have my program used in one middle school in Westchester, NY and because of its success, two neighboring high schools asked if they could also use my program. My program has been used by more than 400 students who would otherwise not have had access to a drug awareness program. This spring, I will be partnering with 3 more schools and my hope is that as more schools use the curriculum, other schools will also want to use it. I am also recruiting regional DrugSense Initiative ambassadors in different parts of the country and hope that they will be able to spread the message in their areas. I am also using social media to promote our curriculum. Social media allows you to reach large numbers of people in a relatively short time period of time. ## How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific. **Alyssa Shah:** My program has been successful because the students and schools who have used my curriculum have promoted my curriculum to other students and schools. I have also partnered with pediatricians and addiction specialists and have been able to broaden the reach of my program. Our presence on social media has also driven parents and children to our website and helped broaden our reach. ## How is your company different? **Alyssa Shah:**The DrugSense Initiative is a unique program because there is simply no other online, interactive, and comprehensive drug awareness educational program like it. It is child-friendly and is meant to teach in a non-confrontational and non-didactic manner. DrugSense offers lesson plans that teachers, students, healthcare practitioners, and parents can easily access and inexpensively reproduce. We are working with multiple partners to disseminate our curriculum to those schools and children who need it most. Vaping is a national concern, but we are still learning new information about it every day. When I first decided to create an online program on this topic, I started researching to see if there were any other programs similar to mine. Since there was no other curriculum specifically designed to teach youth everything they need to know about vaping, I knew that The DrugSense Initiative would have a meaningful impact. ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Alyssa Shah:**I think all entrepreneurs should focus on having a well-developed business plan before they take their project from conception to reality. Having a well-thought out plan will ensure that the business runs seamlessly from its early stages through the time it reaches the marketplace. ## What advice do you have for future entrepreneurs? **Alyssa Shah:**I created The DrugSense Initiative because I am passionate about health and wellness and want to educate teens about the dangers of vaping. I would advise every entrepreneur to be flexible in the face of adversity and to stick with their passions because ultimately if you are doing what you love, no one can stop you from reaching the stars. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Alyssa Shah:** I’ve been a fan of Michelle Obama’s since she exclaimed, “When they go low, we go high.” I really enjoyed her autobiography, *Becoming*. Much like Obama, I feel I will never “arrive.” I will continue to learn, adapt, grow, and evolve in my efforts to improve myself and the world around me. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is also one of my favorite books. ## Who inspires you? **Alyssa Shah:**I am inspired by Julie Carrier, the CEO of Girls Lead Worldwide. I heard Julie Carrier speak last summer at the Girl Up Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. Julie spoke about making healthy and successful choices in a fun and engaging way and was able to inspire everyone in the room. She teaches young women to be proud of who they are and to embrace their potential. During the leadership summit, she spoke about the best advice she had ever received, “Remember your ABC’s (Always Be Confident).” This quote resonated with me because it is not always easy to believe in yourself, especially when something goes wrong or you didn’t meet a goal that you wanted to, but if you are confident in yourself, than others will be confident in you. This is one quote I will always remember because it can be applied in any setting, at any time. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Alyssa Shah:** Even though there has been a lot of publicity about e-cigarettes, teen awareness and education will be important in fighting the vaping epidemic. I hope to spread the word about my project through the Congressional Youth Committee for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, United Nations GirlUp, and NYC Youth Leadership Council. I am the Health and Wellness Ambassador for The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation and am working to have celebrities endorse my curriculum and share their personal stories about drug abuse. I will also have regional ambassadors who will use my curriculum in their area. By targeting a broad geographic range of schools, I hope that my curriculum will gain momentum as more schools use it across the country and that eventually al youth know about the dangers of vaping.I ultimately hope my company will inspire other girls to pay it forward and to take on an issue that is facing their community. --- ## How Clonefluence Inc. and Justin Grome Are Taking Over the Music Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/justin-grome-clonefluence/ ### How It Began Over the years, Justin Grome learned a lot about himself including that most of the world revolves around money. Justin was fortunate enough to receive a Canon T3 camera for one Christmas when he was 11. Back around that time, Instagram was just starting to get popular so he used his newly received camera and started uploading nature pictures with less than a few hundred followers. One day Justin discovered hashtags and utilized them only being 11 years old, and his pictures were instantly on the “Popular Page” for the Instagram veterans out there. This immediately helped raise his followers to over a few thousand before the age of 12. Later, noticing that he could make money from social media, other artists and photographers kept asking him for shoutouts and to get posted on his page. Justin started out making minuscule amounts of money doing shoutouts on his page before Instagram stories existed and before he was established. Instagram was his main platform for photography, but Twitter became the platform where he let jokes come loose. Originally utilizing Twitter to give advice to people, he led people to memes which they would go crazy for. His memes reached over 100 million Twitter users in one month and just 25 million impressions on a single tweet. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/1794652bd840.jpg) *Source: thefatjewish* Famous Instagrammers like thefatjewish and others would post his tweets all of the time. Justin’s tweet was retweeted over 500,000 times and favorited over 700,000 times. The tweets would reach so many people that BuzzFeed featured him for having the funniest tweets of the year in 2017. Worldstar featured Justin on their Instagram as well as accumulating over 50,000 comments. Justin was then able to build the platform he dreamed of having on top of his photography. He began to become the face of another notable app, iFunny and just about every starter meme page, but this was only the beginning. The followers racked up over the years, not just from the tweet shown above but from countless tweets posted every day that reached hundreds of thousands. *Source: Justin Grome* ### Continuing the Journey… While his platform was very popular, he used the time to form a social media agency, Clonefluence Inc., which was launched on July 15, 2017. Justin directed a lot of traffic from his page towards his agency. He always had a love for music so Clonefluence started out only doing small promotions for underground artists. Later, Clonefluence was able to market huge campaigns for mainstream artists. Today, Clonefluence amassed quite a resume and very positive reviews from the music industry. Clonefluence has worked with a plethora of artists including Kendrick Lamar, Riff Raff, Uncle Murda, YONAS, Kiki Rowe, Ponce De Leioun, and Skaa. This is when Clonefluence became his main concern because it was growing faster than ever. Instagram became his main platform of interest to display the talents of public figures. Social media can make just about anything possible. --- ## How Robert Martinez is Transforming the Real-Estate World Through Rockstar Capital URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-robert-martinez-is-transforming-the-real-estate-world-through-rockstar-capital/ Robert Martinez is the owner of Rockstar Capital, a multifamily investment and property management company that owns and operates twenty-three apartment communities across Texas totalling 3,870 units with a portfolio valued in excess at $348 million. At Rockstar Capital, Robert and his team work build their marketing strategies through story-telling, something you can’t find anywhere else in the industry. They give open looks into their processes at Rockstar through the DailyRock videos on their Youtube channel and through their various social media accounts. As one of the only owner/operators in the industry, Rockstar Capital manages their own properties, which in turn allows them to give them their full attention and commitment to excellence. Their performance outclasses the competition because they care about their performance. That’s how they’ve been able to accomplish having four properties ranked in the top 1% in the nation for resident satisfaction. Robert Martinez grew up in a middle class family in a border town in Texas and lived his life the exact way everyone is taught. He made good grades, went to college to pursue an engineering degree, and worked a job in Oil & Gas Sales for many years. This is when Robert stumbled upon the real estate industry. He joined real estate groups, listened to industry podcasts, and did whatever he could to grow his knowledge of the industry. Eventually, he made the leap and started a company with a business partner which in turn help him lay the foundation for Rockstar Capital. After some time, Robert left that company to start Rockstar Capital in 2011. He recalls this as one of the best decisions he has ever made. Now in 2019, he possess an industry-leading 12 cash-out refinances in eight years, 17 city, state, and national apartment association awards, and a commitment to story-telling marketing that you cannot find anywhere else in our industry. His motivation to begin this journey stemmed from his need to be the master of his own destiny. Robert firmly believes that a company built around heart, the team mindset, and helping each other reach their goals will have to potential to outclass any other. Through time, Robert has learned to take every failure as a lesson that acts as a stepping stone to his next success. He believes people should learn to welcome failures, as it is an inevitable part of one’s personal growth. Rockstar Capital is a company built around Heart, Innovation, and Dreaming. The way they approach their team, residents, and investors is more personal and transparent than anyone else in the industry. Their marketing strategy is based off of three hashtags: #RockstarPride (their pride in their awards, refinances, and other successes), #RockstarLiving (their stories they can tell about delivering the best resident experience in the industry), and #RockstarCares (their charitable arm and their commitment to giving back in light of their success). Robert’s next big goal is to reach 10,000 units owned and managed within their portfolio, but this isn’t even close to the finish line for Rockstar Capital. Robert plans to continue building his brand to be instantly recognizable and synonymous with independent apartment owning and management, and eventually collaborate on projects at a national level. To Follow Robert Martinez journey’s, please click here. --- ## How Smile 4 Kids is Giving Kids the Resources & Opportunities to Succeed URL: https://futuresharks.com/smile-4-kids/ Jessica Halmaghi is a twenty-one-year-old senior at Michigan State University. She is also the Founder and CEO of Smile 4 Kids, a 501(c)-3 non-profit organization.  At Smile 4 Kids, they are dedicated to enriching the lives of children experiencing hardship by providing hope, instilling resilience, and developing opportunities to succeed.  They mainly work with foster children and chronically-ill pediatric patients, however they have also adapted the type of framework that allows them to never turn a child in need away, no matter what their circumstances are. They strongly believe that how a child recovers from any type of tragedy or trauma is contingent on the type of support they receive.  Each child is unique and responds to support differently, which is why they will take the time to really figure out what is going to help each child. Jessica and her team at Smile 4 Kids work to provide every child with all of the resources, tools, and support they need to succeed. The inspiration behind Smile 4 Kids came from Jessica’s family, specifically her older brother Brandon.  In September of 2017, Jessica and Brandon created Smile 4 Kids MSU, a student club at Michigan State University. Now, Smile 4 Kids is the overarching foundation with multiple university clubs, including Smile 4 Kids MSU, branching from it. They currently have clubs at Michigan State University, Grand Valley State University, and The University of Michigan with over 500 volunteers throughout. They are also in the process of setting up clubs at Western Michigan University and Wayne State University, with a long-term goal of having at least one chapter in every state throughout the U.S. After having to cope with the unexpected losses of both her best friend and grandmother, her mother told her to take the strength that she had and share it with others. Through Smile 4 Kids, Jessica has learned that there really is no such thing as a bad day if you keep a positive attitude. Her biggest obstacle has been overcoming her own perspective. Where some organizations may work to raise funds for research, Smile 4 kids‘ main purpose is to develop and maintain long-lasting relationships with the children they work with to give them the confidence that they are never alone throughout their hardship.  Jessica and her team do this by providing weekly and monthly mentorship, tutoring, and fun activities with every organization they are partnered with. This year, Smile 4 Kids is working towards raising enough money to fund a trade school program at Methodist Children’s Home Society. With a significant demand for trade schools, Jesssica and her team want to give foster children the alternate path and mindset that their future after foster care does not have to be ending up homeless, unemployed, or left with only the option of enlisting in the military.  They do have a future to look forward to and work towards. They hope that this program shows them the value that they have in this world. Through Smile 4 Kids, Jessica and her whole team have been able to transform the lives of countless children by offering them the resources and opportunities they need to ensure that they are able to overcome the hardships they may be facing. The relationships they build with the children works to give them the confidence to realize that they are not alone. As they continue to expand, their mission stays the same, to change the lives of children in need, one smile at a time To visit Smile 4 Kids official website, please click here. --- ## Meet Sam Murray and Kijuan Amey: The Best Friends Who Want To Make Advertising Affordable URL: https://futuresharks.com/sam-murray-and-kijuan-amey/ Sometimes friends are the best business partners, pushing each other respectfully and motivating each other to grow. This is the case of Sam Murray and Kijuan Amey. Sam Murray and Kijuan Amey have been friends since they were five. After school, Sam went to study film production and direction, and Kijuan joined the United States Air Force as an in-flight refueling specialist while pursuing his degree in Computer Information Systems. Soon after, Sam launched his first attempt at starting his own label and production company with Blvck Universe, and dropped his own music under the name Chad Ali. The two of them run a mobile advertising and marketing services business. They are also starting their own music label and non-profit to serve minority males in their community. Their goal is to be a resource and outlet for kids to have a getaway from home and school. The biggest challenges for them as business owners relate to funding and lack thereof. Their business idea is to help all types of businesses, for which they have to have enough knowledge and resources to serve a large demand. But they are deeply motivated to create something to service other entrepreneurs like themselves. Through their business, Sam and Kijuan tackle what they identified as a main issue for small to medium size business owners: the struggle to find affordable advertising in platforms such as billboards, radio and television. Sam and Kijuan could relate to this struggle being aspiring artists and entertainers themselves. In starting their own business, they recognize that mindset is very important because it is crucial to have a positive and stable mindset. Especially given that things will not always go as planned, so business owners have to adapt and be prepared at all times. The biggest obstacles they have overcome relate to their health. Sam, on the one hand, has had diabetes type 1 since he was four. He broke his leg his senior year of high school while playing football and had to go through 13 surgeries to save his leg. Kijuan, on the other hand, was in a motorcycle accident after which he lost his sight. This is also why they are examples of grateful people who are thankful for what they have and try each and every day to be a better version of themselves. For Sam and Kijuan, fear is “false evidence appearing to be real”, it is just an illusion to distract people from maintaining their purpose and chasing their dreams. On the contrary, success to him means not listening to the doubters and proving them wrong by using his abilities to overcome his trials and tribulations. Sam and Kijuan differentiate themselves from the competition in that they only look to compete with themselves. In addition, they are original–there is nothing like what they are creating out there right now. As they work on this project, they look ahead and dream about having the freedom to enjoy time with their family and enjoy their hobbies more. They also want to become philanthropists and leaders of their community, by wanting to fund a studio and other real estate projects in their city. You can follow them here (Sam Murray) and here (Kijuan Amey). --- ## Meet Serial Entrepreneur Ariya Behjat who was able to take his agency from $50,000 to $2.2 million in less than 2 years URL: https://futuresharks.com/ariya-behjat/ Ariya Behjat is the co-founder and CEO of Axenic Studio. He founded the company together with his friend Lewk back in 2015. The company is a creative agency that provides disruptive branding and marketing solutions to first-tier businesses. Since its inception, the company has expanded to a multi-million dollar business with operations in Los Angeles, Monte Carlo, Milan, Dubai, and Calgary. Axenic’s notable clients include Dolby Audio, Mastercard, Lamborghini, Uber, Dj Snake, plus many more. However, this accomplishment was no easy feat. It took the mastery of the two entrepreneurs to grow Axenic into a globally recognized firm. It all began with serving startups. When Ariya and his partner, Lewk directed their focus on startups, everything changed. Ariya recalls how in 2016, they earned $50,000 from the first zero-staged startup they served. They re-invested the money and in the course of doing business, signed up a Swiss company. The duo made $1.4 million that year from that company, a fete that enabled them to hit the $2.2 million mark in no time. Today, thanks to Ariya and Lewk, the Swiss company is now worth $10 million. ## A Man with a Vision Ariya is a risk-taker and a man with a vision. He dropped out of college to pursue his passion for photography. “I started photography professionally when I was 15 years old. It was back in Dubai where I worked as an Assistant for Lasheen Usif,” he says. English is Ariya’s third language. He was raised in Dubai, a region well-known for design and architecture. The transformation taking place in Dubai inspired him to pursue architecture and industrial design. He moved to the U.S to study industrial design in the Bay area. Half-way through school, he was hired by some of Silicon’s valley tech and athletic companies to design and develop products. The volume of opportunities that he received while in school motivated him to drop out and pursue a career as an independent contractor in industrial design and photography. “I was doing freelance design work while touring as a music label photographer. I have toured with music legends such as Above and Beyond, Steve Angello, and Arty. I was self-taught in marketing and branding. I did not have the privilege of strong family support when it came to being an entrepreneur. I lacked the means to expedite my opportunities. However, I knew what I wanted in life. I wanted to be identified as an artist,” says Ariya. Ariya’s pursuit of entrepreneurship led him to link up with Lewk. The two entrepreneurs ventured into disruptive marketing and branding. The accomplishments and experiences of Ariya as an artist offered a strong background for the firm’s success in the field. “I believe that when one has a vision, they could communicate it in any medium. I always wanted to, at least visually, improve everything in my surroundings. The same plays into Axenic, as I truly immerse myself into empowering a brand visually and solving their problems with a wholesome approach.” ## Building a Multi-Million Dollar Agency from the Ground Up In a niche saturated with businesses, it is a puzzle to understand how Axenic was able to stand out. According to Ariya, the key to their success was networking. “After helping a few brands succeed with our services, we earned enough capital to travel the world, as a “business tour.” We did this to identify a robust and unique value proposition for our clients; which was to be able to execute global branding and marketing strategies, authentically,” he says. In the first year, the company started with visual branding and marketing for some of the top music groups and brands such as Above and Beyond, Swedish House Mafia, and Dj Snake. The company also participated in events such as Coachella and the Electric Daisy Carnival. They used the capital obtained from their first clients to engage in exclusive global events, programs, and conferences. “We had three main goals: build relationships, partner with businesses, target potential clients, and seek global marketing,” he says. The tours helped Axenic build a large team of about 30 contractors and employees. It also helped them gain countless clients and international contractors. Axenic was able to grow through networking. “Relationships are everything to us. They include internal and external relationships,” he says. Through these relationships, the company was able to target the right clients and build its brand in the market. Most of the firm’s clients have become their partners. “Most of our clients find our unique expertise and work impressive. This satisfaction provides us with an opportunity to introduce a business to business relationships amongst our notable clients, as well as investments, sponsorship opportunities, and global developments. This relationship is one that our clients only find with us. ## Leveraging Target Marketing and Quality for Impressive Conversions Axenic’s $2.2 million in sales in a matter of about two years is a significant success. The three factors that contributed to this success are target marketing, exceeding in terms of quality service, and conversion of clients to customers. “We like to find ourselves working with brands and companies that we believe in, companies that share our values and purpose in influencing the market and social trends,” he says. The company always strives to offer services that go above and beyond the client’s expectations. “When working on something we are passionate about, we find ourselves exceeding our quality standards, delivering more than promised, and most importantly, enjoying our time doing the job,’ says Ariya. Lastly, by converting their clients to partners, the company was able to expand without depending on bank loans. “We tend to connect our clients. We also connect them to potential investors and sponsors. This interaction, in turn, improves our firm’s results,” he says. The two serial entrepreneurs have mastered the strategy of getting the right clients and converting those clients to their partners. Each year, they take a moment to reflect on their accomplishments and whether they have achieved their goals. “This helps us to get prepared for our upcoming expansion base in the coming year.” ## Conclusion Ariya Behjat’s success was a matter of strategy. From the onset, the two serial entrepreneurs were able to network with the right clients. Also, their first-class products and services enabled them to develop a loyal client base which became their partners. Axenic’s future is bright. “We have many exciting plans for 2020; we are acquiring a digital media agency based in New York (Mercy Agency), we are shopping around for business properties in West Los Angeles, starting a branch in Las Vegas, developing our office in San Francisco, and exiting some of our notable startup clients. We are very excited to see what the future holds, and we hope to always be thrilled by exceeding our expectations.” --- ## Lessons in Entrepreneurship: A Sit Down With the Family Behind The World’s Largest Retail Centers URL: https://futuresharks.com/lessons-in-entrepreneurship-a-sit-down-with-the-family-behind-the-worlds-largest-retail-centers/ You might not yet know the Ghermezian family by name, but you are almost certainly familiar with their work. Their development group, Triple Five Worldwide, is responsible for the creation, ownership and operation of the Mall of America, the West Edmonton Mall in Canada and now the American Dream—the last of which is a massive retail and entertainment center spanning 3.2 million square feet that includes 350 retail stores inside its walls, with more phases to come that will include hotels and other cool concepts. These complexes are the first, second and third largest tourism retail centers—with a whopping 112 million customers projected to visit the locations annually. Altogether, Triple Five Worldwide currently employs 5,000 professionals around the globe, and has created over 50,000 jobs to date. But they weren’t always at the top of the mountain. Long before the family ran a retail empire, they emigrated from Iran to Canada in the 1970s in search of a better life. To kickstart their entrepreneurial careers, the Ghermezians started a Persian rug import business, which they eventually grew into one of the world’s biggest distributors of its kind. Using this opportunity as a springboard, the family then ventured out and launched their new careers in the retail and development space. We recently had the privilege of sitting down with Yonah Ghermezian, an owner and partner of Triple Five Worldwide to hear the lessons and insights he has gained over the years when it comes to entrepreneurship, both from his family and from his own experience. Here is what he wanted to share. **#1. Break down every complex problem into sub-tasks.** Challenges are bound to come up for any entrepreneur or working professional. Whether you run an independent coffee shop or a Fortune 500 company, every day will present you with complex problems, big and small, that you need to solve promptly. To tackle such issues, Yonah breaks every problem down into actionable, bite-sized tasks to make them more digestible and achievable. *“When I am faced with situations that seem like I may have a mountain to climb, I begin to break it down into smaller subsets of tasks which makes approaching it easier. This allows me to get the momentum to working towards success. It’s all about progression. In my opinion, the hardest part of anything is starting.”* By taking large projects and restructuring them into smaller sub-tasks, you will make them appear less daunting for yourself and your team. When done effectively, this can lead to higher morale, increased productivity and an overall better work environment. **#2. Never stop adapting and iterating.** Yonah and the rest of the Ghermezian family have seen a wealth of success, thanks in large part to their focus on the future. By taking inventory of current trends, adapting to them and iterating based on the results of those actions, their projects have withstood the test of time. Their American Dream project is evidence of this attention to detail. The world of retail is changing. In the first half of 2019 alone, nearly 6,000 U.S. retail stores closed and just 2,600 were opened. Additionally, the Harris Group recently found that 72% of millennials prefer spending money on experiences versus purely material goods. What did Triple Five Worldwide do combat this shift? They made American Dream be an *experience*in itself rather than solely a retail center. The complex will have hundreds of retail shops, but also has a Nickelodeon theme park, a DreamWorks themed water park, an ice rink and even an indoor ski resort—giving visitors of all ages a wide variety of ways to spend their time and money. No matter what business or industry you’re a part of, forecasting what the landscape will look like 5-10 years from now and being flexible enough to act on those changes will help position your company to win. Be adaptable, test, and iterate based on your findings. **#3. Don’t write off family as potential business partners.** In the American corporate world, it seems there are mixed feelings about doing business with family. Many advise against it, while others are enormous proponents. The former group will point to emotions potentially getting in the way of making sound business decisions, or the chances of nepotism seeping its way into company culture. Yet, as evidenced by the success of so many prominent families across the business landscape, it’s clear there are a handful of advantages to doing business with family members. One of them is steadfast trust and loyalty. In a typical corporate environment, there are a great deal of self-interested individuals only concerned with working their way up the ladder by any means necessary. While there certainly are exceptions, most respectable members of your family wouldn’t act in a way that would damage or betray your trust. Additionally, because family members grew up together and are so comfortable with each other, they are not afraid to hide their actual thoughts, intentions and criticisms on business issues—as opposed to a typical employee who might fear their critiques would be misinterpreted or misconstrued in a negative light. Lastly, people who grew up in a family running a business generally have the values and skills needed to make it successful woven into their DNA. This can put them at a distinct advantage when it comes to having the tools needed to succeed in the field in general. In the case of Yonah, he grew up watching his father negotiating and closing deals—giving him a masterclass nearly every day in sales and business development. **#4. It’s all about the end user.** Your company can be as innovative and forward-thinking as the industry allows it to be, but it won’t matter if your product or service offering doesn’t delight the end user. In today’s digital economy driven by smartphones, consumer attention is becoming a precious resource as opposed to a commodity item. Today, there are seemingly endless options available to customers along with just as many apps diverting attention away from a person’s physical surroundings. As a result, every touch point that occurs between a brand and a consumer is more critical than ever. Products and features can be easily cloned by engineering departments, but a stellar customer experience is much more difficult to copy. Without a memorable customer journey and experience, your brand runs the risk of not making a lasting impression on an interested individual and missing out on sales. The projects Triple Five Worldwide have created over the years are a direct testament to focusing solely on the customer. Visitors don’t only come to American Dream or the Mall of America for the stores. Instead, they come for the experiences and attractions, and purchase items from the retail stores as a result of being there. By providing customers with entertainment, Triple Five Worldwide is putting the end user above all else. --- There is a lot of material circulating online geared toward helping entrepreneurs succeed—some of it is helpful while some of it is misleading. By examining and learning from individuals, families and teams who have *actually*found success in the business world, you’ll be able to avoid the missteps and mistakes they made throughout their own careers. Following Yonah’s principles are a great place to start. --- ## At 25, Artist Liaison & VIP Service Manager Luis Vento takes Miami’s Nightlife By Storm URL: https://futuresharks.com/luis-vento-e11even/ Luis Vento started working at E11EVEN Miami at the age of 19 years old and hasn’t stopped since. During his 6 years with the company he is the longest tenured employee in the Host Department in which he is the VIP Services Manager for the entire Host Team producing up to $750,000 dollars in sales and has developed strong relationships with the best Hip Hop Artists, Top NBA/NFL/NHL/NBA players and high end clientele. At his current age of 25 years old, he is only getting started and we are all excited on what’s to come once he reaches his full potential. **City where you’re from: Miami, FL** **Favorite quote: “You Cannot Be A Leader Without Having Followers”** **Social accounts**​: Instagram,Facebook,Twitter,LinkedIn ## Tell us about a little bit about yourself and how things got started for you at E11EVEN. **Luis Vento:**I could honestly go on about my experience at E11EVEN but in order to summarize it all up: I started off young in this industry (19 years old). So although I was in a leadership position it was challenging telling these 30 years old men with wives and kids on how to do their job to our company standard but luckily I’m what you would call a “players coach”. I’m a firm believer that everyone needs help so I try to keep them as happy as possible even if it means I’m going to inconvenience myself. Without a team we can’t make our dream a reality. Nightlife is a business in which tomorrow is not promised, but I love it because each and every night I get to do it again.. I started off by being Security and then slowly moved up to a the VIP Hosts, now I find myself as the VIP Manager at E11EVEN. But the hunger for more continues.. *Related: read about*[Nick Manca](/networking-tips-from-nick-manca-vip-manager-at-11-miami/)*, also a VIP Manager at E11EVEN.* ## How did you promote E11EVEN in the early days? **Luis Vento:**​ When I first began working at E11EVEN I literally did not have a network at all and had a hard time bring in guests, tables, celebrities and athletes but through hard work and persistence I took it upon myself to use my personal time to go meet concierges at hotels, managers at high end restaurants, collect business cards and reach out to them the next day to thank them for coming by, invite them to come back and refer any guests that they would like me to take dare or on their behalf. Till this day, I still do these networking strategies that got me to where I currently am in my career, the hustle never stops and any opportunity I have to network I definitely try to take advantage of. Conventions, Events, Concert and Dinners where I could get to know my clientele on a personal level is huge for solidifying the relationship with them. It gives both me and the client a chance to get to know each other for more than booking a table for them leading to loyalty between the client, E11EVEN and myself. We become a friends and family, developing a trust between us all. ## How have you been able to grow E11EVEN’s business? Go specific. **Luis Vento:** ​ I have been able to grow the volume of sales I bring to the business on a yearly basis by setting goals for myself based on the numbers I produced the prior year. I come up with different marketing strategies depending on my target market. Anything from suggestive selling, personal tests, email campaigns, building a stronger social media and engaging with my followers. Supporting any projects, they might be working on as a gesture since I know they would do the same for me, I don’t do it expecting anything in return but just out love. One single individual doesn’t make or break the season. ## What are some secrets on IG? **Luis Vento:** ​ Instagram is in my opinion the most powerful platform in social media due to the fact that it provides the best interactions between users. Word of Mouth in my opinion is one of the best secrets in succeeding on these platforms, a lot of the followers on my page come from a secondary source, meaning that a personal friend or a long term client referred my social media handle over to them and that creates a domino effect as the client referred to me will do the same with a friend of their own. Cross Promoting with influencers and friends, even if my account isn’t as strong as theirs, a lot of the users are willing to feature you on their social media handle depending on the experience you have provided to them every time they’ve come by our establishment. *Read more about*growing your account on Instagram*. Also, how to*get verified on IG*.* ## Teach us something we don’t know about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, volunteering, yoga, sales funnels or another topic you like} **Luis Vento:** ​ Very broad question, but here is a broad answer. Everyone wants to be successful but not everyone is willing to put in the work it takes. You have to set yourself apart from the pack in order to stand out. I don’t really believe in people who speak out of power, I listen to those who speak out of intelligence. People want to see you do good, but they don’t want to see you do better than them. I keep a small circle of friends and family, same ones that I grew up with. Doing what we do, we have so many people that are trying to befriend us just to take advantage of the perks that come with being our friend. Whether it’s the hookup at E11EVEN, tickets to a concert or sporting events, connections to high profile guest. It’s all conditional and fake to an extent, so I keep loyal to those who stood next to me when I didn’t have much, those who believed in me and those who lifted me up when I was down. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Luis Vento:** ​ The best book I have read has to be “The Road to Character” as it taught me a lot of self-growth, reminded me to stay humble, not worry about things that are bigger than me and outside of my control. Just to focus on the things I have the power to change and let the rest come together on its own. ## What are some of your strengths? Pursuing a goal of mine till I reach it, then I am on to the next one. I also think consistency plays a big role in being better than most people, some people get too comfortable in life to the point where they’re just running through the motions instead of being innovative and coming up with new ideas or ways to do things. ## Why did you pick Nightlife as a career? **Luis Vento:** ​ Hmm… honestly speaking I didn’t choice nightlife, it chose me. I started off as a 19-year-old kid looking for a part time job to have some money while I was getting through college and then everything changed. I fell in love with what we do at E11EVEN, the people we work with, the people we meet and the fact that every night we get the chance to put memories in someone’s life that they’ll never forget. We’ve had people propose on our rooftop, celebrate birthdays, celebrate anniversaries, people who have fallen in love with each other because they met at E11EVEN and at times just people who have had a bad day that come to us to escape reality. Where else would I be able to provide these lifelong memories? ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Luis Vento:** ​ Over the next couple of years I definitely see myself growing into a bigger role at E11EVEN and doing more for the company with artist bookings and business development, but my dream is in music. Whether it’s working with E11EVEN Music, Managing Artists or another Music Label I see myself growing in this market. I truly believe that it’s the industry I belong in due to my passion for all the behind the scene work that not many fans listening to their favorite artists even pay attention to. Discovering new talent and helping them become stars or just negotiating deals for an established artist is one of my personal goals that I’m working towards in hopes of just getting the right opportunity that I know I could execute. I’ve learned so much from some of the best artist managers in the game and the advice they’ve given me is unmatched so with that and my creativity I know somewhere along the next couple years I would be a part of an artist’s career living a life I never thought was possible as a kid. --- ## Meet Gustavo Geraldes, the Serial Entrepreneur Using Performance Marketing to Take Brands Skyward URL: https://futuresharks.com/gustavo-geraldes/ With the seemingly endless amount of new, online advertising platforms popping up every couple of years, it has never been easier to get distracted in the world of digital marketing. No matter if you’re an entrepreneur, working professional or marketer, the sheer volume of options at your disposal can quickly become overwhelming—from social media networks to advertising platforms to online publications. On top of that, because they are constantly in flux, these platforms often produce diminishing returns that vary widely based on one’s industry, audience and other factors. One individual who has been able to cut through the noise and provide a solution to this problem is serial entrepreneur Gustavo Geraldes, founder and CEO of Milkit and many other ventures. Of Portuguese descent and now a U.S. resident, Geraldes’ online marketing expertise has given him the ability to help brands meet and exceed their goals. Milkit is a renowned marketing firm that uses performance marketing campaigns and tactics to drive real results for clients in a wide variety of industries—from e-commerce to the financial sector to insurance, healthcare, sweepstakes and real estate. By utilizing well-targeted, persistent direct response campaigns on Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Google, his own proprietary SMS marketing platform Sendii.io, and more, Geraldes has been able to drive millions of dollars worth of sales, countless website visits, email signups and other down-funnel results for his clients. Over his career, Gustavo has won a number of different awards based on his performance marketing campaigns—including breaking a network record at Max Bounty (out of 20,000+ other affiliates) by earning the most money of any affiliate during their first year, generating over $1.1 million of revenue in 30 days on a lead generation campaign owned by Fluent—one of the U.S.’s largest advertisers, and more. In a landscape as riddled with phonies as digital marketing, it’s important to provide visual, tangible proof of your caliber as a marketer, which is why Gustavo chooses to display his many trophies and plaques on his Instagram account as he receives them. **Applying The Same Principles To His Other Companies** One distinct advantage Geraldes has over other marketers when it comes to driving results for clients is that he’s not only the owner of Milkit, which drives high volume profitable traffic to advertisers, but he also uses the same skill sets to scale his other endeavors. In fact, the other companies he’s built from the ground up have all used the direct response and conversion rate optimization skills Geraldes has built up over time to get them to where they are today. This gives Geraldes firsthand experience and a venue for reliable experimentation, which he can then apply to his own projects to rapidly scale them far ahead of the competition. “I own several high growth companies, all built via leveraging my company, Milkit, for performance marketing. Under the Milkit umbrella, there is an SMS marketing platform that allows for mass direct to consumer marketing (Sendii.io) and a private affiliate network consisting of some of the strongest publishers in the industry, where Sendii provides the highest deliverability in the industry. Both private and public companies have leveraged this technology to acquire millions of new users,” says Geraldes. High-volume, direct response marketing is a branch of marketing where experience alone is the only true thing that will equip practitioners with the tools they need to succeed. By using Milkit’s direct response tactics and technologies to continually build up his own companies, Gustavo is able to constantly iterate and improve the processes and tactics he brings to his clients. **What is performance marketing, and why does it work?** Defined, performance marketing is centered around the principle of paying publishers only when a specific action (a click, an online sale, etc.) is completed rather than through an upfront charge or a rate based on impressions driven. This is wildly different from more traditional forms of marketing and advertising, where companies pay a flat rate for content created, a retainer fee on a recurring basis or a different form of an upfront cost. While the concept of performance marketing certainly isn’t new, the tactic has been gaining momentum and immense popularity over the past few years. Here are three of the biggest reasons why. **#1. Guaranteed ROI** Unlike other forms of marketing and advertising, performance marketing guarantees results because if none are driven, you don’t pay. Publishers like Gustavo only get compensated when they are able to drive a real action based on your particular needs as an organization. Whether you’re looking to increase webinar signups, drive online sales or traffic to your podcast, your company will only pay publishers for actual results. This differs from traditional vendors that typically charge hourly fees or flat rates, which may or may not drive results for your business. **#2. Pinpoint What’s Working** Many entrepreneurs and marketers will often use the excuse that performance-based campaigns are limiting when it comes to creativity. The idea behind the hesitation is that if a brand or individual is focused solely on metrics, how will they be open to introducing unique, story-driven campaigns and angles? Yet, performance marketing can take care of this quite easily. With it, you will be able to identify which particular channels are working well for your brand and which aren’t based on hard data. From there, you can choose to get as creative as you want to within the confines of those high-performing channels as opposed to blindly publishing content across underperforming platforms. For instance, if your campaigns reveal that customers convert three times as much on Instagram as they do on Facebook, then you naturally would allocate more resources to Instagram. Then, you can begin to experiment with different types of Instagram content and pump the brakes a bit on Facebook—this way, your bottom line doesn’t take a hit and your team’s full creativity can be unleashed. **#3. Not Being Dependent on an Algorithm** From steadily declining Facebook reach to increasing costs of Amazon ads to decreasing organic reach on Instagram, one thing can be certain in the ever-changing online marketing landscape: algorithms will never stay the same. If your company is too reliant on any one platform to meet your sales goals, your brand will be extremely vulnerable to algorithmic changes. Sales and profit margins cannot rely on Mark Zuckerberg to change his mind on any given algorithm change, you have overhead costs that must be met. By investing in performance marketing rather than unpredictable, turbulent forms of advertising, you will keep your bottom line tight and avoid being susceptible to inevitable algorithm changes. --- Through his performance marketing knowledge and strategy, Gustavo Geraldes has found a way to stand out in a crowded space and take brands skyward. Whether with his own companies or clients across a variety of industries, Milkit has helped companies reach their business goals both online and offline. If you would like to connect with Gustavo, you can follow him on Instagram. If you’re interested in potentially working with Milkit, you can visit his company’s website to learn more here. --- ## Defining the Odds – How a 22-year old Cole Dockery Reached $2 Million in Sales URL: https://futuresharks.com/cole-dockery/ The story of Cole Dockery begins 4 years ago when he figured out that college was not an option for him. So, he decided to start working and after working for an hourly wage of $18, he decided to quit his job and pursue a career in digital entrepreneurship. During the same year, Cole generated a 6-figure revenue by simply selling products via Facebook’s funnels and advertisements. Since then, he has created a virtual empire for selling services and products online. He was able to generate over $2 million in sales through his eCommerce company which employees 15 people. So, how did he do it? The Story that Led Cole to Create His Empire Since Cole lived in a small town, he only really had two options, to go to college or to start working. As previously mentioned, Cole did not want to attend college, so he opted for working a factory job. His entire family already worked labor-based jobs, hence, it was natural for him to follow in their footsteps. When he decided to leave his job, no one could have believed that he would leave a job that “pays well” and in a way, he was changing the family tradition and standard. So, what was the turning point for him? Cole’s turning point was when he realized that he can do more and better. He was standing in the factory locker room, sweaty from the machines and from working, he had cuts and burns on his hands and arms and that is when he looked himself in the mirror. He was stuck at the job, stuck in a small town, and he felt unfulfilled and depressed. Cole took a picture with his phone and sent it to his parents with a message that he cannot work in the factory anymore. Like every parent, he got a reply that stated “Hang in there.”, but he could not. He quit his job the same day and never looked back. **Cole’s Top Tips for Starting in the E-commerce Industry** **1. Start Documenting Your Journey and Progress** Most people do not want to document their journey since they are afraid of being seen at the bottom. However, the real truth is that everything needs to be built from nothing. Building a brand is necessary in order to increase your income and as you develop your skills, it is important to document your progress and share the values you gained with people in your niche. **2. Work on Your Skill Set** When you are getting started, you should find a skill set that will be able to make money. You should become obsessed with improving a specific skill. **3. Focus on the Money** Although people will tell you to stay away from this idea and that money will make things worse, Cole states that the lack of money is what creates evil and makes things worse. However, he also said that although money cannot buy you happiness, it can help you do the things that make you happy. Without money, your company will not last and your dream will be gone. Hence, you should focus on creating a cash machine that will transform your life. **Conclusion** This 22-year old prodigy managed to create a $2 million empire by deciding that he will quit his factory job. One of the best lessons that you can learn from him is that sometimes, you will need to make risky moves in order to achieve greater things. --- ## How Patrick Ambron succeeded in A Noisy Market and Built BrandYourself URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-patrick-ambron-succeeded-in-a-noisy-market-and-built-brandyourself/ # Patrick Ambron is the Founder and CEO of BrandYourself, which helps individuals protect, clean up and improve their online privacy and online reputation. Some of their more popular features include removing personal information from data brokers, finding and deleting old accounts, social media clean up tools, and many others. They can also help customers deal with other types of issues that can happen on the web, like removing non-consensual pornography for victims of revenge porn. In an age of revenge porn, inadequate online privacy laws and cyberbullying, they see themselves as building a modern consumer privacy company that helps consumers navigate the huge number of unintended consequences of the web so people can finally feel in control and secure online. Patrick has been recognized as a leading expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), online privacy and online reputation management. In 2011, his company was named #1 Emerging Technology Business in New York, making his team the youngest company to win the 200 thousand dollar prize. He was recognized as one of Empact 100 Top Ceos under 30 by the white house, named to Inc Magazine’s top 35 under 35 and Young Entrepreneur of the year by the SBA. He turned down $2M on Shark Tank, the largest individual investment ever made at the time, and received 4 record-setting offers on BBC’s Dragons Den. Patrick managed to lead his company BrandYourself to grow to over 100 full-time employees and secure over $7 million in venture capital. They were recently named as the overall StartUp winner at the SXSW. His ideas on Online reputation has been featured on many popular networks such as WSJ, New York Post, TechCrunch, Mashable, CBS News, ABC News, Fox News, HuffingtonPost, FastCompany, and many others. **If Forbes set up an interview for you tomorrow, how would you want to be perceived as?** I would want to be viewed as a humble and “under the radar” entrepreneur that focuses on building tools that online consumers need in today’s age of inadequate online laws, protections, and privacy. We were one of the first to realize that online consumers needed the same online protection that a lot of corporations have, but that the same business model would not work for them. An everyday professional cannot simply pay tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars just to improve their online privacy and reputation. Since then, we have worked with almost 1 million consumers, grown to 100 full-time employees and done tens of millions in revenue. Unlike the classic “VC Tech Model”, we have not burned through tens–or hundreds– of millions of VC dollars to reach our goal. We have raised some capital, we are a profitable company. We have done it by being focused, lean and by creating a *unique* tools that solve important problems for consumers. While there is nothing wrong with raising capital, I think in the startup world, it is sometimes heralded as the most important metric of success, regardless of how strong your business is or how much you help your customers. It’s easy for a founder to get stressed out if they feel like they are falling behind. You can get sucked into the “hype vortex” and focus on getting press and raising money, even if it doesn’t make sense for your business. I’d want other entrepreneurs to know that it’s ok if you haven’t raised a bunch of money or made it to the cover of a magazine. It’s ok to go the “slow and steady” route, focus on sustainability and consumer value. It doesn’t mean you’re failing. --- ## Credit is Everything: Let Joy Holland Teach You How to Repair Yours URL: https://futuresharks.com/joy-holland/ Credit repairs can be life-changing, especially for people whose lives are a rollercoaster. Joy Holland is an example of someone who has gone through it all and was able to repair her credit. Better yet, she now offers credit repair services. When Joy went to college, she obtained a BA in marketing, but could only survive off of multiple part-time jobs. The one full time job she had was in a mortgage company, but she was laid off during the mortgage crisis. She then went back to school to get a new degree that would make it easier for her to find a job that would earn her a living. She became a dental assistant, and then returned to school a last time to learn about ultrasound. After this, Joy got married and decided it was time to clean up her family’s credit. Then, Joy got divorced. Having repaired her credit, she was able to cover extra bills and deal with the fact she was by herself now. Joy then had a child whom she was going to raise as a single mom. She eventually found out her son was in the Autism spectrum, which made it hard for her to find a job that would work for her, given that she had to work from home to be with her child. It didn’t stop there: after having her child, she had trouble covering car repairs, day care expenses, and even pipes that bust in her apartment three times. Joy was then determined to find a flexible job that allowed her to help her family and be at home. That is when she found through Instagram Coach Legendary, a credit repair company, whose employees worked from home. Joy joined the company and in less than a week, she had already been promoted from Agent to Field Trainer. Now that Joy has found her footing in the credit repair business, she recognizes that mindset is the most important thing. In addition, she stresses that no one is going to believe in you more than you, so it is crucial that you believe in what you do wholeheartedly. To join the credit repair business Joy had to overcome her fears, which mostly related to not affording bills and needing money. Now that she is successful, she can state that success is not about the money, but about the people. In order to give back, Joy is planning on running credit education seminars in her community of Williamstown, N.J. This would increase her community’s knowledge about credit, and in turn lead to major improvement in everyone’s credit. Joy truly believes that people are put in certain situations only if they have the capacity to overcome them. She recognizes what it is like to feel stuck and insecure about the next steps in life, but she believes that when a person is in a situation like this, it gives them the opportunity to learn something new. Just like she did when she learned how to repair her own credit. So when dealing with life’s roller coaster, Joy advises to learn new things– perhaps starting with credit reparations. Accordingly, if you are looking to repair your credit or simply want to follow Joy’s journey, you can follow her here. --- ## How This CBD & THC Contract Manufacturer Is The Heart of Brands Entering The Cannabis Market URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-this-cbd-thc-contract-manufacturer-is-the-heart-of-brands-entering-the-cannabis-market/ Although the ongoing hype around CBD-infused products may have surpassed the growing national sentiment favoring the legalization of marijuana, the North American cannabis industry is booming. The legal marijuana industry in North America pulled in more than $10 billion in investments in 2018, and that number is expected to surge past $16 billion by the end of this year. At the core of the industry is California, where close to one-third of all cannabis-related job openings are located, and the primary cultivation and manufacturing of THC products occurs. And the creativity of both CBD and THC-infused products is stirring in the region. From CBD-infused tinctures and vape pens to THC-infused sodas and non-alcoholic beverages, the industry is appealing to a wide variety of consumer preferences. In the process, the market is continuing to lure more and more conventional brands, who are seeking an ideal entry point into the burgeoning market. Enter Growpacker. A co-packing, contract manufacturer and distributor for CBD and THC products, the Canadian-based company is rapidly gaining traction among brands seeking to leverage the booming cannabis industry — primarily through its American holdings company, GP Holdings LLC. The firm has its own suite of proprietary technology for infusing CBD and THC into various products, and fuels innovation in the space through its investment accelerator. With household brands on the precipice of diving into the industry, Growpacker is the heart of the CBD and THC production sector that they seek. *Manufacturing, Distribution, & Accelerators * Growpacker’s primary value proposition draws from its ability to streamline the product launch process for brands that want to take a CBD or THC product to market. Fully regulatory compliant, the firm specializes in the in-house development, quality control testing, and subsequent distribution of products using a turnkey business model. For interested brands, tapping Growpacker can significantly reduce their overhead costs and expedite the launch of products. One of the more recent and intriguing aspects of Growpacker’s vision lies in its investment accelerator. The accelerator focuses on working directly with strategic cannabis companies in the industry that are congruent with Growpacker’s vertical integration and help supplement the company’s capacities in product manufacturing and distribution. Either via direct investment (i.e., equity) or preferred partnerships, it is in the immediate interest of many of these startup firms to ingratiate themselves with a leader in the cannabis pipeline of North America. The investment accelerator is also a complement to Growpacker’s brand incubator and accelerator, announced just prior to the investment accelerator. The brand incubator and accelerator operates as the fast-tracking branch of market development in California, along with the previously mentioned exchange of equity or partnerships in the accelerator aspect. Brands are granted access to Growpacker’s growing network of resources and relationships in the industry, which serves as an immediate boost to startups or larger brands seeking an optimal entry point into the industry. Ceria, a THC-infused beer, was the first brand to join the brand incubator and accelerator with Growpacker and is indicative of an emerging trend where larger brands are likely to gravitate towards the firm. Growpacker’s vertical integration approach also furnishes the company with some unique advantages in manufacturing and distribution. Based on client requests for products and ongoing research and development with infusing products with THC and CBD, Growpacker can glean insights from a multitude of contexts outside of the purview of many other manufacturers in the market. For example, Growpacker has licensed numerous infusion methods, including water suspendable, zero-separation, and full spectrum. Additionally, the firm can acquire OTC certifications on the viability of their products, affording brands that work with the company to label their products with ailment-specific details such as “anti-anxiety” or “pain relief.” Streamlining the manufacturing, distribution, and investment/accelerator process for brands is a colossal advantage for brands unaffiliated with the cannabis market to make a profitable entry. Beverage and food companies are sure to increasingly explore the cannabis market in the US as it continues its parabolic trajectory. With the legalization of marijuana gaining momentum all across the country, and seemingly inevitable in the vast majority of states, it is only a matter of time until household brands dip their toes in the market. Once that happens, Growpacker will be waiting. --- ## Eterbase Rolls Out Treasury Gateway for B2B Transactions URL: https://futuresharks.com/eterbase-rolls-out-treasury-gateway-for-b2b-transactions/ The friction between the decentralized, cypherpunk ethos of cryptocurrencies and onboarding the mainstream — along with financial institutions — has led to a significant user-experience problem in the sector. Businesses have to undergo convoluted exchange and transfer processes between native utility and project tokens, liquidity is lacking, and interfaces tapping decentralized protocols are complex. As a result, it’s not surprising that the relationship among crypto-oriented companies and conventional financial institutions remains tenuous at best. In an effort to bolster the bridge between the world of legacy finance and blockchains, some firms are taking a compromising approach — catering towards crypto projects and traditional enterprises. One of those firms, Eterbase, is an emerging crypto-fiat exchange and gateway in Europe, fusing fiat IBAN and crypto into one platform, compliant under the EU with bank-level KYC. And Eterbase’s most recent initiative, the Eterbase Treasury Gateway, provides a glimpse into a more promising landscape of B2B payments between crypto projects and conventional enterprises. *Bypassing Hurdles & Building Bridges* Eterbase’s unique standing among crypto exchanges, particularly in Europe, is due to several factors. For example, the firm has an official monetary license via the Majestic Omnibank Payment Platform, Corporate Crypto-Friendly Fiat/SEPA Accounts, Synthetic IBAN accounts on the exchange, and direct EU compliance. Compared to the broader industry, many of those pillars are not only hard to attain but also maintain. Relationships between banks and crypto projects are notoriously unstable, regulatory statuses of many exchanges are in question, and fiat gateways for crypto assets are typically too cumbersome for enterprises to use efficiently. “Currently, B2B focused blockchain projects have developed several use-cases for their token as part of their tokenomics,” details the Eterbase announcement for the Treasury Gateway. “Most of them require their native token to be used as payment for their services.” Most token models are built on the premise of capturing value within a closed system, however, that mechanism has often come at the expense of usability and transaction costs. “Their clients (non-blockchain businesses) need to convert FIAT to Crypto, deposit it onto an exchange, buy the project’s native token and then pay for the service,” details Eterbase. The costs take the mold of both time and regulatory processes, which inevitably lead to more sunk financial expenses. For enterprises seeking to tap into the advantages of crypto projects, these costs can become prohibitively expensive, limiting the capacity of the crypto projects to make a positive impact outside of the esoteric crypto market. Eterbase circumvents this problem by leveraging its partnership with Majestic Omnibank Payment Platform to enable Treasury Gateway clients to receive EUR SEPA IBAN in their projects’ name, with direct payment accounts for all 28 EU member states. At a high level, this means that non-blockchain related enterprises can financially interact with crypto projects without going through convoluted token payment and exchange processes. Instead, they receive fiat payments directly through corporate-grade IBAN accounts. “This means they don’t have to go through the intense process of figuring out what FIAT on-ramp to use, which token to buy, what exchange to deposit them on and how to buy the project’s native token,” details the Eterbase team. *The Blend of Blockchain With Legacy Enterprises is Accelerating Market Maturity* Numerous advantages are available for legacy enterprises to leverage the power of crypto and blockchain projects — from DeFi credit instruments to cross-border payments with reduced transaction costs. Historically, the problem with accessing these services has been the underlying complexity of the technology and high technical barrier for enterprises to use the tools offered by blockchain-oriented firms. Compounded by uncertain regulatory environments in many prominent regions of the world, many enterprises have sat on the sidelines waiting for more maturity in the blockchain and crypto industry. There are clearly still some market microstructure problems in the crypto sector, particularly concerning the momentum effect of exchange consolidation. However, fully-compliant pushes by emerging exchanges like Eterbase are promising not only for leveling the liquidity and price discovery of high-profile fiat trading pairs (e.g., BTC/EUR), but also in onboarding formerly hesitant enterprises to join the ecosystem. Eterbase is targeting the inclusion of over 50 projects into the Treasury Gateway over the next 6 months, which is fueled by a surging interest they are receiving from companies. With a slew of potential partners in tow, Eterbase envisions the Treasury Gateway sparking a boost in its XBASE/XBASEB token, which already incentivizes market makers on the platform with negative trading fees. Expanding the use case of XBASE, along with Eterbase’s recently announced EurBase stablecoin, should serve to attract more enterprise customers to its platform, diminishing many of the B2B barriers in crypto adoption in the process. --- ## With White House Origins, Dark Cubed is Pushing a New Age of Enterprise Cybersecurity URL: https://futuresharks.com/with-white-house-origins-dark-cubed-is-pushing-a-new-age-of-enterprise-cybersecurity/ A seemingly endless stream of stories concerning cybersecurity vulnerabilities has peppered the tech headlines this year. From geopolitical hacks to ransomware attacks, and data breaches of major firms – cybersecurity has become a common talking point in today’s media. This is not without merit considering the broad impact of our daily interactions with technology. At a national scale, the stakes are high for cyber-attacks as election season looms and cyber warfare gears up between governments. For enterprises, millions of dollars and sensitive data represent honeypots for hackers, and for the consumer, vulnerabilities in IoT devices laying around homes can be wielded against them. “IoT security is not a security issue, it is simultaneously a public safety and a national security issue,”Dark Cubed CEO Vince Crisler explained, discussing aformal report on IoT security that the firm produced. “The security community must make solving these issues a priority.” Crisler’s opinion carries weight, as the former Chief Information Security Officer for the Whitehouse, he has operated on the front lines of cybersecurity. With years of high-profile experience under the firm’s belt, including assisting in cybersecurity at the2016 Republican National Convention, Dark Cubed is poised to foster a new era in cybersecurity, using a powerful and cost-effective model. *Breaking Down Barriers* Two of the most overlooked but salient concepts that underscore cybersecurity are costs and deployment. Often tethered, traditionally high price points and sophisticated deployment have precluded many enterprises, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), from accessing the security tools that they need. Malicious actors have taken advantage of this trend and are increasingly targeting these very businesses. Today most businesses are managing incredibly sensitive and valuable aspects of their operations via databases and internet communication rails. This means cybersecurity is no longer merely the purview of major corporations. Unfortunately, many small to medium size companies simply don’t have the technical expertise, awareness, or financial pockets to shell out for enterprise-grade cybersecurity tools. Enter Dark Cubed. Wielding a union of federal government experience, expert cybersecurity talent, and a clever business model, Dark Cubed is bringing high-caliber cybersecurity to businesses of all sizes. At a high level, Dark Cubed has crafted an enterprise-grade suite of security tools that equips automated services like threat monitoring and responses, predictive analytics, threat intelligence, and more. Deployable in mere moments, Dark Cubed’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) is also much more affordable than tools of the same caliber. The low price point and enterprise-grade protection, originating from experience in the highest cybersecurity roles, is significant. Combined with a user-friendly interface, SMEs can bypass two of the biggest hurdles handcuffing the broader improvement of cybersecurity in the private sector. Additionally, firms can circumvent the necessity of hiring technical experts to manage their cybersecurity efforts, and instead, rely on tested software complete with real-time monitoring. *Expanding the Horizon* It’s consistently surprising how many security incidents, whether financial or personal data related, arise out of negligence rather than some sophisticated hacking endeavor. Crisler, along with Dark Cubed, has stressed many times the importance ofbasic security steps that anyone can take, like the mandatory implementation of 2-factor authentication on all accounts. When simple steps are insufficient to protect against hackers evolving prescriptive measures are required. Dark Cubed plans to extend their SaaS beyond straightforward enterprise protections as well. With theattack vectors of IoT ever-present and under discussion at both the national and consumer level there is a huge market for someone to step in and make an impact. The implications of widespread IoT device vulnerabilities, as Crisler said, are assuredly a national security concern. There are alreadymore Internet-connected devices than people on earth, and that number is only expected to increase. The intimate nature of many of those devices, like a Google Home or Amazon Alexa sitting in your living room, justifies the resounding pressure to supplement innovation in the IoT cybersecurity field. For their part, Crisler and Dark Cubed are presciently aware of the IoT threat, and currently working on solutions to make IoT cybersecurity more powerful and flexible across devices. “There’s no coordinated approach to consumer IoT security,” Crisler said. “We’re actively working on changing that.” The goal? Craft IoT cybersecurity standards and tools in the same cost-effective light of Dark Cubed’s existing products. Translating White House experience to the private sector is a compelling task, but one that Crisler, and Dark Cubed, ultimately believe will push forward a new market for cybersecurity products. The stakes have never been higher, and with the 2020 Elections on the horizon, look for Dark Cubed to protect your data. --- ## Midwest Esports Company Raises $1.4M Seed Round URL: https://futuresharks.com/efuse/ Esports is one of the fastest growing forms of entertainment in the world. Competitors from all over the world compete in international tournaments with prize pools worth up to $30M. The rise of competitive gaming has been accompanied by a large number of spectators. New Zoo, an esports analytics firm, estimates that 430M+ people will have watched an esports competition in 2019. Additionally, total revenues for the industry are expected to top $1.1B As popularity surges and revenues increase, opportunities to play professionally and collegiately do as well. There are also opportunities with teams, tournament organizers, developers, software platforms, and publishers for more traditional business roles. The problem is that many people are not aware of the roles that are open. This results in some never getting the opportunity to apply for a job in the field. eFuse exists to help solve these issues. eFuse is a web and mobile application that serves as the professional hub for esports and video games. Our goal is to help individuals establish their gaming identity and participate in the industry. The company was founded by Benson at Ohio University’s College of Business, after conducting research on the esports and the video game industry. Through his research, Benson realized that the ecosystem supporting each game title was very fragmented. As the industry grew, that fragmentation was compounding and the necessary tools to support professional collaboration in the industry did not exist. In August 2018, Benson proposed a solution, to build a professional hub with tools built specifically for gaming industry professionals. In November 2018, eFuse, Inc. was founded. Benson also found that he enjoyed the competitive nature of gaming and realized that strong communities formed around these games as a result of shared interests and competitive drive. While building the eFuse team, Benson made a point to bring on individuals with prior experience in the space, one of which being Tom Newton. Others have recognized this trend, eFuse’s investors and advisors include the Ohio Innovation Fund and Smart Growth Ventures, both have an excellent record of supporting successful, high growth ventures in the Midwest. The eFuse platform is set to launch 12/10/2019.To follow the launch of eFuse, you can visit their website at efuse.gg or their Instagram @efuseofficial. --- ## More Than Just Exercise — Crafting The Modern Gym Experience With Royal Personal Training URL: https://futuresharks.com/more-than-just-exercise-crafting-the-modern-gym-experience-with-royal-personal-training/ Modern exercise has completely transformed over the last several years, encompassing a range of new programs and amenities from dynamic group classes to nutritional regimens. Fueled by the progressively competitive landscape that social media platforms like Instagram produce, mainstream people and professional athletes alike seek that extra edge through bespoke training facilities and the solutions they offer. One of those emerging facilities is Royal Personal Training (RPT) — the luxurious and advanced training facility founded in 2015 in Beverly Hills that attracts high-end clientele. But RPT isn’t explicitly designed for world-class athletes and Instagram stars even though it has a slate of them as regular clients; it caters to everyone. Founded by brothers Shahin and Shayan Safai, RPT offers an exclusive glimpse into the rapidly evolving market for the modern gym experience. ***Personalized Approach, Customized Routines, & A Suite of Amenities*** Embedded into most personal fitness journeys are some abstract goal that they have in mind but consistently proves challenging to achieve. Stories of people attempting fitness transformations from the most astonishing to the more modest continually reveal that several factors adversely affect their results: an inability to stay motivated and a lack of knowledge in evolving fitness and training techniques. That’s precisely where the current mold of fitness has made its most significant impact. Not only do practices like RPT pioneer techniques for specific muscle group strength training, stamina, and hybrid yoga exercises, but they serve as focal points for goal-oriented people of all backgrounds to learn premier exercise methods and stay inspired. For example, personal trainers can set detailed roadmaps to meet your goals as a client, providing high-level regimens and tiered, small levels to meet those broader goals. This helps people to hone in on exactly what they want to get out of a program, and what is realistic over a specific period. Personal trainers can also hold you accountable and keep you motivated — a sentiment that is reflected in multiple studies concerning the benefits of group training. Coupled with the close relationship between fitness, health trends, and social media today, the modern gym experience is more than just exercise — it is a unique social confluence. So much so, that initiatives like Exercise Is Medicine actively encourage doctors and other health providers to promote their patients to join gyms, take group exercise classes, and detail personal health metrics with trainers. The bespoke gym is the new gym, and exploring what RPT offers is a testament to that idea. For example, RPT presents clients with an abundance of options, such as more advanced classes like “The Royal Attack,” comprised of two 10-minute resistance band challenges, over 1000+ reps, and a goal-oriented approach to beat at least 3 out of the 4 levels. Other offerings include personalized consultations on achieving desired fitness ends, customized training with over 30 world-class trainers, cryotherapy sessions, and corporate wellness programs. RPT grew its brand, and facilities, from nothing too. “We started out with only 1,400 square feet and the bare-bones minimum as far as equipment goes, including no employees, no structure, nothing,” details Shahin Safai. “Now we are sitting on a company with over 50 employees, where 40 of them are coaches, and we have a team of GM’s and sales associates.” The facility is now a sprawling state-of-the-art 7,500 square feet building in the heart of Beverly Hills, including a separate group training facility over 1,000 square feet. The gym even incorporated Deco Lighting into its gym to set the tone for the mind and body, wielding the micro-benefits of often overlooked aspects of the training experience. And the gym’s brand is underscored by its talented team of executive trainers, coaches, and more. That team has served as the foundation for RPT being ranked as LA’s #1 Training Facility twice in the last couple of years. But the modern gym experience isn’t complete without the story or the social proof, which helps RPT stand out among a crowded field of competition. ***Opportunity & High-Profile Branding*** The Safai brothers started their journeys in Los Angeles without speaking a lick of English, working odd jobs at hotels and eventually gyms, when the idea clicked to venture out on their own and explore the world of fitness entrepreneurship. That eventually led to RPT’s founding in 2015, where it resides in Beverly Hills — ostensibly the epicenter of social media personalities and, by extension, cultural fitness trends. And their social media presence highlights the facility’s (and brothers’) social media affluence. RPT’s official Instagram account already has over 77k followers, and Shayan’s personal training account has more than 57k, as well as 65k for Shahin’s. Both have also recently served as the flashy mediums for unveiling RPT’s new line of fitness merchandise, known as RoyalActiveWear. That type of social acknowledgment of RPT has translated to other social media platforms as well, with a partnership with Instagram fitness star, Sommer Ray, on the horizon, and numerous luxury hotel partnerships — including Peninsula Hotels — a mainstay for the gym’s brand. Growth has been nothing but extraordinary so far, and the Safai brothers plan on expanding to big corporations next — buoyed by a vision for a specialized, ultra-private training environment that could incorporate the amenities of a large corporate gym while providing a private, highly specialized experience. In the competitive world of augmenting fitness and health prerogatives among the public, separating the signal from the noise can be challenging when you have your own predicaments to deal with. That’s why the vision of the modern gym experience is promising, and one that can hopefully help transition society away from obesity and its myriad downstream health deficiencies. RPT has achieved that vision, and in the process, it has become more than just a gym — it is a microcosm for the modern cultural product of social fitness. --- ## How Tony Delgado is Disrupting Puerto Rico URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-tony-delgado-is-disrupting-puerto-rico/ The island of Puerto Rico is a beautiful destination for anyone because of the amazing sites, views, and beaches. Yes, a lot of it is gorgeous for the most part but when you look deeper into the communities you will see the economic problems it faces. The wealthy have the essentials like water, food, and power and the rest of the people don’t have any of that. Every day it becomes harder and harder to earn any sort of income in Puerto Rico. This sort of problem is the type that needs to be resolved fast. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, many people went to the island to help the state in their time of need. Amongst those people who lent a helping hand was Tony Delgado. Delgado flew to Puerto Rico so he could help people rebuild their homes and help out any way he could. The outcome of the Hurricane was terrible and many people lost their homes and many people even lost their lives. While Delgado was there helping, he began to notice the economical problems that were going on. He decided to take on something that was bigger than him so he eventually moved to Puerto Rico full time so he could help. Delgado knew more people needed to make more money so he thought what better way to help than to teach people about entrepreneurship and how to make money online. He knew that if he could teach people valuable skills that would help earn them money that more people would have the essentials like water, food, and power. He educated thousands of people through his Disrupt Program where not only Delgado but other mentors as well help teach entrepreneurship. Now more people than ever are making money and starting businesses in Puerto Rico which is boosting its economy. Delgado also wanted to help other people and brands throughout the world so he created his very own Marketing Agency. Delgado and his team are able to help grow social media accounts, help out with business launches, help to launch a course, and overall generate more income with his team’s marketing skills. It seems as if Delgado created a master plan that works perfectly to help out Puerto Rico’s economic problem and it brings in new visitors every single year. He has boosted Puerto Rico’s popularity and economy. With further help from his Disrupt Publication where he shares the story of different entrepreneurs, he continues to spread the word about Puerto Rico, all of its beauty and the growing startup ecosystem on the island. Puerto Rico is slowly becoming a hot spot for entrepreneurs around the world because of the beautiful views, island lifestyle, and Disrupt Week is a road map for anyone who wants to get a crash course about the ecosystem. Delgado is on a mission to show the world that Puerto Rico is perfect for digital nomads and that is why he hosts Disrupt events every year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he gathers incredible speakers throughout the world to share knowledge and give out valuable information to the people who attend. It has been called the 10X of Puerto Rico and the SXSW of the Carribean. Thousands of entrepreneurs attend the event in Puerto Rico because there are so many opportunities at the event to connect and network with the top influencers in the world in a tropical paradise. Want to learn more about life in Puerto Rico? Follow Tony Delgado @disruptceo on Instagram. --- ## Meet Ryall Graber, the Powerhouse Fitness Entrepreneur Who Has Helped Thousands of People Transform Their Lives URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-ryall-graber-the-powerhouse-fitness-entrepreneur-who-has-helped-thousands-of-people-transform-their-lives/ Ryall Graber is a lady who radiates positive energy. If you don’t already follow this fit life specialist on social media you’re going to want to. @ryallfitness is your daily injection of motivation and inspiration. She helps people live healthier lives through fitness and their nutrition. She is an entrepreneur, professional health coach, and an IFBB Professional fitness athlete and has helped thousands of people transform their lives. The modern population is infamously known as the “fat continent.” In the U.S., for instance, 39.8% of the population is obese. Factors such as a sedentary lifestyle and the frequency of fast food intake are some of the issues that have contributed to this bane in society. The medical costs for overweight people are $1,429 higher compared to people with normal weight. This statistic is why Graber’s skills are in high demand. After interviewing Graber, we managed to get a clear scope of how she has managed to help thousands of people transform their lives. **About Ryall ** Ryall Graber is an IFBB Pro Athlete, a 9X Fitness Champion, Certified Sports Nutritionist and a Personal Trainer. She is also an influencer, fitness model, speaker and a published author. Graber is passionate about all matters of fitness and health. To her, fitness is not just a career; it’s her life as she eats, sleeps, and breathes it 24/7. In 2019, she held the Ms. Fitness International title. She is also an ambassador for Arnold Worldwide, where she traveled the world competing at the Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Fitness Competitions. Ryall is the creator of RyallFitness Getaway; an exclusive destination fitness retreat that empowers people to unleash their full potential; to achieve their fitness goals and improve the quality of their lifestyle. Ryall has extensive education and experience to help her clients improve their lifestyle and achieve their health goals. She designs health and fitness plans unique to each client’s needs and expectations. As a certified nutritionist and fitness expert, Ryall helps her clients by creating effective meal plans and training programs that teach the principles of living a healthy lifestyle. **Transforming the Lives of Many ** Graber helps people increase the quality of their lifestyle and achieve their health goals. So far, she has been able to change the lives of over 1000 people in the past decade. Graber has retired from a 12-year athletic career in October of this year and she has ventured into the female fitness entrepreneur space as a full-time fitness entrepreneur. Ryall stated that success starts structurally. The 9x IFBB Fitness Champion noted that developing a structured group of habits is the key to transforming the lives of one person at a time. She stated that “It is one thing to begin a journey, and another to finish that journey effectively.” She continued to say that for one to finish a journey effectively, they will need to set realistic goals that will help them. By setting small, achievable goals, one can gain confidence in themselves. Graber encourages people to value patience, focus, and motivation. She says that motivation is not hard to come by. However, if one fails to set goals, they may end up wasting time, thus losing the ability and momentum required to improve oneself. According to Ryall, it is essential to remain confident and not let the mistakes or challenges of your life define you. She states that failures are massive growth opportunities and we should not fear these hard moments in our lives. Learn as much as you can from your mistakes and move on with all the knowledge and wisdom that you can. If you focus on commitment instead of motivation, then you will end up getting motivated as you achieve one goal at a time. Ryall founded the Ryfit International Inc. This online fitness consultancy has allowed her to reach thousands of people from around the world. She coaches clients on how to achieve their health and fitness goals from a place of wellness and balance and she also focus on teaching to empower them with the knowledge on how to sustain their results and the healthy habits they acquired under her guidance. Her key to success is customized approach to each client. She provides each of her clients with the tools, support, and accountability that will aid them in breaking through the plateaus. Ryall is committed to empowering others to attain their fitness and health goals as well as living their best lives. However, her work is not just focussed on the body but the mind as well. In the RyALLFITNESS Getaway, she teaches her clients to develop a winning mindset to achieve their goals and go for their dreams. **Ryall’s Focus in Fitness ** Presently, Ryall lives in Cancun, Mexico. She participated in the 2019 Fitness Olympia in Las Vegas that took place this September; her 45th and final IFBB Professional Competition. Ryall has big plans to expand her business as she continues on her quest to help one billion people live healthier lives. She plans to achieve this through her online coaching services, her series of e-books and digital products launching in 2020, public speaking and her global fitness retreats. In 2020, Ryall plans to be 100% focused on working to become one of the top female entrepreneurs in the fitness industry. She says ‘My business is different. It’s fun, edgy and purpose-driven; my business is a full expression of ME. I’m so excited to be putting all of my energy and attention into making my business as great as it can be.’ She wants her legacy to be one of sharing, contribution, empowerment, creativity, and love. Follow Ryall IG @ryallfitness www.ryallfitness.com --- ## How This Entrepreneur Went From a 1.6 GPA to Making $50,000 Per Month URL: https://futuresharks.com/joseph-costello/ When Joseph Costello graduated highschool, he did so with a 1.6 gpa. When everyone he knew decided to go to college, he moved to downtown Austin and began making money full time from the internet. As an entrepreneur, he went from almost failing highschool, to making six figures a month. Entrepreneur Joseph Costello does content creation and management of influencers. As a creative, he has built up his social media and managed to monetize his platforms. His biggest challenge when starting his business was retaining self belief and drive. His love for creating, and making the impossible possible is what inspired him to get into this industry, and what keeps him going. This mindset is crucial for his success in the industry. His advice to those looking to start their  own business is to do something you’re passionate about. For Joseph, fear is what keeps the most talented individuals ordinary. During his journey to success, Joseph has had to face countless obstacles, but the one that stands out the most was having to adjust to the ever so evolving platforms. After doing this for over five years, there is no competition for Joseph. For Joseph, the definition of success is being financially independent and helping others achieve their goals as a collective. Free to invest, free to help, free to roam. This is why he is currently focused on investing into talent. Entrepreneur Joseph Costello has managed to go from almost failing highschool, to making over six figures a month through his social media content creating and management of influencers. By taking risks, and ignoring the fears, he has monetized his social media platforms and managed to change his life, and is now changing the lives of others. He is the definition of a true entrepreneur. --- ## Bad Credit Will Not Stop You From Getting the Car of Your Dreams if Mike Egyptian Can Help You URL: https://futuresharks.com/mike-egyptian/ Getting a car is a big deal. To get a car is one of those things that is definitely in everyone’s bucket list. However, it can be expensive, and certain things like bad credit can keep you from actually getting what you want. This is where used car dealerships come in handy. Mike Moaid Abbadi runs Tampa Bay Luxury, a used car dealership that is ranked at the top in the Tampa Bay area. At the dealership, Mike always has over 100 used vehicles, from Kias to Rolls Royce. You name it. Mike is a 38 year old entrepreneur and 8 year Army veteran, originally from Jordan, with a big Egyptian family and a handful of brothers. Since he was younger, he always had initiative and a desire to be someone and do something big. He was motivated to get into the automotive business for more than just the money. It is what can come from the business in itself. For one, the profit helps him provide more for his loved ones who are extremely important to him. But also, Mike points out that knowing that his business is helping other people motivates him to continue working. In addition, Mike likes that the automotive industry is very diverse and provides opportunities for a range of skills According to Mike, when in a business, people create value out of nothing, coming up with innovative products and services. Afterwards, capital needs to be raised in order to grow the business and have an assembled team. Being a successful entrepreneur, Mike knows the importance of mindset. He believes that if someone has in their mind that they may fail, they will fail every time. Accordingly, having the correct mindset is the most important attribute required for every entrepreneur to succeed in their new venture. Mike believes that there are two types of fear, “pure fear”, which someone feels when their life is in danger, and “harmless fear”, which someone feels as a response to opportunity. Mike argues that harmless fear is a chance to step up in life and play a bigger and better game. It is not something that would keep him from achieving success, which for him is about being able to support his family, accomplishing his daily goals, and maintaining balance in his life. Tampa Bay Luxury is different from its competition because Mike focuses on solutions for his customers. Mike helps his customers see solutions that they did not even think were possible. He does this through seeing what he sells as an investment that the customer makes, rather than just a purchase. Mike’s next projects include dedicating more time to becoming an influencer for people to learn from his mistakes and be able to succeed based on his experience. Most recently, Mike Egyptian released a best selling book, **Secrets To Opening a Successful Used Car Dealership**, where he tackles questions on how to get into the dealership industry. To follow him and his upcoming projects, go here. --- ## Christopher Berlow and Paul Melella: How These 2 Powerhouse Entrepreneurs Have Been Able to Master Every Main Area of their Life URL: https://futuresharks.com/empowered-mastery/ When most people think of success, they perceive lots of money, fame, business success, and luxury. However, for entrepreneurs Christopher Berlow and Paul Melella, this perception fails to appreciate other valuable spheres of life, for instance, healthy living. A mindset solely focussed on money is a mindset that fails to understand the satisfaction of having a healthy family or engaging in a healthy diet. The two entrepreneurs do not just preach water and drink wine; they live a life that is full of wholeness and satisfaction. Paul Melella and Christopher Berlow are the founders of Empowering Mastery, one of the most successful personal and professional success training companies in the NorthEast. We interviewed them to find out what success means for them and whether any person can master every main area of their life. ### Achieving Personal Success Paul Melella is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, martial arts master, and the author of the best selling book “You Have Infinite Power.” He currently resides in Putnam County New York. Melella is living his dream. He has traveled the world in the past two decades learning about peak performance, personal growth, and healthy living from the most influential leaders in the world. He holds a 6th-degree black belt in Taekwondo and happens to be a nine-time New York State champion. Melella is not only successful in his professional scope but also his personal life. He has a wife and children. When asked about his definition of success, he is quick to point out that a happy marriage and time with his children is also a success. He donates $20,000 in scholarships so that children can benefit from his entrepreneurial success. According to Melella, “My passion is to share my specialized knowledge, leadership skills and business experience with my students so that they can reach their full potential in all areas of life.” Melella started his first company, the United Martial Arts Centre when he was 21 years of age. He started Empowering Mastery in 2009 together with his partner Christopher Berlow. Christopher Berlow is an entrepreneur, Martial Arts Master, and a Best-selling author. He is a life-long martial artist with skills in coaching, team building, public speaking, and entrepreneurship. Berlow has achieved numerous successes in every field of his life. He is a respected real estate investor, philanthropist, with a 6th-degree black belt in Taekwondo. Furthermore, he is a national medalist with more than 35 years of experience as an avid instructor and practitioner. Berlow has authored three books, two of which include “Mindful Meditations for Busy Lives” and “It’s Not about the Belt.” The book, “It’s not about the Belt,” became the No. 1 Hottest New Release on its Amazon debut date and a top 20 bestseller. This versatile entrepreneur started his business with a $10,000 loan at 25% interest. The business developed into one of the most successful Martial Arts schools in the country. Berlow, along with the martial arts organization, managed to raise more than $100,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and other charities. ### Empowered Mastery Empowering Mastery is a platform where people get to learn from the two entrepreneurs. In today’s busy world, most people grapple with the issue of work-life balance. How to close a successful business deal and still make it for your kid’s sports event. Alternatively, you may be one of the people struggling with developing a healthy lifestyle. According to Melella, the first step towards personal growth is asking yourself, What do I want? What is my Outcome? During the interview, Melella and Berlow pointed out some of the strategies that have helped them to manage every area of their life successfully. One of the plans is being consciously aware of your thoughts and emotions. According to the two Martial Arts Masters, when one is consciously aware of how they are thinking and feeling, then they can reboot. Success starts by controlling one’s thoughts. In the second strategy, Berlow noted that in times of challenges or adversity, he avoids anxiety by reflecting on past successes. This strategy is called “The Circle of Confidence.” Berlow states that the circle of confidence entails reflecting on your recent accomplishments and using those thoughts to recondition yourself in a manner that will fuel your intended outcome in that situation. The entrepreneurs also talked about developing an empowering paradigm. It entails using empowering statements to motivate you towards achieving your intended outcome. When it comes to success, the two entrepreneurs presented the notion of multi-dimensional success. It is a form of success that focuses on fulfillment in every sphere of life-personal and professional. Berlow’s life purpose statement is “to be the best example.” He encourages his students to develop a life of fun, health, happiness, purpose, love, and passion. The two entrepreneurs are living proof that multi-dimensional success can be attained. Chris and Paul are not only versatile entrepreneurs, but they are also avid hikers. Christ has tackled some of the world’s most challenging mountains such as Kilimanjaro, Himalayas, and live volcanoes in Equador. The two entrepreneurs engage in full-time half-and full marathons, mountain bike competitions, and many more. When it comes to family and relationships, Chris and Paul work with their wives. They also engage in activities such as snowboarding and marathon races with their spouses. At a time when three out of five entrepreneurs end up divorced, Chris and Paul have mastered the art of building healthy relationships. They have done this through the awareness that a happy family is also a success. Pursuing entrepreneurship is a personal journey. As one embarks on this journey, they may find it challenging to separate time for work with time for family or friends. As a consequence, entrepreneurship has become a journey laden with mental illness. Recent statistics indicate that 45% of entrepreneurs struggle with stress. Also, 30% of entrepreneurs are currently struggling with depression. According to Paul and Chris, focusing on a multi-dimensional success is the solution to avoiding such pitfalls. Aside from building a successful business, Paul and Chris are actively involved in their kids’ lives. Chris’ son has become a professional Martial Artist as a result of the leadership and mentorship of his father. The two are also actively involved in philanthropy, be it donations, raising money, or giving leadership seminars to youth groups. ### Master of Self The Empowering Mastery program teaches clients about developing a growth mindset. The entrepreneurs share their knowledge and train their students to unlock their potential in reaping a happy and healthy life in every area of their life. Berlow and Melella achieved success in business and their personal life by learning to master the self. This is by controlling their thoughts and developing the discipline to channel positive energy through empowering statements and developing a positive mindset. The two co-founders of Empowering Mastery encourage their students to focus on progress, not perfection. Their parting shot to us was, “you can be the best version of yourself. Just do not compare yourself to others. Rather, seek fulfillment in your own life.” --- ## iTEKT’s Vision is Based on Offering Premium Quality Products and Based on Natural Components while being Affordable for Customers URL: https://futuresharks.com/itekt/ ITEKT is a fast-growing Canadian company that provides innovative Nano-protection coatings. The company is in the field of nanotechnology for the automotive and telecommunications industry. This is a relatively new field that is fast expanding on a global scale due to the challenges of the 21st century. Presently, the global market for nanotechnology products was forecasted to reach about $64.2 billion in 2019. This industry has realized a compound annual growth rate of 19.8% from 2014 to 2019. However, iTEKT’s mission is not just to introduce innovative products to the market; the company aims to offer quality Nano-protection products that are based on natural components and keeping them pocket-friendly for the customers. We interviewed the CEO of iTEKT, Dean Martin, to get a scope on the firm’s vision and premium quality products. ### iTEKT’s Quality Products iTEKT has its Head Office in Quebec, Canada, the company strives to create innovative products in a variety of industries. So far, iTEKT’s products include liquid protection nanotechnology for windshields and mobile surfaces. The iTEKT liquid protection for windshields, for example, is made up of natural components that not only offer a protective coating but also improves the quality of the windshield. Once applied to the windshield, the iTEKT liquid makes the windshield water repellant, improves the glass’s clarity, and makes the windshield both scratch and shatter-resistant. “We are a manufacturing company that prides itself on making white-label products that guarantee the safety of our customer’s glassy products. So far, we distribute our products through major distributors and end-users. With products such as the iTEKT liquid, we get to preserve glass. Whenever a piece of glass is saved, we can preserve the environment”, Dean says. Recycling glass is one of the ways we can minimize environmental pollution. The company also offers an iTEKT nanotechnology liquid for mobile phones. Even the best of us are susceptible to cracked phone screens. However, with the iTEKT liquid, you can minimize this risk. “Our main ingredient for making the liquid is sand (silicon dioxide). This sand is compressed at the molecular level. When it dries, the liquid creates a transparent layer of about 0.0004mm on your screen. This screen perfectly bonds with the screen on your glass, thereby giving you protection that is safe for the environment”, Dean says. ### iTEKT is Canada’s Nano-Tech Future Hub iTEKT is a next-generation company in offering quality Nano-care products. The company consists of a team that listens to the needs of the market and tries to produce solutions that will solve those needs. Mr. Martin says, “There are always solutions to different challenges in life. We have to be creative and think out of the box to advance into life and our projects. When we built the firm, we had to build the foundation of our business on core values such as using natural elements and creating a long-lasting product that will help people to keep their mobiles and windshield glass longer”. Although the company has aligned with significant partners in the telecommunications and automobile industry, its vision is to offer solutions that cut across various industries. Most people shun Nano-coating products mostly because of the inflated market prices. Not so with iTEKT. While iTEKT is bent on offering quality Nano-products, their rates are quite affordable. “We always have the customer in high esteem. Though we are still at preliminary stages in pushing iTEKT to the top, our primary goal is to offer our clients what they have not had in terms of quality and avail it in affordable packages”, said Mr. Martin. ### Global Expansion iTEKT aims to expand its operations to at least 25 countries. So far, the iTEKT Windshield can be purchased at significant dealers like Honda, Toyota, BMW, Land Rover, Lamborghini, Ford, Kia, Subaru, Chrysler, GM, and others. You can also find the product in garages, body shops, and other shops such as Krown. The iTEKT mobile product can be found at Videotron stores, Bell stores of Cellcom, as well as in various mobile accessories shops across Canada. The products are affordable and convenient, considering the durability of the nanotechnology solution. There is a lot of positive buzz from its users via social media. Because of the vast market of mobile and automobile users across the globe, iTEKT is here to stay. Dean Martin, the CEO, is equally positive and confident about iTEKT. He is passionate about innovative technologies and believes that every person can find success. He says, “Every single person can truly be successful, as long as they follow their true passion and surround themselves with the right people”. --- ## Meet Nicholas King aka Nickels: One of the Pioneers of Science Fiction in Digital Marketing URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-nicholas-king-aka-nickels-one-of-the-pioneers-of-science-fiction-in-digital-marketing/ The world of digital media and visual arts has changed drastically in the past two decades, with important technological developments. Animation advances have made possible highly engaging advertisement, and mesmerizing special effects. Nonetheless, not a lot of people know of the experts behind all this. Nicholas King, better known as Nickels, is a Digital Media Artist who has been behind a lot of the popular videos you have seen trending on the internet. From convincing reptilian eye lids, to bionic implants on personalities such as Dennis Rodman, Fedez, and Jake Paul – It is apparent that Nickels is pioneering a new wave of hi-tech convincing visuals that are resonating with modern culture. This amazing artist was born in Maryland, and lived overseas for the most part of his youth. Nickels says that this forced him to be open minded from a very early age and to push boundaries without worrying about social norms. Nickels started his career in early 2016 after a Pokémon GO video edit that he created started trending on reddit, which was uploaded to his YouTube channel. The video went viral and articles about his work started to gain traction on online publications. Ever since, he has been actively featured in multiple magazines and platforms where his work is showcased. What motivated Nickels to get into the industry was the feeling of having reached a plateau in his career, where he remained stable in a comfortable job. He feels that the feeling of not progressing is one of the worst situations one can be in, and he welcomes new challenges with a passion. So he decided to turn his hobby of creating really crazy ideas into reality and executing those ideas. For him, one of the biggest challenges when trying to find your niche is to not be like everyone else, but instead be like yourself. In addition, it is important to figure out how to build while using your passion to that advantage. Overall, what got Nickels through these challenges was what had originally inspired him to get into the industry. Flashforward to today, Nickels is able to see where it all started: when he realized he wanted to create digital media for the masses. After college he found a job in the advertising industry and now has over a decade of experience and is the Head of CG for a post-production studio that specializes in film and commercials. Finally, he has been able to include his love for science fiction into his work, by visualizing realistic crazy ideas. This year, Nicholas shifted his focus to work on a new production style in advertising to position a brand with artists for viral marketing campaigns. Nickels was notably recognized after XXL Magazine and WorldStarHipHop reposted a video edit that he created with Atlanta rapper Nessly, showing an “autotune arm device” that was implanted on the artist. Other media outlets also published the story, which caused one of his first Instagram video edits to go viral. Nickels’ advice for those starting their own portfolio of art is to keep at it consistently even when you doubt yourself. In fact, Nickels’ fear is to do nothing or stay in the norm. This mindset is what has helped him achieve success, which for him means to be recognized for the level of skill and talent he has built and utilized to craft his career. This success allowed him to obtain financial freedom, and be able to sustain his life, hobbies and day-to-day happenings without having to worry too much. Nickels’ next projects include a huge visual effects (VFX) music video filled with robots for Kekra on his song ‘CLS’. It has reached close to half a million views after only one day of its release. Hints of more inventions and devices have been speculated for his Instagram which, through history, tends to act as small bites to bigger projects, as been evident from his Kekra music video and the robots he has featured months before it’s release. Learn more about one of the pioneers of science fiction in digital marketing, Nicholas King aka Nickels, by following him on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. --- ## Xavier Marrero: How This Entrepreneur Built A Multimillion Dollar Business And Helped Others Do The Same URL: https://futuresharks.com/xavier-marrero-how-this-entrepreneur-built-a-multimillion-dollar-business-and-helped-others-do-the-same/ Entrepreneur Xavier Marrero took his first financial hit in 2014-2015. With this, Xavier lost his home, his vehicle and any source of transportation, his wife, and his sanity. Through self-development, he has been able to transform his life. Xavier has built multiple seven figure businesses in less than two years. With these businesses, he has been able to travel, mentor thousands, and oversee a team of 2500 business associates, and now he is never stopping. Born in Puerto Rico with little to less wealth, and raised by both parents, Xavier and his family moved to the state of Pennsylvania in the early 1990’s with dreams of creating a financially stable lifestyle. Although this goal did not happen immediately, the mindset was to become financially free without dictation from corporate America and having to dedicate himself to a 9-5 job. His family and him then relocated to Florida in the early part of 2003. That same year he graduated from High School at eighteen years old. What makes Xavier unique are the principals and morals that were embedded into him at a young age. Now, Xavier oversees a credit building consultation firm. In addition to that, he helps other people create their own businesses to elevate their financial freedom and stability based on the knowledge he has attained. Xavier delivers world class service and shows his clients care and passion. His ambition to seek financial stability and educate himself in credit sustenance was what drove him on his journey to start his business. Not being able to provide for his family and knowing that financial literacy could help transform one’s lifestyle is what led him to where he is today. One of the biggest challenges he has faced since starting a business was having to combine different personalities while strategically keeping the team focused on one goal. Another challenge that he realizes may come about when starting a business revolves around having dedication and remaining laser focused. Xavier strongly believes in the power mindset can have in one’s success in the world. His advice for those trying to start their own business is to be passionate, and goal driven. His next upcoming projects entail creating a non-profit organization under XEM Enterprise while targeting inner city kids. Xavier has created the right mindset and realized that his past cannot influence his future blessings, and will not dictate who he is. While in the process of enhancing lives, Xavier has been rewarded on several occasions with top tier achievements and set records in multiple companies. By reminding himself why, and what he had to do to provide for his family, he gained the motivation he needed to achieve greater, and transform his life. To follow this entrepreneur’s journey, please click here. --- ## How this Entrepreneur Can Optimize All Kinds of YouTube Channels to Maximize Monetization Profits URL: https://futuresharks.com/matt-par/ Matt Par is a young entrepreneur and a YouTube legend. He is a guru in social media marketing and YouTube optimization. Matt began engaging on YouTube from the early age of 14 years old. “I was uploading a bunch of random videos with my friends. Until I landed on some youtube channels and saw the profit that they were making. Since then, I worked to develop my own YouTube Channels and become a YouTube entrepreneur,” he says. With nine YouTube channels generating a six-figure income and millions of subscribers, we engaged this versatile entrepreneur to share some tips on how to maximize monetization on YouTube. ### Matt Par’s Background Matt grew up in a small town in the Midwest. Inspired by the success of other YouTube channels, he uploaded his first youtube video at the age of 14 years. “The video consisted of a voice-over; my voice over that I had captured using a crappy iPhone that I had,” he says. However, in just a week, his video had already generated 100,000 views. This accomplishment motivated the young entrepreneur to learn more about YouTube. He spent the next two years learning what works and what doesn’t on the platform. By the age of 16 years old, he was generating $9,000 a month from his YouTube channel. Since then, he has expanded his operation to include multiple channels in different niches and has never looked back. ### Optimizing YouTube Channels Presently, Matt runs nine different YouTube channels that primarily make top 10 list videos. These include animation videos and other types of videos from a variety of niches. He started a personal brand channel towards the end of 2018 and managed to get 7,000 subscribers in a matter of months. The channel initially had 20 videos. One of the videos got 166,000 views. How does Matt do it? How does he manage to optimize viewership in his videos? One of the strategies he recommends is market validation. “Market validation has to do with determining what type of channel you want, which niche you intend to venture into and to conduct a market valuation on that niche,” he says. According to Matt, consistency is the key to success. “You cannot upload a basketball video at one point and then upload a video with a different content the next day,” he says. Your first step towards success on YouTube is choosing the type of channel that you want to run, determining which niche you wish to venture into and conducting a market validation on that niche. Market validation is can be determined using various free or paid software tools, for instance, VidIQ. The search traffic helps you determine whether there is demand for the content you intend to share on youtube. The second strategy is converting search traffic into suggested traffic. “Suggested traffic has to do with a variety of factors, from the description of the video to the tags and the headline,” he says. “I convert search traffic into suggested traffic using similar metadata. That means having a section of your video on YouTube, similar to other videos that you have on the platform. can be similar titles or similar keywords in the description.” The strategy will significantly boost your video’s rankings. The third strategy is consistently checking on analytics. YouTube analytics helps you monitor your video’s performance. “You should check your YouTube analytics at least once a week to see what is working and what is not,” he says, “However, do not just upload one video and wait for it to rank. I recommend taking into consideration something I call the 33 rule. This rule entails uploading 33 videos in the same niche. Then, check your analytics on the 33 videos once a week to determine what your audience likes,” he says. If you upload 33 videos and don’t see any results, consider either changing up the content or changing the niche. More often than not, it’s the content that’s not performing. ### Monetizing on YouTube YouTube is an online goldrush with over 1.3 billion people going online to view videos. Over 300 hours of video are uploaded on this platform every minute, with over 30 million viewers per day checking on videos. With such massive traffic, YouTube has become a source of income for millions of people. There are three key ways to monetize on YouTube. The first strategy is joining the YouTube partner program. This program allows youtube to place ads on your videos for a fee. The second strategy is developing a personal brand channel. Matt sells courses online using his personal channel. This strategy has allowed him to generate leads for his business. “Selling mentorship, consultancy, and education have helped me monetize from YouTube as well. Not only have I developed as an expert in my niche, but I have been able to generate leads for my business through the authenticity of my content,” he says. The third strategy is using YouTube to promote other peoples’ products. You can go on affiliate marketplaces like the one offered from Amazon and make videos on those products and then promote the affiliate links to those products in the descriptions of your YouTube videos. This method allows you to not even have any products to sell. ### Conclusion Ultimately, YouTube is only going to continue growing in the future and the best time to start is now. There are so many ways of growing and monetizing your channel today that it’s a no brainer for any company or individual to start a channel. You don’t need to be running 9 different channels like Matt Par does to make a full-time living from YouTube. Start a channel and consistently upload videos to it and make optimizations based off the data from those videos until you’re successful. Have you ever posted a video to YouTube? Let us know in the comments! --- ## How Imran Md Ali Mastered Life and Entrepreneurship Starting From Scratch URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-imran-md-ali-mastered-life-and-entrepreneurship-starting-from-scratch/ ****The first time that many consider starting an entrepreneurial venture, panic sets in: “How can I do this just starting from scratch? As we’re always told that experience leads to success, the utter lack of experience many first time founders have can dissuade them from just starting. It’s comforting to know that *every* entrepreneur, even the most experienced, had to get started somewhere.  Take Imran Md Ali for instance. Despite building multiple businesses that even his own friends and family said was impossible to achieve, he too had to start somewhere. This foundational principle – “just start!” – guided his desire to get his head out of the books and get out there and start: Do more and learn less. Or, in other words, learn then do then learn then do. Adopt this dance, and over time, you’ll certainly master entrepreneurship.  “It may be counterintuitive to implement entrepreneurial strategies without mastering them in an educational sense, he admitted. “But if you get started with a business model that is higher profit and lower risk, the chance of heavy financial loss is marginal or limited at best. And if there’s lower risk, than you should invest in learning by doing.” It’s the experience of starting that yields the best knowledge. **It Began in a Library** Ali simply used one of the best places to master entrepreneurship: the national library in Singapore. Everyday, he noticed people driving or walking past the library. Everyone was complaining about their lives.. But no one was doing anything about what bothered them. “People are walking zombies,” he commented. “Here they were complaining while walking past a library, which held the key to everything we want to learn.” This national library is where Ali learned everything he knows about business (outside of his experience) – with his head in business books, the core entrepreneurship strategies helped him immensely. So, it’s no surprise that his very first idea was born at the library. He started by opening a book on copywriting, learned everything he could … then started a copywriting business based on what he learned. Once that was up and running, he returned to the same business book section and found a book on website design. He copied and pasted the same process. **Continuing the Learn-Do-Learn-Do Process** Once his copywriting and web design businesses were up and running, Ali knew he needed to generate traffic. Lo and behold, he returned to the same library section and picked up a book on how to generate traffic: *Google Adwords* by Perry Marshall. (He credits this book with helping him blow up his business, FYI). He implemented every word Marshall told him, and it worked. Next, he got inquiries, but he didn’t have a functionality on how to set up an appointment. So, he got a book on appointment setting. Then, appointments weren’t converting to sales – so he picked up a book on sales closing. The cyclical nature of this story proves that the learn-do-learn-do process is really what works. Ali says it’s important that everyone knows *these skills are learnable* – as long as someone knows to break entrepreneurship down into smaller components, then they can find the knowledge they need. “Aggressively pursue this knowledge from the library, from youtube videos, from courses of people who have done it before …then apply what you learn *voraciously*,” he instructed. Sure, you may have no idea if what you just learned is going to work when you apply it – but you’ll also NEVER know if you don’t start! Imran Md Ali’s technique for mastering entrepreneurship is applicable to anyone at any stage – people with experience, too. --- ## How Ralph Dibugnara’s Program Helps Young Real Estate Agents Level Up URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-ralph-dibugnaras-program-helps-young-real-estate-agents-level-up/ Ralph Dibugnara’s program is more than just a simple real estate program. It is a way to think differently and create tangible results. Ralph is the creator of The Real Estate Disruptor, the only online series that shows how market circumstances affect the real estate market.  With over 15 years of experience in different business fields, Ralph offers real help when it comes to buying and selling homes. As a contributor to CNBC, Fox Business, Forbes, Huffington Post, Realtor.com, and other media outlets, Ralph creates an environment where young real estate agents can find true inspiration. **How to Leverage Business** The real estate market offers many opportunities, and every real estate agent can find the right place. However, it is more important to find the right deal. What makes a difference is your own unique way of thinking. Ralph Dibugnara knows how to leverage the business, especially in terms of more effective negotiation. He is an expert in finding the right solutions, and that is what makes him unique. Ralph excels and creates more chances for real estate agents to succeed in the market. His website Home Qualified is the place where you can find great information about real estate and investing opportunities. It is a website created by Ralph Dibugnara who wanted to offer something different to all of the real estate professionals. Young millennials can find out how to become proficient in real estate business by buying the right deals. Sometimes, it is all about the size of the space. At the same time, you need to focus on the overall environment. With the right approach, you can find the best opportunity to buy or sell an asset. Ralph Dibugnara is a man with a different perspective that has proven to be successful in many different situations. He joined Cardinal Financial as Vice President and became the leader of the company that was recognized as the top 15 lenders in 2018. He also focuses on real estate philosophy that stands behind the scenes. Many facts about real estate are hidden. Ralph tries to uncover them all. **Achieving More by Thinking Bigger ** Not all real estate professionals are sure what tactics to apply in real estate deals. Most young real estate agents are not able to realize and separate a good opportunity from only an average opportunity. That is why some good instruction could be of great help. Ralph Dibugnara’s program goes above and beyond and offers some of the best solutions for young real estate agents. With Ralph’s approach, we are now able to see the difference between the assets so that we can make a proper decision. Thinking bigger is not a matter of high expectations. It is more a method of reaching new heights by setting new goals. If we can see a new perspective in the real estate business, then we’ll manage the business more effectively. Ralph Dibugnara teaches us how to make a new plan and get new results. It is a way to increase the chances for all real estate agents to become successful. Ralph knows how to create that success. --- ## Sustainable Access to Food Is Now Possible Through Ogarden’s Inaugural Indoor Garden URL: https://futuresharks.com/ogarden/ Accessing healthy food in modern society is a challenge. The number of fast-food restaurants in the neighborhood overshadows the number of joints selling healthy, organic food. This issue is made worse with our modern lifestyle. You want to eat healthily. However, when the 9 to 5 rat race is over, all you want to do is grab a box of pizza and hibernate on the sofa binge-watching on Netflix. This common trend has contributed to the prevalence of lifestyle issues such as obesity. Presently, over70 million people in the country are struggling with obesity. Conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mental health are all prevalent conditions that are connected to an unhealthy lifestyle. We want to be healthy. We want to eat healthy food. Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a built environment that supports the opposite. However, what if we told you that there is a way? ### Ogarden Ogarden Inc is a manufacturing company responsible for the creation of a product known as Ogarden. This product is an indoor gardening system that lets you grow your favorite fresh produce in the comfort of your home. We sat down with Pierre Nibart, the CEO and manufacturer of Ogarden to explain how this technology supports sustainable access to healthy foods. “Ogarden is a smart indoor gardening system that allows you to grow your vegetables indoors. When we invented this product, we were thinking of how we could make a positive impact on society. We felt that it would be magical to have a ‘smart’ solution that helps you grow your vegetables in your apartment or home,” he says. Ogarden was founded in 2016. The company’s vision is to create a healthier, more sustainable access to food. Considering the success of this latest invention, it suffices to state that Ogarden has lived up to its vision. ### How Ogarden Works The Ogarden product is a sizeable O-shaped ring that is mounted on a cabinet like a platform. Inside the rig are twenty rows of plant tubes. You can plant three plants in each tube. That means that in a season, you can grow up to 80 plants in the rig. The rig also rotates. This rotation gives the system an aesthetic appeal that is likely to captivate your guests when they step into your home. Whereas most indoor gardening systems come with a unique substrate, the Ogarden allows you to use any soil or compost that you want. The system also has a timer. This timer lets you set the time for how long the lights should run. However, it is recommended that the lights run for 12 hours for the optimal growth of the plants. This indoor garden waters the plants on its own. Your task will be to refill the tank located in the cabinet-like base. You can grow any herb or vegetable in Ogarden be it cherry tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, or basil. ### Benefits of the Ogarden System Ogarden is an indoor gardening system that is unique and fun. This system is convenient in terms of space as it allows you to grow up to 80 vegetables in a small space. “We firmly believe that the future of gardening is indoor gardening. There will be a shift from massive to people producing their little stuff at home. This technology offers that real android experience for those living in the city. You get to take care of your plants which is a fun experience.” Ogarden makes it possible for its users to sustainably access fresh fruits and veggies. The system is easy to use and can be used all year round. Pierre states that “The Ogarden is designed to close the gap from farm to table. This indoor system eliminates inefficiencies, excessive expenditures, and costs associated with purchasing food. Furthermore, it helps you protect yourself from the negative environmental and health implications associated with traditional food production methods.” The high contamination of vegetables with pesticides has left millions of people susceptible to health risks. This prevalence has contributed to a national fear of products sold from supermarkets and other retail stores. Instead of people opting for organic food which is slightly expensive, a majority of people opt for less consumption of fruits and vegetables. That should not be the case. For an average of $1,397, the Ogarden system helps you get vegetables into your diet while cutting the cost of purchasing the vegetables from a store. Ogarden is an indoor gardening system that is here to stay. The company is featured in publications such as Mashable, Trend Hunter, Huffington Post, and Digital Trends. In a recent campaign for sustainable food practices, the company was able to raise CAD 1,000,000 in 30 days. The company is currently based in North America. --- ## Meet Brandon Schram: The Celebrity Trainer Who Came From Nothing URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-brandon-schram-the-celebrity-trainer-who-came-from-nothing/ Staying fit is not an easy challenge. It requires not just physical preparation but also mental preparation. Personal trainers like Brandon Schram can help with both. Brandon Schram is a sponsored Adidas athlete, whom you have probably already seen in the opening video of this Facebook compilation. But it did not all start there. Brandon is from the East Side of Palmdale, California, and when he was younger, he played soccer at a very high level, but he quit when he got to college. There, he started doing new things, such as drugs and alcohol. When he was engaged in this new life, two of his friends died; one stabbed at a party, and the other from opioid overdose. Brandon then moved to Cal State and majored in business management. After graduation, he was able to get a good job, and would always fit into his schedule his trip to the gym. Eventually, he started training people in the gym as a way to get side cash. He saved up to quit his job and pursued training full time, by developing an Instagram following. But this time he failed. While at this job, Brandon continued to work on his Instagram following, which at the time added up to about 7K. In 2014, Brandon decided to take another leap of faith, quit his job and pursue fitness full time. This is where it skyrocketed for Brandon. He started training other celebs such as Prince Royce, toured with Ariana grande, trained The Game, Fifth Harmony, Ashanti, Quincy Brown, and the list goes on. He was doing all of this while still focusing on producing quality content for social media. He filmed and edited all of his videos, took all of his photos. Motivated Fit’s content includes mindset training, workouts, diet plans, a Facebook community, motivated coaches, and more. At the moment, they have over 80,000 active users. For Brandon, the motivation to get into this industry came from feeling he was stuck in life and depression after the loss of his two close friends. He says, “I just wanted to be a better me.” But when starting a business, many challenges are confronted, such as self-doubt, overthinking, lack of support, and lack of planning. Another advice from Brandon is to do something you love. He thinks it is important to work on something that makes you “genuinely happy”, and that it is something “you can’t live without”. In addition, it is important not to compare yourself with people already in the business because they are not you. It is thanks to doing something he loves, that Brandon can now enjoy financial freedom, which means not having to worry about his bank account or being able to take care of his family. Furthermore, success for him is achieving that genuine happiness. For him, fitness is part of how he achieves it. Brandon’s next projects include the creation of a Motivated App where all his content will be accessible, continuing weight training, and creating a Supplement Company, as well as going further his motivational speaking and his celebrity fitness training. In the meantime, you can follow Brandon’s journey here, and get motivated by him to improve yourself. --- ## Daily Driven Exotics: Social Media’s Treasure For Car Lovers URL: https://futuresharks.com/daily-driven-exotics/ David Thomas Coulterand his partner run Daily Driven Exotics (DDE), the largest automotive entertainment content producer in the world. With almost 3 million followers between YouTube and Instagram, DDE rules the world of supercars. David Coulter was born in a small town where his father owned a Home Hardware store. There, he would stock shelves after school for just $1.00 per hour, when he was very young. When David was 10, his older brother passed away, which sent the family into a whirlwind. His mother and sister moved to England, while he moved with his father to a small island. David’s father was also an entrepreneur, and in 1993 he opened a bottled water company. After high school, David decided not to go to university and figure out a way to make money on his own. He worked his way up at Pizza Hut and then worked for 12 years at Starbucks. He had a few small businesses in the meantime, but nothing that he wanted to dedicate himself fully to. Until he met his current partner, Damon Fryer in late 2016. David decided to quit his six figure corporate job, believing with all his heart that this new venture was going to work. Flash forward to 2019, now they have 1.9 million subscribers in YouTube with a total of 350 million views and a combined 1 million followers on Instagram. The motivation behind DDE, for David, was his desire to travel the world and own supercars. David had always loved cars, and he had always wanted to own a Lamborghini, but to do so he had to make lots of money. He was always good at entertaining people, so content creation was a good bet for him. After years in various industries and after having found success in the social media and entertainment world, David has another advice for business owners: not to share your plans. On the other side, if they discourage you, it is easier for fear to increase and keep you from doing things. For David, fear is 99% not real — it just represents limiting beliefs that we accept as truths because it seems normal. Now that David is an automotive entertainment personality, he has found true success, which for him means waking up and being able to do whatever he wants. But this was not easy. One of the biggest challenges for David was putting himself in front of people, filming in public, and having his face out there. But thankfully, it all worked out. DDE differentiates itself from its competition because they invest hours and hours interacting with their followers and fans. They focus on creating highly engaging content in their niche, rather than content that is just for show. David’s next projects include pursuing TV opportunities and launching a podcast with Daily Driven Exotics, as well as starting his personal brand through a personal YouTube channel. To follow David’s path forward, go here, and to look at supercars in a way you have never seen them before, go here. --- ## By Servicing over 3000 Companies in 300 Different Verticals, Andrew Faridani Has Made Breezemaxweb One of the Top 500 Companies by Profit Magazine and Globe and Mail URL: https://futuresharks.com/andrew-faridani/ Andrew Faridani is an entrepreneur and the president of one of the leading digital ad agencies. With over fifteen years’ experience in the online marketing industry, he has created an infrastructure that provides for collaborative online media solutions. With his companies’ iterative and collaborative approach, they work with their clients as one integrated team. This article will explore the life of Faridani as a digital entrepreneur. Some of the aspects to be covered include how his business came to be, how he attracts clients to his business, and how he maintains his client base. ### A Closer Look at Andrew Faridani’s Professional Career Faridani has always surrounded himself with brilliant people, and this is one of the things that has propelled his professional career. His passion for technology and digital marketing started when he began a web conference company back in 2003. Faridani utilized the digital advertising space to get clients for his web conferencing business. Unlike most people that have to undergo intense training, Faridani was self-taught. He started his training with a PDF document worth $99. It was about the best ways to effectively use Adwords (Google Paid Advertising). Faridani is one of the few successful entrepreneurs that has broken all odds to become great at what he does. He even chose to make the bold move to sell off his web conference business to pursue advertising and marketing. By doing so, Faridani hoped to help other companies thrive by providing them with digital advertising services, and now 15 years later, his company (BreezeMaxWeb) is among the fastest-growing agencies in Canada with more than 100 staff. ### About BreezeMaxWeb Faridani’s company, BreezeMaxWeb, is a digital advertising company that manages advertising campaigns for local businesses with the aid of Geo-targeted marketing strategies. Geo-targeted search increases lead generation, ensures maximum local exposure, and increases the client’s online profile as well. Through targeted ad campaigns, a company’s adverts are redirected to people looking for exactly what the company is offering, in doing so, there is no advertising waste. It is a little different from other forms of advertising where you pay for ads to be shown (circulated) to people who aren’t interested in what you offer. The main aim of BreezeMaxWeb is to provide clients with the exposure they need to capture the attention of people searching for their products or services at the moment of purchasing intent online. That way, they get to increase their revenue and grow their business at the same time. ### Faridani’s Biggest Bet On “The Gaming World”; Becoming the Gaming Marketing Agency of North America The gaming industry is the largest entertainment industry on the planet today, and everything indicates that it will continue to grow. There are approx. 1.3 billion PC gamers worldwide, and that is a huge target audience to tap into. So, where does online gaming and opportunity for business connect? Well, online gaming is inherently a social experience with gamers highly connected via dedicated chat platforms. Player demographics also have high social media activity and online reach, and together with the sense of community, this allows for rapid viral growth of popular experiences. Faridani wants to target the gaming population and turn it into a platform for achieving viral growth. The fact that gamers are a tech-savvy population almost guarantees success, or at least a high probability of succeeding. This opportunity is a “sleeping giant” for marketers and a first-mover advantage for whoever decides to engage this media fully. ### Getting Gamers Engaged for His Client’s Brand Apart from events and conventions, Faridani has developed an integrated, robust, and straightforward marketing strategy for gamers to engage with their client brands. He owes it all to an experience of over 18 years in the digital marketing and advertising industry. There is also the backing of over 100 staff and the fact that he has managed to target his main clientele using the lowest CPA (cost per acquisition). Faridani’s marketing campaign has been streamlined by the fact that gamers are digitally savvy, and this is where they thrive. Faridani has been retargeting ads, deploying search, targeting the right segment using video, and so he understands people’s buying habits. The end result has been an agency well cemented as the go-to Gaming Agency for businesses. Almost all of it has come from directing through the right channels, in the right way. It gives Faridani hope to see clients’ businesses install their platform on their systems, especially anti-virus and other software and hardware services. Faridani’s success with subscription-based companies has led to hundreds if not thousands of gamers rushing to client platforms. In summation, Faridani has never put so much effort into one particular niche/segment as he was with Gaming, but he has spent most of his time attending events, researching the gaming marketplaces and it’s through such activities that he gets gamers to engage in large numbers. Growing his company has been an exciting journey as he gets to travel around the world and meet people with different cultures and unique ways of doing things. Andrew Faridani is a true definition of an enterprising entrepreneur. He was able to explore his market and find areas in the digital marketing sector, where he could do more to reach out to more clients. He stepped out of his comfort zone (web conferencing company) and stepped into the new world of digital marketing, which was tough, but he still realized great success. He will remain a digital icon whose marketing strategy has seen the growth of thousands of companies. --- ## How HighKey Technology Inc. is Revolutionizing the Consumer Technology Space URL: https://futuresharks.com/highkey-technology/ HighKey Technology Inc is an e-commerce company that was started over three years ago with futuristic technology and marketing in mind. Creators, Jordan Lintz and Luke Lintz, have managed to accumulate over 250k on Instagram with loyal, engaging fans and surpassed $1M in revenue at the end of 2018 and are climbing towards the $3M mark. They focus on using a combination of influencer content and their own content, such as humorous skits with lowkey product placement. The owners of HighKey Technology Inc, Jordan Lintz (@jordanlintz) and Luke Lintz (@lukelintz), have always been fascinated with the internet and developing themselves in every aspect of life. Now their Instagram page has accumulated 15-20 million total views, with their highest viewed video being over 2M. Jordan and Luke always loved watching the content of other influencers across social media and believed that they had the enthusiasm and personalities to develop themselves as influencers. “We entered the consumer technology space how any great business starts… we were the consumer of our own product. We wanted completely wireless earbuds to have better workouts, runs, and overall listening experience. That is why we created our first version of Wireless Earbuds,” they share. The biggest challenge they faced for their e-commerce company was inventory management towards the holiday season. *LOGO – HighKey Technology Inc.* Another massive challenge that they faced was product-market fit, this is the ability to judge and forecast whether a product will have the demand that you anticipated. They struggled with honing this skill and had to learn the hard way, through trial and error. Their advice for those looking to start their own business is to make sure it’s for the right reasons. Since forming HighKey Technology Inc., they have started a social media agency (HighKey Agency Inc.) that has grown to six figures within six months, with mainly real estate clients. Their third company is forming under the name HighKey Clout where they plan to run large growth campaigns and manage influencers. Jordan and Luke Lintz have plans of taking HighKey Technology Inc. all the way up to an Initial Public Offering. They are committed to the process and work hard in order to accomplish their high standards. They plan on revolutionizing the future of social media and the internet. To visit HighKey Technology official’s website, please click here. --- ## Kevin B. Wilder Jr.: The Coach That Believes He Can Improve Your Life By Supporting Your Growth URL: https://futuresharks.com/kevin-b-wilder-jr-the-coach-that-believes-he-can-improve-your-life-by-supporting-your-growth/ Leading a healthy and motivated life takes time and effort. Sometimes it is easy to drown in our own problems and work routine and forget about or life goals or health. That is why it is important that people like Kevin Wilder Jr. exist. Kevin Wilder Jr. is a life coach consultant and motivational speaker. His aim is to help people reach their full potential, by showing them different perspectives and teaching them that the only limitations are the ones they put on themselves. Kevin describes himself as having an incredible work ethic, which is part of why his business ventures include the word “Inkredible” in it. Kevin himself went through life transformation when he lost over 100 pounds and went from 315lbs to 210lbs. Through the process of building Inkredible, Kevin identified multiple challenges, such as consistently worrying about whether his product or service was good enough. Mindset and his own motivation got him through all these obstacles so he could launch the business successfully. For him, mindset has been key because when starting a business, owners face a lot of adversity. “You have to have a strong perspective, because how you view what you do will affect how you do what you do,” Kevin states. In addition, a strong mindset can help overcome fear of failure, which can at times manifest itself in the form of perpetual procrastination, keeping you from moving on. In addition, Kevin advises to stay focused and be prepared to lose before you can win. Moreover, be prepared to see bad things as opportunities. “Everything that hurts you builds you,” he says. Through Inkredible Mind & Body Fitness, Kevin has been able to achieve success, which for him means continuous growth and being able to leave a legacy behind. Plus he is doing it through helping people get their lives in order. As a leading life coach in South Carolina, Kevin provides objective perspectives of people’s lives to help them become the best version of themselves. Through his coaching, Kevin helps people deal with and achieve personal transformation in several aspects of their life including: low-self confidence, lack of focus and self-doubt, fear and self-imposed nightmares, effective methods of communication, personal and professional relationships, time management, goal setting and skills coaching, and others. In a typical coaching session, Kevin starts by creating a safe environment in which his clients can see themselves more clearly. He then evaluates the gaps between where they are in life and where they want to be, and sets clear, easy-to-follow guidelines that help them transform their life, one small change at a time. His clients get the right tools, resources, and Kevin’s personal time to achieve change. Kevin’s tips and vision can be found on his social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. His thoughts and ideas can also be listened to through YouTube and his podcasts. Finally, you can reach Kevin instantly through the live chat feature on his website. Kevin’s thought-based approach to life coaching is effective and delivers results. He works with his client’s unconscious programs and hidden beliefs that dominate their feelings, thinking, and actions. Whether a person has hit rock bottom or is a giant of their trade, Kevin believes everyone has room to improve. Kevin is here to facilitate that improvement. So if you want to lead a healthy and motivated life, check him out. --- ## Sean Castrina: How This Serial Entrepreneur is Helping Business Owners Build their Own Empires URL: https://futuresharks.com/sean-castrina/ Twenty-five years ago, Sean Castrina was let go from his dream job that he had gone to college for. It was then that he realized that as an employee, you have no job security. He decided to start his own company and now, more then twenty companies later, Sean is a very successful entrepreneur, bestselling author, and highly sought after speaker, teacher, and business coach. Sean has no set industry. His companies range from retail, property management and development, direct mail, and consulting, to home services. He has also authored multiple books and resource for business owners and entrepreneurs. Sean owns many service companies since they require no inventory, and labor is usually based on labor contracted – no dead money. Sean’s passion for business and specifically the Startup phase has led him to write countless articles and write books.. His first hand experience allows him to write from a practical and applicable style. He now has a widely listened to podcast called The Ten Minute Entrepreneur Podcast where he teaches the lessons he has learned and the ones he is continuing to learn. Mindset has been critical for Sean. After being let go with no warning, given two weeks severance pay, and having just bought a home and a new born child, Sean was facing some of the most difficult moments in his life. When he decided to start building multiple companies in industries he knew nothing about, he knew he had to have the right mindset in order to succeed. His biggest advice for those trying to start their own business is to start with a profitable idea. Unlike many business and self help authors, Sean continues to start and build companies which makes his lessons and books advise and lessons current. He is wrapping up this third book titled,  “THINKING! Just like Great Entrepreneurs”, and continuing to expand on his vast business portfolio. Sean’s mission is to equip entrepreneurs and business owners for success. Through his multiple books, podcast, webinars, and events, Sean is helping his clients build a business that is profitable and one they can be proud of. Having started at twenty-three years old and not having stopped since, Sean Castrina is truly an inspiration to all entrepreneurs and business owners alike. For more information on Sean Castrina, please click here. --- ## 3 Things Your Business Could Be Spending Too Much On URL: https://futuresharks.com/3-things-your-business-could-be-spending-too-much-on/ We all want to succeed in business, and when we launch our new startups we’re all full of confidence and passion. Keeping that same passion fired up year after year is essential if we want to achieve long term growth, but in an increasingly competitive business world we also have to keep our overheads down and profits up. Keep a close eye on your business spending and look for areas where you’re spending more than you really have to. Here are three of those areas; taking action on them today can make a real difference to your bottom line. ## 1. Marketing Marketing is one of the most important areas of any business, whatever sector it operates in and whether it sells to the public or other businesses. Your job as a business owner is to ensure that potential customers know about your product or service and the advantages it can bring them but be careful not to spend too much money on marketing methods that are unproductive. Many companies are finding that traditional methods of marketing and advertising are no longer as effective as they once were, so it makes sense to switch to methods that stand more chance of reaching younger and more affluent consumers. Social media marketing can be a great way to do this, and it can cost less than the cost of producing flyers or advertising on radio or in newspapers. Learn how to do digital marketing with these articles. ## 2. Recruitment As your business expands, you’ll have less and less time to carry out multiple tasks by yourself, and that’s the time when you should take on a more strategic role and recruit others into your business. Recruitment is an essential task, but it can also be an expensive one if you don’t keep a close eye on your costs. It can be more cost-effective for a small to medium-sized business to outsource many functions such as IT, design and help desk services rather than hiring someone to undertake those roles on a full-time basis, and this saves both the time and money that recruitment takes up. ## 3. Insurance Business insurance is something that every company in America has to have, whether it be large or small, but that doesn’t mean that you should accept the first premium that you see. You owe it to yourself, your customers and your stakeholders to get the lowest possible business insurance cost for the level of cover you need, which is why it’s vital to find an insurer you can trust that also has great reviews. Next Insurance are business insurance experts whose policies can be purchased directly online, and which can be paid for monthly without any hidden fees being incurred. That can make your business insurance bill much more manageable. Marketing, recruitment, and insurance costs are all costs that all growing businesses incur, but if you can pay less for these services without sacrificing any quality in the process, then you can gain a real advantage over your business rivals. Remember to keep a close eye on expenditure at all times and operate in a lean yet effective way. --- ## Meet Christine Curran: The Entrepreneur That’s Bringing Entertainment Back to Television URL: https://futuresharks.com/christine-curran/ Christine Curran has made a name for herself as a powerful entertainer and entrepreneur over the past ten years.Christine’s company, Ft Liquordale Entertainment, is the parent company to her current project “Dining Divas TV”. Dining Divas is a lifestyle show that features the hottest places to dine and drink in South Florida. The Divas have cocktails at the bar, cook with the chef and dine with a celebrity or influencer. Think “Housewives Meets Drive in, Diners and Dives”. She has a long list of titles under her belt such as, hosting for Playboy TV, hosting for Florida Cycling News, International Print ads for Sex Drive Energy Drink, Statewide print ads for Harley Davidson in Bikes and Beauties Magazine, Regional commercial for Broward Bar Hunter on Spike TV, 2009-10 contracted lingerie model for LaDiDa Lingerie featured on billboards and the seasonal catalog. She was also a ring girl for Don King’s Sizzling Summer Match, cover girl for the LA Xpress in California, Catalog model for Yasida Gifts resort wear 3 years in a row, actress in the movie “Beware” alongside co-star Victor Gonzalez, choreographer/dancer for the 2 Live Crew music video “Take It Off”, actress for international commercial on Mother’s Day for Amerijet and Host for VIP TV for 4 years. Christine believes that she didn’t choose this industry, the industry chose her. She knew she wanted to get paid to eat and drink on tv, so she created a concept that would be entertaining and accomplish exactly what she wanted. Christine has always understood that the TV world is extremely complicated. “There is no cookie cutter way to get on tv. You can create a sizzle and a synopsis, try to sell it and hope for the best along with millions of others or you can create full episodes, find your own funding and build a fan base. I chose option two,” she says. After a lot of hard work, she is currently in talks to go national after a year of local tv. They are currently on the CW South Florida. Having had many projects under her business, Christine knows exactly what works, and what doesn’t. With Dining Divas she saw the big picture. She knew she wanted to make money and grow the brand with sponsorships and commercial advertisers, but she also knew that, with a show like this, she could get to a national and international level very fast. There are major merchandising opportunities not only with the Dining Divas brand but the individual branding of each host. Her goal is to grow the Dining Divas with a similar franchise as “The Real Housewives”. For Christine, competition doesn’t exist. She has created a unique and entertaining concept, and is constantly reinventing herself. She has learned to ignore the copycats and doubters, and has stayed true to what she believes will be successful. When you are looking for the hottest new spot to visit for a date night or when your traveling to South Florida, Dining Divas is the place to get the best recommendations and give you maximum entertainment while doing it. A reality styled show, it takes you to the hottest places to dine accompanied by your favorite local foodies and celebs in South Florida because as Christine says, “Everyone Wants To Dine Like A Diva”. --- ## Darren Fryer Wants You To Join Him in Saving the Ocean With Pro2tect URL: https://futuresharks.com/darren-fryer/ Life always finds a way of introducing us to the right path. For Darren Fryer, it took him years of network marketing to get to where he is now, the founder of one of the most innovative ocean conservation projects out there. Darren Fryer is a first-generation Korean-American, who was born and raised in Hawaii. Growing up, he was always good at sports, but decided to go to school as an International Business Major rather than become a professional athlete. Darren got involved with VEMMA after realizing he was unhappy with the results of his three years in university, and disappointed by the lack of passion of his professors. Darren focused on creating promotional videos. He would film them at the beach when he was home from the summer or during winter break, to promote the drinks. This allowed him to build a team of over 500 people in VEMMA promoting the drink, and in turn, he qualified to get his own car through a company paid lease. But that is when he learned about a new business opportunity through a company called Wakeupnow, which offered a better product and compensation. It was a financial suite on a website which helped people save, manage and make money. Darren eventually made it to rank Ruby Executive, earning $30k/monthly, as he was reinvesting the money he made in travelling the USA to grow his team. Nonetheless, like some successful projects that grow quickly, ‘Wakeupnow’ ended up shutting down due to its lack of infrastructure to handle such viral growth in just 2 years. That is when Darren joined Enagic, a direct sales company from Japan. After years of success with Enagic while travelling around the world, Darren decided to settle back on Maui to be closer to his parents and grandmother, and to start building a real foundation for his life. While also dealing with personal hardship, Darren quickly realized that being back in Hawaii was particularly healing because he was close to the ocean. It was like his sanctuary. But it was dying. Darren’s business is called Pro2tect, it is an ocean conservation e-commerce company that runs through Shopify. Pro2tect sells merchandise so people can promote the brand and spread awareness through zero waste alternatives and accessories that people can buy to start to live a less wasteful lifestyle. It took having the right mindset for Darren to finally align his business skills with his passion; not only creating a business through which he can work on a cause he cares about, but also getting involved in modeling and professional skimboarding. Darren also advises to “work smarter, not harder.” For this he recommends seeking guidance and mentorship from people who are where you want to be and have the results you want to have. Pro2tect’snext projects include the a large beach cleanup in Kamilo beach on the Big Island in late November. Darren is also organizing a beach cleanup music festival in 2020 in Indonesia, and is hoping to repeat these type of events across the world. To follow Darren and his journey, go here. --- ## How Ryan Horst Was Able to Tap Into the Chat Marketing Industry to Find His Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-ryan-horst-was-able-to-tap-into-the-chat-marketing-industry-to-find-his-success/ When Entrepreneur, Ryan Horst, began to think about what he wanted to dedicate his life to, he knew one thing was for sure, he wanted to impact the lives of others in a positive way. He set out to find a career that would allow him to do so, while providing a positive environment for him to grow in. This is what led him to start his own marketing agency (The Bot Doc Agency). “Go to school, get good grades, get a stable job.” Those were the words that were preached to Ryan his entire life, despite growing up in an entrepreneurial family. “They only wanted the best for me. They experienced both the risk and reward of being entrepreneurs and just felt that a more stable predictable lifestyle might be less stress for me” he said. So he went with their advice, and enrolled in The University of South Florida for college to study Biomedical Sciences with the intent to go off to medical school, and live a happy life of being a doctor. After some time spent shadowing surgeons and volunteering in hospitals, Ryan began to second guess himself. He quickly learned that the hospital life wasn’t for him. So after graduation, Ryan knew that he wanted two things out of his future career. He wanted to impact the lives of others in a positive way, and he wanted to work in a positive environment. He also realized that it was important to him to be able to have control of his schedule, and not be enslaved to a job. This led Ryan to a personal training job that offered him the flexibility to be able to travel and have control over his time. It also provided him with plenty of time to study different industries. After much consideration, Ryan found his way into the marketing industry. He now owns a marketing agency that specializes in helping gyms, apartments, e-commerce, restaurants, food trucks, and AirBnB hosts. They focus on Chat and Social Media Marketing, which is arguably the newest form of marketing. Messenger/Chat Marketing is “the new way to do business,” according to Forbes. Chat Marketing uses Facebook Messenger to target individuals, it’s a similar concept as email marketing, but when put into action, yields up to 1000% better results with open rates as high as 95%. Facebook’s vast collection of data makes Chat/Messenger Marketing the most powerful tool for any business. “It’s as easy as one click to gain a Messenger Subscriber, one click to gain an email address, and one click to gain a phone number. So now we’ve gained 3 points of contact for a lead with only 3 clicks…that’s powerful. It doesn’t stop there, we can then begin to learn even more about our customers via quiz funnels. When is your birthday? Do you prefer X or Y? Have you made your purchase yet? Can you leave a review?” says Ryan. Businesses are able to place a Messenger Bot with Live Chat capabilities directly onto their websites. A Messenger Bot can help your site visitors find the right product for them, answer frequently asked questions, pre-qualify leads before a phone call can be scheduled, and so much more. What inspired Ryan to get into the Chat Marketing industry, in specific, was realizing how much time/money it could save companies. “You can have a Messenger bot speak with thousands of customers at the same exact time. It’s the secret sauce for scaling any business. I actually created a Messenger Bot aimed to go through the exact calculations required to determine what amount of each macronutrient they should be eating each day. My client was able to sit back and watch Netflix while his new Messenger Bot personalized everyone’s macronutrients,” Ryan said. Because of his expertise in Chat Marketing, Ryan is able to improve his own work-life balance and assist other business owners in doing the same. Becoming an expert in Chat Marketing allowed Ryan to differentiate himself from his competition. With digital marketing being as competitive of an industry as it is, it was important for him to find an unsaturated area of the market. He is constantly staying on top of his game by educating himself and offering full transparency to his clients. His plans for the future are to continue to expand his agency, and after, he plans on creating a paid course on Chat Marketing. This course would have to be updated frequently as Chat Marketing is an ever-changing ecosystem. Ryan understands the rules and is able to keep his clients’ businesses safe from being banned by Facebook. He is currently offering a free course that is 100% built in Messenger, where he teaches people about the different ways Messenger Marketing can be used to benefit their business. What future entrepreneurs can take away from Ryan’s story is that no one truly knows that they want for themselves, until they take the time to figure it out. After searching for the best possible career that would allow him to live the life he wanted for himself, Ryan was able to find his success in the marketing world. Helping anywhere from start-ups to 8 figure businesses find success in the fast paced environment of online marketing. His goal, always being to positively impact the lives of others, he strives to help other people and businesses by improving their work balance, so in turn they are able to spend more time with their loved ones while creating a more scalable business plan. --- ## Coach Victor Rogers: The Founder of Football’s Most Elite Training Lab URL: https://futuresharks.com/coach-victor-rogers/ Coach Victor Rogers is the founder of the DB Lab, specialized in elite training some of the very best athletes. The goal of the DB Lab is to lay the groundwork for athletes to advance to collegiate and professional careers. Coach Vic’s talent as a coach has gotten him featured on some of the biggest sports shows such as the ESPN show Draft Academy, Wealthy Investor Podcast, and the Ike and Rome Sports Radio Show. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Coach Vic is widely renowned for his passionate, and effective teaching style.  In 2009, Coach Vic bought a $200, one way ticket to California to pursue a professional career in the NFL. After succeeding in tryouts, he chose to instead focus on his coaching career and built a team of some of the best staff and coaches in the game. As a dual-sport athlete and proud McNeese State University alum, he applies his vast knowledge of the game to each athlete he trains. From his Division 1 Football and Track & Field training, Arena Football experience and mentorship under Lucious Smith and Marv Marinovich, he combines all of this knowledge to directly impact each DB LAB athlete that seeks his expertise. He is responsible for training some of the fastest defensive players on the field at all levels. As a football trainer and defensive back specialist, Vic was motivated to start the DB Lab because of love for the game of football and his desire to build elite athletes so he could contribute to the sports he loves. Coach Vic leads an exclusive group of athletes each year where he and his staff are able to diagnose, correct, and impact individual mechanics in one session. Coach Vic’s  biggest challenge when he began his business was building the proper process and infrastructure that he needed in order to be able to deliver the consistent results he needed, on the highest level possible. As a professional athlete and coach,Vic believes having the proper mindset is extremely important because without hard work, dedication, and perseverance you will not be able to succeed in the business world, nor on the field. He tells his athletes that it is 50% mindset, 25% technique, and 25% power and execution. His next project will be a step by step guided program for mental health, emotional control, and success for athletes, because Coach Vic knows the importance that mindset plays when looking to reach the likes of the NFL. One of the biggest obstacles he has had to overcome was taking the chance of going to LA with just a one way plane ticket 10 years ago, $200 in his pocket, and a goal of succeeding. For Coach Vic, there was no fear in the back of his mind because to him, fear means “Face Everything And Rise”. Coach Vic is a coach like no other. With extensive knowledge of the game and what is required to reach the very top, his coaching is invaluable to those dreaming of reaching NFL heights. By focusing on all the aspects of an athlete; mentally, physically, emotionally, and skillfully, he is able to build elite athletes ready for anything. --- ## Building a Culture of Engagement Doesn’t Need to be a Shot in the Dark; Here’s How Joshua Evans Increases Productivity by 31% URL: https://futuresharks.com/building-a-culture-of-engagement-doesnt-need-to-be-a-shot-in-the-dark-heres-how-joshua-evans-increases-productivity-by-31/ A majority of organizations struggle to develop an engaging culture. The process of constructing such a culture and the role of leadership in the process is often misunderstood. About 19% of executives feel that their company has the ‘right’ culture. Although a majority of business leaders recognize the role of culture in enhancing their productivity, most of them lack the knowledge concerning what works and what does not. We sat with Joshua M. Evans, a specialist in all matters of corporate culture, to get some tips on building a culture of engagement. Joshua M. Evans is a specialist in all matters of the corporate culture. He is an organizational engagement specialist, international speaker, and a TEDx programmer. Evans has ten years+ experience in the corporate world. He uses his expertise and knowledge to help organizations clean-up their organizational issues, such as developing the right culture of engagement. Evans has worked with hundreds of companies such as the American Express, ExxonMobil, Landrys, Sheraton, plus many more. He has also traveled the country delivering speeches on issues such as enhancing employee engagement. ### Building a Culture of Engagement A culture of engagement is a culture that promotes employee involvement. It is a culture that fosters enthusiasm for work among its employees and seeks to promote job satisfaction. Developing a culture of engagement is a challenge for businesses across the globe. About87% of organizations cite struggling to create this form of culture. 50% of top executives cite this issue as a “highly important” challenge. To Evans, he argues that it does not have to be a challenge. “Building a culture of engagement is a matter of going beyond the job descriptions of the employees and communicating a shared aspiration,” he says. “You do not build this culture by sharing your mission and vision statements. Instead, you communicate your aspirations and help your employees see their worth in working towards achieving that common goal.” The two main aspects of building a culture of engagement are leadership and communication. Evans states that communication is detrimental in forging the right relationship with your employees. Communication is the means through which leadership builds perception. “People view the world through lenses. As a result, you need to ask yourself, are the lenses in which I view the world making the world a better place or a darker place,” he says. This perception, in turn, influences employee engagement. For instance, if you complain about problems or issues that arise instead of perceiving them as a teachable moment, then your employees are likely to be reluctant to engage towards coming up with a solution. The second aspect is leadership. According to Evans, most people are unaware of how they influence others. “You have to be aware of your behavior and how you communicate as a leader. It is because your character in the business plays a role in directing your perceptions,” he says. ### Culture and Productivity A firm’s culture is significantly connected to productivity as a culture not only influences the mindset of individual employees but also contributes towards the construction of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement, and organizational citizenship behavior. Evans helps organizations to build a culture that engages employees intentionally. “When employees care, they get more productive at work. This increased productivity excites your clients and customers because they can see it, and they want to join in on the fun,” he says. So far, Evans has helped hundreds of major, small, and mid-sized companies achieve an average increase of 31% in terms of productivity in less than a year. “A culture of engagement gives firms a competitive advantage as employees are motivated to go the extra mile. They are willing to accomplish more and to speak positively about the organization,” he says. ### The Role of the Leader in the Culture Leadership plays an integral role in the development of the right culture. It is the leader who initiates change and communicates the kind of change he would want to see in the firm. Evans notes that leaders have three main tasks to undertake when building a culture of engagement. These tasks include: managing your team’s influences, creating the right perceptions and aspirations. “A leader needs to assess the existing culture in the organization. He does this by looking at things such as influences. Who or what is influencing your team? In today’s news saturated world employees are engaging in social media. They are also consuming a lot of external and internal communication that may impede the growth of a culture of engagement,” he says. “Therefore, it is up to the leader to be cognizant of how their teams are being influenced,” Evans argues that understanding the influencers is the first step in determining how to control the negative influences. After this, the firm will be in a better position to build up the right communication, perceptions, and aspirations that will, in turn, lead towards building the right culture of engagement. The right culture has a positive effect on productivity. In today’s competitive environment, developing a culture of engagement is a crucial strategy in ensuring the company survives not only the competition but also boosts its profits. “A business with a culture of engagement is more productive as its employees are solution-focussed and motivated to achieve a common value,” he says. --- ## This “Amazonholic” Used Books as a Gateway to Lead His Massive Exit URL: https://futuresharks.com/this-amazonholic-used-books-as-a-gateway-to-lead-his-massive-exit/ Everyone has vices. Ryan Mulvany’s is selling. Mulvany, a film graduate with a background in engineering, is a renowned Amazonoholic. He’s been called the Amazon Whisperer to be precise. Mulvany has been selling products on Amazon for nearly a decade, from his garage to the C-suite of his own 8 figure business. The business (Quiverr) grew into San Diego’s third fastest-growing company, and Amazon awarded it with Platinum Seller Status. Quiverr was fully acquired by one of the world’s largest brokers, Advantage Sales and Marketing. Mulvany’s activities and information are richly found on LinkedIn and Instagram where he documents the ever changing atmosphere of selling on Amazon, along with his entrepreneurial headspace along the way to keep hustling. ### Chapter 1: Getting into Amazon Through Books The massive exit began with used books, then new books, toys, games, food, soaps and beauty products, even Justin Bieber pillowcases at one point. It was in 2009 when Ryan’s fiancé had a textbook to sell. Mulvany, listed it on Amazon, and about an hour later is sold. Next, he rifled through her parents’ library and sold off their dusty books to fund his honeymoon. Ryan then established an agreement with a local library to sell their used books and split the proceeds with them. One year down the line, his honeymoon fund turned into a home fund which two years later became a home. From there the side hustle was turned into a real business, Quiverr in 2015. “Quiverr had hockey stick growth pretty much from the get go.” Recalls Mulvany. “We were just trying to hang on really.” In 2017, Quiverr was acquired by one of the nation’s largest consumer packaged goods brokers, Advantage Sales in Marketing. ### Chapter 2: Testing and Staying Disciplined Along the Way Success is not something you follow or pursue but something you attract. At Quiverr’s genesis, they created their own brands to sell on Amazon. Soon they realized they could apply the same tactics used to launch their own brands to a broader portfolio of existing brands in the market. “We didn’t set out to be an agency,” recalls Mulvany, “but we soon realized that our knowledge could benefit and accelerate growth far beyond our own products.” Ryan was personally responsible and accountable in developing strategies unique to each client’s needs, managing a team of specialists to execute the plan, and maintaining diplomacy and transparency with clients as the campaign progresses. The campaign highlights include full service Amazon brand management such as Trend Analysis, Content Optimization, Seller Enforcement, Logistics, Review Management, to name a few. They stayed disciplined in their model. Only focused on Amazon. “Brands would ask about eBay, Walmart, and others.” Said Ryan “we always told them until they squeeze everything out of Amazon, we’re not going to focus on those.” By staying in their lane from a business model perspective, it allowed them to perfect their craft and continue to evolve and adapt it to Amazon’s constant changes. ### Chapter 3: The Exit By staying focused on their model, Quiverr became one the leading Amazon Agencies, working with some of the world’s most recognized brands. In 2017, Quiverr was wholly acquired by one of the world’s largest CPG multibillion-dollar brokers, Advantage Sales and Marketing. Quiverr now focuses on providing Amazon solutions for the top recognized CPG Organizations and their assets. Their top profile clients include Unilever, Pepsi, Phillips, Energizer, Quest Nutrition, Drunk elephant, among others. Through all the sales, and clients, and products, Ryan remains addicted to selling. Even more so now than before. Jeff Bezos keeps saying its only day one. Ryan doesn’t plan on quitting anytime soon. --- ## MonClaire: The Artist Set on Taking the Music Industry by Storm URL: https://futuresharks.com/monclaire/ Rapper and singer MonClaire is one of the industry’s biggest up and coming hip-hop and pop artists. Having performed with the likes of Riff Raff, Kirko Bangz, and Trill Sammy, an album titled “Substance” on Apple Music and Spotify, and ten unreleased singles that will be releasing in 2019 and 2020, MonClaire is set to take the hip-hop and pop worlds by storm. Originally from New York, MonClaire has always had a deep love for music from both the recording, and production side. He is an independent artist that invests in himself by focusing on marketing himself, just as much as making music. MonClaire’s motivation has always stemmed from the love that he has for music. He has now been making music for over five years, and is just starting. His goal is to become the biggest artist in the world, and be able to spread his message to the masses. He wants to inspire others and show everyone that you can do anything you put your mind to. For MonClaire, music has always been the easiest part, marketing himself has proved to be the real challenge. This is where mindset comes to play for him. The biggest obstacle he has had to overcome so far is losing friends on the path to success. MonClaire isn’t ready to let anything stand in his way to success. For him, the most important things are to be able to be happy and find pure joy in his life, while having the means to support himself and loved ones. Having financial freedom, all while doing what he loves most, is his true definition of success. MonClaire isn’t ready to let anything stand in his way to success. For him, the most important things are to be able to be happy and find pure joy in his life, while having the means to support himself and loved ones. Having financial freedom, all while doing what he loves most, is his true definition of success. And if that wasn’t enough of motivation, MonClaire also doesn’t believe in competition. MonClaire has proved that he is ready to take on the hip-hop and pop world by bringing in something that no one else has, and that is himself. Through extremely hard work, consistency, along with perfecting his craft, he has proved that he is a force to be reckoned with in the music industry. --- ## Why Celebrities and Successful CEO’s Trust Stephen Campolo To Get Them In Shape URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-celebrities-and-successful-ceos-trust-stephen-campolo-to-get-them-in-shape/ A lot of people intend to get in shape and better their health, but usually, they have a hard time maintaining a weight loss regimen that works well and is flexible enough to suit their busy schedules. Along with their tight schedules, without any sort of guidance or not having someone there to keep them accountable, most people often fail to lose weight. This is why Stephen Campolo has created a weight loss program suitable for people having tight schedules such as celebrities and CEOs. Stephen Campolo, a once overweight kid that has turned himself into an expert muscle building and weight loss coach. For most of his childhood, he had a hard time with his weight. It was not until he got to high school that he decided to do something about his physical appearance. This led him to take the first phase of action towards making a better image of himself and during the next few years, it drove him to start something that would ultimately change his life for the better. Week over week, he got obsessed with seeing his body change and he desired to learn everything about the anatomy and nutrition of humans, and about weight loss training. The first job he got was as a cleaner, cleaning bathrooms and wiping machines at a gym – but that didn’t bother him because he enjoyed being in the environment as it gave him the opportunity to communicate with all the bodybuilders and personal trainers, getting all of the information he needed. After he graduated from college and secured his Bachelor’s degree, he decided to get a job in the corporate world – doing a typical 9-5 job. He did this for 2 years and he was not happy with where he was. He was convinced he didn’t enjoy that life but had no idea what to do about it. At around that time, his mom got cancer and he wanted to spend as much time with her as he could. He had a good friend, who was head of a big country club. His friend asked him to come and work with him, and he did it because the hours and pay were both good. While working with his friend, he got the opportunity to train very powerful CEOs and celebrities in the country. His mom passed away at the age of 52, one year after she was diagnosed. This was the turning point of his life. He discovered how fragile and quick life can be so he knew he had no intention of spending his life working for someone else. Campolo felt that he was knowledgeable enough about physical fitness and weight loss that he could share this knowledge with others, and he did that through social media. He started gaining attention and soon had a huge following because of his fitness content. He only intended to do that kind of online content for the fun of it because of his desire to help others at first, but he began to get a lot of messages asking if he had a program or if he was a coach. This drove him to create his weight loss program. The momentum was great, and soon after the launch of his program, he was able to quit his personal training job to focus on his physical fitness training full-time. Now, he has assisted thousands of clients worldwide to reach their weight loss goals and the transformation each client receives is a total shock to them. Campolo has discovered the best way to overcome any challenge, and this has helped a lot of people remain fit. He realized that when you focus on others, your problems seem to disintegrate and dissolve. Campolo explains that being able to help others and share his knowledge with people is the best feeling in the world. --- ## Egg Whites Saved My Life: Carl Forshage’s Journey From Stage 4 Cancer To Recovery With Egg Whites 24/7 URL: https://futuresharks.com/carl-forshage/ Throat—blistered. Body—frail. Life expectancy—less than a year and losing pounds by the day. This was Carl Forshage’s reality before recovering from stage IV throat cancer and realizing his miraculous solution was right before his eyes—Eggs 24/7. Eggs 24/7 was founded by Carl Forshage in 2009 and is now one of the largest California-based egg manufacturing companies that distributes egg product to food manufacturing facilities across the nation. After overcoming cancer, he decided that he’d expand his business to sell directly to consumers, naming the company Egg Whites 24/7 and sharing his story to remission and recovery. Because radiation in combination with throat cancer stifled Forshage’s ability and desire to eat, his only solution was to consume them directly as a drink. Egg Whites 24/7 was born as an all natural egg-white, bio-available product that is safe to drink straight from the container. “ I started drinking egg whites to get protein and help the weight stay on me and it worked,” Forshage said. “The weight stopped falling off.” Recovering from the disease was a medical miracle that compelled Forshage to continue making an impact in the egg industry. Egg Whites 24/7 is the first of its kind egg white delivery company. Available around the clock, whether it be to consumers or business facilities across the nation. Forshage was inspired to help other individuals fighting for their health by creating a product backed by quality and clean manufacturing practices consumers can trust. Forshage dedicated a proportionate amount of time in the last decade supplying consumer demand with egg whites in the west coast. He differentiates himself from his competitors by always bringing in product and manufacturing in the most urgent of times, hence 24/7. Since its inception, Eggs 24/7 has served millions of pounds of eggs for the past few years to the biggest restaurants and commercial facilities in the US and is a positive contribution to California’s egg deficit—creating a local source of egg products. Overcoming cancer has altered Forshage’s perspective, that requires an “all in” mentality. Forshage seeks to help those in need by offering a free supply of food to keep those enduring the journey of cancer survival alive and strong. “I had a really unique experience with surviving throat cancer. If you have cancer and are losing weight, I’d love for you to get a hold of me and talk to me.” -Carl Forshage. About: Forshage graduated from Texas A&M in 1980 with a degree in mechanical engineering during the nation’s oil boom. He went on to pursue a career in the oil consulting industry gathering years of experience before starting the lucrative business venture in the egg industry. Carl is also an expert consultant in food manufacturing and processing facilities all over the country and has worked with some of the biggest companies in the world. If you are looking to speak with him, he is available online at his website. For more information on Carl Forshage please click here. --- ## David Albanese: Serial Entrepreneur And Face of California’s One of a Kind Cannabis Company URL: https://futuresharks.com/david-albanese-serial-entrepreneur-and-face-of-californias-one-of-a-kind-cannabis-company/ David Albanese is the true definition of serial entrepreneur. A real estate agent turned cannabis businessman, David is an individual of many talents. Having been associated with the real estate industry and the retail industry; working at convenience stores, laundromats, night-clubs, restaurants, general construction with a pool company, landscaping, and remodeling. There isn’t anything David hasn’t tried. Eddie Mora the CEO of High Farms Delivery LLC and subsidiary of High Farms says “without the support, guidance and team that David help put in place it would have been impossible to accomplish what seemed like just a dream a few short months ago. He helped take me from the medical to the recreational market of the Cannabis industry.” David is an expert in business acquisition, creating opportunities in both the medical and recreational cannabis industry through social media. He currently operates High Farms, a portfolio of cannabis technology companies, cultivation, manufacturing and delivery. With David’s leadership, High Farms successfully assists Canadian companies’ cannabis operation in the states. High Farms helps growers develop their own business and transition into the legal market; merging the industry gaps together. High Farms also deals with equity stacks in companies and consults with them, helping them find funding and strategic partnerships. In addition to this, David has also been a real estate broker for the past 14 years. David’s real estate firm focuses both on home sales and investment acquisition of properties and management of residential and commercial properties. David also operates a multi-million dollar construction and maintenance pool company that handles remodels  and creates over 50 new pools per year. David’s motivation to get started in the world of business came from watching his mother struggle on a daily basis to keep him and his sibling safe and to put food on the table. Like many entrepreneurs, David had to deal with an obstacle time and time again, but it was his mindset that helped him overcome them all. In his time, David consults with current business owners and mentors future entrepreneurs, advising them to not allow anyone to tell them that something is not possible. David is truly motivated to help other aspiring entrepreneurs get over the mental hump of “I want to do this…. If I had this… I could do this… Or I have this dream but need money to execute… Or it takes money to make money.” David Albanese is a true inspiration to future entrepreneurs. He has managed to grow High Farms to be a “one of a kind brand.” In fact, it is the largest of its kind in Central California, while continuing to grow all of his other business ventures. Because of his dedication, hard-work, and expertise, he represents what it means to be a serial and diverse entrepreneur. --- ## 5 Tips on How to Build an Elite Medical Practice from, “Bodyfixers” star, Dr. Nina Bal URL: https://futuresharks.com/dr-nina-bal/ Building a medical practice is a daunting task. People’s health and lives are going to be in the firm’s hands, bills will be paid, insurance agencies involved, and the opportunity cost of having countless other medical professionals available will be given up over your practice. When a doctor decides to make the leap of opening their own practice, many are faced with the fear of what if they don’t succeed. They may have been rockstars at their previous practice. They may be highly intelligent allowing them to come thus far in their profession. Yet, running a business is not just a matter of being good at your profession, its an entire system of its own with tons of ins and outs that a first time entrepreneur may not know how to navigate right off the bat. Now, if you have your practice already open, what does your schedule look like for the month ahead? Is it filled with holes or is it so full that you have to turn down clients? Dr. Nina Bal, Star of the Show BodyFixers, has 5 indispensable tips for you that can make the difference between an elite medical practice and a subpar one. These 5 tips can serve as both a North Star for medical professionals just starting up and those who have been in business for years. ## 1. Be Relationship Focused, Not Quick Sale Focused “People buy people, not a clinic” she says. “Clients will follow the doctor they love and trust everywhere and this is the base of building a strong repeat of business and a loyal client base.” How do you feel when an Apple commercial comes on TV? Or when you go to the store to buy your new Iphone? Do you feel like someone is trying to pressure you into “buy now or we aren’t your friends?” The entire marketing plan of a corporation like Apple is to finesse the customer into feeling like they are in a relationship with the brand. Apple wants the user to feel like the brand of Apple is an extension of who they are, its not just about a relationship with the brand, it’s the customer’s relationship with themselves. ## 2. Consolidate a strong client base Being in the people business, you have to be able to communicate efficiently and effectively with your customers. Yet, how can you do that if they are each scattered throughout different sections of your brain, and not continuously communicated with via an email list or another consolidated system? Nina encourages that this is essential for a strong business. “Loyal clients have to be rewarded, with a discount referral system for example, or a VIP newsletter subscription. Ideally with monthly direct debits.” Reward systems keep your client base focused on you as their go to expert. It enhances the feel of being in a relationship with the business and ensures them that all their needs are continuously being met by this one business. Why would they need to go anywhere else when you’re the one who has their attention, and you’re the one taking care of their needs? As Dr. Bal puts it, “Treasure and make your clients feel very special, they might forget what you said but they will never forget how you made they feel.” ## 3. Be an expert practitioner and the one stop shop for your customer “According to the very latest techniques and trends, you have to offer a wide range of services and treatments as much as possible so you won’t refer your client somewhere else. Learn from every single small mistake by developing incredible experience to pass to your team.” Your experience, the quality of your service, and the ability to cater to all your clients needs, ensures new business will be coming in your door, your clients will tell others about you, and no one will be able to say they are ahead of you in their offering. Nina encourages you to focus on quality and a constant state of developing so that your customer is always in the best hands possible. ## 4. State-of-the-art Experience and Social Media Today’s generation is in the service business. People care more about how they experience the transition from hearing about your services to having them in action and the feeling they feel after. In that case, “Every detail has to be taken care of, studied and paid attention to” affirms Dr. Bal. “From welcoming them, to offering tea and coffees, from the design and quality of the clinic furniture, to the impeccable state of the toilets, flowers in the corners, leaflets of services provided, lovely smells, everything has to look and smell the very best, everything has to be top quality. Similarly social media and your website have to reflect yourself and your clinic. It has to be professional, personable, informative and updated. ## 5. Top-of-the-line Customer Service “Go the extra mile to make your clients feel you are giving them a 5 stars service, and beyond. Which might mean replying to email in the evenings , weekends. Efficient, well prepared, kind and knowledgeable. Be prepared also for the worse, by doing everything as it should.” Dr. Nina’s 5 tips are coming from being one of the top Cosmetic Medical Practicesin the UK. What better a place to derive medical practice wisdom? One of the top Cosmetic Practices seated in one of the fashion capitals of the world. Dr. Bal faces fierce competition in her field, yet these principles have helped her navigate her way to the top. At the core of it, its all a matter of perspective to Dr. Nina, if you view the firm you’re building in a specific light, you will treat each dynamic of the business and its customers that way. --- ## How Sunil Kumar Built The Fastest Growing Real Estate Agency in Australia URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-sunil-kumar-built-the-fastest-growing-real-estate-agency-in-australia/ Many of us know about Sunil Kumar. However, a few are aware of the struggle he has gone through to reach this stage. Sunil Kumar is the founder of Reliance Real Estate. He is also Chief Executive Officer who started Reliance in a small office in 2011. This company witnessed new heights of success through hard work and honesty. It has become the trusted name in buying, selling and leasing properties in Melbourne, Australia. It has been awarded as the fastest-growing real estate company three times consecutively. Also, its founder is recognized by ARERA as the “Principal of the Year” of Australia two times in a row. **Source of Inspiration** The founder Sunil Kumar started from scratch. He went from $1 million to $16 million within a short period of three years. He has shared his journey to becoming a source of inspiration for all who want to become successful without capital. His journey is well explained in many leadership articles that include the Business of Real Estate, The Entourage, the Indian Sun, and Elite Agent. Sunil Kumar’s success story inspires many young entrepreneurs in India and Australia. Besides, the Reliance founder serves as the AICCI board director and works to strengthen the business relationship between India and Australia. **Reliance Real Estate: History & Success** Sunil Kumar went to Australia in 2004 to get a master’s degree in professional accounting. While pursuing the course, he worked some part-time jobs to meet his expenses. He was working in door-to-door sales and during that period, he decided to serve people. His desire led him to work in real estate in 2007. In the initial years, he realized that the industry needed some essential services and improvements to achieve more customer satisfaction rates. In 2011, he established his Reliance Real Estate Company that aims to offer enhanced customer satisfaction and to bridge the gap. Sunil Kumar has a clear objective. He measures the success of his service based on the customers’ satisfaction. This unique approach helped him to meet the demands of his customers and to lead the industry within such a short period of time. **Achievements** In the current condition, Reliance has eight offices in Melbourne’s West. It has become the fastest-growing real estate company that can help people of Australia with a suitable solution to sell, buy, or lease any property. The founder of the Reliance Real Estate, Sunil Kumar, has dominated the industry with strong leadership. He has achieved this position through camaraderie, respect, honesty, and trust. Sunil Kumar has established his Funding Force to help people to get real estate solution whenever required. His organizations, Funding Force and AICCI, work to create a strong business relationship between India and Australia. Sunil Kumar is well recognized across Australia and New Zealand for building a company from scratch and going from $1 million to 16 million in 3 years. --- ## How This Entrepreneurial Duo Is Pioneering a Clinically-Driven, Therapeutic Delivery Method for CBD URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-this-entrepreneurial-duo-is-pioneering-a-clinically-driven-therapeutic-delivery-method-for-cbd/ In a CBD industry geared towards hype and proclaiming everything from tinctures to CBD-infused products as the panacea to many common ailments, it’s challenging to separate the signal from the noise. That signal is clinically-proven results from formal roadmaps and studies into the efficacy of delivery pathways, dosages, and types of CBD treatments amid a background of misinformation. For Layne Beal and Barbi Prusinski, it’s an opportunity to add medical legitimacy to a market largely driven by anecdotal evidence. Their firm, Viridian Pharmaceuticals, is pioneering an innovative topical cream delivery method for efficiency transporting therapeutic molecules across the skin barrier that was only previously available with intrusive IV treatments. Drawing from extensive experience in R&D and clinical therapy in the biopharma market, Viridian is poised to offer the type of legitimacy that medical professionals are seeking in the crowded, convoluted CBD field. From unique backgrounds, Beal and Prusinski form an unlikely pair in an emerging market. ### An Unconventional Background When you think pharmaceutical firms, big pharma, designer drugs, and an ongoing opioid epidemic come to mind. However, Beal and Prusinski are outsiders to the industry, focusing on making a positive impact with a market full of holistic treatment potential that is mired in regulatory ambiguity. Their goal? Build a company that can make clinically-proven treatment available for every day, effective treatments across a variety of indications. But their backgrounds wouldn’t indicate a penchant for clinical innovation. A self-proclaimed science nerd, Beal’s passion for tinkering led him down the path towards technology and networking in college, where he went on to work in network infrastructure and security as his first professional roles. Soon enough, Beal, who is the CEO of Viridian, went on to risk management consulting, where he earned his stripes consulting for a Big 4 firm where he helped startups on their path to IPO. “A circuitous route led me to take the leap and do something completely different,” details Beal. “Taking a new role as a CEO of a startup in an emerging industry with lots of inherent risks is difficult but I think my background, along with my passion for making a difference, will help our company grow and improve the science behind delivering the best products to provide relief that consumers desperately need — I’ve come full circle from those nerdy science roots.” His counterpart, Prusinksi, shares a similar passion for making a positive impact in the industry and has a similarly unconventional background. “Barbi’s story is probably much more interesting,” says Beal. “She may be the only female executive in our industry with a Super Bowl ring!” Prusinksi, the Head of Operations at Viridian, formerly worked with several startups in the biotech industry, but only after she had spent over a dozen years working in the front offices of numerous professional sports franchises. “Spending the bulk of my career at the San Francisco 49ers in roles from Football Operations to the coaching department, I learned from the best just what championship level standards are and what it is to build something bigger than yourself,” says Prusinski. “With technology that quickly delivers the CBD molecule through the skin, we know we’ve got something special and we are committed to bringing the most effective products with clinical validation and integrity to the market.” Together, they are leading a highly talented and experienced team of doctors, researchers, legal experts, manufacturing partners, and pre-clinical providers in an industry ripe for regulatory formalization and innovative disruption. At the core of their efforts is Notion, Viridian’s proprietary topical cream for highly effective, natural CBD delivery using the skin as a portal. ### An Effective Delivery Pathway The CBD market is in its nascent stages, with only very early-stage regulatory structures forming around clinical evidence across some intriguing illnesses and psychological problems. Medical professionals are preaching the slow, tempered crawl of the clinical approach, as much of the industry is filled with misinformation or anecdotal takes on CBD’s effectiveness with the likes of CBD-infused foods. “The science is evolving in the CBD space, and there aren’t a lot of specific dosing guidelines,” says Beal. “The only dosage guidelines really available are for Epidiolex, the first FDA-approved drug that contains CBD, which has led to significant misinformation on what are effective doses, and which delivery pathways are optimal for specific indications.” Viridian’s efforts center on moving the needle forward from the formal clinical roadmap perspective and is why they are undertaking the ambitious task of exploring CBD’s efficacy within bioavailability and pharmacokinetic studies. “We spent a significant amount of time learning from our in-home trial users about the amount of CBD that seems to have positive results for most,” says Beal. “Eventually, that led us to the CBD concentration in our first product, which is 750mg per 30mL jar — higher than most products on the market, and is dose/volume controlled.” Each “pump” of the bottle, Beal cites, is equivalent to a single dose of approximately 15mg of CBD, which has received feedback of noticeable relief in symptoms from Viridian’s early target groups — patients suffering from severe joint pain and headaches. One of the critical collateral benefits of Viridian’s effective delivery pathway is the natural manner of its application, convenience, and price point. “Our cost per milligram of CBD is roughly 16 cents, much lower than what many others are charging,” says Beal. “Couple that with Notion’s delivery system which gets CBD to its target quickly and lasts for hours, consumers are able to experience relief for less than $2.50 per application. For those experiencing pain, stress, or sleep deprivation, that’s money worth spending.” Beal’s sentiment is reflected by some of the early R&D and clinical research studies of CBD treatments so far, which have revealed promise in ailments ranging from improvements in neurodegenerative diseases to relief for rheumatoid arthritis and schizophrenia. For their part, Viridian plans on expanding their pipeline beyond Notion and is focusing on discovering clinically-backed benefits for a host of other areas — like chronic migraines and osteoarthritis. “We’re doing things the right way, with scientific rigor and testing, gathering data to inform our clinical and commercial decisions,” says Beal. In an industry where CBD products are everywhere and basic dosage guidelines are not, Viridian’s approach is a refreshing take on a burgeoning market looking for medical acceptance and regulatory maturity. With an unconventional duo behind Viridian’s endeavors, the firm is positioned well to bring legitimate, therapeutic CBD options to the mainstream. --- ## Software Engineer Creates App To Beat His Own Panic Attacks URL: https://futuresharks.com/software-engineer-creates-app-to-beat-his-own-panic-attacks/ We had a chance to interview the founders of Quirk, Koby and Evan Conrad for attempting to revolutionize how people suffering panic attacks, anxiety, or depression receive treatment. Quirk costs $6/month for app users. Behavioral therapy is an umbrella term for types of therapy that treat mental health disorders. This form of therapy seeks to identify and help change potentially self-destructive or unhealthy behaviors. It functions on the idea that all behaviors are learned and that unhealthy behaviors can be changed. The focus of treatment is often on current problems and how to change them. In short, Quirk, is a YC-backed company, that’s sole mission is to bring cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to everyone suffering from anxiety or depression. CBT aims to lessen or stop harmful behavior by changing the way people think, stopping them from falling into established patterns of negatively distorting their reality to justify or account for unhelpful habits. “CBT has 40 years of research behind it,” says Co-Founder Evan Conrad. “I’ve had severe panic attacks my whole life and saw different therapists who tried what I now know is CBT. I assumed it was a pseudo-science. It wasn’t until 10 months ago that I re-discovered CBT on my own and learned about its efficacy. It’s the gold standard.” ### Here is how Quirk works to beat panic attacks: Users jump into the app whenever they have anxiety or a depressive thought to record it. They then identify any distortions that apply to that thought, such as Catastrophizing, Magnification of the Negative, Fortune Telling or Over-Generalization, among others. From there, the user can challenge the thought with reasons why that thought might have been illogical to begin with. Finally, the user replaces the thought with something more reasonable. “For example, if I was worried about not getting a response to a text, I might believe (irrationally) that it has something to do with how that person feels about me, rather than the more obvious explanation: they’re just busy.” The hope of CBT is that identifying thought distortions and manually replacing them with beliefs grounded in reality retrains the brain to experience the world in a realistic way and relieves patients from their depression and/or anxiety. Conrad says that he went from having two anxiety attacks a week to two every six months. The problem that Quirk is trying to solve is two-fold. First, people may not know the benefits or the empirical data supporting CBT. Second, the process of manually recording this on pen and paper can be more tedious and feel less private out in a public space. Quirk’s attempt to solve these problems is to make CBT accessible to more people and to make the process of doing CBT slightly more private. Conrad says that he hopes Quirk can be a jumping off point for folks suffering from anxiety and depression, with the app suggesting that those suffering seek professional help in conjunction with using the app. He also shared that Quirk hopes to be able to connect users to professionals in their area as soon as they have the scale to do so. Quirk costs $6/month for users. --- ## 3 Easy Ways To Find Potential Social Media Marketing Clients URL: https://futuresharks.com/3-easy-ways-to-find-potential-social-media-marketing-clients/ Presently, there are over 3.484 billion social media users globally. The social media space is a hotbed for customer acquisition and retention. However, most firms lack the skill-set to identify what would work and what would not work for them on their chosen social platform. The work of a social media agency is to help companies looking to achieve omnipresence across all social media channels, resulting in significant revenue increase. That is what I do for a living. At 23 years of age, after being kicked out of university, I managed to start my own social media agency. Presently, my agency is one of the UK’s top leading digital authorities. Starting a social media marketing agency as with any other business requires the right targeting and planning. When starting an agency, you need to choose a niche that interests you. Human beings are indecisive. We have a hard time discovering the right niche. My advice to you is to identify three industries you want to focus on and start working with all three. As time goes by, gauge your performance in the three niches to determine which one you enjoy working with the most. Ultimately, you need to enjoy what you do, or else what’s the point? Here are three tried and tested ways that will help you find potential social media marketing clients for your agency. ### Facebook When I started my agency, my first source of clients was facebook. This social media site has over 1.47 billion users. Out of 1.47 billion users, 66% use it daily. Facebook instantly became a potential source of clientele for my agency. Therefore, using the experience I got from sales, I developed a cold-calling script for all the companies I wanted to target. It’s vital you choose companies that have good reviews and offer quality services or products. Opt for a company with an excellent reputation as opposed to a firm with the opposite. The reason is that the success of digital marketing is dependent on a company’s performance. If the client is not offering their customers the right product, then it would be difficult to achieve success in social media marketing. To find potential clients on Facebook, Use the Facebook search bar to look for companies within your location of interest. If you want to work with restaurants in New York, for instance, you would search for “New York Restaurants” – it’s that simple. Once you have made your list, you can proceed to contact them. As I mentioned earlier, when I first started cold calling was my outreach method of choice, although you could email or even send a message directly through to the business owner’s private social media profile. ### The Facebook Pixel Helper The Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that can be added to your website to help you optimize, measure, and build audiences for your advertising campaign. This tool provides website owners with relevant information concerning the clients who visited their website and helps create demographic profiles for each customer. Using the ‘Facebook Pixel Helper’ Google Chrome add-on you can check which companies currently have a pixel installed on their website. Then, you can reach out to them and offer to install the Pixel for free, stating that they’re leaving money on the table by not having one, explaining its purpose. This gives you an instant foot in the door and puts you in an excellent position to upsell the potential client on your Facebook advertising service. ### Job-Listings Job-listings are an unorthodox yet ingenious way to identify potential clients. This strategy is also the least used, as most people opt for simply trawling the internet. . However, as I have always said, starting a business and achieving success does not mean inventing the next Uber or the next Airbnb, it means finding a working process and making it better. Sometimes it’s the simplest of strategies that are the most effective. Looking for businesses who require marketing services? Then check job hunting / advertising websites for companies who are already advertising their interest! These are super hot leads as they’re looking to hire marketing staff directly into their business, despite this being a very expensive solution. It’s far more cost effective for business owners to hire an agency than it is to employ, when considering all of the headaches that come with taking on new team members. Once you’ve generated a list of companies who are advertising for marketing job roles, it’s your job to convince them why it makes more sense to hire you instead. Taxes and employee benefits are usually a great place to begin. Finally, in the beginning stages it’s easier to target single location businesses than multi-chain stores. You’re more likely to get hold of the owner of a single location business as you won’t be spending time chasing them around their different locations. Lastly, always be sure to go above and beyond to get incredible results for your clients. The better return on investments you achieve, the happier your clients will be and the more referrals you’ll get. Implement the strategies listed in this post and you’ll be signing clients in no time! --- ## How Google Trends Data Can Help Content Marketers URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-google-trends-data-can-help-content-marketers/ Google Trends is a fairly underutilized tool in content marketing. However, it is actually a very useful tool with various possible implementations to enhance our marketing strategy. Considering it’s free, if you haven’t used Google Trends as a part of your content marketing arsenal, there is absolutely no reason not to. Here, we will discuss the various ways we can use Google Trends to amplify our content strategy, but first, let us briefly discuss the concept and definition of Google Trends itself. ## What Is Google Trends Google Trends is a fairly simple tool provided by—none other than— Google with one single purpose: showing what’s currently trending on the internet according to Google’s data. You can also compare two or more different trends, which can be useful for various purposes. The best thing is, it’s absolutely free. One thing to remember is that Google Trends isn’t exactly a keyword research tool since it doesn’t provide an accurate search volume data, but rather an adjusted data to better represent popularity. We will discuss how Google adjusts the Trends data further below. How To Use Google Trends In Your Content Marketing Strategy ## How Does Google Trends Work? Using Google Trend is—as mentioned— very simple: go to Google Trends, enter a search query or a topic, and hit enter. You can then enter another query on the ‘+ COMPARE’ field, or add filters. There are four filters to customize: country, period, category (niches and industries), and Google Property (web, image, news, Google Shopping, and YouTube). You will be shown a simple chart to show the popularity of your query/topic (on a scale of 0-100). Further below, you can adjust subregion and see related topics and queries. Plan a Content Strategy Using Google Trends There are two main ways in using Google Trends to plan a content strategy: finding patterns and riding the momentum of a ‘hot’ trend. ## Find Patterns and Prepare Seasonal Content Analyzing how trends come and go can help in planning a content strategy if you can figure out the pattern. For example, at the start of the NFL or NBA season, there are certain keywords that are always trending each year. If you are a company selling sports equipment, for example, you can publish your content to match this pattern. If you are a business selling seasonal products/services, for example, holiday decorations, Google Trends can also help you find exactly when certain keywords like “Christmas decoration”, “Christmas destination”, etc. start picking up. This is when you should publish your content targeting the keyword, and this can also help you in planning your advertising and email marketing campaigns. ## Capitalize On One-Off Hot Trends On the other hand, there are ‘one-off’ trends and events that suddenly spike, but also will drop relatively quickly. For example, during the release date of a huge movie (i.e. *Avengers Endgame)*, various keywords surrounding the movie might be trending. Yet, if you publish the content just as soon as the trend is picking up, usually it’s going to be too late. You can, however, engage in conversations surrounding the trend on social media, where people are usually still talking about the latest trend. ## Research Trends Across Different Mediums One of the more useful features of Google Trends is how you can view popularity data between various Google Properties (the web, YouTube, Google Image, Google Shopping, and news). This is useful since what’s trending on one platform might not be trending at all in another at any given time. If, for example, a keyword is trending on YouTube but not on the web, you might as well plan to develop video content and publish it on YouTube. Similarly, if something is trending in Google Images, you can jump the bandwagon and probably develop infographics to capitalize on the opportunity. ## Keep an Eye on Local Trends If you are a business targeting local trends, Google Trends’ feature to filter for Subregion and check local trends can be extremely useful. You can use this data to create hyper-targeted content for a specific location. For example, in areas with particularly hot summer days and you are selling fashion items, you can publish targeted content for this area when the keyword is peaking in Trends. Again, look for patterns and find similarities between regions to develop effective content. ## How Trends data is adjusted Since Google Trends is a tool by Google (the no.1 search engine), the common misconception is that the data shown on Google Trends is solely about the number of times a keyword—a ‘trend— is being searched on Google for a certain period of time, or *search volume*. While there is some truth to that statement, Google Trends doesn’t only use search volume as the basis of its data. Instead, according to Google themselves, Google Trends data is the number of searches for a certain ‘trend’ divided by the total number of searches in a certain location at any given time. This, according to Google, is ‘relative popularity’, the trend. Also, Google Trends won’t take account of repeated searches from the same I.P. address over a relatively short period of time, and really low search volume is rounded down to 0. So, keep in mind that if you are planning to use Google Trends for keyword research, it won’t be as accurate. You can, however, combine Google Trends with a dedicated keyword research tool (i.e. Ahrefs or SEMRush) for even better insights. ## End Words While Google Trends is not a tool specifically designed for content marketing purposes, as we can see there are various ways we can use it to amplify our content marketing strategy. You can combine Google Trends with various content marketing tools to get better insights. Considering Google Trends is absolutely free, it’s a must-have tool in your content marketing arsenal. --- ## Interview with Judge Graham: Digital Marketing and Culture Expert URL: https://futuresharks.com/interview-with-judge-graham-digital-marketing-and-culture-expert/ Last Friday, I had the pleasure of sitting down for an exclusive interview with Judge Graham. Judge is a serial entrepreneur, marketer, and speaker. Graham has had massive success starting, growing, and selling companies for hundreds of millions of dollars. I asked him what he’s done, how he’s done it, and much more.  - **Hey Judge, what were the key factors of selling companies for hundreds of millions of dollars?** Judge: There were a few, I think the biggest was positioning to sell. If you don’t build your company with an exit plan, you’re going to really struggle to sell. Another was building an outstanding culture. For years, my company was voted a “Top place to work” along with massive companies like Google and Apple. Making people excited to come into work is a great way to build a huge company. - **What do you currently do? What are you doing to help agency owners today?** Judge: Today, my focus is on providing value through information. I speak on stages, do consulting, and have a variety of information products that I now offer. - **How are you leveraging personal branding?** Judge: I’m leveraging personal branding more and more now, and have really seen how much of a difference it can make. I have a podcast, and I’m very active on my various social media accounts. - **What advice would you give to someone looking to become an industry expert?** Judge: Go deep instead of wide. If you specialize in one certain niche, you will become an expert by default. Niche will make you rich. - **What is next for you? What exciting projects are you working on?** Judge: Just continuing to help other entrepreneurs and businesses. With the things I’ve done in business, I find it much more fulfilling to give back. --- ## Reuseabox | Cardboard Boxes that save the planet. URL: https://futuresharks.com/reuseabox-cardboard-boxes-that-save-the-planet/ ## The Rise in Green Consumerism It all began during David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2 Series. The series urged consumers to change their views on waste packaging. Namely plastic and cardboard boxes. The UK alone produces around 8 million tonnes of cardboard packaging each year. This equates to around 140 large boxes per person, per year. In response, Direct Cardboard Boxes launched the **reuseabox initiative.** (reuse-a-box) Rather than buying brand new boxes, the Initiative creates a reuse model. The initiative allows companies to reuse each other’s cardboard boxes. This removes the unnecessary manufacturing process and provides a large cost saving. ### Who is the initiative aimed at? To make a big difference, they had to target the biggest culprits producing the most waste. These are the multi-national blue-chip companies we have all come to love. The companies with the biggest buying power and the most market influence. They had to figure out a way to make them change their ways. This would make smaller companies more likely to follow suit. A well known UK food manufacturer was sending over 1 million boxes to a recycling plant every year. The boxes were used to transport their pizza sleeves from the packaging manufacturer. But, the boxes they were throwing away were still in a like-new condition. Jack, the MD at Direct Cardboard Boxes devised a plan. He made an agreement between his company and the food manufacturer. This agreement enabled him to buy all those boxes on a contract supply. He now had a yearly contract supply of 1 million like-new cardboard boxes which he had to find a market for, *and so it began…* #### Creating Supply Chains for Used Cardboard Boxes It turns out that this cardboard box is the ideal size for the plastic moulding industry. These companies manufacture small plastic parts for different industries. It so happened, that the box he had a contract for was the same box the plastic companies were buying brand new. As we all know, the plastic industry is getting a lot of heat at the moment due to the severe climate crisis. This crisis has sparked many new ventures, such as Metta Creative. Jack had the perfect solution for them. His used boxes would help support their sustainability goals. By buying used cardboard, they would be reducing their carbon footprint. The initiative has now caught on to several other blue-chip companies. RPC Plastics & The Royal Mail are two big names working with a reuse model. The cardboard they once recycled is now being reused by smaller businesses across the UK. Jack is also working with a DHL depot where they used to buy up to 40,000 new pallet boxes every year. The depot has since switched to used pallet boxes. This is now saving them over £25k a year in costs and offsetting their PRN obligation by £14k ## So what are the benefits? Reusing boxes has many obvious environmental benefits. But, the main social benefit is a reduction in waste and brand new jobs for the community. Companies can also increase their profit margins by switching to a reuse model. Jack is also opening his doors to the local community to help them learn new skills. Working with the local council, people will be able to apply for a placement to work at Direct Cardboard. The aim is to help train them for work. These skills include general warehousing, forklift driving, accounting, I.T and many more. 1 tonne (7 pallets) of used cardboard boxes: - Saves up to 17 trees - Uses up to 700 times less water - Produces up to 45 times less CO2 - Uses up to 10 times less energy. **The Reuseabox initiative offers many commercial benefits As Well** A used cardboard box costs up to 60% less than a new one, increasing a companies profit margins. Larger companies who have a PRN obligation can benefit even further. Buying used cardboard boxes will offset the cost of their PRN. > **BUSINESSES THAT HANDLE PACKAGING MUST FINANCE THE RECOVERY AND RECYCLING OF PACKAGING MATERIALS. THIS IS IN PROPORTION TO THE AMOUNT THEY HAVE PLACED ON THE MARKET. THIS FEE*****IS KNOWN*****AS A PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY – PRN – OBLIGATION**Taken from Clarity.eu.com ## Is Your Company Sustainable? If you throw away reusable resources, then you are being counterproductive. Almost every company in the world has a sustainability plan/policy/obligation. Unfortunately, that isn’t enough. The true form of sustainability is using our natural resources responsibly. Doing so will preserve our resources, making them last much longer. This will also reduce the vast amount of waste – **a global problem.** Many companies believe that buying sustainably sourced products is enough. Or having a recycling plan means they are doing their part, but this isn’t the case. If you own, manage or work in a company that has a cardboard recycling bin or skip, we challenge you to go through it. We can almost guarantee that you are throwing away perfectly good resources. Those resources could be reused by another company, or even a family moving home. If you can’t find somebody to take it in, then Direct Cardboard Boxes will. A company cannot claim to be sustainable if they are throwing away good resources. You are simply countering all your efforts. By not handling your waste and purchases properly, you are weakening your policy. Albeit, not all companies are eligible for a reuse model. For example, not all food manufacturers can reuse a cardboard box. Their boxes need to be 100% contaminate free. But the majority of businesses can. Companies that use vast amounts of cardboard should be open to the idea of a reuse model. **We all have to be responsible** and in doing so, we must change how we operate. You may have been saying you don’t have another solution to handle this issue. That recycling was the best option. But now you have a new best option, **reuse-a-box.** ### **Social accounts and website for you to follow** You can visit our website here: Direct Cardboard Boxes Also, all of our social accounts: - Instagram - Facebook - LinkedIn --- ## Three Tips To Power Up Your Visualizations URL: https://futuresharks.com/three-tips-to-power-up-your-visualizations/ These days in business and in life, everyone is looking for an edge. An upper hand that will allow them to execute and succeed on higher and higher levels to experience the success, freedom and fulfilment they seek. With top entrepreneurs and business people sharing the secrets of their success and urging others to engage in daily routines that include activities such as visualizations to get to the top, more and more people are turning to these once “woo woo” techniques to gain that upper hand. Like anything in business and in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to do anything. I often hear from clients and workshop participants that techniques like meditation, visualization and goal setting simply “don’t work” for them. Yet, when we delve deeper into HOW they do these processes, it quickly becomes clear that the issue isn’t so much that their brain is different and therefore the technique doesn’t work, rather it’s a case of the technique being done on a superficial level and therefore can’t do the deeper work the person is seeking. So how can you improve the depth that your visualizations work at? Here are my top 3 tips to powerup your visualizations to get them working for you! ### Tip #1: Be specific, positive and clear when you speak about your goals and life Our brains contain a section called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). This is the filtering system of our brain that determines what we become aware of, and what is “lost” in the dark recesses of our unconscious mind. Think of your RAS as the most high powered GPS or homing device in the entire world. When we communicate, we communicate in pictures not in words. Everything that you read, hear from others, or think to yourself creates a picture in your mind (like right now – you have a picture in your mind of a picture in your mind!). This picture gets placed in the RAS as the “destination” that we want to reach. Similar to typing a specific address into the GPS in your phone or car – the RAS will start to seek out how to get you to that picture the fastest and easiest way possible. This is why vision boards work, we give the RAS a specific picture to seek out. To supercharge the effectiveness of the vision board – we need to be specific in the language we use to speak about and represent our goals. The majority of people who use vision boards spend time looking at their vision board once, maybe twice, a day. On the other hand we have 1,500 words per minute that travel through our head – so the language we use every day can undo the good work of our vision boards. When we use non-specific language (ie. “financial freedom”) to discuss our goals, our RAS is unable to get a clear picture to seek out. This causes us to revert back whatever beliefs or picture we held onto previously. *What to do instead:* be specific and clear about what you want (ie. “I want $1 million in the bank”) Most people, when discussing their goals, talk about what they don’t want (ie. “I don’t want debt”). The RAS is unable to process the word “not” – so when we talk about what we don’t want, we end up programming the RAS with a picture of that thing we don’t want, which the RAS then works to seek out. *What to do instead:* focus and talk about what you DO want (ie. “I want $1 million in the bank”). ### Tip #2: See yourself IN the picture Our unconscious minds (the part of the brain responsible for driving behaviour) doesn’t know the difference between fiction and reality, between the past and the present and between the future and the present. When we perform a visualization looking through our own eyes (ie. If my goal is to own an Aston Martin, when looking through my own eyes I would see my hands on the steering wheel and the windshield in front of me) the unconscious mind is tricked into believing that we already have that thing. Even though logically (consciously) we know that we don’t have that car, our unconscious mind and RAS will close the filters off to seeking out ways to own that car as quickly and easily as possible. *What to do instead:* Picture yourself in the third person. Using the car example again, instead of seeing myself as the driver of the car (through my own eyes) I would see myself riding shotgun, and when I looked over to the driver I would see myself driving the car. This tells the unconscious mind two things: first is that the goal is achievable (as Napolean said: “What the mind can conceive, we can achieve”) and second is that we haven’t achieved that goal yet and to take action to find it. ### Tip #3: Connect with the emotions you’ll experience when you achieve the goal as often as possible Whether you want to admit it or not – emotions drive us. The emotions we experience most often determine our energetic vibration and the quality of the things and people we attract into our reality. When we are constantly stressed out, negative, angry or engaged in drama, our energetic vibration drops and we attract those things to us. And vice versa, when we are happy, fulfilled and grateful our vibration raises and we accelerate our growth and manifestation abilities. It’s important then to identify the emotions you’ll experience when you achieve your goals. Then, during your daily visualization, focus on feeling those emotions in your body to raise your energetic vibration. I also recommend finding other activities that will allow you to experience those emotions, and commit to engaging in those activities on a daily or weekly basis. For example, if moving into a beach house in Carlsbad, CA will cause me to feel calm, peace and gratitude then I would prioritize and schedule activities such as meditation, yoga and walks in nature with my dog on a regular basis to experience more calm, peace and gratitude in my present life. Implement these changes into your visualization process and you’ll see results and changes in not only your goal achieving success, but also your mindset, the amount of opportunities you see and how you show up to obtain those opportunities! --- ## How Starting A Podcast Helped Ben Gothard Interview Powerhouse Entrepreneurs URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-starting-a-podcast-helped-ben-gothard-interview-powerhouse-entrepreneurs/ **What’s your backstory?** “My entrepreneurial journey started when I was 20, a sophomore in college. In the fall of 2014, I got 2 phone calls on the same day that would change my life forever. My roommate and father both asked me to help them with their social media marketing. I said “of course! but don’t hire me, hire my company. On December 19, 2014, Gothard Enterprises was born. That turning point marked the beginning of my journey into entrepreneurship and personal development, and my entire way of life started changing. I started reading more, speaking at my college, and realizing that anybody can turn their dreams into reality. For a few years building my company was fulfilling enough, but soon the desire to reach more people directly, not just helping clients, took hold of me. I didn’t know what it was going to look like at first, but soon I just got started, and ended up writing. After a year, on July 3, 2016, I published my first book. CEO at 20: A Little Book for Big Dreams​. The purpose of the book was to help normal people, just like you and me, turn our dreams into reality with practical advice, anecdotes, and research. The next 5 days, I manually reached out to every single person I had ever met and asked them to support me. I quickly ran out of contacts (big surprise there!), and realized that I needed to build my network and influence for further books. So, I decided to launch a community for entrepreneurs. July 8, 2016, I thought it would be cool to name this group Project EGG: Entrepreneurs Gathering for Growth​. The plan was to bring together as many entrepreneurs as possible, listen to their problems, and solve them with my books. Naturally I wanted to attract the best entrepreneurs to the group that I could find. What I didn’t realize was how accessible these people were if you asked the right way, and once I started to see the calibre of business owners who were becoming a part of the group, a cool idea popped into my head. What would happen if I tried to interview these rockstars? I started to ask, and to my delight, they started to accept. The Project EGG Show was born on July 27, 2016. And let me tell you, in the beginning, I had absolutely NO idea what to do. I just had a single magic question that I would use to land every interview, and then I’d wing it from there. Over time, however, I started to hone my craft and refine my strategies, and eventually I figured out how to consistently book top notch interview guests any time I wanted. I’ve had the great privilege of interviewing some truly incredible people. For a complete list, you’d have to visit the Project EGG website, but some of the guests I’m most proud of having on the show include Grant Cardone, Patrick Bet-David, Pat Flynn, Kim Garst, Nicholas Kusmich, Rachel Pedersen, Rob Dial, Dr. Ivan Misner, Ryan Stewman, Joel Comm, Craig Ballantyne, Christian Hageseth, Clinton Senkow, Matt Ganzak, Holly Homer, Jonathan Lacoste, Dr. Terri Levine, Swish Goswami, Dan Doty and many more. Since 2016, The Project EGG Show has published well over 100+ episodes and has, as of April 28, 2019, over 5,000 listeners per month. New podcast episodes are published every morning at 8AM CST, and sporadically throughout the days M-F the latest episodes are live streamed to over 15+ platforms. In addition, my community on social media has grown to over 20,000+ people. I’ve been busy outside of Project EGG too, including becoming a #1 Amazon Best Selling Author in 3 different categories, launching a music festival in New Orleans, publishing 10+ more books, helping hundreds of businesses with their social media marketing, and building 5 companies, the latest of which is revolutionizing the payment processing industry. I’m 24 years old at the time of writing this. If there’s one thing I can say for sure, it’s that I’m just getting started. **‘Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?’** Of challenges, there have and I assume will continue to be a plethora. The life of an entrepreneur is one of challenge and uncertainty. I’d say the biggest challenges I’ve faced are completely my own doing. I’ve had to overcome my own inferior mindset and grow into the person who is capable of accomplishing what I am aiming to accomplish. Practically, this looked like a few things that held me back for a while. The first was a lack of focus. Clearly I have shiny object syndrome, and for a while I let it run rampant. There was a time when I was a senior in college that I was running my marketing agency, writing/publishing books, hosting new interviews, managing my ecommerce store, maintaining a respectable 3.6 GPA, partaking in a relatively active social life (work hard play hard, right?), and occasionally sleeping. That drove me nuts, so I had to make a really hard decision and focus on what I was most passionate about – Project EGG. Once I decided to really focus all of my energies on Project EGG, I started to see some truly amazing results, including interviewing people who are running companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I got to travel to Miami and interview Grant Cardone in his professional studio. That was like a dream come true. In addition, I finally hit the best seller’s list on Amazon, which was incredible, and the show has really started to pick up a significant amount of traction. But I feel like my biggest success to date has been discovering my true life’s purpose and realizing that Project EGG is in fact the platform that I have always needed. And let’s just say, now that I’ve found it, even bigger things are coming, and the world isn’t ready. **‘Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?’** There was a moment right after I graduated from LSU, early in 2018, when I had shoulder surgery, that I found myself in a really unfulfilled space. I couldn’t do interviews because my dominant arm was out of commission and trying to man the steering wheel like that was close to impossible especially trying to run my show. I had closed down my agency and ecommerce store, stopped writing, and there was very little I felt that I could do to continue making progress in my life. I don’t know about you, but when I feel like I’m wasting time, stagnant, trapped, or just chained down without a creative outlet, I get extraordinarily restless and feel like my quality of life drops significantly. It’s almost like living without a purpose, and feeling like a wandering soul that is trapped in unproductive purgatory. Point is – I almost gave up on my dreams because I felt like I physically couldn’t pursue them during the 6 month recovery period and it was driving me nuts. Not only that, but my healthy lifestyle of daily workouts and disciplined eating was totally shot because I was out of sync with my normal routine. In times like these, however, I turn to reflection and introspection. It took a while, but I was able to reconnect with the passion I felt for Project EGG and realize that the only way to overcome this awful feeling was to get back on the saddle and ramp my operations back up. And the only way I would be able to do that would be to completely take care of my shoulder. So, I doubled down on physical therapy, and committed myself once again to healthy eating, slowly working back into full strength. The shining moment of redemption for me was in August of 2018 – roughly 7 months after my surgery – when I hiked Pike’s Peak in Colorado Springs, a 14,000+ foot mountain that takes about 9 ½  hours to summit. It was after this feat of physical strength that I came back home rejuvenated and ready to kickstart my career back into action. –Ben Gothard --- ## How Stephen Campolo Went From Struggling Personal Trainer To Social Media Rockstar URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-stephen-campolo-went-from-struggling-personal-trainer-to-social-media-rockstar/ Stephen Campolo went from a local personal trainer who was struggling financially to a celebrity fitness coach and social media mogul in less than 24 months. Did you know that 39.8% of adults in the United States are obese according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. Stephen Campolo used to be a part of that statistic. Looking at him today, you would never know. Not only is Campolo in great shape, he turned himself into a fitness entrepreneur and influencer. Campolo is best-known for starting FLX Body Fitness, a system that activates fat burning hormones and turns off fat storage hormones. In addition, this system works with your unique body type to ensure you get the results you want. How did Campolo get on the road to healthy living and success? His story is inspirational but it took a lot of hard work to make his dreams come true. **Who Is Stephen Campolo?** Stephen Campolo was considered “obese” when he was younger. He was extremely unhealthy for most of his childhood and struggled with his weight. His obesity caused him to feel insecure and depressed. He was scared he would get made fun of and was too embarrassed to talk to girls. At 14 years old, he decided to change his life around. He met a girl he really liked and this influenced him to lose weight. He lost 100 pounds during this time. He also started to experiment more at the gym and researched different workout styles. This spawned his love of fitness. Campolo landed his first job at Gold’s Gym and fell in love with the gym atmosphere. From here, he decided he wanted a career in fitness. But his colleagues ill-advised him, saying he would struggle as a personal trainer or even as a gym owner. Campolo decided to go to college and received a degree in Business and Finance. He worked in corporate America for a few years and was miserable. More changes happened in Campolo’s life. His mom was diagnosed with cancer and he didn’t want to sit in an office for eight hours a day, taking away from time spent with her. To make a living, Campolo’s personal trainer friend offered him a job at a country club. Campolo started training very powerful and wealthy clients in his area. The hours also worked better for his schedule, so he was able to prioritize time with his mom. Campolo loved working in fitness and also training wealthy CEOs and celebrities. However, Campolo is a business man. This is when he decided he needed to turn his love of fitness into a business. **How He Became a Fitness Social Media Influencer** Campolo decided to take his knowledge and passion to social media. He started to compile Instagram content, focusing on fitness knowledge but also on telling his story and how these tips helped him lose weight. His ultimate goal was to share his expertise and hope people would pay attention. He started to expand his content further. Some of the posts he made included “what not to do,” “what you should eat,” and “how to properly workout.” From here, his following grew. His followers started to demand more from Campolo. They requested a program and wanted Campolo to be their coach. This inspired Campolo to create his business, FLX Body Fitness. **Conclusion** Stephen Campolo proves you can achieve your passions. He was a former obese kid who is now a fitness entrepreneur and influencer. Want to Get in the Best Shape of Your Life? Stephen is living proof that anything is possible. Want to learn more about Campolo’s fitness secrets? Follow him @stephencampolo --- ## How The Makeover Master Flew 8,917 Miles To Discover The Problem Was Inside URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-the-makeover-master-flew-8917-miles-to-discover-the-problem-was-inside/ **What’s your backstory?**I built a mortgage company from 6 people to 250+ employees and 10 offices before things crashed in 2008. The loss of my mortgage company took everything I owned including my self-esteem and self-worth along with it. I knew I wanted to create my “entrepreneurial dream” and began a mission that would end up taking me a decade to complete. I spent 10,000+ hours and invested over $200,000 while I built 50+ brands that built all of my skills and character before discovering myself along the journey. My entire backstory can be found here. “ Mike Young Story” **‘Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?’** I was voted the Portland Business Journal’s top 40 under 40 entrepreneurs in 2006 and ran our mortgage companies marketing systems before starting my entrepreneurial journey on my own in 2008. I helped grow the mortgage company with my partners from 6 people to 10 offices and 250+ employees. I created over 50+ brands between 2010 – 2015 before starting my own agency which involves mentorship, coaching, strategy, design and community. Major challenges were doing it all alone with a wrecked mindset, spending 200k on books, courses, events and seminars before it all worked for me. **‘Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?’**Yes, I was at the brink of giving up. My relationship was starting to have issues, my money wasn’t anywhere to be found and I was working 24/7/365. I read a book that made me realize I had massive internal mindset issues that needed to be fixed before my business would actually work. I asked for help from two people and flew 8917 miles to Phuket Thailand to get the help I needed with my mind and also copywriting, marketing and advertising. Realizing the issue was within me, asking for help and receiving help changed the game for me and I made everything over with my business and life in less than a year. –Mike Young --- ## Jonathan Foley: 3 Ways Brands Can Level Up Their Social Media Strategy URL: https://futuresharks.com/jonathan-foley-3-ways-brands-can-level-up-their-social-media-strategy/ Since the days of Web 1.0, social media has grown in tandem with internet communications technology. According to market-research and business-intelligence specialists Statista, worldwide social network users grew from 0.97 billion in 2010 to 2.46 billion in 2017. Based on their data analysis, Statista expects similar growth going forward. Where the public goes, enterprise follows. For example, corporate resource investment in direct advertising on social media platforms is rising. In the United Kingdom alone, advertising expenditures have increased at a much faster rate than the number of users, surging almost eight-fold between 2011 and 2017. ## The Problem with Social Media Advertising Implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) throughout the European Union since the end of May 2018 is the latest in a series of events that highlight the growing public concern about data privacy on the internet. Advertising in social media has taken a big hit. Bad actors such as Cambridge Analytica have exposed the questionable ethics surrounding the relationship between user data and advertising at an infrastructural level on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This undoubtedly makes it more challenging for both aspiring and existing entrepreneurs to leverage the potential of such mediums, and the burden of proof in terms of transparency and ethics has appreciated considerably. ## It’s a Matter of Trust It’s one thing to bait readers or potential customers into visiting a piece of content on your web page or associated profiles. However, the real challenge comes in converting visitors into customers or subscribers and ensuring that the rate of conversion and retention remains on a positive trajectory. These are matters of reputation and trust, and you can’t fake integrity. If you can prove these traits to your audiences then you have won half the battle, and if you can prove them on a consistent basis there is little that can stand in your way. ## 1. Influencer Marketing One of the greatest and oldest tricks in strategic marketing is to develop trust by establishing valuable partnerships with influential affiliates across the industry and media. This has been true since before the internet, although the aesthetics have changed. Independent influencers such as social media personalities are now just as important as traditional industry-focused print and online publications. During a recent chat with Jonathan Foley, he said: > Influencer marketing is one of the most undervalued marketing strategies by big brands. Most people are still stuck on traditional media such as radio and TV, when everyone is looking at social media. Influencers have fans that love to listen to what they have to say. Find an influencer in your relevant niche and have them do a post for your brand. The ROI will be much better, and you can build loyal fans for your brand. Foley is a Florida-based entrepreneur and social media influencer focused primarily on Instagram (which is the second-most popular app for marketing professionals). He is responsible for founding @positivity and @societyfeelings (which have a total of 9m+ followers), and is the founder and CEO of social media marketing consultancy Wulf Marketing. ## 2. SEO-Style Machine-Learning Algorithms Google has become famous for their use of machine-learning artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to help rank content on their search engine as well as on YouTube, based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative factors. These systems are essential to almost any data-driven platform, including social media, and are colloquially referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods. Things to avoid when using SEO include spelling mistakes, plagiarism, a lack of links to external sites, broken links, and high user bounce rate. ## 3. Organic Quality and Shareability When creating content, it is important to satisfy the requirements of automated systems, as well as those of the human reader. The self-learning machine protocols are usually based on these standards. Content is king, and in addition to courting high-profile influencers, Foley advises entrepreneurs to “create engaging content that will get your followers to share with friends. It is also huge to reply to comments when you can and engage in the comment section… 1,000 loyal fans who love your brand is better than 10,000 followers off some random page you bought online.” You should also ensure preplanning and publication are synchronized across all media platforms. Many websites, including the popular HootSuite, make it possible to schedule content. ## The Greatest Lesson You Can Learn You must ensure that your marketing and business strategies consider not only the short term but also the long term. Jonathan Foley’s vision for the future of social marketing suggests that within the next three to five years, platforms will be able to filter out issues such as spam that allow certain entities to get a competitive advantage. This means that, more than ever, it is important to start posting quality content and be engaged with your audience. Despite having made his name on Instagram, Foley advises marketing decision-makers to build a following on many different platforms, because “it is important to be spread out in case anything happens with a specific platform.” --- ## Meet Luis Camacho – The Superstar SaaS Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-luis-camacho-the-superstar-saas-entrepreneur/ Luis Camacho is a serial entrepreneur, born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Camacho migrated to the United States when he was a mere 10 years old. He moved to the states, went through school, and graduated high school with ease. After high school, he furthered education at Arizona State University. Camacho graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in marketing, and he was ready to take the world by storm. At the age of 19, Luis took his passion for marketing and business and started a clothing line. As Luis was only 19 and didn’t have a budget to promote his new clothing line, he turned to social media as his route to promote and sell his products. After seeing success marketing on social media, he quickly found that he was passionate about digital marketing. Then he realized that there was a place where he could polish up those skills, digital marketing agencies, which to his surprise were not as concerned with academics as they were with real-world experience. He went on to work with a digital agency, writing their social media content to start off. His goal while at this agency was to eventually lead their paid advertising department, which he was able to accomplish in less than a year. He also spent time studying the ins and outs of the agency world as he realized he’d want to have one of his own. After working with paid advertising, several agencies and big clients he put more high-income skills under his belt, investing in more education via online courses and conferences. It was during these events took place that Luis discovered his true passion, which was SaaS (software as a service). With the discovery of his love for SaaS, he started Fantôm Agency. Fantôm is a global agency helping SaaS companies all around the world discover new revenue online with a four-stage framework which allows them to increase MRR & ARR. In order to accomplish this Luis’ Fantôm Agency identifies areas of opportunities and executes a massive number of tests to understand the type of advertising that will resonate best with the client’s target audience while making sure that advertising is contextual and valuable. They do this via paid digital advertising on platforms such as Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn; and have a track record of doing it successfully. Simultaneously, Luis is currently working on building his first SaaS product — which will start off as a simple solution to many digital marketers and will eventually evolve into a strong ad spyware solution — and bringing the first version to the market within a few months. To many, Luis’ success may seem tremendous. With the many successes he’s had at such a young age, one might ask how it’s all possible. Luis contributes his success to coming from humble beginnings and working hard to make a difference. That’s what makes Luis Camacho The Superstar SaaS Entrepreneur. --- ## Moving Mountains To Make Things Work With Mitch London URL: https://futuresharks.com/moving-mountains-to-make-things-work-with-mitch-london/ **What’s your backstory?** I’m Mitch Londonand I am Wilderness Expert, I help men gain clarity in their purpose, grow in their leadership and walk in their God given Identity by slaying the giants of self-doubt, limiting belief systems and removing false ideas about their identity. I excelled in just about every area in life. Had a great marriage, wonderful kids, ascended to the top in just about every career i had……but it was empty. I was chasing a “task” and calling it a purpose. It wasn’t until I focused in on my Identity that things really opened up. My business quadrupled, marriage has never been better. I’m living life in a way that best suits me. After years in the corporate world and feeling the pull of Entrepreneurship I successfully built a location independent 6 figure marketing agency. Giving me the option to live life with purpose and intentionality. As a Sales and Marketing Innovator, I have over 15 years’ experience in Sales & Marketing as well as 10+ years in a coaching/mentor capacity. I have taken my love for the outdoors and knowledge of entrepreneurship, business and leadership and combined them to create a platform for men to breakthrough self-doubt, limiting beliefs and to finally face the giants on their path to success and truly excel in life, family and business. **‘Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?’ ** Prior to building my own company I always excelled in my roles. Either in Sales, or often by default, coaching and mentoring my colleagues. By taking a person first approach to sales and really valuing people over a process, my company typically asked me to mentor and train the new hires in my methods and practices. **‘Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?’** I got pushed off the cliff of entrepreneurship without really being ready for it. I wasn’t even really looking over the edge when it happened. Instead I was taken by the collar and drug to the edge and off I went. Due to health issues my employer could not allow me to continue working. Fortunately I had been starting a side hustle and found myself headfirst needing to provide for my family. When the only option you have is to make it work, you move mountains to get it done. Building a successful marketing company while having major health problems should have been excuse enough to throw up the white flag or roll over in defeat. But I am just not wired that way. I HAD to succeed. I HAD to provide. I HAD to man up. --- ## Nina Vargas – Successful people always look for opportunities to assist others. URL: https://futuresharks.com/nina-vargas-successful-people-always-look-for-opportunities-to-assist-others/ Nina Vargas, born Bernardina Vargas, was born on October 13, 1985, in Eagle Rock, CA (Los Angeles) with Mexican and Spanish roots profoundly entrenched by her mother, Natalia Garcia Robles. She completed high school required courses at the early age of 14 years and embarked on a JUMP PROGRAM by indulging in top-notch courses at the nearby college. Her mother solely raised Nina and her brother, David Vargas III and after her fifth birthday, Nina was unable to get the love of a father. Her mother faced adversities while earning a livelihood for the family and hustle towards every aspect of life inspired many people, which turn out to be a massive achievement for the Vargas family. This was the time when Vargas became inquisitive about fabrics and design. Apart from having an interest in fashion, she also appreciated basketball, pole vaulting, and obstacles which kept her competitive spirit active. During this time, a passionate side turned up through her commitment when she participated in a high school choir and ended up on a high note as the President of her Chambers Group under the direction of Ms. Rachel Lee. However, Vargas also strived for business and her dedication towards several core subjects like Mathematics, Economics, and Accounting. All which have now led to her success. Vargas believes that every opportunity she got was benevolently viewed as a blessing. This thought encouraged her more to perform an ample number of tasks in the future which further empowered herself and the individuals around her in the industry. After empowering a few individuals, she came to know exactly what would work best for her career and proceeded with advanced education in Fashion Design at FIDM, Los Angeles where she would learn the intricate details of the study. Unfortunately, this step did not turn out to be fruitful for her as she was unable to obtain knowledge about business and had zero networks in this field. She was up for an incredible opportunity with Christian Dior but due to conflicts with one of her teachers, she missed it. This was not enough however, as according to her, it is more imperative to understand the business world and tactical elements of the design world which will assist her in becoming an adviser in the industry. Having a new approach to her direction did lead her to a time in her life when she broke down but thanks to the creator of 9HEADS; Nancy Riegelman, she found comfort in a role model who treasured her skills and aided to get her through the full academic program. At FIDM, there was one class that allowed Vargas to acquire knowledge about speaking in public scenarios, a talent she believes permitted her to widen influential and negation skills; key skills that led her to accomplish triumph in her profession. Regrettably, her concentration and accomplishment in school was a veil to what was going on in the real world. She was faced with abusement in reality and due to the absence of a father in life, this made her timorous. In addition, this uncomfortable behavior left her in constant abusive connections in adulthood. A lack of a male figure combined with toxic relationships was like a bitter cocktail which is difficult to swallow. Her own life and professional life lied on the opposite ends of the spectrum as she is mainly focused on the exterior and superficial when she yearned for stronger connections with the truth. As she proceeded with her education and profession she realized that truth was not being told and numerous individuals, especially, women needed someone with whom they can communicate instead of being judged to accomplish more in life. This led her to become an honest voice in the masses. Marrying her knowledge in business and fashion along to overcoming self-growth; this was when she pledged to assist others. During her studies, she made herself familiar with the retail market by working at well-renowned brands such as Armani A|X, Steve Madden, and The Jones Group. While working at Armani Exchange, she met Christian Lopez, who motivated her to achieve superlative opportunities in life. With this inspiration, she came to know about where her mindset should be and gave a thought that the industry needs people who can encourage, promote, and endorse new talent. After working in the retail market, she selected the corporate level would be next. She got hired at MAXSTUDIO.COM and this position brought her to New York City where the job was in wholesale and PR. Working there for five years, worked at other companies before becoming a Director of Operations for a marketing and fashion platform in NY. This would be the final step before focusing her energy solely on her own business; becoming a private marketing consultant by taking brands to the next level. After obtaining success, she became a Women Empowerment Ambassador in 2012 and soon after the Editor in Chief and President of THE LA FASHION MULTIMEDIA INC in 2015 where this position has turned her into a significant figure in boosting the confidence of individuals, generally admired for her honest determination to aid people grow in their respective fields. Her assistance to the masses, her welcoming approach, and continuous hustle created her work ethic “trademark.” Besides that, her latest accomplishments incorporate being accorded the 2018 Women in Entertainment Award for publishing with AEG and turning into their official Magazine Sponsor in 2019. She earned name and fame by receiving the Beverly Hills Publishing grant in 2018 and was welcomed to be on the Forbes.com advisory panel. A position she turned down. Most recently, she was approached to host a Beauty Panel for Unfiltered Experience in Las Vegas as a beauty Ambassador as well as being an Official Judge for ICMAD. Other past highlights include strong partnerships with the FNL Network, Art Hearts Fashion, as well as current partnerships with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Mexico, AEG WOMEN IN ENTERTAINMENT and numerous others that are still in progress. --- ## Google SEO or Customers, for Whom Shall I Consider PWAs? URL: https://futuresharks.com/google-seo-or-customers-for-whom-shall-i-consider-pwas/ There are two types of customers; one who shop from websites only, thinking why to download an app and put a load on mobile and others who find mobile apps easy and convenient to shop. Even though shopping such is comfortable for them, they keep complaining about the cons they face but are adamant about switching either. There, a solution was discovered to end the drawbacks of both, which is known as Progressive Web App (PWA). Developed by Google, Progressive Web App (PWA) are websites with app-like qualities. They give the feel of native apps with the flexibility of sites utilizing modern technologies. They are fast, reliable, engaging, can be installed conveniently, progressive and responsive, capable of working on any device, available offline or on low-quality networks, and its content can be found via any search engine and shared easily. In short, it is a combination of the best of both the web and mobile. Adoption of PWAs is proliferating. Organizations are discovering the myriad of real-world business goals they can impact with PWAs. But there is always a concern regarding where to focus your PWAs? Google SEO, or customers? PWAs impact both differently, which we are going to explain here today. **PWA for SEO** SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an essential aspect for the success of the website, in turn, the business itself. In the SEO world, Google crawls, means follow your website’s links as well as other linked pages on the site and also indexes them by adding web pages into Google search. A no-index tag means that that page will not be added to the web search’s index. Now, as Progressive Web Apps make use of the versatility of JavaScript, they are often mistaken as single-page apps (SPAs) using heavy JavaScript frameworks. In fact, any site can be a PWA by fulfilling the following requirements; - Using HTTPS - Having a Valid Web Manifest - Registering a Service Worker with a Fetch Event Handler With a new URL for the PWA, the Googlebot will crawl the page just like it would for any AJAX or JavaScript site. But there can be some issues that can potentially impact the ‘crawlability’ — so developers must know how to optimize the website to ensure the page gets indexed appropriately. For which, Google has listed out some recommendations regarding PWAs SEO Best Practices. - Each page should be independently crawlable, and the content of each should be indexable. Use real URLs that don’t use fragment identifiers (# or #!)and follow SEO URL best practices by including keywords in the URL and keeping them short. - Each page should specify its canonical URL (the original one meant to be indexed) by using the canonical tag. - Run a test using Google Search Console’s Fetch and Render tool to see how Googlebot sees the page. - Have a responsive web design for your website, including a viewport tag that should be correctly configured, and it should pass Google’s mobile-friendly test because mobile-first is the priority for Google today. - Provide an accurate sitemap file to signal any changes to your website when using Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). Don’t forget to register it in the Google Search Console. - Google measures every page’s load time. Measure your website’s speed using WebPageTest and Lighthouse to determine your time to the first interaction. - 80% of the web uses HTTPS today. If your site doesn’t support HTTPS yet, then migrate today. **So, what are the PWA benefits for SEO?** 1. They speed up the process of your application being indexed. 2. You get improved performance, better engagement, and conversion rates. 3. You get faster site speed. There are no special benefits in considering PWAs for Google SEO, in fact, it is the user experience you must focus on improving and getting benefits from SEO because if the customers are happy, everything else follows. Here’s how PWAs can transform your customer’s experience. - With its ready-to-use feature, PWAs delivers faster performance, unlike websites or apps which may take time to load. - They can be operated offline as well as in weak network areas, so users get uninterrupted services. - Its installation is no headache as they can be launched from the home screen directly and quickly. - They provide native-like interactions which mean users get a full-screen app experience but through modern web technologies. - Its multi-channel consistency allows users to access the site from anywhere, anytime. When you deliver outstanding user experience, people want to visit your site over competing options, which means more clicks and conversions, which in turn will automatically improve your SEO. Hence, focusing on your customers will be profitable for you. **Wrapping Up** Customers always want something new and exciting and to make them happy is not at all a piece of cake, which is why responsive design is not enough today. PWAs can give you and your customers more than expected. By putting your customers’ experience at first, you can reap the incredible benefits of high organic search traffic. You must keep an eye on the market and adopt new methods to stay relevant to your target audience. With a Magento progressive web application, you can provide your customers with a fast and frictionless journey on their mobile devices, without being forced to download an app for this superior user experience. Here are other amazing SEO tips and tricks. --- ## How to make money from your home other than selling it: the top 3 ways URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-make-money-from-your-home-other-than-selling-it-the-top-3-ways/ **Have you ever sat in the front room of your own home, wondering how you can make some extra cash? You end up thinking of mad hair-brain schemes or the latest inventions, but how about thinking a little closer to home.** If you are a homeowner, I’m sure that many of you often think the only way your home could generate any extra income for you is through the property market, which also means selling your house and inevitably having to buy another. But what about if there is another way your property can increase your bank balance whilst also holding on to your home? If you are fortunate enough to own your own home but are struggling to keep afloat, we have listed for you the top three ways you might be able to cash in on your home without having to sell up. ## Holiday Letting With the dramatic rise in apps and platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com, every homeowner with as little as a spare room can sign up as a holiday let straight from their phone, simply by uploading a few photos and adding an attractive blurb to attract tourists to your home. It’s an easy and lucrative way to earn additional income with minimal effort as well as offering you the flexibility to put up or take down your listing whenever it suits you. Even better, if you are going away for a while, rather than have your home sitting empty, why not rent out the whole house to a family looking to stay in the area? This is a great option if you don’t want a permeant tenant but may as well have your home making you some money whilst away on your holidays! ## Taking in a Lodger Similar to the holiday letting option is the opportunity the 21st century lends itself to taking in a lodger through the safe and secure means of platforms such as spareroom.com. If you have a spare bedroom and don’t mind a semi-stranger’s toothbrush in your bathroom or sharing your biscuits, then taking in a lodger is a lucrative way to make some each cash, especially if your home is in a desirable area such as close to a university, transport etc. Lodgers will generally pay good money for a spare room and there is plenty of demand, especially from young professions or postgraduate students who want an affordable but comfortable place to stay. ## Letting out your garage or parking space Do you open your garage door with dread, bracing yourself for wading through all the old Christmas tree decorations or boxes of your stuff from your kids who moved out years ago? Well, why not have a good clear out and put your garage to work for you! Lots of people are always looking for a bit of extra space, whether its tradespeople looking for a workspace to make furniture, bread, beer perhaps, or a start-up business looking for that extra bit of office space. If you play your cards rights, you would be likely to undercut local competitors on rent and have a steady income from it. If this sounds like a bit too much effort, how about renting it out as storage, or even simpler yet, as a garage for someone else. This leads me onto parking spaces. By simply having a space on your driveway is enough for you to make money from your own home, especially if you like somewhere that parking is at a premium, such as near a train station. People will pay good money to rent a space that they know will always be available, so why not give it a try. James Johnson is the co-founder and CEO of FJP Investment --- ## 5 Stories When Memes Have Helped Marketing A Lot URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-stories-when-memes-have-helped-marketing-a-lot/ Digital marketing changes quickly and keeps adding new forms of infotainment. Competition forces brands to get creative and think of alternative [marketing](/how-marketing-gurus-are-lying-to-you/) tricks to win over the target audience, which is how we got to the point where memes started playing a major role in digital campaigns. Memes have become a natural part of the pop culture and it would be foolish not to use them to promote your business. However, some marketers are still skeptical and don’t feel like adding this format to their campaigns. In this post, I will discuss what makes memes so powerful and present you five cases when memes really augmented traditional marketing. Let’s take a look! ## Memes: Definition and Benefits Before I show you practical examples of memes in digital marketing, I want to discuss this concept and explain what makes it so interesting and full of potential. By definition, a meme is a virally-transmitted photograph that is embellished with text that pokes fun at a cultural symbol or social idea. It can be made of anything – a popular movie scene, a poster, a photo, etc. What is important to emphasize is the fact that the audience loves memes. As a matter of fact, some marketers report having a 10 times higher reach on Instagram and Facebook with 60% organic engagement – all thanks to memes. But it’s not the only benefit of this marketing format. On the contrary, memes can give you a number of other advantages: - **They are viral already**: You will rarely ever create a brand new meme. Instead, you will use the content that is already viral and change it just a little bit in order to help your brand stand out. - **Easy to make**: There is nothing simpler than making a meme because the Internet is flooded with all sorts of free generators. All you need to do is choose an image that inspires you and write a short line of text to promote your business. You don’t even need to hire the Best Essay or similar content creation agencies because the text is way too short for that. - **Memes are shareable**: Being such a popular online phenomenon, memes are extremely shareable. Users love sharing funny posts, so you can expect a meme to drive a lot of engagement. - **They are attractive**: Modern consumers love visual content because it’s easy to skim and digest. Memes fit these preferences perfectly as they are simple and everyone can figure them out in a matter of seconds. However, there is one thing left to mention here. While memes are indeed simple and easy to create, you do have to pay attention and respect the basic principles. First of all, you must know the true meaning of a meme in order to use it in the right context. Secondly, it needs to be perfectly aligned with the style and expectations of the target audience. Another thing you need to make sure is to react quickly because the majority of memes get lost and forgotten very quickly. The last advice is to keep it discrete and moderate since. Too many memes could harm your marketing strategy in general and you could end up with tons of negative comments like VelvetJobs. ## The Best Examples of Meme Marketing Now that you understand how memes work, it is time to see the most interesting part of the article. Without further ado, here are the top five examples of memes in digital marketing. 1. **Ruffles – Perfect steaks** Ruffles would not be the official chip of the NBA without some serious creativity in the marketing domain. They use part of this inspiration to create funny and engaging memes such as the perfect steaks. Jake Gardner, a marketing manager at Assignment Masters, says the idea is to drive action and inspire the audience to share their grilling fails: “However simple, this meme is actually a powerful driver of user engagement.” 1. **Denny’s Diner – The biscuit risk** Denny’s, also known as one of the most famous diners in the US, often uses the meme format to make interesting and funny content. Risk it for the biscuit is a perfect example of how a brand can use memes to publish amusing posts on a daily basis without looking too pretentious or promotional. 1. **Classic Art Memes – Going out** It’s hard to imagine a pair that fits together more appropriately than classic artwork and memes. The combination always brings a delicate dose of humor, which is why we love memes such as Going Out. This meme has it all: a popular image, a sheer simplicity, and a humorous punch line. 1. **BarkBox – Taxes and loans** BarkBox is yet another brand that creates marketing miracles with memes. They actually turned it into the brand standard, so the audience could hardly imagine BarkBox social accounts without memes. The one about taxes and loans is a clear example of how a viral meme can inspire thousands of likes and hundreds of comments. 1. **Gucci – Saving money** The meme storm is so strong that it sucks in even premium brand such as Gucci. Although this high-level brand is not considered to be the most suitable for alternative digital marketing formats, it doesn’t stop them from making engaging memes like Saving Money. It’s a creative and bold attempt to approach younger audiences and prove that Gucci belongs to the digital marketing world just like any other brand out there. ### Conclusion There is no easier way to create content and make it go viral than to make a meme. The whole process takes only a few seconds, but it can help your brand raise awareness and generate tons of new fans in a matter of days. In this article, you could learn: - The concept of a meme along with its benefits - How to make memes - 5 stories when memes have helped marketing a lot This marketing format has incredible marketing potential, so don’t hesitate to use it in your campaigns. And if you have any questions about it, make sure to leave us a comment below! --- ## The Importance of Business Credit and the ways to build one URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-importance-of-business-credit-and-the-ways-to-build-one/ Everyone knows that they need to have an excellent personal credit score to qualify for consumer loans, such as a home loan, to manage one’s finances. However, do you know having not just personal but business credit score is also critical? If you own a business, you may need to apply for a small business loan or business credit card. Your credit score can have an impact on it, but for financial help for your company, you would need to show your business credit rating also. ### A close look at the business credit score Positive personal credit history is necessary to let your lenders know you can repay the borrowed amount. Likewise, your higher business credit score helps communicate to your lenders its trustworthiness. Equifax and Experian are some of the leading agencies that get details from your vendors and lenders. These agencies process the information with the help of a credit reporting algorithm to ascertain your business credit. A personal credit rating may vary in the range of 300 to 850, while a business score can be anywhere from 1 to 100. The higher your score, the better for your company’s reputation! ### Benefits of business credit score When your personal credit score is healthy, you can quickly get a desirable financing option at lower rates and terms. Similarly, a positive business credit record is evidence of your full, timely repayments; hence, creditors may not hesitate to offer you business loans. Besides, suppliers also check your track record to confirm your payment status. When they find everything is fine, then only they do business with you. With a good business credit rating, you can easily persuade vendors to give you a better payment credit term of NET 30 or NET 60. In essence, building business credit can be advantageous for you in multiple ways, such as: - Easy access to small business financing options - A strong relationship with vendors and suppliers - Less use of personal credit score for business purposes - Better reputation for your company Hence, if you didn’t think about your business credit score earlier, you should seriously start doing something about it now. Before you walk this path, make sure to check whether there is already a business credit file of your company or not. Knowing this can help you work on your credit rating more wisely. Generally, Experian and Equifax create business credit files of the companies for public records. These contain all types of financial data, such as your payment reputation, court records, etc. So even though you did not open one with any business credit agency, those agencies will have adequate data to represent your business credit report. You can go online and have a look at Score Sense credit report or some other service platform to check your business credit history. Checking credit records at regular intervals can help you track down and correct errors or misinformation that can hurt your positive ratings. ### Tips on how to set up a business credit Establishing a business credit history may appear to be a mammoth task to you because different bureaus follow different rules and rating systems. Some credit score checking agencies may need you to open an account with them for tracking and monitoring purposes. The process can feel complicated for any startup, but here are a few techniques that can solve your concern. ### Company registration Starting up as propriety or general partnership business can ease the burden of paperwork. But it will not come in handy if you apply for a business loan. Any negative or positive business activity will have a direct impact on your personal credit account because this structure treats you and your company as a single entity. However, if you open an LLP, LLC, or a C- or S- corporation, then you can get rid of it. For advice with a suitable business structure, you can consult your business lawyer or accountant. ### Employer Identification Number (EIN) The department of revenue requires EIN for tax purposes. It serves the same goal for businesses as Social Security numbers do for personal taxes. You can do with Social Security number if your company is not registered. But it is a must otherwise. Since you can get EIN for free, it will be smart to apply for one. Having it can benefit your company, particularly when you apply for a business loan. Only your business credit will count and not your personal credit record. ### Business bank account Head for opening a business checking account at nearby local or national bank so that you can keep your personal and company’s expenses separate. Also, if you have a business bank account, you can borrow money easily from lenders. It will also have a positive impact on your business credit. ### Business credit card Another way of building your business credit is by using a business credit card for daily business transactions. It will help you keep your personal and business financial matters distinct. Make sure you pay your bills early or on time. Consistency in on-time payments can eventually help you raise your business credit score. You can also opt for a business line of credit, which works pretty much like a credit card. The only difference here is that you don’t need any physical card. You get the amount in your bank account for use as and when you need it and have to repay it within a specified period. ### Choice of lenders If you want to take advantage of your good credit behavior, then borrow money from licensed moneylender or creditors like who send borrower’s payment histories to the credit rating bureaus. ### Information update Since lenders and suppliers can check your company’s credit before associating with you, you should regularly check your credit history at all the major business credit rating agencies. It will help you rectify or update the latest details. Building a positive business credit history can be a time-consuming and arduous process, but it’s worth every bit of it. So, don’t shy away from practicing what is best for your company. Also, be a responsible borrower. --- ## How Dano Veal disrupted The Big Alcohol industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-dano-veal-disrupted-the-big-alcohol-industry/ If there was anyone with any doubt about where the American dream was still alive or not, then I would send them to go and have a beer (or tequila) with Dano Veal. Louisiana born, raised in Kansas City, and now a proud Silicon Valley resident his life story cannot be summed in one article. In 2005, single custodial father of two, Veal was working a full-time job, but he had a number of potential business ideas which he was planning for during his spare time. He wanted to run a business that would allow him to become his own boss, whilst also aiming to turn his creations into reality. He realised that he had the potential to do so much more that his current station allowed. ### “Single parenting, no child support, working a regular hourly job was a challenge. Single Fathers aren’t treated the same as single mothers. Example my boss granted schedule changes for mothers at their verbal request, but I had to have my kid’s day-care explain I was a single custodial father in writing and show a copy of my lease. Today my companies have zero discrimination and even grants paternity leave to fathers.” Veal recalls During that year, Veal started an event planning business called ‘The Slap Event Promotions’. He was still working the same job, but this was a step in the right direction. It was also a step into the unknown. Starting any business venture carries great risks and there is a steep learning curve to get over. ### “My first successful event took 9 months to plan and I made $30,000. I came across documents showing the local Denny’s made $80,000 slinging eggs & bacon for each month I planned my event. That’s when I realized I was a pebble compared to corporate giants and I wanted to grow as big as them in my lifetime. None of my peers at the time understood me so I went on my own path” The Entreprenuer recalls In 2006, the company evolved from event planning to alcohol imports. With a year of experience under his belt, Veal decided that this would be a more profitable line of business to be in. He also made the business more official in that year, changing the company to an LLC which gave it the extra gravitas that it needed in order to keep growing and expanding its clientele. Elastico Tequila was also born in 2006. This was Veal’s private label tequila and would become a central pillar on which his business would rely upon in the years that followed. Ever since the business was started, Veal wanted to maintain control of his company and his products. He’s never taken on loans or gifts because he doesn’t want to ever be in debt to someone, or to lose any creative control of the business or its operations. This is something he is extremely proud of, and to which he dedicates a large portion of the success of the company to. ### “I experience just about every downfall a person could. My technique is to focus on the solution instead of crying about the problem. The difference between us resilient people and others is that we don’t stop, never give up, and we keep going like time.” He explains This company was never about being an overnight sensation. Slow and steady growth was the recipe for success here. It takes years to build up a good brand and an image with loyal customers. But you can lose this reputation overnight, so it has always been a focus of Veal to make sure this doesn’t happen. In his own words, he “didn’t want this to be a fly-by-night brand”. What’s more, one hundred percent of the profits that the company has made have been reinvested back in the company. This is not your typical CEO who will take expensive trips and generally abuse the budget of his company in order to enrich his own lifestyle. ### “I don’t have any business partners; I don’t need them. Being self-made does come with a bit of arrogance & need to prove ourselves. If you need partners & loans to be successful, then you’re not ready to carry your company on your shoulders when things get tough. Good business Partners do make things move faster though.” The CEO calmly sips his tea. Veal is a self-professed typical working man. He hasn’t let the fact that he is the founder and CEO of a successful business change the type of person who he is, or the life that he leads. Rather than taking lavish vacations all over the world, Veal is happy to be hanging out with his family or playing video games during his down time. It hasn’t always been easy, but his resilience and down-to-earth character have been hugely important in ensuring that the company has continued to grow and succeed. Fast forward to 2018 and a new plan that was years in the making came to life. Veal is now a Master Distiller of Elastico Tequila. In December of last year, Veal executed plans to open several craft distilleries across the US. Now instead of people waiting for Elastico Tequila to come to a store near them, people can go directly to Elastico Tequila and enjoy fresh from the barrel. ### “I created a spirit that is virtually odorless, 100-proof, and doesn’t burn on the way down when you drink it. I removed everything that people dislike about tequila and even converted non-tequila drinkers to Elastico Tequila drinkers.” he recalls. The reasons for this change in the business operations were multi-faceted. For one, Veal wanted more control over the quality of the product. He understood that the quality was what kept customers coming back and when production was overseas this wasn’t something that could be relied upon forever. With this part of the process in-house, the brand’s reputation was in his own hands. The other reason for this move was that Veal is a pure-blooded patriot. While it wasn’t financially feasible to begin with to have their own distilleries, as the company has grown, he has always wanted to be able to bring these jobs back home to the US. Made in the USA, by Americans, can now be proudly included in the company’s branding. ### “Anything that comes easy leaves even easier. My advice is knowing your basic math and be discipline. The difference between a $150 pair of tennis shoes and my pair of $40 Chucks’, is about 9-cases of glass bottles with corks that get flipped into $39 to $79 per bottle. So, the little $110 I saved by not trying to fit in, contributed to $4,200 – $8,500 worth of product. This way of thinking is second nature to me because I’m a hustler.” Said Veal Launching your own beverage label has its difficulties. It’s a saturated market in the US and there is a lot of competition. How do you break through the crowd and let customers know that your tequila really is the best? It’s a challenge that Veal will continue to tackle in the coming years. One answer has come in the form of product diversification. In order to ensure the future success of his business, he has launched some additional products so that he is not so heavily concentrated on just the alcohol industry. The new products are Elastico Tequila’s all-natural handmade agave candles and non-alcoholic agave sweetened beverages that are sold online through numerous platforms and have so far been performing well. When asked about what the short-term future looks like for Elastico Tequila, Veal simply responded: **“resilient people always move forward; we’ll take the punches and keep getting up to complete our missions.”** Let’s hope this patriot keeps rolling with the punches. by Mike Lindsay-Bayley --- ## How Jeff Sekinger is Taking Over the Financial Consulting Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-jeff-sekinger-is-taking-over-the-financial-consulting-business/ In just the past twelve months, Jeff Sekinger has managed to serve over 1,000 clients, coach over 100 people one on one, and has helped dozens create new income streams and quit their jobs by leveraging low interest credit. Jeffhas managed to build 5 businesses (two million dollar businesses), all in this short amount of time, but not without sacrifices. Jeffruns a financial consulting business where he helps individuals and entrepreneurs leverage credit to create income and build long-term wealth. His entire brand and business revolves around financial independence. His goal is to help his clients save, make, and multiply their money. Since he was sixteen years old, Jeffhas been investing. He attended the University of Kentucky where he majored in finance and worked for two different banks. After graduating, he got a job in private wealth management with the largest bank in the United States. After working 19 months, he realized the corporate 9-5 life was not the life for him. Jeff ended up starting his personal brand and business while working his banking job. The bank denied his outside business activity and told him he could not be speaking about finance on social media. In that very moment, Jeffdecided to quit his job and run his business, full time. Jeff’sinterest in the financial consulting business came from seeing how many people were living unfulfilling and uninspiring, working jobs they did not like just because they needed money. He knew entrepreneurship was the only way out of an uninspiring career so he wanted to help other people start their business ideas. For most people looking to start a business, financing can be a huge barrier to entry, so he decided to start with credit. Once Jeffwas able to fix his own credit, and see all the possibilities that came with a good credit score, he realized that he wanted to help others leverage this tool so they too could start living better, more inspiring lifestyles. Jeffalways acts in the best interests for his clients, and that is why he has been as successful as he is. While everyone else the industry charges “funding fees”, meaning they advertise 0% interest financing but then take 10% of the financing they get them up front, he charges a one time consulting fee that is often times much lower than his competitors funding fee. He also teaches his clients how to strategically fund themselves 0% interest credit that allows them to stay at 0% interest for 5+ years so they can actually operate without needing to pay him again. It is no secret that to reach the heights Jeffhas, you have to give 110%. With hard work and dedication, Jeff Sekinger has managed to transform his life in just twelve months. By believing in himself, and following his passion for transforming lives, Jeff has been able to leave his mark on the financial industry. --- ## Corporate America Failed Mack, So He Joined the Credit Repair Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/corporate-america-failed-mack-so-he-joined-the-credit-repair-business/ Corporate America, just as the American Dream, have failed many people in the United States, who end up having to work two to three jobs in order to keep up with their expenses. Mack is an example of this. He migrated from Haiti, the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere when he was a child. Coming to the United States was a dream come true, given that his family was broke. He says “being on welfare was like living luxury,” even though his mother had to work two to three jobs to put food on the table. After going to school and getting good grades, it was his time to start working, but he also had to work multiple jobs, and depend on the 9 to 5 corporate schedule, and he soon got tired of it. After this risky decision, he was worried that he would never be able to accomplish what he wanted or travel the world like he dreamed of since he was a child. He started to think that the American Dream was not real. In Corporate America, it seemed that no matter how hard he worked, he could never go forward. But then he heard about the Credit Repair business through a friend, and decided to get involved. Today, Mack has one the fastest growing Credit Repair business in a very competitive industry doing a minimum of $1.2 millions in sales his first year. Mack’s life changed from night to day. When he first came to the United States, his family did not even speak English, his stepfather died of cancer four months after entering the States, and he never met his biological father until he was 25. Mack went from hopelessness and feeling like his dreams were dying inside of him to “creating his own freedom.” Through accomplishing his dreams, Mack also met Ketly, whom he married and has two beautiful children with. As he recalled his story, he emphasizes the importance of family and dreams. Mack did not have any experience in the Credit Repair business when he got involved, but he had a mentor who he could follow and ask for guidance. This is why his main advice for people is to “find the right mentor and model after them.” Mack wants his story and that of his wife Ketly to motivate people to start fighting for their dreams and creating a life of freedom. --- ## Determined to Succeed: How Kiddtarriii Overcame Homelessness Through His Music URL: https://futuresharks.com/determined-to-succeed-how-kiddtarriii-overcame-homelessness-through-his-music/ Over 500,000 people go to sleep every night without a home in the United States. They sleep in the streets, in their car or in other people’s places, but do not have a home of their own. Trying to overcome a situation like this, many families are torn apart. Hywel C Bowman Jr. is one of 8 children, and he was homeless ever since 7th grade in Middle School. One of his sisters died of cancer, and two of his siblings were incarcerated. His life is filled with struggle, but his story is also one of family endurance. When he used to sleep in his car with his family, his mother sang him to sleep. Today Hywel has overcome homelessness and he lives through the music he produces under the name Kiddtarriii. Kiddtarriiihas seen the dark and the light, and he thinks it is no coincidence that his mother sang to him to sleep during the lowest times of his life. Now that he is 19, he is dedicating himself completely to his music and engaging fully with the music industry. His music tell his story and share messages he hopes many will identify with. As many people say, he is making waves in the hip-hop and rap industry. Growing up surrounded by family struggles, music is all he had. While he could have chosen another, more dangerous, path towards financial freedom, Kiddtarriiichose what felt right for him. Now in the business, he realizes the importance of mindset. He says mindset is either what can make you succeed or what can totally break your business. After multiple periods of ups and downs, KiddTarriii doesn’t fear a single thing in the world today. For him, “fear means failure because when you fear chasing your dreams, you automatically failed yourself.” To move forward and work hard is the only option. On his path towards success and financial freedom, Kiddtarriiisees success as seeing the plan he has drawn up helping him gain revenue. He says, “there is never a cap to success and so I will always be on a journey to become more successful.” This is why he has multiple projects coming next. However, having survived homelessness, the loss of family members, being robbed of opportunities and more, is not what defines KiddTarriii. Now that he has achieved financial freedom, which finally means having enough money to eat and sleep with his family and with a roof over his head, he knows who he is. Kiddtarriiithe quintessential example of what hard work, determination, family loyalty, talent, and destiny can add up to. To follow his music and the next chapters of his story, you can follow him here. --- ## Mike Fallat is Changing The Game of Books URL: https://futuresharks.com/mike-fallat-is-changing-the-game-of-books/ Mike Fallat makes books. Not just any books, but powerful books from people that are changing the world. Everything started when he realized WHY he didn’t care about writing when he was younger. And he came to the conclusion that it was because his heroes like Tom Petty and Alice Cooper didn’t. So, that’s when he decided to combine the rock star feel with the book creation and create “Dream Starters Publishing” the #1 Book Creation Service For Entrepreneurs. There are plenty of reasons the entrepreneurial route is tough, especially when the journey starts from zero. Mike Fallat as many other entrepreneurs phased many struggles starting out. But once he realized his passion for books, the impact they could have on society and how to use it as a marketing tool, he fell in love with the industry, taking all his passions and combine them into making the book industry as attractive as possible. He then wrote his first book, that changed people’s lives instantly, Started from Zero, and after its success and people calling for him to help other writers and to be a motivational speaker, it became his trademark. Now, Mike is changing people’s lives and brands with his creations. His advice “If you give up once, you will give up on something else. Maybe its the gym, a relationship, or another great idea. So, don’t get into the habit of giving up because the people at the top can sense if you have the “quitting gene” inside of you. Play to win for life.” Mike Fallat has published some of the biggest books by top entrepreneurs such as: Build to grow by Tim Lions, The Sales war by Brian Q. Davis, Do The Hustle by George Caceres, The Rhino Mindset by Ali Zamany, and many more. To learn more about Mike Fallat and his work, click here. --- ## How Katelyn Runck Is Helping to Bring Back Confidence Into Your Life URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-katelyn-runck-is-trying-to-help-bring-back-confidence-into-your-life/ For Katelyn Runck, embracing a healthy lifestyle saved her life. She went from being a 5’10 90lb “skinny agency model” to pursuing her career as a built, 150lb inspirational fitness model and lifestyle coach. She has transformed her life to be someone who is healthy and beautiful, not just on the outside, but inside. When Katelyn decided to pursue a career in the modeling world at the age of 17, she began adopting unhealthy habits into her life. She pushed herself to extremes, and began struggling with an eating disorder and addiction. She began treatment and was able to get her life back. After much thought, Katelyn decided she wanted to help people and became hooked on the beauty and wellness industry. She started her own Wellness Boutique and Clinic right after she finished school with the experience and education she had gained in the beauty, fitness and health world. Katelyn is the owner of Lifestyle Savvy – Wellness Boutique & Medical Aesthetics Clinic, and Katelyn Runck Fitness – Nutrition and Fitness Coach. In 2018 her social media platforms took off, growing over a million followers organically in a year time which opened many doors and opportunities. She is a full time influencer and model that works with brands via her social media platforms. Her motivation to get into this industry came from embracing a balanced, healthy lifestyle. When she first started her business, she struggled with attaching her “self worth” to her work. She expressed how important it is to incorporate your hobbies, spend time with friends and family, and do things that interest you, while building up your business. It’s all about balance. Mindset is extremely important for her when it comes to owning her own business. Her business is constantly growing and evolving, and for Katelyn it feels like there is never a dull moment in this industry. She has some big things in the works in regards to her brand, and will also be launching her very own app soon. Currently she’s working with the brands she loves, traveling, and sharing her insight & experiences with her followers. Katelyn is making a living out of doing what she loves most. As a social media influencer, she is able to reach such a broad audience on her platforms, all around the world. Fitness and health helped her gain the confidence and happiness back into her life, and she wants to help everyone to feel this confidence in their lives too. For more information on this beautiful entrepreneur, please click here. --- ## Why VCs Trust Duuple CEO Abby Frimpong to Build the Future of Crowdfunding URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-abby-frimpong-beat-the-odds-to-raise-vc-money-for-her-startup-duuple/ Crowdfunding started as we know it in 1997 when a British rock band raised $60,000 to fund a reunion tour online. Not long after that, in the year 2000, a company called ArtistShare became the first true crowdfunding platform. A half decade later came Kiva, then Indiegogo, then GoFundMe and voila, the foundation of the modern crowdfunding landscape has emerged. These platforms changed lives, they helped to fund hospital bills, adoptions, art the world have otherwise never seen and even video games. By 2013 the JOBS act was in place and even the US government had gotten behind crowdfunding. But for all these many campaigns that got funded, Duuple CEO Abby Frimpong noticed the more than 50% that failed to get funded. With a strong non-profit fundraising background of her own, Abby had seen firsthand the impact of fundraising dollars put to good use. During her time in Washington DC she raised money for a local hospital system building an outpatient diabetes clinic and integrated cancer center. Seeing the positive effect this had on the community was very impactful for Ms Frimpong. Then, Abby noticed a trend. The campaigns that succeeded had a common element: virality and storytelling. Statistics show that by 2025 the crowdfunding market will be worth more than $1 trillion annually. Abby’s vision for the future of that market is simple. Make sure that with the increased cash flow comes an increased percentage of campaigns funded. What is the point of the influx of donors and capital if more than half of people’s campaigns will die in darkness, in an unseen corner of a crowdfunding platform. Not on Abby’s watch. Enter Duuple, Abby’s brain child and answer to the problems she’s discovered in the market. Duuple allows the campaign organizer to easily create and manage viral photo and video challenges. This component is important because as Abby dug deeper into the viral campaigns that got funded she noticed a common thread: User Generated Content or UGC. UGC makes up the backbone of viral challenges we’ve all seen. Abby thought about the “Ice Bucket Challenge” for example. In 2014 this viral UGC challenge raised more than $100 million for ALS research. After doing a little research to confirm the numbers, Ms Frimpong grew certain that the world needed Duuple. Now, it was time for her to raise money. Investors put their hard earned dollars into people, not ideas. The entrepreneur and their ability to execute is what separates ideas from profitable companies. Basel Holding founder Burak Basel realized that when he first met Abby Frimpong. It was clear that Ms Frimpong may have been a newcomer as an entrepreneur, but definitely not as a fundraiser. Abby had already displayed an ability to raise money at a high level for multiple organizations across a swath of industries. As such, Basel felt confident in her ability to take over the reins. Duuple is now the American flagship of Basel Holding’s portfolio and they’re going full steam ahead. Basel Holding has been a major player in fintech for years but they’ve truly outshined their competition on the hardware side. Duuple is an opportunity for the already iconic European VC to further cement the Basel Holding name and portfolio here in the United States. Clearly the right woman for the job, Abby is poised to make a big splash in the crowdfunding community and the fintech space. With one VC round of funding under her belt, Abby has also entered into discussions with additional VCs’ who see the financial potential of a significant stake in a crowdfunding platform. Ms Frimpong has already proven herself to be an effective leader of early to late stage startups.  At the current pace, In the next 18-24 months we should be expecting Abby to add her first successful exit to her list of accomplishments.  Then the sky will truly be the limit.  If you think beating the odds and getting your first company VC funded is hard, imagine the odds of not only getting your first company funded but taking it to the finish line with an exit.  If anyone can do it right the first around, it’s Abby Frimpong. --- ## The Story of Josh Snow: The Entrepreneur Who is Disrupting an Entire Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-story-of-josh-snow-the-entrepreneur-who-is-disrupting-an-entire-industry/ At just 26 years old, Josh Snow, the founder of Snow, the leading teeth whitening system in the world, has the level of maturity and success one could only dream of achieving. Just in a few years, Josh has been able to gather the endorsements and partnerships of people like Floyd Mayweather and Rob Gronkowski. As a kid, Josh originally wanted to become a doctor, but then he started picking up computer skills and everything began to change.Josh was substantially successful in digital marketing and became an affiliate in marketing spaces. In a short amount of time, he taught himself sound engineering, coding of websites, and even learned design skills to make sure that all his creations looked visually appealing and ready to use. Once Josh started to master Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to generate income from AdWords and rank his blogs, it became natural for him to transition into affiliate marketing, where instead of getting paid for clicks, he could get paid for sales, which opened up new doors that allowed him to make cash online. It started to become evident to Josh that he had come to a crossroads: He knew he no longer wanted to be a doctor, but instead he wanted to keep keep diving deeper into this world he was now so enthralled by. He cut a deal with his parents: as long as he graduated with good grades, he could keep up with internet marketing and shelf med school. He graduated at the top of his class, and neither he nor his parents could imagine what was to come. After the success that came with internet marketing, making millions of dollars in his early 20’s, Josh decided to launch Snow. But Josh came to the realization that money alone wasn’t something that was going to make him happy, and that he had spent his time focusing on something that would ultimately lead him to a dead end.He wanted to create something he could talk about for the rest of his life because he loved it so much. He knew it had to be a massive market, something very competitive and challenging that would keep him engaged for a very long time. He also wanted to focus on the business to consumer (B2C) space because of the massive base of potential customers… quite ironically, in order to avoid burnout. After making this checklist, Josh realized he still had thousands of options. He had some pretty significant success with beauty products and really loved the industry. After being shaped by having jaw surgery as a kid, he realized that there was a gap in the market between strips in the store and dental treatments for whitening.To this day, Josh doesn’t take a penny from Snow. By putting his head down on earlier ventures, he has been able to finance this kind of runway. Josh’s advice is that you take an honest look at exactly what your business would look like at 50x the revenue that it is doing now: What does the team, office and products look like? Then, reverse engineer everything from there. If this doesn’t fully excite you, then you might be more suited for a different type of business. Once you go all-in, everything changes for you. The idea of buying a new car or vacation or watch doesn’t excite him anymore; he wants to work on the brand and invest in where it is going. He gets excited by landing a new celebrity partner or by working on a big deal for the company. At such a young age, Josh Snow has accomplished more than many. For someone who has seen his fair share of financial and professional success, we get a feeling that Mr. Snow isn’t only dominating the dental industry; it’s actually much more than that — he’s changing the world in the process. --- ## AkkenCloud CEO Shares His Thoughts on the Evolution of the Staffing & Recruiting Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/akkencloud-ceo-shares-his-thoughts-on-the-evolution-of-the-staffing-recruiting-industry/ Today we had the pleasure of interviewing Giridhar Akkineni, the founder of AkkenCloud, a leading software platform for the staffing and recruiting industry. Giridhar shared with us his journey as an entrepreneur and how he has been able to shift his business to stay current within an evolving industry. **Future Sharks:** We often talk to the founders of tech companies here at Future Sharks. Can you tell us how you got started in the tech industry, and what problem your company is actively solving? **Giridhar:** Yeah, sure. That’s a great question because I can talk about the problem I had while running a startup staffing company, that was growing fast, an IT staffing company. There was a lot of requirements. We had salespeople scattered all over. We had recruiters, and then we had in-office HR and payroll and accounting people. So, having communication between these teams was critical. But they were also having recruiters respond to the sales team with new requirements. And the recruiters following up with candidates efficiently and the back office HR people being able to onboard and get the candidate started on time with all the compliance paperwork. As well as having the payroll people gather time and expenses to be able to process the payroll on time for our temps, and being able to comply with all the taxes and withholdings and all. But it was very critical for us to be able to send out the invoices to our customers on time. So we got paid on time. We had many solutions, bits, and pieces, to solve this entire cycle, but in the end, it was one of the main reasons why I ended up closing my IT staffing company. And that’s how we started the AkkenCloud platform to be able to have all of these intricate pieces together in one simple to use platform. Those were all the challenges we all faced daily. And now AkkenCloud has helped thousands of staffing companies solve them using our platform. **Future Sharks:** Your industry has changed a lot. The way companies attract talent is different now than it was just five years ago. What’s been the most significant change? **Giridhar**: Well, the number one thing the core for the staffing business is the candidates. Your customer is the essential piece. So, candidate engagement has been a critical piece of the staffing industry, and as I said, there were many bits and pieces of what we call point solutions. You have job boards, you have a social media aggregator, you have other solutions like LinkedIn, and then you have bits and pieces where you collect time and expenses and then a different part for payroll. Having that candidate engagement was very critical and really difficult to achieve other than the big staffing companies who were investing millions of dollars building these systems together for SMB or mid-sized companies to have elaborate systems in place to be able to get those candidates. And what we do, along with all the core functionality, including the CRM, applicant tracking system, HR management, onboarding, time and expenses and payroll, which are core to the staffing business, we offer several tools that are also integrated as part of our platform to be able to easily engage and manage your candidate pool. For example, we have a feature called inbound talent management, and that is part of the whole engagement platform where it includes automatically posting your job orders to websites, to various social media outlets, to other engagements, and go make all that process like one single click, but also keep your existing candidates engaged, notifying them through text and voice and broadcasting and all those tools integrated together. And it also has components like what we called inbound referral management. Where you actually use your candidates, your temp employees, to be advocates for you, marketing your brand and providing references. Which has worked out great because those references, whatever they do, are easily trackable. Meaning you don’t provide a reference and follow up with the recruiter. You can actually speak to the candidate or place the candidate. It’s all tracked automatically for everybody that’s involved in the whole process. **Future Sharks:** One final question, your company has seen steady growth over the years and now boasts a platform with over 14.8 million candidates and 33,000 users. But like with any company, I’m sure it hasn’t been as easy as it looks. Can you share with us your biggest challenge? **Giridhar**: Well, I have to step back a little bit to recap. We’ve been doing it since 2005 and made it through the most significant recession known to humanity; there’s a long list of challenges. But, to keep it short, the problems that I have seen myself, with my, staffing company are the reasons why we started building a platform but also the delivery method was very critical. It cannot work creating only software on a CD that you can install on your desktop. It won’t work, such a big solution where you have to put service and all. It has to be easy to use the delivery method, which is Cloud, but this was back in 2005. So, selecting the technology and building that architecture from the ground up back in those days when there was no Cloud or only dot com was a challenge. But then, when we launched in November 2006 in Las Vegas at the American Staffing Association Staffing World, we had an overwhelming response and we grew 300% within the next 12 to 18 months. That was all great. We were all excited, and we grew up to 100 people in the company, but then we had this recession hit not just the staffing industry, but everybody else. So, we were forced to trim down, and we got down to three people. We realized we could not have a static platform built for a specific industry. It has to be dynamic even in a particular sector for staffing, where technologies change, the market conditions change, the requirements vary, and your platform needs to be able to accommodate all that. So, that’s why whenever we do anything, we look at three, five, ten years down the road to see, “Okay, this specific feature, if we build it now, how is it going to evolve and what is it that we need to prepare?” So, that’s how we’ve been able to address the market. Those have been our most significant challenges: onboarding migration, training is the simplest that we come across but having us to work for our customers so we can keep them on top of the technology has been a little challenge, but we’re glad we are still here after so many years. Being the experts in the market, we help thousands of customers focus on their staffing business, rather than trying to figure out staffing by themselves. We do it for them. --- ## The Inside Scoop – Managing Your Business. URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-inside-scoop-managing-your-business/ When it comes to the world of business, age is just another number. For businessman Brian Alan Smith, the world of business called him at a very young age. Brian was 10 years old when he experienced his first taste of work life delivering the South Bend Tribune every morning. At the age of 17 he ventured into business with his father – a car alarm company that evolved into a full-service low voltage company. For Brian, this became a moment of realization for him. Sadly, this business venture came to a close due to his mother’s diagnosis with breast cancer. **“I was just beginning to learn how difficult it can be to balance one’s personal and professional life. I was 20 when I lost my mom to cancer. She was only 39 years old. My mother’s death, and the emotional trauma that soon followed, temporarily paralyzed us and therefore paralyzed our business,” says Brian.** **Fortunately,**Brian persevered and developed a new mindset on what it means to manage and own a business. Brian used this new knowledge to start his current business, Smarter Technologies LLC, a full-service technologies company specializing in Managed IT solutions based in Land O’ Lakes, Florida and currently expanding to the Georgia market. He continues, **“Make sure you understand your product or service well enough to share it with clarity and simplicity.”** He also stresses the importance of doing research –on market demands, potential profit, advertising expenses, cost of goods -vs- cost of doing business, customer acquisition, cost of labor, etc. For him, it is important that business owners conduct this research themselves. He further advises people to make plans before they start – a business plan, a financial plan, and a daily work flow plan. His number one advice for those looking to start their own business is to be excited about the decisions they make. For Brian, his biggest inspiration when getting into the business world was his father. Nonetheless, there were challenges that he had to face throughout his entire career. **“The first and biggest obstacle you often face is yourself,”** **he says**.  Another obstacle is learning to move forward and accept the success that comes with this journey. What’s next for this entrepreneur? His journey continues with his next project, which consists of providing consumer lifestyle improvements through business ownership. --- ## Meet The Latino Entrepreneur Who is Revolutionizing the Fashion Industry for Men URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-the-latino-entrepreneur-who-is-revolutionizing-the-fashion-industry-for-men/ It is rare to come by stories like Jose Zuniga’s. This Latino entrepreneur, at just 24 years old, has built an entire fashion empire for men. From over 7 million men collectively following him on social media to hear his advice, to selling thousands of his clothing items across the world,Jose Zuniga’s success is a perfect example of determination, grit, and hard work. Originally from Honduras, this young serial entrepreneur credits a big part of his success to his parents, who taught him from a very young age the importance of dressing well. From his parents, Joselearned very early on the power of hard work and determination in order to make his dreams a reality. By the time he was 16, he was already running his own personal blog onstyle and on reasons why dressing well impacts you internally and those around you externally. During that same time, his brother decided to open an Instagram account to post daily styles for men. They named this account “Teaching Men Fashion” (TMF). Today, the instagram account has become the world’s largest men’s lifestyle creator in the world on topics like style, fitness, dating, personal development, and grooming. What started as a hobby has now turned into a global multi-million dollar brand, which reaches both the English and Spanish speaking markets. Jose Zuniga now works with some of the biggest name brands in the world, such as Reebok, Express, Old Spice, Alfa Romeo, Audible, Amazon, JCPenny, and more.. When he turned 21, he decided to quit his job and go full steam ahead with building his very own empire around the singular concept of teaching men how to look better and feel better about themselves. TodayJose owns a basics clothing brand for men called ESNTLS. This brand sells basic pieces for men that fit well, are made with proprietary blends, and are sold at affordable prices. This brand has been so successful that on launch day they sold over 1 million dollars of product in a single day and received over 600K of estimated traffic to the site. Jose’s vision is to create an ecosystem of brands, still under the same singular umbrella he created when he was 16 years old. The goal of this umbrella would be to teach, inform and learn by creating content daily for the millions of men that follow him on his English and Spanish platforms. Jose Zuniga separates himself from the competition in countless ways. His delivery style, high energy, and charismatic manner attracts and engages his audience with his content. He also offers his audience relatable content by putting himself in their shoes and trying to solve everyday struggles faced by men. A clear distinction between Jose and others is that he simply outworks his competition. He produces over 13 videos a week for his channels on various topics. This is more than any other creator in his industry. Over the years, Jose has shown that when you are genuinely passionate about something, you will do anything to succeed. Through his vision and relentless work ethic, he has been able to build an empire dedicated to helping men feel and look great. His endurance has proved that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible. --- ## Looking To Reach Financial Freedom? Cathy Bethea Is The Answer URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-cathy-bethea-is-looking-to-answer-the-question-how-can-we-help-people/ Cathy Bethea loves helping people. She is a connector. She is able to connect the dots with all of her different experiences throughout her lifetime. She has a strong background in the financial and real estate industry. She is now working with a company that helps her blend her background and herself as a professional entrepreneur. Cathyis a real estate agent. Prior to that field, she specialized in first time home-buyers. She worked primarily with the builders, and advocated for her clients, figuring out what type of home is best for them and their needs. She was able to blend her experience in the financial field as a mortgage broker to help her clients during this difficult process. She had been working in the financial industry since 2000. She was pushing real estate, until she met FES four years ago after meeting countless clients who she could not get approved due to credit challenges. Having a background in corporate america, she constantly asked herself, **“How can we help people more? People that are turned down everyday because they couldn’t get their credit approved”.** What makes her different from others in this field, according to her clients, is that she is extremely knowledgeable in her line of work. she just doesn’t stop at being a realtor and broker, she has a wealth of information that makes her standout. Her motivation to get into this line of work came from her mother. Her mother was a sales agent, and when she Cathywas 4 or 5 she began to watch her mother, and eventually help her work. This is where her entrepreneurial side came from. She gives all the credit to her mother. As time progressed she has always remained in sales. Her advice for those trying to start their business is to do their homework. Cathy’sdefinition of success is being able to truly live, provide for her family, and be totally happy with her accomplishments. Today, she can proudly say that she’s been able to accomplish that and much more. So if you’re looking to get your financial house in order or get motivated, Cathy Bethea is the answer. --- ## Olumide Gbenro: If the Corporate Life is Not For You, Become a Digital Nomad URL: https://futuresharks.com/olumide-gbenro-if-the-corporate-life-is-not-for-you-become-a-digital-nomad/ There’s a lot of talk nowadays on the importance of choosing when and where to work. If that sounds familiar – it’s because the term Digital Nomads, location independent entrepreneurs, who can work on multiple projects from anywhere in the world, is starting to gain momentum across the country and the world. Olumide Gbenro, a serial entrepreneur and businessman, is also a Digital Nomad, and one of the main actors responsible for ensuring this important community continues to grow. In fact, Mr. Gbenro is the founder of The Digital Nomad Summit, which is **“growing the largest community of location independent entrepreneurs in the world.”**They are organizing a Digital Nomad Summit to take place in Bali, Indonesia in June 2020, where hundreds of location independent entrepreneurs can meet and connect. Olumide Gbenro, also known as The @Globopreneur, has had a connection with nomadism throughout his life. That is, he has constantly moved around and lived in multiple different places. **“I’m a multilingual entrepreneur who was raised on 3 continents by age 13,”**he says. Therefore, when he was thinking of business, he always thought globally: In an ever changing world, where industries are learning to adapt to new technology, office space has also changed. Now more than ever, telework is a possibility in many offices throughout the world, as many workers only need good Internet connection and a computer to do their work. Digital Nomads are a result of this. Through location independent entrepreneurship, Gbenro also founded Globo Water, **“a social cause company that builds water wells in remote areas across various African countries.”**And, as a Digital Nomad himself, Gbenro started noticing many needs and obstacles that could be overcome to improve location independent work. Accordingly, Gbenro created The Digital Nomad Summit (@Digital.Nomad.Summit) in order to be the first actor in this movement of location independent entrepreneurs. Although there are still people who are dedicated to conventional corporate life, which may be discouraging to those wishing to work while traveling nomadically, it is clear that office life is changing. In fact, with his business, Gbenro is filling up a necessary gap, given that by 2035, it is estimated that the number of Digital Nomads will reach 1 billion. But who is The Globopreneur, Olumide Gbenro? He is a person who believes in the power of preparation and in the influence of surroundings in order to achieve success. The Globopreneur did not fear becoming a Digital Nomad, what he feared was not having enough preparation to do so. He did not lack the mindset, but he feared not being able to perform when he had to. That is why he has been working on improving his skills, obtaining the necessary resources and preparing all the time, in order **“to be ready when the time comes.”**And it is those skills, resources and preparation that he wants to provide to Digital Nomads all over the world. Success to Olumide Gbenro is to provide support to people. This is why he plans to improve the quality of life of Digital Nomads, by making local independent entrepreneurship more available through The Digital Nomad Summit. But it also is why he founded Globo Water. Olumide Gbenro’s next projects with Globo Water include: Join The Globopreneur and become a successful Digital Nomad with your own business, whether philanthropic or for profit, by engaging with The Digital Nomad Summit! --- ## How Kvon Smith Went From High Profile Capitol Arrest to Become an Inspirational Testament URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-kvon-smith-went-from-high-profile-capitol-arrest-to-become-an-inspirational-testament/ Kvon Smith is proof that anyone can turn their life around and overcome any obstacles. Six years ago, he was known for a high profile arrest at the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, after threatening to make molotov bombs. Today, he helps veterans feel a sense of community through comradery and mutual respect. What many people did not know is that Kvon Smith was wrongly diagnosed for a non-specific psychosis in 2011. Shortly after the bomb scare in 2013, it was discovered that mental health misdiagnosis is an alarmingly prevalent phenomenon and that kept him away from being able to achieve psychological wellness. Not knowing what he had after being honorably discharged from the military led him not only to disregard taking medication it had him going from suicidal ideation to making bomb threats. After paying, “his debt to society” being incarcerated, and serving half of his conditional release he began rebuilding a life of mental wellness “one step at a time.” Kvon runs a small business called Loyalty Over Lies FX, which helps veterans to lead and build teams of comradery, so that there is a sense of community and mutual understanding. The business also can help others such as parents have more control over their schedule, which enables them to spend more hands on time with their children. In general, Kvon helps people feel empowered and more secure about their family’s future. In addition to this, after seeking out several mentors who led him towards positive thinking, he also does professional speaking. The key is stamina in other words perseverance. Kvon was not able to get a job because of his background, even when he had been found not guilty to-reason of mental defect. He still did not want to give up on achieving financial freedom. Kvon has been able to overcome many challenges. Not just those built around his image, but also all the distractions that inhibit him keeping his head in the game all the time. Since he was in high school he knew he wanted to become a hedge fund manager or something of that sort. He just didn’t know how or what to do to get there. That was in 2010. Eight years later he started noticing people on instagram making money through their phones in something they called forex or the foreign currency exchange market. His instagram is @KvonSmith. Kvon thinks that mindset is crucial when starting a business. He also advises starters to be patient and trust the process. On the other hand, Kvon thinks that fear can be both good and bad for human beings. It can help with calculated decision making, which can be good in business life but bad if we’re overly cautious to take risks. Aside from “fiscal achievement”, success for Kvon Smith is being a decent human being. Kvon notes that “your spirit lasts forever, energy lasts forever and people remember you by how you treat other human beings.” He thinks of people like King Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire, Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman. While some may see those with mental illnesses as sub-human and can’t be successful, “I had to learn that my mental condition does not define, own or control me, I control it and how I define my own success.” What makes him different from his competition is that Kvon focuses on problem solving and servicing his fellow citizens of the world. He and his partners are resourceful and help each other along the way. When people join their business community, they get authenticity and valuable service. In his blogspot, you can find snaps of Kvon’s life (including pictures with his wonderful six year old nephew Messiah), his thoughts, and his ideas. --- ## This Entrepreneur’s Journey to Finding His True Calling URL: https://futuresharks.com/this-entrepreneurs-journey-to-finding-his-true-calling/ Del McClain’s story starts very similar to most people’s. He was feeling lost, working different jobs, feeling unsatisfied with the life he was living. Then he decided that there had to be more to life than working a 9-5 job, that he had a purpose. From a very young age, McClain knew the importance of getting ahead in life. For his 18th birthday he decided to get a job to mark the beginning of his “adulthood”. He held a couple of different jobs, but they all felt as if he were wasting away his talents. He was constantly asking himself, **“Why can’t I have an opportunity to use my talents to do something amazing?” ** Finally, after years of struggling to find meaning in his personal and professional career, he found his true calling. The credit restoration and financial literacy business became the driving force that changed his life in ways he didn’t see possible. Helping people restore their credit while also showing them how to leverage their credit to make it work for them was his way of using his talents to help others. He also decided to focus on financial literacy, information that wasn’t taught in schools for his generation. The word credit is one that McClain always had trouble understanding. Growing up, he often made jokes about having bad credit. It wasn’t until he finally decided to look into fixing his credit that he realized the importance and the lack of information that was out there. In addition, Del stresses the importance of having the right mindset when entering the business world. McClain believes you have to be strong willed to be able to overcome all of the trials and battles you’ll face. His passion is helping people find their inner worth. To help everyone remember their inner self, that kid deep inside, the things they used to dream about. He wants to be able to show people that it is possible. Peaceful Balance Restored, the name of McClain’s business stemmed from the things he strives for in his everyday life, peace and balance. This business has become the vehicle for McClain to do the things he’s always wanted to do, which includes teaching them the importance of financial literacy and how to attain financial freedom. In the end, his biggest goal in this business is to help thousands of people see their worth. He wants to help them achieve their dreams, and give everyone the chance that he wishes he had as a young kid, hungry to succeed in this world. To be able to share this information and truly change households of families friends and everyone he encounters has become his life’s calling, and he is determined to succeed. --- ## Against the Odds: One Woman’s Amazing Journey to Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/against-the-odds-one-womans-amazing-journey-to-success/ ForJennifer Rodriguez, escaping the life that almost left her children motherless, was not easy. On June 26th, 2016, Jennifer became the survivor of a deadly domestic dispute when her partner, at the time, attacked and shot her. Wounded, terrified, and in the ambulance en route to the emergency room, she decided that it was not her time. She was meant to build a legacy for herself and her children; this would not end here. > **“As a matter of fact, moving forward wasn’t easy but neither impossible, so this marked a precedent. It was time to level up, leave my mark in this world, and start my entrepreneurial journey,” said Jennifer Rodriguez.** From a very young age, Jennifer was very business-minded, birthing her now fast-growing brand –Big Business Jen – when she was in high school. She dreamt of one day becoming a business owner and expert so that she could educate others on how to break free of their financial woes. This dream led Jennifer to begin working in the finance field, helping businesses find working capital when the banks would not approve their loans. From there, Jennifer leveraged the skills she learned into a position as a Bank Manager at one of the top banking institutions in the US. During this time, she also did volunteer work, partnering with various institutions to teach the young and old the principles of credit, budgeting, and the importance of financial health. With her growing success and acumen, Jennifer finally decided to open her own business and in 2018Platinum Tax & Financial Service was born. She is now rebranding asTaxCred Plus Inc., franchising, and expanding it to serve and educate communities nationwide. Not only has Jennifer successfully started and developed her own business, she is also teaching others how to do the same. Beginning in mid-August, Jennifer will be educating individuals on how to open their own tax and credit restoration business so they too can reach financial freedom and teach others how to do the same. If that is not enough, this trailblazer is also in the midst of finishing her first book, *Give Yourself Credit*, which aims to reach a broader audience with tips and tricks on credit and credit repair. > **“The biggest problem is not people not knowing how to do it; it’s people not having the time to do it. A lot of people can do their own oil change or brakes, but they would rather hire a professional that can save time and take the burden off their hands,” said Jennifer Rodriguez.** What is her advice to entrepreneurs who want to reach the pinnacle of their success? Don’t reinvent the wheel, be consistent, persistent, and positive, and don’t make excuses. > **“You can be an entrepreneur and make time for your kids and your life. I mean, I have five kids, and I have been through a lot, every obstacle you can probably think of. My mantra is to build your business around your life, not your life around your business,” pointed out Jennifer.** Currently, Jennifer is on a mission to help people “level up” to the next stage of their lives, be it financial, mental, or spiritual. She wants to help people realize the things that make them get up every day and love their lives. With that same mission in mind, in April of 2019, Jennifer went on the highly acclaimed Television Show, The Steve Harvey Show, where she shared the importance of financial literacy and how one can attain it. While Jennifer’s situation compelled her to rise anew, she has met many women who cannot say the same. Being able to catalyze these women and help them break free is one of her greatest motivators. Although her goal is to help as many people as she can, she has a special place in her heart for women who are in the position she once was. Jennifer will also be holding her first women’s empowerment event next June, on her birthday. She hopes this event will be the spark these women need to become the best version of themselves. > **“Never give up, you are loved, you are powerful, and you are here for a purpose.” Jennifer stated boldly.** I cannot wait to see what the future holds for Jennifer and what more she has in store for all of us. --- ## Kaleef Williams: The Entrepreneur Who is Breaking Barriers In the Credit Repair Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/kaleef-williams-the-entrepreneur-who-is-breaking-barriers-in-the-credit-repair-industry-invitation-to-edit/ Leaving a corporate job to pursue entrepreneurship can be difficult, but when you have the mindset like Kaleef Williams, anything is possible. Born in Rochester, Kaleef Williams, has had the mindset of an entrepreneur from a very young age. Growing up in a single parent household, Kaleef studied hard and focused on taking control of his life and his career. As a child, he saw his mother worked tirelessly to provide for their family. He recalls his mother’s main advice always being: Kaleef obtained his degree in biology from the illustrious Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, but like most graduates, it never became useful. His shift into entrepreneurship came when he began working for a large rental company. It was during his time working there that he discovered his passion for entrepreneurship. He was intrigued by the possibility of becoming his own boss, so he decided to take control of his life. After working long, tireless hours, and being separated from his family, Kaleef Williams knew something had to change. Kaleefknew that owning your own business was like a vehicle that could provide the type of freedom and wealth that had always been eluding him. With the burning desire for more, he set out to build a business that could reward him in all ways possible. This is what led Kaleef into the credit restoration and consultation business. When looking to solve the problem of the masses, credit is a problem that 60+ million americans share, so he decided to go full steam ahead to help everyone of them. From a very young age, Kaleefsaw how having challenged credit could directly impact one’s life. From being declined a condo, credit cards, and ridiculously high insurance rates, he wanted to give others the information that he lacked and give them the power to control their financial destiny to leverage their credit and in turn build wealth. Kaleef prides himself on providing 100% customer satisfaction. He goes a step further, making sure all his clients have his personal number. Being a problem solver by nature and education, he strives to give an amazing experience so that clients don’t just enroll, they keep the service long term and bring in more customers. For Kaleef Williams, anything is possible, and after leaving his corporate job of five years, he hasn’t looked back since. His next projects will be to expand his current businesses and diversify his investment portfolio so he can continue building his legacy for his family. He plans to bring aboard hungry, like minded partners that share the vision of spreading the knowledge of financial literacy. Kaleef wants to continue helping others achieve their financial dreams, which has been the end goal from the start. --- ## How Beshoy Mehany Overcame the Struggles of the Acting World Through Pranks URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-beshoy-mehany-overcame-the-struggles-of-the-acting-world-through-pranks/ Do you follow fun content on social media? Do you like pranks? Beshoy Mehany is an actor who works as a prankster on social media. He earns a living through pulling pranks on people and making others laugh. Beshoy Mehany was born in Egypt and raised in Jersey City, NJ. When he was nine, his father passed away, and since then he has been helping his family out in any way he can. A graduate from the Mechanical Engineering program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Beshoy got his first big break when he acted as a party boy in the series Bear Swamp Recovery on TruTV. From then on, he started making prank videos that became viral on Instagram, and started dreaming of becoming an influencer. Other than acting, Beshoy is also passionate about staying active and healthy, and enjoys sports like soccer or lifting. But his main focus is on acting, as he always loved it and took classes in an acting studio when he was younger. Seeing how tough the acting business was, he decided to start making Social Media Prank Videos to put his name and face out there and be more recognized. Indeed, he now has his own acting profile on platforms such as IMDB. The biggest challenges for him as he decided to get started in the pranking business were getting out of his comfort zone. In addition, getting the necessary equipment, recording and editing the videos without previous knowledge was also difficult. For Beshoy, standing in front of a camera and performing has always been an exhilarating experience. His advice for people starting their own business, regarding on what the business’ focus is? As a prankster, it is easy to receive negative comments because certain people may find some pranks inappropriate or too risky. Beshoy has been able to overcome this fear in order to get out of his comfort zone and try something new, even when he does not always know if it will end well or not. Success for an actor like Beshoy means “achieving all that you have planned and all that you have strive to accomplish in life, and to become the person you always dreamed of becoming.” It is crucial, through this process, to also work on “bettering yourself.” To be able to use your talent as a vessel to achieve financial freedom is important to Beshoy. For him, to be able to support himself and his family, also meant opening up closed doors. Beshoy is currently working on multiple upcoming prank videos that will feature famous influencers joining him in his pranks. Beshoy also wants to create videos based on ideas that have never been put out on social media. In fact, this is what makes Beshoy different from other pranksters online–that he is always ready for any challenge that comes his way, and will work hard to create unique and novel content. Beshoy wants to show his family and others how successful anyone can be with a strong will in doing what we love. Follow Beshoy on social media to follow up on his prank videos and have a laugh! --- ## How Roy Taylor Went From Selling Software For $30 a Month To Signing Multiple Contracts URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-roy-taylor-went-from-selling-software-for-30-a-month-to-signing-multiple-contracts/ It’s not everyday you meet people as successful & humbled as Roy Taylor. Speaking with him just for a few minutes, will leave you intrigued on his projects and how he’s been able to accomplish so much. Roy started out selling software for $30 dollars to signing multiple six-figure contracts to fully building platforms, all without any education or guidance in the field. Since he was a child, the serial entrepreneur was fascinated by video and computer games, the internet, and automation. Even though his parents used to tell him that there was no future in the tech world, he continued to get immersed in it. During college, Roy noticed a trend emerging in SaaS (“software as a service”) companies. They were making hundreds and hundreds of dollars, which made Roy think about building one of those software himself. The entrepreneur formally got involved in the tech industry in his junior year in college in 2015. Since then, he has built a team of over eight highly professional and motivated developers and designers, which make up his company: M Labs. Like any business, there were challenges since the beginning. For Roy his biggest challenge was scaling softwares and apps. > **“Whether it is an e-commerce store, a SaaS company, or an app, scaling is an important piece for a business such as branding, infrastructure, marketing and collaborations,” he says.** But what helped Roy the most through it all is the idea that investing in himself was important. He emphasizes, **“as a result of my personal brand, I am able to leverage myself to get better partnerships, deals, and staff to help me accomplish the pieces that make up a business way faster!”** Today, Roy sees the world moving into a new age of automation. He notices that less and less is required by humans, while more and more is expected from machinery and software. Because of this, Roy believes that entrepreneurs should look into new services that can be automated for clients. He also thinks that developers should look into specializing in unique fields. Consider the fact that everyone already uses applications on a daily basis, and that they are, as Roy says, **“seamlessly integrated into each of our lives.” ** And when it comes to the future and the trends ahead, Roy doesn’t mince words: > **“There’s no question that the future will be heavily influenced by facial recognition, implementation of the 5G network, and automated cars and trucks,” he shares.** With so much success in such a short amount of time, Roy is currently focusing on his iOS app design and development firm M Labs, where he is in a unique position– he is not working for a paycheck, instead he hired his team to develop projects with long-term scalability in mind and good partnerships. And if there’s one thing that Roy teaches us, it’s the importance of getting started & following your dreams, no matter how big they might seem at first. --- ## Ditch The Traditional & Uncomfortable Vet Wrap For Your Dog & Try No Flap Ear Wrap URL: https://futuresharks.com/ditch-the-traditional-uncomfortable-vet-wrap-for-your-dog-try-no-flap-ear-wrap/ Julie Haught is the inventor and founder of No Flap Ear Wrap. Her rescue boxer, Archer had an ear injury so the vet gave him a Vet Wrap but it was hard for him to sleep in it and he always found different ways to take it off. So, Julie took matters into her own hands and designed and sewn a dog ear wrap from some fleece and velcro. Her vet was so impressed by it that she immediately applied for a patent. Currently, Haught leads her company, No Flap Ear Wrap, a family business that helps friendly pups recover from ear injuries properly. To date, they have sold over 65,000 ear wraps. Here is what drives her every day. **I know this is not an easy job. What drives you? Has what drives you changed from time to time or has it always been the same?** Our love for our family dog, Archer. Seeing him heal happily when we first made the ear wrap made our hearts flutter. **When did you realize that you had what it takes to be successful? What was that moment when you were like “yes, I can do this”?** It all begins at the end of 2013 when we accidentally rescued a boxer named “Archer”. The first person who noticed my accidental product was Archer’s Veterinarian Dr. Davis. After surgery on his pinna (ear flap) that required 11-12 stitches, we were constantly having to have his ear re-bandaged as he could easily escape the bandages and E-collar. He said that the only concern was that we just needed to keep our dog’s ears from flapping. I immediately brainstormed, cut and made a wrap out of some fleece fabric and velcro, and did it–the first prototype of our No Flap Ear Wrap. We didn’t see Dr. Davis for at least a week. We walked into the office for our re-check and of course, everybody stared at the fast recovery of our dog and how the wrap stayed on. The Vet Techs, in the office that day, asked us where we got the wrap. After seeing Archer, Dr. Davis was pleased with how well and quickly he was healing. She asked me if I could wait in the waiting area until she was done with one more patient. I said yes and was more than puzzled. Then she told me it would be an awesome product, that there was nothing like it in the market, and that I should get a patent attorney immediately. **Any last words of advice for readers?** If there are other accidental inventors out there, don’t leave your work sitting in a closet. Share it with others and see where the road leads. Spend the money on a patent attorney. It is worth it. Lastly, always remember that you can’t succeed if you don’t even try. --- ## 5 Essentials to Becoming a Productive Internet Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-essentials-to-becoming-a-productive-internet-entrepreneur/ It’s true — the advent of the internet has indeed revolutionalized the way we look at entrepreneurship. Bricks-and-mortar types of businesses are becoming increasingly obsolete. And so, for aspiring entrepreneurs, going all-out on digital is the logical step forward. Unfortunately, the internet is no exception to the rife competition that comes with an entrepreneurial state of mind. In fact, the thought of acquiring a global client base with negligible startup costs is so alluring that almost every other person you meet today is a proud ‘internet entrepreneur’. That’s fake entrepreneurship. In reality, most of them view online entrepreneurship as a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme without putting in much effort, and hence, don’t last long. And this is great news for the serious ones who truly wish to run a sustainable and meaningful business that adds real value to their customers’ lives, ultimately transforming their business into a cherished brand. So, if out of the two, you are of the latter sort, then below are five crucial pointers for you to keep in mind when starting down the path of online entrepreneurship. ## Setting Goals If you haven’t already, the first thing you need to do is niche down. That is, be crystal clear on what market you want to cater to with your business and who your ideal target customer is. When starting out, it is highly advisable to have a laser-targeted focus on a single customer pain-point than to set an extremely generic (and frankly, oversaturated) niche like ‘health’ or ‘finance’ as your primary focus. And this should go without saying, but have you defined what sets you apart from your competitors (your USP)? Once you do just that, it is time to set goals. While most people would tell you to set “more realistic” goals, doing so might truly hurt your chances of succeeding. As a matter of fact, the hackneyed quote by Norman Vincent Peale: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” is actually what you need to swear by. Think about it this way ― it is better to aim high and fall short than to aim small, achieve it, and then rest on your laurels. In the former case, you are likely to achieve more because you know you’ll have to push yourself to the limits to get there, and so you’ll work harder. Whereas in the latter case, you’ll tend to take it easy, which is not how one succeeds in the unforgiving world of entrepreneurship. ## Joining Forces If you think you can do it all by yourself, then you’re mistaken. Doing so will stall your business growth. Sure, if your online escapade comprises dropshipping drones or freelancing, by all means, go ahead solo.  But, if your internet venture is based on a ground-breaking idea to solve a relatively big problem, having one or more co-founders or business partners to complement your abilities is surely a good idea. Besides, when it comes to the actual execution of your business idea, you need to have a growth-driven mindset. Consider outsourcing work that does not directly impact your business’s growth, such as day-to-day back-office tasks. Entrepreneurship has long seen outsourcing as a strategy reserved for big business, but technology has made it a more accessible tactic for up-and-coming internet enterprises. In essence, technology has facilitated improved connectivity, so now you have the ability to assign tedious work to qualified professionals who can get it done from anywhere in the world. For many small internet startups, outsourcing has had a powerful positive impact on growth, productivity, and bottom lines. ## Building Momentum Once you’ve got the foundations right, it is time to start spreading the word. Every business, online or offline, requires a constant influx of customers to keep going. But for that to happen, your prospective customers first need to know that you exist. Hence, marketing. Specifically, for internet-based businesses, digital marketing is pivotal. Here are a few spheres of this broad field: - Content marketing: Having a blog on your business website is an absolute must today. Consistently producing fresh and informative content on your blog will not only help you attain higher search rankings on Google but also help you win the trust of your audience. - Social media: Leverage as many social media platforms as possible to generate brand awareness. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube are the most popular platforms. Depending on your industry, take your pick and aim to have an authoritative presence on those channels. - Paid promotions: Setting aside some budget for paid promotions is always a good idea. With Pay-per-click advertising on Google (or any social channel), you can create highly targeted promotions to be shown only to your desired audience which will help you gain initial traction in terms of qualified leads. By using a combination of these, you can outshine your competition and drive higher traffic to your website which will result in more leads and ultimately, more customers. ## Tracking Success Measuring the performance of all your efforts is just as important as putting in all the hard work in the first place. Fortunately, tracking success for online businesses is relatively simple if you know what you’re doing. Typically, it involves setting up Google Analytics (or a tool of your choice) to track visitors and their behavior, sales and conversions, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). Moreover, regular performance tracking gives you a chance to tailor your strategy in accordance with the current demands of your customers. Additionally, earning the trust of customers is one of the most important factors for successful internet entrepreneurship. According to these statistics by G2 Crowd, 84% of people trust reviews they read online as much as personal recommendations. What’s more, 72% of B2B buyers say negative reviews give depth and insight into a product. Thus, getting positive online reviews can make all the difference for your internet startup. ## Staying Motivated Above all, being successful in any business venture requires patience, steady hard work, and the ability to keep a level head. Even if you are not achieving your goals today, do whatever it takes to stay motivated and keep at it. Remember, it is a marathon, not a sprint. The path to achieving big results is paved with simplicity. Steve Jobs once said, “That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” The more complicated things are, the more overwhelmed you’ll feel. So, always strive to follow the KISS principle (used in software design), which is to keep things as simple as possible and avoid unnecessary complexity. **About the author:** Shyamal is the Founder of SmartTask, an online work management tool that’s helping teams be more productive by having clarity on who’s doing what by when. Has a penchant for researching and sharing strategies that could benefit a team’s productivity. --- ## A Multimillion Dollar Idea- The Burrito Blanket URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-multimillion-dollar-idea-the-burrito-blanket/ Odds are, if you have been on social media this year you have seen the phenomenon that is the burrito blanket. This idea was founded by Tyler Lubin and Andrew McCarthy. Upon seeing dogs wrapped in blankets with the hashtag “burritoblanket”, they decided to launch a literal burrito blanket. Neither Lubin nor McCarthy were new to the business world. “I was always heavily engaged with social media. I would spend hours everyday scrolling through content on Instagram and Twitter. However, this transitioned into a distraction, and eventually an addiction. Rather than lessening my social media presence, I decided to monetize it” Lubin explained. Lubin has since used social media as a means in business. He is able to quickly spot trends and often figure out ways to monetize them before it is too late. McCarthy on the other hand, started with ecommerce at the age of 16. He began building brands and selling things through social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. “Over the years I have become familiar with how to quickly grow a brand’s online presence and bring in profitable revenue streams” McCarthy explained. The two were able to easily play off of each other’s strength to generate over a million dollars in revenue in only six months of partnership. One thing is for certain, both McCarthy and Lubin have been able to use their strengths to their advantage. They are forward thinkers that have been able to put their all into their company. Rather than take the profits that their company has made, they would rather reinvest it in order to continue growing. These founders have realized that the best use of their money is investing in themselves. They are their biggest asset. When asked where they see their company in 5 years they replied “In five years we hope to expand our product line with a variety of different products and category extensions. In the next few weeks we will be selling The Burrito Blanket onMacys.com. In the coming months we hope to expand into larger retail stores like Walmart. The Burrito Blanket will live on to be a household meme item”. One thing is for certain, The Burrito Blanket has successfully brought smiles, laughs, comfort and warmth to households across the nation. This product has the potential to grow exponentially and with Lubin and McCarthy in control it surely will. --- ## Mistakes to Avoid when Selling Online URL: https://futuresharks.com/mistakes-to-avoid-when-selling-online/ Thanks to the advent of auction sites and online listings, making a profit off of unwanted items has become a relatively simple undertaking. However, because of the anonymity the internet provides, many sellers fail to conduct themselves in a polite and professional manner. Whether you’re dealing directly with buyers or preparing an item for shipment, it’s important to approach every facet of a transaction from a place of seriousness. By accepting a customer’s money, you’ve committed yourself to uphold your end of the bargain, and failing to do so can land you in hot water with various websites. To ensure that your online sales go off without a hitch, take care to avoid the following blunders when selling online. ## Improper Packing As a seller, it behooves you to make sure your items reach their destinations unscathed. While it’s true that some packages are damaged as a result of negligence on the part of delivery personnel, smart packing can prove invaluable in keeping your shipments safe. With this in mind, make a point of providing your merchandise with ample insulation and cushioning. If you don’t have any insulated boxes on hand, consider equipping regular shipping boxes with removable insulation pouches. Additionally, when shipping items that are weak against extreme heat, the convenient temperature indicators and loggers from SpotSee.io are sure to come in handy. ## Concealing an Item’s Flaws When selling unwanted items online, many sellers won’t hesitate to actively downplay or outright conceal any noteworthy flaws or defects. Since their goal is to sell their merchandise in as timely a manner as possible, these types of sellers have no qualms about lying about omission. Not only is this extremely unscrupulous, it can also draw the ire of customers and get you in trouble with many listing sites. While covering up an item’s flaws may make you a little bit of money in the short term, the consequences you’re likely to face as a result aren’t worth the fleeting satisfaction. ## Late Shipping The digital age is also the age of instant gratification. Unsurprisingly, after making a purchase online, most consumers expect to receive their item(s) as fast as reasonably possible. As such, you should make a point of shipping orders immediately after the payments are processed. Most listing sites require sellers to provide potential buyers with delivery windows, and if a shipment fails to arrive within a specified window, you’re liable to receive an angry email. In some cases, late shipments are purely the fault of delivery companies. More often than not, however, they can be traced back to procrastination on the part of sellers. Selling your unwanted items online can be a very profitable venture. However, regardless of how sought-after the items you’re selling are, failure to conduct yourself in a professional manner is sure to draw the ire of many buyers. Fortunately, being a model online seller doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. In your quest to become the perfect seller, avoiding the previously discussed mistakes will do you a world of good. --- ## Interviewing Tips for New Lawyers URL: https://futuresharks.com/interviewing-tips-for-new-lawyers/ Months before you’re expecting to graduate from law school, you need to start thinking about preparing to get hired. Getting placed at a law firm is highly competitive and can be one of the most complicated and lengthy processes among any job market. In sum, you need all of the help that you can get just to get a foot in the door – but that’s exactly what expert legal recruiters are there to help you do. **Developing Your Interview Skills** There are many important rules of thumb that you should remember for any legal job interview. The more salient of these include: - Wear Appropriate Clothing - Be Conscious of Your Body Language - Give Succinct Replies - Don’t Dwell on Prior Job Details - Ensure You Are Prepared - Project Honesty This is the kind of interview advice that almost anyone applying for any position should engrain upon their memory during their job application prep. But if they are available to anyone to learn on their own, what is the value of training with a legal recruiter? **Training for Video Interviews** Video conferencing interviews are becoming an increasingly important part of the legal hiring process. This preliminary stage may seem superficial, but taking it for granted can easily end up preventing you from getting any further in the application process. First impressions and proper decorum in the legal industry are everything, and surprisingly so many more people expect that they are experts in this area than actually are. A recruiter helps you to get hired with these video interview tips and they’ll also be able to teach you details about what specific firms are looking for. **Specialized Grooming for Particular Firms** The most important difference between generalized job interview preparation and the kind that is going to give you advantages that will put you above your competition and guarantee to land you the job is that you’ll have an inside connection. Legal recruiters work hand in hand with the best law firms in order to find them the best candidates in the job pool that will work best for that firm. The reason that firms continue partnering with these professionals is that they know that a successful relationship between a firm and a potential new partner depends on more than their record in law school – it’s all about finding the right fit. Not only will you have the advantage of being introduced by a trusted resource, but you’ll get to know more about the places where you’re applying than the other applicants being interviewed. The best tip that any new legal graduate can follow when entering the job search is to get help from a legal recruiter. When you consider that the entire future of your legal career is riding on your ability to get an advantage today, then it’s difficult to see why anyone would hesitate to get help positively influencing the outcome of your job search. Get in touch with a professional legal recruiter now to learn more. --- ## Meet Adam Legas the entrepreneur set to revolutionize Energy Drink Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-adam-legas-the-entrepreneur-set-to-revolutionize-energy-drink-industry/ Nanohydr8, the pre-workout supplement company, is a Utah based startup founded by Adam Legas after a failed real estate venture in the 2008 recession. Adam’s training in mixed martial arts, along with his belief and aim to provide multiple benefits in a single product, Nanohydr8, have proven vital in the success of the product. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/e078604aa30b.jpg) *(via Instagram)* Moreover, the nanotechnology found in Nanohydr8 has assisted him and his team in overcoming the challenges in a competitive market which already had well-established giants running the game. Nanohydr8 offers electrolyte supplement products that are manufactured by infusing nanotechnology with tried and true nutrients. This sets them apart from the existing electrolyte supplement product companies like Gatorade, Propel Water, Lucozade, etc. Unlike other products, Nanohydr8 specifically targets blood, bones, and muscles by instantaneously hydrating them with clean energy. These products are available in different flavors and stores nationwide and are suitable for people of all ages. Nanohydr8 gets absorbed nearly instantly by the cells in our body, helping raise performance levels by boosting energy and focus. During a workout, Nanohydr8 delivers instant electrolyte replenishment by hydrating cells throughout the body. Post workout it assists in muscle recovery through amino acids like BCAAs. Researchers have been experimenting with nanotechnology for some time now, and the benefits that this technology brings has been quite prominent. However, there were no companies using this technology when it came to actual sports products. Nanohydr8 exploited this opportunity using their research by applying the same principles of nutrition that have worked in plants and animals; combining nanotechnology with proven supplements to improve human nutrition. This technological advancement comfortably got Nanohydr8 through the dark clouds of struggle in their initial days in the energy drink space. This was greatly facilitated by the fact that several elite athletes, doctors and sports exercise experts recommend Nanohydr8 products for their nutritional valu. Nanohydr8 today holds an essential position in the American markets that will continue to strengthen more as time passes. However, much ground has yet to be covered as Nanohydr8 has no presence in the markets of Europe, Asia and the rest of the South American subcontinent. Moreover, some new company might utilize this technology and launch a similar product. Nanohydr8 is the first product in a line of many more to flood the markets in the near future. But in an industry which has been ruled by a few big names for the past decade, Nanohydr8 is the probable solution to the need of this generation. --- ## Derek Hurtado – Vacation Rentals and Scaling Brands URL: https://futuresharks.com/derek-hurtado-vacation-rentals-and-scaling-brands/ Derek Hurtado is a 26-year-old serial entrepreneur from Scottsdale, Arizona. Derek grew up humbly and always wanted more out of his life. After high school, Derek went on to attend Arizona State University. He graduated with a 4-year degree and started a content creation business while attending college. He scaled his content creation business, but quickly realized scalability wasn’t there. Therefore, he moved on to something new.  With the relentless drive to make a business and his background in content creation, he decided to start a Social Media Agency. He started Pivotal Point, after months of research and deep work, he saw big success. Pivotal Point worked with hundreds of influencers and clients, to help them build their online presence. Derek quickly realized that he was his biggest testimonial, and started building a massive personal brand. Derek has accumulated over 50,000 engaged followers across his two accounts. After quickly building Pivotal Point, he wanted to mix social media with another one of his passions, real estate. Derek started to research the Airbnb business model and took a leap in. He started his vacation rental company, called SIR Global. His vacation rental company scaled to 6 figures, in only 6 short months. They now own properties all over the United States and Canada and have had over 1000 satisfied clients. Above all, Derek has a burning desire to live life by design and has achieved that feat. Derek has proven time and time again with all the massive success he has achieved. That with enough hard work, determination, focus, and put your mind to it, anyone can build any life they want. --- ## Here’s How One Successful Entrepreneur Prioritized His Health and Fitness to Help Get His ‘Edge’ Back and Maximize His Potential: With Raul Villacis URL: https://futuresharks.com/heres-how-one-successful-entrepreneur-prioritized-his-health-and-fitness-to-help-get-his-edge-back-and-maximize-his-potential-with-raul-villacis/ **From Broken To Rediscovering His Edge** Recently I had the pleasure of chatting with Raul Villacis who is a serial entrepreneur, investor and coach. Villacis has had quite the journey and has built several highly successful businesses. He says that prior to the market crashing in 2008 he felt unstoppable and at the time his health and fitness were not a priority. He wasn’t even putting in 100% effort into his business and was making money right and left. But like many, Raul was caught off guard when the market crashed and he lost pretty much everything. He was in a really dark place and was having a lot of emotional pain and his health and fitness had taken a back seat. It was then that he turned to his wife and best friend and was reassured she would be beside him no matter what. This commitment from her is what gave him the power he needed to fight to get his edge back. He started buying distressed assets and was able to start building his financial stability back pretty quickly. His company became successful again but that is when he realized he had lost his edge. He was making money again but had no purpose. During what Villacis calls his discovery journey, he started studying and learning about personal development and started implementing many new habits which completely changed his life. He started teaching his friends about these things and several of them told him what he was teaching was pure gold. It was that moment when Villacis had finally rediscovered his edge. He realized his purpose was to help other men regain their edge too and he knew he had to make his health and fitness a priority. **Health Is Wealth Whether You Believe It Or No**t Life comes at you fast and many men have lost their edge by allowing themselves to fall victim to a softening society. Villacis says historically men have been the leaders of their family and their prime instinct has been to provide and protect. But as society has softened its stance on obesity and has started embracing the ‘Dad Bod,’ it has become increasingly acceptable for men to pursue wealth and prioritize family over taking care of their own health and fitness. Villacis says this is exactly what happened to him during his discovery journey. In his mind he was planning to wait until he was a billionaire before he would actually address his health and fitness. After his mindset shifted, he finally made the decision to hire a personal trainer once he realized how important his health and fitness really were. Villacis says he was wearing a suit when the trainer came over for the first time and the trainer asked if he was going to work out in the suit. Villacis told him he was just going to interview him and the trainer told Villacis he was actually there to interview him. The trainer said they could either talk about working out or actually make it happen. Villacis immediately changed clothes and started following the trainer’s workout and within 15 minutes he was exhausted. It was that very moment when he realized 15 minutes of exercise each day would be exactly what he needed to get his fitness back in order. He says all the excuses went out the window because he knew he could make time for 15 minutes of exercise each day. **The Morning Ritual** Villacis is a huge believer in his morning ritual and this is one of the most powerful things he teaches. He firmly believes a fully customized morning routine can allow you to conquer anything. His routine starts with meditation, a 15-minute workout and taking care of his business all within the first 90 minutes he is awake. He says instead of being reactive about his day he is extremely proactive which has helped him tremendously. Villacis says that during his discovery journey he was in a lot of pain and decided to do a lot of research on NLP, hypnosis and meditation and realized that most people’s thoughts are 80% negative and are mostly based off of past experiences. Through his research he was able to discover a way that creates a pattern interrupt which helps you reset your subconscious mind and have more brain capacity. Villacis says he has been following his morning ritual which prioritizes his health and fitness now for almost a decade and it has been an integral part of his success. Today Villacis coaches other men through The Next Level Experience to break through barriers and maximize their true potential as men. Below are Raul’s Facebook and Instagram profiles so make sure you follow him so you can stay up to date with his content. Facebook Instagram If you or someone you know is trying to rediscover their ‘edge’ Raul is definitely a credible source for you to do so. If you or someone you know has turned to fitness as a way to take their business and life to the next level please email me at jason@dadbodhealth.com --- ## Meet Mehran Khan, Behind The Fastest Growing Media Publishing Company “Rifiako Media” URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-mehran-khan-behind-the-fastest-growing-media-publishing-company-rifiako-media/ For the past couple of years, Mehran Khan who manages a network of Facebook pages with more than 30 million combined followers has earned his entertainment company, Rifiako Media a level of popularity typically associated with one of the biggest media publishers. Mehran Khan is ready to fully concentrate on Rifiako Media and strengthening its online presence, expecting to reach 50 million followers by the end of 2020. Mehran Khan, the founder of Co-Founder, remained steadfast in his goal to spread happiness. **Tell us about Rafiako Media. How did you come up with this idea? ** **Mehran Khan:**always knew that I wanted to start my own business, so I looked for a business option that would create a positive impact on the society. During my university time, I mentally prepared myself to be ready on how to set up businesses efficiently. I have started several businesses since and Rifiako Media was one of them. It is all about future trend research identifying what will be hot in the near- and long-term future. If one thing is for sure, it’s that the execution of an idea is more important than the idea itself. I wake every day looking forward with a smug grin on my face because I always look forward to my work. If I was to offer you advice, it would be to do something you enjoy. Money is a tool, no matter how much you have, use it wisely. **How did you promote your company in the early days?** **Mehran Khan:** Always through Facebook. Never really focused on any of the other social medias back then because they were irrelevant. I knew Facebook was booming and blowing up quickly so i spent all my free time learning the ins and outs of the platform and experimenting ways to grow a massive following on Facebook rather quickly. **How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific.** **Mehran Khan:** Understand your audience, engage with your audience and be consistent. The first thing you need to identify is who your target audience is. Profiling your audience provides you with the in-depth knowledge you need in order to attract a larger following. Defining who your real audience will also help you focus not only on creating great content but on creating the right content. One of the biggest mistakes early content marketers make is to talk about themselves and their product, rather than the things that their audience really care about. This is a huge **What are some secrets to virality/sales in your most successful platform (Fb, Twitter, IG, Snap, E-commerce, etc)?** **Mehran Khan:** You need to pick a niche and attack it hard. I chose the entertainment/comedy niche because it was personally something that interested me and I knew it interested many others, so I put out content on Facebook related to this niche, 8-14 posts a day and always tried to post the most viral and engaging content possible. Posts, where people can strongly relate to & want to tag and share with their peers, are the ones that really take off and get you big follower gains. **Teach us something we don’t know about “Internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, volunteering, yoga, sales funnels or another topic you pick”?** **Mehran Khan:** Cross promoting each other is the fastest way to grow on Facebook. You basically team up with pages in your niche & generally close to your size, and you share each other’s posts frequently, directing traffic to each other’s pages. If you properly execute this strategy you will see crazy fast growth on Facebook. **What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?** **Mehran Khan:** I like the saying by Socrates — “I know, that I know nothing”, and the phrase, “But the others do not know and that.” This saying makes you think, and I try to think about what I do and why I do it. Most people, unfortunately, do not bother themselves with this. **What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?** **Mehran Khan:** I’ve read a few books. I try to choose books that make you think & motivate. I came across a book by Jack Canfield “The Success Principles”. This is the perfect book for those who feel stuck with where they are in life. I’ve totally been there, and this book helped me get out of my slump. With short chapters on each topic, Jack teaches you how to increase your confidence, tackle daily challenges, live with passion and purpose, and make your goals real. You’ll be back on track in no time. **What is your motivation? What keeps you going?** **Mehran Khan:** My motivation is to close the gap between my reality and potential. Self-motivation is, in its simplest form, the force that drives you to do things. I personally believe that self-motivation is a key life skill and something that everybody interested in personal development should think carefully about. All motivations can be aligned in a positive way. In fact, you are more likely to make a big positive impact if you align around your true motives and tune them in a positive way. For example, if money motivates you and you make a lot of it, you can give a portion of it away to causes that important to you. **Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple of years? What’s your dream? ** **Mehran Khan:** We have a development plan; hopefully we will fulfil it. The industry in which Rifiako media is in is changing very quickly, so it’s hard to say how much we will fulfil our plans and where exactly we will be in a few years. However, I see myself having an amazing team running the whole operation while I start to work on other ventures. Right now, I run my business with 5 of my employees. I’m looking to expand to a team of 20 by 2020. It would be ideal to have a group of talented individuals, but one inc --- ## The Genius Mind that leads the creative firm Mirza Minds URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-genius-mind-that-leads-the-creative-firm-mirza-minds/ Fam Mirza is unlike any other entrepreneur I have met. He’s does not follow trends instead he creates his own. You might remember Nelly wearing the split jerseys in the Superbowl halftime show back in the early 2000s which later went on to spark a jersey trend that engulfed the hip hop culture. That is what he had accomplished to do by the tender age of fifteen.  He speaks against following trends such as bitcoin, dropshipping, and other various fly by night, get rich quick schemes. To quote some of his early interviews, when asked about Bitcoin he stated “I do not believe in bitcoin until there is adoption in the market. The big players will need to utilize this currency before we can see actual growth, not just hype.” Surely enough his prediction came to pass with the bitcoin crash of 2018 when over 430 billion dollars vanished out of the market. He’s also not preoccupied with creating hundred pieces of content a day such as internet entrepreneurs like Gary Vee and many others. When asked why he simply stated “This is about quality, not quantity; in an age where you have the power to create quality content with actual value why create low quality repetitive messaging which pollutes the airways?”   The slogan for Mirza’s company Mirza Minds is an interesting one. “We find gaps in the market and build trampolines over them.” This team of forty-two focuses on solving the market dilemma and making a substantial difference. “I remember when we were building greenhouses in Illeret, Africa we taught the village people how to take care of the plants and maintain the greenhouse. With any project we build we focus on sustainability.” This young entrepreneur has not only changed over 4.2 million lives around the world but he has solved real-world problems! Problems that would make life easier and more convenient for the everyday consumer. I had the opportunity to sit with Fam Mirza and discuss the companies he’s built that received the attention of both the media and consumers. While all have been impactful in their respective markets, the one that stands out is 1Face. 1Face wasn’t just any watch in the market. You’d even be curious as to why Mirza would enter such a competitive market but, he already understood that he has to come at a different angle that would both appeal the consumers but also make a difference to those in need. With 1Face the strategy was to launch a brand selling affordable watches that would benefit the world. The watches came in different colors and each color represented a cause and charity it would benefit. Every time someone purchased a watch it was going to help someone on the other side of the world who had a specific need. Black watch for cancer research and treatments, red watch for AIDS treatments, and preventative education and so forth. The consumer market saw that they had an opportunity to enjoy something they love while helping someone else who needed special help. Because of this, 1Face has influenced over four million lives. 1Face reached a level of success that saw the company bring in tens of million of dollars in revenue in its first year. Now Mirza is up to what he does best changing the world! His new enterprise is called Podwand by ThisCleans. He caught onto the fact that many people had problems cleaning their AirPods. Without hesitation, Mirza began jotting down concepts on how to solve this predicament. “The Airpod market is the fastest growing market to date with over 122 million Apple AirPods sold to date.” he states. When you are in the business of selling a necessary product you need to be quick. Mirza once said, “The goal is to create innovative products which take over full market share before being replicated by China”. He plans to put out his product with Hudson News, Target, Circkle-K, Wal-Mart, 7-11 and other similar retailers by the end of 2019. Before you try to replicate it know that he already has filed his patent. He has also stated he is launching three other brands by the end of 2020. He would not state what those are yet but looking at his latest domain acquirements of dinky.com and lifeacademy.com we are sure they will disrupt the market. But for now we are just excited to get our hands on the Podwand! Feel free to check out his site Podwands to be the first ones to try it. --- ## The Top 3 Reasons You’re Not Closing Over the Phone URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-top-3-reasons-youre-not-closing-over-the-phone/ Closing sales is the lifeblood of your business. If you don’t bring in revenue – you don’t have a business. Now during the sales cycle, you can have a lot of variables in why you’re not able to close. When you’re analyzing this data, you can usually find a few tweaks that make the entire sales process a lot easier. First things first though…if you don’t have an objection list filled with your most frequently asked questions, and if you don’t have a perfect rebuttal for each, you’re a rookie. But with that being said, if you have that and the basics of a sales process, and you still can’t figure out why you’re not closing over the phone, in this article I’ll break down the top 3 reasons why and how to fix them. #### Positioning and Performance If your prospect is on an application call with you, it’s vital that you position yourself properly. If they just think you’re a salesman, you have lost the sale almost automatically and it will make the process that much harder. Now, if you position yourself as the expert, the call takes a different route. The prospect is now listening to you and giving you that respect that you deserve instead of feeling that you’re coming off as salesy. Most people don’t end up closing because they don’t position themselves and the call properly. This could mean they miss out on social proof, an agenda, and/or showing the value they can bring to their prospect’s business. However, if done correctly – the result will show drastically as you’ll have control over the conversation. #### Value Over Price One of the biggest objections in sales is that people don’t see the value of your service. When you’re hit with this objection – you know you didn’t do a good enough job to make your offer irresistible. An irresistible offer focuses on all aspects of why someone should buy your service. If they don’t see the value, they’ll say “oh I think your price is too high”. They ask this because they don’t understand how big of a difference you can make in their business. They simply don’t see the value and that’s because you haven’t communicated well enough the benefits they’ll receive. You haven’t communicated the problem you’re solving well enough. Make sure to have this in your script and ask them, “Do you see the value in this?” Have them answer why it’s valuable in their life and business. Also have them answer what it will mean to their business and their life if they allow this problem to continue. #### Sales is Control When you get objections like - “This sounds good, but let me think about it” - “Your prices are too high” - “Let me run this by my partner, I can’t make a decision right now” You’ve lost control of the call. Sales is all about control. It is like playing poker. You always have to be one step ahead… Always in control… In control by asking the right questions. If the sales process is done right, you should not be having to explain yourself during the call. When you lose control of the conversation, you’re in a reactive state instead of a proactive state. When you’re in a reactive state you’re on the defensive instead of on the offensive. So, when you see someone falling off the script, bring them back to the conversation… back to the agenda. If you’re able to master the above 3 reasons why you are not closing over the phone, you WILL see a significant advantage while you’re on the call. --- ## 7 Tips for Growing Your Audience and Being Unique on Instagram URL: https://futuresharks.com/7-tips-for-growing-your-audience-and-being-unique-on-instagram/ Instagram is that platform where almost 1 billion people are active monthly and are constantly sharing their photos and videos and various other kinds of visual posts on a regular basis. Since its introduction in 2010, Instagram has never looked back. The growth that it has seen is tremendous and this is what has left most of the marketers as well as business owners with one important and clear question. This question is how they can use Instagram for their business. It is not extremely difficult to set up your profile and start your business on Instagram but what you need is strong Instagram marketing strategies, so that your business can remain unique and one step ahead of all the competitors. Given below is a list of the important tips that you should definitely follow when you are using Instagram for your business. **Write an interesting bio** According to www.buffer.com, it only takes 2/10ths of one second for any random person to form an opinion, which is related to your business. This definitely means it is imperative to create a great impression with the help of the content that you are posting on your profile as well as the Instagram bio. Your Instagram bio deserves love as it is undoubtedly the first and most important place that people are going to set their eyes on when they come across your business profile on Instagram. The bio is also responsible for playing an important role in compelling your potential customers to take action as soon as they land on the profile. They can be interested to follow you, go through your account and come across your services and products, and they can even end up purchasing something from you by visiting your website. However, all of this depends on how good your Instagram bio is. In your Instagram bio you need to: - Explain what your brand and you are doing. - Appeal to the target audience. - Make use of the brand voice as well as the tone for connecting with the community. - Ensure that you are including a link. Most of the business owners already know this that the one and only place on the visual platform, where you have the option of sharing the clickable link is undoubtedly the bio section. Given below is a list of the strategies that have been working for a number of reputed businesses on Instagram. - A number of Instagram accounts make use of the link for driving traffic to the homepage. - Many others are responsible for linking the Instagram profile to certain specific landing pages or to unique content pieces. - A number of brands ensure that the links are updated regularly in order to drive traffic to the content that they have uploaded lately. **Create a business profile** When you switch to the business profile from your personal account, it will be easier for you to make use of the important Instagram business tools, which will help you to understand your followers as well as study the growth of your business on this platform. When you are switching to the business profile, it is going to be easy for you to add relevant information regarding the business on the Instagram profile. For instance, you have the option of adding a phone number, email address, and also the physical address of your business. Ensure that you are keeping this tip in mind when you are using Instagram for business. **Use a recognizable image for your profile** When you are choosing your profile picture, it is crucial that people recognize your brand almost instantly, as soon as they come across the Instagram profile. As a business, you need to choose the options that are listed below. - Your business logo. - The logo mark (Only the logo and no marks). - Mascot. You need to know that there is nothing wrong or right here and you have to take care that you are not limiting yourself to the options that have been listed above. You need to consider what is going to boost people to visit the Instagram page and recognize the brand at the earliest. **Ensure that you are setting goals** When you are making use of any marketing channel, it is crucial that you have certain goals that you are interested in achieving. Similarly, Instagram is not different at all. If you are interested in investing both your money as well as time on Instagram, you have to ask yourself as to what you are looking forward to achieving. Given below is a list of the goals that almost all the brands have in order to make sure that they have a strong Instagram presence. - Ensure that you are showcasing the services and products. - Build the community. - Increase awareness of the brand. - Highlight the values and culture of the company. - Advertise to all the potential customers. - Increase the loyalty of the brand. - Share updates as well as company news. When you set these goals, it is going to help you to define the kind of content that you are going to share on this platform and also, it will be simpler for you to measure success. **Ensure that you are paying attention to the color palette** It has been observed that most of the successful businesses on Instagram use a particular color palette, which has been helping them create one of the unique as well as distinct styles. Similarly, you also need to do the same. It is your responsibility to think about the colors of your brand along with the visual style when you are posting anything on Instagram. Make sure that the palette that you are choosing is aligned with the aesthetic of the brand as well as the brand colors. **Maintain consistency with the fonts** Text overlays have become significant on Instagram since the past few years and the reason behind this is a number of people prefer adding subtitles to the videos. If for you, the text is responsible for playing one of the most important roles within the Instagram content, you need to think about the font that you are using and how it is related to the fonts that you are using on your business website or any other marketing material. In order to remain professional, it is mandatory that you maintain consistency. **Conclusion** When you are using Instagram for your business, you cannot forget to remain consistent. Make sure that you are going through the tips that have been mentioned above so that you do not end up making any mistake on Instagram. **Author Bio –** Kristen Smith has been working on the importance of social media in marketing with thousands of real Instagram followers for her postings. You can visit using Instagram for business for more information. --- ## How to Make a Website Using WordPress URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-make-a-website-using-wordpress/ WordPress is a free platform that already hosts almost half of all the websites present on the internet. By choosing WordPress as your choice of platform, you can: - Save tons of money by not hiring web designers and developers. - Easily update and incorporate trending elements within your website without a designer. - Last but not least, you can create and/or host a website without ever learning an ounce of coding! There are several site creator options available, but considering all the qualities of WordPress, we are going to teach you about the steps required to set up your own website. So, without further ado, let us get to it! **Step 1: Web Hosting and Registering Domain** First things first, you need a good web hosting along with a domain name as having one looks more professional than using someone else’s in your URL. Since the internet is flooded with hosting websites, it can be quite difficult to make up your mind. In such cases, you can analyze your needs and pick out whatever you think fits your requirements. Most of the web-hosting platforms come with a free trial, so you can take advantage of this. That said, here is how you can sign up for any of the desired web hosting platforms: - Visit the web hosting platform of your choice and select your plan. Almost all of them have three packages with varying prices. If you are starting out, a basic package would serve you well. - Then, choose a domain name. When choosing a domain name, you should always go for something that reflects the nature of your company or services. - Fill out the necessary account details so that you can be charged accordingly. - Once you have successfully registered, you can set a password to your web hosting account. **Step 2: Setting a Website** Once you are done with hosting and domain, you will be required to install WordPress to set everything in motion. Keep in mind that certain hosting platforms come with a 1-click-installation. If you have selected such a platform, then you can easily install WordPress. However, if you have to install it manually, then here is a perfect guide to help you! Once you are done with this step, your website will be up and running. However, you still need to personalize it to truly make it yours! This brings us to the next step. **Step 3: Personalize your Website** The default websites have a plain touch to it but you can make yours exciting by selecting any theme out of the 1500+ available free themes. Here is how you can find a suitable theme: - Log in to your WordPress website and open the dashboard section. Or you can copy and paste this link https://yoursite.com/wp-admin*(Be sure to replace **yoursite** with your domain name)*** - *On the left side, look up and click ‘Appearances’. Then, choose the ‘Themes’ option. From there, you can select any theme that reflects your interests.*** - *You can also find suitable themes according to your industry. Just enter a particular keyword and you will get access to industry-specific themes.*** - Once you find a suitable theme, you can easily install it by opening the theme and clicking the ‘Install’ button. **Step 4: Adding Content** To add content sections, such as ‘About Me’ and ‘Our Services,’ you need to do the following: - On the left side, look for ‘Pages’ and then click ‘Add New.’ - Doing this will open up a page that will provide you with all the necessary tools required to create and edit your new pages’ content. - Save all the changes by clicking the ‘Update’ button. To add the newly created page into your navigational menu on your website, do the following: - Choose the ‘Appearance’ option and click ‘Menus.’ - Here, you will find the newly created page. Click the checkbox that is next to it and then select ‘Add to the Menu.’ You can also edit your existing posts. To perform this step, you can follow these instructions. Also, if you need to learn how to enable or disable comments on WordPress, you can read this section. **Step 6: Set up a Static Page** By default, WordPress will use a blog-like front page to display your recent content. However, if you want to have a static front page that does not change whatsoever, here is what you need to do: - From the left side navigational menu, choose ‘Setting’ and then ‘Reading.’ - From here, you can select the option of a static page. If you do not choose the static setting, WordPress will display your posts as your front page to your audience which can be a little mundane. **Wrapping Up** With the help of these instructions, you can set up your own WordPress website without depending on PHP and MySQL web development services. That said, we ensured to keep the instructions easy. You can work through these instructions step-by-step, and by the end of this, you will have a fully functional website through economical means! Lastly, keep updating and improving your website to keep up with the growing demands of your business. Since WordPress is easily customizable, you will not face any issues in this regard! --- ## How to Untap Your Brain’s Hidden Potential URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-untap-your-brains-hidden-potential/ There’s a lot more your brain can do when you understand how it works best. It can help you remember detailed facts. It can keep you firmly focused on your goals. And, it can unleash a creative side you didn’t know you had. Before I explain a simple technique for giving your brain the space it needs to function optimally, let me tell you about… ## The Secrets to Learning and Retaining Knowledge There’s no doubt about it that technology has brought us an abundance of information. Whether through 24-hour streaming news or Wikipedia, there’s more data available now to the average person than ever before. But, guess what? This easy-to-access data hasn’t made us either better thinkers or better learners. In fact, studies show that most people spend around 50 minutes per day on Facebook alone. That’s a big chunk of someone’s waking hours! And, of course, it’s not just Facebook–Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube (to name but a few!) are also stealing valuable time from most of the population. The information and stories we see on these apps rarely stick in our minds (can you remember what you read on Facebook last summer?). It’s always quantity over quality. It’s no wonder then that social media apps are not regarded as good places to learn. However, it’s not just social media apps that fail the learning test. Formal education has its own issues when it comes to learning. Students like you and me are effectively force-fed information that we have no option but to try and remember if we’re to pass our exams and graduate from college. While this might sound reasonable, you only have to look at how unprepared for work and life most students are after leaving college. They have lots of knowledge – but very little experience in applying it in real life. What I’ve discovered over the years is that**unless we use the information that we’re exposed to – we’re bound to forget it.** Let me give you now an example of poor learning and effective learning. Imagine for a moment that you’ve decided to learn how to play the piano. While you don’t own a piano, you’re confident that by watching a 12-part YouTube series on how to play the piano, you’ll make some positive first steps. You even join a couple of Facebook groups dedicated to new piano players. Guess what? You could watch piano tutorial videos for months on end, but without actually putting your fingers on a piano keyboard – you’ll never make any progress. If you really wanted to learn how to play, then you’d be much better off taking lessons with a tutor. And ideally, you’d also get yourself an acoustic or electronic piano – to allow you to practice at home. Take this learning route, and I guarantee you’ll make good progress. It’s the difference between hearing about how to play piano, and actually getting on with playing it! Of course, there’s nothing wrong with watching piano tutorial videos if you’ve got a real tutor too. But always remember, that knowledge without application usually leads you down a dead end road. My advice is to filter out information that won’t help you in life (think social media feeds!), and focus on the stuff that you can put into positive action in your life. ## Get Smart with Your Smartphone Let’s face it, there’s so much information bombarding our brains throughout every day that it would be impossible to retain even a fraction of it. Whether via TV, radio or the internet – the stream of information is incessant. If we try to keep up with everything, we’ll end up feeling not just overwhelmed – but massively stressed, too. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to ensure that you can capture and retain the important information that comes your way. How does this work? Through the use of what I like to call your Digital Brain. Just think for a moment how good it would be if you could instantly capture your ideas, and come back to them at the touch of a button. Well, with the assistance of your Digital Brain, you’ll be able to do just that. No more struggling to remember things. Your Digital Brain is of course nothing other than your smartphone. A device that you no doubt carry with your wherever you go. And your smartphone is really just a miniature computer. And, in contrast to a human brain, computers are fantastic at storing information. They can capture and store almost unlimited amounts of data – and with extreme reliability and accuracy. Computer memory has three key elements: - **Recording **– storing the information - **Organization** – archiving it in a logical manner - **Recall **– retrieving it again when you need it Let me give you an example of how your Digital Brain can help you out in your day-to-day life. It’s 7:35 in the evening, and you’ve finally found online the holiday you’ve been searching for over the last few days. As you click to make the booking, the first thing you’re prompted to do is to sign up for an account (you’ve never used this particular site before). You use your email address as your username, but your standard password isn’t accepted as it’s too short and lacks a special character. You spend a few minutes thinking of a new password. You enter it. And it’s accepted. However, a few minutes later… you’ve already forgotten it! This common scenario could easily be resolved if you’d made a note of your password with a secure notepad app such as Safe Notes. Even if you’d had to come back to the holiday booking site in a year’s time, your Digital Brain (with the assistance of the Safe Notes app)  would be able to provide you the information you need in an instant. As well as giving you the ability to capture, store and access information, your Digital Brain also provides you with an unexpected benefit:**the freedom to think!** That’s right. When we stop trying to remember everything, and let our Digital Brain take the strain, our mind is set free to think creatively and positively. You’ll also experience much less mental fatigue and fogginess. ## These Apps Will Give Your Memory a Boost As you’ve seen so far, your smartphone can act as a second brain – and help you store and recall all the information you need to know and remember. But to get the most out of your smartphone, I recommend installing one of the following apps (if you haven’t already): Airtable – works like a spreadsheet but gives you the power of a database to organize anything and everything. Evernote – helps you capture and prioritize ideas, projects, and to-do lists, so nothing falls through the cracks. Google Keep – this free app allows to quickly and easily capture what’s on your mind. You can add notes, lists, photos, and  even audio. Each of these apps will give you the power to jot down notes at the touch of a button. And it’s just as easy to find and display these when notes when you need them. There is of course just one obstacle to overcome before you can really start benefiting from you Digital Brain. Namely, your habits! You’ve probably spent decades trying to remember and recall things using just your human brain. This way of thinking will have become a very strong habit for you. That’s why you’ll need to make a determined effort to keep noting down new and important information into your Digital Brain. My recommendation to you is to do this for at least 30 days. After that, you should find that it becomes an automatic thing for you. Your human brain energy is too precious to be wasted on information overload. So instead, let your Digital Brain sweat the small stuff and **free your mind** for greater things! --- ## Scaling Your Business – Patricia Burgess URL: https://futuresharks.com/scaling-your-business-patricia-burgess/ Last week I got the chance to chat with Patricia Burgess. Patricia has been successful in many different aspects of business for the last 30 years, areas such as: Supply Chain Management, Consulting, Mentorship and so on. Not to mention she raised two now adult children and is grandmother to four girls ages 6 to almost 18 years old, which is very impressive, given her success. I wanted to ask Patricia how she was able to scale herself and her business to the level of success that she has now and, thankfully, she was able to give me some good insight. **How did you get started in business? What motivated you? ** **“**It all started on a spring day in 2009 when I found out, for the third year in a row, that I would not be receiving a raise or a yearly bonus, along with losing my benefits, so I decided I had enough and went into business for myself. Having no college degree or experience of being my own boss, it obviously brought adversity, but I knew if I was going to have the life that I desired it was going to be because I made it that way, and not because someone else gave it to me.” **What is the name of your company?** “I am Co-founder of AnswerSpring, a membership community, primarily for independent consultants, where we are focused on connecting authentic people (consulting solutions) with real opportunities (client challenges).” **Do you want to scale your membership community?** **** “Yes, I want to serve more people in order to reach my ultimate mission.” **What is your ultimate mission?** **“**My goal is to grow my business revenue to be in a position to give back at least 50% of revenue, while on a mission to impact 1 million children by 2029 #10to1, so they not only survive, but thrive to make their own impact and leave a legacy.” **What are some ways that you can scale AnswerSpring? ** “We need to continue to tap into our own networks, meaning, people we know and people that our people know – referrals and such. Then we need to increase our social media presence and start telling our story. Creating a movement to attract positive attention. This will help us grow a following and attract more members. Lastly, we need to work with our corporate clients to increase the number of available opportunities, utilizing our members to fill their roles.” **What are some ways that you find opportunities for your members?** **“**We use referrals, LinkedIn jobs, and other job boards.” **Do you normally do a onetime consultation, or do you usually have clients that you continuously work with on a weekly/monthly/yearly basis?** **“**Engagements with Clients (Opportunities) – are generally multi-month or multi-year in duration. Consultants maintain membership during duration of engagement and sometimes continue in between to maintain access to the tools and opportunities.” **What would you say to someone starting their own business? ** “1. Master a skill that can be monetized. 2. Build a network that you can serve. 3. Save money to pay the bills until your business can pay you.” **Apart from your mission to impact 1 million children, do you have any other reasons why you push so hard to achieve success?** “I push so hard, showing what’s possible, so my children and grandchildren dream big and find the courage to go after their dreams.” **Do you like to read? What are some of your favorite books?** “Yes, I like to read, although listen more now than read. Some of my favorites are: ****1. How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie 2. [The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0743269519) – Stephen Covey 3. The Goal – Eli Goldratt” **What are some things you do to de-stress or recharge?** “I don’t stress about most things; I find that to be super draining. I manage most aspects of my life by living very intentionally. When I do need to decompress and recharge, beyond my daily routine of gratitude journaling, I like the occasional binge-watching TV, or grab my camera and set out for an adventure.” I**f you could meet and talk with anyone, dead or alive; who would it be?** “Jeff Bezos, a big vision guy that also makes things happen! Being a big thinker with a bias for action myself, it would be the pinnacle of my career to collaborate on the next disruptive technology in supply chain management with Mr. Bezos.” --- ## Thinking about Hiring Payroll Management Service? Ask these Questions First! URL: https://futuresharks.com/thinking-about-hiring-payroll-management-service-ask-these-questions-first/ There are quite a few things that a company can’t do without, and requires always to be in an accurate state, to function properly. Payroll service is one of those things. Payroll is essentially a list of all the employees that work in a particular firm, and it also includes the total amount the company pays to each of them as salary, incentives etc. So, it basically keeps track of the company’s total expenditure on its workers. As you can imagine, maintaining an accurate payroll is not a child’s play. The person in charge of the process needs to know all the State and federal laws and regulations on taxes and deductions to maintain an error free process. So, doing it manually (and most importantly) in-house, can be extremely challenging. The best way of handling such a complicated work is by seeking help from payroll companies in UK. Dh Payroll is one of the most trust-worthy payroll service providers based in the UK. They help the businesses to manage their payroll services in an organized manner without any errors. #### Questions to ask before hiring payroll management services: Maintaining payroll is no mean feat. The amount of pressure mounts along with the piling paperwork, making it extremely difficult for your inhouse employees to keep the entire system organised and error free. The stress and increasing work pressure can be disastrous not only for the process, but also for the company as a whole. It may even have a negative impact on profits. In the worst case, it may also lead to legal consequences! Why burden yourself or your employees with so much tension?! A payroll process is also an effective way of keeping track of the absences. It thus helps the firm to strategize its optimum productivity in order to maximize profit. However, here are a few questions that you should ask before hiring payroll management service: ##### Which payroll taxes to include? If you have the responsibility of managing the payrolls, then the taxes play an extremely crucial role in your job. You need to know exactly what are included in the payroll service before you sign up for good. You cannot afford to leave loopholes there, as your company can suffer from nasty penalties if the taxes are not properly handled. Be absolutely clear on how much service the payroll provider will offer and how much of it you have to take care. Know whether the service provider will also generate the much needed tax forms for the employees, contractors etc. Also start by making a list of the tax services that will be offered by them and cross check them with the ones you need and see if you can customize accordingly. ##### What is the pricing structure? Before you enter any contract with the service providers, be very clear on the type of pricing structure they follow and how much they charge based on that. There should be absolutely no confusion or miscommunication when it comes to payments. Different payroll management services follow different pricing structure. Monthly subscription is offered by many cloud-based tax management providers at a flat fee. However, even then, one might incur additional cost due to customizations. Many also use price per employee structure. ##### What insights will you get? Getting a visual representation on the performance of the business and expenditures on employees through reports and dashboards is extremely important for making decisions for the wellbeing of the company. Make sure whether the payroll service will provide real time visibility for the data on the employees. Having access to an enriching set of data (which you can easily comprehend) will help a lot in making decisions on how to cut back on company’s expenditure and maximize the net profit. These are the few basic questions you should ask before hiring a payroll service provider. Be very clear on what and how much will be covered by them. In this way you can have an error free payroll. --- ## Yvng Leaf: Musical Process and Meaning Behind his Music URL: https://futuresharks.com/yvng-leaf-musical-process-and-meaning-behind-his-music/ As an up & coming artist in the Philadelphia music scene, many people are wondering what drives the 17 year old artist out of Rotation Records, what inspires his music? What are his songs about on his latest EP’s? I have been fortunate enough to interview a lot of successful rappers in the music scene, and it never fails to amaze me what inspires an artists creativity, this past weekend I had the opportunity to ask leaf the questions the fans have been dying to know. When interviewing anyone, but especially an artist, it is imperative to understand the creative process that drives them and the music they create. Of course, every artist is different, but all artists have one thing in common and that is they have way of coping through their music. They have a certain way to express themselves to their fanbase, and they all have a skill that most can only dream of. Having said that, you ( Leaf’s fanbase) asked, so we listed. I present to you the Yvng Leaf Interview. Q: So how did you make your first EP Afterlife, and what is the meaning behind it? Why Did you name it Afterlife? A: It was my first EP and it was where the journey started to who I am today. I was a different person before I started making music. I saw a different part of life after I started that I didnt see before and I felt like I was reborn and living a way that I havent lived before. So that’s why the EP is called Afterlife because I’m living in a new stage of my life. It represents the start of living in my new life Q: What inspired you’re slower songs on the EP, Electric Vibes and In My Mind? A: The inspiration for the slower songs are the kind of melodies in my head when Im in a relaxed mood and I try to make so other people can relate when they are in the same kind of mood. I also like creating all different kinds of music to expand my sound for myself and my fans. Q: Why did you name you’re second EP Leaf’s Nirvana? How did you make it and what’s the meaning behind it? A: I waited until after my first EP was dropped, made some singles and I felt at that stage of my life I leveled up in creating music and finally found my sound so I felt that I needed to give my fans my official evolved sound as soon as possible. Its called Leaf’s Nirvana because I was in the Afterlife and then eventually I started turning that world into my own Nirvana and things started coming true. The EP was just expressing my world at that stage of my life. Q: What inspired you’re hit song No More and how did it come about? A: This song was created on a day where I wasn’t in the best state of mind and I went to the studio and I told my producer to cook up a dark melodic kind of beat so I could sing my feelings but also make it a faster tempo to give it a hit kind of feeling. The melodic vibe makes it easier for me to sing and express myself on it. Pretty much its about me finding out who the difference between the real and fake people in my life are and that everybody leaves you when your down but when they see you shining they want to come back….why would I help you out when you weren’t there for me when I was down. So pretty much I dont need them “no more”…. Q: This Time has a kind of unique and signature sound that you created, how did you do it? A: I was just being myself and I was in a “super lit mood” going into the studio that day and my producer ThomasJay cooked up a vibe. It was right around when I found my sound and I knew it had the potential to be a classic. It’s just a vibe that people can listen to in their car and when they are having fun. Q: What is the meaning behind My Space, and how did you make it? A: I was sitting in my room and I was just deep in my thoughts thinking about things over and over again and I felt like life was just a “Highway” and that your just going through a road filled with ups and downs and it was just in my head. From those thoughts, I ended up writing a song which ended up being My Space. Q: What is you’re recent single For A While about? A: Anybody who has been heartbroken and feels helpless that there will be an end to it no matter how long it feels bad, it’s not eternity. It’s that simple. Q: What is your most recent single “It’s the Start” about? A: I made that on a 12 hour session on my birthday and I went in there and started creating a different song. Halfway through, we ended up switching the vibe and creating a different beat. Then the beat was a melodic vibe but had a hard hitting 808 which made it like a melodic trap beat. I liked it a lot so I started writing. I was thinking about since it was my birthday and it was a 12 hours session, all the things were starting to come together and all my hard work was starting to pay off. So I felt like the song I was writing was the start to a long lasting dream that I always had about my new life. Q: Is there any advice you want to give to any upcoming musicians or people are trying to get into music? A: To be yourself, dont listen to what the negative people try to tell you. Stay at it and never give up. Q: How did you get to where you are so fast? Do you have any upcoming releases or big plans coming? A: It started off as a younger me trying to be something with my life instead of just following the system and hating my life. I followed through with my dream and eventually me and my amazing team helped me get to where I am now. I’d like to shout out my Producer ThomasJayOfficial, my manager Jdizzlemgt, and Rotation Records for taking me in from the beginning. Of course my family for always supporting me. I love ALL OF MY FANS!!!! IT’s LVVFGVNG!!! I have a really “Lit” video coming soon with a big surprise New “Leaf feat Yung Bans” song coming soon. Also a couple big shows and features to be announced with a new line of merch. --- ## How This Entrepreneur Turned His Life Around and Became His Own Boss URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-this-entrepreneur-turned-his-life-around-and-became-his-own-boss/ Trevor Cowley grew up in a household where the struggle was to keep the lights on and put food on the table. One of his earliest childhood memories was watching his Mom try to hold it together while she begged the city council to turn the power back on. He struggled in school, mainly getting D’s and F’s. From early on, his teachers planted the idea in his head that he wasn’t smart enough, and for the rest of his school career, the school system reinforced those beliefs. It wasn’t until almost a year after finishing high school that Trevor was introduced to the world of sales. His friend told him about this job he had where he was making anywhere from $1,000-$2,000 a week. Trevor couldn’t believe this. He figured he had nothing to lose, and decided to give it a shot. As it turns out, Trevor was**really** good at sales. Not long after starting his new job, a couple of his coworkers told him about these pills they were taking on a regular basis. They said these pain pills would make him feel good, but more importantly they would help him get into an unstoppable “sales zone.” Trevor was 19 at the time and he just wanted to do what the big guys were doing. > **“It’s enough to say that after that first pill I discovered the rabbit hole was deep, and it sucked me in. It stripped me of all my values and I ended up a full-blown heroin junkie pretty quickly,” He remembers.** After a long struggle with addiction, Trevor was able to overcome it with the help of his family. > **“It was a terrible experience. Even though I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone, I believe it helped shape me into a stronger person,” He says.** After Trevor got clean, he went back into sales, but he made sure it was a healthy environment. He chose a company that did drug testing so that he didn’t put himself around others who were using substances. When he was finally finding his own success again, he met his now business partners and started working with them. When Trevor took over the ownership and operations role, the business accomplished a $700k turnaround. This was exhilarating giving that the previous year they had lost $200k. The business still continues to do well to this day. Since then, they have started other businesses together and continue to invest in new projects. Their main focus is Easier Accounting. They are changing the quality service business owners can expect within the accounting industry. Trevor and his three other partners owned two businesses and couldn’t find a firm that was affordable and that provided good communication. If they found a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or an accountant that was good, they were always too expensive. If they found one that was more affordable, their work was bad. They jumped from CPA to CPA and from accountant to accountant. This was until they realized the accounting industry had some pretty big gaps that needed to be filled. If they couldn’t find what they needed as entrepreneurs, that meant other entrepreneurs were facing the same issues. > **“Who better to know how to serve a business own than a business owner? Who better than us? Essentially, we are the end customer and we know all the holes in the industry so who better to fix them?” Trevor remarks.** Taking a reactive approach to solving the issue, Trevor and his partners built Easier Accounting, a proactive firm that helps educate business owners on cool business deductions. If the business owner wants to apply them, they help them to implement the strategy. For Trevor, what drove him into this world of entrepreneurship was the hard time he had when he was starting to work. > **“I got clean right before I turned 24. By the time I turned 27, I had saved $30k. I invested that money into the company I was working for and I become one of the owners. I am still partnered with the same people today,” He says. ** Trevor is now managing all the social media for Easier Accounting. You can find him giving business advice or doing motivational videos on their Instagram platform (@realbusinessowners), which has grown to almost 30k followers in less than 5 months. Currently, Trevor’s goal is to continue building Easier Accounting. So whether you’re getting started in the field of entrepreneurship or you’ve been at it for a while, Trevor Cowley is the type of entrepreneur you should be following. --- ## How This Serial Entrepreneur Is Revolutionizing The Food Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-this-serial-entrepreneur-is-revolutionizing-the-food-industry/ The mentality we have when starting a business is more important than the business or the product itself. We can all achieve what we want with a healthy body and mind. This is the motto that has led the entrepreneur and expert in healthy foods Tiffany Mai to success. > **“I called myself a serial entrepreneur,” said Mai who started her first company, an online clothing company, at the age of 17, then decided to get into the insurance industry, opening her own agency, and is now in the healthy food industry and is planning to release her first book titled “Sexy Foods.” ** As a single mother and a young millennial immigrant who started from nothing, Tiffany Mai is making an impact in the world of gastronomy. Tiffany’s parents migrated to the United States when she was only 10 years old. Her father was captured in a concentration camp for 11 years when he was fighting in the Vietnam War. After he returned from the war, Tiffany was born. She admires her parents for taking care of Tiffany and her six siblings, three of whom were from her marriage and four were adopted. Tiffany spent her life in a continuous struggle. She said that history repeated itself only 5 years ago when she lost everything and became a single mother. It was then that she decided to take the reins of her life and start her own business. > **“I was in a difficult place in my life that I needed to get out of. Now I run a successful insurance agency, and I decided to resume my health food company, starting with a project that I have been working on for quite some time, my own cookbook. And it is not just a cookbook, I give advice and tips on women empowerment as well.” She said. ** Mai, a millenial immigrant, has been able to travel all over the world and now she has enough financial security to share her knowledge and culinary experience with all those who wish to learn. Mai also highlights her deep passion for serving others through food. > **“My inspiration is the people for whom I have cooked and prepared meals. And also, to be able to show my daughter that she can do whatever she wants, if she believes in herself. I am not a chef, but I always had a passion for cooking for others,” ** Furthermore, Mai confessed that her biggest challenge when starting a business is staffing, logistics, and scaling of the business. > **“The most difficult part is when you are a small business owner, because you do not have enough capital to grow, so you have to find other ways to achieve it strategically,” said the entrepreneur.** Tiffany has now demonstrated through her ideals, perseverance, and above all constancy, that everything that people want to achieve for themselves can be truly be achieved. Therefore, she has become an entrepreneur and fascinating businesswoman, capable of transmitting great advice to her followers through her story. > **“My advice when starting a project is that you just have to start solving it as you go. Taking that initial risk at the beginning is what most people don’t even do. And to know that nothing goes according to plan, they have to be flexible and move with the changes. I don’t believe in a business plan because it is not really the reality in life. Things happen and we have to adapt,” said Mai.** So whether she’s starting a new business, writing a book, or just empowering women all together, Tiffany Mai is the perfect example of what it means to be a successful woman regardless of the obstacles that get in the way. --- ## How Jared McKenzie’s Solar Company Went From 0 to 2MM In Revenue In 135 days URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-jared-mckenzies-solar-company-went-from-0-to-2mm-in-revenue-in-135-days/ Founder of Headline Solar Jared McKenzie is a 24-year-old Chicago native who attended the University of Arkansas majoring in Entrepreneurship before he dropped out to build and start his own digital marketing agency. After working with many individuals in the solar industry he became interested in that niche. So, he did some research and decided to make the switch from digital marketing to the solar industry. Entrepreneur and Illinois native, Kevin Gillespie, joined Jared as a partner of Headline Solar in 2018 and together they are now the fastest-growing solar company in Illinois. Here is how McKenzie feels about helping his community. **How does it feel to be able to contribute to the solar growth of your community?** Honestly, it’s truly an amazing and incomparable feeling. Knowing that you’re not just helping people, but you’re helping the environment, you’re helping the people’s families, and you’re helping the future of the world just by doing something you love to do, is an indescribable feeling. Sometimes I work for so long I don’t even eat, and when I realize it I care so little that I continue to work until I’m absolutely starving and malnourished. That’s how I know that I love what I do and that this truly is my purpose in life. Being able to contribute to a community is something I never really thought I’d do in life, but now that I’m doing it on a daily basis I wouldn’t trade it for anything, and I’m committed to continuing to do it every day and grow it to a much, much larger scale than what it is now. **What are 3 tips you would give to others who want to run a multi-million dollar business?** Know that you are going to have the most stressful time of your life in the beginning, and the stress never stops. The only thing that changes is how good you are at handling the stress. If you’re not stressing, you’re not progressing. Every time you level up and grow, there is more stress added to your plate. What separates you from everybody else is how well you can deal with that stress and continue to stay focused on the big goal and your vision. Keep moving forward. As easy as it is to read and think “well of course”, it’s much harder than you think when times get tough. When building a multi-million dollar company there are an incredible amount of things moving at all times, and it is very easy to get caught up in one problem, issue, or part of the process and lose focus on the big picture. Always continue to move forward, and when there’s an issue to make sure it’s solved as smoothly and as quickly as possible, and then get right back to doing the things that help you progress the most. Delegate. One of the most common problems I see in new businesses that are trying to grow is that they lack delegation. What do I mean by delegation? Hire people to do small and easy tasks so that you can focus on the big and hard tasks. The CEO shouldn’t be calling leads, setting appointments, talking to customers, managing projects, recruiting, and selling all at the same time; that’s not a business, that’s a job. Hire a project manager to manage all of your projects. Hire an administrative assistant to do the scheduling for you, sales reps, and other small tasks that are easy but time-consuming. Hire an inside call center representative to do customer service and appointment setting. The CEO, founder, or executive should be focusing on the big tasks that result in the company being able to grow and expand the most. Don’t do tasks that you can hire somebody for $10 or $12/hr to do. Doing those will hurt you more than it will help you. --- ## Vladdy Diamonds: The Hottest Jewelry Store in New York City URL: https://futuresharks.com/vladdy-diamonds-the-hottest-jewelry-store-in-new-york-city/ There’s no questions New York City is a big place with so much to do. But if happen to be in the Manhattan area, knowns of it’s top stores, there are few places as unique and welcoming as Vladdy Aminov’s jewelry shop. It doesn’t take long for one to realize the quality products one can find inside Vladdy’s Diamonds. From quality craftsmanship and custom designs, their store will definitely set an impression. Jewelry artist, and boutique owner Vladdy Aminov believes in being hands-on. Not only does he custom make his jewelry, both within collections and custom designs, but he also handpicks every local and international piece of jewelry stocked in his New York boutique, Vladdy’s Diamonds. His unique store, which opened in 1998, has served its customer focusing on giving the best service possible. > **“Family values, community-oriented,” Vladdy said. “I wanted the focus to be on the relationship first,” he added.** For Vladdy himself is all about creating a long-lasting legacy. It’s no small feat for a small business to last 20 years. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 33 percent of small businesses make it past 10 years. Small, local businesses like Vladdy’s Diamonds make up the lion’s share of the jewelry industry. About 90 percent of the specialty jewelers in the U.S. generate less than $2.5 million in annual sales, and most only operate one or two stores, according to the International Diamond Exchange. Vladdy said the business has made it through the years because of its expertise and focus on customers. > **“You’re becoming part of the fabric of the relationship and to have fun and get to meet amazing people makes it easier to fall in love with the industry,” he said. “I love that.”** Seeing celebrities run into his shop isn’t new to Vladdy. From Cardi B to Jadakiss, and much more, the store is often visited by top celebrities from all industries. For more information on Vladdy’s Diamonds, you can follow them on Instagram Here. --- ## @BertoCanFly: Being Successful Starts From Within URL: https://futuresharks.com/bertocanfly-being-successful-starts-from-within/ Berto is a young software developer who made his dreams come true by working hard and relying on his faith. He shares his journey to success on his instagram account called @bertocanfly. By doing this he aims to inspire others and send a message of self-improvement and encouragement to the over 160,000 people that follow him. > “I was an ordinary person that no one expected anything from. Then one day I grew tired of a life of mediocrity and I pushed my limits and did what some would say is extraordinary. My breakthrough was through faith and belief, and It allowed me to redefine what’s possible,” Berto shared with us. Berto has managed to inspire his social media followers by giving them advice and ideas to chase their dreams while maintaining a truthful and healthy relationship with them. Nothing better illustrates the positive value of social media and influencers than Berto’s story. Today, social media has become one of the best resources for inspiration and Berto has found a perfect balance between his faith towards god, his story of personal growth and, his success to tell his story while uplifting others and helping them to do the same. What keeps Berto committed? It is the believe that having social media and access to a big platform is important to make people hear your voice and influence others in a positive way. Although Berto has materialized his success in his posts he often reminds us that money isn’t what success is all about and being successful starts within. All his posts are motivational quotations and images to inspire others while referring to his faith. > “I’m proof that the little guy can come out on top. No matter where you are in your life you can make it! Keep your faith in yourself and faith in god and never stop working towards your dream no matter how small the step is each day.. I believe in you. So go out and get what’s yours,” he said. Berto is an amazing story of overcoming obstacles and success. And in the middle of all the noise in social media, Berto has managed to use his success not only for his advantage but to help and inspire others. *Connect with Berto on *Instagram*.* --- ## This Entrepreneur Is Taking The Fashion Industry To The Next Level URL: https://futuresharks.com/this-entrepreneur-is-taking-the-fashion-industry-to-the-next-level/ It’s not everyday you encounter people like the fashion designer Camilo Andres Vargas Lesmes. Just a short conversation with him is enough to understand his knowledge, passion, and creativity when it comes to high-end custom clothing. The Secret? The millennial designer has built an entire fashion brand from the ground up by remaining true to who he is and tapping into his client’s needs at a personalized level. In a short amount of time, Camilo has created a name for himself in the fashion world. Thus far, his ambition has taken him as far as China and Japan, and it all started from a small suburb in The State of Maryland. Born in Colombia, Camilo Andres Vargas immigrated to the United States when he was just three months old. It wasn’t until middle school that Camilo’s interests for fashion peaked when he decided to buy a new pair of jeans to impress a girl he liked. > **“I went from wearing sweatpants & sambas to polo’s and new balances,” He said.** During this same time, Camilo convinced his friends to start a streetwear brand called “DeadBeatPrep”. A brand that was inspired by one of his own favorite brands, Billionaire Boys Club from Pharell Williams & NIGO. It was during this time that Camilo got his first taste of the fashion world. With DeadBeatPrep, he learned to sew, register a business, create graphics, print garments & to sell. Eventually, this brand ended which led Camilo to travel all the way across the globe to Hong Kong where he could continue to learn and expand his knowledge when it came to custom-made fashion. > **“I never believed that I could make a career out of fashion, especially as a young, Latino guy from the suburbs of Maryland,” he recalls.** In 2016, the brand MILÓ ANDRES was born. With all of his newfound knowledge, Camilo came back to the United States, eager to begin creating his own brand. To this day, the brand specializes in hand crafting garments that are as unique & exclusive as each one of their clients. It’s no secret that MILÓ ANDRES is famous for designing unique suits, blazers, pants, coats, dress shirts, tuxedos, & vests with one of their experts made-to-measure specialists, always focused on helping their clients navigate the process of styling, fitting & finding a unique design. In fact, their customization is so unique that they offer an endless array of options such as a signature lining with your own photographs printed inside & your custom monogram to personalize your very own hand-made garment. > **“My philosophy is simple, unadulterated beauty & craftsmanship through design, embodying techniques at an art sartorial level of excellence,” He said. ** For him, one of the hardest parts of starting his own brand was getting clients to trust him as their designer for special events. Today, MILÓ ANDRES counts with over 100 clients, and has expanded his business to China, Hong Kong, Japan, Missouri, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., California, Virginia & Maryland. > **“My dream is to dress every single beautiful human being on this earth, especially if it means being a part of their special moments in life such as their weddings,” He emphasized.** Camilo stresses that he hates turning away potential clients, but it is something he must do to keep his margins at the right rate, so in turn, his customers receive the very best service available. This is how Camilo has managed to build his brand, by focusing on the quality he is producing for his clients. > **“I believe that a single client has the power of over 1,000 minds because they have the power of influence, one good lead can lead to multiple connections which will eventually open new doors & opportunities for your business,” says the designer.** For this young designer, mindset is everything. His brand is his legacy for his daughter and family. This is why he does not focus on the competition. To him, the most important thing is the quality of his product and expanding his knowledge so he is able to offer his clients the very best — always. --- ## How Gee Bryant Has Been Able to Become so Successful at a Young Age URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-gee-bryant-has-been-able-to-become-so-successful-at-a-young-age/ Many people try to find their true path, or what life has for them when they are in their late 20s. However, Gee Bryant, a successful, young entrepreneur had already found out what being an entrepreneur means in his early teens. How could he have done that at such a young age? Bryant has a long story to share of his way to becoming a 7-digit entrepreneur within what people can say is a young age. However, to him, it is not the age that defines your success but persistence and discipline. Herein, we will see some landmarks in his way to being a real iron man in the field of business. **His Background** Growing up in Philadelphia, he always kept himself busy doing something. At one time Bryant was a lawnmower, at another time, he owned a clubhouse that saw him earn an hourly rate of 25 cents per kid. But that was just the beginning of a long walk that no one knew that it would make Bryant a multimillion-dollar entrepreneur. During his teenage years, unlike many teenagers who always love living a languorous life, Bryant was buying and selling cars. He never at one time despised what he was doing or what he had because it was the only thing he had. His life was simply defined by great hustles. It is worth saying that Bryant knew the right frogs to kiss. His gambles seemed to be right. **Climbing the Mountain of Success** Bryant attributes three values that help him to date in his entrepreneurial life. He says that he is unswerving on matters involving discipline is a great factor. He also says that he follows the Universal Laws. The greatest one that strikes him every day is that you will reap what you sow. Wishing other people’s success also helped Bryant in that advance step from 6 digits to 7 digits because he says that you cannot do it all by yourself. Delegating and mentoring people within your organization helps you put effort into growing the business rather than being overwhelmed with daily tasks. **Obstacles and Triumphs ** One thing to note is that entrepreneurship, unlike other talents like athlete and singing, is a learning process that never ends. “Most people rarely appreciate what is meant by making big money in business,” says Bryant. According to him, other factors will be learned on the way. For example, keeping the business running. You need to allocate some funds that will ensure that there is cash flow. Secondly, there are taxes and expenses as well. Most hardships that I avoided were due to those factors. Bryant also mentions that the hardships helped him learn that discipline is the main factor that helped him make this legendary step from 6 figures to 7 figures. Additionally, there are other factors that I will point out. Firstly, Bryant highlights learning to manage your money is a great strength that helps you in the entire journey of success. In summation, reading seems to be a common factor for most successful people. Even Bryant is not left behind on this. He is also a great reader who didn’t start reading on his own until he was 23 and from then he has read and listened to hundreds of books. He says that after he started reading and understanding what applied information could do , he ended up making his first million while he was 28. “I see so many people that want to make things look good, but inside they know they should be doing what they’re called to do but are scared of starting at the bottom,” Bryant says. He adds by saying that at no point should you allow the world to dictate the steps you are making. Lastly, he encourages other entrepreneurs to focus on where they are and really get clear on where they want to be; cut out the distractions and secondary activities that aren’t serving you or your purpose, and stop getting distracted by things that have nothing to do with your goals. --- ## How A Freelancer Went From A Dream European Honeymoon To Completely Broke And Back URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-a-freelancer-went-from-a-dream-european-honeymoon-to-completely-broke-and-back/ Many times entrepreneurs quit because it is such a difficult lifestyle. It is a lonely road and the chances of success are very slim. You have to have a true passion for what you do in order to succeed in any entrepreneurial journey or have an amazing drive to work hard every single day. CEO of Prospecting On Demand, Alex Schlinsky has had his fair share of moments where he has wanted to quit. Schlinsky is a renowned business coach, speaker, and entrepreneur. His company has actually helped over 125 entrepreneurs build 6-figure companies. Throughout all of the hardships he faced before his company was built, he continued to grow and succeed because quitting was not an option. He shared a time where he felt like giving up and what he did instead of giving up, here it is. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?****** Wasn’t even that long ago. October 2018. I had been working on building my coaching program for 2 years at the time. I was putting in a ton of work, late hours, and pouring all of my emotional energy into every client we had. It was precious. It mattered. I was impacting people and it felt great! But 2 years of working HARD and not necessarily SMART had burnt me out. I wasn’t available in the capacity my wife needed me to be, let alone my clients. I was constantly stressed and overwhelmed about hitting sales targets. Clients were kicking ass, and I was getting my ass kicked. Financially things were great, life had never been better, but the money wasn’t fulfilling me. I was tired. I wanted out. It REALLY hit me when I kickstarted my ELITE program. My brand new high-ticket coaching program launched just about 6 months before, and the results were staggering. Clients were having transformational growth, and so was our business. I was in love with coaching and had 2 calls every week with the mastermind. Then we started running 2 cohorts at the same time. 4 mastermind calls every week, 2 every Tuesday/Thursday. I woke up one Thursday in October, and just thought: “Man, I have NO INTEREST in doing this today” That was the alarm. That was when I knew something had to change. I had poured my soul into this business for 2 years, waking up every day happy, and that came to a sudden and violent shock. The reaction was visceral. Like when a cop pulls up behind you while you’re 10 above the speed limit. It was a paradigm shift for me. Everything I was working for suddenly seemed worthless because for the first time I really didn’t want to do it. It terrified me. So I took a week off. A very important coach told me to stop revving up the engine and just surrender to the burnout. So I did. I told everyone in the program that I needed some space to collect my thoughts. During that week I took 4 days off completely to myself. I went to the beach, went walking in the beautiful Tampa nature preserves, and winded down. The rest of the time I spent on my WHY. If I was capable of waning in my passion, I knew I could work back towards somewhere between malaise and delirium if I was aligned with WHY I am in this business. About 5 weeks later, my story was published in Entrepreneur. I was reinvigorated because for the first time I felt aligned. I knew what was at stake, and I knew what I was fighting for. Having gone to the depths of burnout and back, I realized what truly mattered to me, and finally had clarity on how to get there. I finished out the cohorts, and completely realigned the ELITE program to be evergreen, more effective, and more systemized. The next 3 months were better than I could have ever expected. I brought on new team members, and we were smashing revenue goals. I went to the brink and came back. I knew that quitting was never really an option, but I also knew I couldn’t remain disingenuous. It was the most difficult, but also rewarding, 3 months of my career. --- ## How To Live Like a Diviner With A Totally Different Outlook on Life URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-live-like-a-diviner-with-a-totally-different-outlook-on-life/ Dr. Erin Fall Haskell is no ordinary doctor. Forbes featured her as one of “The 11 Most Inspirational Female Entrepreneurs To Follow On Instagram.” She is a Doctor of Divinity, Minister, and Author. She is also the creator and TV host of GoodMorning LaLa Land, America’s first live-streaming daily talk show. When she was 22, Dr. Erin gave birth to a stillborn child. In an interview, the doctor of divinity recounts how she held the lifeless body of her son just moments after giving birth to him. Tears ran down her face as she came to terms to the reality that her son “wasn’t his body; he is a spiritual being.” At that moment, she thought to herself that we are not our bodies. Dr. Erin found herself in the realm of spiritual revelation that set her on a lifelong quest where she discovers truths, learns how to live embodying the truths revealed to her, and passing the same onto humanity. Asked what her key to success is, Dr. Erin says, “My spiritual connection has given me every ounce of success” and in addition to that, “collaboration, innovation, confidence, purpose, and calling.” Dr. Erin observes that the majority of the people in the world are not living and authentic life. Those who have taken it upon themselves the task of finding out the value of life have been misled. They have been led to believe that there is an absolute right way to live, right title to have, right clothes to wear, right house to live in, right relationship to have and many such things. Dr. Erin doesn’t teach how to live. Instead, she helps people see themselves for who they are and provides them with information on how to do precisely that. Here is a sneak peek of the wealth of knowledge Dr. Erin shares with people around the world. #### Stop Complaining Dr. Erin believes that one of the single biggest enemies of a fulfilled life is complaining. To understand how much complaining affects you negatively, the doctor of divinity talks about manifesting. Once you understand how manifesting works, it will be much easier to avoid complaining and start being grateful. The doctor of divinity says, “The moment that you complain, you are energizing that very  thing you are complaining about to keep coming back into your life.” In dealing with a complaining attitude, Dr. Erin advises not to go the, “don’t think that” way. In other words, you should not focus on what not to do. Instead, it would be best if you always thought of what we should do to substitute complaining, with something positive. Dr. Erin stresses that the possibility of fighting negative thoughts that lead to complaining is fueled by knowing how powerful you are. She adds that since we are connected to the universe, complaining is more like informing nature to keep bringing more of the source of complaints into life. #### Don’t Battle Your Thoughts; Meditate According to Dr. Erin, whenever you find yourself in a battle with your thoughts, you should try as much as possible to leave the fight. She advises one to meditate instead of battling evil, harmful, or unpleasant thoughts. Dr. Erin says, “Meditation is the cure for all suffering.” “You have to allow your higher self and the energy to come in and do the magic it is designed to do. It all comes down to peace within. You can’t find [peace] out in the world. It’s all within,” She adds. Since the truth comes from within, we can all learn to tell ourselves positive truths about ourselves. Such thoughts will then manifest into beautiful material outcomes. It is the same with beauty and all other pleasant attributes we often have to go through battles to believe we possess. By expanding your consciousness through meditation, you can boost your mental and emotional health, which are both essential for a good quality life. #### Wake Up, Reprogram, Align, and Affirm In her book, Awakening: A 40-Day Guide to Unleashing Your Spiritual Powers, Life’s Purpose, and Manifesting Your Dreams!, Dr. Erin speaks of four amazing steps to living your best life. These are, waking up, reprogramming, aligning, and affirming. Waking up is not trying to shift or change anything, but recognizing and waking up to the fact that you are a mighty being. Your power allows you to manifest all day, every day without necessarily doing anything, whatsoever. By waking up, you accept and begin benefitting from the reality that your consciousness (individual, collective, and cosmic) is creating every last drop of life, right this moment! There sure is a need for change sometimes in life, but Dr. Erin advises that the best way to change is to accept what is right now by waking up. That’s what you should do before you can change anything. Secondly, the work is not to try and create your dreams, but to begin to release the limiting beliefs within your subconscious mind. Thirdly, the work is to align and flow with life, following your bliss and letting go of anything that no longer serves you. Last but not least, you must affirm through daily spiritual practice. #### Conclusion Dr. Erin is on a mission to disrupt this order of things by opening up so much freedom and possibility in the human race. She calls it her life’s purpose. “I want to awaken a billion people globally to their divinity while teaching them how to reprogram their subconscious, align with their truth and universal laws, and create a daily spiritual practice.” Dr. Erin says. --- ## You Can’t Miss Trust’N and BKWDS New Collab EP “Lapse” URL: https://futuresharks.com/you-cant-miss-trustn-and-bkwds-new-collab-ep-lapse/ It’s been a good week for Hip Hop. Just last week, Wisconsin natives Trust’N and BKWDS released an impressive EP titled “Lapse”. After listening to the album, there’s no question that the new collaboration is sure to get everyone vibin this summer. It’s no secret that when you think about Hip Hop, Madison, Wisconsin might not be the first place you think of. However, it’s thanks to artists such as Trust’N and BKWDS that things are beginning to change. Trust’N (21 years old) and BKWDS (16 years old) aren’t your regular artists. The two of them grew up listening to Hip Hop, until one day they felt compelled to make music themselves. The duo, which met through a mutual friend while making music, ended up developing a strong partnership. > **“We both grew up wanting to be in the music industry somehow. I think that our love for music made us develop this friendship that eventually turned into a business venture. We have always been fascinated with an artist’s ability to create music that resonates with people and we wanted to be able to do that as well.” Said Trust’N.** The 6 song EP, which lasts almost 20 minutes, features each artist’s unique and tasteful sound. And when combined together, it creates a recipe that’s worth listening to on repeat. The project mixes catchy hooks and heartbreak melodies. Not only is the album as a whole impressive but with the duo’s powerful lyrics throughout the EP, it’s clear that both independently and together they make an impressive duo. Clever song titles such as Heartbreak Soldier, Lapse, and Golden Boy take you through a journey of life’s day to day struggles. The album’s cover, which includes drawings of both Trust’Nand BKWDS, compliments their style and creativity. > **“One of my favorite parts of this EP is that both Trust’N and I are telling real life stories that all of us have gone through at one point of our lives,” Said BKWDS.** Marc Sharp (BWKDS) is currently a junior at Madison Memorial high school and Christian Anderson (Trust’N) is currently a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse. Both artists are full time students while also being full time recording artists. Since it’s release date, the EP continues to grow in popularity. And if Lapse gives us any indication where Hip Hop is going; then it sure looks like we’ll be in good hands. Listen to the full EP, here. --- ## From Art To High Ticket Sales: Ambro Di Pilato Is Changing The Way We Do Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/from-art-to-high-ticket-sales-ambro-di-pilato-is-changing-the-way-we-do-business/ It’s not everyday you find an artist who’s good at their craft but also second-to-none when it comes to selling. And if there is one example of such a person is the Canadian native, Ambro Di Pilato. Di Pilato started his professional career focused in the art world. What started as a passion to bring together artists and lovers of art together, ended becoming one of the biggest art franchises in Canada. His franchise of galleries, AMBRO|GALLERIES; is one of the largest pop-up galleries in Montreal, Canada. Promoting an event, especially in the art industry is a tough job. Without enough sales, you won’t make a profit, and you might not even be able to break even. And if you think promoting an event is tough, imagine managing an event with 100 artists and over 500 attendees. That’s the challenge Di Pilato was able to overcome at a very young age. Today, Di Pilato has transitioned his sales skills into his newest venture, The Stratton Sales Agency, a multi-million sales agency with clients across the globe. > **“I wouldn’t have been able to be successful in the art world if I didn’t master the art of selling. It was here were learned a lot of the skilled that have allowed me to now transition full-time into The Stratton Sales Agency,” he shared.** To this day, Di Pilato has helped his clients raise over $23 million dollars in high ticket sales in just the first year that his sales agency has been in business. > **“When I started my sales agency, I vowed to completely change the system and provide tons of value to my team members,” he said.** > **“The people who work alongside me are the reason my agencies are so successful. The number one rule in business is not to treat your customers great but to treat your employees great so that they treat your customers great,” he added.** For an individual so successful, Ambro Di Pilato’s humility and kindness is contagious. Being with him for a few moments, you begin to understand why he’s a master at selling. Not only is he likable, but he has the intelligence to back it up. In today’s world, now more than ever, sales is a part of everyday life. Whether it’s in your professional life, relationships, or anything in between, sales is at the core of it all. And for an industry that is often filled with scammers, con artists, and everything in between; we need people like Ambro Di Pilato to guide us through the process. --- ## How teelaunch Founder Christopher Hamze Got into $700k in Debt in 2 Years to then Launching the App and Having Over 100,000 Installs, Generating over $500k in their First Month URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-teelaunch-founder-christopher-hamze-got-into-700k-in-debt-in-2-years-to-then-launching-the-app-and-having-over-100000-installs-generating-over-500k-in-their-first-month/ While most people start off a business from ground zero, Christopher Hamze started way below that. Hamze is the founder of teelaunch, a leading print on demand fulfillment company. The original business plan for what became teelaunch was really something to go by.  Hamze, like any other aspiring entrepreneurs, thought he had it all figured out from the beginning and that he was set up for success. During the first two years in business, however, his company got into $700,000 in debt. In 2015, teelaunch launched their Shopify app. At the end of day one, they had no customers. You cannot help wondering what Hamze was thinking. Was this it? Another massive failure? But wait. By the end of the first month, the app had brought in $500,000 in revenue. Fast forward to 2019, teelaunch is breaking its own records every time, having grossed over $50 Million in revenue. In the last four years since its launch, the app has been downloaded some 100,000 times. As if that’s not enough, teelaunch’s customers have made over $150 Million sales since 2015. #### Getting Into Debt Hamze’s initial idea was simply to print t-shirts for people. In a seemingly impulsive decision inspired by the desire to pull the idea off the ground, Hamze decided to go all ballistic into printing. So his company purchased more printing equipment in a bid to bring down the cost of production. While it might have worked in the ideal context, the reality was that there were too many competitors and Hamze’s dream did not materialize. So his company accrued $700,000 in debt within the first two years of operation. Hamze thought that the company could print more while keeping the cost of production at the lowest possible. While the work they put in made them good money, almost everything went into settling the huge debt. It was more like putting money into a bottomless pit – you see it going in but don’t see it coming up. In the end, the company resulted in taking lots of low-profit jobs that only served to keep operations going. #### From $700,000 In Debt To $50,000,000 In Sales. If there is one thing that teelaunch’s meteoric rise from ashes to glory has done, is change the narrative and status quo in the print on demand industry. That has actually been the mission of the company. Bearing in mind that the industry is not that new, Hamze had a particularly difficult building his company from the ground. That is how he got into debt the first time. To get out of it, his company had to look for an ingenious strategy. What they did is, however, not much of a complicated solution but it worked. In 2015, teelaunch launched a Shopify app that allowed customers to access their print on demand services with ease. During the first month of operation, the app helped the company make $500,000. So far, the app has been downloaded 100,000 times, grossed over $50 million and helped customers make over $150 Million in sales. So what did Hamze do differently from the first time? #### Leveraging The Print on Demand Model to Save Money. Having mastered the ins and outs of the print on demand model, teelaunch has been on a never-ending growth streak. “We are able to save companies 20-30 percent when they do business with us,” Hamze says. “By leveraging the print on demand model, nothing is made until the customer orders it. As such, the customer doesn’t have to spend anything on warehousing and logistics.” He adds. Another advantage of adopting the strategy include not having to invest so much capital into forecasting. The company simply sways in the direction that the demand for their goods takes it. While some entrepreneurs might shudder at the mere thought of leaning on such fate for their business, Hamze had another trick beneath his sleeve. He actually uses it as some sort of insurance. To stay afloat when demand for their main product might go down, teelaunch also sells more than 50 other types of products. One thing, however, that catches your eye as you run through the carefully curated catalog of their other products is their very nature. They are all fast-moving brands. In short, at teelaunch, it is all about quality for the lowest meaningful price for their customers, and the maximum reasonable profit for the company. #### Conclusion Apart from scaling his business, Hamze is on a mission to inspire other entrepreneurs in the print on demand industry. Having built his business from his basement to making over $50 Million in sales so far, the writing on the wall is clear, “If Christopher Hamze made it, so can you.” --- ## Digital Securities Maven Thomas Carter Enlists Former Nike Brand Director, Jerome Conlon to Bring Cryptocurrency to the Masses URL: https://futuresharks.com/digital-securities-maven-thomas-carter-enlists-former-nike-brand-director-jerome-conlon-to-bring-cryptocurrency-to-the-masses/ Whether you agree with it or not – whether you understand it or not – cryptocurrency is on the make again. Holders of bank stocks avert your eyes – Having regained ⅔ of it’s value prior to last year’s sell off, Bitcoin has risen nearly 200% so far this year. Many pundits and commentators are predicting another bullrun for Bitcoin before the end of the year. Institutional investment is picking up, just about every Fortune 100 company is dipping in, Facebook just released Libra (for better or for worse), Blockstack launched the first SEC qualified token offering in history. Bloomberg has finally admitted Bitcoin is a thing and President Trump is tweeting about it. Those are just the highlights. Even naysayers at this point can’t deny that cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and blockchain technology isn’t fading away. In fact, the often cited tipping point of mass adoption seems to be fast approaching. In his recently published book, “Life after Google”, economist and writer George Gilder, famous for predicting many of today’s technological advances back in the 80’s postulates that blockchain technology will have a bigger impact than all of the previous technological innovations combined. While cryptocurrency pundits may find this to be a fabulous set of circumstances there still remains one rather large problem and where there is a problem there is always an opportunity. A global survey of over 13k respondents by Kapersky Labs revealed that only 1 in 10 people have purchased cryptocurrency and even fewer understand how it works. As with any nascent technology, engineers build it and understand it first. Then early adopters and pioneers abstract away the complexity and simplify things for mass utility. One such pioneer and fintech veteran is Thomas Carter, founder of DealBox, a platform that empowers issuers and investors to take advantage of the current digital transformation of capital markets being driven by the emergence of STOs or Security Token Offerings. **Thomas Carter on the current situation:** *“With blockchain tech & cryptocurrency, we aren’t dealing with a typical market adoption learning curve. Bitcoin was born of iconoclastic ideals and philosophy. If you were a technologist and you resonated with the philosophy behind Bitcoin then you would figure out how to use it. In other words, user-friendliness wasn’t ever a consideration until now and that was mostly on purpose”* According to Carter, user-friendliness and consumer education are the keys to widespread adoption of cryptocurrency and whoever holds those keys will command a unique position to help onboard the other 90% of the world’s population beginning to make their way along the adoption curve. **Making Crypto Easy** The crafting of the narrative and strategy around this ambitious consumer education campaign – dubbed, “**Make crypto easy**” – will be led by branding Guru Jerome Conlon. Conlon, whose decades of marketing experience include working with brands such as Starbucks and NBC, is primarily known for his role in developing the iconic, “Just do it” slogan and wildly successful consumer branding strategy for Nike in the late eighties. **Conlon has this to say about the project:** “This is the greatest business story never told. We need to tell it. People need to understand the massive change that blockchain is bringing to the world.” The campaign will offer newbies to cryptocurrency solutions in 4 key areas: 1. Identity 2. Usability 3. Payments 4. Education Details on the solutions being offered and the vision for each will be revealed in forthcoming information releases over the coming weeks. --- ## D.Melik Monal: How To Overcome Your Biggest Obstacles And Use Them As Fuel To Be Successful URL: https://futuresharks.com/melik-monal-how-this-entrepreneur-built-an-empire-after-being-bankrupt/ There’s no question that we have all seen our fair share of failures. It’s part of life. Life, at the end of the day — it’s not about how we react when we are doing well — but it’s about how we react when we are going through tough times. And if there’s one example of such determination, is none other than serial entrepreneur D.Melik Monal. Mr. Monal, a former track athlete, was at the peak of his career back in 2010, before being injured. But it was in that moment when everything changed. Despite being a graduate of East Tennessee State University, having received multiple scholarships from universities all over the United States, awarded to him for his high performance in the track and field out of the state of Florida; D.Melik Monal had dealt with the failures of his career as an athlete in addition to the absence of his parents. He lost his Father at an early age and his Mother died due to the devastating earthquake that took place in Haiti in 2010 Losing faith and hope after his devastating losses, he found himself struggling  financially, with no help or support he began to mentally put himself in position to change his life. He began to educate himself on how to become successful. Where he stumbled across Rich dad poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki the book that changed his life forever. > **“I was sick and tired of being Broke, I started reading books and attending local self development seminars and started to surround myself with like-minded and successful people in hopes that it will change my life and that’s when my life began to change for the better … That’s when I started to overcome all of my obstacles and as a result I managed to build a 6 figure company and two 7 figure businesses within a 6 year timeframe ”** In spite of having experienced very hard situations in his life, he affirms that he did not use them as an excuse, but as motivation to achieve his desired financial freedom. He reiterates that this is the reason why he decided to start building his very own business and thus have the ability to live without limitations. When it comes to his motivation, Melik doesn’t mince words: > **“Seeing my Mother struggle as an immigrant in this country and watching her work in very harsh working conditions only motivated me to become successful,I promise myself I would build wealth to help my family reach Financial freedom”. Grinding and Trusting the process got me to where I am today” he said.** His personal experience and having overcome the financial crisis that almost defeated him led him to enter the Financial industry, knowing that his problems were generated because the lack of financial literacy in his home,where he began to build a financial empire. After much success he proposed to help as many people as possible become financially free. Currently, D.Melik Monal is in the process of building Monal Capital a financial education platform to help individuals build and maintain their personal finances and understand the importance of cash flow,credit and Real Estate. > **“ I came from nothing and was able to build wealth, nothing was given to me I bust my butt to make it this far. The journey is Half complete. I judge my level of success on how many people I can help not how much money I have made, there’s a difference.” He said.** Similarly, he is in the process of writing his first book, “The Financial Freedom Booklet” where he explains his story and how he’s been able to achieve success and learn how to build generational wealth.Giving financial Secrets on how to build a big business while helping others. Breaking down true assets and liabilities and more He admits that the biggest challenge he has had to face on this path to success was actually self discipline, putting himself in the right mindset to achieve success. Born and raised in Belle Glade, Florida, beating all odds, but never giving up and trusting the process, it’s clear that with determination and hard work, anything is possible. --- ## Celebrity Car Broker RD Whittington Reveals His 3 Powerful Secrets to Networking with Top Celebrities and Executives URL: https://futuresharks.com/celebrity-car-broker-rd-whittington-reveals-his-3-powerful-secrets-to-networking-with-top-celebrities-and-executives/ A jet-setting entrepreneur and a true businessman,RD Whittington is always on the move. From selling exclusive cars, making dreams come true for celebrities to delivering toys to the LA Shriner’s Children’s Hospital- he always believes in doing good. It’s no wonder his list of clients and close friends include the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Leonardo DiCaprio, Scott Disick, Jamie Foxx, The Weeknd and many others. From rare cars to movies to brokering private jets and yachts, Whittington is the modern day genie to some of Hollywood’s hottest celebrities, “I’ve loved aviation all my life and I have my student pilot license. It’s great to be able to secure private jets and many of the world’s exclusive toys for my clients” he says. However, the high flying businessman recalls a time in the early days when close friend and business partner Jamie Foxx aided in promoting his luxury car dealership and this catapulted Whittington to being the go-to car guy for movie productions and many projects alike. Building a network takes time, especially if that includes the world’s elite celebrities. For a person like Whittington whose rolodex includes some of the world’s most influential people, he definitely has picked up some secrets along the way that has allowed him to be successful and form partnerships that some can only dream of. When businesses or people want to engage celebrities for things like conferences, events, promotional campaigns etc. It’s important that they work with someone who knows how to work with celebrities. They need someone who understands the unique type of interaction that’s involved, how to make deals, and what to expect when working with them. RD Whittington said that in the world of celebrities, it’s all about developing relationships through friendship and business. RD teaches us how to connect with people on a personal level: 1. **Provide value and deliver results**: I am known for making the impossible possible and dreams a reality for celebrities. From custom vehicles for a birthday party to selling exclusive and rare cars for Mayweather, the only way I continue to expand my business is I prioritize customer service over money. I always believed that if I continue to master my craft and deliver results, the money will eventually take care of itself- so far it has worked out well. *The average person who approaches an influential person asks for something without returning the favour or doesn’t provide any value in the relationship. You must determine what you can offer them in hopes of developing a professional relationship that’s mutually beneficial.* > **“For me it’s not about the money but it’s making people’s dreams a reality. Customer service is a high priority and I always try to go the extra mile to make the impossible possible. I’ve lived my life by the saying that if I help others get what they want, I will eventually achieve my goals- the law of reciprocity is how I lead my life.” Whittington says.** 2. **Build your personal brand:** It’s extremely important for people to sense and understand that you exude trust and have credibility- both personally and professionally. You only have about 30 seconds or less to make a connection and demonstrate your credibility. When you gain access to the celeb or VIP always be respectful and never waste their time. Key points people consider when deciding to do business with you or build a relationship are: your track record of success, are you the expert or best in your field of work, your background and character. Making sure that you are the real deal, being authentic and confident in your abilities makes your clients feel comfortable working with you. > **Whittington mentions, “When I do business with the likes of Mayweather, Taylor Swift or other celebrities it’s because I have built a track record of success which allows me to not only continuously do business with them but it opens other opportunities for their friends and others alike to want to work with me through positive word of mouth.”** 3. **Attend exclusive VIP events and conferences:** At the end of the day, you have to be willing to invest the necessary amount of money to get in touch with high profile celebrities as most value their privacy and security. “Most people attend key networking events to make important connections and establish relationships that will lead to landing new deals or closing existing ones. To optimize your success at these events, prepare meetings by doing your homework on who’s attending those events and make a list. In addition, have a set agenda on the outcome you’re looking to achieve so you utilize your time effectively. Remember to be memorable through a story or mention what you admire about them- people love to talk about themselves so give them the opportunity to do so! What does the future hold for Whittington? Other than travelling and making a positive difference in the lives of others, he has been working on exciting projects that he hopes to share with the world very soon. To follow the exciting life of one of Hollywood’s modern day genie- you can check out his Instagram: @wiresonly to see what’s happening day to day for this business mogul. --- ## Q & A with Ryan Hintze – A lifestyle influencer, Wilhelmina fitness model URL: https://futuresharks.com/q-a-with-ryan-hintze-a-lifestyle-influencer-wilhelmina-fitness-model/ Ryan Hintze is a lifestyle influencer, Wilhelmina fitness model, former division 1 college football player and the founder of Hintze Media, a digital marketing agency. **Tell us about Hintze Media. How did you first get into the business?** I started my company, Hintze Media, in high school when very few people had a web presence or knew how to make graphics and websites. People didn’t want to pay a big firm to create a logo or website. I saw that as an opportunity to help people and make money while doing it. We have evolved tremendously since starting out. We now specialize in digital consulting, Influencer marketing and e-commerce services. **How did you promote your company in the early days?** My first few clients were teachers at my high school as well as my friend’s parents who learned that I was a website and graphic designer. After my customers were happy with my work they referred me to others that were also interested in getting graphics and websites designed. From there it was a snowball effect from word of mouth. I also promoted my company by staying active in my community and joined a few local networking groups. This exposed me to other business owners, who were perfect potential customers for my business. **How have you been able to grow your business? Be specific.** I constantly look out for companies that I can bring value to with my services whether that’s a social media collaboration or a website redesign. Getting out of my comfort zone has been vital to the success of my business. If I didn’t push myself to meet new people and force myself to be in uncomfortable situations, I don’t know where I would be right now. **What are some secrets to finding the most success on social media platforms today (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc)?** -Connecting with your audience. Responding to every message and DM. Replying to every comment. Take advantage of the communication features platforms are giving you now. Soon I think platforms will start charging users to contact their customers and fans. -Contacting other pages related to your niche and asking them to repost your image on their page. -Engage with other people that are in your field. Like and comment on their content. Your engagement could resonate with their customers which may result in them becoming your fan or customer. **Teach us something we don’t know about social media.** Don’t believe every “influencer” you see on social media. There are so many people that buy fake followers, fake likes and fake comments. These frauds try to trick people and brands into thinking they are more popular than they really are. Knowing a few things can help you identify who’s real and who’s fake. If someone has 10,000 followers and they get 100 likes on a photo, something is up. The ratio of likes to followers should be around 4%. If you navigate to a page’s followers, scroll through them and see lots of accounts with random usernames with no profile picture chances are they bought followers. Another indicator is If you check to see who actually liked a photo and there’s a bunch of accounts with random usernames and no profile pictures they most likely bought fake likes. If you go to someone’s picture and they have a bunch of comments from a spammy looking account that are commenting a genetic comment they probably bought fake comments. Next time you see a page you’ve never heard of with lots of followers look for the above red flags. Influencers reach out to brands asking for a free product or to be paid for a sponsored post. Brands need to double check to make sure their audience is in fact authentic. If you find that a fake follower follows your account you can remove them. Simply block the user and they will automatically unfollow you. If you have fake followers, Instagram may show your post to “them” instead of a real person. The less fake followers you have the more your engagement will increase. **What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?** I’m meticulously organized and I don’t stop until I get the job done. I use my time efficiently and hard work is in my DNA. **What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?** I don’t like to read books so I listen to audiobooks. Some of the best audio books I’ve listened to are: -The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss -The Millionaire Fastlane by M. J. DeMarco **What is your motivation? What keeps you going?** My motivation is money. Having the freedom to make my own hours, be my own boss, be in control of the decisions impacting my business and my ability to make a positive impact. **Where do you see yourself and your brand in a couple of years?** The next few years are going to be very exciting. With technology constantly evolving I’m always striving to be at the forefront of new trends. In a few years, I see myself continuing to build my personal brand as a fitness and lifestyle Influencer, partnering with major brands on campaigns, travelling around the world as well as participating in more speaking engagements. Every day more and more people are turning to the internet for their shopping and I believe I’m going to be apart of the big shift that is taking place in the marketplace. --- ## Meet The Instagram Guru That’s Disrupting Social Media URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-the-instagram-guru-thats-disrupting-social-media/ It’s easy for anyone to have an Instagram account. Let’s face it: Most of us have one. With over 1 billion users using the platform every month, it’s no secret that becoming a guru of a platform that holds that many people can become a very beneficial move (both strategically & financially). But with so many people on Instagram, how does one differentiate itself at a massive scale? Not many people understand it — but if there’s one that understands it to a whole new level, is the Instagram Guru Anthony Santiago. For Santiago, it all started in highschool with an Instagram account dedicated to posting his drawings, an online portfolio. Once he got to college and no longer had time to draw everyday, he started posting other people’s art and giving credit to the artists. Four years later after countless trial and error & a lot of experimenting, his account, @art_daily has well over 1 million organic followers. Having a network of 1 million fans it’s a big deal; and Anthony understood that quickly. > **“Once I saw the numbers go up faster I was fixated on growing my account. I was on my phone all the time the first year in college growth hacking my instagram throughout the day and that’s how I really got into building my first big instagram,” he shared.** Shortly after college, Santiago began working for the social media celebrity & serial entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, helping him manage his various social media account networks under his company Vaynermedia, while he continued to grow his own accounts, which include major recognized instagram accounts such as @restaurants, @calories.hub, @art_daily, @artistic.globe, as well as other major brands. *Gary Vaynerchuk And Anthony Santiago* After working under Vaynermedia for a while, Santiago quickly realized he could no longer grow the company’s accounts while growing his own accounts at the same time, so he decided to take a leap of faith and leave it all behind to pursue his own passion and become a full-time entrepreneur. Today, Anthony is constantly traveling, speaking, and consulting different business CEO’s on how to optimize their own Instagram accounts. It doesn’t take much for one to realize Anthony’s knowledge and energy. His passion for Instagram is contagious and makes you want to learn and work with the young CEO. When it comes to his success, Santiago doesn’t mince words: > **“A lot of people chase money, cars, and bottle service when they get into business instead of chasing the creation of an amazing product, brand, or service,” he emphasized.** In addition, when it comes to creating powerful and engaging content, Santiago share that the key is to: **“Be unique but also model and test what is currently working,”**emphasizes Anthony Santiago. For content, he suggests raw and unedited, stating it is the most relatable and powerful given the way it engages people. Santiago stresses the importance of being real with your audience stating, **“it’s easy to spot someone who is faking it for the camera”**. To differentiate himself from others, he stresses the importance of being consistent, honest, and always aiming to be the best in his skill sets for his audience, clients, and customers. And if one thing is clear, is this: Instagram isn’t going anywhere — the platform continues to grow rapidly. And Anthony Santiago, no matter where in the world he may be, it’s clear that he’ll continue growing and expanding towards his own version of success at the same speed. --- ## Meet Umesh Agarwal; From Engineer to 7 Figure Earner URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-umesh-agarwal-from-engineer-to-7-figure-earner/ One thing Umesh Agarwal learned growing up was the value of entrepreneurship. During his childhood days in Mumbai, Umesh would look forward to the times he spent helping his parents run the family business. Along the way, however, he noticed something quite interesting – but obvious – in the business world. Umesh says, “I was particularly aware of the fact that if someone could write you a paycheck, they could one day wake up and decide not to write you one anymore.” That became Umesh’s light bulb moment. That single thought introduced into his young mind the mentality of entrepreneurship, and in his heart, the desire to live beyond the confines of micromanagement. **From Engineering to Travel Hacking** Being an ardent lover of mechanics and how various equipment worked, Umesh pursued a career in engineering. After graduating from the University of Mumbai where he had majored in engineering, Umesh moved to Texas for a Masters in Engineering. Oblivious to him, Umesh was edging closer to his big break. After school, Umesh Agarwal changed jobs from one state to the other. All this while, he was seeking to satisfy his curiosity about living the American dream. Every year, Umesh would travel back to India to visit his family. He would fly economy class, but couldn’t help wondering how he could one day pay for business class. Since his income at the time couldn’t buy him business class tickets, Umesh resulted in finding out how he could venture into travel hacking. After going through several months of rigorous research, Umesh finally cracked the puzzle around flying business class around the world and staying at luxury hotels for the lowest rates possible. **Why Umesh Agarwal Quit a Good Career to Risk It All In Entrepreneurship** It was not all about flying first class. Umesh was tired of living paycheck to paycheck. He started looking for a way to make at least $500 on the side. He remembered how his parents never had to take loans their entire life, just because they had a good business and savings. Something has to give since he also wanted to see his savings grow for the rainy days. Then there was the Umesh inside him that wanted to live a luxurious life. That is why he always told his friends, “If I wanted to live an average life, I would not have left India.” The only way to live the life he wanted was to quit working long hours and being comfortable waiting for a paycheck at the end of the month. So Umesh gave up his career as an engineer to make money from credit cards. Today, he is an established credit guru able to make millions from the business. **Leveraging Credit to Make a 7-Figure Income** When Umesh was able to make between $500-$1,000 consistently from credit cards, he saw some hope of finally making it. The journey towards making his first million as a credit guru was a big battle. “No one wins big battles until they start winning small daily battles,” Umesh maintains. Umesh Agarwal made himself into an indispensable source of mentorship to people looking to leverage credit to make a side income. Umesh, on a daily basis, helps hundreds of people acquire knowledge and skills on how to leverage credit to pursue their goals. Through the course of their mentorship, Umesh Agarwal’s students are able to live the lifestyle they have always wanted, and he is able to make a 7-figure income from his endeavor. **In Summation** Making his first 7-figures out of something he loves doing was not an easy feat for Umesh. He understands there are a million and one other entrepreneurs out there who struggle to get where he is with little or no success. As such, he spends most of his time growing and mentoring his students on how to live the life they want without having to sacrifice their happiness. About the future, Umesh is looking forward to attaining the multi-millionaire status and perhaps even become a billionaire. To him, winning one battle after another just motivates him to go further, and there isn’t anything like a limit for someone with the fire to succeed as his. --- ## New CBD Products Are On The Rise Because They Work Like Magic. Here’s How URL: https://futuresharks.com/new-cbd-products-are-on-the-rise-because-they-work-like-magic-heres-how/ ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/410ea3a191a6.png) **** If you’re looking for a more natural way to relieve pain then look no further and try CBD products. CBD is short for cannabidiol, which is a chemical compound from the cannabis plant. It’s a naturally occurring substance that’s used in products like oils and edibles to impart a feeling of relaxation and calm. Unlike its cousin tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), it’s not psychoactive. Not only is CBD used for pain relief, but it’s also used to treat anxiety, insomnia, depression, loss of appetite, Glaucoma and more. Cannabidiol (CBD) has been used for thousands of years as a natural therapy for a variety of different health reasons. CBD is cannabinoid found in both the hemp and cannabis plants, but unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) it won’t get you high and has no psychoactive properties. It was only in the last century when the cannabis plant became classified as a narcotic that people started to turn away from CBD. Over the last decade, however, we have seen the legalization of cannabis in many countries provoke a new rush for scientists to unlock and discover the full potential of CBD and other cannabinoids. When it comes to CBD products such as CBD oils, CBD capsules, CBD vape oil, and other CBD supplements, one company is leading the way, Cachet CBD. They utilize industry best practices to ensure that all their CBD products are of the highest-quality and supply customers with laboratory backed results to ensure that they’re getting exactly what they are paying for. They have a huge range of high-quality, premium CBD products available. **5 Benefits and Uses For CBD Oil:** There are hundreds of studies underway around the globe into the benefits of CBD oil and other CBD products, but there is still a lot that we need to learn about CBD. Below are 7 of the benefits of using CBD oil and what CBD oil can be used for! 1. CBD for Pain Relief – CBD and other cannabinoids interact with the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS is responsible for regulating harmony and balance in our body and is closely linked with the central nervous system. CBD binds with receptors in the ECS and helps to regulate pain, sleep, appetite and much more. Some studies are showing positive results for the use of CBD oils for pain relief. 2. CBD for Anxiety and Depression – Mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are usually treated with pharmaceutical medication. Unfortunately, this treatment also involves problems with addiction and negative side-effects. CBD is showing a lot of promise as a healthy and natural alternative to treat anxiety and depression. 3. CBD and Cancer Treatment – One of the biggest drawbacks to cancer treatment is the negative side-effects associated with chemotherapy such as nausea and loss of appetite. CBD is helping people to overcome these side-effects while they’re undergoing chemotherapy. 4. CBD Oil and Acne Treatments – Due to its anti-inflammatory properties, CBD is proving to be an effective treatment for those that are suffering from acute acne. One study concluded that CBD might be a safe and effective way to treat acne. 5. CBD and Heart Health – Studies into CBD on those suffering from high blood pressure are showing early positive signs that CBD could effectively lower blood pressure and lead to better heart health in men. It’s recommended that before you cease any current medications and switch to CBD that you speak with your health care professional or doctor. CBD dosages can be hard to establish when you first start using it as it varies quite a lot from one patient to another. The best way to establish a dosage that suits you is to start off on the minimum amount of CBD which is recommended and gradually increase the dosage of CBD until you find a comfortable level which suits you --- ## 5 Lessons From a Credit Guru On Why You Should Have A Powerful Credit Score URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-lessons-from-a-credit-guru-on-why-you-should-have-a-powerful-credit-score/ Your credit score isn’t just a number. It can help you or it can hurt you. Some of life’s biggest milestones, like buying a home or a new car, depend heavily on your credit score. Good credit can open doors, while bad credit can stop you dead in your tracks. Here are several reasons you should start focusing on repairing your credit now. Brandon L. Johnson, CEO of No Bad Days LLC, who has helped hundreds of families get approved for their first homes and hundreds more to increase their credit scores, shows us the five main reasons why it’s in your best interest to try and repair your credit. ## 1. You’ll Get Better Rates on a Home Loan When buying a home, your lender will use your credit score and other indicators of your financial health to determine the best rate. Excellent credit can get you a home loan with rates of around 4%, whereas rates for bad credit can surpass 6%. > “At a glance, this might not seem like a large difference, but every percentage point really does count,” shared Brandon Johnson. > “Let’s say you are considering a 30-year fixed rate mortgage for a $300,000 home. If you put $50,000 down, you will be signing for a $250,000 loan. At 4%, you will have a $1,193.54 monthly payment and end up paying a total of $429,673.77 over the life of the loan. At 6%, you will have monthly payments of $1,498.88 and pay a total of $539,595.47. That 2% difference could save you nearly $110,000!” added Brandon L. Johnson. If you already have a mortgage, good credit can help you qualify for refinancing at a lower interest rate, which can save you money on your current home loan. ## 2. It Will Help You Get Approved For Rental Homes & Apartments Most landlords and rental companies will check your credit when you apply as a renter, and yes, the numbers matters. While bad credit doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be denied, you might be asked to pay a larger security deposit or a few months rent up-front in order to secure the rental. ## 3. It Helps When It’s Time To Get a Car When it comes to car loans, your credit score can be the difference between driving a newer model or a jalopy in order to afford the monthly payments. With bad credit, regular lenders won’t approve you for an auto loan. Your only option is to pay in cash or go for auto loans from predatory lenders with sky-high interest rates that can easily land you in a financial hole. The difference in interest rates is staggering. For excellent credit, you can get rates of around 3.5%, but with bad credit, auto loan rates can near 20%. ## 4. You Can Qualify For Premium Credit Cards The best credit cards either have extremely low interest rates and good 0% financing offers or they offer lucrative rewards. With good credit, you can qualify for everything from balance transfer credit cards to help you pay off debt quickly, to travel credit cards that can earn you free flights and luxury hotel stays. ## 5. Good Credit Can Help You Save Money on Your Student Loans If you find yourself drowning in student loan payments, your good credit can help you qualify for student loan refinancing for private and federal loans. Depending on your credit score and other financial factors, you may qualify for refinancing options that can drop your interest rates down to as little as 2.5%. By lowering your interest rate, you can pay your student loans off faster and save thousands of dollars in interest. Repairing your credit takes time, but small steps can make a large impact. It’s best to start working on rebuilding your credit now so that you can have access to the best rates and offers when the time comes to make major life purchases. For more information on how to improve your credit, visit Brandon L. Johnson’s Instagram here. --- ## When It Comes To Digital Marketing, These Two Latino Entrepreneurs Are Changing The Industry For The Better URL: https://futuresharks.com/when-it-comes-to-digital-marketing-these-two-latino-entrepreneurs-are-changing-the-industry-for-the-better/ If you’re an entrepreneur, you understand the importance of client acquisition. Let’s face it: It’s the lifeblood of your business. Drawing customers to your products or services using content marketing, social media, & e-mails are just some of the ways one can acquire clients. **But is that enough?** For far too long, big companies have tried to monopolize the industry and argue that their fancy corporate offices in sky-rise buildings was the only way to go when it came to choosing a digital agency. In today’s day & age, it’s not enough to simply implement a strategy. Now, more than ever, the proper foundation must be implemented. And if there’s a group that understands that all too well, is the team behind Latin America’s Fastest Growing Digital Marketing Agency, Digifianz, co-founded by entrepreneurs Dan Patiño & Luis Silva-Ball. Today, the full service digital marketing agency is disrupting the marketing industry, focusing not only on acquiring more qualified leads and clients for B2B and Education brands in Latin America using the latest inbound marketing technology but by also understanding that it is only by building genuine relationships with their clients and understanding their challenges, that one is able to successfully implement a digital marketing campaign. From conversion rate optimization & sales funnels, CRM Implementation, to e-mail marketing & beyond, these two Latino entrepreneurs understand the importance of not just knowing how to do something but also understanding how to customize every campaign that it’s executed within their agency. The Latino entrepreneurs, of Venezuelan descent but currently living in Argentina, developed a customized workshop for their customers to experience and discover their challenges and figure out a game plan to implement a solution. And if one thing is clear, is this: The days of the corporate world are over. From now on, Digifianz and other companies alike, are the new kids on the block. And they’re taking over the digital marketing world, one client at a time. --- ## Switching from a Single Vendor eCommerce Store to a Multi-Vendor Marketplace, a Better Idea or Bad? URL: https://futuresharks.com/switching-from-a-single-vendor-ecommerce-store-to-a-multi-vendor-marketplace-a-better-idea-or-bad/ Marketplaces are evolving. The age-old tradition of buying and selling which involves bargaining, paperwork and other headaches, is now slowly getting digitalized, making it easier for both buyers and sellers to get what they want at their comfort. When we talk about the marketplace, there’s two of a kind – Single Vendor Marketplace and Multi-vendor Marketplace. A single vendor marketplace is where a single vendor/seller sell their products to several customers while in a multi-vendor, there are multiple sellers. Picking up a marketplace is the toughest job since both have their benefits in their own manner but, surprisingly, eCommerce investors, as well as business owners today, are eyeing multi-vendor marketplace over single vendor marketplace more due to its vast number of advantages which we are going to discuss here. But first, let’s understand a bit about each marketplace. **Single Vendor Marketplace and its Benefits** A Stand-Alone Website, where only the two parties i.e. the buyer and the seller are involved, single vendor is a one to one selling. Thus, the relationship between the buyer and the seller is quite deep than those in the multi-vendor marketplace. Although there are some perks of running a single vendor marketplace like; management or orders, supplies, inventory, customers all becomes easy, administrative as well as other costs are less, you can maximize your volume leverage to achieve attractive pricing, and bargain to receive small & regular deliveries, only thing is that single vendors cannot offer a wide range of products like in multi-vendor due to the limited amount of traffic in them. **Multi-vendor Marketplace and its Benefits** In a Multi-vendor Marketplace, 3 entities are involved namely: Admin, Vendor, and Customer. Multiple sellers/vendors register to the admin’s site to sell their products luring more traffic to the site. One of the best advantages of the multivendor marketplace is a wider public and the way each of the 3 entities benefit individually. **So, shifting to multi-vendor from single is a good idea?** Looking at the success rate of both marketplaces it can be said that yes, switching to the multivendor marketplace can prove to be more beneficial. To understand that, here are the individual benefits, those who are involved in the multi-vendor marketplace gets; **For Sellers** - No more headaches or stress of taking risks. Since the admin will be the sole operator of the entire marketplace, small vendors don’t have to worry about setting it up or take the risk of business and any major loss in them. Also, they don’t have to look after managing it either. - Global exposure. Small vendors who used to cater to the local market can get the opportunity to sell their product to a global audience. - With multiple suppliers on board, there will never be an issue of financial loss and if one fails there’s another. - Product’s price received from different vendors can be standardized according to their quality. - The seller can choose from the number of suppliers and meet the customers’ demand on time. **For Suppliers** - A multi-vendor marketplace software makes it easy for suppliers to join hands with the marketplace as there won’t be any budget constraint because bigger business is guaranteed with the multi-vendor marketplace. - A reliable platform with many fulfilling options. **For Customers** - Access to a wide range of products under one roof. - Attractive offers, discounts from multiple vendors. - Can get quality products at best rates in the market. One of the biggest examples of benefitting from being single to multi is the eCommerce giant itself – Amazon. Started in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon adapted the multi-vendor platform and diversified to sell a vast range of products, whose success need not be described. **How is it better?** The cost of running a multi-vendor marketplace is less than owning a single one because every seller will be on its own in multi-vendor unlike in single vendor where you need to hire people to do the tasks and manage them as well as the work. Instead, you can focus all your energy on running, scaling and maintaining your website. And if you have got an efficient multi-vendor marketplace software already, then you have nothing to worry about. **How to switch?** All you need to make the major shift from a single vendor to the multi-vendor marketplace is a Magento multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution**.** The advanced features that come along like responsiveness and mobile-friendly design, cross-browser compatibility, mobile app support, advanced reporting and analytics, multiple payment gateways, user-friendly admin, vendor dashboards, powerful features for admins, multi-lingual, multi-currency and complete customized solution, with a Magento multi-vendor marketplace ecommerce solution from MobiCommerce will definitely do the trick. **Final Thoughts** There is no ground rule that everyone must shift from single to multi-vendor for success. It doesn’t mean that there is no scope in staying single. But, a combined effort and a common goal and do more than just individual inputs. --- ## The Green Future of Cannabis Production URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-green-future-of-cannabis-production/ ## The Cannabis Industry: Present and Future The cannabis market has grown exponentially in the past few years, but when put in perspective, is still in its infant stages. The end of prohibition is coming closer than most people realize, with 36 states already decriminalizing Cannabis, and more than 11 states fully legalizing the plant for recreational and medicinal purposes. Virtually all stakeholders, from the private sector to Wall Street to politicians are all rooting for the end of prohibition. We at Solar Cultivation Technologies, Inc. (SCT) have been studying the Cannabis industry for many years and tracked all industry developments and capital markets as related to Cannabis and have come to the (documented) conclusion that the Cannabis industry will soon become one of the biggest industries on the planet. Cannabis products will disrupt multiple multi-billion-dollar industries in the US and the world, such as medicine, pharmaceuticals, wellness and beauty, sleeping aids, packaging, food, alcohol, textiles, plastics, paper, construction, sports products, and many more. Most giants in each of these industries will inevitably become involved with Cannabis and adopt it within their existing offerings, as well as creating new Cannabis-based products and services. Coca-Cola will create Cannabis-infused food and drinks, Heineken will create Cannabis-infused alcoholic beverages, and Nike will create hemp-derived shoes and clothing, and so on. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/image.png) ** ## Cannabis Production Grow Houses This unprecedented growth of the industry will require a massive amount of infrastructure for the cultivation of cannabis. In order to fulfill the rapidly increasing demand for this plant, the industry needs new grow houses and infrastructure to be built. Indoor grow houses represent the industry preferred way of growing cannabis – the problem is, the energy demand of cannabis grow houses is astonishingly high. It requires 10x more power per square foot than a standard office building, and 66x more power than a home. The excessive use of energy is unsustainable, expensive and creates an unacceptable amount of carbon footprint. Currently there are 6,800 estimated warehouse cultivation operations in the US, and cannabis is not yet legal on a federal level. Once cannabis prohibition is over, this number can quickly grow 5x-10x, in order to meet the new demand. In Denver alone, 4% of all electricity goes to cannabis cultivation. Total power requirements in the Cannabis sector has tripled since 2013 and will increase by 162% by 2022. This trend is completely unsustainable, and the its carbon footprint is unacceptable. The SCT team was determined to find a solution – to assist modern day cannabis farmers/cultivators by developing a system that would produce a higher quality cannabis crop with near zero-carbon energy footprint, resulting in no greenhouse emissions of gasses, no toxic pollutants, no greenhouse gases and no water loss in energy production. Through the GreenCann™ system, SCT provides the perfect solution. ## The GreenCann™ System The GreenCann™ system combines solar, wind turbines, battery storage walls and smart LED low voltage lights along with proprietary nutritional and watering protocols that grow larger and healthier plants with far less energy use. Solar Cultivation Technologies (SCT) is a new startup company that was founded by a group of leading Colorado based cannabis industry pioneers with extensive experience in all aspects of the cannabis industry in both Colorado and numerous other states for the past decade. The SCT GreenCann™ system is the result of years of confidential research and development in a large-scale commercial cultivation warehouse in Denver, Colorado. Colorado has emerged as a leading hub for cannabis research and development and is becoming widely recognized as the “Silicon Valley” of cannabis. The GreenCann™ research team includes commercial cannabis growers (that have grown over 14 tonnes of cannabis over ten years) working with sustainable energy engineers, plant scientists, nutritionists and LED lighting experts in the relentless pursuit of the “perfect” system for growing cannabis. For the past five years the Denver based SCT team has been conducting extensive research in the quest for two things: The production of larger healthier plants grown by LED low energy light in an indoor (warehouse) cultivation facility and to power the entire grow with solar and wind power. Due to recent technological advancements it is now cost effective to design a warehouse that will produce large quantities of cannabis and enough energy from nature to support the entire indoor farming operation. SCT has just completed a highly positive final test harvest of its cannabis Super Plants™ cultivated at the company’s Denver research center. The results with the cannabis plants that were cultivated using the GreenCann™ system were exceptional and displayed a remarkable 30% increase in overall crop yield and were healthier premium grade THC content. In addition to providing a turnkey solution that allows cannabis producers to get completely of the grid, produce 100% of their energy needs in a green, sustainable way and grow larger plants with higher yield, the SCT-built warehouses will come fitted with all equipment and materials necessary to grow cannabis, and with a ready-to-operate dispensary. ## Conclusion The unprecedented growth of the industry will require a massive amount of infrastructure for the cultivation of Cannabis, and SCT created a made-for-you solution for new and existing operators to grow the much needed Cannabis plant in the most clean and efficient way, without having to worry about logistics, equipment/materials and sales. When prohibition ends, the floodgates of the Cannabis industry will open and there will be a tremendous and almost instant demand for Cannabis products. Our goal at SCT is to provide all producers with the most advanced and efficient systems and tools to produce Cannabis and run a profitable business in a way that is sustainable for our environment. Our goal is to lead the industry to a near carbon free future by 2025; higher yield and superior quality cannabis production powered by the sun and wind. This is GreenCann™. This is the green future of cannabis production. --- ## Meet a True Self-Made Serial Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-a-true-self-made-serial-entrepreneur/ Being an immigrant daughter presents its own set of unique challenges. Still, Christine Mendoza was able to RISE above and turn the cards that she was dealt with into the winning hand. She was able to blaze her way to the top and design a life that would position her as a Filipina Serial Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, and Role Model to the female that desires a better life for herself, her family, and her community. . Christine’s natural entrepreneurial instinct helped her navigate the world and overcome severe and even life-threatening situations. Many say that Christine is a survivor and they wouldn’t be wrong. It is this characteristic that she hopes to awaken in women who currently walk similar paths as she did once, so that they can transform into positive, successful, and influential changemakers. ### Mastering Negotiation and Leveraging Relationships Relationships are powerful tools that you can use for exponential growth. Christine learned this early in life. It was through relationships that she learned how to handle expectations, forgiveness, growth, and the amazing results of networking. She was able to help dozens of women become successful and also create stability in her life, travel, lead a team of people in several businesses, and even retire her parents. For Christine, relationships have had a deep impact on her life. They have made her grow into the wise, strong, and tenacious woman she is today.  A master of negotiation, Christine Mendoza has been able to catapult her way to success on her own. She never relied on anyone to negotiate her own contracts in the modeling world and still she was always able to obtain fair rates for her time and service. Same goes for all of her other ventures. She expertly navigated her way in a world dominated by businessmen and has owned several businesses including two bars, her own Webcam site, and a cannabis dispensary.  ### Making It Despite All Odds Having been in the modeling industry for almost two decades, Christine saw the destruction and downfall of many models who had taken the industry by storm before her. She also saw the dark side of modeling, where women would stoop so low and compromise on their integrity just to get to the top. Instead of taking the same road, Christine chose to be independent and fight her way up the social and business ladder with dignity.. That is how she was able to make herself into a boss at a very tender age. . When Christine became a mother she was still able to manage multiple businesses on her own without any help. Even while she was pregnant and unable to work as a model, she was able to live off of the savings that she had built. She lived frugally and that mindset and lifestyle afforded her the ability to keep her stability and success in the long run. ### Christine Mendoza’s Place in the World Asked what she wants to do in the world, Christine says, “I want to teach women how to do what I did, in their own life. I want to teach women how to become their own boss, and the necessary steps they need to take to become an entrepreneur.” Christine Mendoza does not believe in excuses or that there is not enough time to fulfill your goals. She is now focusing her efforts on her newest business venture: Face & Bawdy. She coaches and consults women from all walks of life to feel empowered in their own skin and clarify their vision of success. Her coaching approach is based on building strong foundations of self-care, self-acceptance, and self-esteem all the while providing valuable tools to achieve success at all levels of your life. --- ## Meet the Millennial Entrepreneur Who Is Bridging the Gap Between Marketing and Programming URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-the-millennial-entrepreneur-who-is-bridging-the-gap-between-marketing-and-programming/ Givanne Nelson is a Millennial Marketer from New York City who started a digital marketing agency, Le Pale Shadow LLC, and marketing automation company, Internet Bots NYC. Givanne is on a mission to combine his two loves, marketing and programming, to create new industries for young entrepreneurs such as himself. Throughout his journey, he provides content to other future entrepreneurs that can learn to build new industries and grow their wealth. “Le Pale Shadow LLC is my full-service Digital Marketing Agency that specializes in promoting non-invasive cosmetic treatments while Internet Bots NYC is my automation startup. It focuses on automating all forms of online activity. My idea is simply a combination of my two loves which are marketing and technology. Instead of having them separated from each other, I decided to use “The Blue Ocean Strategy” to bring them together. I want to bring my community along with me on this journey, so my personal goal is to educate other aspiring entrepreneurs on the benefits of entrepreneurship and how programming can help shape new industries.” – Givanne Nelson ### How did you come up with this idea? **Givanne Nelson:** The landscape of marketing has changed with the inclusion of chatbots and messenger marketing. Now, most businesses are investing in automation to make all of their marketing seamless (alongside other forms of automation). 59% of Fortune 500 companies alone have invested 3.3 billion into marketing automation. This opens a gap in the field of marketing that requires the expertise of a programmer that understands marketing fundamentals. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Givanne Nelson:** My way of advertising is by creating communities. This is something I learned from Andrew Kroeze. All social media platforms have a group like function that can be used to promote your work/brand. First, you must provide free value to fellow industry professionals. Then, invite them to engage with your business and other like-minded businesses in a group of your design. The groups function as a community based around your business which, provides your brand with validity in your industry. ### What are some of your hobbies? **Givanne Nelson:** Here are my hobbies - Reading books on a range of topics such as American History, Finance, Economics, Programming and Marketing. - Filming Gary Vee style motivation videos for my community. ### What are you working on? **Givanne Nelson:** I’m working on building up the services in my marketing automation startup, Internet Bots NYC. The idea being a one stop shop for all online programming needs for marketing campaigns. This involves me currently looking to build up a team of experts in areas of machine learning, app development and SQL database creation. ### Views on Automation **Givanne Nelson:** As a programmer and a lover of technology, I am all for A.I. taking over the market. However, as a human being, I see the issues this will present. We can look back to the inclusion of apps in the market that have changed the job market. For example, Uber and Lyft. They completely changed the market for the taxi/cab industry. Ironically enough, their industry is going to change further with Elon Musk’s new plan for self-driving cars/trucks, Amazon’s new usage of drones, and the fast food industries’ usage of kiosks/machinery to replace standard workers. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Givanne Nelson:** I’m a Huge book worm so I will try and make this short: - Entrepreneurship: [Rich Dad Poor Dad](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612680194) by Robert T. Kiyosaki - Economics: Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich by Kevin Phillips - Business Strategy: Blue Ocean Strategy by Seth Godin - Marketing; Dotcom Secrets by Russell Brunson - Personal branding; Crushing It by Gary Vaynerchuck & Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson - Sales: Sell or be Sold by Grant Cardone - Ad Copy: Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman ### What is your favorite quote? **Givanne Nelson:** “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.” — Maya Angelou. ### What’s one new trend that you have noticed? **Givanne Nelson:** Before this year it would be the increased usage of automation but as of last month, it is The Billionaire Space Race. I’m a huge fan of everything Elon Musk and now the world is seeing the life changing genius that he brings to the market place. Now, it’s growing so large that other nations are entering the pool along with other billionaires around the world. It is an estimated trillion-dollar trend that can be highly profitable where any entrepreneur (both experienced and new) can capture even 1% of the market. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Givanne Nelson:** Biggest Failure: I definitely have a lot of failures but the one that sticks out is having clients have control over your work and time. Lesson: This was a simple lesson in earning what it means to be an entrepreneur. As a man coming from a typical 9-5, I started my journey with that mentality allowing my clients to treat me like an employee instead of a partner. Biggest Success: Learning the power of giving to others more than you expect in return. Lesson: You gain nothing from working for selfish gain but to helping others during their journey is something worth way more. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Givanne Nelson:** I see myself teaching other young entrepreneurs the benefits of entrepreneurship and programming. Specifically, teaching how A.I. and machine learning are going to change the market. For my business, I see it growing. ### What does “More Life” and “Inshallah” mean to you? **Givanne Nelson:** I use both in most of the video content I create. “More Life” comes from my favorite artist of this generation, Drake. It simply means to enjoy your life to the fullest and seek new opportunities. “Inshallah” is Arabic (full disclosure, I am not Muslim). It roughly means “If God Wills” referring to future events. I use them both as powerful sayings referring to your present actions “More life” and your Future actions “Inshallah”. ### What is some advice you would give other young entrepreneurs? **Givanne Nelson:** Here is some golden advice - Never stop believing in yourself. As an entrepreneur your resolve will get tested constantly. you have to be strong enough to see your ideas through it all. - Keep your eyes open for new opportunities. Every day there is a new door that opens for “us”(entrepreneurs) to take advantage of. - Invest in self-education. NEVER EVER stop learning!!! - Share your knowledge with others. Never forget to pay all of your blessings forward to others. Never forget how hard you had to grind in the beginning so you understand the power of helping others through that journey. ### What are your social accounts we can follow (hyperlinked, example: Facebook): Website Instagram Facebook Linkedin --- ## The 3 Best Way To Stay Creative and Avoid Burning Out URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-3-best-way-to-stay-creative-and-avoid-burning-out/ You hear it all the time. An entrepreneur gets “tired” or “overworked” and they just can’t be creative and get the flow going. I used to struggle with the same thing until I made some changes in my life and I’ve 10x’d my productivity and creativity. Turn off ALL notifications on your phone. It takes someone 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to get into the “zone.” Every time you check your phone for a snap, text or a FB notification, it restarts the 20 minutes and you may find yourself never getting into a great flow. Having to many of these days in a week can be very harmful to your business. By turning off all notifications, you avoid any and all distractions. It may take a couple weeks for your friends and family to realize you never respond quickly, but you have to be a little selfish when it comes to your business. Get out of your environment once a week. During work hours (I know, we all work all the time) but I am talking about going somewhere at 2:30pm on a Tuesday. Not going out on a Thursday night. Go do something that involves nothing with work. Go throw axes, swimming, hiking or whatever gets you not looking at technology and fun. This is a must ONCE a week. - Travel once a month. It can be for a weekend, a couple days or a week. It doesn’t have to be something expensive or far. Just go somewhere new. Bring your laptop, work for a bit but also go explore. Try new things, new foods, drinks and meet new people. It’ll work miracles for you. Plus, it is a great way to reset every month. Don’t wait to take vacations, just make them a monthly thing. Stay connected with Haris (the author) over on Instagram -> @haris_reis --- ## Why Ruby on Rails is a Safe Choice for Startups? URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-ruby-on-rails-is-a-safe-choice-for-startups/ For a startup, everything is about availing the best quality of services at the cheapest prices. But there’s a lot that goes into this. Limitations of capital lead to compromise, and business owners must keep themselves aware of the ways things can go wrong. Maybe there are issues with bug fixing, documenting, or productivity, which may lead to a poor performance of the website and customer’s disappointment and eventually, loss in revenue. On a side note, you may also read about the top 10 ideas for startups. Therefore, choosing the right framework is very important, and we’re talking specifically about a very popular framework, called Ruby on Rails. It has been around for 14 years in the market and has been preferred by so many popular companies for their e-commerce venture. In fact, Hotframeworks ranks Ruby on Rails as the second most popular platform among developers. Let’s talk about the ways in which skyrocketing your e-commerce venture with the help of Ruby on Rails would be a great idea:- - **Goodwill** ****Don’t take my word for it. See it for yourself. Look at how long it has been around for. Some of the companies that were just an idea back in the day are one of the most popular web applications now because of Ruby on Rails development services. Airbnb, GitHub, Dribbble, Shopify and Indiegogo are just to name a few. - **Saves You Time** ****Surviving in an ever-changing business environment is hard, and to catch up with it, speed is everything. Well, programming on Ruby on Rails is said to be 30-40% faster than that on other frameworks. With Ruby’s integrated development instruments, flexible syntax and modules, the speed of MVP’s development goes through the ceiling. - **Wouldn’t Cost Much** ****Ruby on Rails is an open-source framework, which means it can be used and modified for free. On top of this, there are numerous libraries(gems) that are readily available to facilitate developers’ operations. - **Secure** ****Security is a major concern these days. The more complex and protective layers there are, the harder they are to breach. Ruby on Rails provides protection against cross-site request forgery and prevents SQL injection. If you feel that they aren’t powerful enough, Rails always allows you to add gems that will enhance your security. - **Community Support** ****Popularity comes with its upsides. There is a huge community base online that keeps the elements of the framework up to date. They’re a huge fan of contribution and love to share their experiences, which means there is a whole lot of tutorial base for developers out there. - **Impressive Architecture** ****Ruby on Rails makes use of the RESTful architecture that allows the user to build pure and simple APIs. The modular design is so sophisticated that allows huge scalability, which is preferable for agile projects. Now you also know how Ruby on Rails is flourishing so much. From companies with e-commerce websites flooded with audios and videos to the ones requiring handling subscription-based platforms and custom solutions, all of them knock the doors of Ruby on Rails Development Companies. If you’re yourself looking for a web developer for your business, you may hire a Ruby on Rails developer as well. --- ## Study-Backed Tips for Sales Engagement Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/study-backed-tips-for-sales-engagement-success/ A sales team is only as good as its salespeople. That’s true, *to a certain degree*. A sales team also needs a solid process, backed by quality metrics if it hopes to have sales engagement success. You can’t hope to rely on basic metrics like call activity levels to guide your sales engagement. At best, all that gives you is an incomplete picture of your team’s performance; at worst, it can reinforce bad practices. What you need instead are tips for sales engagement success that are *study-backed*. And that’s where this article can help. Condensing findings from a Tefler School of Management study that analyzed 130,000,000 interactions across 45,000,000 unique contacts, this article has come up with three important sales tips. If you are interested in a more in-depth look at the Tefler Study’s findings, be sure to read this article. ## You Need Speed to Lead You might think that as long as your sales reps get around to contacting a lead, what’s the difference *when* they contact? But speed to lead matters – big time. The aforementioned study found that contacting a lead within the first hour was 7X more effective than contacting after just 24 hours. That means every time one of your reps sits on a lead for a day, engagement success swiftly diminishes. The sweet spot, according to the study, appears to be somewhere between 10 and 60 minutes of a query. ## Duration Matters The duration of the first call appears to be a significant factor in engagement success. For every minute increase in the duration of the call, there is a 6X increase in the likelihood of success with the lead. It makes sense that the numbers turned out this way: a longer phone call usually means the lead is interested, which itself is a good indicator of engagement. So, how do you turn these findings into an actionable tip? Train your SDRs in the art of the cold call, ensuring they understand how to manage objections and keep the decision makers on the phone. ## Persistence Pays Off A tenth of sales is closed after four follow-ups with leads, while that percentage jumps to an impressive 80% after 5-12 contacts per lead. The average, according to the study, for success with a B2B lead is 5.7 contacts. If your SDRs are giving up contacting leads after just one or two attempts, you are letting leads slip through the cracks. You need to instill in your reps the value of persistence. Better yet, you need to leverage a sales engagement platform to schedule the requisite amount of follow-ups for your reps. That should take some of the guesswork out of it. The next time you hear someone brag about how many new contact calls their SDRs make, you can confidently tell that their metric doesn’t hold much water. The speed of the first contact, the duration of the call and the persistence SDRs show in following up are all much more important than simply “being on the phone.” You can take that to the bank. --- ## The Importance Of Building An Online Brand URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-importance-of-building-an-online-brand/ It’s important to look and see how much attention you can get online versus how much you can get from traditional advertisements. In addition to that we need to understand how much we can measure the amount of attention we are getting online and how many people we can reach versus how much we can get from traditional advertisements ex: Billboards, Newspaper Ads, Signs, TV Commercials, etc… Before diving more into these questions i’ll give you a hint about the measurability, there’s close to none when it comes to traditional advertisements… Online, however, everything can be measured, and with little to no cost. **The number of people online accepting.** According to Jacob Davidson at money.com more than 3 billion people in the world are now using the Internet, as is reported from the United Nations agency, which is responsible for overseeing international communications. Now, what if one person could get the attention of just 1% of internet users? That would obviously be a lot of eyeballs, in fact it would be about 30,000,000 eyeballs to be exact. I think we can all agree an extra 30,00,000 people looking at a brand could bring a considerable amount of more revenue for that brand, but maybe not the easiest thing to do right off the jump. What if we could, however, just get .01%? That sounds a little more achievable and still is about 300,000 people, and you might be surprised at just how many people have an online following that big, quite a few! All this sounds great, but how much does it cost? And how can we measure that we are getting the engagement we need for the money that we are spending? Well if we are looking at how much it costs to start building an online brand through social media, the answer is $0. That’s right, $0. Anyone in the world, if they want to, can go and create an account for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Snapchat, not to mention the many other platforms, for absolutely free, and hundreds of thousands of people do it everyday! Not only can you create your account for free, but you also have access to hundreds of millions of users on the social media platforms for absolutely free! Now of course, if you want to use paid Facebook and Instagram advertising it costs money, but, if you know what your doing you should be able to create a free account for your brand and start getting a few extra thousand eyeballs on your brand for free, and then scale from there. Some good tips for growing and scaling your online following are, interact with accounts similar to your niche, deliver good content, and respond to your followers, just to name a few. **Measurability and Reachability.** Another benefit to leveraging the internet versus traditional ads is that you can now get the attention of people thousands of miles away with an internet ad or social media post versus only being able to reach people in your local city with a billboard or yard signs. Let me repeat this again in more simple terms, from your laptop or computer, you can literally reach hundreds of millions of people while sitting at your house. While, In person “Old School” advertising, you can only reach people that are within a certain radius of whatever sign or billboard etc… that you have put up. On top of all of this you can MEASURE the engagement you are getting with your desired audience. Every single time you post something online, especially on Facebook, Instagram, and Google, you can see how many people saw the actual post, how many clicks you got on your advertisement, how many people exited your website, how many people added your product or service to check out, how many people bought from you, how many people abandoned their cart in the check out… and the list goes on. Obviously this has a lot of benefits, like being able to test out why people are abandoning their carts, or why they stayed/ exited your website, then adjust your tactics! Versus the traditional or “Old School” way of advertising, you can’t measure how many people looked at your billboard or sign in a day, maybe you can measure how many people drove past it, but there’s no possible way to measure how many people actually took the time to stop what they were doing and read you sign or billboard, on the internet you can do that! **How much money is spent online everyday.** Experts predict that over 3 trillion dollars will be spent online in 2019, that’s about 8.2 billion dollars per day. Wouldn’t it make sense to get some of that market share? Look at companies that have and the success they’ve had from it: Amazon, Apple, Google, Uber, Air BnB, etc… Also, If we are looking at trends, internet usage has grown by over 25,000% in the last 20 years and isn’t expected to slow down anytime soon, in fact it’s expected to continue to increase geometrically for the foreseeable future. More retail stores are closing now more than ever, and have become a thing of the past while online business is the way of the future. These are only a few of the reasons why it’s imperative that if you have a brand or business you are trying to market to the public, you need to leverage the huge world that is online. Times are changing fast and the only logical thing to do is catch up with the current trends of online brand building or get left behind, like so many once big name brands unfortunately have. Article Image Citations --- ## How I Was Able to Stand Out as A Content Creator on Youtube URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-i-was-able-to-stand-out-as-a-content-creator-on-youtube/ Youtube is easily one of the biggest social platforms in the world. In fact, so many YouTubers have created success that it’s hard to compete in such a saturated environment. How did I make a name for myself in an ocean of millions of Youtubers? So many factors come into play but we can simplify all these complex ideas into three main categories: your identity, your passion, and your willingness to help others. Here’s what I mean. **Find Your Niche** Find something unique to yourself and the content you want to create. In fact, you should be so confident as to what your content should be and your niche that you should dive deeper into what your niche. My niche was fitness and I further developed that idea into a more specific niche which is bodyweight training or calisthenics. For example, if you are an engineer and want to make engineering videos, learn your niche within that category to make it more specific. Narrow it down to mechanical engineering or something very specific that will help you define your “sub-niche.” Try to dive deep and have a target as to what your goal is as a Youtuber, what you’re sharing and who your audience is. **Have Passion for What You Do** True passion can’t be replicated. It has to be authentic. You have to love it so much that you would want to do this for free. You have to walk into it with a mindset that if Youtube wouldn’t pay you and there was absolutely no way you could monetize your platform, you would *still*do it because you love it. This is the level of passion and dedication that you need to aspire for because you genuinely believe in the content you are creating and the artist outlet that Youtube provides to you as a content creator. Being consistent is the most obvious way to project your passion for content as it demonstrates your ability and willingness to share your content. Your character and your ideas will become vividly clear to your audience which will help you create your identity as a Youtuber. **Be Willing to Teach** Be willing to teach and share your personal experiences to help others. It is important to share this because it is heavily value driven. People who don’t know who you are are not going to be willing to subscribe to you if you don’t give them any value as an audience. Even how to videos are super helpful because it reaches out to the audience and assists them in a way that perhaps others can’t. If you get good at something, people will value the information that you are sharing with them. If you have a passion for something and like to do it, you can use that to help somebody who is a beginner at whatever you have become an expert in. **Conclusion** Stand out by creating your niche, eliciting the passion you have for your content to your audience and be willing to teach. Simply by doing these three things, it automatically puts you above 70% of new content creators. It can really be that easy. Be consistent and believe in your work. You never truly know where that can take you. --- ## Look Beyond The Basics To Know The Art And Beauty Of Budgeting URL: https://futuresharks.com/look-beyond-the-basics-to-know-the-art-and-beauty-of-budgeting/ Most people do not realize the beauty of budgeting and often end up in financial distress finding it difficult to manage their household finance, debts and other financial aspects. Well, ideally every household must have and should follow a proper budget so that they can live their lives happily and enjoy the benefits if financial freedom. You will hardly find any company that do not have a monthly as well as yearly budget to follow This keeps them going enabling them to make proper plans for the future according to their present financial conditions. Just like all successful businesses all over the world have a budget, you too should have one in place. Why? Because, it works!Typically, making money and budgeting seem to go handinhand. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2013 it was found that only one in three Americans have a detailed written or computerized household budget prepared. However, over the years people seem to have realized the beauty of budget and things have started to improve to some extent. According to a Bankrate.com survey in 2015, it is found that about 36% of the population prepared a household budget on paper and about 26% on a computer or even on their smart phone app. On the other hand, a considerably high 18% of people said that they did not have any budget at all and took things as it came keeping every information in their head!. If you are one of these non-budgeters or sketchy budgeters, it is high time that you change your approach towards household finance management. This is the best way in which you can keep a track of your income, your expenses and by sticking to your personal budget you can save a lot of money as well for the exigencies. ### The terminology issue The basic principle of a budget is to keep a note of your income and expenses. However, if you really want to make a proper budget that is immaculate and productive, you will need to look much beyond the basics. It is seen that most of the people avert budgeting because they are not very clear about the terminology. This issue that is deep rooted in language makes them believe that the word “budget” has several negative connotations much like the word “diet.” They think that both budget and diet are just restrictive reminders that tell about the things they cannot do or have. This linguistic nonsense kills the beauty of budgeting altogether. Ideally, a budget and a diet are both effective tools which when only used properly will lead to the desired outcome. Using a diet will help you to develop a healthy body and using a budget will help you to develop an economically sound and responsible lifestyle. Therefore, realizing the necessity of it few people even go a step further and drop the word ‘budget.’ It makes them feel better about the process when they call it a ‘spending plan.’ Since a plan is not as restrictive a term as budget, you can now view things from a different angle. Instead of considering the things you cannot buy, consider those you can buy. This will make you feel better knowing about your purchasing power and help you to know how you can spend your available money, which is the primary purpose of a budget. ### Tips to budget well You can consult with an expert advisor or even take cues from the blogs and articles on budgeting published in different sites such as libertylending.com or others. You will find that the most common steps to follow for budgeting are as follows: You must start with your bills. This will let you know your income but instead of focusing on whether it is enough for you, focus on your monthly spending. This will let you know where your money goes. It must include fixed expenses such as the following: - Rent - Mortgage payments - Transportation - Food - Utilities - Insurance and - Healthcare. Once you have noted the fixed expenses it is time to take a note of the variables such as the following: - Birthdays - Holidays - Pet care - Gym membership - Haircut - Clothes - Entertainment and - Vacation. A significant part of taking control of your money is to exercise some chastisement in your spending habits. Income should be larger than the output to make a budget effective. Therefore, just like your expense you must also look at your income. Compare it with the amount that you are spending. If it is less it will lead to personal savings. If it is more you will need to create a personal savings plan. That means you should not spend everything that you earn. In such situations, you have two choices. You can increase your income or cut down your expenses. Strategies to increase your income include: - Getting a new and higher paying job - Getting a second job and - Finding a roommate to help you. Strategies to cut your expenses include: - Eliminating impulse buying - Cutting out unnecessary expenses and - Using cash only to make a purchase. You will need to accept the reality which is you can bring in specific amount of money each month and once you spend it, it is gone forever. Spending any money that you actually do not have can prove to be incredibly expensive. Fortunately, it is not at all difficult to get your finances back on track. Budging will help you a lot in the process. This is the beauty of budgeting. You will find a large number of software programs and spreadsheets specially designed to make your budgeting process faster and easier but still you will need is a piece of paper, a pencil and most importantly a strong desire to live within and even better below your financial means. It is only your desire that will save you from relying too much on your credit cards in the times of emergencies or should you lose your job. Therefore, despite the negative connotations, a budget is the most useful tool that can put your personal finances back on the right track and eventually reach your financial goals. --- ## Outdoor Training: What You Don’t Know (But Should) URL: https://futuresharks.com/outdoor-training-what-you-dont-know-but-should/ Outdoor Training: What You Don’t Know (But Should) When most people talk about getting in shape and getting fit they talk about things like going to the gym and lifting weights. What they don’t talk about is getting outside. In fact, we’ve practically been trained to think that getting outside is just playing and going to the gym is the only way to get a real workout. But that’s absolutely not true. There’s a whole lot about heading outside for your training that you probably don’t know, but if you’re really interested in getting fit, you need to know it. If you’ve spent your entire life (or at least the whole time that you’ve been working on getting in shape) thinking that you had to go to the gym and lift weights all the time then you’re definitely not doing yourself any favors. Isn’t it time that you actually enjoyed the workout that you were doing? Isn’t it time that you actually got to spend some time doing something new and different? That’s what you’re going to get with outdoor training and if you didn’t know it before, you’re going to know that and a whole lot more in no time at all. The Myths About Outdoor Training First, let’s take a look at a few of the myths that you’ve probably heard in regards to outdoor training. These are things that people who just haven’t tried it for themselves might try to convince you of, but you should know they’re absolutely not true. After all, you could find your new favorite workout once you expand your horizons. It’s Harder to Run Outside than Inside It’s actually no different for you to run outside or inside. You’re going to have the same form, you’re going to have the same impact on your joints depending what you run on and you’re going to have the same effort expenditure. All of that means that it’s really up to you what you feel most comfortable with and where you enjoy running. Of course, that’s assuming that you really want to run in the first place, because you can get that outdoor workout doing a number of different things. You’ll Have More Motivation Indoors There’s actually research that suggests that you’ll have more motivation if you exercise outdoors. According to studies, people who spend time outdoors will feel more energy, less tension, less depression and higher satisfaction. Part of the reason for that is that just getting 20 minutes of fresh air will give you the same amount of energy as you would get drinking a cup of coffee. That means you’re going to feel a whole lot better even just from going outside, never mind the actual effects of the exercise that you’re getting at the same time. You Can’t Exercise in Cold Weather This one is perpetrated because cold actually makes your muscles contract, which is true. The false part, however, is that this means you can’t work out outdoors when it’s cold. You absolutely can. You just need to make sure that you warm up a little bit beforehand. That means you need to do just a little bit of cardio that’s going to warm your body and help to get your heart rate up just a little bit. This kind of workout makes sure you’re ready when you head outside, but of course, you should still bundle up to keep your body heat in. Walking isn’t Doing Anything For You Actually, walking can do a lot for you and we’re not talking about when you up the speed so you’re technically jogging or even running. Just taking a walk, even a casual one, is actually proven to do some great things. For one, it can help improve your immune system, for another, it can help you experience less joint pain and even reduce your risk of breast cancer. What’s really great is that just 15 minutes of walking can help you crave less sugar and that’s definitely going to be a benefit, right? Who wouldn’t like to kick their sugar habit? You Need Weight to Get a Workout You don’t need to have weights, either free weights, bar weights or machines, in order to get a great workout in. Rather, you can get a great workout with just your body weight. That means if you want to get out there and do squats, planks or push-ups you can get an awesome workout. You can also get an awesome workout by running, walking, doing stairs or just about anything else that you do outside. Sure, weights can help you build up muscle, but they’re not a necessity in order to get anything at all out of your workout. In fact just by changing the tempo of your body weight workouts and the time under tension can really drive insane muscle building gains. Working Out Outdoors Means Running Working out outdoors can mean running, but it doesn’t have to always. There are a number of different things that you could choose to do outside. It’s extremely versatile and you’re going to have more than enough opportunities to switch things up. Even if the only thing you want to do outdoors is running, you’re going to have an endless supply of places that you can head out to in order to do it. Take a different road when you leave your house, drive to a park and then run, or do whatever you like. There’s no end to the ways you can change it up. When your outdoors you way have more space to explore different and new movements than just running. The Truths About Outdoor Training So, if those are the myths that you’re commonly hearing, what’s the actual truth? What should you know about working out or training outdoors that you don’t already? There are actually a number of things that you should know and once you’ve read through this list you’re going to be lacing up your sneakers to head outside. Work Out Anywhere This is the awesome part. If you’re the type of person who lifts weights or goes to the gym to get a workout you’re limited. You have to have those weights or a gym nearby in order to get a workout. So what do you do when you’re on vacation? Or when you go to visit family? Sure, if you’re going to be there a while you can get a temporary membership to a local gym or if you’re staying at a hotel they may have something to work with, but you’re going to be limited in what you can do. If you’re an outdoor trainer, you don’t have to worry, because all you need is some space outside and your own body. Same thing goes for any person who enjoys health and fitness. Save Your Money Going to a gym or buying fancy equipment can be expensive at times. Not everyone has that kind of money just laying around or even if you do, you may not really want to spend it on a gym membership and get stuck with a contract commitment. When you workout outdoors you don’t need that kind of financial commitment of any kind. You just need your own two feet (okay, and maybe some running shoes). From there, you’re going to be good to go and ready to sweat. Anything is Training You don’t actually even have to be ‘working out’ all the time to get the benefits of training outdoors. Think about the things that you do outdoors. You might be swimming, playing basketball, paddle boarding, playing with the kids or grandkids, intense yard work, or different things. All of those things are part of getting a good workout in but you don’t even realize it because you’re just having fun. What could be better than that? When you walk into a gym you definitely know you’re working out. There’s no mistaking it. When you head outside? You could be having fun and never even realize that you’re doing anything else. Try Something New Think about your absolute favorite movie. Now imagine if you watched it twice in a row. You would probably still like it quite a bit, right? Maybe even for the third time or the fourth. But as you just keep watching the same show over and over again? You’re going to get a little tired of it, right? That’s the same thing when you’re working out. You’re going to get bored doing the same routine over and over again at the gym. When you’re training outdoors you have so many options for where to go, what to do and how to do it. There’s definitely no way to get bored. Get Some Fresh Air Research shows that fresh air and sunshine are extremely important to our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. If you spend all of your time cooped up inside you’re going to start experiencing symptoms of depression. Getting some of the vitamins and nutrients that come from being outside is going to make you feel great. Plus, you’re going to have the opportunity to stop and smell the roses (literally, if you want) be with nature and to make some new friends as well. Training outdoors is going to open up numerous different opportunities for you. Improve Your Thoughts Just like doing the same thing over and over again becomes just plain boring, it’s actually affecting your mind. That boredom is going to cause your mind to slow down and it’s going to affect the way that you think and achieve things even after you’ve left that situation. By going outside you’re actually stretching your mind and you’re forcing your brain to pay attention to what’s going on. Outdoors can throw unexpected challenges to you as well causing you to focus. After all, training outdoors causes you to be more aware of your surroundings and react faster to anything. Get Everyone Involved When was the last time you went to the gym and saw people that weren’t just like you? Maybe a few of them were a little heavier than others. A few maybe were a little less toned up than others, but for the most part they’re all the same type of people doing the same type of workouts. But what about everyone else who doesn’t fit those standards? When you workout or train outdoors, you’re opening it up to absolutely anyone. Whether you’re smaller or larger than the traditional gym person or whether you have a disability that keeps you from doing certain types of workouts or you just plain don’t like certain types of workouts, you can still get in a great training session outdoors. Push Yourself You’re actually going to get more of a workout in most cases with an outdoor workout than an indoor one. Even if you’re pushing yourself really hard at the gym there are some definite benefits when it comes to outdoor training. The main thing is that being outdoors means that nothing is for certain. When you round that next corner you might come up to a hill or a gravel path or a park. Your body never knows what’s going to come up next and you’re going to have to accommodate that. That means your body can’t get complacent and your workout is always pushing you to the limit. Today, outdoor training is really somewhat of a trend. More and more people are dropping the gym memberships and starting to venture outside to get their exercise and they’re starting to feel even better about it. After all, there’s something about getting outside, in the fresh air, that helps your workout not feel quite so much like a workout. So take some time to figure out what’s going to work best for you and just what outdoor training and activities you want to try out. You might be surprised at how much fun you’re having and if you decide that you want to go back to working out at a gym a few times a week and working out outdoors a few times that’s great too. Just know that you’re definitely not going to be slacking off or missing out when you skip the gym for the outdoors. Whether you want to grab a friend to join you for a walk, get your yard ready for the summer, play some sports, or hit the trails, you’re definitely going to have some great results from your outdoor training. By: Anthony Mendez Instagram: @MendezFitness --- ## STRESS! BURNOUT! HEALTH & WELLNESS! WHAT TO DO? URL: https://futuresharks.com/stress-burnout-health-wellness-what-to-do/ We hear a lot in the media today about getting exercise and eating right. We hear about body positivity and loving the skin you’re in. What we don’t hear about is stress. Did you know that stress is one of your biggest barriers to getting what you want in your life? That’s because stress is causing you through physically and mentally and the longer you allow it to take control of your body, the worse it’s going to continue to get. That’s why it’s crucial that you understand what stress is doing to you as soon as possible, before something serious happens. What is Stress? The first thing to note is that stress is not always a bad thing. In general, stress is considered the natural body response to situations that we don’t feel completely ready for. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad thing. And actually, positive stress is referred to as eustress and this is actually a motivating factor and helps you to achieve the goals and things that you want in your life. In small doses, stress encourages you to do better, to work harder, and to achieve anything. Studies even show that it can help improve your focus as well as your recall. The problem comes in when your stress levels start to get too high or when you’re feeling stressed too frequently. At that point, eustress becomes an unhealthy form of stress. Negative stress occurs when we start feeling overwhelmed or we feel like we’re at the bottom of a hole with no way out. When there’s no relief mixed in with your episodes of stress it becomes extremely unhealthy, such as the person who is always stressed at their job or the person who feels like they can never get through a situation. The Symptoms and Side Effects of Stress When you’re feeling stressed you will generally have some or all of these symptoms, which could vary in intensity. Headache Upset Stomach Sexual Dysfunction Trouble Sleeping Chest Pain High Blood Pressure Depression Panic Attacks Anxiety Aches and Pains Muscle Tension Tiredness/Exhaustion Cold/Sweaty Palms Racing Heart Diarrhea Loss/Increase of Appetite Grinding Teeth Dizziness Trembling Weight Gain/Loss All of these are just the immediate effects that you know the stress is having. These are the things that you can feel yourself. But there are other things that are going on beneath the surface that can also be caused by stress. The Health Effects of Stress When it comes down to it, stress can cause or exacerbate just about any health condition you could possibly think of and that’s a terrifying thought. If you’re already suffering from a health condition the last thing you want is something that’s going to make it even worse, right? But if you’re allowing yourself to feel stressed all the time, or even some of the time, you could be setting yourself up for trouble, especially since stress is directly linked to six of the leading causes of death (Slmainc). Heart Disease Cancer Asthma/Lung Problems Accidents Cirrhosis of the Liver Suicide Other health conditions that could be exacerbated or even caused because of stress include: Obesity Diabetes Migraines Depression Gastrointestinal Problems Alzheimer’s Accelerated Aging Premature Death (by causes other than suicide/accident) In fact, stress is the result of approximately 110 MILLION people every year according to the CDC (Slmainc). And that’s only people who die as a direct result of stress, not people who have other elevated symptoms because of the stress. The good thing is, there’s hope for you even if you feel stressed to the max right now. There are plenty of things that you can (and should) do right now to decrease your level of stress. Decreasing Your Levels of Stress After reading all of that you’re probably thinking that it’s time you make some changes in your life, but you might not now just how to do it. Luckily, improving your health and wellness is the key to decreasing stress and it’s not as difficult as you might think. It’s about improving how well you take care of yourself both inside and out, because that’s actually going to reduce the levels of stress that you experience. Your body actually feels more stressed when it’s stretched to the limits. When you take advantage of your body and assume that it’s going to take care of you without any help or input from you it’s causing you a whole lot more harm than you might think. The important thing is that now you know that stress is highly dangerous, and you’re going to be better prepared for it when it comes your way. When it comes to health we’re talking about a combination of factors that contribute to getting your body in the best shape possible. That’s going to include things like getting enough exercise, eating right and thinking positively. After all, being in great shape is about more than just your physical body, it’s about your mental health as well. Think about this, when you’re tired you don’t perform as well as when you’re energized, right? That’s because your body isn’t fully prepared to deal with the things that are coming at it. When you feel well rested it’s because your body is operating at optimum levels and it’s ready to do whatever you ask of it (within reason, of course). Getting exercise helps build up your strength, your endorphins, your drive and more. It physically prepares you. Eating right helps your body get the nutrients that it needs to fuel all of those things. And then we have mental health. Your mental health is about thinking positively and about believing in yourself. Thinking negative thoughts is only going to bring you down. Thinking positive thoughts is going to help you feel better about yourself and the world around you. Mental health can also refer to paying attention to what causes you stress and what causes you to feel relaxed and rested. Your mind will let you know what it wants and needs, if you’re willing to listen to it. Your Best Stress Response Now that we’ve talked about what it takes to have a healthy mind and body, let’s take a look at some of the things that you should be doing when you do experience stress (because it’s going to happen). First, we’ll take a look at some of the physical responses that you *want*to have toward stress, not the ones that you’re simply allowing to happen. 1. Take a Walk – When you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed this is a great time to take a walk. If you can get outside to a park, even better, but walking even in your office will give you some benefits. Walking away from whatever is causing you stress allows your body to relax because it realizes you’re not in a fight or flight situation. Your mind stops racing, you’re able to burn off some of that stored energy, and you have time to just breathe and take your mind off the problem for even a few minutes. 2. Find Something Else – Along the same lines of trying to get your mind off the problem is doing something else entirely. We’re not talking about another work project that’s going to stress you out yet again. Rather, participate in some type of hobby. It doesn’t matter if you’re sketching at your desk or you’re doing yoga or reading a book or anything at all. Find something that you like doing that gets your mind off of everything else that you *have*to do throughout the day. Just participating in a fun hobby for 10-15 minutes can make a huge difference in your mood and your stress level. That’s why you have that hobby, right? 3. Get Enough Sleep – This one isn’t going to work as an immediate method to relieve stress, but it will help you over time. If you’re getting enough sleep you’re going to feel better going into each day and you actually have a lower chance of experiencing stress throughout the day. All it takes is getting that 8-10 hours, which is definitely worth it, right? So, if you find yourself getting stressed every day, find a way to make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep every night, and work your way from there. Next up, let’s take a look at some of the mental aspects of your health and your stress response. You might be surprised how you can decrease your stress when you’re simply sitting still, but it’s a whole lot easier than you might think. 1. Meditate – Be honest, you knew this one was coming, right? Meditation can help to release endorphins in the body in similar ways to physical exercise, and it’s a natural way to relieve your stress. You don’t have to meditate for a long time to get the benefits either. Even just 5-10 minutes can help you. So sit down (in whatever position you’re most comfortable in, you don’t have to sit cross-legged) and close your eyes. Focus on breathing in slowly and breathing out slowly. If you can’t focus only on your breathing then focus on a single word or phrase (a positive one) that you can repeat over and over. Don’t let any other thoughts enter your mind during this time and you’ll be able to slowly relax. 2. Voice Your Opinions – When you sit quiet for too long and let other people tell you what to do and how to do it you can get frustrated and that frustration definitely leads to stress. So take the opportunity to express yourself and your opinions. That doesn’t mean you get a free pass to be mean or rude to people. But it means that you can (and should) start speaking up on your own behalf. If you’re too busy for something then say so. If you don’t want to go then decline (politely, please). Saying yes to everything is not helping your stress. It’s making things worse. 3. Talk to Someone – Maybe you have a friend or a partner that you can talk to about what you’re experiencing. Maybe you want to talk to a professional. No matter how you decide to do it, you want to have someone that you can discuss your thoughts and feelings with who has no vested interest and isn’t going to get offended. You get to decide who that person actually is. Building Up After Burn-Out Have your feelings of overwhelm just gotten so much in your way that you’re now feeling burned out? Maybe you’ve been on that path of stress so long that it’s made you completely disenchanted with everything, even those things that you used to love doing or a job you used to enjoy. If that’s the case then it’s definitely time to start looking at ways to get yourself back where you want to be. Luckily, the ways that you overcome burnout are pretty much the same ways you’re going to overcome stress (because likely your burnout comes from stress). 1. Get plenty of exercise 2. Get plenty of sleep 3. Eat right 4. Drink lots of water 5. Focus on thinking positive 6. Just say no Of course, there are a few more extreme ways that you can work on your burnout (and your stress). If you really need a jump start and you’re not sure how to get there, you want to start with these: Go on vacation (and leave your cares behind) Reevaluate your personal goals (and what you want in life) Understand the meaning behind your work (and what value you place on it) The best thing you can do if you’re experiencing stress or burn-out is to start working on your health and wellness. Where stress is a killer of millions every year, improving your health and wellness is the number one way that you can combat that stress. When you’re talking about your life, it seems like an easy choice to make, don’t you think? By: Anthony Mendez Instagram: @MendezFitness Slmainc. (2017, February 20). The Science of STRESS. Retrieved from http://www.slma.cc/the-science-of-stress/ --- ## The future of health and fitness is here! What are you going to do about it? URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-future-of-health-and-fitness-is-here-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it/ Where is Health and Fitness Headed too? It used to be that if someone wanted to get in shape they would get a gym membership. They would spend an hour or longer at a physical gym working out with weights and machines. But things are changing in every area of our lives and that goes for getting in shape too. No longer to people have to spend their time at a gym in order to get the results they’re looking for. Instead, they can enter into the entirely new market of digital fitness. What is Digital Fitness? Digital fitness is all about using a digital device (like a phone, a tablet, a computer or a connected TV) to access workout content. It used to be that the only thing you could do about your workout through a digital platform was look up workouts in a static format, or maybe see someone perform it on YouTube, but things have definitely changed now and digital fitness is starting to become an entire platform of health and fitness that no one ever saw coming (but you’re going to love the way it can fit into your lifestyle). Right now, digital fitness is still in its infancy, but it’s taking off in some big ways. You can find a number of different formats for the content that you want, including apps, websites, live programming and more. It’s all about what you’re actually looking for and if you’re willing to start looking for it. More and more people are starting to dive into creating content that works for this sphere and as more and more people start using it, the content is going to get better still. After all, that’s what happened with the traditional fitness industry. The more people tried it, the more new stuff came out. Why You Want Digital Fitness One of the biggest things about digital fitness that makes it so great is the fact that it’s going to give you more control over your time. When you have to go to the gym there’s time to get ready, time to drive there, time to workout and then time to drive back. If you’re working out through digital means you can do it right from home, which means you’re cutting the amount of time that it takes dramatically. That means you can get your workout done in less time or you can get more of a workout in with the same amount of time. There’s a whole lot of variety involved when you’re doing digital workouts as well. You’ll be able to choose between a range of different options that are anything from yoga, unconventional training, zumba, pilates, HITT Training, martial arts and strength training. There’s a little bit of everything available online and for every skill level. Plus, you can choose workouts that use no equipment or workouts that use specialized equipment, so you’re going to have options that fit your needs and your desires from one day to the next. For those who want the camaraderie of other people there are options for that as well. In fact, you can choose videos that show only an instructor, videos that show a full class and even live videos that allow you to tune in alongside the class. These are also available in all different styles and that gives you the flexibility that you’re looking for. If you want to ‘attend’ classes every week you can absolutely do it. You just have to find the right one for you and join up. And you’ll be able to do it from the comfort of your home. Yet another benefit to these types of programs is that you can save money. The truth is, that gym membership and possible training sessions is costing you something every month. Depending on the type of gym you’re going to it could be anywhere from $15 a month to over $200 a month and for what? You could be taking online classes for a whole lot less. Some programs even offer free fitness trials to see if you enjoy it first better getting locked into a subscription or program. The great thing about this is that if you’re on a budget and still want to get in shape you don’t have to pay those exorbitant fees anymore because of digital fitness. You also want to think about the stress of going to the gym if it gets to the point where you don’t enjoy going anymore cause it stresses you out more and more every time. It’s not just about the hassle of having to drive there (though that can be stressful on its own), it’s also about the stress of working out with to many people around you that might through you off or feel claustrophobic. Do you always feel comfortable there? Sometimes you just want the freedom to workout where there’s no one around to see you or interrupt you, right? As well, you can avoid the noise in the gym or you can create all the noise you want because its in your own home. Remember for some people being physically at the gym is a must and thats great, but there are many people who just want the option of being able to get the same results at home. For them working out at home would be less stressful and more efficient. It really just depends on the person. Where To Find Digital Fitness If you’re not sure where you can find digital fitness you don’t need to worry. That’s because it’s actually available in a number of different places. First of all, you can download or watch videos directly on YouTube and other viral platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and more. These are some of the completely free services and they’re going to give you a whole lot of variety in types of workouts, plus a whole lot of variety in the quality of those workouts. Another source is going to be the fitness websites. Websites that you already know and love with fitness pages or that have fitness blogs are all coming out with their own videos and content as well, which is definitely going to be great for you because, again, these usually offer a free program download if you drop your email or a free fitness trial before committing to something. Plus, these websites tend to be a little varied in their content but like to keep it top quality depending on who the fitness professional is. After all, they want to keep their viewers coming back and checking out there page for more of their videos and other content. Apps are great too and these are going to continue to get better over time. You can find some that are available on your phone, tablet, or even on your TV. If you have a smart TV using (Roku, Fire Stick, Apple Tv) and other apps like these can for sure provide you that service your looking for. Some of these apps are free and some are paid, so it’s going to be entirely up to you what you like best. Even better, there are some that are specific to certain types of workouts or even specific machines (we’ve all seen the Peloton app, right?). So it’s all about what you want to do. Video games are one way that digital fitness has started to grow in new directions. We all remember when Wii Sports came out, right? And Wii Fit? And then those things kind of went by the wayside, but they still were pretty revolutionary at the time. So was the Xbox Kinect and all the different games you could play with it. Each of these offered a way to workout and try out new methods of fitness by moving your body and the machine registering it. That was pretty cool, but not as advanced as it could have been. That’s where the future of digital fitness is coming in. The Future of Digital Fitness So, what’s to come in the future? Virtual reality of course, it’s the wave of the future everywhere. With virtual reality you can actually feel like you’re doing a whole bunch of different things and as the technology gets better and better you could be training alongside one of your favorite fitness coach’s, climbing Mount Everest from the comfort of your own living room, or cycling along side Lance armstrong. But what’s really cool about this is that it’s going to make your workouts a whole lot more fun. You’ll be able to do anything that you want and explore entirely new parts of the world (or maybe new worlds entirely) and get a great workout at the same time. For all we know we might be able to even interact and feel whats going on in this virtual world, now that would be insane! By expanding into virtual reality, the health and fitness industry is going to open itself up to entirely new markets. How many people have you heard say that working out is boring? How many people get tired of lifting weights or the same old workout routine again and again? How many people complain about just knowing they need to workout to be healthy, Just about everyone, right? And yet, if you could employ virtual reality, there would be no reason for anyone to get bored because you could customize your workout or activity to whatever is thats going to keep you focused, motivated, and seeing results at all times. Do You Need a Digital Fitness Program? Are you still on the fence about whether or not this is really for you? Maybe you’re not really sure that it’s important for you to have this type of program. Maybe you’re still thinking it’s a fad and people are going to return to the standard videos and going to the gym routines soon enough. The truth is, if that’s the way you’re thinking then you’re very sadly mistaken. Technology is going to continue to advance and evolve and you’re either going to run with it or you’re going to get left behind, which is a bad place to be in any industry. If you’re a fitness professional then you should absolutely have your own digital online fitness program. That’s really all there is to it. Having a digital program is going to get you out there to even more people, because more and more people are checking out digital options and online options for their workout every single day. The market is expected to be worth over $27 billion by the end of 2026 and is expected to see growth of 32% CAGR over the same period. That means you really can’t afford not to be a part of it. Plus, think about the ease of getting involved. If you’re already recording videos it’s easy enough to make those videos also available online, whether as a free resource or a paid one (or some of both). You’ll be able to draw more traffic to those videos and to your website. Plus, once they’re there, even if your some your videos are free chances are they’ll be more likely to purchase some of your additional paid content or programs, which is going to bring in additional revenue for you and make it easier for you to keep improving your own business. If you’re not making videos already but you’re hosting live classes you can stream them online. The internet makes this easier than ever with things like Facebook Live and Instagram Live and of course, YouTube. It’s super easy to stream a live class and then the video is there to view later on as well, so it creates a video for you. If you want to have a live class through a more professional forum there are plenty of those available as well, or you can create your own, so what could be better than that? We have all the resource there, but its up to you to take action as a business owner or as a customer. Especially, as a fitness professional you should be taking advantage of all of the opportunities available to create some amazing content and to draw in as many new people as possible to your brand, your business and your content. No matter what you’re already doing, you can’t afford not to get a piece of the digital fitness pie. And as the field continues to improve and continues to grow, you’re going to be on the cutting edge or really cool inventions and innovations (like that virtual reality that’s going to be here before you know it). No matter what side of the equation you’re on, whether you’re a fitness professional looking to bring more people into your business or you’re an individual looking for a new way to get fit, the online marketplace is the place to be. You’re going to have a whole lot of options, a whole lot of amazing opportunities and the variety and flexibility that you’re looking for. The health and fitness world is changing fast, and you’re going to see it continue to improve as digital marketing continues to grow. Do you want to be on the right side of that change? Or do you want to watch it pass you by? By: Anthony Mendez Instagram: @MendezFitness --- ## What to Do to Make Your Instagram Bio a Traffic Magnet URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-to-do-to-make-your-instagram-bio-a-traffic-magnet/ If you are a marketer in charge of making your brands popular, you will appreciate that the first challenge for a brand is to strike the right impression at the very first encounter with the consumer. This is as true in physical marketing as it is in the online marketing environment. However, in the world of social media, particularly Instagram, the very first consumer touch point is the Instagram bio. It is the appeal of the bio that will form the basis of the decision of whether the consumer will follow the business, click on the website link, or share the account with their friends on social media. Some useful tips on designing your Instagram profile for best visibility and generation of traffic: **Optimize the Name Field** As far as queries on Instagram are concerned, only the username and the name count. You should ideally, fill in the name field with the brand name or the name of the business so that you can leverage the opportunity for achieving better memorability. It can also be very useful to use the typical keywords that users are likely to use for looking out for your business or brand and incorporate them into your name. You will get the best results by focusing on what your business does or what your products are designed to achieve. **Build a Crisp and Concise Bio** Since you are allowed only 150 characters in your bio field, it is extremely important that you are able to get under this limitation to deliver a summary of your business that accurately describes what you do, the product and solutions that you offer and how these can help customers to achieve results that are important to them. Be clear on what gives you the competitive edge and also include essential information like your contacts, location details, and the link to your website. **Focus On the Brand Hashtags** The bio should invariably contain the most important hashtags that people use to discover information in your niche. Using branded hashtags can give you a lot of leverage to your brand-related content as followers for Instagram will be encouraged to interact with your bio and click to go to your website that will open up further opportunities of interacting with your brand. They can participate in your brand campaigns that can win them freebies and travel further along the sales funnel. According to https://adespresso.com, branded hashtags should be easy to type and use for the best results. **Include A CTA in the Bio That Encourages Visitors to Visit a Specially Designed Landing Page** Instead of giving the link that leads to the homepage of your website, it can be more productive to design a special landing page for visitors to participate in various activities that promote engagement with the brand. Just including the link will not do, you need to promote it by using compelling CTAs that will encourage visitors to click on it. **Conclusion** To engage audiences on your Instagram account, you need to make it a very attractive destination for followers and users. The best way of doing this is to post photos regularly that are of very high quality and help you to tell a story where the brand features prominently. Use branded hashtags and other popular hashtags relevant to your business to boost your brand visibility. **Author Bio –** Kristen Smith has been working on the importance of social media in marketing with thousands of followers for Instagram her postings. --- ## Why Launch a Personal WordPress Blog the Moment You Enter College? URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-launch-a-personal-wordpress-blog-the-moment-you-enter-college/ ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/b01506f27fdd.jpg) *Image Source: Freepik* To students graduating high school, college life may appear glorious on the outside. However, it’s only after you actually enter college do you realize it is anything but as shown in the movies. Simply put, it’s an endless struggle to keep up with all sorts of deadlines: assignments, projects, quizzes, and what have you. Still, despite all the workload, you will surely find the time to do a little something for your personal development. The activities you choose to do in these precious hours can make all the difference to your career right after college. Among all the great things you can (and should) do before finishing your undergraduate education, launching a personal website arguably tops the list. A personal website is your virtual home in the gargantuan world wide web. Now, there is a myriad of website builders and content management systems (CMS) available today, but nothing comes close to WordPress. Originally started as a blogging tool, and now evolved into a versatile CMS, it still maintains its status as the best blogging platform on the market. In fact, it currently powers a whopping 32.3% of all websites on the internet, including 14.7% of the top 100 websites in the world such as CNN, TIME.com, TechCrunch, New York Post, and many other big names. It is an open source, fairly easy-to-use, highly customizable (with thousands of plugins and themes), SEO-friendly, and secure CMS. All you really need to purchase is a domain name and hosting plan, and then install WordPress to get started. Anyway, talking about the subject of blogging, here are five reasons why you should bother to blog right from your first year at college. ## To uncover your true long-term passion If you’re already 100% certain about what you want to do in life, then you are one of the lucky few. You can skip ahead to the next point. Unfortunately, most freshmen don’t know where their true ambitions lie. While it’s okay to take your time to discover and explore numerous potential career options before getting into one for the long haul, many students fail to narrow down on one actual ‘passion’ even after graduating. With blogging, you tend to authentically pen down your thoughts and learnings. Over the course of writing several blog posts on a particular subject, you’ll start to realize what really makes you tick. Say, for example, you are pursuing a degree in computer science. You blog about your daily/weekly learnings in the form of tutorials and how-tos. If you continue this activity for months or years on end and never once feel it’s “humdrum”, you’ll know it’s the perfect career for you. Similarly, if you choose to blog about marketing while pursuing computer science, and thoroughly enjoy it nevertheless, you’ll know a switch in discipline is in order. In other words, blogging empowers you to give voice to your *true* passions. ## To hone your creative side One of the best things about blogging is how creative the entire process is. It has several facets that contribute to honing your overall creativity: - Writing: Well, duh. Blogging, for the most part, is about creative (yet practical) writing. And writing as a skill is often overlooked but plays a huge role in almost any professional career. - Design: Apart from all the writing, you’ll often want to include great visuals to drive the point home. This can be in the form of self-created graphics using tools like Canva or even simple instructional videos. Furthermore, just the process of creating and maintaining a WordPress blog requires you to learn the art of modern website design. - Problem-solving: If you’ve ever written a report, an essay or article, you’ll know the dreaded feeling of staring at a blank document, not knowing how to begin. This so-called “writer’s block” often requires you to do a ton of research and come up with new, ingenious ways to approach the task of writing a sensible piece. Blogging, thus, is one of the foremost ways to get those creative juices flowing. ## To become more employable Apart from developing your creative skills, blogging promotes other soft skills as well. Put them together and you’ll be a far more employable graduate than if you hadn’t bothered to try blogging. But wait, there’s more. Launching a WordPress blog will also potentially sharpen your: - Data analysis skills: If you choose to dive deep into blogging, you’ll inevitably come across and install Google Analytics. You’ll spend hours trying to analyze and improve your site’s traffic, perform split tests, optimize for search engines, and so on. All this adds up to some serious, in-demand analytical skills. - Technical knowledge: The path to WordPress mastery is paved with writing, design, coding, digital marketing, and web development skills. Depending on the level of interest and the amount of time you have, you’ll surely become proficient in at least one or two of these crafts. For example, you’ll probably want to learn the basics of HTML and CSS which, in turn, gives your CV a major boost. - Other software knowledge: As mentioned earlier, you’ll most likely need to do some designing too if you want to run a decent looking blog. Consequently, you’ll get your hands dirty with extremely rewarding software such as Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro. Not to mention, proficiency in using WordPress and WordPress development itself is a highly sought-after skill by today’s employers. ## To showcase your portfolio While having a portfolio website to showcase your work is becoming increasingly mainstream, most fresh graduates settle with a standard one-page CV. In this regard, your personal WordPress blog can be so much more than just a blog. Apart from showcasing your finest writings and artwork, you can leverage your website to demonstrate all your awards and achievements throughout your college life. What’s more, you can display recommendations/testimonials from professors and internship mentors. As a cherry on the cake, all you have to do is share a link when someone asks you for your CV. ## To earn a side income College can be an expensive affair. If done right, your WordPress blog can be a modest source of side income to help with the daily bills. There are many ways to monetize your blog, from affiliate marketing to setting up Google AdSense, depending on how far you’ve come with your blog. Note that if you’re planning to use your blog as a way to showcase your portfolio, then monetizing with advertisements is not your best bet. Hopefully, these five reasons will convince you to go launch a WordPress blog the moment you enter college. --- ## How Speed Can Make or Break Your Clientele URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-speed-can-make-or-break-your-clientele/ Learning how to connect with your clients is the best way to close a sale. In fact, timely customer service brings more clients through reputation and via momentum. Learning how to connect with a customer and use the momentum in your favor can allow you to perform in a much more efficient manner. Efficiency is important because if you do not optimize your efforts, you can lose clients by letting a lead go cold. How do you create momentum and maintain it? Create a system that allows you to capitalize in response time and interpersonal communication. **Being Too Slow Will Lose You Clients** Human Contact with the prospect is the best way to generate a positive response from the client. First Impressions Matter. When you connect with your client for the first time, you have to create a tone where they will want to respond and cooperate. 20-minute conversations can cost you a lead. A good way of maintaining the direction of the conversation is to make sure that you do not allow the conversation to go dry. By doing so, you lose the momentum and lose control over the direction of the lead. Learn how to steer the conversation to not let it run on longer than it needs to, and your conversions will improve. **How Fast Should You Operate?** Connect before they have put their phone down. Allow the momentum of the idea to carry with you into your conversation. Optimize your window of opportunity. Call within 2 minutes, at most 5 minutes as a general rule so that the potential client doesn’t “check out” before you make that call. Never automize your clientele services. A system that does not make the client feel important will instantly lose their attention and generate a negative response. Why? People love the human element. **How Can You Achieve This?** Share Responsibility. Create a system that works, which can be as simple as splitting the load or assigning tasks to people in an efficient manner. Have enough resources to meet the demands of the clients, whether that be through outreach or through support services. Make time to accommodate your client’s needs even when it’s inconvenient. Learning how to respect their time will allow you to create a positive relationship between your business and your client. Sometimes automation is simply more efficient, however, beware. If you choose to automate, make it as personal and experiential as possible. You’ll find that not everybody who creates the momentum will be able to commit to a sale. So what do you do? Minimize your damage Have a roadmap in case the case goes cold. Have a game plan ready so that you can reopen a cold lead that may have slipped through the cracks. Being fast and efficient is the best way to generate a successful lead. Aim for 2 minute response time to optimize your window of opportunity. Set up an employable system. Share the responsibility so that your client’s do not pay the price of not having their needs met. Do not lose the interpersonal connection with the client. Automation can drive your leads away if you’re not careful with your delivery of the experience. Believe in your business, nurture your leads with care and see the profits go up! --- ## How Nazli Atalay Positively Impacts The Underserved in New York URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-nazli-atalay-positively-impacts-the-underserved-in-new-york/ I recently had the opportunity to ask Nazli Atalay a few questions. Atalay is a former attorney from Istanbul, Turkey. She worked with some of the most high-profile legal firms in Turkey where she worked on cases in human rights advocacy which ultimately led her to pursue another degree in social work and therapy helping the undeserved in New York. She has worked with the Legal Aid Society in New York city. Currently Ms. Atalay is working in human rights advocacy and social work utilizing both her law degree, master’s in social work, and license in therapy to continue to assist those in undeserved in New York. **As a woman, what advice can you give other girls about the impact they can make in their communities?** ****My great-grandmother was another amazing person in my life. Unfortunately I lost her before I turned 10, and her last few years were lost to dementia. However, I have very clear memories about her and the short time I’ve spent with her. I remember that she had this deep look in her eyes, and a strong posture, you would know if you crossed a boundary and get yourself together immediately by her one straight look. She was also the kind of person, who would go and visit different people in our neighborhood, inquire if anybody need any help and bring their issues to the family table to figure out any possible solution for our neighbors’ problems. I truly believe we need more people like her. To be like her, you need to be self aware, own your accomplishments, your strengths; analyze your weak spots but do not hung up on the things you *think* you made a mistake. Have self-compassion to yourself, especially to prevent to lose your temper in sensitive situations. Do not let anyone or any label define you. Life is full of obstacles and pitfalls, being a woman is just one sort of challenge but that is not the most difficult challenge that one can face. Find out sometimes need to ask help from somebody else. Community problems cannot be solved efficiently without the feedback and support of the community members. So be observant, talk to your community leaders and members; if you notice an issue bring it to others attention; speak up! And lastly, watch out your community members back, remember that the power to be heard and be believed is crucial, so use it. **What impact have your clients made on you and how have you used it to shape your career?** ****Every single client that I ever worked for helmed me to grow professionally and personally. In the corporate world, I learned how to be more assertive and strong. Corporate clients often require excessive work to be completed perfectly in a short period, and you have to be reachable 24/7, literally. Under such pressure, I learned how to manage my time better. I was always a detail-oriented person, but while working with my clients I also learned to see the big picture. On the other hand, the problems that my clients I have worked for during my volunteer job and internships were completely different than my corporate clients. Like anybody else, they all have something to tell, which can be emotionally difficult at time. Sometimes, one’s story is darker than the other. Sometimes, they are stuck in the same cycle, and need to break it. Through the services they received, they have (re)discovered their strengths. I am inspired by their resilience, and motivated to do my job even better. I also believe that my clients helped me to grow compassion, and being more objective towards others. As a lawyer, I had sharper corners; I would take a side and defend that side no matter what. Now, I know that there are more grey areas in life than black& whites. Sometimes, people – especially minors – do something wrong because they don’t know what is right or wrong, or that is a cry for help, they need services in place to help them out rather than punishment. When I worked with my clients who experienced anger management issues, I needed to understand better the root of anger, so I read many articles on the subject. While I helped my patients, they have also helped me to be more mindful about my own reactions when I got frustrated. I hope that I really make a positive change in their lives, and because they sure have a positive impact in my life. --- ## Powerhouse Entrepreneur Matt Morris Shares On How He Has Been Able to Generate Over $1B in Sales URL: https://futuresharks.com/powerhouse-entrepreneur-matt-morris-shares-on-how-he-has-been-able-to-generate-over-1b-in-sales/ As entrepreneurs, we set pretty hefty goals. It’s natural – we are the people who change the world with innovation, jobs, creativity, etc. For many – hitting the $1M mark annually is the big “I made it” goal. Now? It’s become a standard to not only hit that but to go above it. The next mark would be to hit $5M-$10M. For many that would also be a great feat. But just like anything else, there are people in the space that make that look incredibly small.  Take a look at Matt Morris, for example, he developed a team who not only helped him get out of $750,000 in debt but helped him generate over $1 Billion in sales. That’s Billion with a B. Now that to ANY entrepreneur is remarkable. We applaud that because we see it as a sport & Matt is one of the game changers in entrepreneurship. Matt was able to do over $1B in sales in just the span of 9 years, so if you’re wondering how did he accomplish this… keep reading. ### Building a Rock Solid Team If you’re a solopreneur, good luck ever trying to get past the $1M a year mark. I used to be a solopreneur and I thought I knew exactly what I was doing until I found myself being exhausted day in and day out. I thought I was moving fast until I noticed people were outworking me with less hours with more people. So I agree when Matt talks about building a rock solid team as one of the main reasons he was able to do over 1B in sales. The reason for that is because you can then impact the world and do things at a large scale when you have multiple people moving the needle all at one time. A-players in your business will be the main reason how fast you grow and how fast you perform. They allow you to work in your zone of genius while they focus on needle movers in the business that usually you don’t like doing. When you have the basics in place with a rock solid team – you’ll see a massive difference 1. Marketing // Lead Gen 2. Sales 3. Operations 4. Fulfillment Each of these things should be handled in order to create freedom and the ability to scale. ### Creating Rinse & Repeatable Systems When you hire extremely fast the only way you’re able to not break down your business is when you have a rinse and repeatable process that determines whether someone is a good fit for your company or not. You’ll know with your onboarding process if someone is a good fit or not based on the systems you have in place. If you don’t create systems for hiring you’ll find yourself wasting time not knowing if someone is qualified or not and you’ll also waste time training them. Especially when you’re hiring quickly and at scale you’ll waste weeks at a time just training when all of that can be hands off for you so you can move the needle in your business. ### Creating an Indestructible Culture Matt stressed this topic specifically for this piece. You can have a rock solid team that are A players in their industry… in fact, you can create systems to know if the people you hire can perform. But, the moment the culture isn’t intact, your empire will crumble. Matt says it best: “The reason we have been able to build one of the fastest growing sales teams in the history of direct selling, generating over 1 million customers in less than 9 years, filling up arenas with thousands of people in 5 continents around the world in our quarterly training events for our sales representatives, is because we have intensely focused on building an undeniable culture.” They have a few core values that everyone around them embodies and those are: - Create more Fun, Freedom, and Fulfillment in the lives of others. Not only do our customers get to experience more joy by experiencing our travel membership enjoying peak life experiences, but our independent sales representatives are also able to make a living… living! - If you build people through personal growth and development, you will build a big business. - Fulfillment comes not from what you get, but from what you give. - Work like your life depends on it. Because it does. --- ## Three Ways To Manage Your Energy To Quantum Leap Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/three-ways-to-manage-your-energy-to-quantum-leap-success/ Energy is an infinite resource that must be intelligently channeled if you ever want to achieve real success, but how do you do it? Sydney Campos has the answers on how you can never run out of energy and reach your maximum potential. In today’s always on, always running world, it’s imperative to have the energy for the most important things, including work, family, relationships and doing the things you love. Unlock the secrets to managing energy for quantum leap success using proven tips and tricks from the renowned wellness guru. Once you take these recommendations to heart, you won’t need to worry about running out of power in the middle of the day ever again. Sydney’s tips do not require radical changes; in fact, they’re easy to follow and make a world of difference as you go about your daily life. Ready yourself for success on all its aspects with these pointers. ### Discard The Energy Vampires Believe it or not, you already have plenty of energy every day as you wake up in the morning. Sydney mentions that one of the most common problems of individuals is that they waste potential energy by worrying about a lot of things. This is a bad habit that must be stopped as soon as you notice it happening, or else all your energy will be drained away for nothing. Negative thoughts about the future, thinking about what could have been and problems that haven’t happened yet should be replaced with serene calm and an assertive, confident mindset. So instead of worrying about things, why not Receive, Relax and Rest? This state is most conducive to unleashing your creative side and allows you to recuperate and recover some of the energy lost during the day. Sydney mentions that you are at your most magnetic and powerful when you take breaks from time to time. Slow down, enjoy your surroundings, your family, friends, and life itself. ### Do What You Love 100% Of The Time It makes total sense to devote one’s time for pursuing what they want the moment they get out of bed. Sydney mentions that as individuals, we shouldn’t be dishonest with ourselves and do the things that you don’t want to do. There’s a fine line between carrying out tasks out of obligation and choosing genuine desire and your “soul-calling”. When you stick to a routine, chances are that you waste more than half your energy without getting a sense of satisfaction and self-reward. Stop, think and do a retrospect on what’s happening in your life right now. Are you happy with your work, or are you feeling stuck holding down a 9 to 5 without a future? More importantly, do you think you can do better when you’re finally doing the things you love, and share your passion with other people along the way? Your actions can lead to a major shift, one that could open up a whole world of opportunity and quantum leap success! ### Always Put Yourself First Sydney mentions that individuals must always, always put themselves in the driver’s seat and get their own needs and desires met before anyone else’s. This is a fundamental truth that everyone must apply, regardless of age, sex, career or occupation, and whether you’re a mom, single or retired. It’s not really considered selfish to think this way because the more you feel fulfilled, happy and inspired the better you are at helping our friends and family. You’ll soon feel a flow that drives you forward with more force, efficiency, and energy for excellent output. The energy devoted to oneself and for doing the things you love most isn’t energy wasted. In fact, it can be an infinite well of energy you can draw from to propel yourself to greater success on any aspect. The idea here is to generate some positive buzz by feeling good about yourself, which can serve as momentum for greater heights. It’s not enough to get more energy reserves every day. You will need to utilize that potential and turn it into something great. When you apply Sydney Campos’ tips, you can look forward to increased productivity, and the chance to become successful in your own right. Manage your energy positively and create your own success today! --- ## The Power of AI in Contract Management — Evisort URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-power-of-ai-in-contract-management-evisort/ The impending impact of artificial intelligence (AI) covers a set of different industries and markets, from its congruency with the Internet of Things (IoT) to advanced cognitive platforms like IBM’s Watson. Looking past many of the grandiose visions of an AI-driven future, you will find some of the more practical applications where AI is poised to have a more immediate impression. In particular, the document and contract management sector, which is critical to areas of jurisprudence and business efficiency. “Contracts are like the engines of businesses, driving growth and containing mission-critical obligations and opportunities for organizations,” says Evisort Co-Founder, Jake Sussman. “Still, firms continue to struggle to do something that sounds so simple — connecting contracts to business value.” Evisort is one of the companies working at the edge of the convergence of AI and contract management. Having recently closed a $4.5 million seed round with prominent investment groups like Village Global, Evisort has garnered the spotlight in an area often overlooked but decisive to the sustainable success of any organization. Dubbed the “Google for contracts,” what exactly is Evisort and AI-driven contract management? ### The Market for Contract and Document Management Contract and document management encompasses a range of areas within any functioning business. Everything from customer contracts to healthcare claims to sensor data for industrial machines is documented, stored, and plays a pivotal role in cost management and revenue. In today’s increasingly digital world, even with useful document repositories like DropBox, analyzing and extracting useful information from such vast quantities of pertinent text and other data is often an overwhelming task. “Contract management is a ubiquitous activity among organizations, yet is consistently handled inefficiently,” says Sussman. “The idea that you can leverage better ROI on deals, sales metrics, and logistical data gleaned from documents is powerful but beyond the error-prone capacity of human intellection.” Humans are excellent at identifying patterns and making decisions, but computers are vastly better at plucking data from vast quantities of information, curating it, and organizing it for humans to evaluate. That’s the vision for AI-driven document and contract management: locate, classify, extract, and deliver data to your business. “The downstream advantages of features like benchmarking metrics and triaging risk areas with Evisort are reduced costs and improved response times — a more efficient process overall,” says Sussman. Machine learning models within Evisort can even help to identify risk areas, such as ambiguous contract language or surreptitious clauses that can lead to financial loss. With human error rates consistent across manual entry tasks, AI is a profound opportunity to capitalize on a job that most people find monotonous anyways. “Evisort and AI aren’t just replacements for people, they’re tools that augment their abilities,” says Sussman. ### Evisort Push into Contract Management Evisort has attracted attention outside of its high-profile seed investors. Charles Guetta, a professor at Columbia University, published a review of Evisort’s underlying technology, lauding its versatility. “Evisort is particularly impressive because it demonstrates both the power and limits of AI,” detailed Guetta. “Even when human review is necessary, Evisort provides a suite of non-AI-enhanced tools to go the last mile if needed and reduce review time significantly.” Guetta’s case study reveals the delicate balance between grand visions of AI and practically applying it as a means for augmenting human capacity. Hollywood and industry leaders tend to overestimate the future of AI as if machines will become the prevailing workforce by next year, when, in reality, it is the more subtle applications of machine learning in niche spaces like document management where the largest initial impact will be felt. The impact of Evisort on the fiscal bottom lines of enterprises is not small either. Large enterprises can have voluminous amounts of contracts for procurements, renewal dates, renegotiation terms, and more. The result is intensive human and financial resources. “Contract management requires hundreds of hours and a team of contract managers to both review and also find a way to effectively track all the information to guarantee that no renewals or opportunities are missed.” Spending human resources on such tasks requires ample time and financial resources. With Evisort, data can be aggregated, curated, and analyzed from multiple different contract and document repositories and converged into a single interface. Direct benefits include decreased dispute potential, clarifying content, identifying patterns, pulling renewal dates, and many more. Business processes can be streamlined, with AI functioning as the engine that removes the clutter and affords team members more time to spend on high-value objectives. “The value proposition for AI search is the ability to process large volumes of incoming and legacy enterprise data with a reasonable accuracy level while at the same time reducing how long the process takes,” says Sussman. “Document management and contract analysis can be a monotonous task, but significant risk is exposed if it is not performed properly.” Millions of dollars can be on the line when it comes to contract management, and while AI robots may be the ultimate fantasy of a futuristic society, it is at the enterprise contract level where the immediate impact will be welcomed first. Evisort is banking on AI as the infrastructure underpinning more efficient businesses in the digital age, and their backing of prominent investors only serves to confirm that AI is here to stay in the contract management sector. --- ## How David Lopez Sold Millions Worth Of Products And Services To Different Corporations As An External Representative URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-david-lopez-sold-millions-worth-of-products-and-services-to-different-corporations-as-an-external-representative/ Most people hate changes and don’t want to have to deal with problems. People usually don’t buy if they don’t like or trust you. A person needs to learn to talk to people and connect with different individuals. David Lopez had landed his first sales job in Vancouver, BC, Canada, it was only based on commission. The office he did his interview was part of a huge organisation that has 300 sales offices across North America, the mentor saw a similar fire and drive he had when he was young and saw lots of potential, so he gave him the job. The job consisted of him going business to business selling different services on behalf of Major Corporations. So he had to sell himself because its always been a likeability contest. The offices had to recruit new people all the time because most of them quit, they had a rough time selling in the field and if they didn’t sell, then they would go home with no paycheck. So, he learned that if you don’t hunt, you don’t eat. ### Be Obsessed With Growing In his first week he sold every single day and the second week they promoted him to leadership. That’s where he was able to start building his team to start teaching them what was working for him in the field and trained them until they can teach others. He kept selling consistently week after week. He built a team of great salespeople by performing with the most sales to lead by example. he was always fighting to beat his personal best and didn’t stop until it was done. That’s how he started performing with the highest sales in the country. He won awards for the most high-quality sales in the country multiple times and got featured in the company’s magazine. Eventually he moved on from that company and has kept selling for different companies like, World Vision, ELAVON. In 6 years David has been able to sell Millions worth of products and services while he acquired thousands of customers and continues to do so. They called him the Impulse Technician because he’s always handled objections and finds new ways to do so like a machine. ### Have The Mentality That You Can Make The Difference Recently he founded Majesty Level Marketing where he helps businesses increase profits with his marketing and sales strategies. He keeps selling, but now he does it for his own company and helps individuals grow in sales. If there is anything you can take from him, it would be to believe in yourself. How do expect to close a client if you don’t even believe you can. It all starts within you, every invention in this world came from a belief and that’s what brought it to life. Since day one he believed that he was going to be the best that he can be and that’s a big reason of why all this manifested. Don’t stop believing and take massive action! ### Life Won’t Always Play In Your Favor The days he came back with no sales he would blame himself and not the world. It wasn’t going to get better tomorrow but he had the power to get better and that’s how he became obsessed with finding ways to win, improve and become comfortable being uncomfortable. Something that has really helped him is being an optimistic person, he always looked on the positive side even in bad situations. It allows him to keep the negative away and focus on a better outcome. Without a doubt, that was the key that has opened the door of opportunities in his life. It’s important to have a strong mindset and be super positive because so many people will have a lot of negativity in their life and you can’t let it affect your emotions because it will drag you down. If you don’t learn and apply the knowledge with action then no one will do it for you. It’s important to be constantly learning to be able to grow and reach new levels. Practice will make you an expert, so always keep pushing yourself. --- ## Michelangelo Azzariti’s Top Tips for Photography While Traveling Abroad URL: https://futuresharks.com/michelangelo-azzaritis-top-tips-for-photography-while-traveling-abroad/ Michelangelo Azzariti is a skilled photographer that takes shots of the most spectacular places around the world. Michelangelo Azzariti has a bachelor degree in tourism services. After graduation, he worked as a barman, waiter, and communication assistant. As he was traveling a lot abroad, he fell in love with photography, taking shots of marvelous locations. Over time, he improved his skills and bought new equipment that helped him start a career in photography, promoting himself on the internet. Now, he runs a popular Instagram page, where he posts his photography, and travel experiences, enjoying the admiration of plenty of followers. His success online helped him get a collaboration with many travel websites and luxury hotels. Here are 5 tips from Michelangelo Azzariti on how to take impressive pictures while traveling, and become an influencer online. ### Find Suggestive Corners and Shot In Unique Places When you see a wonderful place, while traveling, the first thing that comes to your mind is taking a picture. Most people capture the front view of the target object, ending up with a standardized photo that pretty much everyone has at home. Michelangelo Azzariti recommends travelers to find suggestive corners of a place that were never explored by any other cameras. He suggests exploiting a famous location, up to the point of reaching a unique angle that would make it look incredibly attractive and outstanding. Despite the fact that front view pictures provide the whole beauty of a place, taking shots from unusual places adds mystery and an eye-catching appeal to the image. For that, try new angles, play with the light and shadow, and don’t be afraid to get fancy a bit. Climb on the trees, and get in the middle of the road to shoot your best pic ever. In this way, your trip abroad will be special, ending up with bright and vivid memories. ### Shot Anyway, Using A Reflex Camera, In the RAW Format Another tip from Azzariti is taking shots anyway. By that, he means that no matter the weather conditions, bad angles, and other factors that would spoil the photo, you should click it anyway. Azzariti recommends using a reflex camera, in manual mode, while traveling. This type of camera allows you to take motion photos, capturing incredible moments on the go that describe the real life in high quality, providing your trip with precious, and funny memories. Perfection has nothing to do with photography, cause the crazier you go, the more valuable pics you get. From Azzariti’s experience, one can capture incredible photos, by accident. Instead of waiting for the perfect moment, dare shot it right away. However, don’t forget to use the RAW format, cause even if the photo sucks, you will get the chance to improve it. The RAW format does not save the color settings, which allows you to edit the photo to your taste, during its conversion. ### Edit Photos With Presets As an influencer on Instagram, Michelangelo Azzariti has to keep an aesthetic, and professional look of his feed. He does it using Lightroom presets, which are special tools that make the editing process faster and help you add more charm and uniqueness to the photos. Presets allow you to avoid the hassle of selecting the right contrast, and color balance, providing you with ready adjustments that you only need to apply to get the desired effect on all of your photos. A homogeneous content gives authenticity and personality to an Instagram feed, attracting more followers. Presets help use the same filters on all pictures, establishing harmony and cohesion among them, which ultimately increases the recognition of the page. Azzariti uses this feature to build interaction with his fans, and promote his work, in the hope of getting more business proposals. At some degree, presets helped him get his photography famous, and achieve incredible career growth. ### Conclusion On the whole, Michelangelo Azzariti is an extremely talented photographer that managed to turn his hobby into a thriving business on Instagram. He discovered his talent while traveling around the world, and now he shares his success secrets with other photography enthusiasts. If you happen to be a travel lover, just take your camera, be fancy, and snapshots on each corner without regret. Who knows, one day you can become an influencer on Instagram followed by Michelangelo Azzariti himself. --- ## Meet the 24 Year Old Who Is Changing the Lives of Thousands with the Social Media Marketing School URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-the-24-year-old-who-is-changing-the-lives-of-thousands-with-the-social-media-marketing-school/ At just 21 years old, Jordan Platten was kicked out of university and had no idea of where to go or what to do with his life. Little did he know that in just two short years, he would be the proud owner of a highly successful marketing agency that makes 6-figure profits. How you may ask? Well, Jordan himself will tell you it wasn’t easy. ### His Journey Jordan Platten was born and raised in Norfolk, UK in a middle-class family. He had everything he needed but not everything he wanted, which left him with the desire for more. When starting school, he found enjoyment in drama and developed a love for acting. Seeing that he was talented at it, Jordan’s mother enrolled him in an acting class which he took up to the age of 18 years. When he got to university, the nightclub industry took over Jordan’s attention which led to him missing important lectures. As a result, Jordan was kicked out of university and thrown into a world where he had to think fast about where he would get the money to sustain himself. His first idea was to look for a sales job. When in school, he juggled a sales job on the weekend which had given him a good idea of the industry. On top of that, the acting classes from his childhood had taught him important life skills that would help him become a better salesman. He knew how to mix well with different types of people and how to capture the attention of audiences effortlessly. Jordan felt confident he could hack being a salesman so he decided to set out to climb the corporate ladder. After working his way through three jobs 2 years in the sales industry, Jordan was still not happy with his life. He had always had an entrepreneurial spirit and it was pushing him to seek greener pastures elsewhere. ### How Jordan Started his Company After 2 years of working in sales, Jordan decided to quit his job and start his own company. After consulting with friends and other experts in the industry, Jordan was introduced to social media marketing which was still a fairly new concept at the time. Being the smart guy he was, Jordan knew there was a reason why everyone was talking about social media marketing so he decided to learn everything there was to know about it. He read books, watched YouTube videos about it, and spent a lot of money on online training courses and mentorship. He spent all his savings on learning materials and finally, he was ready to start his marketing agency. Having learned all the nooks and crannies of social media marketing, Jordan combined this with his prior sales experience and barely three months after launching, his marketing agency was making 6-figure profits. ### Where to find Jordan Today Below are both of Jordan’s businesses that led to the crazy success he has had. Using both businesses Jordan is not only impacting himself but thousands of people who learn from him. #### 1. His marketing agency Jordan’s marketing agency is highly regarded in the industry and has worked with a host of high profile clients. The agency provides paid ad management services for various international companies. Each of his clients pay him on a monthly retainer basis. In his first year of business, Jordan made a quarter of a million at just 24 years old. In turn, Jordan’s company has generated over $500,000 in extra revenue for his clients. #### 2. His Training Business (The Social Media Marketing School) Having successfully quit his job, Jordan is on a mission to help many other people quit their jobs and find alternative means of making money. He started his online training business where he teaches people from all over the world how to build successful social media marketing businesses. He sells a full online training course on as well as other products aimed at helping people grow their skills, including his published book ‘The 15 Minute Agency’. Ever since Jordan found success with his marketing agency, he has helped over 100 people quit their jobs and find something that they really enjoy doing. His training business has over 1,000 enrolled students, from stay-at-home mothers to university dropouts. His ongoing mission is to help like-minded individuals all over the world to pursue a better life through self-employment. --- ## Minc Law Comes up with Creative Solutions for Businesses Facing Online Attacks from Individuals Weaponizing Social Media URL: https://futuresharks.com/minc-law-comes-up-with-creative-solutions-for-businesses-facing-online-attacks-from-individuals-weaponizing-social-media/ To understand the magnitude and prominence of the Internet in an average person’s everyday life, consider how often you turn to search engines and websites in order to make decisions. Everyone browses the Internet with a purpose, whether it be searching for a job, communicating with friends, killing time, or obtaining important information about a specific business or individual. And, even though it’s impossible to verify everything we read on the Internet, most of us choose to believe it – especially when the information comes from a “high authority website.” In today’s day and age, almost every business can attribute some percentage of success to their online presence and reputation. It’s therefore imperative for businesses and companies to stay proactive towards their online reputation, as a single libelous review or post, could ultimatelypose a serious threat to their business’s success, growth, and future. However, with the rise of user-generated content websites and other online platforms, it’s becoming even more difficult to monitor and control what’s published online about you or your business. As a result, online defamation has become a very present reality over the years, something affecting nearly every industry. Minc Law, a law firm founded byattorney Aaron Minc was started as a response to increasing online defamation and libel attacks over the years. In the firm’s tenure, defamation attorneyAaron Minc and his team of 7 attorneys have helped thousands of individuals and business remove negative and false online information, posts, and reviews from websites, blogs, and news publications. They’ve now solidified themselves at the helm of the fight against malicious and libelous online attacks not only in the U.S., but across the globe. ## The Solution: Minc Law Speaking with Cleveland-based Internet defamation attorney Aaron Minc, he opened up about the role lawyers play in the fight against online defamation and the types of services offered by Minc Law. Services, which can and should only be provided by a law firm. While reputation repair and management firms may claim to possess the requisite skills, knowledge, and resources for removing online defamation, they pale in comparison to experienced Internet defamation removal attorneys. Minc noted, unlike their competitors, the defamation attorneys of Minc Law are able to provide acomprehensive suite of content and post removal services, which includes the subpoenaing of websites and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to identity anonymous Internet users and search engine de-indexing. Minc continued, “We can also get court orders to remove content not only from websites, but we can also sometimes get information removed from search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing when content can’t otherwise be removed from a website directly.” ## A Comprehensive Suite of Legal & Reputation Monitoring Services In order to stay ahead of the competition, in a highly saturated legal sector, Aaron had to come up with a way to keep his clients satisfied. To do so, he began expanding his services offered, now providing more than just legal services to defamation victims. Minc Law now provides online reputation management services, review management services, expert witness services, and cyber investigations services. Furthermore, Minc Law plays an active role in assisting countless individuals and businesses with directory and privacy sweeps of personal and sensitive information. And, unlike other competitors in today’s online defamation removal arena, Minc Law also offers search engine andsocial media monitoring solutions for individuals and businesses. Affirming Minc Law’s ability to secure results, Aaron states, “We work with the websites from which you want your information removed or are having an issue with. We know the best and quickest ways to get a resolution.” ## New Age Solutions to Old Problems Minc Law’s utilization of novel technological solutions to identify anonymous online posters and remove online defamation has positioned them at the forefront of a new way to combat defamation. Aaron states, “We offer new age solutions for a new kind of law. From the way we intake clients, update them, and handle all legal matters, the whole firm is designed in such a way that each and every stakeholder is able to maximize their knowledge and experienced handling the kind of cases they receive every single day.” With the exploration of programmatic growth ventures and on-the-job learning modules, Minc Law is able to offer cutting edge solutions to a wide array of problems their clients want solved. ## Final Thoughts While online defamation and malicious attacks might stand to threaten the success of your business or personal reputation, it’s now far from a death sentence thanks to Aaron Minc and the defamation removal attorneys of Minc Law. In Aaron Minc’s world, what goes on the Internet, doesn’t have to stay there forever. Him and his team can help get it removed, and potentially hold whoever was behind the defamation liable for damages. If you’ve been the victim of online defamation, false reviews, and other malicious accusations,head on over to the Minc Law website to find out how to clear your name and take back your reputation. --- ## Ivan Wongs 5 Tips to Catching Photography Trends Before They Happen URL: https://futuresharks.com/ivan-wongs-5-tips-to-catching-photography-trends-before-they-happen/ To stay on top of the game, you have to understand the direction of the market. In fact, you have the ability to predict and catch the momentum before you lose it. But how can one predict the future? Is that even possible? The answer is yes, and no. The trick is to learn how to adapt quickly in a vastly rapid and unpredictable world. Ivan Wong, a profoundly influential photographer shares his 5 fundamental tips to thrive in an age of social media as a professional or aspiring photographer. Ivan (@ivvnwong) has amassed 135K+ followers on Instagram by creating and posting content that have garnered reposts and gone viral over the 3 years that he has been active in photography. ## Filtering your Feed Adjusting how you filter the information is the main key to understanding the influence on social platforms. Identifying the platforms that hold the most influence is the first step to understanding the direction of the industry. You want to be able to appeal to your audience with the most reach. By understanding what appeals to your audience, you can tap into their appeal to benefit your marketing strategies. One of the best ways to catch the traffic is to go on the large social platforms like Instagram to find trends and catch them while they’re coming. As of April 2019, 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram per day. Over 40 billion photos and videos have been shared on the Instagram platform since its conception There’s many gems to be found in this abundance of photos, but finding the valuable ones will take time. If you’re lucky, you can open the app and immediately identify something that you think will be the next hit. Otherwise, it can take hours scrolling and filtering on countless images to spot a growing trend. Look for popular hashtags with your theme where photographers big and small are using. Look for small accounts with big engagement on a photo (be it likes or comments). Look for photos of places, photography techniques, and themes that are feed stoppers. Did someone shoot a perspective never before seen? Can you do the same? Can you carry over the themes to your images? Can you replicate a technique that people are excited about? Be careful with trends that are seemingly popular, but are however “tacky” or “gimmicky,” called fads. They may be popular now, but will die quickly and won’t help you evolve as a photographer. ## Expand Your Field of Vision Expanding the content of your expertise is a great way to reach a larger audience given that there are interests that are often beyond the scope of our own interests. Trends often circulate through different platforms and different audiences even within a platform. By expanding your knowledge through other categories across platforms you can share concepts, colors, and aesthetics that respond well upon different categories. Using similar colors, design patterns and other aesthetics from different groups can help you bridge ideas and familiarity to your own craft. For example, being a landscape photographer doesn’t mean that you have to stick to finding trends from landscape photography groups. Look outside these groups for more inspiration. Maybe lifestyle bloggers are going to specific places that are becoming popular with them that could be interesting for you. Maybe the fashion industry has identified certain patterns or textures that are being taken notice and you can find the same in nature. ## Repetition Identify patterns and trends. See what catches people’s attention, why it catches their attention and refine your content to match these patterns while the trend is circulating and reaching its highest potential. This is a great way to boost exposure and create a movement that is beyond your personal agenda. Drawing the attention of like-minded individuals is a powerful tool that you can use in your favor. By repeating this pattern, you can create a new trend that follows similar patterns that will receive massive circulation due to the response of popularity and familiarity. ## Own It Treading on new terrain can be a scary step for many people. There’s plenty of room to make mistakes, and there’s an uncomfortable feeling that treading into unknown territory can lead to negative responses or brand degradation if implemented improperly. Own it. By believing in the influence you hold, you can manifest great feedback and support of your ideas simply by believing and executing. Being a pioneer is difficult and obviously some ideas may not work, but it’s the spirit of experimenting and learning that’s also part of the photography journey and a method of growth. By doing, not just thinking, you can test your limits, what you’re comfortable with, what you’re willing to break into, and who you want to become as a photographer. Don’t confuse this with being conceited, but instead believing in the purpose of your ambition. ## Recalibrate Your Mentality Trends come and go. Don’t hold on to a trend after it’s begun to die down. Learn to train yourself to move on and persist with surfacing content and allow the natural momentum to carry you instead of riding an old wave. Trends tend to circulate very quickly and can easily become saturated. You don’t want to be caught at the tail end because it adds no real brand potential. You may end up looking “gimmicky” and a “follower,” not a leader. Once a trend has become saturated, you would have already started the next one. ## Staying Ahead of the Curve Using Ivan Wong’s tips, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can turn a failing dream into a growing entrepreneurial journey. In fact, simply by understanding these rules you’ll find that the world can move in your favor as long as remain aware and actively working on your dreams. Learning to use the tides in your favor is better than fighting the current for your own personal agenda. Some people have negative connotations about following trends, arguing that work should be timeless. True, sometimes it’s worthwhile to stick with the basics of photography, but I would argue that without taking risks and experimenting with a new style, creating new trends, you won’t be pioneering the future of photography. Annie Leibovitz is famous for pioneering engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, often featuring them in intimate settings and poses. Josh Rossi is famous for turning photos of children into superheroes and inspiring other children photographers to do the same. --- ## The Founder of LA Design Build Shares How His Company Emerged in a Crowded Real Estate Market URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-founder-of-la-design-build-shares-how-his-company-emerged-in-a-crowded-real-estate-market/ When it comes to LA real estate there is one name that many people think of, that name is Armin Missaghi. Missaghi is the founder of LA Design Build which is a Southern California based design build company fueled by innovation. Missaghi is the type of business owner who shows relaxed confidence because he believes in his companies abilities. Time and time again he has proven his timeless and unique design skills all while delivering it in an incredible delivery time. Armin actually moved to the U.S. at the age of 18. His situation was difficult because he had limited education so he had limited opportunities in the U.S.. One of his first jobs was in retail. He constantly struggled to make sales but he always tried his best which caught the attention of his boss. His boss encouraged him to study sales and learn the way people think and operate so he would be able to close more deals. It only took him 4 years of being in another country to be able to buy himself a home. It wasn’t perfect and he had some issues with the bathroom so he decided to renovate it himself. Missaghi has a pretty short attention span and goes crazy when a task takes more than a few days to accomplish. He does not like to waste any time. After he was done renovating that house he learned a lot and went on to sell the house and he quickly realized that he wanted to continue on that path. That is when he decided to get into the real estate space. He received his builders and realtors license in the same year and founded LA Design Build in 2003. After the market collapsed in 2008, Missaghi decided to change up his business strategy and he teamed up with investors to work on larger scale projects. Missaghi states that “Custom builds are our specialty and my favorite. We transform the seemingly ordinary spaces into an unimaginable experience from the moment you step into the door”. Missaghi takes notice to the little details and does it in a very timely manner. He also said that he wishes he had held on to some of his past properties he has sold because he believes that he should have rented them out. Before a potential buyer even walks in the house Missaghi has made sure that he has gone over every single corner to make sure it’s a lovely experience for anyone who wishes to purchase the space. When Missaghi first started his business he built his companies portfolio from 2 house to 29 houses in just a few years. He has a true passion for real estate which is why he was able to reach a great number of listings under his name. Now, Missaghi has over 16 years of experience in real estate and LA Build Design has some very high profile clients. They are setting the bar when it comes to the quality, price, and delivery time of a project. They take the time to visualize how the buyer will experience the house on a daily basis and they turn their ideas into a reality. --- ## Why AI Will Take Over for Contract Review and Contract Management URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-ai-will-take-over-for-contract-review-and-contract-management/ # Contracts are like the engines of businesses, driving growth and containing mission- and business-critical obligations and opportunities for organizations. But still, firms continue to struggle to do something that sounds so simple: connecting contracts to business value. Just take a look at the opportunities that can be lost in a typical Fortune 1000 company that manages between 20,000 to 40,000 active contracts at any given time.Legal Tech News says at least 10 percent of contracts are misplaced and hard to find, or that still remain in paper form, buried as an attachment in an email, or on a file share somewhere. The sheer volume of contracts that any given company has to contend with on a daily basis is staggering. Contracting is indeed a common activity, but it’s also one that few companies can handle efficiently or effectively. In fact, inefficient contracting is estimated to cause firms to lose between five and 40 percent of value on a given deal, according to theHarvard Business Review. However, that’s all changing drastically thanks to recent technological developments in the form of artificial intelligence (AI), which is helping companies overcome many of the challenges that come with contracting. For one, AI solutions canactivate important data in your contracts across your organization, in any number of industries, from legal and finance to sales and operations. **Challenges Facing Companies Today** The main challenge firms like yours may face in contracting stem from the huge numbers of contracts you have to keep track of. Not only do they lack uniformity, they’re hard to organize, manage, and update. Most firms don’t even have a main database in which to keep all the information in their contracts – let alone have an efficient way of extracting all that data. It’s nearly impossible to view complicated and detailed outsourcing agreements, determine how a certain clause is worded across various divisions, or locate renewal dates and renegotiation terms. It involves a lot of manpower to draft, execute, improve and update not just the actual contracts themselves, but the contracting processes and transactions all those contracts oversee. When using advanced software with AI capabilities, firms can see a big boost in productivity and efficiency in their contracting. In fact, the use of AI contracting software can improve how all firms contract in three main ways: - By changing or enhancing the tools firms utilize to contract - By influencing the content of contracts - By impacting the processes by which firms contract **The AI Solution** Let’s say you’re a large tech company and you have a staggering volume of procurement contracts on your hands, all with different renewal dates and renegotiation terms. If you look at it objectively, this would require hundreds of hours and a team of contract managers to not only review them all but to also find a way to effectively track all the information to ensure that no renewals or opportunities go unseen. Do you have that kind of money, time or resources? Probably not. AI software, on the other hand, can: - Easily extract data and clarify content. - Quickly pull and organize renewal dates and renegotiation terms. - Allow you to review contracts quickly. - Allow you to organize and find huge amounts of contract data more readily. - Decrease contract dispute potential. - Elevate the volume of contracts you are able to negotiate and execute. The ability to effectively and consistently use data to gain insights is critical to any large business. It’s no wonder that AI is being applied to data search and information discovery in an effort to automate processing in business areas ranging from legal to human resources. AI can be used by businesses to effectively manage and gain insights from the data they have been collecting. Not only does AI help reduce the time it takes to process, it enables automation that directly improves efficiency in business operations. **Industry-Specific Solutions** Legal teams, for instance, should be spending their time negotiating high-value contracts rather than slogging through contract metadata. AI for contract management can: - Identify, classify, and extract key clauses and terms: Easily search for specific or similar language in order for your team to make necessary changes. - Identify risks and obligations within contracts: Pull up a contract and immediately view verbiage that has been tagged yellow or red for review. - Recommend or swap out terms from clause libraries: Quickly replace or switch out terms with language pre-approved for use. - Predict risk that comes with new regulations in order to recommend amendments to renewals: Identify terms and key clauses that could introduce risk and replace them with suggested amendments designed to protect your business. As another example, corporate legal and HR teams at larger firms handle thousands of contracts every day, including data from: - Supplier contracts - Merger and acquisition contracts - Real estate contracts and deeds - Healthcare claims or contract documents - Sensor data for industrial machines - Vehicular data for heavy industry fleets - Raw material supply orders and invoices in construction industry - Data concerning enterprise employees and corporate hires The value proposition for AI search is the ability to process large volumes of incoming and legacy enterprise data with a reasonable accuracy level while at the same time reducing how long the process takes. AI can help companies such as the above leverage contract data to improve common business functions. **Contact Evisort** Evisort is at the cutting edge of AI technology for contract review and contract management. Get in now to start improving your business operations and start realizing a stronger bottom line. Contact us or request a demo online. --- ## How John Danes Built a Top 100 Business Podcast in 10 Months URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-john-danes-built-a-top-100-business-podcast-in-10-months/ Meet John Danes. A 19 year old entrepreneur from Nashville, Tennessee. Growing up, he always struggled with academics. Attending multiple different schools, he was inevitabley tested for ADD every year. In spite of his lack of attention in the classroom, John was always a young hustler. He sold sneakers, golf balls, action figures and anything else he could get his hands on. As John entered his sophomore year of high school, his failing grades and poor behavior ultimately led to his expulsion. Transitioning to homeschooling gave him the freedom to learn what he wanted, when he wanted. At sixteen, he dedicated most of his time and attention to building a very profitable business reselling sneakers. During his Junior year, he took the only class that he felt ever truly benefited him: Dave Ramsey’s Personal Finance course. Fascinated with money and the way it worked, he excelled in his studies. During his Senior year he decided to launch a podcast, just as he had seen Dave Ramsey do. He used his profits from reselling sneakers to buy all of the equipment necessary to make it happen. While launching his podcast, he was also running his digital marketing agency, 99MEDIA. Although he was still in high school and already running a business, he was determined to tackle the beast of podcasting. In essence of the many factors that were stacked against him, he decided to name the podcast The No Excuses Show. Starting the podcast came with a fair share of struggles. It took John 15 tries to record a 6 minute episode and the first interview he did had zero audio. However, John had developed persistence throughout his life and he wasn’t going to quit over a few hiccups. He pushed himself to learned more about podcasting and studied some of the greatest podcasters. Setting a target to be a great podcaster himself, he wasn’t going to stop until he hit the mark. He did the only things he knew how to do, put in more work and prayed for results. He started by reaching out to successful entrepreneurs online, only to recieve an underwhelming response. Until one day, after persistent effort, he secured an interview with the famous millionaire stock trader, Ricky Guitterez. He was given the opportunity to fly out to Arizona and be the very first podcast that Ricky had appeared on. John marked this experience as the first time he had seen wealth in great abundance. He left Arizona hungry and motivated for growth. The traffic that had come with Ricky’s interview essentially overnight, gave the podcast the boost that it needed. John decided to double-down and keep it growing. When he got home to Tennessee, he started reaching out to all of Ricky’s friends, using the interview as leverage to feature them as well. He started to scale quickly and at 17 episodes, The No Excuses Show was ranked #39 on the iTunes business charts. Although John encountered a bumpy road along his journey to podcasting success, his determination and persistent action paved the way for him. John’s story is proof that if you set a goal and work hard enough, there is nothing that you can not acheive. --- ## How This Mobile App Will Change The Way We Invest In Crypto URL: https://futuresharks.com/snowballapp/ Snowball, the mobile app that promises to revolutionize the way people invest in cryptocurrency is now set to publicly launch to US-based iOS users in late June with Android and eventual global release to follow. The app, who has established major partnerships with Kraken, PrimeTrust, Plaid and Bittrex boosts one, easy to use place for investors to begin their crypto investing journey. They aim to not only make mass adoption possible but to also make it as seamless and easy for the investor to find success by handling most of the due diligence on the back end of the app. Following in the footsteps of Vanguard’s John Bogle who pioneered traditional index fund investing the Snowball app will strictly offer bundled investment options or what they call “crypto portfolios”, all of which have been hand selected and heavily vetted by their team of professionals and are set to automatically rebalance to follow the fund’s allocations. Taking out the guesswork and extensive research needed to figure out which tokens to buy and sell. The mobile app was approved earlier this year by the SEC as a Registered Investment Advisor, becoming one of the first platforms of it’s kind to be registered with the SEC and allowing them to make investment recommendations through their mobile application. *“I am a believer in an open financial system that is democratized and doesn’t require a middle man to be able to transact, especially for overseas remittances; however, the ICO boom and bust taught us that if one is managing others money, they should be held accountable. This is why Snowball has decided to become a Registered Investment Advisor and was granted this license from the SEC.” – Parul Gujral, Snowball CEO* **How a fund is selected** Each fund that is offered on the Snowball app must be professionally managed and have a minimum of $10M assets under management, assuring they are actively managed with thorough thought and extensive knowledge behind all buying and selling decisions that are made. From there the team looks at the funds overall investment strategy, looking for a well-thought out thesis and begins to analyze the funds long term performance. For more information about Snowball’s fund selection process, How Does Snowball Create Its Portfolios?. **Year end Tax Reporting** Another major feature included in the company’s Whitepaper that users of Snowball can look forward to is complete tax optimization and tax loss harvesting. The app plans to track each individual transaction that is automatically made to rebalance the user’s chosen crypto portfolio and then will calculate gains/losses and estimated tax liabilities on a downloadable end of year statement similar to a 1099 that you would receive from a traditional Brokerage firm. Their official public launch is now scheduled for late June but limited invites are still available to Beta Test the app ahead of that. To apply for a Beta Testing invite an application is available here. --- ## Why You Should Never Quit: With Case Kenny URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-you-should-never-quit-with-case-kenny/ I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Case Kenny who is the host of the iTunes top 100 podcast “https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-mindset-who-dis/id1383599078?mt=2” “New Mindset, Who Dis”. He is also the founder of the daily self development email PRSUIT where he writes to over 209,000 people each day. I had the opportunity to ask him several questions about his success, challenges, responsibilities, and if he ever thought about quitting. Here is what he had to say: **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** I started blogging in 2014 as a creative outlet. I’ve always been a voracious reader and writer and wanted to continue that passion after college so it was a natural fit for me. At the time I was working in advertising at a couple of agencies in Chicago and over time came to learn what it would take to become a successful and impactful blogger. I started prsuit.com with that perspective as a means to host my content and in 2018 it started to blow up. I now write to over 209,000 people each morning via the daily email and started the New Mindset, Who Dis podcast to bring my writing to life. In only 7 months the podcast hit 1,000,000 downloads and now sits in the iTunes top 100 podcasts. I use my Instagram (@case.kenny / “https://instagram.com/case.kenny”) to communicate with my listeners and encourage them to message me. I get hundreds of DMs each day as a result and it’s super fulfilling and humbling to be in this position. It has led to amazing opportunities, an incredible network and impactful brand sponsorships like the one I have with Microsoft. I am a writer and podcaster at heart but am also an entrepreneur as I make a living from my content through sponsorships, speaking events and my own products. It’s a unique mix of talent, sales and persistence. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I have considered quitting a lot! Starting and growing a podcast (much less one that is highly listened to and makes money) is very difficult. It requires you to really stand out, be consistent and give people a reason to want to listen to you. When I initially started I was getting maybe 50,00-60,000 downloads a month and I started to seriously question why I was doing what I was doing and why I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I considered calling it quits. Fortunately I didn’t, I put my head down and kept publishing, fine-tuning my voice and message and in October 2018, the podcast blew up. It ranked #26 in the world on the charts and #8 in the world as a Self Help podcast. Subscribers started to pour in and I felt energized to continue delivering my message. Consistency is everything. When you combine that with a genuine approach to content and a personality that is raw and approachable, I think you have a winning formula to create a popular podcast that is impactful. --- ## Digital Entrepreneurship Is The New Way Of Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/digital-entrepreneurship-is-the-new-way-of-business/ **Digital Entrepreneurship** We are currently thriving in a digital age. Where marketing costs have become more and more affordable, and the entrepreneurial dream has become a reality. Creativity and authenticity is the new strategy, and all of this can be done through digital entrepreneurship. What is digital entrepreneurship? Basically, just how it sounds, in broad terms it is defined as, “creating new ventures and transforming existing businesses by developing novel digital technologies and/or novel usage of such technologies,” (researchgate.net). But it’s much deeper than just using the Internet to grow and sustain a business. It’s the combination of traditional business practices and the use of new age technology. This is the biggest opportunity for any entrepreneur to take on and be able to succeed as they make their impact on the world. If you are not hopping on this train, you need to! **The Impact** How many people in your life do you know never use the Internet? My guess, no one. There are almost 2 billion people that currently use and have access to the Internet today, and that’s just mobile. This is where everyone is, all the time, all over the world. This digital revolution is the most affordable way to become an entrepreneur. Instead of making an impact locally, you can scale your business nationally, even globally! Researchgate.net even states that, “Digital entrepreneurship has been viewed as a critical pillar for economic growth, job creation and innovation by many countries.” Thanks to digital entrepreneurship, we can now conveniently shop for anything and even be delivered within 24 hours to us. It has allowed people to be able to learn anything they want online, become certified, even receive a college degree, all online. It has inspired many people to start their own online business. Young entrepreneurs have taken on the world, creating innovative ideas to help grow our economy and everyday conveniences. The best part about being apart of this digital entrepreneurial venture, is that it is SO much more doable than the traditional ways of owning a business. **The numbers** You don’t have to just take our word for it. Statistics show the impact of having your business digitized has. According to Entrepreneur.com, “the United States has 286.9 million internet users.” and that’s the US ALONE. The Internet World Stats says, as of June 2016, 8 out of 10 people are using the Internet in Asia, and the numbers have risen since. In 2017, Tecmundo states that, “3 billion: approximately 40% of the global population actively uses social media” This is where your consumers spend their time, this is where you want to be. Connecting with them on a more real level, getting creative and standing out from your competition. Digital Information World shows us that the average person spends about 2 hours and 22 minutes on social media. This gives businesses more than 2 hours of FREE marketing towards those consumers! **All Entrepreneurs Should Go Digital** If you own a business, and you are not online, now is the time to get on there! Going digital not only allows for inexpensive start up costs, detailed marketing strategies, and even faster growth to scale your business. But you are now capable of reaching hundreds of thousands more people than you could ever possibly do without the Internet. You can make a much bigger impact on the world if you are where all of your potential consumers are. Building a larger network of like-minded individuals and developing lasting relationships with consumers. The online world has also given entrepreneurs the opportunity to work with and collaborate with similar companies. Instead of competing against each other, the integrated approach seems to be much more effective when growing your business. You can now build a network with like-minded entrepreneurs and collaborate. This brings both sides value and consumers, and more eyes on both of you. **Why is this important** For entrepreneurs and those who want to start their own business, going digital is so important. As I mentioned above, this is where everyone is. It would be like planning and setting up a party and forgetting to invite people. Without the invite you don’t get your name and face out there, sharing what you’re all about. No one will show up. Now I’m not saying if your business is not online, you will not succeed. What I am saying is that going digital is key to MASSIVELY grow your business. This new age has brought a lot of attention on authenticity. People want to know you’re a real human being, and not just some cheesy sales person trying to make a quick buck. Digital entrepreneurs can authentically engage with their consumers every single day. Sharing live videos, commenting and messaging within their niche all allows for a personal relationship to be developed, which means more loyal customers. All business owners understand the importance of loyal customers. We now have the opportunity to personalize our brand with our target market. The digital age has been able to create a much bigger influencer than ever before. --- ## How This Entertainer Plans to Make His Mark on The World URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-this-entertainer-plans-to-make-his-mark-on-the-world/ Sergio was born in Madrid, Spain, and at a tender age of 15, he was determined enough to abandon his home to serve his need to know the world. After progressing in multiple countries, many jobs and ventures settled in Los Angeles, California where he now stays with his wife and 3 daughters. In addition to having revolutionized the world of marketing and sales, Sergio has conquered audiences in the United States with his television show “El Pelado de la Noche.” A program designed, produced and presented by himself. This show aired nationally on Primetime. In his role as administrator, Sergio Bruna is one of the most striking personalities in the world of renewable energy nationwide . Recognized as the best coach in the industry and having broken sales records year after year, Sergio is assigned to taking his solar panel company to the top. As an Entertainer, Bruna has definitely made his presence known. Bruna owns “Triple Cap WorldWide”; a production firm that produces television shows, films and builds applications for mobile devices. Once authenticated in the production industry, Sergio saw the need for a Spanish Late Night Talk show in the United States of America. The late-night talk show is a form of TV Show that has been proven to be successful for almost 50 years across the world, yet, no one was actually doing it. Bruna saw this as a venture and chose to take precession. He displayed his talent as not only the Creator but also an Executive Producer, Writer, and Host of the first Spanish Late Night Talk Show in the USA “El Pelado De La Noche” and formulated the first late-night talk show platform for Spanish speaking audiences. As the show grew in demand, he then commissioned it to the second largest producer of Spanish content on the planet. “El Pelado De La Noche” now airs Nationwide on prime time at 10 PM, the most coveted time-slot. As an artist, businessperson published author and inspirational speaker, and an Icon in Spanish Industry Sergio has experience in numerous fields of passion like no other. His years of expertise including fulfillment in each of these fields gives him an unfair but earned advantage. While just one man, his versatility has enabled him to begin to build realm within the Spanish vocal market! Alongside his late-night talk show, Bruna also recently just shot his first comedy special, which happened to be very successful; selling out the world famous “Improv Comedy Club” in Hollywood. The whole act was delivered entirely in Spanish, which was the first of its kind at the Club. He is now overseeing out for a stand-up comedy tour traveling nationwide throughout the United States. At the completion of his tour, he plans to travel to Puerto Rico and produce his own film “Sinverguenzas”. Currently, Bruna depicts Chevrolet in the Spanish-speaking market worldwide. Having solicited more than 100 commercials for Chevrolet, Bruna has been the centerpiece of their Spanish campaign for almost 5 years now. As overall sales have risen by 34 percent, making this the most successful ad campaign ever so far, as ROI goes, General Motors ensures us that this campaign “is not going anywhere.” This means a lot to Sergio, as GM just experienced evaluation of $55 billion. While certainly having an abundance of credentials, Bruna’s mission and true passion are to drive, prompt, and authorize others to become the best possible version of themselves. Bruna is the author of a book and actively holds workshops and event in which both are titled “Unstoppable.” Having performed full-day seminars in front of as many as 3,000 people on stages as recognized as the Los Angeles Convention Center, Bruna looks to transform the lives of thousands of souls all over the world. --- ## 5 FOOLPROOF TOOLS TO HELP YOU GROW YOUR INSTAGRAM URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-foolproof-tools-to-help-you-grow-your-instagram/ It is no secret that Instagram is the main social media tool for businesses and brands to grow over the next couple years. Instagram gets opened more than 24 times a day and used 32 minutes on average daily, according to an independent study by HootSuite. Here are the top 5 tools you need to succeed on Instagram. **1. WhenToPost App** This app analyzes your profile, your followers and finds the highest engagement times. I know several of my friends and I have tested this many different ways and it truly does give you the best times to post. Following this has increased engagement for me by over 250%. I typically find the photo and write the captions long before actually posting and set a reminder in my calendar to remind me to post. I do not use automatic post schedulers because it hurts engagement, but that is something you can test on your own profile. **2. Follow Track App** This app looks at your total comments, likes per posts, views per video, new followers per day and unfollows. It is a great tool to get lots of data. Think of it as Google Analytics for Instagram. **3. CutStory App** CutStory allows you to “cut” videos that are longer (16 seconds or longer) into Instagram Story sized clips (15 second intervals). For example, if you have a 45 second video you would like to share, simply upload the video to CutStory and it will cut them into 3 separate videos that allow you to upload them to your story without getting your videos cutoff. **4. Instagram Calculator** Influencer marketing is growing daily and you may want to mimic what other profiles are doing or work with them on a joint venture or even do shoutouts on specific pages. This tool looks at a profile and determines the engagement rate. Typically, influencers get about 1.5 to 3% engagement. The larger the profiles, the less engaged they typically are. Great example of us, I was going to buy a shoutout and was debating if a page with 225k followers would work better than a page with 2.5 million followers (same niche). I used this calculator and learned that the one with millons of followers gets a .01% engagement rate while the page with 250k followers gets 8.5%….you can probably guess which one I ended up going with. **5. Line Breaker** Apps4life doesn’t have the most user friendly or fun UI but it does work well. Have you ever made an Instagram post within Instagram and added line breaks and then posted it to only realize that Instagram took all your line breaks out and now your post is one long cluster of text? It is the worst! Well, Apps4life solved that issue. Simply write your caption in the box and hit convert and paste that text into Instagram and it will keep the line breaks. My process is typically writing in a notepad and then copying it into this box and clicking convert, but your process can be different. I just spend several days developing my copy and a notepad makes it easy to add and edit. These are 5 must have Instagram tools. In the comments, please let me know if you have questions or comments and be sure to follow me on Instagram (haris_reis) as I document my journey from going from 500 to 50k followers in 365 days! - **P.S. – I share many tools and tips for business!** --- ## Blake Linder Talks Streetwear, Culture and Influence URL: https://futuresharks.com/blake-linder-talks-streetwear-culture-and-influence/ For those who don’t know, Blake Linder is a 17 year old full-time highschool student that runs a successful sneaker/streetwear YouTube channel. The content he creates is based on his love for filmmaking and his love for the culture of sneakers and fashion. Being from Los Angeles, Blake takes to the streets in every video to record the hottest and newly released fashion. He also hits up Downtown Los Angeles to visit @havasole to hand out sneakers to the less fortunate. Blake has amassed a social media following with over 300,000 followers on Instagram and over 629,000 subscribers on YouTube. He started off as a young 12 year old with a few sneakers and a passion for creating videos. Being persistent with his uploads, attracting a bigger and wider audience with each one which has led to the following and impact he has now. I had the pleasure of interviewing Blake, here is what he had to say: ## @HAVEASOLE A few years ago Blake was shown the instagram account @Havasole. SInce streetwear is one of his passions he was interested right away. Being able to give back to the less fortunate in a sneaker related manner was important to him. **Blake Linder:** I sent a message to the account and got a response back from Rikki, the founder. We set up a date for me to come down to the headquarters and see what it was all about. The first time I visited Havasole, I was astonished. Rikki explained and show me the 1000s of pairs he had collected from different sponsors and companies all for giving back to the people of LA that needed new shoes the most. From that day on, I would frequently visit Rikki and I would hand shoes to the homeless of DT LA with Rikki and his team which has always been an amazing experience. Being able to get so up close with someone who has been through so much and at the same time be able to connect with that person over a common love and interest is one of the greatest feelings I have felt. ## Consistency and Persistence **Blake Linder:**My advice for anyone who wants to start taking social media serious and build an influence is to be consistent and persistent. Consistency and being persistent is so important. With my channel, things didn’t take off at the very start. I had to create a lot of content and believe in myself and my skills in order to grow my channel. When things didn’t go how I had hoped, I had to keep creating more and more videos, instead of feeling down and wanting to give up ## Learn From Others **Blake Linder:**A fellow sneaker youtuber by the name of Qias Omar helped me grow my channel at the beginning. He featured my early on sneaker collection and the video was seen by many fellow sneakerheads. Qias is known as the OG of the sneaker youtuber community and really started the whole base of sneaker videos on Youtube. I look up to Qias as a mentor and as a close friend who has taught me so much on how to have success on this platform., > “The best part of my success has to be the impact that I have made on so many young viewers of my videos. It’s one of the best feelings when a supporter comes up to me at a random time and place and tells you how much your content and work means to them.”Blake Linder ## Defining Success **Blake Linder:**My personal definition of success is that if what you’re doing has a positive impact on someone else’s life, then you’re doing it right. ## Advice For Those Starting Out **Blake Linder:**I wish someone had told me that no matter what you do or say on social media, you still can’t make everyone happy. There are always going to be haters no matter what. Also, when I had my low times on YouTube, such as slow growth on the channel, I wish someone had told me that consistency was a key early on. This is something I recognize now. ## The Streetwear Influence **Blake Linder:** The culture of streetwear and how basketball players I looked up to were wearing the newest kicks really took me in. Fashion and how someone dresses depends a lot on what is hot and trending at the time. ## Thanks for speaking with us Blake, How can our readers follow you on social media? **Blake Linder:**My Instagram is @blakelinder and my YouTube channel is @BSNEAK --- ## How to Create Engaging Instagram Stories Ads (and Why You Must) URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-create-engaging-instagram-stories-ads-and-why-you-must/ From boosting engagement rates to helping brands show a more human, spontaneous side, Instagram Stories has proven itself as a marketing powerhouse. Its importance has magnified once Instagram’s algorithm made it more difficult for brands to get the visibility they once could in News Feed, driving marketers to turn to the ephemeral feature in the quest to reclaim their audience’s attention. The numbers speak for themselves: according to Instagram’s reports, one-third of the most viewed Stories are the ones published by businesses, while 20% of Stories result in user interactions via direct message. Now, there are different ways to utilize the potential of Stories to promote your business, and a devoted Instagram marketing strategy will incorporate all these different tactics. Running Stories ads stands out as one of the key strategies, helping businesses reach wider audiences, raise brand awareness, and boost conversions. Stories ads are placed on the platform amidst organic content, as equals – except they’re not. This means you’re simultaneously fighting for two things. Not getting tapped away the moment the viewer recognizes sponsored content is the first. In the case you win this fight, round two is fighting for actual engagement in a sea of Stories. In this post, we’ll go over some really useful tactics for making your ads on the ephemeral platform more captivating and engaging so that you can maximize their potential – and reach new Instagram marketing heights. ## Pull your audience into a conversation ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/ee48fc13f96e.jpg) *Source:*unsplash.com Conversation is a two-way street, and that’s why it’s going to be one of the biggest tricks up your sleeve for driving valuable engagement. How do you pull someone into a conversation? You speak to them directly, okay. Better yet, you ask them a question and wait for a response. Dunkin’ Donuts did a marvelous job of facilitating interaction in their Stories ad campaign. The company creatively utilized the polling sticker feature, which was new at the time, to create an interactive video ad. One-fifth of the people who watched the ad voted in the poll and further results revealed that the ads that featured polling stickers had a 20% lower cost per video view than those without. ## Keep it concise Keep in mind that you have only about two seconds to capture the viewer’s attention and convince them not to swipe away. Whatever you do, brevity is your best friend. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/04448e3310cb.jpg) *Source:*unsplash.com Make your value proposition clear within this miniature time window and use all the tools at your disposal to immerse the viewer into your story. First and foremost, you’ll need to rely on compelling visuals to capture the viewer’s attention and keep their eyes on you, as well as to imprint your brand image in their memory and stay top of mind. But don’t hesitate to invest your creativity to experiment with how you can captivate viewers through bold text, displaying human faces, and using sound. ## Surprise and delight To get a solid grip on the viewer’s entire mind, come at them with the element of surprise. Be bold and go for the strange, shocking, and counterintuitive (within the means of appropriateness, obviously). Trust us, science is at your side – with studies showing that humans remember images based on how distinct they are, you want to go for the unexpected and wake your audience up from their social media slumber. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/8979c091933a.jpg) *Source:*freepik.com Noom, a nutrition and exercise brand, does a great job of this in their GIF-formatted Stories ads. The campaign features a woman just about to crush a bunch of eggs with a hammer, with a message saying *“Throw out the rule book on dieting”.* Simple and effective. ## Get the right influencer on board Collaborating with influencers stands out as one of the proven ways of boosting Instagram engagement, and Stories ads are no exception. Moreover, paid ads are definitely the right time for bringing out the big guns by featuring a human face, and one that’s well-established in your targeted niche at that. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/ae166e7befee.jpg) *Source:*freepik.com But the most important thing is to get the right person – someone who’s regarded as a trusted figure in their respective niche and who cultivates a solid relationship with their follower base. Ideally, this follower base will comprise your target audience as precisely as possible. Don’t get caught up in numbers and metrics or feel that your business is too small to capture the eye of an influencer. Follower counts aren’t that important, and we’re already immersed in the era of micro-influencers – or even nano-influencer, who have very small, but highly engaged and trusting audiences. ## The takeaway ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/61fbbfb3ef61.jpg) *Source:*unsplash.com The “pay to play” model has been in effect ever since the changed algorithms on Instagram and Facebook pushed brands further down their audience’s feeds. Stories ads can certainly bring a high ROI, but you want to make sure that you play your cards right. If you haven’t yet done so, get started with Instagram Stories ads here. Once you get your strategy up and running, make sure to implement these tips to create more powerful, engaging ads – and drive impressive results. --- ## Jagrit Pratap Singh’s 5 Expert Tips for Creating a Viral Video in 2019 URL: https://futuresharks.com/jagrit-pratap-singhs-5-expert-tips-for-creating-a-viral-video-in-2019/ t’s every company’s dream to create one video – one amazing, funny, unexpected, shocking, minute-long video – that becomes as viral as that infamous Dollar Shave Club video or as laugh-out-loud funny as good ol’ Chuck Testa. Try as you might, we all know viral fame isn’t as easy to achieve as we’d like, especially when we’re representing a company that’s got a bottom line to worry about. But are there things you could be doing to help make your brand videos go even slightly more viral? If maxing out that view count is your number one goal, check out these seven tips we’ve rounded up from the viral video industry’s top expert Jagrit Pratap Singh. Here’s what he has to say. **1. Swing for the fences.** Nothing wrong with trying for a viral hit. Swing for the fences, I say! Just make sure you don’t strike out in the process (read: make sure your video converts, too). I’ve personally identified seven, maybe eight, elements that give your video big potential for virality, but as you’re hearing ideas, working on the script, and in production, your measuring stick for virality should be **outstandingness** and **exceptionality**. If it’s going to go viral, your video needs to be better than good, better than even great, it needs to be outstanding! Exceptional! AWESOME! AMAZING!!! With all the exclamation points, and preferably with ALL caps! Because it can be relatable, it can be funny, it can be stunning, or impressive, or enlightening, but if it’s not exceptionally so, it’s probably not going to go viral in the way you want. On the other hand, there’s no accounting for the public’s taste and, sometimes, crap does go viral. But, better to shoot for OUTSTANDING than just hope your crap gets lucky. **2. Keep pop culture in mind.** Always have a pulse on what’s happening in culture. In my opinion, you can never “make” a viral video before it’s out in the world. It’s the audience’s job to make it go viral. Give your audience what they want and serve it up in a contextually relevant way that’s relatable. I do think there is a special sauce to creating compelling content. Finding the intersection between what’s happening in pop culture and an area of tension your audience is experiencing will always strike a chord. If it’s contextually relevant AND matters to whoever is watching it, people will watch. The best example I can think of is those viral memes that always start with, “When you _____,” followed by a short video or image. People share the hell out of stuff like that, because it usually humorously speaks to something they’ve experienced themselves. **3. Trust your instincts.** I ask myself: Do I LOVE this piece of work? If I like it a lot, or just kinda like it, I know it doesn’t have a shot to go viral. I think we all know when something is great, we just have to be more honest with ourselves. And trust our instincts. And keep going until our gut says that something is truly great. **4. Use video to delight and educate consistently over time.** A word of caution on benchmarking your success against ‘going viral’: emotion and humor are powerful tools, but unpredictable in their application when you define success primarily in views and shares (even if you’re prepared to pay handsomely for exposure). Think of your favorite comedian— they probably tell plenty of jokes you don’t laugh at. Virality is a small and moving target, but any business can leverage video to delight and educate customers consistently over time. Given how quickly we all scroll our feed, consider this: your goal as a marketer is to optimize for time spent with brand, rather than deliver a flash in the pan. Virality should be an effect of great creative, not a reason for its being. **5. Positive and hard working people can bring more to the table than the smartest person in the room.** Your team. Regardless of the content – happy, funny, emotional, scripted, unscripted. Your team and who you surround yourself with is important. The client and your bosses will always have notes, suggestions, good, bad, it doesn’t matter. You have to take in the project and make sure from creative to field to post that everyone is firing on all cylinders across the board. If you pour your heart and soul into every inch of the project and treat each video the same, the results will show. There’s no room for ego in a project. Listen, learn, communicate, and most of all, enjoy the people you work with. There is something for everyone on the internet, just make sure you have made the best your team can make and everyone, from the client asking for the video to the people enjoying it, will let you know. --- ## Jared Goetz is a Future Shark and One of the Best E-Commerce Entrepreneurs In The World. URL: https://futuresharks.com/jared-goetz-is-a-future-shark-and-one-of-the-best-e-commerce-entrepreneurs-in-the-world/ It is always my pleasure to showcase and highlight entrepreneurs who are leaving normal behind. Jared Goetz is one of those individuals. *Jared riding in the offie* As many of you know, the mission of Leave Normal Behind is to influence the world in a positive way by inspiring others to become the best version of themselves, give back, and create things that matter. In order to do that, we all must learn and grow. In interviews like these I am able to share success principles from extraordinary people so others can learn and implement these principles into their lives in their own ways. Below you will read how Jared created the 2nd fastest growing Shopify store behind Kylie Jenner as well as life principles that he lives by that enable him to achieve success and maintain the right mindset to grow and sustain his online businesses. #### Lets get into it … ______ #### Where are you from and where do you reside now? I am originally from Long Island, New York. After living in a few different parts of the country, I have recently settled down in Boca Raton, Florida. #### What are some of your hobbies? *Jared playing a round at Punta Espada Golf Club* I’m always looking to try new things, so much so that I would consider trying new things to be a hobby at this point. Otherwise, I enjoy golfing and going to the gym and traveling frequently. Most recently, I made a road trip through about twelve different European countries – it was amazing! #### #### What is your favorite quote? “Focus more on the person you need to be, than the things you need to do, and you can accomplish anything.” – XYZ #### Who is your greatest role model? I am a big fan of Tim Ferris. The way he shakes up the norms of society and comes out on top is very impressive to me, so I would consider him a role model of sorts. #### What have you worked on in the past? I made my first million throwing large-scale electronic music concerts. After that, I held prominent roles at a couple of software startups until I found my calling in e-commerce. #### What are you working on now? Aside from running several seven-figure e-commerce stores, I lead one of the largest e-commerce educational platforms in the world called the eCom Hacks Academy, a company that I founded in 2017. I’m also working on expanding into creating more e-commerce software offerings for 2019. *Jared and E-Com Expert Scott Hilse giving away $10,000 worth of mentorship.* #### #### How did you come up with this idea? The eCom Hacks Academy was something that came out of a strong demand from those around me to learn how I was able to create the second-fastest growing Shopify store of 2017. After I started to teach my methods to a few people who went on to have success, I knew I was on to something big. I created a series of instructional courses and started getting them out there and haven’t looked back since. #### What is the best thing about your company? The best part of the Academy is by far the sense of community that is shared between our members (students) and our staff. The problem with e-commerce is that while it seems relatively easy, it’s quite challenging. There’s a lot of nuances when it comes to social media advertising that are tough concepts to grasp. Additionally, there’s an upfront cost of launching an e-commerce store that sometimes makes people uncomfortable because they aren’t making a profit in the beginning. It’s these challenges that sometimes lead students to quit or doubt themselves. However, my staff is incredibly patient and works with students for hours walking them through anything from a problem with their store to what color their logo should be. When my staff puts in the work and the student is receptive and stays with the program and comes out successful on the other side, it’s an incredible feeling of accomplishment on both sides. #### What’s your dream with your company? The dream for my company is to be the ultimate resource for anybody looking to excel in e-commerce. This is attained through product offerings, software for store build-outs, in addition to being an educational resource for store owners to learn the skills necessary to excel in this field. #### What makes you special? What differentiates me is my ability to see the bigger picture. A lot of entrepreneurs get tied up in the daily elements of their business. Don’t get me wrong, this is important in the beginning, but a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck in this phase and end up not leading their company strategically. As the founder of any business, you need to continually be thinking bigger picture, so you’re on the right path for long-term success, in addition to getting daily wins. #### How do you creatively advertise? I am a big proponent of Facebook advertising, but the thing about my ads is that I keep things natural. I don’t ever script my ads. I instead post real, approachable content that simply is me giving the facts about what it is that I can offer. One time I was with my mom in my car, and we did an amusing video about how she couldn’t believe how fast my e-commerce stores were growing. It was great content and was a very successful ad for me, yet all I did was turn on my phone and start recording video – sometimes it’s just that simple. #### What is the best testimonial you have received? One testimonial I get frequently is from eCom Hacks students that post in our Facebook groups about how this education allowed them to change their life. They were able to leave jobs they didn’t like, help their families with extra income and live a life of greater freedom. When I get these comments it makes my day and gives me a tremendous sense of pride. #### Why do most e-commerce store owners or entrepreneurs fail? Most people fail in business because they hit a roadblock or challenge and give up. They run into a problem and decide that they’ll fix it later or think that this must be where they have to stop. When you’re running a business, problems come up on a daily basis. Some larger than others, but the point is that you need to realize that these problems are more of lessons. Once you understand how to solve the problem, you can move on to the next thing. The road to success is filled with obstacles; the trick is to confront them instead of giving up or putting them off. #### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? My biggest failure was trying to go to big too fast with my first concert business. My most significant success was the Shopify store I had in 2017 that went from $0-2M in sales over 60 days and was the second-fastest growing Shopify store of the year. They both contain similar learnings, which is that being uncomfortable and pushing yourself is necessary when it comes to starting a business. You’ll never feel truly ready and you might fail, or you might make $2M. You don’t know until you try! #### What is the best piece of advice that anyone ever taught you? Who taught you this? Last year I went to a Tony Robbins event where he stressed the importance of vision. I started to picture the life I wanted and I then almost subconsciously started working towards obtaining that life. Having a vision and clearly defining what you want in life is gold. **Jared always wanted a Lamborghini and included it in his vision. Then he made it happen.** *Jared standing next to his Lamborghini* #### What’s the best piece of advice you have for aspiring entrepreneurs? Don’t feel like things have to be perfect before starting your business or doing something new. Nothing is ever perfect in the beginning, so it’s just about enjoying the ride and trying to get better every day. #### Teach us something about e-commerce? A lot of people equate e-commerce success with how well your advertisements are doing on social media. While this is true, it’s not the end all be all strategy. **You need to make sure that your store is running smoothly, looks good, and is optimized for high amounts of traffic and converting said traffic.** Additionally, other tactics can be used, like influencer outreach and contests, to grow your store’s traffic. Bottom line, don’t pour all of your money into social ads! #### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? I’m learning how to play the saxophone. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play one, and I’m finally making that happen! #### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) … A lot of people don’t understand how valuable it is to take time away from your business. Everyone has this hustle & grind mentality, but that will burn you out very quickly if you’re not careful. I golf in the middle of the day several times a week. It’s important to take a step back and reset, so you have a fresh mindset when you get back to your work. *Jared working at an AirBnB in Oslo, Norway* #### What do you think you do better than most people? I never panic. If I’m faced with a challenge or problem, I view it as another thing that needs to be conquered. I don’t let my emotions get in the way of my work. This is extremely valuable in e-commerce, as you need to have patience and wait out things that may not be working right away, or ditch things that may be working a little bit but are not maximizing potential. #### What is something that all e-commerce entrepreneurs need to know right now that most are not putting enough time & effort into learning? Most e-commerce store owners don’t put enough effort into learning as a whole. There’s always a way to improve your skill set, and the education is out there to be utilized, it’s just a matter of seizing opportunities and investing in yourself. #### What is the most practical and actionable framework you can share for other Future Sharks to use in their daily life? The most actionable advice I can give is to plan your life as much as possible. There are things you have to discipline daily, weekly, and monthly, and the long-term as well. For starters, every Sunday I take about two hours for myself to plan out the next week.I look through all of my notes from the previous Sunday with all my to-do lists. Everything that I need to do, whether it’s a big thing or a little thing, I’ll write it all out. Then I write out all of my meetings and scheduled things that I have on my calendar, and then I plan my week. For every day of the week, I’ll plan what time am I waking up, what time am I going to the gym, what I’m eating for breakfast – everything. Then I’ll prepare work blocks. I’m not necessarily scheduling what I’m doing yet; I’m just saying I have from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM as a work block, where I’m not taking any calls or speaking to anybody. Then I structure out my week, going through my to-do list, and I figure out how can I allocate the time that I set for work blocks to get through everything I need to get done. #### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? One of the best books I have ever read regarding productivity for work is The 12 Week Year**,** by Brian Moran. This book teaches you how to shorten the time in which you evaluate your goals, forcing you to be more efficient with your time. It’s an excellent read for any entrepreneur looking to accomplish big goals in less time. #### Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What will you have done and accomplished? What will you be doing? Even though I have accomplished so much, I’ve never been further away from my goals, which is very exciting to think about. In five years, I’d like to be the top e-commerce expert in the world and join the likes of Mark Cuban, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk on the shortlist of the top entrepreneurs in the world. I have high standards for myself and intend to fulfill my goals. #### What do the words ‘Leave Normal Behind’ mean to you? I don’t think it’s about leaving normal behind, instead I think it’s best to change and continue to raise your standards of normal on a relatively frequent basis. If you feel like you’re doing something abnormal, you might psych yourself out and get nervous and stop. If you think that you SHOULD be doing incredible things, you will. #### Which Social Accounts should we follow? (hyperlinked, example: Facebook): Below are my Facebook and Instagram profiles. Follow and connect with me there! ### Facebook ### Instagram _____ Make sure you go follow Jared on his socials in order to stay up-to-date with his latest content. If you are someone who is striving to generate income online, then Jared is definitely a credible and vetted source for you to do so. If you or someone you know is a Future Shark who is leaving normal behind then email me rob@leavenormalbehind.com --- ## Time To Track The Social Media Traffic To Your Site Using Simplistic Tools For Free URL: https://futuresharks.com/time-to-track-the-social-media-traffic-to-your-site-using-simplistic-tools-for-free/ Social media is one tricky option under investment. Everyone is well-aware of it to be useful but the returns are not always that obvious. You can always see traffic just coming in but you do not have to know what traffic comes and from where. All the other available returns, the less tangible ones of the trust building and brand recognition, seems to be a lot harder for people to just identify. Thankfully the market has so many methods you can use for tracking social media traffic and even the performance rate. There are so many methods available and you might be associated with some. But, on the other hand, there are some options, which you have not heard about at all. It is really important to learn more about the methods right from the first till last to make the best choice. To help you in this regard, you have to get along with the influencers with higher followers for Instagram and get a clear idea of the ones you might want to choose for your use now. **Starting it off with Crowdfire:** Crowdfire is one such option under audience analytics app. It links well with multiple social networks and comprises of features to help engage with and retain the number of audience. - You get the chance to check in with the fans and followers and see who have recently followed you. You will come to learn more about the ones inactive and event set up some white and even blacklists for messaging. - The analytics will be all here and they are quite useful. On the other hand, they are likely to take back seat to the performance base d enhancing features of app. Do you think this app is useful? Well, you will only find out about that once you have started using it. Give it a single try and you will get to the answer yourself. **Checking out on Tailwind:** Pinterest is always well associated with VitralWood. Similarly, for all those associated with Pinterest and Instagram, you have Tailwind to help you in big ways possible. You got to learn more about the social platforms first before selecting the right channel. In case, you are in the right niche using these social networks, it can always be better to see analytics information right on hand. **You have Cyfe for your help:** Cyfe is noted to be a bog standardized analytics app, in case you are looking at it depending on the data it shows. You are likely to have all the usual post metrics along with the trending usage statistics, traffic courses, reach and all of the rest. - The major benefit associated with this section is that it can easily hook up well with ever possible social networking channel that you care to measure. - Any network with an API passing the analytics data is always capable of hooking up to dashboards. Here, you get the chance to check all the data on hand and right at drop of the hat. **Get to know about ViralWoot:** Primarily noted to be a Pinterest Analytics App, ViralWoot helps in showing your “pinfluence” and the reach. It can further help in showcasing the activity and engagement, along with some of the other metrics in town and onsite, which might prove to be useful for you to know. - This is one useful app for the interest users and they will understand the value more once they started using the features of it. - For those in the right niche, ViralWoot is proven to be a great source of gaining traffic and conversions. - In such cases, it is always useful to just schedule the pins and monitor those pin performances. You are likely to have that good idea of how everything seems to perform well. **Social Mention is the next one in this list:** Unlike any of the app as mentioned already, Social Mention is a different form of app. It does its very own crawling and helps in providing you with the stats on how the site might look right from the perspective of the said audience. - You get the chance to see the sites which are mentioning you and where. You can further get the chance to check generalized sentiment and see the reach well. - All these points are quite valuable for just analyzing the presence on the blog networks and social networks. Now you don’t have to wait for the traffic to hit your website hard and get results beforehand. This is quite useful feature as sentiment helps to inform you about any issue within the brand before anything actually arrives on the website. Chances are high that you might have lower social referral traffic, mainly because of the negative sentiment and never get to notice that from the onsite metrics you usually see. **Try to head towards GoStats:** GoStats is noted to be one of the more minimal choices for covering the on-site analytics. You get the chance to see some of the basic usage data, visitor based traffic and a visitor counter. Moreover, you get the chance to see some of the basic data about the individualized users boiling down to just the browser and computer based technical information. It will further catch up with the geographical location, or just try to work on the endpoint of VPN and referrer data. As far the main concern is associated with the free services, this chosen GoStats is a reliable example you might want to avoid as the market has other better options too. This particular section is known to offer minimal services for free and don’t work much when it comes to supportive ways. However, these sessions still exists because of the little effort you have to put forward to it and the money. These are few of the major tools you can use for free just to track down the social media traffic to the site. --- ## Nick Covey Created a Brand That Brings Out The Authenticity in Others URL: https://futuresharks.com/nick-covey-created-a-brand-that-brings-out-the-authenticity-in-others/ When Nick Covey established his brand called Creture, he wanted one single thing. He wanted to bring out the authenticity in others. Many of us wonder what authenticity really means. It is the way you think, act, and walk through life. It is the representation of yourself in the world. It is staying true to who you want to be and what you want to do. Nick Covey wanted to make this process easier, and he did it with great success. After many observations and experimentation, he created a solution that could change our point of view. His brand speaks to the voice in all of us who think that being real and being unique is the only way to live a happy, fulfilled life. **What Was the Past** Since the high school days, Nick has been trying to build his way in the huge marketing game. He started 4 companies and all of them served as big lessons for his future business plans. Nick learned how to handle customers’ inquiries and how to serve their needs. One of the lessons he learned was that people actually search for the way to be authentic. It is the ultimate pursuit of all of us who want to be special and unique in this world of so much noise. In order to be authentic, you need to be different, which means that you need to do things in a different way. Sometimes, it is easier to say it than to do it, but the visionaries always find a way to speak a different message. Nick Covey tries to explain to people that their uniqueness is what brings out their greatest potential in whatever they do. His brand, Creture, resonates with Nick’s vision about the business. Making the world a better place is possible only if you give people something they can connect to on a deeper level. **What Is the Present** Now, Nick Covey spreads the word about the brand, and Creture is already part of the life of many successful athletes. Julian Carr, a professional skier and world record holder is part of the story. David Gazzolo, a professional golfer also finds himself heavily involved with the brand. Many bodybuilders, surfers, and athletes are also representing Creture. More and more people are recognizing the brand’s message. They all have one thing in common, and that is the urge to express themselves authentically and to connect with a community of like minded individuals. Clothing gives them the ability to express themselves because the clothing is a representation of their character, their visions, and their dreams. The brand Creture tries to respond to these needs of all the people who are searching for meaning. If they wear clothes that inspire them to pursue those things that they love, that’s the ultimate proof of the brand’s success. Creture represents all the people who want to live a fulfilling life and impact the world around them. **What Will Be the Future** Nick Covey expands his story and wants to grab the future in the best way. He wants everyone to be inspired by the story he creates around his brand and to take action on the message. That is why his plans go deeper than everyone should ever expect. He wants to create an atmosphere of unlimited possibilities for everyone who believes in the power of uniqueness. The advantages of Creture are obvious to many professionals because nothing quite speaks to them the way Creture does. Creture is all about supporting people to explore their own authentic path and abilities so they can live more powerful, fulfilling lives. What is known to all of us is the fact that the only way to be at your best is to find your unique inner strengths. With the brand like Creture, the journey of finding these gifts becomes easier and more enjoyable. Creture speaks about the power and ability of individuals to express themselves in a way that truly describes their passion for life. Future is better when you know who you are and why you’re doing what you’re doing. Conclusively, If you want to be part of Nick Covey’s vision, you are on the right path to finding your inner self. You are on the way to explore your diversity and find your authenticity that actually brings your whole potential to the surface. That’s when you are unique,confident, and fulfilled. That’s when you are Creture. --- ## Joey Preston – Boosting Your Digital Performance URL: https://futuresharks.com/joey-preston-boosting-your-digital-performance/ **I recently interviewed 19 year old Joey Preston, CEO of Digital Performance, a digital agency based out of Chicago, Illinois.** - **Hey Joey, tell me what you do, where you’re from, and how old you are?** Joey Preston: I run a full service digital marketing agency that specializes in Web Design and Search Engine Optimization called Digital Performance. I am from a town about an hour west of Chicago called Oswego. I am 19 years old. - **After graduating high school did you further education? ** Joey Preston: No I did not. I knew about my junior year of high school that college was not for me. I wasn’t a bad student or anything, kept a 3.7 GPA but school just was not it for me. I knew I wanted more out of life than sitting in a classroom for 4 more years. I believed with my work ethic and my passion for my business, I could succeed without getting a college degree. I also had some help because two of my older brothers dropped out after a year and found themselves doing very well without a degree so this laid a foundation for me to follow. The college debt aspect was also a big factor to me as well. I knew I could do what I wanted to do without a college degree so why put myself into debt to do the same thing I am doing now but debt free. - **When and why did you start Digital Performance?** Joey Preston: I started Digital Performance in October of 2018 but prior I had been freelancing for about 4 years. My why is because I have always known that I wanted to work for myself and digital marketing is a passion of mine. The idea of being able to work when you want is a dream of most people but I wanted that to be my reality. With digital marketing, I have been able to work any hours that I want and work from wherever I want and this has allowed to me to travel a lot more than I used to. I love what I do and I wouldn’t trade it for any other job. Most of all though, its the passion to create and succeed doing what I love. There is no better feeling than hearing how much of an impact I have on someone’s business with Digital Performance. My goal is to provide the customer service you would find with a small business but the results that you would find with the top agencies in the world. That is rare to find today with all of the chat bots and automated responses people get. People crave the human interaction and I think my business does a fantastic job of providing that connection and really understanding our clients needs. - **How important has self education been for you?** Joey Preston: Self education has been a major impact in my life. Everything I know is pretty much from me educating myself about it. School, like I said, really didn’t do much for me. I was always learning way more outside of the classroom than in. I read maybe 2 books from my 12 years of school. I’ve read probably 100+ in the last 9 months about everything I am interested in. Anything from entrepreneurship to golf, I have taught myself and will continue to find ways to educate myself in order to stay on top of things. School doesn’t teach you about doing taxes, starting a business, sales, etc. That is all stuff you have to find on your own and I am glad I did. My favorite book is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen and it is a book that can be applied to all aspects of life such as business, relationships, mental health, physical health and so on. It is a fantastic book that I read once or twice a year to refresh myself. Anything that people are interested in, there is probably a book on it and I encourage everyone to self educate because our current education system is failing a lot of people, in my opinion. - **What motivated you to do website design?** Joey Preston: It all started with graphic design actually. I picked up on it in about 8th grade and started to take design classes where I fell in love with it. I learned everything I could, started designing at home, watched hours and hours of Youtube tutorials. Graphic design had become my passion. About sophomore year, one of my family friends needed a logo which I designed for them and they had mentioned needing a website redesign. I had never done a website or even known how to do one but they offered to pay me and that was all I needed to dive into it. Once I started, I knew that this was something that impacted my life deeply. It was all I could think about every day was learning how to create bigger and better websites. It took my two favorite things, design and computers, and it was the perfect combination. I started reading every web design forum, watched countless hours of Youtube again, found as many books/articles as I could and began my journey. I wanted to know how to do everything and anything on websites. That hasn’t changed either. I still read articles daily about design and find the new trends each year and figure out what I can do to improve my own skills. - **Have you always been into tech?** Joey Preston: I would say so. I got my first Xbox at 3 and was instantly hooked. So video games have always been apart of my life and thats where everything sort of stems from. I always wanted to know how to get my games to run the best and be the best at them so just hours of research about TV’s, controllers, computers, HDMI Cables, everything and anything. Then at about 13 I wanted to build my own computer so first I took apart an extra one my family had lying around. Learned all the parts, how they connected, what each one did, and then built my own. Technology has always been apart of my life and my generation was right between being obsessed with it and not so it was a good mixture. - **What are your future plans with your company?** Joey Preston: Eventually I want to scale to a top agency in the world with employees that share as much of a passion for digital marketing as I do. With a team, nothing becomes impossible and that is where I hope to be. Right now, my goal is to find clients and build killer websites that benefit the client and help their businesses scale. --- ## Trying Out From Entrepreneur Debt To Become A Millionaire URL: https://futuresharks.com/trying-out-from-entrepreneur-debt-to-become-a-millionaire/ You might have been from a family where money was always a problem. It was the main initiative for you to start a business of your own and becoming a successful entrepreneur. For that, studying from the best business school in country is not enough. You need money and that calls for proper planning and plotting to be honest. It is always important to realize that setting a proper goal is y our one-way ticket to enhance the value of your business and let it shine across the borders. As you want to expand, you have to set goals for capturing the international market. It is possible when you know the steps to address. ### First start by setting up the goal: Most of the time the important yet overlooked part of procuring a goal is to start off with one. A goal always means to be quite specified and desired outcome with specific form of completion date and plan of some steps to help in completion of the motives. The main goal for you to follow is to make first million once you reach the age of 30. It is mandatory to select that because the stress of not having enough money on the family was hard to ignore and you did not want to deal with that constant mental state of financial trouble and chaos. - So, starting off early and having cool million in bank at initial stage will help you to take some more risks. It is always the reason to help you enrich the flexibility rate and lessen the amount of stress you might be dealing with right now. - The age 30 seems to be one good challenging goal around here but also quite reasonable at the same time. Even though the technical world can help in making some folks billionaire at tender ages, but these are stories of the present world and not past. Around 30 years from now one, people hardly had smartphones and don’t even know how to use computers. - The only thing at that time which can resemble the interest was the email list. Later, people come to realize the vast importance of the online world once they start working out. So a million dollar seems to be a good stretch to start off with. Creating a promising goal is what can drive your business forward and can offer you with the benchmark of solving issues. It can further help in evaluating multiple activities to check if you can further take down on the goal and improve it. ### Going for the high paid and big opportunity based jobs: For the next step, you have to work hard and get yourself a job. It should pay you enough money legally for your business idea later and also presenting you with strong skill set to leverage down road. If you want, you can head towards the corporate financial side based on the investment banking. It can easily pay you about $85k for the first initial year. It grows with the subsequent years by your side. It is mandatory for you to pick up the right job, matching your choice the most. Not just the right job but you have to pick up the right company for help. Apart from going for the prestige route of taking a job in companies like Goldman Sachs, you can easily head for more boutique firm with meritocracy environment. These areas will provide you with better shots of promotion and earning more in the upcoming years. ### Have to work really hard: There is no short cut to hard work. You literally have to work your butt out. Sometimes, you might be forced to put in labor for 16 to 18 hours a day and covering around 6 to 7 days a week. There are sometimes when you have to go for the night shift duties and it is all worth it right in the end. You will end up with multiple deals in the end and also dealing with live transactions at the same time. Working hard and for late hours can work wonderfully in helping you learn as much as possible. ### Have to advocate on your own? You should not let your hard work go unnoticed just because you have competition. You would take time in reminding your seniors and department members of what you have been up to and how it helped the company. You should also introduce your expectations from time to time. Whenever you think you are working at higher level, don’t feel shy to ask about the promotion. Nothing comes for free, not even your labor. This can help you get promoted rapidly. It will further help in increasing your earnings at a substantial rate. ### Try keeping overhead at bare minimum: It is always important to keep the nuts low. It means you have to keep overhead expenses to the little possible sector. Avoiding the 2BHK apartments and staying in one studio one for the starting point can be one major point to focus at. You don’t have to invest bucks on unwanted furniture and instead try saving those for your big independent project later. These points are the ones for you to consider when you plan to save bucks of paycheck. It is likely to take place at end of probable months for enduring the next steps up to come. For more details please visit here. ### Have to pay your own debt down? Back previously, interest rates were quite higher than what they are now at present. It is hard to mention the exact rates, but they were around 6 to 9% of the rate. That is quite a lot to return. Right now, things have changed and with lower interest rates. Make sure to pay those debts down as soon as possible as you don’t have to bear the burden of payments to be made even while the function is over. Keeping these points to your cover might help you to start your entrepreneurship business and turn into a millionaire in no time. You don’t have to worry about debt any longer for sure. --- ## How Social Media Marketing Can Boost Your Ecommerce Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-social-media-marketing-can-boost-your-ecommerce-business/ According to Statista, there are over 1.92 billion digital buyers in the world. Thus the time to start an e-commerce business has never been better! And thanks to social media these buyers are just a few clicks away from you. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat are like fairs (or Comicon) or concerts which experience a colossal gathering of people. And by colossal, I mean over 3.2 billion people worldwide! And the study shows that this number is growing! All business owners including you love gatherings as these are great places to showcase your products and services. And since there are a humongous number of businesses out there, it is paramount that you know how social media can enhance your business conversion and various features of social media designed specifically for business owners. ### Social media marketing creates massive awareness and influence Positive reviews are the backbone of a successful e-commerce business. This is due to the fact that potential customers want recommendation and assurance from previous customers. WebAlive ecommerce experts thus suggest that you have a business page in all major social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest. As you probably already know, social media platforms have programs like micro-tailored ad campaign maker in place that can help market your goods within a short period of time. Due to the fact that social media has a very large scale of the audience as mentioned above, your adverts will be on relevant peoples’ news feed (or inbox) in no time. This would save you valuable time and money while boosting your ROI. ### Instagram story swipe up-link feature While browsing through your IG stories, you must have come across ones with a small arrow-head in a white circle with “See more” or “Swipe up & Shop Now” at the bottom of the story. If you have actually swiped up instead of just admiring the girl in the story, you would have been taken to the website of the brand. **Image source**: Crate and Barrel and French Connection This is a cool interactive feature in Instagram which you can use to direct people to your website instead of having them to click on links (which makes you seem very business-like). Since over 500 million people use IG stories every day, this is a great place to showcase your product and embed your website in a subtle way. Thus one-third of the most viewed IG stories are from businesses. ### Twitter Card Remember small banners with sale offers and product picture held (or spun) by a person? Those actually improved the visibility of a discounted or new product to passers-by. Twitter has come up with something similar. This is like a card that carries product information, link to the product page and of the course product picture. When you (or someone else) share your twitter business page, this card would be visible as part of that tweet. This way, you are basically putting a snippet of the product page on display to potential customers. So when they click on the link, they would find uniformity between your tweet and the landing page. This makes it easy for them to trust your brand. ### Analytics If you are committed to the growth of your e-commerce business, then it is paramount that you pay more attention to your analytics. The analytics would tell you juicy secrets like how many people you viewed your product ad to actually click the link, how many of those added the product to their carts, how many people of what profile (and demographics) abandoned their carts and many more. When you have this information, it would be easier to retarget a narrower audience with a better offer so that they get inclined to buy your product or service or take the desired action like commenting on your ad, share it etc. ### Hosting sale In Facebook, there is a built-in feature that lets you host a sale or discounted offer. Using this feature spares you the additional product picture editing to let people know about your offer. Besides this makes it easy for people to find on social media using hashtags like #productgiveaway, #sale etc. ### Customer service The days of your customers emailing you to know about a product or service feature are on the way out. That is because they can have a live chat with your business rep in real time on social media platforms like Facebook, messenger, Twitter etc. This allows you to give the required info to your potential customers instantly who, if satisfied, is highly likely to buy. And people who like/buy a product or service from a brand talk about it with others on their favourite social media platform. This is corroborated by the fact that over 70% of customers who had an effective social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others. Furthermore, about 90% of social media users have used social media customer service of brands to inquire about its business. We are living in an era where social media tactics and technology are changing every day. So if you don’t keep track of these and take necessary steps to use them to grow your business, you would likely be driven out of business in no time. So it is paramount that you keep track of your social media analytics and refine your strategy. Good luck and God speed! --- ## The Next Jay-Z of R&B ? Meet This Rising Serial Entrepreneur and Musical Artist Making Waves URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-next-jay-z-of-rb-meet-this-rising-serial-entrepreneur-and-musical-artist-making-waves/ We caught up with Zach Salter– serial entrepreneur and musical extraordinaire on the upcoming release of his R&B project “Sweet Talker 2”. A natural gift for singing and a voice that captivates the hearts and ears of millions, it’s no surprise that this young soul has been making waves in the music world; he’s been a rising music mogul in the industry and force to reckon with for years to come. Rumors of Zach Salter working with high level creatives to compile his second solo mixtape titled Sweet Talker 2 as a follow up to his debut solo album “Sweet Talker”. Zach grew up in the Studio environment helping his father build one of the largest studios in the United States-Saltmine Studios; which is home to several multi platinum recording artists like : Lil Wayne, DMX, Bone Thugs & Harmony, Ariana Grande, Alicia Keys and many more. He quickly picked up on the niche market of song writing, some people refer to this profession as being a “ghost writer”. After landing a movie placement and some radio air time with songs he had written, he decided to release a project of his own. The meaning behind Sweet Talker 2 is said to be in reference to Salter’s smooth way with words. The themes of love,heart ache, money and power are prevalent but we’re expecting some surprises on this new and upcoming project. We look forward to hearing more from this young entrepreneur/musician who’s modeling Jay Z in navigating the industry-putting his businesses first, and his music second while still putting out heaters independently. --- ## Marcia Reece Co-Founder of StayWell Copper Shares Her Entrepreneurial Journey URL: https://futuresharks.com/staywellcopper/ In this series, we interview the world’s most interesting entrepreneurs. Today, we caught up with Marcia Reece from StayWell Copper. **1) Please tell our audience about your entrepreneurial journey so far. Bring us up to date!** It’s been a wild ride… I’ve spent my career creating new products and bringing them to the marketplace. Do you remember Sidewalk Chalk – the most colorful and popular outdoor toy for generations now? And, oh yeah…the stuff that came in those buckets? Well, I am the lady who invented it. This little ole farm girl from Iowa created a children’s toy sensation that took the world by storm (but the idea to make it a commercial product came from my sweet, creative son when he was three years old). AND… …almost cost me my life. But let me back up in the story… it didn’t start there. I learned how to make a product kids loved and moms wanted, and how to work with our national retailers. This was before the internet. This was before Amazon. This was before eBay. This was even before the fax machine had been invented. In fact, this was before we had computers in our homes or offices. You see, when I was building my toy company my travels took me all over the world. I actually had three separate manufacturing facilities in China, and two plants outside Denver, Colo. My toy company had grown incredibly, and I was offered a buyout from the world’s largest toy company, which I accepted (and everyone said HURRAH!). Life was going well, and **I was on top of the world**… Until I fell off. To get to the point where this huge company noticed me, I had stressed my body to the max. Working endless 20+-hour days while still being a wife and mother. No sleep. Very bad diet. Stretching my mental and physical limits more than humans should. Something had to give, and that first “something” was my 24-year marriage. Next to go was my health, and I ended up in a Chicago hospital where I contracted a hospital-acquired MRSA staph infection in the lowest part of my back. Have you ever had one of those moment when you say, “ENOUGH!!!”? Well, that happened for me as my doctor told me there was nothing left to kill the MRSA staph infection raging inside my body. He informed me, if I was willing, there was one experimental treatment he wanted to try. After I finally healed, I became obsessed with helping people avoid suffering as I had. I spent the next few years working with a chemical company in North Carolina commercialize its product that kept clean surfaces clean for extended periods of time. That was great for industrial America, but it didn’t answer my need to provide an everyday solution to a problem we all have. And that opportunity came in the form of Diana French and the combined efforts we made to work on our StayWell Copper Product line. Diana and I had become friends in the early 1980s as we both were bringing our first consumer products to market; hers was a company called Class Case and mine was Our Kids Sidewalk Chalk. We met at an Always Buy Colorado trade show and became fast friends, both invigorated by the challenges of providing good products filling the needs of everyday people just like us. **2) How did you come up with the idea for StayWell Copper?** Diana had begun some pretty amazing research on natural ways to kill germs, and she had discovered the ancient secret of copper. We combined her ancient knowledge with what I had learned at the North Carolina chemical company, and we had our idea. Several years later and hundreds of tests, trials, and prototypes and we concluded…YES, antimicrobial copper is nature’s favorite and magical germ killer. **3) What are the biggest problems StayWell Copper will solve and how will it make ****people healthier?** We embrace antimicrobial copper because of its ability to kill bacteria and other microbes on touch, helping to reduce deadly infections and common colds, and kill odors. The next few years we spent our time working with a focus group of hundreds of people just like you to help them: - De-germ the lives of their families and their friends. - Establish new ways to look at fighting germs. - Be much smarter with how they spend their germ-fighting dollars. - Stop the unnecessary chemicals going into their bodies, our water, and our planet. And you know what? Our focus group has stayed healthy, and they continue to reap the benefits of daily StayWell Copper use in their lives. Germs are mutating by the second ,and most over-the-counter sprays, lotions, and soaps do **NOTHING** to combat these ever-morphing buggers. Of course, the Big Pharma companies want to keep selling drugs that might help ease your symptoms but DO NOTHING to avoid getting sick in the first place. And the chemical companies want to keep selling chemicals that are very hard on our skin and environment. At StayWell Copper, we think it’s time to Fight Back! It’s time to get back to the basics and solve the problem of GERMS. We don’t treat the symptoms; we kill the germs so there are no symptoms. Why StayWell Copper? Our products: - Are all-natural, antimicrobial, and made from 100% Medical Grade Copper. - Last a lifetime and kill 99.7% of germs on contact and 70% of germs within the 16-inch “halo effect.” - Contain NO nasty chemicals or ingredients. - Are convenient and quick and easy to use. - Are assembled in the USA by our Veterans. **4) What is the number one piece of advice you would give to prospective female entrepreneurs?** You may have heard **Your Health is Your Wealth.** That’s truer than you can possibly imagine as you navigate the entrepreneurial waters. You don’t have a team of coworkers to fall back on, so it’s all on your shoulders to keep your dream alive. Starting and running a business takes a lot of time. Plan to spend 50-70 hours a week getting your idea off the ground. Don’t let healthy habits fall by the wayside. Get as much sleep as your body requires. This sounds simple, but when you are starting and growing a company, the demands on your time will be huge. Learn to say “No” to things that don’t move you towards your end goal. Guard your time and your health; both are essential to your new venture. Eat the right foods to fuel your body, and be careful about what you drink. Stay away from junk foods; even if you have to go through the drive-through window, try to make healthy choices. In the 1980s, I fell into the trap of using diet cola as my form of quick caffeinated pick-me-up energy. It was a hard habit to break, but one I’m very glad I did. Choose water over soda every time! Most important, don’t lose sight of what the word “health” means. It means your physical health, of course, but it also means your mental, moral, fiscal, and spiritual health, as well as more I’m probably not listing here. Your health is your wealth, so keep your health in balance while you are taking what might become the ride of your life. **5) Please leave us with some final thoughts…** Many times people ask me when I plan to retire. I answer “Never.” You see, I absolutely love what I do. I love bringing simple, affordable solutions to everyday problems. And while the process is invigorating, the end result is what drives me. To have heard a little girl’s voice in a big Toys R Us store say, “Mommy, mommy, if you will buy me this, it’s all I will ever want!” and to walk around two aisles and see her holding a bucket of my company’s Our Kids Sidewalk Chalk is the best feeling in the entire world. It’s a feeling that money cannot buy; it’s a feeling I hold in my heart, knowing I made a difference in our world. To hear a stranger say to me that they haven’t had a cold for two years because they use StayWell Copper every day – when they didn’t know I co-created that company… Well, it’s hard to put into words the feeling that comes over me knowing I met my life’s goal of bringing an affordable solution to everyday problems. Yes, I’ve paid a price to walk my own path, but it’s been so worth it and has brought so much joy to so many. I am grateful to those who have walked my journey with me. Reach out to me; I’ll help you however I can. --- ## “I’d never given up hope”- Roy Gene Huff URL: https://futuresharks.com/id-never-given-up-hope-roy-gene-huff/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** My challenges are enormous. I grew up in abject poverty in a family plagued by mental illness. My grandfather, who carried my same name, Roy Huff, fought in Korea but suffered PTSD (they called it shell shocked then) as well as bipolar disorder. He took up robbery, was eventually imprisoned for robbing an armored car. On the day he was paroled, he was caught up in a prison riot and killed by a prison guard. My father, who also suffered from bipolar disorder, was a gay man in the early 80’s. He separated from my mother due to his sexuality, and eventually contracted HIV. He died of AIDS when I was twenty-one. My mother meant well, but she had her own struggles. She received roughly $250 a month in welfare raising my four sisters and I for much of my childhood, though it was three sisters and myself while growing up. Before I was six, I lived in a runned down trailer park in Radcliff Kentucky with shoddy wiring and a massive hole in the bathroom floor. I moved to Charlotte when I was six, and lived in an urban ghetto until I graduated high school. In Charlotte, I had many struggles. I was hit by a car dead-on shortly after my eighth birthday. Miraculously, I ended up in the hospital unharmed. I suffered through almost nightly gunfire in my neighborhood, including one Christmas Day when someone pulled a gun on me, and stole the Walkman my mother gave me as my present. Through all that, I kept my eyes on leaving the ghetto and making something out of my life. I was fortunate to mostly stay out of trouble and graduate a year early as Valedictorian and student body president. From there, I moved to Hawaii, where I now reside. That wasn’t the end of my troubles. I wasn’t able to finish college right away, which I mention in my book. I started businesses and failed. I married, then divorced. I experienced three bankruptcies, and was nearly homeless on one occasion shortly after my divorce. I was fortunate to receive some assistance from the US Vets for a few months until I got back on my feet. The dire financial straits were a combination of the divorce, bad choices, and the hospitalization of my daughter. It was after that time that I knew I needed to make some changes in my life. I’d never given up hope. And even after my second bankruptcy, I put steps into motion to change the direction of my life. At age 30, I decided to return to school. Over the next six years, I earned five degrees, including both a Masters in Education and Geosciences. I had the opportunity to work as a research scientist, publish peer reviewed research on the cover of respected worldwide journals. I even had the opportunity to work on the GOES-R grant for NASA/NOAA and watched the launch in 2016. After the divorce though, I dug deep in the self reflection. I discovered what I lacked was deliberate practice and self reflection. I decided to make significant changes in my life starting with daily reflection as well as gave up fast food and alcohol. At the time, I’d already published several works of fiction, but the transformation in my life, including losing 44 lbs in 44 weeks, convinced me to write a nonfiction book to help others who’d experienced troubles of their own. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** There were so many times. Having people that depend on you and look up to you kept me going. I remember one time in particular, the thought of suicide entered my mind. I had suffered a major business loss and was drowning in debt. I wasn’t planning on killing myself, but I remember thinking about my family getting the life insurance to pay off the debt if I jumped in a Kayak on the coast of Waikiki and drowned myself. I didn’t kill myself, but I did lose my home and filed for bankruptcy, my second at the time. After that experience, I decided to return to school. I had two years of education but no degree. In January 2007, I returned to school full time. By August 2012 I completed five degrees. I switched careers, and have been working in education and research ever since. The return to school also kicked off my writing career. I got the inspiration to write my first novel, Everville, while working on my fourth degree. My first published book arrived in January 2013. Writing has pushed me forward. The desire to touch others with my works, both fiction and nonfiction, inspired me to keep honing my skills and improving myself. It hasn’t always been easy, and there are still times where discouragement tries to creep in, but making a positive change by improving myself and moving forward is extremely motivating. --- ## Are You Ready To Start Building Your Very Own Online E-commerce Empire? URL: https://futuresharks.com/are-you-ready-to-start-building-your-very-own-online-e-commerce-empire/ Yes, people still want to jump into the e-commerce space but why? It is because they see how well others are doing in it. But, what they don’t know is how those individuals got there, how they managed to create a successful e-commerce business because from the outside looking in it seems fairly easy. It takes a lot of experience and learning for you to have a successful e-commerce business unless you are selling a super hot product, but even that doesn’t last forever which is why you need knowledge and experience. Founder of Ecommerce Empire Builders Peter Pru has been through it all when it comes to the e-commerce space. He was able to sell really well and earn 10k-20k a month but he was actually losing money, none of it was actual profit. So, this goes to show why you need to educate yourself as much as you can and create a plan. Pru has 4 tips that you should know before even thinking about diving into dropshipping/e-commerce: 1. You need to spend money to make money 2. Be prepared to not have a lot of free time 3. You need to understand the market you’re getting into 4. There will be many obstacles in your way Of course, you have to have some sort of money saved up in order to invest in your business. If you do not have that then do whatever it takes to get that startup money. You always have to be prepared to stay in and work. Say no to hanging out with friends and get your priorities straight, this will determine how bad you want to succeed. You must know your market and really study it so you know what your audience wants and how you can solve their problems. Most importantly, you should never give up because there will be many obstacles in your way but you have to push through it. You will fail time and time again but you must learn from every single mistake you make. While Pru had a drop shipping business that wasn’t doing well he learned about sales funnels. He studied them and started to experiment. He tried over 50 sales funnels until he finally got it right and started seeing some profit from one. Once he had that sales funnel he went from losing money to earning 5k-10k in net profit in the first year. Now Pru is helping others to build their own profitable e-commerce business. Not only does he make their business profitable but he helps them create a long lasting business, one that will withstand time. He knew that with his knowledge and experience he could help others create a profitable e-commerce business. It is important that you focus on your business and give it 100% because anything less will hurt your business. The number one reason most businesses fail is because of the lack of planning so you must learn, create a plan, and take action. --- ## Before You Start Your Journey, Make Sure You’re Built For it: Jack Deezl URL: https://futuresharks.com/before-you-start-your-journey-make-sure-youre-built-for-it-jack-deezl/ I was able to talk to Jack Deezl who is a  Public Figure, Artist, Lyricist, DJ, hype man, US Army Combat Veteran, and security guard. He has worked with & provided security for several verified & reputable artists in the music and hip hop industry. Deezl is the founder of Smash Heights Association. Built on music, entertainment & security, they bring a diverse aura to their community. I asked him about the times where he felt like giving up and here is what he had to say: **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** As prior Non Commissioned Officer in the United States Army, I proudly served my country in Iraq. Keeping the peace & trying to help others in a 3rd world country seemed impossible yet with team work on both sides, it was accomplishable. Maintaining communications in a war zone can be difficult when taking enemy fire. Secure communications is highly important in obtaining victory. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** When my Association didn’t exist, the hardest part was trying to show everyone my vision before it was a reality. Having a raw natural talent at something isn’t enough, you must have a vision with goals & strong work ethic. Then you must have a plan, now you have to put it all together and have it make sense. It can be overwhelming especially if you’re aiming for perfection. I started booking show after show, including hoisting & DJing/hyping events regularly. at low pay, no pay or sometimes I’d have to pay just to get noticed. I believe in balance. You must endure the hardships in every aspect of your life, it will strengthen you in preparation towards completing your goals. --- ## The Solution To Vaping That Could Restore Some Balance URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-solution-to-vaping-that-could-restore-some-balance/ Recently I interviewed Amanda Byrd, Christos Nicolaidis, Mitch Mulanix and John Grimm who are the founders of Philter. Philter is revolutionizing the way others vape because it is much cleaner and better for the environment. By doing this they are building a bridge between vapers and non-vapers. You will be able to vape without judgement and affecting others around you. Philter puts out much cleaner air which is better for the environment and you. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Philter Labs, Inc. is a technology company creating sophisticated filtration solutions with a mission to eliminate secondhand vapor and smoke. PHILTER™ recognizes the ever-growing vape market as well as a shift in users due to many reasons, including the legalization of cannabis. PHILTER™ reimagined personal, handheld filters by engineering a unique filtration process that not only filters emissions but treats vapor and smoke to dissolve and eliminate particulates and pollutants. With a new type of discerning vape user, PHILTER™ worked tirelessly to house the patented technology in a slim product profile that would fit the varied needs of today’s modern vaper. By empowering vape users with the option to either enjoy vaping in a traditional manner or filter their vapor based on their particular environment, Philter Labs, Inc. is the catalyst for necessary, impactful social and environmental change during this progressive maturation of the vaping market. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** Years of research and development led to the patented Zero-5™ Technology, which powers all PHILTER™ products. A five-step filtration process, Zero-5™ Technology molecularly manipulates vapor and smoke to dissipate and reduce emissions while simultaneously dissolving any particulates and pollutants. This process is encapsulated within a filter measuring less than 4” tall and ½” wide, small enough to fit in your pocket! --- ## Heather Younger Recounts Her Experience as a Keynote Speaker at HBR Week Brasil URL: https://futuresharks.com/heatheryounger/ Best-selling author of The 7 Intuitive Laws of Employee Loyalty and founder of Customer Fanatix, Heather R. Younger, J.D., gave a keynote at Harvard Business Review’s HBR Brasil Week held in Sao Paulo during April 8-11. The event brought together international experts in innovation, leadership, organizational culture, and strategy. HBR Brasil Week’s focus is to create a high-impact event for management professionals, equipping them with more tools, data, and strategies to be able to optimize their decision-making. We caught up with Heather and asked her to share her experience. 1. **For those of us who have never been to an HBRweek, tell us about HBRweek Brasil.** It was pretty darn cool. There were over 500 executive leaders all gathered to learn more about trends in leadership, culture, management and digital strategy. They had some vendors, they sold books in an author corner and had the authors speak about their books. I loved the panel discussions they had with many of Brazil’s top business minds. It was very well done and their service was impeccable. They really know how to make someone feel special. The editor was the person who selected me as a speaker and she was amazing! **2) What were your top three takeaways from the event?** 1. Leaders know that something is missing in the workplace. They know that they control some of it and we’re hungry to find out what else they could do to create great employee experiences. 2. Having a “learning” mindset requires that we take risks and be willing to fail. 3. Despite the difference in cultures, people all want a deep connection with those inside and outside of their families. **3) What points did you drive home during your keynote speech?** My main point was this: Employee experience and retention is driven by emotions. Leaders get to choose which emotions they leave heir people feeling this retaining them or losing them as a result. I focused on the many stories I have heard or read from employees about how their leader’s actions made them want to stay on or leave the team. **4) What is your top piece of advice for aspiring speakers who would like to one day give an international Keynote?** Imagine yourself there first. It’s how we frame who we are and want to be in our minds first that is the main driver of our results. If you believe you are good enough to be there and have a message that others want to hear, you will get there. To discover more about Heather and her future speaking engagements make sure to follow her journey via LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatheryounger/ --- ## Success Interview With Content Creator Jun Yang AKA Jefo URL: https://futuresharks.com/success-interview-with-content-creator-jun-yang-aka-jefo/ - **Share your background with me and tell me how you became an internet star.** Back in 2018, I was attending college. My life was totally different back then. I was actually at university studying to become a doctor, but it didn’t take long for me to admit that my heart wasn’t in it. Once I began my classes, it didn’t feel right to me. So, to not waste more time and money, I dropped out. I knew in my heart that what I really wanted to do was make people laugh. So, despite having hardly any followers, I made a promise to myself that I would do anything to get attention and views to kickstart my career. That’s when I began doing “public challenges” online. - **What got you started with the public challenges trend?** It began with me asking random strangers on the street to “touch my body” and that later turned into other silly concepts, like “touch my potato.” People loved the interactive style and it took off quickly. My first videos earned 1-2 million views each, so I jumped on the trend. I added new twists over time and, before I knew it, my videos were getting over a 100 million views. Suddenly, everyone was getting in on the trend and I saw similar videos getting posted on WorldStar and 9GAG. - **If someone wants to be a content creator, what are three tips you’d give them?** First, just start. I didn’t start with many followers but no one does. You have to put yourself out there and do your best with whatever you’ve got. Second, go wild. The internet loves wild and crazy, so be unique and come up with a good idea. They might not all work, but the secret is to keep trying until one does. Third, learn from your audience. Figure out what people like and then do more of it. - **What would you say to someone who wants to take a leap of faith and do what you do?** Don’t hesitate. Plenty of people are thinking about being a comedian or making videos or doing something they’re passionate about, but very few actually pursue those ideas. The internet has opened so many doors for so many people, and I think you should jump on the chance to potentially be one of the success stories. You’ll never know unless you try. Of course, I wouldn’t suggest they make a major, risky change like I did–it’s always good to have a backup plan! - **A lot of people want to be creators these days, how can someone decide if it’s for them?** Honestly, I’d say just give it a try. You’re never going to know unless you give it a shot. Decide what type of content resonates with you online and then come up with some ideas that you can put your heart into. I think it’s all about doing what you want to do. At the end of the day, if you’re happy with what you’re creating, you’ll be having fun regardless of view count–and when you’re truly having fun, people will be able to tell and that will lead to even more views. - **The internet is cluttered these days. How do you stand out?** One thing that sets me apart is the trend I have created of doing public challenges. Now a bunch of people do them, but I was the original. Doing something unique will definitely help you gain an edge and get the attention you deserve. Of course, your personality and style will also set you apart so I think it’s important to showcase those things. In the past six months, I have gained over 2.4 million followers on Instagram alone. I contribute that to who I am and how I deliver my comedy. - **A lot of things have surely impacted your life, but what would you say has been the single most influential factor in your success?** Easy: being fully dedicated. I kind of had no choice the way that I did things, but that’s what really allowed me to commit myself fully to becoming successful. I dropped out of college and devoted all of my time to doing this and making it work. I was couch surfing at strangers’ houses and spending all of my time making videos, so I had no choice but to create something good. - **Where are you off to now? What do you have planned for the future?** A lot of people say that I’m successful because I have a lot of followers, but I don’t think that’s a good measure of success. I have bigger goals. I like connecting with people and I actually want to be the first person to connect the social networks of China and the rest of the world. I’m multilingual, so I’m going to try! - **Can you share some more details about that big goal?** I know it’s a big goal, but I’ve already taken the internet by storm in the western world. I want to do the same thing in China and be the person that finally taps into their social platforms. They block Facebook and Instagram over there, but they have their own platforms that are even bigger. I want to bring them all together. - **If someone wants to collaborate with you, how can they get in touch?** They can reach out to Syft, which is the influencer agency in Los Angeles that manages me. Email me through info@syft.la. --- ## Don’t Give Up Just Because Others Do: With Aaron Agius URL: https://futuresharks.com/dont-give-up-just-because-others-do-with-aaron-agius/ **So Aaron, can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Outside of my business, one of my biggest wins in life was beating out 20,000 people who had applied for the same full-time firefighter position as me. I’ve also landed a job at Microsoft, and I’ve been successful in sport. But one of the things I’ve been proudest of in business is having built Louder Online, my agency, to work as a completely distributed team for day #1. Because of that, I’ve been able to travel the world with my family and live anywhere we want. For a few years, I lived in Koh Samui in Thailand – all while building my agency. It’s been amazing in terms of the success its brought to our team through the flexibility it provides, and through the level of worldwide talent I’m able to tap into. In terms of challenges, when we first started out, being able to be seen as credible was a big challenge, since we were going up against big companies with big names. It’s hard to close deals when no one knows who you are, and you’re trying to create a brand out of thin air. But we didn’t really focus on it that much. We focused on our craft. It took time to build up our reputation, but now we’re able to compete for and win contracts with some of the biggest companies around the world. Now, I really see our responsibilities as looking after the companies that trust us with their marketing. It’s up to us to make sure we’re getting them the growth they need and to deliver on the promises we’ve made as an agency. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** There have been plenty of times I’ve felt like giving up over the last 11 years in our agency. Most often, it’s when clients don’t pay their bills – or they pay them months behind. It’s not just a problem with small companies. It happens with massive companies as well, and it creates a problem because we have suppliers that are on net-15 or net-30 terms. Our suppliers are chasing their invoices, and we’re chasing invoices from our clients. It can be horrible to be stuck in the middle, which is something I’ve wanted to change up and get out of many times. It’s an ongoing issue, although we’ve had some successes getting companies to pay in advance. We’ve also focused on building strong relationships with suppliers, so that they trust they’ll get paid as soon as we’re able to do so. But I’ve never let this stop me, because I’ve always believed that those who are successful in this line of work are successful because they don’t give up when others would. Sitting around and thinking, “Well, this would be a breaking point for plenty of other people,” has always made me want to persevere – to keep pushing through and be one of the ones who outlasted everyone else. Just remembering that has worked for me time and time again. --- ## The Makings of A Real Estate Tycoon- Omar Wala URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-makings-of-a-real-estate-tycoon-omar-wala/ Omar Wala, has began building a legacy that will have him remembered amongst the titans of New York real estate. A deep seeded member of the Brooklyn Community, Omar has always been surrounded by success. His grandfather started Brisa Builders Corporation close to two decades ago and was responsible for numerous urban construction sites. It is on these sites, that Omar developed his love for construction. That love for construction has transitioned in 2019 to one of the largest minority real estate firms in the United States. In the last four years alone, Brisa has built over 1000 affordable housing units, in the greater NYC area. For such a great feat, Omar says he is just getting started and has a vision for even bigger goals in the future. His ambitious, intelligent disposition comes from his mom. Ericka Keller- Wala, a natural born intellectual. Becoming pregnant with Omar at the tender age of 16, she managed to become the valedictorian of her senior class and graduated with all honors, which allowed her to have a full scholarship to the majority of prestigious institutions. She chose New York University because of its proximity to her family and graduated Magna Cum Laude maintaining a 4.0 gpa during her collegiate career. Immediately after graduating, she received multiple lucrative offers from numerous corporate firms and passed on them all. She instead chose to be a servant of the community and pursued a career in social work and then education. Ericka Keller remained an educator for over 20 years before deciding to serve the community in an even greater capacity. To date, Brisa’s construction efforts have created housing for thousands of families, in addition to thousands of employment opportunities as they have been responsible for more than 500 million dollars in construction in the last few years. Omar, a young father himself, wants to leave an impactful legacy in his community and be the example of an exemplary man for his daughter. His personal and professional obligations have expanded greatly. Recently, he has come on board as the Chief Operating Officer of First Round Management. For those unfamiliar, First Round is a premier sports agency with over 100 MMA fighters and scores of NFL players on their roster. With years of overseeing large professional teams, his project management experience comes as a necessary addition to an agency with over 145 million dollars in negotiated contracts and multiple moving pieces. With hundreds of athletes on their roster and a constant recruiting process of prospective players comes stringent NCAA, NFL and UFC compliance. This comes second nature to Omar, due to his experience working in Brisa, and being responsible for all of the OSHA, HPD and HUD compliance. He has a diverse skill set that is so much more than technical compliance savviness , his duties also include setting up fundraisers and community outreach where he can bring some of the same service driven values that makes him a pillar in the real estate community. That singular unifying purpose of service, be it with his colleagues, clients, family or community gives Mr. Wala a powerful “Why’’; and history has shown that a man with a purpose always prevails. Omar is not only developing the homes that the next generation of children will live in but helping in sculpting the careers of athletes that will be role models for millions of families. Mr. Wala has already made a massive positive economic impact on his community and his new position at First Round, will allow him the opportunity to impact the country. Leaders like Omar are giving the next generation of diverse entrepreneurs a blueprint to follow. “True leadership is stepping out and being the change you wish to see in the world”, which has been famously coined by Mahatma Ghandi. If Omar Wala does not embody the quote, then no one does,. Honestly, the entire family embodies it, it is pure poetry that the strength of one family has provided homes for thousands of other families. A true testament to human kindness, Omar’s role at First Round Management is to bring that same service driven culture to their growing company. He provides guidance and professional assistance to the agents to ensure that First Round can continue to deliver world -class customer service to their clients. Juggling the two roles is a lot of work, more than most people could probably handle, but let’s not forget relentless ambition runs in his family. Omar has already left more of a legacy at a young age than most men do in a lifetime. He works everyday as if he has something to prove and only the world to gain. One thing is for certain, 1000 apartments in New York City is just a stepping stone for the great things this man will achieve. If I was a gambling man, I say its a solid bet to say that Omar Wala and Brisa Builders will facilitate housing for over a million families and lead the nation in managing some of the largest names in sports. --- ## George Konidis — An Entrepreneurial Vision for Video Content SEO and Marketing URL: https://futuresharks.com/george-konidis-an-entrepreneurial-vision-for-video-content-seo-and-marketing/ Digital content is continually evolving in the age of the Internet, and marketing strategies need to adapt in parallel. As e-commerce continues its unprecedented surge in growth, social media platforms become embedded with online brands, and new mediums emerge for reaching consumer audiences, SEO and growth strategies will play an increasingly prominent role in online businesses. George Konidis has been deeply involved in the SEO and brand marketing sector for more than 10 years, and his journey from in-house marketing teams to leading his own company, Growing Search, have afforded him some unique insights into the changing content landscape. *From In-House Brand Marketing to Entrepreneur* Passionate about his professional career, Konidis says he loves experimenting with new growth hacking methods and learning how to adapt and scale online businesses to reach vast audiences. “The Internet has changed the way startups can grow,” he says. “Small startups can become big brands on a global scale by applying the right marketing and SEO strategies — that’s the kind of work I love doing, helping brands to grow.” Konidis initially began his career working in the Internet marketing industry in 2008, where he co-managed an e-commerce shoe website — quickly developing a passion for conversion optimization. Eventually, Konidis advanced into project management and online growth marketing for in-house teams of major brands, independent SEO strategist initiatives, and helping small businesses engage and convert quality traffic before his foray into entrepreneurship. “The signs were everywhere,” he says. “We took one company from 1 million users to 66 million within a short period of time. Given the results we’ve had for larger corporations, I knew it was time to break out and build a unique SEO agency which can guarantee results.” Konidis subsequently founded Growing Search with some professional SEO strategist colleagues, who have grown the agency into an online growth leader for both significant online brands and small businesses. With a portfolio of clients such as Coinsquare, Breather, Diply, and GreenGeeks under their belt, Growing Search has gained established credibility across a variety of markets. “Our reputation precedes us. We are based in Toronto, Canada which is a multi-cultural population,” Konidis details. “It was easy for us to adapt to international and global markets. Through word-of-mouth alone, our company grew quickly and then spread throughout a number of industries. Credibility has always been the foremost factor in the services we provide.” Digital content market is a continually evolving field, however. Growing Search and Konidis understand that and are honing in on some emerging trends that have been gaining momentum over the year — especially in video SEO marketing and strategy. *The Power of SEO and Transition to Video Search* Sound SEO strategies can often be the inflection point for an online business that determines whether or not it can grow and flourish. Konidis’ experience among major online brands and smaller businesses has helped him realize that implementing a quality SEO strategy will not always work, however. Many times, it depends on the company and business model, something he cites that being upfront and transparent about is critical to establishing credibility. “Each company is unique and has a different business model,” Konidis says. “As long as a company is open to change and growth, we love to help them succeed. A client’s success benefits our success so the relationship is a partnership through and through. We do our due diligence by holding both the client and ourselves to the highest of standards.” When it comes to growing an online business, whether large or small, numerous marketing components need to be taken into consideration. SEO consulting, link building, local SEO, content marketing, SEO audits, and Youtube optimization are just a few of the services offered by Growing Search that are continually changing to meet the market demands. Konidis details how he never is satisfied with the status quo, and that work in aggressive industries like cryptocurrency (e.g., Coinsquare) and adult dating (e.g., Ruby) have granted him a persistent desire to improve upon the current state of affairs. In particular, one of the areas that Konidis highlights as one of the most exciting trends in marketing and SEO strategy is the rapid rise of video consumption and video search. Video optimization is set to be one of the prevailing trends of 2019 and beyond, as more than 87 percent of people prefer video as their content medium of choice. Konidis is well aware of the power of YouTube; his company offers YouTube optimization, which he views as one of their most important value propositions. To highlight just how powerful YouTube can be in marketing strategies and content optimization, a recent Nielsen study, commissioned by Google, revealed that YouTube reaches more adults 18 or older during prime time than any cable network. Compound that with the fact that YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google, and it is evident that vast potential awaits marketing strategies that cater to video-based mediums. “We actually focus on YouTube as a major asset for SEO growth,” Konidis says. “More often than not, people searching content or looking for a product or service on the Internet will pull up a video and watch it first. Times have changed in that regard. Most companies are still lacking in their video content marketing strategies.” Konidis’ journey has proved a valuable toolset for his entrepreneurial vision of turning businesses into standards of online growth — bringing in qualified, organic traffic and converting them into buyers, and eventually, endorsers. With an overall career contribution of more than 15 billion monthly impressions, George Konidis and Growing Search have the experience and expertise to help companies realize their loftiest growth intentions. --- ## How Rob Lost 25 Pounds in 3 Months and Now Has a Sustainable Lifestyle URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-rob-lost-25-pounds-in-3-months-and-now-has-a-sustainable-lifestyle/ Rob had most of his life in order and was successful in many different areas. He had what most people only dream of – a solid family life, a great career, great friendships and lots of hobbies. The only thing Rob didn’t have in order was his health. Rob, however, decided not to be held back by the one thing that threatened to take happiness from his life. That is why he did what most intelligent people would do. Rob needed help, so he went looking for it in a bid to salvage his life and take care of the area he needed to improve most. **A Sustainable Way of Living** Apart from the fact that Rob acknowledged his weakness and decided to work on it, the next biggest contributor to his success came from finding the right person who offered the right kind of assistance. When Rob met his coach Jason Priest, he opened up about the health challenges he was facing and how he was willing to do anything to overcome them. Unlike most people with similar challenges as his, Rob knew exactly what he wanted. That is why he asked to be taught a sustainable way of living. There was no way he was going to spend hours in the gym every day and/or give up all the foods he loved. Somehow, he knew there was another way, and unsurprisingly, Jason knew what Rob was looking for. So both of them got to work. **Tackling a Weight Issue through Mindset** Rob’s journey into a free and healthy lifestyle started with one invaluable lesson from his coach, now turned mentor. If he was to succeed in losing the weight he wanted to lose, he and his coach had to work on his mindset. Since there were no two ways about it, Rob agreed to the proposition. Changing his mindset became an integral part of Rob’s weight loss journey and the secret to his success. All through the coaching process, Rob learned that it is consistency and discipline that make up an effective formula to lose weight and remain fit. His coach helped him change his mindset, which is actually a process that takes time, and by sticking to the formula each day, he was able to reach his goals. Apart from the mindset training, Rob had to also learn how to incorporate nutrient-dense foods consistently into his life while maintaining his busy work schedule. He was often packing a cooler for his time away, which was already a step in the right direction. By making a few adjustments from his coach’s regimen and implementing the recommended food options on a daily basis, Rob was already on board. **The Journey’s Ups and Downs** Rob was already aware of the importance of proper nutrition but he needed to learn more about what foods are healthy and good for him. He believed in the saying “we are what we eat” and he was eager to learn. This made a smooth transition for him as he immediately took a liking to many of the nutrient-dense foods suggested to him by Jason. The final piece was fitness and this presented some challenges. Not because Rob didn’t want to exercise, but because he didn’t always have equipment available whenever it was time to work out. Contrary to what anyone might be tempted to think, there was an easy fix to the problem. Thanks to his coach’s ingenuity, there were several different workout options and all could be done in less than 40 minutes. In the end, Rob didn’t need to spend endless time in the gym in order to accomplish his goals. There was also no need to alter his lifestyle to make him feel uncomfortable. He lost 25 pounds in just 3 months in the most sustainable way one could ever imagine. **Bottom Line** If anyone is bent on improving their health, then they should follow a sustainable plan. Without sustainability, long term results will be nothing but a dream. Following a fad diet or a rigorous workout routine might fix things, but only for a short time. Rob’s success proves that sustainability is the way to go should one desire to re-define their dad bod without giving up any of their favorite foods or implementing radical changes to their lifestyle. --- ## By 2030 50% of America Will Be Obese; Here’s My Mission To One Million Lives Changed URL: https://futuresharks.com/by-2030-50-of-america-will-be-obese-heres-my-mission-to-one-million-lives-changed/ It is projected that by the year 2030 at least 50% of the United States will be obese. Not just overweight but obese. This is a real epidemic that’s happening right before our eyes in our own country and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. With fast food on every corner and people opting for convenience over health, this is a trend that isn’t going away. This is happening in a country where resources aren’t lacking and healthy food is readily available just about anywhere you go. With obesity comes health problems and heart disease happens to be the number one leading cause of death in men and women and is responsible for one out of every four deaths. Obesity is a major risk factor for developing heart disease and many people who experience heart attacks will never get a second chance. **Changing a Million Lives through Awareness** My mission is to reach one million lives as I work relentlessly on making the largest impact that I possibly can on the obesity trend in America. This certainly won’t be easy but I didn’t sign up for easy. I believe awareness is the first step because the more aware a person is the more ammunition they have in order to create change. I’m not referring to general health awareness either. I’m referring to awareness in relation to sustainability. It is my goal to show the world that living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t need to be over complicated. I firmly believe most people simply want to feel better and it doesn’t take a drastic overhaul in order to achieve this. Spreading awareness is crucial but providing actionable steps is just as important. My message is extremely powerful and it originates from witnessing several young men and women die at early ages due to conditions that in many cases were preventable. Imagine not being around for your kids because you didn’t take your health seriously enough when you had a chance. It’s situations like this that has my eyes set on the lofty goal of one million lives. **Sewing Sustainability into the Solution** By sharing my message with the world and providing actionable steps in order to improve a person’s health, my mission to a million will certainly take some time. But unfortunately time isn’t waiting for anyone so there’s extreme urgency on my behalf. This results in a fragile situation because no one wants to be told they need to overhaul their entire health overnight. This is why I emphasize the word sustainability so often. Without it, most people who implement healthy changes end up reverting back to their old ways. I believe we live in a world of immediate gratification. People often want a magic pill or a fad diet in order to improve their health in the fastest way possible. But anything that happens quickly and drastically typically isn’t sustainable. I have seen many people get great results with fad diets only to gain all the weight back after realizing it’s not sustainable. I believe that by changing people’s perspective when it comes to health I can make an impact that most wouldn’t dream of. The way I see it is if everyone knew how simple the process can be by learning to embrace the struggle then America would never come close to having an obesity rate of 50%. Most people don’t realize how good their body is designed to feel and it only takes a few small changes to yield fantastic results. **In Summation …** I am a man on a mission and I am determined to leave a positive impact when I leave planet earth. I believe everyone deserves to live the healthiest life possible not only for them but their family and friends as well. I am relentless in my pursuit to change lives and you simply can’t help but support my amazing cause. --- ## Here Is How Immigration Attorney Jacob Sapochnick Has Carved A Path To Becoming A Powerhouse Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/jacob-sapochnick/ Jacob Sapochnick is one of the most accomplished lawyers of today. He started out as a one-man team with a company no one has heard about and turned it into a twenty-plus team of experts. You may be wondering how he began the business and what he did to get there. Let’s take a look at the specifics of his steps to success and how you can apply the formula for your own brand, website or online business. Like other mega-entrepreneurs, Jacob Sapochnick has a strategy for making it big and becoming a highly celebrated figure in several industries. For those who want to create a brand that stands the test of time, read on below. We’ll take you inside the mind of Jacob and his methods to become a powerhouse influencer. **Harness 21st Century Technology** Sometimes it’s not enough to set up your own business and expect it to thrive. Jacob learned that harnessing the power of the 21st-century technology allowed the brand to reach further using global influencers focused on bringing clients to immigration laws. This tech allowed Jacob to start hiring more and more people for his needs and business demands. It only started getting better from there. How can you succeed without using tools, apps and other things? The simple answer is, you can’t. Not taking advantage of what’s available is like operating a vehicle with only one hand. Businesses and entrepreneurs will have to realize that proper usage of tools is paramount to growth and success. **Utilize Social Media** The good thing about immigration law, Jacob mentions, is that it’s widespread and available on all 50 states. The springboard is only further enhanced by the introduction of social media channels, which allowed the firm to acquire clients on the internet. These days, it’s all about being seen and felt in social media in order to stand out. Entrepreneurs should realize the value of marketing their products and services on social media. It’s one of the most-used platforms, after all. A hundred million users log on social sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others to interact with friends, post about their lives or to check out what their favorite influencers are using. It’s an untapped mine of wealth, and finding a way to be huge on social media will have a direct impact on your business growth, sales and profits. **Bring 100% Creativity** No one wants to look at the same old boring advertisement over and over. Jacob says that one way of creating a powerhouse brand is to become more creative than the competition. Jacob’s love of social media and utilizing 21st-century tech gave him the insight to start traveling the world and go to countries such as Macau, Columbia, and Hong Kong to practice immigration law, for legal work and for influencing purposes. Today, the attorney is one of the most respected figures in both the real world and social media. Taking a unique perspective on how to grow your business can pay off in the end. You can get a sense of what your particular industry needs and explore all the options before making a decision. Will you need more influencers, or do you become the influencer and start adding content on social media? Each niche may have a different approach and it takes enormous creativity, insight, and research to find out what will work on both short and long term. The great thing about being creative is that you bring something unique to the table, and this may very well be the edge your brand needs to become recognized by the mainstream. **In Summation…** take all of the above things to heart- 21st-century technology, social media utilization, and 100% creativity to empower your brand and take it to newer, greater heights. If you want your career, brand or business to be the best it can be, you’d better make the most of the tools available. Not doing so means you get left behind by those who are willing to do everything to succeed and turn their brand into a global icon. Follow Jacob Sapochnick’s formula to becoming a brand leader in your respective niche and you’ll see an uptick on reach, engagement and more importantly, sales and profits. --- ## This Former US Military Member Hit The Top 1% of Real Estate Brokers in the World and Is Now Helping Other Agents Do the Same URL: https://futuresharks.com/jonathan-hawkins/ Well, you might think you know what life in the military consists of, but wait until you are there. In the military, nothing comes easy. Having been in the military for long enough, Jonathan Hawkins knew better than to expect results without having to work hard for them. In the real estate industry, there are tons of “shiny pennies” rolling in front of realtors every day, something Jonathan says was absent during his days in the army. He did not expect anything like “buy this program so you don’t have to work” kind of stuff. The other thing you don’t know about military life is that it triggers the human nature in you. Gradually, Jonathan found himself caring for other people, doing what is right no matter what, practicing integrity, among other values. So, when he ventured into real estate and found that many agents overlooked core philosophies, Jonathan saw an opportunity to offer his best. He realized it was time to apply what he learned in the U.S Army to his business. **Storytelling: A Pastime Turned Business Model** In the army, soldiers have to connect with each other on a level that many civilians cannot attain. Besides playing indoor games, sharing meals and being together on the battlefield, telling and sharing stories goes a long way into strengthening the bonds between servicemen and women. Jonathan made this observation and knew deep inside him that it would work for his clients too. Did you know that when telling a fact, the brain uses 2 parts, but when telling a story it uses 5? As soon as Jonathan Hawkins learned this, he immediately applied it in his business as well as his personal life. He mastered the art of storytelling by incorporating it into social media. Jonathan was able to change the norm in the real estate industry. Rather than telling facts, he has been telling stories, an approach that has allowed his audience to picture themselves as part of what he does and who he is. **Significance of Storytelling on Social Media** Jonathan Hawkins says, “If someone can see themselves in your personal brand and community posts, you will also be able to relate with them on your real estate related posts.” When you make real estate related posts and add an element of storytelling you are on your way to being among the top 1% of real estate agents. When Jonathan Hawkins did this, he would constantly hear “we feel like we already know you” at listing appointments. The clients felt they could trust him because they were part of his story. Right now, Jonathan is showing agents that doing what makes them feel happy will resonate with the audience they want to attract. If you are constantly reinforcing a story that isn’t yours, you get further from the truth, and you continue the never-ending rollercoaster ride. **It’s all about the Mindset** Jonathan Hawkins was in the military intelligence field and the most important things he learned were not about physical interrogation tactics, but about mental processes such as having the right mindset. Some people might call it mind reading, but Jonathan calls it something else. By changing the way he thinks and adapting to how his clients think, Jonathan is able to get the results he is looking for. He says it is all about getting someone to do or say something because you know how the brain works. Jonathan trains realtors to use their mindset to understand how the mind operates. That way, an agent is able to tell how clients will react to specific words and how actions can be put into the subconscious. This tactic has always worked for Jonathan and all the realtors who have tried it, obviously after being educated by him on how best and right to go about it. In Conclusion, while Jonathan Hawkins might have found his way to the top of the food chain among realtors, he realized that success for him was found in helping others. Now, Jonathan helps other agents realize their potential by doing things in a uniques way. If this sounds appealing or even interesting to you, Jonathan is the person you should be looking for. Because remember, as Jonathan states, “Who You Hire Truly Matters.” --- ## Jason Greer Shares How Brain Chemistry Affects Diversity Management in the Workplace URL: https://futuresharks.com/jason-greer-shares-how-brain-chemistry-affects-diversity-management-in-the-workplace/ In this series, we feature the work of the world’s rising stars in entrepreneurship. Today we caught up with Jason Greer, whose consulting firm is focussed on improving labor relations via diversity training. **Future Sharks: Tell us your backstory. How did your journey as an entrepreneur get started?** **Jason Greer:** I am a former Board Agent of the National Labor Relations Board. I loved working for the Board but I knew that I wanted to experience everything that the field of labor and employee relations had to offer. So in 2005, I decided to leave the Board and starting working as a labor relations consultant. I had a feeling that I had something to offer the field but I had no idea how much the field had to offer me. I have worked in every state and in every city keeping companies union free while improving the relationships between managers and employees. It has been an incredible ride. **Future Sharks: What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?** **Jason Greer:** Being an entrepreneur means being equal parts ambitious and idealistic all at the same time. For example, I’m ambitious from the standpoint of wanting to be an advocate for managers and employees alike throughout the united states. I’m idealistic because I truly exist in this place that all problems have powerful solutions if we are all just willing to put in the work to better understand each other. **Future Sharks: Your company helps companies solve complex problems. Can you tell us what that looks like?** **Jason Greer:** In terms of labor relations, we assist companies who are faced with union organizing challenges. We assess the situation and then apply our skills, knowledge and an empathic desire to truly understand others for the sole purpose of bringing managers and employees together. It is our goal to leave the organization better and stronger without the need for a third party representative such as a labor union. Our approach to diversity management is based on the field of neuroscience. We take a brain-based approach to diversity training with the goal of helping people to understand the inherent stories that take place in our brains as it pertains to other people. My approach to diversity in the workplace is centered on building commonalities and shared experiences so that the team concept overrides the preconceived notions we sometimes have about other people. The team concept will ultimately create stronger communication, improve workplace morale, increase productivity, and reduce turnover. **Future Sharks: Why is diversity so important today when building a company culture that is aimed at excellence?** **Jason Greer:**A diversity of ideas, opinions, inputs will lead to a more richer work environment. The diverse perspective of employees will help in making better decisions. Companies that offer an inclusive environment will be able to innovate and outperform their competition. New research has made it clear that companies with diverse workforces are able to perform better financially. Companies with ethnic and racial diversity will have more financial returns when compared to companies that don’t hire a diverse workforce. Achieving greater diversity in the workplace is not difficult. Diverse institutions and companies are able to achieve better performance. They will be able to take advantage of the opportunity that diversity brings to an organization. When employees feel connected, respected and involved, employers will be able to gain from the richness of ideas. This will enable companies to respond effectively to customers, raise productivity, attract and retain high performing employees, and deliver sustainable growth. **Future Sharks: What are your top 3 tips for companies that want to improve their labor relations and workforce diversity?** **Jason Greer:** **Work and Life Balance** Employees who do not have a good work-life balance will become burned out, stressed, and less effective staff. Or, they will focus so much on getting time at home that they might show up late, leave early, and miss deadlines. If you want to keep staff on board, a bit of flexibility can be quite impactful. Promoting work-life balance as part of your labor relations strategy makes your employees feel valued and in control of their lives, while strengthening your workplace culture and fostering loyalty. **Managing and Resolving Conflicts** Conflict arises in most relationships, including those at work. You may see it among employees, between management and reports, or even between the business owner and employees. Conflict can also arise between clients and staff, which is especially bad. Addressing conflict head-on with strong conflict resolution skills is important to labor relations. Any issues should be handled quickly and with transparency to avoid gossip and office politics. Any conflicts should also be fully documented for future reference. **Innovation** Businesses need to be constantly looking at new processes and procedures to determine better ways of growth. As per a study, workplace diversity is key to innovation, nearly 85 percent of large global companies agree that diversity is important to drive innovation in the workplace. Innovations come from brainstorming and feedback. In a diverse workplace, people look at things from different viewpoints. The different viewpoints will enable employees to come up with innovative ideas. This will help propel innovation and growth. Diversity helps in breeding innovation. Workforce inclusion is key to driving business growth and internal innovation. A group of diverse employees will always be better at problem-solving. Innovative and successful companies build diverse teams as part of their strategy for growth. ### Learn More about Jason: Jason is a professional speaker who combines his natural wit and storytelling ability with his experience in counseling, training and conflict resolution. He inspires audiences, both large and small, as he speaks to managing through personal and corporate growth while maintaining an intimate connection to the human components that define us and make our respective cultures special. Jason is widely known for his work in the area of racial reconciliation based upon his experiences as a victim of cross burnings and racial harassment by the Knights of Ku Klux Klan. Jason previously served as a Board Agent with the National Labor Relations Board where he managed private sector labor relations’ issues and worked to improve the labor petition filing process. Jason has assisted large and small businesses across multiple industries to overcome their internal employee relations struggles. He has experienced incredible success as a labor relations consultant due to his unique ability to marry his background in Labor Relations, Counseling Psychology and Organizational Development. --- ## How marketing Gurus are lying to you! URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-marketing-gurus-are-lying-to-you/ **What’s your backstory?** I’ve built a social media marketing business that has generated multiple eight figures in client revenue. Yet​ ​I am not a marketer. In fact, I cannot stand the majority of people who identify as marketers with the “laptop lifestyle,” taking pictures in front of their supercars as if that has anything to do with their ability to serve their clients. As a 24-year-old former Division-1 football player, I have only picked up marketing as a skill in the last three years. A tumultuous time period during my late teens launched me into a crash course on who I truly was at my core. My identity as an athlete had been stripped away, and I was left trying to figure out who I was and what my new role in the world was since my football skills were no longer what I would be known for. I spent the next two years interviewing over 850 people about life, love, fear, what keeps them up at night, and a slew of other topics related to they way they viewed themselves and related to the world around them. I interviewed a vast variety of people, from family and friends to doctors, lawyers, and world leaders. I even interviewed three death row inmates and conducted 65 end-of-life interviews with individuals who had terminal illnesses and would not live more than three more months. The results of these interviews combined with my own introspection gave me an incredible perspective on human behavior as a whole, which is the number one reason I have been able to produce over $36 million in revenue for my clients using Facebook and Instagram advertising. Most “marketers” focus on numbers and metrics to inform them as to how they appeal to clients, but I’ve found that focusing on people and understanding what they believe to be true about themselves and the world around them will serve you ​*far*better than only running the traditional marketing campaigns that you are “supposed” to run. You can learn all of the tactics in the world, and you will still come to realize that unless you can connect with people’s core needs, you will never create longevity with a marketing campaign. You will forever be a slave to the “algorithm,” chasing those ever-expanding nuances of what true success as a marketer looks like. Having this personal connection will make the process of building out incredible cold audiences with engaging copy almost thoughtless. People will feel like you are speaking directly to them –because you*are; *​you understand who they are, and you know exactly who you serve and why your offer will be life-changing for them. It becomes a no-brainer for them to click and ultimately purchase from you. Take it from a guy who has produced the multiple eight-figure results (with an average 9x ROI) and has never taken a marketing course or cracked open a marketing book: Marketing is about human connection and making people feel understood no matter what the “marketing gurus” are trying to sell you with their 10-step courses or super marketing secrets. The method I employ has produced better results than those of 99% of people in the market, and nothing you can learn in a course or eBook will teach you the real way to get there. **‘Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?’** The biggest challenge I’ve run into when marketing clients is learning how to remove my own biases and interests when marketing different products or services. I had to learn along the way that the desired result had nothing to do with what I wanted to see or what images or videos would compel me to purchase; the only thing that mattered was the way the client needed to be spoken to and what they would find visually appealing. I had to completely remove my own thoughts from the equation and focus solely on the client’s needs and the customer’s problem points. **‘Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?’** Truthfully, I’ve never almost given up. But I certainly have been frustrated. I’ve mostly found myself frustrated by the information currently available to those learning how to market on social media; most marketing trainings are too broad and too general to truly help someone without loads of experience navigate this landscape. There is simply too much nuance associated with each client. and nothing beyond learning how to serve each client according to his or her unique needs will help someone begin to run the high-figure campaigns they seek to run. No guidebook or video walkthrough can adequately tackle the topics that drive a truly great marketing engine for our clients, and way too often people get so caught up in the act of learning a new system that they never get to the point of implementing a profitable, long-term strategy. We become slaves to the algorithm or distracted by a new tactic that seems to be working for one specific person. The honest truth that most people have not yet discovered is that what worked for someone else may not necessarily work for you, and the shifts you need to make likey have more to do with the approach to the problem (strategy) than with a new feature or campaign setup you learned this week (tactics.) Learn about ​*people*​ and the way they operate in whatever niche you occupy; they know (and will show you) their needs much more clearly than that “eComm/real estate/local biz marketing expert” whose course you’re about to purchase. Put your debit card back in your pocket, and learn how to treat people as if you are marketing to real people instead of numbers on a screen…because you are! --- ## How can you make your exercise more efficient, according to skillful trainer and coach, Jake Havron? URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-can-you-make-your-exercise-more-efficient-according-to-skillful-trainer-and-coach-jake-havron/ Growing up in Hawaii, Jake had his falls as he was the stand out kid being the tall white kid. He also was quite chubby growing up which led to other kids picking on him. Not being convinced this is what he is stuck with, and also being bullied every now and then, he chose to fight it out by dedicating his time to sports and working out. He ended up getting a full-ride scholarship for Basketball and nursing to the University of Jamestown. He became passionate about sports and balanced his nursing education through learning how to keep his days organized and on track. He shaped up his degree and the body together, and harmonious life as we know it. He now runs his online health and body business that is customized based on client needs. With entrepreneurship in his essence and enthusiasm that drives his zeal, Jake credits his incredible success and happiness to his love for transforming the lives of everyone through the online training. Within 90 days of inducing the online training platform, he came across Sarah Foley, who was a future Ms. Wheelchair Hawaii. He poured his heart and soul in her training, and this journey was awe-inspiring, to say the least. Check out these four manageable plans to get the most out of your fitness routine according to Jake Havron. Don’t strain your body too hard. “Don’t try to kill yourself in the inadequate time you have committed to exercising each week,” says Jake. You should have a realistic strategy and realize that exercise solely is probably not going to produce wanted effects as it estimates for a small portion of your daily calorie burn. You need to take into consideration other factors like nutrition, sleep quality, stress management, etc. Changing the focus. Pay more consideration to the minute touches and the secrets of actions (form, procedure, etc. to avoid injury) instead of the number of steps (squeezing a few extra reps to burn a few more calories), suggests Jake. Keep the Smart Approach Principle in the subconscious. The Smart Approach Principle states that in order for a muscle to grow powerful, the body must be required to adapt to a pressure that is above and beyond what it has earlier encountered. “If you’re doing what you’ve always done, your body is never going to change. You have to contradict your body in position to change your body,” Jake reveals. Learn to enjoy. “Training for many is not something they undoubtedly want to do, but somewhat something they feel obligated to do. It’s a means to an end,” Jake points out. “Learn to enjoy training to the point where you opt to participate willingly rather than out of some responsibility,” he says. “If you dread going to the gym, find a fitness class, a game, or some other exercise that enables you to have fun while you move your body,” suggests Jake. In addition, work with a reliable professional who can effectively screen for action dysfunctions and coach good form, says Jake. Ease into the habit. If you’re new into the fitness world, start by concentrating on perfecting consistency first. Once you’ve achieved that, then constantly fine-tune variables like the regularity, strength, and span of your workout suggests the fitness expert. Meanwhile, Jake suggests beginners to originally aim for the “2% movement” goal. “It means that they should aim to purposely move their bodies for 2% of their day, which works out to being about half an hour,” he points out. “People usually know that they’re deemed to exercise for 30 minutes per day, but you can always aim for more. When you re-frame that purpose as 2% and make it all about action, not exercise, it becomes much more doable,” explains the body transformation coach. --- ## Lessons to learn from entrepreneur and world traveler, Jerome Clarah URL: https://futuresharks.com/lessons-to-learn-from-entrepreneur-and-world-traveler-jerome-clarah/ Jerome Clarah is an entrepreneur, an influencer a renowned public figure, valuing journey more than the destination and a flourishing investor. He enjoyed financial success in the real estate industry through smart investments. He has been a thriving influence marketer with an inclination towards supporting others. He also trades in the Forex foreign exchange market where the smartness overpowers risks. Holding multiple successes, he holds numerous cards to generate and grow income, and guide others towards the same. Here are 10 life lessons which everyone can learn from this ace investor and entrepreneur Jerome Clarah 1. Keep the Negative vibes away. Jerome Clarah went through many ups and downs in his life. Boring in Toronto, Canada, he has had numerous jerks in his journey, but that did not stop him from taking risks all the way. He teaches the reasons why utilizing the power of positive thinking is important. He understands the very fact that doesn’t become the soul who always sees the glass half-empty. Just focus all your strength and commitment on the actual things in your life. If something is contrary, it will constantly drain your strength and you would not be able to live your life to the abundant. 2. Be a World Traveler, and under the culture, the business and meet new people. Jerome Clarah is a world traveler, with his forever love to traveling intact. Traveling helps him broaden his perspective. The journey to somewhere far away from his land extends his heeds and opened his soul to endless potentialities. We must also explore more in order to undergo the various cultures and lifestyle of people living in different intersections of the world. You will not only encounter new things but it will also expand your boundaries. 3. Calculated risks are the best risks to take. Jerome Clarah is a risk-taker, and this set him aloof from his rivals. Hardly any entrepreneur have reached the top without taking calculated risks, and this may be, maybe, the only road to success in professional life. Taking calculated risks. 4. Your Network is your net-worth. Jerome Clarah believes that meeting new people brought him different ideas for his negotiations, and gave him an extra advantage over others. You should learn to invest yourself with great people in order to accomplish completion. Don’t let your ego get in the way of who you choose to interact and work with. 5. Learn from the failures and keep moving forward Jerome Clarah is a jack of all trades. From Forex trading to creative business, and basketball. He has had ups and downs in all the careers he chose. But what makes this Jermone a man with Midas touch is his ability to learn from his failures, get up from kickbacks, and walk towards his path with experience and understanding. 6. Do only what you truly love If we do what we truly love then we do that appropriate work with complete passion. We don’t make any pretenses for not giving everything we have. Jerome Clarah is a prime example of not giving importance to what people say. Not taking the conventional 9-5 job and exploring entrepreneurship at a very young age. 7. Learn from others You too should learn from others. If you don’t see any results while working towards a certain goal, then you should take advice from the experts in that field. Sometimes, a little help is all you need to achieve success. Jerome Clarah is indeed an inspiration, and his lessons to lead live could bring the must needed nirvana moment for you --- ## From least likely to succeed to Justin Schenck becoming a successful podcaster URL: https://futuresharks.com/from-least-likely-to-succeed-to-justin-schenck-becoming-a-successful-podcaster/ **What’s your backstory?** If there was a senior superlative for least likely to succeed that would be Justin. With a 1.7 GPA, his dad in jail, and his mom in the middle of a 20 year opioid addiction which she later lost, all signs pointed to a rough road for Justin. At 19 years old he got a job in direct sales and discovered self-development and lead him on a journey to discover that it doesn’t matter where you come from or even where you are today. What matters are the decisions you make today to create a better tomorrow. 5 months before launching the Growth Now Movement Podcast,Justin’s mom lost her battle to opioids. In that moment Justin had a choice, he can allow this rock bottom moment to define him, or he could create a platform that gives people hope that you can truly live a happy life no matter what. This simple decision made him shift perspectives with the podcast that now gets played in over 100 countries every single week, has been chosen by INC magazine as a Top 8 podcast every Entrepreneur should follow, and creating one of the go to events for entrepreneurs Growth Now Movement LIVE! He also now works with people like Ed Mylett, Fabio Viviani, Sarah Centrella, and so many more of the world’s top influencers, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. **‘Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?’** After a year and a half of podcasting with little to show for it I made a simple shift. I asked my co-host to take a step back. I grabbed the reigns on my show, defined its direction and things started to grow. I found that when your purpose, your marketing, and your message all align the right audience will find you, and will stick around. That growth lead to INC Magazine listing me as a Top 8 Podcaster which has then 10x’d my business and allowed me to create Growth Now Movement LIVE! I’m a firm believer that our challenges are the things that create opportunity. Our rock bottom moments are the catalyst to allow us to make quantum leaps forward. For me, when my mom passed away suddenly due to her opioid addiction it gave me the opportunity to step back and realize that life is fleeting. We have to choose to be happy in every single moment. If not, it is all wasted. That then lead me to truly live my passion and purpose every single day. **‘Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?’** I feel as an entrepreneur there are moments almost daily where you want to give up. My biggest decision was when the show wasn’t growing. I came to a fork in the road and had to make a decision. I could have stopped entirely, I could have continued down the same mediocre path, or I could have shifted my approach and relaunch the show. I thankfully chose the 3rd path which has lead to some of the biggest successes in my life. Sometimes we don’t need to quit and go do something else. Sometimes it is those small adjustments that will send us soaring. --- ## Meet Radwan Omar, Behind The Fastest Growing Media Publishing Company “Femanji” URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-radwan-omar-behind-the-fastest-growing-media-publishing-company-femanji/ - For the past couple of years, Radwan Omar who manages a network of Facebook pages with more than 30 million combined followers has earned his entertainment company, Femanji a level of popularity typically associated with one of the biggest media publishers. Radwan Omar is ready to fully concentrate on Femanji and strengthening its online presence, expecting to reach 50 million followers by the end of 2020. Radwan Omar, the founder of Femanji, remained steadfast in his goal to spread happiness. **Tell us about Femanji. How did you come up with this idea?** **Radwan Omar:** I always knew that I wanted to start my own business, so I looked for a business option that would create a positive impact on the society. During my university time, I mentally prepared myself to be ready on how to set up businesses efficiently. I have started several businesses since and Femanji was one of them. It is all about future trend research identifying what will be hot in the near- and long-term future. If one thing is for sure, it’s that the execution of an idea is more important than the idea itself. I wake every day looking forward with a smug grin on my face because I always look forward to my work. If I was to offer you advice, it would be to do something you enjoy. Money is a tool, no matter how much you have, use it wisely. **How did you promote your company in the early days?** **Radwan Omar:** Always through Facebook. Never really focused on any of the other social medias back then because they were irrelevant. I knew Facebook was booming and blowing up quickly so i spent all my free time learning the ins and outs of the platform and experimenting ways to grow a massive following on Facebook rather quickly. **How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific.** **Radwan Omar:** Understand your audience, engage with your audience and be consistent. The first thing you need to identify is who your target audience is. Profiling your audience provides you with the in-depth knowledge you need in order to attract a larger following. Defining who your real audience will also help you focus not only on creating great content but on creating the right content. One of the biggest mistakes early content marketers make is to talk about themselves and their product, rather than the things that their audience really care about. This is a huge misunderstanding of what it means to find your target audience. **What are some secrets to virality/sales in your most successful platform (Fb, Twitter, IG, Snap, E-commerce, etc)?** **Radwan Omar:** You need to pick a niche and attack it hard. I chose the entertainment/comedy niche because it was personally something that interested me and I knew it interested many others, so I put out content on Facebook related to this niche, 8-14 posts a day and always tried to post the most viral and engaging content possible. Posts, where people can strongly relate to & want to tag and share with their peers, are the ones that really take off and get you big follower gains. **Teach us something we don’t know about “Internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, volunteering, yoga, sales funnels or another topic you pick”?** **Radwan Omar:** Cross promoting each other is the fastest way to grow on Facebook. You basically team up with pages in your niche & generally close to your size, and you share each other’s posts frequently, directing traffic to each other’s pages. If you properly execute this strategy you will see crazy fast growth on Facebook. **What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?** **Radwan Omar:** I like the saying by Socrates — “I know, that I know nothing”, and the phrase, “But the others do not know and that.” This saying makes you think, and I try to think about what I do and why I do it. Most people, unfortunately, do not bother themselves with this. **What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?** **Radwan Omar:** I’ve read a few books. I try to choose books that make you think & motivate. I came across a book by Jack Canfield “The Success Principles”. This is the perfect book for those who feel stuck with where they are in life. I’ve totally been there, and this book helped me get out of my slump. With short chapters on each topic, Jack teaches you how to increase your confidence, tackle daily challenges, live with passion and purpose, and make your goals real. You’ll be back on track in no time. **What is your motivation? What keeps you going?** **Radwan Omar:** My motivation is to close the gap between my reality and potential. Self-motivation is, in its simplest form, the force that drives you to do things. I personally believe that self-motivation is a key life skill and something that everybody interested in personal development should think carefully about. All motivations can be aligned in a positive way. In fact, you are more likely to make a big positive impact if you align around your true motives and tune them in a positive way. For example, if money motivates you and you make a lot of it, you can give a portion of it away to causes that important to you. **Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple of years? What’s your dream?** **Radwan Omar:** We have a development plan; hopefully we will fulfil it. The industry in which Femanji is in is changing very quickly, so it’s hard to say how much we will fulfil our plans and where exactly we will be in a few years. However, I see myself having an amazing team running the whole operation while I start to work on other ventures. Right now, I run my business with 5 of my employees. I’m looking to expand to a team of 20 by 2020. It would be ideal to have a group of talented individuals, but one inc --- ## Burnout Can Tank Your Startup What you Can Do to Avoid It URL: https://futuresharks.com/burnout-can-tank-your-startup-what-you-can-do-to-avoid-it/ Beware of the signs of burnout in your employees. They will be hunched over their computers, chugging another cup of coffee to stop their eyelids from drooping. They will casually complain about their sleep deprivation. They will look like they are barely keeping it together. When you notice these red flags, you need to re-evaluate how your company is managing workloads. If you don’t make changes soon, you could see drastic losses in productivity and staff numbers. When you’re in a managerial position, you need to ask yourself if you’re dividing up the workload amongst your employees properly. According to the Harvard Business Review, a common problem is overloading the most capable workers with important tasks and tight deadlines. They may be incredibly skilled and dedicated, but you’ve set up a workload that isn’t sustainable for them. A hiccup like getting the flu could throw a massive wrench into their entire schedule. One of the ways to lessen their workload is to remove a task like data analysis. Your most skilled and hard-to-find staff members should not be taking hours of their precious time to monitor and record changes in digital media engagement, website traffic and competitor website changes that affect ranking. Instead of asking them to juggle yet another responsibility, you should see what Morphio can do to improve their workloads with machine learning and increase productivity for the entire company. It’s a digital marketing insights and reporting dashboard that can effectively track your company’s data across a variety of the major platforms. Not only will Morphio monitor and record the analytics, but it will notify you when something happens that falls outside of your normal patterns and also help you use that information to better your online performance — this means that you will expand your online reach and build a brand that’s impressive to potential investors. The biggest benefit of using a digital marketing reporting dashboard is that it frees up time for your employees to fulfill their duties. They can optimize their work hours to perform engaging tasks like defining strategic business goals, calling up business partners or customers, responding to client emails or composing content for the website. Let the AI look over the metrics so that your employees can thrive in other projects. **Why should you make the change?** Ignoring the signs of job burnout will have a negative impact on your employees and your company’s environment in the long-run. Burnt-out employees won’t be as creative or productive, so the quality of their work will plummet. They will be emotionally on-edge, creating tense workplace interactions. They will also be more likely to get sick, which requires time off to recover. Overworking employees is also a popular reason why people quit their jobs — they feel exhausted and unappreciated, so they hope to find less stressful work elsewhere. You don’t want to lose skilled team members, and you certainly don’t want to spend most of your work hours searching for replacements.   Don’t make the all-too-common mistake of treating your staff members like machines. If you expect them to do too much, they’re not going to be helpful for long. By outsourcing certain tasks, you can make sure that your employees are productive, creative and happy on the job. --- ## How this 22 Year Old Eats Every Meal for Free Using Instagram URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-this-22-year-old-eats-every-meal-for-free-using-instagram/ In the growing world of social media marketing influencers are finding creative new ways to benefit from their network of followers. Instagram simply started off as a way for people to share pictures with their friends, however, some influencers have found a way to use it for much much more. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/fd641e1cb744.png) (Picture from @Delicious) By building a large following on Instagram, entrepreneur Sean Kelly was able to create an extremely successful custom jersey business but he was left with the question; “If I can use social media marketing to build a successful business, what else can I use it for?” **The Experiment** People love to take pictures of their food to share with their friends but what they don’t realize is they are giving restaurants valuable publicity for FREE. This exposure on social media can change an average restaurant into a very successful one. Many restaurants are getting creative in the ways in which they plate and present meals to encourage people to share pictures of them but would they be willing to give a free meal just for posting a picture to a large number of followers? Sean decided to find out. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/8bbaadd4fc6d.png) (Picture from @Delicious) **How He Did It** Before reaching out to restaurants Sean realized that it was not only important to have have an Instagram with a large number of followers but one whose followers were interested in food. This is how he got the idea to start the Instagram page @Delicious. Through collaborations with other food pages, weekly giveaways and partnerships with influencers Sean was able to build a very successful page. This process was slow at first but eventually the page was able to grow to over four hundred thousand followers! Now that a large reach was established it was time to contact restaurants to see if they would be interested in being featured on the page. Instead of calling the restaurant and telling them about his food page Sean realized that it would be much more effective to send restaurants a direct message from @Delicious so that they could see for themselves how big of an audience they could reach just by being featured on the page! Sean would not have been able to reach his goals without the help of a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants are extremely important for growing a page as they can help post more pictures and message more restaurants. What started off as a free meal here and there turned into a way for him to eat for free almost everywhere he goes. **What He Learned** Other than learning that food tastes much better when it doesn’t come with a hefty price tag Sean learned alot about the flaws in the way restaurants currently market themselves and how to improve their marketing strategies. “So many restaurants underestimate how much social media marketing can improve their business.” While businesses can have success in advertising their own product, people are more likely to believe a review given by a third party rather than one provided by the restaurant itself. Another thing Sean learned from this was how important is to post frequently on the page. As he was able to go to more and more restaurants there was a drastic increase in the content being posted on the pagel. This extra content being posted had a big impact on the rate the page was gaining followers and he even saw an increase in the engagements on his posts as well. This is just one of the many ways you can utilize a large reach on Instagram but what else can it be used for? The possibilities are endless and the only way to find out is to give it a try for yourself! --- ## Q&A with Frank Laufer- Founder of Alternative Business Accommodations URL: https://futuresharks.com/qa-with-frank-laufer-founder-of-alternative-business-accommodations/ Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Frank Laufer, the founder of Alternative Business Accommodations (ABA). **What is your Company? How did you come up with the idea?****Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?** As a serial entrepreneur it is important for your business to constantly be changing. Initially, I had a dry cleaning business in Manhattan, that did pick up and delivery from high rise buildings before that was actually a thing. That business took off, and then some customers asked me if I knew anyone that could clean their apartments. I immediately hired a housekeeper. From there we got a call from a furniture rental company that was setting apartments up in one of the buildings we serviced. They requested we unpack all the boxes in the apartment, clean it and make the beds. Then, clean the apartments every week. They were adding 4 apartments a week. Before I knew it we were cleaning over 100 apartments a week for them. While this was going on, I started cleaning furnished apartments for Oakwood in NYC and was cleaning close to 100 a week for them. This was how I learned about furnished corporate apartments. Now I was managing 2 thriving businesses. It quickly became apparent that the furnished corporate apartment business was better than the dry cleaning business. I quickly jettisoned the dry cleaning business and kept the housekeeping business and from there entered the corporate housing business when Oakwood corporate housing and then furniture rental business (Formerly Execustay and now owned by Oakwood) decided they would save money by doing the cleaning themselves. **How do you maintain or find new inspiration?** Constantly trying to evolve the business and look for other businesses that will compliment my existing business. Since we are in a faced paced changing technology world, I often look for inspirational paths there. **Where do you see your company 5yrs from now?** 5 years from now we will be the leading online booking engine for corporate furnished apartments through our Apartunity.com booking engine. Think of a cross between Airbnb and booking.com. Live booking with only vetted corporate apartments**.** **What’s the most valuable advice you’ve received that contributed to your personal or professional success?** The most important advice was when a boss told me “Perception is reality” Meaning if someone perceives you or your company a certain way, that is very real to them. So, If it is in a negative light, you need to work to change their perception immediately. **What have you sacrificed for success?** In the early stages of starting your company it is very stressful and time consuming. The buck stops with you and payroll must be met every pay period. Others depend on the decisions I make. Very stressful. **What’s one rule that guides your life?** Treat people fairly and with respect. Many believe you have to be cut throat in business. I would disagree. It’s not necessarily about winning or losing. A good negotiation is when neither party is happy. No winners. Have strong ethics and do the right thing**.** **None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?** ****My biggest inspiration would have to have been my father. He was a hard working family man with a career in sales. He always worked long hours and made a reasonable living, but he told me there was a better way when you are your own boss. **Finally, How have you used your success to bring good to the world?** We have offered discounted housing to patients coming to NYC for medical treatment who cannot afford to have their families stay with them. --- ## Jake Croman: Emerging Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of The Eddie Croman Foundation URL: https://futuresharks.com/jake-croman-emerging-entrepreneur-and-co-founder-of-the-eddie-croman-foundation/ Jake Croman is an emerging entrepreneur and co-founder of The Eddie Croman Foundation, a nonprofit charity which financially assists the medical expenses of underserved families with ill or disabled dogs and pets. As a subsidiary of the larger nonprofit organization, Frankie’s Friends, The Eddie Croman Fund has raised thousands of dollars for animal health and well-being. Croman also holds a unique business background, using his entrepreneurial prowess to become an independent agent in the music and entertainment industry in high school, connecting mid-range music artists with talent agencies and bookers at local NYC venues. Here he quickly developed the expertise that fostered crucial fundraising strategies, valuable negotiation skills and a network that helped him grow the Eddie Croman Foundation. As a student at the University of Michigan — Ann Arbor, Croman is a major in American History with a concentration on Jewish studies in WWII, offering him a unique perspective into our current media landscape. A primary entrepreneurial focus of Croman’s is to offer advice toward young, college entrepreneurs while promoting innovations that foster Millennial talent within today’s workforce. Jake Croman’s principles drive his entrepreneurial efforts. He strongly believes that anyone can make a charitable difference in the world through hard work and dedication. Many of his thought leadership articles, geared towards Millennials and the workplace, provide expertise on how to leverage entrepreneurial skills. He has contributed his entrepreneurial insights to major online publications like Entrepreneur*,*VentureBeat and SCORE.org. In his free time, Jake Croman enjoys spending time with his family and friends and giving back to the Jewish community. **City:** New York City, NY **Favorite Quote:** “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs **Tell us about The Eddie Croman Foundation. How did you come up with the idea for The Eddie Croman Foundation?** We formed the idea for The Eddie Croman Foundation when our dog, Eddie, was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and passed away at 17 years old. It was incredibly hard to go through the process, but our pain was mirrored when we saw other families go through the same experiences with their pets at the vet. However, we saw these families frequently didn’t have the means to afford their pet bills which was heartbreaking. Our family wanted to help other families cherish those moments with their pets, so we decided to create a fund to help families afford their pet bills. **How have you been able to grow your charity? Please give specifics.** Fundraising and networking initiatives have helped us spread awareness for our charity’s cause. Since, I have some background in fundraising, our ability to reach out to others through engaging campaigns has helped our charity grow thus far. **What do you wish more people knew about the work that you do?** We’re truly in this business to help others and offer solutions to underserved families and pets within the animal healthcare. We hope that shows through our passion and fundraising via The Eddie Croman Foundation. **What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?** I think we’re able to utilize the empathy we have for others and genuinely leverage our relationship with underserved communities who need financial assistance with their vet bills. I think our compassion towards families and our animals helps our charity work stand out. Even with emerging technologies, it’s incredibly important to foster relationships with others. Reach out often. **What would you say was one of your biggest mistakes as an entrepreneur, and how did you learn from it?** I’ve learned you always have to be on the same page as any business partner. Some of my business failures, like within the music industry, occurred when me and my business partner had different visions and goals. It’s important to not get sucked into the hype or the superficiality of business. Make sure you do your due diligence and are in business to help others, not just to excel for yourself. **What is your favorite book?** I loved reading *The Steve Jobs Autobiography;*a truly motivating read. **Where do you hope to see The Eddie Croman Foundation or any of your other entrepreneurial goals resulting in a few years? What do you want for yourself?** In a few years I’d like to grow The Eddie Croman Foundation across the United States. It’s my dream to see if we can help spearhead the foundation by connecting with revolutionary pet health technology. In terms of my other entrepreneurial goals, I’d like to create a company that foster more ethical business standards and healthy workplace environments through emerging technologies, so we can become more innovative and productive. --- ## Why You Should Always Believe in Yourself: With Matt Wien URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-you-should-always-believe-in-yourself-with-matt-wien/ Believing in yourself is easier said than done, but one man puts that very aspect at the heart of everything he does. Serial entrepreneur Matt Wien has built companies in the technology, music, and digital marketing industries. Currently, he is the VP of Holonis, Inc., a company working to shift the way people make money online. I sat down with Matt to try and work some of that wisdom out of him **Matt, can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Since I was a kid I have always been into figuring out what’s next… rarely completely present in the moment, because my mind was already thinking about the future opportunities the present is creating. That lead to a disinterest in traditional education and a fascination with technology that lasted through college. As soon as my formal education ended, I became passionate about learning, driven primarily by advancements in technology and the internet made information more accessible. That transformation in me, and the subsequent quest to become more present in the moment while absorbing as much knowledge as possible has been the fuel for my passion in technology. Living through that evolution, I have accomplished things I am very proud of… conceived and built new divisions within successful companies, founded and sold an agency, consulted for dozens of amazing projects, etc… but each of these successes lacked something I couldn’t define. In 2010, that “lack of something undefinable” had reached a boiling point within me and I realized that I didn’t want to continue pouring myself into building things that were created purely for profit and didn’t have the potential to create a larger impact on the world we live in. That sentiment led me on a quest to discover what I wanted, beginning with a fairly abrupt exit from all of the projects I was involved in and culminating in an introduction to a man named Richard Hollis and the vision that would come to be known as Holonis. Since that day, I have dedicated myself to the cause of empowering humanity through technology. By creating access to information, tools, knowledge and income – I believe Holonis has created a technology that can truly change the way we interact with each other, our personal data, and our limitless potential. **It must have felt amazing to work on something that will positively impact others. So, can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I was born a stubborn kid. I think the fear of quitting and not getting what I want has been a force in my life that has driven a lot of the success I’ve seen. There have been MANY instances when I considered giving up, but realized that I would only be failing myself. I think that’s the biggest takeaway is that quitting anything is just giving up on your own ability to finish it. For some people that may work, but it’s never been something I’m comfortable with. --- ## How Franklin Hatchett Built A Million Dollar Ecommerce Training Empire From A Laptop URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-franklin-hatchett-built-a-million-dollar-ecommerce-training-empire-from-a-laptop/ We had a chance to interviewFranklin Hatchett, a well-known ecommerce expert who has been a rockstar and a mentor to many ecommerce enterprises and runs an online dropshipping program. **How long have you been in the business of helping ecommerce retailers for? What have your platform/company goals been?** I have been helping ecommerce retailers online for 3 years, Our goal was to bring affordable training to ecommerce entrepreneurs from all over the world. We hit that goal very quickly and grow to over 15,000 members and our training platform is very prominent in New Zealand. **Which eCommerce platform do you prefer and why?** We use and recommend Shopify for its simplicity. When using Shopify you can literally get started and have a shop up and running within an hour. Using Shopify can get anyone set up with a store and selling quite quickly, this makes it easy for anyone to start an ecommerce business online. **A common problem in ecommerce is retailers having traffic but no conversions. If they’re gathering traffic but not making any sales what would you recommend?** From my experience, the biggest problem with people not getting sales is store speed and they don’t even know it. When it comes to shop optimisation no one is doing it and its crippling their store. First impressions matter and if someone can’t load the store within 3 seconds they will be leaving. From the research we have done, most stores are loading at 7 seconds or more. A simple way to fix this is to compress images before uploading them to the store and using the right image size. This will dramatically increase website speed. Website speed is something that just can’t be ignored anymore. **Where do you think the future of ecommerce marketing is heading? Is it chatbots, IoT, more personalized content, big data?** The future of ecommerce is domination. Everything is going to work well with your Shopify store. Email, chatbots, content, multiple advertising revenue and combining all of these is going to make you more money no matter what. Anyone from anywhere in the world can buy online right now and it’s very fast. Just yesterday I found some art online, purchased it and now it’s getting sent to me from Ukraine and will arrive in 3 days. Online ecommerce will eventually bring traditional retail to its knees if they don’t adapt. If you can get your store up and running using the right tools to maximize profits then you will dominate your niche as well. **Do you see mobile users as being the ‘future’ of eCommerce retailers? What are your personal experiences while using mobile shopping, if at all?** Mobil is accounting for more online traffic every single day, mobile is something that people must be aware of moving forward. According to some research I’ve read over the last 12 months most people don’t even own a laptop anymore or they have sold it. Why have a computer when you can just use a smart phone on the go? However, even though most online websites are responsive a lot of them don’t load quickly on 3g networks. So, mobile traffic is going to become very important but right now its still not perfect on 3g networks. --- ## The Next Innovation Hot Spot? Erie, Pennsylvania URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-next-innovation-hot-spot-erie-pennsylvania/ Austin, Texas. Denver, Colorado. Erie, Pennsylvania? Yes, it’s true. Located just east of Cleveland and just north of Pittsburgh, Erie is home to a growing number of startups, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders working hard to make the city of nearly 100,000 a hub of innovation. While the city’s and region’s manufacturing roots remain critical to the local economy, civic leaders and local entrepreneurs have worked hard to develop one of the country’s fastest growing and most impressive startup scenes—and they are seeing significant success. In 2018, the Erie Innovation District and several other partners launched the Secure Erie Accelerator. After successfully funding nine companies that focused on smart city technology in its first year—including multiple startups that have already received significant national attention—the program is pivoting slightly toward startups in the manufacturing and defense sectors. “Manufacturing is in Erie’s DNA,” said Erie Innovation District CEO Karl Sanchack. “Cities across America are looking toward startups as replacements for lost industries. That is not what we are doing here in Erie. The reality is that startups and most tech companies are rarely if ever going to employ the same number of workers as the manufacturing sector does. However, it’s not an either/or. We have focused our accelerator on attracting and funding startups that complement Erie’s existing human and economic strengths. And we are very proud of that.” Linking the city’s innovation efforts to existing industry isn’t the only way Erie is making a name for itself. The city has also aggressively pursued ways to take advantage of a new provision in the tax code designed in part to increase investment in startups headquartered in economically challenged communities. Opportunity Zones, championed by Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), were enacted as a part of the tax bill passed in late 2018. The new law allows governors to create Opportunity Zones by designating up to a quarter of their state’s census tracts as economically distressed. Once that occurs, a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) can be created. Investors who put their money in a QOF receive preferential tax treatment, including a significant reduction in their capital gains tax liability. Once established, the QOF can invest in startups within the Opportunity Zone. Local leaders in Erie were some of the first to take advantage of the program when they created the Flagship Opportunity Zone, which helps investors understand deal flow, identify local funds, and establish connections with a wide variety of stakeholders and potential fellow funders. Nearly every mid-sized city in middle America is trying to reinvent itself as the next Silicon Valley. ` What really makes Erie, Pennsylvania, different? To begin with, innovation in Erie has nothing to do with unrealistic aspirations of being the next Palo Alto. The city and its leaders have not made the attraction of entrepreneurs a false savior. Instead, those leaders have started to change the community by thinking entrepreneurially. As a community, Erie has embraced a fundamental character trait of all entrepreneurs: The deeply held desire to solve one’s own problems. No one is going to swoop in and re-establish any city as a vibrant, economic powerhouse. No one is going to save Detroit—except for Detroit. No one is going to save St. Louis—except for St. Louis. And no one was going to save Erie, Pennsylvania—except for Erie, Pennsylvania. Local leaders realized this and have embraced a brand of innovation with a strong connection to the city’s community and historical economic base. That’s smart governance and smart leadership. Actually, it’s not just smart. It’s innovative. --- ## How Focusing on Vision and Belief Helped Nik Robbins to Generate Millions of Dollars in Sales URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-focusing-on-vision-and-belief-helped-nik-robbins-to-generate-millions-of-dollars-in-sales/ While many people veer off-track during young adulthood, far less turn their lives around and go on to establish multi-million dollar businesses. Nik Robbins belongs in this exceedingly small group. While in his teens, Nik became involved in the misuse of substances such as drugs and alcohol. Within a short period of time, Nik found himself in trouble, and it was clear that his life lacked direction. But Nik remembered something very important that saved him during his darkest days. He recalled how his father would listen to motivational messages by Tony Robbins. More importantly, he recollected how his father would insist that he listen, too, and stressed the importance of having dreams. It was at that moment that Nik took the first step towards personal development, and it helped him to get his life in order. As anyone who has fallen off the horse can attest, hopping back on is not an easy feat. Nik’s past continued to haunt him, but he held on steadfastly to his dreams and he completed his university degree. He didn’t let anything deter him. That determination paid off in the end as Nik finished college and started a new career working as a salesman in the NBA. With mentors like Deno and Mino, Nik learned the importance of professionalism and using those skills to strengthen his craft. While working with Ben, his business partner, Nik was advised to stretch his wings and soar higher. He needed to get out of his comfort zone and switch territories to make this happen. With the embers of ambition burning, Nik, took a leap of faith and moved to Utah. He was prepared to try this next chapter on his own Things were tough in the beginning. Sales didn’t come as expected, and Nik had to survive by playing fantasy sports. In April 2016, Nik encountered Billy Gene and his life trajectory shifted. Billy introduced Nik to the idea of creating a FB agency, which really connected. He and his business partner ran with it. Running the agency wasn’t always smooth, though. There were major hurdles to overcome, and sometimes clients were scarce. With the FB agency stuttering in performance, Nik decided to set up a call floor. He spent about $250k pulling it all together, but it never took off quite as planned. To the typical entrepreneur, this would have been the end of the dream. Luckily that was not the case for Nik. Refusing to succumb to failure, Nik picked himself up, brushed himself off, and held onto his vision that things would get better even in the face of incredibly challenging circumstances. Boy, he was right! During the difficult times, Nik stumbled upon teachings from Alex Becker. His educational philosophies revolved around the strategies of sales scaling and webinars. With the help of mentor John Logar, Nik dramatically improved the performance of his agency while creating an online ads company focused on assisting health workers to attract clients. For Nik, his personal skill set of prioritizing self-development has helped him to break the ceiling of limitation, no matter how strongly the odds were stacked against his success. Nik’s unbending resolve to achieve his vision pushed him to the pinnacle of his career. Nik now works tirelessly to help entrepreneurs hit the jackpot using sales tools like webinars to gain the attention of their target market. For the award-winning entrepreneur, he believes a lot of people are unaware of the power that the brain possesses especially when it comes to their personal development. With a strong sense of purpose, Nik explains: “Vision and belief are important. I wake up every day and NO MATTER WHAT my circumstance looks like around me… I believe that I am on my way to accomplishing my dreams and goals. Then I sit down and execute. By far, the most powerful thing I ever did was invested heavily in my personal development. I spent ungodly amounts of time working on myself and improving how my brain operates.” --- ## Skyler and Kyle Share Their Biggest Failure While Building a Solar Company URL: https://futuresharks.com/learn-how-these-2-entrepreneurs-built-a-solar-company-to-7-figures-and-beyond/ 1. How did Zoetic start ?(tell us a little bit about yourselves also) **Zoetic started when Skyler and I got tired of people being weird even when we were some of the top producers at our companies. With one company I even got fired even though I had the highest sales numbers for the month. We were like “let’s stop leaving it up to everyone else and go do our own thing.”** 2. What was your biggest failure and how did you overcome it ? **Probably the biggest “failure” (lesson) was when we fired our main sales manager and ultimately ended up losing almost our entire sales force. I learned a lot about myself and other people. We took some time after the experience to get clear on what had happened and what we wanted and then we set out to do it better and to find the right people rather than the convenient ones. ** 3. What are your top 3 lessons you learned from running your own company ? **Patience, Stress management, leadership. ** 4. What is your legacy ? **My legacy is to leave people better than I found them whether that’s my customer, sales rep, company, or my planet. ** --- ## Irene Barrera’s Journey to Fitness Guru and Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/irene-barreras-journey-to-fitness-guru-and-entrepreneur/ Sometimes the motivation for taking the leap of faith into the life of entrepreneurship stems from personal experiences and the desire to improve something. That’s precisely what happened to Irene Barrera, the founder of Stay Lean With Irene. “I have always had a passion for fitness but what really inspired me to pursue a career out of it was seeing people in my family suffer from living a sedentary life,” says Irene. Irene’s grandparents struggled with health problems throughout their lives, leading to vivid experiences that helped push Irene towards a life of promoting healthier living. “Seeing my grandmother having to inject herself with insulin day and night, my grandfather take over 5 different types of pills every day in order to survive,” she says. “My grandmother passed away at a very young age, my grandfather still lives but has low blood pressure and is now blind, again, he takes so much medicine in order to stay alive.” Irene realized how fleeting life was, and decided that as the most prized asset in life, health should become the focus of changing her life and those around her — starting with her home community. **The Road to Entrepreneurship** Originally from Boston, Irene had moved to Los Angeles where she began coaching a few people in her early bids to help people reach their fitness goals and achieve a healthier lifestyle. Increasing requests to work with her following the rapid results she was producing with some of her early clients led Irene to decide on moving back to her hometown of Waltham, MA where she thought she could make the biggest impact. And she was right. “I realized that the right thing to do was to start by giving back to my community, the place in which I grew up in and where I could make the biggest impact,” she says. “So I went back and started hosting outdoor boot camps.” What began as 5 AM morning boot camps of five people at a popular track field in Spring 2018 quickly developed into groups of 30 people regularly attending Irene’s boot camp, Pretty Beast. Many of them had never seriously worked out in their lives, leading to some of Irene’s favorite success stories that further drive her motivation to excel. “My biggest success story was my 65-year-old client who had never run a day in her life,” she says. “She was able to complete a mile running! She was so beyond grateful. These are the stories I live for. This is where I find my sense of fulfillment.” Irene has defined her success so far by her mindset of ‘think smart, not hard,’ which she cites as the result of her research into the best method for attracting more clients — charge less. Classes of 30 people for $10 per person became $300 an hour and soon snowballed into other opportunities to expand her client base including offering free Saturday boot camps. “Don’t be afraid to give,” she says. “I offered free Saturday boot camps, and that opened the door to new clients. My current clients also felt appreciated because they got to bring a friend or a loved one to join and see what they are a part of.” Now thanks to the support of her community, Irene is able to open up her own studio. Pretty Beast Camps made this possible, where participants encouragement and the cold weather in Massachusetts has pushed her to get her own studio. **Growing the Business** Pretty Beast Camp has sparked a community of followers and clients that they colloquially refer to as their ‘Tribe.’ The platform is designed around health and wellness, offering a combination of fun, affordable, effective outdoor and online programs. “Our platform is all about harnessing the grit inside of all of us,” says Irene. Her new studio, Grit Per4mance, includes their flagship boot camp settings that consist of 1-on-1 training sessions or larger group programs. They even have advanced training and recovery equipment such as cryotherapy.. Irene and the company have not forgone their sense of community that helped bootstrap her early training sessions either. “What makes us unique is our approach to harnessing a community, or what we call a ‘Tribe,’ that achieves their fitness results effectively — with more fun — and at a more affordable cost because of the boot camp approach we take,” Irene details. Today, Irene’s business continues to blossom as more members share their success stories and her various programs gain more widespread attention. She primarily offers 3 online programs that can be signed up for through her website, including the ‘8 Week Sculpt Challenge’, ‘8 Week at Home Transformation’, ‘21 Day Weight Loss Challenge’ in addition to her outdoor boot camps. Transforming people’s’ lives both physically and mentally is what Irene lives for and what sparked her passion that has turned into a successful business. Her goals are now set beyond her community, capable of impacting even more people. “I plan to expand our boot camp studios to every major city in the U.S. to continue to help as many people as possible,” she says. --- ## Jeff Fenster’s Tips on Achieving Success in Life URL: https://futuresharks.com/jeff-fenster/ 36-year-old Jeff Fenster is the founder and CEO of the revolutionary craft superfood chain, Everbowl, founded in 2016. Everbowl specializes in providing flavorful and affordable superfoods that are served in great portions through an ingenious model dubbed, “create your own” superfood bowls. In April 2019, the company was named among Top 40 Hottest Startups in America by Fast Casual. This award comes in the wake of Everbowl’s $3 million funding that was recently secured from Serruya Private Equity for an aggressive expansion plan from the current 19 locations to a total of 45 by the end of 2019. This great achievement is however not Fenster’s first brush with success. Jeff Fenster boasts of a number of other successful startups under his belt. These include CanopyHR, an innovative Payroll & HR Company, JFEN Holdings, a digital marketing agency that serviced high profile clients whose revenue ranges from $10M – $500M, JFEN Recruiting, a recruitment company whose main focus is in the aerospace and engineering sectors and so many others. From his years of experience in entrepreneurship, Jeff Fenster gives us his most important tips on achieving success in life. **1. Start with the end** Jeff Fenster believes that every success story begins with a vision. And that vision is what should be used as the beginning point of your journey to success. This is what Fenster refers to as starting with the end. His advice is that you should develop a clear picture of what success is, then, work backwards pointing out the milestones that must be achieved to get you from where you currently are to where you want to be. If the goals and milestones are clear and very specific, the path to success becomes clear and easy to follow. Once you have developed a strategic road map to achieve success, it is time to put in the work. In addition to the work, surrounding yourself with best in breed experts is critical.This is why it is important to be the dumbest guy in the room, according to Jeff Fenster. Surround yourself with experts on all facets of the business, leave your ego at the door and you will build a dream team! Listen more, learn more and have as much information as you can to inform your decisions and set you apart from the crowd. **2. Know Your Why** What is your purpose in life? What inspires you? What makes you come alive? What gives you that driving kick of adrenaline? These are just some of the questions you can ponder on to unlock the answer to your why. The idea is to find the reason behind why you want to achieve success in life, explains Jeff Fenster. This reason should serve as your motivation for the journey ahead. Knowing your “why” is what will make you never comfortable with your current situation. Knowing this and being honest with yourself will constantly push you to exceed expectations. And this push, this driving force, is a key characteristic of successful individuals. So, if you want to achieve success in life you must know your “why”. **3. Build Your Relationship Capital** Every interaction you make is an opportunity to create a relationship. And not just any kind of relationships, Fenster stresses. He emphasizes that those relationships should be positive, meaningful, and valuable to your growth. This is what it means to build your relationship capital as an individual as well as a business. These relationships are what will strengthen your position in the market place and open up new opportunities for growth. A sure method of creating relationships is to ensure you are always having fun and make friends in everything you do. It may sound like a foreign concept but learning to enjoy what you do in the workspace can help you identify unexploited growth opportunities that you can take advantage of. Having a friendly personality makes it easy for people to approach you, hence making it less challenging to create worthwhile relationships. Since establishing his first startup CanopyHR at the age of 24, Fenster has been on a meteoric rise as an entrepreneur to get to where he is today. In 12 years, Fenster has established a business in almost every industry and stands out as a seasoned serial entrepreneur with numerous feats on his portfolio. He has achieved all this by following the tips that he has shared above. Ultimately, he hopes that this information will be an eye-opener to other budding entrepreneurs enabling them to scale the next level of success in life. --- ## How Ross Johnson Went from Broke Online Coach to Millionaire in 2 Years URL: https://futuresharks.com/ross-johnson/ At 26, Ross Johnson runs two highly profitable businesses, generating 7 figures in revenue each. He built both from scratch — with no network, no outside funding, and no paid advertising. But only 2 years ago, he had 28 dollars to his name, thousands in debt, and a business that failed before it could get any traction. Looking back on his early struggles, Ross reflects, “I had a very specific idea about the kind of business I wanted to build. You know how people who are good at something often say, ‘I could charge people for that’? That was me. I really wanted to make a living as an online fitness coach… “ ## Struggling to Make It as an Online Fitness Coach Ross had a deep understanding, and an enduring passion, for fitness. Building a business around his expertise seemed logical. He was a certified fitness coach and he loved helping people become healthy and fit — why wouldn’t his idea work? But when he tried to attract clients for his coaching business, Ross discovered that he couldn’t land a single one. He knew nothing about business, marketing, or sales. And his coaching skills were irrelevant because nobody wanted to pay for his services. Ross’ business failed, leaving him with no money and a massive debt to pay off. He realized: the only way to succeed as an online fitness coach was to master sales and marketing — the two skills Ross’ qualifications never taught him. He pressed pause on his coaching business and immersed himself into the world of online business and marketing. ## Stumbling on a 7-Figure Side Hustle To learn as much as possible about growing a business, Ross experimented with as many marketing channels as he could. He dove headfirst into social media marketing, creating Instagram accounts and field-testing different growth strategies. He expanded and refined his understanding of Instagram over several months. Eventually, Ross became very good at attracting audiences, building communities, writing engaging content, and getting traction — on demand. Ross shared his progress publicly, and people took notice. Job offers came flooding in his inbox, asking Ross for Instagram marketing services. Ross realized that he could build a profitable business around his newfound expertise. And so he created a social media marketing agency, with his partner Rachel as co-founder. Ross’ new agency, Trill Media, skyrocketed from zero to 6 figures in just 7 months. After a year and a half, it cleared 7 figures in revenue. Instead of chasing vanity metrics like most Instagram agencies, Ross focused on attracting a high-quality audience for his clients. His marketing strategies were structured from the ground up not just to increase follower counts, but to create authority and attract high-quality leads. This helped Ross understand every mistake he’d made before with his fitness coaching practice. Not just what he did wrong, but how he could avoid the same missteps in the future. And it naturally led to the next million-dollar idea. ## How Ross Leveraged His Expertise Into a Mentorship Program for Coaches Trill Media’s success put Ross in the spotlight of other service providers. Coaches approached him and asked for advice on growing their businesses — the same way Ross grew his agency. Ross realized that he had something remarkable on his hands: a proven process for taking a service-based business from nothing to 6 figures (and beyond) with social media. But would it work for a coach? As a test, Ross decided to help a few coaches who reached out to him. Because he was his own target audience, Ross had first-hand experience of the challenges that other coaches faced. And he could teach them his proven method for building an audience, generating leads, and selling their services. The formula worked spectacularly well. Ross realized very quickly that the demand for his one-on-one coaching far outpaced his availability. He wanted to help online coaches build profitable businesses — but he had to do it at scale, or not at all. Ross turned his one-on-one business coaching method into a 90-day program to guide coaches through starting and growing their online business the right way. The kind of program that Ross wished he’d had 2 years ago — designed for coaches who are experts in their field but don’t have much experience with business and marketing. To that end, he and Rachel co-founded another company — Online Coach Accelerator. Since launching, Online Coach Accelerator has already surpassed Trill Media — both in terms of revenue and the number of clients. But the main reason Ross is so enthusiastic about it has nothing to do with money. “The Accelerator is changing the lives of hundreds of coaches,” he says. “And in turn, they’re changing their client’s lives. It’s a ripple effect that’s so much bigger than me, my partner, or our company. Just knowing that I’m helping to make this happen makes me very happy! I couldn’t be prouder of the impact it’s having on the world.” --- ## How did Martin Moore Go From Auto Mechanic to Photographer/Filmmaker for Koss Headphones. URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-did-martin-moore-go-from-auto-mechanic-to-photographer-filmmaker-for-koss-headphones/ **Bio**: Martin Moore is a Commercial/Lifestyle Photographer and Filmmaker based out of Milwaukee, WI, USA. **Location**: Milwaukee, WI, USA **Quote:** “*You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.*” – Mae West **Social**: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Website *So your story is pretty inspiring, tell us how you went from working on cars for 20 years to shooting all of the Commercials and Photo’s for a company like Koss.* **Martin Moore:** I started my photography business ‘Martin Moore Photography’’ in 2012. Now in the grand scheme of things my business is about as meaningless as Crystal Pepsi. That being said, my business was really the catalyst for my journey from Honda Mechanic to working full-time for Koss Headphones shooting all their Commercials and Photography. I’ve always been two things, a creator and an entertainer. Whether I was doing magic as a child, or playing in bands at Summerfest as a young adult, or recently, making YouTube Videos; creating… entertaining… that is what has defined me and carried me throughout this absolutely insane story that is my life. I was kicked out of my parents house in 1999 right after high school. I went to local college for one semester before I dropped out to work for Honda as a car mechanic asI needed money and college just wasn’t cutting it for me. I worked on cars all the way up until May of 2017 when Koss Headphones discovered a video I made on YouTube and brought me on full time to shoot all of their Product/Lifestyle Photography and Direct/Shoot/Edit all of their Commercials/Video Ads. It was around 2012 when my automotive career started taking a turn for the worst and my interest in Photography/Filmmaking started taking rise. I started my business, but more importantly my brand, ‘Martin Moore.’ Whether it was daily vlogging, podcasts, interviews/features, networking or Snapchat, reaching my apotheosis, and creating an opportunity for myself where I could get out of working on cars and do what I love wasn’t a goal or an obsession, it was what I needed to live and breath. *How did you promote your company/brand in the early days?* **Martin Moore:** When I was first building my photography company and my brand it was about 75% social media 25% mailers. I would create these really cool genere-oriented mailers for car dealers, restaurants, hotels ect. The mailers would features photos of my work, a personalized card and some free swag in hopes that whoever received them would need new shots of their showroom, or renovated hotel rooms/bar ect. It kind of worked, I remember I got a few jobs from them. On the Social Media side I started off with a wordpress blog (which you can still find if you google it), twitter, facebook, instagram. In 2015 I hadn’t booked a single wedding or commercial shoot and it was super frustrating. I felt like the first few years of starting my photography business were off to a good start, but going in to 2015 it felt like I was going backwards. I felt creatively dead and had virtually no clients booked. I don’t know where I got the idea, but I hopped on YouTube and searched ‘Milwaukee Vloggers’ and was surprised when one person came up. Now this was back when Vlogging was in it’s infancy and people just talked in front of their iMac. In Milwaukee, there was NO ONE making real actual consistent lifestyle vlogs about their story or the city. Now this was right around the time Instagram was getting huge. As a photographer it was very enticing, I wanted to hop on the Urban Exploring band wagon but it just didn’t feel right. I felt like I’d just be creating what everyone else was already creating. So, I saw an opportunity on YouTube to do something different, something no one else was doing in Milwaukee. An opportunity to stand out. And stand out I did. It took about 6 months before I started working with local companies and was being featured by local newspapers and blogs. My YouTube Channel and the podcasts, speaking engagements and media features that came along with it, that was my business card, that’s how I’d promote myself, and still do today. *How have you been able to grow your business/brand?* **Martin Moore:** Word of mouth. Social Media. Tesla is a great example of a brand who has a $0.00 marketing budget. They are 100% word of mouth and social media. This is a concept I wholeheartedly subscribe to. My goal has always been to get into the back of people’s minds so that when they need photos, or a video, or someone for their podcast or speaking engagement, the first person that pops in their head is Martin Moore. And more importantly, that they never even consider someone else. I do that through my social media. By being Honest. Entertaining. Knowledgeable. Accessable. Those four things are like the pillars that hold up my brand. It doesn’t matter if it’s an Instagram Story or Facebook post. A YouTube Vlog or photo on Twitter. *What are some social media secrets to virality/sales in your most successful platform* **Martin Moore:** Give people a reason to care and engage. The biggest mistake I see brands and businesses make is dictating on social media. Here’s our product, buy it. Here’s our message, listen to it. Why? Who fucking cares? Why should anyone care? Create content that people can either empathize with or sympathize with, and you’ll find success with virality, sales and engagement. Teach us something we don’t know about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, volunteering, yoga, sales funnels or another topic you pick} **Martin Moore:** Standing Out. Look at what everyone else is doing, and do the opposite. This is something that’s defined my career. There are a million other people trying to do the exact same thing as you. The same product as you. The same idea. The same content. The only way you’re going to stand out in the sea of everyone else trying to do the same thing is to take a long hard look at what the mass is doing, and try to do it different. What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? **Martin Moore:** Work Hard…. I have a saying that I always tell people who ask me this question: ‘Work Hard. Then Work Harder.’ That’s really the mantra I’ve lived by my entire life. I’m not the best photographer, or the best filmmaker or the best creator, but the one thing I can do, the one thing that levels the playing field, is work harder than you. I’ll be up before you, and I’ll go to bed after you. What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Martin Moore:** I actually don’t read books. It’s never been my thing. Swear to god, the last book I ever read from cover to cover was ‘The Chipmunk’s Great Adventure.’ I listen to A LOT of podcasts though. Death Sex & Money, Crooked Conversations, How I Built This, Pod Save America, Reply All, Stuff You Should Know. I’m an audio/visual guy so books just don’t do it for me. *Write your own question (and answer it)* **Martin Moore:** “Why?” – My favorite quote is by an actress by Mae West, and it goes ‘You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.’ I live by this quote every single day of my life. There isn’t a minute that goes by in which I don’t think about it consciously or subconsciously. I actually have plans to get it tattooed on my left arm.. Ha. I love this quote, because for me, it answers that age old question of ‘Why?’ Why do something… Why do anything… And for me, there isn’t a single thing I’ve done in my life that I regret. What I fear the most; is regretting NOT doing something. What if? That question, and it’s answer more importantly, is what has fueled my drive and my ambition to take life by the balls. To be the driver, not the passenger. There was no question as to ‘If’ I would ever achieve my dream, it was ‘When. *Where do you see yourself in a couple years?* **Martin Moore:** I don’t have any superficial goals of taking over the world or doing a TED Talks. My dream, my future goals are to just continue on the path that I’ve been on. Never turn down opportunity, and you’ll be rewarded with success. I have a weekly radio show now on 620 WTMJ here in Milwaukee with Steve Scaffidi and that’s something that has never even crossed my mind as in the realm of possible. For me, opportunity is everything. I look at my future, and my dreams like this; Everything I don’t like about where I am, whether it’s my life, my career, what I create, my brand is like the Titanic sinking and the shore is where I want to be, where I NEED TO BE. In between those two points are lifeboats (opportunities) to get me from that sinking ship to the shore. Every lifeboat I get into, every opportunity I take, gets me one step closer to the shore. Every lifeboat I don’t get into, every opportunity I pass up on, there is someone in the water right next to me treading for their life who would gladly take my place. That is a mindset I’ve always subscribed to. There is a myriad of paths we can all take that lead from where we are to where we want to be, but none of those paths are possible if you don’t take advantage of opportunities. Some of my biggest triumphs in my career have stemmed from some of the smallest opportunities I’ve taken. *What has been your biggest barrier?* **Martin Moore:** Time. During this entire 5ish year process of trying to create an opportunity for myself where I could do what I love for a living, time was my biggest enemy. I worked 50hrs a week on cars. Along with that I had to get up at 5:00am every day. Get downtown by 6:00am to film the beginning of the Vlog. Be at work by 7:00am. Skip my lunch break, head back downtown to film the middle of the Vlog. Head back to work until 5:00pm. Head back downtown to finishing filming the end of the vlog. Edit until 1:00am. Go to bed. Wake up at 5:00am and repete. Every Single Day. On holidays, on vacations, and weekends. I made a Vlog every single day for 88 days in a row. Worked 50hrs a week. Also ran my photography business shooting weddings and commercials shoots. Went to meetings, networking events ect. Not having the time to match my ambition was a huge struggle, and that’s probably a common theme you’ll hear amongst people like me. Ha. But that’s what it took. Nobody was going to hand me a degree, or hand me a new life. I had to get it myself. I always say “There are two kinds of people in life. Those who want it, and those who get it.’ So many people want Fame, Fortune, Success but don’t want the blood, sweat and tears that come along with it. You have to love the process more than the end result our you’ll be eaten alive by people who want it more. *Final question, what’s one piece of advice you would give someone looking to do what you did whether it’s starting a business, working their dream job or branding themselves?* **Martin Moore**: Why? Take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself that question. Is it because you truly believe entrepreneurship is what defines you, or is it because you’re all jacked up from the last Gary Vee podcast you just listen too? Do you want to be a YouTuber because you feel you have a genuine story to share, or do you just think Peter McKinnon and Casey Neistat are dope? Your intentions have to be genuine. It’s a long journey and you have to be willing to do whatever it takes. You have to love the emails, and lack of sleep, networking, creating, haters, trolls, people doing better than you. You have to enjoy the Process more than the end result, and unfortunately the end result is what most people strive for. So my advice is ‘Why?’ If you can answer that without hesitation, then you shouldn’t started yesterday. --- ## We Are Having the Wrong Conversation About Workforce Development URL: https://futuresharks.com/we-are-having-the-wrong-conversation-about-workforce-development/ Guest Author: Ola Ayeni It’s no secret: The Silicon Prairie has a workforce problem. It isn’t just us, either. Employers across America can’t find enough qualified workers. With a historically low unemployment rate, qualified, talented workers aren’t just sitting in front of a screen browsing ZipRectuiter and CareerBuilder. This talent shortage hasn’t gone unnoticed by workforce developers. That said, the public discussion around a shortage of workers often focuses solely on the skilled trades—and that really is a crisis. For years, the number of vacancies for plumbers, electricians, and carpenters have far exceeded the number of applicants. As a result, workforce developers have tried to increase interest among young people in the skilled trades, reminding them (and their parents) that the surest path to a stable, middle-class life may not come with a degree on the wall and a tie around your neck. Instead, it may come from a protractor in your front pocket and a toolbelt around your waist. But what about America’s other talent crisis? Over the last decade, St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, and cities across America have placed technology, startups, and entrepreneurship at the core of their economic-development strategy. Whether it’s supporting tech startups through organizations like KC SourceLink or Arch Grants—or 2017’s nationwide recruitment of Amazon HQ2—economic developers have realized how important technology-based businesses are to cities and communities. Unfortunately, workforce development and economic development are often unaligned. That isn’t an opinion. It’s a fact. The St. Louis region responded to Amazon’s RFP with an incentives package worth more than seven billion dollars. It’s debatable whether giving the world’s biggest retailer taxpayer money for a new headquarters is a good idea, but that’s beside the point. Using incentives to recruit employers and create local jobs *is* an economic-development strategy. Unfortunately, an economic-development strategy increasingly focused on technology companies is at odds with a workforce-development strategy that isn’t creating nearly enough qualified developers and coders. In a recent survey of 1,246 St. Louis companies, more than 60 percent of technology firms were dissatisfied with the skill level of job applicants. Amazon itself cited a shortage of tech talent as the number one reason why St. Louis did not make the final cut of cities under consideration. It wasn’t the lack of a large, world-class airport. It wasn’t governmental fragmentation. It wasn’t the troubled national brand St. Louis suffers from. It was a lack of talent. But what’s the solution? To begin with, economic developers, workforce developers, and civic leaders need to get input from on-the-ground entrepreneurs who deal with this challenge on a daily basis. Workforce- development initiatives and committees are often stocked with public-sector officials and the local business establishment—including CEOs who haven’t been a part of employee recruitment or day-to-day hiring in years or even decades. While voices and perspectives from the public sector and the C-Suite are important, it is just as important to include entrepreneurs who actually recruit and hire developers on a regular basis. Many Silicon Prairie communities have made recruiting entrepreneurs and startup founders a priority. But as soon as those founders arrive, they run smack into the same talent shortage Amazon avoided. What do those innovators do when that happens? They solve their own problems. They are entrepreneurs. That’s what they do. It’s what we did at Claim Academy. In 2014, I arrived in St. Louis to start Eateria, a platform designed to help restaurants improve their marketing. Unfortunately, I also faced a shortage of programming talent. In response, we began to train our own full-stack developers. Claim Academy grew from that effort, and today our graduates have a 93 percent job- placement rate and a $60,000 starting salary. Because of our decision to start Claim Academy, more and more companies in this region are finding the tech talent they need. That said, the problem is too big for Claim Academy to solve on its own. But what won’t solve this problem is more of what we’ve already tried. We don’t need another workforce-development strategy crafted without the input and leadership of the entrepreneurs and innovators who confront a tech-talent shortage on a daily basis. In 2019, putting technology at the forefront of our regional economic development strategy is a wise move. We should do the same with workforce development. --- ## How Arri Bagah Took A Company From 0 to 100k in Less Than 3 months URL: https://futuresharks.com/arri-bagah/ Thanks to technology, the way consumers interact with products and services have changed tremendously in the past few years. Recent studies show that consumers now prefer shopping online and conduct research online for products or services before buying. This means effectively engaging consumers on digital platforms is key to the success of any business. One e-commerce expert with a deep understanding of all things and digital marketing is Arri Bagah. Arri Bagah, founder & CEO of convertsmart.com has helped both small and large companies increase their visibility and revenue in just a matter of months. **Arri’s Marketing Background** Arri started his own company in Chicago four years ago to help small and medium-sized businesses reach new clients. He realized that the business was not making as many sales as he’d like them to. In an aim to understand why the SMBs were not successful, Arris moved to Chicago and got a job with one of the fastest growing agencies. There he got a chance to do thorough market research and work with some of the most insightful and talented e-commerce experts. Arri found out that an effective e-commerce marketing strategy is the most important attribute to generate more leads and increase their conversion rates. He learned that the internet and e-commerce have dramatically changed how consumers are shopping, and wanted to help his customers do the same. He started focusing on e-commerce and started his own company Convertsmart. Since then, Arri and his team have helped businesses all around the world drastically increase their revenue. **How Convertsmart Has Transformed Businesses** In the past 4 years, Arri Bagah and his team have connected hundreds of companies with new consumers, while helping them to engage with their current customers. He has consulted multimillion dollar companies such as Tuft and Needle, Beard Club, and Poo-Pourri just as well as small and medium-sized companies. In fact, Arri Bagah and his team recently took a company from Zero to 100,000$ in less than 3 months. They help companies gain 30,000 Messenger subscribers in 4 weeks. So, how exactly does Arri Bagah do it? **From 0-100K in Just 3 Months** This is how Arri Bagah and his team took a company from 0 to 100k in less than 3 months. **1.Re-branding the website** One of the most effective ways for companies of all sizes to reach and grow their audience is a high – quality SEO website. It provides a powerful way to showcase the quality of products or services of your business. It’s a great way to keep your customers informed as well. Arri Bagah’s market research showed that 45% of consumers evaluate the credibility of a website based on how it looks. No one likes viewing a stale website let alone buy from one. They improved the look of the website through Website design with the appealing colors and themes, high-quality multimedia elements such as; videos, images, and slide show. Arri also updated the website with original, relevant and applicable content with long tail keywords and well formatted with page titles and Header tags. **2. Installed Shopify Apps** With over 2600 apps in the Shopify app store, it can be very hard for brands to know exactly what apps they should be using. Arri and his team have tested many apps that do different things and have found a few select apps that help brands capitalize on their marketing efforts. From homepage to product pages and checkout optimization, they install apps to lift store conversion rates. **3. Email and Message Marketing** Email marketing is one of the most beneficial digital marketing strategies. 90% of Americans use email on a daily basis. This means emails have a gigantic reach and can give businesses a chance to target a wide customer base. Personalized messages also engage consumers and help you earn their trust. Arri and his team created an effective email and Messenger marketing campaign that promotes specific, relevant products to a targeted audience. They managed the company’s database and used engaging messages to increase consumers’ conversion rates. Arri also used emails and personalized messages to inform customers about promotion/ new products and it increased the client’s sales every time. **4. Online Ads** As of January 2019, there are more than 4 Billion internet users and more than 3.5 Billion people active on social media. Online Ads, especially on social media such as Facebook, gives you instant access to this wide audience. They help you to encourage people to share content which enhances your brand. One of the most amazing things online facebook ads is that they help businesses target specific consumers based on their age, location, gender, hobbies, etc. Arri and his team helped this client hit the right audience and helped them engage the clients’ products through Facebook Ads. **Conclusion** In today’s fast-changing and competitive business environment, any business that fails to adapt to change cannot make significant growth. You need effective e-commerce and digital marketing strategy to set yourself apart from your competition. So who better than an expert with practical experience and clear success rates? Arri Bagah helps businesses increase their visibility and build customer loyalty through successful ecommerce strategies. He has helped various customers move from zero to 100k in just a few months. The benefits of working with Arri Bagah are so tremendous that every business should be on board. --- ## How David Roger Thompson’s Turned $60k In Debt Into A 6 Figure Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-david-roger-thompsons-turned-60k-in-debt-into-a-6-figure-business/ For some, finding success in digital marketing is a feat that requires a formal education in business. For others, the idea of success is associated with dreaming big and keeping the feeling of hope alive. For David Thompson, success didn’t quite work in any of these ways. Instead, he believes in the power of action. In fact, one of David’s core beliefs is that you can’t rely on your feelings. Instead, you must solely rely on real action. Bottom line, you’re not successful until you start acting successfully. These are the values that brought David to where he is today and are at the core of his digital marketing empire that caters to attracting new patients for doctors and chiropractors. This is a business that he built for himself. It’s shocking for most to hear that he was able to turn a life of $60,000 in debt into a business making $60,000 a month. David was able to create this type of massive wealth in a span of less than three years. David now works as a digital marketing consultant for doctors and chiropractors. Specifically, when asked about his work, David says, “I help chiropractors and doctors implement a powerful marketing system. This system brings in quality new patients on autopilot each month without leaving the office.” Regarding the success he’s found in his field, David considers himself a “new patient magnet”. And, he calls his business a “profit-pulling chiropractic advertising service”. Needless to say, these descriptions are no exaggeration. What’s really unique about David’s success is the reason he became involved in this industry in the first place. He was determined and he began his ventures with the understanding that nothing would get in his way. David was able to build a lucrative brand from this philosophy alone. “I was successful before I started working on my business,” David confirms. “I had everything I ever wanted. I have a beautiful wife, amazing children, a supportive family, my faith, and my health. The only reason I went into business for myself was because I wanted to provide a financially secure lifestyle for my family without sacrificing quality time away from my family,” David recalls. David took this personal motivation and turned it into a drive for a successful marketing business. Since he believed that his work was impossible without the right environment, David made sure to always spend time around professional peers who were more successful than him in the industry. On strategy, David assured, “I do all that I can to keep that momentum alive and going strong. But, the most effective way to do this is through masterminds. Masterminds saved me and my business. I invested more than 18 months into masterminds just to gain the opportunity to surround myself with other entrepreneurs performing at a higher level. Every three months, I met with these brilliant men and women. We helped one another grow our businesses together. I received the momentum that I needed to stay focused and motivated for the next three months.” David’s method of finding success in business is certainly unique, especially considering he’s made it this far in such a short period of time with only a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish. While some may believe his work came easy, David acknowledges that is far from the truth. He faced struggles in finding success and acknowledges that his family is the main inspiration and driving force that kept him going. “I push through hard times by remembering why I got involved in this business in the first place. It was my family. Regardless of the amount of business I have to manage, I always prioritize my family and my faith. I know my strength does *not* come from the amount of money that I have in my bank account. But, it comes from knowing that I am getting better every single day, little by little, and bit by bit. I’m building my business in a way that doesn’t impair the relationships that are most important to me.” --- ## How This Professional Baseball Player Left His Career And Built A Multimillion Dollar eCommerce Brand URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-this-professional-baseball-player-left-his-career-and-built-a-multimillion-dollar-ecommerce-brand/ Unfortunately, childhood dreams are often just that – *dreams.*Most people never achieve their childhood dream let alone pursue it. Whether it be fear of failure, confusion, or lack of support most people never attempt to turn their dreams into a reality. Cody Neer is the rare exception. With a childhood dream of playing baseball professionally, Cody went on to not only pursue it, but achieve it. In 2010, Cody made a decision many of his peers advised against. Cody walked away from a successful professional baseball career to pursue entrepreneurship. With the leadership of a mentor and a team of like minded individuals, he started an electronic checks processing business that processed over a whopping $30million in gross sales in its first two years in business. After its third year, the company was acquired and Cody realized he’d found his calling. He pursued a new entrepreneurial path that led him to begin building a hunting apparel brand called Bucks of Nebraska. The following year, Cody was hired by Target Corporation for his expertise as part of a team that would be the very first case studies using of Facebook Power Editor, Twitter Cards, and other social platform beta ads managers. After managing over $50m+ in Facebook ads for Target with over a 5x ROI, Neer realized direct response marketing was the key to his own financial freedom and decided to focus solely on his Bucks of America brand – turning it into a wildly successful national brand in record time. Between 2015 to 2018, the brand surpassed 7 figures in sales through advertising and selling on multiple channels. During the height of the rapid growth of Bucks of America, Cody joined a young team of entrepreneurs who partnered with Kevin Harrington to create a multi million dollar advertising agency. From 2016-2017, they did over $10m in online sales. Shortly after, Cody started his first eCommerce advertising agency where he managed both client stores and grew a dozen of his own. The stores did a combined $12m+ in gross sales in 2018 before Neer sold them for a seven figure payday. Now today, Cody is on a journey to build as many successful eCommerce businesses as he can in 2019. With an extremely high level of determination and drive, Neer says – *“I always remember where I came from and where I am going. The day to day can get to you and you can get caught in a funk thinking about every detail of every task you need to accomplish, but if you realize where you came from and think about where you’re going instead, your mindset shifts from a sense of lacking to a sense of abundance. Positive self talk and mindset has taken me places a lot further than any skill set I’ve ever learned…* *The fear of being average drives me internally. Anyone can be average, not many can be great.”* --- ## How Andrew Kroeze Went From Being Broke and Hopeless to Becoming a Healthy and Financially Free Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-andrew-kroeze-went-from-being-broke-and-hopeless-to-becoming-a-healthy-and-financially-free-entrepreneur/ There tends to be a largely negative narrative about people who suffer from depression. Much of this notion has been believed due to stereotypes that understand depression as merely a little bit of sadness. The reality of depression, however, is that it is an illness that is often out of the individual’s control. Andrew Kroeze is one of many individuals who unfortunately have suffered from depression, and his struggles go beyond just his mental state. One of the hardest things he had to face was the way it weighed down his lifestyle, and how the hopelessness he felt ultimately led to him nearly going broke. Despite Andrew’s entrepreneurial dreams, he initially settled for a 9-5 job. He wasn’t happy with his job, nor was he making enough money to do the things he wanted. For Andrew, his situation was akin to living in financial slavery. Andrew’s situation negatively affected his lifestyle choices. Eventually, he got to a point where he was totally unhappy, and the negativity he felt surrounding him in his personal life only contributed to the feelings of hopelessness he had so often battled throughout his adult life. Change can be difficult, especially for people who struggle to overcome mental health situations that are out of their control. Andrew recognized the ways in which he wanted to enjoy his life, though. He took the first step towards remedying his situation – a personal decision to change. He pursued this fervently by creating a timeframe to effect that change. With his strong resolve to change and the right attitude to make the necessary alterations, Andrew eliminated the things and choices in his life that led to his unhappiness. He focused on the tangible things that *were*in his control, such as his physical health and his work. Over time, his stringent exercise routines and a change in diet helped him lose weight and return to a healthy lifestyle. Fortunately, positive changes in one’s personal life often go hand in hand with one’s work life, too. Andrew’s newly attained drive helped him in his entrepreneurial journey. Reflecting on his lifestyle changes made him realize what he could achieve when he put his mind to work. On establishing his goal – assisting entrepreneurs to make sales – Andrew decided to explore the massive audience reach provided by social media. Creating an advertising agency from scratch is no simple feat, but Andrew’s resilience and determination made it look easy. With his expanding knowledge about marketing and his uncanny ability to build Facebook groups, he became a renowned social media expert. Despite a change in fortune, Andrew never allowed comfort to get to his head. He kept striving to do better, and his consistency paid off as he made half a million dollars within a year. Remembering his upbringing that taught him show compassion to people, Andrew decided to uplift as many upcoming entrepreneurs as possible by exposing his techniques – something which is quite uncommon in the business world. Since a lot of entrepreneurs were interested in Andrew’s approach – especially as it concerns social media marketing – he decided to dole out this valuable information using webinars and online courses to reach a greater number of people. For the social media strategist, his entrepreneurial journey wasn’t an easy one. He was haunted by the consequences of failure, surrounded by a negative ambiance and the demons of his past life. Meditation and mindfulness proved incredibly helpful, and his determination to leave a lasting legacy burned brighter during those dark days. There were times when Andrew was close to throwing in the towel, but the thought of not fulfilling his potential before leaving this planet prevented him from doing just that. Also, the compelling fear of not living his best life and the desire to promote love and community pushed him to continue to take action regardless of the outcome. With the ever-expanding virtual space of social media, Andrew and his advertising agency are looking at redefining how entrepreneurs sell their digital products both now and in the future. They intend to achieve this by using more engaging platforms besides their current Facebook Group strategy. When asked about how he took on the challenges before him, Andrew said, “I confide in my friends, lift weights, and meditate a lot. I have a tattoo down my spine that says ‘This Too Shall Pass.’ I live by that every day. I know good or bad, nothing is permanent. And if I’m going through a rough time, brighter days are ahead.” --- ## Jason Brown’s Top Tips for Achieving Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/jason-brown/ As a now 29-year-old entrepreneur, Jason Brown presents the world his tops for achieving not only success but your dreams as well. These will help you understand his thought-process and make sure you also learn the differences that distinguish people like him from the others. Knowing that even you can raise yourself up and reach before-unimaginable goals. Here you are going to find about exactly that and more. Embracing your inner entrepreneur and accepting both the positive and negative aspects of the sacrifices Jason Brown had to make to reach the level he is on right now. **1. Be Determined** Jason Brown said that there is a direct correlation between the goals you are crossing off your list and your level of determination. His mentality is what enabled him to outwork everybody; his determination to always give 200% came because he wanted it really bad and he knew what he was capable of. For bigger achievements, you need bigger goals and bigger actions. That’s what Jason said and it’s a message that should reach many more people because of how inspiring and true it is. **2. Learning to function without emotion** When you learn to never mix business with emotion, the things that you can achieve are extraordinary. Generally, emotion inhibits us to think straight, thus resulting in a bad decision that affects the whole situation negatively. Jason is one of the few people that have achieved this level of self-control regarding emotions, to further increase his potential. Usually, emotions, in the field of business are just another form of self-sabotage. And who in their right mind would want that intentionally? **3. Believing and Pursuing** It is mostly thought that crazy dreams and too inflated aspirations lead to failure, that’s why the common human chooses to stay in their comfort zone as they live a mediocre life, never being truly satisfied. In Jason’s vision, you have to believe that what you are doing is the best there is, always aspiring to be better than you already are, convincing yourself you deserve your ever longing success. Only going through failure after failure, never giving up, pursuing your dream will make you climb through the ranks and achieve your goals. **4. Surround yourself with success** It’s the basic rule of Association. If you have toxic and unsuccessful people around you, will slowly but surely affect the image of your dreams. Misery loves company, as you should stay away from negative people that willingly or unwillingly drag you down and diminish the chances of you ever achieving anything. Surround yourself with supportive friends, people that encourage you; the ones that help you mentally in achieving your goals. No one needs negativity when aiming at the sky. Remember, sooner or later, all people become byproducts of their entourage. **5. Stay away from your Ego** The best way to earn the respect of other successful people is staying humble. This way you keep yourself successful, surround yourself with important people more easily and in the end, all of this leads to you achieving your long desired dreams. If it’s anything that will lead you to a great loss is a big ego. As people tend to distance themselves from self-centered individuals, you will be no exception. Jason stayed humble and is still humble to this day, never bragging about his success. That’s what the media is all about. **6. Learning the difference between a manager and a leader** The word “manager” usually has a negative tone to it. Ever wondered why? In the present day’s manager are usually the ones that tell you the issues you have and what you did wrong in a job, instead of telling you the positive side of your work or helping you improve. Managers don’t usually lead their staff by examples or by common learning. Leaders are the ones that do those things. As a leader, you should show people what to do, not tell them; this way you ensure that the employees know you are a team, not a dictator. Jason said that this is the most important thing in creating a business; to increase the effort significantly by this method. When people feel good around you and like working for you, they work more efficiently. Conclusively, using these easy but effective tips, we hope that you understand a bit about Jason Brown and the sacrifices he made to come this far in his career. Paying attention to your employees and to their needs to ensure a rapid growth is a crucial thing in entrepreneurial matters, as you have to make decisions not only based on your personal growth but on the whole company. --- ## How This Entrepreneur, Entertainer, Published Author and Motivational Speaker Built An Empire URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-this-entrepreneur-entertainer-published-author-and-motivational-speaker-built-an-empire/ I had the pleasure of interviewing and getting to know Sergio Bruna. As an entertainer, entrepreneur, published author, and motivational speaker,****Sergio has a track record like no other. His years of experience and success in each of these fields gives him an unfair but earned advantage. “I’ve been involved in business and entertainment for over 15 years now…” Bruna says. “Over those 15 years, I’ve been able to help other companies and businesses thrive within their respective industries allowing them to build long-term success.” While just one man, his versatility has allowed him to begin to build an empire within the Spanish speaking market! As an Entertainer, Bruna has certainly made his presence known. Bruna, alongside with Mark Vega, owns “Triple Cap WorldWide”; a production company that produces television shows, films and builds APPs for mobile devices. Once established in the production industry, Sergio saw the need for a Spanish Late Night Talk show in the United States. The late-night talk show is a format that has been proven to be successful for almost 50 years world-wide, yet, no one was doing it. Bruna saw this as an opportunity and decided to take advantage. He became the Creator, Executive Producer, Writer, and Host of the first Spanish Late Night Talk Show in the USA “El Pelado De La Noche” and created the first late-night talk show platform for Spanish speaking audiences. As the show grew in popularity, he then licensed it to the second largest producer of Spanish content on the planet. “El Pelado De La Noche” now airs Nationwide on prime time at 10 PM,****the most coveted timeslot. Alongside his late-night talk show, Bruna also recently just shot his first comedy special, which happened to be very successful; selling out the world famous “Improv Comedy Club” in Hollywood. The whole act was spoken entirely in Spanish, which was the first of its kind at the Club. He is now heading out for a stand up comedy tour travelling nationwide throughout the United States. At the conclusion of his tour, he plans to travel to Puerto Rico and produce his own film “Sinverguenzas”. Aside from entertainment, Bruna has also worked as a consultant, recruiter, and sales trainer for some of the biggest marketing and sales organizations within the United States. Over the years, Bruna has built an impeccable track record increasing sales and establishing the right culture amid those organizations – tripling the gross revenue for some of them. Currently, Bruna represents Chevrolet in the Spanish-speaking market worldwide. Having shot more than 100 commercials for Chevrolet, Bruna has been the centerpiece of their Spanish campaign for almost 4 years now. As overall sales have increased by 34 percent, making this the most successful ad campaign ever so far, as ROI goes, General Motors assures us that this campaign “is not going anywhere.” This means a lot to Sergio, as GM just received an evaluation of $55 billion. While certainly having plenty of credentials, Bruna’s mission and true passion is to motivate, inspire, and empower others to become the best possible version of themselves. Bruna is the author of a book and actively holds seminars in which both are titled “Unstoppable.” Having delivered full day seminars in front of as many as 3,000 people on stages as respected as the Los Angeles Convention Center, Bruna looks to change the lives of thousands of people all over the world. People can find Sergio on Instagram at https://instagram.com/thesergiobruna --- ## Why This Powerhouse Entrepreneur Susie Carder Makes Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses Look Easy URL: https://futuresharks.com/susie-carder/ To be a successful and respected entrepreneur, you don’t necessarily have to do what others are doing. You can learn from their story, but it will do you much more good if you find your own road to success. That is exactly what Susie Carder did – she was inspired by achievers, but had to find something within her to do the rest of the work. Susie was not born a millionaire. Her big break came when she decided to search deeper within herself to find the natural fighting spirit that is present in each and every soul alive in the world today. We spoke to Susie Carder about her road to success and gathered very valuable information. She builds multi-million dollar businesses easily and chooses whether to sell or keep them. Susie Carder’s story is the inspiration you have been looking for. **Who is Susie Carder?** Nothing describes her better than calling her a serial entrepreneur. She owns two multi-million dollar companies and helps up and coming entrepreneurs as well as the big fish in business to build small or transform non-performing ventures into large enterprises. She is also a best-selling author and international speaker. A mother of two beautiful girls, Susie Carder works three days a week and spends the rest of her time being a parent. Susie has guided hundreds of companies to develop personalized operation systems in finance, sales, and marketing. One of the companies she sold for millions of dollars was developed while she was working from her kitchen table (but not because she could not afford an office, or didn’t have one). Susie enjoys a level of freedom that most entrepreneurs pay for. So, how does she do it? Why is it so easy for her, while it is not for you? **Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses the Susie Carder Way** **1. Do What You Love** The first thing you need to understand about creating a business is that for it to be successful, a great part of what it is about has to be inspired by passion. For one to gain the status of self-made millionaire, they have to look within themselves and do what they love. That is the secret – it all comes from within. Once you have understood this basic secret of success, you are ready for success .Do you know why passion is key? Doing what you love will keep you going even when things get tough. You will be able to stick to your business even when the money is low. Susie says, “You need to ask yourself, am I building a business because I love it or just because it is the new trend?” Her passion is in helping other people and deriving happiness in seeing them achieve. After understanding this, she discovered a way of monetizing her passion and that is how she has been able to build herself into one of the most respected female entrepreneurs in the country. She even has her own method of achieving the unthinkable – the Predictable Success Method. According to Susie, you can tell how successful you will be by choosing to do what is right, at the right time. **2. It Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect; It Just Needs to Get Started** You don’t need to have it all figured out. If you have an idea, go ahead and start. Do not entertain thoughts about how difficult it’s going to be, or whether your approach is perfect. When worked on, businesses grow and evolve. All you have to do is take it easy on yourself, make a plan and start. Once it begins to take shape and form, you can change some things here and there to suit your preferences. Sometimes, it is your clientele that maps out the course of your venture’s development so stop worrying about what might or might not work for you. **3. Count on Your Skills and Strengths** Not everything you can do is good for business. Only the right skills make up the necessary investment where money can’t. During the first weeks of starting up, your personal strengths will be your greatest resource. Do not overstretch, but do your best. Identify what you can do naturally and invest it into your business. Only then will you be in a position to tell what else you need, then you can reach elsewhere for a helping hand. This approach will help you establish a culture for your business. You will also know how good you are at some things, and where you need to improve. This way, you will not only develop your business career, but also yourself. **4. Face Your Fears and Weaknesses** After you have discovered your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Basing your business on your passion means it is a big part of what you are. It also means that what affects you also affects your business in some way. That is why it is important to face your fears and weaknesses so that they cannot take a negative toll on your businesses. If you are not giving your business 100%, get out of the comfort zone and take the risk. Only then will it make sense to you that being successful is as serious as people like Susie Carder make it sound. Susie says, “Focus and have a positive mind, then you can live the reality of your dreams.” **5. You Don’t Always Have to Start from Scratch** It is not a golden rule that successful entrepreneurs have to start creating businesses from scratch. Sometimes, it makes more sense to buy an existing business and grow it than starting your own. If you cannot take the challenge of starting a business from the ground, buying an already existing one doesn’t make you a failure. Just make sure you buy the right business and work on it to attain what you have always dreamt about.We all have it in us, but only a few truly discover it – that inner drive to succeed. Susie Carder is living proof that with the right mindset and motivation, everything is possible. Don’t just dream, wake up and make it come true. --- ## How Jordan Platten Pushes Through Hard Times URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-jordan-platten-pushes-through-hard-times/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit, although it caught up on me when I got kicked out of university at 21 years old. I was growing a nightclub events company on the side and the late nights meant I didn’t always make it to lectures – I think it’s safe to say my tutor wasn’t best pleased, so they removed me from the programme. With no idea of what way to turn, and a failing business in my hands, I decided to work my way up the corporate sales ladder. Having worked my way through three jobs in two years, I still wasn’t happy.. something needed to change, and so I decided to start out on my own again. I spoke with a friend who told me about social media marketing and that evening I started immersing myself into the industry. I read books, watched youtube videos and invested all of my savings into online training courses and mentorship. To cut a long story short, I managed to quit my jobs two weeks later and then proceeded to scale to six figures less than ninety days after that. That’s when I decided to launch my online training business. I wanted to give others all over the world the opportunity to start wildly profitable marketing agencies of their own. Fast forward today I’ve had the pleasure of mentoring thousands all over the world from stay at home mums to university dropouts. Nothing makes me happier than helping others transform their lives. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** Where do I start? There have been many times I’ve felt like giving up, but the most prominent was around a month after I quit my job. I had three clients at the time, when out of the blue I received a text stating that one of them wanted to terminate our contract with immediate effect. It was a massive blow, and at the time it instantly removed a third of my total income. I started doubting whether the industry was for me and whether I should go back to my job whilst I still had the chance. I remember being so close to calling up my old boss to get his advice, but then I couldn’t help think about how smug that would make him feel, having told me just one month before that I should ‘prepare for failure’ after I handed in my resignation letter. It was that thought that drove me forward, I was determined to prove everyone who had ever doubted me wrong. And so I did… --- ## INJURY TO VICTORY STORY BY ED STULAK URL: https://futuresharks.com/injury-to-victory-story-by-ed-stulak/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior success, challenges, and major responsibilities?** My greatest prior successes in life have all come from playing hockey. What started as a childhood dream eventually turned into an 18 year endeavor on the ice which included traveling the world playing with professionals and getting recruited by a Division One college hockey team to play on scholarship. From a young age I knew I loved playing hockey, but I never thought anything would come of it. The percentage of players who went pro was not in my favor, but I didn’t let that stop me. Confidence and determination are values that were instilled in me early on by my coaches and my teammates, which I utilized as their captain and their leader to always help the team out in any way possible. I wore my heart on my skates every time that I entered the rink and worked extremely hard to become the player that I always knew I could be. I realized all of my dreams playing hockey, but it wasn’t until I took a step back from the sport that I was able to fully understand and put my successes, my accolades and all of my school records into perspective in a way that I could see the impact to which it all was having on my life. No success story comes without a challenge, and I undoubtedly faced a lot of them throughout the course of my hockey career. Being a standout player and always appearing in the spotlight was only fun for so long. After a certain point, I started second-guessing myself and didn’t trust my abilities to perform on the stage I had excelled on for so many years. I thought playing hockey and getting the opportunity to go to school and play for a good team was everything I always wanted, but soon enough I felt pushed into a corner. Since realizing my dreams and accomplishing my goals in hockey, I suddenly lost the urge to continue on with the sport. It’s as if that chapter in my life came to an end and I was tenuously waiting for the next adventure to begin. But challenges are what inspire success, and it’s the challenges that we face in life that ultimately define our fate. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** A time I almost gave up was when my relationship with my past girlfriend ended. It crushed me and brought me to a deeper and darker place than I’ve ever been to before. I wanted to stop and to get rid of everything I was doing because I just didn’t see a purpose in life anymore. It was harrowing and traumatic, and I honestly didn’t see myself coming out of it with any positive thoughts or motivation to continue working towards my goals. But I knew that if I let one breakup define the rest of my life I would be on pace towards a horrific and irreparable downfall that I’d eventually regret. I wasn’t about to let something so minuscule and unimportant consume what I had worked so hard up until that point to achieve. I knew that I had to adapt to the changes I was facing and decided it would be best to just own my feelings and use them to help me become a better person. Instead of lamenting on my pitfalls, I used my newfound confidence to reinforce my existence and my purpose in life and seemingly flipped a switch in my mind that changed everything. Over time, I developed an optimistic mindset and learned to utilize the support of my family and friends to reassure myself that I was on the right track, and without them I knew none of this would be possible. I believed in myself and my vision more than anything in the world, and at this point in my life I was willing to gamble that it would all pay off for the better. --- ## The Flying Hero Club Gives Challenged Children a Chance to “Just Be a Kid” URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-flying-hero-club-gives-challenged-children-a-chance-to-just-be-a-kid/ For children with illnesses or special needs, often the most important parts of childhood are missed out on; the fun and joy of just being a kid. Instead, they spend their days going through test after test, being poked and prodded by doctors. Hospital visits and treatments leave them scared and afraid. To give these children a break from the struggles they bravely face on a daily basis, the Flying Hero Club (formerly the Smile High Club Inc.), a 501(c)3 charity, was established to help give them a chance to be a kid. Jim Churchman, the man behind the Flying Hero Club, is a professional stunt coordinator and has worked on major Hollywood blockbusters. The computerized flying system he uses to give children the chance to fly like their favorite superheroes has also flown celebrities such as Kate Beckinsale, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr., and more. The Flying Hero Club was a way for Churchman to share the feeling of empowerment and freedom with young children who could benefit most from the experience. In costumes provided by the Flying Hero Club, the children are flown on a belly board for about 100 feet, at a height of around 4 feet. For children who cannot lie on the belly board, they can be lifted up in their wheelchair. While the kids start slow, their flight speed can increase based on their level of comfort. Families are given flash drives containing videos on the spot so that they can always cherish the memories made with the Flying Hero Club. The Flying Hero Club has an upcoming event in Torrance, CA on Sunday, March 31, 2019. The event is held at Stand Brewing Co. Churchman instantly bonded with Joel Elliott, co-founder of Strand Brewing Co., over Joel’s daughter who has battles selective mutism all her life. Their common compassion for challenged children helped turn the event into a reality. The event will be held from 9 AM until 5 PM, with an afterparty following from 5 PM until 8 PM. --- ## Richard Branson Reveals Why He Believes This California Startup Will Revolutionize the Mortgage Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/loansnap/ **The Virgin group founder and billionaire entrepreneur shares how experience will disrupt the mortgage industry.** Billionaire Richard Branson has entered the U.S. mortgage market investing in California based mortgage startup Loansnap. The timing couldn’t be better for Branson to enter as mortgage rates recently hit a 10-month and the company is fresh off raising an additional $4.7 million in a funding round headed by Thomvest Ventures, bringing its total funds raised to date to a whopping $17 million. In the following post, Branson and his team at Loansnap explain why the company seems to be catching on fire, and how they are changing the way buyers determine the best time to invest in a home. Disrupting a saturated industry might sound like a bad idea for some. Richard (Branson) tells us what gave him the urge to enter into a startup doing business in the mortgage industry, an industry known to be full of legacy companies making it an oversaturated and highly competitive market. “I love to invest in companies that make people’s lives better and LoanSnap is exactly that. Its technology allows consumers to take control of their financial lives and will shake up the mortgage market. The strong founding team combined with its tech and a dedication to helping consumers will be a winning formula,” said Branson. Next, I wanted to understand what makes Loansnap different from other mortgage companies out there. Traditional mortgage companies often focus solely on optimizing for interest rates without considering other factors choosing to sell purely based on the lowest rate. Where as, Loansnap uses cutting edge AI technology to analyze your complete financial situation in seconds. Loansnap’s CEO, Karl Jacob explains the difference and how his product will impact the market, “We are on a mission to help people enjoy peace of mind and financial stability. We achieve this by delivering a technology that can analyze thousands of scenarios and see your entire financial picture in real time and then offer simple mortgage options that fit your needs today and into the future,” said Jacob. The AI-powered app is leaving the days of confusing paperwork and long pre-approval times behind, with their app you can use an app to get a mortgage quote from the convenience of your home in less than 5 min. Loansnap has been especially appealing to home buyers that want a better way of doing mortgages. Richard Branson sees the introduction of new AI-based technology into an industry that has been slow to innovate as being a major success factor for Loansnap. He believes in the future people will forget their bank and use AI to find the best mortgage. Over his prolific career as an entrepreneur, Branson has consistently invested in startups that he feels will provide a superior customer experience to the legacy businesses in the industry that have become stale and boring. His final words? > “LoanSnap is not a mortgage company, but a product and technology company that is transforming the mortgage experience while making life easier for their customers.” --- ## Chris Yangello – A Young Talent Behind The Camera URL: https://futuresharks.com/chris-yangello/ As digital disruption continues to impact the entertainment landscape, marketers and business owners are constantly striving for rich, dynamic, and interactive content to engage their audience. The search for such content comes from myriad sources and creators. Surprisingly, an industry which was once ruled by experienced and seasoned professionals is now welcoming a host of newer and fresher talents engaging in innovative content development. It’s clear more and more brands are targeting the millennial population as their primary audience. The content created by the younger, talented creators is more relatable to the rising population of young users who find a fresh and new perspective to entertainment and the products thereof. **Chris Yangello** is one such new generation content creator and a shining name in the world of video entertainment. Christopher Yangello or Chris is a 16-year old video content creator signed with Sony Music Entertainment. He is the star of REDMusic label, owned by the entertainment giant, who is making a mark in the music video space with his unique and innovative concepts in video content. In an industry ruled by prominent names, this new entrant has managed to carve his own niche and get noticed for his creativity. Chris started his journey of video creation like many other young adults, but what sets him apart was his eye for detail and exceptional perspectives. As a child, he was always friendly with the camera and would try to capture elements that others often miss, even within the most regular things. This made all the difference and added genuineness in his work. What started as his personal projects turned into a professional challenge as he excelled, thus soon becoming a rising name in REDMusic’s content team. What set him apart from others is his strong belief that every piece of content is like a piece of art, which people can enjoy only if it is rich and adds true value to entertainment. His work has earned him accolades and brought him in the association of major names and personalities in the music landscape. Within a few years of his work, Chris has been involved in video creation for musicians like Jake Miller, Logan Henderson, LovelyTheBand, 6lack, Lost Boy Crow, Lil Skies, Cash Cash, and similar new age artists. His work has taken him across famous music events in the United States like Coachella, Firefly, and Made in America. Besides his fame as a video creator, Chris Yangello is also a social media star. With almost 150,000 followers on Instagram, he has managed to build a fan and follower base who believe in his work and creativity. While most of his peers are mostly centered on their high school life, Chris has gone a step beyond and explored his talents which also contributes to the world of entertainment. A young and dynamic talent, Chris is not only managing his professional life but also balancing it with his education as a junior in high school and fuelling his passion, all at the same time. With his dedication to producing immersive content, the teenage video whiz has grown up the career ladder in no time. His work portfolio spans music videos, live events, music shows, programs, and everything that entails ‘music entertainment’. --- ## From being a player to scouting players, Sports is still an emerging industry in India according to Rashid Ali Khan URL: https://futuresharks.com/from-being-a-player-to-scouting-players-sports-is-still-an-emerging-industry-in-india-according-to-rashid-ali-khan/ Rashid Ali Khan has been a sports person and has played Basketball as well as been a boxer at the National levels in India. While most 12-year-old are in school concentrating on getting higher scores, Rashid was playing in different cities every few days and earning medal after medal. By the time Rashid was 16, he was selected to play Basketball for the Indian Army through the Rajputana Rifles regiment. After serving the army, Rashid decided to make another mark in the field of sports by diving into Sports Marketing and Management. Rashid was selected by Outlook India Magazine as one of the top sports managers in India in 2016 as well as was featured by Sports Illustrated in 2014 for his contribution to the sphere of sports marketing. Rashid, having worked with few Fortune 500 companies right at the beginning of his marketing career, carved him into being more than just a start-up entrepreneur. He has a proven track record and reputation in dealing with all aspects of sports as a commercial industry. Rashid was born in a humble family in a village in India named Bara in Ghazipur District, U.P and brought up in Rourkela, Orissa. With elder siblings in the house, him being the youngest, and his father being the only earning member, economies of the house were not always in optimum condition which made him realize that our life is in our own hands and we have to pave the way to success ourselves. With most members of his family working for government organizations or other industries and having no business acumen, Rashid learned the ways of marketing and management of a business through his own experiences. He worked really smartly to create his own space in the sports world as & when he could while working for the Fortune 500 companies. For example, while working for Luxottica India and being the Brand Head for their sub-brand Oakley eyewear, he launched the biggest sunglasses in the world and had Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh become the brand ambassador for the same. The interaction and the bonding built with Yuvraj Singh during that time got him thinking that this was his way to start carving his way back into the field of sports. From that point forward, began his journey towards his future strategies of having his own business. But every business has its ups and downs, like his first partnership firm came to an end very abruptly making him face losses, which was a learning that most entrepreneurs have to go through sometime in their career. Therefore, Rashid’s main message through his career has been that ‘opportunities come and go but they go only after they have completed their purpose. Take all the opportunities but never depend on them to stay forever as they will surely be replaced with something bigger.’ Having done his MBA through distant education, he believes it, was just to get a namesake degree in hand as he was never too inclined towards studies and getting degrees, because on the field degrees don’t work, you do. Being a motivational speaker as well, he teaches youngsters that, the real world is very different from what is written in theory and the rate at which the real world is changing, theory cannot be matched to that speed & so practical knowledge is the only knowledge. Every adult around the world is aware that after spending 5 years working for an organization, your next shift will never ask for your degrees and only your work experience will be counted. Rashid is the Founder & Director of Significant Sports & Entertainment and Ritaayat Foundation, an NGO working towards development of sports in India especially with girl & women athletes in mind. His work has been featured in various top-tier publications, such as Outlook India, Sports Illustrated and others. He is named one of the leaders of sports management by many reputable mainstream media sources. He has spoken about sports and marketing & sponsorships to audiences at several universities around India. He also has a penchant for languages and speaks fluently in 12 different languages of India. --- ## Interview with Lyle Hauser, visionary CEO of the Vantage Group URL: https://futuresharks.com/interview-with-lyle-hauser-visionary-ceo-of-the-vantage-group/ Meet Lyle Hauser, visionary CEO of the Vantage Group, a South Florida-based private equity firm and specialized business consultancy geared toward fledgling companies. Lyle, a New York City native, inherited his business chops from his late father, Milt, who worked in television production, and makes use of the same creativity and people skills at Vantage, which he founded in 1998. **What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?** Lyle Hauser: The Vantage Group was born from my desire to create wealth by melding many of my personal passions, including game-changing technologies, investing, corporate finance and dealing with smart and creative people. The latter is perhaps the most fulfilling benefit of my business, as it allows me to collaborate with people ranging from young, enthusiastic entrepreneurs to highly accomplished industry pioneers on the global stage. **How is your company different?** Lyle Hauser: I’m always reading and trying to better myself, and better my understanding of some of the things that are going on in the marketplace. That, coupled with intuition and the opportunities that are presented to me, give me the ability to pick and choose which businesses or sectors with which I’ll look to get involved. **What sectors have recently captured your attention?** Lyle Hauser: We’re very much focused on Distributed Ledger Technology situations, as well as being involved pretty heavily in the cannabis space. Even though we’re not touching anything necessarily on the grow side or the dispensary side, we pretty much look at everything and evaluate those accordingly, based on what we’re doing and where those companies are growing. **How do you creatively advertise?** Lyle Hauser: Thankfully, Vantage does not need to advertise for business. I’ve been fortunate to build a network of people who I know and trust — and who know and trust me — and it those people who regularly send opportunities to me for investment consideration. **What is your core competency?** Lyle Hauser: I’m relentless, and ultimately I’m always looking to further a company’s business plan and help entrepreneurs execute, because of course I have a vested interest in the company. I always put my money where my mouth is, so I’m never really involved in any businesses I’m not personally invested in. And I’m always looking for the right people to help execute that business plan, and for the right opportunities to potentially merge or acquire within the businesses and industries that we’re working. **What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them?** Lyle Hauser: Biggest Failure: I made a real estate investment that ended up costing more than I expected. I overcame it by taking a loss and moving on. In business, knowing when to cut your losses is key. Chasing a losing proposition is not productive. Biggest Success: Helping a female chef get her vegan business off the ground. I just tried to help her see the bigger picture. She was originally a private chef for a vegan client that had some health issues. We helped her to transform many of her delicious vegan snack recipes into a business for her, so she could not only help one individual by catering to their special nutritional needs, but instead coming out with packaged vegan snacks that we were able to then mass-market to consumers actively seeking healthy vegan snacks to supplement their diets. What I learned: Every day brings new challenges to address and new opportunities to explore. I rely heavily on the use of technology and my trusted core team of colleagues to support and optimize my business activities. **Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.** Lyle Hauser: I highly recommend that people read and invest time in learning about new technologies that are positively impacting how we live, work and play. This valuable investment spent on learning and expanding/enhancing your knowledge base goes a long way when you are forced to tackle future obstacles to your success. So, read everything. Listen to smart people – even those who may have different points of view from you. And endeavor to always be learning and growing. **Teach us something about networking:** Lyle Hauser: My personal business philosophy is to keep my good ideas to myself. I can be hired as a consultant if anyone needs business advice. That’s one of the keys to my success. **What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month?** Lyle Hauser: I’ve learned that there is never a shortage of opportunities to learn something new. **What do you think you do better than most people?** Lyle Hauser: My dad was in television production while I was growing up. In anything he ever got involved with, he was very passionate about it. That is probably where I get some of what I have in me. He created and produced advertising campaigns for Fortune 500 companies. In building the various businesses that he was involved with as I was growing up, I guess that kind of inspired me to do some of the things I’m doing today. He looked at things from an outside-the-box perspective, and was always looking at different types of cutting-edge situations. **What should an entrepreneur focus on?** Lyle Hauser: Conducting thorough due diligence is vital in my business. It is imperative that I fully grasp and appreciate the full scope and depth of an opportunity; like and respect the people associated with the opportunity; and intimately understand the possible challenges to success that may occur so that those challenges can be swiftly overcome. **What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?** Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’tby Jim Collins; The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure**by Grant Cardone; Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel **Where do you see yourself and your business in a couple years?** Lyle Hauser: I think DLT is going to be disruptive on many levels, in various sectors throughout the world. It can and will be used in probably every industry and sector that you see over the next few years. We’ll see what happens, but I believe it will change things so dramatically on a global basis that it will probably wind up being bigger than the internet. And the Internet of Things absolutely is still somewhat in its infancy. You’ll see over the next few years, just like DLT, it’s going to explode — and in conjunction with certain things in DLT. Consequently, I see myself with a front row seat to the industry transformations that are and will continue to take place — and I hope to be one who plays a meaningful part in helping to establish the companies who will emerge as industry leaders in these spaces. --- ## The Power of GVNG: How One Tech Company is Revolutionizing Philanthropy URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-power-of-gvng-how-one-tech-company-is-revolutionizing-philanthropy/ Dominic Kalms, Founder and Chief Philanthropy Officer of GVNG, deeply understands the value of positive social impact and giving to those in need. GVNG, the tech company he started, allows individuals to instantly and easily create nonprofit projects for causes they are passionate about, eliminating the piles of paperwork, hefty price tag, and lengthy amount of time it traditionally takes to get a charity up and running. GVNG has changed the philanthropy game, allowing anyone with a legitimate charitable cause to create a nonprofit immediately. Traditionally, the cost of starting a nonprofit is enormous; with legal fees, compliance, websites, insurance, etc., prices can amass to greater than $20,000. With GVNG, these fees are essentially eliminated and the timeline is massively streamlined. The platform also simplifies the government paperwork process; essentially that is because there is none on GVNG! The proprietary technology handles all of the necessary filings and documents, allowing anyone to operate their nonprofit with 501(c)3 status in all fifty states. If the reduced cost and elimination of paperwork aren’t incentive enough, the process takes as little as 60 seconds, compared to at least six months traditionally. Yes, in 60 seconds you can get your nonprofit project up and running on GVNG and you can be raising money live on the internet with your own website while at the same time using your charitable funds run your programs and/or give out grants. With the ease of creating a non-profit on GVNG, it’s no wonder that the platform has seen rapid growth and has an exciting future. To date, GVNG nonprofits have raised multiple millions in donations on the platform, and have given out grants totaling almost $1 million in just this year alone. High profile celebrities have also used GVNG to establish organizations to support causes they’re invested in. After the recent fires in California destroyed her Malibu home, Miley Cyrus used GVNG to start a charity for the victims of the Woolsey Fire to help rebuild their community. Richard Branson used GVNG this year to set up his nonprofit organization: Venezuela Aid Live Foundation where he is raising $100 million to support the people of Venezuela during their ongoing humanitarian crisis. In the first few days on GVNG, Venezuela Aid Live raised multiple millions of dollars to support Venezuela, and through the Foundation, a massive concert was held in Colombia to raise funds and generate support for the cause. In attendance at the concert were the presidents of Chile, Colombia, and Paraguay, along with 317,000 other people all doing their part to help the people of Venezuela. The success of Branson’s event is a clear testament to how effective GVNG can be and the impact that these nonprofit projects can make on the world and in communities they’re set up to support. With over 1.6 million nonprofit organizations existing solely in the US today, and hundreds of thousands of new nonprofits coming online every year, GVNG is poised and in a uniquely advantageous position to capture the business of those looking to start charities of their own. GVNG represents the future of philanthropy, and as the platform grows, I am sure we will all hear a lot more about it in the comings weeks, months, and years ahead. To sign up or for more information, visit www.gvng.com --- ## 5 Reasons To Consider A Premium Coworking Space In NY URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-reasons-to-consider-a-premium-coworking-space-in-ny/ Premium office space is desired by any professional who wants to make an impression on the business community. In many places around the country, planting yourself in the middle of the business district is not going to cost an arm and a leg. However, the cost for premium office space in New York City is in the stratosphere, and anyone fortunate enough to catch a break will occupy that office through the next millennia in an effort to avoid excessive rental costs. Conversely, businesses do not have to give up the wishes work in some of the city’s premium locations like Manhattan’s Financial District, Soho, Greenwich, and some of the other areas that have so defined affluent NYC. Modern ingenuity and a real need for affordable office space in high rental markets have culminated in the creation of the premium coworking space in NY and other locations around the country. Those looking to capitalise on this marvellous way to lease workspace should and for a few reasons. Keep reading to learn about why you should consider premium coworking space in NYC. ## A Price Comparison When comparing the cost to lease conventional office space with any serviced office plan, the conventional lease always comes up short in the NYC commercial real estate market that happens to be one of the most expensive in the world. Coworking is a much less expensive option simply because the cost to lease space is streamlined, and all of the amenities that would go with leasing office space are bundled into one payment at the end of the month, so not only is coworking a much cheaper option but it can also do wonders for a business trying to pare down a budget. ## Making Connections Then, in a city that easily swallows up its members, the coworking space can help businesses trying to find traction do so. The offices are usually very community-minded and create a platform for community by hosting events that galvanise the professional community. Businesses can easily connect through networking and other social events to people within their own working community. ## Being Plugged In Working in the coworking space can ultimately plug your business into the types of conversations you want to create. Collaborations flourish in this environment, and professionals have the chance to work on a number of teams if they so desire. With enough effort, a business working in one of these premium spaces can build an extensive list of associates, all who form the basis of connections that can last a long time. ## World-Renowned Districts Premium office space in notable, affluent areas in NYC can place your venture on the map. In many cases, some of these locations are landmarks themselves, as in the case of the famed Financial District that is home to a number of high-profile organisations including the New York Stock Exchange. Working in highly-esteemed locations presents businesses and professionals with the opportunity to work among other motivated people while creating the type of buzz that piques interest in the venture. ## World-Class Presentation Finally, because of the class of businesses that frequent these areas, the offices are top-notch fit-outs. Many are located in contemporary buildings or historic buildings retrofitted with modern technologies. The offices are decorated with the finest in corporate furnishings, and the buildings are well-maintained and routinely cleaned. Moreover, these offices are usually staffed by highly-trained, and in some cases, bilingual receptionists and other support staff. ## Reason Not To Discard Coworking There are so many reasons why businesses in NYC should not throw away this chance to work in such an energetic, vibrant workspace. The coworking space in premium locations gives businesses the best of both worlds – professional workspace with an easy-going vibe. More importantly, it can do so at a much-reduced price. --- ## How Dropping Out of Cornell Changed 20-Year-Old Lansana Koromas Life Forever. URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-dropping-out-of-cornell-changed-20-year-old-lansana-koromas-life-forever/ > Failure is an action, not an identity. Failing is something that happens to you, it’s not something that you are.– Lansana Koroma Lansana Koroma is a 20-year-old Brand Consultant, Rapper, and Marketer He has had a lot of experiences over the course of his life that he has enjoyed. Now, he has huge plans with to get done over the next 60 years. **Which of your accomplishments do you value the most?** Lansana: I’ve graduated high school. Got into Cornell University. Dropped out of Cornell University. Got my own apartment and established a career path. Got to know myself and stop hating myself. Stepped outside of my own ego to truly understand and relate to others. Got over past trauma and biases so I can live my best life. **What are your goals for the next 5-10 years.** Lansana: In 5-10 years, I’ll be sitting on a prosperous rap career, after having made my name in the personal branding and business/political consulting world! **How have your tribulations accounted to your successes?** Lansana: All of my hardest times in life have made me better than I was before. I’ve racked my brain and used meta cognition to figure out where I went wrong, and what not to do in the future. That’s going to take me far. Making mistakes isn’t the issue, it’s making the same mistakes repeatedly. **If you could give advice to the reader, what would it be?** Lansana: Failure is an action, not an identity. Failing is something that happens to you, it’s not something that you are. No matter who you are today, you can be whoever you want, as long as you’re willing to study, believe and never give up. All cliches, all apply. You can reach Lansana on his Instagram: @Lansana.Koroma3 --- ## How Social Media Has, and Will Continue To Change The World. URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-social-media-has-and-will-continue-to-change-the-world/ As time continues we will see social media become more relevant in today’s society. Even right this very moment there is an epidemic of people addicted to social media, or just their phones in general. Why? Because it eliminates the worry of insecurities, or mistakes of real human interaction. Social media has created a gateway to addiction by allowing us to achieve ‘status’ on these platforms by our follow count. Based on the previous statements there may be a negative connotation towards social media. In reality, there are just as many pros as there are cons; it’s about finding them that matters. > “Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and build relationships.” – David Alston Our perspective of social media depends on a few things, our use for it, our experience with it, and our immediate reaction to certain events that occur on it. The world tends to focus on the negative aspects of social media which can influence the opinions of others. Personal branding, marketing, eCommerce in general would all be much more difficult, and much less rewarding if social media did not exist. It also creates room for opportunities which leads on to success stories. Everything you do leads onto something else. Finding purpose behind it will determine your opinion, or outcome with it. As humans in 2019, we live in a society where entrepreneurship is trending; it is also more beneficial then it has ever been before. With social media at the tip of your fingers, utilizing it to build a brand, create an influencer page, or the many other things social media can do for you will create multitudes of life-changing opportunities. --- ## Interview With Healthcare Entrepreneur, Joel Landau URL: https://futuresharks.com/interview-with-healthcare-entrepreneur-joel-landau/ Meet Joel Landau, co-founder and CEO of The Allure Group, a network of six eldercare facilities in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Joel is an entrepreneur and healthcare innovator. As a person who has patients’ holistic well-being foremost in mind, he has crafted Allure accordingly, making his facilities not just nursing homes but rehab centers, equipped with cutting-edge technology that will ensure the best possible outcomes. He also has other machinations in development that stretch the understanding of what a skilled nursing facility does. **How did you come up with this idea?** Joel Landau: When I was caring for my elderly grandfather, I became frustrated with many of the deficiencies I saw in eldercare. Sadly, he’s not around anymore, but I knew at the time that there had to be a better way. The nonprofit nursing homes I saw purported to provide great care but were often too non-responsive to his needs and unable to provide personalized and culturally sensitive services. I think what I learned is, for-profits nursing homes really provided care that’s needed, and had very integrated social programs. Nonprofits, however, are intensely mission-driven and community minded, but lacked access to capital needed to invest in themselves. So when you combine it into a hybrid between having the care that not-for-profits have and the access to capital that a for-profit have, it was a perfect fit. And that’s what we have done very successfully. **How is your company different?** Joel Landau: Since I’ve always approached entrepreneurship as a way to solve problems, I founded The Allure Group to provide a better model with improved care for seniors. At our core, we are mission-driven like any non-profit skilled nursing facility that is dedicated to caring for the most vulnerable. Everything we do is about delivering the best outcomes for our patients. This drives our clinical product development and investments in cutting-edge technology. **What’s your dream with your company?** Joel Landau: Eldercare gets a bad rap. News stories and media representations would have you believe that most nursing homes are clinical and miserable places, but the reality is quite different. Many people are resistant to placing their elderly family members into homes due to this stigma. Oftentimes, though, it’s what’s best for them, and by and large, the institutions taking care of aging individuals do a great job. They are providing care and community that families just aren’t capable of. **How do you creatively advertise?** Joel Landau: By paying it forward, or engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as it has come to be called. Three popular ways that can be done are by getting involved in Pay it Forward Day, a worldwide initiative designed to create “a huge ripple of kindness … across the world,” according to the organization’s website; adopted a company charity; or making fundraising competitive among employees. **What is your core competency?** Joel Landau: As an entrepreneur, I routinely take calculated risks that often bear fruit, but not always. My advice to anyone interested in engaging in business startups or ventures is this: Don’t be afraid to take risks as “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” I would also advise that some setbacks and failures are inevitable—learn from your mistakes and keep improving your odds for success. Making mistakes is where you learn the most, so I recommend you embrace your failures and use them to grow. **What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them?** Joel Landau: Biggest Failure: When I first started a business, I hired primarily family and friends. This inhibited my ability to give important feedback and make necessary changes and in many instances, I knew significantly more than my employees and could not rely on them to provide constructive feedback or advice. Also, I had to learn to be more direct in my expectations, develop measures to effectively evaluate performance, and then make time to discuss business issues more often. This resulted in my feeling of having to do everything myself without the support of the appropriate talent pool! Biggest Success: Over the past 15 years, I have learned to surround myself with people that are wiser and more experienced than me, and to listen to them. I now partner with or hire people who complement my skills and strengths. Want to be a great leader? Hire people who argue with you and who enhance your skills and knowledge base. What I learned: I had to learn to be more direct in my expectations, develop measures to effectively evaluate performance, and then make time to discuss business issues more often. This resulted in my feeling of having to do everything myself without the support of the appropriate talent pool! **Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.** Joel Landau: As elderly persons live alone, many of them rely on friends and relatives to help them run errands, but they don’t have the inclination to ask for a much-needed company to read a book, go to a movie, take a walk in the park or share a meal with them. I believe that there is a great market for an “Adopt a mom or a dad for the day” service to function as an in-person or loneliness-reduction service. Maybe it’s an app platform that allows a senior to select a desired activity, define the timeframes and parameters of the request which would then be processed by the “convener” who would match the need to a qualified provider. The convener would pre-screen the interested parties to make sure that servicing providers meet the need of the requestor including language preferred, schedule availability and a general background check on the individual to make sure that they are safe and trustworthy. Churches and other faith-based organizations could provide some of these services, but not on an organized basis. There are many college students and people seeking part-time employment who would be delighted to fill this role and seniors don’t have a mechanism for accessing this kind of assistance. This application could be sponsored by a community organization or a local faith-based entity. Fees would be based on a bidding process based on time and demands of the service required. **Tell us how you ensure performance.** Joel Landau: Instead of keeping to myself inside the four walls of my office, I try to spend hands-on time in every department, a habit that definitely makes me more knowledgeable and productive. We do weekly and monthly visits to each of our facilities. The monthly visits focus more on the operational and can last more than four hours. The weekly focuses on the census; they are shorter. Our unique model is to provide strategic guidance to the centers, supplementing the facilities with expertise and resources that they may not have onsite, to strengthen their operations. Because our business is local, we learn a lot about what is working and what is not working for the center’s unique population and allows us to create niche programs that can better serve them and address concerns. **What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month?** Joel Landau: In healthcare, new technology and innovations really excite me—they represent a huge opportunity for the industry, but also a threat. I’m worried about how technology will be implemented into the healthcare system especially considering issues like confidentiality. If you look around, technology is making huge strides in the world, but healthcare hasn’t caught up. I think we will need to improve patient engagement — another trend that excites me — to get to where we need to be with healthcare technology, which in the future will be geared toward wearables and AI. While these advances are exciting, I am concerned that lack of confidence in information security is still inhibiting widespread growth and acceptance. **What do you think you do better than most people?** Joel Landau: When my associates and I have a promising idea, we like to test pilot it with different workgroups. For example, we will try out different programs. Out of every six programs, maybe one gets implemented, while other ideas may die at earlier stages. I think we’re constantly revisiting. We’re learning from our mistakes. We’ll probably learn more from the things we aren’t implementing than the things we are implementing. Decisions around what to implement most always consider what you know will not work. It’s the yin and yang — seeing the negative gives shape to the positive. For example, our decisions on what products we develop have to first consider our stakeholders’ needs. This process helps to define our product or service through elimination. **What should an entrepreneur focus on?** Joel Landau: Respect and appreciate the strengths and successes of your competitors. I observe their strengths and successes as well as their shortfalls. Then, I adapt and integrate these into my business models. A business that is not aware of what its competitors are doing is doomed to fail.  Businesses study their competition so that they can develop a competitive edge. Take, for example, Walmart and Amazon. When Amazon started Prime in 2005, Americans spent $82 billion online; Prime help give Amazon a large online market. Recognizing that retail is moving more and more online, Walmart bought Jet.com, a young e-commerce company in 2016; that year, online shopping had risen to $292 billion. Allure closely studies the products and services offered by our competitors to help us differentiate ourselves. This allows us to create niche programs not offered by our competitors and enables us to be better. **Where do you see yourself and your business in a couple years?** Joel Landau: I see the deep need to find ways for aging baby boomers to live independently longer by engaging in healthy lifestyles within supportive communities rather than relying on the medical delivery system to provide costly or frequently ineffective services to improve quality of life. Our society has become too reliant on pills, doctors, tests and procedures to address normal aging processes that could better be supported by enabling the elderly to be self-sufficient. The healthcare delivery system isn’t focused on independence. **How can the readers contact you if they want to reach out?** http://joellandau.com https://twitter.com/joelandau80 --- ## 4 Tips To Land Your Dream Mentor URL: https://futuresharks.com/4-tips-to-land-your-dream-mentor/ Have you ever wondered why some people seem to reach levels of success, that others could only imagine? It’s because they have an unfair advantage, they have mentors who have already had success, and are helping guide them on their journey. It is after all easier to learn from someone else not to touch a hot stove, than to test it for yourself and get burnt. Over the last year I have worked with mentors in many different industries and these are my 4 best tips I have learned that has helped me connect with them. 1) Pay Them. Most mentors who have had success didn’t do it over night. Their “over night success” took many hours behind the scenes learning and testing different strategies, and by paying them you are showing respect to all of their hard work and also show them that you are serious about working with them. 2) Join their paid programs. For most people, paying a mentor for 1 on 1 coaching is too expensive, so by paying for their paid programs you can get the same access to them and their advice without having to pay a substantial fee. Most mentors are receptive to you reaching out to them, because they want you to succeed which in return gives credibility to their programs. 3) Trade something of equal value. If you can’t afford to pay your mentor for their 1 on 1 mentorship, or their paid programs, you can always try to trade something of equal value. Let’s say your dream mentor is really passionate about golfing and you are great caddie, offer to caddie for them in return for their mentorship. I have actually used this to great effect by offering my service as a PR expert by getting them some free press. 4) Show up. This one should actually be number 1 in terms of how important it is. In the business world, time is money. Most mentors don’t want to invest their time in people who don’t show up or listen to them. By showing up this means that you are dedicated and are serious about learning from them. Many of my mentors Have taken me months before they would even talk to me, but I made sure that I was always showing up. Whether that be by adding value to their social media posts, or going to events and conferences they were putting on, I made sure I was always in their mind so when I reach out to them they were more likely to take me more serious. Now just like everything else in life these tips wont guarantee your dream mentor will work with you, however they will guarantee you a better chance than if you were just to reach out to them cold. These tips show that you actually value them, and in return they will value you. If by chance you don’t connect with them, dont sweat it – there are other mentors out there that you can learn from, and you can always reach out in the future. --- ## Are You Behind On Your Internet Marketing? Catch Up With These Great Pointers URL: https://futuresharks.com/are-you-behind-on-your-internet-marketing-catch-up-with-these-great-pointers/ Let’s face it, we are often required to work beyond our capacities at our workplaces. While all of us have different capabilities of handling work pressure at our offices, most of us might experience burnout and get exhausted with the constant work pressure. So most of us prefer to work according to our capacity and not stay for extra time at work. We might give an excuse that being workaholic can ruin our personal lives and make us forget other important work. But it is a debatable topic since many believe that being a workaholic is actually good for your career and can improve your chances to climb up the corporate ladder getting promoted faster than your peers. The culture of workaholism is so prevalent across all the industries today that it has come to the point of normalization, i.e., everybody is expected to be a workaholic. So it is first important to identify whether you qualify to be a workaholic. The first sign of being a workaholic is that you have a compulsive feeling of working all the time, even at the cost of their health. They prefer to check their emails even during the holidays and don’t enjoy taking vacations since it will hamper their work. They also have a habit of keeping a monthly calendar at their office desk. In short, a workaholic is someone who thinks about work all the time and neglects his social and personal life at the cost of it. Being a workaholic can actually take a toll on your health, both physical and mental. Employees who put in 55 hours or more of work in a week have 33% higher chances of having a stroke, according to a survey conducted by the scientists at University College London. But first, you must identify whether you are a workaholic or just spend too much time at work. There is a fine line between the two, and both are detrimental to your health. It not only damage your social ties slowly but also can hamper your work productivity itself. Here are some prominent questions which you can ask to judge whether you are a workaholic or just like to put in long hours of work at the office. - Does your work make you happy and do you find inner-motivation to do your work? - Is office work taking up a considerable amount of your personal time? - Do you like to keep a lot of work to yourself even when you can distribute it to others? - Do you feel constantly exhausted due to work? Is your health being affected due to work stress? If the answer to most of these questions is yes, then you can qualify yourself as a workaholic. You should take these as a warning signal and cut back on your work and find more time for relaxation. Otherwise, you will slowly but surely face burnout and worst, even chronic depression which will have a detrimental effect on your other activities as well. So you must identify these symptoms fast and understand that constantly obsessing over work has more negative impacts rather than positive ones. Your boss at the office would prefer you to work efficiently and show result consistently rather than continuously slogging yourself at work. Sure, you might get a morale high while being productive at work, and you might think that it is the only thing which I need to be good at. But in the long run, you will realize that running after career goals and being overly-ambitious constitute only a small aspect of our lives, and there’s much beyond a career in life. So if we want to achieve overall well-being of ourselves, and truly gain success in life, we must learn to keep a balance between our professional and personal lives. And realize that professional achievements are not the defining terms of success in life. --- ## Factors An Entrepreneur Should Look When Hiring Exceptional Talent URL: https://futuresharks.com/factors-an-entrepreneur-should-look-when-hiring-exceptional-talent/ As a business owner, it’s important to understand that your employees are the lifeblood of your business. The entire success of your company rests on how qualified and motivated your employees are, so it’s unsurprising that many businesses have a rigorous recruitment process to ensure quality staff. One of the biggest challenges faced by recruiters and hiring managers is being able to attract the right calibre of the employee to begin with. The recent economic changes in the UK and US have resulted in businesses having to adapt in order to keep attracting the right kind of talent. If you’re one of many who is struggling to find the real quality to grow your business, then you may be battling against some residual factors, which shall be discussed in greater detail below. ## Are you looking in the right place? The job market is so diverse, as there are lots of potential candidates living overseas, in addition to this, there has been a rise in millennial job seekers, looking for junior positions across a wide range of industry sectors. Many large corporations often cast their employment net further than their own back yard to ensure that they are attracting the right kind of talent. Many applicants may apply for a role that you advertise, but it’s important to make sure that you are not compromising on experience, skills or knowledge if you make a hire. Recruiting overseas means that you can really be selective with the talent that you go after. If you are recruiting for a senior role, this is great a great way to ensure that you are hiring somebody with all of the role requirements. One of the biggest factors that you have to consider when recruiting for overseas talent is the visa application. Will your company have to sponsor this employee to live and work within your country, but most importantly, is this a cost-effective exercise? If you are recruiting for a senior position, then it’s recommended to go above and beyond with your recruitment strategy, however, if you’re only searching for a junior position to be filled, then it’s more cost effective to recruit nationally. If you do find the right candidate, then it’s important to ensure that you consult with a team of immigration solicitors, in order to ensure that there are no issues when applying to be Tier 2 Visa Sponsors for a candidate. In the UK, Brexit is currently playing a large factor in the ongoings of overseas recruitment, so many companies are holding off on this process. However, if you keep well informed and follow the correct visa protocol, then it should be okay. ## Is your role attractive? If you are recruiting for exceptional talent, then you have to ensure that the role you are offering is attractive enough for people to accept. If you are recruiting an SME, or somebody who has been in the industry for a long time, then it’s important to understand that other companies will also be trying to employ them. In order for your role to be attractive, you have to have a competitive salary that is up for negotiation, as well as company perks. If you’re based in an office, then you could offer flexible working hours, 2 pm finishes on a Friday as well as cash bonuses and employee days out. Be sure to do some competitor research to see what other industries are offering in terms of perks. As a hiring manager, it’s important to always conduct industry research and see what your competitors are recruiting for, what they are offering and how much they are willing to pay. In order to have a competitive edge, you must be willing to negotiate on a starting salary, as it’s common for other companies to try and beat your offer in order to acquire exceptional talent. --- ## Rick DeStefane: Serial Entrepreneur and Founder of Reliant Care Group LLC. URL: https://futuresharks.com/rick-destefane-serial-entrepreneur-and-founder-of-reliant-care-group-llc/ *Rick DeStefane is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Reliant Care Group LLC., a network of long-term, skilled nursing facilities in the Midwest. Over the course of his three-decade-long career, DeStefane has built a robust portfolio of well over seventy diversified businesses. His professional interests stretch across eight industries; aside from his work in the healthcare sector, he owns several restaurants and even owns two Prospect League baseball teams. His primary entrepreneurial focus, however, remains on Reliant. Since its founding, Reliant Care Group has grown to encompass over 20 care facilities, 2,500 residents, and more than 4,000 employees; it draws in millions in revenue annually.* *Rick DeStefane’s principles drive his entrepreneurial efforts. He firmly believes that everyone, regardless of mental condition or history, deserves compassionate care. Many of the residents in Reliant’s networks had been turned away from other facilities because providers had been unable to treat severe mental or behavioral conditions effectively. For DeStefane, filling this care gap was both an entrepreneurial opportunity and a moral imperative; today, around 35% of Reliant residents either return to their communities or require a lower level of care.* *In his free time, Rick DeStefane enjoys spending time with his children.* **Favorite Quote:**“You only fail when you quit trying.” **City:**St. Louis, MO and Hannibal, MO **Tell us about Reliant Care Group. How did you come up with the idea for the company?** I’ve known that I wanted to create a lasting change since I was a child. When I was ten, I decided that I wanted to be President of the United States — or if not that, the leader of an organization large enough to create lasting change. I started Reliant as a way to meet a social need that I knew wasn’t being adequately addressed yet. Mental and behavioral health is severely under-treated in our society. Reliant Care Group’s skilled nursing facilities meet the long-term care needs of those struggling with acute mental or behavioral conditions, among others. These are the people that most facilities aren’t equipped or able to support — often, our residents have been turned away from one or more care facilities before they come to us. I founded Reliant Care to help people, and I think it’s safe to say that we have. **How have you been able to grow your business? Be specific.** Preparation and hard work. As I mentioned before, I knew that I wanted to take on a leadership role early on, so I prepared accordingly; when I went to college, I picked up undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Business as well as an MBA and CPA. All four were essential to my success today. Thanks to my education, I was able to navigate the intricacies of the healthcare business and strengthen Reliant’s connections to the private sector and government entities. Of course, formal education alone isn’t enough to assure success in any field. Some skills can only be acquired through years of hard work and dedication — even after decades, I still put in twelve-hour plus days relatively often. **What do you wish more people knew about the work that you do?** How necessary it is. People don’t like to think about what it takes to care for those with severe conditions. In some circumstances — if a person isn’t a self-guardian or if they are living post-incarceration — our residents would have had to struggle with their conditions alone if we weren’t there to support them. Today, roughly 35% of Reliant residents either return to their communities or move down to a lower level of care. That, if anything, proves that we can help those in need. Ignoring mental health concerns comes at an enormous social cost, and we need to do a better job of paying attention. **What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?** Trust. In a lot of business environments, leaders think it’s better to fire first and ask questions later than forgive and move on. I couldn’t disagree more with this approach. My staff is an enormous part of why Reliant has seen the success it has. Everyone makes mistakes; the best leaders know how to help their employees learn and move on from them. That way, everyone involved becomes better at their job and more engaged with their work. You need to care for and trust your staff, otherwise, your employees will never grow, and your business will never reap the benefits of that growth. **What would you say was one of your biggest mistakes as an entrepreneur, and how did you learn from it? ** Early on in my career, I started a business that fell apart when two key employees stole copious amounts of money from its accounts. I had to shut down the company entirely, and had to give up all of the hopes I had built for the venture. It was a loss, but I learned from it. Today, I have as many internal controls in place as I can have without impacting organizational trust, and intervene early if I notice signs of trouble. You can’t stop fraud — but you can catch it as quickly as possible. **What is your favorite book? ** I really enjoyed *The Road Less Traveled* by M. Scott Peck. It’s a great foundational read, and I think it expresses why people need to learn to love themselves and become comfortable with who they are as a person before they can be successful in the other aspects of their lives. **Where do you hope to see Reliant going in a few years? What do you want for yourself? ** My standing goal is to guide Reliant Care into a place where it can help more people. Currently, there are some hints that legislators will scrap the limits now imposed by the Institutional for Mental Illness (IMD) rules and regulations on skilled nursing facility population ratios. If this happens, Reliant’s centers could admit those with Axis 1-2 mental health diagnoses without any restrictions. This would be a blessing. Ideally, I would like to get to a place where I don’t have to work long days and six-day weeks so often. There’s always so much to do, and it’s easy to get burned out. I love my work, but I enjoy establishing an ongoing and better work-life balance. --- ## The Fintech Revolution: Where Things Stand Now URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-fintech-revolution-where-things-stand-now/ Fintech continues to gain momentum. There is no greater evidence of this than the fact that some $57.9 billion was invested in fintech in the first six months of 2018. That exceeds the amount for all of 2017, and puts this year on pace to eclipse 2015, the top year for fintech funding. Much of this year’s surge has been the result of the finalization of two enormous deals — the purchase by the U.S credit-card processing company Vantiv of Worldpay, its British counterpart, for $10.4 billion in January, and a $14 billion funding round by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial in June, making Ant, at $150 billion, more valuable than Goldman Sachs ($88 billion). It is also now the ninth-largest internet company in the world. Fintech is also expanding geographically. Nubank, based in Brazil, raised $150 million in the first quarter of 2018, while the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland all consummated venture deals in fintech. Japan did the same, allowing that country to emerge as a rival to China and India in the Asian fintech market. All of this is indicative of the larger trends in fintech, on a variety of fronts. They include, most notably, artificial intelligence/machine learning and digital ledger technology (DLT), as well as cybersecurity and data security. Here’s the breakdown: ## Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Brick-and-mortar banks are fast going the way of the dinosaurs. Some 57 percentof Americans believe that financial institutions will no longer exist in their current state at some point in the next 20 years, and indeed banks are rushing to adapt. While only 18 fintech startups have been acquired by U.S. banks since 2013, eight of those acquisitions took place in 2017, making it the busiest year over that five-year span. BBVA has been the most active in that time period, acquiring four fintech companies in the online banking, payment and real estate sectors. Goldman Sach, BNP Paribas and JPMorgan Chase have also been active. This adapt-or-die approach has been undertaken with the Millennials in mind. Such things as mobile apps and robo-advisors appeal greatly to this age group, the first in history to grow up completely in the digital era, and one that has increasing financial firepower. Forbes cited a 2015 study showing that Millennials will control some $7 trillion in liquid assets by 2020, and account for 46 percent of all U.S. income by 2025. So while this age group has shown little interest in banking while it deals with crushing student debt, there is ample reason to believe that that will change in the near future. Forbes went on to report that complete digitization of the banking sector is fast approaching, and gave special notice to an app called Griffin, which affords Millennials the opportunity to invest in companies by tailoring their stock portfolios to their interests. ## Digital Ledger Technology (DLT)/Blockchain DLT/blockchain, defined as the online ledger capable of recording transaction details in multiple places simultaneously, provided the foundation of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Now, however, it is making an impact in a great many other areas. It was more widely produced in 2017than any previous year, and one report estimates that it will be a factor in 20 percent of trade finance by 2020. That trend has been very much in evidence over the last year. A trade finance application using technology from the DLT startup R3 was adopted by 11 international banks in August 2017: Bangkok Bank, BBVA, BNP Paribas, HSBC, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Mizuho, RBS, Scotiabank, SEB and U.S. Bank. IBM also launched a blockchain-based trade platform known as Batavia in April 2018. Developed in concert with UBS, Bank of Montreal, CaixaBank, Commerzbank and Erste Group, it simplifies a trade by providing a digital and automated method of organizing international transactions. Speed and transparency are two advantages of DLT-based transactions. So too is the formulation of smart contracts, which allows agreements to be converted to computer code, stored in the system and available to all parties. No manual processing is needed. Neither are any intermediaries. One reportmentioned a particularly promising startup steeped in blockchain known as Skuchain, which since 2016 has been focusing on the cotton market while working in concert with Commonwealth Bank and Wells Fargo. ## Cybersecurity/data security Concern in this realm continues to grow, as reflected in the fact that 49 percent of the respondents to the 2018 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey, the largest IT survey in the world, viewed cybersecurity as a priority, up from 40 percent in 2017. Seventy-seven percent said they were “most concerned” about cyber crime, up from 71 percent last year. Another report, noting such things as the Equifax breach and the WannaCry ransomware attack, pointed out that organizations spent an average of $11.7 million on cybercrime costs in 2017, up 23 percent from the year before. A McAfee survey, meanwhile, indicates that 54 percent of cyber professionals fear their companies will be a target within a year. One solution is the “Moving Target Defense” (MTD), which enables security teams to make the attack surface elusive to hackers, as opposed to presenting a static infrastructure. One company at the forefront of the MTD movement is Cryptomove, which secured a contract with the Department of Homeland Security in 2017 and has since reached an agreement with one of the largest banks in Europe. On the data security front, biometrics — i.e., facial mapping, retina scans, etc. — are expected to continue to evolve, with some estimating that worldwide revenues in that sphere will exceed $41 billion by 2023. Apple also revealed in November 2017 that it will share facial mapping data with app developers, something other manufacturers in that field are expected to do as well. That in turn is expected to adversely affect dependence on third-party biometrics providers. The bottom line is, fintech cuts in many directions, and will continue to do so, for the foreseeable future. --- ## How The Founders Of Pollination Made An Impact In Their Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-the-founders-of-pollination-made-an-impact-in-their-industry/ ### Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities? We started out with viral marketing during the digg.com days, pre-2012. Our stories hitting their front-page was a habit almost every week, sometimes multiple times in a week, until they incinerated their own site to dust. That wasn’t such a big shock on our numbers, yet it was a valuable learning experience. We had viral organic traffic from Facebook and other platforms, and so we scaled that up. A result of that was, Hiptoro.com, which quickly reached to 191 USA ranking on Alexa.com, netting at least 20m users every day. However, Facebook had other plans. After almost a year of consistent results, Facebook decided to make viral sites on their platform humble​ and made a monumental shift in their content distribution strategies resulting in the traffic dropping by almost 70%. This humbling experience gave us the time to introspect our business strategies and come up with mature business strategies, focusing on the consumer or the end-user. We had always viewed retail e-commerce as an industry we wanted to be in one day, and so began our journey into 1336 USD billion dollars industry. E-Commerce forced us to gain expertise in online ad distribution. Multiple failures, delivering sales under time constraints, understanding our customers and regular improvisation, allowed us to reach $2 million dollars in sales within just 40 days on NoahsCave.com through various ad networks. Now, we run 2 e-commerce companies in Dubai and USA, with over 20 employees, and have business expansion plans of developing valuable product brands not only for our own e-commerce companies but also to give the same expertise to our clients who approach us for brand transformation. In addition to all this, over the years, we have also managed to create our own network of Facebook pages from scratch. Currently totaling over at 15M likes, some of the more famous pages in the network include ‘Art Studios’, ‘Take Moments’ and ‘Life of a Rider’. Now we realize this may sound like blowing one’s own horn (and to be honest, it is), but every day our list of web assets grow bigger and stronger, so there’s no telling what potential new business opportunity can we unlock in the future! ### Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? Just like any other business, we’ve had our fair share of successes and failures. While each failure was often humbling, and only solidified our resolve to achieve success even more, Hiptoro’s sudden downfall from 20M users daily to barely a few thousand is what truly tested us. It’s wasn’t just the fact that our own personal finances took a colossal hit out of nowhere, Hiptoro’s traffic taking such a huge toll overnight meant bad news for all our employees. All of them hardworking, some even with kids to feed, and all of them were looking at potential joblessness for no fault of their own. Honestly, that was the only thing that kept us going. For the sake of our employees, giving up was simply not an option for us. So we went back to the drawing board, started from scratch, came up with a new business plan, and were back in business with NoahsCave.com within a couple of weeks. The rest is history. Oh, and if you were wondering, the answer is no. We didn’t have to let go of any of our employees. Every member of the original team is still with us, to date. --- ## What to Expect from B2B Commerce in 2019 URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-to-expect-from-b2b-commerce-in-2019/ As the world of commerce continues to change, 2019 promises to see even more transformation to come. One of the biggest changes to come, though, is expected to come within the business to business, or B2B, industry. As businesses continue to utilize the skills of those around them, how you target these people will become very much pertinent to your long-term success as a professional. With that in mind, then, let’s go and take a look at what you can expect from B2B commerce as we move into 2019. ## B2B buyers are getting younger One of the biggest surprises is that B2B buyers are getting younger and younger. Once seen as a more experienced game, people are starting up their own businesses are younger ages. Since they need help and services from other businesses, the average age of your standard B2B buyer has come down a fair margin. Keep that in mind, as it will play a role in making sure you can accordingly integrate with your potential buyers. If you are expecting to always be dealing with veterans of the business world, you’ll be shocked when you see so many fresh-faced B2B buyers! ## Mobile e-commerce is here to stay Another thing to note is that the m-commerce industry is not a fad: it’s the beginning of a societal transformation. We are moving away big time from just dealing with local business: this means that you need to be ready to compete with more competition. If you are still trying to get to grips with the fundamental growth of mobile commerce, now is the time to do so. It’s going to become a staple of your business – and all of your competition – for the long-term. Connecting with business via m-commerce is essential. Not in an area with a strong enough signal to manage m-commerce properly? Then invest in a signal booster: you cannot afford to miss out. ## Multi-system integration is useful Many B2B businesses will be too narrow in their thinking when it comes to using a multi-system platform. You should be looking to expand out on as many platforms as you can, as the rise in competition means it’s less possible to be visible without making huge efforts. We recommend, then, that you spend some time getting used to a multi-system integration system. It’s only going to benefit your businesses overall prospects. Make sure you take the time to connect together your e-commerce system with stuff like customer relationship management tools to save time, stress and frustration. ## Omni Channel eCommerce You need to consider the ease of which people can buy from you. At the moment, it might be too tough. It should be just as simple for someone to make a purchase face-to-face as it is for them to do it using a mobile device. This means that you should tap into as many channels as possible, ensuring that people can make their purchase in as many conventional ways as is possible. Make sure you have a universal kind of branding, and that you put the same effort into each of your sales platforms across every channel. ## Virtual Reality Once seen as something for decades in the future, VR is here – and you can use it to your advantage without breaking the bank. If you are serious about making proper changes to the way that your business runs, then we recommend that you spend a bit more time looking at virtual reality tools. Such software is likely to help you to create a more holistic, inviting message to users that will encourage them to return in future. ## Getting your B2B commerce platform correct Of course, you should be ready to make changes to the way that you work. From investing in a signal booster to unifying all of your business efforts, there is much to be considered as time goes on. Keep that in mind, and it might make it easier to get your B2B commerce more in line what your potential customers would expect in 2019. --- ## Founder and Fiduciary Anthony Pellegrino Is Ready to Take on the Baby Boomer Retirement Boom URL: https://futuresharks.com/founder-and-fiduciary-anthony-pellegrino-is-ready-to-take-on-the-baby-boomer-retirement-boom/ **“It is insane to risk losing what you already have in order to make what you don’t need.”  -Warren Buffet** Anthony Pellegrino is the principal, owner, and driving force behind Goldstone Financial Group. Pellegrino founded the firm in 2000; under his guidance, it grew into one of Chicago’s leading providers of retirement and investment planning advice. To date, he has personally guided over 1,500 clients onto a path towards a financially secure retirement — and his trusted staff of fiduciaries have aided thousands more. Anthony Pellegrino’s work hasn’t been limited to Goldstone, either; his radio program and, later, television show, “Securing Your Financial Future” provided useful advice on retirement-adjacent subjects such as cash management, income planning, and capital preservation to millions of viewers across the Midwest. During its time on the air, Nielsen audio ranked Pellegrino’s radio show as one of the most listened-to financial and economic broadcasts in Chicago area. **Tell us about Goldstone Financial Group. How did you come up with the idea for the company?** ANTHONY PELLEGRINO: It’s interesting — I wouldn’t necessarily say that we came up with the idea for Goldstone, so much as my business partner Michael Pellegrino and I saw a gap in the financial market that we knew we could fill. Before we founded the firm in 2000, the retirement planning sector was dominated by advisors who could only provide cookie-cutter solutions. The process was more or less the same for everyone; new clients would visit an advisor, fill out a standard questionnaire, and then choose between a handful of generic investment options. There was little to no tailoring to individuals’ long-term financial goals or even reassurance that the choice an aspiring investor made was truly their best option. Michael and I knew that we could do better. We established Goldstone Financial Group as a holistic, client-centered firm that would be staffed by fiduciaries rather than uncertified “advisors.” Our business had four pillars: First, we would help our clients establish a plan that would allow them to preserve their income through their sunset years. Second, any portfolio we curate would be tailored to the client’s needs and goals. Third, we would ensure that all of the investment options we offered were realistic. Fourth, we would give our clients the support and guidance they needed to leave a legacy. Our model requires more work than a standardized one — but I believe that it provides the reassurance and care that people need to feel comfortable when they plan for retirement. **Did the firm ever experience growing pains as it expanded?** ANTHONY PELLEGRINO: Every business has growing pains as it scales, and we were no exception. We made the mistake of casting a broader net than we should have to take in clients and found ourselves with a client base that wasn’t a fit for our services. We struggled to service them for a while, but no one was happy. Our clients were dissatisfied because we weren’t meeting their needs; our fiduciaries were frustrated because their hours of hard work were going unrecognized in the face of that dissatisfaction. In the end, we let go of the clients that weren’t a fit for our business. It was awkward, but the decision allowed us to move forward and curate a client base that we could both serve effectively and grow sustainably. **Is there anything in particular that you would say contributed to Goldstone’s growth?** ANTHONY PELLEGRINO: When Michael and I built Goldstone Financial Group, we held to an 80%-20% policy — if we weighed the positives and negatives of a given course of action and determined that it was 80% positive, we would move forward. I credit a lot of our success to that philosophy. It’s okay to take risks; it’s even okay to fail, so long as you move forward. Waiting for a sure bet is the only choice that is 100% certain to tank your business. **If a person only does one thing when preparing for retirement, what should it be?** ANTHONY PELLEGRINO: Start planning sooner rather than later. If you begin compiling retirement assets early on in your career, you’ll have more options to choose from and more time to grow your investments. Time truly is money – don’t let it pass you by! **What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?** ANTHONY PELLEGRINO: I think I can stay positive better than most. We live in hostile times; everywhere you look, you see more neighbors turning on neighbors and friends leaving years of goodwill behind. Yet, despite all of the negativity, I genuinely believe that we will eventually come together and overcome the adversity we face together. It’s who we are as Americans. **What is your favorite book?** ANTHONY PELLEGRINO: Marshall Goldsmith’s “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” is one of my favorite reads. I appreciate the way that it addresses the issues that arise if you become too comfortable after experiencing success. **Where do you see Goldstone Financial Group and yourself going in a few years? What is your dream?** ANTHONY PELLEGRINO: We’re on the cusp of a retirement planning boom. Every day, thousands of Baby Boomers retire — and in the decade to come, more will follow suit. I believe that Goldstone can help these people move into their sunset years with the confidence and peace of mind that comes from having a financial plan securely in place. My dream is to help these people towards a comfortable retirement — or at least, provide advice that will make the burden of planning a little lighter. Investment Advisory Services offered through Goldstone Financial Group, LLC a Registered Investment Advisor (GFG).  GFG is located at One Lincoln Centre, 18W140 Butterfield Rd., 14th Floor, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181, Telephone number – 630-620-9300. --- ## The Biggest Innovators in the Autonomous Robot Space URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-biggest-innovators-in-the-autonomous-robot-space/ Robotics have come a long way in recent years thanks to advancements in machine learning and AI. From self-driving cars to humanoid bots that can carry on conversations, we’re closer than ever to robots becoming commonplace in our workspaces, public spaces, and even our homes. Here are a few of the innovators that are blazing the trail with unique robotics applications in 2019: **Boston Dynamics** It’s nearly impossible to talk about modern robotics without mentioning Boston Dynamics. The YouTube videos of their quadruped and biped creations sprinting up hills, opening doors, and being aggressivley kicked by people have earned them viral fame, and have even landed one of their bots on an episode of “Silicon Valley.” So far, the company has been focused more on proving concepts rather than commercial production, but that may soon be changing. The company’s founder, Marc Raibert, recently announced his plans to begin selling one of their quadruped robots, known as SpotMini. Seeing as this model can climb stairs and be equipped with attachments like articulating arms, the usefulness of this robot may soon propel it into industries like construction. **Promobot** Making a human-like robot approachable and likeable is hard, but Promobot may be on to something. Their humanoid assistant robot is already in use in over 27 countries in places like museums, airports, conferences, and retail environments. The robot’s laundry list of functions includes face detection, multi-lingual support online and offline, printing abilities, autonomous movement (that includes dancing), and interactive touchscreen support. Headed by Oleg Kivokurtsev, a Forbes’ 30 Under 30 member, the company is currently working on adding advanced language features and working with other startups to develop additional applications like weapon detection capabilities. **Cruise Automation** Cruise made headlines last year when they announced they had raised $1.65 billion in 2018 alone. The GM-owned robotics company focuses on self-driving vehicles, and unlike other car companies which transport people, Cruise’s aim seems to be transporting goods instead. The company recently announced a partnership with DoorDash to start a pilot program delivering food to San Francisco residents using its self-driving cars. Cruise hasn’t released many details about the program other than that it is planned to take place in early 2019, and that, at least for the time being, humans will be behind the wheel to make sure nothing goes wrong. **Harvard’s Wyss Institute Bioinspired Soft Robotics Labs** There’s an old saying that says if something isn’t broke, don’t fix it, and it’s this philosophy that seems to guide the innovation at Harvard’s Wyss Institute Bioinspired Soft Robotics Labs. Taking inspiration from human and animal anatomy to apply to their creations, the lab is split into a couple different focuses: the biodesign lab works on human performance-augmenting applications like exosuits and walking-assisting apparatuses, while the microrobotics division develops nature-inspired robots like the paper clip-sized RoboBee. They were also recently visited by Bill Gates, too, which would make just about any lab watch-worthy in our book. ### --- ## TOP GLOBAL STARTUP COMPETITION TO HAND OUT $1 MILLION PRIZE URL: https://futuresharks.com/top-global-startup-competition-to-hand-out-1-million-prize/ This May, Fenox Venture Capital will hand a $1M prize to the winner of the Start Up World Cup, one of the top global startup competitions. Their third annual grand finale event will again be the culmination of regional competitions that have taken place around the world, pitting innovative startups against one another from 40 different countries. They will be judged by investors from IBM Ventures, M12 (Microsoft Ventures), and host Fenox Venture Capital and showcased at the Grand Finale event in San Francisco at the Masonic on May 17, 2019. In addition to the competition, the event will feature educational workshops to help startup teams learn from leaders in the industry, networking events and notable speakers. Past speakers have included a who’s who of top innovators and executives, from Marc Randolph, Co-Founder of Netflix, to Reid Hoffman, Founding CEO of LinkedIn and Greylock Partners. To date this year, speakers from the exciting line-up that have been announced include, Tim Westergren, Founder and Former CEO of Pandora, Terry Jones, Founding Chairman of Kayak.com, and Jay Fulcher, Chairman and CEO of Zenefits, Josh Constine, Editor-At-Large of TechCrunch, Curtis Carlson, Former President and CEO of SRI International and Shekar Ayyar, Executive Vice President of VMware. Many more exciting speakers are set to be announced in the coming weeks. Fenox Venture Capital is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that supports emerging technology companies across the world and specializes in helping entrepreneurs achieve global expansion. The team at Fenox developed the Startup World Cup to provide a showcase for startups around the world that don’t always get an audience with industry leaders or top investors from Silicon Valley. The VC firm is heavily focused on supporting Founders and teams from many backgrounds and cultures, and helps to bridge the divide which sometimes separates them from opportunities usually only available in locations such as Silicon Valley. Pre-registration for the event is now open, and tickets for Startup World Cup Finale are available through the event’s website: https://www.startupworldcup.io/ --- ## How Erin Pande Transformed Her Personal Wellness Success into Guidance for Other Entrepreneurs URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-erin-pande-transformed-her-personal-wellness-success-into-guidance-for-other-entrepreneurs/ Success does not come easy to those who harbor it, and if anyone knows this to be true, it’s Erin Pande. Erin, who has studied and found herself involved in the wellness industry since 1997, locates her passion in her efforts to educate entrepreneurs about their own bodies so that they can in turn make educated purchases in wellness-related products and ventures. If there is one source of serious inspiration and motivation for this wellness advocate, it’s her dedication to her faith. Erin believes that success is equivalent to “fulfilling [her] God-given purpose,” often turning to spiritual- and business-related audio content for motivation in her day-to-day routines. She models her life after the people whom she respects and values, and thus, makes sure these are the only people she surrounds herself with. Erin’s personal growth and success did not always seem like an obvious option, though. She comes from a background of being obese when younger, which is part of what led her to seek what would give her personal outward and inward fulfillment in her life. Part of her ability to transform her life involved a willingness to see herself in a positive light. She saw and imagined who she wanted to be and therefore put what needed to be changed behind her. Explaining what made the process doable for her, she notes that “the major responsibility that followed was to transform my mind so that it did not default to viewing myself as the obese little girl that I formerly was. Changing how you see yourself is vital to keeping the weight off long-term.” This kind of advice is just one sage piece of many that Erin offers to her clients, who look up to her in hopes that they, too, may find closure and become the people they wish to be. Erin herself is a strong sense of inspiration for the entrepreneurial clients she supports and educates, given her immense personal success in overcoming her wellness setbacks. Within her line of work, her goals include improving clients’ energy, vitality, quality of life, and overall sense of wellness. She sticks to her self-decided standards and beliefs about personal growth, which is perhaps why people find success in the help she provides them with. Regarding her own willingness for self-improvement, she notes that “outward success for me has always come down to doing the mundane work that others are unwilling to do in private.” In other words, she sees what needs to be done and recognizes that no one can make her do it except for herself, and so she rises to the challenge. In fact, the concept of a challenge is a big part of what drives Erin, and so is the concept of responsibility. In particular, she sees persistence and perseverance as responsibilities of someone wanting to better his or herself, as well as a responsibility to oneself to not self-reflect as a victim. She is firm in the idea that time and persistence are necessary for achieving healthy bodily results, and, in combination with one’s willingness to rise to the occasion of their own responsibility, success can truly be achieved. Erin’s accumulated ability to take inspiration and self-determination and turn them into change is not lost on her business. She’s able to turn these values into priceless information she can use to help clients decide how to immerse themselves in the wellness industry and make their own decisions about what products and ventures will bolster to their own wellness journeys. All in all, Erin is a true inspiration in the field of wellness. She sees her role as one of knocking over the row of dominos. She owes her success to her dedication to her faith and her ability to educate others regarding what she believes is necessary for their overall health. This ultimately leads to them bringing about change in others, too. With full confidence, Erin states, “I remind myself that the longer you sit in fear, doubt, or confusion, the more time that you waste.” --- ## College Graduate Danny Tran Took A Risk, and Now He Runs His Own 6-Figure Marketing Agency URL: https://futuresharks.com/college-graduate-danny-tran-took-a-risk-and-now-he-runs-his-own-6-figure-marketing-agency/ Some people believe that making it in the world of business requires knowing the right people, making the expected decisions, or some other version of this formula. What some don’t consider, though, is that the reality of success in business often requires guts and the willingness to take huge risks, even when that jeopardizes one’s chances of making it at all. Danny Tran is one marketing mogul who knows this to be true. The beginning of his story is pretty recognizable. He got a great American education, studying marketing and business at San Jose State University. He hails from Silicon Valley, and basically knew from a pretty young age that he’d one day come to work in a high-tech field. He admits he doesn’t “have the typical rags to riches story.” What his story does have, though, is a remarkable will to take a chance, even when there is no certain guarantee of a yield. After Danny’s entrance into his career path, he found himself exhausted and simply unsatisfied with the day-to-day grind of a 9-5 desk job. One day, as if the course of his career as he once knew it was fated to disappear out of thin air, the startup he worked for ran out of money and Danny was left jobless and unsure of his future. What’s inspiring about Danny’s story, among the many reasons he motivates others in the business world, is that he took this situation of being slung out of a career he didn’t find passion in and turned it into an opportunity to take some risks and enter the world of entrepreneurship. Noting the uncertainty of his situation, Danny said, “On one side, I was ecstatic. It was my opportunity to finally try something new. Dive into what everyone is calling entrepreneurship…That was what I needed. But on the other, I was terrified. I didn’t even have a severance package.” Some in Danny’s situation might see the severity of his job loss as a lesson to be learned: the tech startup world is not always a reliable way to maintain a job. But Danny saw his situation as an opportunity to rely on himself – to be the one that was accountable. He started taking risk after risk, trying out different projects that he hoped would provide him with a stable career and financial package. And each time he tried, he ran into some form of failure. Even one of the few brand projects he ran that did have some initial success eventually went bankrupt and left him nearly dollarless. At this point, he could have given up and given in to another job where he would have lacked the agency he so wished to have in his career. Instead, he took what might have been the biggest and best risk of his career and threw his energy and limited resources into what is now one of his claims to marketing fame – Highstoke Media – a digital marketing agency he founded, which now pulls in six figures. What’s more is that Danny turned this insane risk-to-success into a chance to show other young entrepreneurs in e-commerce that it’s worth it to put your energy into ventures you’re passionate about. Now, he not only gets to say that he achieved his dream; he gets to say that he helps make it possible for others to achieve their dreams, too. Among the accomplishments he now has under his belt, Danny is also the founder of a six-figure brand that pays for students to volunteer abroad called WARLD, and he’s the creator of both the Client Takeover program and the Digital Entrepreneur Community. In the span of around four years, Danny managed to find this level of success, and if that’s not an inspiration for young business entrepreneurs, I don’t know what is. Danny is well aware of what led him to his success, and it didn’t have to do with meeting the status quo; it meant making his own status quo. Regarding what drives him every day, Danny says, “Nothing great ever came from comfort zones. I live by this saying on a daily basis. I’ve realized that every time I force myself to be in new and uncomfortable situations, it’s when I thrive the most and where all of my great ideas and success comes from.” --- ## How Viral Again Is Improving Online Content For Social Media Users URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-viral-again-is-improving-online-content-for-social-media-users/ We just spoke to the Founders of Viral Again — Mujahid Islam and Chandra Prakash Choudhary, and here’s what they had to say regarding the success of their company: ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/9e3100667c3c.jpg) **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Back in 2011, I had only started to become familiar with the Facebook community. It was a whole new experience. It started out as merely a hobby, or something to pass my time. Little did I know it would grow to become a passion. I found it fascinating how different people shared the same interests as me, they found meaning in the small things that I did. I discovered new areas of entertainment and information. You would find out something new everyday while going through your newsfeed. As my Facebook usage increased, I could feel my other sources of entertainment shrink. As my usage increased, I found specific patterns in the user’s behaviours. I got insight into a lot of things, like how different sets of people (for, eg. age, gender, demography) react towards specific content, and what they find interesting on the Internet. It was because of my growing interest that I found myself building a massive community in the field of entertainment. There was something very satisfying about managing such a large community. I got to meet other community owners while I was at it. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/28a150b75a8b.jpg) That was when I got introduced to Chandra Prakash who already was growing his community pages. There was something about him that just made him stand out from everybody else. Something within him clicked with me. After interacting with him, I noticed that he had a way of engaging with his audience and actually developing it. We shared the same visions and ideas, and we both realised there was much more potential in the work we were doing. We could actually convert it into a business. We could escalate it to a whole new level. There was chemistry between us both, so we put our skills to the test, and it was the onset of something beautiful and meaningful to us. That was the birth of Viral Again back in 2014. We could understand how users were getting irritated by click-baits and misleading news. We felt like ViralAgain could help fill that gap with the idea of Rearfront – by publishing meaningful, reliable, and entertaining content. Rearfront is an entertainment platform to provide you quality content and keep you up-to-date with new trends. Rearfront’s resources provide you with social stories and excellent sense of humor. However, it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Filtering out fake stories, misleading titles, and irrelevant content was a huge challenge. But if we had to add any value to our content, we had to do it to provide people with quality entertainment and information. We, at Viral Again, feel like it’s our responsibility to keep our users up to date with trends and the quality of content they deserve to see. We fight this every day and make sure only the most reliable content reaches our audience. We follow community standards and keep up with everything. It hasn’t failed us. ViralAgain achieved everything we hoped for, and through fair means. Though there were things that always tried to halt our growth and progress, e.g. Facebook reach algorithms, continuously changing trends and competition from other platforms or communities, we kept up the quality of content and lived up to expectations of people who joined us in building our assets. It turned out just as we expected. Our stories often go viral and are read by over 14m users monthly. Our visions are now a reality. There’s nothing else we could ask for. We at one point entertained more than 35 million fans and multiple groups/communities we grew together. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** We never gave up, but there were definitely times when the performance didn’t meet our expectations and targets. Everybody has to face bad days; Viral Again had them too. But we didn’t let that break us. We had to fire half of our team because of the updates in ‘content reach.’ However, we stood firm and strong despite all the hardship because we enjoy our work regardless of the monetary value. We’re working towards our goal regardless of the amount of profit we make. Our brands are the total package that includes every entertainment niche. Rearfront is an entertainment platform that provides you with quality content and keeps you up-to-date with new trends. It’s resources provide you with social stories and excellent sense of humour. At rearfront.com a user will find every trending news or topic with all the internet drama. Rearfront’s Facebook recently crossed 800k likes and is being appreciated and shared all over Facebook. Nerdism.com is a website designed to fill fuel to all kinds of fan bases on the Internet. Movies, TV series or books – Nerdism covers it all! It keeps you updated with all your entertainment obsessions so you won’t miss a thing. Doggo is a social platform that focuses on dogs. It covers news related to dogs, dog-related humour, and even provides you with your daily dose of doggo cuteness so you can have your day made. Doggo.com is also hosting our new mobile game which is on the iOS Store and Play store. Doggo’s Facebook page has more than 1 million, and the Instagram community has over 200k followers. Freaked is an American website dedicated to resourcing you with weird and creepy things that you don’t get to see everywhere. Freaked.com covers serial killers, chilling documentaries, and anything related to the horror genre to spook you out. --- ## Improvise, Adapt, Overcome: Pollination Founders Share Success-Mantra URL: https://futuresharks.com/improvise-adapt-overcome-pollination-founders-share-success-mantra/ When Jagrit Pratap Singh, Pranav Rastogi and Muhammad Ali started their journey into digital marketing, the concept of “digital marketing” was just starting off. The three started creating websites which were regularly ranking on the front page of Google in the early 2010s. They credit that success to the “digg.com days.” Over the years, a lot has changed for these three men – but their spirit of innovation and hunger for success is still intact. Now working in a more streamlined fashion, the trio owns Pollination – a firm that owns some of the hottest internet properties ranging from social media pages to e-commerce platforms! ![Jagrit Pratap Singh](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/2ceadabdc17c.jpg) Jagrit Pratap Singh In an interview with Future Sharks, the three comment on their journey and offer advice for those who are starting theirs. ### Experimentation is the Key Commenting on the success of Pollination, Jagrit said that the key to their success is experimentation! The trio has never backed down from trying out the latest innovations. Jagrit added: *“Working in the internet is all about taking risks. You can never be a successful internetopreneur without taking risks. As the popular meme goes – improvise, adapt, overcome!”* Backing up Jagrit’s statement, Pranav Rastogi added: Experimentation should be done carefully. One cannot fire blind shots and hope they hit the target. It is a process which requires a careful analysis of changing trends. In the internet, one always needs to be aware of what is happening. The kind of content that you churn out has to be the latest, but you also need to ensure that it is not too experimental and appeals only to a niche segment. ![Pranav Rastogi](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/5a2c749042c6.jpg) Pranav Rastogi ### Do Not Get Carried Away! *Do not get carried away in the name of experimental content*, says Muhammad. He added that content is the king and it needs to have a mass appeal. It can be a viral video or an emotional bit – but it needs to connect with a large audience. Getting back to the topic of experimenting with content, the Pollination team said that constant experimentation is good for the brand. It ensures that the kind of content that they offer is fresh and keeps audiences of all tastes and preferences engaged! ### No Shortage of Options in the Digital World ![Muhammad Ali](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/6c10d78bc45d.jpg) Muhammad Ali Challenges are a part and parcel of any industry you decide to work in. Finance, science, politics, arts – they all have their own problems and issues. These challenges are also present in internet marketing and content creation business. However, all it takes is a rational thought coming from creative minds to successfully tackle and overcome these challenges. The pollination team has always made the best of all the options they’ve had over the years. They started off with websites in the digg-days, Jagrit recalls. However, after Digg’s popularity fell through, they quickly moved on to social media. The three came up with Hiptoro, a hugely popular page which had millions of followers and shared interesting and viral content. However, Hiptoro became a victim of Facebook’s algorithmic changes over the months. They’ve since created social media pages such as “Art Studios”, “Take Moments” and “Life of a Rider” among others. The secret to their success continues to be social media, Muhammad claims. The three are now experimenting with e-commerce business in Dubai and USA. A successful example of Pollination’s latest effort is their latest e-commerce website, NoahsCave.com. Their journey continues, the experimentation continues, the innovation continues – and success continues to follow them. --- ## Meet Female Entrepreneur: Natalia President URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-female-entrepreneur-natalia-president/ *Natalia, Founder of Natalia’s Magic Skin Care* ## Background In the fast, fluid culture of E-Commerce, competition becomes an analytics tool. Therefore, the full-time nature of managing a brand is stressful. It’s completely normal to have roadblocks. In other words, expecting to jump into becoming a full-time business owner without work experience is delusional. Before she became a thriving female entrepreneur, Natalia gained real-life experience from working at Chik-Fil-A & The Hilton Inn. However, Natalia’s transition into running an independent business was her renaissance. Yearning for something more. Craving a more fulfilling way to indulge and pass her time. Cumulatively, years of insight and experience from the food and hospitality industries shaped Natalia into the thriving entrepreneur she is today. ## Her Vision As notification pings alert us of news & business, it’s easy to forget that your phone is work, not play. Simply, this is the single most telling factor that separates a seller from a consumer. Natalia‘s initiative goes deeper than skincare; a desire to extend and scale her product while staying independent proves her diligence and dedication. Natalia’s vision is in a road of her own. To clarify, her advanced skill of networking came from real-world experience. The confidence in every DM. The tact and precision of her Facebook ads. Her mission statement aligns with the long-term, omnipresent million dollar businesses of today. Above all, to provide A+ customer service, brand consistency, and love into each of her products. ## Ethics of a Self-Made Entrepreneur Her business ethics keep her business active and enticing to her growing audience. When I spoke with her, she unveiled  fundamentals that she embraced to improve her sales, analytics, and website traffic at an optimal rate. #### 1. Communicate Quickly and Thoroughly As you experiment with trial and error in your business, you’ll find that certain variables never change. Foremost, it is key to address that without fast, comprehensive chat with your customers and friends, it is very difficult to succeed. Stay on top of what matters! #### 2. Fulfill Orders in a Timely Manner Look, we’ve all been guilty of backloading an assignment in the past. Whether you procrastinated to finish something, we’ve all made mistakes. In other words, to simply let it hang idle for too long, opportunities pass by as rapid as they appear, it seems. When tasked with fulfilling orders, Natalia’s take on this was *“Do it early, do it accurately!”*Let this be a lesson for all: slacking ruins reputation and spoils momentum. Treat yourself! Stay on top of your work! #### 3. Provide Refund (Avoid Any Altercation) Again, this one should be obvious. Mistakes are *impossible* to avoid. After all, we’re only human. As entrepreneurs, we should own up to our mistakes with our friends, in-person and online. Do not fear disappointing people, instead, make it your mission to fix situations before they are spoiled. An unhappy customer is not the end of the world, but a negative review leaves an ugly scar on the imprint of your business’ outlook. Be real with your customers! [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqc81TxbY0c[/embedyt] No matter what you’re selling, the value of ethics in business practice is crucial to reach your desired audience. There’s no such thing as a bad idea, rather, the reality of poor execution. You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to learn from Natalia’s core values. Perhaps, the qualities of timeliness and communication are indeed *timeless*. Most importantly, what Natalia and I agreed on was having a true **love** for your work. In conclusion, Natalia’s quest as a female entrepreneur is truly something that fulfills her. The *anxiety relief* and *new confidence* her buyers feel after using her products are the results that inspire her on a daily basis to continue her journey. **Natalia’s Social Accounts** 1. Personal – https://www.instagram.com/natalia.president/ 2. Business – https://www.instagram.com/nataliasMSC/ ~ Written by Jack Dylan Cohen https://www.nataliasmagicskincare.com/ --- ## Entrepreneurship and Growth Lessons From Founder & CEO of Revenue Forge, Matt Hamilton URL: https://futuresharks.com/entrepreneurship-and-growth-lessons-from-founder-ceo-of-revenue-forge-matt-hamilton/ **Meet Matt Hamilton: Founder & CEO of Revenue Forge – A full service marketing and branding agency** Matt Hamilton went from college dropout with a 1.8 GPA, to being the Founder & CEO of Revenue Forge – A full service marketing and branding agency built for the modern day. I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt. Here’s what he had to say! **Hey Matt, what inspired you to start your journey with entrepreneurship?** **Matt:** The idea that we only get one life, so we might as well make it the best life we’ve ever dreamt of. Entrepreneurship embodies that idea. Through massive pain and adversity, you’re able to live a life of total control, and add tremendous value to other peoples lives at the same time. The most successful people live in comfort because they operate in a world of chaos. **Could you tell us alt tile more about your background story?** **Matt Hamilton:** Growing up, school wasn’t a choice for me. It was mandatory. I was always reminded by my friends, peers, coaches, parents of the cliche “Go to school, get good grades, play sports, train for the scholarships, and then get your degree so you can get a well paying job.” This never sat well with me. I never really knew what I wanted to do, but that was just about the last thing I was interested in. Interestingly enough though, that’s exactly what I did. I quickly found out that the education system was not the platform that would teach me the proper principles of high success. I looked around and compared the habits of college students and teachers against the habits of those who had already attained high performance and success, and (not) to my surprise, I found massive differences. College is sort of like pre-school for adults. No matter how similar to the real world it may be, it’s just not the real world. **What were the biggest entrepreneurship lessons you’ve learned?** **Matt:** Persistence. Even when things get real dark, or there doesn’t seem to be any opportunities for you to capitalize on, its extremely important to stay persistent in those times of uncertainty. The persistence and faith that you show in times of uncertainty are similar to the correct answer on a multiple choice test. When you’re tested, the answer is to keep going. No matter what. **What differentiates you from everyone else in your field? ** **Matt:** I am completely 100% self made and self taught. I never had anyone holding my hand or telling me what moves to make. I learned my business from the ground up, so i understand every aspect of the creative process, and also how to run the overall business. If I needed to fulfill a piece of client work, I know how to do it, and I will. I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. **What is your personal definition of success? ** **Matt:**Ultimately I want to be happy. And right now I think that translates to being able to control every aspect of my life. When I decide to wake up, when I work out, when I work, where I work, who I work with, when I travel. Total control of my life is happiness, and to me happiness is success. **What is the best way for someone to reach you if they are interested in working with you? ** Connect with me on instagram @officialmatthamilton --- ## Melisa Vong Shares Why Amazon Is So Successful And How People Can Leverage Its Infrastructure For Their Own Brands and Companies URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-amazon-is-so-successful-and-how-people-can-leverage-its-infrastructure-for-their-own-brands-and-companies/ Melisa Vong is an expert when it comes to leveraging Amazon’s infrastructure to build brands and companies. I wanted to know her thoughts on why Amazon is so successful and how companies and brands can leverage it. Here’s what she had to say: **Hey Melisa, can you tell us a little about who you are?** “Who am I?” Now that’s the million dollar question we all ask ourselves! I guess it all depends on who you ask. If you ask my mom, she’d tell you I’m her pride and joy. My business partners and social media friends on the other hand might think I’m some internet entrepreneur living her best life, my clients might think I’m some Amazon FBA expert or E-commerce wizard, and to my hedgehog I’d be his savior and reliable food dispenser. I like to think of myself as a fierce serial entrepreneur who inspires people to chase their dreams and help take their businesses to the next level through strategic branding. On a more tangible note, I own and operate several e-commerce brands within the health and wellness niche as well as beauty space. Additionally, I provide consulting services to brands that wish to expand their retail presence into the Amazon marketplace as well as assist in brands that need a helping hand to scale up their current Amazon strategy. **Can you give us a look into your background story?** For me, the hustle started young. When I was in second grade, I would take my allowance money to the flee market and purchase these “surprise bags” which would contain 4 to 5 little trinkets or toys in them for $2. I would then sell them for $1 to $2 a piece, netting me a pretty profit to do it all over again or buy other inventory like chocolate bars to sell. When my parents separated, my mother had to support me and my sister on her own so at 12 years old I went out and got my first job which was going door-to-door selling newspaper subscriptions for my local newspaper. I wanted to help in any way that I could and watching my mom work so hard to provide for us really lit a fire under me and instilled a hard work ethic like no other. She is a huge inspiration for me and is also a huge health nut which is what put me on the path of creating my own botanical based skincare company while I was working in car sales. Fast forward, I was able to quit my job to go full time with e-commerce and now own multiple businesses within the wellness and beauty space and also help others launch and scale their own brands which has become my main focus right now. **Why do you think Amazon has become so successful?** **Melisa:**Jeff Bezos doesn’t hold back nor is it a secret why they are one of the most successful companies to date. Every year, Bezos writes an open-letter to his shareholders and he’s done it for the last 20 years. In his letters he provides a lot of insight on why Amazon has seen the success it has and one of the driving factors that he repetitively writes about is building the business with the consumer’s best interest in mind. Amazon is a customer centric business whose brand ethos revolves around providing the best possible experience for their end user. For example, 2 day prime shipping and in some instances same day shipping or even 4 hour shipping by drone. Amazon is always at the leading edge of innovation and continually finds ways to please the masses. With competition only increasing in the online space, it is crucial for online brands to provide a better buying experience from ordering their product, to opening in their living room, and support for the remainder of the product life cycle. This is what is going to separate the lasting brands from the short-lived. In today’s e-commerce marketplace, especially with the growing trend of dropshipping and products often taking weeks to arrive, business owners often lose sight of the bigger picture of putting their customer first and should think about taking a page out of the Amazon playbook. **How can business owners learn from Amazon?** As I mentioned, it’s crucial to focus on building customer centric brands. Find ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors in terms of the quality of the product you provide or the actual buying experience itself. Whether you have faster shipping options, better packaging, complimentary gifts, 24/7 customer service, or creative ways of interacting with your customer, you need to think about ways you can do things better because that’s what’s going to get a conversation going about your brand and have your customers talk about you to their friends, family, and followers. > “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room” – Jeff Bezos Amazon is absolutely crushing it when it comes to fast shipping times and customer service. And if you can’t beat them, join them! What do I mean by that? Well you can actually sell on Amazon’s marketplace by becoming a seller on their platform. Most of the sellers on Amazon are regular people like you and me. Stay at home moms, baseball loving dads, and business owners alike are all selling on Amazon! Last year Amazon accounted for 49% of all online sales – now that’s a pie that I’d like a piece of, I don’t know about you. That’s not the only reason people and business owners should consider selling their products on Amazon. There is already a lot of organic traffic on Amazon, their customer service helps streamline customer returns and refunds, plus you can leverage their fulfillment centers and shipping infrastructure! To find out if selling on Amazon is for you, check out their website here: https://services.amazon.com/selling/getting-started.html **What inspired you to delve into Amazon and Ecommerce?** **Melisa:** Two words: growth potential. I enjoy reading and keeping up to date with the news and the various trends that are developing in the business world. I repeatedly kept on seeing articles stating that Amazon’s growth wasn’t slowing but INCREASING. In fact, last year they accounted for almost 50% of all online sales which is huge. I knew that this was something to take a deeper look into so I rolled-up my sleeves, made it my mission to know each and every step there was to growing a brand on Amazon and then made it a reality. To think we will live in a time where retail giants like Sears, Toys’R’Us, and others are slipping into bankruptcy is eye opening. As more and more of these indicators flash green for e-commerce, its imperative for entrepreneurs and other growth hackers to pay close attention and back the trend. **If someone were to emulate your journey so far what are the most important pieces of advice you have?** **Melisa:** The value that a strong network provides is unmatched. Having passionate and dedicated people in your inner circle at the beginning can almost guarantee success. The saying “you are the average of your 5 closest friends” is 100% accurate despite how cliché it may seem. If everyone you hang out with loves watching football, odds are you will as well. For me, if someone is in my core group it’s because they are better than me at something. You never want to be the smartest person in the room and the goal is to surround yourself with like-minded people who would prefer to build an empire rather than pressure you to go to the club on a Saturday night. Don’t get me wrong, letting loose and having a good time with your life is essential to the process, but you have to feel like you’ve earned it first. Some people have it the other way around: they’ll party first, and then feel bad and get to work. The key is to work first and reward yourself with the fun or relaxation that you’ve earned AFTER. That being said, everyone’s path is different and the strategies that have worked for me, may not work for others but the main principles of success are usually consistent and applicable across all business models and life in general. **Are there any important projects that you’re working on right now?** **Melisa:** Since most of the brands I am working with are mostly in the scaling phase, I am free to shift my efforts to different projects. At the moment, I see a large opportunity in the marketplace for existing legacy brands to cultivate a new presence online. Giant household names that dominate the shelves in retail are increasingly getting crushed online in search results. A big play for me in 2019 is to assist companies with in migrating their brands from retail to Amazon or their own e-commerce channels and to help them stake their claims on the online platform’s vast customer-base. I am always looking for ways to scale and automate my businesses so most recently I have partnered with some other brilliant people in the industry on an Amazon automation program which I think is a game changer for anyone that wants to diversify their income and have an e-commerce business on autopilot. **Where can our readers find you on social media? ** Instagram @melisa --- ## How The Founders Of Pollination Were Able To Become Known For Creating Viral Content  URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-the-founders-of-pollination-were-able-to-become-known-for-creating-viral-content/ I had the pleasure of sitting down with the founders of Pollination, Art Studios, Take Moments, and Life Of A Rider, Jagrit Pratap Singh, Pranav Rastogi and Muhammad Ali to discuss their upbringing. Here is what they had to say; **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** We started out with viral marketing during the digg.com days, pre-2012. Our stories hitting their front-page was a habit almost every week, sometimes multiple times in a week, until they incinerated their own site to dust. That wasn’t such a big shock on our numbers, yet it was a valuable learning experience. We had viral organic traffic from Facebook and other platforms, and so we scaled that up. A result of that was, Hiptoro.com, which quickly reached to 191 USA ranking on Alexa.com, netting at least 20m users every day. However, Facebook had other plans. After almost a year of consistent results, Facebook decided to make viral sites on their platform humble​ and made a monumental shift in their content distribution strategies resulting in the traffic dropping by almost 70%. This humbling experience gave us the time to introspect our business strategies and come up with mature business strategies, focusing on the consumer or the end-user. We had always viewed retail e-commerce as an industry we wanted to be in one day, and so began our journey into 1336 USD billion dollars industry. E-Commerce forced us to gain expertise in online ad distribution. Multiple failures, delivering sales under time constraints, understanding our customers and regular improvisation, allowed us to reach $2 million dollars in sales within just 40 days on NoahsCave.com through various ad networks. Now, we run 2 e-commerce companies in Dubai and USA, with over 20 employees, and have business expansion plans of developing valuable product brands not only for our own e-commerce companies but also to give the same expertise to our clients who approach us for brand transformation. In addition to all this, over the years, we have also managed to create our own network of Facebook pages from scratch. Currently totaling over at 15M likes, some of the more famous pages in the network include ‘Art Studios’, ‘Take Moments’ and ‘Life of a Rider’. Now we realize this may sound like blowing one’s own horn (and to be honest, it is), but every day our list of web assets grow bigger and stronger, so there’s no telling what potential new business opportunity can we unlock in the future! ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/9e79f1f377b6.jpg) **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** Just like any other business, we’ve had our fair share of successes and failures. While each failure was often humbling, and only solidified our resolve to achieve success even more, Hiptoro’s sudden downfall from 20M users daily to barely a few thousand is what truly tested us. It’s wasn’t just the fact that our own personal finances took a colossal hit out of nowhere, Hiptoro’s traffic taking such a huge toll overnight meant bad news for all our employees. All of them hardworking, some even with kids to feed, and all of them were looking at potential joblessness for no fault of their own. Honestly, that was the only thing that kept us going. For the sake of our employees, giving up was simply not an option for us. So we went back to the drawing board, started from scratch, came up with a new business plan, and were back in business with NoahsCave.com within a couple of weeks. The rest is history. Oh, and if you were wondering, the answer is no. We didn’t have to let go of any of our employees. Every member of the original team is still with us, to date. --- ## 16 Year Old Ag-Tech Entrepreneur Proves that Farmers Are Innovators URL: https://futuresharks.com/16-year-old-ag-tech-entrepreneur-proves-that-farmers-are-innovators/ **What is your influential quote?** ****“Most of you think of farming as this continual process of buying seed, planting, fertilizing, harvesting, then starting all over again. But think about the period between the first time your dad had you climb up with him on the tractor to plant and the day you will turn your acreage over to your son or daughter. If you’re pretty healthy, and you’re like most farmers, you’re probably only going to do this about forty times. You’ll get forty chances to plant your crops, adjust to what nature throws at you, and hope for the best it’s enough time to learn to do it well. But it’s not forever” (Buffet 10). **Who were your two biggest influences?** Howard G. Buffett is my biggest influence. He was born rich but showed the world farming is an industry for anyone when he took up farming. If I were given the opportunity to sit and speak with anyone, I would choose Howard. Daniel Horton is my cousin who helped introduce me into farming and has always been a person I look up to. **Michael, share with us your story and how you got to where you are.** I was not always a leader or a big networking kind of person. I was born with four learning disabilities, dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, and sensory disorder (which can be classified as autistic). This made school extremely hard for me and I never got along with most of the other kids. So knowing that school would not be my area, I found farming. *Submitted by Michael Claycamp* Farming has always been a major aspect of my family’s lives. In the 3rd grade, I bought my first pig for 4-H but never won because I didn’t have a fancy show pig. But, that feedlot 4-H pig was my first item in farming that I could call my own. This sense of ownership at an early life would help me be more confident in early career pursuits, like starting a business at my age. By the time middle school arrived, specifically 7th grade, depression hit me hard. Teachers were giving me 2-3 hours of homework that I could not understand. My grades start failing. I was also trying to work on a farm meanwhile coming to an age where I was understanding the real farm world. Farmers getting foreclosed and losing everything they worked for In a way, I could see that happening to my farm. We are a small farm of 450 acres and at the time just 10 cows. Midway through 7th grade, the depression got to hard and for the first time I found myself trying to end my life. My 8th grade year was spent mostly in depression. I gave up on my basketball team because of it. I had the opportunity to go to nationals for basketball but I stayed at home and watched it because I could not get my thinking straight. Even though I did not go, my team picked me to receive the award for best defensive player when closing program came. The summer of 2016 is when I decided I would be a person I wanted to be. The idea of aquaponicsthat I had started working on my 8th grade year I would take seriously. I built my first aquaponics system for under $400. I then went to a camp called Indiana 4-H Entrepreneurship Academy. At this academy, I learned skills that the schools would never teach me. I was learning what entrepreneurship was and how it works. *Submitted by Michael Claycamp* When the summer came to an end, I had only until November to work and design my company to pitch to panel to win an award. When freshman year started I loved it high school was so much easier I thought. No homework and in a school with 1500 student I could go all day like a small fish in the ocean. November came and it was time for me to go back to 4-H entrepreneurship academy and pitch my idea “Aquapon”. A 200,000 square foot aquaponics greenhouse with the ability to produce enough food to feed 100,000 people. The cost to build was around $15 million. I lost that pitch competition to a dog walking service. In November, I decided to try again at the Jackson County Maverick challenge by taking the same idea and downsizing it to 2,000 square feet. With the ability to produce 5,000 pounds of greens a year and 400 pounds of fish, I received 3rd place and my first funding $1250. This is when I decided I would focus on Aquapon and let this dream become my future. I am not the same person you knew if you knew me before I was 16. I am a 7th generation farmer and I am the CEO of a startup called AQUAPON LLC. Finally, I am an Entrepreneur. *Submitted by Michael Claycamp* **What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?** I am working on my first commercial size aquaponics system. The system is consisting of two fish tanks 2,700 gallons each and a 5 stage filter system that includes 2160 lettuce sites. The system will have the applied to produce 750 fish every 120 days and up to 72 pounds of lettuce a day. The idea to start with aquaponics got sparked after I watched a video about chinese farmers adding koi fish to there rice fields. With this method of farming they could see a 600% increase in “Profits”. I have lived and worked in farming since I could walk and I have loved greenhouses receiving my first one at the age of 8 so I wanted to include greenhouses into my system. After watching that video I started studying what this method of farming was. I soon learned it was called Aquaponics and it dates back all the way to the floating gardens of the Aztecs. After finally studying enough to learn how aquaponics works I built my first system. 250 square feet inside a homemade greenhouse. I used this system to study and learn more about aquaponics. I built it out of poplar wood that me and my grandfather cut on our sawmill. And bought two-250 gallon chest freezers that were broken after sealing them I built the grow beds over them. I used a 55 gallon barrel in between them as a sump tank and would pump the water to the front of the greenhouse and have it flow through pea gravel containing plants back fish tank where the system would continue. I learned a lot with this system and finally after a full April 1st – December 20th, I shut the system down and started designing my commercial system. **Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?** I never woke up and decided to follow entrepreneurship as I am now. In a way, it is apart of who I am. From a young age I have been building small objects and always trying to sell objects or work small jobs to earn a few dollars. Whenever I first heard the word entrepreneur I never thought a farm boy could ever be one. It was not until these past few months and after filing for LLC that I started calling and considering myself an entrepreneur but I have always been one. **Tell us about the challenges you’ve had and walk us through the process on what steps you’ve taken to move forward.** One of the biggest challenges I have faced in starting a “brick and mortar” business would be funding? To fix this problem I started working on a horse farm making $8 an hour after working there for almost 3 years I had saved up almost $3500 dollars. I have also competed in business pitch competitions and had earned myself $2250. Than working side jobs and 4-H auctions and state fair I had another $2000 to add to my business. The final $2500 needed to buy the first fish and plants and few small pieces came from The STARTedUP Foundation. The second biggest biggest challenge would be trying to find self-motivation. Having depression and anxiety, I always find myself question if I am good enough or if I am even able to be somebody. I was able to set aside this challenge by finally gaining support from my family after winning Region 2 Innovate WithIN pitch competition (gave the title to Sarah and Sophie). Another thing I found and link to my strong motivation is a thing I could never imagine me doing just a few months ago. I read a book for myself. The book was called “Millionaire Success Habits” by Dean Graziosi. This book helped me find the skill that I will need to network with people, market myself, and different ways to become the person I want to be and not the person others that out of me. **Why do you think Aquapon will be successful?** I believe Aquapon will become successful because farmers are being challenged with producing more and more food with less land on a daily basis. This leads to farmer being forced and challenged with double cropping or adding special chemicals and fertilizers to their field. These than create problems all by themselves. This gives a bad reputation on farmers and the agriculture industry. If the water is dirty, people blame the farmers. If there is no food, people blame the farmers. People even blame the farmers when there is no property to buy. Aquapon provides a solution to these problems. With the use of our aquaponics design, we are able to produce 5 acres of produce in less than a half an acres. We do not need to use harmful chemicals in our system we simply need electric and water and a few daily supplies. After the system is built and in full operation we could go many months without and need to import any supplies. For these reasons I believe Aquapon will successful. We can produce a pound of lettuce for under 10 pennies. And can produce large amounts of it. We also hit the all organic market and have no need for pesticides, herbicides, and even added fertilizers. **What does the next 5 years look like for you?** The next 5 years will be more challenging than any of my past. The opportunity to go to college after senior year stresses me out. I have not fully decided if I will go or not. I have plans to pay off all the construction cost of Aquapon and open a second location in indianapolis or louisville with a large commercial aquaponics system. I also have plan to start buying large amount of real estate for both renting and farming. Aquapon will hopefully be a leading business in the next 5 year with both aquaponics production and the sales of our aquaponics system. I will be designing 3 systems for production. A system like my first 250 square feet, small commercial system 2500 square feet, and finally a large commercial system 10,000-50,000 square feet. I also plan to sell my filter DIY system to small farmers so they can use 55 gallon drums or a small tank to built their own filters. Finally, in the next 5 years I see myself working with other startups and teens to help them find and expand of their entrepreneurship ability. **What is the best advice you have for people wanting to start a business? Or be an entrepreneur?** If you are going to start a business or be an entrepreneur you must be able to answer a simple questions. Why? Every successful business can answer these questions and in most times****the answer is there mission statement or called there “Why” statement. Being an entrepreneur is the same way you must learn to ask “why”. Why should you challenge the old system? Why does the world need your idea? Why has it not been done before? One of the biggest lies I was ever told in school was to not question “why” things are done the way the are. Now that I am questions about “why” things are done the way they are I have found success easy and people have listen to me. **City where you’re based out of:**Seymour, IN **Social accounts:**LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-claycamp-268593168/Company Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/aquapon1/ **Hobbies:**Hunting & Fishing, Farming, FFA/4-H, Networking, Designing, Construction.**** --- ## A Revolution in Shapewear, SHEER Helps Women Find Confidence and Love Their Body URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-revolution-in-shapewear-sheer-helps-women-find-confidence-and-love-their-body/ For anyone who struggles with their body image, it’s sometimes impossible to find clothes that make you feel confident and comfortable with your appearance. Endless digging through the closet may yield no results, leaving you feeling insecure and hating your body a little more. This struggle became all too familiar for Sheer Sebag, founder and CEO of SHEER, and inspired her to revolutionize shapewear in the form of a little black dress. Two years ago, it outwardly appeared that Sebag was living a life that people dreamed of; she had a six-figure corporate career, drove a Mercedes-Benz, and was living in Beverly Hills. Internally, Sebag was overloaded with stress, and felt devalued and under-appreciated by her coworkers, taking an enormous toll on both her mind and body. Her battle with her body hit its peak as she struggled to find something to wear to an event that she felt confident in, canceling when everything she tried made her feel unhappy with her reflection. Instead of simply wishing for a magic dress that would make her feel her best, Sebag founded SHEER and created a dress with revolutionary shapewear technology. With the endeavor self-funded, Sebag poured everything she had into make her vision come true. She recruited Tosha Hays to her team, a former executive designer at SPANX and current Chief of Product at the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA). With Hays’s expertise, they created SHEER’s line of dresses. The dresses feature innovative technology, designed to solve the problems often associated with traditional shapewear; rolling, bulging, and digging. The dress is comprised of three thin layers that work together to shape and smooth the body, without the need for bulkier, traditional shapewear underneath. Sebag says “on the outside, you may look and see just a “dress” – but if I’m living proof of anything, it’s that our outer appearance often hides so much more that’s within.” Her battle with self-confidence and appearance has set her on the path of helping women to regain what they’ve lost; the ability to love their body and feel beautiful and confident in their own skin. --- ## Interview With Luxury Fashion Brand, Astha Narang URL: https://futuresharks.com/interview-with-luxury-fashion-brand-astha-narang/ Astha Narang is a New Delhi-based designer label. Their strength lies in combining cleverly pleated and draped silhouettes with Indian handwork to create modern couture pieces. Astha Narang graduated from The Pearl Academy Of Fashion in New Delhi. The brand’s forte is to keep the Indian traditional handwork alive with contemporary silhouettes. Her first collection, which was showcased at Lakme Fashion Week, was inspired by folds and origami which was integrated with Indian textiles and embroidery. Astha Narang is a label that epitomises luxury Evening that targets chic clients who are experimental and can carry of drapes and pleated garments in India. Their USP of the brand are the folds and the pleats that are hand draped, the texturing of fabric integrated with pattern making and Indian textiles creates classic and high end silhouettes that target a trend conscious market who wants to explore new ensemble. Their look is bold and voluptuous. They have won awards like Vogue Honors 2009 and Lets Design Top 6. They have been associated with WedMeGood for over 3 years. I had the pleasure of interviewing Astha, here’s what she had to say: **What is your idea of a perfect bride?** Astha Narang: Firstly all brides are Perfect. They go through so much stress and chaos and I can imagine how they get themselves together to be ready for their big day. However, A bride can let go of the stress by being herself. She really needs to be comfortable and love what she is wearing and how she is looking. No matter what she is wearing but her smile and the glow makes her look perfect. **When did you first get into fashion designing?** Astha Narang: Since school I used to really take care of what I wear and I would love to always guide my friends and help them decide what they should wear. As soon as I left school, I joined fashion college from 2008 to 2012. The label Astha Narang was created in 2013 making it 6 years old. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/hujesdjgfm-.jpg) **Do you think there is a monopoly of few designers over Bollywood?** Astha Narang: There used to be a monopoly of a few designers but at with the help of social media people are more aware of other brands now. No one rules the fashion world at this time era. With the help of so much awareness, designers (be it old or new) that appeal to the mass aesthetically are at the top and among the most popular. **What is your summer spring collection going to be like?** Astha Narang: Our new summer spring collection is fun with lots of prints and drapes combined with detail works of Indian textiles and handwork. **What are all the shows you are targeting this year?** Astha Narang: In January 2019, We did one of the biggest Indian fashion shows outside India which is aashni and co wedding show. It helps us take our designs physically to our clients in the UK. In August we would be doing Lakme fashion week followed by bridal Asia in New Delhi and Mumbai. In September we will be doing a private show in USA with the grand trunk which is a store that carries only premium designers from India’s. **How do you think Instagram has increased the sales of Indian Designer?** Astha Narang: Indian garments are beautiful and colourful. It can be experimented in many ways which more Indians and non Indians got aware of only because of Instagram. Due to instagram, we could explore designers that make people aware that Indian wear is just not lehengas and suits but much more. **Indian Designers who flew to middle east markets are turning back to India again, what is your take on that?** Astha Narang; Middle east has a huge market . However fashion there is classic and not very experimental. With changing times , Indian designers these days want to experiment more silhouettes and conquer a larger market due to which they are turning back to india where people are ready to try and explore more looks. **Is opening a store in Mumbai on your list, anytime soon?** Astha Narang; We have our flagship Store in New Delhi. We supply to heading multi designer stores in Mumbai such as Aza. By next year we would be planning to open our flagship store in Mumbai too. How can the readers contact you if they want to reach out? https://www.asthanarang.com https://instagram.com/asthanarangofficial --- ## How Top Tree Changed the Marketing Game URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-top-tree-changed-the-marketing-game/ Marketing has been in existence since the beginning of business. In order to sell, every company tries to prove that they are the best. What started off as word of mouth turned to newspapers, radios and eventually social media. As technology advances, it is up to marketers to keep up with the trends in order to reach the largest, targeted, audience possible. Over the years, marketing has become more and more competitive. As more people open companies and discover the importance of launching ads and other marketing tactics, the mediums are becoming saturated. However, at one point, social media was hardly used for ad campaigns, there was always one person to be the first. I had the opportunity to meet Jonathan Lepow and Layne Schmerin. The brothers, and co-founders of Top Tree Agency (@toptree) have created a strong basis for marketing that has helped them continue to be one of the most competitive marketing agencies. Jonathan and Layne created the company upon realizing how beneficial cannabis could be to people in need. The co-founders decided to begin pushing cannabis through social media in an attempt to show a large audience the benefits it could have. “We had a relatively untapped market. Nobody knew they could push cannabis on social media, so they weren’t” Layne explained. They started a trend that quickly gained momentum. Before their eyes, they witnessed many other companies begin to use social media to push cannabis. “We quickly realized that the model we had created out of necessity, also worked as a good model for mainstream companies” Jonathan added. They quickly switched focus and began using their growth model to help other companies. Today, Top Tree agency has a reach of over 10+ Million, They are able to use their massive reach to help promote their campaigns. Their personalization of campaigns for each company and dedication to continuing to learn the best ways to reach an audience has helped them continue to grow. Top Tree Agency was able to grow quickly as they were willing to take a chance, which in turn, put their name out there. Their company has continued to grow as they are dedicated to personalizing the experience for each client and have never stopped researching and learning new techniques. All of these things has made Top Tree a major contender in the Marketing world. --- ## Taking a Personalized Approach to Fitness Training With AP Performance URL: https://futuresharks.com/taking-a-personalized-approach-to-fitness-training-with-ap-performance/ Some of the most effective fitness training methods focus on personalized approaches. Regimens that are designed as relatable and that resonate with people through personal interactions consistently prove to be among the best options for reaching fitness goals. As the one-size-fits-all method has become obsolete in the modern digital age, seeking the right personal training experience is often difficult. Online training material and services have flooded the market, but many times they often lack the comprehensive or advanced approaches that athletes are looking for. Such platforms usually do not incorporate personal interests or give people control over their workouts. People are not looking solely for results, but also for the personal touch that helps incentivize them to continue on their path towards a healthier lifestyle and enhanced athletic performance. Despite what might be trending as the most popular exercise method on social media, sometimes seeking out the one-on-one model that is sport-specific or tailored to your schedule has the most profound long-term advantages. AP Performance is one of those companies that provides the highest level of coaching, mentorship, and training for athletes without sacrificing the personal connection that is necessary between trainers and clients. #### The Market for Personalized Training The global sports coach market — including personalized athletics training — is rapidly growing and projected to continue its progression at a CAGR of 6 percent through 2023, according to a recent research report by Technavio. However, the market is only moderately fragmented, with many larger players dominating the market share. Outsized personal training platforms and companies often lose touch with their clients, needing to adapt to a growing customer base with a more automated and impersonal design. As a result, many athletes and people seeking high-level personal training are prone to following a blanket training model that is not explicitly tailored for them. Subsequent effects of using such training regimens are a reduced motivation over time, inefficient training routines, and substandard integration of nutritional and supplement guidelines. The right combination of supplements has a profound ability to increase the rate of muscle growth in bodybuilders and athletes. A recent study published in ‘*Frontiers of Physiology*’ cited that standard protein supplements are often insufficient for enhancing performance and that complementary intake of supplements is much more effective. Revelations into supplement intake are often overlooked by athletes who are not familiar with the advantages of properly leveraging them. Further, the differences between idiographic and complementary supplement guidance are largely unknown. Circumventing misconceptions about supplements and impersonal training regimens require tapping into comprehensive training from professionals who can customize performance plans and offer unique knowledge in nutritional intake. #### AP Performance’s Unique Approach AP Performance — an advanced personal training company — provides the comprehensive approach to performance training that athletes need along with the individual and customized design that they seek. Led by founder Austin Paulsen, AP Performance has a glowing track record in meeting the needs of their clients. The company offers customized training routines, nutritional programming prescribed uniquely for exercising, and supplemental guidance. Paulsen is also the co-founder of EnduroSportOfficial, a company planning on launching a complementary supplement line in the early summer. “There are a lot of supplements out there that are garbage but marketed excellently,” says Paulsen, whose own experience in athletic performance training led him to emphasize a more structured approach to higher fitness. AP Performance continually insists on strong personal relationships with their clients, focusing on building training plans and nutritional uptake guidance that maximize increases in strength, muscle mass, recovery, and more. Similarly, their team is very active in direct communication with their clients — highlighting efforts like 24/7 coach access, weekly accountability checks, and consistent accountability. “I hired Austin as a coach because I couldn’t do it by myself. It’s almost been a year, and I’ve gotten down to 6% body fat (from 40%),” says Nathan, a recent success story of AP Performance. AP Performance even offers sport-specific training — including bodybuilding competition prep with world class coaches and posing preparation. Paulsen, who now shares his mentorship and experience with his clients, learned under Cliff Wilson — one of the most successful bodybuilding coaches in the sport. Paulsen’s passion for helping others stems from his early high school experiences and has helped propel his company to the next level without sacrificing the personal touch people seek. “Nothing drives me like the feeling of accomplishment I get when helping someone to reach their goals. If I can help people to find that happiness within themselves, true happiness that includes having wine on Wednesdays and doing less than 2 hours of cardio a day than I know I’ve done my job as a coach,” he says. With so many fitness options available today, navigating the nuances of what separates the best from the rest of the crowd is a challenging task. AP Performance’s persistent emphasis on personal interaction and diverse nutritional guidance places them in a unique position to meet their clients’ goals, and they are poised to continue their success. --- ## Unique Ways to Brand your Beauty and Health Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/unique-ways-to-brand-your-beauty-and-health-business/ The sector of health and beauty is totally different from the one 20-30 years ago. Earlier, beauty meant to female. Now, there is no gender gap when it comes to health and beauty consciousness. Both of you (male and female) are equally conscious of your look and fitness. This trend has boosted the growth of beauty and health business. With the rises of consciousness to health and beauty, the number of players in this industry has also grown a lot. The competition is getting tougher day-by-day. According to a survey, the present growing rate of this business sector is 2.7% a year and it is not going to be lower than 2.2% in the next five year. As I have mentioned that this industry has fierce competition, so you need to brand your business. And branding your beauty and health business will help you earn a profit and grow. Here are some unique ways in this regard: **Focus on product and service quality** In today’s world, people value the products/services of higher quality. They are ready to spend a little more when they find that a particular product or service is of the highest quality and meets their need. It is clear here that whatever products/services you offer must be flawless. Whether you are selling cosmetics or offering beauty/health products, you need to value the quality. Source your products from a well-known and trusted supplier/manufacturer. In addition, you need to take care of the setup of your health and beauty business. You should maintain cleanness and hygiene in your business premise. **Build a strong network** Building network is one of the best ways for fetching customers and strengthening your business brand. In today’s world, you can come across an extensive array of mediums for building a network. Use all the popular social networking sites to spread a message about your beauty and health business. Share the message in the relevant groups and online health/beauty forums. In offline modes, you can organize events in your business locality. To build a strong network, you need to show that your beauty and health business is among the most popular brands. You can participate in discussions to show your personal interest in the issues people face today with a primary focus on health and beauty. Offer the solutions that can help them get rid of their health/beauty concerns. **Introduce a referral program** I hope you would be familiar with the fact that most of us want to save money on what we do, shop or avail without making any compromise in the quality. You can take benefit of this and start a referral program for your customers. Through this, you can offer a certain discount on your products/services for the customers who refer you to others. With this, you can be popular in and around your business location. **Offer personalized gifts to your existing/probable customers** People love receiving gifts/discounts on the products/services they avail. To promote your beauty and health business, you can offer personalized gifts to the customers who buy your beauty/health products or avail grooming services. In this, you can use personalized labels for products that you are going to offer your customers for your business branding. In the personalized label, you can mention your brand name and engaging a short message. Such a personalized gift will work as an advertiser for your business. Suppose that you offer a customized lipstick to one of your customers when she buys a beauty/health product or avails a beauty service from you. When she will use the lipstick, she will show off your business brand and people will come to know you and your business. **Make your customers satisfied** To brand your beauty and health business, you need to focus on satisfying your clients. Be punctual in everything from making appointments to the delivery of products/services. Solve their beauty/health related queries quickly. To make your customers happy, you can offer a glass of water or a cup of tea to welcome them and this will go a long way. Your customers will be happy with such behaviour and be your mouth advertiser. **Enhance your front look** People get attracted to visuals – images or videos. A great front look of any business premise attracts people to know it. Whether it is your premise front look or your business website, you need to give importance to visuals when it comes to branding a business online or offline. A stunning business logo with relevant images on the website and business premise will help you a lot. Besides, you need to take care of expiry date stickers on beauty/health products. You can use digital marketing techniques like SEO, SMO and PPC to promote your business on the Internet. In offline marketing, offering referral program and freebies will work wonder apart from other ways. Go ahead and start branding your business. --- ## Work Smarter: Use Personal Branding to Propel Your Business! URL: https://futuresharks.com/work-smarter-use-personal-branding-to-propel-your-business/ Most businesses don’t understand marketing. They set an ad budget, spread the word, and then repeat… They then hustle too much just to maintain presence. And they end up overspending, just to keep a client base… That’s not how marketing should be. The Long-Term Game. Marketing is “**branding first”** and “**spreading the word second.**” Your brand is the long-term focus. It’s how you keep clients wanting your services after luring them in… It’s a cheaper approach. It’s the key **to dominating your niche.** Because over time, you build a base of long-term clients. Those **“followers”** will seek your services, without you spending money! Speaking of Followers… This leads us to an important question. How do you develop a powerful brand? What kind of brand is necessary to **“keep a base of return clients”**? The answer is simple. Just personalize. **“Personal Branding”** – Highly Effective, But Underused. Most businesses don’t like **“putting faces”** in their marketing. They do so for a few reasons. First, they think it’s unprofessional, and focusing on the service details is vital… And second – they do so out of insecurity. They assume their personal identities will repel traffic. But both are misconceptions. In fact, personal branding has the complete opposite effect. **How So?** There’s nothing more professional than **“well taken”** profile pictures. Take LinkedIn as an example. Isn’t it a website that businesses and professional use for branding? Yet, you need a picture there to succeed. It’s a verification of your identity. And it makes you more trusted to others. Personal Branding – **“Maximizes Authenticity.”** And that’s what makes it a smashing success. You see, there are many approaches to branding. Some business focus on **“trendiness.”** Others focus on **“immaculate looks.”** And a third uses **“strong marketing language.”** Those are necessary. But the ultimate priority goes to **“authenticity.”** Because if everyone trusts your business, you sell fast. You essentially attract traffic without even trying! **Example –**Muhammad Hayat**.** You can model your web presence after his. First thing you’ll notice is a profile picture. He has a real photo of himself posted. And immediately, it signals that a **“real service”** is behind the site. That’s the first part of gaining trust. And it doesn’t stop there. Even more **“real identities”** are used, but this time it’s for testimonials. So you have a real identity behind the business. And you can see real customers, providing real feedback. This is bound to create much more trust than say **“a catchy sales copy.”** Another Factor – Accountability. It’s another reason why **“personal branding”** works. If you’re putting your identity out there, you put yourself in a seat of judgment. And customers like that… If the service isn’t up to par, they have someone to contact. And this **makes customers trust your business more.** **Example.** What’s your likelihood of getting scammed online – and by a service that has real identities? Probably close to none. You rarely hear of that happening. The person in question gets caught fast. And, their long-term credibility gets harmed! Putting Personal Branding to Use. Obviously, there’s much more to it than a **“profile picture”** and **“video testimonials.”** There are subtle tactics you must apply. For example, you need to create content that’s informative to others… You can do so by video. That way, you’re a service provider (**and**) you become a public authority too! This takes your business up a notch. And it does so with your identity. Then there’s blogging, and free guides. Because to be trusted, **you must show that you can help.** **Seems Like Tough Work…** Of course! Personal branding isn’t easy! But it is highly effective (**especially online**). It distinguishes you from competition. And it helps you dominate your niche! --- ## Stephanie Lee from Beauty Brite Shares How to Turn a Blog Into a Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/problogger/ Most bloggers never profit a dime from their writing. Some just write for exposure or merely as a hobby. Other bloggers would like to make money from their writing but just haven’t figured out how to do it. If you’ve ever wondered how to turn a blog from a hobby into an income generator, make sure to read this one until the end. Today, I caught up with Stephanie Lee, pro blogger and the founder of Beauty Brite. **Future Sharks:** What is Beauty Brite? How did you come up with the name? **Stephanie:** First off, thank you so much for having me on Future Sharks! I started Beauty Brite as a blog for myself. Originally, it was going to be a place for me to try and share homemade beauty recipes. I started with a few homemade beauty masks, toothpaste (that was interesting), and even homemade laundry soap. Then, I discovered other bloggers doing product reviews and I wrote about a few products I purchased on my own. It just expanded from there. When I started Beauty Brite, I knew I wanted to write about beauty. These days, we have since expanded to a “Lifestyle & Family” site. So we do write about more than JUST beauty. I wanted a simple name for my blog. I am a child of the 80s and 90s and I quickly thought of “Rainbow Brite.” That’s where “Beauty Brite” comes from. **Future Sharks: What do you blog about? ** **Stephanie:** I’m lucky enough to have an amazing review team. Our team is made up of women and/or moms all over the United States. Some of us have kids and some of us don’t. I value our unique backgrounds. I love that each and every one of us is so different. Our kids are all in different age ranges too. Our blog can cover a variety of topics. We aren’t just one family, we are one of many! As I mentioned earlier, we cover more than just beauty. There are topics I am unable to write about, while someone else on our team can. I think that is what makes us so special. **Future Sharks: What have you learned from being a blogger?** **Stephanie:** Remember back in school, when you had to read a book and write a book report? Remember those dreaded research papers or essays? I don’t know about you but I never really looked forward to doing those. I really didn’t like writing. Since I started blogging, I realize how much I love writing. As a blogger, I can express myself. *I have a voice.* I have my own platform, so to speak. I love learning new skills. I also love learning what other bloggers do. I may try to do what they do or try my own version. I am always learning as a blogger. I keep an open mind and always open to trying something different. **Future Sharks: What advice would you give to newbie bloggers?** **Stephanie:** If you’re on the fence about starting a blog, do it. You’ll soon discover whether or not it’s your passion or not. Write about what inspires you. Don’t feel like you have to follow everyone else. Be true to yourself and your audience. If you start a blog, switch to a self-hosted blog, such as WordPress. When you are self-hosted, you own all of your own content, as opposed to when you use a free host. Make the investment in yourself. If you’re serious about blogging, make the investment. Diversify your circle of friends. Find your tribe. Find those who you can trust. **Future Sharks: How have you been able to monetize your blog?** **Stephanie:** The first step to earning money is creating an audience. If you don’t have a sizeable readership earning money is impossible. Once you’ve built an audience the best way to earn money as a blogger is to sign up with affiliate programs. While there’s nothing wrong with promoting products for free, I did it for years. But if you’re already doing that type of thing, you might as well get paid for it, right? Make sure to check out the WordPress plugins that affiliate links automatically. Those have been extra useful in helping me monetize. **Future Sharks: **Which social media platforms have been the most effective in building your blog audience and why? **Stephanie:** I seem to have great interaction on Instagram. I feel it’s more personal to connect with like-minded people, whether they are fellow bloggers, moms, women, similar hobbies, etc. Since everyone spends most of their time on Facebook, your Facebook groups, fan page, and network are a great way to promote your blog. It’s a great way to share posts, inspiring quotes, funny memes, etc. All social media can work to your advantage. Find people who are like-minded. They don’t always have to write about the same topics you do. You can find Stephanie on Instagram here. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsig1FZgKFv/ --- ## CROWDFUNDING URL: https://futuresharks.com/crowdfunding/ Crowdfunding is an online tool utilizing peer-to-peer relationships to help gain funds for different aspects of university. Crowdfunding is gathering popularity  in recent times. Firstly, gathering funds in the form of donations has always been a major focus for university leaders. Secondly,most donations go to a specific fund or cause. University crowdfunding campaigns typically utilize  project-specific perks . Perks will offer individual recognition to the donor for their support to the cause. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/855d0d101e34.png) ** #### Major examples #### 1. University Funds Universities add unrestricted funds such as scholarships, annual funds, or emergency funds. Typically these crowdfunding campaigns will utilize offline donations with the crowdfunding campaign . #### 2. Participation by alumni Another way the universities utilize crowdfunding is to increase their alumni engagement of the  institution. Projects that place focus on participation as opposed to donation amount and measuring the success of the project by how many people gave to the cause instead of how much the total giving amount was. These project can utilized to generate excitement for an alumni challenge. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/19d710db3b19.png) #### 3. Sports These campaigns use the preexisting popularity of college sports to boost their fundraising capacity for different sport-related projects. One notable such project is the UCLA Spark campaign to renovate the gymnasium used by the UCLA Gymnastics team. Another notable and attention-grabbing university athletic crowdfunding campaign was the “Ole Miss Football October 4, 2014 Victory Celebration”. This campaign gained media attention when it went viral and raised its total goal amount of $75,000 within three hours of going live. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/5ea7c573fe38.png) --- ## The Absolute Online Sales Blueprint: Enquires Vs eCom in 3 Steps URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-absolute-online-sales-blueprint-enquires-vs-ecom-in-3-steps/ In a business world which mainly focuses on building quick wins and basically forgets about the bigger picture when it comes to both marketing and sales, the requirements for a proper business development strategy are vital. This is extremely important, especially, if considered from an online conversions point of view: eCommerce businesses and enquires-based are the ones which are the most likely to forget about the bigger picture when it comes to CRO, let’s analyse 3 active methods that can be used in order to optimise your conversion rate. ## The Targeted Audience Funneling Running an online business is extremely complex, mainly due to the fact that, with today’s given technology, is possible to have a perfectly competitive site up and running in a couple of hours. With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why the online business segment is so oversaturated: a thorough investigation is, in fact, showing how competitive certain business fields are, in terms of digital marketing, traffic and search volumes in particular. With this in mind, targeting the wrong audience from the start could kill your overall business development plan, leading you to a significant loss in terms of money (ads are indeed terribly expensive nowadays) and, most importantly, conversions. ## Ads: Enquires Vs eCom Conversions and content If you’re following the new age of drop shippers (the ones who are, to reference, white labelling services instead of cheap Chinese made products) then relying on quick sales without presenting informative content for what concerns the product(s) you’re listing could be the wrong choice. The classic idea behind eCom conversion rate is heavily connected to the fashion/accessories world, the one in which you actually don’t need to know that much about the product. In a recent study carried out by some residential conveyancing solicitors which were working on behalf of a drop surfing company, the fact that such company was missing vital pieces of information on their product was the trigger for a lawsuit. ## The Ground Breaking Implementation Of Mobile Focused Strategies When it comes to mobile, the thing that many business owners are forgetting is related to the fact that the current mobile traffic occupies almost 60% of the overall internet traffic. With this in mind, tailoring particular marketing campaigns towards the matter would definitely be ideal, especially if your business falls in the above-mentioned section (where, in fact, especially for what concerns the fashion business, most of the sales are coming from mobile devices). Optimising marketing strategies for mobile is basically relying on UX strategies which are presenting better ads/banners to your potential customers. --- ## Entrepreneur John Ballantine Creates Distragram, an Online Marketplace for CBD Products URL: https://futuresharks.com/entrepreneur-john-ballantine-creates-distragram-an-online-marketplace-for-cbd-products/ John Ballantine, a California based entrepreneur, has long had the entrepreneurial spirit. First based in Los Angeles, John founded an online electronics marketplace. The high stress and exhausting workload lead to a seizure; resulting in the discovery of a non-malignant brain tumor. After it’s removal, John relocated to Northern California for a slower, more relaxing pace of life. It was during his recovery that John discovered the benefits of CBD. It helps relieve stress and anxiety, helping John to remain focused and inspired his new venture; Distragram. Distragram is an online marketplace specializing in the sale of CBD products. With a large variety of products available, John hopes that others will be able to experience similar results for themselves. Distragram allows and encourages customers to leave feedback on the products they’ve tried, striving to create a community of users. John’s hopes are that Distragram will help people live less stressful, happier lives, and experience the benefits of CBD. With the selection the marketplace offers, there’s something for everyone, and finding relief has never been made easier. --- ## What it Takes To Be a Successful Music Artist With A Certain Energy URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-it-takes-to-be-a-successful-music-artist-with-a-certain-energy/ Shain Romanowski, better known by stage name A Certain Energy, is a hip hop artist from Fort Wayne, Indiana and a U.S. Marine veteran. **Hey! Can you tell us about your background story?** **Shain:** So, to start things off I was born in Guam. I know. Guam is a very long ways from Indiana. Life was a bit interesting to say the least from my perspective. I feel like before I even enlisted into the Marine Corps I had a diverse history with traveling. Born in Guam, then my family chose to move to Saipan. From there my father actually started taking me to his recording sessions since he was also an aspiring artist at the time. Always sang to me when he had the chance. I guess that’s why I’ve grown fond of melodies with music. Not to mention my little brother Reno was born in Saipan. He’s currently active duty with the U.S. Marines, so you can say Marine blood runs in the family. Forgot to mention my father is also a U.S. Marine veteran as well. Can’t forget that. Anyways, from there we moved quite a bit. A bit of California, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana and so forth. I honestly thought moving around a lot was normal. Crazy. Fast forward to Indiana though I started my musical background purely in high school. My first song I ever wrote was for a biology project. Crazy part was I was persuaded by a few friends to do it. Things would have been extremely different if I didn’t go through with creating that song. Hopefully it is lost in the depths of the internet as I always say. That’s how it all started though. A biology project that I think I got a B+ in. After some time I kept at it with music creating small mixtapes with a few friends of mine at the time. We even created a rap group. Who doesn’t make a rap group with their friends, because I couldn’t of been the only one. Crazy thing is someone told me if I went solo and kept at it, then I would easily make it into the industry. After a few talks my friend Kyle persuaded me to go solo. Another choice that determined my whole future right there. Funny how all of that works in life. I won’t lie though it was rough. At times I was getting denied getting a listen to one of my free mixtapes in high school from my peers. Hits deep when you get a firm “no” from someone no matter who you are if it comes to your passion. After a while I didn’t know what to do with my life. Fast forward to January 2014 I ended up planning to enlist with the U.S. Marines. What a time that was. Fast forward to August 2016 I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and a close friend of mine.. Probably the closest friend I’ve ever had honestly, passed away. His name’s Darian Asher-Layman. That took a big toll on me. Especially the fact I had took leave to the United States a month or two prior to his death and spent time with him and his family. Even went to his daughter’s little birthday party. Still hits to me to this day honestly. His passing hit me with a choice after some time though. “What do you want to do with your life?” was the question I kept asking myself. Next thing you know December 2016 rolls around, and I release a demo song. The rest is history. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** **Shain:**As a musical artist you’re going to have those big three looming around you regardless. Well, as long as you take your career seriously you will have those three. I could go on forever about everything from successes to failures with this. One thing that popped to mind though when it comes to a prior success story was me landing a collaboration with hip hop legend **Mickey Factz**. I have to give thanks to my producer **Bluff Gawd** for that assist though. I was in Dubai at the time for an operation for the U.S. Marines, and I got a message from Bluff asking if I wanted to do a track with a legend. I was baffled, because I had no idea who he was referring to. Next thing you know it was Mickey. How was I supposed to react? I obviously didn’t know what to do. All of a sudden I end up getting to talk to him myself. Mickey Factz!? Class of ’09 XXL Freshman!? This guy’s catalog is insane! Have you even heard his freestyles!? Pshh c’mon man culture up if you don’t. Anyways, that’s not much of a success story but it is a milestone I had accomplished. Challenges are always brought upon me. It’s almost like that’s what my life is full of. I would say a challenge was doing music while I was in the Marines honestly. Time management was the biggest issue for me. Couldn’t have enough time for everything. Which was a reason why a past relationship of mine didn’t work out. At the same time you have to do what you have to do to be successful. Sacrifices are always at large in this industry. It’s your choice to make them. If you’re strong enough to make them that is. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** **Shain:** You know I gave up three or four times with this dream of mine. I can’t believe it took the death of my best friend to have me wake up and realize life is too short to worry. Granted I wanted to quit another time due to financial reasons. I felt sick to my stomach from that. Vowing myself to my brother that I’d make this all happen, and not being able to because of finances? Sickening. You know what I ended up doing instead? Obviously not quitting since I’m here, but what I ended up doing was expanding my income. Finding other ways to facilitate income on my end to reimburse it into an investment with my music. That’s the biggest thing for survival in this industry. To keep yourself afloat you cannot be stuck with one stream of income. You can oversaturate that income which then creates a living state you can’t escape from. I find it easier if you expand, because life choices become more lenient for you in the long run. **How can our readers follow you on social media?** Instagram: @acertainenergy Twitter: @acertainenergy Facebook.com/acertainenergy Website: acertainenergy.com --- ## Content writing: tips for SEO copywriters URL: https://futuresharks.com/content-writing-tips-for-seo-copywriters/ SEO-friendly content is absolutely essential for a successful website. It may seem easy to write an optimized text but the reality is quite different. If you want your writing to rock both the readers and the search engine you have to incorporate certain rules. Good quality content is one thing, but adjusting it to Google’s taste is another story. Here is how you can improve your SEO skills in just 5 steps. 1. Keywor(l)ds The first thing a copywriter needs to focus on is a list of keywords, normally provided by a client.**It does not mean you have to stuff your text like a Thanksgiving turkey.** An optimum density ranges from **1% to 3%**, along with LSI keywords. It is a common strategy proven to give the best ranking results. Keywords need to occur not only in the main text, but also in the meta title, meta description, and preferably URL address. Properly used, they can really boost the position in a search engine. Don’t forget to **include synonyms and grammatical variations**, which will limit redundancy. 1. A well-built text Focusing on the SEO factor is important, but **your text will be read by real people**. Therefore, it has to be visually and substantively attractive. You should pay extra attention to structuring your writing in such a way that allows easy and fast navigation. Start with a catchy title, which will bring people’s attention. It should be short but informative. Use **H1 formatting** for better optimization, and do not forget about other styles such as **subheadings (H2-H6)** or **bullet point lists**. It is recommended to use bold and italics to emphasize the most important parts of your text. It may not particularly boost your ranking, but it will definitely enhance readability. Fiction editor Michelle Josette also advises not to make the paragraphs too long, which can bore the audience. 1. Link me in “In the ideal world lots of websites will link to yours without you having to ask them, just because your content and your product or service is the best’’. Unfortunately, the ideal world does not exist, therefore you need to take care of it yourself. **Links should lead not only to other pages or subpages of the client’s website but also to other authority domains.**This will indicate that you appreciate their content and will help your readers find more relevant information outside the page. Backlinking is crucial to earning more credibility in the search engine, but… it is not about the number of links – quality above quantity. 1. Sounds familiar or natural? **Copywriting is not writing a copy.** All texts have to unique and original. Search engines do not like plagiarism, no matter how good the copied content is. Creativity is one of the most important things when working as a copywriter. Instead of your readers thinking “I’ve heard that before”, make them “wow” your work. **Sound natural, have a positive flow and maximize your effort** to create a stunning text. It will pay off. Eventually, you will improve your writing skills and start looking at it as not work, but a hobby. 1. Double check to not double regret Last but not least – **check your writing**. You will always find small things to improve. Being a professional copywriter means delivering high-quality texts, and you can only do that by double-checking everything you have created. Read your text at least once. You should pay extra attention to spelling, grammatical structure, and punctuation. Lucky for you there is a great variety of software offering such services for free, so make use of it. Content writing is all about the creation of quality texts. It can be a little challenging at times, but there are no linguistic obstacles a good writer cannot overcome. Make sure you follow all 5 steps, and you will be on your way of becoming a better SEO copywriter. --- ## What tools do I need to start a business? URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-tools-do-i-need-to-start-a-business/ Starting a business is a challenging, if worthwhile, process. When setting out, businesses need help wherever they can find it. While there are a vast range of choices when it comes to tools to support the startup process, limited budget and resources means that every new business needs to be strategic in their choices. Luckily, with a little research and reflection on what their real needs are, new businesses can make informed choices. What follows is a short guide to the types of tools that small businesses may want to choose when setting out. While not every type of tool will be right for every business, hopefully you will find some good options to get you started below. ## Before you choose… In order to make the right choice there are a few preparatory steps that you should take. It’s easy to get excited by promises made by some tools and rush a decision to begin using them. That’s why it’s important to take the time to reflect on what your real needs and resources are. While some quality tools are free or offer free trial periods, inevitably you will want to invest in some paid versions with fuller features. In the end, you should be making a cost benefit analysis for any choice you make. In order to get the most benefit from your certainly limited budget you should start out by reflecting with your team on these questions: - What are the specific needs we want to address and how do we know that they’re a priority? - Which tools can address these needs? - How will we know that these tools are working? - What is the realistic size of the budget we can dedicate to purchasing? With the answers to these questions you’ll be better positioned to make the right choices for your circumstances. ## Freelance Workers Hiring the right talent for your team will certainly be one of your top priorities, but you will likely not have the luxury of hiring full time staff for all of your workstreams from the outset. This makes easy access to talented freelancers of the utmost importance. Whether its for short term programming projects, content writing, or marketing projects, freelancers can play a key role in the early phases (and not only) of your business. ### Example Tool: Upwork Upwork provides a platform to connect freelancers in dozens of work categories with the businesses looking to hire them. The platform can help you find, hire and work with freelancers through several features including an in-house chat system and timesheet. With millions of registered clients and freelancers you’ll have a wide range of professionals to choose from. ## Project Organization Helping your team organize its numerous workflows is crucial to making sure that deadlines are met and projects are realized. Startups are by nature fluid work environments, and you’ll likely have multiple employees involved in a wide range of projects at any given time. Providing your team a tool to keep track of these processes can help to streamline their work making them more productive and efficient. ### Example Tool: Trello Trello is a project management tool with a wide range of organizational uses. The basic feature of Trello lies in the visualization of different workflows on something akin to a virtual whiteboard. This visualization can help keep your team on track for shared projects as well as personal goals. The tool itself allows for a high degree of flexibility, meaning you can tailor it to your business’ specific needs. ## Communication Tools The success of your business will largely depend on the efficiency, creativity and productivity of your employees. In order to help your team operate like a smoothly running collaboration machine, you should consider your internal communication tool. With the right choice here your employees will be able to easily share ideas, work on joint projects, reach out for quick consultations, and more. ### Example Tool: Brosix IM Brosix IM is a team communication solution that specializes in providing businesses with private, secure and fully administrable IM networks. These networks come with a range of collaboration features including chat and video messaging, file sharing, and remote desktop. Such a network can help you to increase team collaboration and make communication more efficient in your business, while also keeping employees on task and focused. ## Analytics When it comes to your online presence, understanding the numbers is essential for effective marketing. That’s why web analytics tools are crucial in the startup phase. With these tools you can keep track of online campaigns, better understand who is accessing your website and from where, and track sales data. All of these features can help you with strategic decision making, a crucial skill in the startup phase. ### Example Tool: Google Analytics Google Analytics is the most widely used analytics tool. Some of the most popular features include Google Adword integration and Real Time statistics, which can give you insights into who visits your website. It’s set up in the ‘freemium’ model (free basic features and paid advanced features), meaning you can see if it’s the right tool for you before fully committing. ## Final Words The right choice of tools to support you in the startup phase can set you on the right course and accelerate your business’ growth. Regardless of which tools you choose, make sure that they’re the right ones for you and your team’s specific needs. There’s certainly no ‘magic bullet’ out there, but with the right strategic choices you’ll be well on your way to success. --- ## Mistakes To Avoid In Promotional Product Marketing URL: https://futuresharks.com/mistakes-to-avoid-in-promotional-product-marketing/ Promotional product marketing is a popular and successful marketing strategy that renders effective results. Promotional product marketing does a good job at brand awareness and brand recall. Any marketing strategy will only be good and successful if it is executed well and without mistakes. The same goes for promotional product marketing. If you want your promotional products to do the job well, there are certain common mistakes that you must avoid. Here are some mistakes that are often made in promotional product marketing. **1. Information Overload** Overloading your promotional merchandise with information is a bad idea. You want your customers to know about your company as much as possible but that doesn’t mean that you put all your information on promotional products. They are not meant for brand information but rather just for brand recall. On a promotional product you should only have minimal information about your product.So, keep the product promotion subtle and classy. **2. Saving Costs on Quality** More often than not, companies try to save costs on promotional products by getting low quality products. Remember that promotional products will work like brand ambassadors for your company. Customers will judge the quality of your products based on the quality of your promotional products. So it’s important that the quality of your promotional products be equally good, if not better than, your range of products. **3. Generic Items** Items like promotional bags, notebooks, mugs, keychains etc., have become too common. While it’s okay to have these as your promotional products, also try to add some unique promotional products that will stand out from the rest of the items that customers usually, already have at their homes. **4. Target Audience** It’s very important that you keep the target audience in mind when you are designing your promotional products. If the promotional products are not of any use to your target audience, then it will fail to do its job of brand awareness and brand recall. If you have a diverse target audience, then try and get a diverse range of promotional products, but always understand your target audience and then design your products. **5. Restricting to Fairs and Events** Why restrict your promotional products to fairs and events only? Start making your promotional products available on your website as well. You can give a promotional product for free to those who sign up for your company’s online newsletter, or make a minimum amount purchase. This way you encourage customers to sign up for your newsletter or make a purchase, hence increasing sales and customer database. You can also give some coupons or discount codes along with your promotional products so that the customers feel encouraged to use those. **6. Don’t Delay Orders** You shouldn’t wait for the last minute to place orders for your promotional products. In fact, you never know what opportunities might come your way and be the perfect time to hand out promotional products to potential customers. So, you should always have a large variety and bunch of promotional products to be given at any point of time. **7. Colour and Design** It’s important that the colour and design of your promotional products be in sync with your brand’s image and theme. If there is a certain colour for your brand, then try and get your promotional products of the same colours and theme so that they resonate well with your brand image and can do its function of brand recall with the customer. **Conclusion** Promotional product marketing may be cheaper than other marketing strategies but should be taken equally seriously because if done right, then promotional product marketing can be very successful. If you want to increase sales and want customers to think of you first thing when they need a product or service which you offer, then this might be a smart marketing strategy. However, you must keep in mind the above mistakes so that you can easily avoid them. --- ## Let’s End Fake Entrepreneurship URL: https://futuresharks.com/lets-end-fake-entrepreneurship/ For the first time in history, being an entrepreneur is considered cool. Opportunity is everywhere online and attention is relatively easy to capture on social media. Anyone can paint themselves as an expert or whatever they want to paint themselves as by simply taking a few minutes to fill out their profiles. This is powerful, but as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, many have abused this power. Struggling authors use coin themselves “bestselling” authors even though they are ranked outside the top million on Amazon. Wannabe entrepreneurs (wantrepreneurs) with zero employees, no cash coming in, and no business entity set up call themselves a “CEO.” Podcast hosts with 16 ratings refer to their podcasts’ as “top-rated.” By what universally agreed upon measures constitutes as top-rated? These fake titles are misleading and they devalue the titles for the real bestselling authors, the real CEO’s, and the real top podcasters in the world on iTunes. These are the people that earned them. ### Here’s an open letter to the fake entrepreneurs: Stop calling yourself a CEO if your “company” consists of only you working more on a website and social posts than actual business operations. Stop calling yourself a bestselling author if your book is ranked outside the top 100 on Amazon. The worst case of I’ve ever seen is someone claiming to be a bestselling author and selling an expensive course on how to become a bestselling author. I checked Amazon to see where this person’s book ranks. I always check. It’s comical. It’s ranked 1,101,490… not even in the top million! It should be illegal to sell the course this person is selling. It’s fraudulent. It’s false advertising. It’s criminal. I mean I guess anyone can call themselves a bestselling author since there are no universally agreed upon measures, just arbitrary measures that vary depending on whom you ask. --- Stop calling yourself a “top-rated” podcast host when your podcast has a 5.0 rating with 27 reviews.What universally agreed upon measures constitute as top-rated? It’s an arbitrary term. --- Stop calling yourself a life coach that sells courses on how to be financially free when you’re broke. --- Stop with the fake entrepreneurship and the fake titles because it gives the rest of us a bad rap while devaluing these titles, which is problematic to those who actually earned them. Also, it’s important to note: you’re fooling nobody. --- ## People told me I was crazy, to tone it down, and that I was unrealistic. Now those same people are asking me how I did it – Connor LaRocque URL: https://futuresharks.com/people-told-me-i-was-crazy-to-tone-it-down-and-that-i-was-unrealistic-now-those-same-people-are-asking-me-how-i-did-it-connor-larocque/ Meet Connor LaRocque, an expert at helping young adults and entrepreneurs become leaders, overcome fears, and distinguish themselves in a competitive marketplace. Currently he is President of LA Roqk Enterprises, a multinational direct sales and consulting firm. The CEO of SocialRise Revenue Marketing Agency and he’s on the same speaker bureau as Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank (the Big Idea Speakers). **Hey Connor! Can you tell us about your story?** **Connor LaRocque:** I grew up overweight and was an uneasy, goofy type of kid. I played Hockey until I was 16 and then gave it up to join Muay Thai. Joining Muay Thai I found my passion. I competed at the Canadian nationals and lost a title fight to receive a silver medal. A big part of my story was that I was a C student in high school and didn’t get into university my first attempt. When I finally got in, I published two books (one bestseller), made honor role, and spoke to thousands of students on overcoming fear and being able to strategize for the future while completing my degree. I originally was planning on going to Law School, but instead took a risk and became an entrepreneur thanks to my brother. He got me to sell door to door with his company in minus 30 degrees weather which then launched my career as an entrepreneur. **What differentiates you from everyone else in your field?** **Connor LaRocque:**At 25 years old, it’s rare to find someone whose accomplished what I have, but my true distinguishing factor is in my ability to build relationships and connect with people without looking for anything in return. I truly love helping people, it is the fire that fuels my heart and soul. I wouldn’t be doing this if it were just about the money. I walk into everyday wanting it to be hard; I want that workout to make me suffer, I want to go to work and completely exhaust myself because that’s how I am going to be better than I was yesterday. **Who are 3 people that inspire you?** - Tony Robbins - Gary Vaynerchuck - Mother Teresa **What is your inspiration for what you do?** **Connor LaRocque:** Saying that I love helping people is too cliche and generic. The reason I do it isn’t for myself but to reach the newly discovered element of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs called “Self-Transcendence.” There is no better feeling than helping someone or giving something more of yourself. I always tell people if you’re having a bad day, go try and help someone in a worse situation than your own. Watch how you feel when you’re done. **What would you say to someone who came to you for advice about taking ‘the leap of faith’ into entrepreneurship?** **Connor LaRocque:**  What gets you excited and fired up in the morning? That’s where you start! You can’t be doing it just to make money because your fulfillment will be hollow. It’s that passion that is going to allow you to push and grind when you don’t want to, not the money! You also need to have a strong clarity on “Why” you’re doing it because everyone is going to try and convince you otherwise so you need to be strong in your direction. When your Why is strong you will figure out the HOW. **What are your favorite quotes/sayings?** - “Mindset is everything. Trust me, I wrote the book on it!” - “If you understood your thoughts, you would never think a negative thought again.” - “Take your thoughts from your conscious mind, and bring them into the physical material world.” - “My morning coffee is a 5 kilometer run, and a workout.” **None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? What lesson did you learn from them?** **Connor LaRocque:**  My brother. I wouldn’t be who I am today without having him as a part of my life. He taught me that it doesn’t matter what the situation is just go for it head first and figure the rest out. He pushed me to levels I never thought were imaginable, and has inspired me to want to be better. **What is the best way for someone to reach you if they are interested in working with you?** DM me on Facebook, Instagram (@laroqk) or LinkedIn. You can also email me at [connor@connorlarocque.com](mailto:connor@connorlarocque.com) --- ## Disrupting the Lunch Break – The Story of Alex Abell’s Billion Dollar App in the Making URL: https://futuresharks.com/disrupting-the-lunch-break-the-story-of-alex-abells-billion-dollar-app-in-the-making/ Having made some waves in the party world with his microblog, Dear Drunk Me, in the early 2010s, Alex is all grown up and ready to tackle one of the biggest issues in Corporate America – lack of communication. Having been in the corporate trenches for the past 10 years, Abell is a man on a mission. He’s created an app that promises to use tech to enable real face-to-face connections over the lunch hour. If you haven’t heard of Lunchpool yet, you will soon. **Tell us about Lunchpool. How did you come up with this idea?** **Alex Abell:** The concept has actually been a long time in the making, although the specific idea came to me a day before a startup weekend hackathon I entered. Having worked in various corporate roles, I knew that something wasn’t right. I kept hearing things like “knowledge silos” and “lack of cross-pollination” from the management, but they seemed to only be able to label the problems with buzzwords and not really come forth with real solutions. Lunchpool is a pretty simple concept: go to lunch with other human beings. Get up from your desk and get to know the people around you. Use your allotted lunch break time to add value to the networks within which you find yourself operating. Our app helps make it easy – we connect people together for multi-party lunches. **How did you promote your company in the early days?** **Alex Abell:** We’re still very much within the early days. We had some early success by winning the Tampa Bay Startup Weekend. That win showed us that we could turn the app into a viable business that solved a real problem. We’ve been lucky enough to exhibit at events like the 2019 Synapse Summit, and gotten some early press for our early beta companies. By launching only in top tech-focused, high growth companies that value culture, we have created a sort of hype around the brand that’s backed up by a great product. **How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific.** **Alex Abell:** Growing the business has been easy with the team we’ve put together. All the growth we’ve enjoyed so far is because of how motivated we all are in solving the problem of ending the “desktop dining epidemic,” We’ve had trusted advisors like Dr. Richard Munassi MD MBA and Brian Kornfeld, and we also live within one of America’s hottest emerging startup communities in Tampa, FL. The community has been supportive in helping us reach the next step and the next goal. **What are some secrets to virality/sales in your most successful platform (Fb, Twitter, IG, Snap, Ecommerce, etc)?** **Alex Abell:** The biggest secret is to make sure you are offering something of value. We put a lot of thought and time into developing our product. We wanted to have something that is fun to use and really has that WOW factor that keeps you using it. By focusing on building something that will actually change human behavior, we’ve gotten a lot of buzz and virality. If you want your product or service to go viral, make it awesome. The best advertising is a truly awesome, transformative product or service. If you suck, social media will make you suck louder. If you’re amazing, social media will show more and more people how amazing what you’re doing is. **Teach us something we don’t know about internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, volunteering, yoga, sales funnels etc.** **Alex Abell:** Did you know that 80% of employees reported not eating lunch at all or eating lunch at their desk in 2018? It’s a crazy figure and we think our app can drastically reduce it. However, Lunchpool is not just about getting people away from their desk. We have seen a lot of research in social network analysis and network weaving that shows how success is directly tied to your networking abilities. We want to unlock that hidden power within people. You don’t have to use our app to do it, you can go start asking folks to lunch right now. That said, our app will make it much easier to find and connect with the right people you should know. **What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?** **Alex Abell:** I think we are a lot better at promoting our app in a cool, fun way. A lot of the products and services aimed at helping companies build their internal culture is pretty dull. It’s stuff that I see executives buying and their employees will never, ever use it. We make every product decision around the question, “would I use this? Is this cool?” **What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?** **Alex Abell:** I have to go with “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi. It’s a powerful primer in how impactful it can be to rotate dining companions regularly. He also says some really cool stuff about giving more than you get and the law of reciprocity. When you take care of others and lift them up, you’ll always be taken care of yourself. It’s the way the universe works. **Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream?** **Alex Abell:** We have hopes to break out of just an HR Tech app to the Urban Tech space. We want America’s progressive cities to embrace the idea and have it available for everyone and anyone to use. In a couple of years, we’re going to see people “lunchpooling” on the regular. --- ## Networking Tips From Nick Manca, VIP Manager at 11 Miami URL: https://futuresharks.com/networking-tips-from-nick-manca-vip-manager-at-11-miami/ Nick Manca is a 27 year old Miami native with a passion for the hospitality business. He’s been with the 11 USA Group for 4 1⁄2 years where his job is to make sure that the guests are receiving the full E11EVEN experience. His goal is to turn that first time guest into a lifetime guest. I had the pleasure of interviewing Nick on how networking is key to success in today’s world. Here’s what he had to say. **Hey Nick! Take us back to the beginning. What’s your story?****** Nick: I found a love for the nightlife business when I was young. When I graduated from high school, my dream was to own nightclubs. I made the choice to not attend college, but to start going after my dream and the journey to achieve it. > It’s safe to say I eat, breathe and sleep for my job. **That’s great! Can you tell us how you actually got started?** Nick: Sure, I got started in the hospitality business at the age of 15. During my freshman year in high school I had the opportunity to sell tickets to an all ages event. After doing that for a while I began throwing house parties.The house parties got so big that me and my friends moved them into nightclubs. After graduating high school, I did 18+ parties for four years, and once I turned 21 I got my first job on South Beach working at Amnesia. South Beach was a great learning experience. Eventually I would meet Zac Bouch and Rob Crosoli who would tell me about E11EVEN. The rest is history.. **It seems like networking played a huge role in where you’re at today. Could you give us some tips on networking?** 1. Always keep business cards with you 2. Be curious and ask questions. People love to talk about themselves 3. Follow up – the follow up is just as important as the start up 4. Make sure you invest your time in the right people, wasted time is worse than wasted money 5. Build genuine connections. **Great advice. Do you think you do things different than the rest of your industry? If so, what are they?** Nick: My work ethic and passion for the business is unmatched **None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are**? Nick: Yes, my parents; they always pick me up when I’m down, and remind me about why I should be thankful. In addition to my parents, I have to recognize Fresko, Otto, and DTM – without them I wouldn’t be where I am on my journey. I also want to give a shout out to all of my colleagues who keep me motivated. **It’s nice to have those people to motivate you. What lesson did you learn from them?** 1. I learned that this business can be cut throat, so to speak; not everyone is your friend. 2. I also learned to never settle – there is always someone working harder than you. **Those are important lessons. As you have started to see some success what is your definition of it?** Nick: Success is finding your purpose in life, follow your dreams and believe that nothing is impossible if you work hard and stay consistent and focused. Success is also about family and friends, and helping make a difference. **If someone would want to emulate what you have done, what would you suggest are the most important things to do?** Nick: Think about what you want to do in life, have a plan, and get ready to work hard, sacrifice social time and sleep, and never stop believing. **Where do you see yourself in five years?** Nick: I want to be a partner with the 11 USA Group. **Why do you think building a network is key to success?** Nick: Networking is key to becoming a successful professional. The more contacts you have, the more you will stand out in a competitive environment. Networking will help you develop and improve your skill set, stay on top of the latest trends in your industry, keep a pulse on the job market, meet prospective mentors, partners, and clients, and gain access to the necessary resources that will foster your career development as well as life. --- ## Survivalist Reality Stars Jhoanna Trias and Mitchell Langon Build an Empire on Once in a Lifetime Extreme Travel Experiences URL: https://futuresharks.com/survivalist-reality-stars-jhoanna-trias-and-mitchell-langon-build-an-empire-on-once-in-a-lifetime-extreme-travel-experiences/ *Jhoanna and Mitchell in South Africa December 2018* To say that entrepreneurs Jhoanna Trias and Mitchell Langon provide a world of offerings to their customers is no exaggeration. Indeed, in their enterprise Nomad Tactical and Survival, they specialize as top-level travel outfitters that can take clients to locales as far-flung as the verdant jungles of the Philippines and the rugged outback of Southern Africa, places where extreme situations like being waylaid by ragingly mad bull elephants are everyday challenges. From helping customers select top-notch survival gear for challenging environments to booking the most glamorous of “glamping” vacations in remote destinations, the couple has developed a burgeoning and diverse adventure travel business. Along the way, they’ve incorporated reality TV into their business mix, and plan to grow their global enterprise with boots on the ground and cameras in hand. ### Dynamos with Diverse Backgrounds There are few obvious mileposts on the road to creating a successful adventure travel business, but Trias and Langon have a set of uniquely complementary backgrounds that serve them well in helming Nomad Tactical and Survival. Both hail from Northern California. On her side, Trias grew up on a farm near Sacramento and was more than a bit of a tomboy, but she was also artistically drawn to modeling, acting, and film producing. She also has extensive experience in the retail world. “I’ve invested a lot in my training—interning, assisting, and educating myself both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. I’m obsessed with the whole process of the entertainment industry,” says Trias. Langon’s experience encompasses training and deployment in the U.S. military, where he honed his survival preparedness skills including fire making, shelter building, navigation, and mountaineering. He also gained extensive life-saving skills in wild food foraging, something he later enhanced with a culinary arts degree. Their unique synergy—something they’ve been capturing on video and sharing on YouTube for years—led them to appearing on the Discovery Channel’s “Men, Women, Wild.” On the series, they survived brutal conditions in the rugged Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa. They now make their “Nomad” headquarters in Las Vegas, Nev. ### Sharing the Message Visually is Essential The travel industry, especially in the extreme niche Trias and Langon traverse as entrepreneurs, is inherently visual. They need to share images with their customers that convey the beauty of their travel destinations, like the rugged Kalahari Desert. “We just came back from Southern Africa. We were there for a month,” says Langon. “That’s part of our outfitting business, but it’s also a part of the entertainment side, where we’re filming me giving survival instruction. We discuss the politics and culture of the region. We talk about the indigenous food and the whole experience of what it’s like to live in that region.” When not in the field, in-person appearances are also essential for the two. They frequently attend travel conventions and other gatherings where they share their knowledge and expertise, all while booking new tours and selling additional gear. This level of personal contact is important for people attuned to adventure travel. “We also have lots of friends and client relationships that were forged from so many travels around the country and the world,” he says, stressing that staying in close communication with their clients is a core component of their success. “This year, we’re going to be traveling throughout the United States to tactical-survival shows, firearms events, and outdoor retailer events. One of the famous ones we visit is the International Sportsmen’s Expo.” ### Mapping Out Extreme Credibility and Authenticity As Nomad Tactical and Survival adventure voyages are frequently in remote and wild areas, the business is frequently a matter life and limb. Trias and Langon’s clients must put total faith in their expertise and knowledge, and videos and in-person appearances are key in achieving pre-travel buy-in. “We went to Africa to map out what we can do,” says Trias of the recent video footage that will be shared with past and future clients throughout 2019. And to further leverage TV coverage as they’ve done with the Discovery Channel already, the couple has an eye to spreading the word about their business by getting cast on upcoming reality shows. “The whole entire video is also a pitch to networks and producers saying ‘wow, these guys did this on a super-low budget,'” adds Langon, noting that being economically efficient and self-sufficient is a key selling point in the world of extreme travel entertainment. And, their travel videos convey the extreme authenticity of their travel adventures and their credibility as guides. “When we went to Africa, that wasn’t a movie. When there’s spitting cobra, that’s not “Indiana Jones” CGI; that’s a real spitting cobra in the road,” adds Langon. “When we’re in the truck and there’s a bull elephant trumpeting us and flapping its ears like it wants to flip it over, that’s real.” To follow them on their adventures, you can like Jhoanna’s Facebook Fan Page by clicking here. --- ## How 25 Year Old Joe Laresca Helps Influencers, Celebrities & Artists Make NOISE: An Inside Look Into Music, Film, And Influencer Marketing URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-25-year-old-joe-laresca-helps-influencers-celebrities-artists-make-noise-an-inside-look-into-music-film-and-influencer-marketing/ Joe Laresca is a Future Shark who is making noise and leaving normal behind! He is an entrepreneur, producer, and actor based in New York City. He is most notably known for co-founding Serhant Media Group (SMG) with celebrity, Ryan Serhant; the star of Bravo’s Emmy-nominated Million Dollar Listing New York and Sell It Like Serhant. *Joe Laresca* He is also the founder of Noise, a tech-enabled entertainment, media, management, and full-service production company — working with influencers, artists, and brands to blow sh*t up. In just a short time, NOISE has worked with artists, influencers, and companies such as Extell Development, YesJulz, Gary Vaynerchuk, Carole Radziwill, What So Not, Lulu Simon, Betches, NBC, and others to blow sh*t up. I had the fortunate opportunity to spend time with Joe and bring you this amazing Future Sharks interview. Check it out ! ____ #### Where are you from? Staten Island, New York #### What are some of your hobbies: Fitness, Music, Film, Acting, Producing, Impersonations, Singing Covers, Sublime Concerts, and collecting mugs 😉 #### What is your favorite quote? “Real G’s move in silence like lasagna.” – Lil’ Wayne. #### What are you working on? I’m currently running a company called Noise. Noise is a tech-enabled entertainment, media, management, and full-service production company — working with influencers, artists, and brands to blow sh*t up. *Joe Laresca with his production crew* #### How did you come up with this idea? I was previously running a media company called Snap TV. It was basically MTV on social media. We had 3 shows — Snap TV Cribs, Snap TV Music, and a general show on influencers. I had been running tech startups for awhile and decided to combined my passion for both entertainment and tech. Through SnapTV, I became obsessed with how you can use social media and influencer marketing to promote music, film, and anything in entertainment really. *This is when I decided to pivot SnapTV to NOISE and go all in on what I like to call “The Lil Yachty effect.* #### What’s the “Lil’ Yachty effect”? A couple years ago one of Lil’ Yachty’s song blew up off a six second video on Vine. This isn’t to say that Lil’ Yachty got famous because of that video, but it definitely helped kick-start his career at zero cost. Rapper Lil’ Yachty, is a perfect example of how quickly an artist or a film, can blow up in a super cost-efficient way when the right influencers and strategies are in place. Noise lives and breathes this formula. #### How is your company different? We’re not just another agency that’s going to give a client the blanket “digital marketing strategy.” We genuinely build relationships with each and every one of our clients and get to know them as people first, rather than adding a list of services to a monthly retainer. *Joe Laresca & Ryan Serhant* My vision for Noise has always been built on the fundamental method that it can be the one-stop shop and provide absolutely everything an artist, influencer, celebrity, or filmmaker needs from: social media, to talent management, to production, to public relations. My goal is to build a machine that helps other individual’s dreams come true no matter what industry they’re in or how big they are. We specialize in making a name for people, enhancing their digital presence, and creating their own specific *noise*, which of course is different for each client. #### What’s your dream with your company? I want people to think of us as “noise-makers” and go to Noise when they’re looking to blow something up. I’d like us to be responsible for working with the most influential people, breaking unknown talent who deserve to be heard, and launching our own products that move the world a little bit forward. #### What makes you special? For one, I’ve worked on every side of a product from coding, to designing, to marketing, to business development, to partnerships etc. As cliche as it sounds, I think I’m a by-product of my experiences. I look at problems at both ends of the spectrum and always put myself in someone else’s shoes whether that’s in my professional life or personal life. I look at all situations objectively but also super empathetically, which I think most people have a hard time doing. These two specific traits help immensely with creating and maintaining relationships, and I think that’s a really important skill to have when building any company. *Gary Vee & Joe Laresca at a restaurant together* Most of all, I genuinely care. I’m the one who’s going to pick up the phone at 2am when a client wants to talk about an idea or something personal. The thing is I actually like doing that. I constantly stress the importance of not only providing the best services for the client but also being there as a friend and companion, 24/7. You need to live and breathe the person you’re working with every single second. When you’re working on people’s dreams, you have to make them your own and they need to feel that. #### How do you creatively advertise? Advertising needs to feel like its not advertising. Everything from the specific ad being used, to the way the ad is pushed — be it the influencer or the press used — needs to feel subtle and fun for the targeted audience. Here’s a good example of pushing merch without any inclination that we’re trying to sell (pictured below): ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/eec23519cf32.png) Additionally, whenever I think of a marketing campaign or anything that’s meant to advertise I try to create a story. A story that says, “Why should I care about this person or thing? For example, if I was trying to break an artist by releasing their first single, I’d first and foremost prioritize placing the artist’s story way more than the song itself. I would create content that’s addicting surrounding the song. *However, the most important piece of it all is distribution and finding the right influencer to push the artist’s story and content to the maximum amount of people possible.* #### Who are some people in your industry that you look up to? Answer: Mark Wahlberg, Scooter Braun, Wilmer Valderrama, The Rock, and Jimmy Iovine. They’re all noise-makers in their own way and they have done a little bit of everything so incredibly well. They’re entrepreneurs. They weren’t the best at anything that they do, but they became the best at everything they did. #### What were your biggest failures and biggest success? What did you learn from them? For one, I haven’t lived long enough to speak to my biggest failures and successes just yet. I’m sure my biggest success is coming soon, but I’m sure my biggest failure is coming sooner than that. So far, my biggest success would be graduating college first-generation from The College William and Mary. I guess my biggest failure is getting an “F” in Game Theory. #### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have .. If you have an idea, do it, and do it now. Don’t ever overthink. Being an entrepreneur is the best and worst thing you could. You’re going to get repeatedly punched in the face, you’re going to fail more than you succeed, and most of all it can be incredibly lonely. Also, don’t force ever an idea. Treat it like a relationship. Ideas come and go. If you feel like you can’t fix it, start something else. #### What is your #1 tip to connect with influential people on a personal level? If you’re looking to connect with influencers, celebrities, or executives that may be a little bit out of reach, here’s a quick tip: First and foremost, you need to **immediately show value.** I notice a lot of people who send emails, DMs, or texts that say, “Hey, I love what you’re doing and would love to pick your brain.” This does not show value. If you truly wanted to and were persistent enough (NOT PUSHY), you could probably get in touch with Kanye, Scooter Braun, or even the President. You just have to be creative, quick, and show why this person you’re reaching out to should give you even a second of their time. Immediately introduce yourself with credibility and explain how you can provide them value in the first two sentences. In the third sentence, politely and directly ask them for a minute of their time. *Be brief, be creative, and be fast. And if they get back to you, immediately answer with a follow up.* #### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Overly communicate your worth. As someone who works with influencers and public figures, you need to constantly communicate what exactly you’re doing for this person or company on a day to day/ weekly basis. When it comes to making “noise” for someone, it doesn’t happen overnight. Sometimes it could take a day, but other times it can take months or even a year. But you need communicate what you’re doing even if there isn’t something tangible. *If you people out to dry with no updates, then they’ll think you’re doing nothing.* #### What do you think you do better than most people? Getting people hype about an idea or mission and forming a team around that. Additionally, I think I’m pretty good at getting people to believe in me and what I can do for them. #### What is the most practical and actionable framework you can share for other Future Sharks to use in their daily life? If you’re trying to build something whether that’s a music career or your own company, do something that advances that goal every single day, even if it’s small. Too many people get psyched out about not getting to their goal quickly enough, but forget that small steps everyday, add up and mean a lot. #### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Reverse engineering what they want to build. #### What holds most entrepreneurs back and how can they get through it? Either not starting at all or becoming obsessed with one idea… I think most entrepreneurial people become obsessed with ideas and don’t start, and if they do start they keep forcing the idea when it doesn’t work as opposed to starting something else. #### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? The Alchemist, Zero to One, The Everything Store, Milk & Honey, Tools of Titans. #### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Working with some of the most creative people in film and music, and being responsible for next generation artists. #### What do the words ‘Leave Normal Behind’ mean to you? Never settle for normality in any aspect of your life.**** #### Where can the people follow you on social media? Website: Joelaresca.com Instagram Twitter LinkedIn --- ## What Chess has taught me about Business and Life URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-chess-has-taught-me-about-business-and-life/ I discovered the game of chess back when I was in middle school. As I played my very first match, I knew I would fall in love with this game. It just resonated with me deeply on a personal level. I always loved problem solving and critical thinking – skills that were essential for chess. I always preferred games that involved intellect, strategy and heavy utilization of the mind, over physical sports like football. The latter just didn’t interest me. My strength has always been the mind. Back in high school, I went through a phase where chess became an obsession. I remember playing chess for 15 hours a day, every day, for months on end. It was not just about improving. It was way more than that. It was an addiction. I was in love with the immense mental stimulation that resulted from each match. I was addicted to competing with players who had a way higher rating than me, just so I could test my intellectual limits. I was obsessed with pushing the boundaries, and seeing what was possible for me. Chess had become my drug. Years down the line, I am no longer an active chess player. However, as I look back at my chess games, I realize the invaluable lessons that chess taught me about business and life. Thousands of games later, I can now visualize chess as an imitation of life itself. Here are the key principles I have learned, which are as important off the board, as they were on the chess board. **Have a plan** – hold long term goals. In chess, if you focus solely on short term tactics, and do not have a long-term plan to defeat your opponent, you risk losing. It’s important to have a vision in mind, a long-term plan, which you want to realize, and you must make short-term moves which will assist you in reaching that long-term goal. This principle applies to life and business as well. In order to attain the highest amount of success, you must always have a clear long-term plan in your mind, and you must act daily in order to bring yourself closer to the materialization of your long-term vision. **Sacrifice** – sometimes you need to sacrifice in order to get ahead. In my games, I remember sacrificing crucial pieces, in order to checkmate my opponents. I became so skilled at sacrifices, that I could easily sacrifice valuable pieces like the Bishop or Rook, in order to get a better position, and checkmate my opponent in the long run. Many years later, I realize this same principle applies to life as well. In fact, this principle is absolutely crucial if you want to achieve a big dream in your life. In order to achieve something big, you have to sacrifice along the way. Sacrifice can be in terms of taking risks, or giving up luxuries and pleasure so you can work harder for your goals. The people who achieve the most in life are the ones who are able to sacrifice in the short-term to win big in the long-term. **Value your key pieces **– know the worth of your best employees. In chess, some pieces have a higher value than others. The value of a queen is way more than a pawn. What a queen can do to help you win the game is something a pawn can simply never do. Similarly, a pawn can never have the same worth as that of a Rook. In order to win at chess, it’s essential to realize the value of your pieces, and leverage them in the most effective way possible, while keeping the long-term plan in mind. If you don’t value your queen, and expect some pawn to help you win the game, you will lose. If you don’t protect your queen or rook, you risk losing them and getting checkmated. I find this principle replicable in the world of business as well. Initially, when I started playing the game of business, I struggled with hiring and finding the right team. I preferred hiring people with less value, and this led to significant losses for me. After many failures, I now understand the importance of realizing who your best players are, and utilizing their skills in the most effective way possible to help you win at business. It’s always worth it to spend more money to hire people who are more skilled. And it’s essential to value your most important employees, because if they are happy, they will do their best to help you win. **Timing is everything **– don’t let opportunities slip by. Missed opportunities rarely return. Simply acting is not enough. Timing your action is the most important thing. In chess, if you miss a chance to checkmate your opponent, then you might not get another chance to defeat them. Similarly, in business, timing is everything. Would Facebook have been so big if Mark Zuckerberg had launched it in 2019 instead of 2004? You cannot launch a Facebook-like website in 2019, and expect it to become the #1 social networking website in the world. You are too late to the game. Mark Zuckerberg didn’t let the opportunity slip by, and he acted at the right time. Therefore, acting at the right time is crucial to business success. The same decision made too late, might as well be a wrong decision. Timely action also means acting fast, instead of sitting around and waiting for the right moment. **Mistakes are inevitable** – don’t let failure stop you, you can still win the game. During a game of chess, we often make mistakes. If you are able to spot your mistake in time, and act quickly to fix it, you can still hope to win the game. However, if you start to believe that you can no longer win the game, majority of the times, you will lose, even if a possibility of winning had existed. In life as well, we often encounter failures and temporary defeats. It’s important to quickly realize your mistakes, understand what you did wrong, and continue believing and working towards your dream. If you learn from your mistakes, and continue believing, eventually you will win the game. **Have fun **– what’s the use of playing, if you’re not going to have fun with it. I didn’t play chess because I had to, or someone was forcing me to play it. I played because it was fun. It was thrilling. I loved the thought process that went into every move I made. I loved the look on my opponents face as I used well-thought-out strategies to trap them into an inevitable checkmate. I loved the game itself as much as I loved the final victory. The same principle should apply to whatever you do in life. Having fun, being curious, and always trying to learn and improve should be the cornerstone of every endeavour. Too many people are stuck doing jobs they hate. Too many people are spending their life doing things they don’t like. That’s a really sad way to live life. Life is too short to do things that you don’t enjoy. The end goal should always be to have happy, and have fun. If you’re doing something that is not bringing you happiness, or if it’s something that you don’t enjoy, then don’t do it. After years of playing chess, I realized that we can learn to treat life itself as a giant chess board. We’re the ones in control of this game. We move the pieces. We can attack when we want. We can sacrifice what we want. We can strategise, and set long-term goals. In the end, there is a dream to be realized, hurdles to be overcome, and sacrifices that need to be made along the way. You have two choices in this game: take strategic action to achieve your goal, or sit around and wait for your timer to run out. I made my decision a long time ago, and I don’t intend to turn back. I love the process as much as I love the final checkmate, so I’ll just keep playing this game till the very end. --- ## How To Become More Credible & Trustworthy With Julio Martinez URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-become-more-credible-trustworthy-with-julio-martinez/ Many entrepreneurs struggle with putting their brand out there and becoming trustworthy. Being trusted and having pillars of credibility will make your sales process that much more easier for you because they know who you are and what you do. Potential clients will not have to ask you so many questions because they know they can trust you. Someone who isn’t too credible will have to be great at selling because they don’t have that credibility so the buyer is very uncertain about their work. Of course being able to sell is a great skill to have, but if you have all the credibility in the world then you won’t have to sell. There are many things that you can do to increase your credibility and become trustworthy to your potential clients. Here are a few tips from entrepreneur and PR expert Julio Martinez: - *Build your pillar pieces*– What does this mean? This means you should try to get featured on 3-5 publications so you can become more credible, trustworthy, and leverage those pieces. - *Get testimonials*– Getting testimonials from your satisfied clients is always a good idea no matter your niche because you can share those out as you please so others know you deliver results. - *Build your network*– Networking to build your audience and connections is no secret. Many people and entrepreneurs do this because it is so simple and effective. Having many connections is very useful because you never know when you will need to pull a few strings, receive advice, or recieve a discounted price on something they sell. - *Case Studies*– Having case studies handy is always a plus. If you can show a uncertain potential client proven results then they will be more likely to buy from you because they see no risk in buying from you. - *Podcasts*– Try and land podcast interviews. Being interviewed on podcasts is a great way to be seen and share your story. People are more likely to buy from you if they feel like they can trust you and knowing that others have bought from you and were satisfied. It is always a smart move to become a master at sales but having the credibility behind you will make it so much easier. These few tips will help you become more credible and trustworthy in the long run so you won’t be bombarded with questions when you try to sell your service or product to someone. --- ## How To Build A Global Agency From Your Bedroom With £0.00 With Myles Broom URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-build-a-global-agency-from-your-bedroom-with-0-00-with-myles-broom/ **Knowing He Didn’t Belong Where He Came From..** Myles grew up in a small city in the U.K. called Peterborough, where he actually still resides to this day after buying his first property at just 19. The deposit of which was entirely sourced from one of his online stores he set up in his teens, proving that the ‘side hustle’ can create a huge foundation for the future if done correctly. Myles KNEW from going on to get experience in the rat race, that it just wasn’t for him. The corporate ladder he was told from a young age to get in to and work his way up within, was actually a promise land which was a fairytale of what he likes to call ‘first world slavery.’ He knew that this wasn’t the life he wanted and yet most settle for, and the 9-5 only goes so far when the world’s opportunities are so abundant. Favorite quote: ‘Noah looked like a fool – ‘til it started to rain. Keep building.’ Social accounts https://www.instagram.com/_myles__/?hl=en **So Myles, how exactly did you create your agency, and was it REALLY with nothing?** **Myles Broom:** To be straight to the point, yes. My agency was created from scratch with zero upfront capital. The reason being, everyone is looking for a shortcut, and if you can actually be the lone wolf and do things from nothing, you’ll realize what it really takes, understand who you are as an individual, and know in your gut that every ounce of growth and the highs, are all yours. Entrepreneurship isn’t easy, yet it is now an ‘in thing’ to be an entrepreneur. This is a false mask on the face of what is actually an extremely ballsy, often heartbreaking road, and being a true entrepreneur is someone who can deal with all of that and still wake up in the morning as determined as ever. I knew I wanted this path probably since I can remember, I was building small businesses in the playground at school from my early teens – it was innate in who I was. **What’s your thoughts on young entrepreneurs seeking investment, Myles?** Asking for money early can encourage self sabotage and raising capital early, in my eyes is an excuse to not skilling up and playing the long game. Through hard work, I have managed to create a sustainable lifestyle based business where I can travel the world, generate an income and provide value no matter where I am, to business owners worldwide. This is something that for most is a pipedream, but actually it can be done much faster than people realise, and it really does come down to passion. If you have an underlying passion, that’ll take you through the lows which is more valuable than investment because it makes you future-proof and stand the test of time. Most people in 2019 are incredibly weak emotionally, so any get out clause or easy option is the preferred option, but not the one which builds you up for the long haul. The thick skin is needed if you are to create something that lasts. I’ve failed many times, to the point of tears, but the highs after the lows are so rewarding. I get it, when you have an idea and you are working relentlessly to make it happen, some seed capital can seem like a great idea. It allows you to recruit, get experts in, get volume, leverage. However, this can take you away from the trenches when the early stages are CRUCIAL to seeing if you as an entrepreneur can stand the test of time, and not simply be a piggy bank. Get in, get deep, get on the front line, take out the bins, deal with fires at 2am. Why? Because that builds resilience, tenacity and the mindset to understanding what IT TAKES. When you take capital, and you don’t fuel the business from the ground up yourself, you get taken away from your customers, the real in depth sh*t that makes the company the company, especially in the early stages when being in the dirt is what plants the seed. So, I implore anyone who reads this to learn to fail, fail some more and grow organically. Why? Because you can, and the toughest climbs have the best views. **How did you get your first client?** **Myles Broom:** Good old cold calls. Do the stuff that most won’t because then you can obtain what most can’t. I chose to go the route that I didn’t want to personally do to begin with, as no one loves cold calling. However, if you can present a solution to a problem and come from an angle of service, you will get a meeting. My favourite type of client to begin with was restaurants, so I would call them up as I was a big foodie and could talk their language, build rapport and book in a meeting with anyone who had a poor social presence. I found a need and served it. I learned this skill from working within a marketing agency on the sales front, being the face of the business, meeting business owners and presenting myself in the way that I would if it were my own company. I actually, before starting the work on my own agency I worked within a small, niche specific marketing agency and also working within marketing teams for bigger companies between doing so. This again, is a step that most would-be-entrepreneurs won’t take, as they need to be number 1 and have the ‘CEO’ title by their name on LinkedIn for street cred. For me, when playing the long game you win when you see and experience a process before trying to figure out the process on your own. I worked within companies that were successful, which managed hundreds of clients, and saw the company processes, areas of improvement and market gaps for myself, first hand. From here, you get paid to learn! It’s a win win which I encourage any young entrepreneur to do. Want to run a marketing agency? Work for one. Want to run a hair salon? Work for one. Want to create a clothing line? Be the Assistant for the MD at a large retailer. **Where is your agency now? How have you managed to scale?** **Myles Broom:** Right now my focus is on systemising and growth. I currently have a couple of team members in europe, and some out in the U.S. who are on the top of their game. We are servicing clients worldwide, and at this moment in time I am negotiating a multi 5-figure contract with an Indonesian pharmaceutical company. Things are exciting, and just 2 years ago my agency was just an idea which I was pondering over. I wanted to adopt a global mindset and strategy as soon as I could, as the world is so vast. We live in a world where everyone is connected, so why restrict your talent pool to one area of a country? You’re immediately restricting the talent that you can acquire, and therefore restricting your growth. My advice is to hire as soon as you can, because without hiring, you are a solopreneur and essentially just creating yourself another job with your own business rather than having the business work for you. A business scales when you hire, and hire well. Most people think they cannot afford this, but my answer is ‘Can you afford NOT to hire?’ because when you don’t, your time is restricted and you cannot focus on income producing tasks which move the needle of growth. It’s never been easier to be connected to people who can help you, and you can always start with someone who is an expert in their field who will do a few hours work on your routine, mundane tasks per week freelance, (for example, my accountant) so you can focus on the wider picture. To me, that is invaluable. You need to learn to let go if you really want the business to grow. --- ## Can Sweet Pea Change Some Of The Worst Parts Of The Internet? URL: https://futuresharks.com/can-sweet-pea-change-some-of-the-worst-parts-of-the-internet/ Sierra & Sally are in charge of marketing, strategy, PR, product development and user experience at Sweet Pea, a dating app designed in opposition to the “hot or not” swiping mentality of online dating. The app gives users social context, like being able to match with people who have similar interests like “Art”, “Business” and “Food”, and giving both men and women the opportunity to initiate conversation. The app now has real-life stories of people meeting and marrying thanks to Sweet Pea, and it’s only been around since late 2016. **What’s your backstory?** Sally I started my own marketing & PR agency in Australia and ran it for a couple of years before deciding I wanted a new challenge. I was tossing up between going back to university to study engineering, or relocating to the US. In late 2017 I made the decision to move to LA – I don’t think I have the patience to go back to the classroom at the moment! I now run my marketing agency in LA and work with Sweet Pea as head of Strategy. Moving to a new country without a network of support was challenging, and I was looking for ways to find like minded people and experience my new city. I connected with Sierra (Sweet Pea’s CMO) and Michael (Sweet Pea’s Founder) and realised we were both trying to solve the same problem in different ways – How can you recreate the experience of meeting people in real life, online, without it feeling like some kind of “hot or not” gamified interaction? When we meet people in the “real world” we’re surrounded by context – if we’re at an art show, we can talk about the art. If we meet at work, we can have a conversation which isn’t immediately focused on courtship, if we meet in a social sports league we can bond over a common interest. When I learned about what Michael & Sierra were developing, I knew this was the kind of thing my friends and I were looking for. **Sierra** I moved to LA from Arizona and was working in music after I graduated. I met Michael Bruch, Sweet Pea’s Founder, and we connected on a lot of the core values that help Sweet Pea differentiate itself. We both wanted to create something long-lasting, that helped social engineer dating in a different direction – less about endlessly swiping and feeling disconnected from human interaction, and more about creating a digital social space where it feels like meeting in real life. I was also new to LA, and had used different dating apps my friends had recommended. While I’d had some good experiences, I was feeling fatigued at the endless swiping and I didn’t love the thought of dating in my 20’s and only using the currently available apps as my way of eventually meeting someone I liked. Meeting Michael and helping develop his idea was really exciting, because I’m working to create something my friends and I would actually use – not something owned by a big corporate monopoly which designs their experience profit off people’s frustration. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** **Sally** Sweet Pea has held some incredibly cool experiential events at places like South by Southwest, Coachella and Sundance, and we had a great College Marketing strategy in 2018. Michael, Sweet Pea’s Founder has encouraged Sierra and I to deep dive into the product side of things, and we work really closely with the engineers on product and user experience – we’ve been challenged to learn quickly and it’s develop an entirely different skill set. Working with a tech client in a male dominated industry, Sierra and I have definitely been met with skepticism. We’ve been (kindly) advised by men who work in tech and finance on several occasions that we should leave this space to people more experienced, who ‘understand’ teach better, and that we’re in a very competitive space so we should consider focusing on something else. As the company grows, we’ve definitely had some challenges. Sweet Pea are looking to raise funding in 2019 which will definitely be the next challenge for us, especially hearing about the bias that exists with founding teams that have both men and women receiving only about 12% of overall funding. What keeps us inspired is hearing feedback from people using the app in real life and working with the apps engineers to make sure we’re designing an experience that reflects what people really want. We did a re-skinning of the app experience late last year and got thrown a few curveballs which our engineers worked around the clock to correct. We feel a responsibility to create something original which we actually want and we don’t plan on stopping until everyone is using it. **Sierra** We’ve had a strong success rate with events and experiential marketing, supported by digital marketing and it’s been awesome to see that reflected in the growth. A major challenge we face is when competitors take our original ideas as their own. We’ve seen our horoscope & wingmate features be adopted by competitors and while it’s somewhat flattering, it’s also frustrating as we are still growing. We don’t have the might of a giant umbrella company behind us to push a huge advertising strategy, but we do have a deeper intrinsic purpose than many of our competitors. We develop the app’s unique features from a place of creating a better social environment – rather than looking for ways to monetize dating. The thing is, everyone we know who is single is looking for something better than what they currently are using to meet people. We know there’s a need for this, and we’re not the type to wait for somebody else to create it. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** **Sally** I think most people are afraid of failure, and we’re no different. Especially being under the lense of being a ‘woman’ in tech, I’ve felt added pressure as I know people aren’t necessarily expecting us to succeed. A recent article by U.S. News & World Report shows women are judged more harshly for their mistakes, so it’s hard not to be risk averse, especially in male- dominated domains. Seeing competitors adopt our Zodiac matching and Wingmate features was defeating and frustrating. But we’re lucky that we check in with each other and that we have Michael and a handful of mentors who can give us sound advice based on experience. We’re figuring things out as we go and if we make mistakes we know we just have to own up, take responsibility, and put something in place to try and ensure it doesn’t happen again. We don’t have time to slow down. **Sierra** Working in a start-up is always going to be challenging. You don’t just do the designated role you signed up for, you end up wearing so many hats. If the app is experiencing a glitch or if you get an email from someone in a remote place who is annoyed they don’t have matches in their area, it’s hard not to let it consume you. I use it to drive me to keep making sure the product is improving, and making sure more and more people are learning about us – so that even those in small towns and faraway places hear about us and can find someone like minded. --- ## Why JAKK Media Thinks Niche Content Is the Next Big Thing URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-jakk-media-thinks-niche-content-is-the-next-big-thing/ Content sites live and die by their readership, which is why so many brands have sought to target increasingly broad audiences. The dominant thinking seems to be this: If your content applies to as many people as possible, then your site will be visited by as many people as possible. At JAKK Media, they choose a different approach. Instead of creating content that is appealing to just anyone, the team is doubling down on niche content, in which they speak to particular passions with narrowly focused, expert content. They deliberately create content that is only appealing to people who are passionate about that subject—from people who are looking to a buy a new mattress or secure their home to folks who want to build their physiques via strength training. In the process, they’ve learned that by providing great value to an audience (even a smaller one), it’s possible to build a thriving business. Here’s why JAKK Media is betting on niche content as the next big thing. #### Embracing Niche Content Kenny Kline, founder of JAKK Media, has always been a person with a lot of interests, and thus he has also been a person who consumes a lot of interest-related content whenever it’s available. Whether it’s about stained glass, beekeeping, jazz piano, certain types of film, or crafts, he has always been a consumer of niche content—and as a consumer, he’s experienced firsthand how niche content sites can generate raving fans. So when he first began thinking about making better content to appeal to people’s passions, he knew it was worth devoting his career too. As a result, his first company operated in a niche space—specifically test prep for medical certification exams. He started the company because his sister was a registered dietician, and she wanted a better way to study for her exams. Kline made her a simple app to facilitate her studies and put it up for sale. Even though there aren’t that many registered dietitians (about 3,000 new ones each year), enough of them used the app that he actually made a decent amount of money. Through this experience, Kline learned that providing value to a small but passionate audience is a viable way to develop a successful business. And he firmly believes this is the most successful business model as content brands look toward the future. #### Niche Content: The Way of the Future Kline’s early success with a niche brand wasn’t just a fluke. Thanks in large part to the fact that content generation and reach has been democratized through advanced creative technologies and decentralized distribution networks, he sees niche content is clearly the wave of the future. Seth Godin words it nicely in *This Is Marketing* when he writes, “The relentless pursuit of mass will make you boring, because mass means average, it means the center of the curve, it requires you to offend no one and satisfy everyone. It will lead to compromises and generalizations. Begin instead with the *smallest viable market*.” As Kline explains, audiences want high-quality content that is directly relevant to their life’s passions, and they’re increasingly less willing to sort through or engage with content that doesn’t feel relevant to their lives. They also don’t want to engage with superficial content when it comes to topics around which they’ve already developed substantial expertise. Passionate audiences want to go deep with their passions—and they’re willing to stay loyal to brands who go there with them. The team at JAKK Media can see this both in the success of niche content companies all around the web and in the fact that large content companies are already struggling. Kline expects that many niche content players will rise up to take the place of large content companies with vaguely defined audiences—and sooner rather than later. #### Challenges of Niche Content Creating a successful niche content brand is a walk in the park. Niche content presents many challenges, especially when starting out. Here are a few of those challenges according to Kline: 1. You have to figure out how to reach what is probably a small and generally hard-to-reach audience. So while you need to invest a lot in creating great and engaging content, you’re not going to see huge results in terms of traffic or revenue for quite a while. That means niche content requires a decent investment (of time, energy, and financial resources) up front. 2. You need experts to create it. Your content creators need to have an extensive background in the field or be willing to spend significant time and energy becoming experts. This makes hiring for these positions especially difficult. In spite of these challenges, developing a quality niche content brand will pay off in the form of loyal, passionate fans who are willing to spread the word about your brand to their networks of people with the same interest. It may be a slower path to growth, but it ultimately leads to a more devoted audience and a more sustainable, successful brand. At JAKK Media, the team is betting on it. --- ## I am of the mindset, that once I start something, I cannot give up”- Bruce Brenon URL: https://futuresharks.com/i-am-of-the-mindset-that-once-i-start-something-i-cannot-give-up-bruce-brenon/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life, and have been supported my some incredible mentors that have helped guide me to where I am today. For this and for my success, I am grateful. I believe my successes come from confidence, lawn mowing service when I was 16 in my Missouri hometown. Over time, clients began asking me to manage the landscaping for their entire yard. And in the next few years, I grew that company into a full-scale landscaping business that I managed while in school at the University of Central Missouri. In my early 20s, I took a chance and moved to Florida with a few friends and offered my services there. My landscaping business grew into a full-blown outdoor holiday décor company because landscaping clients asked for more, and I said yes. At this time I had an incredible mentor that had an obelisk on his property with the words “Scio te Ipsum” scribed in Latin on it. I wasn’t too impressed with it at the time until I learned what it meant – “Know Thyself.” Since then, that has been my number one reminder in life. I must focus on my strengths and be aware of my weaknesses. And with that, I grew my business in Florida quickly into a full-scale holiday installations and experiences company. After that success, I began to consider another big challenge: I wanted to move to Southern California and try my luck there. I officially opened Shine Illumination’s doors in 2006 in Southern California with a few small HOAs and private home clients I decorated during the holidays. It was challenging because I was starting with nothing and had no prior local relationships – I was only as good as my word. But I never lost my courage and I surrounded myself with like-minded people, and built Shine into a year-round designer and builder of displays and experiences for events and various holidays. I still spearhead all of our new business efforts and get to oversee the building of all the cool things we do with my team of 25 full-time employees. My little lawn mowing service turned into a company that converts public spaces into memorable destinations that go viral on social media. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I am of the mindset, that once I start something, I cannot give up. I have to make it work. There have been many times I have looked the most daunting challenge in the eye wondering ‘how in the world are we were going to install decor at more than 150 properties with two weeks to complete them all? There’s no way!’ Especially when you can barely even drive to all of them in two weeks, let alone install animated displays and tens, often times hundreds, of thousands of lights. I can honestly say it is a true test of your mental and physical spirit. Believe it or not, this is when I shine – an approaching deadline and added pressure fuels my fire and directs my focus. No one can do it all at once. But when my focus is to execute on one job after another, after another – we can get it done. There is no time rest or complain. All you can do is execute. And this is the model (though stressful) that has gotten me through our major winter holiday rushes year after year. Then we rest and celebrate after. --- ## I knew this was the time in my life when I had to become the real leader”- Kayvon Kay  URL: https://futuresharks.com/i-knew-this-was-the-time-in-my-life-when-i-had-to-become-the-real-leader-kayvon-kay/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges and major responsibilities?** My prior successes include being the #1 sales representative in Canada for one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies; giving talks on famous stages such as Harvard University’s and recently starting my own sales coaching company with a business partner. Growing that company from $0 to $10 million within the first 9 months is definitely a notable success story, and considering I was the kid always told he’d never graduate University, being asked to speak at one of the world’s most prestigious Universities – Harvard – was extremely momentous as well. As far as challenges go, I faced multiple challenges throughout my life. Whether it was due to being the underdog, being bullied or being ridiculed, for years I carried self-limiting beliefs with me wherever I went. Even when I gained confidence, there was always someone attempting to dim my light. Other challenges included people constantly thinking I was too loud, too vivacious, or bothered by my positive energy. Throughout my life, people were always trying to pull the rug from under my feet or hold me back because they were intimidated by me, which only goes to show how threatened they felt by my conviction. Some of my major responsibilities have included being the Director of Sales for a $10 million dollar company, for which I was leading over 5,000 closers. In my current business, I am responsible for *everything* because it’s *my* business and I oversee every department of every single operation. I always have to be several steps ahead of the game – whether it’s in my business or in my personal life – so that I’m always at the forefront of change. I always have to be a leader – even on the days I feel off or unwell. On the days I don’t feel like being a leader, I still show up and push forward, because that’s what leadership requires. That’s why leadership is one of the biggest responsibilities one can have. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I remember this moment like it was yesterday. I was in $150,000.00 in debt, waiting in line at the bank to declare bankruptcy. I was lost, I was scared, I was broke, and I was broken. In that dark, terrifying and lonesome moment of my life, I almost accepted failure. I almost decided to finally accept that what everyone had been saying to me my whole life was true: I wasn’t good enough; I wasn’t going to make it. In other words, I was on the brink of allowing everyone else’s pessimistic predictions of my future to come true. I felt hopeless, ashamed, and defeated in every way. In that same moment, however, I realized that this is exactly what I needed to happen. I needed to hit rock bottom so that I could find the motivation to change my story. Even though I came close to accepting defeat and giving up, I chose not to surrender. I chose to take the other path, the one where I don’t give up on my dream. I knew that I might dim my light forever if I didn’t walk away from that lineup. So, I went home, started researching, and started thinking outside the box. I stopped looking at what people were doing, and started looking at what people *weren’t* doing. I started looking at what was missing, and figuring out where I could add value to the marketplace. Instead of following trends, I knew this was the time in my life when I had to become the real leader. Through mentorship, I fell back into alignment with my core strengths and I found myself again. The better version of myself surfaced. I returned to the marketplace as someone who felt certain about his skills and truly believed in what he had to offer. This allowed me to enter the marketplace with raw power, raw strength, clarity and unwavering conviction. This time, the market took to my approach very readily; I quickly became one of the top closers in the high-ticket space over the phone; and soon the media would call me ‘The One Call Closer’. --- ## The Top Entrepreneurs to Follow in 2019 URL: https://futuresharks.com/top-entrepreneurs-to-follow/ If scaling a business is on your to-do list for 2019, you’re in luck. We asked our community of entrepreneurs to share their top piece of advice for [growing a business](/zain-jan-story/). After sorting through all the responses, we chose the entrepreneurs whose stories inspire the most. Use their tips grow your company and brand. ## Mark Denham – Pocket Space In 2017, we wanted to enter the modular privacy room (phone pods etc) business to help expedite the need for rapid installation of various modular rooms for the commercial office environment. The current open office layouts do not address the needs for privacy. There is nowhere to go to have small private meetings and private phone calls. In 2018, we introduced our new Studio series, a collection of pre-configured kits for private modular spaces, made from 90% recycled materials. These kits can be installed in a matter of hours instead of weeks and months for standard construction involving major business interruptions. We have some exciting groundbreaking plans for 2019 addressing personalization and safety…stay tuned. “For those of you who are going through challenging times, whether it be your startup or extreme growth pains of an existing business, you are not alone (although we may think we are). Raising your hand and asking for help is a good thing to do…there is no shame in that at all.” Website: Mark on LinkedIn ☎ 415-915-2010 or ✉ mark@sourceworkspace.com ## Gene Swank – Propellant Labs Gene is a serial entrepreneur who has built and scaled companies across numerous verticals. He is currently the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Propellant Labs, an international online incubator that mentors startups around the globe. Under Gene’s leadership, Propellant Labs has seen exponential growth with a portfolio of over 50 startups, and a combined estimated valuation of over $100,000,000. Gene also serves on the Board Of Directors for several organizations and is the current board treasurer for Harbor Springs, a division of Springs Charter Schools, headquartered in Temecula, CA. “Gene believes, that the key to success is surrounding yourself with good, passionate, experienced people that aren’t afraid to take action. Gene says, that while you want people on your team who are hungry, they can’t be starving. Don’t forget to be humble and regardless of your title, you should never be too proud to pick up a broom. It keeps you grounded and reminds you that every single person is essential to the success of your company.” LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geneswank/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gene.swank Twitter: https://twitter.com/geneswank ## Igor Bekker – MADE OF MADE OF® organic-first personal care brand that features a portfolio of baby care products certified to the NSF organic standard. EWG Verified and Gluten Free Certified. “Business ethics and transparency are more important than ever. Partner with vendors that share your vision and mission. Partners that believe in you will make development and execution go so much smoother. With MADE OF® we built a supply chain of manufacturers and agencies that support our mission of ULTIMATE TRANSPARENCY®. It was important to us for our suppliers to operate as an open book. It took a while to build the right relationship but as soon as we identified the partners the process took off quickly.” ## Austin Netzley – 2X Austin Netzley – Founder and CEO of 2X, a business accelerator helping 6 and 7-figure entrepreneurs implement the systems and strategies necessary to double their business in 90 days. Put the right systems, structure and team in place one piece at a time, and scale fast by working on the high leverage activities, not the nitty gritty details. It took me too many years in business to figure this out, but the shift is priceless!” “My advice to entrepreneurs is that the sooner you can get out of the day-to-day operations of your business (and stop doing everything yourself), the sooner you can get what you really want out of your business: the freedom, the impact, and the growth that you know is possible.” ### Jill Tupper – The Corporate Triathlete Jill Tupper is the CEO of The Corporate Triathlete Body + Mind + Business. As an Entrepreneur, Professor & Keynote Speaker, Jill draws upon her adventures in marathons, triathlons, rock-climbing, out-rigging, traveling the world and climbing Kilimanjaro to inspire others to take on this triathlon of life with goals, guts and grit. Her global experiences in working with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, Ethiopia and beyond, backed by breakthroughs in neuroscience, proves the revolutionary power of purpose in work & in life. “Business is a marathon, not a sprint. Remember to take care of yourself physically, mentally and connect to your purpose daily. Otherwise, it’s easy for entrepreneurs to burn out.” ### Beau Henderson – Rich Life Investors Beau Henderson, CEO of The RichLife Advisors, is a financial advisor, syndicated radio host, master certified success coach and bestselling author. He writes and speaks internationally helping people create success with both money and life. “The most important thing I’ve learned is the importance of investing in others on the journey to building a 7 figure business. Give your time. Nurture your relationships. Create unique experiences. Don’t wait until you’re making enough money, until you have a better job, or until you’re retired to start leaving your legacy. Start now.” ## Janine Zappini – Gutsii Janine Zappini Co-Founder and CEO of Gutsii is a conscious food pioneer and certified health coach. Janine Zappini is the founder of Gutsii and Simply Raw, Australia’s first 100% raw snack bar. Specialising in designing healthy foods for the past seven years, Janine has been on a mission to turn the tides in how easy it can be to make a great food choice and bring the worlds of convenience and functional foods together. With her qualifications as a health coach and a focus on integrative nutrition Janine is a treasure trove of nutrition, food and healing yourself with small changes and new choices. “Failure is part of success, as long as you learn the lessons behind that experience. Failure’s are opportunities to be used as empowering tools for your goals, guiding you back on your path. Entrepreneurs are worriers, we never give up!” ### HeatherDeSantis – Publicity for Good Heather DeSantis is a Top Millennial publicist and CEO of Publicity for Good, a purpose driven public relations firm for food and beverage companies. Heather combines market foresight, strategic timing, and organic interviews to generate millions of earned media impressions from outlets like ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BBC, iHeartMedia, Business Insider, Inc, and more. Heather not only was the former Miss Ohio International but she also started a PR software company called Press Demand. “Public Relations is the fastest way to grow your business and increase visibility. Businesses of all backgrounds, sizes, and structures now hold the keys to Public Relations. What was previously reserved for the ‘big brands’ is more accessible than ever…if you know how to trade this social currency. As a brand, engage your community, attract new traffic, and grow your reputation.” Website:https://publicityforgood.com/ ## Bjorn Oste – Good Idea Bjorn Oste CEO of Good Idea Drinks and founder of Oatly. “You need to “be and live” your product. We’re on a mission to make the world healthier. Among other things, that means that we must be transparent and honest in all we do. We will not only say that our products are “good” or “healthy”, we must also be able to prove it.” ## Chris Wiser – The Wiser Agency Chris Wiser is the Founder and CEO of The Wiser Agency, a Digital Marketing, Coaching & Sales Agency and Wiser Organics, an all Organic CBD line of products, with both based in Austin, Texas. “The single largest piece of advice I can give entrepreneurs is honestly one word. EXECUTE. Put a plan in place and execute that plan literally to exhaustion. Initially, success will come slowly but long term and thorough execution will always win.” ## Michael Huey – He-Fluence Certified Elite Trainer for American Council of Exercise for 15+ years; 20+ years in the gym industry as a trainer certified in: Sports Nutrition; Weight Loss & Weight Management; Anti-Aging; Injury Prevention & Post-Injury Rehabilitation; and much more; “If I were to give any advice to up and coming entrepreneurs it would be three things: Focus on your health, build lasting relationships, and don’t be afraid to chase that 7 figure income.” Website: ## Roy Taylor – DRIV3 Roy Taylor is a 7-figure millennial serial entrepreneur who committed to living his life by the motto “Life By Design”. In 2018 he invested in multiple companies based around his priorities; health, wealth, & happiness. Roy now teaches others how to do the same, while scaling his ventures to 7-figures. Roy is the co-owner of DRIV3, the premier Los-Angeles based Exotic Car rental business. He also co-owns Ceeze (@ceezemc) a custom shoe company, which made shoes & bags this year for celebrities such as Lebron James, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Rich The Kid, and been featured on Hypebeast & HighSnobiety. His other ventures include his DTLA clothing print shop TektonLand (@TektonLand), a cannabis company Magic Pipe (@mymagicpipe), & his inner circle where he mentors upcoming entrepreneurs “In 2019, it’s time to focus on digital businesses and automation- the world is moving faster, people are more connected, and statistics show people are buying more than ever via their smartphones! That, combined with the fact you can make money doing practically anything you actually enjoy. It’s a sign to start taking advantage of online businesses and start living the life you dream about!” Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roytaylor ## Ibrahim Al-Haidos – FURSAN Ibrahim is the Founder of Fursan, a luxury handbag brand in Qatar that is quickly becoming known around the world. Last year, Al-Haidos made a big splash in the U.S. media making appearances in iconic business magazines like Forbes and Entrepreneur. Ibrahim often uses Instagram where he has racked up 127,000 followers to help him reach a global audience with his brand “When building your brand never underestimate the power of visual storytelling. The most recent studies in online consumer behavior show that people engage the most with posts that contain beautiful imagery.” Website: fursan.qa Instagram: @ibrahim_alhaidos ## Jeff Engel – Snacktops Over the last 18 months, I have had the chance to spend time with Jeff and gain a better understanding of who he is and why he continues to succeed. Jeff’s diverse experience globally in business, as a US Navy SEAL, as a collegiate swimmer, and as a young kid riding his bike to swim practice, helped form the framework to deliver business wins –in both small, scrappy entrepreneurial roles and in executive leadership positions in large corporations. Jeff was fortunate to have roles within award-winning organizations to include Sales, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing and overall accountability for multiple business units simultaneously around the world. From an early age, he learned how to get figuratively (and literally) knocked down (or out), get back up and be wiser from the experience. During my time with Jeff, he said the most valuable lesson he learned happened during his first year at the United States Naval Academy where he learned the 5th Law of the Navy: paraphrased – you are only as strong as your weakest link (member or process of your team/network). (BTW – The SEALS, business and family reinforce that valuable lesson continuously) “Keep learning and growing with passion and curiosity. Even if you are an expert, continue to drive to be smarter than you were the day prior. Learn how to grow your personal and company’s resiliency. With resiliency, you will learn and advance to the next objective faster and more effectively. Today’s actions define your future. Your reputation defines your future. Do not be short-sighted. Do what is right so that your family is proud of the legacy you leave them. In today’s term, your legacy is your brand.” Jeff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffengel1/ Snacktop LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/snacktops-inc./?viewAsMember=true ## Sarah Elkins – Elkins Consulting Elkins Consulting Inc. provides communication coaching for individuals and teams, using the Gallup StrengthsFinders assessment as a tool to encourage self-reflection and personal responsibility. We also provide keynotes, workshops, and conference break-out sessions with themes of storytelling as the functional backbone of communication. Elkins Consulting hosts the No Longer Virtual (#NLV, #nlvatlanta2019) conferences, bringing online relationships offline to learn from each other face-to-face and connect beyond the keyboard (#connectbeyondthekeyboard). Visit the Elkins Consulting website to learn more about how your stories, told well, will improve your relationships and your bottom line: http://elkinsconsulting.com/storytellingcoach/ “Invest in yourself – attend at least one conference each year to meet your network face-to-face. Your most important relationships are those who trust you, who know you, and who want you to succeed. The second degree connections you make as a result of having a solid first-degree network are the bread-and-butter of your business.” **Did you make this list? Feel free to share this inspirational infographic on your website and social media. Please link back to the article whenever possible.** The application fees for this list were sponsored by: Social Marketing Solutions --- ## World’s Largest Sales Agency Owner Daniel Guaragna Describes How He Pushes Through Hard Times URL: https://futuresharks.com/worlds-largest-sales-agency-owner-daniel-guaragna-describes-how-he-pushes-through-hard-times/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Parents split up at the age of 13. I was always struggling financially from a very young age so I started selling door to door airations services at the age of 14-18. Then I dropped out of university at the age of 19 years old, followed my curiosity and strengths (sales) and went on to close 20 million dollars of High-Ticket sales in under 4 years. Started to build a High-Ticket sales agency training sales reps and outsourcing them to entrepreneurs and companies that needed sales executives. Challenges: Social rejection: Before building my Sales Agency to where it is today, close friends and family never understood why I chose to dropout out of school and leave sales to start my business in 2017. Family and friends don’t share your passion or support your ideas and they usually question your decision making. The best way I tackled Social Rejection for me was to network with like minded entrepreneurs and mentors, that way I could share my business ideas and personal experiences. Faced age stereotypes at a very young age – Starting my business at the age of 23 and serving clients that were 2 to 3 times older than me came with a lot of pushback and challenges, but I realized that you can guide your behavior by treating other people in the same manner as you would like them to treat you. Financial struggles in beginning stages of building my sales agency – I compensated for my financial problems by always having a fantastic sales process and a solid business plan so I could improve my chances of attracting the right key people to invest and support me in my company. Remember you can always build a successful company even with the challenges associated with limited funding. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** No matter what at some point in business you will always hit a wall and at that point you feel like your whole life is going to collapse. I hit that wall back in 2017, lost 117,000 in Ad and marketing spend and made 1300 back in return while 3 employees and my top partner left the company. I was back with $2300 in my checking account. At that time I remember my mentor always telling me that the way you behave and react when you hit that wall in business creates habits, and the worst is giving up and quitting. I was a lot closer than I thought, I focused on what I could control “my work ethic”, so I got back to work, picked up the phone and the next week I closed 3 of my biggest sales contracts to date. Sadly, many entrepreneurs give up and fail to realize that success is right around the corner. There is never a clear marker to achieving a difficult goal. The finish line is always right around the corner. --- ## “Changing how you see yourself is vital to keeping the weight off long term”- Erin Pande URL: https://futuresharks.com/changing-how-you-see-yourself-is-vital-to-keeping-the-weight-off-long-term-erin-pande/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Transforming your body from obese to healthy takes time, persistence, and diligent action even when you don’t at first see results from all of your efforts. The major responsibility that followed was to transform my mind so that it did not default to viewing myself as the obese little girl that I formerly was. Changing how you see yourself is vital to keeping the weight off long term. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I have heard it said that when you are committed to serving others and up leveling an area of their life you act as a bridge from where they are to a better place. It is inevitable that in this less than perfect world you may be walked on, mistreated or taken advantage of, in some way, shape or form. I know how incredibly wounding this can be. It becomes your responsibility to choose to not become jaded, embrace a victim mentality or simply dwell on what happened. I can personally say that if you keep your eyes focused on fulfilling your purpose it becomes easier to remember that the validation, approval or support of others is simply not required. --- ## How Andrew Kroeze Went From Being An Alcoholic To Owning His Own Advertising Agency URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-andrew-kroeze-went-from-being-an-alcoholic-to-owning-his-own-advertising-agency/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** My journey to growing a half a million dollar business in my first year, started in April of 2017. At that point, I was a broke alcoholic with a dead end 9-5 job. I felt as though I hadn’t accomplished anything that I was proud of in my life. One Sunday morning, I decided to change everything. I sat up in my bed, hung over, with my hands covering my face, when I decided to change (to cut off all other options). I decided to quit drinking for 90 days. In addition to that, I decided to lose 20 pounds in 90 days. Nothing was going to stop me. It was like a spark. I remembered that the pizza shop across the street was giving away free calendars, so I hopped out of bed, ran outside in the cold Chicago weather, and grabbed me one of those calendars. I sprinted back to my apartment, marked off 90 days, and didn’t look back. As entrepreneurs, our number one ally is momentum. And that moment is when my uphill battle with life started to gain some traction, which has turned into the momentum I needed to create a business. Day 45, I broke down crying in my bathroom. At the time, I thought I cried for no apparent reason. But really, I was starting to feel again. I was started to love life again. And it was so beautiful. Day 60, I hit my weight goal. 20 pounds lighter and ripped as hell! Day 90, I hit my sobriety goal. Not a single alcoholic beverage in 90 days. But it doesn’t stop there. In July 2017, I started my own Advertising Agency, helping local business generate sales through Facebook Advertising. In September 2017, my agency had it’s first $10K month. In November 2017, I decided to create a Facebook Group to document my agency building journey and help others do the same. As time went on, the group members started asking for an online course on how to create a successful agency. So I built one! And in February of 2018, my business had it’s first $60K+ month from Agency work and digital products. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I’ve battled depression my whole adult life. So, every day is a struggle. But I’ve found that removing negative influences from my life makes it a hell of a lot easier. Negative friends, alcohol, even excessive amounts of caffeine. I removed almost all my friends from high school and college. I made amazing new ones. I quit drinking entirely and I’ve been completely sober for almost a year. I even quit drinking coffee. As of writing this, I’ve been caffeine free for 143 days. For anyone dealing with depression, do the right things, and life gets so much better. --- ## How Cody Neer Left Professional Baseball To Become A Successful Entrepreneur  URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-cody-neer-left-professional-baseball-to-become-a-successful-entrepreneur/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** In 2010, I walked away from a professional baseball career to start my journey as an entrepreneur. With 9 other individuals and the leadership of a mentor of mine, we started an electronic checks processing business that processed over $30 million in gross sales in its first 2 years in business. After its 3rd year, the company was acquired and sent me on another entrepreneurial path that led me to building a hunting apparel brand called Bucks of Nebraska in late 2013. During 2014, I was hired at Target Corporation on a team that would be the very first use cases of Facebook Power Editor, Twitter Cards, and other social platform beta ads managers. Managing over $50m+ in Facebook ads with over a 5x ROI. This was the point I realized direct response marketing was the key to my financial freedom and I went all in with it on my own brand, Bucks of America. It’s success turned it into a national brand called Bucks of America. From 2015 to 2018, the brand surpassed 7 figures in sales through advertising and selling on multiple channels. In 2016, I joined a young team of entrepreneurs who partnered with Kevin Harrington, the original shark from shark tank, to create a multi million dollar advertising agency. From 2016-2017, we did over $10m in sales online for our own brands we built and managing several large client brands. In 2017, I started my first eCommerce advertising agency called 727 Digital Advertising where we managed both client stores and grew a dozen of our own. Those dozen stores did a combined $12m+ in gross sales in 2018 before we sold them for a seven figure payday. Now, managing 727 Digital Advertising, we’ve partnered with Today’s Growth Consultants, a Fortune 5000 company, on a journey to build as many successful eCommerce businesses as we can in 2019. We’ve purchased over 100 eCommerce Stores in the last quarter of 2018, while building 100 brand new ones from scratch! Our goals in 2019 are to do $60m in sales for every 100 ecommerce stores we manage and continue to grow our portfolio of successful online businesses by building hundreds at a time to find niches that we can compete and win at scaling through direct response marketing strategies. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** In 2017, after leaving my partnership with Kevin Harrington, It would have been easy to go get a 6 figure job and “settle”. However, with 2 other members from that company, I started 727 Digital and we paved our own path of success in eCommerce through clients and building our own assets. Instead of spending my time filling out job applications, I spent my time selling our services. Instead of looking for someone to help me, I found others that I could help through my skill sets. I learned the value of time. I realized people would be willing to pay for things if they could get their time back. I never sold my skills or false promises, I simply found a way to create value for others who needed their time back in their business to focus on more important things. --- ## What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur With Jonathan Traub URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-it-takes-to-be-an-entrepreneur-with-jonathan-traub/ **What’s your backstory? ** I spent 2 years after school in the South African Army, I learned to parachute, it was a great experience. I studied the Woolworths management course after completing the army. I dabbled in many businesses, had a clothing shop, jewelry store and by 24 opened my jewelry wholesale business. I completed a course in grading cut diamonds and eventually moved on to importing items from the East which has taken me down the road to where I am today. 3 years ago, I met the Inventors of Butterfly cup and have been very involved in launching this worldwide. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** I have for the most part of my career been self-employed, the responsibilities that come with this are enormous, as your staff would expect you to have all the answers. I have been blessed to work with a diverse range of smart passionate people who helped me create and get to where I am today. We have launched or been involved in many ongoing projects and retained our customers. The Butterfly cup project is very exciting, and I am sure the fruits of the hard work put in over the last few years will be very evident. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** About 4 years ago I tried to help a friend of mine in his business and helped facilitate the importing and finance of paper products from China. Initially it was going well, but the company had not truthfully told me the extent of the problems the company was facing, and I lost 3.5 million dollars. I was very demotivated, and it took me a few months to accept the loss. After I accepted the loss, it made me more motivated to trade harder and more carefully. The following year I had the best most profitable year of trade to date. --- ## How To Push Through Hard Times With Alex Moskov URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-push-through-hard-times-with-alex-moskov/ ## ## Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities? I started out as a one-man content team, which was empowering in the sense that I was able to control the amount of work I was taking on and ultimately play a role in deciding my quality of life. Within a year, I had grown this out to a few dozen writers I could rely on for larger scale projects, and I inevitably got into content system architecture to save myself as much time as possible from managing so I could focus on growing business and/or jump into whatever rabbit hole of learning without coming back to everything burned to the ground. I started working on some pretty cool sites with entrepreneurs that were incredibly knowledgeable about how the digital space operates. In 2017, I joined my friend Troy Osinoff’s agency JUICE in New York City and met some awesome entrepreneurs and fell in love with the city. I was essentially in charge of the copy and content for accounts like Kenneth Cole, DraperU, and a ton of high-performing eCommerce businesses. Around the same time, I also started out as the first writer for CoinCentral, which would turn into one of the top cryptocurrency media sites. This started out as an awesome project because I got to write about the fundamental tech and projects behind some super exciting blockchain projects. I already had a large amount of interest in this space (in 2016, my team and I won 1st place at the 2016 Miami Bitcoin Hackathon). Soon my articles were ranking between #1 and #3 for a ton of high-value keywords. The site was growing faster than any site I’d ever worked on before, and my role quickly scaled up into becoming the Editor-in-Chief of a 30+ person media site that gets hits from everywhere such as Bloomberg to the Department of Homeland Security. My major responsibilities are ensuring everything my team and I write is quality and my projects can operate at various levels of scale. One of my largest personal challenges is learning how to manage burn-out, which has been a crucial skill when it comes to scaling teams and working on multiple projects. ## Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? For most entrepreneurs, particularly those that operate primarily in the digital realm, “giving up” is often built into the process in the form of iteration and re-prioritization. When it comes down to brass tacks, giving up is essentially just make a decision between two things, one of them being the current challenge at hand, the other being anything from a better opportunity or just a moment to gather your sanity and avoid burnout. Each point of failure for a new business venture serves as a milestone to reflect on what you could have done differently. You stop framing the concept of “giving up” as a failure when you take full responsibility for your time, actions, and attention. It’s all about building an anti-fragile career, work ethic, and standard for happiness. I think that’s what separates a veteran entrepreneur from an amateur. It’s having experienced multiple points of failure that the idea doesn’t phase you anymore. --- ## What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur With Nik Robbins URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-it-takes-to-be-an-entrepreneur-with-nik-robbins/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** 10 years ago I had just been arrested for the 3rd time in 18 months – this time with a dui. I have failed out of university – was a borderline drunk/drug addict who was going nowhere. I then started listening to personal development and my entire life changed. I started my career after finally graduating (took 7 years to get a 4 year degree) and worked in sales in the NBA. From there I was quickly promoted to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL. Decided that I was born for more and had an entrepreneurial spirit that I had to chase and after realizing I made 42k in 2014 by Jan 15th I had quit my job in sports and moved to Utah with the intention of starting a business. First 10 months in business no clue what I was doing no idea how online stuff worked and sold 0. I stayed alive by playing Daily Fantasy Sports on Draftkings and Fanduel and eeking out a profit every night. In APril 2016 I came across a guy named Billy Gene who introduced me to the idea of a FB agency and it really connected and we ran with it. From that period until March 2017 we were at 100k/mo and have been flying high ever since. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I’ve been sued. Lost clients. Had a -60k loss in a month. Have twice broke my agency because of selling to many clients to fast. Started a call floor that probably cost us about 250k at the low end and was a complete failure. But no matter what I keep moving forward because I have a vision – and I understand entrepreneurship IS NOT easy. Hell every night for 10 months with no sales (I have a sales background and was a top rep so this was very hard) I would stare at the sky at night and just BELIEVE that something was gonna change if I kept moving forward. --- ## How Brian Nabavi Quit His 6 Figure Job With Only $300 to His Name and Created a 7-Figure Empire URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-brian-nabavi-quit-his-6-figure-job-with-only-300-to-his-name-and-created-a-7-figure-empire/ Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Whether we are using our time effectively or not, the choice is ultimately up to the individual. Brian Nabavi believes that maximizing and making the most out of the hours that are given to us means that we are a step closer to reaching success. It is through the effective use of our time that we are opening up doors to limitless possibilities. Brian Nabavi has not only made the most of the time that is given to him but he has reached an impressive amount of success because of it. As half Persian, Nabavi comes from a hardworking father who immigrated to the US with hopes to build a better future for his family. Although education was instilled in him at an early age, Nabavi was barely able to graduate high school. His level of schooling, however, did not affect his undeniable talent in sales. It was through his passion for sales and his love for fitness that Brian Nabavi has transformed the notion of ultimate success. **The Transformation of a Lifetime** His love for fitness was not instant, in fact, he grew up as an overweight boy who got made fun of all the time. It wasn’t until the age 14, when Brian picked up Arnold Schwarzenegger’s book on bodybuilding. He was so intrigued by the book that he read it front and back and it was then when he began to train himself. Throughout his high school years, Nabavi transformed himself into a bodybuilder and completely changed his physique. His body transformation was so incredible that he gained a confidence like no other. While Brian Nabavi’s transformation was physical, the transformation was so much more than that. It was a transformation of a lifetime because it sparked Nabavi’s career path. Nabavi became a personal fitness trainer at a 24 hour fitness gym and quickly discovered that the fitness industry was his niche. In one month alone, he made over 38k in sales through personal training. Brian was helping others reach their fitness goals and lose 100 to 130 pounds. He was changing lives and there was nothing more rewarding for him that than. **Chase the Passion, Not the Money** Despite the immediate success he had by being a personal training, Brian left passion in hopes to make more money. He made the decision to chase the money and resorted to what was and still is very profitable—real estate. Nabavi started working in real estate by selling mortgages. As a naturally talented salesman, Nabavi was making a lot of money within a couple months. While he was making a lot of money, he was also spending a lot of it. With his expenses and the lack of passion for real estate, a lot came down hill for Brian. He struggled keeping up with finances and he lost everything. From his house to his cars, Nabavi knew that he had to get to back to his passion and find himself all over again—not just for himself, but for his family. Brian Nabavi went back to the gym and started from the bottom with membership sales. Within 6 months, he was promoted to Assistant Sales Manager and within a year he was a Sales General Manager. He was constantly managing people and training others how to turn leads into sales. Nabavi’s unique set of skills for sales and a hustler’s mindset enabled him to position himself higher than ever. **Time and Family is Everything** Although he was working hard to provide for his family, he had bigger goals for himself. Nabavi’s time and family were everything to him and the job he currently had was not allowing him to take part in that. His time and energy was spent at the gym and that led Nabavi to miss out on his wife and children. Brian spent a couple years thinking about a business that would bring his time and family together. He then came across the idea of a clothing company. While Nabavi had little to no knowledge on retail business, he spent countless hours each day teaching himself how to design clothes on photoshop and how to work with manufacturers overseas. Brian Nabavi’s drive for chasing his goals and prioritizing what is most important to him led to the creation of one of the most successful athletic clothing brands. With only 300 dollars to his name at the time, Nabavi is the founder and CEO of the Til You Collapse clothing brand. The almost 5 year clothing company, has grown tremendously. From its website, marketing implementation and photography—every aspect of his company is reaching new heights. Brian Nabavi has built a business from the ground up and it has all been due to his willingness use the most of out of his time and embracing the right mindset. The mindset that you are limitless. As the successful entrepreneur he continues to be, Nabavi knows that only those who put everything at the table will be the most rewarded. --- ## How to Make Money with Digital Marketing URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-make-money-with-digital-marketing/ # The average millionaire has 7 sources of income. The great news is that with the internet, easy selling tools like Shopify and other platforms (ahem WordPress), you can be closer than ever to start diversifying your income and stop relying on just your salary. If you are a newbie to digital marketing, fear nothing. I used to be in your shoes just a few years ago. But with massive action and by following the right advice, I was able to start generating some serious passive income. Nowadays, I monetize my blogs through adsense, receive income from Flux Chargers, and sell affiliate products via Amazon. (not to mention stock trading via Robinhood and other investments, which are not under digital marketing) If you ever wondered “how to make money online”, then today I’ll present you 8 ways to starting earning your first few dollars online. Just a heads up: If you don’t act on the knowledge I’ll present to you, you’ll never get the results. So, accept the fact that it will be tough, and just stick with it long enough. ## What Is Digital Marketing? Put simply, digital marketing is the promotion of products or services through digital mediums (blogs, social media platforms, ads, etc) It is different from traditional marketing which is the process of promoting products through the use of tangible items such as posters, business cards or print ads on newspapers and magazines. Digital marketing, on the other hand, is conducted exclusively through digital marketing channels which gives marketers more control, refined data, and tools to analyze the effectiveness of a particular campaign. There’s no doubt that the most common channel associated with digital marketing is the web. However, other than the internet, there are various means of digital marketing, which includes mobile instant messaging, podcasts, electronic billboards, radio channels, and digital television. ## Benefits of Digital Marketing Digital marketing allows businesses to reach their target audience cost-effectively and measurably. Moreover, it helps in driving more online sales and increasing brand loyalty. Facebook for instance, has very granular targeting options that allow you to reach say “Moms 30-40 years old in Arkansas who love rock”. Here are some more notable benefits of digital marketing: - Get online exposure - Can reach target customers - Broad and global reach - Deal with multiple users at once - No limited customer visit - Save time and money - Delivers higher return on investment (ROI) - Track performance and measurable results ## 8 Digital Marketing Strategies That You Can Use Most businesses nowadays make use of digital marketing to promote their brand and improve their sales. Here’s a list of digital marketing strategies commonly used today: ### 1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Search Engine Optimization is the method of increasing a website’s ranking on search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo and driving traffic via  specific phrases or keywords related to your site. SEO’s goal is to send more free traffic to your website coming from your target audience. It is one of the most effective digital strategy being used today since it attracts potential customers on your website for free, which can then later be turned into leads and customers. SEO is an essential requirement when it comes to digital marketing. Every internet user begins their research for information on a search engine. Among internet users, more than 30% click on the first item on the search results and less than 10% make it to the second page. Here’s my advanced guide to SEO which explains how I’m currently driving 150,000 visitors each month to my blog.   ### 2) Search Engine Marketing (SEM) ****Perhaps you’re wondering what’s the difference of search engine marketing with SEO. The two can be a confusing concept to grasp, but it is essential to know the difference between the two terms. Both SEO and SEM aim to increase the visibility of your website in search engines, but SEM makes use of paid traffic. In SEM, you pay for the advertising space in the search engine results. So instead of trying to get a higher ranking and get free traffic on your website, you pay in order to be visible on the first page of search results. Google Adwords is the most common medium for SEM, wherein you can have your ads appear in the Google search results and pay only for the clicks on your ads, this method is also known as “Pay-per-click” or PPC. Yahoo and Bing utilize the same system, but Google Adwords is the most successful in garnering traffic. ### 3) Content Marketing In this strategy, businesses focus on getting the interest of consumers via engaging, reaching, and connecting with content. The content can be any material that provides values to users – blog posts, videos or infographics. It’s more of an informational rather than a sales-oriented copy. (like my blog posts!) It’s crucial that the content you choose is beneficial and relevant to your target audience. For example, if you run a business about clothes, you could write an article about the latest fashion trends. With this strategy, you make use of content with specific words relevant to your target audience who are also your potential customers. Moreover, content marketing is an effective strategy that delivers impressive return on investment (ROI). Compared to traditional marketing, content marketing generates more leads and clients for your business. When it comes to advertisement, more than 60% of consumers prefer companies that create content in promoting their products. When you create a very popular blog, you can monetize it by selling products, advertisements or selling the entire website itself. ### 4) Social Media Marketing When it comes to marketing via social media, the primary goals are to promote brand awareness and increase conversions of viewers to customers. This strategy focuses on creating promotional and informational content while interacting with your potential clients. Social media is not only a means to share pictures and life updates with friends and family, but it is also utilized by companies to connect to their customers. Social media now serves as an outlet to gain positive reviews from past customers and encourage new ones to have a try of offered products and services. Depending on your target audience, you can promote campaigns on various social media platforms. Some of the most popular ones include: - Twitter - Instagram - Facebook - LinkedIn - Pinterest In a world where social media is so mainstream, businesses will likely benefit on this digital marketing strategy. Studies show that more than 25% of a typical internet user’s time is spent on social media platforms, and more than 70% of shoppers get influenced by social media when making purchase decisions. Want to go viral on Facebook? [Here’s how](/go-viral-facebook-goubtube/). ### 5) Mobile Marketing Nowadays, mobile devices are integral gadgets to us. We always keep our phone in our pockets and continuously checked it throughout the day. Hence, it can be a very useful channel for digital marketing. In mobile marketing, you try to reach out to your customers through SMS and MMS, push notifications, app-based marketing, in-game mobile marketing, or QR codes. The latest trend in digital marketing today is developing mobile apps for work, lifestyle, or leisure such as online games. These apps have millions of users daily. Developers can make them available on app stores, such as the Apple app store, Google play or Amazon marketplace. Mobile marketing lets you promote these apps through either paid advertising or cross-app promotions so they can be visible and installed by more users. Here’s a little story of how we got our game Poos Caboose featured in 155 countries on the App Store. ### 6) Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing refers to the process of promoting other people’s products or services, and in return, you receive a commission for every sale or client you introduce. Big companies like Amazon have affiliate programs, that pay out millions of dollars monthly to websites that sell their products. If you are aiming to promote your products or services online, you should consider setting up an affiliate program where interested individuals can do the work for you in promoting it over the internet. If you are looking for high paying adsense keywords, here they are. ### 7) Influencer Marketing Influencer marketing is a combination of both old and new marketing tools. It involves the idea of identifying, engaging and supporting individuals with high-impact conversations with consumers and making use of it to create a modern-day content-driven marketing campaign. [An influencer](/category/marketing/), either a celebrity or a well-known individual in the society, can talk about your products or services to their followers on social media. The easiest way to work with influencers is to pay them money for the endorsement. However, it has its own downside too since most consumers know the influencer is getting paid to promote a product, so its effectiveness can’t be guaranteed. The goal of this digital marketing strategy is advocacy. Influencer marketing should be authentic and honest so that people will get more interested. You can take advantage of influencer marketing even without financial compensation. An influencer can talk about your product not because they’re being paid, but because they’re simply satisfied with your product and service, and want to share the useful information to their loyal readers or viewers. Want to learn how I grew my Snapchat account? ### 8) Email Marketing Email marketing is a cost-effective digital marketing strategy that focuses on keeping existing customers, as well as gaining new ones. It’s an excellent strategy to encourage repeat purchases, increase brand awareness, and make your business the first choice among consumers. Even if they may not need your products and services now, email marketing will help in reminding your customers to remember your brand when it’s to make a purchase. The primary goal of this strategy is to provide existing clients with valuable information, such as relevant industry news, and personalized content like product coupons, to encourage them to come back. Related: Here are [some tools you might find useful](/resources/) if you are just starting out. ## How to Make Money with Digital Marketing? Now that you know all the common digital marketing strategies employed by businesses, it’s time to learn the things you can do to earn money via digital marketing. The internet offers you the opportunity to work and make money from the vicinity of your home. Here are online digital marketing opportunities you can do: ### Become a Blogger ****Extending beyond the purpose of self-expression and sharing your expertise and experience to everyone, blogging can also be a source of income for you. Some people started creating their blogs with this objective in mind (This is why I started The Insurance Nerd for instance). While some convert their long-standing blog to one that will bring profit to them. There are many ways on how you can monetize your blog. If you’re interested, here are some of the conventional methods: ### Sell Ads Blog advertisements are banners or links that you can place on your blog, which when clicked direct your reader to another website or to the advertiser’s products. Each time a reader clicks on the advertiser’s ad, the blogger gets paid for every click, impression or action done. If you want to monetize your blog effectively, you can try finding affiliates in your niche that offers excellent products for your target audience. This is where affiliate marketing comes into the picture. You can adapt the said digital marketing strategy on your blog and effectively monetize even if you have a small audience. ### Do Sponsored Reviews Aside from selling ads on your blog, another simple way to earn extra income from blogging is to write sponsored reviews. You can make more money in writing reviews for businesses, products, and services, websites, etc. For instance, people review our portable charger and earn a commission on each sale made. A sponsored review is also a form of advertising, but promoting the product indirectly. In order to get paid for a review post, you can reach out to a potential client who might be interested in buying a review blog post. Sometimes, it’s the company who contacts the blogger directly, asking to review a product in a sponsored post. You can also try signing up for a network that connects advertisers and bloggers or publishers, like Tomoson, Fango, and Izea. ### Vlog – Video Blogging Probably, the most popular among millennials nowadays is video blogging or vlog. Aside from providing entertainment, one can actually make real money as a vlogger. All you need is a webcam or a video camera, some video editing skills, and the passion for succeeding. You can publish your videos on your website or upload them on social media platforms, such as YouTube. You can get a commission for every advertisement views on your YouTube account. For beginners, a good way to start monetizing a vlog is through Google Adsense. Google will place ads from time to time when people are watching your video. The more popular your vlog becomes, the higher the chance of making more money. Here’s my comprehensive guide to Youtube SEO. ### Sell Your Own Products/Services If you would instead not advertise other people’s products or write sponsored reviews for them, selling products is an efficient way to earn money from blogging. This can be a useful source of extra income once you’ve managed to gain a loyal following of readers. You can sell anything on your blog, but it is recommended to choose products and services related to your field of expertise. You’ll have to focus on areas where you have experience and have enough knowledge about. E-books, online courses, consultation, memberships, subscriptions, and physical products are just some of the things you can sell on your blog. Of course, I sell the Flux Portable Charger. Here’s how we grew that business. ### Start an E-commerce Business In connection with selling physical products on your blog, you might want to level up and start creating your own e-commerce business. Nowadays, people are more inclined to purchase products straight from their smartphones and tablets. By making use of the previously mentioned digital marketing strategies, you can build a successful e-commerce business that can provide a better source of income. As a beginner, you can try starting with dropshipping. - **What is Dropshipping?**Drop shipping is a business model which enables a store to operate even without maintaining an inventory. Whenever a store sells a product, the merchant buys the item from a third party who will deliver it directly to the customer. The merchant doesn’t need to have an inventory or products in stock to sell products online. Drop shipping is a very convenient way to earn money since it’s easy to get started and doesn’t require much capital. You can launch your own e-commerce store without having to invest a significant amount of money on inventory. Here’s how I started my ecommerce business and grew it to $100,000/mo in revenue. ### Become a Freelance Digital Marketer If you got the skills in digital marketing, why not try becoming a freelancer. Digital marketers are everywhere on the internet – designing website layouts, sharing informative content on social media, engaging in online communities, joining a conversation on LinkedIn, and trying to make use of one or more digital marketing strategies to make sure their clients’ businesses improve on sales and leads. Aside from earning extra cash, freelance digital marketing can be an excellent investment for you to learn and develop new skills, expand your network and grow professionally. Btw, you can find a lot of great freelancers on Fiverr. ### Become a Social Media Influencer If you have a large following on your social media account, you can monetize your influence and generate revenue streams by making use of influencer marketing strategy. For famous individuals in this field, “influencing” has become their full-time job and have engaged in a few roles including community engagement, content creation, photography, design, and more. Here are some ways social media influencers leverage their expertise, skills, and influence to earn money: - Social media sponsored posts - Becoming brand ambassadors - Podcasting - Webinars - Affiliate marketing However, as previously mentioned, this paid promotion has no guarantee to improve a business’ sales since consumers are aware of the sponsored advertisement. ## Conclusion For the past decade, digital marketing has become the most popular buzzword among old and new entrepreneurs and professionals. It’s no surprise why there’s a growing number of people using it as a handy tool to earn either extra or steady income. But let me be clear, there’s no shortcut to earning money. Similar to every other job, you must put effort and spend the time to learn the basics in digital marketing before diving into it. The more knowledgeable you are, the more you can strategize well your digital marketing techniques and make considerable earnings eventually. If you are ready to move to more advanced topics, read my best digital marketing posts. Bookmark [Futuresharks.com](http://futuresharks.com) for more articles like this! --- ## Meet Patientory, The App That Puts Patients in Control of Their Healthcare URL: https://futuresharks.com/healthcare/ A colossal number of readmissions occur due to poor care and coordination caused by siloed EHR systems and various state regulations. In the U.S. 117 million people have been diagnosed with one or more illnesses. These patients do not have an efficient way of documenting or gaining access to their health information. Ever imagined contacting your doctor with the touch of a button? Ever imagined sharing your daily health data with your physician? Enter Patientory, an app that puts patients in control of their daily healthcare. Patientory Inc.’s inventive consumer application officially launched at the public JP Morgan Healthcare conference on January 9th, 2019. The app serves as a cross-device hub in which users can view their health information, securely provide it to their preferred healthcare providers, and if desired, share their experiences with fellow patients. You can securely share information with your doctors, family members, caregivers, specialists, and nurses, or chat via our secure messaging platform. The application is encrypted in middleware to meet the regulations of modern-day Health IT. HIPAA-compliant protected data storage that acknowledges to regional regulatory guidelines. The app interconnects health data such as allergies, activity, blood pressure, weight, and more between all devices, including centralized EMRs. If a patient records a walking workout on their watch, they can choose whether or not to share their heart rate with their doctor to view on a desktop or tablet. “We’re in a time when consumers want more access and control to their own information,” said Patientory Inc. CEO Chrissa McFarlane. “Use of mobile health and fitness trackers has grown quickly and it’s important to make sure that is combined with health data to give both the consumer and their physicians a more comprehensive picture.” The app is free to use. The app integrates seamlessly with your mobile apps and wearable devices to monitor vital statistics on health and activity. Creating a dashboard view of your overall health and wellbeing. All Patientory software and information are stored on the blockchain, allowing for faster processing of high-volume data in a secure, decentralized ecosystem. The Affordable Care Act federally mandates how providers store and transfer digital health information. To get more storage, we use PTOY, which is Patientory’s cryptocurrency. This enables the highest level of security and privacy. To stay in the bounds of those regulations, This foundation enables full HIPAA compliance on one of the most secure platforms available, so the only people who can access medical data are those that are authorized. It gives the owner the medical documents and he can decide whether or not he is inclined to share them. Patientory provides Healthcare Dapps (blockchain-established applications) that need private off-chain computation as well as Big Data and Machine Learning for care treatment, which in short translates to shorter time-to-diagnosis, reduced administrative costs. During its beta stages, Patientory had turned out to be a very well built and innovated app. In fact, It is now available in the App Store for the cost of free. The app has made handling and sharing medical documents with ease. --- ## “I realized that if this entrepreneurship game was easy, everyone would do it”- Danny Tran URL: https://futuresharks.com/i-realized-that-if-this-entrepreneurship-game-was-easy-everyone-would-do-it-danny-tran/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** I don’t have the typical rags to riches story. I have a great family, average class for the most part. Coming from a Vietnamese household, entrepreneurship or anything closely related to what I’m doing was 100% out of the question and unheard of. My path in life was supposed to be safe and steady, went to a great school, graduated, got an expensive degree. Being from Silicon Valley, it was pretty much inevitable that I would end up in the high tech startup field. It was the norm you could say. My career started in financial technology and I worked in marketing and communications. I was expecting that to be my life for the next few years. Going to work every day just made me miserable. I was working the 9-5 ,40-60 grueling hours a week. Sometimes even more. And just doing the same thing over and every single day just played this biggest mental toll on my well- being. I did not expect to be in chained to a desk every single day for the rest of my life One day, literally out of the blue, the CEO announced that the company ran out of funding, and everyone was fired in a matter of days (this was pretty typical for most startups). On one side, I was ecstatic. It was my opportunity to finally try something new. Dive into what everyone is calling entrepreneurship.. That was what I needed. But on the other, I was terrified. I didn’t even a severance package. My stable income literally disappeared overnight. Like everybody, I wanted to make money and be financially stable So I stumbled into the online space and I tried everything.. E-commerce. dropshipping. crowdfunding. Content creation. Social media management. Affiliate marketing, Network marketing. I was in a weird pyramid scheme. You name it. After some time, I had about 9 out of 10 projects failed. And one of my e-commerce brands finally clicked, and I was able to grow that past 6 figures in less than one year. But I was young and careless. We got into serious legal trouble with one of the largest corporations in the US. And this bankrupted the entire company. I lost everything. After that I was left with $14 to my name. From there, I figured I had two choices… either work for another company (which I didn’t want to) or start another business. I started to realize that paid advertising / advertising campaigns were something that was in huge demand by all sorts of businesses. Using nothing but a dinky laptop and wifi connection, I started Highstoke Media. The past 6 months alone, I was able to scale that past 6-figures working with some of my dream clients. Now I’m coaching other entrepreneurs how to do the same – to learn how to create their own digital marketing agencies from the ground up, and turning their passions into profit. On top of it all, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel around the world doing what I love and making impact at the same time. It’s crazy how much has changed in a year! **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** My rock bottom. After I got fired from my 9-5 job, I decided to put every single dollar I had into growing an e-commerce brand. I was able to crowdfund over $100,000 and grew that company from zero to a 6-figure brand in less than a year. Being young and careless, we got into legal troubles with one of the largest corporations in the U.S. which literally bankrupted the whole company in a few days. The company that I grew from the ground up to 6 figures was literally ripped apart in front of me. Desperate to try to get everything back, I gambled away (I struggled with a gambling addiction) over $100,000 of my life savings, a lot of which I borrowed from my own grandma to start the business. After it was all said and done, paying off the debt, legal fees, inventory, etc. I was dead broke and had $14 to my name. I had a ton of anxiety and filled with depression at that point, and was drowning in alcohol every night to fall asleep. I lost everything I had and wanted to give up, and that was rock bottom for me. Rather than giving up, I realized that if this entrepreneurship game was easy, everyone would do it. If I wanted to be the 1% and have complete financial freedom, I had to be willing to do what 99% of people won’t. And if that was my rock bottom, the only way for me to go at that moment was up. So I decided to leverage my everything I’ve ever learned (digital marketing / paid advertising), start over, and create a brand new business based off that skillset. And that’s how Highstoke Media started. Since then, I’ve been able to get back on my feet, grow the company past 6 figures in less than 6 months, and have launched a wildly successful online program with dozens of other entrepreneurs and their own success stories. --- ## How Sam Bakhtiar Overcame His Adversities and Grew his Company to $50M URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-sam-bakhtiar-overcame-his-adversities-and-grew-his-company-to-50m/ ****Some of the most important lessons in life are learned through the most difficult times. Whether we are learning how to build resilience and face obstacles head on, there is a beauty in all of it. The beauty comes from the ability to embrace adversity and reach success that was once deemed impossible. Undeterred by his adversities, Sam Bakhtiar has taken every lesson learned and has built a 50 million dollar empire. As a family oriented individual and owner of several businesses, Sam Bakhtiar continues to redefine what entails to be a successful entrepreneur. At the early age of 11, Sam Bakhtiar moved to the United States as a refugee of war. He and his family settled in a small town in the state of Pennsylvania. It is through this move that Bakhtiar was able to take advantage of the opportunities for higher education. Bakhtiar has a Masters from Pennsylvania State University in Life Science Nutrition along with a Doctorate in Chiropractic from the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (LACC). His extensive education is matched by his incredible knowledge on body transformations and fitness. **Only One Destination: Fitness** Raised by a single-mother, Sam Bakhtiar was encouraged to not give up and it is when he found in fitness the means to be one step closer to who he wanted to be. Bakhtiar grew up fascinated with soccer and while there were no programs that offered such sport, he tried for the local basketball team. As a naturally scrawny individual with a lack of athletic experience, Bakhtiar did not make the team. He then resorted to a local boys club. Bakhtiar began familiarizing himself with lifting weights and the results he obtained were beyond impressive. His body was transforming and so did his ambition for success. Sam Bakhtiar was fascinated by the results he was obtaining and he knew this was where he wanted to be. It was his mother, however, who encouraged him to pursue a career—and a chiropractic seemed to fit. While pursuing a career was not the route Sam wanted to take, his interest for fitness allowed him to enjoy his educational journey. **The CEO Mindset: All in or All out** Bakhtiar’s passion for fitness and the power that comes from body transformations has enabled him to reach rapid success. The work ethic and drive that his mother instilled in him has been pivotal to his ability to go all in—in everything he does. Sam Bakhtiar’s *all in all out*mindset has opened the door to consistency and has served as a way to produce effective results. So much has been his success and outcomes that he currently serves as the CEO of a franchise of over 100 gym locations in the US and Mexico. As the co-founder of the Camp Transformation Centers, Bakhtiar has helped get people in the best shape of their life. Bakhtiar is also the founder of One Percent Nutrition which is one of the fastest growing nutrition supplement companies in the US. He has taken his fascination with body transformations and has built an empire that continues to impact the way we see fitness and the outcomes that come from it. **Where You Are Now is Not Where You Will Be** The most important question Sam Bakhtiar has asked himself is: are you willing you to pay the price to get to where you want to be? Bakhtiar’s success has been because of his ability to find the *why*and follow through with it. He is aware that the road up to this point has been nothing short of challenges and adversities but he has learned to endure them. He has found way to push harder despite his struggles and he has taken his past to find his path in fitness. With nearly 60k followers on Instagram and a continuous drive to achieve the unimaginable, Sam Bakhtiar is a prime example that where you have been or where you are now is now where you will be. You will be what you want to be as long as you are willing to work like no other—and Bakhtiar is one of the few who has achieved such milestone. --- ## “You CAN at ALL times”- Brendan Meyers URL: https://futuresharks.com/you-can-at-all-times-brendan-meyers/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** When I first came onto the social media scene, my goal was to build a blog and impact lives around the world. I didn’t know what that looked like, but I knew I had important information to give! I started a company called All Core Society and began to post on my personal facebook 3 times a day. I then would research and post a new blog post to the website I had built (I learned how to develop a website during this time). From here, I invested $5,000 into my new clothing company, and went full speed ahead on social media growth. IT TANKED. 18 people purchased my t-shirts, my blog posts were getting zero attention, and the most likes I had on a post was 33. This made me more motivated than ever. Over the next 8 months, I would let go of my All Core Society business and study the social media market. Making deals with specific pages on Facebook, creating my own niche oriented Facebook fan pages, posting 8 times a day, and investing in the right places… I grew my personal fan page from one thousand people to one million people​. My career began. From August 2017 to February 2018 I was faced with one of the toughest period of my life. I thought I was dying, I could barely walk, I was losing control of my bladder, I lost 40 lbs., and my life was in ruins. As I thought all of my hope was lost… My REAL challenge began. I could give up on life, or push forward and trust the process! After contemplating suicide and losing what felt like everything at the time, I recovered and had the most successful business launch I ever had in my online marketing career. I then founded The CreateU Agency, partnered with various entrepreneurs and influencers, and developed my strongest business yet. My major responsibilities owning this Agency has been to lead by example, teach proper online marketing, processes, and strategies to these partners, protect the reputation of these influencers and build upon them, and be sure the products & services being released were of its highest quality. From challenges, frustrations, sickness, and suicidal thoughts to owning multiple businesses, mentoring others, grateful for life, and conquering every vision that stands in my way. I did it! **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** August 2017 to February 2018 was one of my toughest periods of my life. Within a blink of an eye, I went from an owner of a corvette, being in a long, loving relationship, having office space and living just blocks from the beach in Santa Monica, CA, and having 6 employees for my business… to 2 severe herniated discs, a shoulder that was torn in 4 areas, losing my dog, letting go of my relationship, losing $100,000, moving back to my home state in Florida, losing 40 lbs., sinus surgery, stem-cell surgery, addiction, hurricanes, bee stings, surgery complications, cauda equina scare, brain MRI, CT scans, breathing complications, heart complications, severe brain fog, losing my team, and losing my office. For the next 6 months after moving back to Florida from California, I would lay on the ground in pain and worry. Writing my own death wish. Counting every second of every minute, just to be sure I was still alive. I could barely walk, I could barely lift my arm, I was emotionally traumatized, and holding on to life by a thread. There was no more relationship, no more dog, no more working out, and what I had worked so hard for… was lost. Or so I thought. It was 10:30 pm on January 28th. I was laying in my bed looking up at the fan above. I was angry. I was sad. I was exhausted. I was in pain. I had slept only 2 hours per night for the last 30 days and my heart rate was a steady 100 BPM. I was checked out and prepared to hang myself and call it quits. I wanted it all to go away. But instead of doing the unthinkable, I laid there quietly thinking to myself… “Brendan, is this really you? Is this what your life represents? You were born to lead. Leaders never quit. Leaders never give up on the impossible. You can do this, you can move back to California. You can be healed. You can build more businesses. You can travel the world. You CAN at ALL times. The pain is temporary, the aches will go away, put your faith in the man upstairs and trust that YOU can get through this”! I went to sleep and woke up to 5 text messages that were necessary for me to move back to California and get back to doing what I loved. I had zero expectations of anyone texting me, and I definitely didn’t expect people I haven’t talked to in over a year to offer me opportunities that morning. Fast forward to June. I was in California, living in my dream house, and made the most profit I have ever had with my new business “The Creative Fitness Academy”. --- ## It’s Not As Expensive As You Think to Travel Hands Free URL: https://futuresharks.com/travel/ You’re heading out on your next travel adventure. You’ve packed your bags and you’re about to catch your ride to the airport. Before ordering your Uber, you open up another app and arrange a pick-up for your bags. A driver arrives at your house, seals your suitcase in a tamper-proof cover and takes it off your hands. Now you’re free to skip the baggage check line and stroll through the airport unencumbered. When you arrive at your destination, everyone else on your flight huddles around the baggage carousel waiting for their bags. As they watch the conveyor belt go round and round in a jetlagged stupor, you’re confidently striding out the door. (After gathering more than a few jealous looks.) You hit the town, see a few sights, grab a coffee and then head to your hotel. When you arrive, your suitcase is there to greet you – and you never had to lift or drag it once. Sounds pretty great, right? This type of personal luggage delivery service sounds like something luxurious that would cost travelers an arm and a leg. However, traveling hands-free is a VIP experience that is much more affordable than you might think. BringIt is an East Coast based startup that is bringing luggage delivery to the masses. They offer a service that will bring your luggage from your home to your hotel, so that you can travel without having to drag your heavy bags behind you. For $25, you can send up to two pieces of luggage within a certain radius to and from the airport. (If you are heading further away, the fee is $1 per mile.) The luggage arrives on the same day and is delivered to your hotel within 4 hours of your flight arrival. Just Like Uber – For Your Bags BringIt’s founder Israel Arellano has a vision for a future of travel. His aim is to work toward a future where hands-free travel is the accepted standard, so everyone can see the world without their bags slowing them down. This is why BringIt has such an affordable price – so that it can be used by all types of travelers. He compares this travel revolution to elevators. When they were first introduced to the market they were novel and people had to pay to use them. Now, elevators are part of our daily lives and we use them every day. One day, the same might happen for luggage delivery services. BringIt uses a team of drivers, similar to the way Uber works. Drivers set their own hours and accept jobs as they are requested. You might even say the job is easier – after all there’s no need to make small talk with a suitcase. Powered by a smart, easy to use app, travelers can request the service in a few easy steps. The app also has a number of security features, including GPS tracking that allows users to see exactly where their bags are. For those who are tired of lugging a heavy suitcase behind them in the airport and wasting precious vacation time picking up their bags, the development of an innovation like BringIt is a sign of a very bright travel future. --- ## Meet Chefling (A smart home assistant that takes the stress out of dinner parties) URL: https://futuresharks.com/chefling/ Have you ever had trouble cooking during the holidays? Or simply wished there were an easier way to plan meals, shop and cook for one’s families or dinner parties? Studies have shown that as many as 1/3 of Americans find the holiday season to be simply hectic. Enter Chefling, a smart home assistant that does all of the above for you. Whether you’re cooking for the first time or not, Chefling simplifies the process. It’s meant to be hands-free, a consumer app that connects with major online shopping providers and provides pantry management, recipe recommendations, guided and hands-free cooking instructions, and keeps you updated of upcoming expiration dates. Chefling can dramatically amplify your groceries experience, saving you time going through a supermarket, which is a huge source of stress standing in lines and making decisions.  The average supermarket carries nearly 39,000 different items, making it an overwhelming decision to shop, especially when you don’t have the list handy. A shopper spends anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes shopping in a supermarket plus travel time. With Chefling users can simply build their shopping list on the go from recipes they plan to cook ahead of time and order them with a click of a button. In fact, the Artificial Intelligence ports itself into your kitchen appliances with its recent partnership with Home Connect. It also has the ability to offer voice assistant integration which provides cooking instructions and is compatible with smart speakers and A.I’s such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Smart home users will have the ability to access the platform’s features, which include inventory organization, recipe suggestions, and shopping list management as well as ordering. Chefling has also kept up with healthy eating, in fact going so far to search for the healthier and heavily nutritional products and alternatives to the ingredients Chefling users would normally use. Chefling recently partnered announced a partnership with General Electric (GE), in a deal that would allow Chefling to connect their app and integrate it with GE appliances on IOS and Android devices, which would introduce new and faster ways to cook. Chefling can create the greatest recipes that are simply based on what the user has in their kitchen, the more ingredients you have, the better the food could be and Chefling would be the one designing the recipes. It does this by using its “Ultra connect technology” which creates a smart recipe by simply taking out the ingredients keywords. Users can use a variety of features to control the temperature, timing, and mode to match the instructions of the recipe. --- ## “I have had to be cautious with who I do business with and who I align myself with”- Nicholas Ayers URL: https://futuresharks.com/i-have-had-to-be-cautious-with-who-i-do-business-with-and-who-i-align-myself-with-nicholas-ayers/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Through a combination of timing, skill, work ethic and sheer luck I have been able to create multiple companies from thin air and turn them into multiple 6 figure and beyond businesses. In 2013 I started my first brick and mortar insurance agency from scratch. It was a challenge and something that forced me to grow up fast and cut my entrepreneurship teeth fast. With a great team beside me, I was able to elevate that business into a high revenue agency and set a standard by which many others sought to achieve. Our use of video marketing and communication with our clients was what set us apart and allowed us to achieve and maintain new levels of success year over year. During that time, I also formed another company, an industry trade association alongside friends and within 12 months, we had created the industries most sought out event. To this day, our annual event which nearly doubles every year continues to amaze a once dying industry. Not being content with where I was, I wanted to venture into foreign waters and teach others what I spent 2 decades learning and implementing. That is how Made You Look Video Marketing was born. Shortly after starting, having never done a mastermind, or a course of any kind, I was able to quickly see success, but more importantly, our students are seeing incredible results as they implement and execute. That has been the most rewarding. Knowing that what I have learned and was doing inside of my companies wasn’t regulated to just me, but that it could be modeled, distributed, and scaled by others. Along the way, I have had to learn very valuable lessons. I have had to be cautious with who I do business with and who I align myself with. I have also learned the importance of having a team. The term “entrepreneur” is so sexy and stylish, however, I have learned that the best and most successful entrepreneur’s don’t attack their goals alone, they are surrounded by a great team and understand the importance of delegation and accountability. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** My first year in business was like most people’s foray into business. Hard, unexpected, and challenging. 2 months prior to opening my company, my wife told me she was pregnant with our first child. Not that I didn’t need anymore pressure, but I now had an exponential amount more placed on my shoulders. I typically prefer it that way. The pressure has always kept me sharp and accountable. For the first 8 months of my company being open and having to reallocate new revenue to my team and processes, I had to take a 2nd job at night. I was doing what felt like humiliating work in being a process server in the lower income neighborhoods around the SF Bay Area. I would start my day at roughly 6am and end it at roughly 8pm. I would then get in my car and drive door to door at night and knock on strangers doors to serve them their paperwork. It was dangerous. I often laugh with people when I tell the stories of having people come to their doors with big dogs, knives, or other weapons and threaten me. I was doing what needed to be done to support a wife and infant at home, and I wasn’t going to allow my circumstances stand in the way. It was a challenge. I saw very little of my family that year as I was trying to “hustle”. I often wondered “did I do the right thing?” “Should I go back to being a worker?” Knowing that I could never return to that life, I was “ruined”. I doubled down and persevered past those few months of eating popsicles and popcorn for dinner, and after being patient and sticking to what I knew would pay dividends in my operations, I was able to come out on top. --- ## How Best-Selling Author Gerry Sanchez Has Improved the Love Life, Wealth, and Health of Thousands World-Wide URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-best-selling-author-gerry-sanchez-has-improved-the-love-life-wealth-and-health-of-thousands-world-wide/ Love, wealth, and health are the main things that most individuals spend their whole life working towards. If one of those things appears to be missing in one’s life, then there is a great chance they are also aware of the fact that this may be missing in their life. Very little people understand that all these things correlate with one another. If someone possesses wealth, then most likely their health is just as good as their wealth. Most likely one who has these qualities will also have great relationships with both men and especially women. Gerry Sanchez who is a best-selling author and international speaker is one of the world’s leading strategists in leadership as well human dynamics. **Telling Secrets that Most Men Don’t Know About** A lot of people constantly struggle with relationships. Whether it’s creating them or maintaining them. Usually one who is struggling most with relationships will most likely be suffering from some confidence issues. Perhaps a lack of confidence is the reason why some individuals are struggling to find and create romantic relationships. Perhaps another issue could be some having an excessive amount of it to the point where it scares most partners off. One of Gerry Sanchez’s books titled Learn the Secret that 95% of men will never know about relating successfully to Women goes deeply into depth about situations such as these. There are so many different situations where men are constantly battling this fear of rejection as well. Thanks to individuals like Gerry Sanchez, some men are improving/bettering their social interactions simply by taking the advice from experts like Gerry and putting them to play. **Winners Continue to Win Leaving Losers Behind** Consider that your life is great when it comes to being socially active and your romantic life is also pretty good. Yet you’re struggling financially. There’s a science behind the reasons that some winners continue to win and vice versa, the reasons that losers tend to lose. What one may find from reading some of Gerry Sanchez’s books is that there are thoughts and aphorisms out there for individuals to take in order to mold them into something that fits their needs and situation. This is where many entrepreneurs can learn a lot from Gerry and the reason that so many come his way. Some can’t seem to find the reasons why one failure tends to lead to another and why others are striving further consistently. It’s important to separate you from any negative thought that would place you in your mind as a loser. Small tweaks like this can make a massive difference in a person’s life. **Lacking Love and Wealth Could Lead to Serious Health Issues** There have actually been several studies that show just how an absence of love and social interactions could eventually lead to a dangerous degree of health issues. One of the most common being depression of course. Gerry Sanchez is all too familiar with such cases. What he strives to do is improve these social interactions and overall every human dynamic that a person may be lacking in order to keep them from feeling abandoned by society. If an individual has wealth, then most likely this individual is perhaps able to afford living a healthier lifestyle and one who doesn’t have wealth. If an individual has wealth, then the individual is perhaps not suffering from any depression caused by financial stress. As mentioned before, all these things correlate from one another. Yet some aren’t aware of such things. Gerry Sanchez helps people who are struggling with these aspects of their lives all over the world. Meaning he is also the individual that many thank for the improvements made to their overall happiness. --- ## “Building Your Own Ecommerce Business Is Easier Than You Think”- Peter Pru URL: https://futuresharks.com/building-your-own-ecommerce-business-is-easier-than-you-think-peter-pru/ **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** I never could make eCommerce work for me. I worked all day at my job and all night on my online business. I made sales, but hardly any profit ever came from it. Until I learned about sales funnels. Using them I was able to start guiding my customers down a sales process specifically designed to meet the customers needs and make the business as profitable as possible. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I lost nearly $40,000 in inventory when I was banned for false IP claims while selling on Amazon FBA. I was wrecked. The business was doing so well and I thought I had this whole eCommerce and making money online thing figured out. When I got banned I had nothing to show for it. No customer data, no way to sell them again. I realized at that moment that I was building Amazon’s business not my own. Since that moment I promised myself I would never not be in control of my business again. --- ## How to Build an Investment Plan in 2026: A Beginner's Guide URL: https://futuresharks.com/investment-plans-for-2019/ TL;DR: Build an investment plan in seven steps: set clear goals and a time horizon, fund an emergency cushion first, gauge your risk tolerance, choose a diversified mix of low-cost index funds, automate steady contributions, use tax-advantaged accounts, and keep fees and emotion out of the way. *This article is general educational information, not personalized financial, investment, or tax advice. Everyone's situation is different — consult a licensed financial advisor or tax professional before making decisions.* Most people don't avoid investing because it's hard. They avoid it because nobody ever showed them a plan. The headlines make it feel like a casino — hot stocks, crypto moonshots, traders shouting on screens. Real investing is quieter and far more boring than that, and the boring version is the one that actually builds wealth. A good investment plan is a set of decisions you make once, write down, and then mostly leave alone. Below is how to build one in 2026, step by step, starting from zero. None of it requires picking winners or timing the market. ## 1. Start with goals and a time horizon Before you put a single dollar to work, answer one question: **what is this money for, and when will you need it?** Your time horizon — how long until you spend the money — drives almost every other decision. - **Short-term (under 3 years):** a house deposit, a wedding, a planned car. This money should *not* be in the stock market. A high-yield savings account or short-term government bonds protect it from a downturn at the worst moment. - **Medium-term (3–10 years):** a goal that's flexible on timing. A conservative, diversified mix can make sense. - **Long-term (10+ years):** retirement, a young child's future. This is where the stock market earns its reputation, because you have decades to ride out the dips. Write your goals down with rough numbers and dates. "Retire comfortably" is a wish. "Invest $400 a month toward retirement in 30 years" is a plan you can actually execute. ## 2. Build your emergency fund first This is the step beginners skip, and skipping it sinks more investment plans than any bad stock pick. Before you invest, set aside **three to six months of essential living expenses** in a high-yield savings account — somewhere safe, separate, and instantly accessible. If you have unstable income or dependents, aim for the higher end. Why first? Because life happens. A job loss, a medical bill, or a broken-down car will force you to sell investments at exactly the wrong time — often at a loss — if you have no cushion. The emergency fund is what lets you stay invested through bad years instead of bailing out. It's not exciting, but it's the foundation everything else sits on. One more thing before you invest: **clear high-interest debt.** Paying off a credit card charging 22% is a guaranteed 22% return. No investment reliably beats that. ## 3. Know your risk tolerance Risk tolerance has two parts, and beginners usually only think about one. The first is **emotional**: how would you feel if your portfolio dropped 30% in a few months? Markets have done exactly that, more than once. If a big drop would make you panic and sell, a portfolio that's all stocks is wrong for you no matter what a calculator says. The second is **capacity**: how much risk can you actually *afford* to take, given your time horizon and how stable your income is? A 25-year-old investing for retirement can ride out crashes a 64-year-old retiring next year cannot. Be honest here. The biggest losses don't come from market crashes — they come from investors selling in a panic at the bottom and never getting back in. A plan you can stick with through a downturn beats a "better" plan you abandon. ## 4. Decide your asset allocation and diversify **Asset allocation** — how you split your money across broad asset classes — is the single biggest driver of your long-term results. It matters far more than which specific fund you pick. The main building blocks: - **Stocks (equities):** higher long-term growth, bigger swings along the way. - **Bonds (fixed income):** lower returns, steadier, a cushion when stocks fall. - **Cash:** safest, but loses ground to inflation over time. A long time horizon and steady nerves point toward more stocks. A shorter horizon or a lower tolerance for swings points toward more bonds. A classic rough starting point is to hold a stock-heavy mix when you're young and gradually add bonds as your goal approaches — but there's no single "correct" number. Then **diversify within each class.** Diversification means not betting on a single company, sector, or country. If one company collapses, you barely feel it when you own thousands. The simplest way to be broadly diversified is the subject of the next step. ## 5. Use low-cost index funds and ETFs You do not need to pick individual stocks to be a successful investor. For most people, you shouldn't try. An **index fund** (or its close cousin, the **ETF**) buys a tiny slice of an entire market — say, every large company in the country, or the whole world's stock market — in one purchase. You get instant diversification across thousands of companies for a very low cost. Why this beats stock-picking for beginners: - **Diversification is automatic.** One fund can hold thousands of companies. - **Costs are tiny.** Broad index funds often charge well under 0.10% a year. Many active funds charge ten to twenty times that. - **It quietly outperforms.** Over long periods, the majority of professional active funds fail to beat a simple low-cost index fund after fees. A common, sensible core for a beginner is a **total stock market index fund** plus a **total bond market index fund**, mixed according to your allocation from Step 4. A single "target-date" fund, which holds a diversified mix and automatically grows more conservative as your target year approaches, is an even simpler all-in-one option. If you want to understand the philosophy behind this approach, two short, readable books are worth your time: [*The Simple Path to Wealth*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926) by JL Collins and [*A Random Walk Down Wall Street*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324035439) by Burton Malkiel. ## 6. Automate with dollar-cost averaging Once you know *what* to buy, the question is *when*. The honest answer: stop trying to find the perfect moment. **Dollar-cost averaging** means investing a fixed amount on a fixed schedule — say, $400 on the first of every month — regardless of whether the market is up or down. When prices are low, your fixed amount buys more shares; when prices are high, it buys fewer. You automatically buy more when things are cheap. The real benefit is behavioral. Automating your contributions removes emotion and willpower from the equation. You're not watching headlines and second-guessing; you're just steadily building a position, month after month, through good markets and bad. Set up the automatic transfer and let it run. Time in the market beats timing the market. The investors who do best are usually the ones who simply kept contributing and didn't touch their accounts. ## 7. Use tax-advantaged accounts and watch the fees *Where* you hold your investments can matter almost as much as what you hold, because taxes and fees quietly eat returns for decades. **Tax-advantaged accounts (US examples).** In the United States, accounts like a **401(k)** and an **IRA** let your money grow with major tax benefits — a powerful, often underused advantage. For 2026, the IRS set the 401(k) employee contribution limit at **$24,500** and the IRA limit at **$7,500** (with higher catch-up amounts for those 50 and older). A few priorities most planners agree on: - If your employer offers a **401(k) match**, contribute at least enough to get the full match first. That match is an immediate, guaranteed return on your money — there is no better deal in investing. - Beyond the match, an **IRA** gives you more investment choice and another tax-advantaged bucket. If you're outside the US, most countries have their own equivalents — tax-advantaged retirement or investment accounts worth understanding before you invest in a regular taxable account. Look up your country's version. **Fees.** Fees feel small and aren't. A 1% annual fee can quietly consume a large chunk of your lifetime returns through compounding. Favor low-cost index funds, watch for platform and account fees, and be wary of advisors or products charging high percentages for actively managed funds that rarely beat the index. Every fraction of a percent you save stays invested and compounds for you. ## Common beginner mistakes to avoid - **Trying to time the market.** Nobody reliably calls the top or bottom. Buy steadily and stay invested. - **Panic-selling in a downturn.** Crashes feel permanent and never are. Selling locks in the loss. - **Chasing hot tips and "guaranteed" returns.** Specific stock picks, crypto moonshots, and anything promising big returns with no risk are how beginners lose money. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. - **Ignoring fees.** A "small" 1–2% fee is anything but small over decades. - **Investing before building an emergency fund.** You'll be forced to sell at the worst time. - **Putting all your money in one thing.** One company, one sector, one coin — diversification exists precisely to protect you from this. - **Waiting for the "perfect" time to start.** The cost of staying on the sidelines, year after year, is usually larger than any single mistake you'll make by starting. *The Psychology of Money* by Morgan Housel is a good read on why patience and behavior — not cleverness — drive results. ## The bottom line Building an investment plan isn't about being smart enough to beat the market. It's about setting up a simple, durable system and then getting out of its own way. Set clear goals and a time horizon. Build your emergency fund and clear expensive debt first. Know how much risk you can actually live with. Choose a diversified mix of low-cost index funds, automate your contributions, use tax-advantaged accounts, and keep fees low. Then ignore the noise and let time and compounding do the heavy lifting. The best investment plan is the boring one you'll actually stick with for decades. Start small, start now, and stay consistent — that consistency, not any single decision, is what builds wealth. --- ## Entrepreneurship Advice From Tal Maimon Who Built a Luxury Rental Empire In LA URL: https://futuresharks.com/entrepreneurship-advice-from-tal-maimon-who-built-a-luxury-rental-empire-in-la/ 33 year-old Tal Maimon is the Owner and operator of Maimon’s Group Luxury, Rentals and Concierge services. **Tals Background Story** **Tal:** At age 23 upon completion of my service in the Israeli Navy I decided to move to united states. I worked as a waiter for the first year and slowly began to set my sights on a position that’s more financially stable. I then worked in construction to gradually build my knowledge on all things needed to build a home from cost of materials and goods to financing. I really enjoyed my work; however, I had always felt that my interest’s lye in real-estate. During my work in construction I took the opportunity to invest in a solar company which I am currently a partner at. By then I was also a nightclub owner and partner in a production company. The lessons I have made in this process have by no doubt played a huge role in my success. The people I have met along the way have been so inspirational and have really shown me that with dedication and hard work anything is possible. It’s sort of full circle for me that I’ve ended up where I am today. Growing up my father was in real estate and I remember him always pushing us to peruse a career in real estate as well. In 2017 I decided to take the initiative and combine all the connections I have made over the years with clients, realtors and homeowners and provide a luxury service for high end clientele. By 2018 it was apparent that I needed to expand my business since the demand for this specific kind of luxury services was high. I got in touch with every homeowner I knew and slowly started to expand my listings. It been a fast growth but that’s not to say that hard work hasn’t been done. On the contrary I have spent countless hours going over details and contracts with both home owners and the clients to insure all parties are satisfied. Every job I’ve had has had its lessons and hardships and fully prepared me for the position I currently have. I really enjoy what I do and that to me is a blessing in itself. **What were the biggest entrepreneurship lessons you learned from your experience with Maimons Group?** 1. The biggest lesson for me has been to deal with homeowners and clients directly. In this way you’re minimizing misunderstanding and you’re also building a connection that will essentially bring you returning clients. 2. Always make sure to have the payment and deposit before the client checks in. This way you’re protecting the homeowners and yourself. So many people in this city bypass this very basic step and end up with damaged property and extended stays that will never be paid for. My goal has always been to protect the homeowner and provide a nice experience for the clients **What is your personal definition of success?** **Tal:** My definition of success is financial freedom. I have been so lucky to have that while doing a job I love. It’s true what they say, when you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work. I am so thankful for the position I am in now, because I remember times in my life where I was struggling to pay rent, and being where I am now, it makes me appreciate it that much more. For this reason, I love that I have worked hard to get to where I am now. I don’t see myself having this amount of satisfaction if it was all just handed to me. **We often hear stories that make it seem like someone was an overnight success when really there were setbacks and stumbles along the way. Why do you think it’s valuable to be candid about both failure and success?** **Tal**: Failure is a part of life and everyone has many of them. It’s your outlook on those failures that dictate your growth and essentially who you will be in both your business and personal life. I have been through very difficult times and to me every time I came across a failure I looked at it as a lesson that I should immediately apply to my life. I do not believe in blaming others for your own shortcomings and I don’t believe in crying over spilled milk. My motto has always been to do the best I can do, no matter what is happening around me. To appreciate each successful venture with modesty and to view each failure as a lesson. Because as tony Robbins says “life doesn’t happen to you its happen for you.” So whatever happen is for a reason, either to grow or to re-direct you to a better place . **What is one thing you wish you had known when you were starting out your career?** **Tal:** Do something you love and do it yourself and always be in a position to call the last shot. Because what they say is true “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” **What is the best advice you’ve ever received?** **Tal:** The best advice would have to be the one my father gave me. I remember his words vividly. “Pick your partners wisely, everything is good when its good and everything is bad when is bad. to get in to partnership or a relationship is easy, to finish them is where it gets hard and ugly.” **What are your responsibilities as CEO of Maimons Group?** **Tal:**As the owner and operator, I do it all and I am involved in every decision and every step. I truly enjoy my work so to me it is only beneficial that I be as involved as possible. At the end of the day it’s my name that’s on paper, and I take that responsibility very seriously. **What’s the best way for our readers to find you?** Facebook: Tal Maimon Instagram: Tal Maimon Instagram: Tal Maimon --- ## Sunniva Holt’s Five Powerful Ways to Set New Goals in 2019 URL: https://futuresharks.com/sunniva-holts-five-powerful-ways-to-set-new-goals-in-2019/ The holidays are here and the year is almost over. New opportunity is ahead and 2019 will be as exciting as you allow it to be. Most people think about goals when they approach the new year. Perhaps you’re thinking about goals and dreams as well. Did you accomplish what you wanted in 2018? Was it a year of regrets? Was it a year of change? Do you already know some of what 2019 will have in store, or is it a completely blank slate? Sometimes people struggle with setting goals because they don’t know how to go about the process. If you have a big dream for the new year, but pursue it without a few principles and mechanics in place, your big dream usually just remains that: a dream. Learning how to set and execute goals is just as much skill as any other discipline in life. It takes careful thinking, practice, experimentation, persistence. The more you work at goal setting and executing your goals, the better you get it doing it. Here are five powerful ways to set new goals in 2019. Study your past One reason people struggle at times to execute their goals is because they set goals without understanding themselves, knowing their personality, or anticipating how they’ll react. You can set new goals, but you can’t as easily become a totally new person. We can all change some things about ourselves, but some of our personality and tendencies are simply who we are. For example, if you’re introverted by nature and your goal is to become a total extrovert in 2019, you’re in for some disappointment. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Knowing who you are and how you react to life will help you set concrete and realistic goals for 2019, and you won’t be fighting yourself in order to execute them. Be honest, be realistic, and be motivated! Create accountability Some of us are truly self disciplined people, and can self motivate and snap ourselves into anything. However, most of us don’t have the skill quite so naturally. Another powerful way to reach new goals in 2019 is to get others involved. Talk to friends and family about what you’re wanting to accomplish, and ask them to help you stay on track. Tell them that you value them and want to make them a part of your success. If they’re a good friend or family member, they’ll be willing to help. Keep records You can’t improve what you don’t measure. One of the best ways to make sure you’re executing your goals is to keep track of your progress. Even if you’re not the most organized person, there are plenty of apps and even some tools probably already on your phone that can help you keep track of where you are on a particular goal. The discipline of writing things down and keeping records of what you’re doing will pay off when you can look at what over time has changed. You’ll get insight on what factors and variables may have caused progress or regress. You can use this information to your advantage. When you only keep everything in your head, it’s easy for things to get washed away. Listen to people who’ve achieved your goal It’s one thing to set a goal and think abstractly about what it would look like to accomplish it. It’s another thing entirely to watch and listen to and learn from a real life person or people who have already taken the journey you’re on and have achieved the goal you want. Become a student, and learn what steps they took. Learn what challenges they overcame. Learn the strategies they discovered. Who knows? You may be able to reach your goals even faster knowing the highs and lows they went through! Even better, if you can personally meet some of these people and be mentored by them, that a double blessing! Put things on the calendar If you really want to get serious about your goals in 2019, they have to become a part of your lifestyle. What better way to make something a part of your lifestyle than having it be part of your everyday schedule, like everything else you do? The truth is, when you schedule something, it becomes more real to you. When you take the time to plan out and chart out what you want, down to the hours in a day, when you’re going to get something done, you become accountable to it and it becomes real. A wise man once told me, “It’s a good thing when your calendar is your boss.” Don’t fall into the trap of not having time to finish your goals. If you can make progress on a goal in a certain day, block out time on the calendar and make it happen. 2019 is yours for the taking. If you want to get things done, get in the frame of mind to make it happen. Your goals will go only as far as you do. --- ## How The Founders of Lonparny Created Their Fashion Concept URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-the-founders-of-lonparny-created-their-fashion-concept/ Fashion is more than just wearing fancy clothes and making yourself look good. It’s culture. It’s a movement. In order to have a successful luxury brand you must have a concept behind it. You must have trust not only with the customers who buy your concept and ideology but trust with the stores. Trust with the stores is ultimately one of the ways to make sure it gets into the eyes of your customers and with that you need brand loyalty and a raving audience. So who’s behind the iconic brand? There’s 3 of them… - **Michael Gabriel Lopez:** He’s a celebrity publicist, event planner and stylist mainly known for his creative consultation in the fashion industry. - **David Cooper:** He has an incredible mind for creativity. A huge follower of fashion and his passion is unparalleled when it comes to clothing. He played a big part in the development of the first collection. - **Lee Donaldson:**He’s been a successful entrepreneur that lives in the U.K. His global jewelry brand works close with Swarovski®️ who gave Lee a global brand license. They created Lonparny in 2017 and they’ve spent a lot of time visiting parts of the world to promote their creation. Traveling to see what’s out there was one main inspiration for the brand. They didn’t release the first collection because all of them are very particular about quality. So much so that it has taken almost 1 year for them to approve the craftsmanship involved. Just this year they’ve received many requests from stores that already want to have Lonparny inside of their stores and have their unique piece Swarovski & Pearls Denim Jacket but so far the only brand to have the opportunity to have it is LUISAVIAROMA. This store is in the top 10 stores in the world based in Florence. The power of 3 people coming together to create a concept that people stand behind is powerful. In fact so powerful that they’ve created exclusive 1/1 pieces for multiple celebrities you know of. Some of the list include but are not limited to: - J Balvin - Young Thug - Belly - 6ix9ine - Corey Shapiro Lonparny is not only in fashion for jackets but since one of the founders has a jewelry store they also have jewelry that can be seen on celebrities as well. Their most recent developed product is the LONPARNY Dread Accessory worn by Juice WRLD and then Trippie Redd. The pieces have been featured in 2 of Juice WRLD’s videos and are frequently worn during shows and photo shoots. In fact his Manager G Money allowed Lonparny to do so and are also in the process of making him a Diamond Tipped Dread which will hold a full Carat of Diamonds at the base. Brands usually never launch this quickly with this much traction. Usually it takes decades to get it into the hands of the celebrities but the powerhouse 3 of Lonparny have done this within a little over a year. Once they start dropping more products into the hands of official stores that they partner up with – you can expect it to sell out as quickly as other stores sell out. In my eyes this is the next big thing because I believe in the concept and its founders. --- ## Why the Automation of Sales Leads Helps Protect an Entrepreneur’s Sanity URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-the-automation-of-sales-leads-helps-protect-an-entrepreneurs-sanity/ When was the last time you had real peace of mind about your business? Our world is constantly moving. Twenty years ago cell phones were just starting to hit the mainstream—now if you’re not constantly on your phone, you’re in a small and shrinking minority. With email, phone calling, texting, social media, direct messages, FaceTime and all the other methods people use to get in contact with us, managing sales leads can be a frustrating experience. Keeping track of who contacted you through what channel, who you’ve talked to recently, what their contact information is, how far down the sales funnel they are and all the rest of the work that goes into your business relationships—that can be a full-time job in itself on top of everything else. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Jet Saini, CEO of Drip Digital, thinks people should be able to live a better life. I spoke to him for this piece to ask him why automation was so important. His business revolves around helping entrepreneurs protect their sanity by automating their lead generation. ### Stress-Free Sales “Marketing and sales automation are huge keys to making a scalable, successful business that doesn’t consume your life. It helps you get more done with less resources, less people and less stress,” says Saini. He knows. He’s been doing it for a while. Jet’s business is based on a model that’s been helping businesses succeed in a variety of industries. Half of all businesses on average are already using automation to help with their marketing and sales, and for B2B companies it’s even higher. Ninety-one percent think it’s very important to their overall sales. If you’re not using it, you’re losing out on opportunities you could have taken advantage of. No matter how good at business you are, there are things that you’ll miss when you’re trying to do it all yourself. Even with a large, capable staff, you’ll miss opportunities. That’s where email drip campaigns and other staples of marketing automation can help. “Companies like ours make sure you’re not overburdened, so you can do more work—and more effective work—with a smaller team and less personal strain,” Saini notes. That’s key for productivity. Ninety-four percent of all workers in the US and UK report feeling stressed at their jobs. Chronic stress is horrible for your health, both physically and mentally. It makes you less happy and less productive. Why not automate some of that away? ### Lifting the Burden Prioritizing tasks is one of the key ways to overcome stress—it allows you to manage what you do more effectively by focusing on what really matters. “When you use automatic lead generation services and software, you’re setting a priority on things. You’re taking away the tasks that can be taken care of by someone or something else. That means things like A/B testing, subscriber development, email drip campaigns, chatbots and other time-saving methods,” says Saini. Automating some of your customer communications doesn’t mean you care less about your customers. You’re reserving your energy for the things that really matter in the relationship. You’re not running around trying to track down information to enter into the lead page in a CRM when an automation system can do that for you. Instead, you can be focused on actually doing the real, valuable communications work that matters. Less stress, more value. Eighty-eight percent of marketers want to reduce the time spent in reports and analysis to spend more time with customers and focus on strategy … You’re probably among them. ### Bringing Sanity Back to Your Life If you feel like you’re being crushed under the wheel of your customer interactions, you’re not the only one. “I use my own company’s services myself,” says Saini. “It keeps me from getting too tied up in the day-to-day. When you automate the menial, tedious parts of the job, it holds benefits for you, your company, your family, and everyone you come in contact with.” Improved accountability and better use of resources are benefits that come along with this too. Internal communications and accountability in your business are something that can be a constant concern, but when the information is coming from a dispassionate algorithm instead of a personality, it can be easier to take. You’ll be able to show your marketing and sales teams real, concrete data and pivot based on those patterns. ### The Solution to Your Stress If you want to be a success as an entrepreneur, you have to prioritize your own mental health and the mental health of your team. You have to allocate your resources correctly. You have to have accurate data. And you have to be willing to invest effort in developing customers, not just sales. Marketing automation helps with every one of these things. If you’re not automating your sales and marketing yet, it’s a step that can help you live a better, more productive, happier life. That makes you a better coworker, a better boss, a better friend and a better entrepreneur. Use the power of automation. Live better. - Image Credit: Featured Image, Unsplash --- ## How Leonard Person Jr. Made His First Million In Real Estate Flipping Homes In One Year URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-leonard-person-jr-made-his-first-million-in-real-estate-flipping-homes-in-one-year/ Leonard Person Jr has been an investor for over 15 years. He’s also the CEO of MyHouseGram.com and a Real Estate Expert that specializes and teaches strategic and creative Real Estate investing. Some things Leonard is known for include: 1. Quiet title litigation (Receiving Properties Back Mortgage Free) 2. Wholesale Acquisition Deals 3. Buying and Selling Nonperforming Notes 4. Basics Fix and Flips He also specializes in Credit Repair in 90 days and Business Lines of Credit for startup companies where tax returns or proof of income isn’t needed. I wanted to learn more about the importance of being financially responsible. Here’s what he had to say. **Hey Leonard! What brought you to this specific career path?** Leonard: I met a good friend named Ravin from one of my best friends named Twin that was doing Real Estate investing in 2003. I saw him collecting checks off of deals he closed for $20,000 each. That inspired me to get into the business, and at that time I already saved up 15k to buy me and my family a house in PA. My friend suggest I flip that money and invest into property until I can get what I truly wanted, so that’s what I did. I found a property worth $306k in Brooklyn, NY where I was born and raised. I put $10k down on the property. I was the youngest black guy on the block that owned a multi-family house which made it hard to rent at times because prospective tenants didn’t believe I owned it. Because I looked so young, I had to always show them the deed and prove I owned the property. Long story short I flip that property for $550k the next year and netted 180k after taxes. I then sold several properties that year making over 1.2m in my first year doing real estate. That’s when I started a company and self-published a book called “Hood Estate The Manual” which was create to give the urban community a idea on how to flip property and build wealth by leveraging credit. **That’s amazing, what has been the most interesting story that’s happened to you since starting MyHouse Gram?** Leonard: The most interesting story is when I bought a property for $6k in Long Island NY and sold it for $270k the next year without fixing anything in the house. I know you’re going to ask me how was that done! It was done through a Quiet Title Litigation which is very rare to do but if you can prove the bank don’t own the promissory note then it’s more than possible. This has to be done through court and you will need to hire great experience counsel to execute this type of deal. We actually teach this in our mentor program which is $10k a member. **Becoming successful involves financial success for some people, what’s your definition of financial success?** Leonard: Financial success is to have multiple streams of income, Real Estate Investment Properties with tons of equity to cash out or for residual income. Being debt free, owning your own property in all cash with no mortgage. Doing what you want, not what you can and making your own rules, not having to follow or settle for less. That’s financial success to me. **How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?** Leonard: I’ve done great deeds and taught people for free, bought my parents homes, donated money and clothes, given loans to family, friends and people without money all while expecting nothing in return. I put out a book that has taught many people and helped them get successful by just reading my experiences. I’ve taken care of kids and raised two daughters which I had full custody of for over 8 years. I’ve done my great share and still willing to help someone in need to this day. I’m just grateful to heavenly mother and father that he/she continue to use me as they see fit! **How can our readers follow you on social media?** @myhousegram on instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Our following is very good on IG so you can definitely follow us there. --- ## How Eddie Smith Fought His Way To Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-eddie-smith-fought-his-way-to-success/ **What’s your backstory?** I grew up dirt poor and on the streets at an early age. I straddled the line between being a good kid and a bad kid often living in the gray area. I would at one time become homeless when I was 15 and eventually found myself moving cross country from Spokane, Washington to Chicago, Illinois because I was out of control. This was my second chance at life though and I quickly went from being shot at, getting into fights regularly and skipping school to graduating both High School & College early. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Man where to even begin.. I shouldn’t even be here to tell you this today but here we go. Growing up we were super poor. I’m talking groceries in the snow, oven on for heat poor. At one point my mom lived in a tent in my Aunts yard with my baby sister. You get the picture. I was surrounded by gangs, violence and drugs. Everyone I knew was stuck in this cycle of poverty that stretched generations. Eventually when I would turn 15 I would find myself running the streets, homeless for a stint and spiraling out of control. This is when it happened though. I was given a second chance at life by getting arrested in Illinois and not being allowed to go back to Washington state where I was from. I was 16 at the time. From this moment on I was determined to make more out of my life and break the cycle of poverty that I had been born into. The rest of is history. Fast forward 12 years and here I am writing this from the Chicagoland area. I travel when I feel like it. I have a successful mentoring business that helps others to create profitable online businesses and the freedom they desire in their lives. On a day to day basis I’m working with the best and brightest entrepreneurs to help them scale their current operations to multiple 5 figures per month and beyond. I love that I’ve been able to create a life for myself and my daughter that once seemed impossible. What makes it even better is that now I get to help other Rebel Leaders do the same for them, their families and their movements. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** Honestly it never crosses my mind --- ## The Importance of Networking With Josh Ryan URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-importance-of-networking-with-josh-ryan/ **Josh Ryans Background Story** Josh grew up in a small town, isolated in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand in a place called Golden Bay with a population of around 2,000 people. Even though his family wasn’t wealthy, they were very supportive and always encouraged Josh to go after his dreams. Growing up he played a lot of sports and started his first business at 9-years-old because he wanted a pair of expensive football boots and to travel across the world to watch Leo Messi play live for FC barcelona in Spain. Neither Josh nor his parents had the money to fund this trip, but his parents took this opportunity to teach him a valuable lesson. They told him that he could have anything he wanted in life as long as he found a way to make it happen. Those words are what led to his first business where he had a coca cola vending machine. Prior to that he traded pokemon cards and sold fruit at the gate when he was 6 years old. By the time he was 13 he discovered the power of wifi and social media. Like a lot of people in the online space, he tried many different things online over the next three years, but nothing seemed to stick for more than a week. Just before he turned 16 Josh started the Instagram page @millionaire.dream posting motivational quotes, cool cars, houses, etc that would inspire both himself and others. After hustling all day every day he was able to build this page to 100k in 12 months, and now 440k after just three years. After this success he decided to settle on launching an Agency at the end of 2017. Now he has clients that include top entrepreneurs like Russell Brunson and Preston Smiles. I got the chance to interview Josh about how he got started with his marketing agency. Here’s what he had so say. **Hey Josh! Can you tell us about your agency and how it got started?** Josh Ryan: At first I grew my Instagram page and then along the way I did a bunch of things to try and make money online including affiliate marketing, ecommerce, influencer marketing, email marketing, and consulting etc. At the start of this year I decided to link up my huge network of influencer friends that I have met over the years to help grow entrepreneurs social pages who have a good message. I decided to dedicate at least a year to this and see what the results would be instead of switching up things like I used to. **What are two things you wish someone told you when you first started?** 1. **Network More:**Networking is so powerful, it’s very hard to do so from New Zealand but with the online word, it makes it easier. However, if you live in the US, Europe or anywhere with lots of meetups and events you should go! 2. **Keep better records:**I got ripped off many times along the way due to not using contracts, or not keeping good records of negotiations. You don’t always need a contract for stuff on social media, however having proof of offer and acceptance is great if the try to screw you over by asking paypal for refunds (please consult a lawyer for legal advice) **None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person you are grateful towards who helped you get to where you are and what lessons did you learn from them?** Josh Ryan: There are so many people but I would have to start with my parents who have always encouraged me and taught me the importance of working for what I want and giving me the competitive determined spirit. Secondly, I would have to say a local mentor of mine who has giving me advice on investing. One thing he taught me was to not put my money somewhere I don’t have any control of it. There have been a lot of entrepreneurs and influencers who have helped me with small pieces of advice. One in particular has been Jason Stone @millionaire_mentor who was the person who from day one, showed me the business of Instagram. About two weeks after I started my Instagram I messaged him and asked for a shoutout and since then he’s helped me along the way with his methods for growing accounts. **How has building a personal brand helped grow your business exponentially?** Josh Ryan: I’ve spent a lot of time working on building my business and I’ve just started putting in more effort to building my personal brand. I’ve been able to build my reputation on the niche of Instagram marketing. I purposely only took on clients who are successful entrepreneurs, building their personal brands on Instagram. By choosing this very specific clienttell I have become well known name in the community which has helped me pick up many clients through referrals. However in 2019 I will be building out my following on @thejoshryan to help generate more clients. For both my agency and as a great way to leave an impact and help more people. I’ve also started a podcast which will begin in January where personal branding comes in big time. **Here’s where you can connect with Josh** Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejoshryan/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCumWpJufFEP_M7l8lsuMKTw Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/officialjoshryan/ --- ## 24-Year-Old Visual Artist Giovanni Contardi Shares Advice On How To Take Your Branding To The Next Level URL: https://futuresharks.com/24-year-old-visual-artist-giovanni-contardi-shares-advice-on-how-to-take-your-branding-to-the-next-level/ Meet 24-year-old Giovanni Contardi is a visual Artist from Italy who’s officially represented by **Gallery 104** in New York. He’s known for creating portraits using hundreds of Rubik’s cubes (roughly 700) using each single piece of the cube as a pixel to create an image. He shares his work on Instagram and now it has been seen by millions of people around the world, including being shared by celebrities like Will Smith, The Rock and Kevin Hart. **Can you give us a look into your background story?** Giovanni: At the age of 14, I first learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube, thanks to a high school friend. Since then, I fell in love with this puzzle, and started practicing everyday – trying to improve my solving times. I later found out about official Rubik’s cube competitions, and through my Speed cubing career, I’ve achieved more than **60 National Records**, **9 European Records** and **3 World Records** – the most recent one being solving a **Rubik’s cube One – Handed in 9.43 seconds**(Rome – 2012) **What made you start creating portraits with Rubik’s cubes**? Giovanni: After years of practice, I wanted to apply the skills learned into something more creative – rather than spending 3 hours a day trying to improve my times 0.1 seconds at a time. I had already seen other people try to create art using Rubik’s cubes, and because of my competitive nature, I wanted to fully explore this form of art and become satisfied with my results. My first full size portrait was ’The Scream” by Edvard Munch, that I made for a high school project in 2012/2013. After moving to Melbourne in 2014, I bought my first set of 700 cubes and started practicing with Rubik’s cube Art – spending countless of hours trying to improve my designs. Later I started uploading on Instagram, although it wasn’t a serious thing until I decided I wanted to fully immerse myself into this, at the start of 2017 – I can now finally say I’m a full time artist. **What advice do you have for anyone who wants to take their branding to the next level?** Giovanni: I am very passionate about businesses and how they work. The most helpful thing in this regards was reading this book called “The Personal MBA – by Josh Kaufman” It gave me a lot of insights about running a business, as an Artist I also feel half entrepreneur at the same time. There was also this video made by Casey Neistat called “How to Be Heard” that talks about how important is to be able to communicate what we do, to reach our goals. It’s almost an hour long, but worth every second. **What is your definition of success?** Giovanni: Big question. I think success is defined by each person’s values in life. Rather than tell you about my personal definition, I think it’s better to recommend this book called ’**the Subtle Art of Not giving a F*ck – by Mark Manson** “ it has been a great tool over this past year – to understand my own values. I’ve read this book 5 times, and it helps me keep in track with my own path, don’t take it as a bible, it’s simply a logical explanation of things, from a different perspective – pretty cool! **Where can our audience get in contact with you?** Giovanni: You can find my work only on Instagram @jvenb I don’t use any other platforms. Follow me to stay in touch with all my next projects, 2019 will be big! You can Dm me on Insta or write me an e-mail at [giovannicontardiau@gmail.com](mailto:giovannicontardiau@gmail.com) I always answer as soon as I can! --- ## Zain Jan: America’s Next Self-Made Billionaire? URL: https://futuresharks.com/zain-jan-story/ He started his first company at 16, dropped out of college at 19, and went on to build a Multi-Million Dollar empire by 20. In a nutshell – this Boston native is obsessed with starting cutting-edge empires and disrupting the status quo of industries stuck on old ideologies. At the sight and sound of his name, you might immediately assume Zain Jan is the prodigy in a long and successful familial line of politicians, CEO’s, and royal ancestry. However in reality he is far from all of those things. Now 23, the self-made millennial has 100+ employees helping him carry forward his vision of a fully renewable Earth and his company is ranked amongst the best places to work in the United States. We can’t help but wonder… What could this college drop-out possibly be working towards next? In this interview we sought out to answer that question and get his insight on common challenges that other young entrepreneurs face. ## So Zain, when did you know you wanted to become an entrepreneur? Basically ever since I could walk.****My parents, two tirelessly working immigrants, settled in America to achieve a better life. This dream however was no easy task. From within the rotting four walls of our 600 square foot apartment, my mother and father instilled in me from young age that the true path to success is putting your nose to the grindstone and always keeping your eye on the next major milestone. This led me to never be content, and always being hungry to succeed. From a young age I’ve always been trying to make money, whether it was doing chores around the house, or reselling baseball cards. I made a decision to help get my family out of our situation, and I would do anything to make sure my family didn’t have to live a life where they had to work 80 hours a week, and just barely get by. ## Being an entrepreneur seems to be a popularized persona that just about anyone calls themselves. What does being a true entrepreneur mean to you? It means being able to take on personal and financial risks in the marketplace by creating a product or service that brings value to the world. It isn’t something that you go around saying that you are – you actually don’t become an entrepreneur until you do that. It includes sacrifice. Family, friends, and relationships all end up taking the back seat if you truly want to achieve your dreams. In the words of Elon Musk… “Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death.” ## What are 3 Successful Strategies you would recommend to anyone looking to start their own business or company? 1. Establish Communication with society**.**What I mean by this is to go out there and meet and talk with people. Make it a two-sided conversation. Ask people about their problems, really listen to them, and help them out. It’s amazing how helping others can help you find answers to most of your problems. A lot of times as entrepreneurs we take pride in doing things on our own. However without guidance and feedback of other individuals it makes it impossible to succeed. Get out there and communicate. 2. No matter what be an optimist. In business there are lots of ups and downs, and if you don’t stay optimistic you will quickly fizzle out. Starting a business is not about winning right away and making money quickly. It’s about wearing through the storm and sticking it out in the long term. In order to stay in business the longest you need to stay positive and make an abundance of decisions, do not let fear of failure break you down. 3. Promote. No matter how good product your product is, even if it was the best of its kind, no one will ever buy it if you don’t promote it. All successful businesses promote their products like mad. They do this when they’re selling well and when they’re selling not selling well. Most entrepreneurs focus on perfecting the product and stop before perfecting promotion. The moment you fail to promote, you are dead in the water. The degree that you are known is is the degree that your business is alive. No matter what, never stop promoting. ## What would you say to someone that is in fear about leaving their job to follow their dream? Just go do it. You can never base your decisions on what other people think or what scares you. If you don’t take the chance you will never know what will happen. So take the chance and do it. If I listened to the people around me or made fear-based decisions, I never would have achieved the level of success that I have. For you, if happiness is working a 9 to 5, then work a 9 to 5. If happiness is running your own company, then go do it. But whatever you decide make sure it’s what you actually desire and what will make you happy. ## What tips would you give a shy person on networking? Same answer. If you’re scared to do it, don’t let that stop you. There is no better feeling than doing something you were scared to do, so just do it. Your network is your net worth. Success is about establishing connections with people, and meeting new people and building relationships is one of the most exhilarating things to experience. ## How do you keep yourself motivated? I try to consistently create bigger problems. I once had a mentor ask me what my biggest problem was. I said something cookie cutter and small. He asked “Do you know what Elon Musk’s biggest problem is? It’s going to Mars.” That shifted my reality completely and made me realize I needed to be thinking bigger. The moment you do not have a bigger game or a bigger problem to overcome you start to become complacent – which is the dangerous state for an entrepreneur to be in. Never stop growing, and act as if you can never be satisfied. I’m consistently hard on myself, I never like to think I did a good job. Because the moment I give myself credit is the same moment I stop striving to be better. People say be grateful for what you got. That is equivalent to saying stop improving your situation. I say be grateful for never being satisfied – THAT will pay you back way more than what you sacrifice will. ## What fear or insecurity have you overcome and how? My biggest insecurity was being myself and telling people what I thought. I was afraid that people would judge me, and I feared that I wouldn’t fit in. It’s quite funny because if I didn’t say what I thought then I would never have been able to lead people. A true leader speaks their opinion and let’s the world know what their vision is. I overcame this insecurity by saying what I wanted to say respectfully and always being open to the perspective of other people. ## Out of all the different industries you could have broken into, why Solar? I remember Warren Buffett once saying “Energy deregulation will be the largest transfer of wealth in history”. That really caught my eye and caused me to look into this industry. I always knew that if I was to become successful that I would have to solve a really big problem. I thought about this and realized what an incredible problem it would be to solve the world’s energy crisis and climate change. If you think about it, there isn’t really a larger problem to solve. I am pleased with the progress of our initiatives and our results so far, and am enthusiastic about the dent we will be making in this problem in the near future. ## What’s in the works for 2019? In 2019 the name of the game is ever-increasing promotion. We will be reaching our target audiences at levels we’ve never reached before. Through stores, online, face-to-face, community activities, franchise partners and much more. In 2018 we built a phenomenal culture of hard-working individuals that constantly step up their game – and we were named one of the best places to work in the United States. In 2019 the goal is to establish greater communication with our customers and further increase the acceptance and technology of Solar to greater and greater heights. For myself I plan to develop my personal brand and share my voice with the world. Through the inspiration and positive changes that I know I can create in people, I can continue to help economies grow and give everyone the opportunity to have what they desire. ## Follow Zain Jan on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. --- ## Meet Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Entrepreneur & Visionary Building a Massive Empire by Giving Life Back to Entrepreneurs URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-entrepreneur-magazines-top-entrepreneur-visionary-building-a-massive-empire-by-giving-life-back-to-entrepreneurs/ Jon has been an entrepreneur for more than 10 years and has successfully scaled 8 companies, selling one in 2018 and currently growing a nationally recognized award-winning brand. While three of these businesses almost killed him, that didn’t stop him… In fact, over the past decade alone, he has helped scale and consult on over 160 brands across the country, grossing myriad millions of dollars for his clients along the way. He’s worked with clients like Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Amanda Bucci, Courtney King, Possible Pat, and countless more. Boles’ latest endeavor, Avintiv Media, is set to do multiple 7 figures in 2019 from simply helping businesses grow through branding, web design, Facebook advertising, and business coaching. Boles says, “At Avintiv Media, our mission is quite simple: to give our clients their life back, which will allow them to live their ideal life. Avintiv Media doesn’t sell services. People own businesses, no matter the size of the organization. People make decisions based on happiness, life, emotion, and so many other factors. Our client’s businesses grow tremendously when we take the pressure off their plate, help them create their ideal vision and assist in making it come to life. Our individual services that we offer are simply aspects that contribute to their end goals.” With a mixture of luxury, fitness, canabis, and automotive clients, the Avintiv Media team could be growing a $200 million brand on monday and then shooting a commercial for Ferrari on Tuesday. Jon’s life mission now is to help give entrepreneurs their life back. He knows all too well the stresses that come from owning and managing your own business. His personal health battles related to stress and long hours have shown him the importance of finding time to live. **Jon, how did you get started as an entrepreneur?** I remember feeling like someone jammed a sharp dagger straight into my heart. It was the day I decided to become an entrepreneur. I was leaving my manager’s office when I was 17 years old and I presented a lot of operational issues within the business and offered some solutions to them thinking they’d be so excited. Boy was I wrong. Their response… “You don’t need to worry about this things, it’s above your pay grade.” Those words were like a dagger through my heart because I honestly just wanted to fix things, help people, and make my coworkers lives better at work. I knew at that point that I never wanted to be trapped in a box by someone or something ever again in my entire life. **Where were you from?** I was born in Racine, WI and lived in Milwaukee, WI until I was 26 years old. I moved to Scottsdale, AZ and haven’t looked back. **What are some tough lessons you’ve learned along the way?** This is a tricky question for me to answer as I’ve learned so many tough lessons along the way. Let’s just say that I’ve learned that big bank takes little bank. I owned an activewear clothing company from 2014 to 2018 before selling in 2018. I got my second cease and desist letter from a billion dollar holding company in NYC that managed some of the biggest clothing brands in the world. I’ve had my fair share of legal experience, both good and bad, but I had never been involved with something so big and serious. They could have snapped their fingers and taken my entire company down but it taught me to lower my ego, be respectful, and hope for the best while staying focused on work. We ended up settling and it turned out fine but it could have gone a completely different route. **What’s the pivotal moment in your life that changed everything?** I used to chase money!!! I used to be fueled and motivated by being rich. WHY? Because I was broke in my earlier years and was sick of struggling. I made $1 million dollars before 18 and ended up going completely broke before turning 21 years old. So broke that I had to borrow money from family and friends to survive. Going through that stage of my life made me never want to struggle ever again!!! So what did I do? I started to think, dream, and obsess over having more money and never having to stress about it or wonder how I was going to pay bills again. I never wanted to go back to seeing the red – sign in my bank account and show that my account had over drafted or was in the negative. I never wanted to go back to wondering if my credit card had enough on the limit to swipe for a simple sandwich and coffee. I never wanted to let my family and friends down again because that was the worst feeling in the world. That turned into me wearing a “success” mask and everything I did had to be proper, perfect and geared towards success. I didn’t want people to know about my past or my failures so I thought by chasing money that no one would ever find out. I went to a coaching event in January 2018 that changed my life forever. I shared my full story for the first time in my life. I hid from it and ran from it because I was ashamed of who I was before hitting “success.” Taking my mask off and becoming 100% authentic and vulnerable was the best decision of my life. I have zero skeletons in my closet and when you’re authentic and vulnerable, there’s not much anyone can do to affect you or hurt your feelings. I know who I am to the core now and that’s something no one can ever take away from me. Since January 2018 and taking my mask off, business and life have skyrocketed and have been life-changing. I’m very blessed to be who I am and do what I do every day. **Tell us about a big failure in your business and how has that shifted your direction in business/life?** In 2016, you could say that I was a “YES” man. My group of friends are all extremely successful entrepreneurs and influencers. The type that makes you want to grow as fast as possible. In 2016, I wanted to grow as much as possible and level up like them. I started saying yes to every meeting that came my way. Investor meetings, real estate meetings, marketing deals, etc. At the end of 2016 and early 2017, I had 3 companies that were all growing very rapidly. Having 3 companies sounded like a cool idea at the time until I couldn’t control the growth anymore and they all started butting heads. I owned an activewear clothing company that was taking off, I owned a white-labeling manufacturing company, and my marketing agency, Avintiv Media. They all needed my time and I had meetings overlapping, employees needing things every second of the day, to the point where I just couldn’t handle it anymore and I ended up in the hospital from stomach ulcers and having too much stress. I almost lost it all. This taught me that my health and happiness needs to be number one in my life. I now build my businesses around my ideal vision and the life that I want to live. It keeps my health in check and I truly enjoy growing my brands now. **What inspired you to start Avintiv media which has grown to be a 10x award winning agency and what are your top 3 lessons you learned while scaling?** I started Avintiv Media as a side project to be completely honest. I did consulting in the restaurant and nightlife industry for a number of years so I was used to fixing and growing businesses. Week after week, I kept getting emails asking questions about who did the branding, website, and marketing of my clothing company at the time, Modus Apparel. By the fourth or fifth person, I knew that I had something because I was the one that created and managed everything they asked about. I started doing branding and websites for clients on the side for extra cash. I knew it was a home run when the first month in business, Avintiv Media bypassed my clothing company in revenue that month. The second reason is that I had a really bad experience with past marketing agencies and I was sick of getting screwed over. I wanted to offer a solution for entrepreneurs to actually provide them value with high quality and affordable services. I was sick of watching people get screwed over. I guess you could say, I wanted Avintiv Media to be the white knights to come and save the day. Lessons: 1. Invest in a team that has an amazing culture, not only sees your vision but fights for it, and they follow your company core values 2. Focus on systems and processes day one 3. Start super niche and with only one or two services. DON’T TRY TO BE EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE **What do you look for when hiring people and is attitude or talent more important to you when evaluating a candidate?** This is a great question because we’re in the process of hiring 2-3 employees every month or two. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that skills and experience are great but you cannot teach culture or attitude. Our team can always teach someone skills or how to become a better designer or developer. We focus on culture and attitude in the first two steps of our hiring process. I don’t think I’ve looked at what school someone has gone to in almost two years. We get rockstars because our culture at Avintiv Media is phenomenal and the team wants to become better each and every day! It’s 8 pm as I answer this question and one of my salaried team members is still in the office working overtime because she is super invested in the vision and our future together! If that’s not culture or great attitude then I don’t know what is. **What are your top 3 lessons on success that you’d like to share with other entrepreneurs?** 1. Money does not equal success. I repeat. MONEY DOES NOT EQUAL SUCCESS. 2. Progress over perfection. Stop trying to get things perfect because that is never going to happen. Focus on small wins every day and build off of them. You’d be amazed at what type of domino effect of success that will be created. 3. Develop a morning ritual that sets you up for success. The morning dictates the mood of your entire day. Here is mine: Wake up 6 am, List what I’m grateful for, go to the gym for 45 minutes, shower, meditate, read a book for an hour, and then begin my day. This grounds me for whatever happens the rest of the day. **What is next for you business-wise? Do you want to scale the agency to have 100’s of employees? Start other businesses?** What’s next for me is staying focused on my agency, Avintiv Media, and my business coaching. Avintiv Media is now working with some pretty large national and international clients, so we will continue to scale our agency to go after larger companies with major market share. We’re on track to having 20 full-time employees by the end of 2019 with a huge market share in the fitness and luxury space. By 2020 we should have another satellite office and team in Los Angeles to work with a number of influencer clients. Our coaching program, 6-Figure Impact Leaders, is on track to coaching 250-300 fitness coaches in 2019. We offer a 12-week program that helps fitness coaches and personal trainers get back their freedom back and build a $250,000+ coaching business. It’s pretty amazing the results we’ve been able to have this year. In 2018, we helped over 40 fitness coaches break past the 5-figure mark in revenue and cross into multiple 6-figure businesses. Two of these clients are on their way to 7-figures in 2019. Their lives have completely changed. We’re getting ready to launch a 7-figure mastermind around March 2019 that will help entrepreneurs get to the 7-figure level and will have 4 retreats around the world per year. There’s going to be special guest celebrity/influencer speakers and coaches that share their story, success, and experience of getting to where they’re at. This is going to be a mastermind like no other. Do I plan on having 100’s of employees? No, that gives me anxiety just hearing haha. I see growing Avintiv media to 50-75 employees which should be a pretty large agency in my eyes. That’s just 25% of the vision though. You’ll have to wait to hear about the other pieces that are getting added in to compliment the agency. --- ## How Meagan Faye Grew Her Following to 120,000 while Traveling URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-meagan-faye-grew-her-following-to-120000-while-traveling/ Being an influencer on social media and traveling the world seems like an unattainable dream for most, but for Meagan Faye, known as @meaganfaye on Instagram, it’s a reality she insists is possible for anyone. We all know you can’t become a legitimate influencer overnight. Here’s how Meagan spent the last four years growing her audience to 120,000 while traveling the world. **Continuous Collaborations with Others** There are so many ways to cut corners when it comes to Instagram growth, but Meagan insists that the single best way to grow your account is by collaborating with others in your niche and posting content consistently throughout the day. Meagan grew most of her following from collaborating with others in her niche by organizing and participating in giveaways and group trips. On trips, in particular, peers will naturally cross-promote each other because they are all interacting throughout the day. It creates an organic relationship and allows followers to get to know everyone you are with. **Engaging with Audiences on a Consistent Basis** You can have 10,000 followers or 1000 followers, but size doesn’t really matter anymore, now it’s about loyalty, and that is measured through engagement. Commenting, liking and responding to comments on a consistent basis was key to driving Meagan’s growth on Instagram. In a recent article on L’Officiel, Meagan mentioned she would spend 3 hours or more interacting with her audience and the audience of her competitors to try to grow. **Hashtags Are Still Important** Those annoying tags everyone posts on the bottom of their posts have a purpose. Each tag can reach millions of people in your niche. The trick is trying to reach the “top post” section under a hashtag. This helps prevent your post from getting mixed up with the thousands of others using the hashtag at the same time. Just how do you reach the top post? Well, that comes down to engagement. The more your audience interacts with your posts under the same hashtag, the more Instagram will view your post as popular. Since Instagram released the “follow hashtag” feature, Meagan has seen an increase in the number of followers she receives with each post. This goes to show that hashtags are not dead after all. **Using Location to Get Discovered** Traveling the world and using the geolocation tag has its perks. Meagan was able to build a loyal following from every destination she went to, just by using a location tag. It is rumored that Instagram will push your content out based on your current location. So if you are in Bali, tagging your posts with the Bali location tag, the users within that region will see your posts first, increasing your chances of building a new audience! **Creating Loyalty with Instagram Stories** Meagan admits that she wished she hopped on the Instagram story bandwagon earlier. She has recently started using her Instagram stories like a personal vlog, bringing her followers with her throughout the day and has seen a drastic increase in her follower engagement. Stories allow your followers to build a deeper connection with you, and they are more likely to talk about you and share your content organically. Meagan has seen this first hand through the number of shares and saves she has received on her content since she started using Instagram Stories consistently. --- ## Opinion: The Case for Using Fintech To Fund Your Next Company URL: https://futuresharks.com/opinion-the-case-for-using-fintech-to-fund-your-next-company/ **Guest Post By: Thomas Carter, founder of DealBox, a blockchain business accelerator and crowdfunding platform for startups** I’ve been raising capital for 30 years and know first-hand that the process is not an easy one. Entrepreneurs spend precious time and energy jetting between meetings with potential investors while simultaneously building their business. They squander meaningful bandwidth that could be better utilized developing their company instead of juggling all the complexities of raising capital. Even when the pieces are in place, funding terms can be downright predatory. I believe tokenization is a better way to raise money for your venture, and as the founder of a venture fund that uses tokenization to capitalize startups, I’ve seen firsthand the advantages it can provide entrepreneurs and investors. It’s a method that actually increases liquidity for investors — which means more efficient access to capital for entrepreneurs — and increases a company’s value without massively diluting founder shares. Here’s how it works: Blockchain is the distributed public ledger technology behind popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. But blockchain has applications beyond the fly-by-night initial coin offerings (ICOs) you see in the crypto world — you know, the ones that have been over-hyped, pumped, dumped, and shut down by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Entrepreneurs can use blockchain technology to securitize the value created by their companies with a security token offering. Tokenization, unlike ICOs and cryptocurrencies, has been vetted by the SEC and is slated to become a major part of the entrepreneurial economy. Recently, SEC issues With tokenization, a company creates its own digital securities, backed by the company’s other assets, and then allows investors to buy these digital securities to fund their raise. Because the tokens reflect the company’s total asset value, their price moves relative to the company’s success and is rooted in fundamental valuation metrics as opposed to pure speculation and use case, as is the situation with cryptocurrency and utility tokens today. That means investors have a claim on a real portion of the company’s assets, just as if they owned traditional securities created by the company. The big difference is that digital securities are far more liquid than current private company securities like phantom stock, convertible notes or other equity instruments, as the development of security token exchanges progresses. Some of the largest liquidity pools on the planet are deploying meaningful resources to create these exchanges of the future. They’re also far more friendly to founders than traditional funding options. Instead of hustling for funds, founders get to focus on their companies. While emerging technologies like this are exciting, they are often met with apprehension on the front end of the adoption curve. Most notably, the Director of The Municipal Bureau of Finance for Beijing just announced that Beijing will not allow for financing through this method. It is important to realize China has a “restrict first, adopt later” stance on new business and technology, so it remains to be seen how greater China begins to adopt the security token economy. As of now, if you’re domiciled in Beijing, this funding method may not be appropriate. That being said, legitimate success cases can be found right here in the United States. Currently, Overstock.com has issued a successful and regulatory complaint security token through its “tZERO” token. The result is a whopping $134 million in funds raised. As of the third quarter of 2018, tZERO is valued at just over $1.5 billion. I’ve invested my own money using this process and believe that tokenization is a win-win for both investors and founders. Here are the reasons why: **1. Tokenization increases the enterprise value of companies.** Tokens created by a company have real value and reflect the value of other real assets owned by the company as dictated by the token architecture. The tokens can be traded on exchanges, and rise and fall with a company’s prospects just like traditional securities. Because tokens have value on their own, they increase the size of the overall asset base and are factored into a firm’s enterprise value. It’s an outcome that makes investors, founders, and markets happy, which is why tokenization is used by healthy, established companies like Overstock.com to create even more value for shareholders. **2. Better liquidity for investors translates into more capital for companies.** Traditional investing is not for the faint of heart. If you put your money into a real estate investment trust or a venture, you may not see returns for five to seven years (or more). Tokenization, however, offers far better liquidity. Multiple exchanges exist on which to trade company tokens, and the blockchain-based ecosystem grows bigger by the day. Thanks to the technology’s adoption, plenty of investors and cryptocurrency enthusiasts are on the other end of these transactions. That means ready buyers and sellers for tokens, which translates to more liquidity for investors. This also means more capital for founders because more investors are attracted to investments that don’t require locking up capital for half a decade or more. **3. It sets founders up for success from day one.** Entrepreneurs are great at creating winning products and services, but often they’re not adept at treating their business like a product that needs to be well constructed, which is essential when raising capital. Tokenization helps here, too. During the tokenization process, entrepreneurs must pay close attention to how their company is structured and how they’re capitalized. On the deals we help architect, tokenization necessitates that companies be structured (or restructured) in sensible ways. This has a number of positive effects for both founders and investors. By utilizing revenue share or royalty models for their digital securities, founders are adequately capitalized, so they reap the proper rewards from a sale or exit. This places the company in a far more attractive position for potential buyers from day one because it’s professionally and intelligently structured. Capital partners are also structured properly for exits. It turns out when you remove the inefficiencies of the traditional fundraising process, entrepreneurs have the time, energy, and resources to structure and grow their companies the right way. Tokenization mandates a smart structure from the get-go, whether it be for an established business or a newly minted startup. **4. Capital can be raised without dilution.** Tokenization creates digital assets that are sold to fund the company. These assets create an additional layer of enterprise value, on top of the company’s existing assets and capital stack. This allows founders to fund their ventures without diluting their ownership of the assets that back tokens. Founders can also raise funds without dilution by utilizing a digital revenue share or royalty structure attached to the digital asset itself. This is revolutionary because the business can issue these constructs using a liquid instrument as opposed to the existing, predominantly illiquid, model. Investors benefit as well. Token value should grow in lockstep with company value as they should be valued according to the discount model of their distributions and financials, which should provide investors more predictable returns. Because tokens can be traded and exchanged, investors can realize returns far sooner, unlocking far more liquidity and potential gains than they otherwise would through traditional equity. It’s similar to a preferred share of stock in the sense that it has a principal value and a distribution component, however, it doesn’t necessarily require owners to give up equity. **Bottom line:**Tokenization offers real benefits for both founders and investors by creating healthier companies and healthier returns. It’s a process that makes dollars — and sense — for all participants. --- ## Banger Buddy’s Guide to Social Media Fame URL: https://futuresharks.com/banger-buddys-guide-to-social-media-fame/ BangerBuddy (@bangerbuddy on instagram) currently stands at 3 million followers. With a follower increase of thousands daily, Bangerbuddy is one of the top social media party pages in the world. I had the opportunity to sit down with the Bangerbuddy founder, Nick Filchy (@filchy on instagram). What started off as a just for fun page quickly blew up into a brand well known at colleges across the United States. Having started the page at the age of 16 for an app that failed, Filchy had no intentions of making Instagram one of his main sources of income. In fact, at the time that Filchy began posting content for his audience daily, being paid for Instagram promotions was basically unheard of. Instead, he began posting content that he loved in hopes to keep others that also loved the party scene entertained. Once word got out of this rapidly growing page full of epic party content college students everywhere followed as well. With every hilarious video came more and more shares and with that more followers. In fact, @bangerbuddy was grown completely organically. When asked how he grew the page so quickly Nick replied “It’s all about the content. If I don’t post good content I won’t get good engagement and my page won’t grow, in fact I’d probably lose followers”. When he first started, Filchy searched for hours daily to find the best content to post for his audience. Now that his page has grown, however, the job has gotten slightly easier as people often DM him videos of themselves when they want to be featured. Instagram insights is a tool that many take for granted, however when trying to grow your page, they are essential. Looking at the posts that get the most engagement and posting other pictures and videos like it is one way to optimize growth. “There are certain videos I post that get alot of engagement, everyone is just commenting and wants their friends to see. I look at the engagement and if it’s high I’ll post something very similar to that later. It’s easy to see when something is trending, and when the joke or trend is over and it’s time to move on”, Filchy explained. “I also try to post controversial content. Like a controversial joke sometimes. Like they say: ‘no press is bad press’” He added. He is right, on Instagram, even if you comment that you hate a post, or share it with your friend so they can see how outrageous it is, it still gives the post more publicity. The reach is increased, so more people will see it and react to it. The cycle is never ending. With everyone posting crazy content the way to the top can be a struggle. However, some, like Nick Filchy, see this fight as motivation, “The social media industry is so competitive. The inspiration never dies down because it’s almost like a never ending race to have more followers than someone else, and sometimes you pass them and then they pass you and then I start ramping things up to pass them again”. This competition is part of what keeps his page growing, not wanting to fall behind empowers him to search for the best content and keep his audience happy. With the countless meme or party pages on Instagram today, it is incredibly beneficial that he take these other pages as motivation to achieve his goals. As they say, “you can’t be the best, if you can’t beat the best”. With the rapidly developing online world being the best is getting more and more difficult. However, those that make it to number one, like @Bangerbuddy, are recognized worldwide and leave a lasting impression on their audiences. --- ## Meet Michelle: LA Based Social Media Consultant and Photographer URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-michelle-la-based-social-media-consultant-and-photographer/ Michelle Balingit, also known as Sey Michelle, is a Los Angeles based social media consultant and brand photographer. She began as a self-taught photographer over 9 years ago and has been involved in marketing for 5 years, so when she fell in love with social media marketing, she put her two passions together. Creating her own business was not without its struggles. For her, the most challenging aspect was the finance. “No one invested in my business but my own,” she said. However, she found once she started reaching out to clients, she started to find success. Now, she has collaborated with lifestyle brand such as Le Tote, Instacart, MD Acne, as well as others where she’s worked to create content and help them grow their social media presence. Very dedicated to her work, Michelle finds helping the brands that she consults the most rewarding. She has a strong passion for telling the brands’ story through social media and watching their growth over time. By creating content for the the brands’ she works with, she helps them connect with their customers, which she loves doing. For more information about Michelle, check out her website and blog Sey Michelle. You can also find her on Instagram @seymichelle, where she posts her work and social media tips for her followers! --- ## 5 Signs Your Startup No Longer Has the Capacity to Handle Its Own SEO URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-signs-your-startup-no-longer-has-the-capacity-to-handle-its-own-seo/ If you’re not focusing on SEO, you’re falling behind. Every company now has to have a presence on the Internet, and they have to invest the time into making that presence rank on search engines. That’s a given these days. It’s not hard to get a handle on the basics of search engine optimization, either. There are tons of guides, columns, helpful hints, video [and more](/resources/) floating around for those who want to take the time to study. Especially for startups, it’s easy to just focus on handling things in-house, doing the best you can with the resources you have available. There comes a point of diminishing returns, though. Eventually your SEO will reach beyond the capacity you have to keep up with it in house. How do you know when to turn it over to the experts instead of handling it yourself? ## 1) You Don’t Have the Expertise to Do the Work Not everyone is good at everything. If you’re trying to do everything yourself, or only have a small team, it’s worth asking this question: “what’s the most effective allocation of my resources?” You know why you’re in business. You know what you’re good at. You know what your team is good at. Calculate the hourly value of your time against what it would take you or your team to learn SEO and do it yourself, and you’ll see quickly that if you want a strategy that goes beyond the very basics it’s probably worth farming it out. If you want to scale your business, you’ll have to let go of some things. Look at LEGO—when they let go of some of the things they weren’t good at, then took their time and invested it in what they were *actually* good at, their profitability and sales absolutely skyrocketed. Be like LEGO. Do what you’re good at. ## 2) You Don’t Have Enough Time to Keep Up With Changes Maybe you do know a little bit about SEO. In that case, you’ve got other concerns—you still need to be concerned about how much time things take. Google’s obviously the 800-pound gorilla of the SEO space, and when it changes, everyone has to move to keep up. And Google updates its algorithms 500 to 600 times per year. Not all of those updates are major. But even if you only count major updates, Google changes up its algorithm about once a month. If you’re not willing to invest the time and resources it takes to follow those changes and adjust your website accordingly, it’s time to move on from doing it yourself. One caveat to this: don’t naturally assume that just because you can’t keep up with the changes in SEO, you need to hire a big company. According to Josh Steimle, founder of MWI, “The best ‘SEO firm’ for you might not be much of a firm. Bigger is not always better. The right SEO firm for you might be a guy working from his basement. Or it might indeed be the international SEO firm with 500 employees. Don’t write either one off automatically.” ## 3) You Don’t Have the Resources to Generate Backlinks There’s one truism to SEO that you can’t shortcut, can’t find a way around, and will probably take the bulk of your time if you really want to plow resources into it: Backlinks are the foundation of Google’s algorithm. If you’re not building them, you’re failing. If you’re not building new links to your website constantly through a mix of evergreen content, constantly updated content and social media strategy, you’re going to have a bad time. No matter how good your site structure is and how good your keywords are, if the niche is anywhere close to competitive you’ll never build up enough of a ranking without a strategy for backlinking. That takes time and effort. It means working the phones, constantly putting out good social media, and creating consistent content that people want to read and share. If you can’t do that, it’s time to farm it out. ## 4) Your SEO Is Making Your Website Worse Maybe you know a little about SEO. But you’ve been seeing your website start to slide down the rankings, and you’re not sure why. There are plenty of easy pitfalls that you can fall into if SEO isn’t your full-time focus. Are you focusing on quantity of links over quality? Have you been adding new pages to your website in a haphazard way instead of focusing on clear organization? Is your social media stagnant, making the links you share worse? You may not know. You may not have the time to diagnose. And if you don’t, it’s more cost-effective to hire someone to help than it is to mess around with it yourself and maybe make things worse. ## 5) You’re Paying Too Much When you’re doing the work in-house, it can be easy to ignore the costs of trying to keep up with SEO. Try keeping track of your time. You might be surprised how much you’re spending in real money when you count up your hours. Sometimes, hiring an outside firm is actually *cheaper*. Do your homework and see if it’s worth it. Hiring an SEO expert is a step you should take if any of these points apply to you. If you’re not ranking, not getting the right results and want to focus on growing your company, try hiring an SEO company. You’ll be glad you did. --- ## Build Faster With Agile App Development URL: https://futuresharks.com/build-faster-with-agile-app-development/ Building an app, software, or any other platform is an exciting endeavor, but you need to know how to go about things in order to make it a success. You might be providing a valuable service and fulfilling a new niche, but how do you make users aware of it? The reality is that you can’t easily predict what your target audience really wants. To save your time, money, and effort, you should look at Agile development for your new app. This comprises of extreme programming, screen, and several other methodologies that can reduce the risk of a failed app. We’ll explain more about this concept and how it can accelerate the development plus relevance of your app idea: ## The Waterfall Method Source – Pixabay Before agile development, most app developers used a waterfall model. This involved quite a heavy and stringent method that is very different from the lightweight software we have now. Even when you did finally arrive at a finished product back then, there had to be teams for software analysis and scrutinizing the system requirements needed. After this, you’d work on designing the software architecture for your envisioned app. It would undergo tests for bugs and only then have a launch as a complete and finished app. Needless to say, this process was very time-consuming and complicated in planning. It also left very little time and room for any kind of flexibility or change. Since the method was so sequential and strict, there was also no way to know whether the intended users would even like or need the app until it was all complete. ## Enter Agile Development This is where agile development comes in. With this, developers can work on their goals in increments and ask for responses along the way. They can work on beta versions of their apps and get beta testers on board as well. This way, they get to modify their plans and make sure the final product is as likely to succeed as possible. ## Agile Development Benefits Source – Pixabay Agile app development serves to maintain a modern, lightweight method for turning out the best apps possible. When development teams use this methodology, they’re likely to see the potential problems and also work on features that would make the app more successful. The whole process hence gives a customization aspect to app development. Of course, you don’t completely rule out planning, but agile app development makes sure your team is working for the best result. If this means pivoting a bit from time to time, the change isn’t impossible. Further advantages of this development process are that you get frequent working software that you may deliver to the market. This keeps customers happy with the quick results and updates that cater to their needs. Plus, the resultant app is light and flexible enough for any further changes or features at all development stages. Finally, you get a constant interaction between the developer and customers, along with inter-team communication. This means excellent collaboration and hopefully near-perfect results. ## The Benefits of Agile Methodology Overshadow Its Challenges Even with all its flexibility and other benefits, this method makes for less emphasis on the designing plus the documentation aspect of app development. This could result in a hasty process that may cause may turn out to be a bit challenging later on. What’s more, agile methodology teams mostly need experienced developers who can analyze feedback and make informed decisions. There’s hence little room for fresher developers or programmers who need training and experience. Still, agile app development is highly popular for many reasons. The benefits seem to outweigh the costs for many teams and companies, with more than half of IT developers using the model. The few limitations don’t deviate from the fact that agile app development is a huge milestone when it comes to app development methodologies. Besides, it’s easier to get thedetails here and start your agile app development right away. ## About the Process The agile development process doesn’t have one single role or order. It’s the belief that different methods of developing would have to follow the rules that are best for them. Still, there are a few specific team roles that should exist within this process. For instance, each development team usually has around 10 members, each with the required skills to plan, develop, and test out any app iteration. The motivation of these teams comes from themselves, without any set leader. However, there should be at least one member to deal with any distracting issues. Another important player is the product manager. This is the individual who will focus on the stakeholders’ interests along with those of the customers. This way, the development teams stay focused on their main goals and would hopefully turn out a useful result each time. --- ## Meet LogDNA, The Company That IBM Cloud Picked For Log Management URL: https://futuresharks.com/logdna/ - Get this: LogDNA saw [tremendous growth](/?p=4674&preview=true) in 2018 with over 2,000 customers using their solution and increasing revenue 5x from the previous year. - Also, recently the company announced a new self-hosted product for those companies that prefer to maintain all of the software on their own servers, instead of or in conjunction with the cloud service. ### So what exactly is Log Management? Log management comprises an approach to dealing with large volumes of computer-generated log messages. Log Management generally covers: Log collection Centralized log aggregation Long-term log storage and retention Log rotation Log analysis Log search and reporting. LogDNA is a leading provider of Log Management applications that provide deep insight into development and production environments.  LogDNA’s flexible deployment options enable teams to ingest, aggregate and view all of their log data regardless of data residency and infrastructure.  Their Multi-Cloud solution provides DevOps teams with the ability to effortlessly control cost and manage their data volumes.  With customers like IBM, Instacart and Lime, LogDNA is currently enabling over 2,000 companies with their modern log management platform. Note, the primary drivers for log management implementations are concerns about security,[2] system and network operations (such as system or network administration) and regulatory compliance. “As businesses’ application and cloud environments grow, they shouldn’t have to sacrifice service availability while the IT team processes vast quantities of log data,” said LogDNA co-founder and CTO Lee Liu. “IBM Cloud customers will now be able to find, debug and fix production issues in their applications faster than ever before so there’s no lag in service for the end users.” IBM Cloud developers will be able set up and configure their log sources and retention plans directly within their IBM Cloud console. LogDNA’s fast, responsive, and intuitive interface will provide users with the ability to view and search through their logs to effectively find and isolate issues within the applications they build and run on the IBM Cloud. ### Self-hosted logging LogDNA is easy to implement and use. Developers don’t need to learn any special query language to utilize the LogDNA platform. Google-like search syntax allows teams to search quickly using standard terms, drastically reducing the learning curve. Security and privacy are also key focuses of the self-hosted log management system: logging is HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, and GDPR compliant (Privacy Shield certified). Designed for streamlined implementation, LogDNA’sself-hosted logging alternative is a cost-effective, intuitive, compliant, and scalable solution for enterprise-wide integration. It allows companies to achieve the benefits of having a fully cloud-based solution meeting all on-premise logging requirements. The self-hosted solution exceeds the capabilities of all competitors and DIY open-source options in terms of efficiency, cost, connectivity, and speed. --- ## Photography With Purpose. A Photographic Moment with Andrew St. Jean URL: https://futuresharks.com/photography-with-purpose-a-photographic-moment-with-andrew-st-jean/ **Christian Vind:** What is your backstory? **Andrew St. Jean (JayyManik):**  My name is Andrew St. Jean also known as Jayymanik, New York photographer from Brooklyn. I’ve lived my entire life here. Just owning my first real camera, a Canon Powershot point n shoot camera while enjoying taking pictures got me interested in photography. Capturing memories was my thing. Instagram got me into doing photography related business as I’ve seen some high-end influencers do the same, noticing that they can make something more from taking pictures every day. *Andrew St Jean* Instagram changed a lot over the years, after some time these never before seen spectacular images popped up and I know there was no way they were taken from a camera phone. They were vivid and dramatic. Once I saw that, we decided to start a photography business. My brother Brandon St. Jean or @badjoe (shoutouts to him) started out before me and then I followed behind him. We started out doing weddings, events, and parties. After that, we then got more involved joining up with Street Dreams Magazine, a group started through by Stevesweatpants involving street photography and style. We didn’t stick too long with it as it was tough keeping up with street photography being too saturated. We then decided to work with portraits figuring we can get a lot more out of that. Intertwining people with landscape captures made a bigger difference. From then, my brother did his own work and I went on to join Pursuit of Portraits for a while. With that, I got into Issue #1 of the magazine and I was stoked with that accomplishment. I also worked alongside that group for a while. I eventually moved on to work on myself and to grow my own work through collaborations. ### ### For great photography the gear matters! **Christian Vind:** What type of equipment do you like to use when it comes to photography and what brand do you dream to work with? **Andrew St. Jean (JayyManik):** I started out with a Canon 5D as my beginner camera w a 50mm 1.8 then transitioned to a Canon 5D Mark 3 and now using a Sony A7R2 with an adapter connecting to a Sigma 50mm 1.4 and a Canon 70-200mm 2.8 V2. I still have my Canon 5D Mk3 for flash use but only when I need it. I also dream to work with Sony and hope to become one of the Alpha Collective team members as I’m super inspired by their vision in what they aim to do with their cameras and photography in general.  **Christian Vind:**What are some of your favorite models? *Nighttime shot* **Andrew St. Jean (JayyManik):** Some of my favorite models that I’ve worked with is definitely Andrew Kang @andrewkangnyc, he is super cool and the perfect model example. He is the most enjoyable to work with and makes it genuine and fun each time we do a photoshoot. Also you my dude Christian, as we were definitely able to bang out some amazing captures in Minnesota. So we’ll definitely do more work real soon bro! ### Becoming an entrepreneur… **Christian Vind:** What are some of the downfalls of running your own business? **Andrew St. Jean (JayyManik):** One of the many downfalls of running your own business is that you will run into pitfalls often. That includes funding your own equipment and sometimes you won’t make enough money unless you know what avenue of work you choose to go through. More likely even with collaborations, it will be difficult until you establish yourself as a legit business with a reputation behind your talent. The best way to stay motivated is to know that your work has value and as long as someone sees that, you will always grow and prosper in this business **Christian Vind:** Can photography be therapeutic for those who have depression and anxiety? **Andrew St. Jean (JayyManik):** Absolutely! In fact, any art can! I myself went through some really difficult times at a point in my life. It was more so in 2016 that I went through that kind of problem where I was going through a separation at that time. So photography helped me to cope with it and became sort of an escape from reality and those types of problems, but eventually was able to pull through it. **Christian Vind:** Do you want to stay independent or potentially get signed to a major company? What is your ultimate goal? **Andrew St. Jean (JayyManik):** I will say from my perspective, I would like to stay independent. The reasons why is that I get to maintain creative control while keeping the rights to photos I take at times. If the opportunity comes to work with the right company and the deal sounds right for me, then I will decide to take that chance and work with them. ### Closing thought… My ultimate goal for me is to just be a well-known photographer who can have art truly respected from a creative artist like myself. Whatever is meant to be will surely be worth it in the end. Instagram: https://instagram.com/jayymanik --- ## This Personal Brand Coach Never Went To College, And Now Runs A Global Consultancy Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/this-personal-brand-coach-never-went-to-college-and-runs-a-global-consultancy-business-serving-a-clientele-of-ceos-and-women-leaders/ *Martine De Luna is a wife, mother, and transformational coach from the concrete jungle of Manila, the Philippines. A self-professed culture-hacker and “bliss-maker”, Martine grew up as a third culture kid amidst the international school circuit in Hong Kong and Singapore, before planting her roots in Manila, where she began working from the age of 18. After stints as a magazine writer and individualized education consultant, she began her work-from-anywhere lifestyle first as a writer, to now as a personal brand strategist for women from all walks of life.*** City where you’re from:****Manila, the Philippines Favorite quote:***“You are the only solution to every problem you will ever have.” — Stewart Hughes* ***Social Media Accounts:****Facebook Instagram* ## Tell us about Martine De Luna Coaching. How did you come up with this idea? **Martine De Luna:** Everything I’ve done I sort of stumbled into as an experiment. I got into this whole personal branding niche in 2010, when I was being interviewed via Skype for a job I had no background in, for a position I was not qualified for on paper because I never went to college. But, I aced that interview simply because I’m great at connecting with people: I got hired immediately as a Creative Content Director for an LA-based startup that was just getting into social media marketing. Two years into that job, I stumbled into “blog coaching” as well, as an experiment, which is how I’ve pretty much lived my life. This Blog Coaching began by “accident” when a now-established lifestyle blogger in my country asked me to coach her on developing her personal brand as a blogger. She literally started with zero knowledge, and I had the experience of mentoring her from how to setup a blog, build out a brand, and so forth. I ended up doing this for a LOT of other women bloggers and solopreneurs through the years, eventually becoming known as more than “the blog coach” to a “personal brand coach.” When I started this as a side-hustle in 2012, I was actually a creative content director for a small digital marketing startup based out of LA. It wasn’t until 2016 that I really started doing this on a full-time basis, without any other type of freelancing work alongside. As you can see, I’m a big life-hacker, culture-hacker, because I’m wired to the fact that learning is lifelong, and execution on what we learn makes us into the next person we’re meant to be for the next stage in our lives. I stepped into formal coach training in 2016, and since then I’ve come up with coaching programs that thrive on helping people rewire their mindset to one of “I can’t” to “I can.” This has let me be a coach to over a hundred people one-on-one, and I’d say around 5,000, considering conferences and speaking engagements I’ve been invited to either organize or to speak at. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? **Martine De Luna:** I would blog and do cross-features on other blogs mostly in the early days, and I didn’t really promote it any particular way. Clients would refer me regularly to friends and to their colleagues who needed branding guidance and consultation. ## How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific. **Martine De Luna:** I have invested in training, in out-of-the-box business coaches throughout the years, so I’d say mentorship and apprenticeship have been my ultimate growth tool for myself, and I employ the same towards my business. I just decide to treat everything as an experiment: I assess what works and amplify that (such as coaching); I let go of what doesn’t work and what doesn’t align with me. I work with energy, so if I don’t feel energized and connected to a project, I don’t force i. I’m the anti-hustler; I go by intention-setting, utilizing meditation and energy to create conditions for my projects. The next is connections: Most of my business comes from referrals and word of mouth marketing, and only working with people I have an energetic connection with. Anything otherwise is a waste of time, and won’t grow my business anyway. ## What are some secrets to virality/sales in your most successful platform (Fb, Twitter, IG, Snap, E-commerce, etc)? **Martine De Luna:** Wow, such huge big words for me, haha! To be honest, I haven’t looked in to this in the past 8 years I’ve been doing what I do. If you’re talking about good old-fashioned sales, nothing beats forming meaningful connections with people just because you want to be generous with what you know and how you can help. Once people know, like and trust you, you don’t have to force a sale on them. However in the past two years, I’d say Facebook Group networking (without being gross and pitch-y), and my email list has been the source of most of my clientele. ## What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? **Martine De Luna:** Sensing people’s feelings and thoughts, then guiding them to reframe their thoughts so that they can feel better, take new steps forward. I do this by listening intuitively to them, as a coach. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Martine De Luna:** Failing Forward by John Maxwell The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani The One Result by Gary Keller Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple of years? What’s your dream? **Martine De Luna:** In two years, I see myself having reached 10,000 women worldwide with my platform for group coaching and intuitive events. I would like to contribute to the wellness megatrend as a mindfulness platform by collaborating with personal development companies like Mindvalley or the Proctor-Gallagher Institute. --- ## Beyond Six Figures. A Deeper look into Justin Woll’s eCommerce Agency URL: https://futuresharks.com/beyond-six-figures-a-deeper-look-into-justin-wolls-ecommerce-agency/ Using the Shopify platform, one man has helped generate over $20 million in revenue and the heads of Shopify are taking notice. Justin Woll, founder of the eCommerce Mentoring Agency BeyondSixFigures, has been helping hundreds of individuals create dropshipping businesses and growing them to near 6-figure incomes by selling various products online. Many of BeyondSixFigures’ top students now  earn over $5000 a day selling products through various social media ad services. “When Shopify had us out to their headquarters I knew we were onto something. They  wanted to take time to acknowledge the work that was going on and help me learn strategies and resources to better use their platform.” BeyondSixFigures focuses on teaching students to use data to make well informed decisions on what products to sell and then leveraging tools provided by Facebook and Google to target specific audiences. This methodical system has been shown to generate a higher sell rate than most other conventional marketing methods. Justin’s unique approach to eCommerce has made him stand out from other online gurus and business mentors. By providing 1:1 mentorship, weekly mastermind programs, and teaching his methodical way to grow and scale businesses, Justin has become a true leader in the eCommerce community. Shopify has been integral to Justin’s success and creating a streamlined process for his students to follow. “I always suggest Shopify to all of my students. The platform provides a lot of data and tools to help my students scale their businesses effectively by identifying key markets and audiences. I use it personally for all of my own stores.” Known as the “Justin Woll effect” many of Justin’s students have been able to show a significant increase in sales using his methods and the Shopify platform. Justin focuses most of his time individually mentoring his students by providing them with direct email responses to questions, 1:1 mentorship and group mastermind phone calls. He is daily working on new courses and resources to to continue to commit the success of his students. “BeyondSixFigures has become a movement,” Just said gleefully, “we are a family and seeing the positivity and motivation and success in our Facebook group daily motivates me to work harder and hustle more to make sure we are all successful.” Justin is currently expanding his mentorship agency in 2019 with new online courses, daily video series and an international tour with in-person workshops and mentoring. More information can be found at www.beyondsixfigures.org --- ## Learn How Canada’s Top Young Entrepreneurs Are Building A Tech Empire URL: https://futuresharks.com/trufan/ 1. Tell us about Trufan.io and this new endeavour of yours- looks impressive. Trufan is an enterprise SaaS company, founded by two of Canada’s top young entrepreneurs, Swish Goswami and Aanikh Kler, who were both inducted into Canada’s Top 20 under 20 a few years ago. The company’s web platform uses a proprietary algorithm to help some of the world’s biggest brands and influencers identify and reward their top fans on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Trufan allows users to aggregate their most passionate and influential fans, while being able to directly segment and reward them. The company recently raised just over $500,000 CAD in its second pre-seed round from several investors including Kyle Kuzma (Los Angeles Lakers forward), Davon Reed (Indiana Pacers guard), Manny Padda (Canada’s Angel Investor of the Year), Michele Romanow (CEO, Clearbanc), Jason Robins (CEO, DraftKings), Brian Poe Llamanzares (Time Master Watches CEO) and Austin and Trevor Eastman (founders, Odyssey Sports Group) and Eagle Rock Wealth Management. As of October 2018, the platform has more than 400 influencers ready to test the beta, including Kevin Hart, TLC, Gucci Mane, Ludacris, Cody Ko, Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade. They have also rolled out the beta to more than 200 brands including Western Union, McDonald’s Canada, UFC, Under Armor, K-Swiss and TheScore. The company also has a stellar advisory board comprised of Karen O’Brien (former VP Marketing, Western Union), Ryan Holmes (CEO, Hootsuite), Michael Hyatt (Chairman, BlueCat Networks), Mark Zablow (CEO, Cogent Marketing), Eliot Robinson (CEO, Dunk Media), Brandon Steiner (CEO, Steiner Sports) and Sam Sheffer (popular YouTuber). How were you able to build the core team of Trufan and what top qualities were you looking for from each member ? We all connected in different ways and Swish put together the team towards the backend of 2017 after Mark Zablow (CEO, Cogent Marketing) asked him if he had a tool that could help NBA All-Star Chris Paul determine who his most engaged fans in Houston were. We were astonished that this wasn’t currently possible and spent the next year developing the product, building relationships and raising capital. I think we all gravitated towards each other after being introduced and looking at the characteristics the team all share, we are all very driven and ambitious. This has really helped when it comes to solving problems, especially on the product side. The ability to work remotely for the first 10months and being able to have a global presence from the get-go has been really exciting. You have been able to surround yourself with top vc’s, nba executives and form a world class advisory board- can you mention those names ? (You could go into if their adding strategic inputs that each are adding to Trufan if you want and time permits) We were fortunate to have attention from several venture firms but actively chose to raise from angels that we knew could benefit from our product and contribute something more than just capital. Investors include: Kyle Kuzma (Los Angeles Lakers forward), Davon Reed (Indiana Pacers guard), Manny Padda (Canada’s Angel Investor of the Year), Michele Romanow (CEO, Clearbanc), Jason Robins (CEO, DraftKings), Brian Poe Llamanzares (Time Master Watches CEO) and Austin and Trevor Eastman (founders, Odyssey Sports Group), Eagle Rock Wealth Management. We have a stellar advisory board comprised of Karen O’Brien (former VP Marketing, Western Union), Ryan Holmes (CEO, Hootsuite), Michael Hyatt (Chairman, BlueCat Networks), Mark Zablow (CEO, Cogent Marketing), Eliot Robinson (CEO, Dunk Media), Brandon Steiner (CEO, Steiner Sports) and Sam Sheffer (popular YouTuber). Due to the founding teams focus on building relationships early in our careers we’ve been able to get some huge names and businesses to believe in us and the product. How are you different from your competitors? There’s no platform available at the moment which allows users to identify, then message their most engaged or influential followers. There’s certainly no product which allows you to do this across multiple platforms, which is our goal with Trufan. There are some great social listening tools, but we want to provide hyper targeted data to brands and influencers that allows them to build an engaged community and enrich relationships with their audience. As well as this Trufan allows users to target the appropriate users with marketing collateral on content which is specific to their location. What has been your strategy for marketing and branding Trufan and how did you go about getting clients? We are very fortunate to have a unique team and a unique product. So getting in front of brands like Western Union, McDonald’s Canada, UFC, Under Armor, K-Swiss and TheScore has been relatively straight forward. As a team we really believe in focussing on the value each we can provide to each of these brands and identifying their most engaged fans really aligns well with a lot of brands objectives, whether they want to build a stronger relationship with them or monetise them more efficiently. From a marketing perspective we have focussed on providing insight and as we grow there will be more resources allocated to creating a content ecosystem which will help our customer get the most out of Trufan and social media as a whole. --- ## Joey Hickson is an Influencer With 30-Million Instagram Followers. Here Are His Top 4 Tips URL: https://futuresharks.com/joeyhickson/ It’s far too easy to get caught up in the hype and hoopla of social media and forget that it’s part of a larger strategy. To business owners, the whole idea of content marketing and social media must be confusing. How do you know it’s working? Is there a direct measurable return on investment? These are fundamental questions that every business owner must address before spending their hard earned cash on social media marketing services.  In content marketing, you always have to keep your eye on the end game: turning readers into revenue. Building and engaging your audience is an important part of a good digital marketing strategy, but it’s only the beginning. When you use social media properly, you get to know potential customers, and they get to know you. You build trust and authority with your responses and build loyalty by getting personal (but not creepy). This may result in a sale today or years down the line. I had a chance to catch up with Joey Hickson, Hickson earned the number 1 spot on this list because of his 30 million follower network on Instagram and media agency Integrate social. As CEO of a top media agency based out of California, Hickson works on many musical artists, influencers, athletes, and brands. Joey has grown such a large network over the past 7 years and is responsible for the rise of many peoples’ stardom to fame. Hickson shed light on all things social media and how to integrate social media with your marketing. ### Your payoff is content Social media is useless unless there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Your content is the cornerstone of your marketing. When you share graphics and engage in witty repartee, the purpose is to gain interest and to entice people to want to learn more. But while a great visual may get you lots of shares, it’s not going to convert customers. When they get to your site, your content has to be as interesting as the post that attracted them. While social media is often compared to fishing, people are not fish. A shiny lure might get their attention, but the hook has to be baited with the real thing or the fish swims away. Content is the real thing. ### Target your ads Targeting can be tricky. You have to really know your audience. One of the most powerful and often overlooked weapons for brick-and-mortar businesses or event campaigns is Facebook’s local ad targeting. When you know who and where your potential customers are, the ROI on Facebook ads can be insane. ### Create an opt-in landing page Build your email list with opt-in for your most valuable content. If you’ve targeted correctly and your content is excellent, most people will not mind handing over an email address. An effective landing page is the key to conversion. ### Integrate your email marketing  If you’re doing social media right, you’re encouraging readers to sign up for your email list, sending out targeted emails and offering valuable content. In addition, your emails should contain links back to your social media, in order to encourage Twitter followers to connect with you on Facebook or Instagram. Campaign Monitor calls integrating email marketing and social media taking a holistic view, the perfect description of an all-in marketing strategy. To learn more about Joey make sure to connect with him on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqFi6HJBwOT/ --- ## 3 Simple Ways to Protect the Environment on Earth Day With The Steinkeller Brothers URL: https://futuresharks.com/3-simple-ways-to-protect-the-environment-on-earth-day-with-the-steinkeller-brothers/ The Steinkeller Brothers, Aron Steinkeller, Stephan Steinkeller, and Christian Steinkeller, are working on a project to improve the environment of the world. Their mission is to protect the rainforest and environment. They believe all changes start with a small group of people. They’ve worked hard to spread the word and have thousands of followers on their instagram, @steinkellerbrothers and their facebook, Steinkeller Brothers. Here is the expert advice from the steinkeller brothers on helping our environment: 1. **VOLUNTEER AT AN****EARTH DAY EVENT****.** Check with your local parks, schools, city government, churches, and civic groups. Let Earth Day be the starting point for year-round volunteering! The Forest Park Conservancy in Portland, Oregon, is celebrating Earth Day at a variety of park sites. Volunteers are an important part of their trail maintenance and improvement projects and they are expecting about 100 people at their events this year. “The Forest Park Conservancy welcomes folks to sign up to volunteer with us on April 23rd,” says Renee Myers, FPC Executive Director. “We will be removing invasive species and maintaining trails. We encourage everyone in Portland to think about protecting the environment every day of the year. Together, we can ensure amazing places like Forest Park are healthy for future generations.” 1. **PLANT A TREE.** Earth Day’s Global theme this year is Trees For Earth. In anticipation of the event’s 50th anniversary, EDN wants to plant 7.8 billion trees by 2020! Contact your local arboretum, park district, school, city government, or nonprofits like the Arbor Day Foundation,  ACTrees and American Forests to see where you can volunteer to plant trees. Or, plant some in your own backyard! Register your event with EDN. You can also contact your local officials and use social media to urge others to plant trees in your city. 1. **HOST A RECYCLING DRIVE.** Get your friends together and collect plastic, metal, glass, and old electronics. Electronic materials can be taken to an e-waste recycling facility to make sure they are properly handled and safely recycled. According to EDN, the United States produces up to 50 million tons of e-waste. Only 20-25% is recycled safely and responsibly. The other 75% ends up in landfills. You can also donate no-longer-used wireless phones and accessories in any condition from any service provider to HopeLine® from Verizon. Verizon donates wireless phones to local domestic violence shelters and non-profit organizations and agencies for use by victims and survivors. These phones serve as a vital link to support services and provide a safe line of communication to family, loved ones, and employers. --- ## A Look Into the Future: What Will the CBD Industry Look Like in 10 Years? URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-look-into-the-future-what-will-the-cbd-industry-look-like-in-10-years/ In the past few years, we have seen substantial advancements in a variety of industries. From technology to medicine, we have seen stocks soar and products fly off the shelves. The CBD industry is no exception to this economic boom. With a 2016 valuation of over $202 million, the CBD industry has set a precedent for the future of investing, pharmaceuticals, and federal law. I had the opportunity to talk to one of the leading industry experts of CBD, Mia Shark. After founding her company Kaliber Health she set out to inform the masses about the astounding benefits of CBD oil. With years of knowledge under her belt, I was able to see what the next decade looks like for the industry. Here are three major things to keep an eye on in the years to come. ## Legalization leads to prosperity If you were unaware up until now, CBD oil is now legal in the US and Canada. Twenty-three years ago, you couldn’t find a single piece of legislation that supported the use of cannabis, medical or recreational. So why the sudden change in heart? Scientists discovered massive benefits of a non-psychoactive compound in hemp known as CBD (Cannabidiol). Recently the FDA even approved the cannabis-based drug known as Epidiolex. Mia goes on to explain more. “After research done by GW Pharmaceuticals, they had discovered the drug had a noticable effect on two forms of childhood epilepsy known as Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.” Mia continues. “This was groundbreaking because this meant that the FDA had approved a cannabis-based drug and recognized the medical benefits that come from cannabis. Their approval of the drug goes against the schedule I classification of cannabis which classifies it as having zero medical benefits.” It’s hard to say what effect this move by the FDA will have on the current administrations’ view of cannabis, but at the very least it is a step in the right direction. ## The CBD stimulus package As stated before, the current industry valuation is speculated to be around $202 million dollars as of Q4 of 2016. It has been reported that we can expect a 700% increase in value by the year 2020 putting the industry value at $2.1 billion. Furthermore, of that $2.1 billion, it is reported that $450 million will come from hemp-based products. So I asked Mia what we can expect from the growing market as federal regulation increases over the next decade. “As of 2018 the market is roughly valued at $1.1 billion. With a growing list of people open to trying CBD, a larger variety of safe products will be made! As of right now however, there is a lack of FDA approval on CBD based products. Some products on the market are being made in unsafe conditions. So it is important to know where your product is coming from. All of our products show the lab results of the product via a QR code on each product. Nonetheless, over the next decade or so, you could potentially see a decrease in sales for traditional over the counter pain medications as people will likely prefer a safer, more natural alternative. Overall, the future of CBD Oil is bright and with that positive outlook you could see an increased number of people investing in CBD based products and companies.” ## Medical Advancements for a brighter future With only one FDA approved product on the market, it is difficult to say what medical discoveries we will uncover. What we can say for sure is that people are heavily researching cannabis and CBD oil. We will eventually see new hemp-based products hit the market. Ultimately this will cause competition to produce the most effective product and the average consumer will benefit. Mia has a bright outlook on the years to come in the medical industry. “As you see with many different companies right now, competition typically leads to lower prices and higher quality. The only thing in our way is the amount of research that is allowed in the US under current law. As laws continue to change and people embrace the use of CBD oil as a medicine, we should see an increase of name brand CBD based products for public consumption.” --- ## Overcoming Obstacles With Rohan Kale URL: https://futuresharks.com/overcoming-obstacles-with-rohan-kale/ **What’s your backstory?** Growing up as an engineering student in India, I made some bad decisions in my 20’s and ended up gambling. I was dissatisfied with my job. Disillusioned with the way things worked. So, to distract myself, I hung out with some people I really shouldn’t have who were obsessed with betting. I lost a lot of money. €25,000+, to be exact. Luckily, I had the support of my incredible family and friends who never gave up on me and who helped me get back on my feet. Anyone who’s been through this kind of thing always says, ‘I don’t know where I’d be without them’, but I know where I’d be. On the streets. Penniless. Harbouring a possibly even more dangerous addiction… But even though they helped me get out of debt, I didn’t come out without a scratch. Getting into so much debt when you’re still just maturing, and in so short a time (this all happened over 6-8 months) leaves you mentally and physically drained. There’s no way I was taking care of myself – I needed to heal. What’s that saying – a change is as good as a rest? I decided to go for one final gamble. My biggest play. I took out an education loan and traveled 6,700km to Germany to pursue my MBA and forge a career, away from home and all my old temptations. I worked hard – and it paid off. I won a job in Daimler’s Sales and Marketing Department, and within a short amount of time I was able to pay off all my debts – including my education loan, and the money given to me by my parents. Not only that, I could afford the good life most entrepreneurs dream of. But the biggest difference was that inside, I was a totally new person. I realized that if you put your mind and your grit to a plan, live consciously and take responsibility for everything in your life, success is automatically yours (comforting, huh?). I spent three years at Daimler before the realization crept upon me that it was time, once again, to move on. I wasn’t meant for a 9-5 desk job – it was simply a transition period. I wanted to make a direct difference in people’s lives by working with their businesses. (And enjoy the freedom and flexible working hours of being an entrepreneur, of course.) Fun fact about me: I loved cartoons. What kid doesn’t? Before my crappy first jobs, before I got into debt, sitting watching cartoons was my favorite memory. I could go on for hours about my favourite shows. And videos were booming in every marketing sector. I had began to explore different possibilities, and it wasn’t long before I realized there was a gap in the market for professional-looking animations that could solve every problem from explaining how to use a piece of software in telling a brand’s story. Not only that, but there were others who were wondering the same. Now, I’m lucky enough to call those awesome pros – sound designers, video editors, artists and animators – my team. That’s howRohan Kale came into existence. Together, we help global brands across industries like software, financial services, web development, app companies, non-profits, retail and more to present their brand stories in a way that resonates with their target audience – and entertains as well as informs. In late 2017, having made hundreds of videos for companies across all industries, I became crypto curious and soon found myself swept up in crypto histeria. I wanted to begin investing in myself but struggled initially to understand the brilliant technical genius of founders on their website and whitepapers. As a communications specialist, I’m used to simplifying complex ideas, so it didn’t take me long to educate myself and decipher what ICO projects were trying to say. Unfortunately, for founders of ICO projects, few people are engaged communications experts. Fewer yet are technically minded enough to understand what they’re trying to say – and a confused investor is reluctant to part with their money. That’s how the idea and implementation of ICO Videos came into existence.  **A Problem To Be Solved** Good communication, like good blockchain projects, is an exercise in solving problems. In my experience as the founder of rkale.com, I’ve created the Behavioral Lead Journey (BLJ) system. Its very purpose was to create a series of videos designed to appeal to multiple audiences, taking even the least sophisticated customer on a journey from unaware to purchase in the shortest time possible. I knew the BLJ could bridge the gap between the technical genius of project founders and curious investors. It didn’t take long to bring the first blockchain clients on board and the results are clear for anyone to see from our numerous case studies and testimonials. We’d solved a problem for blockchain project founders that could be the difference between wild success and valiant-but-miserable failure. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Self-doubt and uncertainty were the initial challenges because I had a well-paying job, leaving it to pursue my dream seemed silly for some people around me, and I almost bought into their reality. I still decided to stick with my decision and fulfill my dream of owning a business. I had to take this risk because worst case, I could have found a new job again. I had my huge win when I got my first client. I gained confidence and built upon the momentum. This was a great benchmark and I learned the ups and downs of the internet marketing world and built up a solid foundation. Being new in the online marketing world, and wanting to learn it all,  I started as a project manager, sales person, as well as a copywriter. It might sound a bit too much but it was necessary for me to get that initial hands-on experience. Therefore, I was able to delegate these things systematically and skillfully to the people who work with me. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** One year in the business, I remember a time when there were no sales for a couple of months. It was a tough time because my personal life was also very unbalanced. I thought that I am not meant for this business, that video marketing is dying and all the kind of excuses which didn’t help me. It was a big inner struggle because all the things around me seemed to be falling apart and I literally had no life. I decided to take a step back and realized that in the process of growing my business and trying different things, I had completely diverted myself from the very thing that worked exceptionally for me and that is mastering one marketing channel (in my case it was LinkedIn in the initial days). I followed the process for my lead generation again and in no time, I had pipeline up and running. This was a reminder for me to not divert too much from what is working! A good lesson indeed --- ## THIS STRATEGY EXPERT BUILDS 7-FIGURE COACHING BUSINESSES URL: https://futuresharks.com/this-strategy-expert-builds-7-figure-coaching-businesses/ #### Meet Ignacio Perez de Bartolome. If it doesn’t ring a bell, Coach Perez will. He heads Business Strategy at Sai.Coach, a 7-figure consulting firm for coaches who are serious about building their business. ### Tell us, do life coaches really struggle with their businesses? **Ignacio Perez:** What was once a niche has become a billion dollar industry. Life coaching has become an empty label generalising those who are passionate enough to make humanity’s advancement their main purpose in life. The problem starts when coaches try to put themselves out there. There is a lot of misinformation and scams that benefit from the goodwill and desperation of coaches. We (he is referring to the founder Sai Blackbyrn and him) were sick of it. We had had our dreams crushed one time too many by those promoting a magic-pill approach. It was then and there that we decided to bring integrity to coaching business development and created what is now Sai.Coach. ### Is having investors the only way to 7-figures as a coach? **Ignacio Perez: **No, getting external investment as a magic pill to growth is like getting a Ferrari to learn how to drive better. For example, my partner and CEO Sai Blackbyrn received $100,000 as venture capital for his previous company: it didn’t prevent its failure. I have come to realise having an abundance of cash without a winning strategy just speeds up the inevitable. Nowadays, building a successful coaching business can seem impossible. There is so much competition out there and those who promise to help are likely misguided or worse, scammers. Sai and I spent most of our 20s chasing those who promised they could help. At the end of the day, it was promises and little more. We learnt a lot and from our colossal failures and big wins, so many people kept asking us for help that we started Sai.Coach. ### So, what is so wrong with most of the information online on how to build a coaching business? **Ignacio Perez:** Short answer: **it’s based on fluff**. There is no sound economic base to any of their claims. In fact, their suggestions are dangerous because they are based on consumer trends that are very short lived. For instance, back in April Facebook changed its ads algorithm and the next day the reach dropped to barely 2%. We knew this was going to happen and prepared our clients for it. I can only imagine the impact it had on solo coaches out there. And this is just the start of more restrictions on data flow and virality. If you think about it, any fool with a tool can set up a website, fake results obtained and preach his personal take on business development just for publicity. And this worries me. When you take a brand, especially a coaching one and try to fit a square peg through a round hole by applying a generic “success formula”, what happens more often than not is things start to fall apart. Coaching businesses are living organisms, fueled at the top by the personality and character of the coach. No two coaches are the same, so the strategies never should be identical. ### How do you prevent being scammed? **Ignacio Perez: **Boy, I should have come more prepared for this interview! *(Laughs)…* In all seriousness, there are a couple of deal breakers you always need to watch out for when talking to “experts”: - **8/10 rule**Call them. If they don’t score 8/10 or above in value provided: run away. **Tailoring**- If they can’t explain how their strategy is applied in your case: run away. **How does that make you feel?**- If you hear it, it is a sales scam: run away. Most importantly, I always say if something doesn’t make you feel comfortable: it is probably not a good idea. Don’t be afraid to challenge your mentors. As I told you, anyone can look good behind a screen, but no one can fake through a conversation! ### What is a great strategy to build coaching businesses? **Ignacio Perez: **A big misconception is that strategy involves taking whatever means necessary to accomplish a goal. This is certainly not true but you see it very often in entrepreneurs who, in order to grow their businesses, attempt to be on all social media channels available to them whilst sharing content with no coherent buildup or direction. The product is haphazard and the results are too. Great strategy is not so much about what to do but what **not **to do. In a world with endless possibilities but finite resources (including time) you must prioritise, but above all, you must leverage. For example, one of the most effective strategies our team has developed and refined over the years to launch coaching businesses successfully is **The Trinity Launch Strategy™**. It hinges on 3 elements: **Price, Market and Product**. The success of any launch is down to getting a product that the market needs (*market fit*), at a price that the market finds reasonable (*value for money*), and doesn’t compromise future scalability (*price model*). ### Can you give us a practical example of the Trinity Strategy? **Ignacio Perez: **Sure, now that you ask, a client comes to mind… He is a man in his 50s living in Colorado, USA. It’s a very competitive environment there, thriving with entrepreneurs: it’s work hard, play hard. He came to us with more than 25 years experience under his belt in corporate America, including a bunch of Fortune 500 companies. He burnout and decided to take a break. His family who wished him well advised him to do something to keep active, so he would spend his evenings mentoring his entrepreneur nephew. He got addicted. Turns out that when he tried to put himself out there, no one seemed to listen. As most coaches, he learnt the ugly way how difficult it can be to stand out even when you are an expert in your field. Numbers are always against you from the start. #### Beginnings Our team got to work following the Trinity Launch Strategy™ and began conducting large-scale market research using our own proprietary technology (custom built) and third-party solutions. We found entrepreneurs locally were between the ages of 22 and 27 and they all interestingly enough spent most of the day at local coworking spaces. Now that we had the market located, the next step was to create a product the market truly needed. We asked him to take a weekly-pass to a chain of coworking spaces ($55) and shadow different entrepreneurs throughout the week. He was to bring a notepad with him at all times and dot down anything that caught his attention. Whatever it was. In the meantime, our team researched and managed to locate the owner coworking chain. Once the week was up, our client sat down with me and we looked over his findings. It was fantastic insight. He had observed 15-hour workdays, no breaks, very little cross-communication, no daily check-ins but worst of all he found all these startups thought they had no competition. It became very clear without experienced guidance the youngsters would soon burnout like our client had done and come crashing down. Just like that, we had *product-market fit* (entrepreneurial burnout),  and now just had to figure out the *value for money* and *pricing strategy*. #### Approach These were accomplished by approaching the entrepreneurs in a language they understood: **challenge**. Our client propose they could achieve twice as much meaningful work and progress towards their goals whilst halving their work days through his help. He would personally coach them and aid their CEO in making this happen. If he was right they would help him turn his coaching into a program. If our client didn’t achieve this by Friday, he would pay the entire team’s coworking rent for the month ($900). Think of it from the startups’ perspective, if you are a startup you don’t want to waste a second breathing. In comes through the door someone with confidence and experience enough to be able to greatly simplify your life. If all goes well, the future suddenly looks bright. If it doesn’t, you at least get a month off the coworking space. What do you have to lose? By the end of the week, our client had the team sitting down in a large conference room to help us crack his coaching offer. We joined remotely via Skype and asked questions relating to the potential gains the team saw from our clients work. We asked for dollar figures as much as possible related to savings, opportunity costs and hidden benefits uncovered by our client. The total came out to be a very large number, at which time we asked them how would they see it viable to enrol our client for a quarter. They called their investor on the spot, having had a taste of the value at stake, and came back with an initial proposal which included an initial retainer, performance bonuses and profit sharing that quarter. We had achieved a tangible *value for money* . #### Results The only thing remaining was validating this pricing over a larger sample of the market to develop a robust *pricing strategy*. This was gotten at the end of that quarter after achieving superb results. At that time, our client gained the full trust of the coworking owner. It didn’t take much time for the owner to refer our client to his entire entrepreneur customer base. Needless to say, our client was fully booked. His total investment? $70 and good counsel. With time, he tweaked his pricing model and strategy with different startups which laid the success to the national success he enjoys to this date. ### What do you attribute the success of Sai.Coach to? **Ignacio Perez:** Caring. Both Sai and I come from a background where we heavily invested in personal development throughout our teens. We have met some of the most unbelievably talented coaches out there who never got the recognition they deserved, just because they never treated coaching as a business. We work every day to give a voice to those coaches who have it in them to change the world. ### How would you measure success in your role? **Ignacio Perez: **Client satisfaction, and that comes from results. Strategy is a beautiful position to be responsible for because you get to mark the direction and pace for clients. Then, it is up to them to be executed relentlessly, something our mastermind groups help tremendously in. I consider myself privileged to have such a vast number of remarkable coaches entrust their businesses to our insights. It is a dream come true to serve with integrity and passion. ### What is the best strategy advice you would give to coaches nowadays? **Ignacio Perez: **Great product ideas don’t come from whiteboards. If you want your coaching to stand out go out there and look for problems no one else is addressing, then the solution becomes your idea. Putting clients first is an integral way to grow, the difficulty comes when you start to grow. How then do you stay true to your origins and not compromise integrity? ### How would you measure success in your role? **Ignacio Perez: **Client satisfaction, and that comes from results. Strategy is a beautiful position to be responsible for because you get to mark the direction and pace for clients. Then, it is up to them to be executed relentlessly, something our mastermind groups help tremendously in. I consider myself privileged to have such a vast number of remarkable coaches entrust their businesses to our insights. It is a dream come true to serve with integrity and passion. #### Connect with Ignacio Perez ### Learn more secrets to building online coaching businesses for free HERE. ### Add Ignacio on LinkedIn HERE ### Don’t forget to share this with the world! ### Pssst… Looking to get your story on Future Sharks? --- ## An Unconventional Business Guide to Couple-Preneurs URL: https://futuresharks.com/an-unconventional-business-guide-to-couple-preneurs/ *Jane Martinito is the founder of Meiro Studio, a fast-growing web design and virtual business based in the Philippines. She is a Psychology graduate with excellent grades but she eventually found her passion in designing websites.* *She was included in the Top Filipino Professionals on LinkedIn to Follow in Marketing in Asia. She was also featured in Connected Women and appeared on STV, a social media television in the Philippines.* *Aside from creating websites, Jane is also passionate about LinkedIn. Through the influence of her mentor and LinkedIn expert, Virginia Bautista, she became a LinkedIn Local Host in Cavite. As her way of returning the favor, she’s made it her mission to educate all Cavitenos and  Filipinos about the power of LinkedIn for one’s social media marketing strategy depending on goals, audience, and tactics.* ***City where you’re from:**Dasmarinas City, Cavite, Philippines* ***Favorite quote:******“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”***** ***Social accounts**:* *Facebook* *LinkedIn* # Tell us about Meiro Studio. How did you come up with this idea? **Jane Martinito:** My husband and I established Meiro Studio, a web development company which caters to the different needs of our clients. We specialize in creating functional and beautifully-designed websites that are aimed at having a premium appeal to our prospective clients. We also offer digital marketing services to help our customers use lead conversion strategies to boost their businesses with little or no cost at all. We are committed to using current technologies to enhance the services we provide to our customers. We are also aware of the importance of innovating and learning new technologies to further improve and maintain our relevance to our current and prospective customers. Me and my husband came up with this idea of establishing and managing a business together based on the realization that it is one of the great ways to spend more meaningful time with each other. We consider it as the ultimate expression of our passion in designing websites. Our plan is to have a business whose employees can have the luxury of working at the comfort of their homes, avoiding the heavy traffic that consumes important working hours. We only require our employees to come to our office when the need of discussing important business and production issues arises. We decided to adopt telecommuting to improve our employees’ quality of life, as working at home typically reduces commuting time. It may also make it easier for our employees to balance their work responsibilities with family roles, such as caring for children or elderly parents. In this way, we make sure everyone is at the top of their  performance. # How did you promote your company in its early days? **Jane Martinito:** The first thing I did was to find a way to make myself visible on the freelancing community. Along the way, I met Ms. Virginia Bautista, a LinkedIn advocate, professional trainer, and a motivational speaker. She mentored me on how I can harness the power of making connections by using the social media platform, LinkedIn. From there, I gradually attracted   clients and some of them were high-paying clients.**I also surrounded myself with individuals who share similar skills, interests and passions as me and learned from them. I also promote my business on Facebook. Some clients got to know my business through “word-of-mouth”. # How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific. Jane Martinito:** I utilize social media platforms, primarily Facebook and LinkedIn, for promoting my business. I make sure that my website is optimized to achieve my business goals. I also focus on providing added value to my customers when I conduct sales calls with them. This social media-based marketing strategy also helped me reap the benefits of the power of “word of mouth” marketing. # What are the secrets to making sales through your most successful platforms? **Jane Martinito:** There are several factors that contributed to my successful use of social media platforms. They include:**1. Technical – This important factor requires me to be knowledgeable of the various nooks and crannies of doing business. It involves knowing who your targeted market is by, for example, knowing their concerns and where (social media platform) they spend their free time. It also covers providing and posting valuable and relevant content on my social media platform. I prefer to post  educational, inspirational and entertaining contents to catch the attention of prospective customers. Since technology evolves at a faster rate than before, I make it a point to learn something new by being vigilant and aware of current and upcoming technologies and trends. 2. Relational – Being relational means living in relation to others in recognition of an interconnectedness with others. No business can stand alone as entrepreneurship involves a lot of communicating, engaging, interacting and dealing with others. I also maintain a healthy working relationship with my husband in various areas, such as decision making and business planning. Above all, my husband and I always put God in the center of our lives. We make it a point to maintain constant communication with Him, thanking Him for the blessings that we continuously receive and asking Him to bless us with wisdom, strength, guidance, and more business opportunities. I am also committed to making myself as an inspiration for other moms out there who share similar passions and interests as me. Doing business involves risks and there is no guarantee that one can always find success in every business that he or she establishes. My source of inspiration is a phrase from the Book of Romans 8:31, “If God is with us, who can be against us.” # Teach us something we don’t know about that interest you. Jane Martinito:** I strongly believe that every person has his own strengths and weaknesses. Some are good, or even expert in literature, creative writing, and some are gifted with technical expertise that others usually struggle with. In short, every individual has his or her unique talent that can be shared with others to achieve desired goals in life. Sometimes I find it very challenging to be in a position where I am the one providing knowledge to other people, who I assume, to be more intelligent than me, but as I’ve mentioned earlier, every person has his or her own expertise that others do not have. As long as I’m committed to learning new things and have the courage to go out of my comfort zone, I am confident that I can be of great help to others. Information is more accessible than before due to the Internet and other online information sources, such as ebooks, online journals, podcasts and blogs. The need to continuously keep myself up-to-date is also based on the reality that algorithms change from time to time. Entrepreneurship is all about relationships, having the right attitude and values, so stick to that. # Why do you think you are doing better than most people? How are you able to do it? **Jane Martinito:** I don’t disregard the fact that there are people whose level of expertise in our chosen field are higher than me. However, I am confident that having web-designing skills that were acquired through constant learning and practice helps me maintain a competitive advantage over my peers and competitors. I don’t just create functional websites, but also beautiful and attractive websites that can stand out from the crowd. I also strongly believe in the importance of market positioning. I positioned myself utilizing Facebook and LinkedIn to effectively establish my image and the identity of my brand so that consumers can perceive it in a certain way. # What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Jane Martinito:**I really admire social influencers like Penny Bongato, Francis Kong, Chinkee Tan and John Maxwell. I’ve read Bongato’s “Career Shift,” Kong’s “Being the Best That You Can Ever Be,” Tan’s “For Richer For Poorer,” and Maxwell’s “25 Ways To Win With People.” # Write your own question (and answer it) # **Jane Martinito:** **How will you achieve your goals? I believe that I can achieve my goals by focusing on my personal “why.” We live in a world filled by constant distractions. Unlimited activities float around us at all times that can take our attention and sap our energy. We can make life simple and easier by stopping and asking ourselves why we do things. This strategy helps us be more consistent and focused on what we should do. We can never go wrong when we put ourselves in the service of others. And most importantly, enjoy the process. You are going to get there eventually. # Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? Jane Martinito:** My vision for the company is that it will grow into a corporation and be among the best in providing employment opportunities for people, especially those who prefer to work at the comfort of their homes. I expect my startup company to adopt the latest technologies and trends to uplift the lives of our employees and customers alike. I also see myself having more quality time with my daughter while managing daily business operations. --- ## Entrepreneur Vivek Jain Changes The Dating Game URL: https://futuresharks.com/vivek-jain/ Vivek Jain is a seasoned entrepreneur, finance executive, actor, tennis addict and is now dedicated on helping people find love through his new dating app LOKO….but is first and foremost a dedicated father and son from Regina, Saskatchewan. ### “If you can dream it, it’s possible.” #### Tell us about LOKO How did you come up with this idea? **Vivek Jain:** It all began with a comment my daughter made during a movie night: “Daddy, you always take care of me and my sister, but who takes care of you? You should get a girlfriend.” Being a single dad was never a big deal for me, but this hit hard. It made me realize that I needed to make finding a significant other more of a priority in my life. I’ve always been skeptical of dating apps, and up until this comment I’d been trying the old fashioned way. But with my busy schedule as an entrepreneur and being a parent of two girls, it became evident that I wasn’t going to meet someone out in the real world. So I fired up the popular dating apps, and it’s safe to say I was underwhelmed. I went through online dating’s vicious cycle: I went into the process optimistic, gave it my full effort, became dejected, and then shut down the apps altogether to focus on family and career. One evening I went over to my friend Norm’s house — the comedian Norm MacDonald — to vent about my recent first dates that went nowhere. Norm wanted to get to the bottom of the problem. The headaches were obvious: endless swiping, text conversations that go nowhere, matches who are nothing like their profiles suggest. This all leads to the biggest problem, Norm and I realized: first dates. They rarely go well. They seemed like an inefficient use of time, when free time was so precious to begin with. We wondered how we could we make an app that would lead to more meaningful dates. We talked well into the night and in the end LOKO was born. The idea behind it is to eliminate the biggest frustrations with online dating, and to help people make sincere connections. LOKO is the world’s first video-only online dating app, and it’s the only app that holds matches accountable to meet in real life. #### #### How does LOKO work? The video-only profiles on LOKO allow users to make true first impressions while also getting a better sense of their matches’ real personalities. Once a connection is made, users have 24-hours to schedule a virtual date within the app; if they don’t, they’re unmatched. We call these virtual meetings Elimidates, because the idea is figure out if your match is a good one before you actually meet in person. Elimidates are done through video chat on LOKO and capped at 15 minutes. They allow you to get a real sense of the person you’re interacting within the safe, comfortable environment of your own home. It also means you don’t have to write a two-person War & Peace-length text novel on your phone. You’ll only agree to meet in person if you know there’s a connection that points to a meaningful first date. Once you’ve hung up, if you haven’t agreed to meet or exchange contact info, you will not be able to match or communicate with each other via the app again. This is to encourage users to actually get together for the kind of magical, face-to-face dates where you spend the whole evening getting to know each other, instead of getting acquainted in back-and-forth text exchanges. #### How have you been able to grow LOKO? **Vivek Jain:** We are still in the early stages of our growth plan, but our calendar over the next few months is action packed and sets LOKO up nicely to make a significant impact. I credit this to being fortunate enough to attract a team of top executives in their respective fields from development, public relations, marketing and entertainment.  A key success factor to growing the business of an App is having sound technology – which I can comfortably say we do. Next is being able to generate awareness to drive user acquisition.  In our case, we are spending a lot of time and expense in creating content that will drive our advertising campaigns. Having Norm MacDonald as a co-creator gives LOKO a great competitive advantage by having access to his connections to writers in the world of comedy- its safe to say our content will be entertaining and engaging and  not just be ad-funny, but funny- funny. Next is the production of this content, and again we have access to the best of the best as a seasoned Hollywood producer is leading the charge for us. We are very close to having this ready to share with the public, and once we are we have proven public relations and marketing executives leading our initiative to bring LOKO to the masses.  In the coming months, we will be attending numerous events, having an aggressive digital ad campaign and be in the media in numerous national reaching outlets. #### Teach us something we don’t know about. **Vivek Jain:** One of the most common questions we get asked about LOKO is how do you address nudity and obscenity with a video only dating app? We believe video is the future of online dating and to make this a reality users need to know this is not a risk in their user experience.  We take this issue very serious and have spent a lot of development time ensuring a safe environment for users. Any videos must be approved by an administrator before the user community can view it.  The first line of defense is built-in artificial intelligence which weeds out any inappropriate videos. To add another layer of defense, the administrator, who is a human, goes through the videos and must approve it before it goes out to the LOKO community. #### Where do you see yourself and LOKO in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Vivek Jain:** Ideally, in a couple of years LOKO is viewed as a disruptor or trendsetter in the online dating space.  That LOKO is talked about as the company that changed the landscape of dating apps where singles are able to use technology to have more meaningful dates, and moved society away from a hookup culture to one where romance is again in style. **Social accounts**: Personal Instagram  Company Instagram --- ## Social Revelation: 5 Need to Know Tips to Stay Ahead of the Social Media Curve in 2018 URL: https://futuresharks.com/social-revelation-5-need-to-know-tips-to-stay-ahead-of-the-social-media-curve-in-2018/ Social media presence has become a big part of modern-day marketing. A large part of what we can accomplish in today’s age in terms of success comes down to one word: PERCEPTION. Whether we are an individual looking to become the next top model in NYC or a small business owner who wants to capture more market share in his town, sales and opportunities seem to be more abundant when we are perceived as important and prestigious. This social norm has been what has allowed Social Revelation, a social media agency, to capitalize on helping individuals and business owners around the globe meet their short-term and long-term goals. Social Revelation has spent the last 5 to 6 years studying social media strategies, with an extensive focus on the lucrative Instagram platform. Here are the top 5 marketing strategies everyone should be utilizing when trying to grow their brand — especially on Instagram: 1. **Utilization of hashtags:** Most people understand hashtags and how they work but still do not fully optimize their benefits. Instagram allows you to use 30 hashtags. Therefore, everyone should use them. Hashtags are proven to increase engagement on posts by as much as 35%!One technique I use is I break my hashtags in to various categories: 10 hashtags with over 250,000 hits / 10 hashtags with over 500,000 hits / 5 hashtags with over 1,000,000 hits / 5 hashtags that are branded specifically to my company. These hashtags should be related to your image and your niche. Also, place them as your first comment. Never in your captions. Nobody wants to see your tags. 2. **Consistent posting:** Posting is key to consistent growth. The more your posts are out in the world, with your hashtags, the more likely you are to become discovered. This is not rocket science, but many people fail in this area.The goal is to develop a feeling of anticipation with your audience. Be consistent and post around the same times each day. This allows your audience to expect when you are likely to post and begins developing a since of anticipation to see the content a page they love is putting out daily. Be careful not to over post. We do not want to spam our users where they feel every time they log on they only see your images. Rule of thumb: Less than 10k – no more than 2x daily / 20k-50k – 2 or 3x daily / 50k-100k: 3 or 4x daily / 250k and above: 4 to 6x daily. From my experience, there is no need to post more than 4 hours apart or 6x daily. 3. **Build your network within your niche:** Networking with people within your niche is huge. Cross-promoting one another is one of the fastest ways a page can grow. Stick with people relative to your size if you are wanting to utilize cross-promotion without reaching into your investment money.Sure, if you have some investment money – feel free to reach out to larger pages within your niche and pay for a story or post shout on their page. Paid promo and cross-promotion are quick and efficient ways to grow your brand. 4. **Understand the algorithm to reach explore page:** If I had to guess, you probably spend a little time on the explore or popular page when you are logged into your Instagram. Have you ever wondered how people land their photos there? Is it from pure chance or luck? No, it is not. I have been able to land on the Explore page time and time again consistently.Understanding how the algorithm works is key. One of the biggest factors in the algorithm is quick and real engagement in a brief time frame after posting. This tells the algorithm that your post is considered popular and is worthy enough to land on the explore page. Comments carry more weight than likes and engagement from LARGE pages is what really makes the difference here. If you can generate a lot of likes and comments within 30 min to 1 hour after posting from big pages, odds are, you will reach the explore page. Viral content is another key in reaching the explore page consistently. Don’t think you can post an infomercial and reach explore over and over. You better have access to a very large network to pull this off as in millions in reach. 5. **Utilize IG stories:** Instagram stories give a brand the ability to interact with their followers and thus increase engagement. People like to connect. Posting daily on your IG story helps users feel connected! Don’t be afraid to show them the face behind the page! People LOVE to know who is working behind the scenes. Be personable! Use the poll feature in IG stories to take your engagement to a whole new level! --- ## Levi DiVincenzo Shares His Real Estate Story and Learnings URL: https://futuresharks.com/levi-divincenzo-real-estate/ ### What is your “backstory”? I grew up fast, I had separated parents that had families on opposite sides of the US. They were both from San Diego but my Moms family ended up in Detroit and shortly after I was born that’s where my Mom and I went. We came back to San Diego when I was about 8 or so and lived in a garage for a while, my sister was born soon after we and I would have to babysit when everyone had to work so it got me used to responsibilities at a young age. Then I bounced around between different crowded apartments, went back to Detroit for a few years as well, so I moved schools every year which helped me adapt to different environments quickly. In school I excelled early on but after moving to different school districts particularly Detroit’s I fell back on to a regular credit track, and from there I just did the bare minimum to finish. I never really had my sights set on college I knew it wasn’t for me, never submitted any applications or went to community college, I moved to New York after High School and ended up joining the Marines from there. While I was in I had various side hustles, mainly buying and selling cars, trading stocks and forex. After I got out I was introduced to Real Estate and it just made sense to me, I felt it and I ran with it. ### How did you get Started in Real Estate? It’s actually a weird story because the main thing that lead me to it was tearing my acl. I ended up getting a few months off work so I had a lot of time to reflect on the direction of my life, so I started going to business expos and meetings since I had free time, and I ended up getting a free ticket to a 3 day real estate seminar where I was introduced to the concept of flipping and wholesaling and my mind was blown, just seemed like the missing piece for my life. After that I teamed up with my partner, Jay Monopoly, and signed up for a more in-depth field training going through rehab properties, we went all in and hitting the ground running but got nowhere fast. We were in San Diego, one of the most competitive markets in the nation. Every REI (real estate investor) meeting we were the youngest person in the room by a longshot and not very many people took us seriously or gave us the time of day. The ones who would talk to us just ended up trying to sell us more training. So we concluded that the San Diego market didn’t make sense for us to start off in, to be a player you had to be an all cash buyer and we didn’t have half a million cash. We started brainstorming to figure out a way to do this virtually, doing everything online was the big thing so we started networking in different markets through social media. It wasn’t until we connected with Brian Adamson that things really took off for us. He is an well established investor in Detroit and he was open to the idea of setting up a virtual flipping system and he spent time teaching us how to responsibly build and scale our business. Soon after connecting with him we got our first deal under contract, and things just took off from there, it went from getting our first deal to having multiple projects a time. Detroit is an emerging market so you don’t have to be a cash buyer to get a deal, with the same money you would use to invest in San Diego you could make 3 to 5 times the profit in Detroit. ### Do you need a lot of money to get started in Real Estate? Money is required for all real estate transactions but there’s nothing requiring it to be your money. Creative financing and structuring is a method that allows you to do deals in various ways many of which you can accomplish without putting up your own money. Wholesaling is the most popular form of this, essentially you’re just flipping the contract for a property and your getting a fee for the rights of that contract. So you go and you find a house that needs to be flipped and you get it under contract to purchase it for a price that will allow profits for a flip and your wholesale fee, typically you can expect around $2,000-$10,000 for a wholesale fee, and you sell the rights to purchase that property to another investor, you pay nothing for that deal and you get paid when your investor closes(completes the purchase) on the property. You can also flip a property using other people’s money there is just more pieces you have to put in place. You will need a Hard Money Lender is which is a an asset based lender meaning they lend based on deals rather than your personal finances, and you will need private investors. Your hard money lender will typically cover 100% of your rehab and 80% for the purchase price of the property, your private investors will come in to cover the remaining 20% for a return after the completion of the project, this is the same strategy I used to get my first flip. Depending on the size of the house and rehab you can see $30,000 to $80,000. ### Do you need a license to be an investor? No you do not need any licenses actually. Realtors need a license, they represent buyers and sellers listing properties on the MLS. As an investor you will work with realtors and list properties for sale through them and potentially buy them if you find a deal on the MLS. **** ### What would you recommend to people wanting to get started in Real Estate? The biggest things that contributed to my success was finding the right team, finding a system that’s going to work for you, and sticking to it. The team you surround yourself with is crucial they can be your biggest strength or biggest weakness, the most important piece of your team is your mentor, mistakes in real estate are not cheap. You want an experienced mentor whose been through good markets and bad markets they’ll ensure that you are prepared for anything. I believe creating or following systems is essential for being successful in any business it allows you to find a way to be profitable and repeat it consistently. After you have found a system you like, stick to it. A lot of people get overwhelmed with all the potential avenues you can take in real estate and they try doing too many different things and once instead on going all in on one. Once you have one system on autopilot, you can work towards building a different systems, but scattering your efforts trying to do multiple strategies at once will lead to sub-par results and in most cases failure. **** ### How do you feel about the current real estate market? Is there a bubble? I think there will be a correction in the economy soon, the housing market will be affected but I believe it will only affect certain markets it won’t be a nationwide crash. If you look at San Diego the cost of living exceeds the average income that’s a clear indication that something needs to be fixed, and houses are one of the biggest expenses, there has been a consistent decline in the percentages of inventory and houses sold there as well. Where as Detroit is still a thriving real estate market with a cap rate that is nearly double that of the national average. Once corrections occur it’ll will open up opportunities in larger markets for those ready to buy the deeply discounted inventory that’ll be available when the hobby investors get scared. ### How do you feel about Real Estate Investment Trust’s? They’ve been undervalued because of their role in the last crash, it’s a stable investment vehicle and on a longer term scale has outperformed the stock market. Most times the volatility is caused by investors overreacting you can see this whenever there’s rate hikes. So with the current state of the market with increasing rates and uncertainty in major housing markets you can expect volatility to come. ******** ### What markets are you currently investing in and looking to get into? Right now my team has very solid positions in Detroit and Orlando, majority of my focus is in Detroit. I have smaller tax lien investments in Baltimore and Ohio as well but im still testing those markets. I believe with Detroit I am in the right market at the right time so that will continue to be my primary focus it is still an emerging market with plenty of opportunity. That’s not to say there isn’t other strong markets out there right now, Ive been hearing good things about Virginia and New Jersey from friends that invest there. **** ### Are there any books or resources that have contributed to your success? There are many books that have helped me in my journey, but the ones that have had the greatest benefit to me havent been about real estate. I read a lot of “self-help” books about mindset and psychology. I’d say [Think and Grow Rich](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585424331), Outwitting the Devil, and Outliers have had some of best impacts on me. ### What is your mission or goal moving forward? Moving forward my main goal is to have the largest team of young real estate entrepreneurs spread across different markets. I want to shift the culture in real estate, and make it easier for younger generations to get into. We started a coaching program plugging people into our entire system, we’ve had outstanding success with most students getting properties under contract the very same week of their training. Having a positive impact on people’s lives is more valuable to me than any dollar amount. --- ## How Ashwin Jacob Is Sharing His Network of Superstars across Technology, Entertainment, and Business with the New Hollywood Podcast URL: https://futuresharks.com/ashwin-jacob/ Some individuals would only dream of working with celebrities someday. It sounds amazing to make money hanging out with celebrities on almost a weekly basis. The truth about being an individual with such responsibilities is that it takes a long time to make those connections. It’s also a lot of work having to maintain and deliver for each person. Ashwin Jacob is someone people know in the entertainment industry as a super-connector. Often times it is hard to pin down exactly what he does since he’s often considered by many to be one of the most connected people in Los Angeles. He has connections in just about any industry you can think of. Entertainment, technology, fashion, consulting/ coaching and several other industries. Making Connections Has More Value Than Money People need to understand that one of the fastest ways to grow is to listen to the stories of other individuals and learn from them. That’s something that most people tend to overlook. Everyone has the desire to someday be an entrepreneur but yet very few individuals know where to start. As for Ashwin, most of his curiosities lead him to having several public figures that he can claim to know personally. “Growing up in the Massachusetts entertainment industry was something that was always something that felt distant, everyone around me told me that it was an unlikely industry to get into, let alone succeed at. Regardless of what everyone around me said I kept finding my way back to entertainment and entrepreneurship. After ending up in LA and landing a couple notable clients as a founding member of the Vario Studios team, I knew this was the life for me.” Ashwin’s journey was kick started when he was writing for a Yahoo Small Business and when he was writing for Dan Schawbel, New York Times best-selling author with a business called PersonalBrandingBlog.com. With the amount of time people spend on their phones, commuting, and consuming online video, podcasting was a natural place in his mind for him to educate and share what he has learned from his circle to as many people as possible. “Once I got the logistics set up I would ask my friends, business associates, and people that I thought had a great story to tell to join me and share the real facts, how-to’s, and failures people can expect on their journey. This won’t be one of the many podcasts that sucks. We are going to share actionable tips, real failure, and the mindset needed to survive in the hyper competitive landscape we all operate in” The Place of Stardom Opportunities Hollywood and Los Angeles are places where a lot of dreamers and creatives across a slew of industries come. It’s more than just entertainment. It’s a large tech scene. It seems that social media, ad tech, and revolutionary apps are constantly coming out of the silicon beach area. Large opportunities for real estate as well. Not to mention an ever-evolving fashion scene that is growing exponentially year over year could eventually compare or even compete with New York City. Before Hollywood became the center of entertainment, there was a lot of open land. A lot of unusual alliances were formed as well as amazing businesses were created that still have major name recognition and impact today. The culture today according to Ashwin has remnants of that ideology with some new school integrations of technology and unprecedented access with the ability to connect with people on a global scale. Podcasts Bring Real Life Value Like with most podcasts you’ll learn a bit about the guests right off the back. The trick is to help the audience understand why it’s worth their investment of time. After all, time is the most valuable thing anyone can give you. From there, podcasts then dive into real life situations. Many claim Ashwin’s podcast helps individuals understand that failure is common but provides insight into how to be prepared for the worst. Giving you the advantage the next time things don’t seem to go your way because you were prepared ahead of time. “I really want every listener to learn something, have their thoughts, or general scope of knowledge expanded by joining the conversation. My goal with the social aspect of podcasting is listeners not only connecting with myself and the guest but also each other. That’s why we’ve build a community aspect connected to our Facebook page. I really want people to find their tribe and grow with each other. As mentioned, the goal is to provide value to those who need it most. Life comes with hardships and thanks to media such as podcasts, people are able to listen to the stories of others and leverage it for learning. 1. --- ## How Chase Terwilliger Pushes Through Hard Times URL: https://futuresharks.com/chase-terwilliger/ What’s your backstory? I grew up in Edina, Minnesota. After completing High School, I attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO. After graduation in 2008 I went to work for Johnson and Johnson as an orthopedic medical device sales representative in Chicago, IL. After two and a half years working for JnJ in Chicago I was offered a job by a new JnJ distributor in Denver, CO. I promptly moved back and helped start a business called- Redstone Surgical. We were a distributor for a number of companies in the orthopedic space, the most recognized company was JnJ. Myself and my partners quickly grew that business to 30+ sales representatives across 3 states. 3 years after it conception, JnJ purchased the distributorship from us. I then attended W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and got my MBA with an emphasis in finance and marketing. This opened my eyes up to a whole other world outside of the medical device space. I quickly linked up with a veteran entrepreneur, Wendi Burkhardt, and helped her start the technology company- Silvernest. My time at Silvernest helped shape who I am today. Silvernest was a fast paced, venture back, struggling start-up. We worked our tails off every day to make it work. This allowed me to learn all areas of the business, something I was not able to do in my previous endeavors. We were fortunate enough to be funded by 500 Startups, which also had a top accelerator program in San Francisco. Myself and Wendi left our families back in Colorado and moved to San Francisco for 4 months to participate in 500 Startups accelerator program. That program changed my life, and after completion my knowledge of technology and how to run a successful business grew immensely. Wendi was CEO and my title was VP of business development and product. A few months after completing the program I felt that I had to leave Silvernest to do what I sought out to do, become a CEO and lead a successful organization that could change the world. I was lucky enough to meet Lincoln Sorenson and Andy Papilion. They had started a small company called CBDistillery. CBDistillery sold hemp-based CBD Isolate- an ingredient used in many CBD products. They had a great product, industry knowledge, and knack for business. However, they were missing the technical and sales side of the business. After doing some consultant work with them for a few months I was fortunate enough to have them ask me to be the CEO. Since that day a couple years ago it’s been a rocket ship ride. When I started there were 4 employees- now (just a couple years later) 50+ and that number is increasing by the day. There was also one product- now we have over 800. It’s been an interesting past 8 years digging through the trenches, working day-in and day-out to get where I am today. And it’s just the beginning! Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities? My biggest success before The CBDistillery was Redstone Surgical. Redstone Surgical grew to over 30 employees and $15,000,000 in annual revenue in just over 2 years before it was absorbed by Depuy Mitek, a Johnson and Johnson subsidiary. The biggest challenges during my time with Redstone Surgical was to continue to surpass objectives and create significant value for the company, while in a ruthless and unforgiving space. Hitting sales goals were tough. Even though we found ways to find grit and hit our objectives, it was a challenge every day. The orthopedic medical sales space is incredibly competitive. The industry is stocked with veteran sales representatives, thousands of competitive companies, and it was a time where most healthcare facilities were looking to cut costs. With persistence, a good team, and great partners we were able to overcome those obstacles and make a great organization which still thrives today within JnJ. Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? Yes, it wasn’t too long ago- so it’s still fresh in my mind and something I think of often. Silvernest was a struggle at the beginning. We had a lot of difficulties raising capital due to the non-traditional concept (people older than 30 having roommates). We kept getting turned down by investors. That was very draining, and it left us cashless. I wanted to fold everything up, but our CEO- Wendi Burkhardt- talked me off the ledge. We believed in the concept and we needed to keep our nose to the grindstone and be persistent. Not long after that we got funding from 500 Startups… it was a game changer. --- ## How To Overcome Anything with Amy Curran URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-overcome-anything-with-amy-curran/ “Years ago I used to be very sick, very upset, scared, depressed and lonely”- What’s your backstory? Years ago I used to be very sick, very upset, scared, depressed and lonely. I visited lots of doctors and therapists for years and none of them had any impact. I was listening to a podcast that was interviewing a Veteran and he mentioned that he saw a practitioner of NLP to eradicate his PTSD. It took me another year to look into NLP. After having enough of the way my life was, I knew I had to make a change. My marriage was falling apart, my finances were in rough shape and my health was suffering. I first saw a hypnotherapist, that meeting was enough to get me where I needed to be. I next got on a plane to learn NLP, Time Line Therapy® and Hypnosis so that I could help myself. I left my training a new person, with no fear. It took me quite some time to adjust to living on the planet without being afraid because I’ve never known what that felt like before my training. I also left my training certified to work with other people, and so I did. I felt called to become a trainer so that I could share the techniques with other people so they can live fulfilling lives and assist others to do the same. I now live in a beautiful home, I own my own training company, my health has improved drastically, my marriage is a 10 and I want others to share and experience what I have, and they will now. Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities? Graduating from my NLP Trainer’s Training and being accepted into the Master Trainer Program was a huge honor for me, I was thrilled because only those who are known to succeed are invited into the Master Trainers Program. My Trainers test took me 7 hours to complete, none of which was multiple choice. Making sure I knew every single NLP technique without any notes was a challenge, but since completing the test and demonstrations I can say “I know that I know NLP confidently”. Signing my name on my students certificate is a major responsibility because students go out and assist other people and it’s my job to make sure the students are trained, certified and know their skill. Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? I almost gave up going to my Master Practitioner Training. My mother was unable to watch my children and I felt stuck. I took some time to generate more options. One of them was asking a student to come along, experience a breakthrough and watch my boys while I studied and graduated from my Master Practitioners program. --- ## An influential Woman in AI who gets it right with Executive Presence: Aakriti Srikanth URL: https://futuresharks.com/an-influential-woman-in-ai-who-gets-it-right-with-executive-presence-aakriti-srikanth/ “Your goal should always be to put aside ego, leverage your [skills](/could-fipsi-be-the-worlds-first-flying-car/) to connect dots, engage all the right people, listen, build consensus and networks, and get the job done. It has been extremely important to grow into a leader of integrity,” says Marceline Uttarkar, Director of Data Science at PayPal. Uttarkar met Aakriti years ago through someone she knows very well and has since acted as a Woman in AI role model for Aakriti ever since. Aakriti absorbed many of the lessons Uttarkar modeled with her own career, but while Uttarkar considers herself more of an introvert, she watched Aakriti grow and blossom with ambition. Aakriti seems to embody this kind of curiosity within herself, “She clearly understands all the aspects of what it takes to be successful in AI,” says Uttarkar, “she has sapped up a lot of knowledge…understands [the] technologies behind it, and can speak to all aspects of AI effectively. She has already been extremely successful, starting from her IBM Watson accolades to taking on AI challenges wherever she has worked.” Without being crippled by an ego, having this balance gives Srikanth an edge over the tech leaders of old. She is able to connect with the people around her in a manner that uplifts and breeds reciprocity. Her leadership is not shaped by the act of managing tasks, but by proving others with the support and the kindness necessary for them to succeed. Her passion for connection has made her an “Influential Woman in AI” and  a “Woman in AI to Watch Out For.” Aakriti on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/aakritisrikanth Aakriti on Twitter: @AakritiSrikanth **Written by**Daniel Lipson --- ## Why Some of The Most Successful CEOs Hire Aaron Selkrig To Get Them In Shape URL: https://futuresharks.com/aaron-selkrig/ Son, if you want to live here, you will start paying rent.” Facing an ultimatum from his father, young Aaron had to think quickly – and so he did. In a couple of months, the twelve-year-old Aaron had made 10 grand selling firewood to the locals. Employing his siblings Aaron got his first taste of being both a leader and an entrepreneur. Later in school, he made money by delivering cafeteria meals to the kids whom he called the “not-so-hustling kids”, taking a commission from the deliveries made. So early on Aaron’s modus operandi has been one of seeing and creating opportunities and executing on them relentlessly. Now, living in Finland, he is running Finland’s most successful high-end coaching business, Selkrig Performance Unit. This mindset and lifestyle is what separates Aaron from other fitness coaches – he isn’t spending hours taking the perfect Instagram picture. Instead he focuses his efforts on growing his business, just like you. The trick for combined success in business and fitness is using the same mindset in both endeavors. **Here’s How Aaron Approaches The Beginning** One of the huge benefits of working with Aaron towards your fitness – and business – goals is that he is first and foremost a businessman, a coach and trainee second. For those, who are busy and successful, this makes interaction simple and natural. So, initially Aaron creates a customized plan with you, not for you. This plan is on the surface level based on your schedule, eating and sleeping habits and your goals. However, there is a deeper level too. Aaron’s knack is in getting already successful people to realize that they have the most important tool to become prosperous in anything – a successful mindset. This is why he focuses on mindset so much in his coaching. **Setting Your Mind Towards Execution** If you are coached by Aaron, you won’t only see your belly flatten and muscles grow. Even in the first weeks his attitude and vision will start to kindle the fire of success you’re familiar with in business life. The key here is execution. There is no reason why most common personal trainers couldn’t give you the results you want – in theory. But the world is littered with people who started their fitness journey and failed miserably, because the coach wasn’t the right fit. If you are a busy business professional, an entrepreneur or a CEO, Aaron can guide you through the process like no other, provided you do your part. No extra thinking or planning required, you can just follow the coaching and reap the benefits of physical and mental gains. **Your Long Term Results With Aaron** The difference between an out-of-shape business professional and a fit and strong business professional is not big. If you are still in the former category, don’t worry. Most of the work is already done, since you already are successful in one realm. If you start applying your powerful mindset and executing on the plan, given to you by a person who truly knows where you are coming from, the results can be immense. Under Aaron’s guidance hundreds of pounds of fat have melted away and hundreds of pounds of muscle have been built by multi-million and billion-dollar men. But more importantly, those who have stuck to the process long term have gotten something that the others haven’t: a constantly renewing sense of confidence to tackle the business problems and close the high ticket deals that bring in the real money. With Aaron you will feel, look and perform better in the gym and in your business – and that is something to consider, don’t you think? --- ## $15M Company Grown in Two Years By This 24 Year Old URL: https://futuresharks.com/15m-company-grown-in-two-years-by-this-24-year-old/ Meet Dylan Jacob, the 24-year-old serial entrepreneur, and inventor. Dylan has founded four companies and is now focused on his fast-growing brand, Brumate. Brumate creates/innovates/ and sells insulated beverage containers for the adult beverage industry. ##### Dylan, an article from Shopify recently came out about how your company, BruMate, is grossing $15M per year. Can you tell us the story of how you founded BruMate? I grew up with a passion for creating value through a variety of side-hustles – from landscaping and flipping cars to phone repair and remodeling houses. BruMate is my 3rd company, 2 of which I have successfully exited. All of my previous businesses have been created from a gap in the market I’ve identified through my own personal experiences. You can sit around all day thinking of the “perfect idea” and it may never come to you but analyzing your day-to-day interactions and thinking of ways to improve them is one of the easiest ways of validating/coming up with a product or service that people truly need. The idea for BruMate stemmed for my love for ice-cold beer. I was sick of walking away for 5 minutes and coming back to a half-drunk, semi-warm beer. I only drink 16oz cans and there weren’t any products on the market that were created for that can size – that sparked the original idea. I knew that if I was having this issue that other people were too so **I started having conversations with others who preferred 16oz cans and their feedback further echoed my negative experiences**, proving my initial concept for the Hopsulator – the world’s first 3-in-1 insulated can cooler for 16oz / 12oz beverages. I wanted to start a movement that I knew everybody could get behind and set out on a mission to put an end to half-drank beers, warm wine, and wasted spirits. ****My mission with BruMate is to reshape the way people drink and create the perfect drinking experience for our customers.** ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. After validating the idea for the Hopsulator with our target market I set out to create our first MVP** (minimum viable product). I had the vision for what I wanted the final product to be but knew I didn’t have the money or validation yet to make the jump and spend the money necessary to bring it to life. Instead, I flew to China and met with a few manufacturers that created similar products for other companies (coffee mugs, water bottles, etc), picked the most fitting of the 3, and then began working with their in-house engineers to create the cheapest version of the Hopsulator possible. Before pulling the trigger I went to a Sun King, a local brewery in Indianapolis that specialized in 16oz cans at the time and met with the founders to show them my concept and get their feedback. After a brief meeting, they were all on-board and committed to launching them whenever our first order came in. After they committed I went ahead and began the molding process, placed an order for a few thousand dollars in product, and launched them in their stores to **gather customer feedback and use that to reshape the final product**. The new mold ended up costing **A LOT**and I knew it was going to take 5-6 months minimum to get the final product in hand (it ended up taking 10 months) so I began working on other products that fit within the adult beverage category that I knew people needed a solution for. Our next product was the Winesulator, **the world’s first insulated wine canteen** designed to keep a full bottle of wine at its ideal temperature for over 24 hours without any ice needed. In order to gauge interest, I launched some generic Facebook ads for a 3D render of the Winesulator to gauge interest. I touted it as the perfect Christmas gift, redirected customers to a landing page to capture their email, and had gathered over 7000 emails before we pulled the trigger for production. **After we began production I launched pre-orders on Black Friday 2016 for our incoming shipment generating around $250,000 in revenue and narrowly missed our shipping deadline for Christmas**. We had around 6000 orders that had to be fulfilled. Our inventory arrived on December 9th, a week late, and we only had a few days to get everything shipped out in order to make sure everything arrived with plenty of time to spare for Christmas gifting. **We completely sold out of our first batch of inventory in 2 weeks.** In order to sustain growth and retain ownership of my company, I spent the next year doing pre-orders, selling my house, maxing out credit cards, and doing everything in my power to order as much inventory as possible to stay in stock but it was never enough. **Year over year we have seen over 1000% growth (10,000% since our launch less than 2 years ago) and continue to grow exponentially month over month.** In February 2017 I launched our 8oz insulated stainless-steel wine glass and in May 2017 I relaunched the final version of the Hopsulator TRiO. In July 2017 I discontinued the 8oz wine glass after a few competitors had copied the idea. I relaunched it in September as our UNCORK’D XL series which is now the largest insulated wine glass in the world, fitting over ½ a bottle of wine. Since then it has been all about listening to our customers and releasing products at their request / making necessary changes to our product lines based on customer feedback. Customers are the driving force behind every company and I do everything in my power to make sure I am giving them exactly what they want, sometimes before they even know they want it just based off of things I have heard echoed within our focus groups/customer groups. ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I don’t think I really ever “decided” to become an entrepreneur. It was an evolving process that stemmed from me jumping from hustle to hustle and ultimately shaping my mindset into what it is today. At this point, it is a lifestyle more than it is a career. ### #### Tell us about the challenges you’ve had and walk us through the process of what steps you’ve taken to move forward. One of the biggest challenges I have faced and continue to face is keeping up with our fast-paced growth without taking on any outside funding. I have had to get really crafty with pre-orders, lines of credit, credit cards, inventory financing, and other methods of funding to help sustain us while maintaining ownership of the company. The second challenge that I have had is **learning to pivot, FAST.** I have had to train myself to be self-aware / look for negative trends or issues with our products so I can take care of them in their early stages before they manifest into something more serious. This is a skill that has taken a while to master but at this point, I**am a huge believer that the ability to pivot and move direction as needed to prevent stagnation or epic failure is imperative to any companies success.** #### Why do you think Brumate has been so successful? BruMate has been successful because **I focused on one specific niche and set out to be the absolute best within that space.** We make awesome, super unique products. I listen to our customers and provide them with things they actually need so, making a sale isn’t hard. Every single one of our products solves a real problem. I am constantly listening, innovating, and improving. By the time someone knocks off our products we have already launched a new version so that one is outdated, it makes it impossible to keep up and has allowed us to crush our competition. #### What do the next 5 years look like for you? My immediate plans are to focus on scaling BruMate into a 9-figure company. My future plans are to start an accelerator program for e-commerce brands to help other people with a unique vision scale their existing companies into digital giants. #### What is the best advice you have for people wanting to start a business? A lot of people are really scared to talk to other people about their ideas in fear that someone else will steal their concept and run with it. But, I am a believer that before setting out to create any product or service you should be out there talking to your ideal customer base to help shape and transform your concept into a viable product that the general population will get behind. While your overall problem may be a common one, everybody’s interpretation and experience are different so certain features or applications that may be relevant to your experience may not match everybody else’s. A lot of people run with their initial concept without actually talking to anybody about it because it is their baby and naturally people don’t like being told they are wrong. **I encourage people to go out and talk to 5-10 potential customers, take their feedback, and use that to help shape the initial MVP (minimum viable product).** Everybody wants their initial launch to be perfect but that isn’t feasible. If you look at any successful company in the market and then look back at where they started you will see a drastic shift in focus/strategy. Change happens over time, just get out there and get started. **Dylan is based in  Indianapolis, IN** #### Follow Jacob: @dylan.jacob #### Dylans Hobbies Include: Snowboarding, Hiking, Travel --- ## 9 Saving Influencers, you should be following to Keep Budget in Control URL: https://futuresharks.com/9-saving-influencers-you-should-be-following-to-keep-budget-in-control/ Cornerstone towards every decision we take depends on our savings!!! There is not a single person around us who don’t understand the fundamental to personal finance and how much should be part of savings. This does not mean that you need to save for the emergencies after retirement only. But reserving a certain amount will bring joy to your youth as well. Having great determination to save goes through a planning process which is indeed a critical component. Moreover, these plans at a certain point fail as waving of taxes, healthcare cost and many other similar essentialities keep savings with Super Saver Mama. This is the point when making strategies to come up with the diligent saving and livelihood becomes an important part. Designing out the financial plans makes one ensure that all the unexpected standards are well taken care of. These goals maintain and uphold the cash flow and budget accordingly. No matter what age you are in – your teens or towards retirement, these plans will make you fly with colors at any point of time. The possibilities of savings when young and of age are entirely different with aspirational aims to keep on funding the needs and requirements. There are many ways through which people can scythe on their spending and focusing on savings. Cutting down on a family budget can only become possible with following tips implemented thoroughly. ### ### Time your purchases – Every store whether in-store or online keep on facilitating their customers with sale season which can be once, twice or even throughout the year. Keeping track of these sales has made almost every savvy customer get the best at a reasonable price. Buying in bulk when you can find things in the great sale to use them for later is a wise decision to make. ### Bring flexibility in bargaining muscle – A person with the instincts to search out for the inexpensive article in substitution of something which is needed and is not out of budget proves successful. It is quite useful instead of making a significant dent in the financial plan. These inexpensive alternative articles and items have always demonstrated to create an impact on the lives of the people and their savings. ### You’ll meet others like you – It is quite a common thing among people who want to find the best ways to save for their better tomorrow. Getting inspirations from people who have used ways which were entirely not in your mind helps a lot in going for the stashes. You need to follow the tips and tricks and accept the challenge. Do the digging and get your hands on the resources which keep things all in control. ### Bring entertainment home more often – For any celebration or to entertain yourself, there is no need of going out and spending huge every weekend. Staying back home and celebrating on the lower budget will bring the same appeal if you try a little harder. Cooking together with friends is great fun instead of visiting pubs or fancy restaurants. This also brings satisfaction to mind when you analyze your savings. ### Shop from the store with extra facilities – There are many stores out there in the market which provides facilities for the benefit of the customers. You will find places which offer hardly used clothing or slightly damaged stuff which is quite reasonable yet stylish to wear. You can even exchange you are used somewhat clothes especially fancy ones to get back the amount or buying some other useful stuff. Go for the bargain rather making things harder for yourself by spending more. ### Keep a check of your hefty subscriptions – Don’t try to opt for every subscription coming your way but do make your useful email list which effects the budget. It is advisable to switch towards the major necessities. Keeping yourself informed pertaining to the latest deals and promotions which will let you save through availing these offers. ### Make life depend on refurbished items – Possessing new gadgets now and then according to the trends and latest offerings is what everyone aims at. The refurbished items help you with the exposure to everything new in the electronic world and at reasonable prices rather spending more and not focusing on the savings. The reduced rates are one of the attractions of these refurbished electronic toys working in the same accordance as expected. ### Save on tours – Not getting tricked by the airfare, packing smart, and careful when booking hotels or rental cars should be the primary concern when planning a trip. The offers on traveling and tour are available on many platforms which have quite cheap packages. This only requires little search on your part to get the possible offerings to save on. This is again a part played by your willpower to save money no matter where you are. ### Celebrate your fiscal win – It is challenging to follow the rules and save on your spending which will be assisted in achieving future goals. Book a trip once a year when completed the target of savings or buy something much-desired stuff. This will encourage you to keep more for next time which can be spent on something big and extravagant. Rewarding one is a source of boost which ultimately takes care of all the possibilities. ### Imagine your future selves – It is advisable to imagine once that where you stand in the future after retirement. People do save more when they feel an attachment to their future. This connection makes you analyze that how things will be beneficial when you will not be working but still have a lot to spend. These significant savings for the retirement retro can become a simple process if it is considered at an early age with the enhancement on the habit of collecting funds. With changes appearing now and then brings extreme variations in your financial plans as well. But making goals and at least trying to follow them will never harm anyone. It is good to have a secure and prosperous future which is a guarantee through savings for you and your loved ones. --- ## 6 Signs You’re Ready to Tackle E-Commerce Entrepreneurship—TODAY URL: https://futuresharks.com/6-signs-youre-ready-to-tackle-e-commerce-entrepreneurship-today/ How do you know you’re ready for entrepreneurship? Getting ahead in the world of entrepreneurship takes a certain kind of DNA. It takes gumption and skill. It takes a lot of attributes that people who are willing to opt for safe, regular jobs just don’t have. How do you know you’re ready? ## 1) You’ve Found a Niche When Steve Tan first started with e-commerce in 2005, he was twenty-one. And when he was first getting into it, he threw himself into every possible opportunity. Internet marketing, AdSense, blogging, SaaS, ebooks … you name it, he touched it. But there was one thing that stood out from the rest: eBay auctions. By the time 2006 rolled around, Tan was only seeing real success on eBay. He focused on that avenue, but the experience from the other niches he pursued remained—and he put it to good use later, working through some failed e-commerce and crowdfunding ventures to reach success now as an e-commerce seller who’s brought in over $360,000 in one day through one particular store. And it all started because he had a niche that worked, and he took advantage of it. To quote former GE CEO Jack Welch, “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” If you’ve found a niche that you think you have an advantage in, take advantage of it. ## 2) You’re Willing to Risk Failure Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most successful entrepreneurs and businessmen on the planet. He’s currently worth $77.5 billion, is known worldwide, and helms one of the most influential companies on the planet—Facebook (you might have heard of it). But he’s not immune to failure. In 2014, he invested $2 billion in Oculus, a startup VR program. It was expected that Oculus would thrive, simply due to Zuckerberg’s involvement. It didn’t. In fact, even after price cuts, Oculus couldn’t convince people to get into its VR experience enough to pay off on the investment. Risk-taking is one of the foundational aspects of entrepreneurship. In fact, Zuckerberg’s on record saying that the biggest risk is not taking any risks. You have to be willing to take the leap. ## 3) You Can Motivate Others with Your Vision John Rampton is a motivator. He’s also a man who went to the very bottom, with his leg crushed, lying in a hospital bed and not knowing where his life was going to go. He started digging into innovative ways of doing business, taking advantage of early electronic marketing strategies like mass text messages. From there, he transitioned into being a connector of people. He’s one of the top social influencers in the world in the field of entrepreneurship and marketing, and these days he’s known for speaking all around the world, coaching entrepreneurs and marketing other people. One of the keys Rampton notes is to “promote purpose.” Whatever the purpose of your business is (and you need one that’s beyond “make money for me”), you need to find a way to sell people on it. Purpose is an intrinsic motivator, especially for millennials, and great entrepreneurs have it in spades. Having a [solid vision](/luke-faulconer/) is absolutely key—first for yourself, then filtering down to others, because if you don’t have it they won’t either. Rampton’s a great entrepreneur in his own right, but no one tastes success without being able to convince other people of their vision. You can only go it alone for so long. Whether it’s employees or customers, you’ll have to convince them that your vision is what’s best for them. If you have that drive and that skill—or you think you can build it—you’re on track. ## 4) You’re Decisive Entrepreneurship—and success in any setting—is founded on fast decisions. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, used a principle espoused by former US General George Patton in his decision-making: “a good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week”. Too often, the decision-making process wastes an insane amount of time. Most entrepreneurs you talk to will say that the biggest thing that helped them when they started out was *just starting*. Taking less time to talk themselves out of it, less time checking what the pitfalls could be. There are many people who don’t succeed because they spend so much time deliberating about what should be done that they don’t actually do anything. This isn’t a call to be rash. But it *is* a call to trim the fat from your decision-making. If you don’t get bogged down in irrelevancy, e-commerce entrepreneurship might be for you. ## 5) You Don’t Think Failure’s the End Persistence is the hallmark of any successful entrepreneur. If you’re going to compete, you absolutely have to have a mindset that *failure is not the end*. Winston Churchill, well-known British prime minister and politician, noted once that “success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” That sums up the entrepreneurial experience for many. If you’re starting a business, no matter how well you prepare—no matter how much homework you do—no matter how much money you have—you *will* fail. Those failures can be big, or they can be small. But if you have the resilience that entrepreneurs have, [you won’t see failure as the end](/failing-way-freedom-will-bater/). You can reinvent yourself, do something different, try other things. And when failures happen, you’re decisive enough to not engage in the sunk cost fallacy. Cut your losses and move on. ## 6) You’re Resourceful Resourcefulness is a fundamental key to success. Yuri Kruman, well-known startup advisor, notes that some of his best advice for entrepreneurs is to “[always be resourceful](/yuri-kruman-future-shark-can-help-find-pursue-monetize-life-mission/).” When problems strike, what do you do? Are you able to make lemons into lemonade? Be flexible and take advantage of the tools you have on hand and you’ll never run into a failure or an obstacle that can’t be overcome. If you’ve been thinking about leaping into e-commerce entrepreneurship, you’re on the right track. Make sure you see these signs in your character—make sure you’re aware of what you need to get the job done. And if you do, you’re set up for future success. --- ## 8 Tips for Bootstrapped Entrepreneurs Looking to Dominate Facebook Custom Audiences URL: https://futuresharks.com/8-tips-for-bootstrapped-entrepreneurs-looking-to-dominate-facebook-custom-audiences/ Did you know that most people who use Facebook advertising are shooting themselves in the foot? Many businesses are using underperforming or suboptimal tactics on Facebook, then wondering why it’s not paying off for them. If you’re a bigger company, some suboptimal ad spend for a while won’t hurt you as badly, because you’ve got more money to work with. But for bootstrapped entrepreneurs, every penny counts—and you need to make sure you’re making the most of your resources. One way you can take advantage of the resources you have is by leveraging Facebook’s Custom Audiences tool. It’s a powerful ad targeting platform that you’re probably not utilizing as much as you could—and when you unlock its potential, you can see killer returns on minor money. That’s something everyone wants, not just bootstrapped entrepreneurs. But it’s especially critical for you, because it can allow you to hit your [ideal audience](/how-david-schloss-built-and-scaled-an-agency-to-seven-figures-without-spending-a-ton-on-advertising/). It can take up to eighteen touches on average to make sure a prospect converts. How can you use Custom Audiences to accomplish that? ## 1) Upload Your Email List If you’re not capturing emails already—why aren’t you? Building an email list is one of the best ways to be in contact with your customers. And it has secondary benefits too, which we’ll touch on later. Email is on average the highest-converting channel that you have (although we’ll talk about how to use Facebook better than the average). One of the easiest ways to build a list is through ecommerce, if you’re doing it already—get a list of the email addresses your customers have used to buy (and make sure they’re submitting an address early in the process, so you can target them even if they abandon their cart). Once you have a list of people who’ve already shown interest in what you’re selling or offering, you’re able to use Facebook’s tools to transform those warm leads to white-hot leads. Upload the email addresses as a list and you can use them in a variety of different ways—you can build them out as an audience all by themselves, cut them up into several different segments, and more. ## 2) Target Inactive Members of Your Email List With Content Take a look at the list of email subscribers or buyers. What are the immediately evident segments? One obvious one to look at is activity. If there’s a segment of your user base that’s signed up, but isn’t opening your emails, create a custom audience based on that list. Find a useful post or article that’s tailored to a broad audience—especially if it’s popular on your site—and use that to target them on Facebook. You might be able to convert an inactive subscriber into an active one. A successful re-engagement campaign can get as much as 10 percent of your inactive base to reactivate. That may not sound like much, but every little bit counts, especially when you’re bootstrapping. You can’t afford to neglect the margins. ## 3) Retarget People Who Engage With Your Facebook Content This is one of the easiest ways to use a custom audience. Building a custom audience based on Facebook engagement both ensures that you’re getting people who are active on Facebook and allows you to fine-tune the criteria you’re using to find them. From likes to page saves, there are a lot of possibilities. ## 4) Use Videos to Quickly Grab Your Audience’s Attention Did you know Facebook gets over 8 billion average daily video views? In addition, as mobile becomes more popular, mobile users are 5 times more likely to watch a video as desktop users are. Capitalize on that by using video to target your Custom Audiences with content they want to see. ## 5) Create a ‘Thank You’ Page Did you know you can create a custom audience based on people who visit a specific page on your website? As a bootstrapping entrepreneur, this is one of the key ways you can make your advertising dollars go further. This is a prime way to create a custom audience that has a high conversion rate, because it lets you target people who buy your products. Try creating a thank you page on your website that your customers are redirected to after making a purchase. Once you’ve done that, after you’ve gotten some traffic going, you have a resource that allows you to make great Custom Audiences. ## 6) Retarget Your Shoppers With Cross-Promotions Did you know that the average revenue for return purchasers is 497 percent higher than revenue for first-time purchasers? You can use your new thank you page to target people who’ve bought from your website, and that can be a significant boost to sales. Create a custom audience based on people who’ve visited that thank you page and you can capture even more sales from return visitors. ## 7) Create a Custom Audience Based On Blog Visitors Your blog is one of the most essential parts of your website. It’s not just important for your own website, though—you can use it to drive Facebook traffic. Use the same page targeting feature you used for your thank you page to grab people who visit the front page of your blog—or, if you’re getting good traffic on a particular post, use that to create a custom audience. You’re getting people who you know are already interested in what you’re talking about, and people who’ve already looked at your content. ## 8) Use Lookalike Audiences to Build Your Custom Audiences When it comes to advertising and marketing, everything works together. Once you’ve used a custom audience, try building a Lookalike Audience that leads to a page or email capture portal that allows you to add on to existing lists (for example, if it’s a list based on your emails, try sending them to an ebook download or newsletter signup. If it’s a list based on page views, send them to that same page). Keep updating your Custom Audiences periodically based on the same criteria you originally used—you can import contacts that have the same traits as the list you pulled the first time around. If you’re a bootstrapping entrepreneur, Custom Audiences is a powerful tool that can help you stretch your advertising dollars further. Take advantage of them to propel your business to the next level. --- ## What product to start a new business URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-product-to-start-a-new-business/ # Are you passionate to become entrepreneur !! Now a days many young students want to become entrepreneur, but same question they have what is the product with which they start business? If you look around, we have million opportunities knocking us, but only passionate person having vision can grab them. Recently I met one guy in my city, who own one car battery shop in market. After asking him about business growth, he replied, it was slowing down as compare to his father was doing in their era. He was sitting on chair in his own shop, waiting for customers to come and purchase batteries. I suggested why don’t you reach to customer rather to wait for them. Carry spare battery along with and deliver to customer end, help them to fit in car, they would love it that door step service. It was only suggestion but then he took as a challenge, either to sit in shop chair or door step service. Doing second option doesn’t harm his business. He started working on it, after 3 month, he came to me along with some sweets and was happy. He said almost 40% sales increased during 3 months because of my suggestion. He put 2 technician on job. I’m sure he will double his business in couple of months. What I learn from above, now a day’s people want immediate service for all their need, whether it’s vehicle parts, personal things, school stationary, clothes, and many more. Just we need to find what is required regularly, you can put your efforts and start business… so what’re you thinking ?? Make a survey around you and become entrepreneur. What you ask about product, when you have lot things floating around you. **Happy Entrepreneurship!!!** --- ## How To Be Productive & Grow Your Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-be-productive-grow-your-business/ ### Using The Tools At Hand Don’t be anachronistic. You don’t really need paper anymore. Certainly, it’s good to have some on-hand, but a paper is going the way of the typewriter. So are on-site server arrays. With cloud computing, you can have all the computational processing, management, and storage capacity of an enterprise even though you’re just an SMB. Imagine having half a dozen laptops between half a dozen team members and being able to contend with international corporations at a competitive level. Certainly, not all businesses are so situated, but depending on who you are and what you do, such a scenario isn’t totally without the bounds of possibility either. Consider costs you can recoup through cloud computing. If you had an array of 20 servers, and each one only cost you $5k a year, total, over the course of five years, including maintenance and upgrade costs, that would be a $500k savings. Additionally, you can outsource space expenses through BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device. You can even “rent out” end-user devices like smartphones and laptops through DaaS, or Device as a Service. You pay a monthly fee, and if a device malfunctions, you trade it out. All its data is stored on the cloud; the device is now just like a pair of 3-D glasses to view a “cloud computing cinema” if you will. No longer must you invest $5k+ per laptop. The laptops are essentially disposable, just like 3-D glasses. ### Software Considerations Beyond hardware simplification solutions available owing to modern innovation, in terms of software you’ve got some surprising solutions as well. Certainly, cloud computing has facilitateddesign apps which are additionally cost-effective, but you can also use the cloud to design and host your own applications, and even monitor them contemporaneously. For example, if you use Python to develop something, you’ll want to use software like AppOptics which providepowerful insights for Python performance; according to the site, you can gain: “…real-time visibility into any application…” You can develop and monitor the app through the cloud, providing you greater operational security at a reduced cost. The best way to be productive and grow your business is to maximize every expense. One of the best places to cut costs now is in terms of technology. Where before, a dollar may have been divvied up such that 50 cents were tech related, thirty cents were production staff and infrastructure, and twenty cents went to marketing, now you might be able to cut that tech spending down to ten cents on the dollar. Essentially, you’re buying turnkey tech services which come at a monthly fee and include greater professionalism. This gives your business greater scalability, autonomy, flexibility, and room for error. You’ve got to have room for error if you’re going to succeed. When your margins are too close, a simple mistake can totally undermine you; and this is surely intolerable. ### Diversifying Your Profit Portfolio Another tactic to facilitate profitability, growth, and flexibility will include diversification. Don’t just sell the primary products and services of your enterprise. You must branch out. Movie theaters sell movies, popcorn, soda, candy, and now they’ve branched into full-on meals as well as alcohol. Even though ticket costs are higher than ever,movie theaters are still making a profit because they were savvy enough to diversify. If, for example, your business involves graphic design, you may want to branch out into written or film content production. You may additionally want to provide consultation services. You could also work as a networking agent between businesses, and conduct trades for services rendered. That is to say: if you provide ads for a business throughout the month, you may be able to get them to pay you in free services, netting a tax deduction for both of you in the process. The point is, you want to find creative ways to increase the revenue streams which support your enterprise, however large or small it is. https://pixabay.com/en/money-finance-business-success-2696234/ ### Combining Tactics For Greatest Success A third way to increase profitability and growth involves technology which combines both branching out and cutting-edge solutions into something comprehensively advantageous.IoT, or the Internet of Things, can provide ubiquitous real-time operational data. You can use that information for more than just internal needs. So consider your existing operations, and determine where you can maximize expenses through innovations in the market and re-structuring of operational models, as well as branching out. Last but not least, remember that you must continually increase profit and diversify yourself to remain effective in the long-term. --- ## Things To Be Aware of When Going International With Your Startup URL: https://futuresharks.com/things-to-be-aware-of-when-going-international-with-your-startup/ The ultimate goal of any startup business should be to expand and ultimately grow in scale and more importantly, profitability. All startups start small and working in local markets but at some point, it’s time to take the leap to an international market and doing so brings its own amazing rewards. Going international means that your potential customer base for your startup expands significantly, but you’ll also enter a whole new world of complications in regards to the operation and management of your startup. When is the appropriate time to go international with your startup, what kind of complications to expect ranging from local laws and politics, and, finally, how to avoid unintentionally alienating your new international market customer base? ## When To Go International Before tapping into the amazing potential of the international market, you need to be critical and ask of yourself and your startup whether your product is easily sold internationally by design. Products that typically have the easiest time going global are products that do not need local operations or logistics, do not need much localization, and are based primarily online. For example, applications and games sold through app stores typically enjoy easy transitions to international markets. If your startup sells a product that isn’t easily moved to an international market, then you’ll need to consider the degree of difficulty before making your international move. Particularly, moving a business into an international market is a complicated process whose ROI (Return On Investment) in the short term will be much smaller than expanding a business domestically. You need to sit down and carefully consider if your business can afford to spend the time and management bandwidth necessary at the moment to complete the move internationally. ## International Laws and Regulations Expanding your startup internationally means that you will need to start dealing increasingly with laws and regulations related to your product. Particularly, local laws and regulations provide a difficult and unique challenge for startups as you might have to start changing your product in potentially fundamental ways to be legally sold in the local market. An example of this is that the Kinder Chocolate Egg is illegal to be sold in the United States, regardless of its inherent harmlessness and legal sale in other countries all over the world. Unfortunately for Kinder, the inclusion of a small toy inside a chocolate shell means that their product is labeled as a choking hazard by United States laws and as such cannot be sold inside the United States. The law in place in the United States prevents the sale of a chocolate covered toy capsule in its borders which means that the law in the United States would force a fundamental change in the key aspect of the Kinder Egg if Kinder Egg did decide to move to the United States. Before trying to move a product to an international market, make sure that product is legal in its current form to be sold in that international market, or be ready to make those fundamental changes in your product. ## International Communication If you have a product that will require local operations and logistics to sell, then they need a clear-cut communication system is extremely important. When moving internationally, startups will need to invest significantly in creating a chain of communication that is staffed by knowledgeable people in not just the product that you’re startup is selling, but also the local market that you’re moving into. For example, if you’re a German company trying to move into the Australian market, sending a key employee with excellent knowledge of the product across to Australia to work during the transition is an excellent idea. Having a senior German staff member, knowledgeable in the product working with Australian consultants that are experts in the local Australian market will help the creation of a strong logistical chain of command across borders. However, be aware that moving staff internationally has its own difficulties, so make sure to have the migration agent in Sydney sort everything out and save you from any legal issues. ## International Market Research It should go without saying, but a successful push into any international market will only happen if that push is supported by a strong knowledge of the market that you’re pushing into. You should spend a great deal of time during your push to an international market in researching that international market and in particular, researching the local domestic competition that you’re going to encounter. If you’re selling a product that’s already present in that international market, you should try to find a way to stand out against the competition. Especially since it’s possible that your own product will be disadvantaged simply due to its international origin. For example, local tariffs, tax breaks, and laws can drive the price of your product up drastically when compared to domestic products. The international market in question that you’re selling to could have tax breaks and laws supporting domestic businesses against your own international business. An example of this can be seen in the sale of the Apple iPhone in Asian markets. In these Asian markets, the iPhone is sold as a luxury product from an international source whose appeal partly lies in its status as an international product that inflates the price against local companies such as Huawei. While the difficulties in moving a startup to an international market seem insurmountable, it should be noted that the potential rewards, we feel, outweigh the potential headaches. The ability to move into a massive new market should not be underestimated. However, don’t be hasty in your move internationally. Take the time to evaluate and research not just the suitability of your product for the target market, but also the suitability of the target market for your product! There’s a lot of work involved, but ultimately, moving your business internationally with a strong business plan in place will reap rewards almost unimaginable. --- ## Improving Your Small Business Online Exposure with Good SEO URL: https://futuresharks.com/small-business-seo/ The beauty of inbound marketing is the fact that it’s an incredibly subtle form of business promotion. Think of it as a sales method disguised as a problem-solving technique. It identifies people who are in need of your services and products and then convinces them that buying from you was their idea all along. The way it works is through avoiding marketing speak and applying all sorts of soft-sell methods to your audience. However, it does have a shortcoming. How can you persuade a person that you sent a targeted ad to, that it was their idea to contact you all along? After all, you did make the first move, right? Well, if you improve your reach and your visibility, you can still capitalize on this idea. Sure, your audience will feel like it was their research that brought the two of you together, without seeing hours and hours that you’ve invested in improving your exposure. Here are several good SEO tricks to help you exploit the full potential of this idea. ## Voice search SEO Most of your competitors are already investing quite a bit of time and resources into SEO, however, they probably aren’t that keen on voice search SEO, which can become your way in. Think about it, just a couple of years ago, voice search was just another one of those features that never get used and now, they’re utilized by 41 percent of adults and 55 percent of teens on a daily level. Voice search SEO is definitely something you need to take into consideration. The downside of voice search SEO lies in the fact that not a lot of people know how to do it. For instance, with voice search, you’re primarily targeting local mobile users, since this is the most commonly used way of this feature. In fact, as much as 78 percent of local mobile searches are made just prior to an offline purchase. This also means that you have to adjust your keywords a bit. For instance, when typed into the search box, most keywords don’t use words in their proper form, articles or even prepositions. With voice search keywords, they’re used in their conversational form, which usually tends to be a more grammatical one. ## Content that generates backlinks The way in which the blogosphere works is quite simple, if people like your content, you have a chance at getting a backlink once they start working on a similar topic. However, having a quality piece of content doesn’t automatically guarantee that you’ll get a backlink. In order to get it, you need to share a piece of information or at least a reliable statistic that people will want to use in their own post. This isn’t nearly as hard as you might have assumed. Just take the above-linked two phrases. Both the number of people using voice search and the number of offline sales that local mobile searches drive is fascinating, not to mention that they are closely related to one of the most talked about topics online. ## Outsource your SEO Another thing you can do, at a relatively low-cost, is outsourcing your SEO. Think about it, sure, you can try to learn all about on-site optimization, backlinks, link building, social media marketing and ways to make your content viral but how many of these methods can you successfully execute. Outreach, metadata descriptions and keyword research may seem simple but they are just the tip of the iceberg of all that’s involved in this game. This, however, something you will discover for yourself only after several unsuccessful attempts at making them into DIY projects. For this reason alone, search engine optimization is something that’s probably best left for professionals. ## Social media monitoring Sometimes, you might feel like your own social media presence isn’t satisfactory when, in fact, it’s doing just fine. In this particular situation, you stand to try and fix a situation that isn’t broken, which is a waste of both effort and resources. In a different scenario, you might misdiagnose your problem, which can cause you to waste resources that could be better used elsewhere. Keep in mind that the audience you’re trying to reach might not be present on the social network you’re using in the first place. Each demographic has its own preferred channel and failing to realize this in time can be devastating for your brand. With the upcoming changes in 2018, this segmentation might become even greater. ## Patience is the key Finally, perhaps the greatest problem with the SEO of small companies lies in the fact that their owners don’t actually realize how much effort and time it takes to set up a decent online exposure. Sometimes, your gut feeling may be misleading you, even though it can be quite useful at times. For instance, a blog that has two posts in total shouldn’t worry about not generating enough backlinks or not having a rank they deserve. SEO rank is nothing else but one’s reputation in the digital world. Building reputation takes time. Sure, shortcuts (black-hat SEO) exist but they are better left unused, seeing as how they cause more trouble than they’re worth it in the long-run. The last thing you need to realize is that, in order to succeed, you need to start thinking outside-of-the-box. Think about it, most of the business world has more resources, contacts, and customers than your small business, which means that, if you’re to triumph, you need to battle them under your own terms. This means saving your strength and resources for battles you know you can win. For this reason alone, SMBs need to adopt a different approach to SEO (and digital marketing in general) than their larger competitors. Read more about SEO tips. --- ## If you are an entrepreneur and you want to be very successful, please go to bed URL: https://futuresharks.com/if-you-are-an-entrepreneur-and-you-want-to-be-very-successful-please-go-to-bed/ For many entrepreneurs, sleep is a luxury only few can afford. As an entrepreneur, your business sees you working round the clock; your typical day starts at 4:00 am and before you get home and hit the sack, it is almost midnight. Many business savvy individuals are of the opinion that sleep is for the lazy. They prefer to spend more time working than sleeping. This goes on for a very long time, and suddenly you experience burnout, and this threatens all you ever worked for most especially your beloved business. In the end, you might find yourself asking “was it worth it”? As an entrepreneur, if you want to strike a balance between your business and your personal time, you should always get some shut-eye. Sleep when you should and relax while at it. These are some reasons why adequate sleep is necessary for the success of your business. ## Your brain cells take cat naps while you are awake Our brains have tiny cells called neurons. They are the bodies that transmit information in the brain. When you get little sleep, these tiny cells which are stressed from your lack of sleep are forced to take short naps, even while you are awake. This is why you feel irritable while working; it can also make your attention span very short. Most times, you find yourself feeling lightheaded just because you did get some quality sleep. For an entrepreneur to grow his business, he has to get enough rest. ## Lack of sleep causes for the brain to age quickly Just like our outer body ages, so do our brains. Lack of adequate sleep causes diminished cognitive functions causing premature aging of the brain. As an entrepreneur, if you lose sleep constantly, your brain can become half a decade older. If you intentionally shorten your sleep time, it can have deleterious effects on your brain and cause mental sluggishness. ## Poor decision making Let’s face it, as an entrepreneur when you lose viable sleep time; it causes you to decide wrongly because you find it hard to think straight. Some studies show that some business owners made awful decisions when they were sleep-deprived. Sleep deprived entrepreneurs have regretted taking risky decisions which were not particularly beneficial to their businesses. When entrepreneurs “sleep on” a particular issue, they make more informed choices. Sleep allows one to pause the challenge at hand and helps the subconscious part of the mind analyze it. ## Sharp memories To be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be on your toes and be alert. Adequate sleep boosts your memory and ensures that you can recall information. You find out that you can give an awesome speech at a morning meeting after being well rested overnight. ## Overall Health Entrepreneurs that sleep are less prone to developing cardiovascular diseases and obesity. The immune system is very sleep-dependent. It is imperative that to become successful, you must get quality sleep to ensure that you reap the fruits of your labor. --- ## Why Good UX Is Essential for Your Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-good-ux-is-essential-for-your-business/ User experience is the way in which the end user perceives your product or service as a whole. As users conduct more of their daily business interactions online it’s becoming harder to provide a frictionless experience which doesn’t leave room for confusion and fits into their everyday routine. Users expect their experience to be seamless and optimized throughout all devices and platforms. The challenge here is huge because the quality of their experience conditions the further development of a mutual business relationship. ## It’s vital for omnichannel conversion performance Users will most often use several channels to interact with your business. Let’s run a scenario. A person may learn about your business on a Facebook ad using a smartphone. He leaves his phone as he doesn’t have enough time to read through your UVP (unique value proposition) and decides to come back later to it. A few hours (minutes, days) later,  the user gets to his PC and Googles your business name. He lands on your site, scrolls through your offer and doesn’t make up his mind immediately. He bookmarks it for review and reference and sometimes later, visits it via a direct link and completes a goal or desired action – becomes a converter. Even though the conversion is measured as the last hit interaction on your website, the channels in getting them there variate. All of these channels have different layers of complexity and interactive paths that variate. Designing a user journey which takes all of these channels into account as a part of a greater whole with a common KPI (key performance indicator) requires a lot of tracking, measurement and data analysis. In order to get a clear picture of where your users come from, what steps do they take and find gaps for improvement, you will need to visualize all of your acquisition channels as a whole, an omnichannel. You need to mark and measure each interaction point of every acquisition path and use that data to predict outcomes and improve overall conversions. This type of analysis makes the core of a great UX. ## It helps shorten the sales cycle Not only do users take several channels to find your business, but oftentimes they require several steps of interaction before they make a conversion. It takesseven to over thirteen touches before closing a sale. This is mainly because people are becoming immune to traditional marketing and advertising strategies. They require transparency and personalization throughout your sales cycle in order to become “sales ready” and ultimately convert. When collecting data from various checkpoints of the user journey, you can isolate specific paths which are confusing, time consuming and hurt your sales and conversion outcome. By employing UX techniques (design, development) with a lean approach, you can identify these breakpoints and make iterative changes. You remove the confusion and shorten the user journey by providing simplicity to the complex structures. Also, you will be enabled to personalize various paths to specific target persona and entice them towards conversion. This type of personalization requires a lot of work, analysis, and testing and it’s the best that you seek out top web development companies skilled in UX design to help you out. This will give you the opportunity to not only grab but hold the users’ attention while leaning towards building strong business relationships and providing great, transparent and personalized experience for them. ## It helps improve user and customer retention Business cannot be sustainable nor scale if it relies heavily on new customer acquisition without nurturing retention. For a business to succeed and scale, you need to build relationships with your customersthat go beyond the completed sale. Once a user completes the sales cycle, his customer journey doesn’t end. That same user will engage with your product/service, recommend it to other people, seek guidance on how to use it and find gaps and flaws in it. Following up on these requirements requires constant engagement and innovation. As a business, you will need to make surveys, case studies, improve and innovate your product/service and sales process. Aside from improving the engagement rate on your current content structure, you will need to look for and identify new opportunities and target groups to outreach.  Great user retention means you are bringing value to your users and designing great experiences for them throughout their whole journey. ## (U)X marks the spot If you can give clarity to why users engage with your business, who they are and what are their needs/goals, you will give the rationale and pathways for optimized user experience. UX methodology enables you to effectively impact your business by devising targeted, personalized strategies across your market and it’s digital ecosystem. --- ## Building A $35 Million Empire While Getting in The Best Shape of Your Life- Miguel Carrasco’s Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/miguel-carrasco/ Miguel Carrasco is a serial entrepreneur, a loving son, husband, father and a well respected and renowned Fitness Professional and Coach. Immigrating to Canada at the age of 2- Miguel understood early on the struggles of being an immigrant and the hard work his parents were deploying on a daily basis to provide the family a better life. His parents would take him often to Walmart and being curious, he would always spend time in the magazine section reading and being inspired by the entrepreneurs and their stories. In the local newspaper- he noticed that people were selling info products and even though he didn’t purchase them, this sparked an idea inside his head to do something. Around the 80’s, search engines didn’t exist and this was during the time of the BBS (Bulletin Board System)- with this need in mind, Miguel decided to compile a list of services and convinced his parents to call the newspaper and place an ad saying, **“Do you want the best BBS? Send me $20(covers S+H) and I’ll send you a list.”** A few days went by and Miguel wasn’t getting sales and his parents thought this venture was a fail but wasn’t disappointed at Miguel as this was a learning opportunity for him. However, a short time later- people started signing up for his service and sending him money. So, he sent them the BBS and on the back of the sheet was his upsell offer that for an extra $5/month they would get an updated list sent to them monthly. Fast forward to high school, Miguel took the initiative to start a chess club and convinced the school to build a website which led him to learn coding and web development. He learned SEO and built a website to drive traffic and get more students for his father who at that time was operating a martial arts school. Miguel attended college for 1 year and then left to travel to Australia. After returning back to Canada, he ended up getting a job as a Computer Consultant which would be his career for the next 12 years. In 2012- being 240 lbs Miguel decided it was time to turn his life around after a health scare. After his transformation and dropping 80 pounds to 160 lbs, he was inspired to start an online fitness business and used social media as a marketing tool through Facebook Ads and Instagram Marketing which led him to build a health and fitness coaching business purely online. His organization is now responsible for $35 million in sales yearly. **Miguel, your transformation and story is truly inspiring but I am sure you’ve had countless failures. Is there a time where you felt like giving up after a hard failure?** I fail everyday- yesterday I ran a Facebook Ad and lost $400. Most people would look at the fact I lost $400, I see it as a learning opportunity of what didn’t work and when I run another ad next time, I know what not to do. We live in a day and age where it is important to be constantly experimenting and adapt to changing times, if you get complacent or stop learning- you will either be fired from your job or if you are an entrepreneur- say goodbye to your business. However, I’ll tell you an interesting story. I ran a personal development/mind-mastery bootcamp in New Orleans for 1500 people and we had a sell out event which gave us confidence and momentum to pre-sell tickets for an event in Indiana. We expected a larger turn out which would be for about 5000 people and we booked a grand ball room at a 5 star hotel for $75,000- however, we only sold 1500 tickets and took a $40,000 loss. The lessons I learned from this failure were valuable because this time around for our recent event in June- we were able to get that same venue for $15,000 after negotiating. Evidently, there were certain things I did to negotiate such a low price but that goes to show you- every failure is merely a learning opportunity for you to continue to progress in life. **How did you take your company to do 7 or even 8 figures in sales? (do you have certain principles that you followed)?** - Be the hardest worker in the room and lead by example. I can only handle 20-30 clients/month in my online fitness business and I realized that to scale an organization to a higher level, I needed to build a team around me that aligned with my values and vision that are coachable and want to take control of their own destiny to build a life of service to help transform people’s lives. When I bring on other coaches who I see have potential- I show them the process of scaling a business by having them first be a customer of mine. Once they see my behaviour, habits and things I do on a daily basis- it will be easier for them to implement those actions and scale their business. - Re invest back into your business. Most books will say invest 10% into of the profits back into your business. I take a more contrarian approach and I believe you need to be investing 50-60% of the profits back into your business to scale at an aggressive rate. **What is a proud moment that you have had in business and in life?** In my organization, I was given the Leadership award for achieving certain milestones and this award was actually selected by a private committee so there was no chance to influence the votes in any way possible. On a personal level, I was able to finally retire my parents 3 years ago. Being an immigrant, I understand the sacrifices and long hours my parents went through to provide a better life for us. My parents were always entrepreneurial and recently, they were running a home day care earning about $45,000/annually and I wanted them to spend more time with their grand kids. One day, I went to their home and wrote a letter saying they had to close their day care down as a surprise to let them know they can finally retire. Now my parents work with me and help run my business. **What is a tip you have for someone that is looking to become an entrepreneur or even start their own business but they are on the fence.** Don’t focus on income but focus on your passion. I was good at building websites an early age and helped my father and his friends build their websites but it wasn’t something I was passionate about- even though I was able to make money from it. The truth is I am passionate about health and fitness along with inspiring others by transforming their lives in some way. In entrepreneurship, there will be countless moments where you will fail and if you are in it solely for the money- you will not last long. **Nothing can be achieved without building a team- what do you look for when hiring someone or bringing someone on your team?** - I hire someone based on their passion and attitude because skills are commodotized- meaning I could easily teach someone what I need to get done in business. - Determination- if I want something done and it needs to be revised multiple times, will the video producer, my assistant or any other employee be able to do the task till it’s right or will they give up in the process? - I need to know if they have a higher purpose- is there a calling to serve? what are their values? Last but not least, I need to be comfortable having them around them my kids and family. To learn more about Miguel and his daily life you can check out his new venture- The Boss Life(https://www.thebosslife.com/) where you can take your life to the next level and check out his Instagram– for his fun workouts and see his larger than life personality. --- ## Meta Lookalike Audiences in 2026: What Still Works URL: https://futuresharks.com/best-lookalike-audiences-for-fb-ads-in-2018/ TL;DR: In 2026, Meta lookalike audiences are a seed signal you hand to AI-driven Advantage+ targeting, not a campaign you build by hand. They still win at small budgets and with CRM data the pixel never saw — but only if your seed and your Conversions API signal are clean. If you're still building Facebook lookalike audiences the way the blogs taught you in 2018 — six tightly defined seeds, 1% lookalikes stacked against interest layers, manual exclusions — you're optimizing a machine that no longer exists. Two things broke the old playbook. First, Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt, mandatory since iOS 14.5, let users opt out of tracking — and most did. Meta's pixel lost roughly half its signal, and reported ROAS dropped 30–50% across the board ([adlibrary.com](https://adlibrary.com/posts/ios-14-att)). Second, Meta responded by rebuilding targeting around AI. The platform is now "Meta," the unit of work is **Advantage+ Audience**, and the old "original audience" controls you used to live in are buried behind a "more options" link. So the real question in 2026 isn't "what are the best lookalike audiences." It's "where do lookalikes still fit, now that the algorithm wants to find your customers itself?" Here's the honest answer, after the signal loss, the CAPI era, and the shift to broad. ## What actually changed The mechanics of a lookalike haven't changed: you give Meta a source audience of your best people, and it models a larger group that resembles them. What changed is the **role** that model plays. **Lookalikes used to be a hard constraint.** You told Meta "only show this ad to a 1% lookalike of purchasers," and that was the boundary. The algorithm worked inside it. **Now they're a suggestion.** In an Advantage+ campaign, a lookalike (or any custom audience) is an *audience suggestion* — a starting signal. Meta uses it to prioritize who sees the ad early, then expands beyond it the moment it finds people who convert better elsewhere ([Jon Loomer](https://www.jonloomer.com/meta-ads-targeting-2026/)). You're no longer drawing a fence. You're handing the AI a hint about where to start digging. That single shift reframes everything below. ## 1. When lookalikes still beat broad targeting Advantage+ is not automatically better. It's better *when it has enough signal to learn from*. The dividing lines that matter in 2026: - **Spend under ~$5K/month.** At small budgets, Advantage+ doesn't accumulate conversions fast enough to escape the learning phase. A well-seeded lookalike gives the algorithm a head start it can't generate on its own ([Stackmatix](https://www.stackmatix.com/blog/facebook-lookalike-audiences-strategy-2026)). - **CRM data the pixel never saw.** If you have offline purchases, a high-LTV email list, phone sales, or a subscriber base that predates your pixel, that data is invisible to broad targeting. A lookalike built from it injects signal Meta literally cannot find any other way. - **Fewer than ~50 weekly conversions.** Above 50 conversions a week, Advantage+ Audiences typically out-models manual lookalikes. Below it, the manual seed usually wins ([Stackmatix](https://www.stackmatix.com/blog/facebook-lookalike-audiences-strategy-2026)). - **Testing a new market or creative concept.** A lookalike is a controlled way to probe a new geography or vertical before you let broad targeting loose on it. If none of those apply — you're at $300+/day with a clean pixel and 50+ weekly conversions — let Advantage+ handle audience discovery and spend your energy on creative instead. That's not laziness; it's matching the tool to the data you have. The mental model that helps: a lookalike is a *cold-start solution*. Its entire job is to give the algorithm direction before the algorithm has earned its own. The more conversion history your account has, the less that cold start matters — and the more a hand-built lookalike just gets in the way of a system that already knows your buyers better than you do. ## 2. The 2026 stack: seed, don't build The mistake most advertisers still make is building a lookalike as its own audience and running a campaign against it in isolation. In 2026 that fights the system. The stronger move is structural: 1. **Build a custom audience from your best customers** — ideally value-weighted (more on that below). 2. **Create a lookalike from it** if you want a broader top-of-funnel signal, *or* skip the lookalike entirely and use the custom audience directly. 3. **Hand it to Advantage+ as a suggestion** and let the system expand. Often you shouldn't build a lookalike at all. Feeding your raw customer list and engaged-customer lists into Advantage+ as suggestions, and letting it find more people like them, outperforms a hand-built lookalike on accounts with real conversion volume ([Stackmatix](https://www.stackmatix.com/blog/facebook-lookalike-audiences-strategy-2026)). The lookalike is now most valuable precisely when Advantage+ is starved — see section 1. A budget split that works for most ecommerce accounts in 2026: - **70–80% on Advantage+ broad** (seeded with your best custom audiences). - **10–20% on retargeting** warm audiences. - **5–10% on lookalike- or interest-seeded tests** for new creative and new markets. ## 3. Your seed is the whole game A lookalike is only as good as its source. Garbage seed, garbage model. The hierarchy of source audiences, best to worst: - **Value-based customer list (top of the stack).** Upload your customer list *with purchase values*, and Meta builds a value-based lookalike weighted toward your highest spenders, not just anyone who bought once. Use the top 20–25% by LTV or purchase frequency — not your whole customer base ([redclawey](https://redclawey.com/en/blog/2026-03-09-meta-lookalike-audience-guide/)). - **Recent purchasers (last 180 days)** tracked by pixel or CAPI. - **Qualified leads** — people who completed a form or started checkout. - **High-intent page visitors** — reached a product, pricing, or checkout page. - **Engagers** — video viewers, post and profile engagers. Useful, but the weakest signal; intent is thin. On size: Meta technically allows a 100-person seed, but the practical floor is **1,000 matched records**, and **5,000–10,000 is the sweet spot** for a reliable model ([redclawey](https://redclawey.com/en/blog/2026-03-09-meta-lookalike-audience-guide/)). Below 1,000, the model has too little to learn from and you're better off feeding the raw list as a suggestion. One thing that *didn't* survive from 2018: chasing the tightest possible 1% lookalike. With AI expansion doing the real narrowing, a broader 3–10% lookalike often gives Advantage+ more room to work. Tight percentages mattered when the lookalike was a hard fence. Now it's a starting point. A second seed habit worth killing: building six narrow lookalikes off six narrow events — purchasers, 95% video viewers, top-time-on-site visitors, and so on. That fragmentation made sense when each was a separate campaign with its own budget. Today it just splits your conversion signal into six underfed pools. Consolidate into one or two strong, high-value seeds and let the algorithm do the segmenting. One clean 5,000-person value seed beats six thin ones every time. ## 4. Without clean signal, none of this works Here's the part the old guides never had to mention, because in 2018 the pixel just worked. In 2026, your **Conversions API (CAPI)** setup determines whether any of this targeting can function. The pixel alone is half-blind post-ATT. CAPI sends conversion events server-to-server, directly from your backend to Meta, recovering events the browser pixel drops. But sending events isn't enough — they have to *match* to real Meta accounts. The metric that governs everything now is **Event Match Quality (EMQ)** — Meta's 0–10 score for how well your event data maps to actual users. Higher EMQ means better attribution, better lookalike seeds, and lower effective CPA ([adlibrary.com](https://adlibrary.com/posts/conversions-api)). The rules of thumb: - **Below 60% match rate is a measurement emergency.** Fix it before you touch targeting. - **70%+ is the working minimum** for Advantage+ to learn reliably ([adlibrary.com](https://adlibrary.com/posts/conversions-api)). - **Quality beats volume.** A smaller set of well-matched events outperforms a flood of weakly matched ones. To raise EMQ, pass more customer-information parameters with each event — email, phone, name, location, hashed and sent via CAPI. A lookalike built on a 75%-match seed is a fundamentally different (and better) animal than one built on a 45%-match seed. Clean signal in, clean model out. ## 5. Measuring results when attribution lies The last broken assumption from 2018: that Meta's in-platform ROAS tells you the truth. It doesn't anymore. ATT and longer-than-reported view-through windows mean platform numbers are *directional*, not gospel. How sophisticated advertisers measure in 2026: - **Platform-reported conversions** — treat as directional, useful for fast iteration, not for final attribution. - **Blended ROAS / MER** — total revenue ÷ total ad spend across all channels. This is your reality check. If Meta claims a 4x ROAS but your blended number is flat, Meta is taking credit for sales it didn't cause. - **Geo holdout tests** — turn Meta off in matched regions and measure the lift. The closest thing to ground truth for incrementality. - **Marketing mix modeling (MMM)** — for larger accounts, a quarterly model that estimates each channel's true contribution. A practical minimum stack: CAPI at 70%+ match rate, platform conversions as directional, a quarterly MMM run if you're large enough, and an annual geo holdout ([adlibrary.com](https://adlibrary.com/posts/conversions-api)). Don't optimize a lookalike to a number that isn't real. ## A quick word on books, if you want to go deeper Meta's ad system changes faster than any book can track, so treat published media as principles, not playbooks. For the strategy and creative thinking that *doesn't* expire, Gary Vaynerchuk's [*Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/006227306X) still holds up on platform-native storytelling, and Donald Miller's [*Building a StoryBrand*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0718033329) sharpens the message you actually put in front of those audiences. The targeting will keep shifting under you. The clarity of your offer won't. ## The bottom line Lookalike audiences aren't dead — they've been demoted from the star of the campaign to a signal you feed a smarter system. In 2026: - **Build value-based seeds from your top 20–25% of customers**, not everyone who ever bought. - **Hand them to Advantage+ as suggestions** and let AI expand, instead of fencing the algorithm in. - **Lean on lookalikes when Advantage+ is starved** — small budgets, sub-50 weekly conversions, or CRM data the pixel never saw. - **Fix your Conversions API first.** Below a 70% match rate, no targeting strategy can save you. - **Measure with blended ROAS and holdouts**, not the number Meta reports to itself. The advertisers winning on Meta right now stopped micromanaging audiences and started feeding the machine cleaner food. Do that, and the algorithm finds your buyers better than any 1% lookalike ever did. --- ## How Peter Szabo went from High School Dropout To Building A 7 Figure Agency URL: https://futuresharks.com/peter-szabo/ What’s your backstory? I remember sitting across the kitchen table when my dad made “that” decision. The decision that would change our lives forever. You see, when I was 11 years old, my parents invested all they had and money they didn’t have (by taking on loans, drying up all our savings) into an MLM company in hopes for a better financial future. Little did we know at the time, that things would change rather dramatically over the next few months. We went broke. So broke, that I was the only kid in my school whose parents didn’t own car. I couldn’t even buy a pair of sneakers that I wanted. And I was miserable. I was pissed off, angry, broke, frustrated… and I really, truly wanted to change. But hey: I was an 11 year old kid, who barely spoke any English from a post-communist country of Slovakia where an average person makes roughly $2-3 an hour. I was destined for failure and there was no light at the end of tunnel… until that one lucky day, when I saw a movie called “The Secret” that made me naively believe something very important. It made me believe (just as little kids believe in Santa Claus) that I could be, do, have whatever I wanted even if I was a broke 11 year old nobody from Slovakia. With that courage, I decided to take my family’s financial situation in my own hands at the age of 11 and immediately went on Google and searched “how to make money online”. I started earning pennies… roughly 4-5 cents a day. It took me months to make my first dollar. I remember at that time classmates would laugh at me, telling me they wouldn’t even bend over on the streets for the amount of money I was busting my ass for. I was humiliated, but I stuck with it. Eventually at 14, I had my first, major breakthrough. $14,000 in sales in 7 days. Roughly $4,000 in profit. It was my first product launch. It was good money, especially for a kid in Slovakia – however it wasn’t consistent, nor sustainable and I wanted more. But, for the love of God, I could not break through this invisible glass ceiling that was crippling my income. Well, fast forward a couple years, I hired my first mentor for $5,000 at age 16. Guess what? I got ripped off. I still remember quietly crying in my room so I wouldn’t wake up my parents in the middle of the night. I busted my ass for years and it was gone overnight. I did manage to recover myself and those funds and guess what my stubborn self did next. That’s right, I hired another mentor. Now this one was a huge success, I scaled to $10-20K/month, but it was still like a roller coaster. Some great months, some scary lows. I was maybe 17 at the time. By that point I figured out the secret shortcut to success was mentors. So I didn’t stop there. I found this guy posting insanely valuable content on Facebook, so I private messaged him to “take me under his wings”. Deep down I was hoping he would give me special treatment and free coaching as I was so young… next thing I know, I’m on a sales call being pitched a $5,000 a month mentorship program and I pulled the trigger! After a couple months this coach invites me to fly into Dallas, TX for one of his private masterminds. He told me there’s going to be multi-millionaires there and even a guy worth $500M. Plus, at that time I heard so many stories of lives being permanently changed when they finally went to a live event: whether that was a seminar or a mastermind. Deep down I knew there was something “special” about being there in person… about experiencing proximity with ultra successful people. So, I made the decision that I had to be there. So, as any 17 year old would, I asked my parents “Can I go to America?” And they’re the type of lovely people who would put off things until we’d forget about it. So roughly a week before the event, I ask my mom “Mom, it’s very important for me, can I go to America for this mastermind?” All I see are tears. She says “son I love you, but I’m not going to let my only child travel to the other side of the world by himself at 17!” So I said I’ll bring you too… and dad as well!”. There was only one problem, I already paid this guy a lot of money and I didn’t have an extra 5 grand sitting around for last minute plane tickets and extra hotel rooms. I was super committed, but I only had 7 days left. So that week I did everything from trying to “hustle and 16 hours a day” to “manifest money” with law of attraction. Literally 2 days before the event, this guy from Dubai shows up. We get on the phone. I make the offer “it’s $9,000. Would you like to use visa or mastercard?” His answer took my breath away! “Oh, that’s so cheap! Let’s do Visa” Gosh! No objections, no friction, nothing… He paid in full and off I went. Needless to say, the event was life changing and I came back a different man. Now here’s the crazy part, I message the guy, text him, call him but he literally disappeared off the face of the Earth. It’s been years and I still haven’t heard back from him! I don’t know what it was, but I like to think of this way, if you’re ruthlessly committed, God, Grace, The Universe, or whatever you want to call it, will move mountains to help you achieve what you set out. I was maybe 18 at this point and income was consistent, life was good, but again, I hit an upper limit I couldn’t seem to go past. So I went to another mastermind in France. First, we hiked the French Alps for 3 days, crossed borders to Italy and finally we hiked down the mountain back to our mansion in Nice, France. It was my turn for the “hot seat”, so I speak up. “I really want to speak on stage, but I just don’t feel good enough.” 2 minutes later, I’m crying like a little baby. It turns out, that wasn’t my issue at all. In reality, I had a deep, unresolved conflict with my father. You see, at 17 I dropped out of high school. Teachers, parents, classmates, pretty much everyone around me told me that I’d be a nobody, a total failure and I’d fall flat on my face if I quit. At that age, I used it as a source of motivation. I wanted to prove them all wrong and eventually I did, but it really scarred me on the inside. You know, I’ve heard this concept of “fall in love with your customers… add more value… help people and you’ll be helped” but really it was mere intellectual knowing. It was all nice and cool, but I didn’t really, truly believe in that truth. And now I know why, it’s because deep down, what was truly driving my success wasn’t impact or changing other lives. It was money. It was money… because I thought, if I had made “enough”, finally my dad would say “son, I’m proud of you.” I was really just craving acceptance from my own dad and I didn’t really care too much about giving back or changing lives until my inner child was wounded and in so much pain. I knew I had to sort this out with my dad very soon. So, I flew back home and it took me 2 days to grow a pair of balls to sit down with my dad and address this. I cried for a solid hour, had a very deep conversation, discovered more about his tough childhood and really just gained a sense of compassion and understanding that he was doing his absolute best (and really, just tried to keep me safe from failure). Something shifted that day. I remember it was as if an invisible boulder fell off of my shoulders. Life literally became more vivid and colorful! And the spooky part? My business revenue quadrupled in one and a half months without changing anything in my ads or funnels. I think there’s only one reason behind it. Now that my inner child was healed, I could finally, really, truly, genuinely focus on impact, serving my customers and trying to prove myself. I really do think people feel that! People can tell if you’re genuine or in it to make a quick buck. That’s when I really dug deep and figured out why I do what I do because on the surface level it may seem like we optimize your CPC, CTR, ROAS and what not, but all we’re doing is pushing buttons, pulling levers, and deep down I believe we change lives. Just a $1 vs. $2 cost-per-click variance can be the difference between someone having to work 16 hours a day and stressing their brains out and someone who’s calm, collected, living life on their own terms, has financial abundance and can choose to travel the world at any given time. For instance, a 10% vs. 30% opt-in difference (which by the way is an extremely easy tweak that can be made in 30 minutes) can be the difference between someone stressing, struggling, sacrificing, being locked in their office, not being able to sleep at night, staring at the ceiling, wondering “where will my next client come from?” and someone who has absolute financial and time freedom. Someone who can say “you know what, I’m not working today and instead I’ll go see my daughter perform, or my son play his first soccer match and see his little face light up”. And the best part? I believe if we can change one business, one life, it will create a massive ripple effect. That one person will impact 10’s, even 100’s around them. Then 1000’s and eventually millions. It all starts with a simple Facebook ad that eventually snowballs into a movement and a change in the world. So I know it may sound corny, but I believe that with the work we do, we literally change the world for the better. Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities? I was “forced” to become an entrepreneur at the age of 11 as parents invested all they had into an MLM company… it didn’t work out so we went broke and after seeing an inspirational movie, I decided to take our financial destiny into my own hands at 11. With that courage, I went onto google, typed in “how to make money online” and that’s how my journey began. Initially I was making pennies, so little that I remember my classmates laughing at me for “making the type of money they wouldn’t even bend over on the streets for”. I was humiliated, disappointed, frustrated, but I kept at it and eventually built a 7 figure agency as a high school dropout who got to travel to dozens of countries before even turning of legal age. Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? At 15 I hired a coach for $4,000 which was pretty much my net worth at that time after years of hard work and long story short: I got scammed. I remember at 15 crying quietly in my room so I wouldn’t wake up my parents who slept right next to me in our tiny 1 bedroom flat in Slovakia. I invested years worth of blood, sweat and tears to build up my paypal account and it was gone overnight. However, once again, I pushed through, persevered, managed to get my funds back… guess what I did next? Invested even more into another mentor! Finally, with his help I was able to break through to the next level and I remember closing my first $5K deal at 16, then eventually scaling to making more money than the president of my own country and all my teachers combined, which lead me to dropout of high school by age 17. --- ## How Nix Eniego Went From Earning $1.50 per Article To Leading Nearly 1,000 Marketers in the Philippines URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-nix-eniego-went-from-earning-1-50-per-article-to-leading-nearly-1000-marketers-in-the-philippines/ Nix got started with marketing and sales when he was 4 years old. He would ‘steal’ ring boxes / jewelry boxes from his aunts and put a variety of candies inside. He would then go out and offer these candies to his neighbors. What normally costs P1 he sells at P50-100 a pop. At 16 yrs old, he felt the need to do something that would help his family earn more. He tried applying at BPO companies in the Philippines but every company turned him down because he was too young. #### What he did next, changed his life completely. He went on Google and typed the 5 magic words: “How to Make Money Online”. From there he found content writing, which he was already good at, having been able to win essay writing contests in school, he found it easy to do. After scouring through various internet marketing forums, Nix got his first client and was paid a very low rate ($1.5 per 500 words). Despite this, he kept delivering for his client, who then decided to scam him and run with his money. Instead of quitting and crying about what happened—Nix someone who tried to scam him after finding out that he was about to ditch him and the client was someone who just outsources his work to others. Nix found out that he can deal with bigger clients directly and could even start offering his own content services. After a year, Nix started ELITE Content, his own content writing and SEO services company. He had himself, 2 Virtual Assistants, a team of writers (some were his classmates, some were from different parts of the world), and an SEO team based offshore. #### Hustling while in college Amazingly, Nix did all this while juggling college. He was making good money and continued this business until 1 year after graduating college. His family would tease him saying that he needed a “real job” so he could learn how to interact with people. He then took a marketing job at the biggest fashion retail company in the Philippines where he used his digital marketing and social media experience to help them grow. Despite having a ‘day job’, Nix continued doing marketing consulting for clients. He also pivoted and discontinued his content writing and SEO service as he focused on social media marketing since 2012. Despite having challenges entering a completely new industry, Nix persevered and did his best to land international clients for his social media services. Unknowingly, Nix was able to land up-and-coming rap artists through an online job site where he did some social media and guerilla marketing for them. Eventually, Nix found himself leading marketing for a local tech startup, Sprout Solutions, who is one of the fastest growing tech companies in the region listed in the Entrepreneur magazine. As he continued on his journey, he unconsciously built up a following because he shared his results and experience on a daily basis through his Facebook status updates and Facebook group. #### #### How He Started Leading Over A Thousand  Marketers It was at this point where he would get dozens of messages and emails every day asking if he had a course or program so they can learn more from him. After getting so much demand, Nix decided to start Social Media Academy on 2017, together with Melissa Profeta, who was also a passionate social media marketer. Starting with nothing but a simple idea, Nix quickly wrote up a curriculum and pre-sold a course that didn’t exist. He posted it in his Facebook profile, which has accumulated thousands of followers who are eager to learn marketing from Nix. In less than 24 hours, he already sold close to 100 slots for Social Media Academy—and in less than a week, they were able to secure around 180 enrollees with only 2 organic posts on Facebook. #### Continuing The Hustle Social Media Academy has grown since then. Celebrating its 1-year anniversary this September, SMA has now been a hub for close to 1,000 marketers, freelancers, and entrepreneurs who are leveling up their skillset and income through social media. SMA opens its doors once every quarter for aspiring marketers and entrepreneurs who want a No BS approach to learning social media marketing and getting direct mentorship not only from Nix, but also from guest lecturers who are top marketers in the industry as well. Aside from Social Media Academy, Nix keeps himself busy with his Instagram Marketing agency, SocialSumo. Having just launched a couple of weeks ago, he now has over 5 clients and is scaling fast. Nix also serves as a digital marketing consultant to both enterprise companies and startups in the Philippines. Right now, Nix Eniego is continuously helping their 700+ alumni by delivering exclusive coaching sessions and contents that can be found inside the Social MediaAll Stars group. He’s gearing up for a massive year-ender for Social Media Academy and his other ventures as well. --- ## How Jan Jens Grew His Business to Millions In The First 3 Years Providing Unforgettable Miami Experiences URL: https://futuresharks.com/jan-jens/ We all remember a time of terrible customer service. Perhaps at the grocery store or at restaurant. Although, imagine taking that horrible customer service experience and making it better by opening your own grocery store or restaurant but with the intention of providing the most amazing customer service experience possible for your customers. That’s exactly what Jan Jens did. He came to Miami in 2014 for a vacation. He looked up a concierge service online and purchased it. Turns out that the customer service he had purchased had some of the worst help. Being the motivated individual that he is, he decided to start his own concierge service and provide clients with the great service he believes customers deserve. **Making Millions From A Bad Experience** Some of his clients you may also be familiar with. Individuals such as Leonardo Dicaprio, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, Mark Wahlberg, and Drake have all once been his client. The name of the business is Jatina Group Miami and it provides things such as Villa’s, Mansions, and cars. Looking at the clients the business has acquired, it’s probably certain that Jan Jen and his team know a little something about providing clients with memorable experiences. **Exponential Growth Leads To Exponential Exposure** Their Social Media Page has grown to over 150 thousand followers. People love to see the luxurious lifestyle that the Jatina Group Miami is able to provide. The business has grown in their content due to the fact that their audience is in love with the luxurious lifestyle. It definitely helps to grasp their attention when they come to find out that the page features all the cars, homes, and villas that they can offer in order to make the Miami Vacation one to remember. All this came from one terrible concierge customer experience. It’s important to recognize that if you find yourself feeling upset with some type of a shopping experience, there might be an opportunity for you to take that experience and do things even better with your own business. Persistence see is key. Persistency and execution will open the door. --- ## How This Thrill Seeker Leveraged His Personal Brand To Build A Profitable Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/alex-kowtun/ “My personal Instagram account @successful and personal Facebook account under Alex Kowtun now incorporate pictures and videos with specific sunglasses, a particular boat club, certain vehicles, events, and the vodka brand I co-founded. Like many of the companies I endorse, I realized that today’s audience doesn’t want a company to pitch a product’s attributes.” **Individuals Want To Engage With Others Who Are Genuine** Audiences want someone they like, follow, trust, relate to, or admire to show them. It can be the company’s founder, spokesmodel, or other likable and personable figure. Audiences simply feel that the personal approach feels more genuine, is often more creative, and, therefore, more compelling. Who wouldn’t prefer to follow a day in the life of Elon Musk than Tesla corporate? As co-owner of Monkey in Paradise Vodka, Alex Kowtun has seen firsthand how a personal brand can effectively market and grow a beverage business. Not only am was he able to reach millions of people around the world in an extremely cost-effective manner, but the stories of his adventures, challenges, team-work, and successes attract even more people to his product. Clearly, if a person’s stories or experiences resonate with people, they become more vested in trying –and resonating with– his or her product too. **Building Your Personal Brand Means Expansion** Building his personal brand has led to skyrocketing vodka sales and Monkey in Paradise brand expansion, which allowed Kowtun to continue the activities, ventures, and work for which he is passionate. The momentum from social media has can surely lead to new public relations, marketing, and media opportunities, including regular appearances on local television news shows, features in national print and online articles, and even a newspaper column called “Cocktails in Paradise” in Florida Weekly, a biweekly digital and print newspaper. Do what you love. Share it with the world. Become known in your niche. Tell your story with social media. If these steps are done creatively, but genuinely, your personal brand will grow exponentially and profitably, as will the businesses connected to it. --- ## Why Clarity Comes With Action in Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-clarity-comes-with-action-in-business/ When it comes to growing your business, there are a million different ways to do it. From Facebook ads, to traditional marketing, to social media campaigns and everything in between. But how do you attract people to your message and your business without seeming shady and overly promotional? Let’s get one thing straight, there’s no growth in your comfort zone. If you’re comfortable with social media campaigns and that’s all you’re doing to grow your business, is your business really growing? It’s definitely scary moving from your space of comfort out into the great unknown to grow your business. But clarity comes with action, and fear and discomfort will never go away. Once you hit a goal, start planning a new one! Even if the feat of not being able to achieve that goal creeps in, keep pushing and keep moving forward. ##### Why planning is key While growing your business and making money is all great and good, moving out of your comfort zone and taking action is truly where to start in making those plans. When you’re starting your business, it takes planning and research, and most of all execution. You can make all of the best plans in the world, but if there is no execution on those plans your business will ultimately fail. Even if you are still in the planning and research stage of your business try to move one step towards execution each day. Actively realize your dreams. Some ways to move toward execution are reaching out to a potential client, creating a sales page, posting on social media, or whatever fits your business. ##### What is an execution plan? An execution plan is much different than a to-do list. With a to-do list, things can pile up and get out of control and overwhelming very quickly. To-do lists usually don’t come with deadlines and it’s full of things that make you seem busy in your business, but don’t actually move your business forward. Execution plans are tasks that need to be done, big or small, with a strict deadline and detailed explanations of each item. For example, “I’m going to take 30 minutes today to update my LinkedIn profile, but then I am done and need to move on” or, “Create and send newsletter from 12:00 until 1:00, and then I am done and need to move on.” Be sure to break goals down into smaller milestones, and break the milestones down into action steps. ###### Remember the why! Always remember why you are starting and building your own business. Even if you have to go back to the why of individual goals that move your business forward. How does that goal fit into the bigger picture? Do this not just to re-evaluate whether you are on track, but also to continue to motivate yourself to keep moving forward. In business, everyone is at a different stage. Some people might just be beginning, and others might be on the road to making millions. Either way, planning is key, and clarity always comes with taking action. --- ## Bouncing Back From Adversity- Mike Young URL: https://futuresharks.com/mike-young/ Your business image is costing you money, influence, power and respect. You are finally successful – it’s time to start looking like it.”- Mike Young What’s your backstory? My life looked amazing from the outside. I had a “successful” mortgage business… 250 employees and 10 offices. I lived in a $750,000 house. I owned another $150,000 in sports cars. Hell, on the outside I was living the dream life. But behind the curtains, my financial world was crumbling. The market crash in 2007-2008 was destroying my business and I didn’t know how to fix it. I felt out of alignment, like a fraud, a fake. I didn’t feel in alignment with who I truly was as a person. I didn’t want to be doing what I was doing. I didn’t even want to get out of bed in the morning. But I did what I’ve always done. I worked harder. I must have read more than 500 books. I went to all sorts of seminars and conferences. I did anything and everything to turn the ship around. But it was too late… The damage was done. I remember hiding in my basement crying, trying to make sure my family didn’t see or hear me. I had a kid to feed… a wife to make proud of me… bills to pay and a reputation to uphold. And I was about to lose it all. It was March 2008, and I was in my business partners’ office when it happened… I left the office early and went home… Our mortgage business was failing, I was nearly broke and almost a million dollars in debt. I was miserable. My business partners and even my employees could see it. Sometimes I could even hear their “cooler talk” about me.. As if it was any of their business. I left the office early and went home… My son was only a year old at the time and I’ll never, ever forget the look on his face when I walked in the front door at 1PM. His eyes doubled in size, surprised to see me… his little chubby cheeks turned bright red with excitement. I knew I worked too much already, but that look… that look did it for me… I’m in my office too much grinding out a job I don’t even like. I’m fucking miserable with the people judging me at the business I created. I felt like I built myself a prison… Like I created my own shit hole job to slave away in… And my family was paying for it… I wasn’t going to let my son grow up without his Dad at home anymore. When I saw that look on my son’s face I finally talked to my wife about everything I had been feeling and going through that night… Her response was elegant: “Just quit.” My wife is awesome. The next morning I was in my business partners’ office telling them I wanted out. I said “I don’t want anything from you guys, you guys can give me $1 to buy me out of the company.” The company was failing anyway. Within 10 days of that meeting I was out of the company, completely. March 2008 was the start of my true entrepreneurial journey… I just failed my first business. I was about to lose my home. I was about to lose my cars. I had NO idea what the hell I was going to do next and I was burning through savings quick. I was almost broke… And things were about to get a lot worse… I was on my own. I had no plan and no clue what to do next. I knew I was unemployable, and I was sick and tired of always being told what to do. My first business was gone, and I was solo. Almost broke with the kid to feed and another on the way, I needed to do something… fast. I remember my wife and I drove down to central Oregon to clear our minds and try to plan a future. We wrote down everything we wanted to achieve on 2 sheets of paper. She wrote things like a house, 2 kids, debt free… For me, I wrote things like freedom of time… No more meetings. No more 400 effin emails a day… (*I included some of my original notes*) Then we came back home and I started getting to work. I was going to find something I could create and keep the lifestyle I wanted. So I found a business partner and we tried to create an online business. We called it “The Secure Student”. It was a basic financial literacy program for high school kids. We took on a bunch of investor money because we didn’t know what the hell we were doing entrepreneurially. Then we proceeded to drive that business into the ground and quickly failed within the first five months. It just didn’t work. I lost over $100,000+ in other people’s hard earned money. That was my first learning lesson, the market only cares about what the market cares about… and unfortunately for us, high school kids don’t give a crap about financial literacy… I already lost my mortgage company, and now I had also failed my first entrepreneurial journey… and the fact that I lost someone else’s hard earned money destroyed me… Those two experiences back to back crushed my confidence completely. I felt this deep-seated shame looming over me. I’m a very empathetic person. I’m always thinking about other people before I think about myself, I’m always thinking about other people’s perspectives. So the mortgage company failure felt like my fault. I let those 250 employees down. The entrepreneurial failure, I felt like I had just pissed away a hundred grand of somebody else’s hard earned money. And that was it.. I was done. I failed. I was a failure. I felt ashamed, guilty, angry… I felt like I let everybody down, especially my family. I wanted them to be proud of me more than anything in the world… But look at where I was. The last word I would use to describe me at that point is “proud”… I was so ashamed of myself, I went into hiding from the world for nearly 4 years… I watched the tow trucks pull up to my home and repo my cars. The phone was ringing off the hook from the bank letting me know they’re about to put my home on the market if I don’t pay my mortgage. I was down to less than $5,000 in the bank and I was too ashamed to show my face to the world, I just stayed at home and pitied myself. I don’t even know what we were thinking, but my wife and I decided to move to Seattle… maybe I was too ashamed to stay in my city… I didn’t see any of my friends anymore and deleted all of my social media accounts. I literally didn’t want to see anyone, and I didn’t want them to see how bad my situation was. I used most of the money I had left to buy a shitty little minivan (because they just towed my cars) and we uprooted our life to move to Seattle. I just lost my Mortgage business, then lost $100,000 in other people’s investor money on an online business in a staggering 5 months. 2008 & 2009 really messed me up for a long time. Looking back at it now, I really should have gone to see a psychologist sooner and just dealt with the root of the issue because it took YEARS to fix it on my own. I felt so much shame around those two failures that I felt it was my duty to beat myself up…. Emotionally, physically, financially. However I could, I abused myself. I drank way too much almost every day. Sometimes I don’t know how my wife made it through with me. I got really creative and found little ways to punish myself.. Back when we still had friends I would always force myself to eat last. If there was a dessert and there was only enough for two people and I was the third I would just say I don’t want any. There were times I wouldn’t even eat my friends’ food because I felt they paid for the food and I didn’t deserve any. (Which is messed up. It’s weird.) Worst of all was the things I would say to and about myself. The words you say to yourself can make or break you, and I messed myself up pretty bad for a long time with my self talk. We were in Seattle for 2 years before I made any friends at all. That was my rock bottom. The lowest point I’ve ever felt. I didn’t feel like a man, I didn’t feel like a good father to my kids and I didn’t feel like a good husband. I knew they loved me, but I didn’t feel good inside… I knew I let them down. Big time. Sometimes I wished I had the courage to just end it all, but I couldn’t do that to my family. My business literally saved my life. “FUCK this. I’m done feeling sorry for myself.” Pardon my french, but those are the words I said to myself… I had just spend the last 4 years hiding from the world and punishing myself for losing my mortgage company and $100,000 of investor money on a failed online business in less than 5 months. I wasn’t on Social Media and I purposely had no friends, because I didn’t feel like I was worthy of having them. I felt like a terrible Dad and a bad husband. And it was time to grab the bull by the horns and stand up like the man I always knew I was supposed to be. I was DONE. No more hiding, no more feeling sorry for myself… No more beating myself up or punishing myself for what I did wrong. It was time to shift into high gear and find out what I can do RIGHT. I knew all the things I sucked at… I reminded myself of them every single day for years… I knew all the things I didn’t like and what I didn’t want to do. I knew everything wrong with me and wrong with what I did in the past… Now it was time to find out what I do right. What I LOVE to do. What I am GOOD at doing. I came out of my hermit hole and got back on social media… Stopped hiding from the world and said I’m going to fucking sort out this digital marketing game. I devoured everything. Literally almost everything I found online that would help me master the online business game. I learned everything from Leadpages, which lead me to Infusionsoft.. Infusionsoft lead me to Digital Marketer where I learned everything… (Literally everything, every course, lead magnet, certification… everything.) I consumed everything from the experts to figure it out. I was done feeling pity for myself and I was going to DO THIS. No matter what. DM lead me to Clickfunnels where I was introduced to Russell Brunson, I devoured every piece of content he ever released, 5 years of podcasts, all his business content, books, everything in 42 days of hard core study and work. I was obsessed. Marketing became my life. I freakin loved it. And, I’m freakin good at it. I designed my first logo for my marketing company on my own with PowerPoint. … And it sucked ass. So I went ahead and bought some cheap logo and took it to a branding specialist. That’s when I met my head designer, Sanja. I said, “Hey, I want to create this binder and this whole brand around this logo.” She replied, “Do you know that logo is stolen?” I was like, “What the fuck are you even talking about?” She showed me 500 other examples of the same logo. She said “I’ll do that package for you, but I want to rebrand it with a more modern logo that’s hand-drawn.” And that’s when we started working together. So I learned those lessons on my own, that’s part of the reason I’m passionate about the branding side is because I made a lot of dumb mistakes. I was so angry that someone would steal somebody else’s ART and resell it back to me for a few bucks. So I shifted gears. I’m passionate about art and I’m not going to help thieves steal it and try to slap it on top of someone else’s business. I decided that day, I was now a Business Image Agency with the help of my head designer. Artists can capture the essence of who you are and who your company is to make it a real, living brand perfectly aligned with who you are. And Sanja is an extremely talented artist. I couldn’t be more happy than I am working alongside her. It wasn’t easy, and I had to learn a lot about branding before I was ready to even get started, but we did it. What we do is magic. I love it. Not just some cheap little logo… we make your brand come to life and align with you through real, professional, hand drawn ART to give you an online business you can be proud of. I did it. Finally. We did it. I frickin MADE it out of the other side… Failed Mortgage business. Failed online business and $100k investor money in 5 months. 4 years of beating the crap out of myself. And I finally did it. I found something I love. Something I’m damn good at. Something my clients rave about. Something I can be proud of. Now I’m working with some of the biggest and best names in the industry. I love my life. I love my work and who I work with. I’m a good Dad and I get to take care of my kids and my wife whenever I want to. I don’t have to go to the office if I don’t want to. I’m proud of myself again. It wasn’t easy. It was actually brutally hard and nearly killed me, but I frickin did it. No matter how stuck you’re feeling right now, keep pushing through. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get to work. I promise you can do it. You will get there if you’re resilient enough not to give up. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Mike grew a mortgage company from 6 people in 2003, to 10 offices, 6 partners, and 250+ employees in 2008, to losing it all in the great recession of 2008, Mike understands the ups and downs us entrepreneurs go through. He went from a millionaire in 2008 to dead broke in 2009. He then failed his first entrepreneurial attempt and lost over $100,000 of investor money with it. His major responsibilities were marketing, advertising and developing the sales philosophy for the mortgage company. Since March of 2008, he’s been an entrepreneur and created over 50+ brands during his discovery phase between 2008 and 2015, before creating his current business image agency today. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** There have been a few difficult times where it would have been easy to give up. From 2009 – 2010, there was a 15 month period with little or no income and again with the start of his current company, TheMakeoverMaster.com. It would have been easy to quit or give up during those tough times, but thanks to a deep seeded inner purpose to show his kids it’s worth going after a life of your dreams and a loving and supportive wife, he made it through About Mike Young Mike fixes a giant problem in most people’s business (one they ignore for as long as they can), a problem that is costing them a lot of money: Looking good. IT TURNS OUT WE DO JUDGE BOOKS BY THEIR COVERS. Mike Young helps people who have achieved a level of success in their business, take that next step forward… by looking influential, powerful, sexy, and appealing to their audience. Mike has invested the equivalent of a Harvard degree in his own self-education for business, marketing, and branding programs. He is well studied, with over 10,000 of dedication to learning his craft. From running a successful mortgage business with 10 offices, 6 partners, and 250+ employees, to losing it all in the great recession of 2008, Mike understands the ups and downs us entrepreneurs go through. Mike currently works with and provides business image makeovers for some of the most popular personal brands online. He only works with high quality entrepreneurs who are making a difference in the world. He is a regular guest on podcasts and radio shows, and regularly teaches to audiences online. Mike regularly attends masterminds and is committed to getting insider information from what is working best in the industry. Mike has developed virtual training programs and is in the middle of planning a live event to teach people how to grow their business by improving their image and marketing. --- ## 12 Great Gig Economy Jobs Like Uber For Millennials URL: https://futuresharks.com/12-great-gig-economy-jobs-like-uber-for-millennials/ According to *Forbes*, more than one third (36 percent) of U.S. workers are in the gig economy, which works out to a very large number of approximately 57 million people. According to *Nasdaq*, by 2020 43% of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers and it will continue to grow. According to *Betterment* and its extensive study on the gig economy, this trend is fundamentally changing the way we earn, spend and save for retirement. If you don’t already know what the gig economy is, let’s ask Google. Google defines the “gig economy” as ****“A labor market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs”** Essentially, people can leverage existing opportunities by filling gaps in today’s world. You probably have heard of Uber which is arguably the most common usage of the gig economy. Uber fulfills 40 million rides monthly and is valued at $69B. There are **three** main reasons why so many people are choosing to work in the gig economy. ### #### Personal Empowerment You get to decide when you want to work and how you want to work. In the gig-economy, you are your own boss. You get to set your own schedule at your own pace. Users are 1099 contractors which means they become their own small business. **Make More Money Quickly** If you’re already set up on a gig-economy marketplace or app, you can literally make a few taps on your iPhone and you can get cash deposited in your bank account. Minus the time needed to execute the service you’re offering, you can get paid within minutes. **Interrupt A Mundane Life** The typical wake-up, go to work at 9, come home after 5, watch TV, go to bed and repeat isn’t a life that everyone wants. Depending on the type of gig work you do, being in the gig-economy allows you to meet cool people and make new friends, break up the routine cycle in your life, and experience the world differently. You’re offered new ways to explore different areas in the city you live in. ## ## 12 Great Gig Economy Jobs You Should Try You can join the gig-economy easily by simply downloading an app or joining an online marketplace. #### 1. SnapShyft **SnapShyft** is one of the more recent gig-economy apps but is growing quickly across the Midwest. SnapShyft is a digital staffing app for food & beverage operations to instantly post uncovered shifts, allowing F&B operations to connect with experienced hospitality workers. Workers in the food and beverage industry can leverage their experience and pick up unclaimed shifts around their city. Venues in the food and beverage industry often struggle with being understaffed but with SnapShyft they no longer have to. Download: **iTunes** — FREE **Google Play**— FREE #### 2. TaskRabbit Task Rabbit is a great way to make a buck. If you have any skills whatsoever, you can make money off of them. Even if all you can do is lift heavy things, that’s great and there is someone out there who needs you. Jobs on TaskRabbit range from grabbing something at a store to painting a wall, to handing out flyers. All you have to do is let the app know what your skills are and how much you would like to get paid for using those skills to assist others, and voila, the requests come pouring in. Download: **iTunes**— FREE **Google Play**— FREE #### 3. Fancy Hands **Fancy Hands** has a diverse range of tasks that anyone can do. Fancy Hands seeks to provide assistants for anyone. You can simply apply to be an assistant and accept tasks on your own time. When you begin, you’ll get paid per task with consideration for how long it takes you to complete it, what time of day it is, and how complicated the task is. Fancy Hands is great for the entrepreneur because it allows them to hand off tasks like scheduling, emailing, and research. Download: iTunes**– FREE **Google Play**– FREE #### 4. Doordash **DoorDash** is a food delivery app that helps Dashers deliver food from top restaurants to customers in your area. You can start delivering food on your own time to make extra cash. DoorDash helps restaurants make more money by offering the menus to anyone on the app. The business model of DoorDash is designed to benefit users as well as the restaurants. It enables users to find a restaurant and order food on one hand and on the other DoorDash gives restaurants an access to an extended customer base. - **iTunes**– FREE - **Google Play**– FREE #### 5.  Turo **Turo**, formerly RelayRides, is a peer-to-peer carsharing company. The company allows private car owners to rent out their vehicles via an online and a mobile app. In 2017, according to Turo, four million users had registered to use the service and 170,000 privately-owned cars were available for rental. Listing your car through this car sharing app could earn you up to $6,500 a year. Turo is often used by people who want to enjoy a fun evening in an exotic car for much cheaper than a traditional rental car service. Download: - **iTunes**— FREE - **Google Play**— FREE #### 6. Uber/Lyft **Uber** and **Lyft** are one of the most popular gig-economy apps. They are a location-based app that makes hiring an on-demand private driver. If you need a ride – they are a convenient, inexpensive and safe taxi service. If you need to make money, you can drive and earn as much as you want. Download: - Uber iTunes — FREE - **Uber Google Play–**– FREE - **Lyft iTunes** — FREE - **Lyft Google Play** — FREE #### 7.  Fiverr **Fiverr** is the world’s largest freelance services marketplace. Fiverr provides freelance services for lean entrepreneurs with more than 116 categories. This gig economy app is renowned for its affordability and ease of use. Freelancers from copywriters to digital marketers easily fill their work schedules with clients from around the globe. Download: - **iTunes**– FREE - **Google Play**– FREE #### 8. Rover Get PAID to be with dogs. Seriously. **Rover** is a gig economy app that gives you the opportunity to spend time with four-legged friends and earn cash. It connects sitters and dog walkers near you who offer dog boarding, dog walking, house sitting, or doggy daycare. - **iTunes** – FREE - **Google Play**– FREE #### 9. AirBnB A community-driven hospitality company, **Airbnb** allows homeowners to offer their homes and unique experiences to travelers. You can monetize your extra space and earn some extra income as a host using the app to list your home for prospective travelers to search by price, neighborhood, amenities, and more. Airbnb does not own any properties. It acts as an intermediary between those who want to rent out space and those who are looking for space to rent. Creating an account on Airbnb is free, and it is relatively simple. Download: - **iTunes** – FREE - Google Play – FREE #### 10. Bellhops If you are at least 18 years old and are physically able and strong, you can start earning money by providing friendly local moving services. **Bellhops** are professional and provide exceptional service while making moving day less stressful for customers. Once your move is scheduled, the Bellhops platform matches you with the movers who are most qualified for your job (based on factors such as location, home size, and time frame). - **iTunes** – FREE - **Google Play** – FREE #### 11. Freelancer **Freelancer** is the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace with more than 25 million users. Connect to employers and find work from anywhere while doing what you love by serving as a freelancer. Whatever your needs, there will be a freelancer to get it done: from web design, mobile app development, virtual assistants, product manufacturing, and graphic design (and a whole lot more). Download: - **iTunes** – FREE - **Google Play**– FREE #### 12. Handy **Handy** is the gig economy app for cleaners and handymen. Handy is the leading platform for connecting individuals looking for household services with top-quality, pre-screened independent service professionals. Clients who want assistance around the house will connect with you using the web or an iOS or Android device, and you can start earning up to $22/hour as a cleaner or $45/hour as a handyman. Download: - **iTunes** – FREE - **Google Play** – FREE Whether you own a car, like to clean, like to work in restaurants, or love to play with dogs there’s a gig-economy app out there for you. This list is only 12 out of hundreds. The gig-economy isn’t going anywhere so join now so you can begin taking advantage of all the opportunities that exist today. #### --- ## America’s Adversity Coach Monti Washington Gives Advice On Staying Motivated During The Hard Times URL: https://futuresharks.com/americas-adversity-coach-monti-washington-gives-advice-on-staying-motivated-during-the-hard-times/ Meet Monti Washington also known as Montivation. As a TOP Motivational Speaker, Monti has been recognized as “America’s Adversity Coach” He comes in and shows students how they can achieve, overcome, and turn obstacles on campus into real life success. Monti isn’t your average motivational speaker. His presentations about real life experiences he’s had leaves students feeling confident in themselves and inspired to live out the best version of their lives. Sometimes speakers come in and just lose your attention, but not Monti Washington. He’s able to keep students fully engaged with his humor and ability to use his experience to relate to his audience. Leaving them with knowledge, skills and motivation needed to be successful both in the classroom and outside of it. **** **What’s you****r backstory?** Monti Washington: I grew up a product of a one-night stand in a hotel room. My mother was a prostitute and a drug addict. I never met my dad and spent most my childhood sleeping in homeless shelters, parks, and crack houses. Eventually I was taken away from my mother and put into 12 different foster homes over the course of 3 years. I then was put into foster homes where I was beaten, hospitalized, and locked in a room for nearly 23 hours a day. Eventually I got out of that situation and was put into a better home, but that experience left me without any confidence and stuck in special ed classes until 8th grade. I eventually worked my butt off graduated high school with honors and went on to graduate college with two degrees. After college I moved to LA where I have been living since pursing my acting career and building my Speaker/Coaching business. **What techniques and methods do you use day to day to stay continuously motivated, focused and proactive when fear, hardships and procrastination have the best of you?** Monti Washington: The methods I employ to keep myself motivated day to day are simple but get the job done. The first thing is to disconnect from social media. I follow a lot of successful people and have friends who are killing it! And when you’re having those moments of doubt your extra vulnerable! So, I avoid that subconscious need to compare yourself to others which leads to you feeling like shit. I also consistently do my morning routine of prayer, meditation, affirmations and reading my vision! I have about 30 minutes to an hour routine that bypasses how I feel and gets to the core of who I am. Meditation and prayer is to get into a place of gratefulness, saying my affirmations out loud gets me activated and pumped to take on the day, and reading my vision helps to remind me of what I’m working towards and helps me to put things into perspective. Lastly going to help someone! Giving back to people or volunteering gets me out of my head and ego! It’s a natural high when you can help someone less fortunate than you! **** **If someone wanted to emulate your career what are sometimes you would suggest them to do?** Monti Washington: First is know your strengths and weaknesses. Jay Z said, “Everyone has a genius level talent in them”. Know what makes you a genius? Know what your naturally great at. Focus on your genius and your strengths. It’s hard to be successful being just “good” at something. Greatness is tied to massive success not mediocrity and just being “good”. So, know your genius! Secondly know yourself! Know what makes you unique and embrace that wholeheartedly. The greats we remember as unique individuals, Lebron, Kanye, Marilyn Monroe, Steve Jobs, Prince, David Bowie the list goes on. The icons we remember because there is no one else like them. Not being yourself is identity theft. So, stop trying to be like someone else and embrace yourself fully! Lastly use “No” as your vitamin. Embrace every failure and learn to make it work for you!  Every Win in my life came shortly after a loss. It’s part of this journey that you can’t avoid! **What are the most exciting projects you are working on now?** Monti Washington: The most important project I’m working on right now is my online programs and writing my first pilot I plan to star in. I get a lot of people asking me how to make it touring and speaking. I have things that I do consistently and that are unique to me that I believe will give others the best chance to be successful with touring and speaking. I would love to help others get their message out there as well. On the acting tip, I have had an idea in my head for a few years now for a new show I believe people can get with it. After spending the last year reading and taking reading classes I’m able to get it into script form now. I will be starring in it and excited to get this out to the world. Acting is not moving as fast as my public speaking is, so I have to take things into my own hands and make my own way. So, I’m very excited of all the work it’s going to take to make it happen but I know the payoff will more than worth it! **What 3 tips would you give to yourself if you had to go through your life again?** 1. Talk less and act quicker on opportunities that come your way! 2. Have confidence in yourself from the start. You are the shit! 3. Stop worrying about what others say and how they feel about you. Stay in your lane and move past all of that negativity. **When was a time you wanted to give up but didn’t?** Monti Washington: It was my 2nd year living in LA and my acting career hadn’t pickup up and I was getting maybe two or three low speaking gigs that year so let’s just say I WAS DEAD ASS BROKE! I had only $20 to my name to last me for 3 days until I did security at this night club. I was on the bus and this woman was with her son in a wheelchair and her little daughter next to me. She politely asked me for a few bucks and I told her no. At the time that $20 bill was all I had to my name and I couldn’t let go of it. I got off at the next stop and sat at a Coffee Bean and cried my eyes out for a few minutes. I felt like shit to be completely honest with you. I thought I was going to just give up acting and speaking and just get a 9-5 because it was just too hard. Then later that night I went back to the friends couch I was sleeping on at the time and made a promise to myself never to be so broke that I’m unable to help someone who really needs it. That became a motivating moment in my life for sure. --- ## Colin Wareham is 18 and Changing Early Education URL: https://futuresharks.com/colin-wareham-is-18-and-changing-early-education/ Meet Colin Wareham. Colin is 18 years old and he’s already becoming a known entrepreneur in his hometown, Noblesville, Indiana. You’ll find in Colin’s story that he’s already experienced multiple business failures, but he leveraged what he learned from his failures and from mentors to start his company Educaid. If you want to learn about today’s future leaders, start here with Colin Wareham.  ### *Picture:  Picture was taken on the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange* ** ### Colin, tell us about yourself. My name is Colin Wareham. I’m an entrepreneur. I think it’s who I’ve always been. Perhaps not on the surface until these past few years, but I’ve always been entrepreneurial. My first entrepreneurial experience was when I started my first lemonade stand in elementary school. But in elementary school, I started a newspaper which I wrote, printed, and sold to the other students. I also kept a journal of inventions I thought I should create when I got older. Mars probes, lasers, planes, and cloning machines. I definitely let my imagination run loose as a kid. I think that was something that really solidified my purpose. I was kind of an outlier in the way that I’ve been thinking of my life’s purpose since I was in 2nd grade. I always knew that I had to create things for other people’s benefit. I always knew that if it was something along those lines I should be pretty happy. My career and purpose have always really consumed my life. Yes, I played sports and was in school but even from a young age, I considered those side-line activities while I focus on what I thought I was meant to do. Don’t get it twisted though, I was never a particularly disciplined kid. I frequently got in trouble at school, always seemed to struggle with authority, and was more of a daydreamer until I really started to get into entrepreneurship. But once I started to discipline myself I realized that I could manifest my potential.  I have always been different from most kids. I know that everyone is different and has numerous variables under the hood, but I always felt like an outlier. I never felt like I fit into most crowds or organizations. But once I discovered the young entrepreneur network and the business world, I felt right at home. Naturally, I spend a lot of time in that space. I’m a very curious person. Anything that can be learned, I will be interested in. I’m always learning or getting better at something, it’s just who I am. I’m insanely competitive, and that’s not always a good thing, and I’m motivated by responsibility. I think lifting a load is what gives life purpose. Even if you had all the money in the world, you might not have a purpose. That’s why I try to always make sure I’m doing something that I think is important. *“Let’s turn lemons to lemonade with Educaid.”* ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Educaid is what I do now. Educaid is a business that gets young people excited about entrepreneurship through games. I came up with this idea because I felt like there was a strong need for someone or something to call more young people to entrepreneurship. I started three businesses in high school, and all of them failed. It wasn’t until my third one where I even thought about getting a mentor. I taught myself everything I knew up until that point. For a while, I had no resources from my school and no outside help in entrepreneurship. Looking back on all my failures, I realized that I didn’t want other kids who were like me to never see their businesses come to a reality simply because they had no resources, network, money, or idea of what they were doing. I didn’t want to provide them with those things either because I feel that there are people out there who could do a far better job at that then I could. My goal is to simply get young people excited about entrepreneurship so when young people are crazy enough to actually start a business, they know to go out and finds mentors. They know the importance of the growth mindset, and the importance of not being afraid to fail. The excitement around this topic will generate the culture that makes successful entrepreneurs successful because it really is all about being apart of a good culture. I’ve learned that firsthand. Games are a good way to get people excited. I love games of all types, and I’ve always loved to design them. It’s just a passion of mine to be in the space of card games. ### *Picture: Colin public speaking at Atlantic Records HQ in NYC* ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. Educaid didn’t start out as what it is today. When we started, we made board games that were expansive and in depth. The games were to tie into school’s curriculum and it sounded really good on paper. The problem was it was really difficult to sell to schools and there were a lot of issues with finding the right people to talk to and the right way to market the product. It was hard to get feedback on marketing efforts because the people in a school system that make certain decisions changes from school to school. The outbound marketing was really inconsistent. That’s when we made the switch to card games, cheaper to produce and sell, which means we could ease up on the B2B marketing, which we didn’t have as much experience in as we did B2C marketing. We made the switch to card games in June with basically no customer base. In early August, our card game, Lemonade Empire, went on for pre-orders. The support from our fans was incredible with almost 200 orders within the first two days. Having started from no customer base just a month before, we’re pretty proud of that. Orders are still coming in day by day, and we have lots of really cool content and ways to engage with our fans coming up here soon. We’re really excited.   #### ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I think it’s the only job I’ll ever feel satisfied in. I embrace the entrepreneur culture wholeheartedly, and I identify as an entrepreneur before my gender. It really is who I am and I couldn’t see it any other way. Of course, that’s easy to say now, but back in 2nd grade when I was drawing up inventions and pondering cool projects, that was me foretelling myself entrepreneurship. ### Tell us about the challenges you’ve had and walk us through the process on what steps you’ve taken to move forward. If I had a dollar for everytime Educaid ran into a problem, I wouldn’t need to run Educaid anymore. One of the biggest challenges we’re facing right now is logistics and fulfilling orders. We have to ship Lemonade Empire to almost every state in the US, and that’s not an easy thing to do. We also have to do it in a cost-effective way, or else we won’t be fulfilling orders for much longer. With that being said, I’m confident this will go down as another problem we had, then solved. Other ones included marketing budget, bookkeeping, legal issues, game design issues, and even finding enough time in the day to get the things I need to get done, done. One thing I always like to remind myself is that I will never face a problem that won’t improve me as a person and as an entrepreneur. So even if the problem wins, I still walk away a bit smarter. This means I approach problems with optimism and I trust that the dots will connect in the end. I always try to stay calm and rational, not making decisions out of emotion. I always try to train myself to deal with more stress to always be prepared for whatever life or business throws at me. Another thing I do that I think helps is I look at almost everything as a test. That way I am always trying to prove myself to myself, which is a healthy way I was taught by my high school English teacher, Mr. McKinney, to deal with challenges and tasks. ### Why do you think Educaid will be successful? I think Educaid will be successful because the young generation is thirsty for a purpose. We can see it in the suicide rates, mass shootings, and depression. Real social interaction is dying fast, and kids are lonelier than ever, with little direction. They’re not taught about these things in schools, and they just waft through their early adulthood without much direction or purpose. We have a lot of people in the mainstream culture who say a lot of things that we eat up, but it lacks substance. I think we’re plagued with materialism and social media, and many kids aren’t actually happy. Yes, they have fun, but they’re not happy. I think a purpose is a key to all of this, and purpose is derived from responsibility and having something that you care about and pursue. We don’t have a voice in our culture advocating for this. What mainstream person is telling young adults to get their life together? What voice is saying that it’s cool to wake up early, or to work hard, or to clean your room? In the entrepreneur community, these are mainstream ideas. If you look at the entrepreneur community, they’re much happier than the general population. They wake up with purpose, and they do things that have meaning. I think our kids could use a healthy dose of entrepreneurial thinking. Educaid is here to give them that. ### Can you tell us about the Incubator your company is apart of? The StartedUp and Innovate WithIN Incubator. It’s a result of the Innovate WithIN pitch competition. From over 300 competitors, Educaid was blessed enough to win the competition. Ourselves, along with a few of the top competitors in the competition continue their businesses with the help of the incubator. It’s been a blessing of resources and opportunity. We all recently went out to NYC to meet some of the most accomplished business people in the world. It even got featured on Forbes. We also frequently meet with our mentors within the group to get advice and guidance. The Incubator has definitely been crucial to Educaid’s development as a business and my development as an entrepreneur. ### ### What do the next 5 years look like for you? I have envisioned two scenarios that could be the result of the next 5 years. A heaven, and a hell. Basically, if I live up to what I think I can do and I become what I dream about becoming, then that’s heaven. If I fall into bad habits and lose sight of all my goals, then that’s hell. Neither is out of the question. Heaven would be financially independent, starting a new business with even more potential than Educaid or to turn Educaid into a much larger brand. An office, employees, and being able to talk with people about the mission of my brand and solving interesting problems for the world. Traveling and speaking, probably most important is having strong habits and values, and being the person I always hoped I would be. Hell would be me becoming lazy, unmotivated, burnt out, and financially unstable or dependent. Basically, if I have to live with thinking about what I could have been, and knowing that its damn well my fault. ### What is the best advice you have for people wanting to start a business? Try something. Fail. Try again, a bit smarter this time, and fail again. Rinse and repeat until successful. It doesn’t matter what business you start. It’s not about your business, it’s about you. A good entrepreneur can do well in any business. The game is all the same. Also, time is not of the essence. There is no race to success. When tomorrow comes, don’t worry about being right; worry about being a little less wrong than you were today. You will get there, just be patient. ### City where you’re based out of:  Indianapolis ### Social accounts: Facebook: @EducaidGames Twitter: @colin_wareham_ LinkedIn: Colin Wareham ### Hobbies:**I like to read material from all subjects. Physics and Psychology are what I probably read the most, but I also like novels and poetry. I spend most of my time working, but when I’m free I’ll try to catch up with friends or play piano and violin. ### --- ## Evolve Your Brand From Basic To Brilliant In Four Steps URL: https://futuresharks.com/evolve-your-brand-from-basic-to-brilliant-in-four-steps/ You have built a basic brand. Therefore, you get basic results. ##### Your Earnings Are Basic You make just enough to pay the bills of your business with no profits made for yourself. On some days, you don’t feel cut out for this. This isn’t what you thought it would be, right? You thought that you were trading your old job for new financial freedom. However, you find yourself working more and (honestly) earning less. ##### Your Influence Is Basic You have very few people who actually want to hear what you have to say. You haven’t established your authority, and you have no social proof that you are who you say you are. Outside of the people in your immediate circle, there aren’t many people making an effort to reach out to you. These are just two outcomes of a basic brand and why you need to evolve your brand to brilliant. I am going to give you a four-step solution on how to do this, right after explaining this: ### What Makes A Brand Basic? A basic brand wraps itself up in just one element. If you have a visually attractive brand but lack a strategy that attracts your target audience, you have a basic brand. If you know that you provide great service but can’t communicate this to your target audience, you have a basic brand. When it comes to brilliant branding, a one-sided approach doesn’t cut it. As a brand builder, I run into too many clients who focus solely on how things look. They want the strongest fonts and the boldest colors. They want the sleekest logo and the cleanest website design possible. While there is nothing wrong with that, I challenge my branding clients to not get so wrapped up in just the design aspect. If that describes you then that is my challenge for you, as well. You are putting all of your attention on only one piece of the pie, and that is keeping your brand stuck at basic. ### Here Is My Four-Step Solution To Evolve Your Brand From Basic To Brilliant: ## 1. Exist Authentically At the end of the day, you are your brand. Services make people look at your business, but what they are really paying attention to is your brand. They are paying attention to this as a whole–not just in terms of design. Therefore, your brand needs to be a bold representation of what you believe in. You cannot afford to be a people-pleasing sell-out. Dare to be different. > “It’s all about vulnerability and transparency, showcasing who you are authentically to the world. That’s what gets people to connect with you” > —Rob Fajardo, Founder of Leave Normal Behind Brilliant brands speak with or without words what they believe. They build intuitively upon the foundations of their truth. Do you differentiate your business by showing what it is [from the inside out](/cherie-aimee/)? (If not, you should really read about the power in doing that.) ## ## 2. Develop Your Strategy Strategy invites results. Your brand will remain basic if you do not have an intentional plan to make it do what you created it to do. For brilliant brands, this has to go beyond profit. As a brilliant brand, you build beyond yourself. I challenge my clients to develop a long-term strategy. With the help of our “Five I’s Of Leadership” blueprint, our clients discover how they will: - *innovate* industries - *impact* lives - *inspire* audiences - *influence* change - be *involved* Brilliant ideas and ideologies alone cannot create these results. To create strategic results, use this five-point plan of action. ## ## 3. Create A Marketable Design With all of that being said, now we can talk design. Your brand needs a visual design that sells itself to your target audience. To do this effectively, you have to do more than just look nice. You must design with intention. The colors that you choose, the fonts that you use, and your other design elements do speak. Therefore, you have to make sure you are saying the right things through your brand’s visual design. This is why instead of going straight into the creative process of brand building, I walk my clients through discovering its foundations. As a result of having firm foundations, the design is more powerful. The design is marketable. ## ## 4. Build “With”,  Not “Against” “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Within the right context, this is a not-so-hidden gem for brilliant brands: a brilliant network. You may have already discovered this in Step 2. Collaboration takes you further faster. Strategic partnerships eliminate the stress of feeling as though you have to offer every solution in your own strength. Knowing people who know “people” and who can make that introduction is vital. When building your personal brand, don’t neglect to build professional relationships outside of yourself. --- ## How Nathan Ray Ortega Went From Homeless To Working With Millionaires URL: https://futuresharks.com/nathan-ortega/ **What’s your backstory?** Every entrepreneur is born with the gift, it just takes time to crack the code In Grade school I’ve always wanted to work for myself, listening to classmates going to college and wanting to work for a company didn’t interest me, knowing that if I worked for someone else, I would be a slave to their time, work when they said I could work, make the money they would allow me to make, and lastly have time for myself they would allow me have, my interests were to work for myself, make a huge impact in something I was fully passionate about, become a leader that lifts people up to make a positive change in everyone I came across with. I just didn’t know how to at the time. I had a burning flame in myself wanting to be unleashed but it was locked in a safe and I didn’t have the key to unlock it. After high school I did the very things I did not want to do, not because I wanted to, but only because I didn’t know how or where to start. I went to college, worked a job. Then got fired which led me to dropping out, worked several jobs after that, got introduced to multi-level marketing, my first taste of entrepreneurship, Not. Worked for a startup PR company which is now known as Manufacturing Influencers with the Founder Ulyses Osuna, my mentor at the time gaining me my very first actual taste of entrepreneurship. The hustle, the grind, the no family time, the no personal relationships, late nights early mornings, the failures, the rise, the game changing moments of PR business. I wanted to be my own Boss, and at the rate I was going, I was getting very impatient but one day helping Ulyses, as a task he wanted me to get him on three podcasts, I remember asking him how?, no response was given, it was like getting handed a blank piece of paper and someone telling you, “ it needs to be finished by tonight” I had no clue how to start, I think he was testing my true entrepreneurship capabilities at the time because first thing about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs always find a way. but I had ambition and some knowledge on how to properly network, I had officially cracked the code on getting Ulyses on three podcasts within just two days, I remember once the episodes released it was a life changing moment for me I had officially added value to someone, I did that, I got someone’s voice heard through the power of podcasts. I remember starting my business, I made many failures I quit on my business so many times one for going through my very first break up, second for not truly believing in myself, and third not charging. By the second year of trying to get my business off the ground, It got to the point where I gave up again and led me without a job so definitely no income and I would party a lot and not do anything positive for myself, which ultimately left me homeless sleeping in a car with my pregnant girlfriend parked on top of a hill every night for 2 months looking over the city lights, trying to find hope. I would look to my right side to my girlfriends cold breath at night when the windows would fog up, I remember I would have to turn on the car here and there to keep some heat while saving gas in the car at the same time, and when it came to mornings I remember driving to a local park, opening the car trunk filled with duffel bags full of clothes, to changing in public bathrooms to looking myself in the mirror, tears falling down my face telling myself each day, Nathan… You got this, homelessness took a toll on me, I made a promise to myself that I would get my act together which in time I didn’t quit and I ended up working a bank job 1 month after, which was my 16 job in two years. **Fresh start** I remember hating that job so much, I would hide in the bathroom four to six times a day to reply back to my mentor at the time and potential prospects, I remember making the excuse to my manager that I had a weak bladder, eventually I worked there for 6 months and one day I just quit, In my head thinking to myself, if i didn’t get my business off the ground would be because I don’t truly believe in myself. I had full confidence in myself with only three hundred dollars in my account at the time i just started hustling on my business not knowing when my next paycheck would come , I was messaging one-hundred people a day to sell my services following up with practically 60 people every two days from leaving me on seen in the DM. Eventually after 2 weeks of doing this I officially started charging for helping others get on media outlets such as podcasts and TV shows. Ever since that life changing moment of making money my way, I have been able to work and network myself with Multi-Millionaires such as Danny Morel host of the relentless event and founder of intero real estate, Sam Bakhtiar has 106 fitness locations, Ed Mylett worth over 400 million, Brad lea founder of Lightspeed VT who has helped Grant Cardone, Daymond John, Jeunesse and more companies find better solutions in their training environments, and many more. Out of everything I’m glad I chose the route of being the entreprepreneur my inner self knew that I was since I was born, I believe my ambition, persistence, and need for helping others gives light to my success, learning actual life habits at age 18, dropping out of college, working at 16 different jobs by age 20, living homeless with my pregnant girlfriend sleeping in a car on top of a hill looking over the city lights telling ourselves we got this and changing in public bathrooms in the early mornings to building a business and working with millionaires at age 21 has been a life changing experience. Check out my social media accounts! Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** My Prior successes was starting influencer podcasts, and building my influence amongst people I came across with there was a time when in the early stages I was not charging for my services at all and I had someone else helping me and they never got paid for 6 months, they learned but they never got paid. That was one of my biggest failures, I felt confident in my business but I wasn’t confident in selling my services, my most important challenges were facing emotional personal problems. How you feel as a person gets rubbed off in your work, and at the time while starting my business I was going over a break up and i stopped working on my business for more than 3 months and I wasted so much time on useless emotions. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I almost gave up when I was homeless sleeping in a car with my pregnant girlfriend parked on top of a hill every night for 2 months looking over the city lights, parking on top of the hill gave us hope to believe in ourselves. I would look to my right side to my girlfriends cold breath at night when the windows would fog up, I remember I would have to turn on the car here and there to keep some heat while saving gas in the car at the same time. When it came to mornings I remember driving to a local park, opening the car trunk filled with duffel bags full of clothes, to changing in bathrooms to looking myself in the mirror telling myself each day, Nathan… You got this, I didn’t quit and I ended up working a bank job 1 month after, than owning my own business 5 months later and having millionaire clients. --- ## Daniel Melamed Shares His Five Tips on Scaling Businesses URL: https://futuresharks.com/danielmelamed/ **Meet Daniel Melamed.**Daniel is known not only for his accomplished but also some of his advice on how to scale a business. Daniel Melamed, a successful[entrepreneur](/could-fipsi-be-the-worlds-first-flying-car/) with 20 years of experience and a young investor from Great Neck, New York, is pleased to announce that he is branching out in his real estate work. Melamed is now going statewide with his growing number of investments and is looking forward to working on even more projects throughout the entire state of New York. Here’s Daniel’s take on five steps to scale a business: ### 1. Commit to grow First, and perhaps most obviously, entrepreneurs need to want their business to grow. According to the report, many early-stage ventures lack the will and ambition to scale. This is fine, of course, if their dreams don’t stretch beyond building a business to support a certain lifestyle, but more ambitious entrepreneurs need to create realistic growth targets and develop plans and concrete actions of how growth will be achieved. ### 2. Build collaborations The growth mindset needs to extend to partnerships with people and organizations outside the business. Entrepreneurs should build a network of partners, such as service providers, sales channel partners, suppliers and customers (who may, for example, be willing to help with market information). Many of these engagements could take the form of formal alliances between the entrepreneurial firms and established companies. ### 3. Establish standardized processes Flexibility can be the enemy of growth. It can be hard to admit, but “managing the operations by hands-on involvement of founders will eventually limit growth”. If a start-up is going to scale, managers need to implement standardized and repeatable processes, with proper delegation. This may require investments in purchasing support systems including IT and training personnel accordingly, as well as delegation from the founder and senior management. ### 4. Identify core competence Without knowing your core competence it’s difficult to create strategies. Many start-ups have evolved by doing certain things without articulating their core competence. The report recommends that entrepreneurs need to identify and emphasize a company’s core competencies – the unique knowledge that underlies its capability to compete – in order to invest in focused growth. ### 5. Articulate competitive strength Many entrepreneurs fail to look at their business through the eyes of their customers, with research suggesting that some founders build a distorted self-perception based on their own definition of the quality of their interactions with the customer. As such, the report recommends that entrepreneurs aspiring to grow their company need to “develop a clear articulation of their company’s competitive strength in the eyes of the customers, and how this strength is related to internal processes and knowledge. This needs to drive an identification of the relevant growth path in a way that allows scaling without leading into a complexity trap.” --- ##   The Immigrant Hustle To Rising Fitness Mogul- The Story of Sam Bakhtiar URL: https://futuresharks.com/saman-bakhtiar/ Dr. Saman Bakhtiar is the Co Founder of The Camp Transformation Center. He has helped transform THOUSANDS of people not only physically but what he feels is even more important “mentally”. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Bakhtiar has degrees in nutrition and pre-medicine. He is also the author of the popular book “The Total Body Transformation Secrets” His passion for “body transformations” began with his own. Dr. Bakhtiar, transformed his own physique from a scrawny, awkward kid to a Champion bodybuilder who holds the record of having a first-place title in every weight class. Today, he is a proud husband and father of two beautiful girls and a devoted family and business man. We sit down with him to discuss his journey on how he got started along with his failures and struggles. **Sam thank you so much for your time- how did you get started in business?** I was born in Iran and from the age of 3-11 I grew up there. However, due to the ongoing situation of bombings and the political situations- my mother didn’t want us to die and feared for our safety and lives which led us to move to Pennsylvania and immigrate to America. I didn’t no the language and had no friends. I loved playing football but American football is different from the football(soccer) I was used to and as a result, I had a hard time making friends. I remember, trying out for the basketball team but I didn’t make it and that crushed me. My mom, suggested I start training and practicing to make the team the following year. I went to a local boys club to train but I was inspired by the people that were working out and their physiques which led me to my passion for fitness. I loved the way fitness was helping me with my self- esteem, confidence and my physique was improving. I was using my allowance to purchase supplements and in 1996 I attended Penn State and got my Bachelor’s Degree in Life Science and later moved to California to become educated in becoming Chiropractor in 1999- my mom always emphasized I needed to be a doctor. What became a passion at 14 has become my full-time career and I am proud of the success that we have achieved till date but there is still a long way to go. **Tell us about a hard failure you’ve had in business/life that made you feel like giving up but you powered through it.** 2008 hit and I am going through the worst economic downturn. My house was under foreclosure and my ex-wife was pregnant but every single day I was still showing up to work giving it everything I got. At that time with our business, we were only doing 1 on 1 personal training but expanded into group training which has done very well for us in terms of retention and pricing. This led to people wanting to franchise this model and expand into other areas and regions but most importantly, it was something that people wanted. Even though 2008 was a tough time, I learned a lot from it and it made me wiser. **How do you suggest companies navigate the next economic downturn ?** Tony Robbins discusses this concept of being “winter proof”- people could either freeze during the winter or have fun by skiing and snowboarding. The principles I follow are: 1. Delaying gratification which is super important not only financially but to be successful. Every decision has an opportunity cost and you have to consider the implications each decision has. 2. Live within your means- people have the habit of overspending as soon as they get a little bit of extra income without understanding the consequences. Instead of spending- which leads to my next point of saving money for a rainy day or an unexpected circumstance, you’ll have a better chance of weathering the storm. 3. Save money because in business if you have enough liquid cash, while your competitors are contracting and cutting costs, you can allocate spending to areas of your business which will bring in more revenue and take more market share from your competitors and expand. When the economy improves, you’ll already be way ahead of your competitors and dominate the market. 4. Reduce liabilities- liabilities can be a killer if you don’t know how to control it. Make sure you are aware of things like debts and payables that can affect your business. **What is your legacy Sam ?** It’s being fulfilled. I have the materialistic items and can get what I want but at this point it’s inspiring people to excel in the areas of life I like to call the 5 F’s- Faith, Family, Fitness, Finance, and Fun. For me success is an obligation because we are God’s highest creation- if we are not using our full potential to succeed then it is disappointing; we need to improve ourselves daily and it’s our responsibility to do so. --- ## “Find a Way To Turn Your Passion Into Dollar Bills”- Adriel Lora URL: https://futuresharks.com/adriel-lora/ What’s your backstory? I was born and raised in a small town in Washington State, where there was never much opportunity. A lot of people finish High School and then go on to work arduous jobs, and seeing my parents experience this first hand, I knew I had to do something big with my life. I had to create something special to make sure my family doesn’t have to lift a finger ever again. It was just a matter of finding the right path for myself. At the young age of 15, I discovered my passion for fashion and business, and since then I was determined to make my goals and aspirations my reality. At that point in my young life I began to design various pieces of clothing for different clothing brands. I also began brainstorming, developing business plans and a variety of different ideas for my own fashion company. Around this time was when my best friend and business partner created the idea of XKM, the high-end luxury company. We spent hours brainstorming ideas and designing different articles of clothing. XKM quickly became everything we thought about and constantly worked on for years. After graduating High School and being accepted into the University of Washington, I embarked on a new journey in Seattle, WA. I quickly adapted to the city life and was focused on my studies for a business degree. While taking actual business courses in school, I was even more intrigued and so I would go out and do my own research on the fashion industry. I was extremely curious when it came to fashion and business, I asked myself “How did they make it?” “What was their first move?” and “How does that translate to our modern society and where the fashion industry stands today?”. Due to these questions, I would spend hours reading and learning about fashion brands whom are already successful. Once the school year was over, I used the knowledge and expertise I had gained from working with people and studying clothing brands to develop a website and bring my products to life. Although there have been hardships and confusion throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I’ve always been about making things happen, whether I am alone or not. I have always been extremely determined on accomplishing my goals and that will never change. At only 19 years of age, I have Co-founded not only my very own company, but my lifelong dream. That is my first accomplishment of many. Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities? At this point in my young life, I have had my fair share of successes and challenges but it wasn’t until now that I had my own major responsibilities that I had take action for every single day. Recently, I started my company along with my business partner which was very exciting, but as the man in charge of getting everything rolling from hiring people and overlooking their work so that it suits our vision and wants, was something different. I had never been in this type of position of constantly working with others and having to connect to see what they had to offer to us, but it was something I found extremely enjoyable and fulfilling. When something that was once just an idea in my mind comes to life right before my very eyes it’s an amazing feeling. Some of my challenges and successes have came from my academic journey. I’ve had my own successes while being in school from being a high school student taking college courses to eventually being accepted into one of the top schools in the country. At the same, there have been failures and challenges, for example struggling through class material that I may not necessarily understand or just having moments in my life where I lack motivation to do anything and feeling lost. These moments and experience that I’ve had to endure ultimately forced me to adapt to certain situations and most importantly learn from my mistakes. Overall, from my successes and challenges I have learned that I truly can do anything that I set my mind to because my strong work ethic and vision will take me very far in both my personal and professional life. Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? To be honest, there has never been a point in time where I almost gave up on my myself nor my goals because I know my potential and what I am meant for. Although, there have been moments of self-doubt and confusion. Through these times I have found what works best for me. When it comes to tough time, I take a step back and ask myself two things: “Why did I start doing all of this in the first place?” and “What is the bigger picture?” This is because it is so easy to get distracted and discouraged by such little issues which ultimately mean nothing in comparison to the bigger picture. You can’t let one grain of sand ruin your entire desert. Something extremely important that I have also learned recently is to be more patient. Things don’t happen overnight, that is something I quickly had to understand and constantly keep in mind. All in all, I have had my fair share moment of discouragement and self-doubt but mentally I have been able to shake myself out of it, I believe if you’re able to do this then you will last very long in this game we call life. --- ## “Working a 9 to 5 wasn’t an option”- Tiana Burse URL: https://futuresharks.com/tiana-burse/ What’s your backstory? At the age of 21 I found myself as a college dropout and bankrupt. Literally, bankrupt. My car was in the process of being repossessed and I was advised to file bankruptcy and that’s exactly what I did. I remember thinking “how in the world am I going to pay my bills and what on earth could I possibly do without a college degree”. Luckily, I ended up meeting someone while working a minimum wage job who would become my mentor and he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself at that time. You know, I was young and lacked direction. In fact, as I look back on that now I was pretty ignorant to business, success and life. So, what ended up happening was I quit my job and did exactly what my mentor advised. I didn’t sway away from what he said, I did it to the “T”. Then the success became inverted meaning, I reached multiple six figures within months and of course because I had not experienced that level before I spent money on things that I look back at today and know that had I invested versus buy I would have millions of dollars in an investment account today. But, you can’t dwell on the past, you can only learn from it. Then something happened that, the market tanked and so did my business. I had my own Magazine, I built a book of business that allowed me to have massive leverage and within months of the market shifting I lost it all. I lost the home, the car, the loft and ended up living with my parents. But I didn’t allow that to stop me from making my next big career move. You see, I was strategic. I needed to find someone to pay me for my passions while I elevated my life. I looked at it as bridge income. Income that would allow me flexibility but also something that would be a stepping stone to my next big move. So, what I did was during the time that I saw things tanking, I was in constant communication (and my follow-up on this was more than likely annoying because I was relentless) with the local newspaper editor. I knew I had writing skills and in fact, writing is one of my passions so I sent off several pieces to him and he finally gave me the chance to be a paid weekly columnist. Now, the income wasn’t that good, but I had little bills and it was enough to allow me to get by. From there, the rest is history. I focused on Social Media, psychology, building my community and collaborating with people like Trent Shelton and Les Brown. You fast forward a few short years later, I am partnered with the largest Social Media platform in history and running not only my own brand but my company called District Media Press which is on track to a 7 figure income. Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities? I’ve had an inverted journey. Because I left the minimum wage job I had and went all in to learn the basic fundamental principles that my new mentor was teaching me, I had success rather quickly. Within the first few months under his guidance I had amassed a multiple six figure income. Now, this is where things got interesting. During the time of my faster than normal success, was right around the time that the market had taken a dive into what the world would consider one of the most challenging times in US history. So, my journey went from up to down really quickly. I remember, losing my loft I was living in, my 100k car, pawning off my jewelry and moving back in with my parents. To be honest, that was less than 7 years ago. So for me, I felt like I had to re-learn what I knew about success, business and I had to spend time figuring out what my next move was going to be because, going back and working a 9 to 5 wasn’t an option. The biggest challenge was figuring out what business I was going to build next and what did that actually look like. To my surprise it didn’t take too long. I had been planting seeds prior to the loss of my loft and one of those seeds was with the editor of the local newspaper. I’ve always been passionate about writing but I also felt like going to school to become a journalist was my only option in the pursuant of that career option. Thankfully, the editor read one of my blog pieces and I was hired on the spot to become a published weekly columnist. Honestly, from there the rest is history. I ended up quitting that writing job because it wasn’t beneficial from a financial standpoint but that was the start of it all. The start of my brand, my partnership with one of the biggest platforms in the world and the start of my current company which is called District Media Press. Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? This question always stumps me a bit because there were so many times that I felt like giving up, honestly more times than I can count. I think every entrepreneur has felt this way more times than one can count. In my experience it is a part of the process. Sometimes, it is caused because we lack the visual progress and/or things become so financially challenging that keeping things afloat become too much to bare. The one thing that has kept me on the right track was believing that things would pivot for me as long as I kept moving because a moving target is hard to hit. --- ## Personal Brand Photography with Melissa Henry URL: https://futuresharks.com/personal-brand-photography-with-melissa-henry/ **What is your backstory?** I was raised in Tucson, Arizona, the youngest of a family of 6 kids. My father was a hobbyist photographer and I remember getting into his equipment and playing monkeying around with it when I was young. He even did some darkroom work and had an enlarger and all the equipment necessary to develop prints at home. I think my fascination with photography started then, perhaps as a way to better connect with my father, but it grew into a passion that has stayed with me throughout my life. I guess it was just in my genes! Even though my creative outlet was photography from a young age, I didn’t decide to be a professional photographer until later in life. Instead, I received my Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting at the University of Arizona, spent 2 years in Los Angeles and then landed in DC in my mid-20’s. My working life started as an Accountant and Auditor but I spend most of my corporate career as a consultant, leading team projects. For roughly the last 8 of those years, I’ve been growing my Newborn and Maternity photography studio as a side-hustle. Here’s the thing about a side-hustle: if it’s something you really love, it starts to compete with the safe and well-paying day job, until pretty soon, you have to choose. Fortunately for me, that choice was made crystal clear. I found myself managing a very large and challenging team, and working 60+ hour weeks with no end in sight. I was stressed out, losing sleep, and missing out on spending time with my husband and my young daughter. So, I did the unthinkable for most people, I just quit. For me, it wasn’t too crazy of a decision, I already had a thriving side business but the scary part was the uncertainty of whether my side business would thrive as a full-time biz. Right around that time, I “discovered” the idea of focusing on Personal Brand photography through one of my mentors, Jamie Swanson. It totally clicked with me that this is the future of the photography industry and that I needed, and really wanted, to pivot my business to helping entrepreneurs with imagery so that they could connect with their target clients and grow their personal brands . What I realized was that because I spent years in the corporate and consulting worlds and running a portrait photography business, I have a very unique understanding of how powerful professional photography can be in telling stories and engaging people. Now, I know that I’m in the best place for me and my family. I am doing what I love, I’m able to truly be present for my family AND I get to help other business owners succeed too! **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?’** When I started my business, I focused on the story of parents starting their families, producing portraits of mothers-to-be and little newborn babies. Despite the challenges of also working a full-time job and having my own family responsibilities, I was able to grow my business and become an expert in my area in the newborn photography space. Since pivoting my business from newborn to personal branding, my main challenge was choosing to put my successful newborn business on the back burner and shift gears to create a new, personal brand business. I think that what really sealed the deal and gave me the courage to continue is because I see a real need for this type of photography and I can see the long-term advantage of pursuing this niche NOW so that I can help shape the industry! **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** Back in my corporate days, when I was on an extremely challenging project, I was at the client’s office late at night working on a tight deadline. We had a skeleton crew and I was taking on a task role as well as a leadership role. At this point in the project, a staff member decided to go home without a second thought about the rest of the team. This occurred after a long period of being understaffed, having too many tight deadlines and working with processes that were exceedingly cumbersome and manual. It was already midnight and I knew I would have to pick up the additional work which meant several more hours in the office. I was already exhausted. I felt like walking out right then and there. Just throwing in the towel and never coming back. Instead, I took a walk outside for some fresh air and thought about my options. Obviously, I am not a quitter and my actions would affect a whole lot more people than just me. So, I grabbed more coffee, went back in to the office and hunkered down to finish the job. This experience, in fact, was one of several that helped me make the decision to finally leave the company and pursue my business full time. I realized if I could summon the energy and motivation to complete that work under those circumstances, I could achieve some really amazing things working on my OWN projects and with my OWN clients. --- ## Personal Brand Consulting with Bettina Buhr URL: https://futuresharks.com/bettina-buhr/ **What is your backstory?** I am a personal branding consultant for corporate professionals who want to increase their visibility and attract high-quality career opportunities and … I don’t have the typical corporate career. I have a background in organizational psychology and communications, moved into employer branding, talent assessment, recruiting, and internal communications, and – went to the U.S for an expat assignment as a communications expert. And, I built my career as an athlete on the side. I focused on mountaineering first and went on my first expedition with a team of friends at age 22 to Kyrgyzstan. Our team did 4 new ascents and we climbed numerous other multi-pitch/multi-day routes. Afterwards, I changed my focus to rock-climbing because training was easier to combine with studying at university and I took my skills to a professional level within the next 3 years. I travelled the world while climbing and while having a corporate job. I had the most supporting bosses allowing me to create my own schedule around work, training and travel. When I decided to no longer pursue climbing at that intensity, I went all in with my corporate career. But, my career didn’t follow the usual path. So, I had two problems: 1. I didn’t want to start at entry level jobs again. 2. I had to sell my experience I gained while climbing to a potential employer. Therefore, I had to get crystal clear on my experience, results and benefits for a future employer and I had to use the art of storytelling in my resume, cover letter and in job interviews to sell my strengths and experience to their benefit. I applied to 5 jobs, got 4 interview invites, got 2 job offers and negotiated a significantly higher salary than initially proposed. I started my new job as a process management expert with the target to improve internal processes where necessary, a job not even related to my expertise, but was hired based on the trust in my skills to not give-up and bite through and therefore be able to do change projects. Once the worldwide financial crisis in 2008 hit the economy I quickly changed into internal communication advising top management on how to communicate the impact of the crisis on associates and changes related to it. On the job, I understood how independently I had lived my life setting my own targets for my personal development. I realized, if I would depend on the people around me to support me in my career development that I would not be where I wanted to be in the time frame I had in mind and I would probably not make the career experiences I wanted to make. I had to come up with a strategy to own my career development and to position myself as the go-to expert. I built a vast international network within the company that I worked for, was able to find 3 mentors that truly supported me, without being in an official mentor program, I built professional partnerships and expert networks and managed to be involved in strategic projects to be seen by upper management. With time, I was seen as the expert others wanted to learn from and work with and I took on consulting other communication experts. I got more and more into the role of coaching top management on their personal branding and communication even beyond the site I worked for. Without doing anything I got 4 job offers with one of them being an expat assignment. I chose the expat assignment in the U.S. because it was in line with my desire to live and work abroad to deep-dive in a different culture and because I wanted to bring my English to a new level. With all the struggles that I had experienced as a woman wanting to build a rewarding career, I never hesitated to pass on anything that had worked for me and started mentoring numerous women inside and outside my own organization and continued to do so while I built my first business. I helped women connect with their story and define their value to an organization. Based on that, they were able to create their career branding materials like resume, cover letter and interview strategy. On the job, I helped them position themselves as the expert in their field, build natural authority and leadership skills, connect with mentors and expand their professional connection base to attract high-quality career opportunities and build a rewarding career themselves. While I built my personal branding intuitively with a lot of trial and error involved, I now pass on my experience as a personal branding consultant and mentor for corporate professionals attract high-quality career opportunities and build a rewarding career and life right from the start. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Successes: During my years in corporate, I mentored other corporate professionals in my free time. I helped them define their unique strengths, how to tell their unique story, and translate that into career branding materials like resume and cover letter, and interview strategies. All of them moved on to their desired role, which for all, was a new field and not the logic next step for their history of expertise. So, they had to tell their story about their qualities in even more clarity to land those jobs. All of them negotiated higher incomes than first proposed or got promoted. Today, I am continuing the path of free mentoring in my role as a mentor for the Professional Women’s Network and also support their mentoring team as a volunteer. As a Branding Consultant, I am especially proud of the women I have worked with recently, that use their maternity leave to build their personal brand on purpose. As uncommon it may sound, (because they choose to not participate in the corporate world for a while,) you can totally use your maternity leave to increase your visibility, expand your connection base and build your network on purpose, so new opportunities will open up for you now or in the future. Even if they don’t want to change jobs at the time, by building their brand consistently their freedom of choices significantly increases, which for them goes along with the freedom to choose whichever is the best option with the highest flexibility, best match of responsibility and tasks, or other reward they are looking to achieve to live the life that is right for them. Most of them are very driven women that want to build a family, but still want to realize a successful career and want to take their career development in their hands. They use their maternity leave to work on their personal development consistently and make the most of it. Some of them took on additional volunteer roles in networks for professional women to build on their leadership skills and even went into speaking. I am incredibly proud of these women as I know how unpredictable life can be when you care for a baby. These women are very inspiring to work with. Others come to me to sharpen their leadership or expert branding. For those that change into a leadership role the first time, the transition involves a mindset change from being an associate to becoming a trusted leader. Those that work for larger companies may have gotten training on leadership skills, but not much guidance on leadership mindset, authority and trust building. The trap I see often for first-time leaders is that they still think and act like an associate and feel they have all the time in the world to get to know their job first and then move on to becoming that “leader”. Truth is, your associate’s look at you from day one. So those questions, of “How do they want to be perceived?” “What kind of leader do they want to be?” “Which strengths can they build on?”, become relevant. We work a lot on building that mindset and awareness as to how they position themselves on a daily basis, communicate in clarity and inspire with vision and integrity. And, I continue what I did before and work with high-level leaders that want to build on their leadership branding in a subsequent or current role to inspire and motivate their associates by being approachable and trusted. They want to lead with vision, be able to communicate that vision in clarity, and help associates understand their contribution to the overall vision and success. Often, that involves changes to their personal communication style and the communication means they use and this is exactly what we work on. Leading by the pressure of quarterly numbers disconnects many leaders from their associates and also themselves. The result is constant pushing of associates which feels empty and demotivating to them. People go the extra mile “with” someone if they feel an authentic connection, a genuine interest in them and their growth, and when they feel they can trust someone as a person. Personal Branding helps many leaders to reconnect to their uniqueness and strengths and find that balance between determination and connection again and extend that in their communication. It shows them a way to lead with vision and inspired action and build on their authority at the same time. For many it helps them be happier in their role as a leader when/as they embrace that caring part of leadership we all thrive and gain so much from. Challenges: Personal challenges My family situation with two young children is highly challenging sometimes. Therefore, I have to set up my business in a highly flexible way with very lean processes and the courage to outsource very early on. The unpredictability of my life forces me to live the entrepreneur mindset every day. I have to decide about what the most important step is for my business on a daily basis, sometimes hourly. And still, I make it happen, I think I had to reschedule only one client up until now. The challenges I see for my clients are much more complex. A lot of them don’t know at first how much increasing their visibility will change their life and career to the better and how they can achieve their goals with greater ease, greater connection, and more fun. They ask themselves, why they should invest in a program that helps them increase their visibility because in the end they still have their income in their bank account even if they don’t take their personal development in their hands. Branding is a long-term approach to career development and doesn’t always mean you want or need to change into a new position right away, but it is a strategy that will connect you to so many more people than you thought possible and you will open up opportunities over time, you couldn’t even imagine. The freedom of choices is what increases their happiness as they can choose which option fits their goals and lifestyle best. For those that are looking to actively shape their leadership branding, connecting to what feels authentic to them often comes with a level of vulnerability that feels unprofessional or unwanted in the corporate world. But, it is just new territory that once they master it not only feels better to them, but brings better organizational results. Major current responsibilities: Personal branding consultant Mentor and Volunteer for Professional Women’s Network Speaker (first speaking engagement in October 2018, 2 more need to be finalized) **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** Building a business at the early stages felt like an emotional roller coaster for me with phases of extreme exhaustion, joy and happiness on the side. Getting through this phase of setting things up, all this behind the scenes work… I sometimes worked really late hours to find a way around family life and working around what felt like constant sick little children… it was a lot. When I feel like giving up, the real reason mostly is my own exhaustion. I know that in the meantime. I hired help around the house, outsourced tasks around my business and try to get more help when my children are sick. And, I remember myself that nothing is as hard and physical painful as some of the routes I climbed. I take a break to get relief from my exhaustion, recenter my goals asking myself which action is really needed to achieve my next goal, reverse engineer what needs to be done, and move forward. --- ## “Learn to adapt and feel comfortable with being uncomfortable”- Sergio Centeno URL: https://futuresharks.com/learn-to-adapt-and-feel-comfortable-with-being-uncomfortable-sergio-centeno/ **What’s your backstory?** Born and raised in a small town called Tri-cities, Washington. I grew up in a household of five with two sisters and my parents, I was the youngest. My early life was quite a roller coaster of emotions due to living in a house full of negativity and a lot of violence. I remember coming home everyday to hearing my parents fight about money. At a very young age I realized that I didn’t want money to ever be a problem for me. I told myself that I was going to make something out of myself and help my family and my next generation have a different life from the one I had. I experienced a lot of pain very young seeing my mother get abused by my father growing up. It hurt me a lot to see her go through that and not be able to do anything about it. Although my parents had their problems, they were still a blessing to my life and I am so thankful for them. In school I was never a good student, I always had low grades and didn’t take school seriously. I was the class clown and I managed to copy most of my way through school. I still remember my father telling me that I wasn’t going to be nothing in life. So a lot of my passion was driven from pain that I felt. I managed to graduate from college just to later learn that I had wasted my time because even with a college degree no one wanted to hire me. Eventually I did get hired and was only getting paid a little over minimum wage. Even after agreeing to get paid less than what I was expecting, it didn’t take more than 5 months before they fired me. This was a real slap in the face. That is when I realized that I had to make a change with my life. After losing my job that is really when I dove deep into learning about entrepreneurship and learning how to start my own business. One night after doing research and watching videos on youtube I stumbled across a Tai Lopez “here in my garage” ad. It didn’t take me much convincing before I bought the course called 67 steps. This course taught me the foundations to being an entrepreneur. That is when life started to make sense for me again. It gave me hope, it was a brand new opportunity to make something out of myself. I was sold on the luxury of living a life by design. I was sold on the fact that I had full power to changing my life and that it was up to me to make it happen. The dreams of having fast cars and big houses got refueled and my motivation skyrocketed. Throughout this time is when I first connected with Nathan Ray Ortega founder of  Influencer Podcasts. I was given the opportunity to enhance my skills within the PR space which allowed me to grow and get me out of my shell which enabled me to network with millionaires. After 6 month of learning with Nathan I got introduced to Josue Arteaga and Ulyses Osuna. That is when they were starting this new program called Manufacturing Influencers and they were offering opportunities for new upcoming PR specialists. I quickly took the opportunity joined their team at Influencer press. It didn’t take no longer than 4 days before I closed my first client named Bedros Keuilian who is a multi-millionaire and a high level entrepreneur. Out of everything that i’ve learned so far I know now that none of this would’ve happened if I hadn’t stayed persistent and ambitious even when times were tough. I stuck through and I was blessed when the opportunity met my preparation. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** One of the most foolish mistakes I’ve made was to go to college for a plan B. I went to school to get a degree to have something to fall back on. I had a scarcity mindset and perspective of looking at things. Although I did finish college and did get a degree. I learned that I had made a huge mistake by going to school because it honestly delayed my chances of success for plan A. Never have a plan B, always have one plan and stick with it. Preparing for a plan B will only delay your success for plan A. Eliminate your plan B and you will eliminate your option of failure. Saying you will accomplish plan A no matter what you have to do, is a better attitude to have. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** After two years of college and then losing a job that I thought I wanted was a horrible feeling. I felt ashamed and disappointed that it took me almost 3 years to find out that this wasn’t the career I wanted. The first thought that came to me was feeling like I had messed up because I got fired. But one thing I did know was that this job was not for me and that I didn’t want to find another one like it. But at the same time I also felt  scared of what my family was going to say about me. That is when my make or break moment happened. I could’ve either felt sad about wasting three years of my life or realized that this was a turning point in my life and this was meant to happen. I chose to stay positive and look at why it was a good thing. One thing I’ve learned from this situation is that one of the worst things you can do is dwell on your loses or mistakes. I know now that if something doesn’t go as planned, never try to force it go the way you initially planned it. Learn to adapt and feel comfortable with being uncomfortable because life always comes with problems. Problems are the root to creativity. I like to look at problems not as problems but rather opportunities. --- ## “There were a few people that doubted me”- Johnny Medina URL: https://futuresharks.com/johnny-medina/ **What’s your backstory?** I’m from a small town in Washington called Grandview. There’s not much to do, all I would really do was play basketball or hang out with some friends. Growing up my dad worked long days and nights, so he can pay the bills while my mom worked just as hard to get me and my siblings everything we needed. At the end of my sophomore year of high school my dad got deported and my life completely changed, we lived on a ranch so after he left there were many jobs to do outside that me and my brothers had to stay on top of. My mom had to work twice as hard to keep food on the table even if that meant not being home very often. I had to step it up and take responsibility to help my family anyway possible. After graduating high school I started working a minimum wage job, working long shifts and crazy hours. I got to say I hated every second of it and after a year I decided to go to college. Entering college I found out I had a baby on the way, I had to make a sacrifice and do what I thought was best for my family. So I decided to drop out of college and get two part time jobs. After my son was born it got even tougher, me and my family were living check to check. After my son turned about 9 months I started to realize I wasn’t making enough money and knew I had to make a change I thought to myself this is no way for my family to live. Month after month going by and we were still struggling and this amazing opportunity came up. One of the best decision I ever made was stepping out of my comfort zone and giving something so different my all. Ulyses Osuna who has made his name known around the PR world gave me the opportunity to work with him. I dropped everything and dedicated myself to focus, learn and grow with him and his team. It changed my life for the better. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges and major responsibilities**? Graduating high school was pretty big for me, growing up I didn’t take school very seriously and never had the best grades. There were a few people that doubted me and didn’t think I could graduate but making the ones I love proud always gave me a great feeling. Doing things different and having to be away with what I was comfortable with would have to be one of my biggest challenges. I would always think to myself “what if I don’t make it.” Eventually I got tired of being scared and with my girlfriends support I went after the best opportunity I could have ever went after. One of my biggest responsibilities is providing for my family. I always make sure I make enough money to pay the bills and spoil my beautiful girlfriend along with buying my handsome son plenty of toys. Nothing is better for me than seeing a smile on both of their faces. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I remember I almost wanted to give up when I attended the first interview for my PR team, I saw all the more qualified competition. They were more experienced in the field than I was, all I know is I was ready to call it quits but I thought about my family and our struggles so decided to stay up all night to hustle my way in. --- ## “Don’t Try And Reinvent The Wheel” Words of Wisdom From Gusten Sundqvist URL: https://futuresharks.com/gusten-sundqvist/ **What’s your backstory?** I’m an international personal branding and storytelling coach for entrepreneurs and I’m on a mission to help people find their purpose, share their message and make the world a better place. As a kid I was always an outsider, even though I was socially extroverted I never felt like I belonged anywhere. I had this weird desire to always become more, achieve more and experience more. I went on to turn down job titles and promotions, dropped out of business university and started from zero, built my own business through social media and that’s where I made my first $100,000 following my passion and sharing my message. I’ve so far helped 1000’s of impact-driven entrepreneurs and business owners scale ethically using social media. That’s when I realised all you need is to master ONE thing and find a problem you can solve within that industry.                                                                     **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** I remember the morning when my wife woke me up, 6 am and she told me she was pregnant. That we were going to be parents. My entire life stopped. My world shooked. And my perspective on life has never been the save again since then. I had quit my job, dropped out of university and started my business helping local businesses with social media just months earlier. At this point we were barely getting by. I was making $400/month and my wife had to pay rent, bills, food and everyday life essentials. Me? I was reinvesting my $400 every month into personal development, books, courses and things of that nature. I was dead-serious of becoming successful and I had two things driving me. Call me crazy but even at the times where we couldn’t afford food or paying the rent I still borrowed money from my two younger brothers to invest in a mentor and business coach to get me on the right path. Basically, two things drove me: I wanted freedom through making my passion a living. Which was social media marketing. Second, I wanted my life to have an impact over others and help make the world a better place.                                                         Anyways. Long story short: I ended going from making $400 to hitting my first 1k/month to 10k/month and 10k/week. The following 12 months I ended up making over $100,000 using social media. In this article, I want to share why your story matters and better yet, the 3 secrets that helped me go from broke and almost homeless with a pregnant wife to making over 6 figures online, helping 1000’s of entrepreneurs start & scale their online business around their passion and overall together with an amazing community make the world a better place. Which was the goal since day 1.         **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?**                                         I remember it so clearly… My wife walked up to me as I was working on clients social media marketing campaigns. I can still remember the feeling that went through my body when she told me the following: “That’s it, Gusten.” “We either have to move to my parents house or you need to go back to a job.” That night I couldn’t sleep. At all. I had anxiety. I was depressed. I had lost my hope. For a moment I thought about giving up… I called a local place where I knew they needed an employee. It was one of those jobs I had swore to never work at. For some reason I felt like that was the step back to square 1. The step that would make all doubters and haters right. I couldn’t imagine the feeling of being the “talker” and not a “doer”. So I decided to do something about it. I started going all in on social media, providing value and becoming the expert in the industry. Instead of 8h workdays at a job I hated I went 8h youtubing videos about social media marketing. I remember signing my first $1,000/month client a couple of weeks later. At that moment I knew my life would never be the same. Instead of giving up and going back to a 9-5 I had found a way to turn something I was truly passionate about into a business. From now on it was just doing the same thing over and over again to get more clients. I scaled from 1k/month to 10k/month and 20k/month and so on. Here’s the 3 secrets how you can do the same thing and turn your passion into a business using social media: 1. Write down all the things you’re really good at. But only if it’s something you really love doing. Pick a niche. Look at the marketplace and ask yourself what pain-points or problems people have within your niche. Now find a solution to those problems and you have a business around your passion. 1. Use social media to provide valuable content, sharing your story and documenting your journey in order to get clients. The buyers process any customer has to go through is they have to know you, like you and trust you in order to buy from you. 1. Secret #3 is what I call the offer creation formula. People don’t buy products or services, but when you create an irresistible offer that solves very specific problems and covers pain-points they don’t want to deal with, now you have a winner. Remember: People buy when perceived value exceeds price. Don’t compete on price, but on value. I’ve learned so much on this journey so far, but most of all what I want to share is that no matter who’s supporting you or not, make sure you never quit. Make sure you focus on your future, on what you love doing and never care what other people think about you in the process. How do you do this? You remember your why. Your purpose. The goal, which hopefully in a way or another is to make the world a better place. Then everything else becomes irrelevant. **If you could travel back in time to before you started, what 3 tips would you give yourself and why?** Great question! 1. Always follow your passion before the money This was the single reason I had the patience to hustle for 9 months studying, reading books, watching how-to videos on youtube and sacrificing everything else, giving up my free-time for my vision, because I loved what I was doing. 1. Failure is a good thing I’ve never learned as much as when going through tough times. There are so many lessons in “failure” which is why I barely want to call it failures. If you want to succeed, in anything in life, just go out there, try things and never be afraid to fail 90% of the times to succeed 10% of the time. As time goes on, you’ll get better and better and as long as you’re hungry for growth you’ll always find a way at last. 1. Get a mentor Find someone who’s done what you’re trying to do, model after him and implement what he’s teaching you. By doing that, you can cut the learning curve and get results up to 10X faster than if you had to do it all by yourself. Knowledge and mentors are the only “shortcuts” to success. --- ## How a Part-Time CFO Can Help a Small Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-a-part-time-cfo-can-help-a-small-business/ Technology has made a significant impact on our society and hiring a virtual CFO reflects that change. The chief financial officer is responsible for overseeing the organization’s cash flow and financial matters. Finances are critical for a business to operate. Due to this, investing in a part-time CFO might be the right decision. It is beneficial, not just today, but for the long run as well. Here are the reasons why small businesses need to maintain a good relationship with a part-time CFO. ### Adaptability and Flexibility A business can allow a part-time CFO to have flexible work hours in the company. It does not have to be a whole day business like the traditional CFO. Since you are paying hourly, it can be cheaper than full-time employment. Their flexibility is immeasurable; they can make themselves available based on the business’ demand. They will also adapt to the business’ needs as it grows and expands to its full potential. Virtual CFOs are taught how to adjust and extend their skills whenever necessary. Businesses can’t expect less from them as they are executives and adapt to the field. Even if they work in multiple companies; they are still efficient. ### Saves Time and Increases Productivity Since you are hiring virtual staff, you can expect to save time. Everything can now be down through cloud technology, and these CFOs only need their computer and a stable connection. Also, working with virtual CFOs is like working with a pool of professionals contrary to having one full-time CFO. These virtual CFOs are gathered together to oversee all businesses’ financial obligations. Teamwork always makes the dream work. Now, how can they increase the business productivity? If you leave financial matters to them, you can be assured that they do it with much expertise. While they work on their forte, businesses can focus more management. There will be continuous work, and everyone will inevitably progress. If one can focus on the things he does best, the result will always be more significant than expected. ### Less Supervision and Great Outputs These virtual CFOs are professionals and experts; businesses can leave them on their own devices. They know what they are doing and more importantly, they know how to do it right. If companies let people who are adept in this field to do the work, businesses can expect great outputs. Remember, virtual CFOs are additional assets with fresh eyes that can help in the organization’s planning. They have been working in different industries and have lots of experiences in various scopes of business. Both small and start-up businesses want to save cost as much as they can without compromising the performance of the company. A virtual CFO might help you reach that goal. They do not need benefits and bonuses like what regular employees are entitled to. They are expected to deliver even if the business has a limited budget. Through this, companies can use the money it can save to other matters that will help the company grow. --- ## Ireland is building the solution to remote workers biggest challenge URL: https://futuresharks.com/ireland-is-building-the-solution-to-remote-workers-biggest-challenge/ 30% of respondents to this survey said lack of community was the biggest challenge to remote working. Grow Remote is built by a team of volunteers who hand a hunch that Ireland could benefit from a tighter community and ecosystem around smart working, they are specifically are interested in how this benefits the regions of Ireland. Over the past few years locations that have traditionally suffered from a lack of resources needed to work have opened up. They now house some 200k+ remote workers in Ireland. This September, a conference is kickstarting it all with three streams hearing from and connecting with companies, local communities, and remote workers.  Real life meetups will be a continuing theme of Grow Remote and wherever you travel, there will be some meetup to get to know other remote workers and nomads. Get to know more at Grow Remote. Here’s your starters guide to remote working Ireland --- 1) Lahinch, Co Clare. Lahinch is in Co Clare, accessible by bus from Shannon or Dublin airport. Perfect for water sports and surfing in particular. You can work remotely at Ocean Office Share for 20/day. 2) Galway City, Ireland Galway 2 and a half hours by bus directly from Dublin airport. It’s is a great destination if you want some nights out and a perfect base to access more rural parts of the west of Ireland. While you’re there, work from The Portershed @ 7/day 3) Tralee, Co Kerry Kerry can be a perfect base to get to the south west of Ireland and has a balance of nature treks and nightlife spots. You can work from HQ Tralee while you’re there. 4) Cork City Cork is a perfect place to immerse your self in the Irish tech community. That’s best accessed through Republic of Work@ 35/day. 5) Tubbercurry, Sligo Out from the cities and well known Irish destinations you can experience traditional Irish Towns. They have workspaces like An Chroi for 50/week and a vibrant local community to help you get to know hidden Ireland. --- ## 5 Surprising Habits of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-surprising-habits-of-highly-successful-entrepreneurs/ By Will Deane Founder of Unstoppable Whether you know it or not, your habits control you. Habit is what gets you out of bed in the morning. Habit is how you brush your teeth. Habit is how you plan your day, how you do your job, and how you run your life. So if you want to massively improve your life and get more successful, habit is the best place to start. In the words of Will Durant: *“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”* Thankfully, you can steal habits from some of the most effective, successful people in the world. Good habits are worth their weight in gold, but they’re available to you for free. All you have to do is learn them and implement them in your life. So where do you start? Take it from 5 of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. **Schedule Your Day like Elon Musk** Elon Musk founded Tesla, PayPal, and SpaceX, which makes him a history-shifting entrepreneur on land, online, and in space. How does he manage to split his time between some of the fastest-growing companies in the world? Scheduling. Very precise scheduling. Musk schedules out his entire day in 5 minute blocks. For him, that’s the best way to squeeze the most out of every day. With that in mind, it might be a good idea to ask if that upcoming meeting *really*needs to be an hour long. **Reframe Your Expectations like Peter Thiel** Peter Thiel is a legend in Silicon Valley. Another cofounder of PayPal, Thiel is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist worth about $2.7 billion. According to him, one of the biggest obstacles most people encounter is something they create for themselves: their own expectations and assumptions. Particularly those that relate to time. If you want to grow, take a cue from Thiel and ask yourself: “Why can’t I achieve my 10-year plan in 6 months?” Chances are, your 10-year plan doesn’t have to take 10 years. And if you can complete it in 6 months, or a year, or even 2 years, you can move on to the next 10-year plan. **Exercise Like Richard Branson** Sir Richard Branson has started so many businesses in so many industries that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of them all. Suffice it to say that his accomplishments grew so large, the Queen of England saw fit to make him a knight. Branson says one of the biggest secrets to his insane productivity is exercise. No matter where he is in the world, he wakes up at 5 AM every day to get some exercise: go for a run, a bike ride, or out kitesurfing. Starting his day with exercise puts him in a clear state of mind for making great decisions on his businesses. You don’t necessarily have to wake up at 5am every day – although there’s plenty to be said for that – but maintaining a strict, consistent exercise schedule is guaranteed to improve your body, your mind, and your life. **Read Like Warren Buffett** Warren Buffett is worth about $80 billion. With a B. Need we say more? And, more than anything else, reading is the skill he cites as the source of his wildly successful investment career. In his own words: “I just sit in my office and read all day.” Buffett estimates he spends 80% of his time reading, and when he was a young investor starting his career, he’d read 600 to 1,000 pages every day. Time to dust off that old bookshelf. **Keep Going Like Thomas Edison** Thomas Edison is one of the most prolific inventors and entrepreneurs in US history, holding over 1,000 patents and famously perfecting the recipe for the incandescent light bulb. By now, the fact that he tried 10,000 different formulas before he got the right one is legend. And you’ve probably already heard his take on the process: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This quote is almost a platitude at this point – which is unfortunate, because if you really think about it, it’s astounding. When’s the last time you tried something 10,000 times without giving up? How about 1,000 times? Or even just 100 times? Steve Jobs believes that “about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” Edison proves his point perfectly. **Start With Habit to Create Lasting Change** If you want to improve yourself, change your life, and get on a path to success, don’t focus only on trying to find the next big business idea. Focus on changing your habits. Get those right, and nothing in the world is beyond your reach. ————- Will Deane is the CEO of Unstoppable.co and a lifelong entrepreneur, with several successful startups under his belt. Starting from the early age of 15 he has been building companies. He is a lover of all things marketing, consumer trends, branding and team building. --- ## Million Dollar Roofing Companies Come To Tim Nussbeck For Advice URL: https://futuresharks.com/tim-nussbeck/ Hiring a consultant should be a decision every business owner should make if they’re wanting to grow or scale their [business](/could-fipsi-be-the-worlds-first-flying-car/) quickly. It allows you to bypass years of experience by learning from someone who’s been in the trenches – so you don’t have to be. If you’re starting your very own contracting company or roofing business, someone you should look to is Tim Nussbeck. With over 12 years of experience, Nussbeck knows a thing or two about roofing and growing a company. With his family-owned business Aspen Contracting,they’ve been able to produce over 100 million dollars in sales a year and did over a billion in sales in just 12 years. So what does Tim know that you might not? ### Double Down on What Works You might think that door knocking is an old tactic that doesn’t work anymore…but you couldn’t be more wrong. Tim is just barely coming out of the shadows from the brick and mortar space into the online marketing space. So door knocking is exactly how they did over a billion in sales in just 12 years. The face to face conversations with potential clients built trust and friendships. The project managers go out and knock on doors to really get to know the community, but at the same time letting them know who they were. It is pretty obvious by now that people buy from those they know and trust. That’s why Nussbeck thought it was so important to get to know the community. Because even if they didn’t purchase at the time – when the customers did need some repairs done, Aspen Contracting was the first and only option. ### Know the Fundamentals Like the Back of Your Hand Nussbeck claims that the most important thing for you to know is your fundamentals, without those you will not grow. Fundamentals include your big-picture business plans, the systems you have in place, and your company culture. *“It doesn’t matter if you want to go worldwide or just be the number one contractor in your area, you need to have your plans, your systems, and your values figured out ahead of time, in order to get where you want to be.”* he explains. Being in the roofing business means traveling to where the work is, knowing where the most work will come your way. For instance, they would travel to the cities where storms had done damage because they knew they could help while expanding their clientele. Nussbeck knew it would take months to acquire state and local licensing to work in other areas so he would anticipate where repairs would be needed and started the process early so they would be ready to get to work when disaster struck. ### You Can’t Grow Alone Getting to know the customers, suppliers, other contracting companies, and even insurance companies was crucial in the growth of their company. It is very important for everyone to get along, especially the insurance company and the contracting company. When everyone is arguing, Nussbeck knows the only people who really lose is the customer. You really want the customer to have a quick and smooth experience. If the customer experience is bad, so will their thought of you regardless if you did a great job for them or not. That’s why Tim also made the decision to get into the online marketing space. To save roofers and contractors time from doing it alone. --- ## Nothing Is Easy- You Work For Everything. The Julio Martinez Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/julio-martinez/ “I now realize that nothing comes easy and you have to work for it.”- Julio Martinez **What’s your backstory?** I grew up in a small town called Grandview, WA. Growing up we didn’t really have much, but we always had food on the table. My mother would work long nights and come home early mornings while my father worked at a warehouse. After middle school we moved to Kennewick, WA. I did my 4 years of high school and graduated. Soon after I studied business at Columbia Basin College, I was there for a semester then dropped out. I hated every second of college, it just wasn’t for me. I had 2 part time jobs in the mall earning little money, I knew I had to make a change. A good friend of mine Josue Arteaga was in the PR business which I knew little about. One day I asked him “How can I do what you do?” and he explained to me that it would take a lot of learning and work to be able to even start. I was ready to make that change. I wanted it bad, I was willing to do whatever it took just to be apart of it. He introduced me to his friend and colleague Ulyses Osuna. I started to study him and realized he had made a name for himself in the PR world, so I knew I had to work with him. I let him know that I wanted in and I am willing to earn it. I was ready to bleed for it because I knew it was a huge opportunity. I didn’t even care about the money because I knew if I learned enough and proved myself to him then I could get a spot on the team. Which I did. Recently I Co-Founded Press Works Media, it is a great package for people who are barely starting out or for people who simply need more press. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Graduating high school wasn’t really a big deal for me. My family on the other hand was very proud of me which made me feel good, knowing they were proud of me. A big challenge for me was whether or not I wanted to stay in college. Eventually I made that decision and I knew I had to do something big. I couldn’t just work at the mall my whole life, I needed to do something I was passionate about that would make me happy. I have one responsibility everyday and I hold myself accountable to it. I work as much as I can in one day because I know it will pay off. Once I started making money I thought “This is nice, but let me figure out how to make more.” Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? I remember when I wanted to give up and do something else because there wasn’t any more spots on the PR sales team. I am very thankful to have a friend like Josue Arteaga because he talked me out of it and told me to push even harder and work for it. I now realize that nothing comes easy and you have to work for it. You have to really prove your worth and make a name for yourself. --- ## A Billionaire in The Making: David Zhao, Managing Partner of NXT Group URL: https://futuresharks.com/a-billionaire-in-the-making-david-zhao-managing-partner-of-nxt-group/ In this Future Sharks interview I spend time with millennial leader David Zhao, a billionaire in the making. He is an entrepreneur, investor, and activist originally from Shanghai, China. He is the co-founder and Managing Partner of NXT Group, an American conglomerate company headquartered in New York City. Its diversified businesses include NXTFactor (full-service digital agency), NXT Local (Food & Dining Franchises such as Chubby Cattle & Meet Fresh Desserts), NXT Estate (Real Estate Investment Portfolio in New York, Nevada, and Indiana), NXT Auto Club (Car Sharing Community) and NXT Capital (VC/MicroCap PE). David Zhao independently managed digital marketing services for several clients before founding his own eCommerce platform – MoreViews, Inc. (originally moreviews.net) in 2007. Specializing in digital development, marketing and management, David Zhao served on the board of various not-for-profits throughout the years. In 2014, his NYC based digital agency, NXTFactor, created over $15 million in revenue for their clients and partners. In 2018, his food and dining franchises such as Chubby Cattle, Meet Fresh, and Spice World creates over $25MM annual revenue combined. He is definitely Leaving Normal Behind and I’m appreciative to share an this incredible Future Sharks interview. We dived deep into his story and extracted very practical information that you can begin to implement immediately in your life and business in order to Leave Normal Behind, become the best version of yourself, and create things that matter. ### Here we go … ### _________ **Where are you from?**  I was born in ShangHai China and now reside in New York City/Philadelphia/Las Vegas **What are some of your hobbies?** I enjoy Boxing, Poker, Travel, Food, andFilm**** **What is your favorite quote?** *The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.* **What are you working on now?** I run a digital agency, NXTFactor, and had the opportunity to work with clients in different industries. After working with hundreds of clients’ digital presence via SMM/Ad Allocation, I began to see the patterns of successful ventures. I then decided to invest into my clients’ ventures and begun NXT Group. Not only do I raise capital and provide capital for these ventures, I provide marketing and financial insight for these ventures as well. **What brought you into the business, tech, innovation, and entrepreneurship world?** I started www.moreviews.net (MoreViews Inc.) in 2007 as an eCommerce platform *David and his team at NXT Factor in NYC* for people to purchase social media marketing & SEO services. It then transformed into NXTFactor in 2013 to serve small and medium sized businesses with their digital platforms and online presence. **What sets you apart as an individual?** Optimism & ability to take ideas into minimum viable products. I have a keen insight to industry based opportunities/problems and the ability to create solutions for those niche problems. **What type of person or company is the best fit for your accelerator?** Our VC fund is interested in investing into ventures or MVPS with existing revenue looking to scale. These ventures must solve a industry based problem by using innovative tech assistance or financial structures. **What’s your dream with your career?** In the short term, I’d like to provide high risk-adjusted return for my investors of my ventures and my fund. With the proven record of my returns from industry agnostic ventures, I will create socially impactful ventures to solve the bigger problems we face as a global community today. **What is your best tip when it comes to networking and building relationships ?** The best relationship is built through working together even if it’s a small project. Start some type of synergy with that individual and see where it takes you, no matter how small. Show your potential client what you’re capable of for free and build that relationship. Learn to give more to build bigger projects and build greater networks. **In your opinion, what is the most important trait in entrepreneurship ?********** **What is your biggest failure? What did you learn from it?** My biggest failure is the investment into unknown industries and public companies that I am not in control of. I’ve learned to invest into opportunistic ventures and improving their operation by increasing revenue, decreasing costs, and improving their internal structure. Once my team has the control of the operation, we can better assess the company’s financial health and its future. **What is the best piece of advice that you have ..** Give before thinking about what you get. Always offer something of value before expecting or asking for something in return. The key to this is not focusing on reciprocity. There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that’s not being talked about. “You have enemies? Good.That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” ~ Winston Churchill. *David on TV* **What is your best insight when it comes to marketing strategies?** Different businesses in different industries require different digital marketing strategies. Different tier products need to be marketed differently as well. For example, Chubby Cattle can be advertised to the general public but is focused on geo-targeted traffic whereas NXT Auto **What is your strategy to building a business?** **Step 1:** Find a niche/problem you’re trying to solve ***Step 2:*** Is there room for profitability for that solution? Do you have competitors? Competitors could be a good thing as it’s a proof of concept. **Step 3:** Executing the MVP by creating business plans, product, and marketing solutions. **Step 4:** Pivot and fix any kinks that occur during the MVP phase **Step 5:** Scale it properly Having the right partners and team members are essential to the success of your ventures. They’re not only essential in providing the skill sets needed in the business but also motivation for founders to pursue. ******** **What is the best way to return your investors money ?** My fund is set to return dividends on a quarterly basis to allow investors full transparency on the ventures our fund has invested in. We provide all ventures’ financial statements and also inform investors challenges and solutions we’ve come up with for each investor. We also leverage strategic investors relationships and resources to help projects the fund has invested in. **What do you think you do better than most people?** *Efficiency of Execution & Team Assembling:* I am able to create MVPS quicker than most. Now I’m learning how to scale quicker with multiple projects on hand that’s scaling at a level I’ve never experienced before. *David Zhao speaking on panel* Most people have an idea and don’t execute or takes forever to create that product whereas I will assemble a team to execute on that idea quickly, turning that idea into reality at an affordable cost. *Sales:* I’m also pretty proficient at finding the right customers for the right products. As the CEO of NXTFactor, I had to convince hundreds of clients to sign up with our firms’ services even when I was 18 years old. This ability allows me to understand customers’ wants better and help them and service them better. **What is the most practical and actionable framework you can share for other Future Sharks to use in their daily life?** I like to create a simple (not a complicated task management system or Gnant chart) daily list that breaks down the tasks that have been completed on a daily basis. This keeps me organized and motivated. If you have a team working, start thinking in the shoe of each team member/employee and see how you can align their personal goals with the company’s goals whether through performance bonus, etc. **What should an entrepreneur focus on?** Simple: focus on solving their daily problems. This can be raising capital, improving their product, marketing their product, etc. If you focus on winning each day then everything will fall into place. If you win each day then you will win the week, and if you win each week then you’ll win each month, and if you win each month then you’ll win the year. It all starts with executing on what you have to do on a daily basis. **What do you believe is the reason for your current success ?** I took my shots early. I believe in myself. I am not afraid to fail with my MVPS. Keep in mind I don’t have investors invest on projects I’m not confident that will be profitable ventures. For example, I haven’t raised any capital for NXT Auto Club or NXTFactor since the creation of those 2 companies. I will only raise capital when I see that the venture is already successful and only need that capital to scale, thus de risking my investor’s capital. **Where do you see yourself in a couple years?** Here’s my vision over the next 2 years: I’d like to scale NXTFactor’s team to be able to service the additional clients we’re taking on. Additionally, I’d like to successfully send quarterly dividends to investors for my ventures in both the restaurant and real estate space. *David at one of his Chubby Cattle locations* This means I will have to scale the Chubby Cattle and Xiang Tian Xia brand quickly and profitably. Number wise, Chubby Cattle & Xiang Tian Xia are doing $20MM in annual sales in 2018 with 5 locations opened but aim to create 20+ locations by 2020 with $80MM+ in annual sales. Once these projects are successful and my investors have been paid off, I will raise a $100MM fund to begin on larger projects with the experience I’ve learned through these ventures. **What is the vision for NXT ?** NXT Group will continue to serve as an internal VC fund that invest in ventures we manage, providing investors with high risk-adjusted return. **What do the words ‘Leave Normal Behind’ mean to you?** It means living your life to your fullest and making impact that fulfills me. I aim to continue growing and learning all my life, regardless the size of my ventures. The key is having the right attitude in life. **Where can we follow you on Social Media?** (hyperlinked, example: Facebook): Here are my social media accounts to follow: https://www.facebook.com/officialdavidzhao/ http://instagram.com/itsdawei https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrJJAc9DSUu09UvyhWfmwhw/featured _____ David shared some incredible insight in this Future Sharks interview. One of my favorite pieces is his approach to building businesses. His 5 step framework is industry agnostic and can be used as an effective way to build any business. Focus on your daily tasks and win each day. Do not overcomplicate things. Take action NOW ! Many entrepreneurs get lost in the thinking and planning and never end up executing in the trenches. If you have an idea, start now, and quickly create a minimum viable product (MVP). Once you have your MVP you can begin showing others and getting market feedback. Use David’s 5 step framework to give you guidance. If you or anyone you know is a Future Shark who is leaving normal behind then email me rob@leavenormalbehind.com to connect. --- ## From Military Personnel To Entrepreneur Extraordinaire- The Danny Lewis Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/danny-lewis/ “It sounds crazy to compare the Airborne tryout to So You Think You Can Dance, but they felt the same at times” – Actor Danny Lewis dives into his (former) military life. **What’s your backstory?** I’m an actor, dancer, writer, and entrepreneur. This is my story. I grew up in a pretty normal middle class family in Rocklin, California, a suburb of the state’s capitol, Sacramento. Though my parents divorced when I was 9, they both supported my brother and me in our various endeavors. I was one of those kids growing up who saw the movie “Top Gun” and knew exactly who I wanted to be for the rest of my life: a fighter pilot.’ I worked my ass off in school, earned super high grades, and somehow convinced my congressman to nominate me for The US Air Force Academy. I was the nerd who was in Junior ROTC in high school, so I had been wearing an Air Force uniform since I was a teenager, but getting to The Academy as a cadet was a total shock. I went from being the top guy in a local ROTC unit to just another Freshman. It was a tough adjustment. I was always sort of a rebel growing up, and didn’t even make it out of basic training without earning a spot on the probation list. I made my way off the list, but I realized that I’m not a huge fan of bureaucracies. It’s tough to have a boss who’s your boss simply because he or she is older or has more seniority. It makes you appreciate hard skill, talent, and character. Don’t get me wrong, I had an amazing experience. I made lifelong friends, earned my degree, and commissioned as a lieutenant. I even earned a ticket to pilot training in Mississippi, which was a crazy and awesome experience. For over a year, my classmates and I hammered out 20-hour days learning to fly three different planes. We learned the basics, aerobatic flying, formation flying, it was all pretty fast and crazy. The stress was intense. 4:30am briefings so that we could get to the plane and prep to take off at exactly sunrise. It was intense, stressful, and the most difficult thing I had done my whole life. Pilot training was one of those life experiences that pushes you hard. It forces you to take massive leaps out of your comfort zone every single day. Just when you get comfortable with anything you’ve learned — takeoffs, aerobatics, landings, and solo flights — you’re pushed to do something new and super uncomfortable. You never feel quite right in pilot training. You never really feel settled. But I think that was instructive more me. It taught me to take a chance and do what feels uncomfortable. And when you lend some thought to it — serious thought — you intuit that the only way to grow is to push beyond one’s comfort zone. After earning my wings, the Air Force stationed me in Las Vegas, Nevada and tasked me with flying Predator “drones.” It was beyond surreal. I went from wearing a helmet, oxygen mask, and flight suit, flying 300 knots, to sitting in a modified storage container flying about 75 miles per hour in Iraq, Afghanistan, and a few other spots. It was one of those jobs that is 99% boredom and 1% pure adrenaline. I remember one night we went from flying on autopilot around a building for hours to celebrating hunting down Bin Laden. We were doing super important things, but it often felt mundane. I think that’s what the important things in life often feel like, and that’s OK. I just needed some excitement more often, so I got into ballroom dancing as a side project. Really, it was a friend who suggested I buy one of those daily deals and go with her. I took a week of convincing me, but I finally went. It only took another week for me to fall in love with dance. Now, maybe five years later, I perform routines all over and compete when I find the time. I absolutely love it! In fact, it’s a big part of what I do now as a performer. After a few years of drone flying, I got out of the Air Force and moved to Los Angeles. Ultimately, I thought my goal was to become a general in the Air Force, or an astronaut, or something like that. But it took me a few years to figure out that, even as a kid, I didn’t really​ want to be a pilot like in Top Gun. I really wanted to be the guy ​playing​ the pilot. I wanted to ACT. I wanted to create compelling stories filled with rich characters facing impossible odds. It sounds trite, I know, but I really wanted to plum the characters I’d met along the way in the Air Force. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been fascinated by what makes other people tick. What motivates them to do what they do. Acting, story-writing, and content production lets me do this on a deep level. I get to know a character inside and out, and I get to really understand what it is that drives people. It’s fascinating! I mean, I’m sure story exposition and character development aren’t everyone’s idea of fun time, but I just love the stuff! Now, I spend most of my time developing characters and stories with my various content partners, and hone the crafts of dancing and acting. I don’t think I’m world class — I’m definitely a better pilot than I am a performer — but I’m putting the time in to getting there. I think that’s the toughest part of any career. I think it’s super tough to keep your head down and focus on getting better, even when you don’t see an immediate return, but I feel like I’ve had a great of training that keeps me in the zone and focused on becoming better every day. And really, that’s all we can ask of ourselves. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** A few years ago, just after I left the military, I decided I wanted to start a company that helped people find drone services for everything from real estate photography to aerial cinematography for film and television. I brought on a few investors and called the company “Skyborn.” We began building out the platform — think of it like a Yelp! for drone pilots that lets you book the pilot — but I failed to get it going fast enough to support more investment. I know this sounds like a failure, but it was a huge win for me. It was my first entrepreneurial endeavor, and I learned a ton about what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Skyborn is still going. I’m doing it on my own. The point is, I learned how to hustle, how to provide value to customers, and how to manage folks who may not be as bought into an idea as me. And that’s really what a career in Hollywood is. You have to find a way to bring value all the time. You’re selling yourself, ALL THE TIME. But, ironically, it’s authentic. That’s really the only way to sell yourself in Hollywood or anywhere. You have to be honest to others and true to yourself. You have to work hard, take responsibility for your own life, and approach everyone you meet with integrity. And you really can’t quit, ever. You have to push through challenges and take responsibility for your own success. That’s entrepreneurship. That’s acting. Skyborn didn’t become a billion-dollar company. I mean, we’re still around and growing, but it’s more of a side hustle now. The skills I learned along the way are the real win. A commitment to tireless effort, integrity, and a never-quit attitude are my bedrock values. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I remember being a sophomore — a “Cadet-Third Class” — at the Air Force Academy and had the opportunity to be a part of a program that gave us the chance to go to the Army’s Airborne school in the summer where they train paratroopers. I was dying to go, but the Air Force on gets three or four spots, if any, a year. So the upperclassmen from the previous year put us through the ringer. There were about 100 of us who showed up to the tryout — sort of like an audition. It was something like 4 in the morning in the dead of winter in Colorado and we had 50 or 60 pound rucksacks we had to carry throughout the tryout. I remember it was brutal. We started by unpacking and repacking the rucksacks in the snow with numb hands. The rucksacks had to be packed perfectly. Upperclassmen swarmed us. These were some of the toughest people I’ve ever met. The kind of people you read about in history books about Air Force Special Tactics, Navy SEALs, and Army Special Forces operators. They ran us for something like ten miles in the woods, in the snow. We did push-ups, sit-ups, flutter kicks, Ranger claps, buddy carries, you name it, all day. My peers dropped like flies. I’ll be honest, I thought about quitting that day. A LOT. It’s tough to put into words how tough this day was, but I’ll always remember what one of the upperclassmen told me while I was simultaneously freezing and sweating on the ruck run. He asked my where I’d rather be than on the ruck run. Remember, we each had something like 60 pounds on our backs and were dead tired. With a slight smile, I told him I wanted to be in a hot tub in Vail with an ice cold Coke and steak. Weird, I know. I’ll never forget his response: “There’s nowhere else you should want to be right now. You should want to be right here, right now, feeling every second of the pain and learning to love it. You should embrace the discomfort and use it as fuel.” I won’t said who it was that told me this, but the guy would later go on to be a hero in Afghanistan. Oddly, his words pushed me. I thought about quitting that day almost every second. But his words brought me solace. Maybe it was thinking that others were probably having the same trouble I was having, or maybe that one of the upperclassmen who had successfully made it through the tryout was giving genuine advice to get through it. I’m not sure, but that advice has stuck with me. When So You Think You Can Dance called me into their auditions, I had to struggle for a month straight to learn a routine I had never done before and get the technique and my fitness as perfect for it as I could. I thought about that day I wanted to quit on that run and it really pushed me. It pushed me to max effort and dance better than I think I ever have before and enjoy every second of it. I know it sounds crazy to compare the Airborne tryout to SYTYCD, but they felt the same at times: in both cases I had to push myself harder than I ever had before to focus on rapid personal growth in the face of surmounting burden of the desire to quit. But you can’t quit. You have to keep going and learn to love the pain along the way. I think 25 of us finished that day. We started with 100. --- ## Annabelle Beckwith- Every Problem Has A Solutiob URL: https://futuresharks.com/annabelle-beckwith/ “I’m a firm believer that ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’”- Annabelle Beckwith **What is your backstory?** I grew up in rural Wiltshire, went to an all girls school, took a year out between school and university to work as a volunteer supporting recovering drug addicts in Hong Kong, then went to Birmingham University to study English Language and Literature. I remember thinking to myself ‘I don’t want an ordinary 9-5 job’ After writing consistently to the BBC in Birmingham to ask for work, I got a job as ‘hospitality coordinator’’ on a daytime TV show, but contributed ideas and researched some items for broadcast. I left the BBC to go home and help my mum with a tribunal case: she’d been fired because she’s Indian. She won the case and donated the money she won to have wells dug in rural villages in Gujarat. I got a job with a communications company in Somerset, and had the best boss possible, with whom I’m still in touch. She was an entrepreneur who’d set up her own business and we worked not with local Somerset companies, but with national and global organisations like the NHS, OFWAT, BP, Amoco. I married and moved to Scotland and couldn’t find a job, so temped for a while and then set up on my own in marketing and PR. As part of this, I held a contract with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, (then the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) as commercialisation manager, with the role of securing additional income streams for the academy. I set up an agency for students and ran drama-based training programmes for the corporate sector. I was promoted to Head of Development and Public Affairs, responsible for marketing and fundraising and had a team of 5… but I had no experience of leadership at that point, so it was all guesswork. I left to set up an arts-based training company with a friend. That was 18 years ago, my company name has changed in that time, but I’ve worked with leaders at all levels in major organisations during that time, in the UK, Europe, USA , Middle East and Far East. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** *Successes* There have been successes along the way, but I count my biggest success as the journey I’ve been on over nearly 2 decades. Today, I’m coaching and training senior level leaders in large organisations and working with ambitious entrepreneurs who want to scale their businesses. I’ve worked with clients all over the world, and have seen first-hand core principles at work: what makes good leaders and what makes poor leaders. Which factors lead to business success and growth…and which don’t. These patterns and principles are universal. However, 20 years ago I was a manager at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. I loved my job but I had no leadership training whatsoever at that point, and I was guessing my way through it day by day. Not only did I make mistakes that impacted on my team, it was deeply stressful as I questioned pretty much every decision I made. I left to set up a training and coaching business with a friend (who’s since moved on to other things) and we started, hesitant at first, to win a few clients through our creative approach. We also worked as associates for larger training companies, and at that stage this was a godsend, as it enabled us to work with huge multinationals and REALLY start to understand the scope and potential of what we were doing. From working with UK companies, I was offered the opportunity to work with clients in Europe: at that point it would have been easy to say ‘no thanks’ because it was something new for me, I had young children etc etc However (back to that mindset thing!) I said yes… and more overseas opportunities came, and continue to come. Most recently, we’ve been a training delivery partner for a New Zealand company, for its subsidiary businesses in the UK, Europe and USA. *Challenges* I’m a firm believer that ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’. Mindset is everything: if you decide that this is one challenge too many and the game’s over…it is. If you decide that there is a way forward, your thought process shifts from ‘if’ to ‘how’, and this in itself precipitates creative thinking and action rather than uncertainty. My thinking has never been around ‘what if this doesn’t work’ but always around ‘how am I going to do this?’ My early challenges revolved around the initial move from employment to going it alone, especially as I had a family to support. Finding clients was the opening act: we started by targeting public sector organisations with projects under £25,000 that didn’t have to go to a massive public tender, and moved gradually from there to working with corporates, often as associates of larger more established firms, and gradually built up our own diverse client base. The economic environment has provided its own challenges: during the banking crisis in around 2008-2009, many companies simply slashed their training and development budgets: projects that had been scheduled were simply pulled completely or scaled back drastically. At that point, I found it was a matter of pivoting a little and going to where the corporate focus was: one to one coaching for those leading or going through big changes in their business environment and career coaching for those losing their jobs became a focus that year. Political surprises like Brexit also provide a challenge: if working in Europe is going to be more difficult (and who knows what will happen frankly) then we turn our attention further afield, to Asia, Australia/ New Zealand and the USA. For me, responding to challenges has to be about: a) acknowledging the issue head on, rather than pretending it’s not there b) thinking creatively and flexibly about how to work round it, through it, over it or under it c) taking action. Taking a step forward. Doing something…. and recognising that overthinking leads to inertia! *Responsibilities* In terms of life in general my major responsibility is to my two teenagers. I’ve always been their provider, so failure isn’t an option! In terms of business it’s twofold: first, responsibility to my clients, in delivering what I promise and in making a difference to their business. If my coaching programmes or training courses don’t make a difference to individuals and to the impact they have on the businesses in which they work, then it’s all been a waste of everyone’s time. I set out on every project to change lives. Secondly, it’s to the people I work with. I work on an associate basis, bringing in specialist experts into client projects depending on what’s needed. Aside from the obvious factors of ensuring that they are compensated well for their expertise, I feel a responsibility to ensure that we’re all working on worthwhile, interesting and useful projects where we can actually make a difference. I’m not particularly interested in ‘tick the box’ training or coaching where an organisation is just going through the motions without really caring whether or not it makes a difference. It’s soul destroying: I won’t do it and I don’t expect my team to either! Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? We’re all human. Whilst we tend to talk about our successes and the times we’ve pulled through, there are times when it’s all looking so bleak and hopeless that we’re ready to throw in the towel for good. During the financial crisis, when clients left right and centre were cancelling training programmes that had been booked and confirmed, it felt like the ground was shifting under my feet. Everything I’d worked hard to build up by that point: regular clients who came to me through recommendations, a full diary of interesting and profitable work, a lifestyle that meant I was there for my kids much more than if I’d been working a 9 -5 job… all of it was about to crumble under my feet, and there was nothing I could do about it. I had no control whatsoever. I lost sleep every night, and felt physically sick and weak at the thought of failure, and potentially losing everything I’d worked for. I’d been scheduled to deliver some leadership programmes in Europe with one client – until they announced that as a cost cutting measure, they were putting the programme on hold. Suddenly there was a big gap in the diary…and that meant a big gap in my business finances. Other clients started to do the same – cancelling or indefinitely postponing work, putting bans on international travel… all of which spelled doom for my business. In those times it’s easy to panic and think ‘any port in a storm’ , and I started to look at other options, primarily finding a job. In that storm, though, there were literally no ports! Companies weren’t recruiting, even when I started to think about giving up and getting a job, the prospects of finding something decent were so lame that it was better to soldier on. It was a case of weather the storm or drown. Bizarrely, a walk in the woods gave me a fresh perspective: I noticed that although it was winter and everything had died back…there were still evergreens. There were still the last few berries on the trees. There was still life amongst the dead branches. I decided to look for the ‘evergreens’ and the last few berries in my work: what I started to notice, was that companies were focusing on going through change, and on career coaching. I saw that these were areas in which I could provide a service, so I refocused here. 1. I survived the storm: sometimes in business it’s not about boldly sailing forward, it’s about holding fast and avoiding shipwreck on the rocks, and living to sail on another day…. --- ## David Zhao, The 23 Year Old Venture Capitalist, Is Bringing Technology to The Food and Dining Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/david-zhao-the-23-year-old-venture-capitalist-is-bringing-technology-to-the-food-and-dining-industry/ First of all thanks for taking the time to share your story on [Future Sharks](http://futuresharks.com). Future Sharks is a fast growing community where we aim to promote the businesses and initiatives of entrepreneurs around the world and help them find more customers and fans. The goal of the interview is not only to tell your story but also to **provide the readers with an actionable piece of advice or any other valuable information that they can take away and act on**. If they find value in what you write, they will be more likely to share your interview, thus giving you more exposure.  David Zhao independently managed digital marketing services for several clients before founding his own eCommerce platform – MoreViews, Inc. (originally moreviews.net) in 2007. Specializing in digital development, marketing and management, David Zhao served on the board of various not-for-profits throughout the years. In 2014, his NYC based digital agency, NXTFactor, created over $15 million in revenue for their clients and partners. In 2018, his food and dining franchises such as Chubby Cattle, Meet Fresh, and Spice World creates over $25MM annual revenue combined. #### How did you come up with this idea? A: I run a digital agency, NXTFactor, and had the opportunity to work with clients in different industries. After working with hundreds of clients’ digital presence via SMM/Ad Allocation, I begin to see the patterns of successful ventures. I then decided to invest into my clients’ ventures and begun NXT Group. Not only do I raise capital and provide capital for these ventures, I provide marketing and financial insight for these ventures. #### What brought you into the business, tech, innovation, and entrepreneurship world? A: David started www.moreviews.net (MoreViews Inc.) in 2007 as an eCommerce platform for people to purchase social media marketing & SEO services. It then transformed into NXTFactor in 2013 to serve small and medium-sized businesses with their digital platforms and online presence. The rest is history with how I got into the food and dining space and the auto industry. #### What sets you apart as an individual? A: Optimism & ability to take ideas into minimum viable products. I have a keen insight to industry based opportunities/problems and the ability to create solutions for those niche problems. #### What type of person or company is the best fit for your accelerator? #### A: Our VC fund is interested in investing in ventures or MVPS with existing revenue looking to scale. These ventures must solve an industry based problem by using innovative tech assistance or financial structures. #### What’s your dream with your career? A: In the short term, I’d like to provide high risk-adjusted return for my investors of my ventures and my fund. With the proven record of my returns from industry agnostic ventures, I will create socially impactful ventures to solve the bigger problems we face as a global community today. #### What is your best tip when it comes to networking and building relationships? A: The best relationship is built through working together even if it’s a small project. Start some type of synergy with that individual and see where it takes you, no matter how small. Show your potential client what you’re capable of for free and build that relationship. Learn to give more to build bigger projects and build greater networks. #### What is your biggest failure? What did you learn from it? My biggest failure is the investment into unknown industries and public companies that I am not in control of. I’ve learned to invest into opportunistic ventures and improving their operation by increasing revenue, decreasing costs, and improving their internal structure. Once my team has the control of the operation, we can better assess the company’s financial health and its future. --- ## Building A 10 Million Instagram Network- The Story of Instagram Growth Hacker Raymond Ahn URL: https://futuresharks.com/raymond-ahn/ ## Before all the success- take us back to Raymond- growing up (tell me your story and how you got to where you are today) I grew up in Orange County studying human biology at Biola University. My dad was a dentist, my mom was in herbal medicine, my uncle was a chiropractor, and so I thought my path would also be in the medical field. However I never had a passion for medicine and I found that the more I studied in the healthcare field, the more I discovered this was not something I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. I began to learn how to build websites and drive traffic using the power of social media and eventually just went all in on Instagram to learn the ins and outs of it through networking, spending countless hours everyday learning from others, and also by experience. Now I’ve built over hundreds of thousands of followers, built my personal page @ray.ahn to over 50k followers without paying for any shoutouts, and have built my podcast interviewing big names in entrepreneurship and social media. I never knew how to do any of this 2 years ago but by putting in the time, effort, and money to learn no matter what it took, I was able to get to where I am today. ## What were some hard lessons you learned along the way? One thing I’ve learned is that the only person you can truly depend on is yourself. People will come and go and those you thought were friends or trusted may turn their back or end up not helping you anymore. At the end of the day, you have to built up your value as a person and in your skills so that people will come to you instead of you going to other people. I learned that building my personal value and worth is way more important than building someone else’s because you’re going to be the only person that will be there for you at the end. I’ve also learned that more than learning by courses or from other people, the best way to learn is through experience and by getting your hands dirty. It took me years to build the network and experience I have today, but the important key to success for me was to not give up, believe in my vision and mission more than my fears and doubts, and to follow my intention for wanting to help and empower others instead of defeating myself before I even tried. ## What is your most proudest moment ? My proudest moment is when I received messages from people that I was helping them believe in themselves and that my podcast was making a positive impact in their lives. Also another moment was when I was able to interview Cole Hatter, the founder of Thrive which was the first entrepreneur conference I went to 2 years ago. I feel like it has come in full circle and it was a sort of confirmation for me that I’m on the right path and am doing something that can positively impact people’s lives. It was funny because Cole’s assistant reached out to me for Cole to be on my podcast so it showed that I built a podcast and platform that people see as worth listening to and being on. I started with the intention to inspire and empower others to believe in themselves and to build a life with no regrets, and the fact that I’ve received messages from people that my podcast has helped them is something that I’m proud of. ## What are your top 3 lessons for success as an entrepreneur or life lessons in general? The first lesson would be that you have to have the right intention and vision before you even start. You need to know your “why” and this will keep you going when things get rough and when you feel like giving up. Second is that the entrepreneur life isn’t easy. I am still working to build financial freedom for myself and this isn’t something that comes easily. You need to fail, learn, and get back up again but the important thing is to never to let failure define you but to use it as a lesson to improve as a person and in your business. Lastly, I would say don’t forget about those who matter most in your life. I believe people are above possessions so don’t get caught up when you start making money and lose sight of those who matter most to you. I intentionally spend time with my family and friends even when there is a lot of things to do because at the end of the day I want to let those I love know that they matter to me more than my work and that my work doesn’t define me as a person. ## How did you stumble upon Instagram as a gold mine and build a network of pages ? I first learned about Instagram as a powerful traffic source when I used it to drive traffic to my websites where I planned to set ads to make money. I eventually left building websites and trying to do SEO to learn Instagram full-time. Since then I’ve networked a lot and been learning the ins and outs of Instagram to build my own pages. Now I know a lot of big influencers in the Instagram space and have interviewed some of them on my podcast as well. ## Who has been a mentor or guiding force for you in life and/or business ? My faith in God has been the most important guiding force in my life and business because that is where a lot of my values and beliefs come from. The fact that I’m able to treat everyone has a human being and not look at them based on the number of followers is something that I don’t think I would have if I did not have a relationship with God. Also a lot of the values that are taught in the Bible like loving your family, loving your neighbor, and to not let money or possessions influence your view of people are just some of the important values that I hold onto and live by. ## What would be your advice for people that maybe lost currently or don’t know what to do with their lives? My advice for those who are currently lost or don’t know what to do with their life is to first try. Don’t defeat yourself before you even try. I didn’t know many Asian podcasters and there was also a lot of competition at the time, but I didn’t let that stop me from doing something that I thought would be able to help others. If there’s an idea you always had in the back of your mind that you think would be cool to do or fun, then try it and you would be surprised at how far you can take it if you put in the time and effort. Also listen to podcasts, read books, go to events, and learn from as many people as you can since investing in yourself is the best investment you can make for yourself. And lastly, know that you’re not alone. The people who stand out and make it are those who even in the face of doubt and uncertainty still take action and that is what separates true leaders from those who just talk about it. And like Steve Jobs said,”You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” You could follow Raymond for his content on: https://www.instagram.com/ray.ahn/ --- ## From College Dropout To Agency Owner URL: https://futuresharks.com/dylan-hey/ **What’s your backstory?** I come from very humble beginnings in the UK. I was raised by a single parent who somehow managed to make ends meet but we definitely didn’t have a lot. No one in my family has ever really been successful or created any wealth, and nobody has ever been an entrepreneur. One thing I excelled at when I was younger was sports; it was my passion. At the age of 7, I started training in the Korean martial art of Taekwondo and that became my life. By my teenage years, was already winning at multiple European and World Championships for England. One time I won a silver medal at a World Championship in Belarus. All of this was a huge part of how I realized that I could really win big when I get older. Then again, I had to go to school, but like a winner, I didn’t merely accept my situation. Simply because I wanted to make more money, I did some Ebay buy-and-sell with clothing and accessories. It wasn’t long until I realized that university wasn’t for me. I left school and landed my first sales role for an engineering supplier firm. I helped significantly increase the revenue of that small business and I was approached about a role within recruitment (headhunting). I eventually joined that recruitment firm and delivered stellar results. During my first years I was already billing 6-figures, but I absolutely hated that job. It was so old-school, and they only cared about the calls and the number of hours you did on the phone. You can get fired easily, and the managers didn’t even make us feel like anything more than a call center. I started experimenting with social media and realized that I could be way more productive using its tools to close more deals but make less calls. When I discovered social media, I made it to a point to apply to LinkedIn or Hootsuite. I jumped through hoops, did several interviews, and finally landed a job at Hootsuite. I was able to improve my social media skills, rub elbows with executives of Fortune 500 companies, and most of all, destroyed my sales targets while I worked there. Such a life-changing experience, if you ask me. Not long after that, I was approached by Leadfeeder. They were a Helsinki-based SaaS company who wanted someone to lead their growth in the UK and European markets. I accepted the job because it felt exciting and challenging to work for a very promising startup. I contributed to the growth of Leadfeeder too–taking a team of 16 to 40, and hiring employees from LinkedIn, Salesforce, Hootsuite, Google, and Dropbox. When these results got into several talks around the SaaS world, my name got more traction and I also started doing growth marketing work for other SaaS companies. Then it hit me: it’s time to go solo. Left Leadfeeder in May 2018, and set out to build Hey Digital, my own growth marketing agency that helps other SaaS businesses grow. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** It wasn’t easy for me to decide to build my own brand and my own business. These past few months showed that it has been a success, challenge, and most of all, a major responsibility. Around the time I was seeing success at Leadfeeder I also started to experiment with growing my own personal brand. I built my Facebook group from 0-1000+ members in less than 6 months and my personal brand really started to pick up traction on LinkedIn. My content there has been seen by well over 1M people in the last couple of months. I also have my own podcast, The Social Media Growth Show which landed at number 11 within the iTunes business chart on its release. I’m also an international speaker as I was booked for a speaking gig in Belgrade, Serbia earlier this year. Most of these successes and responsibilities have turned over positive results because of a constant string of challenges, too. Like everyone else, I underwent a lot of trial-and-error, especially in building my own team. I found out–the long and hard way– that it requires a lot of work, effective time distribution, putting other people’s welfare over mine, and most of all, just be a damn good CEO. Making sure every member of my team is happy is one of the most important things for me in business. 1. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** To tell you the truth, I am so far into my purpose that I really didn’t have a single moment where I thought that I would just give up. However, I remember I had an issue on my first month in business where I agreed to do 2 days of consulting work for a business in another country. This is a brand new client and even though they agreed to pay me upfront, they still decided that they wanted to wait until after I had delivered the training. Because I was still a newbie and I was truly excited to get it going, I booked my flight and accommodations, and flew out to conduct the workshop. Took me over a month to chase them and this set back the growth of my agency slightly because during this crucial time, it was a significant amount of revenue that I was banking on. I took it as a learning experience and I decided to never work with someone who doesn’t align with my core values. Moreover, I also commit to never subjecting myself to that situation of feeling nervous if I’m going to make it the next month IF I don’t receive the funds. I also chose to look into the plus side of this event, where I was able to be an international consultant, travel the world and teach other people things that I am truly passionate about. --- ## “Content is King Because It Inspires and Directs Original Thought.”- Joseph D Lazukin URL: https://futuresharks.com/joseph-lazukin/ **What’s your backstory?****I guess I have a humble beginning like most entrepreneurs. Divorced parents, raised on state aid, didn’t want to see people struggle and decided to make a difference instead of getting beat up by the punches life throws at you. At 12 years old I dabbled in code, building custom MySpace profiles for friends for $25-$50 a pop. I used to always look at how other kids had things I didn’t, and programming really became my vice because I could create anything and it wouldn’t cost anyone anything but my time. So I dove in and dedicated a lot of my free time to building whatever came to mind, websites, game engines, even hand built a forum community. Eventually that lead me into developing out SaaS tools and marketing automation software like LiveLeap.com and most recently Hopfu.com. However for those who follow me on Facebook I might be better known for the constant value and marketing case studies I share on my wall that I’ve learned from consulting, auditing, or managing marketing campaigns that have generated or saved several million over the years. Why is content king?** Content is king because it inspires and directs original thought. Since the beginning of time, people have exchanged knowledge in the form of storytelling because story telling inspires and directs original thought, and while you can teach someone all the technical ways of how to do something, only their original thoughts aka creativity, will set them apart.**If you have 10 companies saying they have the best pizza in New York, as they often do, how do you pick which one is actually the best if they all say the same thing? It’s how they say it, the content of the words they use that trigger past memories and draw up emotional reactions. If one pizza vendor said “We are New York’s best” and another pizza vendor said “Our pizza is so mouth wateringly good you are going to want to loosen a notch on your belt, call your mama, and ask for seconds it’s so good” which one would you rather go to? Words have power. They inspire and direct original thought. In the phrase above, a few key words change the entire context. If I changed “pizza” to a general term like “food” it loses all it’s clarity. If I just say “our pizza is good”, well people don’t want just “good” they want “great” but “great” by itself is hard to relate to for some people who maybe haven’t been really wowed in a while, so saying “mouth wateringly good” puts it into perspective because we’ve all at some time smelled or ate something so good that every time we think about it we get inspired to have some, which I then play off in the last bit “loosen a notch on your belt….ask for seconds” but I interjected “call your mama” in there why? Because a lot of people have a really strong connection to home cooking, because why else would you call your mama because of food? Probably because it was so dang good it reminded you of her, and that’s the picture that copy creates. It tells a story, it evokes emotion, it inspires original thought. No two people are going to experience the same feeling or thoughts and that is why copy is king. How do we break the noise when there’s so many channels to listen to? For example Facebook? How do we protect ourselves from changes?**********Woah that’s a loaded couple of questions! Let me see if I can break it down. When it comes to noise, especially in today’s world, we are bombarded with advertisements each and every day, and if you are lost on how to break through to your customers, step back and observe the viral trends. Then spend an hour writing down the things each viral piece of content have in common. You will discover one incredibly important thing. They evoke emotion. Positive or negative, viral content is anything but “luke warm”. Pause for a minute before you write your next ad and ask yourself, are you really matching your brand objective with the emotion of your copy? If the answer is no, tweak it. Especially on platforms like Facebook, with all of their recent changes, advertisers who’ve had success due to technical know-how have gotten killed with the loss of behavioral targeting, but how you choose your copy is just as important as how you deliver it. Facebook and Youtube for instance is great for edutainment, content that is both informative and entertaining. Whereas Google is intent based and the efficiency of information is king, and Instagram is vanity based where glamorized imagery and video that evokes FOMO (fear of missing out) is king. However in my experience, one of the most powerful ways to cut through the noise is to go where the emotional connection is the strongest, and that isn’t Facebook, Google, or Instagram. It’s SMS, because when you get a text message, who do you think it is from? A friend or something important, right? Not to mention, some case studies even say that people’s emotion is so strongly tied to text messaging, that over 80% texts sent are read within 15 minutes of delivery. Because of that emotional trigger, SMS is the king of the impulse buy (when used correctly that is). Plus it’s a neutral medium where no one company can suddenly change the marketing landscape, destroying your lead flow and putting you out of business. So the best way to defend yourself against major landscape changes and corporate greed is to utilize multiple channels and to develop email and especially SMS lists to reach your customers. --- ## Entrepreneur Mark Denham of Source Workspace Reveals His Secrets to Scaling a Company URL: https://futuresharks.com/markdenham/ In this series, I uncover the insights and strategies behind the world’s most interesting [entrepreneurs](/could-fipsi-be-the-worlds-first-flying-car/). Today, I had the pleasure of catching up with Mark Denham Founder and CEO of, Source Workspace. Here is what he shared me… #### John White: What is your backstory?  How did you become an entrepreneur? **Mark Denham****:**  I became an entrepreneur at the age of seven, and I wanted to start a little lawn mowing business, and so my sister taught me how to print up cards on a typewriter, and I went around and called on all the neighbors and introduced myself and handed out my business card, and I got two callbacks and two customers, and that’s how I got started being an entrepreneur. #### John White:  I love it.  That’s cool.  Alright.  How have you been able to scale up your company from idea stage to where you are now? **Mark Denham****:**  I think the first part of that is to find out that proof of concept, that you’re on to something good, that the market is acceptable of your concept or your idea.  And then, put together the right team — ’cause usually entrepreneurs, of the three or four disciplines in business, they’re usually good at one or two of them, but not all of them — and either surround yourself with people that have those other disciplines or are a consultant for those disciplines to help you map out and chart your course. But once you do that and you really have the best player in the right position, you’ve done all of your budgeting, your projections, you’ve capitalized the company properly, and you execute your marketing plan, maybe getting an early adopter customer as a beta test is really good, even before you come out from behind the curtain. #### John White: What has been your biggest challenge thus far in your entrepreneurial journey? **Mark Denham****:**  I would say knowing what you’re good at and knowing what you’re not good at.  And if there are not people around you that are really good at those items that you’re not strong on, and you have to step in and do them yourself, I think the business suffers.  It definitely slows up the growth.  It’s not playing into the strength of the entrepreneur.  And today, you can’t go it alone.  You need people to make it happen, and nobody is the perfect entrepreneur that has every discipline dialed.  They’re just not around, very few of them, and you need help, and I think it’s just understanding that and having access to those people. #### John White:  Great answer.  Okay, the next question: Can you share your best advice with prospective entrepreneurs? **Mark Denham****:**  I would say don’t ever quit.  It’s not an easy road.  There’s going to be a lot of dark moments.  There will be a ton of people that will question you, what you’re doing, why you’re doing this, why don’t you just go get a normal job.  It could be even your spouse or your girlfriend or something like that: “How are you going to support our family?”  All these questions come up where people question your motives, why you’re doing this or whether you’re going to be successful.  I certainly had a lot of that, probably ten to one, a negative comment to a positive comment, for those that are close by.  So, you have to look beyond that.  You have to just be super focused on what your goal is.  I wrote mine down.  I read them three times a day.  I had a visual board in front of me at all times, and I saw where I was going to go.  This is my roadmap.  And because it’s easy to get knocked off balance, and all of a sudden you find yourself in the ditch, so I would say stay focused and don’t quit. #### John White: In terms of marketing your business, what have you found to be the most effective? **Mark Denham****:**  Well, first of all, there’s a lot of demands of being an entrepreneur, and it’s very easy to get pulled down into the weeds to where you’re working in your business instead of on your business.  This is something that I struggled with a long time, and you have to make time for your marketing.  There’s nobody that has a better voice than you about your products, your vision, your business, and you need to make time for it.  I find the best way to do that is just to get away, do it outside of the office, get away from it, it’s quiet, where you can write, put your ideas down.  You may have somebody with you that’s helping you do that, pull that all out.  But to clarify your vision for the business, to speak from your voice I think is really effective.  Clarity, honesty, integrity, those are things that are really important.  People are looking, “Why should I do business with you, and how are you different?”, and we need to convey those messages to people. But I would say social media today is really where it’s at, to be out there hiring good people to do that.  You can’t expect to be a LinkedIn expert, a Twitter expert, or any place else where you need to have a voice, and so I have found people that are very effective in those areas.  We have a new business that we started last year, and we’re just in the early stages of launching that, and I’m excited that we have the right team pulled together. #### John White:  Okay.  Is there anything you would do differently when you first started out that you wish you knew then? **Mark Denham****:**  Okay.  Getting back to the three or four legs of things that you need to be successful in business, I would say if I did anything differently, I would’ve brought together those missing legs and had them a part of the business from the ground up. Skin in the game, the disciplines that many entrepreneurs lack.  Some are great at product development, or finance, or sales, marketing, or vendor relations.  There’s just a bunch of things you’ve got to be really good at, and it’s very rare to have all of those, and it’s good to have it.  So, in hindsight being 20/20 that I had those people on board identified, they had skin in the game, they were part of the team.  I didn’t go it alone. #### John White: Okay, Mark, what is the next step in your journey?  What does the future hold for you? **Mark Denham****:**  Well, since I sold my last business a couple of years ago, I’ve been working on taking issues that are environmental problems, like recycled materials and what to do with them, and trying to incorporate that into something that’s useful for people.  My industry background is commercial interiors, and so we’ve come along products that are made out of recycled water bottles, and so I really love that.  There’s a purpose behind that.  The first prototype that we had was a phone booth that had over 2,000 recycled water bottles in each booth, and that was something, to leave a legacy behind.  It mattered that you were here, that you actually did something to make our world a better place.  So, I’m focusing on that.  However, I have goals of millions and millions and millions of recycled water bottles and putting them into all kinds of things, making furniture out of it, lining walls with it, creating sound-mitigating material for people.  Just about anything you can do with this, I’m trying to come up with some solution for that. --- ## The Business of Aesthetics: Jarrod Reque makes over 10K a Month designing Logos URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-business-of-aesthetics-jarrod-reque-makes-over-10k-a-month-designing-logos/ *Meet Jarrod Reque, a self taught graphic designer and creative entrepreneur from Atlanta, Georgia. After attending Georgia Gwinnett College and Penn Foster for business, Jarrod worked his way to a management position at Coastal Industries, a shower door manufacturer – he spent 4 years with the company, and then he quit his job to start his own Shower Door Business. During the process of starting his business, Jarrod had trouble finding a graphic designer he could rely on to make him a logo – he decided he’d make his own. This was the beginning of a process that would lead Jarrod to a different type of business venture. Fast forward 3 years, Jarrod now runs a graphic design firm, Atlanta Design LLC. – and makes over $10,000 a month designing logos for small businesses and startups.* --- ## Tell us about Atlanta Design, How did you come up with the idea? **Jarrod Reque:**Atlanta Design is a firm I started because I realized the era we live in. Every day more and more people quit their desk jobs to pursue their dream careers. I wanted to help people like this, because I can relate to the experience. A business is just an idea that you build on, the idea is the foundation – and a good logo is like laying the first brick of what will soon be something amazing. --- ## How did you promote Atlanta Design in the early days? **Jarrod Reque:**Word of mouth and Instagram. I designed a logo for a friend who started a used car dealership. Over time, his colleagues and customers contacted me and I had a solid reputation for designing logos and providing great customer service. Instagram really helped too, I would usually design 1-2 logos just for fun every day. Soon, people started messaging me to make logos for boutiques, clothing brands etc. Every possible type of industry, whether its creative, or provides goods and services – I have designed a logo for a business in it. --- ## How have you been able to grow your Business? Be Specific. **Jarrod Reque:**Marketing to the right customers. A Lot of people who are starting new companies don’t have websites yet. So I overcame that obstacle by joining Facebook groups that helped people build followings for their profiles and pages. This is where I ran headfirst into thousands of entrepreneurs who were willing to hire me to make them a logo. There were also a fair share of phony people who just had an idea, but weren’t driven enough to make a monetary investment in their business. It was really interesting to talk to these people. They think that they are magically going to get rich just by making a Facebook page and sitting back and doing nothing. Over time, you develop a good eye for spotting people like this, just by using common sense – and its best to avoid them at all costs. --- ## Teach us something we don’t know about. **Jarrod Reque:**Alright, ask and you shall receive. The Gestalt Principles of Grouping – Proximity, Similarity, Closure, Continuation, and Form… aka the secret to designing anything cool. These principles are elements I try and incorporate in my designs and I can attribute a lot of my success to utilizing them over and over. First off, the funny sounding name, Gestalt, is a psychology term which means “unified whole”. It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied. Basically, if you use these in the right way when making a logo – especially one that relies heavily on typography… You are making actual magic happen in the form of graphic design. - **Proximity** occurs when elements are placed close together. They tend to be perceived as a group. - **Similarity** occurs when objects look similar to one another. People often perceive them as a group or pattern. - **Closure**occurs when an object is incomplete or a space is not completely enclosed. If enough of the shape is indicated, people perceive the whole by filling in the missing information. - **Continuation** occurs when the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object. - **Form** or *Figure and Ground*, is when the eye differentiates an object form its surrounding area. a form, silhouette, or shape is naturally perceived as figure (object), while the surrounding area is perceived as ground (background). Balancing figure and ground can make the perceived image more clear. Using unusual figure/ground relationships can add interest and subtlety to an image. These principles are vital to what I do for a living because of Structural information theory. Which is quite interesting when you get into the scope of it. Structural information theory, or SIT, is a theory about human perception and in particular about visual perceptual organization, which is the neuro cognitive process that enables us to perceive scenes as structured wholes consisting of objects arranged in space. If I haven’t lost you this far in the lecture, this will probably be the straw that broke the camel’s back. SIT began as a quantitative model of visual pattern classification. Nowadays, it includes quantitative models of symmetry perception and amodal completion, and is theoretically sustained by a perceptually adequate formalization of visual regularity, a quantitative account of viewpoint dependencies, and a powerful form of neural computation. SIT has been argued to be the best defined and most successful extension of the principles I listed above. By constantly trying to understand, and master Structural information theory – my design’s have gotten significantly better, and is part of the reason I am making more money at what I do. --- ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Jarrod Reque:**I’ve read a lot of good books, but the only one that I could consider as the best book i’ve ever read is called On the Aesthetic Education of Man by Friedrich Schiller. To the average person, it may be kind of boring, but I feel it has is something that many people my age, in today’s culture should read. Schiller observes that people cannot transcend their circumstances without education. The book conceives art as the vehicle of education, and that one can liberate individuals from the constraints and excesses of either pure nature or pure mind. Through aesthetic experience, he asserts, people can reconcile the inner antagonism between sense and intellect, nature and reason. --- ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Jarrod Reque:**Well, first off – I’d like to have established a platform for businesses to have their brand indexed, completely. For instance, Coca-Cola would have a profile that listed their company colors, their different logos over time, and their various themes that they have used in branding themselves as a business, typography used in the logo, elements used in advertising etc. I think this sort of universal index would be great for startups to learn what works and what things to focus on in specific industrial markets.**Something like this would give them an opportunity to list their own branding strategy as well. Example: I google “Joe’s Roofing in Atlanta, GA” and the first thing that pops up is his brand profile, showing his logo, listing his hexadecimal colors in the brand, shapes, icons and whatever else they use. Think Wikipedia, but for aesthetics. I think this type of platform will be very important in the future because of the saturation of so many different markets. It could help a start-up company avoid looking like a competitor, and possibly being confused with a different business. My Dream is a simple one. Live long and make tons of money. Not just tons of money for myself, but for other people too. There is nothing I enjoy more than seeing someone start a business, and then becoming successful. When I make a logo for a company, i’m attached to it forever. For better or for worse, whether it is successful or not. I want to see people become independent business owners who think outside the box and enjoy what they do. When my customers succeed, so do I – and that’s what I love most about the business i’m in. Making money, by helping others make money. Atlanta Design, LLC. is a Graphic Design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. City where you’re from:** Atlanta **Favorite quote:** “You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”**— Will Smith Social accounts** https://www.facebook.com/reque.jarrod https://www.instagram.com/requeezy https://www.instagram.com/atlantadesign --- ## Never buy a Logo Design for less than $500 URL: https://futuresharks.com/never-buy-a-logo-design-for-less-than-500/ ## Start-Up Companies going cheap on a Logo Design could kill your business before it even starts --- ###### by Atlanta Design  | Jarrod Reque · Jun 16, 2018 There is a growing trend in website’s offering cheap logo’s by, so-called, “designers” for extremely low prices. Some are even as low as $5 for a logo. If you are a new business, and your budget for a Logo Design is only $5 – I’m here to tell you that you are not going to last long in whatever industry you are seeking to join. > ***Think of it like a house that you just built and you are looking to give it a paint job. Now, you have 3 options to choose from:*** - You can paint the house yourself. There’s a problem with this option, however. The problem is you don’t have the proper equipment or experience to do so. --- - Another option to consider is that you can easily hire your 12 year old neighbor to paint it for you. Like the first option, this one has a significant issue behind it, too. The issue is he is going to go buy some spray paint and do a terrible job that wouldn’t make a dumpster look good. --- - Lastly, you can hire a professional painting company to do it for you. There aren’t many issues here. They may cost more than the first two options – but I’m going to explain why this is the optimal choice for the task at hand. They have the experience, equipment, and are going to ask you how you want it painted, what color, and they are going to do a great job in executing the project. --- If you had decided to paint it yourself, or have your 12 year old neighbor do it, it is going to look terrible. Just think of all the cars that drive by and see your house, they would immediately say, “Look at that ugly thing, I hope I don’t run into the guy who lives there.” Your neighbors won’t be happy either, in fact, they probably despise your very existence. Some would even go as far as contacting the HOA to have you removed from the neighborhood. Your guests, your friends, family – everyone who comes into your house, will immediately judge you based on your terrible paint job and likely gets out of it as soon as they possibly can, if they even come over. If your house looks ugly on the outside, they assume its just as bad on the inside and owned by a psychopath. *Where am I going with this?* Your Business Logo is the home that you live in. If you have a terrible, cheap, $5 logo – Nobody likes you, nobody wants to see what you have to offer, and anyone that does check you out is already making their way out the door… *All because of your terrible logo.* This is why people that are serious about doing business, pay design companies hundreds, thousands and even hundreds-of-thousands of dollars logo design. Your logo says so much about your business, and in a world where we judge things immediately on their appearances – it can make or break you as an organization. **Moral of the story:** Do not pay your 12 year old neighbor to paint your house, and do not pay a fake graphic designer $5 to do your business logo design. You will be exiled from society for doing either one. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmeChh1mv5s[/embedyt] --- ## Larry Izenberg from Centex Funding Reveals the Secrets Behind Scaling a Company URL: https://futuresharks.com/centexfunding-business/ In this series, I speak with entrepreneurs who have successfully scaled their business. They reveal the [strategies](/could-fipsi-be-the-worlds-first-flying-car/) they used to grow their company and the behind the scene stories that got them there. Today, I caught up with Larry Izenberg from Centex Funding. ### 1) What is your backstory? How did you become an entrepreneur? Growing up, my parents were either self-employed or earned through commission only. So, they either had good years or bad years, depending on how they did. I took notice of this as I hit my teenage years. Good years there were lot’s of extras and bad years we got one gift for Hanukkah. I also noticed that they seemed to be more flexible with their schedule being home at times when other parents were at their jobs. *Larry Izenberg* My first jump into entrepreneurship was at age 18. I was a competitive tennis player from my early teen years. A friend of mine in high school (also a tennis player) and I identified a need in the local tennis club industry for needing their tennis courts cleaned. We did the research and found several different (reasonably priced) tennis court cleaning machines.  So, we purchased two of these and half a dozen hoses. Then we were in business! Within a few weeks, we had several large tennis clubs under contract (this was in 1976). We spent weekend mornings cleaning clubs.   We didn’t see the vision for the future, so the business lasted only about eight months. Though, I did realize that I could make more money weekly, working weekend mornings I made more than most kids made working 25 hours a week while going to school. I was then hooked on being self-employed. ### 2) How have you been able to scale up your company from the idea stage to where you are now? I had 27 years of background in the Real Estate and Mortgage industries (mainly self-employed, always on commission). So, getting into the Small Business Loan arena was a natural.   We planned the type of loans we wanted to offer. Then we got set up with the wholesale lenders to make it happen. From there we took care of all the legal matters and opened the doors!   From the beginning, it was just my mom and me. My mom was the expert in marketing the organization. She was on the verge of retiring but changed her mind. She wanted to be more involved in the business.  From our humble beginnings to our current business where we have 165 agents. And a small but powerful support staff that keeps everything going smoothly. Progressing from the start to today was just a matter of “Doing it.” ### 3) What has been your biggest challenge thus far in your entrepreneurial journey? I think the biggest challenge for us is the state of the small business arena in this Country.  Small business loans are nothing new though many new players have jumped into the field in the last ten years.  When you have huge growth, there is also plenty of room for scammers as well.  There can be a lot of money earned in this field, so you have a lot of individuals that flat out mislead prospective borrowers.   It is only a tiny part of the industry as a whole though it is a challenge in the sense that we do lose prospective borrowers sometimes due to the unrealistic loan quotes from other companies.  We know the borrower is getting scammed though if the borrower doesn’t understand it, we lose prospective good clients.   ### 4) Can you share your best advice with potential entrepreneurs? Once you envision your dream (company, idea, service), act on it.  Some people are great about getting their plans on paper and then implementing. Others take a long time.   I say to jump in and get going. Of course, if you are working or need funds you don’t have or (pick the reason), you could get delayed.   Though, the quicker you get organized means, the faster you can get going with your idea. There will always be bumps along the way. However, getting started faster means hitting the bumps quicker. Which will result in overcoming any bumps in the road you hit. ### 5) Regarding marketing your business, what have you found to be the most effective? We have a proprietary way of marketing that we do not share though LinkedIn has been very good to us. We also have had success in dealing with any agents (real estate, mortgage, insurance, CPAs, bookkeepers, consultants….) that have clients themselves. It only makes sense that the type of agents mentioned has some clients from time to time that needs a small business loan. This has been an excellent source of referral business as well. ### 6) Is there anything you would do differently from your start that? We would not have spent some of the monies we did on courses and webinars, etc. as (in hindsight) we would have learned these things as business continued forward. As a new company, you obviously have to watch your capital and spend wisely. ### 7) What’s the next step in your journey? What does the future hold? Over the last several months we have had huge demand for additional products in the Real Estate lending field. We added Business Purpose Real Estate loans into our portfolio. This means that we now offer Real Estate loans for investments (meaning nothing for owner-occupied loans). We now offer: - Fix & Flip 100% LTV loans for purchase and rehab - Bridge loans for many types of commercial properties,. - Ground Up construction - Very competitive Fix & Flip financing both for home and 5+ Units. The future is bright as we can adapt quickly to borrower needs. If we don’t have specific financing, we have the contacts to get the deal done. Right now, our Real Estate loans are hotter than our small business loans.  Who knows what will happen with the very hot Real Estate market? Though whatever the future holds, Centex Funding will continue to be a Leader in the field. --- ## The Jack Gleason Trading Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/jack-gleason/ It took 3 years of losing money, now he teaches 2,500+ people how to trade- With Jack Gleason **What’s your backstory?** When I was in high school I would watch CNBC and read Forbes 500. It got me thinking, how did these millionaires and billionaires make their money? Being a young entrepreneur, I wanted to mirror people who had great success, and the easiest way people were making their money was through the stock market. At around 14 years old is when I got really interested and saved up $500 from my first business mowing lawns. I had to give it to my dad to open up a brokerage account for me. I ended up using that money to buy Conference International ticker symbol $CFRI at 28 cents and it went all the way up to $1.34 before crashing back down. That’s when I started getting into trading. Then in high school we had a stock market contest and I won that with a prize of $100. At this time CNBC was having a universal simulated contest where I had also beat 99.98% of the people participating. 2008 is when I actively started buying and selling “trading stocks” I started off by just reading messaging blogs and then moved into options trading with $1,000 and traded my way up to $5,000. Without knowing anything about trading I ended up losing the $5,000. I soon started to get into futures trading then entered a trading combine at a trading firm that would back you with capital if you performed well enough, which I did. After I was brought on as a trader I taught my friend my strategies and he entered a combine and beat out over 300 traders. That’s when I knew that I could not only trade but also teach people to trade stocks. In 2012 I was able to meet Tom Sosnoff who started TastyTrade at ThinkorSwim where I got my own trading show in 2012-2013. I was teaching over 40,000 people how to trade futures and options. From there I was hired by a prop firm and received my series 56. After teaching on TastyTrade I was getting tons of messages every single day from people asking me questions about the market. So in 2014 I started Major League Trading. Now in 2018 I have over 2,500 student’s traders across the world who trade FUTURES, NADEX, OPTIONS AND FOREX. One of my students is from Tanzania and has made over $500,000 in his first year. Another had left the military and went from $2k-$40k in a month and now has done at least $300k. Stories like these are why I started Major League Trading. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?’** “The successes, challenges, and major responsibilities of being a trader” **Successes** I don’t measure my success based on my own performance but the performance that of my students and the ability to change their lives and the messages I receive from them. People thank me all the time for helping teaching them how to start, what to get, and how to trade. For example, I had one friend from high school who found out he had cancer. While he was at the hospital he learned how to trade, became very good at it. He beat cancer went back to work but made 3x from trading so he was able to quite working. **Challenge** Trading is difficult, especially teaching because I have to be able to give all of my student’s time and attention they deserve. It took me 3 years of constantly making and losing money before I became profitable. During this journey my family literally took away all support from me. They even took me out of the family vacation we would go on every year. This was during the ages of 19-21 where all my friends where all out partying while I was learning, trading and networking. **RESPONSIBILITIES** The responsibilities of being a trader is waking up and showing up every day and staying disciplined because I do have 2,500 students who all need my time and attention and depend on me and appreciate what I do for them. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** I most gave up more than once. My dad was kicking me out of the house unless I got a job. I was ignored by everyone and people were upset because I dropped out of college and didn’t think I could amount to anything. --- ## Why the Success Perspective of Micah Fraim is Maximizing Business Savings in the Online Space URL: https://futuresharks.com/micahfraim/ It’s 2018 and most CPAs are still operating their [businesses](/could-fipsi-be-the-worlds-first-flying-car/) in the same way they always have…when the profession came about in 1494. Well…maybe they are not dipping quills in inkpots and scribbling in columns on parchment, but to an astonishingly large degree, many CPA firms are one-sided, assessing only tax advantages when consulting with their clients. But the world has changed massively. A majority of businesses now rely on an online presence only. Those who still occupy brick and mortar lots have a digital store to go with their physical shop. It’s not a matter of if a company will show up on the interwebs, but when. And any business that doesn’t follow suit will be left behind. The same can be said of antiquated CPA practices. If your CPA has not honed their modern accounting skills, your business is not running effectively. This is not an assertion; it’s a fact. Micah Fraim, a Certified Public Account, who identified these long-overdue, absent digital services gave his firm a makeover and he encourages other CPAs to wake up and do the same. At the very least, small business owners should insist upon new business and tax processes come tax time even if they have to leave their trusted accountant of many years. With such significant savings at stake, a relevant company simply cannot afford to stay with the same old, same old. ### Enter CPA Innovation Micah’s start at a Fortune 500 company in the marketing department exposed him to clients’ problems that were not being addressed. As one of only four financial professionals and the sole accountant on the team. He was charged with integrating conflicting goals to make the best business decisions. It makes sense for today’s CPAs to take an aggregate picture of a client’s business. Then apply holistic formulas to help them achieve both lean operations as well as a savvy tax strategy. There are too many moving parts to disinclude the influence of one consideration over another. Micah just happened to hop on that money train sooner than most. His signature approach has resulted in tremendous growth and the notoriety of becoming THE tax expert for online businesses. As advertising, publishing, banking and a multitude of other industries have been digitally revamped, updating the field of certified public accountants is a next logical and needed step. Micah notes: “In speaking to the people most accountants don’t seem to understand the online business space in general, the businesses themselves, what struggles they face, etc. And without an understanding of the business itself, there’s no way you can advise properly.” ### Quick Fame Micah’s breadth of knowledge has resulted in a bestselling book: The Little Big Small Business Book, multiple mentions in major media publications, such as Forbes, TIME, and Reader’s Digest as well as a litany of others. The second volume of his bestseller, an e-book The Little Big Small Business Book Vol. 2: Not Everything Is As It Seemsis currently available for free on Amazon and is chock full of business and tax tips to help you run the leanest ship in the business slip. Speaking non-partially, cracking the code to save and grow your wealth is valuable information. And not often gratis without strings attached. Micah truly has a passion for what he does. This is why he leaves his tips all over the web like a virtual geocache we can’t help but pursue. ### Business Finance His infographic in Yahoo! Finance Is not only comprehensive and colorful, but Micah breaks down the often muddled world of business finance recommendations and tax best practices (with illustrations…for those of us who might be better suited to the hustle or grind than ledger accountability). Thankfully, many small business owners will be able to use this chart time after time. To ensure that when it comes time to pay the piper (and as a business owner, you pay a whopping 50% more in taxes than employees). They have checked all the boxes to feel confident that their taxes will be commensurate with the smartest tax tactics. And their businesses can continue to hum along in the green. Or, if they have been in the red, they can even turn that reality around. A little-known fact that had this writer running to examine her prior returns. You can deduct auto expenses instead of mileage! Who knew? In two words: Micah did and that is exactly why his methodologies are catching the attention of the press as well as spurring high-profile clients like Adam Linkenauger, Rocky Ullah, Justin Willman, And Sarah Beth Yoga to pound on his door. Tai Lopez even recommends the first volume of his book on Tai’s Top Book Recommendations. With Micah’s new-fangled approach of assessing the ever-changing business world and the tax terrain. He has been pivotal in revolutionizing the CPA field to better accommodate the proliferating needs of every kind of client. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some auditing to do. --- ## “Losing motivation wasn’t an option”- Paola Marquez URL: https://futuresharks.com/paola-marquez/ **What’s your backstory?** I was born and raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela. I’m an only child but a member of a huge family. My father has always been a business owner and my mom was a lawyer who quit practicing her career in order to help my dad build their main business. As a kid, I used to dream about becoming an engineer, and several years later, I graduated from college in one of the toughest engineering fields, “Electronics Engineering with a Major in Automation and Process Control.” I used to work in the Oil and Gas field, and my job was very important to me even though I didn’t have time to take care of myself and felt burned out most of the time. However, quitting or doing something else never crossed my mind. It wasn’t until I moved to the US when my passion for fitness also became my calling. Helping others has always been very fulfilling but I took it to a whole new level about five years ago when I realized that I could truly make a difference in people’s lives. That’s how everything started, that’s how Pao’s Fit World started. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** Once upon a time… just kidding… My major challenge to date was leaving my home country and coming to the US. It was something that I had never experienced before, I mean living in a different country, so leaving my family and friends to start a new life was definitely the most significant challenge I’ve ever faced to date. However, that challenge brought me to where I am now… A woman, an entrepreneur, a fitness and nutrition coach who is in love with her job and her business. A woman who has succeeded in her idea of bringing the healthy lifestyle to thousands of other women around the world. A woman who loves helping and mentoring others to shift their mindset to work on what actually holds them back to reach their fitness goals. Being the owner and CEO of Pao’s Fit World, Inc. has brought me so much joy, but that hasn’t come without sacrifices, long nights, and tough moments. As an entrepreneur you have to embrace the struggle, focus on the positive and begin each day with definitive purpose. Personal growth lies beyond our comfort zone, so it’s imperative to think outside of the box to reach the results we want. But most importantly, we should stay humble, and hustle hard. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** When I arrived in the US, all I wanted was to get back to my “normal life” or to whatever I considered to be my “normal life” at that time. I desperately tried to find a job in the Oil and Gas industry again, but it never worked. I was overqualified, underqualified, or an immigrant who “needed more experience in this country,” even though I was very good at my job. I tried and tried and eventually I just wanted to give up. I was very frustrated and felt defeated but instead of giving up, I kept trying. I needed to do it for myself, I needed to keep my spirits high. Losing motivation wasn’t an option because that was everything I had at that point. But everything happens for a reason, so it was during that time when I finally found my true purpose… when I found my calling. That’s when I realized that helping others and change their lives was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. That was the beginning of what I have today, and for that, I’m extremely grateful. --- ## Adam Waheed Tells Us How Influencers Can Collaborate With Top Brands Like T-Mobile, Adidas, Lyft, and Vh1 URL: https://futuresharks.com/adamwaheed/ In this series, I speak to the world’s top influencers under 25 who are working with major brands. Today I caught up with Adam Waheed. **John White: What is your backstory?** **Adam Waheed:** I am an actor, writer, and director who has been creating content on social media for about two years now. I was able to go viral with my content early, and I continue to rapidly grow my audience. My content consists of short comedic sketches. **John White: What are your top tips for content creators?** **Adam Waheed:** Find your niche. All the top creators have a niche and a unique style. You must be able to separate yourself from others to gain a big following. Lastly, be passionate about what you do or else you will not succeed. **John White: Tell us about some of the projects you’ve worked on. Which brands have you worked with and how did you land the gigs?** **Adam Waheed:** I collaborated with brands such as Tmobile, Adidas, Lyft, and Vh1. I have currently been working on a few campaigns for Tmobile where I am creating content for them and publishing it on my social platforms. Most of these brands have just reached out to me through my Instagram asking to collaborate. **John White: You have over 600k Instagram followers. How have you been able to grow such a massive account? What is your top tip for growth?** **Adam Waheed:** I believe it’s because I stay true to my content. I know what my strong suits are and I play them to my advantage. I also believe putting out genuine content is the best way to grow. Don’t get so caught up in the views and likes because at the end of the day great content always rises to the top regardless. I always emphasize quality over quantity. **John White: What has been the hardest part about growing your business?** **Adam Waheed:** I think the hardest part was setting aside enough time to talk with brands and pursue deals with them. A lot of times I find myself dedicating all my time to creating free and genuine content to my fan base. Now that I have acquired a team around me to handle some of those responsibilities, there is much more balance, and things run more efficiently. **John White: What should brands look for when they hire an influencer?** **Adam Waheed:** Brands should first check if their own brand matches the influencers brand and his or her demographic. Once they establish if it’s a match, it is imperative for the brand to focus on the influencer’s engagement rather than their following. Although both matter, engagement should be the ultimate deciding factor. **John White: Please leave us with one final tip for those who wish to become an influencer by monetizing their online brand.** **Adam Waheed:** I think the key to monetizing your brand is to create clean content that is brand friendly. Also when creating a piece of content for a brand make sure to put as much time and effort into it as you do with the rest of your content. The reason why is because brands will appreciate it and want to continue to work with you in the future. --- ## Devonte Riley Shares His Journey to Becoming an R&B Artist, TV Star, and Brand Ambassador URL: https://futuresharks.com/devonte-riley-shares-his-journey-to-becoming-an-rb-artist-tv-star-and-brand-ambassador/ In this [series](/could-fipsi-be-the-worlds-first-flying-car/), I feature the stories of the world’s most interesting entertainers and artists. Today, I caught up with R&B artist and actor, Devonte Riley. ### Here is what Devonte shared with me… **CHRISTIAN VIND:**What is your backstory? **DEVONTE RILEY:**I was born and raised in Miami, Florida, one the most diverse and beautiful places that I’ve ever known of it to be. Miami (The Sunshine State) is my hometown and my tropical paradise right along with Los Angeles. My love and passion for entertainment arrived at a very young age. Growing up, I would enjoy watching movies and when I was very young, I would go behind the television and wonder to myself if there was a “secret portal” into TV Land. I would imagine it to be sort of like a “virtual reality” experience but in real life. My imagination ran wild when I was younger! In my earliest memories as a child, I cherished my curiosity and innocence! My favorite thing was watching the music videos of other musicians such as Michael Jackson, Brian McKnight, Babyface and Joe which led me to study their music, lyrical structures, and talents. ### I often mimicked them at times. It was fun! I was a star waiting to shine! **CHRISTIAN VIND:** Is acting therapeutic? If so, what are some things that bring joy into your life by being an actor? **DEVONTE RILEY:** That is a very good question! I do believe acting is very therapeutic! You get to step outside of your life for a moment, only to walk inside of a new person’s life. As an actor, any character that you embody may be someone else’s current situation or a previous experience that they remember vividly. It really fills my heart with appreciation to see someone touched by my artistic abilities, especially when a character that I’ve portrayed relates to the viewer. One day, I’ll be known for a role that has touched many lives. I would feel honored to have someone approach me and express how well I’ve done in a television project that they’ve seen. With that kind of technique, it would allow my viewers to have a better outlook on the characters that I portray. **CHRISTIAN VIND:** What are some of the pro’s and con’s in the music business that rising artists should know? **DEVONTE RILEY:** I’ll begin with authorization and creativity. You have full authorization and creativity to be the artist YOU WANT to be! We live in a time and space where you can craft your own projects on a shoe-string budget and release your project at the snap of a finger. Not that a shoe-string budget is unacceptable, but you’re able to work at your own pace with your own budget and I love that! ### It’s great to be independent! Another great thing about the music business is that you’ll have full control over your marketing and advertisements unless you’re signed to a major record label. You will also be very conscious of the funds that you dish out to market your project. Marketing will come gift-wrapped with a special system called “Analytics” which basically sends the artist information about how their project is doing, charting and how much funding they have allotted. Take it from me, nobody would like to have their project sit on iTunes for an entire year and not profit anything. That is a very hurtful situation especially for a starving artist that is trying to make their recreational talents a profession. ### Artists beware! Artists, beware of the supporters that claim to support you as an artist. Some individuals will confess their loyalty to an artist and not show their loyalty monetarily. Because of this, I fell into a deep depression and I haven’t recorded or released any new music in over three years. But you can expect something new from me soon! *chuckle* That is one of the biggest con’s about the music business, especially when you are an independent artist. I am sure most of my independent artists can relate! Another con about this music business is the people that pose as managers and publicists. It is okay to market your brand and occupation, but to misuse, a title to confuse innocent artists into thinking that you have expertise is not okay. To all of the rising artists that are reading, please be strong-minded, do research on everything and don’t think one thought about giving up on your music career. Get knowledgeable, ask tons of questions and remember, every question isn’t a bad question. ### Integrity is EVERYTHING! **CHRISTIAN VIND:** What are some experiences that you can share about being a Brand Ambassador via Social Media? How well does it work for you? **DEVONTE RILEY:** Actually, it works very well for me! Outside of my Entertainment Career, I enjoy being a Brand Ambassador! You will definitely need to develop your social influence before considering the role of a Brand Ambassador. The way you can start developing your social influence is to find your niche. We all use social media every day for various reasons whether it be for news, communication and/or marketing. The first thing you can start to do is begin accumulating followers. These followers need to identify with your overall brand. Once you have a consistent following, you need to engage with these followers. Post great content and be consistent with your post schedule. Companies are highly interested in brands that are “traffic-magnets”. Once they see that you have captivated your audience (niche) in a unique way, they will reach out to your brand to promote their products/services. **CHRISTIAN VIND:** How do you balance your brand with your entertainment career when it comes to marketing? ### Your face is your produce. **DEVONTE RILEY:** Christian, that is a very great question! Balancing a brand with an entertainment career is extremely vital! If you don’t have a valuable brand that is effective in captivating the masses, your brand will then be seen as insignificant. There is one slogan that I like to always use and that slogan is “Your face is your product!”. Once you have worked hard enough to make your face known, people will tend to catch on and remember who you are. A familiar face makes for a successful brand! Once your face is out there, you will be highly sought after and opportunities will pour in graciously! It can be a lot difficult in this day in age to make your face known. You have people that are trying a lot harder to be something they are not. My biggest tip is to be yourself! Don’t try to fit in or attempt to be like someone else. How you stand out and how strategically you think will greatly affect how your image is portrayed in today’s media and entertainment. **CHRISTIAN VIND:** What was one of the best experiences in your life? **DEVONTE RILEY:** When I connected with the BET Network, that was one of the best experiences that I’ll never forget. It highlighted my 2016 and it brought on many future opportunities for my career. If any of you have a dream or a set goal, stay consistent with that goal and it will come true! Partnering with BET was always a goal that I eventually planned on accomplishing but I never thought that my goal would arrive so early in my career! God is good and I glorify him each and every day for his blessings! Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/devonte_riley Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/officialdevonteriley … Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/devonte_riley iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/devonte-riley/1032851582 … IMDb: https://imdb.com/name/nm5848213/ --- ## Dear Artists, Here’s How to Get them to Pay What You Quote URL: https://futuresharks.com/dear-artists-heres-how-to-get-them-to-pay-what-you-quote/ Time and again, I see photographers, designers, writers, makeup artists, filmmakers, bakers, and all “professional artists” whine about their clients thinking that they should just lower their prices for booking new prospects or closing new clients. Same goes for independent consultants. They go all-out defensive and say that what the people are really paying for, when they hire an artist or consultant, is not just something that can be done fast and easy. Instead, they are buying years of study, practice/ expertise, professionalism, materials, even gas, food and the other incidentals needed to complete the output. It’s good to educate the market about the *real deal* when buying art or coaching, however, here’s the surprise: most people already know and understand what the production entails, it’s just that when you’re booking new prospects, **they don’t think you are worth it**. Although it is a bitter pill to swallow, more independent professionals—or freelancers, if you must–should remember that their market knows what they want, and if they make the purchase appear commensurate with the price, the market *will* buy. We all know how there are so many artists who charge an arm and a leg but still get hundreds of clients on waiting list, don’t we? So what’s the problem? Why are there a lot of freelance artists still struggling on getting paid with the prices that they want? And if you’re one of these artists, what should you do? The first thing that you need to understand is this: **people are primed to buy**. Impulse products and luxury products are easy pieces of evidence that people want to spend, as long as they can tell themselves a story how their purchase is worth it. When you meet with a prospect client and they feel like you are charging too much, that’s what we call *Price Resistance*. And here’s what you need to understand: price resistance comes from a gap in marketing and branding. These prospects *know* what they’re buying and *know* what they’re paying for. They just don’t think it’s worth it, when YOU do it. One can be really good at what they do and it’s easy to justify how much a service costs (those skill investments are reasonable) but one may not be that good in marketing themselves and presenting their work, and themselves, in a way where people expect what price point you’re at. And it should also reflect what “value” they see in the work. People come to famous artists knowing how much they would cost, and when they inquire, they’re ready to book, basically. People come to 5-star resorts and restaurants not ranting if the food or experience was worth it. They don’t rationalize everything. When people tell you you’re expensive and think twice about booking you, **they’re not being disrespectful**. It’s just that they cannot justify the value of the product because people buy with wants and emotions, and logic comes second. Now, you might ask yourself: how can I fix this? How can I get rid of price resistance? This will not happen overnight, and you will be surprised how it will need more than a few tweaks here and there. However, it’s not impossible, and with hard work, research, and consistency, you can do it too. I was able to do it, and now I have easy-to-deal-with clients who pay me way more money. The negotiation has gotten smoother, and I enjoy my life more, which makes me do better in my business. Now don’t get intimidated, [even college kids can do this.](/5-ways-to-be-entrepreneurial-while-youre-still-in-college/) Then it’s like a cycle of good business, really. Here are 6 solid actionable tasks: 1. **Build a clear avatar / profile** about your ideal customer. Identify their wants and needs, the factors that lead to their booking/ purchase decision, and tweak your messaging for that. When David Ogilvy wrote that famous Rolls Royce ad that sold hundreds of cars in record time, he knew exactly what the richest of the rich want, value, and care about. Then, he put it in a few words on a page. There are thousands of stories about it, so be sure to check out how it happened. 2. **Pay attention to your social media strategy.** Before you jump into the bandwagon, don’t worry, you don’t have to be everywhere to do it in the pursuit of booking new prospects. The best thing about social media is there are people already hanging out in these channels, and there are a lot of things that you can do for free. You can pick one or two channels that work for your industry best, and boost your posts and engagements there. 3. **Position yourself as an authority** in your market. Give advice, do talks, get featured, write about your experiences, and show your best work. Remember — this is where the daily grind is. People need to be *continuously reminded* that what they’re about to pay you is worth it. Mitch Miller, a copywriter, musician, and business owner who sells $2,500-5,000 masterminds with a few Facebook posts, no ad spend, and just a few friendly calls, shares that consistent authority building made sales easy for him, and exceedingly changed his business over the last three years. 4. **Let your happy clients speak for you**. Testimonials are great tools to establish professionalism and presence in the market. To get more back for your buck, you can even make this an ad that gets you more leads. I love seeing the great stories that Marie Forleo shares in her newsletters. She always talks about the people she’s helped and videos of her live calls on her web show. Sharing results is great, and they’re some of the best kinds of endorsement. 5. **Show how you continuously invest in your art**. Since you are selling art, you have to consistently invest in it, and show people how you do so. When you get price resistance for your art, it is because people think less of it as art, and more as labor. You need to do your own effort in educating the market as well, and this is a great step in doing so. Same thing goes for consultants. 6. **Be firm**. When you give out your price in booking new prospects, don’t flinch, don’t justify. Be 100% firm and confident about your worth. It’s one of the biggest reasons why your prospect can believe it too. Sometimes, some people talk too much and feel like they need to justify their price, and, in a way, actually compromise the sale. Don’t do that. Now, dear artist, go out there, take the money, and work on your business. --- ## Growing a company isn’t all rainbows and upside”- Chris Van Dusen URL: https://futuresharks.com/chris-van-dusen/ ## What’s your backstory? I am an entrepreneur at heart. I love launching and scaling businesses. My main focus is Parcon, but I have also worked with my team to create and launch our own brands such as Bota Hemp and Matic Reach. Before launching Parcon, I spent time as the Digital Strategist for a full service marketing and advertising agency where I worked with clients in many sectors including food and beverage, apparel and telco. Prior to that, I was also the CMO of tech and entertainment industry startups. My professional journey prior to my marketing and media career, included time as an executive in the real estate investment banking, medical devices and construction equipment industries. I always say there are very few industries that I have not touched in some way. I am passionate about scaling companies that are sustainable or sellable. I am a former college athlete (I was a left handed pitcher at William & Mary) and naturally competitive. This means I spend my days (and nights) solving complex problems and finding strategic asymmetries to beat the competition. Every morning (and sometimes evenings) this means practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. ## Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities? ## In 2015 I left an agency job as Director of Digital strategy to start Parcon Media. Perfect timing with a 6-month old. We quickly grew the agency to serve major clients across the country. We expanded our offerings and grew the team 5x over the last 3 years. At the same time, we have been growing other companies in our portfolio – Bota Hemp, Matic Reach…. Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? Growing a company isn’t all rainbows and upside. Six months into growing Parcon, our largest client at the time decided to go another direction even though our media strategy was working. We were killing it, so it came as a shock. We had to make some tough decisions as an agency. From our perspective, we had two choices: Scale the company back to accommodate the decline in client revenue or double down with a focus on growing what we knew was an elite team of media professionals. Thankfully we all agreed to double down on growth and haven’t looked back. And the client who left us early on returned three months later and we continue to deliver incredible results. --- ## Becoming An Influencer The Amber Doig-Thorne Way URL: https://futuresharks.com/amber-thorne/ “All of your goals are achievable if you’re dedicated to earning that success” Words of Wisdom with Amber Doig-Thorne ## What’s your backstory? I never expected to become an influencer. I moved to London in 2013, and graduated with a degree in Theoretical Physics from UCL a few years later. I had created a couple of Facebook videos in my final year, and they’d done incredibly well – but I never thought it would lead to a career as an influencer! When I graduated, I decided to take a risk, and put my neck on the line by becoming an influencer full time. I gave myself a 1-year time frame; if I could earn a salary equal to a graduate job – then I could stick with being an influencer. I made a Facebook page for myself and started making comedy sketches. That was the best decision of my life. Within 8 months I had amassed 1 million likes on my Facebook page. Today, 1 and a half years later, I’ve organically grown my online following to around 3 million followers. I’ve always wanted to be an actress, and finally – with a helping hand from my following and some fantastic training – my acting career has really taken off. I’ve always wanted to be an actress, but I never thought it would happen so quickly. This year, I was cast in my first lead role in The Seven (a horror feature film), having the opportunity to work alongside some incredible actors (including former Superman – Dean Cain). Becoming an influencer has completely changed my life. It’s opened me up to new opportunities that I never would have thought possible. > ## Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities? At university, I took on a lot of responsibility. I was Social Secretary of the UCL Physics Society throughout my entire degree, tutoring and guiding younger students – helping them throughout their own degree. Earlier in my life – when I was at school, I had little to no free time. My parents are self employed and I grew up seeing how hard they worked to provide for me, so as soon as I was old enough to get a part time job in a clothing store – I worked a couple of evenings a week, and all weekend. I’d work full time in the holidays, often working more hours than the manager. I was determined to earn enough so that I would have substantial savings to keep me going throughout my university degree – without needing to borrow any money from my parents. That was when I realized that I had the drive and determination to be self employed – and I hoped that one day, if I worked hard enough and found myself in the right place at the right time – then I’d find my calling. And I finally did, as an influencer and actress. Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up? There was a time about a year after I started creating content online where my housing situation was really starting to take a toll on me. It was a combination of a bad landlord illegally using the house as an office for 8+ people every day, horrendously rude and unprofessional housemates – and because of this – no longer having the ability to create content in my own home. When it got too much, and I was no longer able to focus on creating my content, I made the decision to leave London, and move back in with my parents in York for a month. It was a temporary solution – but it got me back on track. The next month I moved back to London, found a flat to live in by myself and most importantly, I had the motivation back to start making more content. --- ## 7 Ways to Help Others While On Your Entrepreneurial Journey URL: https://futuresharks.com/7-ways-to-help-others-while-on-your-entrepreneurial-journey/ When you’re first starting out on your entrepreneurial journey, it can be easy to get caught up in your own challenges. After all, you need to [find financing](/4-methods-young-entrepreneurs-should-use-to-finance-their-business-ideas-in-2018/), put the right team in place and convince your target audience that you have a worthwhile idea if you want to sell anything. But this shouldn’t be an excuse for becoming totally self-absorbed. As New York Times bestselling author Chris Brogan says, “[Entrepreneurship] is 100 percent about reaching out and helping other people. Entrepreneurship is actually the action of giving to others and serving others and then extracting some value back from it.” In reality, helping others should be one of your top goals as an entrepreneur. Not only is this something every good person should try to do, but more often than not, it will also come back to help you grow your business.  Here are seven simple ways you can help others as you undergo your entrepreneurial journey. ## 1) Serve as Mentor As a young entrepreneur, you might think that you’re in need of a mentor, rather than being in a place where you can provide mentoring. After all, mentors can teach you everything from [mental resilience](/are-you-tough-enough-for-business-5-reasons-mental-resilience-is-needed-for-business-success/) to how to analyze industry trends. But you also have knowledge and experiences that could provide value to others. When I spoke to my friend Jason Bliss, co-founder of Healthy Living Network, he explained, “All of us have knowledge and skills that others lack. No matter what your current position, there’s someone out there — likely within your own circle of influence — who could benefit from your unique insights. Serving as a teacher or mentor is the best way to lift those around you.” ## 2) Pass Along Opportunities Not every opportunity will be a great fit for your growing startup. A potential client may ask for work that doesn’t fit with your business’s service offerings, or you just might not have the capacity for a particular project. Rather than tell these people “good luck with your search,” you can help other entrepreneurs by passing along referrals. Your web design company may not provide blog writing services, but maybe you know someone who does. Giving referrals such as these will help others build their brand, and will likely help you land reciprocal support in the future. ## 3) Show Your Brand Support No company exists in a vacuum. From management software to the local pizza restaurant you use for Friday lunches, there are undoubtedly several [products and services](/7-must-have-tech-products-for-influencers-on-social-media/) that help your business operate effectively. You know how much you’d appreciate positive reviews or social media shoutouts for your own startup — so why not do the same for the brands you use and love? Your positive word of mouth could help them land new business opportunities, but it can also serve as the foundation for a new professional relationship. Showing brand support is a great way to earn new partnerships and referrals. ## 4) Say ‘No’ Saying “no” may not seem particularly helpful at first glance. As an entrepreneur, it’s never easy to get “no” for an answer — especially when potential clients or investors are involved. It’s understandable that you could feel guilty when you give someone else a negative response. But as Jason Feifer explains, “If you tell someone ‘no’ and explain why, you’re helping them course-correct for the next time.” Whether you’re turning down a business partnership or explaining to a friend why their idea doesn’t work, offering an explanation alongside your “no” can lead to valuable learning opportunities. ## 5) Create a Blog Believe it or not, blogging can actually be a great way to help others. When you’re crunched for time, it isn’t always easy to set up a meeting where you can provide in-person mentorship. There are also a lot of people from around the world who could likely benefit from your insights, but aren’t ever going to be available for a face-to-face meeting. With blogging, you have a way to reach them. You can offer knowledge, offer tips or even share relevant personal anecdotes. When you share useful information, you’ll give others the insights they need on their own personal or business journey. Of course, sharing this information on your own site is also a great way to improve your SEO rankings and even capture potential sales leads. ## 6) Take on a Charitable Role For many startups, helping others is more than just a nice goal — it is a central part of their business. From fighting homelessness to helping individuals with autism get jobs, countless entrepreneurs have directly infused a socially conscious element into their business. There are countless ways you can give back in your own community. Whether that be providing free work to local nonprofits or donating time and money to a cause, involving your entire company with socially conscious actions will shape your brand for years to come. You’ll build team loyalty and unity, feel a greater sense of purpose in your work and make a positive impact in your area. ## 7) Invest In Yourself This may sound a bit counterintuitive, but in order to make a lasting impact for good with your startup, you need to invest in yourself. While you can use the previously mentioned tips at any stage of your business journey, you’ll only be able to expand your reach and continue providing this assistance if you keep your finances in the black. While you should always set aside time for helping others, you should also be actively involved in finding [new ways to market](/why-start-podcast/) your business and increase your profitability. You should seek out your own mentors who can help you avoid the roadblocks to success. Most of all, you must always look for new growth opportunities. By ensuring your business’s long-term sustainability, you’ll be able to help others for years to come. ## Offering a Helping Hand When you’re willing to help others — even without the promise of an immediate reward — you lay the foundation for lasting success. You don’t have to wait until you’ve become a multimillion dollar business to help others. Research has found that those who participate in daily acts of kindness are much happier than their peers. Happy people are more productive, and that will always help you get better results at work. Even if you don’t land a big sale by being kind, your kindness will make a lasting difference — both for those you help and for your own brand. --- ## Building A Modern Day Marketing Agency- The Justin Lam Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/justin-lam/ Justin Lam is the CEO of MogulX Marketing- a modern-day marketing agency that helps businesses utilize cutting-edge social media strategies to effectively grow their brands and bring in more revenue. A natural-born leader and an evolving entrepreneur, Justin discusses his journey as a 17 year old founder, and the lessons he’s learning along the way as he navigates the world of business. ## 1. Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I always knew I wanted to do something in the business sphere. I’m a natural leader, love creating things,take things seriously (sometimes I might be a bit too serious), have high levels of ambition and drive, and hate taking orders and being in a subordinate position. I didn’t venture into thinking about starting my own company until my sophomore year in high school. I remember as I kid I would look up things like“how to make a lot of money” and “how to be a CEO,” or even just “how to be successful.”At the time it hadn’t occurred to me that I could ACTUALLY go out and start something on my own,presumably because society has it so ingrained it us that the lofty CEO position, or even just the title of successful entrepreneur, can only be obtained if one is either a genius inventor, or a fifty-something with a degree from a prestigious university who’s taken years and years to climb up the corporate ladder. And so I would continue on to move from new passion to new passion, trying to become wildly successful at multiple things. First it was basketball, then it was making music, and finally I arrived at fitness. My love of working out and nutrition was the first instance of me actually taking something so seriously to the point where I adopted it as a lifestyle. I grew almost addicted to the feeling of mini-successes – I would physically see my body change and get stronger every day as I put in work. That translated into further growth of my ambition and the level of seriousness I put into my craft. Fitness actually instilled in me the value of discipline and even some fundamental business principles, and little did I know, it would grow into something much bigger than I could ever imagine at the time. To put it shortly, when I was 15 I started growing a small Instagram following by posting my daily progress, workouts, and physique updates. Little by little I would come across other young, ambitious, and like-minded individuals who were already dominating their niches and starting and scaling businesses, creating influential personal brands, and documenting their journeys. I saw one similarity between all of their ventures – they all took advantage of the incredible digital and social landscape that we live in today. At 16 I’d network with them occasionally to give and receive value, and at one point I even decided to start my own supplement brand. That of course was just one example of a failed business, but I jumped ship after it didn’t make sense to continue, asked people in my network a little bit more about starting an online business, and took the leap. I started with learning how to grow my personal brand, moved on to affiliate marketing, and then eventually started up my main business, my marketing agency, as well. I’m 17 now, and those three businesses are currently my most profitable ventures. I plan on keeping them for at least the next 2-3 years. ## 2. One interesting thing to note about you is that you’re not the typical high school dropout – in your situation, you’ve put a huge twist on it. What makes you different? I actually dropped out of my last two years of high school to attend college early, full time. I even attended Stanford classes in the summer quarter of 2017. Not your typical high school dropout situation, and it’s actually pretty funny when people ask me, I explain, and they try to wrap their heads around this concept. I’ve always performed at a high level academically, but mainly as a result of my work ethic and disinterest with all of the things that many teenagers do – drink, smoke, take drugs, party, worry about petty relationships, and generally just disregard goal setting and living for something greater. ## 3. What do you see in the social media marketing space that makes you such an outspoken advocate of it? It’s the way forward for all businesses. If a business isn’t online and on social media, they’re missing out, no matter what industry. There’s at the very least one relevant platform for everyone – LinkedIn for B2B,Instagram for ECommerce, Facebook for local biz, etc. You can play both sides on social media. Build a genuine brand through valuable content and influencers, or drive leads and sales, or both. You’re people collecting in as many ways as possible, which is powerful. It’s no longer about shooting in the dark, which is exactly what things like TV commercials and billboards are. There are so many ways to measure your ROI, and you actually get to re-market to a very specific audience and build a tribe that actively wants to purchase from you and share your story. In most cases, commercials, flyers, postcards, and billboards only turn out to waste businesses’ marketing budgets. The fact that you can easily and accurately segment out exactly which audiences you want to spend money on is already insane. Add on the fact that you can actively build rapport with those audiences through valuable content (which means they don’t even feel like they’re getting sold on a product/service), and it’s pretty much a no-brainer to get on social. ## 4. What are some of the challenges and failures you faced when growing your marketing agency? There was never one big failure, but I’ve had many series of failures all strung together. In the beginning, it was getting my first client after getting so many doors I thought were open slammed in my face. Towards the middle it was undercharging for my services and not knowing what I was worth. Now, it’s issues with scale, and putting systems and processes in place so that my workload doesn’t shoot through the roof. At this point, as a business owner I have to aggressively protect my time. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s a much better long-term move to give up my short-term gratification of receiving a bigger cut of the revenue in favor of building an elite team and delegating client work to them. Although it may seem like I’m making less money, what it does is free up my time so that I can focus on the stuff that actually brings in more business, which is outreach, closing deals, building my personal brand, putting systems in place, and networking with high-level individuals. ## 5. Jumping over to the personal brand side of things – why is it so significant to put yourself out there on social media, document your story, and provide value? Without my personal brand, I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much opportunity as I did. A few of my clients came through my personal brand. I met both of my business partners, and a majority of my team, through my personal brand as well. Eventually, as long as I keep documenting and giving value to my audience, I know it will pay back tenfold when I launch a digital product, promote a big affiliate offer, host meet ups and events, or even close deals with high-level individuals. Your personal brand on social media often acts as your resume in the B2B space, even more often than your resume actually does its job. People can see your entire journey and you building something from the ground up, instead of just words on a piece of paper. It also acts as a passive attention stream – a way for you to follow up with your connections or prospects without even having to say anything to them directly. ## 6. You’re big on a holistic approach when it comes to business. Why isn’t it just hustle and grind? I’ve studied my mentors and some of the people I have genuine respect for, because they’ve achieved genuine, sustainable, and actually, still pretty swift success. All of them took a holistic approach in one form or another. Forget the quotes about “I’ve got a dream that’s worth more than my sleep” or all this other rah rah BS. Those are for people that read quotes all day, post about how hard they grind on social media, and then go back to partying or playing video games or whatever the hell they did in the first place. Your health needs to be a priority if you are to consistently perform at your very best. I no longer believe in the “I’m going to lock myself in a room for 16 (highly inefficient) hours a day” or sleeping at 4 am and waking up at noon. I also don’t do half-assed work by blasting loud music and checking my phone every 2 minutes. However, I do meditate – not for some abstract reason, but to crush everyone else when it comes to focus and deep work. I do have a set morning and night routine, complete with affirmations, visualization, gratitude exercises, and a lot of other incredibly powerful mindset exercises. I do make sure my sleep is on point. I do hit the gym 3-4+ times a week. These, combined with a complete overhaul of my mindset and how I thought about the nature of power, money, and success, are all things that I’ve applied once I moved away from the lower paradigm of grind, grind, grind. My efficiency as an entrepreneur has increased exponentially since. ## 7. Have you had any mentors who have helped you get to where you are now? Definitely. I’ve personally had a few that I would consider “major influences” on my journey. I’ve also had 8-10 people I consider “coaches” that have helped me learn specific skills. The right coaches and mentors can completely change the way you capitalize opportunities that come your way, and the best ones can completely change your direction, not only in business, but in life as well. ## 8. What are your top 3 lessons that you can impart to young, aspiring entrepreneurs? ● **Learn to be patient.** A big part of that revolves around limiting your usage of social media. Sounds counter-intuitive because you see me doing all of these incredible things with social media, but when it comes to personal life and your vision, don’t let it interfere. Granted, I’m not telling you to shut yourself off, because opportunities manifest often through the proper use of social, but my point is that social media is also very superficial. People naturally will only show the best parts of their lives, and even then, lots of people put up facades and document fake experiences. Don’t let yourself get caught up by putting yourself back into the cycle of watching others achieve “fast success,” because in reality, a large number of them don’t actually have it as good as they like to portray, and yet another large number of them have put in countless hours and made tons of sacrifices to get where they are. Don’t fall victim to the idea of overnight success -entrepreneurship is not easy. Learn to take the good with the bad, have an almost foolish belief in your vision, and stay persistent. Success doesn’t favor desperation and neediness. It favors those who have the abundance mindset, long before they achieve any real measure of success. Your time will come. ● **Focus on one thing in the beginning.** Don’t get distracted by so many opportunities that you become a jack of all trades. Specialize first. Once you’ve built a stable source of income with one financial vehicle, try to build another, one at a time. ● **Stay grounded and work on yourself**. Especially if you’re in B2B, or even just any business model that requires you to directly deal with people. This is why I emphasize personal development so much. For example, your mind needs to be in the right place when you close clients. You need to have conviction in the things you think and say, and especially if you’re young, you need to be able to show that you are the expert in your craft and flip the script. Even if you’re in B2C, you still eventually have to lead a team. If you’re not grounded and self-aware, you can’t expect to have your team follow you. Once you start becoming self-aware, you’ll start to know your worth and what you deserve. Miraculous things will manifest as soon as you understand that concept. ## 9. What legacy do you hope to leave? I want to let other people in my generation know that it’s OK to want more out of life, and to have these huge ambitions. There are so many people who don’t act out of fear, whether it’s because they’re young, they don’t have much money, or they’re afraid of leaving their old selves behind. It’s an obligation for me to inspire them, and to let them know that this is the craziest and most opportunity-filled time to be alive. This is why I document my journey and give out so much value. I want to help them understand that success is very real – they just have to believe it and take massive action to back it up --- ## This Entrepreneur Is Changing The Modelling Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/victor-truvel/ **Name: Victor Truel** **Short Bio:** LV Startup CEO creating safer path for aspiring models **City where you’re from:** Las Vegas **Social accounts**:   **Facebook:**https://www.facebook.com/ModaCasting/ # 1.What’s your story? How did you start this? **Victor Truel:** Having lived in Las Vegas for more than 10 years, I’ve grown in an environment where individuals and businesses hire models for almost everything. To go out to clubs, as golf caddies, cocktail waitresses at the casinos, trade shows, ads, and even as champagne servers for luxury stores. It is because of this environment that I saw an opportunity to provide an on-demand service so I built the platform to make it more convenient for customers to connect with models for paid projects. And while it does simplify the process of hiring models for brands and other entities, it was through the models that we found what it really meant to provide a solution. Before we started with development of the app, we made it a point to personally listen to all the models that we interviewed, we wanted to know their thoughts and frustrations, to understand their experiences in the current industry and what they liked and disliked about their agents and agencies. It was through those conversations that we found that there were a number of men and women in front of cameras that had been left feeling disenfranchised by the agency system.  There were so many aspects that we learned were part of the problem, all of these things models deal with regularly: payment delays, high commissions taken by agencies, lack of respect for privacy and personal space, and sexual harassment. Personally, I was stunned, and it hit very close to home because while I was in the Philippines attending high school, my older sister Tiara, moved to New York alone when she was 17 chasing her dream to become a model and actor. And while I was not there to experience any of the hardships she endured, I know from our conversations, that it can be cruel trying to find your way in an industry where seemingly everyone is trying to take advantage of you. And sadly, not much has changed since then, there are still so many men and women who are experiencing these same things now. It was through this that we made it our goal to engineer Moda’s platform to be a solution, one that can solve some of the issues happening in the industry and one that can empower models to manage their own carriers, in the palm of their hands. The needs of these models are central to the app’s user experience. These sets of problems are also what propels us to continue to create initiatives in providing continued solutions that can change peoples lives, because at the end of the day that’s what matters the most. # 2.What are the top 3 things that you as a founder would want to be known for? **Victor Truel:** **1.Challenging the status quo** I always encourage my team to question the rules, especially if logic dictates it. I have a firm belief that in order to create a change, we must be willing to challenge the status quo. A) Pushing boundaries and breaking barriers are never easy tasks. In fact, it plain uncomfortable, but if I learned anything from my journey with starting Moda, it is that when faced with what seemingly feels like life and death scenarios, even if it’s the harder thing to do, we must have the courage to do what is right. Not because the rules say so, but because you know that every decision you make affects your team, and affects the people you wanted to help in the first place. B)   Many of our advisors cautioned against building partnerships with other existing modeling agencies because they wanted to disrupt the industry. They wanted to follow the footsteps of what Uber did to the taxi business. It wasn’t easy for me to make the decision but ultimately I believed that the only way we could make this platform a solution to the problems that we wanted to fix in the industry, is if we included everyone, even other agencies and models from those agencies. So I started to make partnerships with other agencies so that their models can be part of the platform and so that even their models can be booked from the Moda Casting app C)  The moment we started talks with partnerships with agencies, the first question they would ask is why? and to this day, some might say that it wasn’t the best business decision, but to this day I also still believe my decision was the right thing to do, even if that meant that it would significantly cut from our profits. **2.         Being the largest provider of talent.** A)  The broader objective is to be able to create a larger environment than just providing models. We want to one day be able to lend the platform for all kinds of creative work that is part of the gig economy.  My goal is to make Moda Casting the largest provider of talent in the world. A platform where professional talent, budding musicians, make up artists, photographers, and even dancers can find work on-demand.  B)We’ve recently added photographers in our platform and the next category we are researching is a service for digital brand ambassadors and social media influencers. **3. Making a difference in someone’s life** A)  Ultimately the most important thing we’ve done so far is provide a safer environment for the models that are on our platform. B) We created a system that vets clients and models during the sign up process. It includes a video verification to ensure as proof of their identity C) We added GPS tracking to ensure that we know where the models are at while they are working on a job         I)   And we employ a two way rating system where both the clients and models can rate and comment on their experience with working with each other.The convenience that we afford our clients means that we are giving them more time. Time that they can use for more important tasks.  Instead of having to go back and forth with dealing with an agency, they can now book models on the go with just a press of a button.       II)   And for the models, more than the added income, or jobs that are created through this gig economy, what we offer is peace of mind. And for a young model in this industry, that’s something that’s priceless. --- ## “There was so much on my shoulders but I did not stop.”- Wayne Andrew Reilly URL: https://futuresharks.com/wayne-reilly/ **What’s your backstory?** I was raised in a small town in North Idaho called Post Falls, a beautiful place but somewhere that is very hard to get out of, I came out of the low middle class with a very dysfunctional family. I had the worst ADHD to the point that I could not sit still or not move my body in some way. I grew up always telling myself I was going to be someone someday, everyone around me was telling me I can’t do that and how I had to work some brainless job for the rest of my life. I got fired from every job I have ever had that required me to work for a boss or mop floors or cook. I did not want to be depressed in life, I started making videos on the internet that my friends would like to make their day better. Well what happened to me next i would never see coming, the 3rd video I posted would get over 3 million views in a week, then 2 million, then 8 million. I was rising in internet fame but i was only chasing numbers it wasn’t content I was proud of I did not like the videos i would make because i acted like someone who wasn’t me. Even though i would get millions of views i could not make any money out of it and it bothered me wondering why i could not do it, that’s when i started getting in the business side of things, I knew a couple celebrities at the time and they wanted me to manage the social media accounts that they don’t use, for a percentage of promotions that come off of the accounts including promotions i bring. I became so good at talking to people and so trusted in the community of celebrities they started referring me to all of their celebrity friends. I started building faster than any other person online, bringing up a network of over 200 million in less than 2 years. Bringing tens of thousands of dollars in promotions to different people, I wasn’t just taking money either I was providing results to companies who would then refer me to another company in exchange for less prices from promotions, learning how to niche products the the right people, learning the game better than anyone before. Now I am at the top of my game non stop business having the advantage of my past on my side being open minded and trustworthy to every person I work with. I am building an empire to change the world with and I will not stop until I have taken over everything or have a piece in everything. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** My prior successes are i created the “don’t judge challenge” one of the most viral internet challenges online with over 670 thousand hashtags used on Instagram and over a billion views total online. It started as the #waynereillychallenge because i wanted to brand it but it just went off on its own as the #dontjudgechallenge. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** The time I almost gave up was when i was making less than $300 a month grinding everything out, living on rice and chili and tortillas for weeks trying to make something of myself, I would be crying myself to sleep because I did not want to be a failure, there was so much on my shoulders but i did not stop. --- ## “Direct sales is the best way to grow a business”- Christian Axios URL: https://futuresharks.com/christian-axios/ **What’s your backstory?** I grew up on the East Coast outside of Boston Massachusetts. Growing up I knew things were different in my family having very cultured and traditional Greek parents. Early on I learned the importance of hard work, persistence and discipline from working at my fathers restaurant.   Had I known what I do now about what I wanted out of life I would have realized that my father was preparing me for success since day 1. With my mothers loving nature and my father having given me direction early on, I was able to make a confident jump and bet 100% on myself. I dropped out of college only 3 semesters from graduating with a B.S in Marine Engineering to pursue my passion for the renewable energy industry in Northern California. During the year of 2017 I skyrocketed my results in every area of my life. My whole life changed after moving to California. I was able to double my monthly income within 30 days from moving and then took it to over 5 times that each month later that year. My income continued to multiply and I began to meet more and more amazing people from all around. Every day I wake up excited and jumping out of bed ready for the successful day I have ahead of me. During 2018 my health became perfect giving me continuous energy every moment I am awake. Entering into 2018 my business partner Emmanuel and I began building and running our sales team. I fell in love with helping people take control of their lives and jump starting their entrepreneurship career. With the combined effort of my business partner Emmanuel Duverneau and I and our use of unique expert methods for business growth and sales as well as our passion for entrepreneurship we have been able to completely revolutionized the game. We implement our methods first hand in our solar company every single day. **How did you promote your company in the early days?** In the early days we strictly used our own personal social media pages to market our company and our services to our spheres of influence. **How have you been able to grow your business?** Direct sales is the best way to grow a business. We get one on one interaction with each one of our homeowners so that we can build that relationship needed to provide the best service to each one of them individually. **Where do you see yourself in a couple years? What’s your dream?** In a couple of years HiGrade Energy will be the number one Solar Company providing renewable energy in multiple forms to homes throughout California. My dream is to also provide opportunities to those looking for mentorship and guidance in the solar industry to learn more about how they too can be changing the world for the better while also making a great income for themselves. --- ## “Hope, Strength and Courage. The 3 words that took me from rags to riches.”- With Josue Pena URL: https://futuresharks.com/josue-pena/ **What’s your backstory?** I was born in Dominican Republic, a third world country. I graduated from college as an engineer but I hated my 9-6 job. Then, I dreamt of becoming a professional soccer player, that’s how I began to use social media, primarily IG, as a means of exposure. It took me 4 to 5 years of mistakes and total bankruptcy before I took a $2K loan to buy a marketing course in February 2016. Then, in May 2016 I learned about Russell Brunson and Mitchell Harper and applied their business strategies on my IG account and boom. That same year in September 13, 2016, I got my first paying client for $3.5k/month and business took off from there. Now we are currently generating over 6 figures a month. **Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?** When I decided to start learning about all this online world it was because I didn’t want to be stuck in a 9-6 work, because that is not living. Working really hard but making very little money. For me that’s not living, its surviving. I wanted to become a professional soccer player and I knew that staying in my country without being known by anyone would not cut it. SO I decided to make a Youtube channel and Instagram to show my skills, training, etc. for everyone to know my face. That’s how his first youtube channel and Instagram account came to exist (Elation Fitness and Elation football). Even though I had a very busy life, I had to be in college because that’s what my family wanted, so when I graduated I thought I could dedicate my time to social media, but instead I got a job. 8 hours a day, under the Caribbean sun, and I made less that $300-$400 a month BEFORE taxes and expenses. **Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?** So after a year of work I got an opportunity to leave to the USA. This was a very hard move for a lot of personal reasons, but I took the opportunity. Keep in mind it has already been 4.5 years since I created my youtube and Instagram account. Since my dream to become a professional football player I continue doing social media, but I still was unsuccessful. Time kept passing and even though this time I lived in the USA pursuing my passion, I felt stuck because I wasn’t moving forward as fast as I would have liked. So then my family decided I should go the safe route and get a Masters degree, because my football career wasn’t going anywhere so I got into an accelerated online program on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. After six months into the program I saw this phrase: “successful people follow other successful people. It is the only way to shortcut your success” and I became obsessed with it. And after that I started seeing all of these entrepreneurs saying to model success and I realized I had to do that. I realized that the only way to shortcut my success, was to replicate it, to follow it, to model it, to get a map from where I was to where I wanted to go. That is when I decided to take a loan of $2,000 and get an marketing course to teach me about this social media crap. What happened after that was extraordinary… At the time I bought it (beginning of March of 2016), I had about 1k followers on Instagram (on my football page, because remember, my goal is still to go pro). I then started doing the follow/unfollow and started growing. I was the happiest guy in the whole world!! I grew to around 15k-20k by May of that same year, and then everything changed. Instagram changed the algorithm and banned the app I was using to follow/unfollow… This for me was the saddest news I could ever hear. I had invested $2000 on something that the main technique was teaching me to follow/unfollow in order to get followers. In my mind was like “if I get to 50k before the end of the year or maybe 100k, then I can get sponsorship” – there was no real monetization plan or strategy laid out for you. I was NEGATIVE $2k, no money and I had to figure this thing out no matter what. From there I started learning from Russell Brunson, Mitchel Harper, and they were saying model success, do the market research, funnel hack, etc. I took these things, applied it on Instagram and everything took off extremely quickly to the point that today we generate over 6 figures a month, I’m the most sought out expert in my space and have over 4.5million followers across niche, industries and even languages, with also hundred of students across the world (so i know my system and process to grow and monetize Instagram accounts works 100% of the time). --- ## Great Tips and Lessons from Zachary Dempsey URL: https://futuresharks.com/zachary-dempsey-2/ **“It’s really important to be reliable”- Zachary Dempsey** **What’s your backstory?** I grew up in Vancouver, Canada and was a pretty regular kid. I had no idea what I wanted to do after high school, then in grade eleven I was introduced to social media and started my business, Slogan Social. Honestly, I focused so much on growing my business that I almost didn’t graduate. After high school I focused full-time on Slogan Social, trying to expand and grow as much as possible. I had no idea that a passion project would turn into multi-million dollar business. People thought I was crazy in high school for working 10 hours a day, every day, but it didn’t feel like work to me. **How did you promote your company in the early days?** In the beginning my company was promoted through word of mouth. Connections are really important in this industry, and that is what has helped my company thrive. I keep in contact with a lot of my clients daily and I am sure that has helped build it up as well. **How have you been able to grow your business?** My business grew pretty organically. I started working with one client at the beginning, and when word got out that I was successful at managing his accounts more people approached me. There was no advertising or website at the beginning, but I have all of that now. It’s really important to be reliable and for my clients to see results immediately, and through that success my business has grown immensely. **Where do you see yourself in a couple years? What’s your dream?** My next step is to diversify my income and own multiple companies through that. Now that I have successfully started Slogan Social, I feel confident in branching out to new business ventures. I don’t have any specific goal or dream, but I’m excited to see where my future goes. --- ## Connecting with Bloggers in your Industry at Scale URL: https://futuresharks.com/connecting-with-bloggers-in-your-industry-at-scale/ # This is about connecting ? It’s nice to plug yourself into communities you and your business align with. Connecting with bloggers is a great way to reach established and engaged communities. These people are the reason you do what you do right? So you can spend time with vibrant people who you align with. Bloggers are community organizers, they provide value to a network of likeminded individuals through written content, videos, events, services, etc. Connecting with bloggers at scale can be a great way to find your community as an individual. It’s also a great way to connect with people who could benefit from your product or service and get [earned media.](/how-to-do-pr-and-get-featured-on-forbes/) This guide will show you methods you can use to increase your connection rate in four steps: 1. Find blogs 2. Scrape Data 3. Get contact info 4. Turn them into buddies ☺️ Some may tell you that using a method such as the one illustrated below is wrong. That you are spamming people. This is a valid argument that has merit, but Future Sharks has a different point of view. We love the communities we work in, and any chance we get to plug in to other likeminded communities we take. Outside of hacking your way into lots of contact information relevant to your business, you are giving yourself the opportunity to connect with other like minded individuals and creators at an increased rate. **This is about connecting not spamming!** ## Step 1: Find blogs Feedspot is the best resource I have found for this that gives you blog names and domains in a list format. List formats are almost always easier to pull information from. The easiest way to navigate the Feedspot blog (basically a database of RSS feeds) is through a google search. Feedspot is not the easiest to navigate on its own.  Typing something like this in google will search within Feedspot’s blog database: **Site:blog.feedspot.com “target key word”** Lets use “TEA” as our keyword for an example. Type Site:blog.feedspot.com “tea” into google and you will see these results. We will use the first link: “Top 100 Tea Blogs” ## ## Step 2: Scrape Data This chrome extension, will give you the ability to pull targeted information off the page. Lets walk through how to use it for Feedspot: 1. Download the data miner chrome extension and create a free account. 2. Click on the extension while on the page you want to scrape and then click “create new recipe” 3. Select “Create new recipe” **Side note:** You may have to watch a few tutorial videos to learn the script syntax. Luckily in this case all we need to grab is the website domain and Feedspot makes visible for us. #### Clean Data Once you get the data you will need to clean it up in excel or google sheets. We want all of them to look exactly like this: “website.com” No “www” or “https://” allowed. It will hurt the amount of emails we find. You can do this with a excel/google sheet function called “split text to columns” found on the “data” tab. This function breaks up single columns into multiple using the syntax of your choice. You will need to play around with the characters you use for splitting text but here are two that cover 90% of websites: - Data ➥ Split to text ➥ custom ➥ “https://” - “.blog” - “www.” After running these you may need to do a little manual cleaning to make sure all the domains are in the same column. ## ## Step 3: Get contact info The are a couple ways to enrich domains to populate with contact information for people who have a “@website.com” email but my favorite by far is Anyleads. 1) Start a free trial at Anyleads 2) Navigate to the “Find Leads” tab 3) Click “Enrich Domains” and paste the cleaned domains into the given field (This will take 10-15 min to complete). 4) Export completed data file with enriched domains ## ## ## Step 4: Turn them into buddies ☺️ Once the file in Anyleads is fully enriched you will have a dataset with name, work email, title, description, linkedIn URL and much more. Take a look at your data set. You may find that some of the domains you have are other players in your space and perhaps competitors in certain circumstances. This is not necessarily a bad thing. They have a blog to talk about more than themselves. They are building a community. It’s likely that they want relevant industry content and to tap into other like communities. Often your competitors are great referral sources. The next thing you want to do is upload the LinkedIn Urls Anyleads gave you, back into Anyleads using the Enrich LinkedIn URL tab. This will spit out personal emails for the LinkedIn URLs you enter. Now you have work emails, personal emails and LinkedIn Url’s to connect with these blogs at scale. I have a three step process I like to use:  #### Connect with them on LinkedIn using a quick intro message. “Hey Jane, I love connecting with other tea enthusiasts, if you happen to be in the LA area you should swing by my office in Venice for some Matcha shots ;)” #### Upload the personal emails you get from Anyleads into Facebook as a custom audience and include the audience in the next post you boost. I like to boost posts to people after they have already gotten an email or a LinkedIn message from me. You will end up spending less on PPC. #### Enroll them to a short email sequence that is non-intrusive. We are aiming for a mix of value and a clear ask for collaboration on blog content. The key is to go in for the relationship, not the immediate win. These blogs will be around for a while and they like working with buddies 🙂 Send us a note if you give it a try! We would love to hear if you got some value from it. --- ## Silatech CEO to Speak at UN Counter-Terrorism Event URL: https://futuresharks.com/silatech/ In this series, I feature the female CEO’s whose companies are making major moves towards improving the world we live in. Today I caught up with the CEO of Silatech, Sabah I. Al Haidoos. #### 1) Can you tell us about your organization and the amazing things you’re doing to improve the lives of thousands of young Arabs around the world? Silatech is an International development nonprofit non-government organization that works on connecting Youth wherever they are to jobs, and enable resources for them to establish and sustain successful enterprises. Silatech has innovative youth programs in 16 Arab countries including: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and the Comoros. The organization is currently working on expanding its operations. Expansion plans include to grow in other countries. One of our initiative recently launched a training and recruitment program for young Arab refugees in Turkey. In 2008, Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, as a member of the High-Level Group an ambassador to the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, launched Silatech as a global initiative that seeks to create opportunities for youth. With a focus on creating change leaders who’s vision is on a better tomorrow. Our achievements to date are as follows +650,522 Job Opportunities- 1,000,000 by end of 2018, $237,000,000 Partners Co-Funding * As of 2016, +300 Local, Regional and International Partners and +16 Countries of Operation. In 2012, Silatech and Microsoft launched Ta3mal.com. We were the region’s first employability portal that helps youth and job seekers find support to transition into the world of work. Available in Arabic, English, and French, the online platform offers online access to career guidance. It also enhances soft-skills via e-learning. It connects people to jobs and internships opportunities and entrepreneurship training. #### 2) Can you explain how Silatech’s initiative improves people’s careers? Sure! The initiative relies on local partners to provide specialized content and direct services to youth and job seekers. In 2011, Silatech partnered with Mindmill to launch Tamheed, Silatech’s career guidance program. The program includes the following: - online psychometric assessments - a career advising framework - training and capacity building for career advisors The train-to-place programs provide the full-cycle of youth training and job placement, usually in specific industries or sectors. As well as other programs Narwi, Najjahni, and Tamm. Entrepreneurship and Microfinance. Both tools include financial and non-financial services. Financial support includes grant, lending/financing, and investment. Non- financial includes capacity building and technical assistance. #### 3) How is Silatech helping to empower young entrepreneurs around the world? First and foremost, Silatech’s mission is to connect young people to economic opportunities and jobs. We provide innovative enterprise development and employment initiatives. Our vision is a world in which young people are able to work, and are engaged in the economic development of their societies. We support the startup and growth of sustainable, job-creating youth enterprises. We help young entrepreneurs establish and sustain successful enterprises. The way we accomplish this is by providing them with access to finance, business development training, and mentorship. In order to reach the largest number of youth, we encourage financial institutions to lend youth to start their businesses. To do so, we must combine technical support and various types of innovative financing instruments. We also help financial institutions design loan products and market their products and services. We also provide credit officers with focused training programs. Then we implement best practices to benefit both youth and the institutions. This is expected to result in the creation of thousands of jobs, enriching the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Arab societies. By reducing the youth unemployment rate in the world. Moreover, we can achieve our objectives through two main tools: Entrepreneurship and Microfinance. However, both tools include financial and non-financial services. Financial support includes grant, lending/financing, and investment. Non- financial includes capacity building and technical assistance. #### 4) I understand you will be speaking at the UN in New York later this month. Can you tell us about that? I will be sitting in on a panel discussion at the UN titled: **“Youth as Protagonists in Preventing Violent Extremism.”** Thus, the panel’s main objective is to share best practices and real experiences in developing effective measures to counter terrorism and strengthen our youth’s resiliency to resite extremism. #### 5) What advice would you give to those wanting to grow an entrepreneurial community in their city? First of all, they need to start with themselves to gain confidence and to lead by example. Next, they have to surround themselves with people who are keen on bettering their community. **Networking is key.** Always involve business owners, policy makers and decision makers will help by taking the initiative to the next level. Therefore give back as much as you can, create community programs that involve community leaders and members. Listen and know what the community really needs. Learn from the mistakes the people before you made. Make sure to never follow anyone’s footsteps. Don’t stop learning, you can never know too much. So become an expert in what you do. Involve youth in community-based programs, mentor, guide and support them. --- ## “The War of Art” Summary URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-war-of-art-summary/ # The Internal Battle Calling on my creative genius can often be perplexing. Sometimes I feel like the harder I pull on creativity, the harder it pulls away from me. Have you heard that quote? “The hardest battle you’ll ever have to fight is against yourself”. It’s the real deal. The biggest takeaways from “The War of Art” revolve around equipping oneself to win these internal battles. You can’t battle against yourself with brute force. You will always lose. By definition, the harder you punch, the harder you get punched back. It’s why the battle against yourself is such a challenge. It’s counter-intuitive. It takes finesse, not brute force. Don’t fight fear with fear. Fight it with love… baby 😉 I am fascinated with how Steven Pressfield articulates this challenge in his book “The War of Art”. It is a philosophical yet practical dive into the battle against yourself which highlights Resistance as the enemy. If you have spent any time with the “Tao Te Ching” or “Meditations” you will recognize similarities. It is a compilation of credos and philosophical awareness made by Steven throughout his life, relating to the challenge of Resistance. “The War of Art” is a powerful book in my life and I often refer back to it or listen to it as I go to sleep. I hope it can be powerful for you as well. I am writing this summary to do a couple things: 1. Get you to read it if you haven’t already. 2. Get you to reflect on some core points if you have read it. 3. Help you translate some of the insights into tools to fight Resistance in your own lives. # # Book Intro #### Three things are made clear from the beginning of “The War of Art” I want to highlight: ##### 1) “Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance” He recognizes two definite lives. The one that acts on the itch, the calling, the things that scare you the most and the one that does not. It’s clear to me after reading “The War of Art” several times that Steven genuinely wants all humans to live the life on the other side of Resistance.  ##### 2) “Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and erectile dysfunction” He despises Resistance. Throughout his life he has come to the conclusion Resistance is the core reason for all most of the negative happenings in our world. He was on a mission to figure out what was stopping him from achieving his dreams and deemed the root of all other barriers, Resistance. ##### 3) “Genius is a Latin word; the Romans used it to denote an inner spirit, holy and inviolable, which watches over us, guiding us to our calling.” All humans have a genius. We don’t recognize remarkable humans because they are  genius’s. We recognize them for their ability to consistently tap into their genius. I’m not sure I believe in a holy spirit living inside all humans. Said that I lean toward the idea there is something magical within all of us that only we have the power to tap into. It’s not circumstantial. There is no luck involved or a higher power nudging you in the right direction. The only person who can help you is you. “The War of Art” is broken into three sections:   1. Resistance: Defining the enemy 2. Combating Resistance: Turning Pro and Beyond 3. Resistance: The Higher Realm # # Defining the Enemy > ##### “The enemy is a very good teacher.” – Dalai Lama #### This section is broken down into two more subsections; characteristics and symptoms: #### 1) Characteristics ##### “The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.” The next time you are feeling a little discomfort, or rather a lot of discomfort, try to look at it like Steven does. Take it as a hint you are onto something special. The universe is telling you something great is behind that wall of discomfort. Aka, recognize the Resistance and use that shit! ##### “Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer resistance.” How do you master fear? I think Steven answered it above. Fear, like discomfort, is another dead giveaway. To master fear we need to habitually do things we are afraid of. Tim Ferris calls this “fear setting”. Identify things you fear and schedule a time to act on them like you would schedule exercise in your week. #### 2) Symptoms ##### “Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize. We don’t tell ourselves, “I’m never going to write my symphony.” Instead, we say, “I am going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.” Some of the most creative and intelligent people I know procrastinate projects until the very last minute. They say the pressure feeds their creative energy. The result, they get very little deep work done for 6 days then sit down for 10 hours straight and pump it out. While this clearly works for some people, I’d be willing to bet if they tricked their mind into urgency 7 days a week for 3-4 hours at a time they would get a lot more done and manifest much more for themselves. How do you trick yourself into urgency? Try creating fake deadlines for yourself scattered throughout the week. Do NOT schedule multiple deadlines for one day. ##### “Rationalization: Instead of showing us our fear (which might shame us and impel us to do our work), Resistance presents us with a series of plausible, rational justifications for why we shouldn’t do our work.” Steven labels rationalization as the silent killer. I had a productive week so I don’t need to work on my side project this weekend. I had a late night at work so I can skip my run tomorrow morning. Yep, sometimes logic works against you 😉 # # Combating Resistance: Turning Pro Steven talks about Professionalism quite a bit. He even capitalizes it, so it must be important. Like Resistance, he takes a philosophical approach toward describing what the word represents. His definition is more than “someone who gets paid for a service” #### Below is what I find to be the most relevant and actionable ways to develop “Professionalism” and to combat “Resistance”: #### 1) Patience ##### “The Professional steels himself at the start of a project, reminding himself it is the Iditarod, not the sixty-yard dash. He conserves his energy. He prepares his mind for the long haul.” Gary V speaks about patience it quite a bit, but I still think we can recognize it as a member of our toolkit more often. It goes hand and hand with [resilience](/are-you-tough-enough-for-business-5-reasons-mental-resilience-is-needed-for-business-success/). The calm and patient mind will bounce back much faster. When we live with patience the bumps along our path become insignificant. #### 2) Craft ##### “A pro views her work as a craft, not art. She understands that all creative endeavors are holy, but she doesn’t dwell on it. She knows if she thinks about that too much, it will paralyze her. So she concentrates on technique. The professional masters how, and leaves what and why to the gods.” Our minds are not capable of thinking fundamentals and being creative at the same time. Most impactful creation comes after the foundation has been built. My favorite analogy is in sports. Tom Brady threw that touchdown pass 100 times before you saw it on TV. He spent countless hours studying the opponent and knows the mind of the defensive coach better than he knows his wife. All the boxes are checked and creativity is free to flow through him with no Resistance. #### 3) Fear ##### “The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.” Richard Branson speaks to this in his most recent book, Finding my virginity. Are you afraid? Do you feel unprepared for the task? Good! Say yes and work backward to find the solution. # # Beyond Resistance: The Higher Realm > ##### “The point, for the thesis I’m seeking to put forward, is that there are forces we can call our allies. As Resistance works to keep us from becoming who we were born to be, equal and opposite powers are counterpoised against it. These are our allies and angels.” If you put yourself in the right circumstances creative energy will manifest naturally. Like chemistry, but in this case, the elements are professionalism, patience, seeking discomfort, etc. #### Below are the forces I find most practical: #### 1) Magic of starting ##### “Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would not otherwise have occurred.” Tim Ferris has a very practical way of starting and sticking to decisions that I love! He says to make decisions that are to simple to break. Do 1 pushup every morning for the next month. It’s silly but it gets you in the habit of starting. I dare you to rationalize your way out of doing 1 pushup. #### 2) The magic of keeping going ##### “What does it tell us about the architecture of our psyches that, without our exerting effort or even thinking about it, some voice in our head pipes up to counsel us (and counsel us wisely) on how to do our work and live our lives? The power of momentum. We have pretty cool brains. They have the ability to achieve exponential growth.  Something happens when we double down, the game starts to become fun and Resistance is replaced with flow. The y-axis represents creativity, the mindset, the muse or whatever you think the components are of personal growth. The x-axis represents the number of times you overcame fear, acted on a decision, sought out discomfort or stopped yourself from acting on a negative urge. **y = 2x** #### 3) The Ego & the Self ##### “Authentic Self: Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.” I don’t believe in fate. It’s tough for my logical mind to believe that we are born to be X and all we have to do to get there is search deep inside ourselves to figure that out. On a practical level, “finding yourself” means doing a shit ton of experimenting to identify the shit that lights you on fire. #### 4) The greatest fear ##### “The Mother of all Fears that’s so close to us that even when we verbalize it we don’t believe it. Fear That We Will Succeed. That we can access the powers we secretly know we possess. This is the most terrifying prospect a human being can face.” This is particularly relevant today. We know it’s possible to achieve our dreams because we see people on social media doing it consistently. This scares the dog shit out of us. We tend to reflect more harshly on our present selves if we know a “better” version of ourself exists. Remember that first quote? “*Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”* It’s the real deal! # # Conclusion > ##### “Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end, the question can only be answered by action. Do it or don’t do it. It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself.  You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God. Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.” Victor Frankl makes a related statement in his popular book, “A Man’s Search for Meaning” *Do not ask “what can I expect from this life” but rather “what does this life expect from me”* #### You are a gift to the world. Don’t let Resistance prevent you from delivering your gift! --- ## Aimee Tariq’s Back Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/aimee-tariq/ “I was going to make the most of my situation, even with my immobility.”- Aimee Tariq I was a senior in high school, president of every club, a cheerleader, and already finished with all of my high school credits to graduate with honors. I didn’t graduate early so that I had time to save money for college. I was working as a waitress, tutor, assistant teacher, organizer, and a nanny, while looking for ways to start passive income so that I could focus on studying without stressing about work. I dreamt of becoming a doctor who would change people’s lives and their health. I thought that as a doctor I could help change the world to be a better place. Even though I received full rides to my choice of college, becoming a doctor wouldn’t happen. One night, as I tried to fall asleep after a long day of school and work, I felt my heart beating hard and fast, so hard it was hurting my ribs. My whole chest was shaking. After much convincing, my mother finally called 911. It was my first-time riding in an ambulance and my parents were already furious with me, anticipating the bills of what was to come. **I thought I was going to die.** The emergency room staff couldn’t bring my heart rate down. They were rude and hurled insults at me, making comments on how I looked, and the type of “trash” they thought I was, while I didn’t even have the strength to ask them to stop. My image of what healthcare was meant to be was slowly being ripped away from me. Finally, after **3 days** of countless blood tests and stress tests, and after finally admitting they were wrong and that I wasn’t on drugs, they discovered the problem. I simply had strep throat. They sent me home with antibiotics and I thought I’d be able to go right back to normal. But my heart rate was never the same, and neither was my health. My heart rate stayed exponentially high and my body lost significant weight. I couldn’t brush my own teeth, brush my own hair, or even have a simple conversation. The teachers and students began treating me badly, because I couldn’t even hold my head up due to exhaustion from my illness. It didn’t take long before I was labeled as a spoiled brat who wanted attention and an “easy pass.” (Even though…I had already passed.) After being labeled and abused by the school staff because I was no longer “normal” and having no family support, and no longer being able to do simple, everyday tasks… I began wishing I had just died that day in the ambulance. It would’ve been easier than having to deal with watching all of my “friends,” teachers, and family say terrible things to me, treat me badly, and force me to do things I no longer could physically handle. A quick death would’ve been much preferable to this agonizing, long, inferno. Watching myself lose muscle and weight while there was nothing I could do. Watching myself go from a super star athlete, to someone who couldn’t even brush her own teeth. Watching some people happy to see me so sick and withering away. Listening to my own friends and family say that I was a worthless loser, a burden, and a “cripple” and should just die. Being in this limbo was the worst. Being in this limbo is many people’s everyday reality. As I went to many doctors and hospitals trying to find a solution, all I received was a total lack of care and my faith in western medicine was eventually shattered. After winning over a million dollars in scholarships and winning all of the academic awards from my school, I decided on a small private college near home which guaranteed they would be understanding of my condition and they said it was fine if I needed to take days off to see my cardiologist. The college said I would have access to nurses and that they had healthy food options on campus. It was all a lie. The professor who taught a class that students were forced to take on “how to use a planner” was told several times that I wouldn’t be at class due to a cardiologist appointment I had booked six months in advance and could not re-book. Instead of being understanding, she threatened to fail me, which would ruin my full ride scholarship. This led me to realize that school wasn’t worth sacrificing the little health (and perhaps life) I had left. With that realization, all my dreams to become a doctor were destroyed. With this new purpose I had only two focuses: to get healthy or die trying. Now, more than ever, I had to become self-sufficient, because doctors weren’t helping me, my family wasn’t helping me, and the school and workplace wouldn’t want to work around my issues. I was going to have to learn how to make money in very little time with little energy, which pushed me to entrepreneurship. During those next few years I lost the respect of everyone I knew. “You’re a quitter. You’re a loser. You just want attention. You’re wasting your life and youth. You’re throwing everything away. You’ve disappointed everyone.” I became isolated, but I made the best of it. Regaining my health was the opposite of throwing my life away. It was the best decision I could’ve made. Creating my own online businesses instead of going into a workplace- also the best decision I could’ve made. Those people didn’t pay my medical bills and didn’t have to live with my disabilities. They had no idea what it took for me to simply stay alive. And they had no right to pretend they did. They had no right to say those things to me. **I was going to make the most of my situation, even with my immobility.**I don’t know how I kept fighting, but I did. I focused on reading books and improving my knowledge, my mind, my health and my abilities. I began writing books and learned about businesses and health. Everything I learned about health was the result of careful and strategic planning because one mistake would lead to cardiac arrest. It was like navigating my way through a minefield. Once I was able to leave my parent’s house, I made everything in my life organic, wholesome, and toxin free. I bought the best water filter, organic mattress, and food. And with much work and dedication, **I healed.** To this day, despite my best seller, despite working with some of the most prominent bi-regulatory physicians in the world, despite helping thousands of people achieve better health, I am hated by many for talking about the importance of a toxin-free life, in food, in relationships, and in the workplace. But I’m appreciated by more, for living in my truth and for helping others. For me it was a matter of life and death. I wanted and NEEDED to heal my life, and in the process, I learned that the same method could be applied to others. My purpose is to help those who want to live healthy and unlock their greatest potential. I am grateful to live my life on my terms and to live out my original dream of healing people…only in a way I never knew was possible. **What advice would you give to others to help their employees thrive?** Make sure to respect employees as human beings with human needs- they need adequate rest. Educate them with proper nutrition. Skip the donuts and provide some healthy snack options if they come in to work, because healthy and happy employees are the foundation of your business. When you look after your employees, they look after your customers. When your customers are happy, your company is thriving. **What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?** Because of what I’ve been through with my own health, I have a trusted network of bioregulatory physicians for injuries, dental work, hormones, illness and disease. For example, when I had regular strep throat, gingivitis, cavities, and mouth pain I was searching for a dentist who followed and recognized the innovative and progressive work Weston A. Price conducted. I accidentally stumbled across a microbiome dentist who would change my life with his innovative techniques. He had a patented toothpaste that restores the bacteria ecological balance in the mouth, without the use of toxins. It cured my gingivitis and I haven’t had strep throat since. --- ## From Champion Debater to Mr. World- The Untold Story of Frankie Cena URL: https://futuresharks.com/frankie-cena/ Francesco Cena “Frankie” is an entrepreneur, host, singer, debater and CEO of Fostering Debate Talent Academy. A multi- talented individual, Frankie has competed in many competitions from debates to singing to Mr. World and even hosting Miss World; we dive into the busy life of Frankie. **What’s your story?** I love to divide my story in to two parts. The first is about a young boy that really enjoyed public speaking, and years later opened up his own business—Fostering Debate Talent (FDT) Academy. I was a debater and public speaker throughout high school, and a debate and public speaking coach throughout my university degree. My students did very well—they travelled throughout Canada and the world and won many many championships. So I got to a place where I could open a debate coaching business based wholly on my own brand. We’re about to enter our second year and I couldn’t be happier with the way the business has grown, how many people we’re impacting, and the fact that I get to work with my mom and sister, who are both integral parts of the business. The second part of my story is about a young boy who always just loved to perform, and eventually got to host Miss World, the world’s oldest and largest beauty pageant. To get there I took singing lessons and performed on stages around the world, and also pursued acting, modeling and hosting. Eventually I represented Canada at the Mr. World competition, and was very fortunate to have won that competition’s talent portion and to have placed in the top 10. I was even more fortunate to get a call, two years later, to host the next edition of Mr. World; and, later that same year, to host Miss World 2014. I take my performance career just as seriously as my coaching career, so a lot of my story up until now has been about trying to become an absolute success in both. **How did you develop a passion for singing?** People ask me this a lot, and the truth is—I don’t really know why I love singing so much. I don’t think I have any singing role models, or huge moments in my life that turned me into a singer. All I know is that, as a kid, I wrote songs with my neighbours, watched American Idol religiously, begged my music teacher to let me join the choir a year early—and was just always sure that it was my dream. But I also remembering losing a lot of singing competitions, as a kid. So even though I was the most committed to it, I wasn’t necessarily the best at it, and I had to work very, very hard. I had to go back to those singing competitions over and over again in order to conquer them; to get myself on to some of the biggest stages in the world; and then, eventually, to win Mr. World Talent. **Why did you start a debate coaching business?** Before opening a debate academy in Vancouver, there wasn’t really a culture for instructing speech and debate through a formalized training program. I’d seen piano classes, I’d seen afterschool tutoring programs for English and math, I’d seen kids join sports teams, but why wasn’t there an elite academy for those who want to be the best public speakers and debaters in the world? For future lawyers, for future politicians? The market had a huge gap in Vancouver and, really, in the world, and I knew I had to fill that gap, and that this was the right time to do it. But starting a debate coaching business was never really my plan—it was a passion, a volunteer activity, maybe a part-time job. That only really changed after I auditioned for The Apprentice UK. It was an enormous amount of work, and after numerous steps in the Apprentice UK process, I was asked, in the final round, to present a business plan. All that came to my mind was debate coaching. So although I was rejected from The Apprentice, I was left with this amazing business model which started to make me wonder—“Maybe this isn’t just a hobby, maybe this isn’t just a passion—maybe this is a business that needs to be implemented, in Vancouver.” **How have you been able to build a business yet keep your passion for singing and entertainment alive?** I used to really agonize over this. For a while I was convinced that my career had to settle in to some master plan, and that my passion for singing and my passion for business and public speaking had to be pre-balanced, in my head. “Should I go to university, or should I pursue my dream of singing? Am I going to become a lawyer, or am I going to try to be a television host?” At 26, I think I’ve realised that it’s much smarter to just keep my eyes and ears open for opportunities, and pounce on them whenever they come by. When Miss World wanted me to work for them while I was just starting my company, for example, I thought to myself—“What am I supposed to do? I’m opening this academy, and here’s Miss World, asking me to fly off for ten weeks.” It was the toughest decision. But I knew that a contract with Miss World wasn’t going to come along every day, and that I had to take it because that was the opportune time to move forward with my entertainment career. So while I didn’t expect a lot of the breaks I got in singing, acting, hosting and debate to crop up when they did, I was also quick to strike when the iron was hot. And I think it’s the ability to let my career grow organically that’s helped me build my excellent business while also keeping my dream alive. **What has been your top 3 lessons from running a business?** Lesson one: Treat your staff and clients like family. This wasn’t something I’d planned to do before starting my business, it wasn’t a strategy, it wasn’t something that I was told or taught. It was just something that I felt was right. But what I eventually found was that, when you treat clients and employees like family, and you invest in them, they will be more likely to invest in you—to invest their trust, time, energy and resources into making your vision a reality. Lesson two: Know when to let go. For my entire debate coaching career, I’ve relied almost entirely on myself. So now, as I’m about to start my tenth year of coaching, at 26, it’s been bittersweet watching our numbers grow—because growth means that I can’t do everything. It means that I can’t instruct every client all the time, or meet with every parent, or watch over every class, and it means that I have to let go of things that I’ve held so dearly to myself for so long. I let go by training my staff and trusting my staff, and trusting that my brand and my skillset will live on through them. Lesson three: Work even harder. I will never forget the back-to-back trips—from London, England, to Newfoundland, to Mexico; coaching debate in one, training students in another, judging a Miss World competition in the third. But running a successful business means that you’re putting in the time in every way possible. So yes, that means getting on flights to do personal meetings, and flying back for a late night in the office with my mom and my sister, trying to plan our company gala. The job never ends. But if I don’t put that time in as the owner, I know that no one else will. **What has been your biggest failure?** I genuinely hate the world failure, because I think that every time I fail at something, I gain from it. And yet the word “failure” suggests that something bad has happened or that I wasn’t able to garner something positive from the experience—so that’s my first point. But if I had to pick an event that I’m unhappy about, it would probably be not advancing on the X Factor UK. Four times. The first time, I told the producers about how I’ve always loved Simon Cowell and always wanted to sing for him. I told them that I’d actually had the pleasure of meeting Simon in Los Angeles during an X Factor USA audition, where I sang to a standing ovation—but he didn’t hear me sing. So after the performance, I somehow saw Simon Cowell and I pulled him over and said—“I’m going to sing for you one day.” And that, I told them, was what had brought me there. And you would think that this story in combination with my talent would have led me right to Simon Cowell’s judging seat. But it didn’t. So the next year I tried out once again, made it through all of the stages, was called back, had phone calls to send my songs in to be prepared to go and sing for Simon—but, again, just didn’t make it through. And this repeated itself for a third and a fourth time. So the amount of doors that I’ve had slammed in my face is a lot larger than the amount of times that I’ve succeeded. And that’s the truth. But as much that sucks, I’m still going to keep practicing what I preach and go back a fifth, sixth, seventh time—until I sing for Simon Cowell! **Tell us about your hosting Miss World and what you have gained from that experience.** Hosting Miss World has been by far the most incredible and shocking experience of my life. I knew so little about beauty pageants and hosting. So not only did I have to now meet a hundred and twenty women from around the world with different stories, goals, aspirations—I had to learn voiceovers, script writing, earpieces, reading autocue, teleprompter, live hosting, recorded hosting, interviews, in-depth interviews, all on the spot. The Miss World organization has given me fans, it’s given me followers, it’s given me my dream job, but most importantly it’s given me the training and the skills to become the ultimate host that I’ve always wanted to be—to be a Ryan Seacrest and to be a Jeff Probst. So all I can say is, if you’re thrown to the wolves, don’t be afraid to fight. You could come out of it a completely different—stronger—person. **What has been your proudest moment till date?** The proudest moment of my life so far has been winning the Mr. World Talent competition. I had so many doubts and fears and insecurities going into Mr. World, surrounded by all these accomplished, amazing, beautiful men from around the world and always wondering if I was good enough. But when the talent portion started, I felt this incredible excitement, like I was finally living a childhood dream of being on American Idol or America’s Got Talent. There were rounds. There were eliminations. And after we’d gone from 50 contestants to 20 contestants to 10 to 5, there was even a finale and a final judges’ deliberation. So when I won despite all the negativity swirling in my head beforehand, it just redeemed for me a lifetime of hard work and passion and improvement and progress towards what I can only describe as my life’s dream. **What future projects/plans do you have for your business or entertainment career or personal?** On the business side, FDT academy will start its second year in September, and we will finally be in our own commercial space. This is the development from teaching at my house, teaching at client’s houses, teaching in a large residential property of one of my clients, to finally having our own storefront, our own signage, our own home. I can’t wait to expand the business, and we’re already looking forward to an amazing September school year with many new clients. On the entertainment side, I hope to be back with the Miss World team, continuing off the success of the Miss World “Head-to-Head Challenge”, which is a project that I was invited to spearhead and work on last season. So I hope to be able to go back to the competition to do that, and be with the contestants in Sanya, China. I also have another project brewing in the UK which could bring me one step closer to my singing dreams, but unfortunately due to contract I cannot say anything more at this time—so stay tuned. **What impact/message do you want to impart to young people who are looking to follow their dreams?** The advice I would give to young people who want to follow their dreams is to do just that—follow your dreams. But following a dream doesn’t just mean that you think of it once or twice, or once a month, or when you’re bored or when you’re happy or when you’re excited. It means that at every moment possible, you hold that dream up clearly in your mind. It means that you believe in it during the downs as much as the ups, and you pursue it to your fullest. And it means dreaming bigger than anyone else dreams, or anyone else thinks is “appropriate” for you—because if you can’t picture yourself as bigger than Ryan Seacrest or Justin Bieber or Lebron James or Versace, then no one ever will. --- ## Half Rebel, Half Nerd- The Karla Singson Way URL: https://futuresharks.com/karla-singson/ **# “Growth for me is bigger contracts and happier employees”- Karla Singson What’s your backstory?** I’m a 50% rebel 50% nerd who graduated college at 19 and had nothing better to do. I cultivated a lot of non-committal jobs while writing on the side, until I got a job as a writer at one of the biggest advertising agencies in the country. I got tired of that too; I hated the office politics and the dress code. So I quit it after almost a year, played poker for a living, and then wrote on the side. I had a lot of experience doing public speaking so on the side, I would accept hosting/ emcee opportunities. When I started doing bigger and bigger events, that’s when I learned I could make so much more if I was the one doing the event. Now, 7 years later, my events and PR company is still my biggest business, and we have led campaigns for over 100 brands including corporate giants such as Sony, AirAsia, Sharp, BMW, Bosch, Hafele, and Alcatel, as well as big nonprofit organizations such as The Australian Embassy, World Vision, and Habitat for Humanity. I’ve also taken my flower shop business seriously, and we currently have 5 dealers all over the country. Then over the past two years, I started two online businesses – PR agency and a VA placement agency, because I want more freedom of time and location. **How did you promote your business in the early days?** Everything was word-of-mouth and explicitly asking for referrals, albeit in really charming ways. For every successful project we have, that’s our seal of excellence, and it makes me have more confidence asking for the recommendation. I will never be shy about asking for something I know I deserve. **How have you been able to grow your business?** My biggest business growth came with hiring the right people—those who are far smarter, more hardworking, and more organized than me. I have my strengths, and they will have their own too. We fill each other’s gaps and I can do what I do best: sales and communications. And defining desired growth is also something that you should do properly, at the onset of your business. Growth for me is bigger contracts and happier employees, I don’t care so much about more clients or a bigger office or a new branch, really. **Where do you see yourself in a couple of years? What’s your dream?** In a couple of years, I will have several real estate investments which are giving me great returns, 5-7 businesses I love and lead with the best teams I can ask for, and thousands of students and young entrepreneurs I’ve helped to achieve freedom and success, whatever those words mean to them. --- ## Could FIPSI Be the World’s First True Flying Car? URL: https://futuresharks.com/could-fipsi-be-the-worlds-first-flying-car/ In this series, I feature the ideas, insights, and stories of the world’s most innovative entrepreneurs. Today, I caught up with Bogdan Radu the founder of FIPSI. ### 1) What inspired you to become an entrepreneur? *“The vision was to create an unstoppable vehicle which could deliver solutions needed in any situation (but especially emergency situations.) Imagine having help easier, faster, and everywhere each and every time it’s needed! It’s time to change the way we travel and not simply upgrade the vehicles we already have.” -Bogdon Radu, Founder of FIPSI.* Being in the kitchen you can expect to invent a new type of plate, knife, fork, or a new type of stove, refrigerator, or dishwasher. Being in the kitchen I found a new way of packaging a revolutionary transportation vehicle. I decided to create a unique UNSTOPPABLE vehicle by using the existing well-known technologies but packaging them in a different way. This new vehicle is named FIPSI = Flying Innovative Personnel Space Icon. Seeing an unanswered question for which people have been dreaming of for decades, I decided to transform the so-called “conventional transportation” to an unconventional transportation (based on today’s criteria). Up to now, there has been a way of packaging a car and a way of packaging an airplane or helicopter. Everybody tried to change an airplane and make it fold and be able to ride like a car. With FIPSI, I changed the concept by packaging a car to be transformed and become a Flying Car or Drone. I created a Flying Car or Drone vehicle, which will not help the operator to fly from San Francisco to Los Angeles or from New York to Washington, D.C., but can help people move freely inside big crowded cities anywhere in the world and also be used in any remote location. ### 2) What problems will your idea solve? Many times, people who need help are stuck in a traffic jam or in some inaccessible or remote area, which can cause frustration, pain, or even death, due to someone being unable to reach them quickly enough. This will be avoided by using FIPSI Flying Car, which will eliminate all these above difficulties. GPS technology can help us locate anybody who needs help using a phone anywhere, but we do not yet have a way to quickly and easily reach that person. I feel the frustration when an ambulance, fire truck, police car, etc., tries to move quickly through traffic by using sirens or flashing lights to alert others of the urgency of a quick and fast movement. Similar frustrations could appear when a road is blocked by trees or stones, when a bridge is falling apart, when people are stuck in a remote fire or flooded area, in a high- rise building on fire, during an earthquake, or in war zone areas. Regular helicopter support can take a lot of time, and the price of using it is at least 10 times more than the proposed FIPSI vehicle’s would be. ### The FIPSI Flying Car or Drone vehicle can be used: 1. As a Search and Rescue (SAR) vehicle for many types of natural catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, fires, etc. 2. As a quick and easy deployment of military personnel wherever they are needed. 3. As a quick and easy way to protect the borders or for special services and police personnel deployment. 4. By any company that needs to go to remote or inaccessible areas. 5. As an amphibian vehicle to save people in flooded areas. 6. By the oil companies to deploy or give support to the oil rig platforms. ### The advantages and benefits of FIPSI are: 1. FIPSI brings to market a new unconventional and unstoppable vehicle that can benefit from all the 6 degrees of freedom. 2. FIPSI is able to deliver solutions needed in emergency situations and bring help more quickly everywhere and every time it is needed. 3. FIPSI vehicle owners or operators will keep their independence to go wherever they want. 4. FIPSI can store its rotors inside the car body, so the car will go unnoticed from others when driving. 5. Storing the rotors inside the car body will prevent damaging the rotors’ blades when they are not needed, and will minimize the parking storage footprint space. ### 3) What has been the biggest challenge in your entrepreneurial journey and how have you been able to overcome it? I made a reduced-scale prototype to prove the functionality, but creating a real 1:1 scale vehicle is something that is over my budget. However, the FIPSI vehicle is not cheap to manufacture. So my personal challenge for developing and manufacturing it is getting the necessary financial support. Even if the project idea was very well accepted by many individuals in one-to-one presentations. ### 4) What advice would you give to entrepreneurs? First and foremost, entrepreneurs have to persevere even though they will get many “NO” answers. They have to be ready to recover after each failure, to prove that their product or concept is better. They have to be pushy until the others (or the world) will work with them. If others did similar things, they CAN ALSO DO IT. They have to be convinced that by being an American, they can better use the last four letters of the word: Amer“I CAN.” Being an American, I can help to change the world’s way of transportation. ### 5) What does the future hold? How will you scale your company? Become a multibillion-dollar company in an unexpectedly short time by providing these useful unstoppable FIPSI Flying Car or Drone vehicles to whoever needs them anywhere in the world. Make people aware that any time they need help, they can get it quickly and easily. I want to make an impact and a difference in the life of others. Therefore, I hope to have the chance of presenting this vehicle to the World Expo in Dubai 20 October 2020 (Festival of Human Ingenuity). --- ## Inside and Outside of the Ring With Former WWE Wrestler Dylan Bostic URL: https://futuresharks.com/inside-and-outside-of-the-ring-with-former-wwe-wrestler-dylan-bostic/ In this series, I interview the world’s most interesting entrepreneurs. Today, I had the pleasure of sitting down with professional wrestler and entrepreneur, Dylan Bostic. **Christian Vind:** What’s your backstory? **Dylan Bostic:** I was born in Indianapolis and grew up in Shelbyville IN and was hooked on wrestling after the first time I saw it on TV when I was four or five years old. My mom met some local wrestlers when I was eight years old,and they gave her tickets for us to attend a local show. I started training when I was 12 years old. In June 2007, I had my first live professional match at 15 years old. **Christian Vind:** I heard you tried out for the WWE! How did that go? **Dylan Bostic:** It went absolutely amazing. I wrestled on WWE Smackdown in 2012. It just felt so amazing to get another opportunity with the WWE after all of these years. I promised 2012 wasn’t the end of me in WWE. It was the beginning. I’m hungrier than ever! **Christian Vind:** What were some of your struggles as an entrepreneur, and as a wrestler? What are some things that you’ve done to overcome those obstacles? **Dylan Bostic:** Being a pro wrestler you are your own brand and business. It’s been hard to get ahead financially in wrestling because there are only a few places to make good money in wrestling. I’ve used social media as a platform to make more money, and it has finally started to pay off. **Christian Vind:** What does your theme song Champion mean to you? How has it made an impact on you personally and your career as a wrestler and entrepreneur? **Dylan Bostic:** The song means so much to me because the lyrics explain my life. My entire life people have told me I couldn’t be a pro wrestler or ever step foot in the WWE and I’ve done everything people said I couldn’t do. The only thing left now is a successful run in the WWE! ## Dylan’s Intro Song > Dylan Bostic Highlight Video > Retweet, Like, and comment! > For booking infoBosticWrestling@gmail.com > Music @IamCvind – Champion @AWinMusic pic.twitter.com/j5csFvhv93 > — Dylan Bostic (@Dylan_Bostic) May 4, 2018 **Christian Vind:** What are some things you would recommend a prospective wrestler who wants to turn pro do? **Dylan Bostic:** Anyone who wants to be a pro wrestler needs to first become an athlete. If you aren’t attending a pro wrestling school right now, you need to be focused on gym and diet to prepare yourself. This isn’t easy! ## Connect with Dylan on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BjXc8N7A3dC/?taken-by=dylanbostic --- ## How Cheryl Conner’s Forbes Column Drives Her Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/cheryl-conner/ In this series, I sit down with writers from the world’s top digital publications. Today, I caught up with Cheryl Conner from Forbes. Here’s what she shared with me… ## 1) Can you share your backstory with us? I’ve been in the work of publishing and public relations for 32 years. I actually began as a writer and editor for a publishing project for IBM in the early days of the personal computer. After that project, I tried to apply to Novell as a documentation writer, but through accident or destiny ended up being routed to the public relations department instead. I was chosen to communicate the company’s tech speak into layperson English, but within 90 days was made the company’s PR Manager. I made the jump to entrepreneurship when the position required too much travel and too many late night hours away from my children and tripled my former pay overnight. I’ve co-founded three agencies and my current company, SnappConner PR, is the organization I’ve launched and led on my own, with an amazing group of 16 A-plus players. ## 2) How has writing for Forbes enhanced your personal brand and career? I had no idea the opportunity my national columns would be. I took them on as a way to show my clients how much better their own materials would be if they would write on topics and in a style that is compelling to readers instead of writing to promote their self-interests and voice. But in the process, I learned a great deal about successful thought leadership writing and developed a large following. Now I’m regarded as a global expert in Crisis PR and reputation management. I’m asked to keynote, to give webinars to other organizations and am at this point a book author as well—my first was Beyond PR, a Forbes eBook. My newest book, upcoming, will be about the most recent strategies and developments in Crisis PR. ## 3) Can you take us through your process for creating new content for your column on Forbes? My columns come about in many ways, but there are ideas everywhere. The best ideas come from my readers. Although I get hit up with scores of pitches every week, the vast majority are “mass pitches” that have been given to hundreds of other writers as well. They’re way off base from my assigned topic and at least 97 of 100 are bids for me to feature someone, profile a person or company and are motivated by the subject’s desire to be promoted. But the giant secrets that few people get is that my desire and my assignment is to meet the needs of my readers by providing new ideas to advance their own PR. They want to read about ideas that come from the candid experiences of other entrepreneurs, not about someone’s hero accomplishments or their current ICO or crowdfunding bid (in fact that kind of promotion is strictly forbidden by Forbes). I publish five times a month, so a little more than once a week. ## 4) What is your top piece of advice for aspiring writers who would like to contribute to a major publication? Aspiring writers should learn strong journalistic writing. They need to know how to tell a good story, and they need to write clean material that will benefit readers. They also need to understand and adhere to journalism rules about proper citation, the requirements to avoid conflict of interest, and to know the things that are required for complete and fair treatment of the people and subjects you choose. ## 5) Which social media channel do you find the most effective for your brand and why? There are three social media channels I use most but they have differing purposes. LinkedIn is probably the very top for business connections and obtaining new clients (and article ideas). Facebook is a more personal and entertaining platform. It’s where you will find me the most, and it’s where I get to connect and really get to know people both within and outside of my professional life. And it’s entertaining. [Twitter](/muaaz-shakeel/) is the third, although I’m getting increasingly jaded about the amount of negativity and even outright business bullying and slander that I’m seeing out there. Improving the rules of engagement for Twitter (and Facebook as well) is one of the next horizons I’d like to help to improve. People’s lives and reputations have been destroyed by the things people post to hurt others. Businesses are ruined as well. We need to teach or enforce some better ground rules to harness the real power of the platforms in an environment that supports appropriate behavior for all. ## 6) What’s next for Cheryl Snapp Conner and where can my readers follow you? Thankfully, due to the length of time I’ve been publishing you can find me by simply searching on my name in Google. My primary body of column work is on Forbes.com, but there is plenty of interest you can get to easily in Google. You can also find me through my agency website. I’m always happy to connect on social media, too. My next big projects? Our online version of our Content University course for current and aspiring columnists and content writers is formally launching in the first of June. And I’m writing a new book – perhaps the book — on the current strategies and best practices of Crisis PR. --- ## How Snacktops Is Making It Easier To Consume Our Favorite Food And Beverages On The Go URL: https://futuresharks.com/snacktops/ In this series, I feature the ideas of the world’s most innovative entrepreneurs. Today, I caught up with retail guru and path to consumption evangelist, Jeff Engel, CEO of Snacktops. ### 1) What is your backstory? *Jeff Engel, CEO Snacktops* I’ve been fortunate to gain a broad range of professional skills since entering the private sector after serving as a Navy SEAL. Since leaving the military, I have worked at IBM, two prior start-ups, a consulting firm, and, most recently, I spent ten years working at a marketing company specializing in enhanced consumer engagement experiences.  I joined Snacktops in 2015 at the time of its incorporation, because based on my experience working with retailers, I immediately saw how Snacktops’ customizable technology could allow it to address a unique need for a broad range of potential customers in the foodservice industry. After I joined, we began a series of operational tests that soon proved the real-world potential of Snacktops’ technology and business model. Snacktops was built around a suite of solutions and ideas of making it easier to carry your food and beverage in one hand with a **focus on the 91% of people that snack daily**. Our portfolio’s breadth allows us to deliver something unique for 11 different channels.  Based on a customer’s objectives, we may provide a different type of package for a Quick Serve restaurant vs a Convenience Store chain vs a National Coffee Shop chain. As an example, Snacktops’ solution for Auntie Anne’s Candy Lemonade Mixer (lemonade with either Swedish Fish or Sour Patch Kids on top) is completely different than our hot drink solutions for coffee shops (think coffee with a muffin snapped on top with a ribbon straw). ### 2) What problems will your idea solve and how will it improve our lives? People have changed from eating three main meals a day to now snacking throughout the day. The food service industry now looks at eating periods by what is called “day-parts,” and there are five to seven snacking “day-parts.” The industry knows that **91%** of people will **snack** at least once during one of those day-parts **every day**. The industry has been good about pairing items together such as yogurt and granola in a flip cup or cheese and salami paired together, but ultimately consumers were not buying more but rather switching from one food item to the other.  We learned through consumer testing that if we paired a snack with a beverage with Snacktops packaging, both beverage and snack/food sales increased. The consumer stopped switching products and just added an item to what they were purchasing. We also learned that Snacktops could be used as a category-accelerator or category-creator. An executive during a recent conversation said gleefully to me, “You are adding revenue to a significant number of (our) customer transactions. I knew the idea was going to be good. I did not realize *this good*.” ### 3) What has been the biggest challenge in your entrepreneurial journey and how have you been able to overcome it? The biggest challenge at big or small companies is keeping people on the bus through the entire journey. I have always been fortunate to be surrounded by great people. This issue at times is market dynamics. At times, either the company/business unit does not scale as quickly as planned or the market simply shifts, which results in not having the financial resources to keep everyone on the bus for the entire journey. This time we are solving it through the gig economy and my network.  I am now able to work with the great people from my past. I outsource almost everything from patent work, marketing, finance, etc., which allows me to have top-tier people that I trust at a fraction of the cost. It is also less disruptive to their lives. Business, at times, is like riding a roller coaster, and sometimes the end of the track is still being built feverishly with the hope it is completed before the car gets to the end. ### 4) What advice would you give to a prospective entrepreneur? I would tell each entrepreneur something different based on where they are on their journey. Yesterday I was speaking with a transitioning Special Operations veteran who is going through a program called The Honor Foundation. I had four points: 1. Know the language of your customer. If they run a chain of liquor stores, coffee shops, or distribution warehouses, understand and speak well enough so you can bring value to the conversation. 2. If you want to start something in an industry where you have limited experience, go work for someone else to learn. (see point “1”) 3. Work the problem: Do not quit. Work the problem all the way to the end. Solutions pop up that you would not have seen if you had quit two steps earlier. I used to tell BUD/S students going through SEAL training/qualification: “If you start quitting now, when do you stop? … and … if you start quitting when do you stop … don’t start the habit.” 4. Do the things early that you cannot do later as the company grows. For me, that was visiting **every location** when Snacktops started. I was visiting locations in New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, Michigan, Florida, Las Vegas, and others to understand what was really happening. You “understand” when you observe vs making assumptions. (From my military days, “you get what you inspect vs expect.”) ### 5) What does the future hold? How will you scale your company? Great things. Do the right thing and everything will be better than “OK.” Snacktops’ processes were built to scale. Now we simply produce more of what we have already done and tested. All the site visits I did during the first two years are paying dividends now. For me, hang on… the fuse has been lit. (Have fun; hang on; the roller coaster track has been completed and tested.) --- ## Wisdom from Russell Whitney, the Guru’s Guru URL: https://futuresharks.com/wisdom-from-russell-whitney-the-gurus-guru/ **Russell Whitney is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, best-selling author, and a recognized leader in business, real-estate investment, and financial training.** **From:** Fort Myers, Florida **Favorite quote: “**Safety is not required for your success” **Social accounts**  Instagram:www.instagram.com/russellwwhitney/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/russell.whitney Twitter: www.twitter.com/russellwhitney YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Vtk0bipJTHyU5dWjoBH7A # So where did you come from? And how did you go from that to be the Guru’s Guru? **Russell Whitney:** Well, it started when my father was a Real-estate guru on TV back in 1984, he was one of the first people to put out an intellectual property based on a how-to make money product. I remember living in a seven unit apartment complex and then moving up into a 16,000 square foot mansion on the water. So, my father took a thousand dollars and turned it into 4.7 million in real-estate and started teaching people his strategies and how they could make money in real-estate too. Then in 2002 I joined the company and started from the very bottom as a janitor, then worked my way up into customer service, then up into the marketing department, the events department, and by 2004 I was the youngest motivational speaker on the stage, being up there with everyone from Anthony Robbins, to George Foreman, to Donald Trump. It was great, I got to learn hands-on while scaling a company, and got my education from being mentored by my father. ### “Safety is not required for your success” # What kind of benefit do you think you gleaned from being the youngest guy in the room for so long now that you’re one of the vets? **Russell Whitney:**I got to learn from experts that were already out there, while getting to learn from other peoples’ mistakes. It helped me shortcut the process when these older gurus would mentor me and help me make sure that I wouldn’t make some of the mistakes that they had learned from in their lives. And where I learned the most was from watching people who were *not*as good at teaching and educating. That helped me really pinpoint the holes they were missing, and how I could better that to communicate that to the client on how they could change their lives personally, and financially. Then, as I rose through the company working in every department, I found these holes, and used them to create better systems and processes. And after all this, I kind of learned through osmosis in how to run every part of the company. So now I can go into any education company that’s out there, in real-estate, stock, investing or internet marketing, and help them put themselves together, because I’d worked in every division from shipping to working directly with customers. I learned all of it hands-on, and now I have like a doctorates degree in events. # What are some specific secrets that you have learned that you try to pass on to anyone who asks you to give some advice on how to create a business, or how to speak better in public? **Russell Whitney:** So, the first thing that I try to do is get them into the mindset. Because a lot of people don’t know what their true “why” is. What their true purpose is. And the “why” can be different for everyone. The “why” is “what do you feel you’re here on this Earth for? Not only for yourself but for the people who are around you.” That, because I’m a firm believer in the idea that the more people you help, the more money that you’re going to make. And how can you turn that “why” into a way to find your way out of that nine-to-five job, and become an entrepreneur, a business owner, or an investor. So, when I can help people find their “why”, whether it’s getting out of that nine-to-five, or spending more time with their families, or giving back to the world, then I can use that to help them find their purpose. # So once someone has the “why” what next? **Russell Whitney:**The next part of the process is creating your goals, and an action plan, and a blueprint on how to do it. I don’t think anyone will find success unless they understand their goals, I really make people understand that reigning down goals is the most important part of the process. They also need to hold themselves accountable, and what helps them there is finding a mentor like myself or some of the other people out there that have been there. Mentors are very important because they are built to tell you not just what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. Then once someone has the “why”, their goals, and the investment in their education, I know that I can take anyone and help them become successful. # Did you have any real light bulb moments you’ve had where you think you really went from somebody who was there to learn, to someone who was learned? **Russell Whitney:** Well, the biggest lightbulb moment for me by far was when I lost everything, because I didn’t listen to my mentors. Back in 2004, to 2006 I was doing very well financially through my real-estate investing, and then I lost all my money, and all my assets, and I ended up getting around the wrong kinds of people because I got into the doom and gloom. I became addicted to drugs and alcohol, and I was literally homeless on the street, begging for cash so I could go get high. Then I remembered my training and had a moment of clarity, literally, in a hotel room because I was in a paranoid-schizophrenic state from the drugs I was taking, and I realized that I am part of the people that I surround myself with. So, if I surround myself with drug addicts, I’m going to be a drug addict, and if I surround myself with millionaires, I’m going to be a millionaire. So, I reached out to one of my mentors to help me change my life and help me get back on track. So, I got clean and sober, have been for the past four and a half years, and in that period, I went from probably $200,000 in the hole to becoming a multi-millionaire. And the reason I was able to do that was because I reached out to my mentors. You are who you hang around with. Your network is your net-worth. # What would you say to someone who is in that darkest possible place? **Russell Whitney:** You don’t have to hit rock bottom to get back up. The elevator is going down, but you can stop at any floor and get off. If you want true freedom, true happiness, you must surrender and realize that you are powerless over people places and things. A lot of times when people are suffering through addiction or are in any dark place, really, they are blaming everyone else. They’re pointing the finger at everyone else around them, but when you point the finger you do have 3 pointing back at you, you’re three times as guilty. Looking back on my own experiences now and what I’ve learned through my mentoring, I realize the part that I had to play in my mistakes. I’ve learned that you must put boundaries, so that you don’t set yourself up to be hurt and ever go back into such a difficult state. --- ## How to promote and grow your business in the early days- The Jourdain Bell Way URL: https://futuresharks.com/jourdain-bell/ **What’s your backstory?** I’ve always been known as a basketball player, however, I want to be known as a businessman, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. I’ve always been interested in business and entrepreneurship. You can say I was that kid who was selling electronics and candy bars in high school. When I got to college I had realized business is what I wanted to pursue but I didn’t want to wait until I graduated to start making money or start a business. I wanted to start in college so that way I wasn’t looking for a job frantically like a lot of people do whenever they graduate. I wanted to prove that you don’t have to drop out to start a business and you don’t have to wait to start a business either. **How did you promote your company in the early days?** Social Media allows you to advertise your brand or company for very little expense. In the beginning, I didn’t spend anything on growing our brand because we have grown it the same way we help our clients grow their accounts by manually reaching out to people and connecting with them. **How have you been able to grow your business?** Beast Media has grown largely from word of mouth! We have also been able to grow because we have an amazing team of account managers and videographers who help provide great work and amazing results for our clients who then spread the word which helps us grow even more. **Where do you see yourself in a couple years? What’s your dream?** In a couple years, I see myself owning my own Investment Management firm for athletes and artist and my dream is to be an Investor and Philanthropist. I want use entrepreneurship and my knowledge of investing to become an Investor and Philanthropist. --- ## Does Amazon Care About its Own Seller Requirements? URL: https://futuresharks.com/amazon-seller-requirements/ Amazon.com has been historically thought of as a company that wants to provide its customers with the best. However, this belief could come under question, with what I believe to be Amazon failing to regulate its own seller requirements. This can be seen in the issue of refrigeration water filters, for which Amazon introduced a new seller policy in April 2017. ## A Change in Seller Requirements Amazon introduced a general listing restriction for replacement refrigerator water filters being sold on their platform. The requirement stipulates that these types of filters must be fully certified to at least the NSF/ANSI-42 standard (including Material Safety, Structural Integrity, and System Performance). Amazon’s actions seemed to follow the “Filter it Out” campaign launched by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), whose main aim has been to help increase customer awareness about counterfeit water filters. This campaign is being carried out in conjunction with accredited bodies like IAPMO, WQA, and NSF. According to a circulated email from Amazon in April 2017, all Sellers of replacement refrigerator water filters were given until 10 May 2017 to provide Amazon.com with evidence that their products were certified . Failure to comply with this requirement would mean that the seller and their products would not be visible to their buyers anymore.  Seemed like a great way to work towards protecting its customers from poorly constructed and performing water filters. **Any NSF Certification Doesn’t Cut It or At Least It Isn’t Supposed To** As Amazon’s clearly stated  requirements stipulate, “Replacement water filters for refrigerators listed on Amazon must be fully certified to at least the NSF/ANSI-42 standard (including Material Safety, Structural Integrity, and System Performance)”.  The focus here is on **System Performance** and how this requirement seems to lack enforcement by Amazon. An NSF 42 certification to a buyer on Amazon can be misleading if one is aware of these requirements. You see, you can obtain NSF 42 certification for material and safety only, without obtaining a “system performance” certification.  So one could mistakenly think that requirements are met by seeing an “NSF 42” on the water filter being sold on Amazon. But it is just that; certification is only for two of the three requirements. Here are some examples: K&J Charcoal Filters sell these 10 refrigerator water filter replacements on Amazon.com. They are stating they have NSF 42 certification as you can see here. However if you look at their NSF profile, their certification is for “material and structural integrity requirements only”. *No system performance.* How does this get passed Amazon? My next example is EcoLife Technologies who were mentioned by Inc.com not too long ago. Here is a company that has over a hundred listings of replacement refrigerator water filters selling under multiple different brands and has a number of these that are shown as “Amazon Best Sellers”. This is despite all of their refrigerator water filters failing to meet Amazon’s *system performance* requirements. I counted 3 Best Sellers on their first product page that failed to meet this requirement. A “Best Seller” gets an orange banner placed over their listing. As a consumer, I pay attention to those and generally my thought process is “it must be good if other people are buying it”. One of said Best Sellers I opened to view the expanded listing and it is noted as “Amazon’s Choice”. The filter is NSF 42 certified as the Seller also notes on the listing, however it is only for “material and structural integrity requirements” along with many other filters they sell.  As a consumer, when I see “Amazon’s Choice” I feel it really must be a good product and certainly it would never cross my mind that it wouldn’t be properly certified. A third example is Pure Line who sells 15 different water filters currently on Amazon. They advertise, even promote on their product listings both NSF and WQA ratings. Their NSF ratings as well as their WQA ratings are lacking the *system performance*. So again, are not meeting Amazon’s requirements. ## To Require or Not to Require. That is the Question The only question that remains now is why Amazon is not enforcing the requirement of “system performance”?  They, of course, could remove this requirement if they wanted to if they think it isn’t necessary. But the requirement currently stands and yet it is not enforced. --- ## World Renown Fashion Designer Ibrahim Al-Haidos Shares His Entrepreneurial Journey URL: https://futuresharks.com/ibrahim-al-haidos/ In this series, I interview the world’s most inspiring entrepreneurs. Today, I had the pleasure of chatting with Ibrahim Al-Haidos. Ibrahim is the Founder of Fursan, a luxury handbag brand. His journey from being employed as an engineer to owning his own global brand just might inspire you to continue to chase your [entrepreneurial dreams](/picturing-success-with-one-of-the-photography-industrys-top-influencers-matt-sweetwood/). Here’s what he shared with me. **John White:** Your career can serve as a model for those who desire to transition from having a job to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Can you tell us about your journey from engineering to becoming a fashion designer and founder of a luxury brand? **Ibrahim Al-Haidos:** Smart professionals are those who deploy the skills they have learned. Since I graduated from the University of Liverpool in the northwest of England in 2009, I joined the Capital Projects Department at Qatar Foundation, which was responsible for building projects for Education City in Qatar, a unique city of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser’s futuristic vision. As an engineer in the Qatar Foundation, I had the opportunity to attend all types of workshops, meet designers, signature architects and international architecture firms and exchange conversations and knowledge. I was able to meet interior designers from different backgrounds and specialties, for automobiles, trams, and aircrafts’ interior designers and buildings. So I used that experience to sculpt my idea of creating FURSAN.  ## Ibrahim’s best advice for potential entrepreneurs **John White:** What’s your top piece of advice for people wanting to transition away from working for other people at a job to becoming an entrepreneur? **Ibrahim Al-Haidos:**Always be learning new skills and utilize all of the resources you have available at your current position to gain the skills you need to be able to realize your dream. In addition to knowledge and experience, entrepreneurship is a combination of a strong desire of achieving success and passion for what you do. If you are not crazy in love with your business idea, do not proceed! I have met many people who moan and complain about having another business besides their jobs for years. These type of entrepreneurs have never been able to make any measurable achievements towards hitting their objectives. I’ve spent time with them in brainstorming sessions and have tried to inspire them through chatting with them. However, if they don’t have an immense passion for their business idea, they never make any progress. It’s just not for them! Meanwhile, on the other hand, I’ve met people who are turning their dreams into reality and growing by leaps and bounds. These are people who do more than talk. They follow through on what they say they are going to do and when they say they will do it by. Successful entrepreneurs are willing to take a few well-calculated risks to be able to pursue their dream. They are never threatened or jealous by the success of others. Instead, they see other people’s success as a learning opportunity to improve their business. ## Every entrepreneur must understand their why **John White:** It’s always said that successful entrepreneurs have a full understanding of their “why.” So, tell us, why did you make the move from engineering to luxury fashion brand designer and owner? **Ibrahim Al-Haidos:** A quote from my studies of American Literature comes to mind, “The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why.” -Mark Twain I’ve had some incredible female mentors in my family who have taught me so much over the years. It was on my travels with family in Europe that I discovered my passion for high-quality fashion items. What can I say; women like to window shop, and they took me along with them! I’ve always believed that women are the crown jewel of every society. It was out of the respect for my female mentors that I created a fashion brand. We employ mostly women. My plan is to provide more and more jobs for women as the Fursan brand grows worldwide. ## Social media should be used as a tool for growth for entrepreneurs **John White:** Let’s talk growth. You’ve used social media to help create an impressive personal brand that other entrepreneurs can learn from. Can you tell us why you’ve chosen social media as a tool for growth? **Ibrahim Al-Haidos:** Social media is not just a hobby or something used to pass the time when waiting in line somewhere. It is the dominant tool for business networking, and those who are good at it control the market. We are in a smart devices era where information is available in seconds. People are addicted to their phones and are always looking at them. Smartphone addiction has affected the advertising business, advertisements on billboards have almost vanished, and printed publication are struggling in large part because digital publications can be easily distributed on social media in real-time. Social media is now the tool to show people who you are, and it’s a chance to present the best of yourself and your brand to the world. ## Ibrahim shares one final branding tip for entrepreneurs **John White:** Last, please leave us with your top power tip for other entrepreneurs who are using social media for branding and making big career moves. **Ibrahim Al-Haidos:** You asked for one tip. I’m going to give you three! 1) When it comes to using social media for power networking, you always want to over-deliver to your network. (See what I did there!?) 2) Don’t be afraid to share your experience with the world. Let your customers see the real you. 3) Success on social media for entrepreneurs is about consistency. Develop a theme and strategy for your accounts. Then, be consistent with your execution. ## Connect with Ibrahim on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi61qDcH-Tb/?taken-by=ibrahim_alhaidos --- ## 5 Inspiring Ideas for Entrepreneurs to Keep Your Spirits High URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-inspiring-ideas-for-entrepreneurs-to-keep-your-spirits-high/ Being confident and positive about everything in life seems easy when things are going your way, just the way you want. However, the real struggle begins when the tide is against you. The time when things turn a little haywire, life seems to be a mess and nothing seems perfect. Don’t you feel your positivity going on an all time low then? But, that’s now how life is meant to be dealt, right? After all, life is a roller coaster ride and no matter if it goes up or down, you ought to keep your spirits high and excel everywhere. Wondering how can you deal with the storms of life like a pro and not let negativity knock you down? Well, make these practices an integral part of your life and see how you win at life, one struggle at a time. 1. **Take every day as a new beginning** The best way of keeping your spirits high is treating each day as a fresh start. So what if yesterday wasn’t good enough? No matter how much you think about it, what’s gone is gone. So, instead of sulking and repenting on past, carve your present with the goals of future. Look at the bigger picture, channelize your energy positively as you take little steps towards your quest to success. Remember, it’s all about the perception. Make it positive and see how you are filled with an evangelical zeal to give your best shot at everything. 2. **Follow a healthy lifestyle** The way you feel depends a lot on the kind of lifestyle you follow. So, it becomes imperative to have a lifestyle that induces your body with positivity. Henceforth, exercising, drinking lots and lots of water and consuming naturally cooked food are a few tried and tested ways to keep your body happy, thereby triggering the overall positivity in your life. In short, make your body feel good and witness the happy vibes you are induced with. Now, isn’t that pretty easy? 3. **Sleep, relax and rejuvenate** According to sleepfoundation.org, “sleep is a vital indicator of overall health and well-being”, hence, treating yourself to sound sleep can be a great way recharging and refreshing yourself. Additionally, meeting friends, having some family time or indulging in a game or two of your interest can also significantly help you relax and rejuvenate. In fact, there are intriguing games like online crosswords whose extensive brainstorming sessions can give you instant gratification while you unleash your inner worldsmith with it. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? 4. **Get spiritually inclined** When the chaos of life surrounds you a little too much and you feel like sinking in oblivion, trusting on your inner self and keeping your nerves calm can effortlessly help you sail through the storms of life. Wondering how can you do that? Well, practice Yoga, indulge in extensive meditation and induce yourself with peace, serenity and positive vibes. It works, it really does. 5. **Never give up on your dreams** Yes, it is very important to keep the fuel of desires and dreams burning irrespective of the adversities you face because it’s the very essence of your dreams that defines who you are and what you will become. When you dream big, you give yourself the chance to stretch your limits while subsiding your fears and, that, my friend is enough to brighten up your spirits. Inspired already? All geared up to take on the struggles of life, one challenge at a time while keeping your motivation and positivity on an all time high? Well, with these simple yet amazing steps to guide you, there’s no way you wouldn’t succeed and conquer it all. Best of luck. --- ## Picturing Success With One Of The Photography Industry’s Top Influencers: Matt Sweetwood URL: https://futuresharks.com/picturing-success-with-one-of-the-photography-industrys-top-influencers-matt-sweetwood/ In this series, I feature the stories of the world’s most interesting [entrepreneurs](/category/entrepreneurs/). Today, I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Matt Sweetwood. **Christian Vind:** Matt, it’s an honor to have you one of the very first entrepreneurs I feature in this series. I know you will have some incredible insights to share with us about your entrepreneurial journey. Can you start by sharing your backstory? **Matt Sweetwood:**Born, bred, raised, and schooled in New Jersey, I spent most of my life there. I owned and operated a photography supply business/camera superstore, raised 5 kids as a single dad, and even fought a Supreme Court Case (and won) in New Jersey. This die-hard NJ Devils fan, left his BMW race car and suburban life and headed for single-life, in his 50’s, in Manhattan. I became CEO of a start-up social media network, a professional speaker, and a writer for numerous platforms like Entrepreneur. And I published my first book, Leader of the Pack, which hit #1 in self-help books. And finally, I enjoy my photography as a Lumix brand ambassador. **Christian Vind:** What’s your favorite type of camera to use when capturing a special moment? **Matt Sweetwood:** As a Panasonic Lumix Ambassador my favorites are a Lumix L10, which is am amazing pocket-sized camera and when I want to get serious I use my Lumix GX-85. **Christian Vind:** As phones get better, the cameras get better. What are some attachments or phones you would recommend to use when taking a photo? **Matt Sweetwood:** You don’t need attachments. Take a course in photography. I have had photos featured in publications that I have taken straight from my smartphone. They way you take better photos is to learn to be better at it. **Christian Vind:** As each chapter has its own special meaning, what’s your favorite chapter in your book LEADER OF THE PACK? **Matt Sweetwood:** Chapter 16; “A Trick or Two” It’s where I deliver the goods for others to have a successful journey in life. **Christian Vind:** What were some of your struggles as an entrepreneur? **Matt Sweetwood:** Oh geez, what a question: competition, obsolescence of your offerings and services, government harassment and regulations, latest technology, margin, and staff. That’s all. **Christian Vind:** Building relationships with one another is the key to success, and the key to happiness. Who is one person that you can always count on for some guidance in your journey as an entrepreneur? **Matt Sweetwood:** Myself. You die alone and you run your business alone. You are the final decision maker and responsible for success – so make sure you know what you are doing – always. ## Connect with Matt: My Latest Articles: What You Need to Know to Create a Best-Selling Book • Entrepreneur® The 20 Most Common Reasons Startups Fail and How to Avoid Them •Entrepreneur® 8Reasonsa Powerful Personal Brand Will Make You Successful • Entrepreneur® --- ## 5 Ways To Be Entrepreneurial While You’re Still In College URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-ways-to-be-entrepreneurial-while-youre-still-in-college/ You only need to turn on your computer to find a list of successful entrepreneurs that were still in college when they began their businesses. People like Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Dell blazed the way for college students around the world. While no one is discounting the value of a college education, it is a proven fact that you can get a big headstart on your career by beginning early. ## How do you begin? We will give you some tips on how to get started on your entrepreneurship. However, the very nature of entrepreneurship dictates that you find ways that are unique to your ideas. *Photo credit/site* - ## Use the resources provided by the college or university Being in college allows you to connect with people from all walks of life. If you enroll in clubs and activities that expose you to the right people, you will get a big headstart with your business. Use the schools business center, office equipment, and sources. It will cost much less than trying to produce flyers, business cards, and other paper products on your own. - ## Take the right classes You will have classes that you need to complete to get a degree in your chosen field. But, also take classes that help you learn what people want and how to provide it to them. Learn how to market your skills. You will be putting in long hours. Do not overlook online courses to give you the knowledge you need. - ## Put yourself out there When you are in college, you are your brand. You have to be seen in order to prove your commercial value. Apply for an internship. Volunteer for programs that help you connect with your future clients. Be sure to get documentation that shows the experience you have gained in the field. - ## Learn how to be effective Look into programs like phyzzle.com and discover how to organize, focus, and be effective with your time. The college must remain your top priority. To succeed you will have to hone your skills as a student. This frees you to be a great businessperson. Learn when to say no. Sometimes you have to make decisions regarding how to spend your time. At this phase in your life, time is a great commodity. You cannot afford to waste it. - ## Get creative with funding Utilize the college finance office, scholarship programs, and grants. Set up a Crowdfunding account. Talk to your friends and get the word out that you are looking for help. There is money out there that you can get if you try. ## Bonus Tips The teachers, instructors, and counselors at the college are there to help you. Seek out a mentor. Explain what you are trying to do and let them guide you. Let your [friends](/ralph-layco/) help you. If you have friends who are studying computer programing, web design, see if you can barter your services for theirs. ## Conclusion This is a unique time in your life. To succeed, you will have to be fully dedicated to your business and fully dedicated to your education. While this is not an easy task, it is possible. So, go for it and live your dreams. --- ## How a Millennial from Gensan Built a Million Dollar Company URL: https://futuresharks.com/ralph-layco/ Ralph Layco is a 29- year old Filipino serial entrepreneur, marketing expert and an expert disruptor. He is currently founder of a million-dollar company, SAM Holdings he co-founded with his sister managing brands he started, Macho Mucho Salon For Men, HairFood Co., Crown & Glory, Patriot Coffee, Goodtimes Pomade and more personal care brands. He has created more than 30+ personal care products and help aspiring entrepreneurs find their gift too working with the country’s trade department. He’s best known in his work as a cultural provocateur in the southern Philippines having renamed an entire region, Sox/Soccsskargen and branding the biggest beach festival in the country, SarBay Fest. His awards: Yaman Gensan, #1 Most Oustanding Entrepreneur in the Philippines 2017 One of the 5 Most Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs, awarded by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce & Industry 2016 One of the Country’s Marketing Maverick, Philippine MArketing Association, 2014 #1 Most Outstanding Marketing Student, Philippine Marketing Association 2009 **City where you’re from:** General santos city **Favorite quote:** *“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”- Jack Kerouac* **Social accounts:** Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ralpholiver Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ralphlaycotm *Tell us about Sonny And Marsha Holdings, Inc. managing brands he founded Macho Mucho, HairFood Co., Crown & Glory, Patriot Coffee and NewBold  How did you come up with this idea?* **Ralph Layco:** I started being an entrepreneur not originally to be one but because I am naturally deeply empathic about people’s needs, what makes them tick, what they yearn for. Understanding these, I’m drawn to solving people’s needs so they can lead better lives. I see creating businesses as not only an expression of my talents and obsessions of finding the “solution” but also because this is a way to give birth to the ideal. How customers SHOULD be served, how they deserve the ultimate solution, how can we do things the right way others are not doing right. It’s this service of justice that made me inclined to start businesses. **How did you promote your company in the early days?** **Ralph Layco:** I have tons of businesses so each one has their own way of being sold. When one start a brand, it’s the entrepreneur’s responsibility to do so to create unique value. When you mix unique, helpful value and also amazing, divine branding, these mix up the chemicals of the customers. They become naturally allured to the business or should I say, the solution. It’s dressed the way they like it, it communicates to their desires and it serves their need. Marketing channels like radio and PR were really just extra to increase awareness. Your awareness curve expedite when you have active advocacy from people.   **How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific.** **Ralph Layco:**One must create a good foundation before they scale. Scaling businesses are given when you have a profitable, validated businesses. When you start a business, it’s very important to pair up with someone who balances your weakness. In my case, my co-founder, my sister made it smooth for the company to grow because the unsexy part of it, from operations to spreadsheets were handled by her. -Ensure that the business model works well with your ideal future for the company. Is your model scalable? Does it provide the desired impact you wanted? Are you working with the right partners or people? -See big picture. The growth of a company is about nurturing potential -People. It’s important to hire really good people. Declare your company’s values from early on, the kind of work expected from them. They are the blood of the company, treat them right and provide them growth and they will definitely make everything fluid. **How did Macho Mucho start? How did you market it? (specific)** **Ralph Layco:**Macho Mucho was a solution I created scratching my own itch. With the evolving needs of the modern men, there’s an opportunity in serving the gap between barbershops (an old hair grooming model and salons, mostly a feminine setup) Macho Mucho is a hybrid barbershop-salon for the modern man who deserve better service and a better environment that reflects their values in life. I started it in Gensan and it flopped after a year because of bad location. After two years, I started again in Gensan and it worked well. We expanded to Davao and it became a perfect match and has since gone viral. Macho Mucho will be 10 branches in total by Q3. – What are the top 3 things that changed the way you do business? 1. In business, producing extraordinary solutions are a given. But branding/masterful positioning is the magic. Capture the imagination of the target market, communicate their desires, validate their lifestyle and the values of the target market and position your brand unfairly to the competitors and you win by design. 2. You don’t create businesses to work in it but ON it. We are trying to overcome the limiting belief that the owners should be inside the office all the time. I’ve learned that you have to zoom out and reassess why you’re in business. We are in business to earn FREEDOM too. So creating systems are very important in the business where you as the owner is not part of the system, where people are not reliant to your function so that it can run smooth. 3. Here’s the key in creating surefire successful businesses: Create businesses that are highly disruptive. Innovations are not all disruptive, they are just “better”. Better is relative, but disruptive shakes things. Make the competition irrelevant by offering solid services that competitors can’t compete on directly. Be in the business really to create a new market. **What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?** **Ralph Layco:**My ability to see POTENTIAL in what could be commonly seen as a regular thing, place, product or human being. My imagination runs wild when I see potential. It’s my gift. I try to dissect, reimagine and introduce possibilities and match it with empathy or what I call relational designing. **What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?** **Ralph Layco:** The 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan Peterson The Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday Willpower isn’t Enough by Benjamin Hardy Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout **How do you see yourself in the future?** My dream is to make SAM Asia an innovations company that incubates businesses that are disruptive and solves global problems especially in health and personal growth categories. **Some facts about SAM Asia;** -I founded the company with my sister, Helen Kaye Layco -Brands We Own: Macho Mucho Salon For Men, HairFood Co., Crown & Glory, GoodTimes Men Pomade, Cacai Hair, Patriot Coffee -We have currently 19 total stores; 11 HairFood Co., 8 Macho Mucho shops with shops in Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and its hometown, General Santos -We currently employ more than 80 employees ===================================================================== **Human Consciousness and Personal growth** From events organising, magazine publishing, his first barbershop, an online startup and small projects in between, Ralph bravely mentions his long list of failures. “I was a mess and a public failure. I felt like a big mistake and was depressed for months after consecutive failures. Having had a good education, a supportive family and ambition, why was I failing?” Early on, like any passionate kid, he wanted to be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs with a dash of Tony Stark personality. With these successful people as his career goals, he mentioned that he later on realised that he is unlike them (after years of denial) He had an early diagnosis of his former self as an “undiagnosed ADD with heavy talent on branding and marketing but zero skills on operations and HR and anything that is routinary” Having failed countless of times in the early years of his career, he discovered that zeroing in on yourself is THE BIGGEST HACK in the path to success. Not to be like the celebrities or the IG influencer or the popular success story but to be unlike them as much as possible. The common thread amongst all successful people is they have nothing in common. The ultimate goal then is to be “the highest expression of our unique selves”. This is not coming from a place of arrogance, or reassurance but revelation. And this was deeply interesting to him because this insight helped him create massive success in a short amount of time. Not in any narcissistic way, but because he believe now that social reformation begins — always starts with the individual. He realised that this must be infused in universities or before anyone even attempts to decide his grand career. People’s choice for their career has a big impact in their happiness and overall success in work and in life. People try to look outward from themselves but it’s really when we go back inward and start there that we find confidence to live life, owning their DNA, their life story and their strengths. “People must go back home, back themselves” This became his grand work, five years in the making. “This secret or underestimated code must be told once and for all. The reason we have an imbalanced society is people are struggling to express their gifts because they don’t even know if it’s the right path to take” “But it IS the path to take or highly consider. The truth is no one can’t fight nature. Then the ultimate path then is to Nurture Your Nature.” Ralph Layco is now finishing a much-needed framework entitled Born Original, a course that doesn’t only help a person learn about his strengths and his gifts but also the mindset shifts, tools to guide people to own their story, alter unnecessary conditioning by society and build on their gifts so they can live an empowered, authentic life” “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.-Howard Thurman” --- ## Seeking Discomfort with Matt Dajer from Yes Theory URL: https://futuresharks.com/seeking-discomfort-with-matt-dajer-from-yes-theory/ ## Tell us about Yes Theory. How did you come up with this idea? Matt Dajer: At Yes Theory we believe that life can be as authentic and fulfilling as you wish so long as you’re willing to seek discomfort. We create content (videos, newsletters, live experiences) around getting out of your comfort zone and saying yes to new experiences and what your heart truly desires. Three of my friends and I started Yes Theory 3 years ago. We had just graduated university and noticed that we were slipping into comfortable routines (wake up, work, hang out on the same couch with the same friends, sleep, repeat). So we decided to shake things up…for a whole month, we’d do something that made us uncomfortable every day and then make a video about our experiences. That month was so life-changing that there was no way this wasn’t going to be our life’s mission. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? Matt Dajer: We’d often upload a video at 8 pm. Once it was up we would go to every single relevant blog and media outlet and from 8 to 2 in the morning, we’d email every single writer, blogger, influencer we could find to get them to talk about our video. Within 19 days of starting our project, one of our videos got picked up by 20+ blogs, it hit 100,000 views within 24 hours and we were featured in Montreal’s #1 news outlet. Realizing this worked, we repeated that strategy over and over. It was what got us our first glimpse of attention. ## How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific. Matt Dajer:  Trial and error + persistence + self belief (your WHY) = success That’s the formula we live by. Every single piece of content we put out is a minimum viable product in some shape or form. Although we could be labeled as a YouTube channel, we don’t see ourselves as that. We study how the [world’s greatest companies operate](/4-tricks-for-fast-and-effective-decisions/) – through tinkering, taking big risks, creating a quality repeatable product – and emulate those strategies. ## What are some secrets to virality/sales in your most successful platform? Matt Dajer:  Tell a great story. If you don’t know how to tell a great story, learn how to tell a great story. There’s a formula. This isn’t a new concept. It’s how our species has remembered and passed on information since our inception. We evolved through storytelling so if you want to make something viral…hit at the core principles of the Hero’s Journey: a clear objective in the beginning with an uncertainty of success, a hesitation and then a leap into the unknown, the obstacles and stumbling blocks along the way, persistence, a success, another failure, and ultimate success. The formula is malleable but the idea remains the same…people relate to the fear and uncertainty…they see themselves overcoming those moments of anxiety…to a point where the reward in the story is equivalent to the reward the audience feels. ## ## Teach us something we don’t know about? Matt Dajer: Stop buying followers and likes. If you’re doing it right, they’ll come to you. Nowadays, it’s so easy to fake an audience. People think perception is everything. What a lot of these ‘influencers’ and brands who buy followers and likes don’t understand is that everyone else can see right through it. People nowadays are smart and can spot that something’s off when a social media account has 10 million followers and 10,000 likes. The numbers don’t add up. Instead of taking the shortcut of buying your following, learn how to engage your audience (communicate with them, tell stories, reward them, be interested in their interests), learn how to collaborate with other influencers and brands who have engaged audience, come up with marketing ideas that’ll bring an excited audience to you. Having 10 million followers doesn’t equate to success if they’re not 1. Real people 2. Actually engaged. Having 1,000 true fans is way more beneficial to your success. ## What do you think you do better than most people? How does Matt Dajer do it? Matt Dajer: We pride ourselves on the originality of our ideas and the structure of our storytelling. People can tell when you invest a lot of time in coming up with a good idea and even more time executing on and putting that idea together. The only simple answer to how we do it is tireless hours of brainstorming, producing, filming, and editing. No simple solution there other than hard work. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? Matt Dajer: Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson ; Born To Run by Chris McDougall ; Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday ; Start With Why by Simon Sinek ; Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon ; Denial of Death by Ernest Becker ; Antifragile by Nassim Taleb ; Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg ; Willpower by Roy Baumeister ; Sapiens by Yuval Harari ## Where is the future of content? Matt Dajer: It’s not YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. It’s email. The Lindy Effect states that the life expectancy of a platform, business or product is double to its current age. So if YouTube’s been in business for 12 years, it’s likely to live another 12 years. Hence why email is the biggest tree with the fattest of tree trunks. The first email was sent in 1971, nearly 50 years ago. By the time I’m 76, it’ll likely still be around. So I’m focused on getting emails. ## Where do you see yourself and Yes Theory in a couple years? What’s your dream? Matt Dajer: The goal is to positively influence 1 billion lives by spreading our message of love over fear and seeking discomfort to 1 billion+ people across the planet. It’s hard to measure, but I think we’ll know once it’s happened because the world won’t be the same. *Editor’s Note:**Matt Dajer is going to change the word. Don’t miss out: – join the community: https://www.yestheory.com/* --- ## From Advrsity to Entrepreneurship–Inspiring Future Lady Bosses URL: https://futuresharks.com/from-advrsity-to-entrepreneurship-inspiring-future-lady-bosses/ Alexa Carlin.  At 17, she was a CEO–designing jewelry for an L.A. based fashion company under her own label where she donated a percentage of proceeds to help build schools in Africa. Since then, she has been passionate about making a difference in others lives through her entrepreneurial endeavors.  At 21 she had a 1% chance to live.   Later while attending the University of Florida, Carlin started the inspirational blog Hello Perfect®, a blog that elicited quotes from celebrities ranging from Shaquille O’Neal to Mark Cuban. These endeavors enabled Carlin, who in high school was too shy to raise her hand in class, to build confidence– her mission, to promote self-esteem in girls and women.  In the midst of all of this, she was rushed to the hospital where one, then five then 25 doctors were called to the emergency room where she was rushed—not being able to breathe. She had suddenly gone into septic shock and the family was told she had a 1% chance to live.  Miraculously she walked out of the hospital, but constant ingestion of antibiotics had destroyed her system.  Since then, she has been passionate about making a difference in others lives through her entrepreneurial endeavors.  She continues to suffer from autoimmune disease but has managed to rise above it despite severe constant physical pain.  Alexa has dedicated her life to doing one thing: inspiring people to dream big and believe in themselves.   Founded in 2016, Alexa grew the Women Empower Expo (WEX) to become the largest event for female entrepreneurs on the east coast hosting events in Fort Lauderdale, FL and Washington D.C.. Through WEX Alexa has created a platform for women entrepreneurs to gain support, find funding, and meet other like-minded women.Alexa’s mission is to make a difference in at least one person’s life every single day. Today, Alexa travels the world as a sought-after public speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship, authentic leadership, women’s empowerment and overcoming obstacles.  ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I’m working on growing and expanding my company, the Women Empower Expo. The Women Empower Expo has grown to become the largest event for female entrepreneurs within the first year and currently i’m working on expanding to more cities and to reach more people with our events and message. I came up with this idea inspired by my own experiences as an entrepreneur and from a missing link I saw in the market while I was speaking to numerous women’s organizations as a public speaker. When I was a senior in college, just a few months before graduation, I got really sick out of nowhere and my body went into septic shock. I was induced into a medical coma given a 1% chance of living. This experience changed my entire life as I was then diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disease which I struggle with on a daily basis. While I was trying to heal my body I still was working on turning my ideas into reality. I became immensely passionate about sharing my story with others publicly and began pursuing public speaking. I spoke anywhere and everywhere for free for about a year until I started getting paid to speak. As I was growing my business as a public speaker I noticed a big disconnect amongst the women’s organizations and events I was speaking at. All of these women were doing amazing things in their own industry and community but no one knew each other, they all just stayed within their own groups or industries. I knew this needed to change if any real change was to be made. I believe it is through collaboration vs competition that we can create real change and especially as an entrepreneur, you need to get out there and meet other people from different industries and walks of life. I created my business, the Women Empower Expo (WEX) with this in mind so at WEX you know you are truly getting a diverse and customized experience. You get to choose what sessions you want to attend based on your interests and passions and you get the opportunity to be in an environment of thousands to entrepreneurs from all different industries so if you are in need of a lawyer, graphic designer, investor, or even a podcast guest- you can meet them at WEX. ### How is your company different? The Women Empower Expo (WEX) differentiates itself from other women focused events with our ticket price, programming, and speaker selection. We work extremely hard to keep our ticket prices way below market standard because we truly are on a mission to empower as many women as possible and want to ensure it is an affordable investment. Regarding programming, at our events the attendee gets to customize their experience based on their passions and interests sitting into session only they are interested in. We have no general session or sit down meals, throughout the day, you get to create your own WEX experience. For our speaker selection, we choose a majority of our speakers from the local community where we are hosting our event. The reason for this is because we want to help create a thriving community of female entrepreneurs and leaders in the cities we visit and work to highlight women who are doing amazing things right in your backyard! This allows attendees to really connect with speakers after WEX and throughout the year, creating a real relationship that fosters change and growth. ### ### What’s your dream with your company? My dream is to have the Women Empower Expo be the go-to event for all female entrepreneurs and female leaders creating a ripple effect of change by empowering each attendee to take action on the things they want most in life. My dream is to hear stories from the women who attend on how WEX was that pivotal moment for them and their business and today they are doing what they love full time and making a difference in the process. I want to help create the next “Sara Blakely’s” of the world. ### How do you creatively advertise? Good question! I’d say the creative way we advertise is through my public speaking gigs. We attract thousands of attendees and customers through my own speaking gigs without me ever saying “come to this event or buy this ticket”.  Public speaking has been my #1 marketing and advertising tool to grow my business. That’s actually the inspiration to why I created BeAPublicSpeaker.com, to teach more entrepreneurs how to grow their business by authentically sharing their stories. It’s the BEST advertising and the most cost-effective! ### What is your core competency? We equip female entrepreneurs with the knowledge and community to create and grow successful companies. ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? I really don’t believe I’ve failed at anything because every misstep led me to where I am today but I guess to answer this question i’d say the biggest thing I did wrong was not remain consistent in my business in the beginning. When I was first starting out as an entrepreneur I jumped around a lot, trying to find things that would produce the results I wanted. Now looking back I realize the importance of being consistent, with everything you do, especially when it comes to producing content. That’s definitely something i’ve learned the hard way (I started my first youtube show back when YouTube was still infant sized, if I remained consistent I’d have a much larger following than I do today!). Biggest success has been the number of people in attendance at the Women Empower Expo. I started the company in 2016 and have produced 3 events so far which attracted over 7,000 people in attendance! From this success I really learned the value of putting yourself out there authentically and vulnerably. The more I share who I am, the more transparent I am in my business, the more relatable I become as a Founder and the more trustworthy my business becomes. It creates a really great environment for long-term success creating a real community we do business with. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Fear regret more than you fear failure. ### Teach us something about networking: Don’t go to a networking event with the mission to tell people *what* you do, but rather share *who* you are. The more authentic and real you can be, the greater result you’ll receive from networking. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? People have different communication expectations and that can cause a lot of perspective differences when it comes to working with a team. It’s easy for someone to think they are communicating well and the other party think the communication is lacking if it is not clearly laid out of what is expected. It’s best to be upfront as a leader and clearly outline what you expect from your team when it comes to communication and the vehicle of communication. ### What do you think you do better than most people? Improvise! I’m really great at thinking on my toes, especially when I’m in front of a crowd. I’ve heard so many people tell me that a crowd of people causes them to be shy or timid, but it actually does the opposite for me. When i’m speaking in front of people, I get so much energy and the words flow! Whether that be on a conference call to 50+ team members or in front of an audience on stage.  ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? The bigger vision and the feeling that vision will bring them. When you focus on the feeling, then you can better understand the journey. Sometimes things don’t work out, but that thing may not be what will help you achieve the feeling you want. For example, you don’t want a million dollars, you want the *feelin*g a million dollars will bring you or the feeling you’ll get when you spend that million or even when you make that million. When you can focus on the feeling, your vision becomes clearer of the life you are building for yourself and for others, and that will drive you closer to achieving it! ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and Unbinding the Heart by Agapi Stassinopoulos are a few of my favorites. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In a few years I see the Women Empower Expo taking place in 4 cities across the country impacting 3,000+ people at each of our events. On a personal note, in a few years I see myself traveling the country on a book tour! --- ## From VaynerMedia To Beyond Influential- The Brittany Hoffman Way URL: https://futuresharks.com/brittany-hoffman/ *From all of my interviews I’ve done till date- this has to be one of the top ones I’ve done because it’s someone I’ve admired from far in terms of content and her knowledge on personal branding* Brittany Krystle Hoffman is a Personal Branding and Growth Consultant. A Recovering Lawyer and former Brand and Growth Strategist for Gary Vaynerchuk – she has worked in the VaynerTalent Division with high profile clients like Tom Bilyeu(Co- Founder of Quest Nutrition valued at $1 Billion and one of the fastest growing unicorn companies) on their personal brands, and developed an innate ability for helping established entrepreneurs unlock the white space in their industry. Other personalities she has worked with include: Marie Forleo, and Bonin Bough along with many others. Having worked at VaynerMedia for 3 years before deciding to transition to become a Personal Branding and Growth Consultant, Brittany shares what it was like working at VaynerMedia, her lessons in her first year in business, social media and a whole lot more. ## What was your childhood growing up and did you know you always wanted to be an entrepreneur ? My dad was a doctor growing up and had his own practice but he never perceived himself to be an entrepreneur. The messages that were being perpetuated were about job security- I later realized that in a dynamic and ever changing world, job security doesn’t exist and I figured I would eventually have to carve out my own path. I went to UCLA and later attended Georgetown Law School to become a lawyer; even though I was great at reading and writing, I realized sitting at a desk wasn’t for me. During high school, and even while working jobs- I always had entrepreneurial tendencies and always thinking of ideas. I knew I was going to work for myself and build my dreams but it was just a matter of time for me to make that transition. ## What was the defining moment that led you to leave VaynerMedia and transition to being an entrepreneur ? I really fell in love with the personal branding space after 3 years at VaynerMedia, which included working on Gary’s Vaynerchuk’s personal brand(Team Garyvee) and the personal branding arm of the agency, VaynerTalent. However, let’s backtrack- I started working in Brand Management in which I was responsible for coordinating social media content with brands and one of the things I didn’t enjoy was the bureaucracy that existed within brands for content approval (ie- multiple c-level executives and decision makers would have to approve the content). I personally met Gary at a Christmas Party and later had a 1-1 meeting with him. Initially, I wanted to work on his venture capital fund for seed- early stage investments and since I played poker- I had the ability to take risks. I felt like I had the knack for recognizing trends plus it would be a great opportunity; I was later going to pitch him a start-up idea but never ended up following through with it. Upon having a conversation with Gary, he suggested I move from LA to NY for 1 year and work with him on influencer outreach and he was getting serious on developing his personal brand. I knew Gary was special and it was evident that when I was doing influencer outreach for his #AskGaryVee book- there was a positive impact that Gary had on people. However, my ultimate reasoning came down to not wanting to operate on someone else’s watch and I wanted to have control of my time and schedule. Plus, I love travelling, the beach and I just wanted to spend more time with family and friends. > *“Honest truth: It never gets easier. The more you climb any ladder (corporate or entrepreneurial), the more responsibilities you will have, the more people who will count on you, and the less time to focus on your needs. This is why it is so important to figure out how to “do you” **now**.* > *Whether it’s reading, meditation, exercise, a hobby, seeing your family, spending time with you significant other, or just making sure you take some time outside, I can already promise that the (reasonable) time used to unwind can only enhance your quality of life. Please take your vacations.* > *My last few years working in a “hustle culture” environment have taught me a thing or two about priorities. The most important lesson: you should know what your priorities even are.”* > *(An excerpt from her Medium article.)* ## What are the top 3 lessons you learned in your first year as an entrepreneur ? 1.**Take your business seriously-** the legal formation and contracts are extremely important to be aware of because you always want to protect yourself from lawsuits and be updated on rules and regulations. Plus as an influencer, it’s easy to get ripped off for your work- especially if you are not aware of the terms and conditions. Also consult with a qualified accountant because as an employee, it is easy to disregard the deductions but as an entrepreneur- you have to account for every dollar because you want to make efficient use of that money. > ### “Also you want to pay less taxes to the government(oops, I meant more- we love paying taxes)”-Fahad 2. **Be comfortable with change.** Stagnation doesn’t exist in business or in life and you have to adapt to those changes otherwise they can hinder your growth and progress down the road. 3. **Finding a community-** a mastermind is helpful in unlocking barriers and it’s great to have that support system where you can share your wins and problems hindering your growth. Those problems can be solved through experience and collaboration which exists within a mastermind so I highly suggest surrounding yourself with a key group of individuals who will be genuinely happy for you and vice versa. ## What are your biggest challenges ? 1. **Scaling-** When in any corporate environment or job, you are essentially trading your time for money and reach a ceiling on how much you can make- however, as an entrepreneur it becomes crucial to be aware of managing my time.  2. **Leaving money on the table-** deciding which opportunities to pursue as some are very lucrative- however, I tell myself to stay focused and aligned on what I am currently working on. 3. **Time Management-** Like anyone else I am limited by time and have to allocate that accordingly to my priorities(relationships, work and personal time for myself)   ## Have you had any failures ? I wasn’t great at working for other people and I believed it is important for any individual to build a sound foundation and acquire different skills. Second, when I was working in certain jobs; I felt like I was failing because I wasn’t climbing the elusive corporate ladder but looking back at it, I realized that I wasn’t meant to climb the corporate ladder.   ## When looking to build a brand what 3 things do you tell your clients/what are your tips ? 1. **Clarity-** it is important to identify who you are, what’s your purpose for growing your social media account and figure out your audience’s needs- actually speak in the language or medium they would prefer to communicate in(audio, video, written). Also figure out the platform your audience is on and deliver content according to the nature of the platform and your best medium you are able to deliver. 2. **Consistent Content-** this applies to being self aware of your abilities to deliver content and you need to know your strengths( audio, video, written). 3. **Community-** your content has to do one of these 3 things or all 3: Educate, Entertain, or be Informative. A few ways to grow your audience and build a community is through shoutouts, engaging with your competitors audience and collaborating with others.   ## Let’s talk networking, how can I get a meeting with Brittany Hoffman or an Influencer ? I am sure many are trying to reach out to either or asking you or an Influencer for their time ? **How can I add value ?** This is a question many ask but few actually realize the meaning behind it. Don’t have the person you are asking think about what value you can add because chances are most people are too busy to figure out what value you can add. Be proactive and do research on the person you are looking for a meeting with and figure out what are their needs. Are they releasing a book and you have a podcast that is geared towards their audience and have a lot of listeners ? Are they looking to build their personal brand and you could interview them for an article because you are a Contributor to different publications or have connections to Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur etc. ? Don’t be afraid to ask people- the worst you’ll get is a no. Second, it may take multiple attempts so get creative with your follow up attempts. ## What are your thoughts on the future of LinkedIn video ? Video is big on different platforms and the people who eventually become successful will focus on being a talented editor and the quality of content that is being delivered to the audience. Second, the principle “the cream eventually rises to the top” meaning those that are talented, creative, adaptable and able to deliver consistent and actionable content will eventually dominate the platform. It would be interesting to see LinkedIn and I believe it is transitioning into more of a media company since the addition of LinkedIn video and active creators on the platform. While Instagram is great for visual aesthetics, LinkedIn allows for deeper professional business and personal conversations which I enjoy. ## What are common mistakes you notice when people are building their personal brand ? Many people think they have to fake a successful persona of themselves and project it to the world. The problem is we live in a world where privacy is becoming a non existent notion and people could easily smell bullshit from a mile away. It takes time to build a genuine brand and one that is true to yourself- as cliché as it sounds- authenticity goes a long way. ## What do you want people to remember you by ? **I have pondered this at many points but recently I have been thinking about it and here are the three things:** 1. Somebody of authority that used their influence to create a positive impact. 2. I want to live life as honestly as I can by continuing to do what I enjoy doing like my podcast-Beyond Influential which takes a deeper look at the power of influence by talking to today’s industry experts who get us to consume both on and offline. 3. I want to be able to help people grow their personal brand and tell their stories along with helping people grow their business.  To learn more about Brittany Hoffman and understand her encyclopedic mind- follow her on Twitter and Instagram @BrittanyKrystle ; listen to her podcast Beyond Influential --- ## Top 5 Trends Shaping the Health Insurance Market URL: https://futuresharks.com/top-5-trends-shaping-the-health-insurance-market/ Most people today agree that the best way to remain healthy is to embrace a lifestyle that incorporates regular exercise and a balanced diet. But even though you’re doing this correctly, you’ll want some form of insurance for that which can’t be predicted like injuries, illnesses and other unexpected health-related issues. In such cases, health insurance solutions can help you. However, getting the right type of coverage is easier said than done. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/1.jpg)https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/08/01/00/39/smart-2562329_960_720.jpg If you don’t qualify for federal government assisted healthcare insurance, and you don’t have any healthcare benefits from your employer, you can expect to spend anywhere in between $300 and $3000 a month depending on the type of health insurance you choose and its parameters. Whichever way, the good news is that the health insurance market has come a long way, from limited options to the now burgeoning trends that are reshaping the entire industry. In this guide, we’re going to discuss the top trends shaping the healthcare industry today. ## Big Data Set to Become an Intrinsic Part of Health Insurance The healthcare insurance industry is continuously collecting data. From personal details to medical facility visits and patient recovery and medication data, all of these are reflections of big data as applied to the medical industry. But it’s not the amount of data collected by insurance companies that matters. It’s what they do with that data that matters. As health insurance companies embrace the potential of big data, this move is set to revolutionize the industry. Big data can be thoroughly analyzed for deeper insights that lead to better decisions and strategic business moves, and is set to be an intrinsic part of the health insurance market now and in the future. As it quickly becomes a trend across major industries, the health insurance industry must leverage big data to ensure that companies see the larger picture based on what they provide and how they provide it. This definitely leads to prosperity for better services. ## Healthcare Personalization to Expand Drastically With so much data across the healthcare and insurance markets, you can expect healthcare personalization to expand dramatically, especially among millennials. Patients will be able to choose the doctors they wish to work with, and doctors who also prefer not working with certain patients will be able to avoid them. As big data revolutionizes the medical industry, healthcare personalization is set to streamline how patients get health insurance services. Data that’s focused on patient preferences and healthcare personalization is expected to dominate the health insurance market. It’s wise for individuals to work with insurance companies that understand such trends, and are working to provide the best insurance coverage options that best suit them. While industry trends and demands in the market may not necessarily reflect the best health practices, there’s no doubt that healthcare personalization is expanding.   ## Smart Technology and Wearable Devices in Healthcare As technology in the healthcare market advances, smart technology is being used to build relationships between insurance customers and insurers, with the goal of eliminating as many potential issues as possible while offering services to customers and cutting costs for insurers. Technology in the health insurance industry in mainly focused on solutions to keep consumers fit and healthy. For instance, wearables that help set activity goals. Convincing insurance customers to embrace smart technology and wearables is a trend that is expected to be the next frontier in healthcare, as it benefits everyone. With wearables recommended by insurers, customers can end up paying lower premiums and maintain a safer lifestyle, while insurers can end up paying out substantially less in claims. Tech innovations like insert molding process for the medical industry are also playing a bigger role in improving medical devices, according to a leading provider of medical device assembly services. ## Augmented Reality in Telemedicine and Training Telemedicine and other similar technological advances in the healthcare and insurance market are increasingly predicting the need for physicians and insurers to embrace augmented reality. AR or Augmented Reality, has lots of potential. With the maturation of this technology, physicians will be able to perform complex operations even at a distance. With real-time access to medical data in front of real-world situations, medical experts are able to make quicker and more appropriate decisions about their patients. There is no doubt that available, secure data that is properly leveraged through the right service providers like insurers will help define a variety of healthcare options and health insurance solutions, going forward. Despite the challenges that the health insurance market faces, implementing tech innovations like augmented reality, artificial intelligence and virtual reality will play a huge role in improving telemedicine and medical training, which will also impact how insurers look at healthcare providers and insurance coverage options. ## Considerable Changes in Medicare Despite the great efforts to try and harmonize Medicare, a number of considerable changes are expected as the health insurance market adapts to federal changes. While Medicare has come a long way to become a more streamlined insurance option for the masses, the government assisted medical insurance solution, has never been the simplest of provisions. There’s still a lot to be done to streamline it, and this means considerable changes in the programs provided. ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/2.png)https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/02/17/08/11/family-2073604_960_720.png There are four main Medicare parts – Medicare Part A, B, C and D, and how each of them affects you, differs in one way or another, according to Health Markets. Each option provides its own type of coverage, and depending on what option you choose, the enrollment options will also be different. Of course, it’s best to choose a Medicare enrollment option that matches your particular situation. With considerable changes expected, it’s wise to consult with your doctor so you can choose wisely. Trends in the health insurance market are set to trickle down to Medicare and other government solutions eventually, and this is set to begin with the changes expected in the future. For instance, wearable data-collection technology would be something that the government would be interested in, so don’t be surprised when such tech innovations start defining Medicare. The application of new technology solutions is one of the trends expected to shape the market.   ## The Bottomline When you look at these trends, you’ll realize that no matter what kind of technology or change is involved in your health insurance solution, you as the consumer will still decide what type of health insurance coverage you want and from what insurer. While these and other trends are expected to have an impact on the overall insurance market as a whole, what matters most is being able to find the most effective healthcare solution for your situation. For instance, if you’re healthy and young, with no known hereditary conditions, you may opt to go with a limited health care plan. For those with known medical conditions, going for more innovative solutions like wearables can help you stay aware of your condition and ensure you get access and connectivity to necessary health coverage. By staying on top of trends shaping the health insurance industry, you can get to choose the best coverage options for your needs. --- ## Best Instagram ideas every e-commerce should adapt to succeed. URL: https://futuresharks.com/best-instagram-ideas-every-e-commerce-should-adapt-to-succeed/ Instagram is among the most famous social network platforms. It’s 500 million users and counting, and is particularly widespread among millennial and younger people. Fifty five percent of all of the 18- to 29 year old online in the US use the application, followed by 28 percent of individuals that are from 30 to 49 years old. Among adolescents 13 to 17 years old, 17% of boys and 23% of girls are on Instagram. Businesses big and small are utilizing Instagram for marketing purposes. Among the top brands, the stage has an 85% adoption rate. These brands are encountering 4.21% for every devotee engagement speed, which is 58 times higher than that of Facebook, and 120 times higher than Twitter’s. The photograph sharing stage is an incredible means for internet business organizations to feature their merchandise and draw customers to check their destinations. They may likewise use it to interface up with customers on a considerably more individual base and increment mark mindfulness for the most parts. If you are trying to make more income via social network, Instagram ought to be a big part of your strategy. If you are already on the site, but not creating the desired results, it might be the time to review your marketing plan and alter how you are utilizing the app. The following are a number of ideas for eCommerce marketing on Instagram whether you are just to start or for you would like to improve your conversion prices. **Have A Collection Of Photos For Some Lifestyle Looks** Your socioeconomic needs to see themselves pondered the Instagram page. Or on the other hand, they might want to see photos of a way of life they are endeavoring to achieve. Your image bids to a particular kind of individual, and your photographs needs to feature your crowd’s most recent strategy for living or wanted way of life. Extravagance form store NET-A PORTER uses their Instagram, that has 2.4 million supporters, to minister a specific lavish way of life look. They post pictures of ladies wearing their best end pieces of clothing and gems in urban spots like New York and Paris. There are pictures from runways around the globe and those of famous people mainstream from the extravagance market, for example, Victoria Beckham and Alicia Vikander. Regardless of whether their adherents are a piece of the 1% or objective to be, the NET-A PORTER Instagram offers the motivation to get their devotees. **Re-post Your Customers Photos**. Customers will hashtag or @ your brand on Instagram, and it is your job to keep tabs on these mentions. These are your most loyal customers. To keep them intrigued in your organization and motivate them to encourage you from the future, give them some recognition on one’s own account. **Show A Behind The Scenes View Your Company.** Humanizing your brand is crucial. Adding pictures your staff, the dogs on your workplace, shots of the neighborhood where your workplace is located, along with personnel together with your goods is going to give clients a glimpse into the characters and quirks which make your business unique. It shows that you are not just attempting to sell them goods, but you wish to converse with them on a personal level. An eCommerce shop doing this right is Warby Parker, that has 276k followers on the program. On the Warby Parker Instagram, there is pictures of tree lined roads around the company’s headquarters, photos of the team enjoying the glasses they sell, and pictures of dogs wearing a brand eyeglasses. They label posts with the aid of the team member that took the shot as well to give it an additional personal touch. **Use Images From Pop Culture References.** You know who your target demographic is. By posting pictures of actors and images from films and Television shows your audience loves, you are going to lure them into your brand. They are going to link to your mark at a deeper level and follow you on the stage to receive their dose of their favorite pop culture references. One eCommerce brand which mastered this art is the clothing retailer Nasty Gal, that has 2.2 million followers on Instagram. They post pictures of Alicia Silverstone, cast members from Beverly Hills, 9021 0, and screenshots from movies like The Addams Family, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. , These are movies, TV shows, and actors their target audience, millennial, grew up with and treasure. It is no real surprise that the normal post gets tens of thousands of enjoys for this reason. **Give Context To Your Products.** Customers cannot Always look at an image of a product on Instagram and automatically know how they will use it to their very own lives. Since these goods are exclusively on-line, brands need to work that much more difficult to obtain clients to buy from them. Brands need to sometimes do the work for the clients and show where goods can fit in their everyday environments and routines. Online furniture merchant Wayfair does this perfectly. The company has 215k followers on Instagram and places its goods in living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, along with other spaces. By doing this, they are showing how goods can complement each other and the way they can spruce up your house. Customers might not have a visualization or home decorating abilities, Wayfair is showing them that they’ve obtained these customers covered. **Organize Contests For Your Subscribers.** Customers want to feel as if they are part of your brand story line. If they’re engaging with you on Instagram by commenting on and enjoying your articles, as well as hash-tagging your brand on their very own account, you need to find out more ways to incorporate them on your page. A great means to do that and generate additional content on your brand in the same time is to host a photo contest. Gilt, an online merchant which does flash earnings posted up a call for submissions for a competition. The brand, that has 97.4k followers on Instagram, asked for clients to post pictures with their friends. If clients hashtag the pictures with .Gilt Life, they are entered into a contest where they are going to receive all expenses paid group getaway to NY City. Instagram is just going to keep growing and providing more ways for brands to connect with their clients. It is time to utilize it to grow your audience and build a following on your eCommerce store. --- ## This Entrepreneur Wants Everyone to Eat Responsibly–and Developed the App to Do That. URL: https://futuresharks.com/this-entrepreneur-wants-everyone-to-eat-responsibly-and-developed-the-app-to-do-that/ Vanessa Ferragut, CMP is the Founder of  – a mobile app dedicated to promoting restaurants, cafes and grocers that work with local farms and provide sustainable food options. She is also the founder of Ferragut Event Group – a DC-based event planning consultancy. Vanessa chairs the FuckUp Night’s Washington, DC chapter and is supporting DC Startup Week on event logistics. **Greenease** is a groundbreaking app that allows consumers to search for restaurants, cafes and food retailers that source directly from local and/or sustainable farms. They may also search by unique criteria such as free-range or grass-fed meats, organic food, sustainable seafood and more! ### How is your company different? There are many apps out there that help you find a place to eat, but Greenease takes this one step further. They help you find restaurants, cafes and retailers that buy from local and/or sustainable farms. This may mean a farm local (or regional) to that area, or perhaps from a farm in another state that abides by fair and sustainable farming practices. The subsequent software (Greenease Business) allows chefs to log in and update and track their farms and purveyors, making this visible to consumers on the app. Greenease also hyperlinks the farms to educate consumers on where their food comes from when they dine out! Today’s savvy, sustainable consumers care about their food source and how it was raised/grown. Almost 59% prefer to purchase locally-grown food, and 72% prefer to buy from sustainable businesses! ### What’s your dream with your company? Our farmers are the backbone of our country, and part of a greater economy. Their market share is dwindling due to competition from argibusiness giants. There are businesses today – such as restaurants, cafes and retailers – supporting our country’s small farmers, the unsung heroes of our food system. My dream is to create a platform where consumers looking to support our farmers can dine out, knowing they’re doing just that. And where chefs can not only login and update their farms, but also search for seasonal food and those local purveyors supply this. Meanwhile, farmers will soon be able to log in (coming May 2018!) to add their products for search and **verify** that restaurants are buying from them. We’re entering an era of fake news and farm-washing (when restaurants claim they buy local, but don’t) and Greenease wants to be the trusted source of where our food comes from when we dine out. ### How do you creatively advertise? A lot of our advertising comes from word of mouth. We also table at sustainable expos (Green Festivals, etc) to showcase the app to a larger audience. We have participated at Tech Demo events throughout the city, too. Great way to showcase your product to a large group at one time. ### What is your core competency? There are many apps on the market that also help restaurant find a place to eat healthily. Aura Rating (NY), FoodWaze (VA), Grubbable (Detroit), and Trust and Trace (California & New England) are just a few. The most popular that people use for general search is Yelp. But when searching “local” on resources like Yelp, the types of results that came up searched only reviews that contained “Great *local*dive bar,” or “Great place to meet the *locals*,” or “Great *local*beer on tap,” but said nothing about the restaurant’s food source, never referencing **origin**of the food. There is no app that not only provides an all-in-one – nationwide information, allows consumers to suggest/recommend farm-to-table favorites, provides a platform for chefs & farmers to share their products **and** lists the farms and purveyors that businesses buy from! ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? Our biggest failure was starting off with freelance developers from the beginning….many of them. It’s hard to keep the code clean and un-buggy when you have a number of different developers coding differently. In Dec 2017 we hired a company – Experiencia Social – to come in as our CTO and full development team. Having a dedicated individual (and a team behind him/her) is crucial to building a product you want (and one that works)! ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Don’t go at this alone. It’s hard, I know from experience! You need a good team behind you to build something great. You cannot be CEO, CTO, CFO, **and**head of Marketing! ### Teach us something about networking: My full-time job is an event planner in the meetings and hospitality industry. One of the biggest lessons I learned in networking is to NOT overload your calendar with event planning networking events. Instead, head to events in other industries – health, technology, etc. At event-planning networking, I’d meet a dozen other event planners. At gatherings in different verticals, I’d meet businesses and individuals who didn’t have event planners **and who needed an event planner**! ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? That a good technology team is crucial to the health and happiness of a business. Because while we think about ourselves just needing to be healthy and happy, well….so does our business. Having a good foundation and team supporting the cause of the business is important. ### What do you think you do better than most people? I think that I am more comfortable failing better than anyone I know. I am the Chair of Fuckup Nights Washington, DC and getting entrepreneurs to share their failures is like pulling teeth. No one wants to admit when they’re wrong, or have f*cked up. Also, being a good leader means you need to have two phrases in your arsenal – knowing when to say “thank you” and also when to say “I’m sorry.” Life is too short to be hard on yourself or the people around you. Make sure they always know how much their hard work means to you. This goes far when you have a small team. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? An entrepreneur should focus on the failures. Failures tell us a story – what went wrong, what needs to be changed to go right (pivoting). Focusing too much on successes does not allow us to learn and grow. It only serves as a constant pat on the back. A good entrepreneur takes chances, knowing that 99.9% of them may fail, but they still aren’t afraid to take those chances because they’re embracing failure…and potential successes later. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber and Foodopoly by Wenonah Hauter. Both of these were a game-changer on how I used to see food. I once met Wenonah Hauter (she’s from VA!) and hugged her so tight telling her “THANK YOU for writing this book. It’s changed my life….and my career.” ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? We want to see our app on every food-lovers cell phone and the software (Greenease Business) as the restaurateur/chef’s best friend when it comes to finding food, sharing where this food came from and ultimately using the app to push specials out to savvy, sustainable consumers. We want restaurants (who are not on the app) to start buying local just so that they can be on the app. We want to be the catalyst for restaurants buying local and consumers spending more time and money on these responsible businesses!!! --- ## How Jordan Steen Separated His Business from the Competition with YouTube Marketing URL: https://futuresharks.com/jordan-steen/ Jordan Steen has been an Entrepreneur his entire life and is now the Creator and CEO of Cereal Entrepreneur Academy. **City where you’re from:** Atlanta GA **Favorite quote:**“I don’t have a favorite quote. Quotes are for people who waste time thinking about quotes all day, and never actually get anything done.’ **Social accounts:**https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWN-rPSim-zOSUkxOIg7lIw ## Why did you create Cereal Entrepreneur? What is it? **Jordan Steen:** A big motivator in my life has always been helping people, I enjoy seeing other people’s success, and seeing people realize that they don’t have to be just another person, that they can have a great lifestyle if they want, they just must try for it. When I was working on starting my agency, and Tai Lopez had just released his course on network marketing, I noticed that people online were having a lot of questions about what they had to do to get into the space, and how they had to do it. So, I started a YouTube channel called Cereal Entrepreneur, put together a few videos, and I got a huge response quickly. I was not expecting such a massive response and got a lot of questions about when I would be making another video or if I was going to create a course. So, I decided, ‘well, you know, enough people have asked me about it, let’s see what would happen.’ Eventually I put it all together, and now, here we are. ## What sort of promotion did you do to get your videos noticed? Were you noticed just because you were answering questions people had? **Jordan Steen:** I think the biggest thing wasn’t just that I was answering questions that people had, I think it was more that I was appealing to people’s frustration. People were just frustrated with the fact that they had purchased one of these courses for seven hundred or a thousand dollars from these marketing ‘gurus’ and they were having a hard time getting the returns that they thought they were supposed to get. I went through Tai Lopez’s course myself to see what he had to offer, and I asked myself, ‘well, if I was new to this again, what would I not understand about all of this? What do I still have questions about?’ So, I made a list of all these things and came out with a list of around three hundred items, so I decided to base my course around that. ## What are some tips or tricks that you have learned for how to make a YouTube channel more successful? **Jordan Steen:** The number one thing is your content. People create content all the time that doesn’t really have any usefulness. The word I normally use is ‘actionable’. If your content isn’t actionable, if it isn’t something you can move forward on today to help you in your life, whether it’s marketing information or how to swing a baseball bat, then it’s not going to have any effect, I’m not going to come back to your channel, I’m not going to subscribe. There’s also a lot of technical stuff in there too, though, using keywords, creating titles that get more traffic, all of that plays a major role in making sure you get views, but there has to be some actual useful content in there too. ## ## What separates Cereal Entrepreneur from the pack? What makes it better? **Jordan Steen:**I think I’m better at teaching than most people. I understand how to make someone understand digital marketing, even if they start out having no idea what digital marketing is. That’s why I started Cereal Entrepreneur. I actually got a comment 2 days ago on one of my courses that said, ‘I have taken Tai’s course prior to this one, and this lesson alone was significantly more in-depth than his ‘business videos’ I wish I’d started here. Keep up the good work.’ And we get that all the time! People say that what we teach is more practical, its more in-depth, and people can use it because they can understand how to use the information. When Tai Lopez comes in talking about all these high-level concepts of running a business, that’s not really designed for people that are just starting their business. So that’s a big strength I have in that we can not only appeal to the people looking for expert level content, but we start out at the base level. ## Can you give me an example of some of the advice that you guys give out that wouldn’t be on most other courses? **Jordan Steen:** I know that one of the big things is my digital marketing audit. Tai Lopez talks a lot about how you need to set up a Twitter account and a Facebook account, which is good advice, but we go deeper into how to sell that to customers, and how to deal with customers, how to deal with rejection. Like if I’m an eighteen-year-old kid trying to start a marketing agency, and I’m going into a business saying I’d like to help them with their marketing, I’m likely to hear, ‘Well we like what you’re saying here, but we’re not sure you’re qualified enough to run our marketing for your price’. That’s going to happen, that’s the kind of rejection you’re going to run into. Tai Lopez is marketing specifically to young 18, 20-year-old kids that want to start something, but doesn’t have a section on how to overcome that rejection or objection. So that’s a specific section of content that we go into because it’s a huge part to getting into business. --- ## This MMA Champion uses his fighting values to close business deals and grow his businesses URL: https://futuresharks.com/paul-halme/ Paul Halme, a best selling author who helps business owners Worldwide get more Leads, more Students and have more Fun. **City where you’re from:** Keller Texas **Social accounts**: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.halme Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paul.halme ## Tell us about The Armory, Accelerator, and Combat Business Mastermind. How did you come up with this idea? **Paul Halme:**   We came up with 3 levels to help our clients.  Armory is systems and basic training videos to help them grow their school.  Accelerator is designed to get out clients to 20K per month and is a monthly coaching program.  Mastermind is for those doing over 20K per month and looking to scale up. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? **Paul Halme:**  Facebook and email.  Lots of organic content. ## How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific. **Paul Halme:**  Built a solid organic content base and then ramped it up with paid facebook and Instagram.  Now ramping up YouTube organic and paid.  Internet marketing has been key! ## What are some secrets to virality/sales in your most successful platform (Fb, Twitter, IG, Snap, Ecommerce, etc)? **Paul Halme:**  Knowing my avatar.  Dial in on my market and then focus my message.  When I get something that is working I put money behind it.  The next level is creating custom lookalike audiences to keep growing. ## Teach us about Compound Marketing **Paul Halme:**  Compound Marketing.  Spend most of your time on going deep with your Market and your Message, then you can use ANY media. Set this foundation and then compound it with paid content.  The secret is to put your awareness video in front of as many potential clients as possible.  Then we retarget them with another ad add to a low barrier offer.  The final step is to retarget the page visits with a relevant testimonial driving them to a sales page.  You waste so much money asking them to marry you on the first date, they need to be romanced! ## What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? **Paul Halme:** Getting things done.  I am able to focus on my tasks and get more done in a day than most get done in a week.  Brain dump and systems.  I really focus on making Mondays fun and my plan is to get a weeks worth of work done on Monday! ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Paul Halme:** Relentless, Crush It, The Compound Effect, Scientific Advertising, Breakthrough Advertising, Mans Search for Meaning, Lead the Field and Do the work.  I love books. ## Why do you do what you do? **Paul Halme:**  For me it’s a passion.  I found a better way to run a school and have a life.  Too many people are stuck on the BS Grind…  Set your school up like a real profitable business and go enjoy life.  The journey will be way better than the destination. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Paul Halme:**  With 1,000 Tribe members who’s lives I have changed.  Hosting fun adventure business retreats in awesome places. --- ## How Jason Berkowitz Went From Hustling Personal Trainer To Digital Marketing Expert URL: https://futuresharks.com/jason-berkowitz/ Since 2009, Jason has been an active leader in the New York City digital marketing community, founding two successful firms, Break The Web & SEO Services New York. Since inception, Jason has managed marketing campaigns for some of the most significant brands in the world and carries a unique philosophy when it comes to campaign success. On his spare time, Jason can be found falling from the sky as an amateur skydiver. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT1cLS5RdGM[/embedyt] **City where you’re from:** New York City **Favorite quote:** 1. *“Don’t think, what’s the cheapest way to do it or what’s the fastest way to do it….think what’s the most amazing way to do it”*– Richard Brandson 2. *“People will forget what you said, they’ll forget what you did, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel”* – Maya Angelou **Social accounts**: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook ## Tell us about Break The Web. How did you come up with this idea? **Jason Berkowitz:** I wasn’t always into marketing. At a young age, I was definitely a tech nerd and built a web forum at 13 years of age. It revolved around ‘manly’ things and had threads about Fitness, Martial Arts, Psychology, Vitamins, Movies, etc.. I never had an end goal with it but the oddity it was, it actually got a bit of small traction. Years later I was working as a personal trainer looking for new ways to gain clientele. Through browsing the web, I stumbled upon SEO, learned the basic strategies, implemented and quickly saw results. As expected, I thought to myself, “wow, I can do this for other websites,” and complete paradigm shift led to where I am today, CEO of one of NYC’s top ranking SEO agencies. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? **Jason Berkowitz:** The biggest traction-builder for us (me, at the time being a freelancer) was a ‘practice what you preach’ approach. I knew that I had to prove my credibility to gain my first initial clients, so I simply ranked my agency website in the top 5 of Google for various ‘New York SEO’ search terms. It was then that prospects started approaching me for SEO services. ## How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific. **Jason Berkowitz:** Lacking a complete background in business & marketing made it that much more of a struggle early on. I sought out the advice of other successful SEO agency owners just to learn more about what takes place behind the scenes. I knew how to rank websites but I didn’t know how to efficiently set up processes and perform customer service/satisfaction. Having various mentors in the space has been one of our biggest assets and I’m truly grateful to each one of them. ## What are some secrets to virality/sales in your most successful platform (Fb, Twitter, IG, Snap, Ecommerce, etc)? **Jason Berkowitz:** Having our own rankings, coupled with case studies and testimonials have been one of our keys to success. Many SEO agencies are scared to show off client successes but in the SEO industry, it’s definitely something to differentiate yourself. It’s an all too controversial industry and proving your white-hat/black-hat classification can be difficult without proof of results. ## Teach us something we don’t know about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, volunteering, yoga, sales funnels or another topic you pick} **Jason Berkowitz:** Don’t always look at the big players and attempt to copy them. By accident, I actually found a pretty surprising SEO mistake on Overstock.com (blog post coming soon). It’s something so simple but also so bad that I would think they would have known better. While the big dogs may look like they have everything figured out, always perform research and due diligence. ## What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it? **Jason Berkowitz:** I think explaining proper SEO strategy is my strong suite. Many of our prospects have been burned in the past by shady agencies, and I’m pretty good at analyzing algorithmic penalties, diagnosing issues and explaining the issues to the client in a way that easy to understand yet extremely informative. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Jason Berkowitz:** [Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion](https://www.amazon.com/dp/006124189X) by Robert Cialdini; The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene; Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday; What Doesn’t Kills Us by Scott Carney (learned how to walk outside naked and withstand the cold). ## What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working? **Jason Berkowitz:** Over the last year, I’ve taken a keen liking to Skydiving and have gone through the process of getting certified. The thrill/rush/excitement/nervousness/freedom is an experience unlike any other. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Jason Berkowitz:** I would like to continue to grow our digital marketing agencies while being able to maintain the ability to provide results. Sometimes growth can lead to a poorer quality of work and I would like to avoid that. I hope that we can be considered one of the ‘go-to’ agencies for a proper SEO solution. --- ## How Brenden Tieger Used Social Media to Expand His Business Internationally URL: https://futuresharks.com/brenden-tieger/ Brenden Tieger is a seasoned Marketer and the man who spread Enagic throughout the country of Australia. **City where you’re from:** San Clemente California **Favorite quote:**“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.” -The turtle from Kung Fu Panda **Social accounts**: https://www.facebook.com/brendentieger https://www.instagram.com/brendentieger/?hl=en ## How did you get involved with Enagic? What can you tell us about it? **Brenden Tieger:** Before Enagic I had built so many incomes from being affiliated with different companies that sadly end up disappearing within a year or two, but with Enagic which has been around for 40+ years, I came across the Kangen water machine and saw what it did for people. Originally, I heard about it through a Facebook message and scoffed it off, but then I learned that this water is used for a lot of medicinal purposes in Japan. After doing my own research I ended up buying one of the machines for my family. My little sister had acid reflux and my dad had High Cholesterol/Blood pressure, so I decided to make the purchase. After a while I started seeing how the machine was helping my family, a year later I figured, I had the machine, and I had all my business connections on Facebook and thought, ‘well, this company has been around for 40 years, why not try to build something with it in America?’ Now I’ve been doing this for just over 2 years and I’ve done over ten million dollars in sales with it. And I enjoy the fact that it’s something for the long-term. It’s not just one of those things where everyone jumps on, makes their money and then it disappears, it’s been here for a long time, and it’s going to be here forever. So, I like the fact that I can build something out of it. And that the product is something that I use. ## For someone who wouldn’t know, what is the benefit to Kangen water? **Brenden Tieger:** It’s medical grade water. Its alkalized, ionized and contains molecular hydrogen. In America, you’re not allowed to say that products like these cures or treats diseases, but the fact is that in Japan they have these machines in hospitals. They give this water to patients when they are sick. They don’t just pump them up with pills and stuff. I mean, I tell everybody, you are seventy percent plus water, your brain is eighty percent plus water… You should probably drink good water. ## When you became partnered with Enagic, what did you do to scale? **Brenden Tieger:** I scaled it through social media. My first year I was able to do three million in sales in the states, just traveling around, using Facebook, organic marketing, meeting people, everything. Then I sold one machine through Facebook to Australia, and the guy asked me if I wanted to fly out to help spread the machines over there. Then, I intended to only stay for about a month or two but ended up doing over six million dollars in sales that year. So, I just never came back. In that time, our presence had gotten so big that Enagic had me speak in front of the entire company in Vegas. It’s just amazing that it was all by chance, I believe everything happens for a reason, but it’s just crazy that one machine that I sold through Facebook to Australia ended up giving me the funds and the life that I have now in Australia. ## What are some tactics that you employ to market on Facebook? It seems like it’s working well for you, after all. **Brenden Tieger:** Yeah, for me, I don’t believe in just online marketing and offline marketing. At least in my opinion, I think online marketing is all about showing how good you are offline. Anybody can be a keyboard hero on Facebook, right? But it’s much more powerful when you put in high quality photos, high quality videos, I like to show people that putting yourself out there and being vulnerable is a super power. We live in a generation where just ten years ago people would write what they felt in a diary so that no one would read it, and now we all write everything on Social Media hoping that the whole world reads it. That’s what I’ve always tried to execute hard on in Australia, trying to tell people that, ‘guys, Facebook isn’t just Facebook. This is a channel, this is people’s way of looking into your life. > # The best salesman in the world, isn’t a salesman. It’s a friend”. That’s what really blew Enagic up in Australia. It’s all about that real online-offline relationship with people. ## Is it hard for people to grasp the idea of being a friend versus being a salesman? Do you know why that might be difficult for people? **Brenden Tieger:** Yes, it’s very hard for some people to grasp it. But it’s not really something I budge on. The way I try to explain it to people is that, look, if you don’t want the machine or the water or the product for you or your family, as a customer first, then it’s probably not a good idea to get involved. People think that if you get a job in sales, that you’re just selling whatever you’re told to sell. That’s just a job, to me, to just do what you’re told because you’re told to. But what we’ve tried to do is create a culture where people are customers first, and then they can share why they bought it. > **Not just why other people should buy it. It’s importance to have a passion for whatever you’re doing, or else why even do it?** ## What are some of the most common mistakes that you see people make when they’re trying to get started in network marketing? **Brenden Tieger:** I think the biggest problem I see is when people are trying to become a business instead of a business-person. A lot of people think that if they just share the product and put their name on it then it’s going to make a difference. The fact is that you must make the connection with your product first, and then you can make a connection with people. Too many people try to skip those steps. ## How do you try to keep others that you work with passionate about the business? **Brenden Tieger:** A lot of that comes down to not just making this your mission, making it everyone’s mission. If you want to keep people excited, you don’t just go, ‘we’re doing this for this reason’. You don’t tell people why they’re doing something, you invite people to do it with you. You share with them what you say, but you want them to be able to create it in their own image, and if people lose sight of that, then you can’t lose sleep over it. You must let people fulfill what they’re supposed to fulfill. --- ## 4 Methods Young Entrepreneurs Should Use to Finance Their Business Ideas URL: https://futuresharks.com/4-methods-young-entrepreneurs-should-use-to-finance-their-business-ideas-in-2018/ Having a great business idea is the most important first step on the road to success, however, without a way to finance this idea of yours, any idea you may have is doomed to failure. One of the first tips you would come up with when deciding to get a bank loan is to sell an asset or get a mortgage on it. Unfortunately, home-ownership with millennials is quite low. This can pose a problem not just with selling but also with getting a collateral when applying for a loan. Needless to say, this also means that young entrepreneurs have a limited number of options. Nevertheless, there’s more than plenty to choose from. Here are four such methods that young entrepreneurs should use to finance their business ideas in 2018. ## Find a partner By teaming up, you may not solve all of your financial problems but you will definitely (drastically) reduce them. Aside from this, you also get some additional benefits to the table. For instance, you don’t only get someone to share the costs with but also responsibilities and administrative tasks. Sometimes, you just can’t do everything on your own and some tasks are too serious to be entrusted to an employee, a co-owner, however, is a different story altogether. In certain situations, this partner brings more than just money to the table. They might bring experience or their own network of contacts. Unfortunately, this method also has a dark side. Finding someone who shares your interests is easy but finding someone who shares your dreams, vision and corporate values are something completely different. Just imagine a scenario where you are a co-owner in a company where your partner doesn’t care about the environment as much as you do. How hard will it be to decide on the cost-effectiveness of eco-friendly practices? For this reason and many others, make sure to screen your potential partners as thoroughly as you can. Aside from this, you should have everyone sign a shareholders’ agreement. ## Get a loan In a situation where you do have a collateral and plan to get a loan, either way, you need to ensure that you’re getting your money’s worth, which is not nearly as simple as you may assume. How hard can this be, you’re probably asking yourself by now. After all, don’t millions of people get loans every day? Well, of course, they do but what kind of loans. If you don’t care about your interest rate and other features of a loan then, by all means, you can get a loan this very day from any random online lender and be done with this. However, if you aim to get the most out of this deal, you should probably consult a professional and ask for their opinion. Due to the fact that both mortgage and real estate function differently in different parts of the country, what you need are local mortgage veterans. For instance, if your future business is situated in NSW, what you need to do is look for loan specialists in Sydney, instead of looking for them in another state. When looking for business loans 365 Credit can be of great help. It is essential to think about your business carefully before applying for one. While it can be tempting to use for whatever it is that catches your eye; it is also crucial to consider your business needs when applying for the loan. For example, if you want a large loan to grow your business, you should ask for smaller loans, rather than big loans. Larger loans are usually required to grow the business, but smaller loans help the business grow at a comfortable pace. This means that in a situation where you have to borrow from a lender, it is better to ask for a smaller loan than a larger loan since you do not need to spend that much money upfront. Since smaller loans are often more flexible, you will have less debt and higher paying customers. ## Crowdfunding is a thing If you aim to create a tech-oriented startup, crowdfunding is probably the first thing you should try out. Here, you can give your audience a chance to witness your genius first-hand and help you make this dream come true. What you need to do to get there is pick the right platform and find a way to make your idea appeal to them. As for the platform, Kickstarter may be the industry flagship, however, GoFundMe, YouCaring or Crowdfunder can be equally as effective. Speaking of presentation, why should people care about what your idea can do for you? Why should a random stranger online care about your dream come true or your one chance at success? Instead, you need to focus on the way in which your product/services will be of use to them. Try to explain how they stand to benefit from financing your company and this crowdfunding campaign might be enough, on its own, to fund your business. ## Borrowing from friends and family Finally, this is a technique that a lot of young entrepreneurs resort to, even though, in some aspects, it’s clearly less than ideal. First of all, just because someone is family doesn’t mean that they’re about to just give you the money you need. When presenting your business plan, you need to start with the same [persuasion techniques](/psychology-marketing-principles-for-your-startup/) you would normally use on an investor. Even if you succeed in getting the funds you need, you should seriously think about the ramifications of failing in your business effort. Look at it this way, just because you borrowed money from someone close and your business idea failed doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay the money back or that you don’t have to do it as fast. In fact, this is the safest way to compromise your personal relationship with that person. At the end of the day, each of these methods is less than ideal. In one case, you’re at the mercy of strangers, while in another you risk the losing trust of those you care about. With a loan, you risk losing a personal asset, while by teaming-up you risk the future of your entire company. Still, each of the above-listed has some advantages, as well and, if you want to start your own enterprise, there’s really no way around them. He who dares wins! --- ## Do you have what it takes to be a millionaire? Read this and find out. URL: https://futuresharks.com/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-be-a-millionaire-read-this-and-find-out/ When Dan Lok was 14, he came to Canada as an “immigrant” – and even though Dan and his mother were immigrants, they lived more like refugees. At the time, Dan and his mother would go to the bakery once a week right before the bakery was closed. There, they would buy all the discounted, near-expired bread they could. And they would stock up enough bread to eat 2 times a day for the rest of the week. Dan hated seeing his mom live like that. So from that point, providing for his mother became his entire world. That’s when Dan started his first business. When Dan shared this part of his story, he said: “You would think after I started my first business, things would turn around from there. But they didn’t. Our lives got even darker.” Before Dan knew it, he had 13 failed businesses. He watched as his mother cried many times as Dan lost her entire life savings to his crazy business ideas. And soon after, Dan was $150,000.00 in debt and that’s without ever finishing college. Eventually, things did turn around. With a bit of luck, Dan met his first mentor Alan Jacques – the founder of the REIN (Real Estate Investment Network) – the largest real estate investment group in Canada. And with Alan’s help, Dan made $10k a month. Then $20k a month. Then $30K a month. Then eventually Dan made $50K a month and beyond. Today, Dan is a self-made 8-figure entrepreneur. The rest of this article is the actionable tips Dan would have shared with his younger self and the tips he would share with anyone who wants financial success. ## Here Are The 7 Steps To Go From $0-To-8 Figures And Beyond: ### Step 1. Develop Daily Success Habits Being successful is a daily job. Just like you won’t lose ten pounds from one trip to the gym, you cannot be successful by showing up once or twice. Success is a daily effort, and there are habits you should put into place that will help support a successful lifestyle. For example, you should always immerse yourself in personal development – every single day. From listening to a podcast or reading a book to taking a course, there is always something to learn. Other success habits include exercise, sleep and silencing your cell phone while working. Find ways to incorporate productive and healthy habits into your daily routine. ### Step 2. Develop a Strong Work Ethic Unless you inherit 7-figures, do not expect it to come easy. Brilliant marketers may lead you to believe you can make millions overnight, but it is a myth. It takes work and a lot of it. You must get used to the idea that if you want to become rich, you will have to show up every day and work. You will have many early mornings and late nights. You may eat lunch while typing on your computer. Getting rich is hard work, and the ones who get there have a strong work ethic. They show up, and they embrace the work that will make them millions. So, if you want to be a millionaire too, start working hard. Get used to working on a team. Develop your business acumen and do the work. ### Step 3. Develop a High-Income Skill A lot of people like to ask. “What business should I start?” Dan’s answer is almost always: “Don’t start a business.” **The reason Dan advises against starting a business (for most) is that if you start a business without having skills, your chances of success are slim to none. Instead, Dan recommends to first develop a High-Income Skill. A High-Income Skill is a skill you own for life where you can make $100k-$500k a year. While a High-Income Skill does require trading your hours for money, you will be trading your hours for good money. And that High-Income Skill will provide you with income, comfort and stability.  This is the first leg of Dan’s famous “Wealth Triangle™”. When Dan first got started, Alan taught him the High-Income Skill of ‘copywriting’. For you, your High-Income Skill can be anything you like. You can develop High-Income Skills like social media management or SEO. It could even be something like teaching ballroom dancing or software engineering.  As long as it can make you $10k a month, you have yourself a High-Income Skill. ### Step 4. Find a Mentor Once you have developed your skills and are making good money, you need a mentor. A mentor is someone who has been there, done that and is now living the life you want to live. This person is not a coach. A mentor knows exactly what you need to do to get what you want because they have done it. And he or she will tell it to you straight. Now that you have the skills, you can exchange it for the knowledge a mentor will provide. Take the time to find the right mentor, provide value in exchange for knowledge and then soak up as much expertise as you can. For Dan, he found Alan Jacques. And after Alan Jacques, Dan was mentored by Dan Pena a.k.a. The $50-billion-dollar man. ### Step 5. Expand your Skill Set If you find the right mentor, you will learn a lot. That is the whole point of a mentor after all. With all of the knowledge you acquire, you can expand your High-Income Skills™ to include a variety of skill sets that earn you multiple six-figures. For Dan, after he learned copywriting, he developed more High-Income Skills. For example, he got very good at internet marketing. Then consulting. Then closing High-Ticket Sales™. Then speaking on stage. Then selling on stage. As Dan puts it: “The more skills you develop, the more your income will automatically grow.” ### Step 6. Start a Scalable Business The second leg of Dan’s famous Wealth Triangle™ is owning a business. What most people don’t know is owning a business comes after developing the right High-Income Skills and learning what it takes to run a business from a mentor. Once you have enough High-Income Skills that you are making a consistent $100k – $500k a year, it is time to start and grow a scalable business. A scalable business is something you can grow without a lot of infrastructure (hiring people, overhead etc). Your scalable business is important because it provides you with cash-flow that comes from the systems of your business rather than your hours. ### Step 7. Invest Wisely The final step to hitting 8-figures and beyond is to invest your money. Once your business has scaled and is bringing in lots of monthly cash-flow, it is time to make your money work for you. It is time to put your dollars into high-return investments (ones with an annual return of at least 10% year after year). These types of investments build your net worth. In the final leg of Dan’s Wealth Triangle™, your money now earns money for you. Where To Go From Here** As Dan says: “Becoming financially successful takes time, dedication and mental strength. But it’s sure as hell worth it. Because I followed the system you just read about, my mom, my wife and millions of people now live better lives.” His final piece of advice for people is instead of looking for business opportunities all the time, more people should look to developing their skills first. Then once you have a strong skillset, then you can have lasting success in business and invest afterward. If you found this article valuable and you want a more detailed action-plan on making 6-figures, 7-figures or even 8-figures, then go to www.fumoney.com/webinar. This is an online training Dan is holding – for the time being. In the training, you’ll get an even clearer understanding of how to use Dan’s Wealth Triangle™ in your life. --- ## How to promote and grow your business in the early days URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-promote-and-grow-your-business-in-the-early-days/ **What’s your backstory?** I’ve always been known as a basketball player, however, I want to be known as a businessman, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. I’ve always been interested in business and entrepreneurship. You can say I was that kid who was selling electronics and candy bars in high school. When I got to college I had realized business is what I wanted to pursue but I didn’t want to wait until I graduated to start making money or start a business. I wanted to start in college so that way I wasn’t looking for a job frantically like a lot of people do whenever they graduate. I wanted to prove that you don’t have to drop out to start a business and you don’t have to wait to start a business either. **How did you promote your company in the early days?** Social Media allows you to advertise your brand or company for very little expense. In the beginning, I didn’t spend anything on growing our brand because we have grown it the same way we help our clients grow their accounts by manually reaching out to people and connecting with them. **How have you been able to grow your business?** Beast Media has grown largely from word of mouth! We have also been able to grow because we have an amazing team of account managers and videographers who help provide great work and amazing results for our clients who then spread the word which helps us grow even more. **Where do you see yourself in a couple years? What’s your dream?** In a couple years, I see myself owning my own Investment Management firm for athletes and artist and my dream is to be an Investor and Philanthropist. I want use entrepreneurship and my knowledge of investing to become an Investor and Philanthropist. --- ## How to do PR and get Featured on Forbes URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-do-pr-and-get-featured-on-forbes/ When a **top publication site** or influencer discovers your product and raves about how great your product its, business will grow overnight. If you are wondering how to reach that level and **get featured**on **Forbes**, **TechCrunch**, **Mashable**, **Inc**., **BuzzFeed**, and **Huffington Post**, the following PR strategies will help you growth hack that process.  ### What is PR? PR or Public relations essential is the art of getting coverage in the media (newspapers, websites, radio) and it is vital when you are growing your business and **building your brand**. Reputation and public perception is extremely important, PR is a powerful tool that allows you to actively maintain your public image and help get your foot in the door for major publication sites. A positive public image helps you create relationships with clients, leading to recognition of your company and eventually, sales. Considering hiring a PR agent to increase your chances of exposure on big **publication sites**? You don’t need to. It can be expensive so it is important to understand ways that you could be your *own*PR agent and get featured. Follow this guide to become a PR Pro: ## 1. Find what makes your product stand out What makes your product unique and engaging? What is innovative about your product or company’s mission that makes a reporter, journalist or influencer want to promote your brand? It is key to figure out what will appeal to reporters**.**Reporters are looking for news. If you want to be able to acquire press with the help of reporters under the**top publication sites**, it is important for you to identify what makes you better than your competitors. Flux Portable Chargers has numerous competitors claiming that they are the best portable charger/power bank in the game. Founder Alejandro Rioja, was able to leverage the fact that it is the sleekest portable charger, slides easily behind your phone and no extra cords needed to make his product stand out among his competitors. Flux Ventures was able to get featured on Mashable, Business Insider, and 60+ publication sites. Identifying what makes your product stand out is newsworthy, and incentive for reporters to promote your brand. ## 2. Know your target audience, but more importantly, who is targeting them? First and foremost, it is important to have a good understanding of which communities will utilize your product. This is a precursor. Now, find the names of relevant reporters and publications they contribute to. This can easily be done by visiting the**top publication sites** or **top industry-specific publication sites.** The easier you are able to identify your target audience, the easier it will be to figure out which resources you should use to build your brand. Your resources are the relevant reporters that are targeting your consumer audience that you want to eventually expose yourself to. It is key to know who is targeting your target and utilize them as your main resource. Contact reporters and pitch your unique idea. Be prepared with a short, actionable email ready for them. ## 3. Approach relevant reporters only It is important to find reporters that will directly contribute to your business growth. Keep in mind that it is not efficient to target just any reporter to promote your unique product. Reporters, journalists, and influencers tend to promote news when its related to their area of expertise. Once you visit the**top publication sites** or **top industry-specific publication sites**that are relevant to your product, visit the “contact us” tab where you are sometimes able to obtain important contacts. Simultaneously, find articles that resonate with your product under the top publication sites. Find which articles exemplify how you want your product to be seen by the public and follow these Sub Pro Tips:   - See who published it and reach out to them directly.**Once you find those “relevant reporters,” figure out whether the reporter is a freelancer or a reporter for a certain publication. Confirm the reporter’s publication through other forms of public social profiles like Twitter and obtain their email through publication sites. Continue to do further research and figure out what kind of articles relevant reporters write. What seems to draw their attention? What matches their expertise? Use this information to draw the reporter’s attention to your short and actionable email. ## 4. Target the Media used by your target audiences: In addition to knowing who is targeting your audience, know where your audience resides. Figure out which media outlets your target audience subscribes to. These outlets range from blogs, apps, websites to videocasts and podcasts. For example, [Future Sharks](/) is a top publication site specific to entrepreneurship, where it draws the attention of audience members interested in how to obtain entrepreneurial success or the latest news about the next up and coming businesses. It is a great place for entrepreneurs to promote their brand to these audience members. There are tools out there to begin your research on popular media outlets for your target audience. You can acquire information about which media forms your target audience is subscribed to using information from SRDS. SRDS (Standard Rate and Data Service) allows you to obtain information on media forms including websites, magazines, TV, radio, and forms of advertising. With this program, you could obtain demographical information about readers, allowing you to better understand the community you are serving with your product. ## 5. Identify what will draw your audience to your product benefits Once you have established who and where to target, identify how you are able to benefit your client with your product. Although special features are a great way for you to make your product stand out, features are not as important as what your product does for your clients. What are your product benefits to your users? Although Flux Chargers is sleek and cordless, it’s target audience cares primarily about it’s function of being an efficient power bank over these features. This main function and product benefit  is the main contributor to their sales. ## 6. Establish your product as the remarkable The advantages of your product are evidence to your users that your product is the best. Establish your product as being the best, most efficient, fastest and most cost-effective product compared to your competitors. ## 7. Utilize testimonials and have others promote your brand This establishes credibility. It is important to convey that your company is creating value for your client. Take it one step further with establishing credibility and display evidence of your customers’ satisfaction. When your clients testify, they are promoting your brand. Keep in mind that this process is a cycle and each pro tip contributes to one another. To sum up, figure out which publication sites will expose your product and find channels that will your promote your brand for you. Provide the content and find the resources and outlets but establish credibility and let this carry you. Other pro tips you should also consider to improve your PR game: ## 8. Maintain relationships The value of public relations comes from the relationships that communicators develop and maintain with the public. Keep in contact with your target audience, and resources (your target reporters), who will promote your brand. For your target audience, create engaging content and make sure they know that you value your service to them. For your reporter contacts, follow their publications and reach out to them in meaningful ways. Failing to develop a good relationship with a journalist or contributor to a publication will risk your opportunities on getting featured in publications that they contribute to. While you are maintaining a positive company brand throughout the media, simultaneously maintain yours too. ## 9. DM reporters directly Use other forms of communication to get a hold of reporters, journalists, and influencers. Besides from conventional emailing, you could DM (direct message) them on their twitter accounts. Many reporters and social media influencers are constantly active on their twitter accounts following the latest news! ## 10.  Use Linkedin Linkedin is a great place for professionals and thought leaders to post content, following and keeping these contacts is a great way for you to get your content promoted. As a professional network, this also helps your brand establish credibility. As you can see, if your content is newsworthy, you are fully capable of being your own PR pro. Not only is this cost-effective, but it is an efficient option because no one knows your story better than you do. Now that you have gone through the tips on how to become your own PR pro, keep in mind that the following cautionary pro tips to maintain a smooth ride ## 1. Assume you are on record Assume that whatever you verbally say or write to a reporter or client is on the record, this information is fair game for their publications. Do not say or write anything that you don’t want in print. ## 2. Communicate effectively When you are having external resources like reporters, journalists, and influencers promote your brand, make sure you are communicating exactly what you want the public to perceive about your product or company. The purpose of your PR is to maintain a strong and positive image, and you don’t want others inaccurately portraying your content. Now that you developed a toolset on how to be your PR agent, you are ready to positively expose your professional brand through the top publication sites and let your business grow overnight. ## Sites to get listed on If you are looking to get your first publication, here are top publication sites** to get the most exposure: The New York Times - Forbes - Huffington Post - Business Insider - Mashable - Inc. - Elite Daily - Buzzfeed - The Wall Street Journal - Bloomberg - ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX - Thrive Global Although those are the most popular ones, you should consider looking into the **top publication sites for your particular industry.** For instance if you are an entrepreneur, you should check out: - [Future Sharks](/) - ForbesTech - TechCrunch - Bloomberg Business - MarketWatch - 9to5Mac - Entrepreneur - CNet - The Economist Want to get featured on Future Sharks? Go [here](/contribute/). --- ## “Senator, We Run Ads.” – Facebook’s Scandal and What It Means For Advertisers URL: https://futuresharks.com/facebook-scandal-mark-zuckerberg/ Congress quickly became the laughing stock of the internet last week. During the hearings, Congress exposed just how little they understand about Facebook and the internet, yet they are the ones who will pass these new laws and regulations. Senator Hatch became a prime example of Congress’ ignorance when he asked Zuckerberg how Facebook can, “sustain a business model in which users don’t pay for your service.” Zuckerberg cracked a smile and replied, “Senator, we run ads.” The rest of the world looked on and wondered just what Senator Hatch thought the hearing was about. He clearly came unprepared to a hearing for one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world, not even knowing the basics of how Facebook operates. ## ## This is all a PR game Facebook has taken proactive steps, removing features from their platform, and publicly apologized for a “breach of trust” to appease the regulators in Washington. Zuckerberg will gladly accept new data laws or sacrifice a few advertising features to avoid new laws fracturing Facebook into multiple companies. Meanwhile, Congress knows it needs to do something to appease the public, but they do not know what. In fact, they can not know what based on their level of understanding which is the real issue for Washington and Facebook users. ## Facebook’s unsolvable problem Here’s the truth, straight from Zuckerberg’s hearing notes. Aleksandr Kogan sold the data from his app to Cambridge Analytics in violation of Facebook’s terms of service. When Facebook found out, they told Cambridge Analytica to delete the data which they did not. While Facebook could have taken additional measures to ensure that data was deleted, the “breach” was innocuous. No credit card information or social security numbers were leaked, only information that was publically available on Facebook. The data Cambridge Analytica bought was no more useful than Facebook’s platform itself, and certainly, their data was far less powerful than the lists that are openly available for $200 on third party data sites. Facebook does struggle to limit the circulation of fake news, but that is because **the algorithm is non-biased; it simply rewards content with the highest engagement which is why we see inflammatory, political content perform so well**. The algorithm rewards a fake news story for its high performance the same way it rewards a viral video or a great ad. Larry Kim did an interesting case study on this where he demonstrated how easy it really is to publish a fake news site and  influence public opinion for pennies on the dollar, yet Larry did this without any stolen data or even third party lists. He simply used the targets available in Facebook. For example, “Likely to engage with political content (conservative),” is one of many available options for advertisers. With these targeting options and some repurposed, fake content, Larry reached over 4,600 people, earned 27 shares, and drove over 200 website clicks for just $50. Is this not more powerful and direct than data from an app unrelated to politics? ## We have an education problem, not a security problem If you don’t pay for a service, you are the product. This is something that people fail to recognize as they readily trade their privacy for convenience and use their Google and Facebook OAuth credentials to log into other apps. However, even if a big, red warning label on the sign up page told users their data would be collected and used for advertising, would we not still sign up for the excellent service that Facebook and other sites provide? The reason people trade their privacy for convenience is that the convenience is just too good to pass up. You can argue that it started with the telephone. Before the phone, advertisers could not call you in the middle of dinner to sell you their one of a kind, limited-edition, fancy gadgets. But the world decided to put up with those pesky cold callers for the ability to the call our friends and families from anywhere in the world with push of a few buttons. Now, we connect with hundreds and thousands of friends online and see their lives unfold in real time. Younger generations are more connected and older generations can keep up with childhood friends. The price? Our data which we readily trade away and will continue to do so. Just think what will be possible in only a few years. Voice search is on the rise along with virtual home assistants that have access to your home security, heating and cooling, and even your refrigerator. Everything will be blissfully easy. Just speak a few words into your phone and you can order more milk from Whole Foods which will be readily delivered to your home, dim the lights in the whole house without standing up, and turn off the water from the airport before a long vacation. No one will bat an eye at this technology until a breach occurs and the passcode to the lock on your front door gets leaked. Even then, people will carry on amidst the hysteria. My guess is that the outrage and the #deletefacebook movement is nothing more than a passing cause. It’s entertainment and an opportunity to “fight the man.” The same way that Uber still thrives despite a history littered with bad PR, Facebook will continue to grow and increase its advertising capabilities. ## How advertising on Facebook will change Facebook will raise their level of scrutiny in their review process. Any snake oil advertisers or people relying on cheap, clickbait tactics will fail. Ad accounts are already getting banned left and right with no explanation from the review team, so spammy ads won’t survive. Even us honest advertisers risk getting banned by mistake or for accidentally crossing the line. The Facebook review team only has about 5,000 employees to oversee ads submitted by the 5 million businesses using Facebook ads, so they are sure to make some mistakes even with the help of AI. As such, there has never been a more critical time to invest in a proven strategy and holistic content. We recommend, at Blitz, that you create a 3×3 grid of videos that funnels your audience naturally from awareness to engagement to conversion. This way you aren’t relying on pushy, sales ads running to cold audiences which are often at the greatest risk of getting disapproved. Our advice is to assemble a library of your best, evergreen content that you can use to promote your brand and your services and to leverage lookalike audiences, the most powerful type of audience, at the top of the funnel. Lookalike audiences will be especially important once third party targets are removed from the platform in October. Here’s a timeline from our Facebook rep at BlitzMetrics for removing third party targets. “May 10: After this date, you will no longer be able to create or edit campaign using Partner Categories built on audiences from the UK, Germany, and France; however, they will be allowed to continue running until May 24. May 25: We will no longer deliver to Partner Categories built on audiences from the UK, Germany, and France, and these targeting options will no longer be available for use on our platform. You will be notified to update any targeting containing impacted Partner Categories before this date. June 30: Last day for creating new or editing existing campaigns using non-EU Partner Categories; they will be allowed to run until September 30. October 1: All other Partner Categories will no longer be available as targeting options on our platform and we will stop delivering against these audiences. You will be notified to update your targeting by this date.” You may have noticed that Facebook recently removed estimated reach from Ads Manager. This means you will have to pay closer attention to your other key metrics as your audience moves through the funnel, like frequency and CPM. Set up automated rules to stop any ads that have a high frequency to prevent burning out your audience. If the frequency creeps up too quickly, it means your audience is too small for your budget. We have some other best practices to survive this Facebook Fiasco which I delve deeper into here. ## When in doubt, come back to the fundamentals The next several months, people will complain that Facebook is broken, complain about targeting options disappearing, or whine about ad prices going up. Don’t fall for it. Most marketers just don’t know how to market on Facebook. The right strategy, which is comprised of goals, content, and targeting, will always succeed no matter what befalls Facebook. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the media hype or in the circus on Capitol Hill. Stay grounded in the facts and in proven processes. Everything else is just noise. --- ## How Dennis Yu and Logan Young Create Jobs For Young Adults With Their Marketing Agency URL: https://futuresharks.com/dennis-yu-and-logan-young-create-jobs-for-young-adults-with-marketing-agency/ ## What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Dennis Yu: We are focused on creating jobs and providing mentorship to young adults, and we plan to do this at scale with partners and software. That’s not what most people expect to hear when they look at BlitzMetrics, but that’s what it’s all about. The agency side of the business is the fuel for everything else we want to do in the long run. The core mission has always been centered around mentorship. It’s like Newton once said, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” We want to provide the shoulders for the next generation to stand upon. Logan Young: Dennis couldn’t have said it better. At Blitz, we all believe in giving back through mentorship and education. We make a concerted effort to provide value and share our knowledge as much as we can. That’s why you’ll see us traveling the globe speaking at all these conferences, but also working hard in the video studio to create courses and training for businesses, partners, and even our own specialists. ## How is your company different? Dennis Yu: Our company differs in philosophy and in execution. We believe our mission can make a real impact and provide some alternative to the current, outdated education system. Not many companies are trying to do something on the scale which we intend to which means we have to be efficient in execution. Everything that we do is driven by checklists and repeatable processes so that anyone could perform any of the operations within the company. When we tackle something new, we document the processes, create a checklist, and record training. This is how we train our new hires too, by running them through checklists and congratulating them as they tackle more and more complex tasks. Logan Young: One of our core tenets at Blitz is building processes that drive repeatable excellence. We like to use the analogy of the surgeon. Let’s say you’re rushed to the hospital for open-heart surgery. Do you want the general practitioner to open you up on the operating table, or the senior heart surgeon who has performed this exact operation over 1,000 times? The answer is obvious. Surgeons also don’t go around knocking on doors asking to perform surgery.That would be ridiculous. Their business is all inbound which is one of the benefits we reap at Blitz from years of reliable execution on Facebook ads. We’ve worked hard to build our authority and drive results for marquee clients like the Golden State Warriors so that others see those results and *ask us* to work with them. ## What’s your dream with your company? Dennis Yu: I would love to see our company create jobs and companies for a million young adults in the next 10 years via our ecosystem. That’s the kind of impact we’re going for. Logan Young: To see employees work for us 10+ years and be constantly progressing in their learning/earning. We have had some very talented people come through our system, start their own companies, and make millions of dollars. We want our internal team on that same level. ## How do you creatively advertise? Dennis Yu: When we talk about personal branding, we always dig into our “dollar a day” strategy and how you can use it to get featured in authoritative publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur, and The Huffington Post. So, we had our friend Isaac at GoDaddy do this for his personal brand focused on fatherhood. He diligently created his series one-minute videos until about two months in one of them caught major traction. We let that video collect social proof and then boosted it to media and news professionals. It got picked up locally, so we shared their posts on his page and boosted those to the national news outlets… you see where this is going. The video ended up getting over 80 million views which resulted in interviews and speaking opportunities for Isaac, and I can tell you we didn’t spend much to make it all happen. Logan Young: Isaac’s story is a great one. Not every video will go viral like that one, but we have mapped out the best practices that will build a strong brand over time. What we teach now is building a 3×3 grid of videos around your brand that funnel your audience from awareness to engagement to conversion. That way you nurture the relationship with your audience before asking for their money. The 3×3 grid is simple to set up. You create your awareness videos which can be things like your “why” video and gratitude videos thanking people for how they helped you along your journey. Then for people who watch those videos, you show them your engagement videos which focus more on how you do things. The last step is to show your most engaged fans your conversion videos where you can finally make the ask in good faith knowing that you’ve built a relationship with them up to that point. ### What is the biggest mistake marketers make on Facebook? Dennis Yu: We see a lot of folks out-think themselves when it comes to targeting. They add layers and layers of interests, demographics, and behaviors until they have this super targeted audience with a few thousand people in it. There are specific instances for this when done right, but as a general Facebook strategy, it’s a flawed practice. Computers and algorithms today are beating the pros at games like chess and Go, and Facebook’s algorithm is the king of the marketing world. As marketers, we don’t want to try and beat the algorithm, but rather point it in the right direction and let it do the heavy lifting through oCPM, lookalike audiences, and custom audiences. Logan Young: Overthinking the targeting is a very common problem often aggravated by marketers running ads to cold audiences that go straight for the sale. Most people aren’t going to click on a stock photo with a canned headline asking them to pay for products and services especially if they’ve never heard of you. The trick is to make your ads feel as native and personal as possible at every stage of the funnel and to only make the ask when they have watched your content and self-selected their way into your conversion audience. ## What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? Dennis Yu: I dropped out of high school to be an entrepreneur/athlete and failed. I learned that going solo, no matter how hard you work or hard smart you are, isn’t enough. My biggest success, or what I’m most proud of, is creating this training system that has turned unemployed dropouts into businesses owners and industry leaders. Logan Young: I didn’t get accepted into the Creative Track in the BYU advertising program. I grew a hunger for learning/improvement of my craft from this. That’s definitely part of what has driven me to become an expert in Facebook ads. I always want to put my best foot forward and continually earn my stake in my field. ## Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Dennis Yu: My mentor who was the CEO of American Airlines, Al Casey, once told me to focus on my learning curve and not my earning curve. Today, we see a lot of entrepreneurs pretending to be things that they’re not, selling snake oil to gullible and hopeful people. At Blitz, we believe in only teaching what we have already done ourselves. We call that Learn, Do, Teach or #LDT which you’ll see Logan and I reference often. Our team is competent and they have to prove themselves through execution before moving up in our system. You can teach a man to fish, but only if you are already a skilled fisherman. Logan Young: Recently, accountability has been my primary focus, both personally and professionally. Here’s a story for you. In 2010 I served a 2-year mission for my church during which I maintained a rigid schedule. Every day I woke up at 6:30 in the morning to exercise and eat, and I spent the rest of my day working, studying, and planning before going to sleep at 10:30 every night. As you can imagine, this schedule was tough to maintain for two years straight. But when I was focused and kept the schedule my life had more meaning. I felt better about myself, and my attitude, demeanor and performance reflected it. I’ve come to realize since that accountability is an amazing thing. It’s why people hire personal trainers, they don’t need to be told how to do a push-up, they are paying for the accountability. Accountability leads to growth which leads to fulfillment which leads to happiness. All entrepreneurs should remember this when they are tempted to sleep in, slow down, or give up. ## Teach us something about mentorship. Dennis Yu: Finding a mentor might be the single most important thing any of us do. Mentors can open doors to new opportunities and shave years off your learning curve. I can tell you that when I first had meetings with the senior officers at American Airlines, I was intimidated. They all sounded so knowledgeable, knew what to do. Heck, some of these folks I had even seen on TV. And I felt like an awkward nobody– didn’t want my mouth to reveal my ignorance. But when I did, I found that most folks really wanted to help me. In spite of “busy” they appeared, the top guys in the company clearly cared. And over time, I realized that they were normal people, too– not know-it-all gods. Find successful people that will challenge you. If you’re not a little intimidated, then you’re not running with people who will help you improve your game, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Logan Young: I can speak to this from personal experience. Before I met Dennis, I was working low wage retail jobs to pay the bills. It was when I took action and reached out to some people in the industry and connected with Dennis that my life changed. As a results of his mentorship and our work at Blitz, I have traveled and lectured in 45 cities, 15 countries across 5 continents which I never expected to do. ## What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Dennis Yu: The wealthiest and most successful people say NO most of the time. They protect their time and protect their privacy. That’s also something I remember my mentor, Al Casey, saying. Your availability is your greatest asset, so don’t give your time away for free. Logan Young: That attitude precedes performance. Plain and simple. ## Teach us something we don’t know. Dennis Yu: I drink 5-6 coconut waters a day to stay hydrated, and I like how they taste. There are many professional athletes who do the same thing. It’s actually more hydrating than water. I highly recommend it. Taste Nirvana is my favorite brand. Logan Young: Stephen King has written 97 books of which 71 have been good enough to turn into movies. He is a content king. ## What do you think you do better than most people? Dennis Yu: Building relationships. When we are out traveling the world and speaking at conferences, there are still dozens of important relationships that I maintain. These are people that we work with, people I care about, people I’m mentoring. They aren’t casual acquaintances that I can brush off and get back to later. With all the software tools available today, people often try to automate their relationships which is a critical mistake. Keep track, but it has to be personal. That’s why we send gifts to clients and friends regularly and also why I personally write all of my social media posts. Logan Young: Leading by example. If you know me, I’m not the most boisterous person, but I still find that people respect my introverted style because I put in the work. Actions speak louder than words, and I believe it’s important to do well in my work. It sets the right example for others in the company. They know I’m working just as hard as anyone else, and they will never see me complain about a rough day on the job. Hard work and maintaining a positive attitude are both things I try to convey to the team. ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? Dennis Yu: Overcoming fear and taking action. We see so many specialists apply in our system that get overwhelmed and can’t overcome the resistance to pass our qualifying process. While those that do pass usually thrive in our system. Fear can be crippling or it can be the best motivation to keep moving. It all depends how you harness that feeling, and if you’re an entrepreneur you can’t afford to let fear hold you back. We all learn by doing not by theorizing or pontificating. Logan Young: For me, this comes back to accountability. Make yourself accountable to yourself, the mission, or to someone else. Make sure that you have a reason to keep pushing forward. Entrepreneurship isn’t always easy, especially after that initial burst of excitement. You have to set your goal, make your action plan, and hold yourself accountable for completing each step. Otherwise, you’ll burn out like so many have. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? Dennis Yu: *Snowcrash* by Neal Stephenson, since it gives me a view of what the future will be like. Great science fiction is more science than fiction. I don’t actually read any marketing books. Logan Young: The Bible and The Hunger Games series. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Dennis Yu: The next 6-12 months we will continue to hire, so we have a loyal and competent team that can support our agency and the education at the scale we want to achieve 12-24 months out. In two years, we would love to see our partner network providing job and mentorship opportunities to young adults. We want to facilitate from behind the scenes by providing our processes and checklists to others to use. One day, we want to see BlitzMetrics as one of the biggest companies you’ve never heard of. Logan Young: The next couple years will be when we bring things to the next level. Right now, we are operating well as an agency, we are selling our courses and speaking on stage at the big conferences. We’re positioned very well to make a big splash in the near future, and with the team we have now, I think we will. ### Social accounts Dennis: Facebook | Linkedin | Twitter | Instagram Logan: Facebook | Linkedin | Twitter | Instagram ### Links to best content: Dennis: - How much do FB ads cost? - Lessons learned from over 730 speeches - Create a killer FB funnel using a 3×3 grid Logan: - Tips for ad engagement - Remarketing Targeting and Tracking for Small Business - Content Creation --- ## Three Childhood Friends Created The World’s First Four-Way Volleyball Game URL: https://futuresharks.com/four-square-volleyball-crossnet/ *Meet the CROSSNET founders, Michael, Chris, and Greg; three ambitious entrepreneurs from the quiet corner of Connecticut. After graduating college they quickly realized they did not want to work a corporate 9-5. One night they were brainstorming on their couch in the farmlands of Connecticut and dreamed up the world’s first four way volleyball game. Three months later they moved to Miami to make it a reality.* **City where you’re from:** Woodstock and Pomfret, CT. Currently residing in Miami Beach, FL. **Favorite hobbies:**Basketball, Music Festivals, Hiking, Fishing, Engineering **Social accounts:** (Instagram,Facebook,Twitter) ## Tell us about CROSSNET. How did you come up with this idea? **Michael Delpapa:** The day after my college graduation, I was back in my hometown and made plans with my friend Greg to brainstorm business ideas.  Greg had started multiple successful e-commerce businesses with his brother Chris and I wanted to work with him. That night Greg noted the need for more high quality beach and backyard games. Growing up we always played four square on the ground and I asked Greg what he thought about four square volleyball.   ## This is a childhood game that you guys put a spin on? **Christopher Meade:** Yes, exactly! So if you are familiar with the childhood recess game called four-square, we took that concept and added a volleyball spin to it. There are four squares and everyone plays against each other until someone messes up. The remaining three players then rotate clockwise. The player who messes up goes back to the one square or the back of the line depending on how many people you are playing with. The objective is to be in the fourth square – the only square you can serve and score from. You play to 11 and win by two. ## How have you been able to grow the business? **Gregory Meade:** Growing our business has been a lengthy process. First we arranged a meeting with a patent attorney and found out there was a patent on the product idea. We cold-called the patent holder and he agreed to meet us in his home in San Diego. After negotiating, we obtained rights to the patent and started to design and manufacture the game, create rules, test and receive feedback, and then make the proper adjustments. This entire process has taken well over a year. We’ve been busy creating viral videos that are used on Facebook and Instagram in order to grow our organic presence when we are not actively promoting on the beaches of Florida. You can see one here. We have been running with those for the most part, as well as reaching out to almost every school system in the United States. We already have promising relationships with distributors in North America and Canada, and we plan to expand outside of the United States in Q3. ## What are some secrets in your most successful on those Facebook ads? **Christopher Meade:** Invest in original content. If the content isn’t authentic and eye grabbing, you will lose 100% of the time. Our goal is to make the customer watch for more than 30 seconds and then take an action. We are fortunate that CROSSNET is the first of its kind and a real head turner, but instructional content is typically needed to explain what they are seeing. ## Teach us something we don’t know about social media ads. **Gregory Meade:** You really need to run a lot of tests, you are not going to get it overnight, so don’t give up. With a product like ours, we have found geo-targeting to be the most important aspect. We can not be wasting ad spend targeting people in Alaska during the middle of April. The majority of our ad spend should be spent towards customers who can make an immediate purchase, such as beachgoers in San Diego or down here in Miami. **** ## What has been the hardest part so far in your venture? **Christopher Meade:** Creating the physical game has been by far the most difficult part. Every time we would get a sample, we would head to the beach and get feedback from hundreds of people. Then, we would send back our improvements and sketches and receive a new sample a month later. Rinse and repeat, this has been our life over the past twelve months. Our goal was to discover and correct every flaw, in order to give our customers the perfect CROSSNET experience. It has been a very lengthy production process, but we are finally at a point where we are extremely satisfied with our product. Just like in art and music, you are always going to look back  and find something which you could improve on something but eventually you just need to release it and get it into the world. ## What do you think the three of you do better than most people? **Michael Delpapa:** Our individual skills complement each other and we each bring different aspects to the team. Greg has grown multiple e-commerce businesses from product idea to functional business with his digital marketing skills.  Chris is experienced in getting products into retail and organizations like schools with his experience as an accounts executive at Uber Eats. I work as a mechanical draftsman and was able to design and make engineering drawings for our manufactures. We took our time experimenting with many different CROSSNET samples to bring to the market a high-quality net system. ## Is your game just for the beach? **Gregory Meade:** Absolutely not! We actually have two models, an outdoor and indoor. Our outdoor model is supported by plastic pegs (like setting up a tent) so you can play CROSSNET on the grass and sand. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t limit the game to just beachgoers and that you could play almost anywhere. Fun fact: When we were living in Connecticut and got one of our first CROSSNET models we actually played during a snowstorm. It was one of the best times we’ve had playing the game! Our indoor model will be coming out later this year which is geared towards black tops, tailgates, and most importantly for gyms and schools to use. ## What is the one question you guys get asked the most? **Michael Delpapa:**“How do you play?” People ask that pretty much every time we have it set up at the beach. As soon as we set up the net, people will begin eyeing it and then eventually somebody will come over, start a conversation and bring their friends over to play. We explain the rules, they play and end of loving it. Honestly, it has been a great way to meet friends, especially when you are new to a city like Miami Beach! ## Where do you see CROSSNET in a couple years? **Christopher Meade:** We see it being a global product. Our goal is for CROSSNET to eventually be played on every major beach, host tournaments across the world, be sold in retail stores, and for schools to incorporate our game into their physical education curriculum. Honestly, who did not love gym class growing up?  How cool would it be to say we added a new game to gym class. To check out CROSSNET, visit crossnetgame.com. --- ## Tips For Keeping Your Current Employees On Track URL: https://futuresharks.com/tips-for-keeping-your-current-employees-on-track/ When you’re in charge of a dynamic sales team and have a dozen projects on the go at once, it’s harder to notice which unproductive behaviors are sliding past your radar. Even the strongest salespeople have an Achilles heel or inherent weak spot in their sales personality. For certain employees it’s prospecting new clients, for others it’s closing deals; it could be something as small as coming off too aggressive when under pressure, which begs the question of how best to manage employees when they’re faced with these situations? How does one help divert the focus of distracted employees back to the hunt? Read on below for some strategies. ## When Tracking Progress, Stay Results-Oriented There are only eight hours in a workday, so it’s important for a salesforce to make the most of this time and spend it on the projects that are going to provide the company with the highest possible return. It’s not about how many hours one banks while at work, it’s about what one achieves. An employee who remains results-oriented can make a grand sale working strategically for just two hours. The targets they hit in that time can rival another co-worker’s entire day’s efforts, especially if they come into work with a clear plan.  ## Preparation Counts As a manager, it’s up to you to prep your team adequately; there should be no question about which types of calls they should be giving their energy to. If an employee isn’t focusing on revenue-building initiatives, they’re more likely to bring their team down, but if they’re not made aware of which activities should be made priority throughout the work week, you cannot expect them to succeed. ## Assess Performance Potential With A Sales Personality Test How do you know you’re providing each team member with work best suited to their skill set or their sales personality? Do you go with your gut? What if someone holds potential you aren’t aware of and could accomplish a task faster than you think? Sales personality tests available through providers like SalesTestOnline are designed to cut to the core of a salesperson’s capabilities in ways you might not be able to — and give you insight into what kind of work they might find more challenging and rewarding. These tests also help you evaluate current employees and determine if they are still in the position best suited to their strengths. When you use personality tests with current employees you address both the potential for growth and the potential for problems down the line — which allows you to better position those employees to maximize their sales abilities. In order to maximize the output of a salesforce, a few things must happen – every member must be strategizing their time, knowing exactly where to invest their energy, and knowing where they can make improvements. Part of keeping employees on track means knowing exactly what each individual struggles with, and it also means working to address these concerns before it’s time for them to take on a new task. It’s important to know for example, that an employee who isn’t making the ask fast enough might suffer from a low level of assertiveness. Being a good manager means addressing questionable tendencies and taking a moment to test where they might be stemming from. --- ## How Nick Filchy Built An Instagram Empire And Did It Fast URL: https://futuresharks.com/nick-filchy/ Nick Filchy, a 20 year old entrepreneur from central NJ , owns an assortment of instagram pages adding up to a whopping 1.3 million followers collectively. In today’s interview, I dig deeper into how he did it.  **City where you’re from:** Monroe Township, New Jersey **Favorite quote:**More followers, more problems. **Social accounts**: https://www.instagram.com/bangerbuddy/ https://www.instagram.com/filchy/ ## Tell us about Bangerbuddy. How did you come up with this idea? **Nick Filchy:**Bangerbuddy started out as an iphone app concept i had when I was 15 years old. The app idea never worked out, and instead of scrapping the whole venture as a whole I just rebranded and converted it to an instagram college lifestyle brand. ## How did you promote your company in the early days? **Nick Filchy:**Always through Instagram. Never really focused on any of the other social medias because they were irrelevant to me. I knew instagram was on fire and blowing up super quickly so i spent all my free time learning the ins and outs of the platform and experimenting ways to grow a massive following on instagram rather quickly. ## ## How have you been able to grow your business? **Nick Filchy:**I have grown my brand through social media & social media only. Social media is the most powerful tool available to any person or company at the moment and should be utilized to its full capacity. You can share your products, your content, and your thoughts to the whole entire world with just a few clicks, that is a major marketing breakthrough and should be taken very seriously by every business. ## What are some secrets to virality on Instagram? **Nick Filchy:**You need to pick a niche & attack it hard. I chose the college party niche because it was personally something that interested me and i knew it interested many others so i put out the finest content on instagram related to this niche, 10-30 posts a day and always tried to post the most viral and engaging content possible. Posts where people can strongly relate to & want to tag and share with their peers are the ones that really take off and get you big follower gains. ## Teach us something we don’t know about Instagram Growth **Nick Filchy:**Cross promotion is the fastest way to grow on instagram. You basically team up with accounts in your niche & generally close to your size, and you tag each other in posts frequently, directing traffic to each others pages. If you properly execute this strategy you will see crazy fast growth on instagram. ## ## Did you attend or finish any college/university? **Nick Filchy:**I was a student at Rutgers University in NJ for one semester and then i dropped out. I did not enjoy school at all, i was miserable and constantly did not want to attend class. My business was taking off super fast and I could not handle the school work and stress along with my business work and stress. Personally, I have never been a believer in college education for a career in entrepreneurship. College doesn’t teach you any valuable skills to be an entrepreneur & in most people’s’ cases it just puts them in major debt and sets them back. Why build up debt when you can build up wealth? *Spending 6 figures to get a 5 figure career just does not make sense to me*. ## Where do you see yourself in a couple years? What’s your dream? **Nick Filchy:**I want to 10x my current fan base and sales, and have an amazing team running the whole operation while i start to work on other ventures. Right now i do mostly everything alone and do a great job of it but it would be ideal to have a lot of help from the right people. My dream is to be able to help other young and bright entrepreneurs with their ventures. I know firsthand how tough it is to start a business and make it even slightly successful. I would love to eliminate that hardship for other entrepreneurs and help them out with experience and capital. --- ## Kevin Harrington Joins Startup to bring Blockchain to Entrepreneurship URL: https://futuresharks.com/kevin-harrington-joins-startup-to-bring-blockchain-to-entrepreneurship/ Sometimes having a savvy investor behind you makes all of the difference in jump starting something big in your business or taking it to the next level of success. That is precisely why Pitch Investors Live is so excited to welcome Kevin Harrington, the original shark from Shark Tank, to their team. Kevin is the creator of the infomercial and pioneer of the As Seen on TV brand. He is also the co-founding board member of the Entrepreneur’s Organization. He has decades of experience and knows which brands to get behind. We were also very surprised at one feat that is monumental and bar none, as Kevin has created 20 companies that have generated $100 million plus each. When we spoke to Kevin, this is what he said about why he decided to team up with Pitch Investors Live. **Changing the Landscape of Bootstrapping** As an entrepreneur himself and original shark on Shark Tank, Kevin knows how difficult it can be to pitch your ideas to investors. He also knows that it takes money to make money. There are millions of brilliant ideas that never make it to market because they haven’t been funded. After all, Shark Tank only accepts a tiny percentage of projects needing funded. Pitch Investors Live is changing all of that. The team has created a platform where entrepreneurs and project teams can present to experts in front of an audience and connect with investors live. “I am very excited to join the Pitch Investors Live team and have a part in revolutionizing the way that entrepreneurs and startups bootstrap their innovative ideas,” Kevin told us. And investors don’t have to be tech savvy to use it! This platform makes it possible for so many more entrepreneurs to get out there. From the small side hustle to big business, it will work for everyone. **Pitching gone Mobile** Kevin knows a great idea when he sees it. He has helped entrepreneurs and innovative business leaders get their ideas off the ground and turn their dreams into a reality for more than 30 years. He knows what people want, and a big part of what people want today is convenience. Technology advances are creating the ability to get whatever you need at the touch of a button. And why not? With the introduction of tokens based on blockchain technology, the options are limitless. And now, anyone in the world will have the ability to go after funding for their brilliant ideas or invest in business ideas on the go. Pitch Investors Live has created a platform that allows entrepreneurs to do live pitches within a mobile app. Investors can literally fund projects from their couch or on vacation. “One of my favorite parts of Pitch Investors Live is that I can take pitches from anywhere in the world, at any given time, from a variety of startups, directly from my cell phone.” **Blockchain Disrupting the World** Savvy investors like Kevin get behind projects that will be utilized for years to come. Blockchain is the future. The new and exciting technology has the potential to disrupt almost every industry – in a good way. Some industries are already feeling the affect. From banking to real estate to the medical industry, the world is about to be revolutionized. Many of the applications of blockchain have yet to be discovered, and that is why Kevin is so excited to get involved at this early stage when he can make the most impact. “We are in the early stages of what blockchain will contribute to changing the entrepreneurial landscape. Pitch Investors Live is at the forefront of the possibilities in this new space.” Pitch Investors utilizes blockchain technology to make it simple for either the investor or the live audience to buy tokens from the entrepreneurs presenting using smart contracts. This has never previously been possible.. **Conclusion** With decades of experience and success behind him, Kevin Harrington will be an invaluable asset to the Pitch Investors Live team. He knows what to look for in potential investments, and Pitch Investors Live fits the bill. His background and expertise as both entrepreneur and investor make Kevin the perfect match. “Pitch Investors Live is the most substantial platform to have come out to help entrepreneurs that would have never been able to go through traditional funding route.” --- ## Are You Tough Enough for Business? 5 Reasons Mental Resilience is Needed for Business Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/are-you-tough-enough-for-business-5-reasons-mental-resilience-is-needed-for-business-success/ Entrepreneurs are known for being some of the cleverest people in the planet. It takes a whole lot of brain power to think about what the market lacks, deliver that, and continue cashing in on it. They put in the work consistently, and hold themselves to high standards. But did you know that having the smarts is not the only ingredient that you need to set yourself apart? To succeed in business, you have to know how to *manage your mind*– and that is where mental resilience or mental toughness comes in. Here are five reasons to motivate you to start training your intellect to harness it better: **Challenging Norms** As an entrepreneur, you know how to envision something that other people don’t necessarily see. In business, this edge is a prerequisite to success: if you cannot rock the boat, you miss out on potentially reaching other leagues. Mental resilience equips you with the drive to persist in shaking up the status quo until you see the results that you want to see. **Winner Mentality** In an article published on Harvard Business Review, a sports psychologist said that if there is one ingredient that makes all the difference in sports and business success, it is a winning mindset. You have to know that you can deliver beyond what is expected every time you need to. Mental resilience promotes a winning mentality: an entrepreneur who is mentally tough knows that mediocre won’t cut it, and he or she will live accordingly. I have a friend, Jonecca, who “fell into” her career despite initially disliking the trappings that came with it–writing, speaking, networking with people. However, she found that with a continuous list of people she’s inspired, helped, and all the lives that she has changed, she found a deep sense of fulfillment in it. She trained and got over her fears, battled with her everyday anxiety, until she got comfortable, and then, in turn, she was able to serve more people at a higher level. She is now one of the leading success coaches in the Philippines. **Character Building** Mental resilience also contributes to shaping, honing, and strengthening your character, especially when it matters. There are many times in your life in business when you would feel like you may have to call it quits. Soon, you will find that one of the most important things that will get you through these times is what you tell yourself. If you can steel yourself when the going gets tough, break through all of it, and come out tougher. **Improved Performance** Training your mind to become tougher will also lead to improved performance, which will translate to better results. Okay, so your competitors are not spreading themselves thin trying to rack up more sales, so why should you? True, you should never have to spread yourself thin, but that does not mean that you should stop exerting every effort possible in perfecting your processes. My friend Kresta Ang, a small business owner and team leader, after a one-month coaching program, successfully doubled her passive income because she knew she was pursuing the right mindset. She admits that changing her mindset and being surrounded with a good support network was best at “flexing her muscle” on being mentally resilient. **Greater Ability to Enjoy Life** Finally, mental resilience will enable you to live happier. In this life, every experience that we have will be filtered by our brain, and if your brain knows how to sift through everything to retain only what is essential to your growth, your life will be happier. We know you don’t just do business for yourself, but you also do it for the people you love the most. Making these people happy is a huge determinant of our ability to enjoy life for ourselves, something money can aide us in getting (let’s face it). So when we stay mentally resilient, we are more productive and we are more fulfilled. --- ## 4 Tricks for Fast and Effective Decision Making URL: https://futuresharks.com/4-tricks-for-fast-and-effective-decisions/ Speed matters. In the fast-paced, ultra-competitive world, only the strong(or fast) will survive. Being, “slow” is a recipe for disaster – you’ll get eaten alive and your company will die. Or, perhaps worse, you’ll live in a pool of mediocrity for years. Scary. Nobody wants that, so in order to stay alive and *thrive*, you need to move fast. How do you do that? Decision Making. You need to make ’em fast *and*correctly. Otherwise, you’ll be fast, but wrong (we don’t want that). Here are 4 insanely helpful tricks that I use to make decisions fast and effectively – i.e. no time wasted and no backtracking. ## 1 – Use Mental Models Mental models are simple and easy to remember heuristics about how things work. Each model comes from a specific domain, but fortunately, most apply across multiple domains – i.e. they are used a lot. The tricky part is figuring out which models are important and when to use them. Let’s look at a quick example. Building a startup is counterintuitive, to avoid the tricks and traps you need to use the “first principles” model. Most people (smart people, too) think from a basis of “What are all the factors involved” and then miss important points or replace them with less relevant ones. Crazy, right? But thinking in first principles begs the question “what are the *most important* factors involved” and then focuses on addressing these… first. Easy. **2 – Ask “Why can’t this be done faster”** Due-dates are fickle, half-baked ideas of when the project leader *thinks* they could finish. However, in most cases, the project leader factors in everything on their to-do list, personal and professional. This is *wrong*. You fix this by being like Elon Musk. Musk is famously known for his fast-paced companies which leave the competition in the dust, and everyone else wondering “How the heck is he doing this?”. Well, it turns out, it’s really not***that hard*. Before starting a project, all you need to do is ask “Why can’t this be done faster?” It’s literally that simple. **3 – Reduce Cognitive Overload** Most people spend lots of time thinking about their project before even starting. One of the first things that comes up is “What will my boss think?” And, being the most important person in your relationship with the company, their opinion matters. If you don’t want to wait, do one thing. *Ask for their opinion… early on.* It’s simple but rarely done. Identify your clear “vision of success” for each project then work with your boss to help clear up any questions. The rest is a piece of cake because you know exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it by. Also, you’ll have them on your side because after all, they agreed to it. **4 – “How fatal, non-fatal, or fixable is this?”** By identifying how important or “fatal” a decision is, you’ll quickly get an idea of how hard, easy, or impossible the situation is to fix.  Let’s look at some examples, if you’re just starting a company, deciding on the Name of the new business is important (not easily fixed) because you’ll put that *everywhere*– on social profiles, your website, marketing handouts, bank statements, tax documents, etc… and changing *all of those things* will take a lot of effort. However, if you do screw it up, it’s not fatal. Now for a tough one, let’s say you’ve got a great name, paid those taxes, and you’re selling product on shelves in Wholefoods. They have a strict 3 strike policy. You’ve already made two strikes. Now you’re debate recalling 10,000 units for 1 potentially broken bottle or sending them to shelves and risking your entire Wholefoods distribution forever. This mistake is fatal, so you shouldn’t risk it! **Decision Making, In Closing** Moving fast isn’t complicated, it’s a simple recipe that anyone can follow and build into their decision-making process. The hard part is having the discipline to actually follow the steps. --- ## How This 21 Year Old Started The Largest Jersey Company in North America URL: https://futuresharks.com/sean-kelly/ **City where you’re from:** Bridgewater, New Jersey **Hobbies:**FortNite, Basketball, Movies **Favorite quote:**“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates **Social accounts** (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn): ## ## Tell us about Jersey Champs. How did you come up with this idea? **Sean Kelly:** Jersey Champs was started in my college dorm room at Rutgers University. We are revolutionizing the jersey world with unique and trendy jerseys and replacing the current boring sports jerseys that leagues like the NBA & NFL put out. We have many professional athletes reach out to us for custom jerseys because they believe in our mission. ## How have you been able to grow your business? **Sean Kelly:** We started with Instagram Marketing using Influencers and purchasing shoutouts on large sports pages. We then scaled with Facebook & Twitter Ads and now we run Snapchat Ads which drives a very large amount of sales. ## Which celebrities have you made custom jerseys for? **Sean Kelly:** Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tai Lopez, Shaquille O’ Neal Dez Bryant, Odell Beckham Jr, Logic, Khalid, Marcus Peters, Lil Pump, Martavis Bryant, Lil Wayne, Young M.A, Landon Collins, 2 Chainz, Jae Crowder, Casey Veggies & more. It’s been an honor to team up with some of today’s most influential people. ## ## What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Sean Kelly:** Our biggest failure was in our first year of business. We did not anticipate such a rapid growth in sales during December due to the holidays so we ended up becoming heavily backordered and had to refund over $50,000 in orders. Ever since then, we have learned to always be ready for the Q4 spike in sales. Our biggest success was creating our Donald Trump Jersey. The night he got elected we sold thousands, and it has sold steadily since and remains one of our top sellers to this day. ## What is the best advice you’ve ever received?. **Sean Kelly:** Just because you sell something $50 more than what you obtained it for doesn’t mean you profited $50. You have to factor in shipping costs, advertising costs, processing fees, chargeback rates, time, website maintenance, etc. I was very naive when first starting this business. ## Teach us something we don’t know about Instagram Marketing **Sean Kelly:** There are a ton of great engagement groups on Telegram for those of you with over 100,000 followers. I would join these groups and create a close relationship with these members as they will be growing with you on the way to the top! ## Teach us something we don’t know about Influencer Marketing **Sean Kelly:** Never use an influencer marketing platform or site that sells influencer posts. You do not want to go through a middle man as they will be more expensive. Instead, directly message the influencer on Instagram and click the little drop down arrow on their Instagram profile afterwards to find similar accounts. I would message at least 25 per day if possible. ## ## What advice would you give to other millennials? **Sean Kelly:** You’re young. You have so much time in the world so take advantage of it. Instead of using your free time on video games or socializing, you should go out there and work on that business idea you have. Everyone has had an idea for a business and so many people never follow up on it. ### Tell us 1 thing that no one knows about you. **Sean Kelly:** I had a near-death experience when I was just 19 years old. Ever since then my life has changed and I never take anything for granted. Check out Jersey Champs here. --- ## How to Install WordPress on Godaddy [Free and Quick Guide] URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-install-wordpress-on-godaddy/ When you’re trying to build a website or blog then you’ve probably come across both WordPress and Godaddy, since they are the biggest players in the market. Godaddy is the biggest domain registrars out there and WordPress is the biggest content management platform available. Many blogs and websites that you use every day work with WordPress, Godaddy or both. But, to make these two work together you do need to know how to install WordPress on Godaddy. This doesn’t have to be difficult or complex at all, as long as you know the necessary steps, which is what I’ve got laid out for you. ## Why do you want WordPress on your Godaddy domain For some people, it’s more than logical that they need to install WordPress onto their Godaddy domain, whether this is because everyone uses WordPress or because they truly know the benefits of using WordPress. The real question is ‘What would WordPress be useful for?’ And I’ve got a couple of answers to this question. WordPress is basically a publication platform that allows you to create a blog, the main use of WordPress. Not only does it work fast, it is also known as one of the easiest platforms to use for this. If you’re not an experienced blogger or maker of websites then using WordPress is probably the best bet you have. On top of this, WordPress is incredibly versatile. This means that even though it is meant as a platform for blogging it can be used for a lot more. If you want to make a website for your online business but you’re not an internet expert then WordPress can also be a solution for you. Does this sound appealing to you? Then you can at least give it a try to see how you like it. Now I’m assuming that you already have your Godaddy account set up and that your domain is ready to go, when this is not the case then this is something that you will need to work on first. But, when your Godaddy account is ready for use then you can start with the first step. You need to go to your Godaddy account and next you will need to select the hosting panel which you want to install WordPress on, you can find your hosting panels when you go the ‘my products’ section. You need to launch this hosting panel ## Step 1. Select the domain Now you’ve launched your hosting panel you need to select which domain you want to install WordPress on. You can find all your domains by clicking on the ‘hosting’ button, then go to ‘more’ and over here select ‘Hosted domains’ Here you’ll find a list of all the domains that you own. If you want to install WordPress on a subdomain then this is also possible. If you want to do this then you need to click on the name of the domain to create a subdomain ## Step 2. Find WordPress After you’ve selected the domain or subdomain that you want to use to install WordPress on it’s time to find WordPress. First, you’ll need to go back to the ‘hosting’ menu. Possibly you’ll be able to see WordPress on the top of the page because it is such a popular platform but when this is not the case then you can select the category ‘blogs’ to find it as well. ## Step 3. Install WordPress When you’ve found and clicked on WordPress you’re ready to start the installation. The process of installing WordPress has three steps. The first step you need to go through is selecting the domain and the hosting plan for WordPress. This is easily done but you do need to pay attention to the second step where you have the chance to customize the WordPress installation to your likings. You’ll get to create a database with a fitting name and password, you’ll get to choose the installation directory and you’ll get to choose your admin name, password and email for the WordPress account. You can also leave the directory empty so that WordPress creates its own directory. You will also be able to select the name of your blog, which is something that you want to think about. It’s well possible that you’ve come up with a name for your blog weeks ago. But when this is not the case then now is the time to come up with something good. This is important data that you might want to write down somewhere so you don’t forget it. When you’ve selected all of this you’ll get to confirm everything so the installation can start. Now the program will need some time to install but you can constantly view how far the installation is by checking ‘Manage my applications’ Along with the installation your database will also be created for which you can also find the status. You can find this by going to the ‘databases’ section and look under MySQL. When the database has the status of ‘setup’ then this means that it has been completed and you can view the details of it. ## When the installation is completed It can take a couple of hours but when you find that the status of the installation in ‘Manage my applications’ says that WordPress has been successfully installed then you know that you can now continue. Now you don’t necessarily have to constantly check your hosting account while waiting for WordPress to install, you will also receive a confirmation email once WordPress has been installed successfully on your domain. If the database is also ready then you need to check one last thing, which is the DNS Entry. You’ll need to go to the ‘Zones files editor’ to see if a DNS entry for WordPress has been made. Now that WordPress is up and running on your domain then you can start exploring WordPress when you’re not familiar with it, or you can immediately start building your website when you know exactly what to do. First, you’ll need to go to the domain on which you installed WordPress so you can log in and start using it. This is when playtime starts for you when you can start exploring all the different extensions and all the ways you can customize your blog. But if you find it hard to navigate WordPress then there are plenty of manuals for WordPress that can be found online or on their own website as well. WordPress doesn’t have to be complex, but you can make it as complex as you want, as there are plenty of ways you can customize and edit your WordPress website. Installing WordPress onto your Godaddy domain is really not that hard and you can get it done within a couple of hours, after which you have plenty of time to explore WordPress and learn all the ins and outs of WordPress. Godaddy and WordPress go together perfectly as both of them work well and reasonably easy to navigate but can also be customized to your likings. I would definitely recommend you to try out this combo and take the time to turn your blog or website into something that you’re proud of. This is what WordPress and Godaddy are truly meant for, to make something that you can be proud of to show to the world. Guest post sent by A. Nielsen. --- ## How to land more speaking engagements URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-land-more-speaking-engagements/ Landing speak engagements can seem like mission impossible, you try your hardest all the time without booking any result. This can be incredibly frustrating and might make you want to give up, but not yet because I have some tips for you. I can’t ensure you that anything will happen, but the chances will be a lot bigger than you’ll land more speaking engagements when you follow all the tips I have in preparation for you. So, I won’t keep you waiting any longer and give you all the tips that will help you land more speaking engagements. ## 1. Build a blog This tip will not directly get you more speaking engagements, but it can help you market yourself. It is hard to find a speaking engagement when you’ve got no proof of your talent or expertise. A blog can show to the world what knowledge you have on certain topics. So let’s say that you met someone who is remotely interested in your speaking talent when you have a blog you can direct them to your blog so they can find out whether they appreciate what you’ll be able to speak about. And on top of this, it is also an amazing way of building and expanding your own knowledge, which is always a plus if you want to become a better speaker. And having a blog will also make it easier for people to find you and to offer you speaking gigs. You could even upload videos of you speaking on certain topics to truly showcase your talent. ## 2. Start off speaking for free It’s incredibly hard to find paid speaking engagements when you have no experience and nobody knows your name, that’s why it’s smart to start off speaking for free. You should let all your contacts know that you would love to speak for free. On top of this, you should contact the business in your area or any other places where you would love to speak know that you want to speak for free. There will surely be some places that love to see you speak for free. This way you can build your network, gain experience and showcase your talent to the world. ## 3. Use LinkedIn to come into contact with people Social media is important in general when it comes to landing speaking engagements, but I’ll be giving some special attention to LinkedIn. When you use LinkedIn in the right way it can mean a lot to you and really help you build your network and land more speaking engagements. First, you want to create a profile that shows people that you’re a public speaker, so make sure to turn your head job line into saying ‘pubic speaker’. Otherwise, people won’t even know that you’re a public speaker, that way you’ll never land any gigs. It also helps to add keywords to your profile that people looking for a public speaker would look for. This increases your chances of being found by someone who needs a public speaker and is willing to offer you a speaking engagement. You also need be able to convince the people who are visiting your profile that you indeed have expertise on the topics that you speak about. You can add information about earlier speaking engagements you have had, including a link to that blog that you made and mention some achievements you’ve made. Perhaps you completed a course that has something to do with the topic that you speak about, then you should definitely add this to your LinkedIn page. Another smart thing that you want to do is adding any recommendations from people for whom you’ve done a speaking engagement before. This is why it’s important to always ask for a recommendation after every speaking engagements. The amount of good reviews adds up and will add to your credibility. You can even get this done a long while after you’ve had the speaking engagement as you can use LinkedIn to send these people a recommendation request. Related: Here’s how to go viral on Linkedin ## 4. Don’t be too direct When you’re straight-out asking everyone you know whether they have a speaking engagement for you it will make you seem desperate and your credibility will start to diminish. This is the last thing you want to happen so you need to be as indirect as possible. In that way, you have much more chance of building a good reputation and landing better more speaking engagements in the future. ## 5. Putting down a good performance A crucial part of landing more speaking engagements is that you need to nail the performances that you do get, in that way people will much sooner hire you. This means that you should always give 100% during a performance, even if it’s for a small crowd and you don’t get paid. Someone who can eventually land you the speaking engagement of your dreams might be in the public watching, who knows? This means that you should always prepare your speaking, make sure you show your best mood even when you’re not feeling too well and that you should be completely filled with energy while you’re on stage. To put down an amazing performance you also need to feel comfortable on stage. This is something that you can practice by taking on all the gigs you can get but it might also work to take some improv classes or any form of theatre classes. This kind of classes will force you to be in front of people performing and even though it may feel uncomfortable at first, you will truly learn how to perform and at some point, you will feel comfortable before any crowd. Another way of improving your speaking may be to work with a speaking coach who can teach you how to be more confident in front of people and how to get your message across more easily. Yes, you might need to spend some money to get a good speaking coach but I can assure you that it will be 100% worth it. Learning how to speak well is as you can probably expect the most important thing for landing more speaking engagements. A speaking coach can really help you with this and never hurts to meet at least once with a speaking coach to see if it is something for you. When you follow all these tips that I am certain that you will start landing more speaking engagements within no time. Remember that you first need to bring out some content so you can showcase people your talent, and you can spread this content through using LinkedIn in the best way. When you’ve landed your first speaking engagements then be sure to put down the best performance that you’re ever going to give. Each performance should be like the most important gig that you’re ever going to give, and if you practice enough then each performance will be better than the one before it. Once you’ve kind of built up your network and created a reputation for yourself then is the time that you’ll start building a reputation and you will be able to start landing paid speaking engagements. It might take some time to get there, but in the end, you will only end up at the top when you take it slow. Guest post sent by anonymous. --- ## The Article I Wish I Read Before Hiring URL: https://futuresharks.com/the-article-i-wish-i-read-before-hiring-people/ Hooray! You business has product market fit. Customers are purchasing, telling their friends, and coming back for more! This is a huge milestone for all young companies, but it leaves many wondering “what’s next?” *The answer….***Hiring.** Now, if you’re a first time entrepreneur, hiring can be a nasty and sneaky job. It’s riddled with tricks and traps that can cripple your company at any step. Luckily, I’ve made nearly every mistake along the way and I’m writing this post to help other founders stay clear. To avoid past mistakes, I built a small, but important set of simple rules. ## ## 1.) Always Hire for Values (i.e. culture) This is the most important rule. If you don’t hire someone with similar values to the organization, it will not work out. And, when you’re just starting your company, you can’t afford to have a bad hire because it will cripple your growth. So, now you’re probably wondering….how can I hire for values? It’s not *that* hard, but you need to do some heavy lifting up front. For example, you cannot hire for values if you have none. The first step is to *write your values down*. This is the holy bible of your organization – it shows what you believe, what you stand for, and sets the precedent for all future behavior. After you’ve written down your values, you must become skilled at identifying the values of others. This isn’t easy either. So let’s break it down into two parts. First, you need to study the person’s past history, what were they doing? Trying to make a quick buck or trying to help the world? After you’ve done your homework, you’ll need to learn a bit more. This part is tricky because it relies on your ability to ask good questions. You’ll need to know what motivates them. Are they financially driven or value driven? Are they willing to make sacrifices? Why do they want this job? If you clearly understand your values and know a thing or two about asking good questions, there’s a good chance you’ll find someone who aligns with your company culture. ## 2.) Always Hire People more Knowledgeable than You Any first-time founder will tell you, there is a never-ending black hole of information you’re expected to know. And, not like “oh yeah, I’ve heard that before”, you need to be like “I understand the ins and outs, the tradeoffs and everything in between like the back of my hand”. This is clearly impossible to do by yourself, so instead focus on your strengths and hire people with expertise to fill in the gaps. This will help you make massive leaps in your business, rather than small steps. It will also save you time and money. You’ll spend less time learning and more time executing. *Note, if you can’t pay competitively, you need to make more money before hiring them, don’t try to skimp people on salary.* ## 3.) Prioritize Hires to Drive Revenue and Fundraising, then support these. In the end, businesses are run on cash and if you don’t have any, you’re finished. Out of Business. Caput! If you want to survive *and* thrive, you need to sell (or grow)….fast. For every business I’ve worked in, we’ve prioritized our first hires around bringing in revenue and *then*building operations around the revenue. Look at it this way, it’s easy to hire an operations person when you’re making a lot of money. It’s hard to hire *anyone* when you have none coming in. ## 4.) Do not compromise Maybe you think this is obvious. You say “I’ll never do this”, but most of you will. You’ll post a “compelling” job description on your companies Facebook, LinkedIn, and Angel.co pages and a few people will apply. You’ll look through your measly list of applicants and hire one *hoping* they’ll work out. If this has been you, I’ve been there too and it may be okay in the beginning, but as you grow and learn more, it’ll get bad. That “hope” you had in them earlier will turn to doubt. Evil thoughts will creep into your mind… Is this person really perfect for our company? Could we have found someone better if we’d interviewed more people? And on, and on. So, what’s the trick? Do the work. Review 100+ resumes, interview at least 20 people over the phone, and 5-10 in person. Then, decide. If you’ve followed steps 1-3, there’s a good chance you’ll have hired the right person. Important Caveat to this whole piece – no matter how long or perfect you thought a candidate was, not everyone works out. Give them everything they need to succeed and if they cannot, cut the cord. --- ## CEO Massive PR Brook Zimmatore: Lessons on Online Reputation Management URL: https://futuresharks.com/ceo-massive-pr-brook-zimmatore-lessons-on-online-reputation-management/ Ever wish you could just make online attacks go away permanently? Brook Zimmatore is no stranger to boardrooms ripe with tension from an online reputation hit. As CEO of Massive PR, Zimmatore oversees a team of 36 professionals that provide online reputation management to mid to large companies, including Fortune 500. A person, group or competitor who wants to damage your online reputation can easily exploit your image using the hundreds of free publication platforms. A thirty-second video on Youtube, or the misconstruing of your words on a blog post or news website to even going as far as creating hate sites around the brand can result in thousands, if not millions of dollars in damage to a company’s wallet. To discover how to handle some of the common issues regarding online reputation management, I interviewed Brook Zimmatore. ## Fahad Mohammed: In this internet day and age companies seem to have full external visibility. Corporate privacy is almost a non-existent concept; How do you suggest companies protect their online reputation? **Brook Zimmatore:**Yes, we all want to protect our internal dealings from being broadcasted online but the first mindset should be that anything done in the workplace, with consumers, vendors and partners can all eventually wind up online. If you think with this, you can implement the necessary policies internally to avoid the majority of online reputation attacks. ## Fahad Mohammed: Massive PR deals with banks, airlines, tech companies and many others. What do you first suggest these companies do to be proactive in online reputation management? **Brook Zimmatore:** As the veil between corporate activities and online reputation becomes thinner and thinner the first thing we suggest is to fully dominate your “online real estate” with the pre-decided brand position you want the public to see. It’s really quite simple: 1. Define for yourself what your public image should be. Never waiver from this. 2. Build a story around this image and push it everywhere using every available domain, media resource, publication and social platform. 3. Be consistent. 4. Before you put out a public message, be considerate of what people can experience. 5. Never lie or deceive. Stay honest in all communication as violating this will be the biggest reputation destroyer. 6. Hold a tight line on all external communications, customer support and revenue channels. 7. The most volatile upsets occur in billing deception. Keep your deliverables and invoicing transparent and clean. ## ## Fahad Mohammed: What are common misconceptions about managing your reputation online? **Brook Zimmatore:** The most common misconceptions in online reputation management is that you will never have a problem in the first place. Keeping your head low and stay off the radar. Google has proven time and time again that the dirt always seeps its way on to the internet. So, the policies of online reputation management are simply: 1. The “nothing bad will ever happen to me” attitude is a path to reputation hell. If you don’t control the online narrative someone else will. 2. Using cheap or quick reputation management tricks won’t work. Trying to suppress defamation or bad reviews with cheap publications of no value will never work in the long run. You must use legitimate platforms or media services and provide value to internet users for a strong online presence. 3. Reputation management is cheap compared to the damage being prevented. Most online reputation management issues can be solved by your own marketing teams or vendor. Search, “best websites for DIY reputation management” and you will find hundreds of free resources to start fortifying your online brand. ## Fahad Mohammed: The common saying “Any publicity is good publicity,” How much validity is there to that statement? **Brook Zimmatore:**This statement holds true, based on many analytics reports from expert PR’s. It may seem that public humiliation, bad press, howling bloggers or journalists would hurt your business. For small businesses, it can take its toll and if there is a lack of persistence owners can usually cave, but not from revenue loss––from giving up. The truth is, online attacks are viewed 50x bigger by you than anyone else. But, of course they would, it is a direct attack on you and it can get very personal. But the overriding rule of PR is that it works on name impressions, the number of mentions, the amount of times you hear a brand’s name. You have to see it to believe it. Look at Uber. The company has had endless growth going from a 42B valuation in 2015 to a 68B valuation in 2017, despite endless media smears and attacks. ## Fahad Mohammed: Which brands do you find are doing a good job of managing their online reputation? **Brook Zimmatore:**There are thousands of amazing brands who effortlessly control their online reputation. Off the top of my head, I would say Lego, Wendy’s, Hallmark and American Express have great online reputation management models which should be studied and followed by any company, large or small. A quick analysis shows that they always respond to consumers via every communication channel. They flood the internet with constant news on themselves (controlling the narrative as per above). We see humor and wit on their social media platforms and company blogs – people want to be entertained and it creates a “feel good” sensation associated with the brand name. And most importantly, these brands maintain high integrity of services. ## Fahad Mohammed: Are there any final words you would like to share with our readers? **Brook Zimmatore:**Online reputation management cases always have two sides. Our clients always have to discipline themselves to look at their responsibility behind any online attack. Where there is smoke there is fire. A good company with strong integrity will implement the necessary changes to avoid continued online reputation damage. Massive PR’s programs will include proactive measures to make these changes, whether it be in communication, technology or training and we have seen hundreds of great company leaders take this to heart and use these attacks as an opportunity to improve. --- ## MEET THE DIGITAL STRATEGIST THAT BECAME LIVING PROOF OF HIS OWN CONCEPTS URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-the-digital-strategist-that-became-living-proof-of-his-own-concepts/ Devan Anderson is a digital marketing strategist & Men’s Style Personality from Oakland, CA who has combined his creative talent for Photoshop & design to amass a growing 6-figure following. He is a sought-after consultant most widely known as DevanOnDeck.   Additionally he is an Art Director, Digital Marketing Coach, and Co-Founder of MyClo Company. With just one look at Devan’s Instagram you can see his incredibly engaging aesthetic. His posts are insightful and to the point. He shares simple, yet effective strategies to his audience on the daily. In this Future Sharks article I interview Devan to learn how he has become living proof of his own digital concepts. This article is filled with actionable information and I encourage you to follow through with his suggestions. If you do, you will see an upgrade in your brand through social media. Devan is an entrepreneur who is leaving normal behind becoming the best version of himself, and creating things that matter. ## Here is our interview below … ### What are some of your hobbies: Watching Anime ### What is your favorite quote? “If anyone who looks like you ever made it, you have no excuse” —Unknown ### What are you working on? I’m currently focusing my attention on developing educational materials for my various Youtube series, as well as continuing to build my businesses. My primary focus is to grow smaller and larger at the same time. As my collective audience continues to expand in the digital space, I’m creating more opportunities to impact people in real life through speaking, curating panels and hosting events. ### How did you come up with this idea? As a thriving independent artist, freelancer, and small business owner I’ve encountered (and still encounter) my share of obstacles while building the momentum I have now. And because much of my life is visible on social media, people reach out seeking guidance daily. As these inquiries came in, I began to notice that I kept answering the same type of questions over and over again. Clearly I needed a place for this information to perpetually live, so I can help people solve their problems at scale. Youtube was the obvious solution. Now I give away much of my best advice for free; everything from men’s style hacks, content creation tutorials & digital strategy tips… All the things I wish I had when I started my journey. ### It seems like you have a heart for helping the little guy. Does giving away your best digital marketing advice create a conflict of interest with your consulting business? No, not at all. In fact it’s has the opposite effect. Today’s consumer is very informed; with access to the same information as most marketing professionals, many of whom are not their own living-breathing proof of concept. On the flipside, many social media influencers don’t want to share their knowledge; it’s a widely known expectation. My approach immediately breaks that mold. I openly teach skills and hacks as I learn them; leaving my personal social media out in the open to be analyzed along the way. I deliver timely information in a very clear and efficient way and in a context that is culturally relevant to my subject matter. I’m an influencer who’s confident with his secrets to success. For potential clients, my Youtube serves as a gateway. If I’m giving this much valuable information for free, then how much more would a personalized content marketing strategy benefit them? ### Wait, so you’re both an influencer and a marketing coach? How does that work? I started in 2013 as a behind-the-scenes digital content creator for up and coming menswear fashion brands. That body of work lead to a position at a leading tech company in LA where I learned how compelling content, powered by strategy can drive revenue exponentially if done effectively. And at the same time working closely with high-level mens fashion labels and influencers— all while continuing to grow my personal brand on Instagram. So by the time I left, I possessed creative skill, strong storytelling abilities, and the capability to measure this all against alternating business goals— not to mention valuable relationships in both the Tech and Fashion industries. The next natural step was to become my own guinea pig; I knew this would give me proof of my abilities and an edge over the competition. In the year it took to increase my 25,000 follower base by over 300% I’d partnered with a variety of brands, both as the face of campaigns and creative direction & strategy behind the veil. ### That’s quite the origin story.  What was your biggest failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I’ve failed lots of times. The biggest mistake I made though, was avoiding failure. Until my 20’s I’d lived my entire life afraid to fail, and used other excuses to hide that truth from myself. It was crippling and hindered my growth as both a creative and a person. The first thing I learned is that failure sucks! The solution is to make sure you’re taking risks for something that you’re proud of. 100% conviction will embolden you to use failure as a stepping stone to get you to the next level. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have .. 1. Keep Like-Minds Around You. Iron sharpens iron. 2. Protect your dream and don’t share it with people that will discourage you (even out of love) 3. When it comes to digital. You’re never too old or too young to learn new skills, especially if you don’t have the budget to outsource labor. 4. Do what’s right for you, not what’s popular in the with entrepreneurs on social media. 5. There’s nothing in the world that will replace perseverance; not talent nor intelligence. You have to do the work. ### ### Teach us something about Instagram Marketing. What’s the key to an effective personal brand? First of all, personal brand goes far beyond digital. It’s how you carry yourself day-to-day, how to treat people who can presumably do nothing for you, and what action you take to build community face-to-face. Also, Instagram may not be the best avenue for, say, a writer who could have a much greater competitive advantage on Twitter. So choose the platform(s) that best fit your strengths *As far as Instagram goes, here’s*3 Rookie Mistakes To Avoid*:* 1 – ***Never post landscape content.*** it’s counterproductive on an app that only functions vertically. To maximize engagement you want to post in the portrait orientation (4×5 ratio) to maximize on-screen real estate. The more time it takes for someone to scroll past your content, the more time it has to grab their attention & that means more likes + comments for you. 2 – ***Have a focused theme to your page.*** It needs to be content that is consistent in color palette, subject matter, and brand voice. This is one of those Instagram secrets that many people miss. 3 – **Don’t ignore your (potential) audience.** Interact with your community by answering every comment and direct message. Then take it a step further and use the hashtag search to leave comments and likes on the pages of people that are interested in your brand or business. ### What have you built into your daily routine that gives you your edge? Daily I set aside time to intake something that inspires me. My go-to is Anime, but ranges from audiobooks, to interviews of people that I look up to. This one key helps trigger creative concepts and out-of-the-box approaches to storytelling. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? It’s crucial to learn to listen to your gut and be honest with yourself about your wants, needs and abilities. I see too much social media flexing in the place of actual work. I know it’s “cool” to say you pulled an all-nighter, but if you’re truly a morning person then you’re not working at your peak time. What sense does that make? ### What’s the next big trend in influencer marketing? Making predictions is tough, however I believe its been proven that influencer marketing goes above and beyond content, likes and short-term sales. Moving forward I think that influence will carry more weight than reach. As more of the industry looks at tastemakers from a quality perspective, its clear true ROI is in long term advocacy as opposed to a one-time partnerships. I’ve personally embraced that people will always value experiences and access over lazy product placement. The more we —the content creators and marketers— focus on true storytelling, the more successful we’ll at making impact on consumers. With that being said, the future of influencer marketing belongs to the Creator Class. As the space evolves becomes more saturated, it’s the individuals with skills that hold high market value that will be on top. As consumer taste-levels rise and campaigns require a certain level of content creation experience, there will be more of a clear line drawn in the sand. ### What does ‘Leave Normal Behind’ mean to you? It’s mindset that anyone can embrace. It’s refusing to be average and blazing your own trail. ### What are your social accounts for us to follow ? For sure! Here are my social media profiles: Instagram Youtube Twitter ______ Devan is a Future Shark who is leaving normal behind. He has implemented his own concepts in order to prove their legitimate effectiveness. SHOW and then TELL. Before you start telling others what to do, do the thing FIRST! This gives you so much more leverage and confidence because it is tested and proven. I appreciate how Devan uses the same strategies that he teaches. This is the best sign of someone who knows what they are talking about. Be aware of how they utilize their own strategies and if they are seeing success. If you or anyone you know deserves to be interviewed email me rob@leavenormalbehind.com --- ## 7 Must Have Tech Products for Influencers on Social Media URL: https://futuresharks.com/7-must-have-tech-products-for-influencers-on-social-media/ Everyone with a smartphone can be an influencer, or so the thinking goes. But with just a few relatively inexpensive accessories the amateur influencer can up his or her game and produce content at a much higher level of quality. Here are seven of the best gadgets for influencers as recommended by the pros. ## 1. Flux Charger Plus ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/Flux-Use-Cases-2.jpg) The Flux Portable Charger is one of the slimmest power banks out there. With built-in cables for both Android and iPhone, this nifty gadget can help you power your phone if you are taking a lot of videos, snapping pics or instagramming throughout the day. Even more, with the Flux Charger Plus you can power up your USB-C laptop as well. *“What I love about the Flux Charger Plus is that I can carry it anywhere and it will power up my phone throughout an entire day of shooting. It is easily one of the best purchases I’ve made.”* – Goubran Bahou, creator of Goubtube with 1.5M likes on Facebook. ## 2. Tenba Reload Universal Card Wallet A big problem for professional photographers and video creators is the amount of items they have to carry (lenses, cameras, mics, memories). With the Reload Universal Card Wallet from Tenba, you will never lose your valuable memory again. *“This is my secret favorite piece of equipment…because I never lose a memory card this way.”* – DRock, videographer for Gary Vaynerchuk. ## 3. Blue Yeti USB Mic If podcasts and interviews are your main area of focus, then the Blue Yeti‘s THX-certified sound quality, integrated gain control, and four recording modes (including stereo) make it a top choice for a USB microphone. *“I’m in love with my Blue Yeti microphone. Every time I interview someone for a podcast or a webinar, I use the Yeti to record high-fidelity sounds. Lately I have been using it with Google drive to speak-text many of my articles.”* – Nicole Coppinger, co-founder of interviews site [Future Sharks](http://futuresharks.com). ## 4. Rode Shotgun Mic The Shotgun Mic created by Rode is a unique solution for intermediate to pro audio shooters that enhances the quality of audio to the next level. It’s surprising that there aren’t more mics like this one, offering an all-in-one shock mount/mic design. *“I’m a big fan of the Rode Shotgun mic. Audio quality is great and it only picks up what is directly in front — background noise is greatly reduced. Highly recommend for skits, vlogs, and any video where you talk to the camera.”* – Markian Benhamou, also known as “the Smiling Redhead,” a Facebook influencer with over 750k followers. *“The audio quality of my raps improved dramatically once I bought this directional mic”* – Alejandro Rioja, creator of Young Slacker, a Snap account with close to 100k views. ## 5. DJI Osmo Mobile 2 If you do vlogs or snaps, the DJI Osmo mount will allow you to shoot better and more stable videos. Having a still picture will make amateur videos look like they were shot at a professional studio. *“I couldn’t live without my DJI Osmo, it allows me to shoot videos at a much higher quality and production value. My followers appreciate this.”* – Brookelyn, UK sensation and Facebook influencer with billions of views. ## 6. BeastGrip Pro The BeastGrip Pro is a resizable handheld cage with a 37mm lens mount and comes with macro, wide-angle and fisheye lenses. It isn’t something that you would carry all day given its monstrous size, but it allows you to take stabilized videos to a whole new level. *“There is no excuse to have anything less than a BEASTgrip on your camera. A BEASTgrip for some BEAST content. The takes that I am able to do are realistic and are one of the best shots I’ve ever taken.”*– Miles Anthony, viral video creator and founder of Poos Caboose and The Crypto Times. ## 7. Lume Cube The Lume Cube is a small but very powerful LED light source that will power up your photo or video needs. Fitting 1,500 lumens in a 1.5″ cube design, the Lume Cube is small enough to put several units in your pocket and use when needed. You can also control the lights with your phone. *“I first heard of the Lume Cube when I backed them on Kickstarter. Have been using the little cubes ever since. The very small body of the Lume Cube makes it a very valuable and easy-to-carry item that I always keep in my bag for any impromptu shots”* – Markus Jelso, professional photographer for ecommerce brands and partner at TheInsuranceNerd. --- ## Donny Smith Shares His Experiences as an Immigration Attorney URL: https://futuresharks.com/donny-smith/ As an international entrepreneur myself, I try to keep up with the latest news regarding visas like H1B, O1, E2 and others. I figured that the best way to understand the immigration system was to network with attorneys that work in this field. This led me to meeting Donny Smith from Litwin & Smith a few months ago. In this interview he shares his views on immigration, visas and more. ### Great having you on Future Sharks, Donny. Please introduce yourself to the community! I am a 2nd generation law graduate and future attorney/associate/partner of the firm. I am responsible for learning the trade and assisting with the management of the firm’s marketing campaigns. This includes the firm’s social media accounts, website, and advertising. I enjoy working on solutions to complex problems and I am always looking for the little bit of improvement that can take things to the next level. ### Why did you decide to go to law school? What motivated you? As a child I became aware that the fundamental difference among men is there are those that “have” and those that “have not.” Those that “have” created a system that enables them to preserve what they have to the detriment of those that “have not.” The law is the best means of giving the “have nots” a shot of “having.” This has been proven over time as minorities have entered the legal profession, so has their access to fundamental freedoms and participation in the political process. As an immigration attorney, I help underrepresented professionals enter the US thereby enabling others to benefit from greater representation in the political landscape. Thus, I was motivated to enter the legal profession to enable those that do not presently have a voice to speak for those that cannot be heard. ### What excites you the most when working with immigration issues? I’m changing the makeup of America. Immigrants are the engine of economic development. However, quite a bit of fearmongering takes place at their expense. I believe that this is due to a lack of familiarity. One of my favorite quotes is “Is a tiger fierce because it is, or because we believe it to be so?” This is the nature of the immigration debate. Many Americans dislike immigrants because they have a predetermined opinion that immigrants are bad for them and this country. However, many of the people that I have talked to that are anti-immigration will change their opinion when they find out that a friend is an immigrant. This was proven when Trump began deporting students. At first there was wide acclaim for the policy, but eventually the common opinion was that he shouldn’t deport “the good ones.” Many small town Americans are more than happy to be anti-immigrant until they realize the consequences of that stance. ### What do you think about Trump’s policies on immigration? Trump’s policies are invocative of the immigration policies of the 1920’s where Western European whites were preferred over all other races and Asians were outright banned. Just look at The Johnson-Reed Act our first foray into merit based immigration. ### Do you have a personal anecdote you wish to share? There is always a solution. Even if it’s one that you do not like. ### To end it, what advice would you give to a young lawyer that just started practicing? Volunteer and find out what the job is really like. Many of the students I went to school with thought that the legal profession was like a TV show. Many were surprised with all of the technical reading that is involved. More so, many students become disenchanted over time because there are no easy solutions and justice eludes many people. — If you are looking for immigration and non-immigration visas contact Donny Smith at LitwinLaw.com. --- ## Swifte partners with Waze Carpool to Take Over the California RideShare Market URL: https://futuresharks.com/swifte-waze/ Today, we have Justine Avoudikpon from Swifte Carpool. I actually met her when I used her ridesharing app to ride from LA to SF and she was the driver that I got matched with. In the ~6 hours that took us to get from UCLA to the Bay, she told me more about her app and I was thrilled to see her progress. This interview was a natural extension of that interaction. ### Hi Justine, what is Swifte? SWIFTE is a ridesharing app that puts drivers with cars going from A to B in touch with riders who want to be dropped off along the way or at the same destination. *80% of Americans drive alone, we have a lot of drivers with extra space and too many cars on the road.* SWIFTE is transforming the way university students and the community carpools by creating a social platform for users to SHARE the ride, SPLIT the cost, and SAVE the environment. ### How long have you been working on it? We have been working on it for a 2 years and participated in the UCLA Summer Accelerator in 2017.  ### How did you grow your app and users? We were able to engage users with our swifte blogs and ownership of over 90 university ridesharing pages on Facebook, one of those being the UCLA rideshare group. ### What has been your favorite moment so far? Favorite moment thus far is our Swifte + Waze Launch last week. ### How did the collaboration between Swifte and Waze come about? During the accelerator, Swifte was able to acquire two other carpooling startups in california and texas to join the Swifte team. After the accelerator, we continued to make consistent growth every month and recently landed a co-marketing partnership with Google’s new transportation app called Waze Carpool. ### ### I know you have some sweet offers for our readers, what are those? Anyone that installs Waze Carpool can get 2 free rides using the code **SWIFTE107**. WHY USE THE SWIFTE CODE:  the code will give a second ride free (riders) OR a driver bonus (drivers). Second ride free is great because it means the new user gets a WHOLE COMMUTE (to and from school) for free! ### How can riders sign up? It just takes 3 easy steps: - Step 1: Download Waze Carpool (iOS / Android) - Step 2: In the app, tap **Request ride** & select the days you want to carpool - Step 3: Relax in the passenger seat…commuting just got easier *Note: The process is similar for drivers. Download here:*(iOS / Android) Users can get rides for as low as $2, and drivers can get $30 for each new referral. ### To close it off: A lot of our readers are budding female entrepreneurs, what is some advice you would like to share? Startups are hard, and you can NOT half a** it. Unless you are 100% passionate about an idea and are willing to commit 100+ hours a week to making it come to reality, then maybe this isn’t for you.  Bring on board people with the same passion, don’t be afraid to hold them to higher standards, and quickly let go the ones that aren’t performing. Keep up with Swifte and their updates @GetSwifte on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. --- ## MEDICINETS a Global Information Health System to close the gap between doctors and patients URL: https://futuresharks.com/medicinets-carlos-barrera/ **Interviewee:** Carlos Barrera **City where you’re from:** Barranquilla **Hobbies:**Music, Triathlon, Photography, Writing, reading. **Favorite quote:**If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are most probably right. **Social accounts** : Linkedin ## What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Carlos Barrera: I am currently working on a Global Health Information System (Cloud based) called MediciNets, the idea came after noticing how difficult was for doctors to administer their agenda, manage patient’s clinical history, request analysis, generate recipes, manage the medical insurance and have access to all that information in one place, making more time available to actually attend the patient, and improve the communication with them. As for the patient is a pain to find the right doctor, in terms of quality, distance from home or availability, and make appointments and have notifications about any change of schedule according to doctor agenda. ## How is your company different? Our company efforts to facilitate regular people’s life whether you are a doctor or a patient, our aim is to create innovative collaboration environments intended to ease a number of interactions with the purpose of saving valuable time and enrich your quality of life. ## What’s your dream with your company? Our company’s dream is to be the health information system most used around the globe, and become a valuable tool for doctors and patients in order to organize their lives. ## How do you creatively advertise? Becoming a Doctor requires great responsibility, we want to help you on that duty, and be part of that journey, we are doctors and patient’s greatest partner. ## What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? My biggest failure has been procrastinating decisions based on other people’s opinion, is always good and necessary to listen to everyone, the feedback is a very important personal tool; nevertheless, if your instinct tells you to start something new or stop doing something you don’t enjoy anymore you should take immediate action and follow what you know you will be the best at. I biggest success was to become the CTIO of a big ICT company, I wanted that since I received my grade from the university and made everything to be in that position, I learned on every step of the path and now I am applying all that knowledge as Board Member and Co-founder in different startups. ## Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. If you have an idea, make sure you go completely for that idea, make a strategy, plan every step, and then execute it, become your own brand, and market it, on every conversation you may have. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself directing my own Tech company, making Tech a valuable tool to help people have a better life. --- ## Psychology Principles You Need To Grasp Before Marketing Your Startup URL: https://futuresharks.com/psychology-marketing-principles-for-your-startup/ What is marketing essentially about? People tend to focus on majestic designs, perfect SEO, great ads, amazing content, and the like. However, at the bottom of all this is the understanding of the human psyche. If you don’t understand how people, specifically consumers, tick, all your efforts won’t get the full grasp of what they are supposed to do. There’s no need to major in psychology in order to understand all the ways that you can attract the attention of your customers. You just need to grasp some vital psychology principles that are bound to have a significant effect on how marketing your startup pans out. In this article, we are going to discuss some of the important psychological tips and tricks that you need to apply in order to affect your customer base. ## Remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? If you’ve had psychology in high school or college, you certainly remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Basically, whenever someone is searching for something such as your product, they are doing so in order to fill out a deep psychological need. What you need to do is understand what that need is and how to use it to appeal to the consumer. You need to underline the basic psychological need that is behind every search for a particular product of yours. While it’s a fact that there are products that can meet more than one need, let’s keep it simple. Let’s say that you are selling organic food. Then the need is obviously psychological. If you are selling jewelry, the need is esteem. If it’s antivirus software for your customers’ PC, tablet, or phone, then the need is security. So, when you are marketing your product, focus on the tone, and use the words that suit the particular need. You can also use keyword research to find what people are asking about your products. This is how you can easily determine what the intent behind the potential customer’s search is. Then, all you need to do is connect the questions with particular product features. ## The strength of your identity and brand One of the most important cards that you need to play when it comes to your customers is trust. And in order to do that, you need to have a strong brand and identity that people can relate to and put their faith in. In order to have that, you need to really understand who and what you are as a business. It is crucial that you formulate your brand right away because it is going to affect your design, communication, marketing, etc. The way that people connect with brands is quite similar to the way that they connect with other people. If your brand is inconsistent, people aren’t really going to see you as reliable. The main elements that drive your brand are: - Mission - Vision - Product - Goals - Target audience - Employee perception Instead of paying for branding, focus on the questions you want to have answered. Ask yourself as well as your employees: - Why are you in this business? - What is it that we do as a business? - Who are our customers? - Who is our greatest competition? - What will our company be in 5 years? - What is our company’s culture? Start with these questions to have everyone on the same page, and define what your brand really is. ## Make what you claim believable through repetition People are actually quite easily persuaded if you keep repeating your claim long enough. When you define what your message is, it needs to be heard as much as possible, and in the result, it will be more believable. This is what web developers refer to as the illusion of truth. The fact about this method is that it works the best when the user’s attention span is low. The average span is 8 seconds, so you need to do your best to repeat the benefits just enough on your product page. First, you need to determine what the benefit of your product is. It shouldn’t be a hard thing to do, and the best idea is to go for the most obvious one. Then, you should repeat the benefit(s) throughout the page’s layout 3 to 5 times. The fact is that users scan the page before they delve into its content, so it is crucial that the benefit is underlined in the headline, introduction, subheads, bullet points, and the conclusion. ## Impact the customers’ subconscious with sensory words This has nothing to do with fancy adjectives like high-quality, state-of-the-art, and the like. Sensory words are in fact those that depict and incite a particular feeling. You need to be aware that our subconscious creates a database of sensory data that it receives (such as smell, taste, sound, sight, and touch). When the brain has this information, it activates the specific sensory areas. What you should do is open up Microsoft Excel and create a table where you are going to input sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell into headers. Then take a good look at what kind of sensory properties your product has. Don’t take too long, because it’s not concrete if you can’t imagine it right away. In order to truly appeal to your customer base, you simply have to grasp some essential principles of psychology. It’s all about understanding the psyche of the consumer, and then using specific techniques to attract them to your product. Every startup needs to be aware of this because it lies at the core of successful marketing. --- ## Dylan Nunn And His Company Metta Creative Have Sparked An Industry Movement for Environmental Preservation By Partying With Purpose URL: https://futuresharks.com/dylan-nunn-and-his-company-metta-creative-have-sparked-an-industry-movement-for-environmental-preservation-by-partying-with-purpose/ Dylan Nunn is a purpose-driven millennial with a love for hospitality and a passion for environmental preservation. He is the founder of Mettā Creative, a community and events hub. Mettā Creative’s mission is to inspire purpose-driven millennials to act and live more sustainably through social-impact nightlife and #PartyWithPurpose.   Dylan has the unique skillset and network roladex to curate Both of Dylan’s parents are well traveled Cultural Anthropologists, that have helped him develop a keen sense for social facilitation, most likely influenced by his eclectic childhood. His experience in the events industry comes from working as a banquet server and bartender for notable events like Presidential Inaugurations, international summits, and exclusive private dinners. Partying just like any other college student, he felt generally powerless and socially unfulfilled after leaving college. After recognizing how empty the typical nightlife is around most campuses, he understood the need to create a social change among the largest generation in America: millennials. I had the pleasure of spending time with Dylan for his Future Sharks interview because he is leaving normal behind, becoming the best version of himself, and creating things that matter. ### Here we go … _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ### Where are you from? I was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya until the age of six when my family and I moved to the Washington D.C., area where I currently reside at the **Fern Place**, a social-incubator, Mettā Hub and AirBnB verified **“Super Host”** location also know as…my house. ### What are some of your hobbies? Staying active, present and appreciating the opportunities I have. In particular, swimming and running are some of my favorite hobbies – they really help me clear my mind and help me feel free and limitless to movement and capability. Other hobbies of mine include cooking, live music, and just getting connected with the community as much as possible. My hobbies often relate to outdoor activities because we spend time and energy educating our market on how important nature is that it only amplifies our appreciation of it. ### What is your favorite quote? I’m not sure who I heard this from but something I’ve always re-visited being involved in the service industry: “You never know who’s going to walk through the door.” Especially in the events industry – if you’re in the right place at the right time you can frequently find an opportunity to improve your current situation by creating authentic connections with the people you encounter. And the way best way to increase your chances is seeking out more opportunities and gatherings, so that sooner or later you will meet someone who may very well change your life. *(2016 Georgetown Law Reunion)* And all you have to do is just show up! To give you some context: I’ve been lucky enough to have met among others: George Clooney, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, and President Obama and his family. I received all of this opportunities through networking and bartending. These experiences profoundly influenced my way of thinking about community gatherings, in which we have the opportunity to support the development of all our own personal journeys, and those of others. ### What are you working on? **Society is changing rapidly** and our technology is advancing exponentially. We can connect with friends internationally, eat the planets most exotic foods domestically for the first time ever, and perform hand-held research on virtually any topic within seconds. **Yet in the midst of our advancements**, Earth is under great stress from humans everyday habits of high-consumption AND low-awareness. Giving back is not easily accessible to all young people, and may seem like a waste of time because they think it’s too late or their voice does not matter. So what I’m focused on now is facilitating connections between existing community groups and forward-thinking organizations, by curating experiences that benefit the human condition, the environment, and the community. I do this through Metta Creative: Metta Creative**(**www.mettacreative.world**)**is a benefit organization that brings together a network of purpose-driven Millennial’s and forward thinking companies working together through nightlife events to inspire other Millennial’s (and anyone!) to act and live more sustainable. We encourage party-goers to #PartyWithPurpose. *(Artist At Metta Club Event)* Anyone can throw a party for the environment, so that’s not really the point. The carefully curated experiences we create are the comfortable and artistic meeting grounds for forward thinking folks to come together, have a good time, and get connected. Metta Creative is becoming the glue, the collective, the creative network, that will connect individuals and organizations that share our core values of balance, creativity and environmental preservation. ### How did you come up with this idea? After college a group of us felt very unfulfilled with the typical nightlife scene; after a night of drinking and partying we would wake up the next morning feeling socially/globally unfulfilled. So we asked ourselves – **why**? When we started dissecting the reasons people go out, we discovered the key missing element. That element was a greater purpose – specifically it was bringing more attention to the “**blue-light pandemic**” that’s affecting the nation. The blue-colored screens of social media TOOLS that have led us, knowingly or not, into further separation from our friends and family, allowing all of us, really, to potentially get trapped inside of our own heads, in our own rooms. We become transfixed to our screens that we lose touch with each other. We become… disconnected. We’re finding that many Millennials – especially in this tense political climate – are having difficulty trusting in traditional nonprofits and social organizations. We’ve found that many who give money to these humanitarian causes are questioning the legitimacy of where the money goes. Millennial’s need more transparent mediums to prove that their time, money, and attention are contributing to a larger collective benefit. ### How is your company different? Unlike many other nightlife-activities popular out in the market, Mettā Creative experiences enrich the minds of those who attend, leaving them feeling fulfilled, connected and part of something more important. Mettā Creative fosters the **connection**, and facilitates the **support** of a purpose-driven, environmentally-conscious community by curating artistic, fulfilling, and interactive events open to the public, that encourage freedom of expression and the promotion of personal ventures and projects that align with our shared mission and core-values. Mettā Creative works to solve the social issue of fading human interaction while sparking an interest in environmental preservation in a fun and interactive way. *(Artist at Metta Club Event)* During each event experience, we make a conscious efforts to create awareness of our **footprint**. For example, we partner with companies like Naeco to serve our attendees with plant-based, disposable cups and plates. My work in the service industry has introduced me to the fact that so many people are not even aware that these ecologically sound products exist. This past year we threw events benefiting environmentally-focused organizations in Washington DC, New York City, Boston, and internationally in Melbourne Australia and San Pedro, Belize. And we’re looking for more connections with anyone who understands this mission and is willing to help. ### What’s your dream with your company? Success looks like an inter-global, self-sustaining network/platform for collaboration, acceleration, creation, and entertainment based on our core values of balance, creativity and environmental responsibility. We want to see the same kind of joy expressed by party-goers in the days after an experience, being shared daily on a global scale – to create the largest social-impact possible. By connecting individuals and organizations that are already thinking about sustainable solutions to our world’s problems, everyone begins to feel more empowered and connected in their own communities. Through **social-impact nightlife**, we aim to inspire and cultivate the next generation of Nikola Teslas, Elon Musks, and the Satoshi Nakamotos, from the largest generation on Earth: ***Millennials***. Eventually we would love to work with governments and cities to improve the lives of their residents, their relationships with their communities and the local tourism economy. We see our contribution to the area building a stronger community towards more sustainable thinking, which is a major topic of discussion between young adults these days. If we can bring in a diversity of opinions towards a common purpose of acting and living more sustainably we can work together with more creative individuals to develop actionable initiatives through events and gatherings of conscious intention. ### What makes you special? The **core innovation** and **value proposition** that sets our venture apart is the platform/network of purpose-driven Millennial’s that Mettā fosters. Coupled with our consistently unique, fulfilling nightlife experiences that connect attendees with environmentally-conscious organizations. We are value-driven and cost-driven: we source sustainably and still add immense value to the customer’s experience with repurposed art materials for each event for attendees to collaborate with. This costs very little, but is significant because of it’s intentional purpose. Mettā Creative is a medium through which creative, conscious impact flows. In order to keep taking steps in the right direction, we have to be able to continue to educate. Rediscovering the knowledge of a powerful…holistic life…allows us to discover a more conscious way of living that will enrich our bodies and minds, all the while sustaining the natural world around us. ### How do you creatively advertise? Our energy is contagious! When we get excited about something it catches on. Once people come to an event, they always come back to the next event. And they bring their friends! And that is the most important, best form of advertising we do. Apart from people looking forward to go to the next Mettā Event, we have the ability to effectively influence our peers to start moving in a more mindful directions using all the social media platforms. Apart from word-of-mouth and social media approaches, we spend a lot of time directly contacting organizations, clubs and communities, because those leaders have the ability to influence their hubs of intellectuals, movers and shakers, thinkers, etc.. that, once they are on board, we have successfully connected another ‘node’ in the Mettā Creative web, and we intentionally track those relationships with software that allows us to facilitate these connections with care. ### What’s one thing our readers can do today to get more involved with the sustainability trend? Start asking more questions that produce thought provoking answers - How are my clothes being made? - What happens to food waste when it’s not composted correctly? - Do I really need to buy that new? Or can I find a way to be more resourceful get what I need elsewhere? - How can I participate in impact travel when I visit new places? - How can I show those around me that my little purposeful actions are contagious? ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? Well the biggest failure that stands out was getting banned from college 5 days before graduating for running an edible marijuana bakery. The disappointment I caused my family and the feeling of losing what you put a lot of time and energy into is still hard to to get over. I want young business minds to learn that college teaches you the rules, but college doesn’t teach you how to bend the rules. However, the rules are there for a reason and if you’re not honest with yourself and your family, your ego will block the warning signs that life is trying to tell you. Ego and pride are dangerous attitudes that hinder presence and cloud decision making. I realize I was incredibly lucky that my parents were able to pay for a good lawyer to defend my actions. There are people in jail today for the same crimes I committed. I know that: The system is not fair. We all need to work together to get those people out of jail and **with** the right mentors. I now have a responsibility to mentor and advise anyone else who’s been prosecuted for a drug related offense. If you’re reading this and need some advice on getting back up and finding your purpose, please feel free to send me a note through my personal website (dylannunn.com). I always to have time for others that need advice and guidance in this matter. Through this experience I was able to step back and see the bigger picture, moving forward with the same entrepreneurial mindset and skills, now just applied – and this is very important – in a conscious direction. This passage from Ryan Holiday’s “Ego Is The Enemy” really sums it up: “Here we are experiencing the trials endemic to any journey. Perhaps we’ve failed, perhaps our goal turned out to be harder to achieve than anticipated. No one is permanently successful, and not everyone finds success on the first attempt. We all deal with setbacks along the way. Ego not only leaves us unprepared for the circumstances, it often contributed to their occurrence in the first place. The way through, the way to rise again, requires a reorientation and increased self-awareness. We don’t need pity- our own or anyone else’s- we need purpose, poise, and patience “\ One of my happiest successes last year was realizing that we are all capable of bringing people together for a purpose. That you can make a difference even in a community that your visiting just for a couple days. Specifically, when I was In San Pedro, Belize, influencing diverse travelers and communities to raise money for Marine life, felt really natural and urgent. By just bringing people together we mobilized the community to help clean up the beach, talk about conservation and accomplished a successful fundraiser all in the span of 3 days. This helped me actualize the process of building the Metta mission into a workable model that incentive’s others to organize similar events in their local communities, and all over the world! ### What is the best entrepreneurship advice you can share with our readers? “Ask and you shall receive!” It’s quite simple. Clearly define your true desires in a vivid, actionable way, then write down the steps needed to get there…and then start moving!! ### What is your morning routine? Morning routines have been something that I’ve been really focusing on lately. My formula: 1. Put phone on airplane mode across the room next to a full cup of water. 2. When the alarm goes off, quickly get out of bed, and hit the snooze button, then have 10 minutes to do exercises that let my body naturally start to move around and get the blood flowing. 3. At the second alarm, drink that cup of water, make my bed and open the blinds to let as much light flow into my room as possible (light helps wake us up!) . 4. Next it’s time to 5 minute journal, inspired by Tim Ferris , this is the time to start the day with some gratitude, and something already checked off my to do list 🙂 5. Lastly, take your phone off airplane mode when your ready to respond to who’s asking for your attention. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Food waste is an immoral problem! In the United States, we throw away 40% of the food we produce, and the food not composted causes immense amount of methane in landfills, which is more of an ozone killer than CO2. ### What do you think you do better than most people? I am fortunate enough to be in tune with myself and my surroundings, sensing emotional shifts in a room of people, but I’m also very good at using my enthusiastic, go-getter attitude to connect and help inspire and educate those around me. ### What is the most practical and actionable framework you can share for other Future Sharks to use in their daily life? Live with intention. Save some time in your day that’s just for you. You deserve it. We can’t serve others (or run a business well) without taking some time to treat and take care of ourselves and our personal needs. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? The best advice that I give ( but have the hardest time actually following through with), is to focus on one thing at a time, and do it well. It can be stressful managing how much time you allocate to each endeavor, but if we give each task our full attention, it becomes more valuable. Use twenty five minute time blocks to compete with yourself and measure how much you can get done. ### What holds most entrepreneurs back and how can they get through it? Entrepreneurs often get attached to an idea or concept and spend eternity seeking to fulfill that initial vision. If we can remember to stay true to finding the solution, we remember how crucial it is for continuous customer discovery and through testing, measuring and testing again how to solve the problem. All of this, of course, has to be done with true grit, a desire to achieve, and the willingness to shift and pivot as necessary. Most importantly, to **“Eat That Frog”** (by Brian Tracy) to find the most important, hardest, scariest, most difficult thing that we want to do, and take the first step. That could be briefly skimming the assignment, or putting on your old tennis shoes and taking a light stroll in the park. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? - **“How Soon Is Now”**-Daniel Pinchbeck. We have unleashed a mega-crisis threatening the future of life on Earth. The actions we take over the next decade are critical. They will determine the destiny of our descendants and the fate of our world. - **“Expert Secrets” ;**Brunson’s ability to explain in the simplest of ways the how, what and why of influence marketing, and the importance of storytelling.  (The guy literally ships a free book out to you all you have to do is pay for shipping because he knows you’ll end up buying in to his vision later on down the road). ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself still very involved with Metta Creative, as it is near and dear to my heart. I see Metta being able to inspire people all over the world to live sustainably and feel empowered to belong in their own communities and create positive change. I see us developing strong international relationships with socially-responsible, environmentally-conscious organizations & international Metta venues, while organizing and supporting impactful organizations and environmental projects all over the world. ### What do the words ‘Leave Normal Behind’ mean to you? Almost everyone feels instant gratification from spontaneously donating to a cause, but rarely a sense of *purpose*. Unfortunately, ‘normal’ in our society is conforming to a lifestyle influenced by greed, fueled by a sense of insecurity. Purpose is something our generation very actively seeks. We’ve found that the most valued aspects of life are community relationships, physical health and mental clarity. With each event we host, we see more and more how desperately people want this service and crave an opportunity to collaborate proactively with the community in a fun way. So leaving normal behind is tapping into community relationships to support physical health and mental clarity of those we encounter, and make a conscious effort doing so. ### What are your social accounts and website for us to follow? You can visit our website here: Metta Creative Also, all of our social accounts are : @MettaMakers Instagram Facebook Twitter Personal Instagram Check out this Metta event ! **Classic Metta event**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw4mlY-XzAM _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Dylan is an inspiring millennial entrepreneur who has bridged the worlds of entertainment, purpose, and sustainability. Live your life with intention and go after what you want. If you or anyone you know is leaving normal behind and deserves to be interviewed by me then email me at rob@leavenormalbehind.com --- ## 9 Negotiation Tactics You Should Rarely Use URL: https://futuresharks.com/9-negotiation-tactics-rarely-use/ Some negotiators seem to believe that hard-bargaining tactics are the key to success. They use threats, demands, and a tone of voice that aims to belittle their counterpart. In fact, negotiators who fall back on hard-bargaining strategies in negotiation are typically betraying a lack of understanding about the gains that can be achieved in most business negotiations. When negotiators resort to hard-bargaining tactics, they convey that they view negotiation as a win-lose enterprise. A small percentage of business negotiations that concern only one issue, such as price, can indeed be viewed as win-lose negotiations, or distributive negotiations. Much more commonly, however, business negotiations involve multiple issues. As a result, these so-called integrative negotiations give parties the potential to create win-win outcomes, or mutually beneficial agreements. Business negotiators can negotiate by brainstorming creative solutions, identifying differences in preferences that can be ripe for tradeoffs, and building trust. Unfortunately, when parties resort to hard-bargaining tactics in negotiations with integrative potential, they risk missing out on these benefits. Because negotiators tend to respond in the way they are treated, one party’s negotiation hardball tactics can create a vicious cycle of threats, demands, and other hardball strategies. This pattern can create a hard-bargaining negotiation that easily deteriorates into impasse, distrust, or a deal that’s subpar for everyone involved. ### 9 negotiation tactics we are not too fond of To prevent your negotiation from disintegrating into hard-bargaining tactics, you first need to make a commitment not to engage in these tactics yourself. Remember that there are typically better ways of meeting your goals, such as building trust, asking lots of questions, and exploring differences. Next, you need to prepare for your counterpart’s hard-bargaining tactics. To do so, you first will have to be able to identify them. In their book Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes, Robert Mnookin, Scott Peppet, and Andrew Tulumello offer advice to avoid being caught off-guard by hard bargainers. The better prepared we are for hard-bargaining strategies in negotiation, the better able we will be to defuse them. 1. **Extreme demands followed up by small, slow concessions.** Perhaps the most common of all hard-bargaining tactics, this one protects dealmakers from making concessions too quickly. However, it can keep parties from making a deal and unnecessarily drag out business negotiations. To head off this tactic, have a clear sense of your own goals, *best alternative to a negotiated agreement* (BATNA), and bottom line – and don’t be rattled by an aggressive opponent. 2. **Commitment tactics.**Your opponent may say that his hands are tied or that he has only limited discretion to negotiate with you. Do what you can to find out if these commitment tactics are genuine. You may find that you need to negotiate with someone who has greater authority to do business with you. 3. **Take-it-or-leave-it negotiation strategy.**Offers should rarely be nonnegotiable. To defuse this hard-bargaining tactic, try ignoring it and focus on the content of the offer instead, then make a counter-offer that meets both parties’ needs. 4. **Inviting unreciprocated offers.**When you make an offer, you may find that your counterpart asks you to make a concession before making a counteroffer herself. Don’t bid against yourself by reducing your demands; instead, indicate that you are waiting for a counteroffer. 5. **Trying to make you flinch.**Sometimes you may find that your opponent keeps making greater and greater demands, waiting for you to reach your breaking point and concede. Name the hard-bargaining tactic and clarify that you will only engage in a reciprocal exchange of offers. 6. **Personal insults and feather ruffling.**Personal attacks can feed on your insecurities and make you vulnerable. Take a break if you feel yourself getting flustered, and let the other party know that you won’t tolerate insults and other cheap ploys. 7. **Bluffing, puffing, and lying.**Exaggerating and misrepresenting facts can throw you off guard. Be skeptical about claims that seem too good to be true and investigate them closely. 8. **Threats and warnings.**Want to know how to deal with threats? The first step is recognizing threats and oblique warnings as the hard-bargaining tactics they are. Ignoring a threat and naming a threat can be two effective strategies for defusing them. 9. **Belittling your alternatives.**The other party might try to make you cave in by belittling your BATNA. Don’t let her shake your resolve. **Have you used any of these negotiation tactics? Did they work? Let us know in the comments!** --- ## How Ex-Snapchat Employee Turned A Perfect Storm Into An Opportunity To Succeed URL: https://futuresharks.com/devanondeck/ Devan(@DevanOnDeck) was one of the first employees of Snapchat, specifically on the Content team— specialized in local Los Angeles coverage as well as Fashion. Throughout his time there he learned a ton! Most notably how tech and creative can support business goals and drive revenue through effective storytelling. As a freelance Art Director, he has always known that at a high level, but his  time at Snap allowed him to get a granular view of things. Every ounce of time outside of work was used to build his personal brand via Instagram and construct a body of work. **After about a year and a half of building relationships with fashion retailers, style influencers & tech wizards, he acquired the final piece to his professional acumen to make the leap. As a result of a department closure, he left Snap as a self-reliant content producer, digital strategist and story teller; with proofs of concept to boot.** He is currently thriving as a Style Influencer with the ability to both effectively communicate and teach how to use digital means to support business and career goals for just about anyone. The reason that he has clients from all walks of life—professional athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians, fashion retailers, etc— he is a practitioner in his craft and able to foresee trends before anyone else and give his clients new advice before anyone. Having worked with big brands like Cartier, Reebok, Acura and many more- Devan is on the forefront of everything social media. ### 1. Devan how did your journey start ? Did you always know you want to go into fashion ? It started around my senior year of high school; when I grew a thriving sneaker customization business from my parent’s garage. Next I enrolled into art school, where I studied men’s footwear design at a University level. ### 2. How did you land the opportunity to work at Snapchat ? What were 3 main lessons that experience has taught you ? I was referred by a close friend; an early engineering recruit who caught wind of the then-brand-new stories platform being developed. By that time I’d already dropped out of college and was a manager at sneaker store; moonlighting as a freelance digital marketer and creative director for emerging menswear brands.  I was totally caught of guard, because I had no idea that my skillset could be an asset at tech startup. Nonetheless, my portfolio landed me position on the Content Team, where I specialized in Men’s Fashion & local Los Angeles coverage. My time at Snap taught me a lot–– the 1st lesson being about myself. I was one of the first employees at the then-hottest tech company in the country, yet I could not shake fact that my ultimate purpose was to help build someone else’s dream. Since there was no immediate clear path to independence, I then focused on taking the University approach; embracing the level of the access I had to high-level fashion retailers, style influencers & tech wizards alike. After a year and a half of developing relationships and building my professional acumen, I left Snap as a self-reliant content producer, digital strategist and story teller; with proofs of concept to boot. None of that would not have been possible if I had not learned my 3rd lesson: to intentionally build my exit strategy. Getting into Snapchat was by accident, but leaving, I was prepared for. ### 3. Being an Influencer and having the opportunity to work with different brands, what are 3 things brands are getting wrong about marketing on social media and how can they fix that ? I’m pretty optimistic when it comes to this topic. There’s so much information available at our fingertips, social media marketing in the Consumer Goods space is becoming more and more savvy across the board. Every day there’s a new digital agency popping up to tackle a certain niche market. I love it, because that means less time spent educating my brand partners and more time helping them tell compelling stories. For some though, often legacy brands, the wheels of progress turn slowly. It’s hard to accept sudden change when the same tactics have been working for your business so well for decades. So when they dabble into influencer marketing for the first time it’s the same as it was with everyone in the early days: Expecting  maximum ROI in one-off partnerships, looking immediate sales when posts go live, and solely measuring results quantitatively. This is unrealistic, shortsighted and causes unnecessary pressure on all parties involved. As more of the industry looks at tastemakers from a quality perspective and focuses on true storytelling, the more successful we’ll at making impact on consumers. ### 4.You have foreseen trends before they have “popped”, with video content being king- how can people who are building their personal brand capitalize on this opportunity. Yes, in 2016 I noticed the video trend emerging on Instagram as they began to prioritize it on their platform. That mixed with the rising competitor Snapchat taking away market share for the mobile video space, I knew the wave was coming. I was the 1st Men’s Fashion personality on Instagram to delve heavily into imaginative video content, and I got a lot of attention as a result. > **The best way to utilize video to build your personal brand is to lean on your strengths. Find what comes to you naturally that can be utilized to strike an emotional nerve in your target audience. For me, my Art Directing experience gives me an advantage with creative animated effects in my videos.** Another way to think of social media is word-of-mouth at scale. The more emotion evoked from your content, the more sharable it becomes. In my case it’s the element of surprise; my audience know to expect something mind-blowing, just not exactly what it will be. ### 5.What are your 3 tips for someone looking to develop their brand on Instagram and crush it ? First, never post horizontally; always 1×1 ratio (square) or 4×5 (tall). The reason for this is simple: Instagram is a vertical app, where fullscreen works the opposite of traditional image viewing on a computer or television. More mobile screen real estate you cover, the more time it takes for a person to scroll past your content. The longer it takes them, the more likely they’ll stop and engage with it… then boom! More likes and comments. Next, you want to understand your competitive landscape. Searching relevant hashtags will give you great insight into what communities are thriving best on Instagram and what kind of content is working for them. Not only will you stay up to speed, you might discover what your niche is missing. Last but not least, convert your Instagram account into a business profile. With this you’ll get insights to your audience demographics as well as personalized daily peak posting times, depending on when your followers are online most. ### 6.Did having a non traditional background be a hindrance in working at a tech company ? What would be your advice for students or people who are currently in a similar position you were in ? Yes and no. The truth is tech was nowhere on my radar when the opportunity presented itself, so much so that I dismissed the possibility as soon as it was presented to me. It took my wife and close friend’s to convince me that this could be a life-changing experience. They were right. Sure I was a bit ahead of my time– producing marketing assets solely intended for social media before “digital content” was a buzzword– and documented all of my projects in my portfolio. But I still wasn’t thinking big enough! My advice to students on a creative path is do not put your passion in a box. There are so many uses of art across industries; some that don’t yet exist. Perfect your craft and trust the timing of your journey. ### 7.Your videos are really creative on Instagram- how much time do you dedicate to working on content ? Thank you. I typically spend two days per week shooting and editing content for Instagram ### 8.How important has networking/building relationships been for you in having the success you have today ? What would be your recommendations for the next generation on building a network and how can they do it starting from scratch ? Relationships are what matter most. Personal brand goes far beyond digital. It’s the energy you bring into a room, how punctual you are, and how you treat people who you perceive as unable to do anything for you. You’ll find that people are watching you closer than you think and that you never know who you’re actually talking to at any given moment. > ***My rule of thumb is to sit down over coffee or a meal whenever possible, and always care more about the person in front of you as apposed to what you could get from them. Being intentional and genuine with this has opened up doors for me and some my of my most successful friends.*** Starting from scratch? Slide in some DM’s, send some emails, practicing introducing yourself to local like-minded people you find on the internet. I’ve met tons of dope people this way. ### 9.What is your legacy ? How do you want people to remember you ? Great question. I’d have to say my wife is my legacy. I can’t be successful if I’m not first taking care of home. I want to be known for making a positive impact on the creative community; giving people the tools to market themselves and design their own futures. --- ## From Real Estate To #BrandIn30- The Rise of Jake Jordan URL: https://futuresharks.com/jake-jordan/ Jake Jordan is a Content Trainer, LinkedIn Creator and a Cause Driven Marketer. He is currently the Founder and a Podcast Host of The Productive POV- which is a training and education company focused on helping sales and marketing professionals overcome the challenges staying effective instead of busy! Each week he interviews an awesome guest that explains how they cut through the distraction and focus on messaging that produces change. He is also one of the Co-Hosts of The UnLearn Show- Each episode is a conversation with one LinkedIn professional and walk them through a tangible professional goal they want to meet in 2018. The six panelists will take the successful habit frameworks they learned and applied to help that week’s guest get traction on their goal. He also has a series called #BrandIn30 on LinkedIn and later on in the article, we’ll dive in asking him his reasoning for starting the series. ## Jake, what’s your story ? I started trading baseball cards at a young age. I would ride my bike to the shop and buy a pack of cards and sell it to friends. That was my first exposure into entrepreneurship and I had the bug ever since. I went to university for a brief period of time and was pursuing broadcast marketing- later I found out that it wasn’t the right fit for me and I dropped out of college. During that time I bartended and was also a personal trainer to pay my bills and other expenses. I decided in the early 2000’s to venture into real estate with my family. I had different mentors that helped me navigate the trenches of business which include: copywriting, deal negotiation, retirement and many others. Before the 2008 crash, we cashed out of our holdings in real estate but I also lost passion with real estate and developed an interest in consumer psychology. I decided to take a job at an ad agency at that time and learn the ins and outs of marketing. ## What are your top 1-3 lessons that you’ve learned till now ? 1. You’re not as smart as you think you are. 2. Mentorship is crucial 3. Collaboration is key for growth. ## Is there a low point in your life ? It happened in the mid- late 2000’s just before the economic crash in 2008- I started losing passion for real estate and I didn’t know what my passion was. I understood that life is very cyclical and things can change- as time passes, this moment will also pass. ## What is your strategy for LinkedIn ? I believe in going against the grain. I was studying what other content creators were doing and I decided to start the #BrandIn30 series to create a free college level course on branding that would educate people and offer my perspective. ## What are your top 2 books for someone to read about marketing ? 1. Brand Gap- it offers insights on how one can bridge the disconnect between strategy, creative and design. 2. Buyology- it offers information on why people buy/look and a scientific study of the bran. ## What’s next for you ? I want to be able to continue teaching, training and speaking about marketing as it’s something I am fascinated and passionate about. Also, I will be looking to get back into real estate eventually. ## What’s your legacy ? I want to be remembered as a person who was an advocate for love and freedom. --- ## From Healthcare CEO to Entrepreneur- The Story of Dr. Luke’s Rise to Entrepreneurship URL: https://futuresharks.com/josh-luke/ Dr. Josh Luke is a healthcare futurist and former hospital CEO well known for his humorous and entertaining personal stories that entertain and engage audiences. His expertise includes sharing simple tactics on how to make health care more affordable for your family and employees, as well as how to get access to the best doctors and hospitals. Dr. Luke started his career as a jet-setting sports marketer working with some of the most famous athletes in the world. Then, after a career change to healthcare brought on by his grandmothers disease process, he ascended to become a hospital CEO by age 32. After ten years as a hospital CEO, a new owner arrived and Luke was out of a job, had no health insurance for his family, and his mother was subsequently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Soon after he penned his first book and became a best-selling author. He now finds solace in sharing his experiences as a caretaker for his mom and being without health insurance for his family has given him a deeply emotional understanding of the other side of care delivery. He shares the well-kept secrets of the industry with the mainstream to ensure that individuals are fully informed to protect and ensure the health of family members and employees. Luke shares his faith and how it impacted his journey, and his presentations are always entertaining, humorous, and leave the audience feeling great and informed. Luke, shares some of his early career stories in sports marketing as well as experiences as a young hospital CEO as they help shape the leader he became as a hospital CEO. Now, he exposes the long-kept secrets of the healthcare trade to help businesses and families keep healthcare from bankrupting their American Dream. In his newest book published by ForbesBooks, Dr. Josh Luke—a veteran hospital CEO and award-winning healthcare futurist and public speaker—breaks down the complex and greed-ridden healthcare system and provides actionable guidance on how you can afford to be healthy. ### 1. After being a CEO for almost ten years what were the deciding factors that led you to pursue entrepreneurship as a career path vs applying for other CEO jobs? Even though I have three college degrees and went to college for almost ten years, I never had a single business class in college. Just after I became a CEO at age 32, someone suggested two books which I call beginning finance books that really shaped me. > ***[“The Millionaire Next Door”](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671015206) and “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, both are great books for a young executive to read. Both reiterated multiple times that to be truly wealthy you must be your own boss.*** Rich Dad even went as far as to say you are a prisoner if you are not your own boss. That resonated with me and I began plotting my journey to being an entrepreneur, By design it was a several year process. ### 2. In today’s day and age many millennial or even people working corporate want to pursue entrepreneurship, what would you recommend to people wanting to do so ? Would you tell them to jump ship? I would never tell anyone to jump ship without a well thought out plan. The exception is if someone is coming at you hard to be a partner, then give it consideration. Some of the best advice I ever got on being an entrepreneur was to go work for the competition for 6-12 months before starting your own gig. Although I never did that, and it does come with some risks, its great advice.  My advice would be save a bunch of money to give yourself some runway, cut back on spending for a few years, and go for it but only after a well thought out plan is in place. In my case a window opened in which I had the opportunity to be first to market on a new concept after Obamacare passed.  I had the street cred and background to back up that I was an expert so it all worked out. ### 3. You have a deep desire to promote affordable healthcare- what are the main reasons for continuing to spread your message ? Its personal to me. American healthcare providers and insurers have taken advantage of American citizens and stolen many’s only shot at living the American dream.  As a 32 year old hospital CEO, one of the first GenXers to aspire to hospital CEO, I asked a lot of questions and was troubled by the answers. My grandmother and mom both have had a tough time accessing basic services t hey drastically need, and that’s frustrating for me as t hey both worked hard their entire lives. ***More than 50% of a millennials lifetime earnings are projected to go to healthcare in America and that’s tragic.*** My kids are GenZ and I assume they will have no interest in getting health insurance. Aside from healthcare, the biggest complement I have been given recently is consistently being referred to as a true industry disrupter. I did not set out to disrupt, I just speak from the heart. I am a public speaker by trade now and one of my favorite things to tell people is that the best thing about being your own boss is that you can say whatever you want, whenever you want without consequence. That may sound cocky but the fact of the matter is that this simply allows me to be honest and speak my mind all the time. Looking back, I have truly disrupted the way healthcare is delivered in America  and its only the beginning. Bring street cred and bring a voice — see who follows. Be open minded, accept criticism, if  you don’t have a few haters than you are not having the impact you desire. Having an educated opinion will strike up a great conversation and a handful of haters — its inevitable. ### 4. What has been the most difficult part of transitioning from CEO to entrepreneur and how did you overcome the moments of self-doubt? I got fired or laid-off from 4 of my first 6 jobs after grad school. Some were layoffs but in retrospect it was mostly because I am a truth-teller. I wasn’t cut out to work in corporate America and I always knew it. I speak my mind and I cant help myself, that’s how I believe the entire world should be — honest and transparent. I think everyone should use their gifts. My gifts include creativity, guerrilla marketing and seeing how things are materializing long before they do — such is the Healthcare Futurists title. I am inpatient, but I use that as a strength.  I had to work on my listening skills as I wasn’t great at listening as a young executive so I focused on becoming an active listener. Most importantly I take note of any individual who has a trait I admire and see how much of their gift can be learned by me and implemented into my repertoire. ### 5. What has being an entrepreneur taught you ? Pay attention.  Stay on your toes.  Learn from everyone, even those you don’t admire but have been successful. Probably the biggest mistake I see seasoned executives make is not paying attention to millennial culture and what factors have led  to the explosive growth of many millennial operated businesses. I have learned so much about being an entrepreneur by paying attention to everyone I admire, including millennials. That’s where many GenXers are missing the boat. I pay attention to those I admire and study their habits. Jim Rossi is passionate about delivering credible news, I admire his passion and learn from it.  Natalie Riso is passionate about issues relating to both Asian and American culture, I learn from her. Brittany Hoffman is one of the most focused brand creators I have ever known, and I just got exposed to her online but learn from her everyday. For a few years now I have learned so much about personal branding from Natalia Wiechowski, and I have never met her but she is a close friend now. I respect Manu Goswami and Aaron Orendorf and learn from their passion everyday. They all have gifts (side note: they are all millennials). I admire you(Fahad) because your learning from all these others that you interview, and that’s the same approach I have taken. If more GenXers would be willing to learn from millennials, we would all be more successful! --- ## This Future Shark Has Turned His Passion For Social Media And Basketball Into A Thriving Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/eliot-robinson-future-shark-turned-love-social-media-basketball-thriving-business/ Eliot Robinson is a Gen-Z entrepreneur from Stockholm, Sweden who started @Dunk, a basketball Instagram account, as a passion project in high school and has since turned it into a thriving business with millions and millions of followers. I got the opportunity to speak with this Future Shark because he is leaving normal behind. This is a value packed interview with short truths and a lot of fundamentals. Do not mistake brevity for impact or substance. Sometimes the best insight is short and direct. #### Here we go … —— ### So Eliot, tell me a bit more about yourself … Sure Rob, my story is straight forward. I’m from Sweden. I love basketball and started an Instagram account in 2013. I grew my account and Instagram network from 0-10M total followers in 4 years.  Along the way I moved to NYC to work with Gary Vaynerchuk on social growth and strategy. I increased his numbers on social by a lot. Next, I managed a hip-hop artist Bazanji. I increased his numbers on social & streams on Spotify/Soundcloud a lot.**Then I stopped managing the artist to focus on working with Gary and @Dunk. Next I stopped working for Gary to go all-in on @Dunk. ### ### What are some of your hobbies: Basketball, Meditation, and Fortnite … (sometimes). ### What is your favorite quote? “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have.” I apologize for the cheese but it’s true. ### ### What are you working on? @Dunk. Dunk is a sports media company building and trading attention on social media. We’ve built up a community of over 10M from scratch, and that network consists of mainly basketball pages like @Curry and @TheHoopFilms (however we do have our foot in other industries). We’re building a social first, younger demo first, brand. The way we do it is by having a pulse on what younger culture wants, we know what they want because we spend 10 hours a day on the platform, interacting with them and consuming their content. Essentially, ESPN but cool. Sorry ESPN. ### How did you come up with this idea? By accident. Then it kind of developed as it went along. ### How is your company different? How we separate ourselves? Well, it depends from who. We actually interact and care about our fans, interacting with hundreds (if not thousands) per day, building a stronger relationship to them. Brands think they’re hot shit and don’t interact with fans. They take them for granted, we don’t. Also, people running our social accounts spends hours on social, they know what people actually want to see and speak their language. They understand what fans, followers, and customers relate too. Our fans make us what we are and they are the backbone to all that we do. We are excited to scale and grow our social accounts, website, and email list while maintaining the personal connections with the fans. This is important because we are building a sports brand that speaks to the younger demo. Connecting with them personally is important. No one is doing it. The closest one I’d say is @HouseOfHighlights, and I have the utmost respect for Omar, the owner of @HouseOfHighlights. I think Dunk is onto something similar, but different. More culture oriented. More personal fan connection oriented. Maybe not as big, but different. ### What’s your dream with your company? My dream is a legitimate sports brand that people can actually relate to. Even more then they can right now. A company with infrastructure that allows and puts the company in a way to win. Winning meaning: healthy and steady growth – revenue wise and audience wise. And I’m going to repeat it. To be one of the FEW brands that people can actually relate to, and want to show their friends. Having merchandise that people crave and eagerly await to purchase. (other word?). To have the fans tell their friends that @Dunk actually interacted with them. All that good stuff. Listen I’m not discrediting any of the companies I’m naming either, I have major respect for what they’ve built and the way they’ve structured everything, etc etc. But how many 15 year olds are going to want to rock a CBS Sports hoodie? #### What makes you special? I’m positive. I want the best for people. I recognize my faults. ### How do you creatively advertise? Stand out. Create an “ad” that’s not actually an ad but something that people would want to interact with. Evoke emotion in whoever watches it. ### ### What’s the biggest mistake people do on social? They’re content sucks and they think people are going to follow them. They don’t think about ways to creatively distribute their content. hey afraid to try and get caught up in subjective calls. They don’t interact with their community. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? Don’t hire until you’re ready — getting people on board isn’t hard, it’s retaining them that is. Don’t overvalue your service, you can always start off small and then ramp up. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have … Stick to what you’re good at and also don’t talk about shit you don’t know. ### Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital for their company? Don’t raise on potential. Raise on what you have. Start small. Get going. Moving forward is a lot more important than hitting the imaginary number you have set out for yourself. Obviously don’t dilute your company too quickly, but momentum is super important and getting stuck up in raising money, just to raise money, can hinder momentum a lot. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? How you sell is sometimes more important than what you sell. Make people understand exactly what they’re getting and why they need it. ### What is a hack that we might not know, and we should… I mean, you might know this, but email headlines are super interesting and important. \The way you phrase them and make them look aesthetically pleasing. Obviously don’t overthink, but in my opinion something about the following ones just make the email more clickable: “Future Sharks x** Dunk” or “Dunk Interview **@** Future Sharks”. ### What do you think you do better than most people? Try to understand why people act/interact the way people do on social. Analyze not only post but “mass behavior”. Super subjective, and big data might have me beat, but there are a lot of things that I just intuitively know are going to work vs not from years of trying to understand social. Have high energy. ### What is the most practical and actionable framework you can share for other Future Sharks to use in their daily life? Drink more water. Meditate. Be more present. Pretend that you are your customer, makes it easier to figure out what they’d want in a product. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Finding good people to help them achieve their goals, and making sure they understand what the reasoning behind their goals are. ### ### ### What holds most entrepreneurs back and how can they get through it? I can’t speak for others, but the biggest hurdles would be self–doubt and that stems from not focusing on what you’re best at and trying to be someone you’re not. Cliché’s are a cliché for a reason. ### What is the best book you’ve ever read? The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle ### Which social accounts should we follow to stay connected?  (hyperlinked, example: Facebook): @Dunk or DM me on @Eliot if you are still reading this, I promise I’ll reply. --- Eliot Robinson gave incredibly useful and practical insight in this Future Sharks interview.\ Connecting and engaging with your audience is super important. This tedious task can really separate you from your competition. It is not the easiest thing to do, yet if you make the effort and do it correctly you will build a community that loves your content and consistently engages. They will be your super fans and spread your brand for you to their friends. Invest into relationship building with your audience. This is a key principle in how we have been building Leave Normal Behind – a content, community, and events hub for purpose driven people. The mission of LNB is to inspire others to become the best version of themselves and create things that matter. Interacting with these game changers on a personal level is essential to the growth of our community. If you or anyone you know is a Future Shark who is leaving normal behind then send me an email rob@leavenormalbehind.com to coordinate a conversation between us. --- ## 17-year Old High-School Student’s Global Organization Inspires Girls in Computer Science URL: https://futuresharks.com/alexandra-roumeliotis/ Alexandra Roumeliotis is a 17-year-old high school senior from San Francisco, California. An avid programmer, in 2016, she founded The Coding League, a non-profit organization dedicated to **inspiring girls and minorities in computer science** through exploration. Mainly active in the San Francisco Bay Area and Toronto, Roumeliotis’ efforts have been recognized by the National Center for Women in Technology. Roumeliotis is a **big advocate for women in STEM**, hoping to bridge the gender gap in technology. A budding entrepreneur, she attended MIT Launch last summer, founding the company Beefindr, which connects parents to after-school programs and camps. Passionate about the intersection between technology and healthcare, she is working on programming an application and 3D-printed lens attachment in order to **diagnose her grandfather’s rare neurological disorder**. Next year in college, she plans to pursue a dual major in Computer Science and Biology to learn how to further implement computer science in order to solve real-world problems. **City where you’re from:** San Francisco, California **Hobbies:** Baking, reading, hiking, and coding **Favorite quote:** “ You can’t fall if you don’t climb.  But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground.” –Unknown ## Great having you here Alexandra, what inspired you to found The Coding League? **Alexandra Roumeliotis:** My passion for computer science was something that I had to discover on my own. No one put a computer in front of me told me that I needed to code, like how many boys are encouraged. I spent my summers in my Dad’s office, where I was surrounded by technology and engineers, which really sparked my curiosity, and propelled me into learning how to code from online resources. However, not every kid is exposed to an environment like this that can really foster a curiosity in computer science. Most girls aren’t actively pushed towards computer science, a rate which is even lower in low-income communities without access to at-home computers and technology. > Most girls aren’t actively pushed towards computer science, a rate which is even lower in low-income communities without access to at-home computers and technology. Growing up in the Bay Area, I’ve become very aware of the present economic inequalities; I wanted to find a way to expose girls, especially low-income, to computer science principles through exploration and collaboration. I want to open the door for an interest in computer science, which can inspire a greater passion later on in life. What I hoped to do, is expose girls to the fundamentals of computer science in creative ways, in order to inspire that initial curiosity that they can develop further. ### Tell us more about how The Coding League came about? I began The Coding League in 2016, by holding a technology drive at my high school, with the intention of collecting devices in order to be redistributed throughout the community in order to support local computer science non-profit organizations. Soon after, I realized that I wanted to take my work a step further by engaging directly with the youth in my community. I feel like the way computer science is often approached in educational settings is very rigid; I wanted to approach it very creatively, and inspire these girls with the possibilities of what they could create. With a team of equally passionate individuals across the globe, we worked to plan workshops at local middle schools and organizations. We have now initiated an ambassador program, where girls can work to impact youth in their own community. ## What makes The Coding League different? Our goal is not to teach kids how to be an expert in Java in a single session, but instead to expose them to the fundamentals behind computer science in a creative and engaging way. A lot of organizations focus on teaching youth to code through long term boot camps and after school programs, which I think is amazing and absolutely necessary. However, my goal is to open the door for girls who may not have been initially interested in computer science, by allowing them to experiment with it through collaboration and creation. Most girls aren’t actively pushed towards computer science, a rate which is even lower in low-income communities without access to at-home computers and technology. I hope to demonstrate that computer science is more than just typing on a keyboard; it’s a way to explore new creative possibilities. > I hope to demonstrate that computer science is more than just typing on a keyboard; it’s a way to explore new creative possibilities. My goal is not to turn every girl I encounter into a future computer scientist, but to expose them to the fundamentals of computer science in an explorative way, opening the door for endless possibilities. ## What’s your dream with The Coding League? My dream for the Coding League is definitely to reach as many girls as possible. Right now, we’re primarily based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Toronto, which are two extremely urban centers. I would want to find ways in order to reach youth in less metropolitan, rural areas. Expansion beyond major cities aligns with The Coding League’s mission to expose and inspire girls who aren’t traditionally pushed towards computer science. ## What has been your biggest challenge? In the first workshops we hosted, I noticed that a lot of the students weren’t engaging with the material, and I knew that there was something that I needed to change. I experimented a few ways, and realized that kids were most engaged when they were hands-on interacting. Last week, we held a Robotics workshop, where we allowed the girls to experiment and play with the robotics kits; by the end of the workshop, the girls were visibly upset to leave. I noticed immense collaboration and a genuine curiosity, which to me, meant that the workshop was successful. This experience taught me to really listen and pay attention to my target group, as it is essential to the success and growth of the organization. I believe that all ideas have room for improvement, and I think it’s important as an entrepreneur to recognize this, especially if you are trying to make a true impact. ### What are your top 3 tips for other young entrepreneurs? 1. **Start Small, but Dream Big** “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. Dreaming big is your rocket fuel. However, solving a smaller more acute problem allows you to earn trust of your ecosystem. With the Coding League, I began by hosting a technology drive at my high school. After this, opportunities to engage with local schools arose, which later matured into opportunities to partner with larger organizations. There are no overnight successes, its takes many micro-wins to gain the right momentum. 1. **Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help** As a young entrepreneur, it is important to have humility. You are inexperienced; take advantage of the opportunities to learn from others with more life experience and established specialties. While working on The Coding League, I relied on the help of teachers, professors, and experts in the field of computer science to determine curriculum and the most effective ways of teaching a workshop. You have a lot to learn; admit to what you don’t know and learn from those who are willing to help you. 1. **Love What You Do** I am often asked how I balance school, social life, and my work with The Coding League. To me, my work with The Coding League feels less like a job, and more like putting my effort towards a cause I am passionate about. I look forward to investing my time and seeing the direct impact of my work. Make your entrepreneurial venture something that you want to put your effort and time into; when you are passionate about your idea and believe in its impact, it will translate into your work as well. ## What’s next in store for The Coding League? Lots of exciting stuff! We have more workshops planned in Toronto and the Bay Area this year. We are also working on planning a day-long summit in August for middle and high school girls in the San Francisco Bay Area. For this summit, we are working on partnering with a diverse group of organizations. I think it’s very important to incorporate different fields of computer science such as robotics and 3D Printing into the exposure, to further demonstrate the interactive and creative nature of computer science. --- ## Lessons from Skipping One Grade in High School. An Interview with Leonardo Rioja URL: https://futuresharks.com/leonardo-rioja/ According to the Bolivian act “Avelino Siñani” students with an IQ of over 130 have the right to advance grades in high school if they so desire (after passing a psychological test). This rule was put in place to favor students whose academic achievement could be better served if they learned at a faster pace. Leonardo Rioja (Bolivian) is one of such extraordinary students. His high IQ (of 145) was discovered by the Bolivian government and got him to skip the 7th grade entirely. He has won several national olympiads in Physics and Mathematics, but still remains level headed and hungry for knowledge. I recently read “The Curse of the High IQ”, a book that talks about the challenges that are faced by people with higher-than normal so I decided to have a chat with Leonardo to learn more about his experience with the education system. Here’s the exclusive interview with Leonardo Rioja. ### When you skipped a grade, was it easy to adapt? **Leonardo Rioja:** When I first entered the new classroom there were naturally many unfamiliar faces. However, after a few weeks I was able to assimilate to my new classmates and make some new friends. In terms of course material, I made sure to cover the material that I had skipped in 7th grade by learning those topics online (Wikipedia and MIT’s OCW). ## In High School, what were your favorite subjects? **Leonardo Rioja:** I’ve always had a fascination for Physics and Math. For me, being able to elegantly describe the world around me in an equation is mind-blowing. If I could do one thing for the rest of my life, it would be to learn and teach Physics. ## What are your plans for college? **Leonardo Rioja:** I would like to get an undergraduate (and hopefully a PhD) degree in Physics in the US. I am fascinated by theoretical Physics and would love to explore topics such as the Golbach’s conjecture in much more detail and depth in college. I also believe that living in a foreign country will help me grow more as a person, giving me a different perspective on life, like I previously experienced when I lived abroad in Germany in 2015 for a few months. ## You recently completed a course on entrepreneurship taught by “Clubes de Ciencia” (an organization that brings Professors from top schools like Harvard and Stanford to Bolivia). Can you tell us a bit more about that experience? **Leonardo Rioja:** Clubes de Ciencia is a club that was formed by a Bolivian-born, Harvard PhD named Mohammed Mostajo, that aims to motivate more students to pursue scientific and entrepreneurial careers in college. They bring the world’s experts in fields like aging, cancer research and business development. As such it is a highly valuable (yet free) experience where one can learn from people that are at the top of their field. In the course I took on entrepreneurship I learned how to create a business plan, identify a niche and develop a prototype for our idea. ## Any last words? **Leonardo Rioja:** Yes, to conclude I would like to point out that innate talent or IQ are just a very small factor when it comes to academic success. Constant practice and learning beats talent any day. Therefore, I encourage anyone reading this to push themselves to learn more, and to do it online. The web is a wonderful place full of information where anyone can learn any topic for free. Here are a list of great places to learn that I frequently visit: Wikipedia, Coursera, Udemy, MIT OpenCourseWare and Youtube (NumberPhile, Sixty Symbols). – Learn more about Leonardo on his site. --- ## 21 Year Old CEO Attends 60th Annual Grammy Awards URL: https://futuresharks.com/michael-weist/ Michael Weist is an entrepreneur & talent manager who became the CEO and founder of Good Times Entertainment, a company dedicated to promoting live events and talent management of social media stars. He has managed some of the top names in social media, from Jackson Krecioch to Mark Thomas. He now runs 6 major companies, including the newly launched Fashion House of Gloire Et Sang as well as many other – he’s also a member of the Recording Academy. You can follow Michael on: Twitter, Instagram, Website ## Who did you take with you to the Grammy’s and how was it? I Just recently took my client Jackson Krecioch to the 60th annual grammy awards. It was a great way to celebrate this past years accomplishments as well as gear up for the launch of Gloire Et Sang and the release of Jackson’s newest music. ## What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? I don’t think there are really ever failures – it’s simply an opportunity to learn and grow from your mistakes. I’ve promoted and hosted events that didn’t go so well, but my team and I learned what worked and what didn’t worked, and were able to optimize for the future. For example, Good Times Live is now the largest creator convention of the winter – featuring over 150 of the top online creators! ## What is the best advice you’ve ever received? Never give up. --- ## How 2 Influencers Generated 6 Figures In 6 Weeks URL: https://futuresharks.com/christian-cardenas-jonathan-brown/ Jonathan Brown, 26, and Christian Cardenas, 19, explain how they raked in over $100,000 in a matter of weeks selling Christmas themed sweaters. #### City where you’re from: **Jonathan:** Myrtle Beach, SC **Christian:**Brownsville, TX #### Hobbies: **Jonathan:** Powerlifting, traveling and content creation**Christian:** Design, traveling, petting puppies #### Favorite quotes: **Jonathan:**“If you’re not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better.” *Will Smith* **Christian:**“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” *Jonathan Swift* #### Social accounts **Jonathan:** Twitter, Instagram, **Christian:** Twitter, Instagram, [Email](mailto:blacklabel.llc@gmail.com) ## How did you guys meet? How did you come up with the idea for the sweaters? Johnny and I met about two years ago via Twitter. Shortly after our first call, we started exchanging services and networking regularly. He invited me to Myrtle Beach throughout the year but there were always scheduling conflicts that delayed the trip. It wasn’t until I was moving from Portland, Oregon, wondering where I wanted to live next, that I took his latest invitation to meetup seriously. Within the first few days, we quickly noticed that our mindsets and talents harmonised perfectly. It led to the idea of us living together and utilizing our opposing skill sets to create one hell of a dynamic duo, and that’s exactly what we did. A week later I moved from the west coast to the east coast and between the two of us we had everything needed to build an ecommerce empire in record time. Fast forward 6 months, in early August as we finished building one of the biggest women’s swimwear brands, he pitched me the christmas sweater idea during a late night gym sesh. I was instantly on board and we began brainstorming later that week. He promised me if I moved to South Carolina that he’d change my life forever, and well he was right. ## ## How do you creatively advertise? Influencer marketing is the driving force behind our success. We work with hundreds of influencers each day to generate leads for our brand. We strive to work with individuals whose follower demographic correlates with our own, as well as parody accounts with predominantly female followers. Working with parody accounts can be tricky, seeing as the traffic is (in most cases) extremely untargeted. It’s imperative to know your target audience before assuming the risk of buying ad space from parody accounts, especially if you’re expecting an immediate return on investment. *If you’re a store owner or aspiring store owner*, make sure you have a means of collecting customer data in place prior to working with these types of influencers. Data is priceless. ## How is your company different? In order for a product and/or brand to become successful in this day in age, you either have to be extremely innovative and bring something unique to the market that people have yet to see or, you simply take what others are doing, and make it 10x better; well that’s what we did. We surely weren’t the first people to create funny christmas sweaters with memes, movie references, or sexual holiday humor plastered all over them, not by a longshot. Though one thing we did notice was that the people and stores doing it in our scene all had two things in common: They were lazy and weren’t willing to invest good time and/or money to create an actual BRAND as opposed to a little dropshipping gig. We wanted to be the last store to launch so that we could see everybody else’s cards and what they were doing. Slowly but surely there was a new sweater store popping up every week and it was exactly what we expected, they either had quality designs in a small quantity or a metric ton of cheap procrastinated designs. Meanwhile, we had been working and designing under the same roof 5 months prior to our launch ensuring that we would not only have the best designs, but the most amount of designs/options that catered to every type of genre/style of person that saw our ads, thus astronomically increasing our conversion rate. Execution. This was the simple reason why we were the last store standing in our community. ## What do you think you do better than most people? **Christian:**Branding. It’s what I do best and have so for the last 3-4 years. It’s where it all started for me. Creating cultivating brand identities that help an individual, product, and/or business move culture and inspire emotion via design. **Johnny:**Social Media Marketing. Nothing is more satisfying than taking a new product or struggling brand from the shadows to the spotlight of 100,000,000+ people in a matter of days. ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? Becoming the best possible version of themselves. In this day in age, with social media being the forefront of our lives, it’s easy to get caught up in the drive for monetary success and how you portray yourself on social media to your peers. Sure, having monetary goals and checkpoints throughout your journey is important, but you gotta make sure that you fall in love with the game of entrepreneurship first, not just the idea of the result. If you don’t find a love for the game, a love for creating, a love for the blood, sweat, and tears or a love for something other than just exotic cars and foreign snapchat filters, then you might not be ready for the immense amount of sacrifice that comes with entrepreneurship. Nothing can prepare you for it either, the only teacher here is experience and failing forward. Trust us, we’ve both gone through a rough patch at one point in our lives, Johnny in the past and me throughout the year of 2017 specifically. What we can say from our experience is focus on your Why, focus on the game and most importantly focus on bettering yourself everyday. The results won’t come overnight, but with an immense amount of passion, dedication, consistency and diligence, everything you ever wanted will come to fruition.   ## What is the best book you’ve ever read? **Christian:**Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is basically my bible. I’ve easily read this book over a dozen times throughout the last couple years and have always walked away with something new each time. This book easily laid the foundation to the mindset I was able to develop at such a young age that allowed me to pave the path in which I stride on today. I recommend this to anybody just getting into entrepreneurship or even seasoned veterans in field. **Johnny:**The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. No explanation needed. ## Where do you see yourself and your brand in a couple years? The plan is to have our brand bring something different and innovative to the table each and every holiday season to come. We tested the waters in 2017, got a feel for how the market responded to our product, and now it’s time to scale hard. Evolve. We both have businesses, stores and passion projects on the side that take up the majority of our time, especially the first 3 quarters of the year, but we may or may not be in the talks of turning this brand into a year-round venture rather than just a Christmas exclusive. --- ## The Untold Story of Natalia – Middle East’s Leading Edutainer and Thinker URL: https://futuresharks.com/think-natalia/ Dr. des. Natalia Wiechowski is the Middle East’s leading Edutainer. Learning new things without laughing and having fun? – A nightmare for Dr. Natalia! That is why she always makes sure that she combines her knowledge and diverse experiences with a big portion of humor in her keynotes and in her role as a Personal Branding Strategist. The German Doctor of Philosophy empowers individuals to portray themselves and their careers as brands, in order to stand out from the grey crowd – online and offline. She guides them in presenting themselves in an impressive way and in building an authentic, professional (online) image. In short: She fast-tracks their success – from the inside out. With a social media following of over 136,000 individuals worldwide, the award-winning speaker walks the talk – not only in the world wide web but also on public stages, e.g. at the Global WIL Economic Forum, Hult International Business School and Middlesex University. ### What is your story growing up? Did you know you were always going to go into personal branding? I always felt different and as if I didn’t fit in. Thinking back it was maybe because I was born, raised and educated in Germany but my parents were from Poland. Or maybe I felt that way because I grew up in a family of ambitious athletes. My mother used to be a competitive athlete (speed skating), my father worked as a skiing teacher in his early days. As a kid, I participated in swimming competitions, as a teenager I danced on international stages. Whenever I did not win any medal or trophy, I was so upset that I trained harder for the next season until I won. It was only in 2014, when I radically changed my life & career after a self-imposed sabbatical to follow my passion (helping others to shine) that I realized it was okay to be weird and different. I stumbled into personal branding by chance and didn’t realize that the content I was publishing and that the speeches I was giving on LinkedIn, Instagram, Social Media all shaped the concept of personal branding. One day, a client said I needed to read this book on “Impression Management” and I realized that this was defining and explaining personal branding. ### From Germany to Dubai, that must’ve been an interesting journey- how did you end up in Dubai? What was your biggest (top 1-3) lessons that you learned in Dubai. People told me that if I wanted to excel in my career and create a name for myself that I would need to work abroad/internationally for a few months. At that time I was competing in dance shows and would vigorously practice while also completing my Masters. Once I completed my studies I decided my first job would be abroad and my former best friend suggested that there was a vacancy in the UAE. The rest is history. The top 3 lessons I learned were: 1. Reality and social norms differ from nations, countries and societies. Having an intuitive understanding of cultures really allowed me to easily adapt and understand social behaviour and mannerisms of people. 2. It’s never too late to change (whather you went through a divorce, transitioning from a career or recovering from trauma) – you have the opportunity to reinvent yourself. 3. I understood the power of Marketing and PR from Dubai and how they would effectively utilize it to encapsulate and target tourists to visit the city. ### Was it a big culture shock for you to adjust to a city like Dubai ? How were you able to integrate yourself into society and was it difficult forging relationships with the locals over there? It was easy for me to adapt because I’ve been raised bi-cultural and my background is in Social Sciences so I had a great grasp of understanding people and cultures. In addition, the UAE is home to over 200 nationalities, which made it easier to adapt, learn and adjust. On the topic of networking, I attended heaps of networking events/get-togethers and would ask people questions about social norms to further understand them and people were very helpful. ### What is a memorable/funny moment that you encountered while living in Dubai? What did that teach you? ****I started working in a smaller city called Al Ain. It was a project for the Government of Abu Dhabi and we were setting up a vocational education and training institute for Emirati students from scratch at that time. As the Library Manager, I was expecting that there was going to be two libraries (as the institute was solely for Emirati students, men and women needed to have different facilities). However when I arrived there was only one room and the library had two different entrances (one for males and a separate for females). The solution? Separate library opening hours. So male students would always try to use great, creative excuses to enter the library during female opening hours like “I would like to return a book or I think I forgot my wallet” (although they never borrowed a book before). I had to explain the rules and potential consequences for the male students and myself for months until they accepted it. “I think I forgot my wallet.” turned into an insider joke for me and my friends. ### Tell us 1 thing that no one knows about you. Even though I am extroverted, I have an introverted side to me also where on the weekends I like to cook, relax and just have time to myself. People tend to think that since I am always on stage and speaking that I am always extroverted but like any other person I like to unwind. ### Have you dealt with tough clients? If so how did you handle them? In the beginning I was accepting almost everyone as a client so I could make mistakes and learn from them early on. Nowadays, I choose my clients wisely. How? I listen to my intuition, I have longer initial calls or meetings AND I make people go through an agreement that clarifies expectations and deliverables from both sides. So I only take people that are coachable, aka that are willing to put in the time and work. ### If you were to die tomorrow, what 3 lessons would you share with the world? 1. Dying with regrets was one of the biggest fears I had at 23 years old, as I had the feeling that I merely *existed*. Today, I finally *live*. What about you? Do you truly live? 2. You have everything it takes to make a difference and create a movement. Don’t wait- just start somewhere! 3. Nobody will talk about your LinkedIn profile, the number of followers or how many times your post went viral during your funeral. They will talk about the lives you impacted. ### Final question: how can someone that is going through a career change build their personal brand? Realize that you made a decision and embrace the change. Be self-confident and proud about it. Next, find mentors and/or people that are in a similar situation or who have experienced what you’re going through and can advise you accordingly. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Learn from experts, experiment and see what works for you. In addition, documenting that transformation (e.g. in the form of a blog, podcast) and taking people through that journey will serve as a cornerstone for your online community and for other individuals who experience the same situation (think Karma). You can follow Natalia on LinkedIn, Instagram: @ThinkNatalia and visit her website: www.thinknatalia.com --- ## Ariel Valverde, Un Empresario Que No Deja De Innovar URL: https://futuresharks.com/ariel-valverde/ Recientemente tuve el placer de conocer a Ariel Valverde durante el TedxDonBosco en el cual ambos fuimos expositores. Al hablar con él durante unos pocos minutos noté que él era un empresario distinto con amplia visión y una ejecución tremenda. No me quedó duda que debía entrevistarlo en [Future Sharks](http://futuresharks.com). Ariel Valverde es el co-fundador de la red de colaboración Alguien, donde usuarios pueden hacer preguntas como “Alguien sabe dónde se puede encontrar estampillas de colección?” y otros usuarios pueden proveer esa información via crowdsourcing. Como Ingeniero de Sistemas apasionado por la tecnología e innovación, su foco ha sido fomentar la innovación en su país, dando charlas de innovación en TEDx, en universidades locales, creando la primer Hackathon de App Móviles de Bolivia HackApp y apoyando a plataformas que incentiven el desarrollo del país, como su más reciente proyecto 6BLabs la cual es una futura incubadora de empresas en Bolivia y Paraguay (Ariel y yo confundamos 6B Labs a inicios del 2018). #### Datos **Ciudad natal:** Santa Cruz, Bolivia **Aficiones:** Hablar en Publico, compartir con la familia, ir de viaje y jugar golf. **Cita Favorita:** *“to live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong”* by Joseph Chilton Pearce **Cuentas sociales:** Facebook, Linkedin, Alguien ## Ariel, ¿en qué estás trabajando? **Ariel Valverde:** En los últimos dos años estamos trabajando en convertirnos (Alguien) en la red de colaboración referente de América, poniendo a disposición a los usuarios una plataforma en la cual puedan colaborar con las experiencias que han pasado o ser colaborados por pares como ellos, por ahora estamos disponibles en Bolivia y Paraguay, este año llegaremos en Junio a Colombia y en Octubre a México. ## ## ¿Cuál es la diferencia de “Alguien”? **Ariel Valverde:** Somos la única red social dedica a la colaboración con nuestras seis categorías Alguien Sabe (Preguntas cotidianas), Alguien Quiere (Ofertar productos o servicios), Alguien Tiene (Vender Productos o servicios), Alguien Puede (Bolsa de trabajo), Alguien Ha Visto (RSE Personas, documentos, animales extraviados), Alguien Ha Comido (Gastronomía) También hemos desarrollado un algoritmo de búsqueda inteligente y de vínculos inteligentes para facilitarles la conexión entre personas. ## ¿Cuál es tu sueño con tu empresa? En 5 años queremos convertirnos en la red social de colaboración referente en todo el mundo, queremos que cuando la gente tenga una duda busque en Alguien y pueda conseguir la respuesta que espera de personas como ellos mismos. ## ¿Cómo lograste ganar una audiencia tan grande? Nuestra estrategia de publicidad es generar contenido que le muestre a los usuarios todos los beneficios de usar nuestra red de colaboración y generar noticia constantemente a través de innovaciones dentro de la plataforma. ## ¿En qué debería centrarse un emprendedor? El emprendedor tiene que creer en sí mismo, trabajar con mucha pasión, ser innovador y creativo para poder generar productos o servicios con un valor agregado. Es un camino difícil pero realmente alentador. ## Para concluir, ¿Qué planes adicionales se vienen en lo empresarial? Como parte del Grupo Tecnológico Valverde GTV hemos abierto una empresa en EEUU con la cual estamos lanzando una plataforma tecnológica referente a salud inicialmente en el estado de Florida y en América del sur. Con OsBolivia nuestra Software Factory estamos empezando a exportar Software, con lo cual ya estaríamos con presencia en Bolivia, Paraguay y EEUU. También estoy lanzando una incubadora de empresas llamada 6B Labs. --- ## Tom Cummins, CEO of American Power and Gas On Building The Next Energy Unicorn URL: https://futuresharks.com/tom-cummins/ Tom Cummins is an American Business Tycoon and was a Speaker at the 2017 10X Growth Con hosted by Grant Cardone. Having grown American Power and Gas from humble beginnings to half a billion dollars, there’s nothing stopping this powerhouse machine from reaching the billion-dollar mark. **Tom how did becoming an entrepreneur start for you, did you know you always wanted to be an entrepreneur from a young age?** I’ve always been a hard worker, always had a willingness to pay my dues. All of the people I grew up around were pretty much only willing to work 9-5. The difference between me and them is I could never find myself in that middle-class schedule. I just did what needed to be done. Over time that one principle has made the difference in my life. **I didn’t go home until my work was done.** **Why did you decide to start American Power and Gas and go into the Energy business?** I went into the energy business about 20 years ago. The wealth that I created in telecom had evaporated if you will, and had run its course. I told myself, *“Tom, you need to make a living again”**.*** I then saw an article in the journal that the energy industry was going through deregulation and thought that it might be a very interesting industry to jump in since was it just starting. One little problem: I knew nothing about the energy industry. I wanted control of my income and I understood for that to happen, I needed to get in the game again, and I wanted to play a big game. One thing I knew how to do, my secret weapon if you will was: I knew how make sales. I started to do energy sales and in  short span of time I got paid millions to do it from the biggest players in the industry. As the competition built up, I saw that in order to expand, I needed to move up the food chain, I needed to become an energy company, a Brand. We had to go through a massive learning curve to understand the ins and outs of the energy industry, which took us about two years. But we did it. **The tenaciousness we exhibited was the engine that fueled us to figure things out so we continued to grow.** **What were your top 3 challenges in scaling the company to a $500 million-dollar machine?** 1. The first challenge was we had to deal with in the energy industry was that it just went through deregulation. Three were parties pushing for deregulation while there were others that were trying control it and oppose it. We had to sell in this environment that was always changing because of various laws and regulations going into effect one after the other, but we had to make it go right regardless. Navigating through this was challenging, to say the least. 2. The second challenge was “the care factor” for our customers. Our company is a mass marketing operation and when you’re dealing with tens of thousands of human beings and industries, you have to have a system that will receive communication from your customers and enable you to resolve any issues related to them completely. This is really where having amazing customer service comes into play, as you have to be able to address all of their concerns and questions with care and precision. **If you aren’t willing to sit there and deal with the complexities, and problems right away, it just gets worse.****You have to be willing to deeply care for your customers.** 3. Third and arguably the most important challenge is––building a stable group of executives and supervisors that can actually hold their zone of responsibility to get their jobs done correctly and that can handle any barriers in their line of work. If you lay it out correctly you expand, if you don’t then you contract.  Most people get to a certain point and can’t scale as they lack a proper executive structure and then give up––they can’t handle the challenges of growing. We’ve always rigged the game so if they win we’ve already won.  We have an uncapped pay structure for our team, the way I see it if it’s correctly set up, if they’re making a ton of money, then that only means we’ll make more.  There are certainly challenges with setting it up correctly, but if you do it right–it’s beautiful. Those are really the 3 continuous things we do to scale our company. **We****’ve made many millionaires within our own company because they’ve demonstrated they can handle the responsibility.** **What is one piece of advice that you would like to give the next generation of entrepreneurs and young business leaders?** It would be twofold: **Always keep learning, don’t stop learning.**  I send myself to continuous education continuously–– that sounds stupid but it’s actually very well worded. **The second––it****’s all about the people you surround yourself with**.  You have to surround yourself with like-minded people, if you can do that, that’s when you become an unstoppable force and that’s how you win in business and in life. **Are there any particular consumer trends you’re noticing in terms of renewable energy?** ****I’d say It’s interesting, the average person–– yes, they do want to have sustainable energy.  With that said, there is a bit of a protest on it being too expensive, there’s only so much commitment they’re willing to put behind it. You have to find that balance as there is a price increase.  I mean, I have a number of friends that have Tesla Model S cars and are in love with them, but that’s an $80,000 car.  Then you have them releasing the Model 3, that’s only $32,000––so when it comes to the consumer you really have to find the balance of where they’re really willing to make a shift in that regard as it does require more commitment in the short term. When Tesla created the Model 3 that opened the market to a whole new segment of buyers. So I believe that the price of renewable energy will go down in time as more and more homes and businesses will adopt a green philosophy. It isn’t a question of “is there something else” there isn’t. Renewable energy is the future of our society, it’s just a matter of educating enough people, fast enough and accelerate its adoption. **With stiff competition amongst pricing in the energy industry, how have you been able to separate yourself from the competition?** As a businessman, all our competition is internal–– it’s our corporate structure, or compensation plan, it’s the man in the mirror.  It’s not brand x or y and z, sure there are competitors, but why worry about it? They exist, what you can control is you and your company. **What is your biggest failure in business and what is the lesson that has taught you?** As with all businessmen, the biggest barrier, the biggest “competition” is internal–– it’s our corporate structure, our compensation plan, our policies/strategies. As in all areas of life, it’s the man in the mirror.  Any executive who states the reason for not succeeding is “over there” is assured to be a loser. It’s never brand X or Y and Z, sure there are competitors, but why worry about them? They exist and always will.  But what you can handle, what you can have control over, is you and your company. **I’ll tell you we always known as humans that there are really good people out there in the world.  What we don’t want to admit to ourselves, is there are some really nasty people out there as well.** ALL my disappointments, ALL my massive failures in life, and not just in business, is the failure to admit to myself that a person around me is super destructive and they need to go. The challenge is with the word “evil.” When we hear that word (evil), we expect to see something that “looks like a witch, or maybe a troll from the bridge” and that is just not true.  They can look like the best dressed executive, have that sweet innocence of your grandmother, or just some ordinary person. **It’s not their appearance that counts, it really comes down to, are they truly there to make things happen, or are they INTENTIONALLY trying to stop things.** I promise, if you find it next to impossible to make things go right in life or in business, there is someone working just as hard as you are, but they’re working covertly towards the destruction of your goals. That is why I say it’s evil. They “say” they are your friend, they smile and act wonderful, but in their little black hearts is your demise, the destruction of your goals. Find and get rid of them before they bring more destruction into your life and your business. **If you were to die tomorrow, what are 2 pieces of advice you would want to give to world?** You have to have self-awareness, this is just a fundamental principle of life. The more you learn about you, you’ll learn about life and how to navigate it.  You have to continuously learn about who you are which will lead you to learning how to take a bigger bite out of the apple of life. The second, you have to have compassion for your fellow man, and recognize they’re basically good.  Take the toxic people out of your life and you’ll flourish, prosper and bring others with you for the ride. Knowing you did that makes it all worth it. **How do you want people to remember you after you’re long gone? What is one thing you want them to say?** ****(Laughs) I’ll let you know when I’m ready, I’m not close to being done. I’ve still got a lot to do. --- ## Why Start a Podcast in 2026? The Real Benefits for Founders URL: https://futuresharks.com/why-start-podcast/ TL;DR: Podcasting in 2026 is mature, crowded, and now mostly video. The real reasons founders start one aren't downloads — they're authority, warm relationships with guests, and content you can slice into a month of marketing. But ~47% of shows quit by episode 3. Here's an honest look at whether it's right for you. If you're asking why start a podcast in 2026, the honest answer is: not for the reason most people think. The download count is rarely the prize. The prize is everything that happens around the show — the credibility, the relationships with people you'd otherwise never reach, and the pile of content one conversation generates. Podcasting is also no longer a frontier. In 2026, 58% of Americans aged 12+ listen to a podcast every month — an all-time high of roughly 167 million people, per Edison Research's Infinite Dial. The medium is mainstream, mature, and crowded. Over 4 million podcasts exist, but only about 1 in 10 are still actively publishing. Translation: most people who start quit, and the upside is real but earned. Here's a straight look at the actual benefits for founders — and an equally straight look at who should skip it. ## 1. Authority and credibility you can't buy The fastest way to be perceived as an expert in your space is to host conversations with experts in your space. Some of that authority rubs off just by association. A founder-host who has interviewed 40 people in their industry is read very differently than one who hasn't. You become a node in the network — the person who "knows everyone." That perception compounds: it shows up when you raise money, hire, sell, or get invited to speak. This is also one of the few content formats where being early-stage isn't a handicap. You don't need a track record to ask great questions. You just need to show up curious and prepared. And unlike a blog post that gets skimmed in 40 seconds, a podcast forces depth. You can't fake having interviewed someone for an hour. That depth is exactly what positions you above the dozens of competitors publishing the same recycled listicles in your niche. ## 2. A direct audience relationship — without the algorithm Listeners spend 30 to 60 minutes in your ear, often weekly. That's a level of intimacy no other channel matches. The classic line podcasters hear is *"I feel like I already know you"* — and they mean it. Trust like that is what makes warm leads warm. It also runs on infrastructure you partly own. Podcasts still ride on RSS, so your subscribers aren't fully locked inside one platform's algorithm the way a social following is. You're building an asset, not renting attention — a meaningful distinction if you've ever watched a social platform throttle your reach overnight. ## 3. Warm relationships with guests (the underrated reason) If you take nothing else from this article, take this: **for most founders, the guest relationships are worth more than the audience.** An interview is the most natural cold-outreach there is. "I'd love to have you on my show" gets replies that "can I pick your brain?" never will. You get an hour of a potential investor's, partner's, or customer's undivided attention — and you're providing *them* value by giving them a platform. Those conversations turn into deals, intros, hires, and friendships. Many founders have closed funding rounds, found co-founders, or landed marquee clients from someone they first met as a podcast guest. The show is the excuse; the relationship is the point. There's a compounding effect here too. Every guest has an audience, and most will share the episode they appear in. So each booking is simultaneously a relationship, a piece of content, and a small distribution boost from someone else's followers. Stack 30 of those over a year and you've quietly built a network and a reach engine at the same time. For a book on doing this deliberately, Daniel Priestley's [Key Person of Influence](https://www.amazon.com/dp/178133109X) is a useful frame for why hosting beats being a guest. ## 4. Lead generation that doesn't feel like selling Podcasts convert quietly. Because trust is built over hours of listening, the eventual ask — a demo, a premium tier, a consultation — doesn't read as a pitch. It reads as the obvious next step with someone the listener already trusts. The numbers back the medium's commercial weight: US podcast ad revenue hit **$2.86 billion in 2025** (up 17.6% year over year) and is projected to clear $3 billion in 2026, per the IAB. You don't need ad revenue to benefit, though. For most founders the funnel is simpler: a relevant listener hears you think through their exact problem for 45 minutes, then visits your site already half-sold. The catch: this works best when your show topic and your business overlap. A B2B SaaS founder running a podcast for their buyer persona generates leads. The same founder running a true-crime hobby show generates a hobby. ## 5. One recording, a month of content A single 45-minute episode is raw material for far more than an episode: - 5–10 short video clips for YouTube Shorts, Reels, and TikTok - A blog post or two from the transcript - A handful of quote graphics - An email newsletter segment - LinkedIn and X posts Done well, one focused recording day can fill a content calendar for two to three weeks across every platform you care about. For a founder with no time and no budget for a separate content team, that ratio is hard to beat — you're producing the marketing as a byproduct of a conversation you'd arguably want to have anyway. This is the highest-leverage reason to record video, not just audio — and in 2026 that's where the audience is. YouTube is now the #1 podcast platform, named by 42% of monthly US listeners (ahead of Spotify at 15% and Apple at 7%), and it reported over 1 billion monthly podcast viewers. Roughly 53% of new weekly US listeners prefer to *watch*. Around 71% of US podcast creators now produce a video version. If you're starting in 2026 and you're camera-comfortable, record video by default — it's the format the growth is in. ## What it actually costs The "all you need is a mic and an idea" pitch is half-true. Gear is cheap — a Shure MV7 and decent headphones get you most of the way. The real costs are different: - **Time.** Recording is the easy part. Booking guests, prepping, editing, writing show notes, cutting clips, and promoting can run 4–8 hours per episode unless you outsource editing. - **Consistency.** This is where shows die. About 47% of podcasts stop at 3 or fewer episodes, and most that fade out quit between episodes 7 and 25 — right before traction usually arrives. The "seven-episode wall" is real. - **Slow returns.** Audience growth is a grind. The relationship and content benefits show up fast; meaningful download numbers take a year or more, if ever. ## If you do start: keep it stupidly simple The shows that survive the seven-episode wall are almost always the ones that kept production light enough to sustain. A few principles worth stealing: - **Interview format, not solo.** Guests bring energy, accountability (you booked a time), and their own audience. Solo shows are far harder to keep up. - **Batch your recordings.** Record three or four episodes in one sitting so a busy week doesn't break your streak. - **Pick a topic narrow enough to never run out of guests, broad enough to matter to buyers.** "Marketing" is too broad; "growth for early-stage B2B SaaS" is right. - **Outsource editing early.** It's the first task to hand off and the cheapest insurance against burnout. Editors are abundant and affordable on the usual freelance marketplaces. - **Commit to a season, not forever.** "Twelve episodes, then I reassess" is a promise you can keep. "A podcast" is not. ## Who should NOT start a podcast An honest guide has to include this part. Skip podcasting — at least for now — if: - **You won't commit to ~25 episodes minimum.** Below that, you get the costs and almost none of the payoff. If you can't see yourself recording every week for six months, don't start. - **You're doing it only for downloads.** As a pure audience-growth play, a written newsletter or short-form video is usually faster and cheaper. Podcasts win on depth and relationships, not raw reach. - **You hate the sound of your own voice and won't push through it.** Hosting is a performance skill. It improves, but you have to tolerate being bad at first. - **Your audience isn't reachable this way.** If your buyers don't listen to or watch podcasts, the strategy fails no matter how good the show is. ## The bottom line Start a podcast in 2026 if you want **authority in your industry, direct access to people you couldn't otherwise reach, and a content engine that feeds every other channel.** Those benefits are real, durable, and largely insulated from algorithm whims. Don't start one if you're chasing download counts, can't commit to consistency, or your audience lives somewhere else entirely. **Is it right for you?** A simple test: pick the 20 people you most want a relationship with this year — investors, partners, dream customers, mentors. If "come on my show" is a credible way to reach them, and your show topic naturally overlaps with what you sell, podcasting is one of the highest-ROI moves you can make. If that list is empty or the overlap is forced, your time is better spent elsewhere. The mic is cheap. The commitment isn't. Go in knowing which one actually matters. *Sources: [Edison Research Infinite Dial 2026](https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-podcast-consumer-2025/), [IAB U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study](https://www.iab.com/insights/us-podcast-advertising-revenue-study-2024/), and industry podfade data via [Sounds Profitable](https://soundsprofitable.com/).* --- ## How This Founder Is Breaking Borders To Innovate Corporate Hiring URL: https://futuresharks.com/alex-desjardins/ Alex Desjardins is the Co-Founder and Director at BubbleHR. Since parting ways with the traditional education system, his focus has been on making the corporate hiring process easy, transparent, and human. Alex and his team have set out to lead the industry’s imminent transition from Applicant Tracking System to Intelligent Recruitment System. Alex is an up-and-coming shark so we decided to feature him on [FutureSharks](http://futuresharks.com). **City where you’re from:** Ottawa, Ontario, Canada **Hobbies:**Reading, Public Speaking, and Hockey **Favorite quote:**“Employers should engage prospective talent by portraying content that is real, raw, and in the moment.” – Carlos Gil, Award winning Snapchat storyteller **Social accounts:** Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram ## What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? For the past three years, I have been independently studying the core roots of corporate recruitment and the nature of what makes people analytics effective. I initially discovered that the information used to assess people’s skills and attributes in the workplace was insufficient. This was due to the fact that material such as resumes and social media were being used to label peoples true value. From this research, and my understanding of advanced machine learning technology, I established a concept that would allow people to showcase their skills and traits through richer forms of digital media, such as mobile recorded audio and video. After pursuing this endeavour, I discovered that resumes were not to blame; it was traditional recruitment software that was causing a majority of these problems. Thus, our pivot to BubbleHR (an Intelligent Recruitment System) took place. ## How is BubbleHR different? Simply put, BubbleHR allows people to experience a job digitally before officially starting. We advance the way growing technology companies portray their company culture to prospective talent. By doing so, companies can meet the industries growing expectations surrounding corporate transparency and candidate experience. When it comes to machine learning, our advantage lies within the way we benchmark our candidate assessment data. Which is done through deep learning applications of natural language processing to encode the psychological profile of the current employees based on I/O Psychology. This helps us understand which skills and attributes a team does and does not already have. Our definition of cultural fit involves heavily diversifying hard skills and soft skills based on what makes a team of people proven to be effective.   ## What’s your dream with your company? Ten years from now, we have mastered the way in which human and artificial intelligence co-exists in a corporate recruitment landscape. We have been successful in creating a fully immersive digital environment that cultivates all of the most important moments in the hiring process for analytical and observational purposes. By this time, many jobs we see today do not exist, but BubbleHR has evolved to the point in which we have tied together human psychology, data, and science to reconstruct what successful recruitment looks like in this new era. Ten years from now, every job seeker has the innate ability to step inside any company to virtually review where they could be working and whom they would be working with. This will be an industry standard that every modern organization must adopt to in order to stay competitive in the never-ending war on talent. ## How is recruitment software evolving in 2018? The number one expectation for talent acquisition in 2018 is a rapid transition to a “candidate centric” hiring process. To sustain a world-class employer brand, recruiters and hiring managers must leverage mobile digital media in order to intimately connect with talented people on an emotional level. It has become widely known that “Passive Candidates” (or people that already have jobs) are the most valuable talent to hiring organizations. The problem is, that these types of people are already happy where they are – or are they? A recent study shows that 47% of the managers and HR professionals said their departing employees were motivated more by the attraction of an outside opportunity than by their dissatisfaction or desire to leave. This means that no matter how happy your employees are, there will always lie the possibility of voluntary turnover due to more exciting opportunities elsewhere. They key to all of this, is making sure your company is portrayed as the most exciting and fascinating place to work. Only then you will experience a high demand of quality applicants, and a low rate of turnover. This concept is very similar to the way Millennials and Generation Z tend to choose their intimate partners – If there is more perceived value elsewhere, there is intrinsic reason to believe that we must change our lifestyle or the people we’re associated with.    ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? Seek everyday to break the gap from who you are, and who you wish to be. Resistance is the powerful force of nature that keeps us from becoming who we aspire to be, and in most cases, who we need to be. When we aspire to achieve, there is often a feeling of fear triggered by potential failure. This is what keeps us from executing the small daily tasks needed to reach our much bigger goals. According to Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, five minutes is actually all the time you need to conquer your fears and get started on that important project or big dream you’ve been persistently putting off. Just sit down and do it! --- ## Do You Need a Degree to Become a Successful Entrepreneur? URL: https://futuresharks.com/need-degree-become-successful-entrepreneur/ *The cost of school is astronomical, and the time commitment frustrating for those who just want to get out there in the real world. So, is going to college absolutely necessary? Do you need a degree to become a successful entrepreneur?* ## Three Reasons You Don’t Need A Degree To Be A Successful Entrepreneur ## 1.    Degrees Are Expensive It’s the number one obvious factor: degrees are expensive. In the US, the average cost of a degree is up to $23,890 a year for out-of-state students. Over a four-year course, that’s nearly a whopping $100,000. Instead, you could already have four years of earnings under your belt. Sure, if you start your own business you’re unlikely to be making profit straight away. But you could also get a part-time job which would cover your basic living costs, alongside start-up costs which are enough to get your enterprise underway. If you already have some savings for college, consider using these to start a business instead. Still see it as an investment in yourself and your career, just one that might pay off a bit sooner. If you don’t have any savings, then have a look at business grants which may help you kick off your idea. Work this alongside a part-time job or some simple freelancing work to support the MVP of your start-up. Avoid huge student debt and you’ll start with the financial upper hand. ## 2.    Degrees Cost Time Not only are degrees expensive, but they also cost you time. With most college courses stretching over four years, it’s a big investment of your life and a serious commitment. However, the academic semesters don’t stretch over the whole year – so you could always use vacation periods to work on your business ideas. As a young entrepreneur, I was itching to get out there in the real world and make something of myself. Some of my friends were committing to seven more years of school to become doctors. There was no way I could wait another year to launch my business, let alone seven. Degrees can take a long time to complete. I’d rather use this time to gain some real-world experience, which is even more valuable as an entrepreneur. If you’re really keen to study for a degree, perhaps for personal interest reasons, why not consider part-time? Then you can split your time and still get going with your business, perhaps even using your business income to fund your studying as you go. Some distance learning programs are set up for this kind of lifestyle. ## 3.    Degrees Aren’t A Guarantee Spending $100,000 and four years of your life doesn’t actually guarantee you anything. Sure, there are stats that show college graduates are likely to earn more than those who only graduated from high school. But if you know that you are not just a median statistic, and you have the drive and effort to give entrepreneurship a real go, then you can tip these stats in your favor. With times changing, degrees mean less and less, and many graduates – even those with multiple degrees – struggle to find employment. If you want to become a doctor, then sure, you’re going to need a degree. But if you already know that you want to become an entrepreneur, then you don’t even *need*a degree. Anyone can start a business. And here’s how… ## Three Ways You Can Become An Entrepreneur Without A Degree ## 1.    Show Up With Your USP If you’re going to succeed in life, whatever you choose to do, you need to find your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Even if you want to enrol on a degree, you would need to write a personal statement to apply for college. Why should they accept you over another student? This is your USP. If want to become a successful entrepreneur without a degree, you need to show this USP through your business instead. So whichever business you start, and whatever field you’re interested in – from published authors to qualified yoga teachers – make sure you stand out for all the right reasons. Whether you have a degree or not will be the last thing on anybody’s mind if you show off your USP well enough. Got your USP nailed? Then you’re ready to take the next step: here’s how to embrace the concept of disruptive relevance. ## 2.    Go Freelance Once you know what your USP is and you’re ready to show it off, what’s next? If you’re ready to succeed as an entrepreneur, a fantastic way is to start freelance. By working around your hobbies and interests, not only can you turn your passions into income, but your whole work/life balance suddenly becomes a lifestyle. Today’s digital generation of entrepreneurs turn towards online roles as social media influencers and content producers. The potential and opportunity is massive – and the best bit? You definitely don’t need a degree. As long as you have your USP in hand, and a great story to tell, set yourself up as freelance. Build your niche and create a customer base who value someone with real-life experience rather than a qualification. ## 3.    Set Up A Business If you have a big idea, or want to take your freelance work one step further, set up a business. Again, this is something you can do without a degree. Whether your idea revolves around launching a website, developing an app, opening up a coffee house or working as a social media influencer, the potential here is limitless. If you are used to autonomous learning, you may be excited at the prospect of jumping into the world of business without a formal degree to back you up. But if the thought of setting up a business without studying it first makes you nervous, there are plenty of more flexible options out there to fill the gap. For example, if you want to launch an online business but are worried about not having a degree, explore online learning communities. You can research and use practical tools and resources to cover the formal learning side of launching your business. Excel over your classroom peers by implementing what you learn into the real world as you launch your business. You should also explore low-cost business models like dropshipping on Shopify, selling through Amazon using FBA, listing your services on a tutoring site, or retailing your designs on a print-on-demand portal (Zazzle pictured above being one of the top ones). There are plenty of business models that require no initial set up costs, and low recurring costs — perfect for the entrepreneur trying to find their feet. ## Conclusion The answer is obvious: no, you don’t need a degree to be a successful entrepreneur. Ten years ago, the answer would have been the same, but the practicalities far more difficult. With today’s online world of entrepreneurial opportunity, there is a niche and a market for everybody with the right confidence to embrace it —  with or without a degree. That being said — there is nothing wrong with getting a college education either. You can use it as valuable thinking time before you enter the world of work. But beware — a degree is not a guarantee of success. --- ## 5 Types of E-commerce Ads Which are Worth Opting For URL: https://futuresharks.com/types-ecommerce-ads/ Undoubtedly, e-commerce is taking over the world in storm. People are running towards the same in mass and kind of getting away from the conventional shopping episodes day by day. And, the business-owners are taking every possible stride to advertise about their businesses. In such a scenario, what is playing the major role is social media. Yes! When it comes to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, e-commerce is making the best use of them for advertising themselves. However, there are many other kinds of effective ways of advertisements also. But, if you are an e-commerce owner and you’re still not able to advertise your business amazingly then just give a second thought about what are you doing for that? Are you taking the right steps? Are you aware of the trending advertisement options? Not able to come up with a strong and clear answer to all these queries? Then, just take a glance at the following types of e-commerce ads and you’ll get to realize how fantastic they are! ## 1. Dynamic Product Ads Dynamic Product Ad is one of the newest and significant types of ads which get on-air through Facebook. The big brands like Booking.com are getting the best results with such kind of ads. This kind of ad unit connects the product catalogs of your stores with your Facebook ad account and pixel. When someone will visit your site and then logs into Facebook then they would be able to notice the same product that they work looking at on your website. As a result, the ads they will see will be absolutely personalized and your brand will get a good reputation among the prospective and existing customers. ## 2. Abandoned Cart Ads It has been estimated that almost 68.63% of shoppers abandon their cart. Yes! If 10 people add different products to their cart then most of the time 7 would leave without making a purchase. Now, isn’t it necessary to get those shoppers back to your store and entice them to complete their purchase? But, how should you do that? Well, fortunately, with retargeting, you can run an immensely customized ad while targeting these individuals. Just make sure that these ads typically offer an incentive like free shipping or 10% off as an extra perk so that people get enticed to return to your business again. ## 3. Customer Thank You Ads As a businessman, if you’ve the habit of leaving no stones unturned for turning the leads into customers and once their objective is accomplished then you just don’t care, this is certainly a huge mistake! It is quite easier to convert a first-time customer into a repeat customer than it is to turn a cold lead into a customer for the first time. In fact, it has been observed that to acquire a new customer is no less than 6-7 times more expensive than it is to keep a current one. So, be smart and don’t forget to run a thank you ad for your store and thus you would be able to keep your customers always happy! You would definitely be able to create a brand -loyalty with such kind of ads along with increasing the customer satisfaction to a great extent. ## 4. New Traffic Generation Ads Well, retargeting is definitely wonderful but it doesn’t seem like effective enough if you are finally not being able to drive quality traffic towards your site. So, it’s always better to possess an ad campaign which could drive potential new customers towards your store. You can refer this type of campaign as something like *first touch point ad*as it’s the first time the person who is viewing this Ad will hear about your business. Moreover, you can opt for the approaches like using graph search and audience insights, A/B Test, beginning with a lookalike audience etc. to decrease the cost and improve the performance of such kind of ads. ## 5. Existing Customer New Products Ads It is a known fact that the businessmen don’t think twice before spending huge marketing resources on their existing customers. The figures like the existence of5-20% of probability of generating a sale from new customers and 60-70% of the probability of attaining a sale from existing customers further underpin such a fact. Moreover, there are some more awesome facts and that are existing customers spend an average amount of 33% more than the new ones and 80% of the future profits of any business usually come from just 20% of repeating customers. So, now, keeping this data about repeating customers in mind, it’s definitely a no-brainer that whenever you launch a new product then the first ad that you run should be always a new ad for product announcement which is targeting your existing customers. Also, while you make such a move then consider using the copy of this ad which shows appreciation and offers an exclusive reward. As everyone wants to feel valued so such an advertisement approach from your end will do wonders. ## Take Your Turn So, aren’t these ads compelling enough? So, if you’ve not given a try yet then opt for these soon. Just don’t forget to start small, experiment, analyze the results, and iterate!! I am sure you would soon notice the graph of your sales going up like never before. *Related: Here are the highest CPC Adsense keywords* --- ## How to Grow Your Blog (Organically) And Make Money While At It URL: https://futuresharks.com/grow-blog-organically/ You have finally set up your blog. You have chosen your niche and started to fill your blog with useful and relevant content. Much to your excitement, traffic is starting to come in. From the content that you have been putting up to thesearch engine optimization efforts you have been implementing, looks like things are going in the right direction. For those who blog for blogging’s sake, they would probably be content with the idea that they have an audience, and nothing more. Many bloggers, however, want more out of their blogs. They want to grow their blog and cash in on it (maybe using Adsense). If you’re more like the latter and you already have a functioning blog, it’s time to scale things up and start to make some serious money. ## 1. Keep doing what you’ve been doing The fact that you have some serious traffic makes it safe to assume that you have been implementing strategies designed to help you build it. Defining your target audience, creating the right type of content for them, guest-posting, and even developing a social media presence are likely to have contributed to the initial success of your blog. Now that you’re taking things up a notch, it would still be beneficial for your blog to continue implementing those traffic-building strategies. Then again, at this stage, your primary goal is to grow your blog’s reach, and focusing more of your energies on coming up with great content on a regular basis is a significant step towards achieving that goal. ## 2. Make every blog post awesome Not every single blog post would make it to be a hit. That, however, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to make your blog as incredible. When you publish a blog post with an interesting and intriguing idea behind it, your existing readers will find it engaging, and will likely share it with others. If that blog post is really up there when it comes to awesomeness, it may even go viral. That means a swarm of traffic to the post—and to your website—which would eventually boost your organic search rankings. The surge in traffic also means more visitors, and therefore opportunities, to convert them into leads and customers. Of course, it goes without saying that your blog should be optimized for conversion with calls-to-action or CTAs on your blog that lead to a form for collecting your reader’s information. One great blog post going viral also means your blog will be exposed to new readers not only on the day it was posted but also for months or even years after. One awesome blog post can do all of the above. Imagine what dozens of interesting, intriguing, and engaging blog posts can do for your blog. *Related:*Learn how to easily do SEO and constantly get free organic traffic ## 3. Make a content schedule Creating hit blog posts is fun, but it can also get overwhelming, especially if you post more frequently than ever before. To keep your head from exploding from all the chaos that could ensue as you scale your blog, it would be best if you create a content schedule. With a content calendar, you would be able to plan out your blog posts as far in advance as you’d prefer. However, if you are still struggling to come up with ideas for hit blog posts, it would be smart to plan your content for a few months or even weeks into the future. In any case, you’re still probably waiting for feedback from your readers so you can adjust your calendar promptly. A short-term schedule would be ideal at the onset. ## 4. Monetize Technically, you can start monetizing your blog from Day 1, but you can’t really expect serious money to come in until your traffic has gone nuclear. OK, so nuclear may be too optimistic, but once traffic to your blog has increased significantly with all the remarkable content you have been churning out lately, monetization opportunities abound. Your options may include: - Affiliate marketing - Ads and sponsorships - Selling e-books - Donations - Tutorials and guides - Offering services like this digital marketing agency - Product reviews - Hosting webinars - Offering consultancies The options listed above are just a few of the money-making opportunities that your widely-read blog can offer. It also needs to be said that each method has its pros and cons. Explore them, and see which method would suit your blog best. Here are some solid Adsense niches. ## Reality check: Growing your traffic takes time Before you go into overdrive on your blog-scaling efforts, always keep in mind that it takes some time to grow your traffic. Even highly skilled and experienced bloggers take months and even years to get their blogs to a certain amount of popularity. Growing your traffic takes patience. Lots of it. --- ## Yuri Kruman is a Future Shark Who Can Help You Find, Pursue and Monetize Your Life Mission URL: https://futuresharks.com/yuri-kruman-future-shark-can-help-find-pursue-monetize-life-mission/ ****Yuri is a Fortune 500 Personal Development Consultant, board member, startup advisor and official member of the Forbes Coaches Council and Forbes contributor. A regular guest on top podcasts such as Entrepreneur on Fire, As Told By Nomads, Conscious Millionaire and The Blind Entrepreneur, he’s also been published or featured on Inc., Fast Co., Time, Mashable, PBS, BBC and numerous top blogs, TV and radio. Yuri’s consulting, advising and coaching portfolio includes speaking engagements, workshops and advisory work on personal + professional development. He is well versed in customer experience, PR/Media, and business strategy which has enabled him to impact thousands of Fortune 500 and startup executives. In his corporate work, Yuri trains client teams on ways to maximize their customer experience and talent retention and development using storytelling, branding and proprietary  personal development strategies. I got the fortunate opportunity to interview Yuri because he is leaving normal behind as a Future Shark. He shares incredibly practical tips that you can implement within your business, especially if you are a startup founder. ### Here we go … ### — ### Where are you from? Moscow, Russia, then Lexington, Kentucky ### What are some of your hobbies? Listening to and writing stories, adventures with my kids, reading obsessively, world travel, gourmet cooking ### What is your favorite quote? “If you don’t ask, the answers is always no.” – Nora Roberts ### What are you working on? A thousands things at any time. A book chapter, my own book project, a few articles at any one time. My time consists of speaking engagements, 3-4 podcast appearances a week, client work, advising a portfolio of startups, being on several advisory boards, being part of an elite tech incubator, creating an online course, and working on a few strategic partnerships. ### How did you come up with this idea? All of these projects grew out of my vision of helping as many people as possible to find, pursue and monetize their life mission. The vision grew out of my crazy professional journey (neuroscience, law, finance, tech, then coaching/consulting), through which I finally realized my two superpowers (language and psychology) were meant to be used to help others find and deploy theirs to help improve the human condition through the avenue of business ### How is your company different? Master The Talk is a human-first consultancy that prides itself on providing clarity, actionable planning, unparalleled support and accountability, as well as guaranteed results to each client throughout their business, career and/or personal transformation. ### What’s your dream with your company? I want the work of Master The Talk to empower tens of millions of brilliant people around the world to thrive by helping them access the right mindset and language, as well as accountability and support to establish, pursue and fulfill their individual life missions by serving others through successful coaching and consulting businesses. ### What makes you special? In every client or potential client encounter, I lead with my story, which is crazier than most, even for a Millennial. I’ve experienced 4 career changes, the Great Recession of 2008, $250K in student loans, living in NYC with a family. Telling my story of survival and thriving despite massive challenges, setbacks, and failures has enabled me to break boundaries, and encourage + empower other entrepreneurs to make career changes and succeed despite whatever may be in the way of their success. ### How do you creatively advertise? I’ve had Quora posts get picked up by Inc. and PBS, for example. I’ve let platforms like LinkedIN, FB, The Muse and Noomii do my SEO for me by optimizing my profiles and standardizing my branding. When you’re working without a budget, you learn how to hack your own PR by getting into top publications like Forbes and HuffPost, Fast Co. and BBC, as well as onto top blogs, podcasts, TV and radio. Leverage your time and story and become a superb story teller, then go out and tell your story to anyone who’ll listen. There is no better advocate for you or your business than ***YOURSELF.*** ### What’s the special sauce that makes you successful? Aside from language and psychology, it’s a combination of endless curiosity and focus on gaining clarity, high standards for myself and the people I work with, as well as relentless focus on results and constant improvement. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Biggest failure****:** Too many to count, but two failed startups before my current company are at the top of the list. **What I learned****:** failures are really intense learning experiences and shouldn’t be stigmatized, but seen as a critical part of the journey. **Biggest success****:** Aside from marrying my wife and raising our 2 daughters, my biggest business success has been to deliver consistently transformative results for my Fortune 500 and startup executive clients, create a thriving consulting and coaching business in less than 18 months, become a trusted thought leader in my industry, to create lasting connections with top leaders and entrepreneurs, as well as get featured in top publications like Forbes, Inc. and Fast Co., as well as on top podcasts, TV and radio, all while working from home and taking care of a kid undergoing cancer treatment. ***What I learned******:*** When life throws you a lemon grove, make lemonade, limoncello, create a stand and export your crop! ### Yuri, give us the best advice you have for startup entrepreneurs … Before you plop down thousands of dollars you don’t have as a startup guy or gal on a PR agency or an SEO agency, learn how PR and SEO actually work and hack them yourself. Both are critical to the success of your business and have the highest ROI in terms of investment in a short time. Always be resourceful and pay top professionals when you know exactly what you need and who exactly can get it for you. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Doubters and haters will always be around, no matter your age or level of success in business or in life. Your reaction to them need never be aggressive. Success is the best revenge and is always served cold 🙂 ### What do you think you do better than most people? Figure out the language and psychology of any audience I’m faced with. ### What is the most practical and actionable framework you can share for other Future Sharks to use in their daily life? ***My 4-Pillar Process***. When you find your life mission, affirm your values, clear up the outcomes you enjoy most delivering and your natural, organic role in any situation or organization (not just at work), you will always have a clear picture of yourself to reference daily. Address the negative scripts holding you back and write down your “founding stories.” Put these pieces together and you’ll have an unimpeachable treasure trove of what makes you who you are. Now use this framework to clarify hell yes or hell no in all your relationships, business, personal or otherwise. It will make your life easier and create an easier passage through uncertainty and setbacks of all sorts, no matter what comes your way. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? 1 or at most 2 key KPIs that measure the success of your business. That might be revenue, number of clients, burn rate, runway, etc. Choose 1 or 2 that matter most to you and stick with them and focus on breakthroughs with those 1 or 2. ### What holds most entrepreneurs back and how can they get through it? Mindset is the #1 issue with most, who can’t handle uncertainty, massive setbacks, the ups and downs, the stress and all the other downsides of running and growing your own business. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? ***Business:*** “Reinvent Yourself” by James Altucher / “Drive” by Daniel Pink**.**Fine ***Literature******:***“Remembrance of Things Past” series by Marcel Proust**.** ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself accessing a much larger audience of professionals and entrepreneurs in a couple years through top speaking engagements, books on the market, plus running a ### ### What do the words ‘Leave Normal Behind’ mean to you? It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy insofar as “normal” left me behind years ago when I stopped using it as a reference point, since it’s a fictitious and unrealistic standard. The rest, as they say, is history. ### Which Social accounts should we follow? ***(hyperlinked, example: Leave Normal Behind Facebook):*** You can follow be on my social accounts below! Facebook.com/MasterTheTalk / LinkedIN.com/in/yurikruman / Instagram.com/masterthetalk / Twitter.com/MasterTheTalk ### —— Yuri gave incredible insight in this Future Sharks interview. Implement his 4 pillar framework. Be resourceful and increase your skills. If you increase your skills then you will increase your ability to earn. Increasing your earning capacity is essential for every Future Shark. Keep leaving normal behind. If you are, or you know a Future Shark that is leaving normal behind send me an email rob@leavenormalbehind.com to connect and collaborate. --- ## From Flipping Burgers To A Mad Genie- The Story of Quentin Allums(#justQ) URL: https://futuresharks.com/quentin-allums/ You might know him on LinkedIn wearing cool glasses, a beanie and having an extroverted/introverted personality but Quentin’s story is fascinating. From experiencing the struggles of the bottom to experiencing a great lifestyle to losing it to now climbing his way to the top he’s just getting started. He is currently the Co-Founder of Mad Genie- a personal branding consultancy for C-suite level executives and entrepreneurs and is also the Co-Founder of Milwaukee Misfits- the group aims to foster a collaborative and build a community through hosting networking style events in different cities- primarily focused on Milwaukee currently. In his spare time, he is building a Facebook community for doers & expanding his knowledge in various areas such as: computer science, 3D design, and futurism. He is a social media practitioner, 3D designer, advocate for tech & humanity, futurist, and a proud coffee addict. ## Quentin, thank you for your time. Your LinkedIn video where you were playing the guitar was really intriguing to me, how did this start in business? I used to be singer/song writer. When I was transitioning from high school to college my family went through a difficult period and we lost it all. I was homeless for about a month and when I went to college all I had was my guitar and a voice- for a good 3-4 months that’s how I made money. After I got a job flipping burgers in the cafeteria and I am grateful for that time. It taught me how to hustle, go get gigs and build relationships with people. I enjoy learning about technology specifically Augmented and Virtual Reality and started Mad Genie with a focus on that. I also have a passion for social media and personal branding so I decided to create an agency to focus on these 2 components. However, I decided to focus on the social media and personal branding and turn it into a consultancy based on the advice of Mike Casavant and Kelly Ramirez. ## I remember watching a video of yours where you went to pitch the Milwaukee Bucks and the executive team- talk to us about that. The company that I was with for a brief period of time had gone to the Milwaukee Buck’s office to pitch a social media gig and discuss how we can bring together the Milwaukee Community and get people involved. I suggested that we do a basketball tournament on the Lakefront and transform the tennis courts into a basketball court. However, they did not agree to that idea due to certain issues they had. ## What have you learned from being in business ? Share with us 1 lesson I feared that I couldn’t do it alone and needed a Co-Founder. You need to be able to trust your own abilities and strategically bring a Co-Founder when it is needed and your values align with the company’s vision. 1. Don’t be afraid to reach out and voice your concerns. If you ask for help, people are willing to help. 2. Having Mike and Kelly with the company really helps because they compensate and bring strengths and skills to the table that I may not have and this is what will allow us to succeed and scale the company. ## What is next for you ? My 5 year plan is to scale Mad Genie to have $500,000 company and after I want to focus on scaling Milwaukee Misfits and continue pursuing my passion of collaborating with other content creators. I also want to show Milwaukee in the best light possible so it attracts tourists to come visit the city and they see a different vibe and light. ## Have you experienced racism being of colour ? I grew up in the inner city and even though there may have been those moments- I never saw it as a hindrance or a proxy to me becoming successful. To put things into perspective, I think my colour is an advantage because it makes me stand out in a crowd. ## If you were to die tomorrow, what 3 pieces of advice would you give to people ? 1. Place good people around you that you can collaborate and build each other up on the way to the top. 2. Work on something- whether you’re a student, experienced entrepreneur or just starting in your career. Look for problems to solve. 3. Take care of yourself and be happy. A lot of it comes down to self awareness because trust me if you’re not happy, you won’t be able to make those around you happy. ## Final question: What is your legacy ? I know you’re 24, young and have lots of time but have you thought about what you want people to remember you by ? I want to be remembered by this line: “Helping people do epic things” --- ## Content Marketing and Social Media: Ultimate Digital Companions URL: https://futuresharks.com/content-marketing-and-social-media/ Personal communications are not being the same old story anymore! Instead, it has come a long way now from the time when the smoke signals and pigeon post came into existence. But, it is true that the ultimate core value is still the same which is nothing but the human communication of course. Moreover, if we take a quick glance at the scenario that was prevailing past a decade then we can find that human connection has become something quite convenient through the social media networks. Well, it seems to be quite impossible to survive for even a day without exploring the Facebook newsfeed or checking out the latest tweets from our favorite personalities. Right? And, the genesis of this era of social media freaks is not less than the most melodious music to the ears of content marketers. It’s because such an engagement let them showcase their best creations. Further, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. have come up as the perfect platforms for people to come together, communicate and share their thoughts. And, content marketers exploit this connection by curating relevant contents for such social media platforms that people actually look for. ## Three tiers of fans with Content and social media Many companies usually tend to be more interested in promoting their content to their direct customers. But, it is certainly not a great marketing strategy of course. Rather, the contents should reach to the people who are not yet the fans of your brands. And, that’s where social media come into existence. If you promote your word on Facebook, Twitter etc. then you would even get the views from the second tier of people who follow your fans. And, likewise, the third tier would be the followers of the second tier. But, evidently, getting exposed to the second and third tier of fans is totally dependent on the quality of content that you offer to the first tier of people. So, if you are a brand owner then just make sure that you are creating unique content and showcasing the same on social media strategically to enhance your brand-awareness like never before. ## Construct a high-value audience To attain immense support and love from customers is one of the vital objectives of most of the businessmen. So, if you are one such business-owner then you ought to be having the same dream. Right? Thus, for achieving success, you should engage with such accounts which are extremely legitimate and relevant ones. Also, you should strive to build a personal bonding with your customers through your contents. If they feel that it is worth doing then they would definitely share a post from your end on social media. You can even build a better relationship with your contemporaries who wish to promote your brand by re-sharing their content in social media and engaging with their posts immensely. ## An ultimate brand-awareness Social media is the most buzzing concept nowadays and creating a unique brand-value is something that it can do for any kind of business. And, to create unique contents on such social media platform is obligatory to maintain a high brand-value. The chief content officer at Stratego House, Christopher Szczepaniak, claimed that content marketers should opt for smart marketing tactics such a podcasts, infographics, eBooks, animations etc. to spruce up their content apart from using only the social media memes. So, in today’s cut-throat era, if you want to spread the word about your business then you should work hand in hand with social media marketers and content marketers both. *Related: Try Flux.LA as your new social media agency* ## Social Media: What makes it a challenge? To set up a Facebook or Twitter account while generating some likes and followers is not exactly what we mean by a comprehensive social media strategy. It is quite different than that! Especially, the content marketers need to understand this fact keenly. It’s because before embarking onto a social media related mission, it is crucial for the content marketers to get a clear idea about the fact that in what perspective they should generate the contents? Whether it is for building traffic, enhancing the brand value, or skyrocketing the visibility. And, even they should understand well how to accomplish the objectives? So, it comes up as quite a perplexing challenge for the content marketers. ## A Final Note Social media marketing and content marketing should be the two eminent cornerstones of any business. You should never consider them something different, they are nothing but the brothers in arms. Of course, every content marketing system which exists on the planet acknowledges the significance of social media marketing campaigns. And, for sure, there lies no such social media marketing strategy that has accomplished their goals without being able to deliver high-grade contents. *Related: Hire this guy to grow your business through online marketing* --- ## Lena Elkins Is A Future Shark Who Can Accelerate Your Life and Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/lena-elkins/ Lena Elkins is a marketing and personal branding coach, online entrepreneur, and Forbes Coaches Council member. She is a [Future Shark](https://futuresharks.com) who is leaving normal behind that can accelerate your life and business. I had the fortunate opportunity to spend time with her to give you this exclusive Future Shark interview. This interview is value-packed and action oriented. I know you will enjoy! 🙂 #### Here we go . . . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ### Where are you from? I am from San Francisco and Tel Aviv. I frequently travel back and forth. ### What are some of your hobbies: I like writing, traveling, teaching, and forcing my dog to wear embarrassing outfits for the sake of a good Instagram picture. ### What are you working on? I’m the Founder of Lena Elkins Coaching.  Right now, I’m working on some of the most exciting projects of my career. I’m in the process of developing Tel Aviv’s first ever elite mastermind for English-speaking entrepreneurs, I’m running between cities internationally for various speaking engagements, I’m working with several clients who are on the brink of hitting the 7-figure mark, and I’m preparing to write my first book. On the personal side, I’m planning my wedding (happening in June!) and settling back into Tel Aviv life after touring through the States for the past three months. It’s been a busy and extremely exciting time! ### How did you come up with the idea of your coaching business? Although I’m currently working on many projects, the overarching idea behind my business is consistently shining through: > **I’m driven to help ambitious young entrepreneurs and thought leaders break through barriers pertaining their income, influence and impact on the world.** Throughout my own journey in building my business, it quickly became apparent that millennials need to take ownership over their own lives and careers. If millennials want to have a meaningful, fulfilling, and profitable career then it is up to them to do so instead of relying on others to build their life for them. My mission is to teach young people internationally that they have the opportunity to thrive and gain critical life skills (communication, self-respect, work ethic, creativity, financial literacy, the list goes on) through entrepreneurship…and the time to do it is now. ### What separates/differentiates your coaching business from other coaching businesses? My coaching business is different because it has a zero fluff policy. I’ve worked with a lot of business coaches (many of whom are amazing and some of my closest friends), but more than not, I see that they primarily operate in a supportive, cheerleader-type capacity.  While I am very supportive, my clients work with me because they know that I get shit done and they’ll see real, accelerated results through high-level marketing, branding and mindset work. You can’t get to where you want to be by doing what you’ve always done, so I help my clients step out of their comfort zone to break through barriers and see massive progress. But, while my programs are very fast-paced and high-level, they’re also a lot of fun. A key part of my coaching style is bringing humor and fun into the work. I can’t think of a single client who just sees me as a coach, I’m also their friend. ### ### What’s your dream with your company? I don’t believe in dreams — only goals. 🙂 Lena Elkins Coaching will eventually bloom into a dynamic accelerator community for entrepreneurs to learn about everything under the marketing umbrella (social media marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, paid media, SEO, etc), public relations, personal branding, funnel building, and more. I imagine it operating as the YMCA of the entrepreneur space — a place to take courses, find mentorships, meet future business partners, form collaborations, participate in masterminds, and be a part of a community that will hold each member accountable. ### ### What makes you special? I’m a relentless unrealistic goal achiever. I don’t stop until I achieve what I set out to do, and I hold the same standard for my clients as well. Plus, people have said that I’m “the perfect balance of no-bullshit and super-sweet”. I’m also a big believer in execution over perfection — I’m good at making big, fast decisions and being flexible when it comes to the ups and downs that are naturally attached to entrepreneurship. ### How do you creatively advertise? I realize that people do not invest in products or services — they invest in the human being behind them. My greatest advertising strategy has been investing in the growth of my own personal brand and allowing my potential clients to connect with me before ever trying to sell them something. Uncoincidentally, the main places where my clients come from are Instagram (@lenaelkins18), my Facebook group (Millennial Go-Getters), and at live events where I’m speaking. People pay attention to information, but they’ll put down money for the person behind that information. Be that person who people need to work with, and your business will be golden for life. ### What is your biggest failure and some major successes? I’ve made a lot of mistakes (what entrepreneur hasn’t?), but this one stands out like a sore thumb. My biggest failure was when I went into a partnership with a company that turned out to be a scam. I lost a lot of money and credibility. And while I turned it around quickly, it weighed on my heart for a long time. I’ve also had a lot of big wins, but three come to mind: When I landed my first all-expenses paid international speaking gig, when I got accepted to the Forbes Coaches Council, and when I helped a client make $23K in revenue in his first two weeks of working with me. ### What is the best entrepreneurship advice you can lend to us? Entrepreneurs are often stumped by the idea that you have to be perfect before moving forward. That’s bullshit. As long as you’re half a step ahead of the person you’re helping, you should be executing at full force. Learning how to make decisions quickly and take risks without killing yourself over it is the number one way to get ahead. Execution over perfection every time. ### How can entrepreneurs go about getting featured in press and publicity? Awesome! This is a great question. I have something perfect for this. I’ve actually created a vlog for you that shares the 3 steps to getting featured in any publication. Here it is for you. *Related: Here’s how to get into Forbes and Huffington Post.* ### What are most entrepreneurs forgetting right now? You are ready for success now. No, not after you finish that course. Not after you have x experience. Not after you save x amount of money. You are ready NOW. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? If you want to grow, put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Get out there and immerse yourself in places you would never normally go. Speak to people you would never normally meet. Take on experiences that would normally scare you. Say ‘yes’ where you would normally say ‘no’. It’s scary while it’s happening, but will pay off over a lifetime. ### What do you think you do better than most people? Doing exactly what I want and achieving exactly what I want while completely ignoring societal expectations and norms. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Make money and prioritize that everyday. So many people get caught up with the stress around the thing and the worries around the thing and the procrastination of the thing and talking about the thing…but none of that is the thing. Doing the thing is the thing. So stop prioritizing making business cards and writing Facebook posts about your new business and covering your desk in inspirational quotes. Stop distracting yourself and do the work that makes you money. ### ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? Here are some of my favorites: 1. Start with Why 2. [Purple Cow](https://www.amazon.com/dp/159184021X) 3. 80/20 Sales and Marketing 4. You Are A Badass These are some of my recent favorites. ### ### Last question, what does ‘Leave Normal Behind’ mean to you? Do whatever the hell you want. There are no rules. ### Where can we follow you and stay connected? Here are my profiles! I’m looking forward to connecting with you all. Thanks for this amazing Future Sharks interview ! Instagram Facebook My Website _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Lena shared great insight! Oftentimes, we get in our own heads and suffer fro paralysis by analysis. We want everything to be perfect. We want to do everything right. While this is a great intention, it is pretty unrealistic. What ends up happening is that our fear of messing up slows down our forward momentum because we are timid to get in the game and start taking action. The time to act is now. You have everything that you need to succeed right now. It’s not about how many resources you have, it’s about how resourceful you can be. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ If you or any [Future Shark](http://futuresharks.com) is leaving normal behind and is looking for the opportunity to be featured then email me: rob@leavenormalbehind.com --- ## The Secret To Brand Relevance: Disruptive Innovation URL: https://futuresharks.com/get-brand-relevance/ If you want your brand to be relevant, you’ve got to use all the tools at your disposal. That means you’ve got to use Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Minds, Gab, YouTube, Snapchat—if it’s out there and it’s popular, you’ve got to find a way to use it. For goodness sake, businesses are even using Tinder to advertise these days. Social media is an example of what is today known as disruptive innovation. Basically, a new market and a new value network result from the innovation of a disruptive kind. Film and radio were disruptive, the internet was disruptive, mobile phones were disruptive, cloud computing was disruptive, and social media fits right into that disruptive niche. New disruptive likelihoods include more expansive cloud applications, IoT (Internet of Things) technology, and edge computing—which uses IoT devices to process data in the same way servers do in cloud networks. Basically, edge computing “floats” a “personal” “cloud” for individuals or businesses interested in establishing such a network. As you may have noticed by now, putting disruptive innovation to use for your business requires being on the cutting edge. It can be difficult to tell what’s going to take off but remember the previous examples. The telephone, radio, and television took years to take off. You can tell what’s going to be big in its initial stages, for the most part. *Different channels for disruptive innovation – print and digital.* ## Social Media: Digital Royalty In this regard, [social media](/bruno-domingues/) is a bit of a “king” right now. People spend hours on social media platforms every single day. Ignoring this as a means of marketing is basically leaving money on the table—lots of money. This is why one of the marketing solutions for gaining momentum today is to buy likes and/or shares — as you can see more here, most admins struggle to get traction on Facebook at some point. For this reason, some decide to buy likes and kickstart their campaigns quickly. Getting seen has not been easy lately, and no strategy is being left behind. Social media has become such a disruptive innovation that there is now literal monetary value appended to “liking”, “sharing”, or otherwise spreading something across social media platforms like Facebook. ## Optimizing New Methods Of Marketing Approach Something else that’s disruptive and effective in the current marketplace is called SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. This is a process by which digital information pertaining to your business—like your homepage, etc.—is spread across the web in such a way that more clients are brought to your site. But you can’t go about SEO in a “haphazard” kind of way. You’ve got to be certain you have no bad SEO – it can be easy to fall into the trap of just dabbling in SEO and thinking it will pay for itself in a matter of days. The truth of the matter is that all and any work that gets put into SEO can end up becoming a problem…it is imperative to [be familiar] with common problems and learn how to deal with them. In addition to that, you’ll also need to refrain from engaging in activities that could harm your search engine ranking. Engines like Google have various guidelines in place that, if violated, could result in a ding to your overall score. Your score drops and your traffic could take a hit along with it. Thankfully, if you do see your ranking start to slip, there are plenty of resources with tips on how to recover your rankings from a google ranking penalty, though, it’s best to try and avoid ending up in such a scenario to begin with. Bad SEO is wasted money. It’s betting on an off-suit 2 and 7 in a hand of Texas Hold ‘Em, if you’re familiar with the popular poker game. Meanwhile, getting on the cutting edge of disruptive innovation is like memorizing a statistical handbook before getting involved in a game. If you memorize the statistics pertaining to each hand of cards, you can determine what is most likely to yield a winning hand in the majority of situations. This won’t always guarantee you manage to win against a strong bluffer, but it does stack the odds in your favor. Business is similar to poker in that it’s a game of skill which involves strong elements of chance. So buff up your playing hand by getting the data of disruptive innovation firmly ingrained in the “brain” of your operations. *Related read: How to Build an Amazing Brand and Company* --- ## 10 Months To $10,000 Per Month: How Tucker Ferwerda Solved His Problems By Solving The Problems Of Others URL: https://futuresharks.com/tucker-ferwerda/ **City where you’re from:** West Jordan, Utah **Hobbies: Playing guitar, eating pizza and Reese’s, mountain biking, spending time with family, and building businesses** **Favorite quote: “Why are you going into mechanical engineering? All you talk about is marketing and business.” Kara Ferwerda** **Social accounts:**Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Tucker Ferwerda:** I’m always working in the digital space. It hasn’t always been like this, however. I was working at Frito-lay in the back of a 53′ truck loading boxes of Cheetos and Frito’s while listening to my iPod. I was listening to business podcasts trying to learn as much as I could to improve myself. As I was listening with one ear to the speakers talking, and one ear listening to the boxes coming down the conveyor belt, I heard something that changed my life… I was listening to people who were not only making six-figures a year, but six-figures A MONTH. My life has never been the same and it’s been my absolute obsession to hit my goals. I’ve tried everything. Affiliate marketing, web design, ecommerce, Amazon FBA, but I always comes back to service oriented work and growing companies with digital marketing. Since then I’ve worked on my craft by applying digital marketing skills to businesses and helping my students do the same. ### How is your company different? **Tucker Ferwerda:** Digital marketing isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon and should be treated as such. We focus on building long and lasting relationships with our clients and make sure they know from the start that it will take work. Anyone who promises anything other than that should be ignored and avoided because at the end of the day, it’s always about finding out what works best. You may have an idea of what needs to happen, but we don’t allow ideas to make our decisions. Data drives our decisions. Research solidifies our decisions. Action puts our decisions into place. You don’t understand your business until you ask your customers and clients what they want. Then and only then, simply give them what they want. The industry is changing faster than business owners can apply what works and it’s up to us to know what is going on. Because if business owners don’t apply it, their competition will. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Tucker Ferwerda:** My dream for my company is to hit millions per month in revenue for the company and our clients more importantly. We will do this with informational products, speaking, consulting, running profitable campaigns, and teaching. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Tucker Ferwerda:** We focus very heavily on customer research. We strongly believe that businesses grow because they serve their customers and clients and give them exactly what they want. How do you understand what they want? You simply ask them. We leverage many online systems to get the exact words and phrases our potential buyers are thinking, saying, and expressing. We understand them and approach them at their level. We talk to them and use their words that they understand. Then we create and give them answers to their problems, which results in them buying from us. We make businesses more profitable because we speak their customers language. ### If you were to start over from scratch with everything you know now, what would you do differently? **Tucker Ferwerda:** I tried everything under the sun. I tried affiliate marketing, ecommerce, selling stuff on Amazon, etc. I completely flopped at it all and almost gave up. But then I started learning more about marketing. I started getting paid to apply what I was learning and got great results. Service based businesses are the easiest to scale. You can make $10,000 in a month quicker than any other niche or system. So this is what I would do differently… I would learn ONE marketing skill set and master it. I would then pick ONE industry or niche and apply it until I got incredible results. I would then approach other businesses that were in that niche and ask them if they were in to get the same results. *Related: How to build a million dollar business.* ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? #### Biggest Failure **Tucker Ferwerda:**My biggest failure lead to my biggest success. I had my own book launch and followed most of the steps that a normal book launch should take. But I missed the most important part. Research. I created something that I thought was a great idea. But I didn’t stop to think if others thought it was a great idea. The book launch flopped. I named it something that didn’t make sense. I didn’t have an audience and no one knew about it. If you do it right, you should always be able to sell something before you create it. #### Biggest Success **Tucker Ferwerda:** Since having my biggest failures, I’ve made it my goal to sell something before I create it. I’ve created our own systems and methods that we’ve put in place to do so, and it works amazingly. We do things backwards compared to most people. Most people create then sell. We sell then create. We do enough research up front to complete 95% of the work and the rest is a breeze. Getting proficient at customer research has been our biggest success. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Research, research, research. Make sure you know exactly what is going on in the minds of your future customers so you can speak to them properly. Thank you Tucker for sharing your story on [Future Sharks](http://futuresharks.com)! --- ## Emotional Connectivity: The Secret to Marketing Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/emotional-connectivity-secret-marketing-success/ Think about the way you check your daily emails. Do you open every single one, or do you somehow know which to open and which to delete? What is it that makes certain emails worth your time and attention? The answer is value. You open the emails that come from senders you trust who provide you with information, entertainment, and content that has meaning to you. Those companies, at some point, created a message that resonated with you on a personal level, which caused you to continue reading their emails. Every business tries to create content that will catch a reader’s attention, but you can stay ahead of the competition by developing emotional connectivity with your audience just like your favorite email senders did with you. How? Follow these steps. ## Storytelling Throughout history, storytelling has been a way for mankind tobond with one another. Individuals can connect with your business through this powerful tool, and it’s as simple as skipping some of the facts surrounding your products in lieu of something more compelling. Perhaps your business was started with the last remnants of your checking account before it became a larger entity. Maybe you overcame personal obstacles to get your business to where it is today. Whatever your story is, people want to hear it! ## Market the Right Way The idea behind marketing is to “hype up” your business, so to speak. However, this trend of eye-catching advertisement is giving way to a more personal form of marketing. What would appeal to you more, an ad that told you how neat a product was compared its competitor or an ad that showed you how a product could help you with an everyday problem? Changing your marketing perspective to a helpful one can build a close relationship between your brand and your audience. Everyone is looking for help with common issues, and your business can be a knight in shining armor to someone in need. The good news is, you won’t be lacking channels you can use – some examples are opting for Pay-Per-Click campaigns through Google Ads or Facebook. There are many ways to go about it, with great tips on kickstarting your Facebook campaigns here. ## Incorporate Your Personality People can hardly relate to a business, it’s almost impossible. What they do relate to are personalities. Think about it, when sorting through your email list and picking out the favorite, do you like the ones that havetheir own persona to them? Your audience will find you more relatable if you portray yourself as confident, friendly, energetic, or any other positive personality traits you can think of. Take this one step further by incorporating your own personality into your marketing. This way, your brand holds its own unique identity. ## Looks Never Hurt While we tend to think of emotional matters transcending what we see on the surface, the truth of the matter is that audiences are emotionally swayed by visuals as much as they are a compelling story. Your product’s personality needs have the visual representation to back it up. Are the framing and angle communicating the same message as the personality? Is there an environment that creates a better level of understanding and connection? Is the product in the proper area of the frame to make itself the main feature? Another important aspect to consider is motion, whether that involves your background or the product moving. For instance, a fast-moving image gives an enthusiastic character while a slow moving one evokes calmness. It is important to contemplate whether a moving image would be of any benefit to your customer, and if it is justified by the product’s capabilities. A product that performs a certain function might benefit from showing that function through motion. However, a simpler product might just look goofy when moving around in an email. ## Colors Are Meaningful Whether it is the patriotic response to a nation’s flag or the pride taken in wearing a football team’s jersey, people emotionally resonate with colors. In the same way, you can connect with your audience via one or several colors. A few good examples are Whole Foods utilizing green to portray a healthy appearance, CNN using red to evoke excitement over the news, and restaurants using red to increase your appetite. Consider what it is that attracts people to your product as well as what message it is you would like to send before choosing a color. ## ## The Emotional Connection In order to stay a step ahead of the competition, your marketing needs to speak to your audience on an emotional and personal level. The same things that cause you to continue to read a specific company’s emails are the same things audience members are looking for from your business. --- ## Learn How Beate Chelette Sold Her Company To Bill Gates In A Multi-Million Dollar Acquisition URL: https://futuresharks.com/beate-chelette/ **Beate Chelette is The Growth Architect** and a results-oriented businesswoman with an entrepreneurial spirit and a proven track record in growing, building and scaling women’s businesses. Once $135,000 in debt and a single mother, she successfully sold her business to a global entertainment media company owned by Bill Gates in a multi-million dollar deal. Through her online courses, one-on-one training programs and live speaking events, she **mentors women entrepreneurs with her 5 Star Success Blueprint**, developed with the knowledge gleaned from her growing, scaling and selling her own company. Beate has a deep commitment to supporting women. She is the creator of The Women’s Code, the fourth step of Growth Architecture that is focused on Supporting Balanced Leadership. Her proprietary methods specifically address women’s obstacles and she leads from experience, having survived in business in a highly competitive male-dominated environment. She is a respected speaker and mentor and is the author of the #1 International Bestseller  “Happy Woman Happy World How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome”, a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author **Brian Tracy** calls “**a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.**” ## Beate, your story is amazing how did this all start ? For me, it all started with my aptitude test. In Germany, during a (very serious) career counseling session in school, I took such an aptitude test which asked me six pages of questions. Among them were these three: 1. Are you afraid of heights? 2. Do you enjoy being outside? 3. Do you mind carrying things? When I said “yes” to all three, my career results came in: “Based on your unique skills and talents an excellent natural career choice for you would be… **a roofer**!” A few years later when I worked as a photographer assistant I found myself at great heights, outside carrying photographic equipment; and there I was, on top of a glacier in Switzerland… ensuring that the product, a car that was transported with a helicopter, made it to a photo shoot! That’s when I realized that a talent can be turned into all kinds of businesses. Preferably the one you are most passionate about. Because then, it’s not work. ## I am sure, you had adversity- what was the lowest point in your life ? Yes, I had adversity. My lowest point in my life was when a key employee of mine got too close to a key vendor of mine and formulated an idea on how I can run my business better, the only tipping point- they wanted to run it without me. So I am in this big lawsuit as I decided to sue them. So I go to Germany and I tried to improve operations and increase sales within my business. My father had a stroke and later we found out he had pancreatic cancer. He ended up dying 6 weeks later. I am going through this challenging moment and my photography and production business is in trouble. I decided to write a letter to the White House at that time and I had a business plan. True story, I get a letter back which put me in touch with the Small Business Administration and the Deputy Chief. We were able to get an underwriter to restructure my debt and 18 months later- a person from Corbis(Bill Gates’s privately held company) wanted to know how I was growing my Celebrity at home stock photography business because they wanted help growing a similar business. I denied to help them and instead made an offer that if they wanted help- they would have to buy me out. They acquired my company in a multi million dollar deal and the rest is history. # Wow, how do you bounce back from adversity ? What is your advice ? I think about: Did I do what I can possibly do to mitigate or solve the problem ? The reality is the larger the impact you want to create, the more tough waters you have to tread and the darker the tunnel you’ll have to be in. At the end of it all- you will see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel knowing that you made it. ## What is one quote you live by ? > ## “Courage is having fear and doing it anyway.” ## What were your thoughts on the acquisition ? Why didn’t you retire ? My daughter says “I only retired for one day”. I made a lot of money- a self- made multi millionaire I never have to worry about money. I could put my daughter through college- I have everything that I could ask for. However, I wanted to give back. There’s a lot of bullshit information and internet marketers perpetuating a false narrative of being an entrepreneur and selling bullshit get rich quick schemes. I wanted to single mothers and immigrants escape a life of misery and build their own dreams. ## Should everyone be an entrepreneur ? It depends on the temperament of the individual. Being an entrepreneur is not that internet marketing bullshit you see online. 80% never make more than $1 million. You really have to consider and formulate your business model. My celebrity photography home business was solving a need because photographers were underpaid and we made use of the unused archive of photos they had. ## What is the biggest mistake an entrepreneur makes ? Not understanding the concept of time and money. People are scared to spend money on things that will save them time so they can focus on other areas of their business that needs attention. By investing in your business and buying time- you put yourself in a position to focus on the priorities: whether they be personal or professional. Second, is not being clear on the mission or vision of your life and company not aligning. ## Why are entrepreneurs afraid to sell ? They can’t connect passion to their profit. Let me explain, when you propose the solution as a genuine problem that can solve the prospect’s problem and you are passionate about it, it doesn’t feel like selling but a conversation you are having. Also, some will feel they are pushing the prospect to purchase however if your product/service can solve the problem- then it will be a disservice if you don’t sell. ## The myth that price doesn’t matter but it’s about value, is this true ? People have different motivations to buy and at Growth Architecture we help set up the packages which generally range from a cost effective package to a premium option. If a customer chooses you over price, then there’s nothing you can do- some people are just motivated by price no matter how valuable your product or service is. At the end of the day, there are many other people you could do business with if things don’t work out. ## If you were to die tomorrow, what is 3 pieces of advice you’d like to share with the world ? 1. On my grave, I want people to remember me for being an instrumental force in defining women and men leadership. 2. Focus on yourself, inspire yourself and take care of yourself. 3. Value your relationships. The top is very lonely and it’s better to build relationships with people and take them along with you for the ride. --- ## Hunger Decreases Productivity [Study] URL: https://futuresharks.com/hunger-decreases-productivity/ Every 7 years our body will change completely. This means that each and everyone of your cells will have been renewed and exchanged for another one that your body has produced. I was always amazed by this. And science suggests that this gives us a unique chance to change and erase any mistakes we’ve made in the past. How? Through a focus on the food we eat. Fortunately we don’t have to wait 7 years. Day-to-day changes to our diet can have a massive impact on our productivity. Something like this: > “Adequate nutrition can raise your productivity levels by 20 percent on average.” ~ WHO When I grew up, there were tons of cliché wisdoms thrown at me. Eat at least 5 different fruit every day. Drink plenty of water. Eat 3 separate meals every day. Do this , do that, that’s “healthy”. I realized recently that most of this I’ve just taken for granted and never looked into it. Whilst we have uncovered the 2 other major factors that contribute to your productivity, explaining how much sleep we really need and how science looks at the impact of exercise on our brain, it’s time to tackle the probably hardest and most ongoing challenge we all face: **nutrition**. ## The science of food and how it affects our brain One of the most fascinating things about eating is how various ingredients enter your brain through your blood stream. Whichever elements make it through to power your brain will help you to either focus or lose focus. Most of what we eat will be broken down to one thing: Glucose. Glucose is our fuel, keeping our brains awake and alert. So at all times, we have a certain glucose level in our blood, kind of like gasoline in a car. The most important part here is that we are in full control of how we release glucose to our blood and our brains. Certain foods release glucose quickly, whilst others do so more slowly, yet sustainably. For your brain researcher Leigh Gibson found this to be optimal: > “The brain works best with about 25 grams of glucose circulating in the blood stream — about the amount found in a banana.” And this is the tricky part: the way you can get those 25 grams of glucose into your blood stream is pretty easy. You can eat a donut. Or you can eat a small bowl of oats. **There is virtually no difference in the very short term for your brain activity.** Over the stretch of a normal 8 hour day however, the differences are spectacular. After eating the donut, we will release glucose into our blood very quickly. We will have about 20 minutes of alertness. Then our glucose level will drop rapidly, leaving you unfocused and easy to distract. It’s like putting the foot down on the gas pedal until you’ve used all your fuel. The oats on the other hand will release their sugar as glucose much slower. This means we will have a steady glucose level, better focus and attention levels. Another important factor are your Leptin levels. Leptin will signal to your brain how full you are. If you are now guessing that a donut won’t signal your brain to be full for a long time, whilst oats will, well, you are right: What we are also measuring here as the difference between a donut and a bowl of oats is called your “glycemic index”, coined by the Franklin Institute: > “Foods with a low glycemic index number gradually release glucose into your bloodstream. This gradual release helps minimize blood sugar swings and optimizes brainpower and mental focus” In fact, the lowest glycemic index of all comes from Soy, at only 18 and the highest comes with white rice of 88 or jelly beans at 80. Thorin over at Lifehacker also looked into some more longterm insights of how eating affects your brain. ## What really matters with eating: when, where, and who you’re with That’s funny now. We’re going through all this stuff about blood streams and brain fuelling only to find out it doesn’t actually matter? Rest assured, it still matters, yet the context of when, where and with whom we eat has an equally powerful impact on our eating activities and hence our creativity. Let’s start with the “when”. The most important part here, is that you make sure you are never hungry. To put this better: **Hungry judges give in fact harsher sentences.** For our case, being hungry, or skipping breakfast can ruin several hours of your productivity until you get your first bite. Let’s take a look at this study: > All the children in a class were told to skip breakfast one morning, and then, by random assignment, half of the children were given a good breakfast at school. The others got nothing. During the first part of the morning, the children who got breakfast learned more and misbehaved less (as judged by monitors who didn’t know which children had eaten). Then, after all the students were given a healthy snack in the middle of the morning, the differences disappeared as if by magic. Eric Barker, one of the best productivity and lifehack bloggers out there, put it like this: > **“Across the board, yeah, food puts you in a better mood. To be more exact, research has shown that 2 cheeseburgers = one orgasm.”** Using context to control your eating is one of the most important aspects. If you are like me, you always end up eating portions that are too big, which makes me overly full at lunch and very tired a few hours afterwards. One of the best proven techniques here is to **eat from a smaller plate**. Why? Because Delboeuf has told us so a long time ago with his illusion experiment of thinking the right circle looks bigger: ![](https://img.futuresharks.com/posts/shared/m/6c28a7fa9997.jpg) The portion on the smaller plate will always fill you up more. This can make the difference of 1 hour of productivity gained each day, simply by reducing the size of your plate and being less full. Joining the small plate movement is definitely something worth trying. Another aspect comes in regarding the people you are with as Barker points out: > “Eating with overweight friends? You’ll eat more. Is your waitress overweight? You’ll eat more. Are you a woman eating with a man? You’ll eat less. Wide variety of food? You’ll eat more.” ## 3 most important aspects to get the most out of eating food It’s time to get our hands dirty. I think we’ve got a basic understanding of how food determines our daily productive output. But what are the best ways forward to act on this information? - **Reorganize the positioning of food stored in your cupboard**:  One of the most interesting aspects about eating is that we are extremely likely to eat what is in close sight. In fact famous researcher Brian Wansink mentions that **“You are 3 times more likely to eat the first thing you see in your cupboard than the fifth thing you see.”** Make sure you organize your food in way that brain powering foods get more exposure. It’s an incredible trick to start eating better food that will give you more daily alertness. - **Learn to graze**: From the first section in this post, we’ve learnt that the brain needs very specifically portioned amounts of food. Too much will give you a spike that rapidly declines. Too little won’t bring your brain up to speed. A great way to go about it, I’ve found, is to **make your 3 daily meals a bit smaller (potentially by making the plates smaller). And then add 2 very specific, healthy snacks** in between meals to keep your brain plugging away at full speed. This way you don’t have to change your core habits too much, yet can still fuel up your brain more efficiently. - **These foods will give your brain the most power**: For the whole post, we haven’t actually looked into which kinds of foods you should consume specifically. Here is a great list of brain powering foods, that you can eat, especially for snacking. The WHO particularly emphasizes the following: **Dark Chocolate, nuts, seeds; Nuts, seeds, chocolate; Fish** Some further brain powering foods are the following: **Blueberries, Raw Carrots, Whole Grains, Avocado** ## Quick last fact: What you eat will also decide your grandchildren’s productivity As a last quick tip, here is something that blew my mind. Yes, what you eat will affect your productivity today. But even more so, it will also determine the productivity of your children and grandchildren’s productivity:**** > **“Evidence indicates that what you eat can affect your grandchildren’s brain molecules and synapses,” Gómez-Pinilla said** What you eat, can according to Gomez-Pinilla rewire your genes, and the more you strengthen the synaptic connections, the better your kids and their kids will perform. Originally posted on Buffer Blog. --- ## Top 5 Ways to Beat Stress – How To Be Happier URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-to-beat-stress/ Stress can pose quite an uphill task for an individual to live a normal life. It has its way of creeping up when we expect the least to be hit by stress. A failure in professional life or a tumultuous personal life, even a small disappointment can lead to stress. What is necessary is that you do not let it be a deterrent as to how you want to live your life. It is all about how mentally strong you are to deal with the situation at hand. In present times many people complain about the lack of motivation and exhaustion. It is the result of stress that people feel disconnected and want to escape from the monotony of their daily lives. What people need to be aware of is that if not dealt with a right attitude and at right time stress can have an adverse impact on the psyche of an individual. So how do you keep your worries at bay and beat stress? Here is your answer: ### 1. Plan your schedule Make sure to prioritize your daily work. When you prioritize your work you can focus on the job at hand without any distractions. Divide your day so that you have time to unwind. Once you leave office you should have ample time to get back to your personal life and spend time with your loved ones away from the constant buzz of your professional life. It is important that when you get back to work the next stay you are motivated enough to excel at your work. Exhaustion, as mentioned above, leads to stress. With a planned schedule you are able to divert your energy to what you love. ### 2. Pay attention to your health A healthy body is must to stay active and be up to the given task. Daily exercise or even sporting activities keep your body in shape and healthy. You do not feel cramped out at the end of the day. If you are not too fond of the gym, you can indulge in other activities such as swimming or other interesting forms of exercise that can take you amidst nature. And not just exercise, you have to pay attention to what you eat. Healthy food is known to deal with stress. Binging on unhealthy food is known to be a symptom of a stressed-out soul. ### 3. Take your time off The simple and most exciting way to beat stress would be to pack your bags and leave for a vacation. Plan a holiday with people that make you feel happy. You can rent out a villa for the weekend or if time permits for more than few days. The benefit being that you do not have to shell out huge cash which otherwise you spend on luxury hotels. The vibe at the villa is just that of your home with amenities and facilities of a luxury hotel. Kitchen facilities along with adequate sporting options make it the best choice to recharge your exhausted body. Villas are generally located at some exciting locations. Amidst mountain location, beachside or countryside you are sure to leave your stress aside and enjoy your time being with your loved ones. ### 4. Indulge in your passions More often than not, it is our busy schedule which does not leave much scope to indulge in what we love. Do you love to paint or an instrument which you are planning to learn to play? Indulge in your passions. Indulge in something that excites you and helps to connect with yourself. When you spend time doing what you love your mind automatically shifts from trouble to professional or personal life to joy and excitement. ### 5. Put things in perspective At the end of the day, you need to know what you are doing. What is it that motivates you to go to work every day and give your hundred percent. Do you need to spend some more time with your family? Are you spending too much time thinking about things that are not in your control? Everything has to be put in perspective. It is of no use to be stressed about something that you have no say or control over. See what motivates you and be with people that get best out of you. Talk to your loved ones about your stress and get it out of your system. Stress is something that many people suffer with. There will always be constraints in professional and personal life.  It is all about how pro-active you are to never let it hamper your progress in life. Are you looking for a vacation, a weekend getaway or want to learn something new? Do not delay it and indulge in activities that make you happy. --- ## From Broke To President Of A Growing Social Media Agency- Learn How Michaela Alexis Is Impacting Millions #LetsGetHonest URL: https://futuresharks.com/michaela-alexis/ Michaela Alexis is a Viral Content Creator, Speaker and commands the attention of millions on LinkedIn. Let’s not forget her LOVE for coffee. She is currently the President of Grade A Digital- a social media agency that offers outsourced social media managed services that include social media strategy, social media training, and content/community management for businesses. She had her first viral hit article on Linkedin back in March 2016, and has defied the one hit wonder box that people speculated she was going to be. She went from a few hundred to 91,327 followers in a year( at the time of this article), receiving millions of views, comments, shares, and acceptance from the LinkedIn Community Her articles and advice have since been published on CNBC, Success.com, Shopify, NDC News, Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money and many other media outlets ### Michaela, how did this all start ? I never intended on being an entrepreneur. For me, I believed in working in a team environment and being management. When I graduated, I went into a marketing position and was doing Marketing for about 16 different bars/restaurants. As I progressed in my career, corporations started realizing the importance of social media and needed help understanding them. However, it came to a point where every 2 years I felt miserable because I never felt like I had control over my career. I was in an environment where managers felt like they had leverage over me and I felt that I owed them something. > After, I ended up going to work for a startup. However a short time later- ***I was laid off and that was a big wake up call for me. I valued security so much within a job that I would do anything to avoid being laid off.*** While laid off, I was doing a lot of reflecting and was getting job offers but I denied them. I was looking for growth and longevity within a role. I decided to send out 10 emails with my resume and only 1 person opened the email. I figured out that there had to be a better way and I realized I was in control of my choices. I started writing on LinkedIn about my dream job, social media, career advice and people were gravitated towards my writing and supported it. My boss at that time- who is now my business partner in Grade A Digital( a subsidiary of Grade A IT) saw the article and hired me for Grade A IT in a Marketing role- a position they created. Grade A Digital was born out of opportunities I was getting from companies who wanted me to help them explode their social media like I did with mine. I never intended on being an Influencer or getting millions of views on my content. My intention was to help other people and give them hope to overcome their problems and turn their life around. I realized the more I was sharing my problems and experiences on LinkedIn, I was going through a mental cleanse of built up emotional baggage and I wanted others to experience this feeling of relief. ### What inspired you to co-create the #LetsGetHonest campaign ? Everyone has a fear of being judged. Everyone has flaws and mistakes and we over analyze them. All people need is an outlet to voice there problems so they could feel a sense of relief and acceptance not only from people but internally accept themselves holistically. ### What are 3 things you look for when hiring candidates ? 1. **Practical Ambition-** people could read all the books they want, watch all the videos they want but if they don’t have a sense of purpose or personal/professional goals to help them grow- it will be difficult for them to succeed. 2. **Transparency-** every week, we have a meeting talking about personal challenges and improvements we could make as a company and personally. We make sure to expand communication lines and have a free flowing sense of honesty embedded within our culture. 3. **Coffee Drinker-** if you drink tea by any chance- I am not hiring you…. Just kidding but it’s fun to hang out with people who drink coffee ### How can people collaborate with you or pitch you to do business ? It has to make sense for both parties and be mutually beneficial. I get asked to have coffee so people could speak with me however they are not prepared. Time is everyone’s valuable asset and if you don’t respect their time- you are doing them a disservice and may not get their time again. Here’s what I’ll tell you: 1. Don’t pitch while sending your invitation request on LinkedIn. 2. Don’t beat around the bush, be direct and tell me what you want. Be concise, grab my attention and get to the point. 3. Know what questions you want to ask me. ### How did you start your speaking career ? I am shy and I break out in hives atleast once a day. When I was younger, I would love dancing and performing in front of people. I loved sharing ideas and I had more awards than anyone else in my English and French classes. I believe in sharing my message and I want people to understand what LinkedIn has done for me. This isn’t a cliché statement but this is reality. LinkedIn launched the next phase of my career and helped me land many opportunities. It is my responsibility to share the importance of building a personal brand with people. A personal brand is your career insurance policy and you are able to work more fearlessly. > ***If tomorrow, I went out of business, I am not worried because I know I have a personal brand that I can leverage to pursue other opportunities.*** ### If tomorrow was your last day on Earth, what 3 pieces of advice do you have for people ? 1. Don’t take life too seriously- problems come and go, people will hurt you, you’ll get laid off, lose deals, lose money, have loved ones die, and other problems in life. At the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, make use of the of time you have in this world. If you had a bad day today, you can start fresh tomorrow 2. **“Be so good they can’t ignore you”- Doubters told me I would be a 1 hit wonder. Guess what ? I am still here and going strong on LinkedIn** 3. People won’t judge you for what you feel but what you do. No one cares about your feelings- whether you’re nervous, scared, sad- people don’t know. You could be the most confident person on stage but feel nervous on the inside- actions speak louder than words. ### Michaela, how do you handle being judged as a young executive or being judged for your age ? People will judge you for anything. I am judged being a female, especially at trade shows. I have to introduce myself as the President of Grade A Digital and people start paying attention. People will judge you and you overcome that by being so good they can’t ignore you. Don’t worry, focus on your work and becoming a master at your craft. ### What’s next for you ? I am travelling to Costa Rica in January. I just came back from Dubai which I loved. I am speaking on personal branding, LinkedIn and on the power of building communities. I want to continue impacting millions of people and 2 times a year I go back to my old high school to talk about the power of personal branding and the impact it’s had on my life and what it can do for others. If you want to connect with Michaela- send her tea….jokes…send her some coffee love and maybe some donuts and maple syrup **#CanadianLove** --- ## Clothing Brand on The Rise: Commons Lane URL: https://futuresharks.com/christopher-wei-vivek-rama/ **Christopher Wei** and **Vivek Rama** are very young and mature business owners that were invited to discuss their entrepreneurial endeavors with the team at Future Shark. It has been less than a year since their clothing brand, Commons Lane, released, but they’ve already found so much success. Those interested can find the website and instagram for Commons Lane below. Website Instagram ### What is “Commons Lane”? **Christopher Wei:** Commons Lane is both a representation and a message to those interested in taking control of their own lives. We always say to visualize this: The social rules established in our world (Ex. Go to college and find a stable job) creates this infinite and narrow road that people travel on, which we have titled “Commons Lane”. As they follow those in front of them, they rarely ever find happiness or meaning in life. Despite having so much freedom to take risks in life, we are pushed to settle for an occupation we don’t like and pursue that for the rest of our lives. We’re telling people that there’s so many ways you can escape “Commons Lane” and create your own path in life. We ourselves are escaping the Lane and we’re here to tell you it’s possible, you just need to take that step in life. ### How did you guys establish your name? **Vivek Rama:**We’re still establishing ourselves but I think we’re on the right path. We made a mistake our first release by thinking we could just do everything online but we quickly found out that the market we were entering had an abundance of new clothing brands being born every day. It’s hard to establish yourself, especially online. We changed this with our re-release by deciding to embrace our local presence and establish ourselves on an online community of like-minded thinkers. We started spreading like fire and we’re still growing to this day. We know for sure that we’ll keep growing and not just our name, but also our message will get out there for the world to see. ### What is your dream for the Company? **Christopher Wei:**Our dream is simple. We want this to become something bigger than us. We see ourselves in the future changing the game of fashion through Commons Lane. We’re going to define a new path that both companies and consumers approach fashion and we’re especially going to branch out and do more than just clothing. We truthfully want to make an impact in the world. ### How do you guys come up with designs? **Vivek:** We always spend a long time on designs because that is the first impression we make on outsiders. We pay specific attention to what the designs mean; our “Road Illusion” shirt visually depicts the infinite and futile path of “Commons Lane” and our “Shoe Pills” longsleeve shows the dirtied and worn down shoes used to metaphorically run away. It’s little things like these that create meaning behind our shirts and our brand in general. For our next collection, dropping in January 2018, we have been looking into the designs of our garments more and we’ve messed around with different and unique styles. We have a unique hoodie we’re planning to come out with, and if everything works out, we know everyone is going to be excited about it. ### What would you tell those interested in entrepreneurship? **Christopher Wei:**“Escaping Commons Lane” Is based off of each individual’s life so just know that entrepreneurship isn’t the only way to escape “Commons Lane”. Entrepreneurship is its own field and a sad truth is that not everyone is cut out for it. My favorite quote from Elon Musk, founder of PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, was when he was meeting with a group of young students pursuing entrepreneurship and he responded to the same question by telling them that they should not pursue it if they need a motivational quote to be inspired. Although harsh, he was telling the pure truth. To be an entrepreneur means to have a constant drive and inspiration inside of you, especially when the world is against you. Thanks for sharing your story with us on Future Sharks Christopher and Vivek! --- ## 2018 Resolution: Start Your Company and Become an Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/become-an-entrepreneur/ Regardless of whether or not you agree with former President Obama on anything, one thing he said is absolutely true: “If you had to choose any time in the course of human history to be alive, you’d choose this one. Right here in America, right now.” If you want to become an entrepreneur, there is no better time than now.  Indeed, we are in a period of unprecedented opportunity. What a time to be alive. Of course there are enormous issues facing the global community, but relative to any other time in human history, there is reason to be more optimistic than ever before. In particular, 2018 is the best time since the American Civil War for young people and potential entrepreneurs to become millionaires and billionaires by making their dreams a reality. ### That’s right; best time in 150 years. So why is that? Though there are many reasons, this is mainly true because we are in a stage of our economic development in many ways, and thankfully not in others, similar to the late nineteenth century. Following the civil war (and during the second industrial revolution), progress in transportation technology via railway was one of, if not the, most important developments in our nation’s history. Everyone was trying to get in on the action, in a variety of industries (and even new industries), from the Vanderbilt’s to JP Morgan. This wave was complemented by the role of crude oil in, among numerous uses, lighting our homes and streets. These industries overlapped extensively, and made smart businessmen and investors quite wealthy (you might have heard of a one John D. Rockefeller). Now no one can expect to make $336 BILLION like Mr. Rockefeller, but 2017 shows similar potential for advancement in energy, transportation, and overall technological development. On the energy and transportation side, our economy is shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy at never before seen levels. Though change is never instantaneous, we know this revolution is happening, and that the place to be is on the ground floor. With solar prices dropping to record lows, and efficiency reaching record highs, the solar industry is expected to grow six-fold by 2030. While creating the new app can make you millions of dollars, the opportunity to become involved in changing *both* the way we move and how we are powered occurs for very few generations. Changes in the modes and means of transportation and energy leads to great prosperity for those bold enough to jump on. It is no wonder why 20% of the richest people in history were born from 1831-1840. In other words, a million dollars isn’t cool… The exciting thing about 2018 is that there are so many options for entrepreneurs to make their mark on the world. Even if you’re not the one making investments in wind, hydro, solar, or the new type of vehicle/hyperloop, there are endless avenues and business opportunities that emerge because of the changes in energy and transportation. For example, the entire industry of professional sports would not be what it is today if it were not for train, car, and plane (all propelled by coal and oil of course). Today, the direct and indirect effects of changing energy will be across all industries, and lead to the creation of new industries we have not even thought of. These issues affect the entirety of our 7.5 billion and counting world population, especially those in developing countries who, to a certain degree, could potentially ‘leapfrog’ fossil fuels for clean energy in their stages of economic development. This market size, mixed with the inevitability of our changing energy, makes 2017 the **best time in****150 years****to become an entrepreneur**. So think about what clean energy means for our economy. How can we innovate and invest to speed up the process? What industries will be most affected because of the change? What new industries will be created? These are tough questions, and while there are dozens of other entrepreneurship options that I did not discuss here, there is no greater challenge or payoff than our energy development (well, maybe automation). Who knows, if you can answer these questions, you could be much cooler than a million dollars… --- ## Saving Resources And Reducing Startup Costs (5 Tips) URL: https://futuresharks.com/saving-resources-reducing-startup-costs-5-tips/ Starting a new business is an exciting prospect, but without the right financial planning, you could find your venture toppling over into debt before even getting off the ground. The first year of a new business is often the hardest, as you work to establish your brand. Because businesses often take some time to show significant returns, it’s essential that you reduce your startup costs as much as possible. Fortunately, with a little planning, [any new business owner can save resources and money](/resources/). Read on for some of our top money-saving startup hacks below. **1. Get Creative** Have you ever heard the saying “necessity is the root of all invention”? Well when you need to save money, you get creative. Whether you’re establishing a work from home business, a retail store, an agency, or any other type of company, getting creative and thinking outside the box can save you money on capital investments. First, start off by considering what furniture, supplies, materials, etc. you already have, so that you can create a checklist of what you still need. Lots of office furniture can be purchased second-hand in good condition, or, in some cases, you could even build certain office supplies yourself. Going the DIY route allows you to personalize your workspace while saving money in the process. **2. Know Where to Splurge and Where to Save** Prioritizing business essentials can help you save resources and money. Before making any large capital purchases, make sure you compare these investments with other options to see where you can get the most value. Some things, like hardware/software that can improve productivity, may be worth spending a bit more for. However, one of the biggest pitfalls of start-ups is overspending on unnecessary items too soon. While it may be tempting to go out and buy the latest and greatest gizmos and gadgets for your startup, wait to see a return from your business first. **3. Look for Deals** Everyone loves buying things on sale, and when it comes to your startup, it shouldn’t be any different. Keeping an eye out for special sales, discounts, and deals can save you money off of each purchase which will add up over time. For example, Best Buy’s open box deals often offer top of the line electronics at a fraction of the retail price. Businesses need to make money to survive, which means taking advantage of deals is a must. **4. Work Smarter Not Harder** Starting a new business is already hard enough, without you having to work overtime due to inefficiency. Investing in the right tools that support productivity is key to working smarter, not harder. For example, all startups should invest in the latest versions of publishing software, as these tools will empower your brand to produce top quality work *the first time around*. When you get Microsoft Office, for example, you have access to the leading publishing tools on the market that allow you to write business copy, create advertising material, update an accounting ledger, and more. Updating your publishing software is an important investment for any business, as these tools will save you resources, time, and money down the line. **5. Track Your Expenses** For any business, but especially a startup, tracking your expenses is key. Before making any purchases for your company, set a budget and create a balance sheet using Microsoft Excel or a similar program. Taking note of all your expense will not only help you stay on budget, but it will provide a log of business-related purchases that you can claim on your taxes. While it may seem tedious, this tip is one of the pillars of setting up your business for financial success. With these tips, you’ll be able to get your new business off the ground without the burden of expensive startup costs weighing you down. Remember, there’s always room to grow as your company expands, but setting yourself up for financial success from the start allows you to scale your business much faster. --- ## Diego Corzo, DACA Dreamer & Entrepreneur, is the American Dream URL: https://futuresharks.com/diego-corzo-daca-dreamer-is-the-american-dream/ Diego Corzo, DACA DREAMer is the definition of the “American Dream”. Yet because of his undocumented status he faces the threat of deportation despite being a successful business owner who has paid more than $28,000 in taxes and whom employs US citizens in his business. Diego Corzo is a 27 year old entrepreneur from Austin, TX. He was born in Lima, Peru and moved to the United States with his family when he was 9 years old. Diego’s parents told him that the United States was the land of opportunity and that with hard work and determination all his dreams will be possible. Diego graduated top 1% from Florida State University with 2 bachelor degrees in less than 4 years and $0 student debt. He started working in corporate America as a software developer for General Motors and soon discovered that he wanted a career shift. After realizing that corporate America wasn’t for him, Diego pursued his passion in Real Estate. Now, Diego is a realtor for Keller Williams alongside an incredible team, and currently owns 8 rentals properties, both in Texas and in Florida. Diego is on a path to financial freedom and aspires to help others, especially millennials, become financially free and reach their full potential. I had the pleasure of sitting down and getting to know Diego in-depth and learn that some of his hobbies are salsa dancing, running, and reading. His story is incredible and could not be more timely based on the current events revolving around DACA and the Trump’s administration ambition to deport 800,000 DACA DREAMers. DACA DREAMers were given an opportunity for citizen by President Barack Obama because these dreamers were brought here illegally by their parents as children. This Future Sharks interview shares both *VALUE* and *PERSPECTIVE*. ### Here we go .. ____ ### What is your favorite quote? **“Live a bigger life…not a bigger lifestyle” –**Adam Carroll ### What are you working on? One of the projects I am excited to be working on is a course on House Hacking. The course is designed to teach others how to buy real estate with low money down and be able to reduce their monthly housing expenses. This course is a great way to get started in real estate and will build the foundation for growing one’s wealth. I have been house hacking since 2014 and living for free has helped me reduce my expenses and connect with other likeminded people. I know have a portfolio of 12 doors and it’s still growing. I love it! ### ### How did you come up with this idea? 95% of the population works on their active income by climbing the corporate ladder. I believe it is crucial for anyone who doesn’t want to be average, to start building passive income streams. One of the best ways to create passive income is through House Hacking. *(Diego in front of new househacking home)* I have had some success with House Hacking, and it was this strategy that helped me quit my full time job working in corporate America. In sharing my story with others and my mindset about building wealth, a lot of my friends and actually random people in social media began asking me how I did it and how I have been able to build a portfolio making me over $5K a month. I then realized that many other people would benefit from my househacking strategies and I decided to make a course teaching others how they can househack their home and live for free, while getting rent paid as well. ### What’s your dream with your course? My dream with my House Hacking course is to impact the lives of as many people as possible, especially millennials who are stuck in the rat race. People who change their valuable time for money, just so that they can pay the bills and their debts. There is more to life than that, which is why I believe everyone should start building passive income streams. ### What were your biggest obstacles and biggest success? What did you learn from them? I am a DACA recipient, or what the United States Congress call me, a DREAMER. One of the biggest obstacles that I have had in my life is that I am undocumented. I was brought as a kid to the United States in a hope of a better future by my parents. I didn’t really understand what it meant to be undocumented until I wanted to get my driver’s license at the age of 16. It was then that I begin to see the obstacles that I will face in the years to come. But I dealt with them head on. I graduated 3rd in my high school class and decided to go to Florida State University to get 2 bachelor degrees. Even though I couldn’t qualify for student loans or grants at the time due to my immigration status, I decided to apply to merit based scholarships. I won some scholarships, but a few got taken away from me because one of the requirements included being a US Citizen or having a Green Card. Even with these obstacles, I was able to put myself through college with the help of my parents and with the money I got by working as a contractor designing websites for small businesses & nonprofits. In 2012 I became the first one in my family to graduate college in the United States. And not only that but I was able to graduate top 1% of Florida State with 2 Bachelor degrees in less than 4 years without any debt. Even though there were a lot of obstacles through those years, I only saw the opportunities and I become resourceful. There was no other choice. I began to focus on my vision and not my current circumstances. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have: You either succeed or you learn… there is no failure. One of my mentors, Rock Thomas, taught me that: when you change the way to you look at things, the things you look at change. Perspective is key when you are an entrepreneur and working on your own business. This is one of the reasons why many businesses fail after the first year. Too many people give up when things get tough or when some mistakes occur. You just have to ask yourself, “What is great about this?” and look at it from all angles because there is always a lesson in every obstacle. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? One of the ways that I have started automating part of my business is to film my screen doing a specific task, then hiring a virtual assistant from the Philippines (for a few bucks an hour) to write each step in a procedure manual and then hire an employee in my office to do those tasks. It has given me more freedom and I don’t have to do the tasks that are not dollar-productive activities. It’s all about you, as the entrepreneur, doing the most important tasks, and automate the rest. Your time is valuable, use it wisely. So this week, I urge to analyze and write down all the tasks that you are doing everyday and ask yourself: “What is something that I do that can be done by an assistant by just following procedures or a checklist?” ### What do you think you do better than most people? I believe that I am one of the most resourceful people I know, but resourcefulness means nothing if you don’t take action and implement. Implementation is what has sets me apart from others. Even if sometimes the implementation is wrong or has some mistakes on them, it’s all about failing forward and learning from your mistakes. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? An entrepreneur should focus on working “on” the business, rather than “in” the business once the systems are in place and scalability is an option. The entrepreneur should also focus on surrounding himself with people who are doing better than they are so that they can learn from other’s experiences and mistakes. Success leaves clues, use them to your advantage and make sure you take action on them every day. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? 1. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki 2. The Go Giver by  Bob Burg , John David Mann 3. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Mason 4. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In a few years I see myself being a speaker and sharing my story in the hopes to inspire millennials on how to live a life worth living and help them become financially free. I see myself coaching others, both personally and as part of a mastermind of over 500 students who are House Hacking. ### Where have you been featured before? Most notably I have been featured in Forbes and the Young Pros Show – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3EBVnj_vSg&t=2921s **Here are some other links that you can check me out:** https://hibandigital.com/diegocorzo/ https://buildabiggerlife.simplecast.fm/episodes/3d1806c8/babl-027-diego-corzo-on-my-american-dream ** ### What does Leave Normal Behind mean to you? To me Leave Normal Behind means not being average and living life to a higher standard. The standard that when you die, you will look back and say: “What a hell of a ride!” Rather than having regrets. Also, doing things that scare you and acting in spite of fear. It is being courageous in the good times and bad times. ### Where can the Future Sharks audience connect with you? Connect with Diego:** Facebook Personal Facebook Business Twitter YouTube ### _________ I am appreciative to have the incredible honor of speaking with Diego for his Future Sharks interview because he is leaving normal behind and becoming the best version of himself. If you or anyone you know is a Future Shark who is leaving normal behind then please send me a message on Facebook or email: rob@leavenormalbehind.com --- ## The Latest Digital Marketing Advances in 2017 and Beyond URL: https://futuresharks.com/latest-digital-marketing-advances-2017-beyond/ Certain aspects of digital marketing are always trending and changing as time goes by. At one point, a favorite social media platform will suddenly begin to lose its luster, and before long many of the previous users will gravitate toward the newest shiny object out in social media land! Just think about different forms of marketing that were dominating the marketplace earlier a lot more than social media – physical marketing products, from stress balls to challenge coins throughout the years. However, digital marketing continues to advance online – and fast. Marketing and technology are always advancing at a rapid rate. Customers have specific expectations from the companies that they do business with, and marketing teams and technology have a way of meeting those expectations as time moves forward. That’s another way that digital marketing has a tendency to advance. In 2017, there are certain digital marketing advances that are already taking place. And others that are on the horizon that will continue to stay popular as time presses ever onward. We’d like to clue you into some of the advances going on right now and also share some of our super-secret insight into the future. Let’s take a look at five digital marketing advances in 2017 and beyond. ## 5 Digital Marketing Advances Happening Now and in the Near Future ### ### Mobile should be your number one priority… and desktop should be your second priority – business owners, marketers, and media relations specialist needs to pay close attention to this important fact. 60% of the people accessing the Internet each day do so through mobile devices. What does this tell you? It tells you that your content, shopping experience, and payment processing needs to be mobile friendly and responsive. If it’s not, you are missing out on a huge potential opportunity since six out of 10 of your website visitors are checking you out via mobile devices. As you can read here about the latest in search engine optimization by Eric Strate, Google is also starting to favorize websites that have responsive design. Don’t miss out! ### Competition for digital ads continues to increase If you ever planned to market your services via digital advertising, please know that the competition is heating up tremendously. And since there is more competition now than ever, the prices to advertise online are becoming more and more expensive as more companies enter the fray. In many instances, healthy competition is certainly a good thing. It means you have a thriving market filled with active customers. The downside is that it’s going to cost more to reach said customers while expanding your business. ### Prioritizing the user experience In today’s digital world, the user experience is the most important aspect of every digital marketing campaign. Users are spending more and more time online via digital platforms, and creating a positive user experience with the customer in mind is definitely something that you must seriously consider. This is particularly important when creating mobile sales funnels and e-commerce websites. Take a look at the Flux Chargers’ website as an example.  ### Video advertising has a massive influence over your audience Video is huge online as we all know. YouTube literally has videos in the billions uploaded to their website every month, and these numbers continue to grow at an astronomical pace. The same holds true for video advertising. People love to watch videos online, and your video ads will have a massive influence on how they spend their hard-earned money. If you want them to spend their money on your products and services, then you need to start using video advertising sooner rather than later. ### Apps are becoming the new digital norm App usage increased in 2016 and the trend has continued now that we are three quarters of the way through 2017. Using apps has become a part of our day-to-day life. This trend will continue since mobile devices continue to grow in popularity. Jumping on the mobile app bandwagon will definitely be a good thing for your business if you want to attract new customers that already have their credit cards in hand. ## Conclusion New digital marketing advances seem to pop up every year. And this will continue since new apps and programs will continue to advance now and in the future. Stay abreast of trending marketing advances to keep on top of everything so that you never fall behind the competition. --- ##  From Severe Injury To Advising High Profile Companies That Generated $450 Million In Online Sales- The Untold Story of Henry Liu URL: https://futuresharks.com/henry-liu/ Henry Liuis an Asian Immigrant  E-commerce Marketing Expert. He is currently an Advisor to Appsumo which is run by Noah Kagan and has previously worked at Facebook in which he advised companies and helped generate a total of $450 million plus across his clients. Growing up , he was travelling between between China and Japan. His mom received an opportunity to attend Harvard Medical School to pursue her Post Doctorate Research and took Henry and his 2 siblings to America. Henry attended Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst in which he did his BBA in Finance- Alternative Finance. ### What made you decide to pursue Finance ? I grew up from humble beginnings, being an immigrant  in America is tough. My family moved to Boston from China without really knowing anyone and really didn’t speak any English.  We were all very optimistic but it was never easy. I wanted to have a stable career to support my family and I. I realized that the 2 most stable career choices at the time were either Engineering or Finance. Although both my parents are PhD’s in Physics and Medicine, I couldn’t stand Biology and Chemistry so I decided to pursue Finance instead. I don’t know how I landed an internship in the investments department of at Liberty Mutual and it definitely didn’t go smoothly. ### How did you land the internship ? When I somehow got called in for an in- person interview. I was late by 15 minutes for a 30 minute interview and I remember blanking out on the first question: “What’s the difference between a stock a bond?” I told them I didn’t know. This was the department that managed $80 billion in assets for Liberty Mutual, one of the largest insurance companies in the world. I did terrible in the interview process. I went home and broke down and thought to myself “What do I do ?” I decided to send a heartfelt personal and emotional Thank You Letter to the hiring manager thanking them for the opportunity. I got a call back letting me know that I got selected to do an internship with Liberty Mutual. I was elated because this would be 1 step closer to my goal of a better life for my family and I. I somehow received an offer for the internship and ended up returning for the 2nd summer and landed a full time offer in the investments department managing $13 billion in international investment grade bonds. I was shocked and knew it wasn’t the interview that got me the job. It was the the Thank You letter. This taught me to never give up even if you fail REALLY hard the first time. ### What was your proudest moment ? It was being apart of TEDx UMass- The goal that year was organizing conference and I was leading a team of 40-50 people. It was one of those moments where I felt a sense of responsibility to ensure that this was  TEDx conference was a success. We had very little time and our goal was to raise $50,000 and I was in my senior year at this point. I went to The Career Fair- instead of asking for a job, I asked companies to be a sponsor for our TEDx Conference. I managed to secure a meeting with 2 publically traded companies; one of them “Here”- a subsidiary of Nokia and Demandware. We raised $15,000 from these 2 companies and the rest from other institutions and investors. The event was a success as we had invited notable speakers and sold accessorized items for the conference. Also, it was a huge success  with 500 attendees and you can see the speakers by searching TEDxUMassAmehurst on YouTube.The friendships, the memories I made during the conference, I will never forget them. ### Why did you decide to decline an entry level role in investments? In early October in my final year at UMass(University of Massachusetts Amherst), I accepted an offer from Liberty Mutual for an entry level role. However along the way I had developed an interest in tech companies like Facebook and Snapchat because of the impact they were having on changing the world. I realized that I didn’t like being behind the desk and I loved selling. I wanted to be in tech and specifically in sales because I wanted to learn how to interact with potential customers. I had very little time to find a sales role before the year ended, I ended up declining the position at Liberty Mutual. I was able to land a role at Fiksu in which I was the Account  Executive managing the top brands and mobile first companies in Retail, E-Commerce, Dating, Real-Estate and Growth stage startups. I exceeded expectations of my individual goal of 138% and the team’s goal of 310%. The company grew to $100 million plus in revenue and we secured over 900 customers and brands which include: Coca-Cola, Disney, Topps, Dunkin’ Donuts and Groupon. Our industry leading technology allowed us to partner with Facebook, Twitter, largest mobile advertising exchanges and networks to gain access to 99% of all mobile advertisement traffic in the world. I decided to leave and thought about pursuing a role at either Google or Facebook. I was being interviewed by both organizations and in my final month, I got an offer from Facebook in their Growth Strategy department after completing the final round of interviews. ### What was your lowest moment till now ? While at Fiksu, we were doing a 3 vs 3 basketball tournament against other companies. During the game I tore my achilles tendon and I couldn’t walk(when you tear an achilles you can’t walk for about 2 months and the healing time is typically 10-12 months). I had to get surgery to fix the issue. For those that know the impact of tearing your achilles tendon, it’s a devastating feeling. I had to have surgery and those days were dark. I had to pause everything I was doing to focus on my health. No more job searching, partying or having fun. It was time to re-prioritize my life. I remember 1 morning 4 feet of snow fell in Boston and I didn’t have the mobility to shovel. I was crippled, broken and hurt by this injury-emotionally and physically. > # However, during that time, I learnt one lesson- No matter how hard life is, the only thing you can do is keep moving forward. ### What did you accomplish at Facebook and what made you leave ? **Fahad:** If it was anyone else, people would kill to have your job. A six figure salary, a great benefits package, a stable career and a great environment. Why did you leave ? **Henry:** At some point you realize what you are doing doesn’t align with what you want to do for the rest of your life, and I needed a change.I  just didn’t want to be limited to Facebook Advertising or Growth. I wanted to learn the operations, manufacturing, supplier relations and all the other back end activities that go into running a Company. I wanted to dig deeper into businesses. Yet my role required me to help and manage 35-50 businesses at any given time. I couldn’t give the attention to the companies that I wanted to help and learn from.  **I managed and advised over 100 businesses and helped them generate $150 million in ad revenue and a total of $450 million in ecommerce sales.** A few clients that taught me the most about business include: *BeachBody, Everlane, OutdoorVoices, Soylent, ClassPass, Eve Sleep, Tommy John, Treehut, and Love Your Melon.* ### What are you currently working on ? After living in 3 different countries for over 7 years each, I saw value in physically experiencing different cultures and connecting with local communities. We want to empower travelers to bridge the communities around the world We have a Facebook Group called Travel Hacks in which we share our best travel tips and hacks. From how to get super cheap flight deals to finding cool places- we understand the challenges of travelling so we wanted to form a community that includes travelers from all over the world an build a community. The decision to start a travel brand(an eCommerce store which is coming soon) is because I wanted to grow a company from the ground up and work with companies that I am passionate about working with. I am currently also advising a few companies- one of them being Appsumo run by Noah Kagan. ### What is your best travel hack ? Be flexible and plan travel ahead of time – travelpirates.com, secretflying.com are my go to for flight deals and I got a ticket from NYC to HongKong/GuangZhou and Beijing to Vancouver round trip for $340 because of it ### Teach us something about Facebook Advertising ? Facebook advertising is no different than a giant billboard on the highway. You have 2 seconds to capture their attention and leave a lasting impression. The only difference is they now have a chance to click on it and perform action **Final Question: What is 1 quote you live by ?** > # “You are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with”- Jim Rohn. If I wanted to grow as a person, I needed to surround myself with the best and learn from them. ### What is 1  thing entrepreneurship taught you ? I am still early in the game- I am learning as I go. Thinking and planning have their place but a lot of it comes down to execution. You just have to keep moving, keep pushing and this is how opportunities surface. ### What is your legacy ? I want people to remember that being uncomfortable is okay. Surrounding yourself with people smarter than you is vitally important.  My mission is to empower people to travel and meet other communities and learn other cultures. By doing so, we can create a world with more compassion and empathy for one another. --- ## In Conversation With The Entrepreneur Helping UK’s Women Monetize Their Ethnic Wardrobes URL: https://futuresharks.com/nabiha-khan/ **Nabiha Khan** is the Founder of Dress Me Desi, a South-Asian dress rental and wedding services platform. **While it’s easier for men to handsomely make it through formal occasion with the help of one tuxedo, for females that is not usually the case.** Buying ethnic south Asian dress after dress can prove to be an expensive investment and may appear wasteful to the *Sustainably Conscious* Community — or whose appreciation for the artistry that goes into making a spectacular ethnic dress makes them think twice at the thought of letting it rust in their wardrobe after a single wear With her start-up Dress Me Desi, savvy young entrepreneur Nabiha Khan has applied the principles of the sharing economy to these issues, creating a service that allows fashion conscious women to utilize and monetize their overflowing wardrobes, and women in need of a new outfit to temporarily borrow something amazing at a fraction of its purchase price. Also, serve as a wedding vendor discovery platform that houses everything that one needs to plan, manage, and organize for their big day Here is her story in summary: **City where you’re from:** Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Living in London. **Hobbies:**Reading, meeting people and travelling **Favorite quote:**It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing- Oriah Mountain Dreamer **Social accounts**: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin ### What inspired you to start this business? **Nabiha Khan:** When I was at the university in UK, a lot of festivals such as Eid and Diwali would be spent with friends and it was nice to wear traditional ethnic clothes for these events. Some would get clothes from back home, borrow or buy. However, Ethnic South Asians Party wear dresses are normally sold on a higher price in the UK. Due to its high price, such purchases are typically made on a very special occasion such as Wedding.   Last year, I attended three friend’s wedding in a year. Each wedding required a minimum of two to four outfits. With no trips to India on the horizon, things were beginning to look dicey. Also, we recognised an increase in South Asian fashion demand in UK. Nowadays, one third of the guest in a south Asian wedding are non-south Asians. Opening a retail boutique that offered affordable yet glamorous ethnic outfits partially solved the problem but not completely. We found that clothes that sit in the back of our closet don’t seem to add much value to our life. instead they contribute to inordinate amounts of waste pollution. We wanted to provide a better deal environmentally and create something where you can dress your best while reducing carbon footprint, waste pollution and water consumption making it a win-win situation for those who want to live sustainably yet not compromise on style. Additionally, one of my close friend had to go through multiple websites, text messages, meetings, and WhatsApp groups to finalize vendors for her wedding. The chaos and lack of organized wedding planning services and affordable ethnic south Asian dresses gave birth to Dressmedesi. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? **Nabiha Khan:**  Our USP lies in our diverse range of high quality party wear apparel at affordable rental price. Currently, no one does the kind of outfits we do at the price that we provide them for in UK. Also, enables you to monetize your closet by simply sharing your style is new. Another section, the wedding vendor platform is simply not a database, where any vendor can register. Each vendor goes through a screening and only vendor that provides high quality service/product get accepted. We approve vendors just as we would look for our own wedding. We want to change consumer behaviour and put the closet in the cloud, giving access to finest quality apparel and the latest fashion trends. Although I know it takes a lot of times to change customer behaviour, starting from a closet full of clothes that we don’t use to a world where we are being smarter about how we get dressed or find services ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? **Nabiha Khan:** We now live in a fast-paced world where everything is based on speed and a slow decision may be too late for us to get something in our possession. When I was offered graduate entrepreneur visa, I was so enthusiastic that I started getting the trademark in place. Soon after, I started receiving letters of trademark, some demanding 1000, 500 etc all of them looked legit, as it even had my company name and a proper letterhead. I made the payment as the deadline for payment was near, soon after I realised it was a fraud. That costed me 1000, I could have probably used that somewhere useful. I learnt that it’s better to think before to make a quick implementation because there is no irreversible anymore. Also, I need to Avoid making a decision in isolation. For solo entrepreneur decision making process can be isolating at times. It’s important for solo founders to surround themselves with team members and fellow entrepreneurs so that they don’t become too closed off and lose their creative edge over time as they work alone. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. The best advice I could ever give anyone is to forge genuine connections with people inside and outside your industry. I have not launched my business on my own. I have had a lot of support from great people who have supported me throughout. Starting a business, you are always going to find a road block, may it about developing a website, learning about marketing and so on. Always ask for help. It’s so simple and it’s true. The key to success is to help others succeed. Be truly interested in them and try to cast a wide net. Also, don’t lets other insecurities rule you. Never give up on your dreams, and believe in yourself. Stay humble but be a badass ready to take over the world. ### What is the most unpopular opinion you have on entrepreneurship? An idea of having a business of your own, is often glamorized, making it look so easy with no 9-5 job. In reality, it requires a lot of determination, time, and sacrifices. If one can’t give up on weekends, can’t fully dedicate their time to it, then I don’t think entrepreneurship is for them. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Innovation should be one of the top most priority for entrepreneur. During ideation and brainstorming phase, innovation is the first one to make an appearance. When planning the entire course of business development, innovation must be kept in mind, as absence of innovation leaves you with nothing to distinguish yourself from your competition. It doesn’t necessarily create a new idea, it can also mean, taking an older model, and updating it for a new environment, or combining two previously independent ideas together. ### Teach us something that you really believe in. Reading is the key to success. I at least spend half an hour every day on reading, every day I learn something new. It doesn’t necessarily need to be half an hour, even 10-15 mins of reading will give you so much insight into what’s happening around you.  You don’t need to be the smartest to success, but always be willing to learn like a child, curious to explore and discover. --- ## From Struggles To Being A Financial Expert- Learn How Arian Beyzaei Is Helping Millions Change Their Financial Future URL: https://futuresharks.com/arian-beyzaei/ People want it fast. Everyone wants to make a million dollars tomorrow, have the nice life, private jet, champagne popping lifestyle. The sad truth is- that isn’t a true picture of entrepreneurship or business. How many people do you know that are willing to sacrifice it to have the lifestyle ? It doesn’t come easy but Arian Beyzaei documents and shows the struggles and rewards of being a business person. Arian Beyzaei is a rising Canadian born businessperson. Being of Iranian descent, Arian heard the struggles his parents went through to bring the family to Canada for a better life. Ever since then, Arian decided that he was not going to take the opportunity for granted and pave the way to create a better life for himself and his family. Today he is currently the Vice President and Partner of Enriched Academy– a financial education program that educates people on personal finance and money management. **Arian what’s your story ?** I was born in Canada. My parents immigrated from Iran and I saw the countless struggles we lived through to have a better life. We lived with another family at that time in a small 2 bedroom studio apartment where there were 8 members and 1 washroom. My parents came to this country with no money and they had a strong influence on the man I am today.My parents owned a Coin Laundry and then a Pizza Shop. Now my dad is a teacher and has a small tutoring business. I knew it was important to not take this opportunity for granted and work hard to provide a better life for them. I got exposed to business in Grade 9-10 when I discovered Snapbacks were a hot commodity and I noticed an opportunity to earn money. I ordered a few Snapbacks from California and sold them on sites like Kijiji and made a few hundred dollars a month. In Grade 10, I read ***[“Rich Dad Poor Dad”](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612680194) by Robert Kiyosaki***and that sparked a newfound sense and interest in business. At that time, I contemplated dropping out of high school a couple of times but decided to finish it and get an education. Even though it would be a cool headline story to say “Dropped out of high school” I don’t regret finishing high school. **Talk about your decision of not going to University and how did you land a position at Enriched Academy ?** It was a tough one, I remember in one of my classes- I was supposed to deliver a 20 minute presentation on business leadership but I decided to instead discuss ***“Why The School System Is Broken”.*** I strongly believed in what I presented. In Grade 12- I decided to pursue a co-op placement and one lady that worked there-Paula Roberts gave me a package for Enriched Academy and I fell in love with their material. I reviewed it a few times to grasp the understanding of personal finance and money management. Around the same time, the Founders landed a deal on Dragon’s Den(The Canadian Version of Shark Tank) with Bruce Croxon and Jim Treliving – our investors. I was fascinated by the episode and the mission of the company that I decided to email one of the Founders- Kevin and told him that I’ll work for free. He rejected the email. I was broken but I didn’t quit. 1 month later,  I decided to review the material from Enriched Academy, study the competitive landscape and I did an analysis on it. After, I shot a 20 minute video from my Webcam discussing how I can provide value and grow their business. It was that 1 video that gave me the opportunity to turn my life around. **How difficult was the learning curve at Enriched Academy?** It was tough having no skills- I had to learn things the hard way. However, I got a change to rotate and learn different positions from customer service to sales so I got a holistic overview on the operations of a business. I barely made any money in my 1st year in business and a couple of years later, I am now a Partner with the company so I am super grateful. There are ups and downs in business but I realized that if I wanted to be the best, I just had to remember 1 thing: ***“Never Give Up”*** **What was your lowest point in business ?** I vividly remember this. I was delivering a free presentation on Personal Finance to a group of 20-30 people and 1 by 1 people started walking out. The only exit door that was available was the one next to me. So people would walk across me while I was presenting and leave. There was only 4 people left at the end of it. **I was 19 at that time and the drive home- I was thinking.. Is this it ? I am just a young guy. What can I do ?** Also, I got tired of doing mundane tasks- being focused in a Sales role, you are doing repetitive tasks. However, I realized that I wanted things to soon. I wanted to be World Class Speaker, be making millions but I learned that it takes time and it wasn’t going to come easy. I am glad I didn’t give up otherwise I wouldn’t be the person I am today. **What is one quote you live by ?** > ***“People overestimate what they can achieve in 1 year and underestimate what they can do in a decade, 20 or even 30 years”**– **Tony Robbins*** **How do you overcome adversity ?** Rejection is like a muscle. The more you get rejected the more desensitized you are to the feeling. It’s like working out, as a beginner you will be sore- but once your body adapts, working out becomes easier. There is no book that will help you overcome rejection or failure. Want to know the best way ? **Go get rejected.** **How do you balance business and having a girlfriend ?** It’s tough. The truth is it’s having open and honest communication with each other. Sometimes my schedule is hectic where I am travelling often and delivering presentations and I won’t see my girlfriend. It’s being able to show through actions that I care about our relationship and willing to put in the effort necessary. Plus, she’s an understanding and self lessly cares about our future- she understands the reason I am working long hours and understands the vision we have. The toughest things to balance are: health, work, relationship, friendships and family. It’s always a balancing act but I am sure I will figure things out along the way. **You have an engaged following on LinkedIn, what made you decide to use LinkedIn as a platform ?** I saw that everyone was discussing marketing, business and sales but no one was discussing finance or money management. I saw a gap on LinkedIn and realized I could educate the community from my experience, events and so far the feedback has been tremendous so I continue to put out both written and video content from my events. Also, considering I decided to pursue a different educational path vs my peers- I lacked the friendships and the social circle so LinkedIn has allowed me to create a network- I truly believe in the saying **“Your network is your networth”** Manu “Swish” Goswami has also given me LinkedIn advice on how he would approach the platform if he were me and the kind of content that he would share. This allowed me to develop a content strategy to build an engaged following. Plus, it’s rewarding to get messages from people who say I have helped them make sound financial decisions through my content. Also, many people message me about my experiences that have helped them make financial decisions whether it was the post about how buying a car is a liability, phone bill or buying the iPhone 8 which are some of my popular posts that have received 500,000 views. **What is your best sales tip ?** You have to learn to elegantly create pain. People buy emotionally so if you can figure out their reason for making a purchase it will be easier to close. **Let’s talk cold calls, does it work ?** No doubt ! I have built the business through cold calling. The truth is, people don’t like cold calling because they are scared to do it. Everything in life is the result of a “cold call”. When you cold call someone, you have their undivided attention for the small duration of time and having a script initially is crucial to understand sales. The 1st 5 seconds are key to any call. In the beginning I used to book appointments for Kevin(One of the Founders of Enriched Academy) so he could do presentations. He was nice enough to go do them as he understood that I was still learning at that time. One day, Kevin called me and said that I would have to go and make a presentation. I was scared but I got the job done and I moved on from only making sales calls to also making presentations. In the beginning my closing ratio was 10 % now, it has increased to 60%. I keep track of my metrics in Salesforce to analyze if I am doing well and see my progress and areas of improvement. I videotape myself to see areas where I can improve in my presentation and speaking skills. **3 best pieces of advice you’d give if you were to die tomorrow.** 1. Be patient 2. Have gratitude 3. Be adventurous- don’t get stuck in a routine, travel more and gain new experiences **What do you want people to remember you by ?** I don’t know. I still have time, I don’t have a 5 year or 20 year plan but I want people to remember me for helping them with their personal finances and being financially free. --- ## How David Schloss Built and Scaled an Agency to Seven Figures Without Spending a Ton on Advertising URL: https://futuresharks.com/how-david-schloss-built-and-scaled-an-agency-to-seven-figures-without-spending-a-ton-on-advertising/ David Schloss is an online entrepreneur and advertising specialist who began marketing in 2007 from his college apartment from Miami, FL. He is a modern-day renaissance man who enjoys basketball, stock trading, investing, gaming, and business. Over the years, he has helped hundreds of businesses improve their website traffic, customer acquisition, and revenue using social advertising. His business, Convert ROI, enables businesses to succeed by taking complicated social ad plans and seamlessly turning them into easy-to-follow revenue producing campaigns. He manages over $2.5mil per month in paid advertising via Facebook and Instagram. He has been rated as one of the top “Experts to Watch” by Forbes Magazine, has been featured on Entrepreneur.com, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, and been interviewed on various podcasts and web shows around the topic of social advertising. David is an incredible person who is leaving normal behind and it was an honor to sit with him for his Future Sharks interview. ### Here is our conversation below: ______ ## What is your favorite quote? “Love your enemies and hate your friends. Your enemies remain the same, your friends always change.” – Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson ## What are you working on? I actively work on and within my agency, Convert ROI, where we help businesses take complicated social ad plans and turn them into easy-to-follow revenue producing campaigns. I’m also prepping the launch of my first solo book called “Lead By Authority” and the release of a course revolving around social advertising and building a successful agency. ## How did you come up with this idea? My agency was initially built because of necessity. I started the business from my college apartment in 2007, and spent much of my time learning and executing online marketing strategies. Once I found something I enjoyed, such as paid advertising, I stuck to it, learned as much as possible, and began offering it as a service once I felt comfortable enough to work with business owners. *(David & Lewis Howes)* The business truly took shape in 2010 with the shift entirely to social advertising such as Facebook. Once we put all of our attention on social, we tapped into a growing trend that was just hitting its stride. Today we managed over $2.5 million dollars per month in social advertising across Facebook and Instagram in over a dozen industries. ## How is your company different? We focus on communication and education with clients first before diving into strategy. Most service providers jump right into selling their services just to collect funds from their prospects, and though sales drives a company to progress we make sure our prospects understand what they’re jumping into, explain everything in depth with regards to strategy, and then reveal the investment in making the plan become a reality. Because of this, we have far more companies coming to us excited and ready to go without us having to sell. They’re prepared to invest and create results. ## What’s your dream with your company? To have a self-sustaining and asset creating agency where we’re not reliant on client work or product offerings. With the right mix of both client work and products, we can focus more of our time with investing in other companies and products that we believe in and create an impact. ## How do you creatively advertise? We focus on advertising that delivers the exact message pointing to the client’s ideal audience so that revenue is generated effortlessly. We focus on integrity-driven advertising that is not holding anything back and clear to the end user. ## How would you define leadership in today’s business economy? Creating alignment between yourself and those around you (employees, contractors, friends, family, etc.) to accomplish a common goal. ## What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? ***My biggest failure:*** Having two businesses go under and nearly claiming bankruptcy…twice. I felt alone and very much like a failure. I nearly quit on my vision, but I learned that practice, patience, persistence, vision, and drive are the keys to creating an ideal business. ***My biggest success:*** Getting featured in Forbes Magazine twice in the same year. I was given the honor to be named as an “Expert to Watch” by Forbes Magazine with over a dozen entrepreneurs on two separate occasions, which blew me away. I always dreamed of being in Forbes when I started in business and it became a reality. ## Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have: Measure your level of happiness in business by the expressed happiness of your teamand how often they’re achieving milestones set for themselves. Why? As you see others succeed, your own goals come to fruition. That’s why your team is as vital to business as your ideas, tactics, strategies, and hustle. Without your team, scaling becomes more and more difficult. ## ## Teach us something about Facebook & Instagram ads that we can implement right away: When you’re conceptualizing a campaign on Facebook or Instagram, make sure to setup your campaign with scaling in mind. Let me explain… ## 1. ## Choose an ad objective for the best results 2. ## Determine a daily and short / long term budget 3. ## Deploy ads with the objective to achieve the desired result With regards to your ad copy, use this simple breakdown: 1. ## Headline: Use headline from landing page (or variation of it) in headline of FB Ad – tests headline against audience to create alignment 2. ## Body Copy: take your best 2-3 benefits and turn them into issues 3. ## Benefit(s): These strategies have helped increase overall webinar registrants for clients by 35-60% **Example Ad Copy:***If you host webinars and want to get a larger turnout, I’m going to show you the exact strategies I use to get 35-60% more registrations on webinars compared to the industry average.* **Newsfeed Description**: Include an unused benefit from registration page like increased profit, lower cost, more brand awareness.. **CTA Button****:** This is optional, but I use “learn more” or “watch more” because it is less pushy than “sign up” ### ## What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Be careful who you have in your corner. Nothing will have a greater impact on your life and success than the people who you allow into your life. From friends to mentors to spouses to family members, the individuals who you let into your life can make or break your happiness and success making it crucial that you are highly selective when building your social circle. ## Share a powerful life lesson with us: Even when you are diligently practicing your craft and patiently waiting for results, you are going to hit a speedbump. You will lose a client, get dumped by a woman you love, or injure yourself in the gym. It’s inevitable, but it’s during times of adversity where champions are made. If you are willing to persist and overcome these setbacks and losses, on the other side of these adversities is success. ## What do you think you do better than most people? Finding and keeping quality talent. You can hire people every day, week, month and year, but if your new hires do not feel appreciate from day 1 they’ll slowly drop out of your organization. This is an evolving process for most businesses and one that constantly needs to be finely tuned. ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? Leadership: A leader could fail by simply not connecting with his or her supporting cast. For example, a CEO that doesn’t take time to understand the vision and goals of his/her Board of Advisors cannot create the actions needed to accomplish those same goals. There’s misalignment and miscommunication. What I learned from experience in managing a team is people who become a part of a team or company want to feel appreciated, accepted, and a part of something bigger. Yes, they have a job to fulfill and tasks to accomplish, but connection and communication are what create and establish the bond with that individual and the company’s mission and vision. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? Cashvertising – Drew Eric Whitman Breakthrough Advertising – Eugene Schwartz The 50th Law – Robert Greene & Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson ## ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In several years, I see my agency running at the helm with my employees and management. I’ll be focusing more on creating content to educate the masses on building sustainable businesses that thrive in any economy. I’ll also be more inclined to invest in new business opportunities and build a portfolio of assets with long term sustainable growth. ### Here are David’s social media accounts to follow and contact him: Facebook: http://facebook.com/davidmschloss Instagram: http://instagram.com/dschloss925 Twitter: http://twitter.com/schlossy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dschloss925/ ________ David is a trailblazer and leader in his industry. If you are looking for any advertising expertise he is your go-to guy. It was my pleasure to give this exclusive interview for Future Sharks. As of the Founder of Leave Normal Behind, I am frequently chatting with leaders and visionaries who are pioneering their industries. If you, or anyone you know, is leaving normal behind by becoming the best version of themselves and creating things that matter then please connect with me via email rob@leavenormalbehind.com --- ## This Millennial Will Save His Customers A Projected $1 Billion Through Solar Energy By 2019 URL: https://futuresharks.com/this-millennial-will-save-his-customers-a-projected-1-billion-through-solar-energy-by-2019/ Walid Halty is a 23 year old philanthropist whom has combined his purpose to serve others and his highly profitable solar energy business to revolutionize the solar industry and attack the world’s energy crisis head on. Walid defines himself as a philanthropist first, having been first recognized by Nestle for altruism and academic excellence at 16 years old. As an innovator and trailblazer, he is on “a mission to empower.” In less than 10 months Dvinci Energy (his current organization) has generated over $10 Million in revenue with an additional $20 Million in its project pipeline for 2018, and a projected $75 Million in revenue by year 2. Walid is someone who is leaving normal behind, becoming the best version of himself, and creating things that matter. I had the unique opportunity to spend time with this Future Shark pick his brain for this exclusive interview. *Here is our value-packed conversation below:* ___ ## What is your favorite quote?  “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” – Robert Swan ## What are you working on? At Dvinci, we are building one of the fastest-growing, most profitable tech companies in the world. We are empowering communities to work sustainably by giving them more freedom & control through low-carbon, bankable, sustainable technologies (i.e. Solar). We are currently saving clients an est. $45M in utilities – while also reducing 8,760 tons/year in CO2 emissions– with a goal of $1 billion in clients’ savings by 2019 *(Dvinci Energy Residential Home)* ## How did you come up with this idea? If you know anything about energy, you know that everyone needs it. It powers our homes, our hospitals, banks, schools. However, the way we get our energy is outdated & unsustainable. This has created an opportunity. As they exponentially cut thousands of pounds of CO2, reduce the cost of living, and empower communities, renewables are now the mainstream form of energy. Solar, being the #1, most bankable, sustainable and economical technology, has caused a gold rush. In response to this window of opportunity, companies like SolarCity, NextStepLiving, NRG Energy adopted a “grow-at-all-costs” mentality. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, this led to the creation of business models with high-cash-burn, low margins, poor customer experience and operational deficiencies that has inevitably cost them their companies. We entered the industry with a new turn-key, more profitable & sustainable approach that allows us to deliver great tech at a lower cost. ## ## How did you come up with the name Dvinci? Da Vinci was the theme of last year’s Burning Man festival. At this event I had a profound moment where I got the intuitive hunch to name our company after him. Leonardo Da Vinci conceptualized concentrated solar in the early 16th century. He is widely considered as one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived, “a universal genius.” At our core, we strive to embody the soul of Da Vinci.  I  envisioned us competing with Tesla very early on, so “Dvinci” was even more suiting for that purpose. ## How is your company different? In an industry riddled with inconsistency and failures, we have a business model that works. Dvinci entered the industry with a new approach designed to give the end-user the highest quality product, lowest price, fastest turn-around and most tailored experience in the solar industry. Most importantly, our direct approach stimulates behavioral changes – on an individual and community level. New regulations have decreased bank lending significantly in the solar space, and as a result created an attractive opportunity for someone to fill the gap. Our price-discipline has guided our partnerships with every financier in the solar industry, which provide flexibility and access to unique low-cost financing options from private and public leading investors to fill this financing need in the solar space. In addition to financial certainty, we are empowered with preferred pricing across the board for all our equipment & technologies – which allows us to pass the savings to our customers. ## ## How is your company doing right now? To date, we have generated $10.55M in revenue in less 10 months, with $20M in our residential & commercial pipeline. Our Forecasted revenue is $75M by end of 2018 & $350M by 2019. We have no debt/outside funding, and in less than 1 year we are at around 40 employees.  As of September 2017, Dvinci is saving it’s clients an estimated $45 Million in utilities – while simultaneously reducing 8,760 tons/year in CO2 emissions– with a goal of $1 billion in clients’ savings by 2019. Our projects include domestic residential and commercial, and international utility scale projects in Jamaica, Indonesia, Guinea, Sri Lanka and Liberia. ## How is your company making a difference in your market? We have a unique portfolio of technologies, partnerships, and developers that allow us to create a customer-centric experience that saves them money, maximizes their awareness, and solves the global energy crisis at the same time. Our blend of deep industry experience, cutting-edge business model, and highly customized approach allow us to meet the demands of the dynamic solar energy market. ## ## Why do you call yourself a philanthropist? Any business or venture should aim at serving people and improving lives as much as possible – that’s common knowledge. And, the definition of philanthropy is… the practice of giving (whether service, time or money) to help make life better for other people. At Dvinci, we believe that it is our obligation as global citizens to serve others.  This is why philanthropy is weaved throughout our internal team culture, activities, consumer brand.  Philanthropy is at the core of our decision-making. We have donated $25,200 in educational scholarships in 2017, with $100k scheduled to be donated in 2018, and a goal of $1mill in 2019. ## ## What is a challenge you are facing right now? We are going through hyper-growth right now.  Which involves balancing the need for supporting infrastructure without the infrastructure being too far ahead. This is one of the more difficult and ongoing challenges any hyper-growth company faces. This means having enough structure in place that growth is not out of control – but not so much that the structure impedes your ability to adapt quickly. With the guidance of our advisory board, we are aware this requires equal parts of improvisation and planning, and we are really excited for the future of our company. ## ## Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have… Here is my best advice: **1**. **Experiment rapidly and often**. Experimentation can be your competitive advantage as the best source of new information.Experiment wisely based on your experience, intuition, available data, and assessment of risk). **2.** **Be ahead of your competition**. Wayne Gretzky, used to say that he didn’t skate to where the puck is, but rather where the puck is going to be. In business, look for trends so you too can skate to where the trend is going. This involves studying not only your competition in your industry, but other businesses in other industries as well. This allows you to have a multidisciplinary approach to business because you have insight and information that spans across multiple industries. **3.** **Be fast.** No matter your business or market, expect to operate in a flexible, dynamic fast moving environment as the norm. To thrive in change, you must understand how to give into it, flow with it and drive strength from it. This involves maintaining a healthy balance of urgency and crisis in your organization. ## What have you done to build a thriving team culture ? We empower our employees through making them think and feel like owners. This creates a self-sustaining, winning culture. It also gives our people a sense of pride, balanced with a dose of personal investment and accountability.  *(Dvinci Energy Team)* We constantly communicate the future state of our company with our team. Our heavy focus on feedback/communication has created an amazing sense of community within our organization. In terms of recruitment, we find people who can do the job well, and are motivated to continue growing their skills. We are looking for people who want to grow with us and stick around for the long-term. This is why we cultivate and train our people, especially the leaders. Lastly, we thrive to be the best people in the world, not just best in our business. ## Teach us something that we can implement right away… **1**. **Measure everything.** You cannot manage what you cannot measure. Every activity has metrics attached. Know the numbers of your business. Assign metrics to all departments. Review these metrics weekly, some daily. Set aggressive targets. This creates responsibility for one another, accountability for results, and appreciation for facts/data. **2**. **Feedback is your best friend.** Community is built with communication. Communicate fast & deep. Immerse yourself in real information with real people, so you can react in real-time. You do this through engaging in a cooperative mutually beneficial dialogue – with your employees, customers and suppliers. In doing so, you begin to develop an intimate understanding of their likes, needs & priorities. This puts you in a position to find the next frontier of value you can create/provide for your people. **3.** **Constantly question everything you do.** Train your people to ask: “how can we change the rules of the game? What can we do that no one ever thought of to achieve our goal? Can we do this in a different way? how can we do more/deliver more value? How can we differentiate ourselves?” ## What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? A couple things I have learned in the past few months. **1**. Fewer suppliers means fewer opportunities for error, less cost, less confusion & greater consistency. Thus, less is more when it comes to suppliers. **2.** Take your customers’ business needs just as seriously as your own, and build a meaningful memorable experience so you win customers for life. **3**. Deploy scalable and virtual information technologies to reduce obstacles between the flow of information. This allows the company to respond to information the right way at any given moment creating transparency and speed within an organization. As Bill Gates says, this allows a business to operate “at the speed of thought.” ## What do you think you do better than most people? Our velocity is the ultimate source of our competitive edge. At Dvinci, we maximize time out of every step of the process. We focus on execution & speed over everything else. We are constantly experimenting, trying to find the next frontier of value we can create or provide for our customers. ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? **#1) Focus on your strengths.** Align your complementary strengths with your partners. Just like airlines don’t make airplanes, nor do restaurants raise chickens to serve their customers. Find out where you can add the most value to your customers, & find great partners to do the rest. **#2) Swing for hits, not homeruns.** No one is batting 1.000. If your competition is batting .300, you want to bat .350 or .400. You can do this by constantly asking, “How can we do more/deliver more value? How can we differentiate ourselves?” **#3) Be a voracious learner.** In order to understand customers, employees, competitors, suppliers, the market, & world you need to be a constant learner. As Ghandi says, “Live as if you’ll die tomorrow and learn as if you’ll live forever.” ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? “Business at the speed of thought” – Bill Gates “Direct from Dell” – Michael Dell “The First Billion is the Hardest” – T. Boone Pickens “Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul.” – Howard Schultz “E myth” – Michael Gerber “BOLD” – Peter Diamandis “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” – Klaus Schwab “7L: The Seven Levels of Communication” – Michael Maher “Leonardo Da Vinci” – Walter Isaacson ## ## Can you tell us where you see the solar industry going? In the last decade, solar has experienced an average annual growth rate of 68%. In 2006 – 30,000 homes had solar. In 2013 – 400,000 homes installed solar. (more than 1,000 % increase) In 2016 – 1 Million + homes with solar. Prediction: 2 million should be hit in 2018 and 4 million by 2022. Total installed U.S. solar PV capacity is expected to nearly triple over the next five years. There are still over 300 million more homes that need solar. In addition, between 2016 – 2021: $144 billion of total investment will go into the U.S. solar market that will fuel research, development and adoption. There is a great window of opportunity right now in this industry. We are leading the way in this growth. ## ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? 1.3 billion people are without electricity (1 out of every 5 in the world), a privilege that drives machinery,  economy, banks, hospitals, & education. Dvinci Energy is on the cutting-edge of this “Great Transition” to renewable sources of energy, which is inevitably necessary for our survival. As utility rates & carbon emissions rise, the marketplace need is at an all-time high – so we expect ourselves being in an even better state to serve more people over the next coming years. ## Lastly, what do the words “Leave Normal Behind” mean to you? Great question. To me, Leave Normal Behind means to have NO FEAR and BREAK THINGS. Set a new standard. And most importantly, “anything…. absolutely anything is possible.” #### _______ Walid is wise beyond his years and it was my pleasure to give this exclusive interview for Future Sharks. As of the Founder of Leave Normal Behind, I am frequently chatting with leaders and visionaries who are pioneering their industries. If you, or anyone you know, is leaving normal behind by becoming the best version of themselves and creating things that matter then please connect with me via email rob@leavenormalbehind.com --- ## 7 Empowering Thought Patterns That Will Lead To A Better Life URL: https://futuresharks.com/7-empowering-thought-patterns-will-lead-better-life/ One of the most important things that you can do in your life is to live at a peak state. Studies have shown that you see more possibilities when you have positive thoughts. But how do we do it amongst everything going on in our lives and in the world? It’s easier than you think. Take a second and look at what kind of thoughts are running through your mind on the regular while we go over these empowering thought patterns. The definition of “thought patterns” are “a habit of thinking in a particular way, using particular assumptions.” After working with thousands of people in my life, I’ve narrowed down the best thought patterns into a list of 7. These are thought patterns that I’ve compiled that I see on a regular basis that come from those who are living a great life. ### They Believe In Themselves If there is one trait I’ve noticed that exists in the lives of those who are truly happy is that they believe in themselves. There is a large difference between those who truly believe in themselves and those who don’t. Belief is the one motivator that makes someone pursue greatness and it stems from how one thinks and believes. ### They Know They’re Worth Much More Those who lead the greater life are those who have a purpose bigger than themselves. They have goals that are bigger than average and they work harder than most. They aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and strive for becoming the best in their field. ### They Focus On Their Strengths Why struggle doing what you don’t like to do or what you’re not good at? I’ve always found the those who lead a great life always focus on doing what they love and doing what they know best. They let the experts take care of what they’re best at. They know that there will be more rewards in the long run for doing so. ### They Think And Speak Differently You are what you eat. More importantly, you are what you think and do. What you consume on a regular basis in your mind and in your heart will show outwardly and the great know this. They surround themselves with people who lead great lives. They pay attention to the words and thoughts that enter their mind. They are aware of their surroundings and make sure that they are at peak state in all things. When things do get hard, however, they take a step back and regroup as to not go backwards. ### They Are Action Oriented They focus on the 80/20 rule of doing. They spend 20% of their time reading, studying, and learning, and they then spend 80% of their time applying it. They know that massive success takes massive action and they are always on the go. They have and set goals on a regular basis and have checklists that they complete frequently. They look to inspire others to do so and love helping others take the next step. ### They Have A Great Attitude Towards Others They’re always happy, even through tough times. They are in a peak state at all times and help others do the same. They look for the good in others and help others reach their potential by letting them do what they do best. They understand that everyone is different and they love the variety that others have to offer. They are patient with themselves and others during projects and certain activities. ### They’re Patient They’re patient with themselves and more importantly, they’re patient with others. They accept that everyone is on the same journey. They know that everyone is fighting their own battles and they see past the present and look to the future. They see greatness in others and in themselves. They see the bigger picture and look for opportunities to expand and grow because they look at everything like a marathon, not a sprint. It’s really not as difficult as it looks. Trust me, it can go a long way. --- ## How $80 Billion Adtech industry is going to be disrupted by Blockchain and VR URL: https://futuresharks.com/80-billion-adtech-industry-going-disrupted-blockchain-vr/ Advertising has come a long way since the emergence of digital media, from posters to popups, signboards to gif’s, commercials to youtube ads. The industry has grown very big in terms of content reach but nothing concrete has been developed in user personalisation. Targeted ads have been tried to undercover this segment but it still falls short to deliver the precision of ad deliver as the data points we have over the network is limited. By network I mean the Internet here, world wide web has limited capability to get user insights to deliver user-specific ads not because they are incapable to deliver but because their support system is just one dimensional, i.e you can only have access over what a user clicks on the screen. But now the time has come for the taking this onto a completely next with the fusion of immersive and emerging technology, AR/VR with Blockchain. AR/VR provides that 3-dimensional model where a user can be completely tracked and based on every movement on the virtual environment to every interaction with and within the environment. Let’s say when we talk about digital ads or target specific ads of present what at most can be achieved is trying to analyse a user behaviour by analysing data collection from various sources like search engine, social media profiles, youtube video views, online transactions etc and mapping them all and doing data intelligence over it and developing user behaviour patterns and then targeting the user with content customised according to the psychology. In this use-case what ad-networks are trying to do is to guess the user requirements and liking up to some level of accuracy and give different shots with ads and wait for the conversion. This is the most hardcore limit to which an ad network can go at max. The downside of this is that there are a lot of dependencies over the data sets to be gathered from different sources, a lot of processes are involved to cluster data and it is very costly. This hardcore level stuff can’t be afforded by normal businesses and sticks only to the top fortune 500 companies. The worst part is that even after so much of work the bottom line is that we are still guessing and testing our hypothesis. In the present advertising, ads come from a virtual and try to interact in the physical world. In the future advertising, ads will remain in virtual world and humans will come to interact with the virtual world. Now, AR/VR opens up a completely new world and the level to which data can be precise just from a single data source, i.e environment. No more guesses of what the user needs or requires, the user behaviour can be determined here with absolute precision, as the user lives in the environment. **Let us take an use case where a user walks into a library in a virtual world :** Here with complete accuracy data points like how many steps the user took after entering the, the complete projectile of user walkthrough, where he spent how much time, how many books the user gazed at, what the gaze time for each one, which lines on the book cover he spent most time admiring, how many time he touched each book, which sections he spent the most time to see the titles and many more like this can be determined by complete perfection because the user is doing it and everything can be recorded and ads can be customised accordingly. This whole data set coming from a single source makes it cheaper to process, removes dependencies over other sources and can make it utilisable even for the small and medium scale businesses too. Taking advertising to the next level. **Blockchain the problem solver for advertisers and content creators:** Now comes the role of Blockchain in the whole scenario integrating the whole system with blockchain provides the model support for the process and backend transactions to be performed. It can add a lot of value in 2 main functions : 1. Auditability of gaze payments. 2. Provenance of virtual content. Blockchain will allow to securely store ownership data about content assets in VR and AR (objects, experiences, environments, worlds). Then, embed transactional metadata (linked to telemetry data of the user action that triggered the transaction: gaze) across all micro transactions involving those assets. This information can be made directly available to the advertiser and content owner and cannot be forged. As content is added and remixed in the virtual world, the blockchain creates an indelible audit trail of these changes, enabling long-tail royalty payments to content owners. Smart contracts in blockchain will provide better hold on the copyright materials and make the system completely piracy free. It can be used to track copyright, particularly relevant use cases for tracking copyright in VR/AR include 3D objects (gaming weapons/ skins, hologram characters/avatars or branded virtual items, for example), music (which is often remixed), and user-generated content (UGC) based on copyrighted material. A crypto coin can calculate how each asset fragment is consumed and create a micropayment payable to content owners accordingly. Consider the following example whereby users change a digital asset (in this case, players adding new capabilities to an avatar in a game): When the avatar is originally added to the game, the blockchain generates a unique ‘trackable’ token for that avatar. Although players may purchase the same avatar at first, whenever each player buys different moves for the character, the avatar is then considered altered and unique to that player. If the character earns money, the revenues flow back via the tracking token to the rights holders/creators of the fragments accordingly. Presently, there is no universal ad-based, ad-driven mechanic for driving content inside VR and AR. And there lies a huge gap yet to be conquered. Gaze coin pty ltd is coming with a product that fixes the main problem of monetizing with VR. Gaze Coin uses the concept of “gaze” to create a business model for VR and AR by creating a unit of exchange between content owners, advertisers and users measured initially by gaze and then, more specifically, through eye tracking. By charging advertisers for the time users spend genuinely engaged, content owners are incentivized to provide the most engaging content. Further, the model rewards users for consuming that content, allowing it to be offered for free. Gaze coin’s token sale starts on 28th november (11am EST). --- ## From Goldman Sachs To Running a Marketing Agency- Learn How Nupur Singh is Building a Marketing Machine URL: https://futuresharks.com/nupur-singh/ Everyone has a story to tell. From the homeless person to an executive to a 12 year old child, everyone’s story shapes our actions and thoughts. How many people do you know would leave one of the top finance firms to go pursue their own entrepreneurial venture and succeed ? Very few do and Nupur Singh has prevailed against tough times to make her vision a reality. **What is your story Nupur ?** I am an Indian born businesswoman and for a better part of my life lived in Singapore. I come from a family that is pro education and did my undergraduate in Psychology. One day Goldman Sachs came to my campus to recruit students and I applied at the finance firm for a job. I landed the role as a Treasury Specialist and was there working long 15 hour days for about 3 years. Being an avid shopper, I decided to start a blog on the side while still working at Goldman Sachs to share my love and interest I have for the fashion industry. During that time, I discovered my passion for creativity and enjoyed blogging about what I loved. So during that time, my blog gained a lot of traction and  had the opportunity to work with many high profile brands like Armani, Daniel Wellington, and Halo Top. ***My blog was nominated one of the top fashion blogs in 2015 and averages about 25,000 monthly views along with a growing Instagram following of 20,000 followers-@TheCrispyCorner*** Before founding my agency, I worked for 2 startups managing content creation, developing a marketing strategy, creating growth campaigns and more. Before leaving the startup I was working at, my boss insisted that I find a replacement for my position. I found someone and that person insisted that I meet her friend Lea- The Former Head of Marketing For Lyft who ended up becoming my Co-Founder for the agency due to our alignment in vision and interests for marketing. I am also the founder of Young Founders Connect, an invite-only group which empowers entrepreneurs and enthusiasts with digital marketing knowledge and connections through high-touch networking events and workshops I appeared on various panels including Tech Fashion Week, Beauty Expo, SFFW, etc. **How did you get a chance to work with big brands as an Influencer ?** Due to my fashion blogs and innate ability to create captivating content that sells- I have been able to align myself with some high profile brands as an Influencer and work on campaigns with them to promote their products. Also,the  ability to create a blog with a great amount of consistent readership and content creation on platforms like YouTube and Instagram has provided me the network and leverage to work with brands. Blogging has allowed me to develop creativity which I attribute as one of the key things that allowed me to become a marketer. **Do you believe you need to drop out to be an entrepreneur  ?** There are no barriers to be an entrepreneur, you could be an entrepreneur at the age of 15 or 50. However, education provides you a network of individuals that you could later use to leverage and build relationships with. A large portion of my success is due to networking- especially in a place like San Francisco, relationships are vital to succeed. Not everyone will succeed being an entrepreneur but having the degree as a backup will be important if you don’t succeed; especially when organizations still place an importance on a degree as a requirement for jobs. **What was your lowest point in business ?** When I moved to San Francisco, the dilemma was to decide whether I continue to pursue a career in Finance and settle for a high paying salary, great benefits and all the perks that come with working at a firm or pursue marketing. I didn’t know anyone in the Bay area but every week I would go to networking events in the hopes to land a role. After 6 months, I landed a marketing role at a startup and that’s what launched my marketing career in San Francisco. **What is the 1 quote you lead your life by ?** > **Richard Branson — ‘If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!’** **Tell Us More About Young Founders Connect** After landing 2 contracts for my marketing agency, I decided to start a forum to educate people on different aspects of marketing and provide a more tactical and strategical advice aspect vs just general and vague. Also we host events 1-2 times a month to educate entrepreneurs, business owners, executives and more groups of individuals with the mission to bridge the gap between marketing as it’s an industry that’s constantly changing and evolving. **What are your top 3 resources to learn marketing ?** 1. **Follow influential people-** not just the ones that are in the limelight but the ones that are in the trenches and are micro influencers that can give tactical advice and not just vague simple advice like “create content” 2. **Networking-** when people are online, they structure and articulate their thoughts in a strategic manner. However in person, people are very open and honest about their thoughts so you have an opportunity to learn and build a relationship. 3. **Blogs and Articles-** I subscribe to blogs and articles so every weekend, I dedicate time to read articles to continue educating myself and be updated on the latest marketing trends. **How did you choose Lea- Former of Head of Marketing at Lyft to be your Co-Founder ?** We connected. Our visions aligned and we had similar belief systems as we both value work life balance and having family time. Also the biggest thing to establish is trust which is is done by having the difficult conversations about finance, responsibilities and disagreements that could arise In business. At the end of the day it is important to make decisions that are in the best interest in the business and not personal benefit. **What is your biggest tip to plan events/meetups ?** Plan in advance. We plan our events 2-3 months in advance to ensure things run smoothly. Also the panelists we choose are vetted to ensure they add value to our audience members. We don’t necessarily favour big brand names or high profile executives because some of them can’t provide tactical advice on their area of expertise so it’s important the panelists are able to offer solid advice. Event sponsorship have helped us in gaining awareness and traction for our events as these publications feature our events. We connect with panelists by using cold email and cold calling people because we believe the worst thing someone can do is say no. One of the main 2 reasons people will decline to speak at your event will be because of the lack of time and lack of passion for the designated topic. **If you were to die tomorrow, what would be your 3 biggest pieces of advice to the world ?** 1. **Never forget your family-** you never know when they will be gone. 2. **Never stop learning-** the moment you stop learning, is the moment you start dying. 3. **Health is Wealth-** all the money in the world is meaningless if you don’t have the health to enjoy it. I make it a priority to plan my work around my gym schedule. **What is your legacy ?** I want to show people that you can have it all in life. You don’t have to sacrifice relationships, health, work, finance or anything for that matter- I want it all in life. --- ## 3 Ways Technology Makes Real Estate Investments More Profitable URL: https://futuresharks.com/3-ways-technology-makes-real-estate-investments-profitable/ Many people find real estate appealing as an investment for a variety of reasons.  Real estate investments can provide income, control and tax advantages not found in other sectors. In today’s world, technology is making real estate even more profitable. Here’s how: ## 1. Streamlining Management Buying a property is one thing but managing it is an entirely different ballgame. Not everyone is prepared to be a landlord. It’s a process that involves screening potential tenants, collecting payments, performing maintenance and a number of other duties essential to the job. However, with new software, a number of these jobs can be performed with automation.  New technology allows for 3-D virtual tours, online applications, automatic background checks and even maintenance updates that can keep landlords and real estate investors profitable without a lot of hands-on time. The right property management software can be especially helpful for those with multiple investment properties. ## 2. Connectivity Even remote land can now get a cell signal or use a satellite for cell or TV service.  This makes living and vacationing remotely more attractive than it used to since there’s little chance of total isolation. Investors seeking properties in rural or unpopulated areas can now market them as opportunities to get away from it all without giving up connection. Connectivity isn’t just important in rural areas; it’s essential in most commercial real estate investments. Most facility systems and business equipment operate via the Internet so reliable connectivity is a must. This connectivity in both rural and commercial real estate often means more cell towers are needed. Cell tower companies often seek new cell tower lease agreements directly with landowners to meet these needs.  With the right agreement, real estate investors can even make additional income from the property and potentially increase its overall value. ## 3. Smart Technology and The Internet of Things The Internet of Things (IoT) has finally entered real estate and is having a significant impact! Smart building technology is rapidly changing real estate investments and providing even more room for profit.  In both residential and commercial real estate, smart technology is boosting operating efficiency, reducing energy waste, and generally means a more rapid return on investment. With IoT data and smart technology, landlords and commercial property owners alike can appreciate security monitoring that allows for real time, remote access.  This means even multi-use or multi-tenant buildings no longer require a security person at the door. Doors can lock/unlock themselves. Elevators and lobbies can be monitored remotely as can smart appliances and electrical systems, which means reduced waste in energy and expense. This value is passed on to tenants who can experience lower energy bills. Continued monitoring of smart buildings also means landlords can also preemptively handle repairs or maintenance before a tenant is even aware of an issue. Bottom line: smart technology can be a boost for real estate investments. Technology is changing and improving our lives daily, why wouldn’t the same be true for real estate investments? --- ## Simple Morning Routine Tips That Will Make Your Workday More Productive URL: https://futuresharks.com/simple-morning-routine-tips-will-make-workday-productive/ **You wake up late, have no breakfast and rush out to work in a frenzied manner every day. It seems like you are always playing catch up and getting late or almost getting late in the office. Something has got to change, and the best place to start is with a good morning routine for productive day formula. Yes, you need to start planning your day better starting with how you spend your mornings if you want to get the most out of them.** ## Why should you care about your morning routine? Well, some people have no routine to speak of, and even with the harried beginnings, they still get work done. If you are this kind of person, you may not see the point of getting into a routine in the first place. I mean why fix what is working, right? Wrong! Your mornings are the time of the day when you have, the most energy and self-control. Harnessing your start of the day can increase your productivity in life significantly. It does not only mean doing your best at work, but it also extends to how you feel emotionally, how you relate to your loved ones and even your health. When you have a good morning routine for productive day formula in place, everything in your life improves and you become a better person in control of your days and what you do with them. It’s not hard to get a good routine in place; all you need is proper planning and execution. Make sure that you make a habit of doing the simplest things every day and soon it will be like second nature to you. 1. ### It starts the day before Yes, a good morning starts the previous evening. You need to take some time out of each evening to organize everything you need for the next day. Set out the clothes you need for work and pack lunches. Ensure that your vehicle has enough gas; you don’t want your car stalling because you forgot to refill. If you have children make sure every evening they complete their homework and pack their bags with everything they need for the next day. School lunches should be ready to go and not made in the morning in a hurry. No need to run after sports kits in the morning when you could have packed them last night. All these small things will make it easier for you to get out of the door in time and put you in control of your day. 1. ### Set that alarm and obey it Hitting the snooze button may feel good, but it is not a good idea. If you cannot adhere to your alarm clock, then set it for much earlier than you need to be up. In this way, you have extra minutes to drag yourself out of bed. Whatever you do, get up once it rings so that you don’t spend the rest of the morning rushed off your feet. 1. ### Exercise Energize yourself by working out for at least half an hour every morning before you do anything else. It’s a great way to lift the spirits and inject some energy into your body. By the time you finish exercising; you will be alert and attend to your needs and those of your loved ones faster and more efficiently. 1. ### Morning shower If you wake up late one of the things you might end up missing out on is a morning shower. A morning routine for productive day plan is not complete without a shower. You would be surprised just how many people do not shower in the morning to avoid getting late. It’s bad for you and those around you. A great cold shower in the morning is another way of invigorating yourself and waking up those brain cells. It’s especially great after your morning workout. You can also make showering better by investing in invigorating bath products like minty fresh soaps that perk you up. For women, one thing that gets in the way is the hair. If you need to style it in a particular way, then at least do so the previous evening, for example by sleeping with some rollers on. It will cut down on your morning routine time. Otherwise, use simple hairstyles for work that only need you to wash, dry and pin up the hair as fast as possible. The makeup routing should also be simple and suitable for a day at work. In homes where bathrooms are minimal, it often happens that people get into each other’s way. It’s important to create a timetable where each person knows when they get in the bathroom, and they have to be in there for a set period. Everyone should [stick to the routine](/healthy-productive-routines/) so that nobody gets late because they are waiting for someone else to get out of the bathroom. It may take some time for the household to get the routine but they will soon have it under control. One thing’s for sure bathing with cold water because another one was selfish and stayed too long in the shower will be eliminated. It’s a win-win for everybody! Also, set up a rule where things you don’t have to do in the bathroom like applying lotion or drying hair are done in the bedrooms so that you all shower and get out of the house with a minimum of fuss. 1. ### Train your children to take care of themselves If you teach your kids to rely on you for everything you can be sure that your mornings will be hectic and stressful for you. Make sure you train them from an early age to clean up and dress on their own. They can also learn to serve their breakfast. Surely, they can pour out cereal for themselves at least! In many cases, you can even teach them to pack their lunch. Just put everything where they can find it, and they can pick them as they go along. Make sure that your children learn to keep important activities in mind such as project days so that you can help them with anything the previous day. You don’t want to start rushing around in the morning trying to make something for a science project that they forgot to tell you about the previous day. The bottom line is that the more responsible and self-sufficient you teach your children to become, the easier morning routines get for you. It will also help them to grow up to become responsible adults that you don’t have to check up on all the time. 1. ### Plan your day and start with the most urgent tasks You need to plan your day immediately you get to the office. No, don’t sit down and get on social media. Pick a pen and notepad and jot down what you have to do for the day. If you have a daily planner, you can write in, the better. Just make sure you list down the tasks at hand in order of importance. Then start with the toughest tasks and work on to the least important ones as the day goes along. Just starting your morning each day with a list will give you a lot of control and result in a very productive day ahead with little frazzle and more execution. **A morning routine formula for productivity is an excellent way to simplify the start of your day so that you stay balanced and productive throughout the day. Try using these simple pointers, and you will reduce stress and achieve more in your life and be happier as well.** --- ## From Working On Wall Street To Consulting Billionaires- Ziad Abdelnour Tells You How To Rebel Against The Status Quo URL: https://futuresharks.com/ziad-abdelnour/ **I had very few life changing moments in my existence. This interview was one of them.** I added Ziad Abdelnour on LinkedIn and didn’t know who he was at first. I decided to visit his website and saw a trailer which is 1:14 seconds long and I knew that I had to interview this man- I was immensely inspired by such an outspoken and fierce business titan. Ziad Abdelnour is not your ordinary businessman- he’s outspoken, fierce, a maverick and a rebel. He is the Founder and CEO of Blackhawk Partners which is a Family Office that is dedicated to generating superior returns on a variety of asset classes through investments, trading and advisory services. He was also listed as one of the 500 Most Influential CEO’s In The World. Ziad worked on Wall Street for about 20 years in which 6 of those years was spent working for Michael Milken; one of the most iconic Financiers in the 20th century – a man who changed the landscape of Corporate America. Since 1985, Ziad Abdelnour has been involved in over 125 transactions worth in aggregate over $10 billion in the investment banking, high yield bond and distressed debt markets and has been widely recognized for playing an integral role in those three key market sectors. He is also the Author of “Economic Warfare- Secrets of Wealth Creation In The Age of Welfare Politics” which you can order on Amazon. **What is your story?** Ziad Abdelnour is a Lebanese American business tycoon who came from a political family in which his father and uncle were successful entrepreneurs. He decided and learned early on that he didn’t want to be constricted in a box and decided to leave the Middle East and immigrated to America- the land of opportunities. Ziad attended the Wharton School of Business- The #1 Business School in which he got his MBA. His favourite class he took was Speculative Finance in which the Professor assigned the class to trade $1 million of virtual money. At the end of the semester he won the contest and the contest reaffirmed his belief to pursue a career in finance. After being on Wall Street for 20 years, Ziad decided to leave for 3 main reasons: 1. Increased Regulation 2. Being forced to participate in deals that he didn’t believe in 3. Like any corporate career, you are part of a system and if you are a true entrepreneur- you will eventually get tired of conforming. He understood early on that having money meant freedom and it was important that he acquires the wealth necessary to be able to be free. The truth is most people are not free and if you truly want to be free- you’re going to need a lot of money. **How do you hire people for your firm?** Ziad doesn’t want followers. He wants people that are willing to challenge authority and he asks this 1 key question to know someone’s attitude: **“What pisses you off?”** If someone answers that in a literal manner, he doesn’t even hire that person and that’s the end of the interview. However, if the candidate challenges the question through comments like: “Is this stupid” or any comment that will make you question “What kind of question is this?” – These are the people Ziad finds will be an asset to the firm as they are aggressive, don’t follow the status quo and challenge authority. **What is your best advice to network with billionaires or high-profile clients?** Ziad doesn’t network. He never made a cold call. He uses the “Pull Effect” which is through content creation (blogs and other mediums like speaking engagements) to attract his followers like a magnet. The way he has gotten clients was because of his outspoken and so out of the box thoughts and beliefs on different economic and financial matters. At Freedom Fest in July in Las Vegas for example; his panel was ranked #1 out of 200 because he’s not afraid to speak his mind’ rocks the boat to the extreme, and doesn’t care about being judged. > ***“I don’t care if people love me or hate me- that means I am relevant in some way. The worst thing is the people who are indifferent and make you  irrelevant- Being different is better than irrelevant…always.”*** Ziad believes in being financially independent and he doesn’t care whether he loses deals because of his beliefs or being outspoken about subject matters. **What do you look for when investing in an entrepreneur?** Before Ziad left Lebanon, his father told him to remember these 3 traits: 1. Balls- You have to have courage and the will to take calculated risks. Be willing to make lots of sacrifices and endure immense amounts of pain if you want to succeed. 2. Brains- You have to be wise and intelligent in the decisions you make > ***“If you have big balls but no brains you’re a loose cannon but if you have brains but no balls- you’re just a plain bureaucrat”*** 1. Heart and Compassion to provide value and help people is essential to succeed. **What is your biggest lesson for a new entrepreneur starting out?** Don’t be a lifestyle entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is not your default option you go to when you can’t find a job and it’s not something that you should try for 3-5 years for the sake of testing the waters to see if it’s a fit. *Being an entrepreneur requires you to endure huge levels of pain, make sacrifices and you have to have the toughness of Navy Seals.* **Are you born an entrepreneur or can you train yourself to be one?** You are a product of your environment- your inspiration, desperation, people around you and many other factors make up your thoughts and dictate your actions. We are taught to conform from a young age and the true entrepreneurs rebel against the system. 10-20% of being an entrepreneur maybe your DNA but the rest of it is mostly controlled and developed through your environment. **What is your legacy?** My legacy is plain and simple- I want to create an army of millionaires and billionaires-mavericks, rebels, sharks and game changers and make a real big positive impact on the world. It’s  as simple as that. --- ## Brysen Johnson Is A Future Shark and Canadian Entrepreneur To Watch! URL: https://futuresharks.com/brysen-johnson/ Brysen Johnson is a entrepreneur, award winning speaker, best selling author, and digital marketing strategist from Winnipeg Manitoba Canada. He began his speaking experience as a teenager while performing in local bands, travelling the country and playing to thousands of people while spending half of his life in the local music scene. Moving from playing music to sharing an encouraging message of personal fulfillment, Brysen made it his goal to inspire and motivate as many people as possible through his writing, and speaking. Bringing a positive, fresh look to world of entrepreneurship, and creating a stronger generation of millennials along the way. In April 2017, Brysen published his first book “Uncommon Sense:Finding Your Voice Among The Noise” and became a #1 Best Seller in a few days. Brysen is an advocate for mental health, drugs, and bullying, he has spoken in schools all over his home province, and continues to bring his message to schools and educate kids on important subjects. He is also the Owner of Betterment Digital Marketing, a marketing consulting company that helps entrepreneurs and business owners by creating high quality marketing campaigns to reach a larger audience, and gain more profits. _____ **I got the opportunity to sit with Brysen for this Future Sharks interview.** He is a rising entrepreneur to watch ! ______ #### Share your favorite quote with us: *“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.”* #### What are you working on? Currently I am working on my marketing business where I help business owners and entrepreneurs engage with their audience and make more profit, without hurting their bottom line. I also just started a podcast for Mental Health where we talk about serious issues and topics to help people dealing with the struggles of mental health, while fighting to change the stigma surrounding the topic. #### How did you come up with this idea? I came up with the idea by simply seeing a need within my own city of Winnipeg, and realizing that a lot of people needed help with their online marketing. My city is fairly new to the concept of online marketing, so I wanted to be able to help people gain more clients and sales for their business in the new age of social media. #### How is your company different? We strive for results and bringing as much value to the marketplace as possible. We work with our clients from beginning to end to help them gain the results they’re looking for, for their business. We focus on creating powerful content that is engaging for our clients customers, and focusing on data that will further help our clients to understand their audience, their online presence and how they can connect with their clients and customers while not spending more than needed on their ad spend. #### What’s your dream with your company? To help as many business owners and entrepreneurs create successful companies as possible, while bringing more value and creative work than anyone in the industry. #### How do you creatively advertise? We focus on value filled content that can give our audience the ability to learn as much as possible about the online marketing world. We focus on written and video format content to share free value to our audience. #### What has been the most challenging thing you have had to deal with as an entrepreneur? Coming to the realization that not everyone has your back, and not everyone is going to support your crazy dreams. I had to realize early on that you’re going to piss off a lot of people with your ambition and goals, and most people are going to turn their backs on you, while making fun of you in the process. I learned right away how lonely being an ambitious person really is. #### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? My biggest failure came when I tried starting my first company, it was going to be a coaching service for those looking to write and publish their first book, it did not workout so well. My biggest success was when I became a best selling author after only a few days of my first book being published. I learned to take the good with the bad, and take the “failures” in life as opportunities to learn and grow, I have learned that if you are not failing every once in awhile, you aren’t trying hard enough. #### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have .. Whenever you are met with criticism, doubt, or people that down right hate you for what you do, keep going. Most people will never understand why you do what you do, and will think of you as a fool, or a loser until you prove them otherwise. Focus on bringing as much value to what you do, and be as humble as you can through the process. Other people’s opinions of you do not dictate who you are or who you will become. #### Teach us something that we can implement right now .. (must be actionable) Know Your Audience! When putting together your ad campaigns on social media, or in general, you HAVE to know who your target audience is! Why? Because otherwise it’s like throwing money down the drain! Marketing is a mixture of strategic planning, and executing correctly in order to hit the right audience in the right way For those of you having a hard time figuring out their audience for Facebook Ads, here’s some tips: ##### 1) Go to the “audience insights” section in your ads manager. Here you’ll be able to find out everything you need to know about your audience ##### 2) Start looking at their interests, age range, gender, income, other pages they may like similar to your product or service This information will give you insights into who your ideal audience is so you can determine the strategy to properly target them with Facebook ads. ##### 3) Create a custom audience from 250k-1M and make sure you’re as specific as possible with your targeting There are strategies that target less than this amount, and strategies that target more than this amount. This is an acceptable range for your initial ad campaign to collect data. **4) Save the audience and use it for your ad set in your campaign** The best thing to do is keep your audience numbers very specific, never too broad (unless you’re trying to get views and engagement, that’s a different story) Make sure you understand your audience inside and out and target them specifically to their interests. From here, experiment and see what works, use $5 a day ads to start, this will be just enough to figure out what your audience reacts to. Once you figure out your sweet spot, scale to more ad spend per day! #### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Using retargeting ads and follow up emails can be life savers for E-commerce stores looking to keep their audience engaged with their store, without having to continue to pay for new, cold traffic. ### What is something that most people do not do well and they should be? Telling your story and being as transparent as possible with your audience is key to creating long lasting relationships, and a following of people who really want to support what you do. Whenever I am asked about my past, I share my story in whatever detail people are interested in hearing. I don’t want to come off as though I’m perfect and always have been. I have made plenty of mistakes and made a fool of myself just like anyone else, and I have learned enough from those experiences to help others not do the same things.By sharing your pain, you give other people strength in knowing that they aren’t alone in their struggle. In the new age of entrepreneurship, it is more important than ever to be transparent and honest with those who follow you, if you try to boost yourself up and make yourself sound like you’re perfect in everything you do, you’ll never sustain yourself, whether in life or in business. #### What do you think you do better than most people? I have a very creative mind when it comes to video content, and can put together entire video concepts just by hearing the theme of content. I can envision how things need to be shot, what needs to be said, and what may work best for the content to make sure it’s an engaging video to watch. #### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Focus on bettering themselves everyday in their craft. Study everything you can to have a understanding that is so in depth, whatever question is thrown your way on the topic, you can answer confidently. Keep your mindset focused and positive, don’t let outside influences try to take you away from the things that will create a better life and business for yourself now, and in the future. #### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone Spin Selling by Neil Rackam #### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I us becoming a 7 figure business helping coach and consult businesses on their marketing around the world, as well as expanding into our own media company creating high quality content for clients to get the best results possible for their campaigns. I myself hope to have a few successful businesses under my belt, be able to say I have spoken all over the world to hundreds of thousands of people, publish a few more books, and have a happy healthy family. **Contact Brysen:** Facebook Instagram LinkedIn _______ Brysen is an entrepreneur to watch. He is authentic and inspired by a mission greater than himself. If you or anyone you know is a Future Shark who is leaving normal behind please email me: rob@leavenormalbehind.com --- ## Spectrums Wants You To Simplify Your Social Footprint URL: https://futuresharks.com/ashkan-kouchak-kaveh-kavoosi/ **Ashkan** and **Kaveh** are both friends and co-founders of Spectrums, a new app on iOS and Android.  By day, Ashkan is a commercial real estate agent and Kaveh is a doctor.  By night they’re disrupting social platforms with a new tool that’s going to make it a whole lot easier to get to know one another online. **City where you’re from:** Toronto, Canada **Hobbies:**Travelling **Favorite quote:**“Sweat equity is the most valuable equity there is.  Know your business and industry better than anyone else in the world.  Love what you do or don’t do it.” – Mark Cuban **Social accounts:** We could do this the old way, but we prefer the new way!  With Spectrums, one URL will link you to all of our social media.  So we’ve included our Spectrums URL, but, as not to confuse, we’ve also included our individual accounts, hyperlinked as requested: **Ashkan Kouchak**: www.spectrums.me/8FacebookLinkedinInstagram **Kaveh Kavoosi**: www.spectrums.me/10FacebookTwitterLinkedinInstagram **Spectrums**: www.spectrums.me/416 FacebookTwitterLinkedinInstagramYoutube Website ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Ashkan Kouchak:** We’re working on an app called Spectrums, available on iOS and Android.  It’s a simpler way to connect with your friends and fans, by allowing you to consolidate your social footprint.  Instead of making a new social platform, we’re bringing all social platforms together in one place. Making it easier for individuals and brands to be discovered and engage with one another across these platforms. I was noticing how many different handles and names people have for social media accounts.  Even just connecting up with all of my friends or new connections, I always found it hard because everyone is everywhere and under various names or different handles.  And I have always been interested in numbers, in astrology, in how certain numbers hold special meanings for people…and then I thought, what if everyone just had a number associated with them?  Numbers are unique, so you wouldn’t have the issue of someone trying to set up a copycat account (with the same number).  You can make it so you only allow each person or business to have one number, and that can cut down on spam accounts considerably. **Kaveh Kavoosi:** It’s one of the reasons we’re focusing on authentication of individual accounts via your mobile phone number.  It’s one more way to ensure that one person, one number philosophy that underlies the app. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Kaveh  Kavoosi:** Our dream is to be the Google of people.  If you want to find out where your favourite people and celebrities are online, you’ll be able to search them on Spectrums and find their entire social footprint (their Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, etc…even websites or blogs) in one click. ### How do you creatively advertise? We’re going directly to influencers that we think will best benefit from Spectrums early on.  We’re showing them how they can grow audience numbers across their various social accounts with platforms and offering premium Spectrums IDs for early adopters. (note: everyone on Spectrums is assigned a number instead of creating their own handle.  Each number is unique, but smaller numbers hold more value as they are easier to remember.  We’re offering early adopters smaller Spectrums IDs in exchange for letting them try out our app…and hopefully spreading the word). ### Why consolidate your social footprint into one place with Spectrums? **Ashkan Kouchak**: - Many influencers gather clout by having big follower numbers.  They’re trying to grow their following across platforms because those numbers give them more bargaining power and access to brands who want to partner with influencers.  Spectrums specifically drives users to an influencer’s social media, making a follow much more likely than directing a typical user to a web page with hotlinks to social media embedded somewhere on the page. - Many apps (SnapChat, Instagram) only allow for one URL and so people are forced to decide on one place to send their followers. If they had the ability to send them everywhere at once, with one URL, one click, why wouldn’t they?  By adding their unique Spectrums URL to their other platforms, they give a one-stop shop for fans to decide what other content they’d like to engage with. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Ashkan Kouchak:**This is the second time I’ve taken a swing at apps.  I tried to make a dating app fly once, but got too much in the weeds with over-complicating things.  I’ve learned my lesson with Spectrums:  simpler is better.  Start slow and build from a really strong, simple idea.  You can always add as you go, but it becomes harder to know what to take away or what is valuable if you’ve thrown everything at the wall in the first run. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Kavek Kavoosi:**Like Ashkan said above, keep it simple.  When it comes to tech, things shouldn’t feel too complex or overwhelming.  If they are, your user base will walk away.  But also, when you are pitching, seeking out funding, etc. always show the simplicity of what you are doing and keep you pitches direct and tight.  If you have a deck with 50+ slides, chances are you can cut some fat. **Ashkan Kouchak:** And test everything!  The worst you can do is assume things about your user base.  Find out from your users what they like, what they engage with, and it will direct your future iterations and give you insights you’ll want to share with future partners and investors.  Whether you are trying to make a better app or a better beer, always be in contact with your client base and use them to gather data and learn how to be better. ### Teach us something about  networking: **Kaveh Kavoosi:** Be honest about your intentions, no matter what it is you are working on.  And talk to everyone.  People respond to earnest passion, and you never know who you are going to meet along the way that might help you. **Ashkan Kouchak:** And keep those people close!  Keep in touch with everyone in your contacts list, even if you don’t have anything on the go.  One of my advisors I met when I was trying to make an unrelated project take off (it didn’t, but I kept in touch and now he’s an advisor on Spectrums).  My business development/marketing manager was someone I worked with in the past and she was the first one that I brought on for Spectrums because we kept in touch and remembered how much fun it was to work together.  So don’t just collect Linkedin connections.  Actively check in from time to time.  People appreciate it when you are genuinely interested in hearing what’s new in their lives (personally and professionally) and are more likely to answer the call when you’re bootstrapping your next venture. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Ashkan Kouchak:** Dealing with personalities on a small team can be a struggle, but having a small team also has its benefits.  Conversations can happen quickly.  Directions can change in an instant.  So it’s important to be in constant communication with your core team. **Kaveh Kavoosi:** Yes, things change so quickly. Constant communication is key, because sometimes you’re just running through your day, getting things off your plate, and you forget that you need to communicate with the team – especially the wins! It’s important early on when you are getting your footing to make sure you’re sharing the wins, no matter how small, because some days just feel like a constant climb through the clouds with no guarantee of breaking through. And breaking through doesn’t happen by accident.  It’s a total team thing. ### Teach us something we don’t know **Ashkan Kouchak:**  Here’s an interesting fact:  most people have more than5 social media accounts.  That’s a lot of places to have to seek someone out.  Imagine, looking someone up on Twitter, then Facebook, or going to their website, then clicking on Instagram, and noticing they have a link to Snapchat that wasn’t even listed anywhere else.  It’s a lot of time and energy, if you are a fan of someone, to find where they are, or even if you are just friends, taking the time to follow each other.  Who has their social media handles and URLs written out to rhyme off if someone asks them for the information? **Kaveh Kavoosi:**  91% of brands also have 2 or more social media profiles.  If you look at just Twitter, Nike has something in the ballpark of 38 official accounts right now – and that’s not even including Facebook, Instagram, etc.  That’s a LOT of social media content to direct fans to. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Kaveh Kavoosi:** I like to take a step back, to look at the details and make sure they fit into the bigger picture.  Sure, this works for now, but is it a solution for the long term?  If we take this out, will the machine still work just as well?  That kind of stuff. **Ashkan Kouchak:**  I tend to see opportunities and gaps in the market.  I’m constantly looking at how things are done and how they can be handled more efficiently. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Kaveh Kavoosi:** Don’t worry about perfection.  You can always iterate as you go, but if you have a great idea/concept, get it to market as soon as you can.  Then test it and make it better as you go. **Ashkan Kouchak:** Surround yourself with people that are good at what you are bad at.  That way, you’re surrounding yourself with people that are going to allow you to see the whole picture. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Kaveh Kavoosi:** I recently read “Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World” by Adam Grant.  He talks about how originals aren’t just cliff-diving adrenaline junkies, but people willing to take a step back and seek out a “better way”.  Of course, Apple comes up in the discussion, but he delves into Warby Parker (his “worst decision” was not coming on as an investor early on) and their start-up story is just so inspiring.  It’s a great read.  It gets you excited to start seeking out door #3 in everything you do. **Ashkan Kouchak:** Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why”.  It’s inspiring. It makes you understand how important the “Why” actually is in creating and maintaining a business that has long-term legs.  Sure, you still need the “what” and the “how”, but continuing to ask yourself “why” just seems to ensure longevity.  I’m already putting it into practice on a daily basis as I think about Spectrums and where I want the company and myself to be 5 or even 10 years from now. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Ashkan Kouchak:**I want Spectrums to be just as ubiquitous as any other social media logo (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).  I want everyone to not only have their own Spectrums ID, but I want people to search for and discover new ways to connect by connecting first via Spectrums. **Kaveh Kavoosi:** If people need to seek out friends, if influencers want to gather followers, if brands want to share their content, I want Spectrums to be the way that happens.  I’d love to see Spectrums IDs shared as URLs on other social media sites, and Spectrum IDs and QR codes shared both on and off-line.  Basically, I want to see Spectrums everywhere. --- ## 3 Trends at TechCrunch Disrupt 2017 (And What Every Entrepreneur Can Learn from Them) URL: https://futuresharks.com/3-trends-at-techcrunch-disrupt-2017/ ### Who else wants to ride the next big tech wave? The dust is still settling from one of the largest annual tech conferences in the world; TechCrunch Disrupt. Space is limited at the conference, and the ticket price is prohibitive for most bootstrapped startups. Many are asking themselves, what exactly happened at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference and what can I learn from the startups that exhibited at the conference? As a serial entrepreneur for almost 10 years, I’ve had the priviledge to attend tech events around the world. I will soon embark on a small speaking tour including conferences like Milwaukee Startup Week’s “The Summit” and Google Launchpad’s Manos Tech Venture Summit. These experiences have given me a unique perspective for what is possible in a tech trade show and how to read market trends by scanning the up and coming startup roster. These are the 3 trends that most caught my attention, along with commentary of what you can learn from them: ## ## 1. We are All Citizens of the World Now Technology is breaking down country barriers at an amazing speed. A large amount of the startups at the conference facilitated money exchange, web payments, travel, decentralized currency (Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin spoke on day 2 of the event), and remote work. Developing countries will leapfrog entire generations of infrastructure by capitalizing on the newest tech. Take NomadApp.co for example; you can now work with talent in Spain to build a travel search engine based in California, targeting European backpackers who want to see South America and Southeast Asia! Furthermore, marketplaces like Ease will continue to help millennials work remotely and enjoy the benefits of the digital nomad lifestyle by working out of a laptop anywhere in the world. This trend is in full force. > As Ease CEO Nathan D. Harris best put it, “International connectivity is only getting stronger. In the future, our kids may earn money in Bitcoin and have an international passport that lets them stay at an apartment anywhere around the world with a flat rent fee while working on the go.” ## ## 2. The Rise of Hardware Startups Software unicorns that came out of the 2000’s-2010’s have strong control of their respective markets. Breaking as an app CEO is now harder than ever with more than 2 millions apps available for iOS and Android. Customer acquisition channels are now less forgiving of lazy marketing, and founders are finding it hard to bootstrap software startups when customer acquisition cost (CAC) is anywhere between 3-12 months of monthly average revenue per user (ARPU). Try getting your app startup to big enough metrics to catch an investor’s attention in 2017! The most investable (and easier to sell) businesses right now seem to be hardware products that go viral, get lots of sales, and are taken on by a savvy investor who knows the path to sale to a large company in their network. ## 3. Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Are not Going Away I ignored this tech for far too long hoping it would face the same destiny as fidget spinners and dabbing. Fortunately for my friends who got in early, and unfortunately for me who told Bitcoin to “get off my lawn” like a bitter old man, the tech is permeating almost every industry and the exhibitors at TechCrunch Disrupt proved that there is major investor interest. I saw startups offering everything from ICO (Initial Coin Offerings) to a hackathon contestant AR tech for visualizing your bitcoin stash as a pile of cash. Investors seemed interested and there was lots of press and social buzz around new uses for crypto and blockchain tech. I concluded it’s best to become literate in this space rather than continue to let time pass by hoping the trend will stop. Thousands of brilliant minds from all over the world were represented at TechCrunch Disrupt. The event boasts booths from countries like Austria, Argentina, Croatia, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, Uruguay, Ukraine, and many more with some of the most successful startups from each country. Strong startup leaders from every corner of the world presented the hottest tech innovations available and patterns were hard to ignore. As we begin to close this decade, one thing is clear: ### What made many people successful in the last 20 years will not give security in the next 20. Global infrastructure is trembling and new giants are emerging. These startups are here to disrupt. --- ## Meet Emily Pascual: Virtual Reality Designer Helping the Modern Teacher Go Paperless Through Digital Tech Tools to Redefine the Classroom. URL: https://futuresharks.com/meet-emily-pascual-virtual-reality-designer-helping-the-modern-teacher/ **Emily Pascual is a New York native currently living in Miami who is pioneering education technology in order to help the modern teacher go paperless through digital technology. She enjoys researching, learning, and experimenting in the kitchen to come up with new delicious recipes. The education industry has been stagnate for quite some time and is primed as the next big industry to face disruption as new education technology emerges. I got a chance to sit with this Future Shark and learn all about her. ## Here we go ! #### What is your favorite quote? *“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”* My mom loves this quote and now I do too. It keeps me pushing myself to find a new mountain to climb, and to embrace vulnerability as a part of growth. #### What are you working on? Edtech apps. I am the User Experience and User Interface Designer for educational games at Genius Plaza. My favorite mediums are virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. The education apps I work on range from PreK-12th grade and are all bilingual. Our newest app, Genius Plaza just launched free eBooks teaching math, language arts, science, and STEAM lessons.  Additionally, there is access to educational videos and some are 360° videos (how cool?!) My favorite part of this app is that you can make your own video or eBook and share it with a global classroom. I am helping organize the Reality Virtually AR/VR Hackathon, hosted at MIT Media Labs October 9-11 2017. Last year it broke a world record as the largest hackathon of its kind ! We want to see new voices in tech, hobbyist, and skillsets ranging from the traditional engineers to designers. #### How did you get into EdTech Games? I started in marketing. There I shared our education platform’s games with educators, parents, and students. I enjoyed growing our community and understanding what makes a teacher’s life easier with the aid of technology. After traveling and speaking with thousands of teachers, I found one common thread: ***They all want to engage students.*** Helping students and teachers collaborate in the digital space is so fulfilling. I started designing virtual reality games last year as a hobby and now I am working on Genius Plaza apps for the classroom, making sure our games foster active learning. It’s not the a typical career path but it feels like a natural progression for me. #### What’s your dream with your company? To spark a love of learning in the students who use our platform and games and to give teachers a reliable tool for their classroom. If the students who use our apps walk away from the experience with an excitement to learn more, that is what success looks like to me. A passion for education is invaluable and when students feel empowered, they will want to achieve in and outside of the classroom. ## Now here’s the straight value ! . . . #### What is best entrepreneurship advice that you can share: Not knowing never means unworthy. Curiosity is the best advantage you can give yourself. If you are interested, what you need to know will be fun to learn about and people will love to hear you speak to it. Listen to that curiosity, and let it guide you. #### Teach us something you know that can useful to us: Are you worried about pitching in person or not sure how to interact at an expo with passerby’s? Here’s my advice from my last year on the road at trade shows. If you have a list of talking points you know inside and out, that’s wonderful but only three points might relate to a customer. Remember the may be thinking about the next meal or overwhelmed by aisles of vendors. You already know your product features, just focus on the individual. Ask questions before you give solutions. Find out if your product fits them and not the other way around. Active listening, before you dive into pitching yields better quality leads, deeper conversations, and opens yourself up to connections that may turn out to be more valuable than a single sale. #### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Voiceover and character narration UI/UX. Audio UI/UX is so exciting! I found that it requires you to think about your users a way that is completely different. Character narration audio not only has to tell a compelling story, but it must also assist users of different skill levels to a degree that is satisfying to the player and useful without being overbearing. Make a conscious effort to think about different users and especially the ones who struggle with technology created better, more inclusive products. #### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I am devoted to producing immersive educational experiences. I want to bring high quality AR/VR and MX content to schools and students around the world. I want see generation of leaders to have access to emerging technologies and inspire them to build their own worlds, apps, and solutions. Get in Contact with Emily here: Instagram Twitter ___ Emily shared incredible perspective on utilizing virtual reality and the digital world to enhance education. I am very much looking forward to keeping up with all of her progress as she continues to pioneer education technology. --- ## Nicholas Bayerle and The Billion Dollar Body URL: https://futuresharks.com/nicholas-bayerle/ **Nicholas Bayerle** is the CEO of The Billion Dollar Body, a men’s health a lifestyle company that aim’s help men reach their ultimate state of health, power, and confidence. Nicholas is an international speaker, coach, and was rated top 30 under 30 influencers. He has coached some of the top male CEOs and is passionate about seeing men prosper in health, business, and relationships. Nicholas has shared the stage with Lewis Howes, Cole Hatter, and Jordan Harbinger. He is also the host of The Billion Dollar Body Podcast, creator of The Billion Dollar Body Live event, and has cultivated a successful community of men called The Billion Dollar Body Brotherhood. **What city are you from:**San Diego, California **Hobbies:**Helping people in life and in business, surfing, motocross, golfing, watching movies, driving cars, buying nice things. **Favorite quote:**“There are only two options: Make Progress or Make Excuses.”-Tony Robbins **Social accounts**: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicholas.bayerle Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicholasbayerle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebilliondollarbody/ ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Nicholas Bayerle:**Right now I’m working on building out the lifestyle brand of The Billion Dollar Body, called The Billion Dollar Brotherhood. I came up with for this aspect of The Billion Dollar Body company after living out some tough years. I had gained 60 pounds, graduated high school with a 1.08 GPA, didn’t have a girlfriend for 7 years. I was lacking in every area, from health, finances, to relationships. The root of the problem was that I lacking confidence to live out my destiny. As a result of the obstacles that I faced and surmounted I decided to create the ultimate solution, The Billion Dollar Brotherhood, the #1 resources for men who want to be successful in all areas of their lives.   ### How is your company different? **Nicholas Bayerle:**We are the #1 resource for male entrepreneurs. Every other company has perks or bonuses, but at the end of the day they always want something from you. What differentiates us is our relentless obsession to push our clients to succeed in every aspect of their life. We are here to serve them, be that in landing them some podcast interviews, to helping them grow in their relationships and find their dream woman. Our purpose is to facilitate success and give them the support they need as entrepreneurial men. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Nicholas Bayerle:**My dream with this company is that whenever a man is looking to achieve his ultimate state of health wealth and confidence, every man, woman, and child is sending him to us because they know we will set them up for nothing less than success.   ### How do you creatively advertise? **Nicholas Bayerle:**We often advertise through speaking at events and on virtual summits, as well as through podcasts, tv, organic social media marketing, paid social media advertisement and event sponsorships. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? **Nicholas Bayerle:**The biggest failure came after my wife and I had dedicated a year to building our business only to see the company completely flop. We had been away on a trip for two weeks and I received notice that we were going to lose our townhouse and end up homeless. It was a tough time for us, getting back to ground zero. My biggest success came after years of struggling with a huge lack of self-confidence, self-esteem, depression, lack of motivation. That success came in transforming myself, finding my purpose, my passion and inevitability renewing my confidence. The way I see it is that money is great, but even a lucky person on a lucky day can win the lottery and get money, but you can’t accidentally transform a person it take intention and a passion to see people grow and succeed. ### What did you learn from you success and failures? **Nicholas Bayerle:**From my failures, I learned not to do it again and that the results that you create have a lot to do with the people you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with people who are only giving 50% of themselves, who are living well within their comfort zone, who aren’t taking any risks to grow in every area, it will be reflected in your life. Success taught me that if you transform yourself on the inside the world around you will transform as well because through your personal transformation you will gain a new perspective. ### How did you create the life that you live? **Nicholas Bayerle:**By surrounding myself with people who were giving 100% of themselves, 100% of the time. Finding people who were the best in things I wanted to be the best at and getting to know them. I would find out where they were hanging out, who they hung out with and would be at those places in order to get myself an introduction and then gain mentors out of those meetings. That’s half of the struggle for people, showing up. But when you show up, that’s when things happen, that’s when you build those life changing relationships. That’s what I’m creating with The Billion Dollar Brotherhood, a place where men can come to create those relationships, a platform that offers all of the resources they need in any given area.   ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Nicholas Bayerle:** The best entrepreneurship advice I have is do whatever it takes to get clear on what you want out of life, surround yourself with the people and mentors that are already living that out and are further ahead than you. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Nicholas Bayerle:**In the last month I’ve learned whatever investment you want other people to make you have to first make yourself. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Nicholas Bayerle:**Listening, because solving the the wrong problem isn’t solving the problem at all. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Nicholas Bayerle:**It really depends on where you are at but I would say an entrepreneur should focus on being the worst person in the room out of the people they hang out with. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Nicholas Bayerle:**The Bible, No More Mister Nice Guy, [Think and Grow Rich](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585424331). ### Where do you see yourself and your product in Five years? **Nicholas Bayerle:**In five years we will be the leading example for successful men in all english speaking countries, the men who partner with us will be prospering in health, business and relationships. Thanks for sharing your story with us Nicholas! --- ## From Local Brick and Mortar Therapy Business to Digital Coaching and Consulting Company URL: https://futuresharks.com/hilary-silver/ **Hilary Silver**is not only helping the world locally, she is helping the world digitally. **City where you’re from:** Denver **Hobbies: Staying fit, Connecting with friends, Tennis, Entrepreneurship, Time With Family** **Favorite quote: “In Our Struggle For Freedom, Truth Is The Only Weapon We Possess” Dalai Lama** **Social Accounts:** Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Youtube Instagram ### What are you working on? **Hilary Silver:** I’ve been growing my business from a successful, local brick and mortar therapy practice to a digital based global coaching and consulting company. ### How did you come up with this idea? **Hilary Silver:** After 15 years working with thousands of clients one at a time in the privacy of my office, I realized that *everyone* needs to hear my helping messages as we all share common struggles in the relationship we have with ourselves, with our primary love partners and in our work. This was around the time Periscope emerged and I latched onto to Live video as a medium for sharing and connecting with my audience. In order to serve the masses, I’ve been letting go of working with people one at a time and transitioning to group programs, digital courses, masterminds and media. But the original drive came from a deep desire to share my knowledge and make a larger impact.  ### How is your company different? Hilary Silver: There are a lot of coaches out there and everyone is an expert these days. I pride myself in being credentialed as a licensed therapist with my many years of experience working with people privately. But I think what sets me apart is my super sassy and candid, ‘tell it like it is’ authenticity. Even as an expert, I fall short of the ideal all the time and I openly share my ups and downs with my audience and my clients. Knowing best doesn’t mean doing best is always the case. I walk the walk and lead by example so I think it’s the combination of those two things that sets me apart from all the others in my industry. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Hilary Silver:**To be fully online and to release my local office space, to launch my signature program twice a year and fill my masterminds with rock star women. Filling live events because the energy is out of this world and something in TV/radio (that is still coming into focus). ### How do you creatively advertise? **Hilary Silver**: I’ve been in the process of fine-tuning my offers and building out funnels for each of them. The only advertising I do is speaking, live video and collaborating with other badass helping professionals! ### How does being an entrepreneur affect your marriage and family? Have you had problems trying to do it all? **Hilary Silver:**At times it can be very tricky to manage all the pieces, do them well and enjoy it along the way. Things definitely take a little longer in business when you have a family and are committed to being there. It IS totally possible to do it all, have it all and enjoy it too; but each of these areas of relationship in my life are equally important to me. If I focus too much on my business, my marriage can become distressed but that in turn affects my performance in my business- and when I’m not taking good care of myself, my home life and my business feel it. These 3 areas intersect and feed off of one another so it takes deliberate intention to make time for all three and to protect that time so I can be present no matter where my attention is focused.  ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Hilary Silver:** My biggest success was growing my therapy practice to over 6 figures within a couple years while working only 2 ½ days a week so I could be home with my kids. Making that kind of money one hour at a time is difficult but especially being multi-passionate and valuing quality time as a wife and mom. I learned that I can manifest anything I want because I believe deeply in myself (and I’ve since learned having a clear vision is a big part of achieving that success). This journey to grow online has had many moments of success and failure. I’ve actually come to understand that what I’ve been doing is actually not an extension of the old, but rather the complete end of one and beginning of another new business. I think one of the biggest failures was when I created my first online course and *then* tried to sell it when I didn’t yet have an audience. That was a huge lesson in how the online world works. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Hilary Silver:** It starts with you. Everything starts with you. No matter what you do in personal or professional life, it is all about relationships. The relationship you have with yourself will determine the success you have in business. No one will work with you, collaborate with you or buy from you if you are not trusted. How you communicate and show up in those relationships determines whether you build or break trust and that affects your bottom line. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, yoga, sales funnels or another topic you pick} **Hilary Silver:** People won’t buy from you if they can’t *feel* you. Live video is the best way to connect with an audience because they can not only hear your message and content but they can get a feel for who you are as a person; your style, your manner and your authenticity. That builds the know, like, trust factor faster than any other medium. In fact, using live video regularly, I gained enough exposure that in less than two years online, I was invited to be an expert guest on the Steve Harvey show. Learn to be comfortable being imperfect yourself and sharing who you are by doing live video! ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Our personal development work is never done and it is just as much a part of our success in business as any other business skill or strategy. I have been able to manifest everything I have ever wanted with ease; from world travel to my soul mate of 17 years and my dream of a being a successful therapist helping others. But in the ups and downs of growing an online business, I have learned that having a clear vision of what we want is the only way to see it materialize- and that we can only grow as big as we believe we are capable of being. Busting through subconscious internal limiting beliefs is critical for BIG success.  ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Hilary Silver:** Communicate. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Hilary Silver:** Passion. I believe where your focus goes, grows. Stay focused on what lights you up, fills you up and gives your life purpose. That is the only way to weather the manyups and downs of entrepreneurship. If ever you come to doubt yourself or the decision to be an entrepreneur, go back to what you love and why you started this in the first place. (same is true for marriage by the way) ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Hilary Silver:**Loving Relationships by a little known author Robert Shelton – changed my life at 19 years old and started my career, though I didn’t yet know it at the time. The Science Of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles this book was originally published in 1910 and is the precursor for what we all now know as the Law Of Attraction A Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Hilary Silver:**Sharing my relationship expertise to a global audience by hosting a tv show, producing fabulous high vibe live events and being of service to many with high end immersive mastermind experiences that include private time with me. Entrepreneurs need personal empowerment, leadership and relationship skills in order to achieve their fullest potential and to enjoy the ultimate success – which is having it all in business AND a thriving love life. Thanks for letting us share your story on Future Sharks, Hilary! Best of luck to you in the future! --- ## Expert In Lead Generation For Small and Medium Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/guillaume-godbout/ **Guillaume Godbout** has more than 15 years of experience in marketing and advertising. As a web marketing specialist and lead generation expert, he has helped more than 500 companies to attract new customers through unique web strategies. He also holds an executive MBA from the Université de Sherbrooke and is the founding president of the Les Conseillers d’affaires. **City where you’re from**:  Rimouski, Québec **Hobbies:**Basketball, soccer, books **Favorite quote:**Discipline equals freedom Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/expertleadgeneration/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GuillaumeGod ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? **Guillaume Godbout:**I decided to become an entrepreneur because I always want to be self-sufficient and be free to exploit my own ideas. As an entrepreneur, I can devote my time and energy to developing projects that I am passionate about. I also have the ability to set my own hours of work. Moreover, I am an awful employee ! I like to do things my own way! :). ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? **Guillaume Godbout:**Michael Jordan is one of my biggest influences because he is the best basketball player and he had a great impact on society. He changed the people’s perspective on basketball. He was relentless. Sam Ovens is also one of my biggest influences. He was my first mentor in the digital world. He helped me a lot to focus my energies on the things that really matters for growing a business. Michael E. Gerber, the author of The E-myth is also one of my biggest influence. His book teach me how I can accelerate my learning curve by giving me insight, processes and tools to become a successful entrepreneur. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? Who are your customers? How do you find them? **Guillaume Godbout:**I help business owners to attract new customers through different web strategies. As an entrepreneur, I know how much better visibility on the Web, greater traffic, and the presence of qualified visitors are critical to the success of a business, but more importantly, how challenging small and medium enterprises. But most of the time, companies do not focus their energies on the right elements, that is, those that aim to make their business profitable. They focus on secondary items such as design or number of page views instead of focusing on leads, sales and profit. My strategy is to attract qualified leads to small and medium-sized businesses so that they never need to worry about attracting new customers. From now on, they will come to them. Whether you are in Montreal, Quebec City, Paris, New York or elsewhere, these innovative techniques allow companies to have a steady stream of bid solicitations, appointments or incoming calls. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? **Guillaume Godbout:**Of course I did not always get the results I hoped for. I have experienced failures, but they have been temporary, since I learned a lot from them. I had the opportunity to take over and do better. Here are my two tips, when you live a failure. 1 – Whenever you fail, rather than complaining about the outcome, try to understand why you did not get the results you were hoping for. Once you understand, change your behavior. In this way you will get other results. Remember that failure is a temporary result, it becomes a permanent result only when you stop trying. 2- Make your decisions based on the data you have. Do not let your emotions or your faith dictate your actions. You have to rely on numbers. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Guillaume Godbout:**Read The E-Myth and The Ultimate Sales Machine ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? **Guillaume Godbout:**The 3 elements on which you need to focus to succeed your web marketing campaign. – Your offer – Your advertising message – Your landing page Also make sure to always take information from your potential customers. In this way, if he does not buy now, you will be able to retarget them later. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Guillaume Godbout:**Generate sales … This is the only thing you should focus on … You should always have meetings or conference calls with potential customers. This is how you will ensure the growth of your business. ### What are some of your favorite books? The E-Myth The Ultimate Sales Machine Relentless:From good to great to unstoppable ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Guillaume Godbout:**Owner of several businesses including few e-commerce stores. --- ## This Millennial Turned His Problem Into Profits! URL: https://futuresharks.com/justin-mueller/ Justin Mueller is a former lifeguard turned internet marketing influencer. He started out selling iPhone cases, and has worked his way up to become financially independent with a revenue generating business from his smartphone and laptop. Less thinking and more doing is his #1 motto in life Being resourceful and maximizing every situation is a recurring trait in entrepreneurial greats and Justin exemplifies this. I got a chance to sit with Justin and get an exclusive interview. --- #### #### What city do you live in ? **Justin:**Pompano Beach, Fl #### #### What are some of your hobbies ? Hobbies: Airsoft, video games, miniature golf, bowling #### #### What is your favorite quote ? **Justin:** I have two: “Less thinking and more doing” and “The simpler the better”. #### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Justin:**At this time, I’m working on my biggest (and most expensive) project yet. Simplora.com is a simple and professional website builder for $1/month, hosting included. Yes, you heard me correctly, $1/month to build and host your website, all in one easy to use interface. No need to download anything. I came up with this idea when I was building multiple websites online that cost me thousands of dollars in hosting fees. As a complete beginner in the entrepreneur space, $1k-$2k/year was simply just too much for my wallet to handle, so I came up with a solution. I created Simplora to help others save themselves from giving up an arm and a leg just to build a simple website and host it online. I basically made website building  and hosting easy, and affordable for everyone. #### How is your company different? **Justin:**My company is different mainly because of our price. You literally cannot beat $1/month for a website with unlimited hosting. We do have fast email support and you can expect a reply within 5-10 hours if you encounter any issues. That’s almost unheard of nowadays. #### What is your dream ? **Justin:**My dream is to help budding entrepreneurs get an understanding of effective branding. It all starts with your appearance to society. You cannot have others buy into your dream looking like a nightmare, and that especially matters for your website. #### How do you creatively advertise? **Justin:**Social media influencers! If you’re not using them by now, you are living under a rock. Influencers hold the key to getting your message directly on the screens of millennials, and basically anyone with a Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Youtube account etc… #### #### Who was your biggest mentor that helped you see success in the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey? **Justin:**No one. At this point I have not had a mentor figure guiding me and giving me direction on what to do. I have attended online seminars here and there to get an understanding of what others were doing, but I just went 100% into doing what I knew best, and that is video. I mastered my craft through trial and error. That is the best way to learn in my opinion. Be in the trenches and get your hands dirty ! #### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them ? **Justin:**My biggest failure so far would definitely be losing $10k in the financial markets. That shi&%s no joke. It can seriously ruin your life if you let it take control of you, like anything else. Yet over time, I’ve learned the proper risk management techniques and what not to do when investing. I’ve received 1-on-1 mentorship from a millionaire trader, and that has elevated my trading game 10 fold, so I’m back on track when it comes to my investments. My biggest success would definitely be not giving up. Simplora is great, my internet businesses are booming, but I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for my determination and listening to myself when everyone else told me I was a lost cause. It’ll always hurt hearing those words come from the people closest to you in life, but you need to hear it in order to understand that they’re the toxic people you need to separate yourself from. It’s going to happen sooner or later, so you’d might as well find like minded people to hang out with in the beginning of your journey and only spend time with them. It’ll save you years of headache in the future. #### What is the best advice you can give to other entrepreneurs who are looking to succeed ? **Justin:**Stop thinking about what you’re going to do and just do it. Ideas are great, but without execution they’re just ideas floating in your head. Get your butt off the couch and show your idea to the world. If success is really that important to you, you’d probably never spend time watching tv again, until you’ve “made it”. I know that sounds cliche, but I believe in simplicity, because the simpler you keep things, the more money you will make 100% guaranteed. There is no “secret” to making millions, just doing what most people wouldn’t. #### What is something actionable that you can teach us right now ? **Justin:**Affiliate marketing is probably the simplest thing you’ll ever do in your life (but definitely not easy). It’s simple, refer someone to buy a product and you get a commission. Now how do you get people to listen to you? You drive attention to yourself. Constantly spamming your products on Facebook won’t get you anywhere. I call it “the value game”. The person that gives the most value, makes the most money. Example: Make a video titled “How to make $1,000 this month guaranteed” and talk about how you can get couches on craigslist for FREE, and flip them for $300. You can then use that value as a way to upsell your viewers on a $5 ebook you wrote about “how to make money investing in real estate.” Make sense? You’re using your knowledge (that most people don’t have on your specialty), and leveraging that to drive traffic to your product. This is why you see people creating free live workshops for you to attend. They’ll give you some amazing free info on how to perform a certain task, then they’ll let you know how to do it 10x easier with their product you can buy for $1,000, #### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Justin:**No matter how low-cost your product is, there will always be someone who can’t afford it. I never would have thought that someone wouldn’t be able to afford a website for $1/month, but I was wrong. Just make sure that you never adjust the cost of your product in order to meet the needs of others. You know the value of your product better than anyone else. #### Share with us something we don’t know ? **Justin:**Something you don’t know, is that I don’t know anymore than you (the reader). You don’t need to know a golden secret to make it big in life, you just need to stay one step ahead of everyone else, and they’ll always pay you for your knowledge 🙂 #### What do you think you do better than most people? **Justin:**Getting attention. I used to never get attention from people in school, so that helped me become creative in my video marketing. I’m able to express myself on camera in such a way where I’m naturally able to get people to listen to my side of every story I tell. Making videos that sell an idea or product isn’t easy for most people. It comes natural to me. Yet I found a way where anyone can do it flawlessly, they just need to first believe in themselves. It all starts with understanding that I’m no different than you, I just thought less and did more. #### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Justin:**Every entrepreneur should focus on mastering one thing. Stop focusing so much time on things you’re terrible at and become world class in what you already know. Example: I do video marketing full time. I got into the video creation space because I had a knack for film production. I found a skill set I already had, and went 100% into it. I’m not here to master bing ads, I know my space.. #### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Justin:**Drop Out And Get Schooled, The Power Of Broke, Dorm Room To Millionaire. #### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Justin:**I see myself competing with other major companies in my space. I’m just a baby now, but babies grow fast 😉 #### What are your social accounts for us to follow ? **Justin:**You can follow me here. Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/imjustnntime Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/imjustnntime Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/justinequalstime --- ## How This 5-Foot Traveler Gets Paid While Traveling The World Full-Time URL: https://futuresharks.com/sarah-gallo/ **What’s the last thing you’d do if you had a crippling fear of flying? Well for 25-year-old Sarah Gallo, it was to embrace it and overcome this fear as she decided to set off traveling the world full-time!** Since learning to work online and becoming one with the “Digital Nomad” lifestyle, **Sarah** has set foot on all seven continents, explored 82 countries, and continues to strive to live life to the fullest. She created The Five Foot Traveler not only to share her experiences around the globe, but to teach others how to travel the world for free using her social media techniques and affiliate marketing skills. She encourages everyone, even those with no experience, to get out there to experience all that this beautiful world has to offer, while learning how to run a profitable business online. In this interview, I discovered how Sarah is able to sustain a life of full-time time travel while running a six-figure business online, and how you can too! **City where you’re from:** - Redding, Connecticut – USA **Hobbies:** - Travel, Marketing, Flying Trapeze, Martial Arts, Live Music **Favorite quote:** - “She’s gonna dream up the world she wants to live in, she’s gonna dream out loud.” **Social accounts:** - Blog - Instagram - Facebook - Twitter - Pinterest ### How did you begin traveling? **Sarah Gallo:**I didn’t come from a wealthy family, but every year since I was five years old my great-grandfather brought my entire family to an all-inclusive resort. Knowing that I had that one week of beach, aerial arts, and lots of laughter with my family is what pulled me through a usually-stressful year. It ultimately ended up instilling in me a love for travel so deep that I made it my lifestyle. As I grew up, I thought back to the times I was happiest, and it was those weeks where I truly got to let go of the stresses at home and *live*. At first, I had planned to run away and join the circus as a means of traveling the world. Really! While it sounds trite, it was something I had truly wanted to do since one of my biggest passions was flying trapeze. But, after tearing muscles in both shoulders and both biceps, that was no longer possible. I needed a new dream. ### It’s never easy to take your life in a different direction than planned. What was your alternative route to traveling the world? **Sarah Gallo:** At first, I wasn’t sure. So, I set off to study abroad in Florence, Italy, and knew then that my life would be forever changed. I *knew* that travel had to be incorporated in some way, yet I didn’t know how. I decided to work extra hard, graduate early, and spend my final semester of New York University in Buenos Aires, Argentina four years ago. It was in Buenos Aires that I founded The Five Foot Traveler, a travel blog dedicated to luxury travel, adventure activities, and cultural immersion. After spending years educating myself on how to properly monetize The Five Foot Traveler and continue to grow my social media presence, I have learned how to travel the world full-time by a combination of working with various brands around the world and utilizing my affiliate marketing skills. ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Sarah Gallo:**I knew that there was a big market for people who had dreams of starting a blog and traveling the world. But, I also knew from personal experience that that’s not as easy as everyone makes it seem. In reality, very few travel bloggers actually make enough money from their site to be able to support a life of full-time travel. They are typically not plugged into the right systems, utilizing the proper social media techniques, or forming valuable connections. Since I’ve spent so many years learning the in’s and out’s of what it takes to work online in order to travel the world full-time, I now coach others on what they need to put in place so that they, too, can achieve the lifestyle they’ve been chasing.  ### How is your company different? **Sarah Gallo:** I teach aspiring travelers and bloggers how to use affiliate marketing to monetize their social media channels and blogging platforms. I’m not talking about small affiliate programs where you make tiny commissions, I’m referring to high-ticket offers where you’re earning more than 60% commission on all sales made. I want to see people earning the bulk of their commissions so that they can actively pursue, and support, their travels. Through this affiliate program, individuals go through business, marketing, and social media courses that will teach them from the ground up how to run their own profitable online business. One of the big differences is that I teach people how to maximize their time by running their businesses on autopilot. Once everything is setup, you can spend your days traveling and exploring and doing what you love, all while your business is working for you in the background. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Sarah Gallo:**I truly believe that travel is the best form of education. There are few other ways to gain perspective on life; it’s taught me to appreciate the life that I’ve been given by opening my eyes to various cultures and customs worldwide. My dream is that more people each day decide to pop that bubble which is their comfort zone, and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. We no longer live in a world where we *have* to work the traditional 9-5 job. Thanks to technology, we no longer need to worry about bosses looking over our shoulders or wonder how many vacation weeks we will be allotted per year. Today, we are able to create a life of freedom where we can work from anywhere in the world and still be financially stable. My dream is to continue to inspire and coach individuals who are committed to changing their lives for the better on how to leverage the internet and discover the same lifestyle of freedom that I cherish.   ### How do you creatively advertise? **Sarah Gallo:** We live in a world where everyone is so “connected” via social media. We’re constantly scrolling through Newsfeeds, pinning our ideal destinations, tweeting about our day, and wanderlusting our way through Instagram feeds. Since I started my business with very little money in the bank, I initially couldn’t afford to have a marketing budget and instead had to make good use of social media. I learned how to leverage Instagram via attraction marketing to drive traffic and sales to my business, and I now help others do the same. It’s definitely not the most traditional means of advertising, but when done correctly, it’s incredibly powerful. ### So, how does this allow you to travel the world for free? **Sarah Gallo:**As you learn how to properly grow your social media followings and monetize your blog using high-ticket affiliate marketing, brands will start to recognize your online presence and want to work with you. For the last three years, I have worked with five star hotels, tour companies, transportation companies, and tourism boards in every single country that I’ve visited; so, while I’m traveling full-time, my only expenses are food, of which much is actually covered as well. As part of my coaching program, I not only teach other aspiring travelers and bloggers how to earn an income online, but also how to form partnerships and ambassadorship positions with their favorite brands and companies around the world. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Sarah Gallo:**My biggest failure, and regret, is that I didn’t start monetizing The Five Foot Traveler from the beginning. In fact, it didn’t even cross my mind to do so. Like so many other bloggers, I just thought that something would come of it. I thought that if I produced a lot of content, and shared it across multiple social media platforms, that it would go viral. That was hardly the case, and I realized the importance of having a business and marketing plan in place before even beginning a blog. I decided to “rebrand” the look of my blog and start over, having a clear vision of what I wanted from my site and how to achieve that. Since learning to monetize my blog, and helping others to do so, I am successfully running a multiple six-figure business while traveling full-time and teaching others how to do the same. Had you told me years ago that my dreams would have become my reality, I never would have believed you! ### Value-added questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Sarah Gallo:**Don’t try to go it alone. In the beginning, I spent years trying to “figure it out” and didn’t want to spend any money on my blog or business education. Turns out that taking the “cheap way” and believing that I could teach myself everything that I needed to know, without any guidance other than what I read about online, ended up costing me more (both from a financial and time perspective) than it would have had I just locked down a mentor or coach from the moment I decided that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Nothing beats having by your side someone who is an expert in your field; they’ve already been through the trials and tribulations *for* you, and have learned exactly what works. Get yourself a mentor or coach, listen to them, and implement their advice — you will see results so much quicker than if you try to tackle your business journey on your own. ### What would you say are the most important “selling” aspects to keep in mind when using Instagram Marketing? **Sarah Gallo:**Instagram Marketing is far different from any kind of paid traffic. It takes a lot of creativity and research to ensure that you are targeting the right niches for your product or services. There are a few crucial aspects to implement within Instagram in order to drive sales to your affiliate offer: - **Have a Good Bio** – This is the first thing that someone will see when they land on your Instagram page. Be sure to introduce yourself and give them a look into your life… all in less than 150 characters! - **Link to a Business Account** – If you want to track your statistics (and you should!), you’ll want to make your Instagram account a Business Instagram Account. You can easily do this, as long as you have an active Fan Page on Facebook. Once you’re linked, you can track how many followers you’re gaining weekly, your impressions, reach, profile views, website clicks, and email clicks. It will even go further and show you your age and gender demographics too. - **Post Daily** – Ultimately, you want loyal followers; you want them to be waiting for your latest image of the day. That said, it’s imperative that you post daily, as this will both help you grow you following *and* keep your followers happy! - **Have a Call to Action** – This is where many aspiring bloggers and entrepreneurs mess up. It’s easy to get carried away longing for colorful faraway destinations on Instagram, and so there needs to be something that gets the “scrollers” to stop and read what you have to say. You have to ensure that you write something catchy and compelling in each caption that will entice someone to click the link in your bio. - **Engage** – Having an engaging profile is extremely important both if you plan to collaborate with brands and if you are promoting a product. You want an audience that likes, comments, and even checks out your Instagram Stories. But, it doesn’t stop there. Engagement is a two-way street; for every comment and message that you receive, it’s extremely important that you take the time to respond to that person which, in turn, creates a line of communication. That person is then more likely to continue following your page, as well as your business. ### Sarah, teach us something we don’t know about traveling full time. **Sarah Gallo:**Believe it or not, you don’t need a huge social media following in order to travel the world for “free.” Of course, usually this is an exchange of services — in exchange for a comped stay/experience, you will be required to showcase their brand on your blog and throughout your social media channels. Many people think that you need tens of thousands of followers to secure sponsorship, but in reality that’s not true. In fact I received my first hotel, tour company, and clothing collaborations with less than 2,000 followers. What’s important is finding a boutique company that fits your niche. A company that’s trying to grow and could use the extra exposure. Start there by offering reviews of their services. As you work with more and more brands, create a “Brands I’ve Worked With” page, as this will provide you with credibility to move from the smaller brands to the bigger, more well-known brands. I have recently released a free eBook where I go more in depth into just how to secure these sponsorships, so you’ll have to check it out!   ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Sarah Gallo:**I put myself out there rather than holding back due to timidity; it’s timidity – fear of failure – that frequently keeps people from being assertive. When I was younger, my parents taught me always to “go for it,” because the worst that could happen is that it doesn’t work out or that I’d be told, “No.” I never wanted to live with regrets and wonder “What If?”, and that mindset drove me to push aside my shyness and put myself out there — to introduce myself to everyone, no matter what their status. I’ve walked up to rockstars, actors, and some of the top businessmen around with no hesitation. I don’t believe in treating someone differently because of wealth and/or position — or lack thereof; we are all human, and I approach each individual just as that. In having no qualms, I have been able to pick the brains of people I admire and form strong connections. The online world is all about networking, and that’s something that I’ve learned to master from a young age. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Sarah Gallo:**An entrepreneur needs to focus on remaining focused. I know that may sound ridiculous, but it’s true. So many people have “Shiny Object Syndrome,” commonly referred to as the disease of distraction. When you’re starting your own business, it’s extremely important to be hyper-focused on your goal, and what it’s going to take for you to achieve it. The thing is, as entrepreneurs, we are always craving *more*. We frequently feel as if we can tackle everything, as we want to absorb as much information as possible and apply it to our business, but in reality, we need to focus on one thing at a time. Having Shiny Object Syndrome can absolutely kill your business, as it has the ability to pull you away from the tasks at hand, cause you to lose focus, and even burn a hole in your wallet. We are in the business of earning money, not throwing it down the tubes thanks to countless distractions on the Internet. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Sarah Gallo:**As far as entrepreneurial books go, 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class by Steve Siebold, [Tools of Titans](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1328683788) by Tim Ferriss, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie are very valuable reads. For people needing some more travel inspiration, Love with a Chance of Drowningby Torre DeRoche and Vagabonding by Rolf Potts are an absolute must! ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Sarah Gallo:**I’m truly grateful to have had the opportunity to check off most of my Bucket List, but now it’s time for me to give back. The very talented photographer that accompanies me on many of my trips has Cystic Fibrosis, a life threatening lung disease, but he is determined not to allow his disease to define him. He has a passion for nature, outdoor activities, and adventure, but his medical issues can complicate things due to the hours of daily therapies, frequent hospitalizations, etc. He also happens to be my inspiring brother. Over the last few years, I’ve been designing a program called *66 Roses*that will allow me to take other children with Cystic Fibrosis around the world to check off *their* Bucket Lists. I’ve seen firsthand the joy that it’s brought my brother, and I can only hope to bring that same joy to many more. --- ## David Bamber: Martial Arts and Ugly Entrepreneurship URL: https://futuresharks.com/david-bamber/ **David** is a lifelong martial artist who after failing in his (childhood) dreams of becoming a special forces soldier went into the Service Industry for years before being compelled to forge his own path in the entrepreneur landscape. David likes to refer to his journey and experiences as an entrepreneur, “ugly”, not only for the craziness that can occur but to combat the “passive income” hype so many fall into believing, which is wrong for most. Currently David and his business partner Cris Rodriguez are the Founders of Kids Jitz Academy, an online training and consulting platform which teaches martial art school owners and instructors how to start, build and grow successful kids programs. David is also the head coach at Gracie PAC MMA where he teaches Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and aspires to become one of the best professional speakers in the country. **City​ ​where​ ​you’re​ ​from**:​ Lives in Tampa, FL / Born in Clearwater, FL / Considers Satellite Beach, FL his home town. **Passions**:​ ​Jiu​ ​Jitsu,​ ​Coaching/Teaching,​ ​Self​ ​Improvement,​ ​Videography,​ ​Helping **Favorite​ ​quote:​** ​“What’s​ ​easy​ ​to​ ​do​ ​is​ ​also​ ​easy​ ​not​ ​to​ ​do” **Social​ ​Accounts​:** Instagram – @official_davidbamber Facebook – /Official DavidBamber YouTube – Kids Jitz Academy Channel ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **David Bamber**:​ My main focus right now is going heavy with video ad marketing for Kids Jitz Academy. I began a campaign to humorously convey the struggles of teaching kids to reach martial art school owners and instructors letting them know, “we get it”. My partner and I have been in the martial arts a combined 50 years and have taught over 30,000 kids classes, so we understood the challenges and perfected a system that made our school super successful. A friend of hers began creating digital products and doing affiliate marketing which gave us the idea to do our own. We are a niche inside a niche but with massive potential because every martial arts school must have a kids program and there are no teaching platforms like ours on the market to help you succeed at creating or growing one. ### How is your company different? **David Bamber:​** A lot! We offer a professional yet user friendly platform with not only over 500 kids jiu jitsu videos to include drills, warm-ups, lesson, games, life skills but we teach it the way the instructor should teach it, which is extremely unique and valuable. Meaning instead of just showing a move (in the videos) we teach you how to break it down for each stage of development for yours students from 3-15 years old, which no one in the market is doing. We like to call it, “teaching the teachers”, but upon feedback from our members from all over the globe one of the main reasons they enjoy our services is because of our Closed Facebook Members Only. He wanted to focus so much on providing enormous value and earning credibility so we answer in depth ANY issue our members have and fast! This has created “raving fans” of our business which creates a ripple effect of referrals as you grow. ### What’s your dream with your company? We see our business becoming a multi million dollar enterprise because of its scalability, we just need more exposure, unless we get bought out, haha! Jiu Jitsu is on the rise but still is under the shadow of older martial arts when it comes to number of schools. However jiu jitsu has earned the respect of these older martial arts so they know the effectiveness and value. So we not only want to build kids jiu jitsu programs inside as many bjj schools across the world as possible but develop training programs for other martial arts to become certified as a kids bjj expert. We also have a growing consulting side of our business called J.A.C (Jitz Academy Coaching), where we teach you how to grow and systemize your school in all aspects using our Black Belt in Business Blueprint. We know jiu jitsu is one of the toughest martial arts to teach and we want to help any owner or potential owner create the lifestyle they want teaching martial arts. ### How do you creatively advertise? We are FB ad and Funnel ninjas using curated photos and videos that offer tremendous value to anyone who takes advantage during our ad’s. Also, as mentioned above, we just launched a humorous video ad campaign on IG to relate to the frustrations of teaching kids cause, well, we’ve been there! We are slowly figuring out how to growth hack our YouTube channel as well. You mentioned “ugly entrepreneurship”, can you speak on that some more? Absolutely, let me set the stage. I am still unsure if I was a “born entrepreneur”, but I know I have something in me that can endure a ton of suffering, work to the bone, that enjoys building ideas and creating something new. And as of next month, after 4 years I have to close the doors on my first real business, Legacy Athletics, that I created from scratch which is heart wrenching. I came from a long ride in the service industry where drinking daily and settling for normal and comfortable was a common practice. I still battle with drinking and still fight myself to stay uncomfortable. I have had a long road to even get to this point which is only step one of where I aiming for in my life. It’s been ugly, very ugly and barely ANYONE talks honestly about the struggle and embarrassment and mistakes and setbacks you go through and here’s the kicker…no one shows this side while they’re going through it. Its awesome to hear Tony Robbins, Tom Bilyeu, Eric Thomas, Tai Lopez, Les Brown, Zig Ziglar and the rest we all look up too, but did they document the struggle AS they were going through it? Nope. Only after they were a “name”, so I want to awaken people up to the intense struggle of going after big dreams and goals. And ask others to show their hard reality and sacrifices as they go through the process because it will allow those watching to know they too can chase their dreams. ### What were your biggest failures and biggest successes? What did you learn from them? I’ll keep these answers short because I’ve explained a lot already. I truly believe everything happens for a reason so it’s hard to see things as failures long term. However letting my first business fail hurts but hurts more because I let my business partner and customers down. Next up is I let slip away an opportunity to be a co-owner of a massive Escape Room entertainment business plan. My biggest success was taking the leap into developing my gifts and designing my own life. From my failures I learned and internalized that as a owner everything is up to you. You understand this intellectually but until you have people counting on you to support their families and customers who really rely on your service/product and then let them down, its hard for you to get how truly important taking full responsibility for every inch of your business is. From my main success I have learned that I actually have a real gift that can massively impact the world and slowly that feeling is getting stronger and stronger. It gives me chills of excitement and I wish that feeling on all of you reading this, it’s worth it even without the millions. ### Value-add​ ​questions Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. One Short Answer: You know the answers to the questions you ask yourself, you must look deep and be honest with yourself. Second Long Answer: After you jump and decide to go after your vision/goal/dream. There will be times where you are not sure what direction to go and those around you won’t understand plus you will have a hard time fully explaining because you don’t fully understand yourself. But you need to trust that you began on this path for a reason. Please trust me that your vision of who you want to be and where you want to go becomes clearer as you take one more step. Each step uncovers a different aspects of the “picture”. One day you’ll notice you have the knowledge, know how and strength to take another baby step up and up and up. The 4 Most Important Numbers in your Business: Know your numbers! There are 4 key numbers you must know to increase sales. #1: How many leads are coming in. #2: How many leads are clicking to the next stage of your funnel or how many leads are booked for appointments. #3: How many of those who clicked through or booked appointments show up or wanted to buy your product. #4: How many of those who clicked to the final sales page or showed up for their appointment converted into sales. Now to see a huge change in sales you only need to focus on improving 10% of the first 3 stages, because it adds up. Hopefully you have a system for each phase and if not it’s a good time to design one. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? I learned how to post to IG from my Mac laptop. DM me and I’ll let you know how. Teach us something we don’t know. The best way to get children to listen is to live the values you are trying to teach them. Because you will have the ability to speak to your own struggles and benefits. Always remember, kids are not your property, you are raising adults. Plus it helps to act like the silliest cartoon in the world if you want to break away shyness. ### What do you think you do better than most people? Coaching/Teaching. That’s my gift that I am developing to the furthest possible extent. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Using the little wins to keep pushing forward and fighting your demons. Personally and professionally, because they work side by side. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? I’ve noticed you read books at different stages of your entrepreneurial journey and even circle back around to the books you’ve read and get different value out of it because you were reading to listen to the advice. So keep re-reading the books you’ve already covered. However the most recent books that have helped are the following: Traction by Gino Wickman; Profit First by Mike Michalowicz and Success Through Stillnessby Russell Simmons. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Our goal for Kids Jitz Academy is to double in size by this time next year. Also we will be opening up another martial arts location in the Tampa Bay area next year. Also I want to begin a public speaking career by the end of this year. So if you are reading this and interested in my story or enjoy my thoughts please email me at DavidAlanBamber@gmail.com. Youtube link: Kids Jitz Academy --- ## Trever Gray’s Story: From College Dropout to Winning Entrepreneur URL: https://futuresharks.com/trever-gray/ **Trever Gray** is likely a name you haven’t heard of. But, Gray will soon be well-known across the business world. At only 20 years old, Gray’s company Back Shelter has recently partnered with the world’s largest military exporters to assist in bringing the Back Shelter into military & commercial spotlight. Things weren’t always an easy decision for Trever. After just one semester, Gray dropped out of college. He packed his belongings and moved to New York City with a mere $500 in pursuit to grow and expand his company. Here’s his amazing story. **City where you’re from:** Waterville, Maine. **Favorite quote:****“It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.” – Elon Musk** **Social accounts:** Follow Trever Gray’s journey on Instagram , and  Facebook ### What are you working on with Back Shelter? How did you come up with this idea? **Trever Gray:** At Back Shelter, we were originally working on modernizing the hiking & camping industry with our revolutionary patented products. But, the market is much greater than that solely. We’ve expanded from strictly commercial avenues to military application and humanitarian aid. ### Was it tough to leave school behind to pursue your dream? **Trever Gray**: For me, I knew it was the right choice. It was an easy decision, but it wasn’t easy for my family and friends. If you want to be successful you have to take big risk and believe in what you’re doing. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Trever Gray:**  I was rejected many times, but I never saw that as failure or loss. It always motivated me to move forward and prove my worth and knowledge.  There’s going to be people that try to shoot you down, just work hard and believe in yourself. Success will come, embrace the rain. My biggest success would have to be finally striking a deal with our military exporters. That was certainly a proud moment. ### Is it true you moved to NYC with only $500? What were the tough times like? **Trever Gray:**Yes, but it wasn’t an easy first few months. I found an apartment off Craigslist for $500 a month in E Harlem. It had a twin bed and enough room to open the door. No windows, no AC, nothing. I spent my entire savings on the first month rent, and was left with no money for the remainder of the month. I was washing my clothes in the sink, and eating Ramen for almost every meal. I began job hunting immediately. I got a job interview with a brokerage in the financial district, they were filling a new floor and had 23 positions available. Out of 2700 applicants, I received a seat as the youngest broker to ever enter the firm. I worked at the brokerage while growing my company. I would go on “lunch break” and run to a meeting on the other side of Manhattan for Back Shelter and get back before my lunch break was over. I always knew I was going to be successful, I was just waiting on everyone else to see it. ### Value-add questions ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Trever Gray:**Self-actualization, I’m particularly good at. I know my full potential, and how to achieve it. When you run a company, you need to learn to trust others. It’s incredible important to trust your partners and their abilities. If you aren’t good at finance, find a partner who is. If you aren’t skilled at mechanical engineering, source an engineer or two. Moral, you can’t be good at everything. But, you can build a team that is. ### What do you recommend a new entrepreneur to focus on? **Trever Gray:**DON’T QUIT.. Most people quit and get discouraged when results aren’t immediate. Remember, your business could take many years to build and become sustainable. If this was easy, everyone would do it. ### Who are some of the most influential people for you? **Trever Gray:** Elon Musk, is hands down my biggest inspiration. He’s doing so many revolutionary things, Tesla, Solar City, SpaceX, and OpenAI. Each of his ventures are focused on benefiting quality of life and the environment. Bill & Melinda Gates are another huge inspiration for me. They’ve given away BILLIONS in search of cures and vaccinations for developing countries. They have saved millions of lives through their philanthropy work. ### Where do you see yourself and Back Shelter in a couple years? **Trever Gray:** In a few years, Back Shelter will have become a household name in the hiking & camping industry. Expanding our product line beyond our signature build. Back Shelter will begin live military implementation. As for myself, I plan to grow Back Shelter, and broaden my business ventures into other avenues in the near future. You’ll see more of me, trust that. --- ## How to Create a Great Company Culture URL: https://futuresharks.com/create-great-company-culture/ Building a great company culture is essential for the employee’s morale and productivity. When people feel included in the mission and vision of the company, great results can be achieved. “No company can thrive without having a strong culture,” explains Anna Nguyenova, who is the VP of Operations at TubeScience, the world’s largest social video advertiser. In the last 6 months, Anna watched TubeScience become one of the fastest growing companies in America, spending millions of dollars a week on advertisements, generating billions of views every month, and experiencing phenomenal month-over-month revenue growth. The growth is even more impressive considering the fact that Anna started as the company’s seventh employee. Yet in the midst of the explosive growth, she managed to preserve the company’s culture: “It’s so important that people find the place they spend at least 8 hours a day at to be enjoyable. It boosts employee morale and ultimately improves productivity and the company’s bottom line.” Though every company culture is unique, Anna believes that there are three things any company can do to foster a cooperative culture: ### 1.     Foster inclusion When I was leading Flux Ventures, I tried to include every employee in the discussion by listening to their input. It is important that people feel that they are an active part of the company if you want them to do their best work. “A shared and transparent culture encourages employees to realize and contribute to their full potential,” she says. Throughout her career she has also seen that it improves employee retention and satisfaction. “Simply get started with small steps. For example, invite people you never invited before to the next creative brainstorming session.” ### 2.     Create great support networks “When you are a new hire, the best way to learn about the company is not to talk to the CEO, but to talk to your peers.” Anna recommends encouraging employees to spend time with new hires, such as through the company’s sponsored lunch or after work activity. “It is at the company’s best interest for any new hire to integrate fast, and using your team’s help is one good way to do it.” It is important for employees to understand that they can learn from their peers, not just the head of the company. ### 3.     Develop an effective employee handbook Though some companies may find a printed employee handbook a thing of a past, Anna believes otherwise. She has found that having a clear handbook has been especially important when it comes to communicating the company’s standard policies and practices. “As a company continues to grow it becomes impossible for any one person to develop a deep relationship with every employee in the company. That’s when the handbook comes in. It should be comprehensive and should serve as definitive resource for employee expectations and vice versa.” ### Conclusion In summary, Anna emphasizes that it’s important that the culture evolves as the company grows. What may be important for a smaller company is much different for that same company as it expands to new offices and employs more people. A startup has different needs and attracts much different people than a established company, thus it is very important to tailor and refine a culture that is fit for each stage of the company. How do you create your company culture? --- ## Peter Coultas, Serial Entrepreneur and Investor Shares His Story URL: https://futuresharks.com/peter-coultas/ Peter Coultas is a serial entrepreneur and founder of The Goodie Bag. According to his AngelList profile, he invested in Alibaba and Facebook pre-IPO. Read the interview we did with him below! **1. In five bullet points or less, describe your typical day and/or routine.** – I typically start my day off by answering e-mails and updating the blog as well as checking other sites. – Meetings in person, via Skype, and conference calls with retailers, artists/celebrities, interview subjects, bloggers, etc. and of course, return calls. – Depending on circumstances and time of year, traveling and/or attending trade shows, industry events, parties, charity functions, concerts, or Masonic meetings. – Once the day/night has quieted down a bit, I tend to read a book while drinking a nice cup of tea as well as read the news to catch up on what’s going on in the world. **2. When did you realize you wanted to pursue your dreams?** Fashion has been my passion and soul since the millennia started. High school saw me sporting BAPE, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, names my peers couldn’t even pronounce. Fueling my passion, acquiring the necessary skills to be first rate, and taking a step of courage were all I needed to not only pursue my dreams, but now live my dreams. It all started when I was 16, and I keep dreaming bigger and striving for the next leg of my journey daily. **3. What keeps you motivated and inspired?** I am motivated and inspired my team, family, and the people around me. Seeing how hard they work and hustle to get things done, pushes me into putting myself in a position to help them out. I am driven to open doors so they better themselves and their lives while allowing them to likewise pour into me. I continue to set new objectives and complete them for both myself as a person and the business. Tackling new projects and embracing fresh opportunities also keep things interesting; I enjoy the challenge and chance for growth and prospect of building on and learning new sets of skills. **4. What is the biggest obstacle you have encountered and how did you overcome it?** I’d have to say that my biggest obstacle to date was starting out so young and getting people take me seriously in the industry. Part of this has been putting together the right team. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to operate at our current level or continue to grow as quickly and effectively as we been fortunate enough to do. As far as overcoming it, it just happened naturally as fellow peers in the industry and friends alike began to realize I have taken the time to learn the ins and outs of the industry and truly pay my dues to attain success. Building an effective team has taken a bit of trial and error, but I’m very satisfied with our core team at the moment of Eric Ing, Kristian Ward, James Raleigh, Amar and Aman Syal as business partners, as well as a hugely dedicated support team: Abbas Jama, Albert Egbo, Brandon Rea, Eddie Khalatian, Eli Ridder, Jason Lucas, Matvi Fridman, Melissa Robyn, Peter Craig, Reid Dykstra, Sean Getti, Tom Nearing, Turahn Gilliam, Tyler Burley, and Tyson Holmes among numerous others, who without we couldn’t make everything happen. Mark Sarson, Sean McKenzie, and Yafet Tadesse of Opulence (our company and mobile-app currently in development offering the first concierge app targeting both the general public and the affluent elite); Kevin Lyons of Lyons Grand Jewellery; and Douglas Rocchio are crucial partners in external ventures and a huge part of my business family, moving everyone towards greater success. **5. What are some of your career highlights?** I’m fortunate enough to say we  have many highlights to speak of. If I were to name a select few, I’m hugely fortunate to be able to travel around the world due to my business, where I played crucial parts in the launch and development of GoodWood, Bloodbath, Nous Sommes, Wood Shock, ih nom uh nit, and many other brands. I’m also extremely proud of the blog myself and my team have built up. The Goodie Bag has transitioned from just a sales, marketing, and distribution company to offering the likes of PR, graphic & web design, artist bookings, talent management, and SEO. This all-encompassing service will only further the relationships and ventures that I’ve already enjoyed and that’s very exciting. On the upcoming horizon, I will be investing in a members-only club in Toronto, ON this Fall. I am working with my business partner Mark Sarson of The Opulent Club to bring an exclusive club to Canada’s top city, filling a much-needed establishment gap for the elite. We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to tour with musicians and work with them in numerous capacities from PR & marketing to styling and even helping some get signed to major labels. Talent management has also been huge and allowed us to work with talents such as Astor, Billy Jackson, and Tom MacDonald. If you haven’t heard of them all yet, believe me you will. Success is what you make it to be, for me it’s a journey to the top. Some of my favorite highlights and moments are seeing the brands and companies we work with flourish and become a success in their own right. I love the fact that I’m able to help people to chase after their own dreams as well as to teach and help them learn and grow their business to become that much closer to living their dreams. It gives me a great satisfaction in knowing that I’m able to help a lot of people and businesses in such a positive way. **6. How do you stay ahead of the curve?** By keeping an open mind and constantly learning (whether it be from peers in the industry, family, friends, books, etc.) as well as staying as up-to-date with trends and the market as I can and being surrounded by an amazing team and group of people. We live in the age of technology, where almost all information is readily available at our fingertips so it’s important to utilize it as much as possible as well as to seek out guidance from industry leaders and peers. Our goal isn’t to follow the trends but to set them. One person described us as “curators of culture”. **7. What advice would you give to those chasing a dream?** Make sure you’re passionate about what you do, believe in your product/service, and just trust yourself and be confident about it. No matter the odds stacked against you and if there are those who doubt your ability to achieve your dreams, never give up. Listen to your gut. Persevere and prove them wrong. The future awaits. **8. What are your hobbies?  What do you do to relax?** I like to discover new products and culture through shopping. I quite enjoy reading, whether it be a business book or a biography. I truly believe that you should never stop learning and should aim to learn something new each and every day. I’m an avid traveler, both for business and personal ventures. I enjoy learning about different cultures, eating different foods, and most importantly learning about the history of places I visit. I’ve been extremely fortunate to travel to over 25 different countries across several continents numerous times in my young life and these experiences allow a unique type of self-exploration that I’ve come to love. To relax, all it takes is a nice book, a cup of tea or glass of Macallan or the company of close friends and family. --- ## Failing Your Way To Freedom URL: https://futuresharks.com/failing-way-freedom-will-bater/ *Will Bater is a digital marketer who has run 6 & 7 figure paid marketing and social campaigns for clients including Shaun White, Linkedin, and Music Festivals across the globe. He sold his first company at 23 and since then has focused on paid Facebook advertising for brands, events, and his own ventures. Let’s dive in!* *What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?* **Will Bater:** I have a lot of irons in the fire at any given moment but my two main projects are a Paid Marketing Agency for brands and events and Tenzo Tea where I am running Customer Acquisition. My current passion project is working with a local record label, Porch Party Records, and helping with their digital marketing. *How is your company different?* **Will Bater:**Paid/Event marketing has a tendency to be really cookie cutter & shady at the same time. Especially when you partner with a large agency. I keep seeing people get burnt by the agency model because they aren’t very savvy and the agency takes advantage of them. I like to consider my company more boutique and hands on right now which allows me to provide input, education, and strategy at all the parts of a company’s digital initiatives which ultimately leads to the success of paid marketing. *What’s your dream with your company?* **Will Bater:**Well right now the dream is tied between continuing to grow my Paid Ad and Event clients & blowing up Tenzo Matcha Tea. But at the end of the day, I want to be the Go To Digital Marketing agency for Music Events, E-Sports, and Tech Conferences. *How do you creatively advertise?* **Will Bater:**A lot of it comes down to nailing the fundamentals so you know how to break the rules. But more than that my process is very much “I wonder what would happen if…” sometimes nothing comes of it but other times you uncover something really great. In events there is this formula that everyone follows and instead of standing out you become one of the crowd. I specifically try to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. That comes with its own host of issues but it hasn’t failed me yet. *What’s Your Favorite Channel To Advertise On?* **Will Bater:**I love paid Facebook. So Much. You can practically map out the perfect message to the perfect person at any given moment. It is a lot of testing your ideas, learning, and then adjusting your strategy which I really enjoy. *What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them?* **Will Bater:**I think my biggest failure was during my first startup that I co-founded about 6 years ago. It was a whole bunch of failures, not just one. Granted, we were eventually acquired but the jump from a college kid who had it pretty easy to getting a real product out into the world was really fuckin rough. There were failures all over the place haha. It was pretty much 2-3 years of failing a lot. I didn’t make the best hires, realized I am not a CEO type (lol), dealt with stress in unhealthy ways, neglected personal relationships, and didn’t understand marketing for traction or how set real goals. Luckily I had people around me I was able to turn to who helped me work through this stuff once I blew it but it was a pretty rough few years. Through it all I realized that I love growing companies and my skills in marketing got beefed up. I also learned you can’t run before you can walk and that was a hard one to come to terms with. On the flip side it is also one of my greatest successes. It wasn’t perfect and it wasn’t pretty but I am very proud of what we accomplished. Since then I have had lots of cool things happen like being paid to travel the world, getting my first celebrity client, and generating money for people but my greatest successes that I am most proud of was earned by failing. In failing I developed the skills that allow me to work for myself on my own terms and gives me the option to pick and choose what I want to work on. This type of freedom has always been my number 1 goal. *Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.* **Will Bater:**Remember at the end of the day it is just a ride. Don’t get so wrapped up in your ventures that you neglect your friends, your health, or your co-workers. Balance is key to staying power in this game and it is ok to take a weekend off. *Teach us something!* **Will Bater:**In Facebook when you need a new cold audience to help scale up: Pull out one of your most valuable custom audiences and run them through Audience Insights. Check out the lifestyle section. Make note of your top lifestyle categories (these categories can’t be targeted normally and they don’t tell you what they are). Click “request audiences from Acxiom Data Guru”. Fill out all the info and submit. In 24-48 hours the audiences will be available to use in your ads manager without spending a dime. This just cut the CPL of a clients campaign in half to under $2.80. *What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month?* **Will Bater:**I have had the pleasure of learning a ton about AdWords from a good friend of mine. Everything from optimization to launching full campaigns in under an hour (keyword research to launch). I started in FB ads so it’s awesome to have AdWords in my tool box and the confidence to take that on. He also has a ton of experience so I have been able to skip a lot of the trial and error and get straight to the good stuff.   *Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose)* **Will Bater:**In events, the live stream is becoming increasingly important and provides a big chunk of revenue. You would be surprised how much extra sponsors will pay to have the rights and branding around a good stream. So one of my major specialties from my work with festivals is driving viewers during an event to stoke out the sponsors. More or less it goes like this: -Create as many relevant audiences as possible before event day. -On event day, clip parts of the livestream in real time to get in-the-moment bites that make a great hook. -Drop em on Facebook, set budgets to accelerated, target your audiences. -Jump into google analytics and see what is driving the best or most traffic depends on your goal. Cross check with FB. -Monitor things like location, age, and other demo data that might help you uncover a gem. -Go back to FB, drop more spend into the audiences and ads that are doing well, remove the spend from the ones that aren’t, create a new audience if you have the info you didn’t have before. -Repeat all day. It is pretty much a typical ad strategy but much more fast paced which I find really exciting. *What do you think you do better than most people?* **Will Bater:**Paid marketing for events and event day marketing. The days of an event are always crazy hectic and leading the digital strategy is no joke. You really need to be on the ball and have plans A-Z ready to roll because something always goes wrong. You also need to be an effective communicator so you can keep your team moving together as a unit. *What should an entrepreneur focus on?* **Will Bater:**Stop reading and start doing. Read when you have a specific issue or for fun. *Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?* **Will Bater:**I’m working towards bigger clients, traveling the world as a marketing consultant for events, and slanging the best matcha tea to the masses. *Authors Note: Will Bater is one of my good friends, so I’m a little biased – but he’s a legit marketer and a super great guy. Follow him on social media (I do):*Instagram*,*LinkedIn*, and of course his favorite,*Facebook*.* --- ## How Goldie Chan Went from Stanford Geneticist to Viral Brand Marketer on LinkedIn URL: https://futuresharks.com/goldie-chan-stanford-marketing-linkedin/ Meet Goldie Chan, the Stanford grad and underground community builder who ditched her published geneticist life to grow and develop brands within Legendary Entertainment and the startup world. She is currently the Head of Content & Creative at confirm/deny where she helps big brands find their fandoms/communities through social media & PR, and serves on the Producer’s Guild of America’s New Media Council. Her clients have spanned everything from youth brands to established tech giants and CEOs and have covered hundreds of millions of community members and over $7+ billion in revenue (from one startup alone!). *What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?* Goldie Chan**:**I’m currently working on a series of Pop Culture Branding videos as one of the first people in the LinkedIn Video beta. I really love hearing why people have the fandoms and also share my own knowledge of historical context. Subjects so far include: Harry Potter, the Great American Road Trip, Anime in the US, History of Suburbs and more! I’ve committed to doing at least 30 days worth of these videos, so follow along on my LinkedIn to watch them! *How is your company different?* Goldie Chan**:**Well, I’m doing these videos as a fun way to “be a fan of your fandom.” A lot of my friends are making amazing explainer videos on LinkedIn on more technical subjects, so I thought I’d “break open” the beta with a “#walkntalk” series going around exploring interesting branding of pop culture/fandom goodness and make a much more **casual** and **engaging** kind of video. I’m also doing these as a test run for my amazing creative agency – confirm/deny – an entertainment/lifestyle branding and PR agency that I run with my colleague, Christine Dinh. *What’s your dream with your company?* Goldie Chan**:**I would LOVE to figure out a way to make LinkedIn videos a more highly-produced Pop Culture Branding/Lore series and share people’s fandoms around the world. I was lucky enough to make it onto a great LinkedIn list as #2 voice to watch and also get quite a few shout-outs and requests for expertise. And as always, would like to work with forward-thinking, fun clients with my agency (we’re already talking to a few and excited to announce some of that soon). *How do you creatively advertise?* Goldie Chan**:**I have been lucky enough to actually chat with the LinkedIn team but have been rounding up my friends and liking/commenting on their posts while they are generous enough to do the same on mine. *What are you known for?* Goldie Chan**:** I’m known for building community and connecting folks! I am strongest when I come from a place of being really excited about learning about someone’s interests and wants and then helping them get to where they want to go. My video/content series has been doing great (over 15k views and counting) because I am asking people and sharing subjects that they have a personal fandom for. I’m also running a fun Patreon to help fund some of my video projects. *What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them?* Goldie Chan**:**Biggest failure is easy [*laughs*]. I was running my own fashion brand right out of college and about year 2, I got interest from a big box store. I panicked – looked for a business partner and couldn’t find one. I ended up having my first big nervous breakdown and ate peanut butter sandwiches and ramen while watching HGTV and playing SIMs. My friends pulled me out of it and I landed my first marketing job – completely unrelated to my Stanford Biology degree. Learnings: That when you fall down, it’s okay to take a break BUT you need to get back up and be ready to tackle other big problems. Biggest success? Can I be corny and say that it hasn’t happened yet? One really amazing success was at one company where I was handling the US side of a 19 million dollar global customer base and I built a mentor program that increased initial site interaction by 30% so instead of seeing drop-off, I was personally getting really adorable happy notes from new users. *Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.* Goldie Chan**:**Stick with it. All of the startups that I’ve worked at – for the teams that were willing to be flexible and stick with it were the most successful. *Teach us something about having a healthy balance.* Goldie Chan**:**I’d like you to do this powerful meditation that I’ve been having other entrepreneurs and hard-working creatives do. Ready? [*smiles*] Let’s do this together. [*eyes closed*] One deep breath in, one deep breath out – repeat three times. Imagine you are climbing up a high mountain, each step bringing you closer to the peak. Keep. Breathing. Three breaths – in and out, evenly. As you are halfway up, smile. You’re doing it. Keep your eye on the top of this mountain. Keep. Breathing. Three breaths – in and out, evenly. Imagine reaching the summit, one foot in front of the other. Stretch and stand tall, both hands on your hips. You are amazing, wonderful and you can handle the rest of this week! *What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month?* Goldie Chan**:**I have actually been learning two things – one is video editing and better livestreaming (both on my nifty Mevo and also on my iPhone) and the second is even more balance. I’ve been trying to find a better balance between working crazy long hours and making more time for people that I really care for. *What do you think you do better than most people?* Goldie Chan**:**Listen carefully, read body language and develop a feeling of understanding. It definitely helps when I host meetups and people are introverted and honestly, a bit scared. *What should an entrepreneur focus on?* Goldie Chan**:**Building community. Speak to your community the way they want to be spoken to. Create personas that help you speak their language better. Share that language. Make them feel at home with your product and brand. *What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?* Goldie Chan**:**Love this question! I don’t think we read enough books AT ALL. I also still love to read real paperback so that makes me pretty old-school. The Alchemist – Paulo Coehlo (this is the book I give to all of my interns and new employees) SnotGirl – Brian Lee O’Malley (a hilarious take on the Instagram fashion influencer) Never Eat Alone – Keith Ferrazi (the tile itself is worth it) The Missing Piece – Shel Silverstein (for anyone that wants to be more okay running a business/life solo) Steal Like an Artist – Austin Kleon (a good series of exercises to job creativity) *Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?* Goldie Chan**:**I will be creating even larger, more engaged communities and focusing on video content on social. I would really love to translate this current LinkedIn video idea to a wider audience format and also help other brands build their own fandoms. I just completed a tour of the Bay Area (Silicon Valley/SF) and I’d certainly like to help some of the businesses that I visited (like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, AirBnb, etc) figure out new ways to grow their business and communities. --- ## 5 Techniques to Successfully Juggle Multiple Clients as a Small Dev Company URL: https://futuresharks.com/deal-multiple-clients/ As your small IT business expands, it is inevitable that you will eventually have ti juggle multiple clients and only a handful of team members. And as you work for your clients, you’ll have multiple projects going at the same time for each one. Do not fear. Having all of this additional work is a good thing. At the same time, it’s often tough to figure out which project you should be working on next. By having so many ongoing projects, it’s possible that you will feel entirely overwhelmed. Instead of letting your feelings of overwhelming get the best of you, it’s better to learn and understand powerful techniques that will make it easy to juggle multiple clients as a (still) small development company. We will now uncover five techniques that make managing multiple clients a snap. ### Five Inspirational Multiple Client Management Techniques to Live by - Work with a focused approach – it’s easy to jump from one client project to the next without even really thinking about it. But is this the best way to use your time? You’ll get more done if you [focus](/richard-lowe-jr/) on one project at a time for each client. By keeping your focus, you’ll get more done in the time dedicated to this client than you would if you were to bounce from one thing to the next. Your team doesn’t have to spend month-in-month-out working on one project. Dedicate one or two hours each day per project and move on to the next when time runs out. - Complete small tasks in batches – as a small business, it’s often your job to do very similar tasks for multiple clients. You have two options. You can periodically spread these tasks out throughout the week. Or you complete all of them at the same time by working on these small tasks in batches. We’ve discovered that clearing your plate of small tasks at the same time frees up your mind to focus on bigger, more important projects. - Tracking your applications automatically – error and log tracking is an absolute must for small dev companies.You have to have a complete overview of your client’s project, and they have to know how to work with their current solution based on the app metrics. Error monitoring software makes it simple to keep track of all issues quickly and it’s the right tool to keep the app logs at hand for both you and the client on a project by project basis. - Status update emails – your clients need to be informed and up-to-date about their existing projects. Sending out regular status emails is an excellent way to let clients know where each project stands. We recommend doing this once per week. Pick a day and time and send all client status update emails at the same time. - Project ranking – when you have multiple projects going at the same time, you’ll need to figure out which ones need to be completed with the most urgency. Rank each project according to its deadline and make a task list with each project listed by order of importance. Please incorporate these five techniques into your virtual assistant business. By using them, you’ll have an easier time managing multiple projects for multiple clients. --- ## From Being Bullied To Dreams Of Being Disney’s CEO: Learn How Andria Schultz Is Helping Millennials Break Into Hollywood URL: https://futuresharks.com/andria-schultz/ Andria Schultz is living the LA dream. From working on Hollywood projects to interviewing shakers and movers within the industry. She has also worked with big brands like Disney, Warner Bros and has been an Executive Producer for shows like “Your Family Matters” along with working behind the scenes for Fox News and the Disney Channel, she has accomplished a lot at a young age. **How Did You Get Started ?** At the age of 8, Andria had this grand vision of being the CEO of Disney, from a young age she was a go- getter and an entrepreneur from the start. Her 1st business was going door to door handing out pamphlets teaching typing for kids, this is how she structured her pitch in the brochure “If you’re looking to get rid of your kids from 3-6 pm, then sign them up for my typing class”, she also included a signup sheet and was charging $20. At the age of 10 years old, she went to church with her mom and her mom noticed Constance Ramos for the Extreme Makeover Home Edition and told her to go talk to her. Andria went and got her autograph and bluntly asked, > ***” I want to be the next CEO of Disney, can you help me get there ?”*** She got denied and told Andria to come back a few years later when she was serious. By the time she was 13-14 years old, she want back to Ramos and asked her again; this time she accepted and taught her the value of having “elephant skin” and prepred her entry into the entertainment industry. Ramos gave her homework and prepared a plan of attack to make her dream happen. At the age of 16, Andria scoured 50-100 newspapers looking for internships and came across a production company but they wanted someone with Photoshop experience. That didn’t deter her from cold calling and even though she didn’t have Photoshop experience, she set up a meeting with the decision maker and brought her dad along. She brought along her artwork from high school and showed it to the person. However, the decision maker insisted Andria get Photoshop experience so she went to a community college for 6 months to learn Photoshop and landed the internship. While taking an extended program from TV and Film she landed a gig working behind the scenes at FOX TV. She got a chance to meet the VP of Fox News and realized they had a mutual connection which was the decision maker that hired her at 16. All the names mentioned in the article in some way mentored Andria to the success she has achieved till today. At 21, she landed the position of Executive Producer for Your Family Matters while still taking a full course load, getting straight A’s and working 75 hour work weeks while driving back and forth from San Diego to LA. She was managing a team of 12. **What did the VP of Fox News teach you ?** Andria learned how to to add structure for television scripts, to be patient and developed business acumen. After networking her way, she connected with Tom Bergeron and still wanted to be the CEO of Disney. So she went to sell cars for Mercedez Benz to develop that skill and also landed a gig at “Real Daytime” at Warner Bros. So she was selling cars Monday- Friday and during the weekend, she drove up to Warner Bros. to work there. She met Tom Bergeron through American’s Funniest Home videos in which she got invited to sit in the audience and be on camera. She was approached to play a game with him before the show by the producer, however due to some confusion another girl was selected. After the show, the producer was deeply apologetic and invited Andria to another audience taping in which she could play the game with Bergeron. She refused and wanted a job instead and ended up landing the job through an email. She landed a lot of opportunities but wasn’t fulfilled. She was getting a lot of queries on how she landed gigs and networked so after consulting with her loved ones, she realized her purpose was to help people, especially millennials make their break into the entertainment industry through her program “Network Smart” **Tell us about a moment that you’re proud of.** Making an impact to the education system in California. Andria was at a board meeting with executives from Lego Land, district leaders from different schools and Oprah’s partner: Stedman Graham. Andria suggested an idea about making a specific change and Graham was impressed to the extent that he implemented the change in the system. **What was the reason behind starting a course ?** Even though she was getting a lot of queries how she landed opportunities, she wanted her students to understand the concept to not be a mercy to the strings of Hollywood, because living in Hollywood is expensive. > *She wanted her students to think like entrepreneurs and go after opportunities and not wait for a call from agents or producers to hire them for a job.* **What was a rock bottom moment for you ?** Andria lost her job at Disney Channel due to undisclosed reasons and never till this day understood the reason. She was devastated and was emotionally torn that her dream directly could not be achieved. However, she indirectly is living her dream through the successes of her students that are working with Paramount and other Disney related brands. When Andria was in middle school for 3 years straight she was bullied through water balloons being thrown or girls pulling her hair in class, however she powered through all that **How do you not let the critics get to you ?** “You’re always going to have ups and downs, you could let the downs bring you down or let them bring you up”- Carlos Hernandez Andria said,***” Don’t worry about what other people think about you, the only person who’s opinion matters about yourself is yours at the end of the day. If you’re insecure and others sense it, they’ll exploit it. If you’re secure with yourself, no one’s opinion will break you”*** **What’s next for you or what projects are you currently working on ?** Andria is currently doing a podcast with the producer of Boy Meets World, managing an EDM duo who got signed and has plans of writing a book detailing her journey in Hollywood.  Other than her course “Network Smart” she also does 1 on 1 consulting across a wide variety of industries with individuals to help them navigate their career and advise them in different areas of personal and business. **Where can people find you ?** Through her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AndriaCSchultz/ or email at acschultz09@gmail.com *Note: Thank you for the time Andria. Continue inspiring and impacting people in a positive way !* --- ## From Ebay Hustle To Million Dollar Kickstarter Campaigns: Learn How Justin Wu Is Redefining Growth On Steroids URL: https://futuresharks.com/justin-wu/ In a time where terms like growth hacking, marketing, and [influencer marketing](/category/marketing/) are thrown around it can be hard to find authentic and genuine people who have results. Justin Wu has been hustling since the age of 13, from building websites and earning passive income to selling items on eBay to fulfill his wants of buying Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards; Justin realized from an early age that if he wanted to buy things that he enjoyed, he realized that he was going to have to be a little creative on how he earned his money. Through his eBay business he built a community through forums and monetized the attention through google ads which garnered him the traffic and attention to generate internet money. He is a serial entrepreneur and recognized for collaborating top media outlets like the  Wall Street Journal,Intel, NASDAQ and more.  His startup has also been invested by Warner Bros a few years ago and currently has a lot of other projects going on at the moment. Currently, he is focused on growing his agency Growth.ly which helps businesses with their growth marketing strategy and has done Kickstarter campaigns which have generated $2.5 million in 30 days. Originally, Justin wanted to build a startup but realized that at that time he didn’t know how he was going to get venture capital or raise money to fund the idea so he decided to start a marketing agency called Dealer Bus which specialized in helping car dealerships and real estate agencies with their marketing. He focused on what a lot of businesses don’t focus on is pure cashflow. ### What is the difference between growth hacking and marketing ? Marketers are mainly focused on creativity and building awareness of the product without understanding characteristics like product market fit. Justin believes growth hacking encompasses: product engineering, data analytics and marketing together to ensure that the KPI that is being focused on is achieved. Most marketers miss out on creating a product market fit and refining the product so customers actually want to use it and feel the need for it vs just creating campaigns to see which one targets the ideal customer. > ***Growth hacking is a mindset, it’s essentially lean marketing where you need to utilize the resources at your disposal and not use money as an excuse for the reason why one can’t execute.*** The 2 skills Justin suggests in mastering the core of marketing is funnels and inbound marketing. Growth hacking is a set of tactics one can utilize which is complementary to the core marketing competencies and not necessarily a different field or distinction within itself. ### How do you become omnipresent across all platforms ? > **“Omnipresence isn’t about platforms, people need to focus on mediums and understand their core competency whether it be video, audio or written. Once a person figures that out, they can exploit it on a particular platform and heavily utilize it to its full advantage. “** > The key 2 steps to remember around being omnipresent is > 1. Mastering the medium and selecting it. > 2. Finding the platform and dominating one platform before moving onto the next. Everyone has an agenda for utilizing a particular platform and delivering value to an audience is done through the chosen medium. ### Future projects you are currently working on ? Other than planning for events around Stacking Growth, Justin is working in projects related to cryptocurrencies and other projects related to Growth.ly. ### Where can people follow you ? https://www.linkedin.com/in/justincwu/ or search “hackapreneur” on another platform like Instagram or Twitter. ***Thank you for the down to earth interview Justin. Keep stacking growth and making all kinds of business gains. Continue styling and dropping growth on these startups.*** --- ## How a Mom and Dad With 6 Kids from Iowa Are Getting Babies Sleeping Through The Night Using These 3 Secrets You Can Easily Duplicate! URL: https://futuresharks.com/brad-greta-zude/ **Brad and Greta Zude** have been baby sleep consultants for nearly 10 years.  They help moms, dads, and families all over the world get their babies and toddlers napping during the day and sleeping through the night through their unique online Sleep Accelerator Course Mentorship. **City where you’re from:** Davenport, IA **Hobbies:**Heavily involved in our church and spending time with our 6 kids! **Favorite quote:** “If You Continue To Do What You’ve Always Done…You’ll Continue To Get What You’ve Always Got!” –Albert Einstein **Social accounts**: Facebook Twitter Instagram ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Brad & Greta:** We enrolled in a parenting class before we were even pregnant with our first baby!  We wanted things to go perfectly when our first baby came.  We are both college graduates and thought for sure we’d be smart and get ahead of the baby curve.  Boy were we wrong!  When our baby came things didnt go by the book and we needed help!  A friend of ours recommended a consultant who could help us with our baby.  We hired her, learned a lot, ended up having 6 kids and developed a way to get the same help we had out to the world in a new, fast, efficient, and effect way using today’s technology. ### How is your company different? **Brad & Greta:** Our Sleep Accelerator Course is unique in many ways, but the main component is our delivery.  Most baby sleep consultants charge $250-$450 dollars for a 1 hour phone consultation.  The issue with that is you simply cannot solve all the logistical baby problems in 1 hour let alone the emotional problems moms and dads have that goes along with severe sleep deprivation.  We offer a video course with 90+ videos students can watch go learn our core content on their own time.  Next they get access to our Master-Mind group with hundreds of other student in it so they can share experiences and get additional help. The key to getting your baby sleeping through the night is ongoing help, mainly consisting of emotional and mental support.  Through video chat platforms we are able to offer people in addition to the video portion and the Master-mind group ongoing mentoring with us and can handle a large volume of clients for less than the price other consultants charge for a 1 hour phone call.   As entrepreneurs we want more time with our family.  Life with 6 kids is a lot of fun and we desire to be home meeting their needs.  We are working towards a ‘laptop lifestyle’ with MyBabyCanSleep.com and being able to create our own destiny. Like any business, client acquisition is the name of the game.  We use social media predominantly to obtain new clients.  The good news about our industry is if you have a baby theres a 99% chance you need our help and we are able to target those people easily in todays internet world. The biggest joy we get from our business is watching lives being transformed.  We are blessed with a business that dramatically changes people’s lives in a short period of time and its fun! We knew in order to garner the attention of parents we had to really cut to the heart of the matter, so we created our 3 Secrets Of A Sleeping Baby Video which as of today has 1.4 MILLION views.  Watching that video gives parents value and helps them understand that they need us in order to succeed with their baby.    Being an entrepreneur, no matter how good your idea is takes the courage to get started.  Just because we knew how to get babies sleeping doesn’t mean we knew what our core offer was going to be or how we should price it.  So we spent plenty of money trying to get things right which we eventually did.  That was both our biggest success and biggest failure all in one! ### Value-add questions ### What’s the best entrepreneur advice that you have? The best entrepreneur advice we have is take massive action.  So many people think things have to be perfect in order to start.  Your customers are the best teachers there are because they know their needs and the sooner you  can get customers the sooner you can learn what they need and really make your offer solid.   So if you’re looking to get off the ground the best thing you can do is create a facebook live video and promote it to your exact audience.  It’s the cheapest way to get in front of a highly targeted audience.  Make a few polarizing statements, things that make people stop in their tracks and listen.  Believe in what you do so much that you take a hard stance on your position and let them know you’re right and everyone else is wrong.   It’s interesting that SnapChat just opened up a paid marketing platform for their users this month..  Don’t be afraid to try new things.  New customers are everywhere you can think of and dying for the solutions you offer! When you have a website be sure to have terms of service, privacy policy, and disclaimer on your website done by a real lawyer.  You have a business and need to treat it like one and properly protect it! If you do not have a polarizing message nobody will listen to you.  Make sure you say things that are just short of Crazy.  Russell Brunson has the best book on this Called Expert Secrets and you can currently get it free plus shipping.  Very good read! An entrepreneur should focus on picking a specific group of people and meeting their needs.  Be a specialist, not a generalist.  Brain surgeons make more than general doctors because they specialize and get good at one thing.  Plus it’s really hard to be good and many different things.  Pick one specific thing and excel at it! With MyBabyCanSleep.com we have the luxury of worrying about how many customers we are adding.  We’ve done the hard work to create an irresistible offer to a specific group of people and only have to worry about scaling our business for capacity.  You know you’ve succeeded when you have a model that you can simply add more money in the top and twice as much comes out the bottom! Thanks so much Brad & Greta for letting us feature your story here on Future Sharks! --- ## Entrepreneur Goes From Suicidal Thoughts to Host of A Top 60 Business Podcast in US URL: https://futuresharks.com/christian-arriola/ **Christian Arriola** was born and raised in Juarez, Mexico, and moved across the border to El Paso Texas 8 years ago. **Hobbies:**His hobbies are to read, golfing and building websites for fun **Favorite quote:**Christian shared that his favorite quote is also the very first quote that he ever heard. This quote means a lot to him because it changed his mindset forever: *“It’s not your fault to be born poor, but it’s your fault to die poor”*-Bill Gates. **Social accounts**: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter**,**YouTube ### What are you working on? I’m currently stepping down from my green tea business “lively matcha” and letting my business partner run it so I can focus on inspiring millennial entrepreneurs to chase their dreams and hustle their way to success. I launched a new podcast and YouTube show “The Hustle Show” and within a few weeks we hit the top 60 Business Podcasts on iTunes! This is extremely exciting for me, because it fulfills my passion and my purpose as an entrepreneur. The whole idea behind the show is to have real no-filter conversations with successful entrepreneurs where we talk about behind the scenes of their Journey. On our show, we focus on all the struggles and ups-and-downs that they had to go through before reaching their success. The show has allowed me to coach and mentor amazing entrepreneurs by helping them overcome negativity, fears, doubts, and all their limitations by shifting their mindset towards success. ### How did you come up with this idea? There’s actually a funny story behind the idea of my show. I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was eight years old and I’ve been through all the struggles, the ups and downs, and definitely it has been a crazy emotional roller coaster for many years. The first six months of 2017 were horrible for me. I went through a horrible depression were I had lost my purpose and and I felt completely lost. I had been chasing success and money, and I lost myself in the process. My depression went for so long and so deep that it started affecting my family, my fiance, but more importantly myself; this depression was causing me to have suicidal thoughts! I had no real reason to keep doing what I was doing and I didn’t seem to understand what was the purpose of me working 16hrs a day and struggle for so long for nothing. That’s when I knew I had to do something about it to change my life around. I jumped on a rental car the next day and started a crazy solo adventure 17hr-road trip. I wanted to disconnect myself for a full-week to reconnect with my purpose. During this trip I did a lot of meditation that reminded me that my purpose in this world was always to inspire other people to chase their dreams. I forgot my purpose because I was chasing money and success. Although I don’t think money is bad for you, it’s definitely not everything in life. But I had to learn it the hard way. Once I figured out my purpose, I came back to El Paso trying to find a way to make a business out of my new vision. One night while I was driving back home, an idea hit me: I realized that there is no way I am the only one that is struggling and going through this emotional roller coaster. There has to be other people going through the Journey but are probably hiding it from everybody else. You see, all we see on social media is the glamorous side of entrepreneurship; fancy cars, big houses, and everybody’s crushing their success.   The idea of the podcast show came right after I thought about this and I said to myself: what if I were to create a podcast where we would focus solely on the struggles, the hustle, and the behind-the-scenes that nobody sees about an entrepreneur. The very next morning I purchased the domain thehustleshow.co and the rest is history. ### How is your company different? I built The Hustle Show around my #1 passion and not around any trends like I had done before. For me The Hustle Show is my way to connect with people and help like-minded entrepreneurs to shift their mindset towards greatness. I have been able to mentor and coach amazing people who are already seeing the benefits of shifting their mindset towards passion, success and happiness. Our vision is looking to help not only our mentees but thousands of people every single day with our show, whether they’re clients or listeners. ### What’s your dream with your company? My dream is to grow along The Hustle Show to inspire tens of thousands of entrepreneurs every single day, to host our own mindset conference, and to be able to connect like-minded people in every industry to aim for greatness. I also want to grow a virtual team and have a well-oiled machine running 100% location free so I can travel the world to continue to meet more amazing people. ### How do you creatively advertise? Knowing how powerful podcasts are, I’ve been focusing on sharing my story on other podcast shows. I have also partnered up with local startup organizations where I help the local community while getting the word out about my show while providing inspirational value to everybody that attends to these meetups. ### What was the biggest struggle you had to overcome with your show? The hardest thing for me to overcome was the idea and the fear I had to talk to 7-figure entrepreneurs and interview them on a video call. Because I don’t have a media background and I had never interviewed anybody before, I seriously thought they would think that my questions were dumb and that I didn’t have what it takes to be a podcast host. The funny thing is that every single guest I’ve had and that I’ve interviewed compliments greatly the show and all the questions I ask; it’s still shocking to me! ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? The biggest failure came right during the first interview, while recording episode 1! I had no clue what I was doing or how it was supposed to be done, so I rely on my screen recording software to record the video call. However, I ended up with the video recorded with no audio! I felt a complete loser. I thought I was going to have to call this person again and re-do the whole episode. For me, this was devastating! Luckily, I always try to have a “plan b” and I did for this call too. I had placed my phone on top of my laptop, to record his audio in case something went wrong (which it did happen). That was the audio we had to combine to the video and remastered it to make it sound better. Ever since that interview, I switched to a cloud recording software and I also record both audio tracks (mine and guest) locally on an external device that I know will never freeze or give out like software does. There’s no more playing around with this setup! The biggest success was definitely the day when I got the very first email from a fan. He had listened to every episode at the time and he wanted to say that he got so inspired by my podcast show that he was going to make the leap of faith to works on his side business like never before. Best feeling ever! ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. For every entrepreneur I say, don’t focus on chasing success… Instead focus on your passion and money will forever follow you. Plus, it will allow you to keep the excitement at a max level every day! This will get you through the rough days and get you closer to your dreams. ### Teach us something about Personal Branding: Here are my coolest tricks of personal branding I’ve learned after having a podcast show. Once you have identified your niche and have a clear idea of your ideal customer this is what I recommend you do: 1. **Start thinking of “you” as a brand and you will be future-proof**… The biggest entrepreneurs crushing it right now are not the ones that make the most money or have the most luxurious life; they are the ones that have the best personal brands. Simply think of Grant Cardone and Gary Vee… Both are successful business people, but the incredible social following they have has allowed them to explode as icons and has opened amazing opportunities for them, as everybody wants to work with them. I always say that I rather create a legacy than a product! And I want you to do this starting today. 2. **Position your personal brand as a thought leader.**To achieve this you have to be seen everywhere! Start pushing content out around your niche. For example, if you’re a fitness coach create videos on youtube talking about it, post interesting images on Facebook and Twitter, post inspirational images on Instagram, write articles about fitness on Medium and LinkedIn; and last but most importantly: pitch yourself to podcast shows related to fitness! Who do you think I would rather hire: a stranger who calls himself an expert in fitness or the person that has been giving me free content for months and that has been featured all over the place? I think you know the answer. 3. **Don’t be afraid to post personal things.** As a matter of fact, when I post things about my personal life, the engagement goes through the roof! People love seeing that you’re a human like them and that you have similar problems like them. This will create instant connection with many people and boost your personal brand to the roof! ### Why did you decide to start mindset coaching and mentoring? I know most entrepreneurs have heard of the term “coach” because many people will recommend you to get one. However, when you’re in early stages you need the most support and guidance you can get. At the same time, when you’re starting out is really hard to find a coach that is the right fit for you. I had this pain in my journey. I couldn’t find one that would meet all the things I was looking for until recently. For this reason I decided to open myself and my experience to other entrepreneurs who need guidance and support on shifting their mindset to be unstoppable. It’s also an incredibly rewarding feeling when one of my mentees shares with me how his life turned around because of the tactics I taught them. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? I finally understood that fear is completely normal and it’s actually a great thing to have when you’re an entrepreneur. The important thing is to learn how to flip that fear that is stopping you and turn it into fuel to your desire! I love my fears, because they’re now fueling my burning desire to succeed doing what I love. ### What do you think you do better than most people? I believe I finally figured out something very important: how to be myself without faking it. I consider myself the best at being me! Now I can talk about real stuff without worrying about what other people think of me. On The Hustle Show, I really let stuff out to the public that a lot of people is afraid to say. For example, I talk about how much time and money I wasted on college and I share my opinion with the world… or maybe how hard it is to be an entrepreneur when your parents are the #1 factor to doubt yourself. I came to realize that faking your personality on the media is worthless, don’t try to be a copycat of anybody… Be original, be yourself, and whatever your points of views are, let them out the way they are. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Your number #1 priority should be to invest in yourself! I recommend focusing on your mindset, self-development and your personal brand. Your brand name should always be your priority. You can do so by listening to awesome podcasts like The Hustle Show (or any other, there’s many great shows out there), read a lot about personal development, and challenge yourself today to be a better person than yesterday. I promise, if you focus on this, success will follow you around and there won’t be a way to stop your greatness! ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? My all-time favorite books are: Rick Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki Think and Grow Richby Napoleon Hill Ask Gary Vee by Gary Vaynerchuk And I actually have my Hustlers Book Club, where you’re invited to join us reviewing the best entrepreneurial books. **Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?** I know The Hustle Show has an incredible future for the podcast show, the mindset coaching and to create a truly incredible live event for entrepreneurs to connect and shift their mindset towards success. I know we have what it takes to help tens of thousands of young entrepreneurs and guide them towards their success. --- ## The Man Advocating For Wealth to Be a Culture URL: https://futuresharks.com/timothy-kagomweemba/ **City:** Gaborone Botswana **Hobbies**: Reading, poetry **Favorite quote:** everything preaches to you, you decipher what the message is. **Social account:** Timothy Kago Mweemba  ### What are you working on? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**I’m currently working on two main projects, my company wealth Culture which provides corporate training, and business development and my association young minds association which offers delinquent youth a second chance at life. Wealth Culture provides an innovative service we refer to as human resources incubation. This service provides start up entrepreneurs with legal, marketing and financial Advisors and a business developer and human resources manager in order to grow their Ideas into profitable business. ### How did you come up with this idea? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**In my country a lot of people have resorted to motivational endeavors, i.e. seminars and motivational speakers. As a result a lot of young people are very motivated to start enterprising but don’t have the knowledge or resources to do so. This prompted me to create our human Resource incubation package that provides start up entrepreneurs with a full team to develop their idea into a cashflow positive Enterprise. ### How is your company different? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**We are the only company that offers human resources incubation and we do it at an affordable price for start ups. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**We mostly advertise through strategic partnerships but we also offer free branded cups to the stall owners selling by the local University in order to reach that market. ### How have you impacted your community? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**I am a philanthropist. The association I founded has provided free tuition to over five schools in my community. We are currently mentoring high school students. We have a database of more than ten school dropouts that we are in the process of rehabilitating and reintegrating into the society. I have helped a number of aspiring entrepreneurs start their businesses for free and I mentor quite a few young people. ### Biggest failure? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**I was expelled from school twice as a teenager the second time being during my final year as a IGCSE candidate. As a result I spent half the school year at home and only found a school a few months before examinations. I learned that there is a time for everything, had I been patient and focused on my education at the time I would have done a lot better and that would have afforded me various opportunities. ### Biggest success? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**At age 18 I was asked to come share my story and motivate all the registered children with unfortunate circumstances(orphans,destitutes, needy students) in my community. I was the only speaker that was not an esteemed delegate and afterwards a lot of those children reached out to me for advice and still do to this day. ### What did you learn? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**I learned humility is Paramount to success in life, not only financial success but emotional and personal development as well. ### Best entrepreneurship advice you have? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**Start. Stop over planning and just start. You can never account for all the possibilities in the market  the best plan is the one you create as you go. Once you have started the rest will fall into place provided you work hard and are dedicated.you work hard and are dedicated. ### Teach us something we don’t know? **Timothy Kago Mweemba:**As a psychologist in training I am inclined to share that belief is everything. In order to change your circumstances first you have to change Thanks so much for letting us feature you on Future Sharks Timothy! Best of luck to you, keep continuing the dream! --- ## How to Fail Your Way to Success With Tom Hunt URL: https://futuresharks.com/tom-hunt/ **Tom Hunt**is a TEDx Speaker, Dragons’ Den Failure & Internet Entrepreneur. Before that he studied Chemistry at Imperial College London and followed the herd to a management consulting job in the City Of London. I got bored, built Virtual Valley (online marketplace connecting online entrepreneurs and Filipino Virtual Assistants) from scratch whilst traveling the world and sold 90% of it. Meanwhile, I invested the majority of my net worth in Bitcoin and a few other companies. I believe that entrepreneurship, marketing and decentralisation are becoming increasingly important and therefore write about them here: http://tomhunt.io/blog **City where you’re from:** London **Hobbies:**Reading, Yoga, Gym **Favorite quote:** **“You must become like a child to enter into the gates of heaven” Jesus** **Social accounts:** Blog Twitter Linkedin YouTube Instagram ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Currently between projects after starting and selling Sneez. We created Sneez to solve our own problem: our VA Manager was spending too much time incentivizing our customers to share content about our male leggings eCom brand. Sneez increases the amount of social shares eCom brands get, and enables them to load the content onto their own stores in a single click. ### How is your company different? At Sneez, we are eCom store owners, building a tool for eCom store owners, we know what it takes to build an eCom brand and therefore know EXACTLY what to build to enable other eCom brands to do this. ### What’s your dream with your company? N/A – we are selling it ### How do you creatively advertise? We tell the story of our eCom brand going from $5k-$100k per month revenue for free on our blog and then retarget people to start a 7 day free trial with the app: https://www.betabound.com/sneez-io-private-beta/ ### What do you think is the most important quality to be successful in getting exposure on the internet? Easily… the ability to elicit emotion. Memories link to emotions. If you can make your potential customers FEEL something with your ad or your content, they will remember you and will come back when they need your product/service 😉 ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? I tried to launch an information product in the dating niche in 2015, I built a list of just 200 people in 3 months by creating content on a blog, then launched the product and sold just 1. I realised that to gain people’s trust you need to actually give them what they want in the form of information (or content). Since then, I developed a new school of thought called Free Traffic Forever, that I outline on my blog here: http://tomhunt.io/blog ### Value-add questions ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Building a system that delivers a product/service that people actually want. The more you work on something, the greater likelihood there is that you will delude yourself that you are building something valuable. The remedy? Ask people for money as soon as you have something that is sellable. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? - Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins - Millionaire Fastlane – Mj Demarco - Evolution Of Everything – Matt Ridley - The Icarus Deception – Seth Godin ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Owning and investing in a number of online businesses. Thanks Tom for sharing your story with us on Future Sharks! --- ## How to Transform An Industry: A Guide Where There Are No Maps URL: https://futuresharks.com/brian-wallace/ Brian Wallace is the President of NowSourcing, one of the nation’s top infographic agencies based in Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH. and works with companies that range from small business to Fortune 500. Brian also runs a regional event to make the Louisville / Cincinnati corridor a more competitive region (#thinkbig) and has been named a 2017 Google Small Business Advisor. ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Brian Wallace:** This August makes 12 years in business. When I started NowSourcing way back when I was mainly doing tech consulting and building websites.  In the mid 2000’s we became a social media agency but by the end of the 2000’s there were just too many specialties to master, so we switched gears and pivoted to doing infographics only.  I came up with doing this because there were only a few firms putting out infographics at the time and I believed there was much more opportunity to the market and we already had a lot of the skills in-house: graphic design, storytelling, research, knowing what goes viral, media outreach, and all of these things. ### How is your company different? **Brian Wallace:** We don’t take shortcuts.  Most people waste time trying to be good at lots of different things.  We believe in being among the best in the world at a narrow band of things.   ### What’s your dream with your company? **Brian Wallace:** I’m living that dream now. It’s kind of like being Tom Hanks as an adult in Big who’s paid to play with toys. 🙂 Seriously though it’s very satisfying to help clients get all sorts of press and exposure that they might not have thought of.  Getting to be creative all day long is a lot of fun, but there’s a ton of work in it.  And I wouldn’t want it any other way! ### How do you creatively advertise? **Brian Wallace:** my clients are my advertising.  The next time you see an infographic that really captivates you that you saw on a large website, go check out the bottom right corner.  We put our calling card on there. ### ### Why are entrepreneurs obsessed with hustle? **Brian Wallace:** because it’s easy to talk about.  I think that it’s important to learn through adversity and personal life stories.  Recently I opened up about this with a very personal story about the death of my son on Jeremy Slate’s Create Your Own Life Podcast and there’s been a great reception so far. Hustle and motivation are fun but finding a deeper meaning and purpose is so important. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Brian Wallace:**Let’s start with the biggest failure, as I think it’s healthy and important to fail often.  It’s trickier when you’re more publicly visible but that’s still ok as it’s very important to be humble and not let success make you feel better / more important than others.  Here’s a failure that we got in the media (even Forbes!) but the idea just never took off.  It taught me that just because an idea looks good on paper, if you don’t have the right sales model / not a viable market, it’s just not going to happen. As for biggest success? It was pretty great when we got a basketball player a $64 million max contract before his 23rd birthday.  And it taught me that you can achieve great things through quality and determination. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Brian Wallace:**If you don’t stay relevant, you die.   People that think they can just coast along with the same message and the same crowd are finding themselves completely irrelevant to the world around them, sometimes without them even realizing it.  I’ve been amping up my personal brand and that of NowSourcing and have been making conscious efforts to do a better job to regularly be a guest on podcasts, interviews, and being in the press.  We’ve had lots of success on a piece about influencer marketing. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Recognizing the power of one’s network and expanding that network.  Don’t forget that everyone has a circle of influence.  Also, don’t insist on labels and glorifying ageism – I’ve had outstanding conversations with people that are 18 and 80.  You could argue that older people may have more wisdom through life experience and and younger people may have more energy, but you’d be surprised what you can learn from everyone! ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? Some books I recommend: Quitter Blink [Good to Great](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0066620996) Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Eventually getting acquired by a larger agency and then I’ll probably become more of an advisor/think tank kind of role. --- ## 17 Year Old Photographer Travels The World Shooting Weddings While Building a Company URL: https://futuresharks.com/trey-cockrum/ At age 12, Trey Cockrum founded a small graphic design firm, at 17 he is office shopping in downtown Indy for his photographer community ‘SeekTheLight’. He now earns passive income through YouTube and travels the world for his own wedding photo gigs. ### City where you’re based out of (and what you most love about it): Indianapolis, dude! It’s like a mini New York. I am in love with the people, the entrepreneurial spirit, and the desire to overcome around here. You can make some great friends just walking down the street. Lovely city. Ever walk the canal down here? Gorgeous. ### Favorite quote: **Eph 5:16 – “Make the most of every opportunity, for the days are evil.” ### Social accounts: Instagram: @treycockrum Twitter: @treycockrum ### Hobbies: Running and music. Keeping my soul and mind clear, putting my best me forward. **Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?** It was never a decision I made! I never woke up one day and decided to pursue an entrepreneurial lifestyle. My goal was simply to never have to work fast-food as a teen, and here I am. It wasn’t an inherent desire for entrepreneurship, it was a desire to avoid the other end of the spectrum. The goal-lacking, soul-sucking lifestyle of pencil pushing. (God bless those that enjoy it! Our world goes around thanks to them.) My heart and mind are set on other things, and I strive to push myself and my abilities to make this a reality. ### Was there a defining moment in your life? At eleven or twelve, I ran a graphic design firm with an Skype buddy of mine over the internet. To this day, I never have met him in person! But we made great money together (for twelve years old, haha!) serving small YouTube channels, a few clothing lines, and even designing logos for a handful of brands. The defining moment for me was when I purchased my first article of clothing (a purple beanie. I was a weird kid, and still am.) using money that came out of seemingly nowhere. I spent no money on graphic design education, no money on a portfolio, simply made friends and offered my services, and I realized how scaleable internet business could be. I went on to build a custom PC worth over $1,400 on my own change, at twelve/thirteen, I saw the abundant opportunity. ### What does entrepreneurship mean to you? It means freedom to serve actively. To scale a lifestyle of other-oriented service, to create more than just money with your time. To me, the word “entrepreneur” represents someone who is tired of seeing people fall flat on their face, tired of seeing the world in a rut, tired of watching people lose their personal battles, including themselves. So, they’ve decided to fight. Money and freedom aside, they’re proving to themselves, to their loved ones, to the world, that there is more to this life than a daily grind. It means life instead of toil. It means scaling something other than hitting a glass ceiling. It means free time to use for greatness other than trading it for money to “get by”. ### What are you working on? So much. Way TOO much. Not sure if Jeremy would let me spam this article with it all. Haha! (Love you buddy.) I’m known online primarily as a portrait and wedding photographer, and though this is true, I am working to create so much more. Currently: SeekTheLight – the Facebook group I manage, is profitable enough simply through the single Lightroom preset pack (Google: “What is a Lightroom preset?) I’ve got the funds to pay a handful of team members to help moderate, promote, and maintain momentum within the group, as well as handle an Instagram page for us. We are looking at an office in the heart of downtown Indy currently. Wedding biz – I am promoting and maintaining my own wedding photography business. I shoot about 15 high-end weddings a year (typically charging around $2,500 – $3,000). Great money for myself right now, a large portion of it goes right back into SeekTheLight currently. I am wanting to start: An email marketing firm. We have added 27% to our preset sales using email, and I would love to share this with other small businesses. Social media consulting business. SeekTheLight, my personal business, and so many others are growing so rapidly thanks to the proper use of social media. I’d love to share this, as well, with other small businesses. Facebook group management service. SeekTheLight, primarily, is a Facebook group. I’d love to show other businesses how to create, manage, and monetize a Facebook group. A custom camera strap business. Something aesthetically pleasing, but usable. Tired of the plastic, itchy straps that come with cameras today. Imagine a SeekTheLight branded camera strap? How sick would that be. A new wedding photographer consulting biz. Charge $250(ish) an hour to coach photographers on starting their wedding businesses – it’s a complicated market, and I’ve found success in it. And so much more. ### What made you so passionate about Photography? That’s something I wish I knew how to communicate. My passion lies in the time that doing what I am doing frees up for me, and the freedom that entrepreneurship provides. Photography, though I do love it, is more a medium to express my desire to free my time, earn good money serving others, and leverage myself as well as my abilities to create something wonderful for my future, and those whom I love. Photography itself was something I decided to pick up at 13, I fell in love with the medium when I first shadowed a talented wedding photographer at 14. How were you able to take your passion and use it to educate tens of thousands of photographers all over the world? Firstly, a desire to spread my love for this medium. Secondly, YouTube! It’s such an under rated medium for entrepreneurs. It’s like I first posted a review of a camera I like a lot, and saw it blow up. Since then, I’ve amassed hundreds of thousands of views, and gained a decent (nothing incredible. But plenty enough to leverage for my personal brand.) presence in the photography community. I simply put a GoPro on top of my camera at a few weddings, a few senior portrait shoots, and recorded commentary-styled videos, showing how I shoot and edit. Lots of photographers credit my content to their personal success, and I love to see that. This is the spark that started SeekTheLight, through promoting it in the videos, it has become far greater in size, and more influential than I could’ve ever thought for it! (Maybe I need to start thinking bigger.) ## ### What are some of the biggest challenges you have had to endure? Pride. Lack of patience. Comparison to peers, and other entrepreneurs. Besides this, very recently, my house was struck by lightning, and was totaled. The process of recovering from this loss has driven me to much more, and I am excited for the future. No one was hurt, the house is currently being rebuilt, and I am happy. It has meant double, if not, triple the work from my end to see my pursuits succeed. But it has been fully worth it, and has put me back on the ground where I need to be, working daily. ### Where do you see yourself in five years? Doing exactly what I’m doing now.** Leveraging myself, using my skills, talents, and knowledge to serve others. I hope to create something sustainable – Financially, spiritually, and emotionally for my future self and family. Be able to work from home, or spend time at home to be able to cultivate good relationships with those whom I love and care deeply about. I wish to form a legacy built on an other-oriented lifestyle, God’s word and wisdom, acting responsibly with myself and my opportunities, and sustaining great relationships. I strive to die knowing I was used for good, knowing that my impact was great, and that I was worked through for the good of all who came in contact with me. ### What is the best advice you have for young entrepreneurs? You’re young simply because you were born later than some people. Don’t let your age act as a security blanket. Be patient, be diligent. Success isn’t overnight. I’m hardly anything, this interview is designed to make me look good. You’re made of greatness; whether you’ve discovered it or not. Do more than me, more than you think you can. Set your bar high, give yourself a lifetime to make it happen, because that’s what we both have. You’re going to do great things the second you start doing great things. Shoot me an email if you’d like to talk: treycockrum@gmail.com --- ## The 19 Year Old Entrepreneur Keeping The “Night Life” Safe URL: https://futuresharks.com/mathew-donofrio/ **Mathew** is a 19 year old health and safety entrepreneur based in Adelaide, South Australia. At the age of 17, he began his first startup, ‘Nightlife First Aid’ after seeing an issue of excessive teenage drinking at parties and a need for it to be fixed. Since, due to great success, he has heavily entered the business world, being highly regarded in the health and safety niche. **City where you’re from:** Adelaide, South Australia. **Hobbies:**Business/Entrepreneurship, Public Speaking, Parkour. **Favorite quote:**Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. **Social accounts:** Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn.   ### What are you working on? **Mathew D’Onofrio:** Despite many side projects, I am currently focusing on my first ever startup, ‘Nightlife First Aid’. Nightlife First Aid is a first aid service dedicated to creating safe partying environments amongst youth and alcohol consumption… Events which other companies typically and actively avoid. ### How did you come up with this idea? **Mathew D’Onofrio:**I was a ‘St. John Ambulance’ volunteer for 5 years prior to founding Nightlife. Every event I attended, especially parties, I would end up helping my sick, injured and drunk peers or travelling with them and their worried families to hospital at 3am in the morning. After this happened at my ‘Year 11 Semi-Formal After Party’, I decided to voluntarily offer my services the following year at my ‘Year 12 Formal After Party’ but was paid by the organiser. After seeing such a desperate need for my service and the willingness to pay for it, despite my lack of business knowledge… I decided to try and turn it into a business. ### How is your company different? **Mathew D’Onofrio:** As stated above, most companies within this industry actually avoid these kinds of events. This was also the case when I approached St. John Ambulance before starting Nightlife. I asked them to do it instead and they declined, multiple times. In fact, because I founded Nightlife, I was kicked out of the organisation despite my dedication to the service. Nightlife are also more advanced technologically. We prefer to be active on the Facebook event of parties we attend which also allows us to check on the recovery of our patients post-event. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Mathew D’Onofrio:** My dream, the ultimate goal for Nightlife (which is also where I see us in due time) is to expand internationally. We already have research that shows us it is required in many other countries but also very possible with the necessary resources. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Mathew D’Onofrio:** I have to be honest… Our advertising is not all that ‘creative’. Even more surprising, all the advertising we have done has been organically on Facebook yet still allowed us to reach over 50% of our potential market. Market research shows us that this is a big task as in South Australia, almost every teenager has at least one party to go to every weekend. Word of mouth has been a huge advantage to us and something we have strongly been able to leverage. ### What support do have have to help you through the tough times of entrepreneurship. **Mathew D’Onofrio:** At first, I didn’t have much support. I joined St. John Ambulance for a personal reason so my family weren’t supportive of me leaving it. I also didn’t have a very large circle of friends. Over time, however, my family have warmed up to my idea and my work with Nightlife. I have met an amazing girl I am proud to call my girlfriend who supports me endlessly and I have also expanded my network which is great. I have met some very successful and interesting people. I am also a part of the Aspiring Millionaires Club (or better known as AMC) who are a small group of young, budding entrepreneurs and business people residing in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. Together, they educate and learn from each other, support one another, discuss ideas and future goals together and entertain each other. Coming from different business and lifestyle backgrounds and each having goals leading to all aspects of the business world, each member has a different set of skills and knowledge to share with the group. ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Mathew D’Onofrio:** Failure- I don’t see failure as an opposite to success but a part of it so what others may see as failure, I see as success. Success- I was a top 4 finalist for the ‘Young South Australian of the Year Award’ and the ‘Channel 9 Young Achiever Awards’. I have also won some very honorable awards within the Adelaide startup community for what I do. These achievements make me proud, not for bragging rights but to see that others recognize and support the change I am trying to make. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Mathew D’Onofrio:** Do. That’s what I did, that’s what others can do, that’s what i advise. Many people have amazing ideas and the potential to go with it but see starting a business as something only rich and famous people can do, even though that is a misconception. I come from a mediocre, working-class family. We are not wealthy or knowledgeable in business, in fact, I had absolutely no business knowledge when I first started Nightlife. I simply heard the first step I could take from a friend and did it, then the next step lit up so I did it and as I kept taking each step, the next continued to brighten up… Now I am here. Thanks so much Mathew for letting us feature you on Future Sharks! Best of luck to you and your future endeavors! --- ## Meet Danny Chavez, the 20-something in Charge of Wooing Companies to America’s Seventh-Largest City URL: https://futuresharks.com/danny-chavez/ Danny Chavez is a hometown hero of sorts. But where most hometown heroes are from relatively innocuous cities where any accomplishment more daring than joining the local PTA raises eyebrows, Danny grew up in San Antonio, Texas- the seventh largest city in the United States. The son of a retired Air Force Colonel (San Antonio contains the massive Lackland Air Force Base), Danny has networked and put in the sweat equity necessary to work his way up to the Vice President of Business Development for his hometown’s Economic Development Foundation. Tasked with recruiting businesses to set up shop in San Antonio, the linchpin of a 2 million-person metropolitan area, Danny is by far the youngest member of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation brain trust. He is also an accomplished entrepreneur, developing in tandem a duo of applications, Epux and Iconomi. Danny is well-situated to capitalize on the future development and growth of one of America’s largest, most interesting and multi-ethnic cities. **City where you’re from**: Ft. Walton Beach, FL **Hobbies**: Soccer, Sports, Wellness, Development, Architecture and Real Estate **Favorite quote**: I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good. – Dr. Martin Luther King **Twitter**: @dannychaveztx ## Great having you here Danny, tell us more about the work you’re doing with your app development company, Epux and your new venture, Iconimi. As a co-founder of Epux [a full-service app development venture], we are working on some exciting new projects and transitioning components of our business model to focus more on e-commerce website development and application prototyping. With nearly every business needing some form of website or mobile application, the lead pipeline is extensive and with our capabilities; we can really drive the conversation on cost, which benefits our clients. By transitioning our business model to prototyping first and then to full app development, we are able to show our customers what they are purchasing and how it will function without the price tag that comes along with full-on development. This differentiates us from the competition as the web and application development market at-large is extremely overpriced and inflated. So far this transition has been extremely successful and allowed us to focus on our own app ideas and side projects, more to come! Iconimi will launch later in 2017 perhaps early 2018 once agreements are in place. The company is an outsourced business development and capital “finding’ business model. The capital “finding” service is for startups and investors looking to find companies/developments to invest in or investors to invest in them. The outsourced business development component will be for any company or startup that doesn’t want to take on the cost of business development personnel and can outsource that function and pay a finder’s fee upon new customer/deal completion. Iconimi will also seek to develop technologies in the commercial real estate industry. ## How did you come up with the idea for Epux and Iconimi? For Epux, the founder of the company, Clint Campbell, had a vision to tap into the market for mobile application development… exploit[ing] the industry’s price gouging practices. He approached me with the co-founder idea and we’ve been able to do some cool things ever since. [We’ve developed] our first app called **“Called Out”** which is a B2C application that incentivizes consumers to visit restaurants and bars to take their respective challenges for a discount or prize. The app generates content and drives customers to businesses that are listed on the app and it also provides the consumer with an incentive to complete challenges by visiting the venues on the app. Iconimi is my business case answer to a common problem and issue that, through my experience, has plagued startups looking for investors and for investors and companies looking to acquire and/or outright purchase startups. It is an investment “finding” and an outsourced business development practice. The business simply addresses critical gaps in the process of raising capital, acquiring new capabilities and finding new business deals in the form of consultancy with a zero cost/ zero risk position to all clients until completion of a deal. It also applies to all industries which keeps the list of potential clientele network vast and helps companies in any industry find potential investors. ### How did you transition from working in a high level administrative role for the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce to being sort of a serial entrepreneur and application developer? I have been an entrepreneur since college when I started a company with a friend, called Clear Bright Headlights. Ever since then, I have been involved in starting several companies and cofounded/founded several of my own. I enjoy the process of putting an idea out in the market that you think can be a potential game-changer. A majority if the time you enter in to the business planning process knowing the odds are against you, however, it makes your first taste of success that much sweeter. To me it’s an exhilarating process and something that I love to be a part of. It keeps me going! ### What is it like having to recruit businesses to San Antonio when the extremely hyped and well-known (in terms of tech and entrepreneurship) city of Austin, Texas is just a stone’s throw down the road? I’ve never found it to be an issue; Austin has its economic strong suits as does San Antonio. Both cities are growing into a larger metro and will rely on each other to raise the economic profile of central Texas. Austin has traditionally been a hub for tech; however, Austin is more expensive than the rest of Texas and is considered a growingly saturated market in the industry. San Antonio is a hub for cybersecurity and has a viable tech talent pipeline and start up scene that is notably not far behind Austin according to the Kauffman Index [an aggregator of new business creation activities in the United States]. However, San Antonio’s Achilles heel has been it’s marketing of its own assets in the tech industries and it’s lack of urban development that caters to the workforce of the future. Both of those factors are now are changing rapidly and it makes my view and recruitment pitch pretty simple. I am of the belief that spillover economics is taking place in each of the cities and that by investing in the metro, the region will become stronger by expanding the talent pool and potential clientele for companies moving in. Specifically companies looking to cost offload from the tax-heavy states on the coasts. There is a term thrown out there loosely called the “Silicon Hills” coined from the area of Texas called the “Hill Country” which represents the tech regional assets from Austin to San Antonio. I see this as one of the strategic advantages that makes recruiting tech companies and entrepreneurs to San Antonio, easy, aside from lifestyle and cost. ## What advice would you give to other graduates who, like yourself, went to regional universities and want to break into a big market like you have, but may feel disheartened that their brand isn’t as strong due to the name of the college on their degree? [I’d say] that college degrees are just a step in the door when it comes to applying for jobs and going to the markets in which you want to start your career. I’ve found from my colleagues and personal career path that there is very little correlation (if any at all) between going to a big university and climbing the career ladder. Companies want to stay competitive and ahead of their competition in recruiting talent, wherever they can find it. This trend in the economy at this time favors the job seeker. My advice would be to choose your city or market wisely. Once you have decided on where you think you want to be, do a competitive analysis on your skills sets, demand for those skill sets in the chosen market and talent pool of those qualifications/ skills in that market. If all of that favors your desired city, focus your efforts on building a network in the city you’ve chosen. My advice would also be to never think that because you went to a smaller school, that your brand isn’t as strong as anyone else. Focus on building a network where you want to be and you’ll find that the further you are out after graduation, the less people are concerned with where you got your degree. More so they care if you are able to do the job. ## Please share with our readership the best entrepreneurship advice you have ever received. You’re only as good as your word. If you don’t keep your word, prepare to fail. It’s really not that hard to be great, if people can trust you and rely on you. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself getting more involved in the commercial real estate and urban development industries; these are genuine interests of mine that I would like to further become a part of. The industries also align with my career path in economic development. I would also like to grow my expertise as a corporate relocation specialist for tech and cybersecurity companies and to be the known economic development commodity for driving growth to San Antonio in these industries. For Epux, my hope is to increase our clientele base and see the success of our own in house app ideas like “Called Out” and a few others we are working on takeoff. For Iconimi, I would like to grow the company to place where it is directly driving corporate and capital resources & investment into the markets the company serves. --- ## How This 20-Something Nerd From Eastern Europe Helps Grow 7 Figure Businesses With Cutting-Edge Market Research & Copywriting URL: https://futuresharks.com/david-hegedus/ Consulting 7-figure businesses, developing new ways to get reliable customer insights, and using it to come up with and write successful promotions is all part of what **David Hegedus** does every day, but there’s more. David has started his marketing career as a freelance copywriter only 3 short years ago. But it didn’t take long until he went “all in” on the little-known, yet multi billion dollar industry that is online information publishing. *“Looking back, I’d love to tell you it was all part of some elaborate plan. But the truth is, I just went where I saw the best opportunities.”* – he says, half-jokingly.  At 23, he has helped sell millions worth of online courses, self-improvement classes, business opportunities, and marketing programs. Coming from nowhere, he has made great connections with respected industry leaders and has proven himself to be an invaluable asset to their businesses. This is his story… **City where he’s from:** Pécs, Hungary **Hobbies:**Reading, writing, business, video games, bodybuilding, traveling, adventure! **Favorite quote:***“It’s not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it.” –* Hunter S. Thompson **Social accounts** : I’m pretty anti-social media, but I have a Facebook and a LinkedIn you can reach me at. Oh and a website. ### How did you end up writing copy and working on marketing for information publishers? **David Hegedus:** I got into copywriting by complete accident. Few people know, but I was an accountant. Well, for a couple months while my internship lasted. I dreaded every minute of it. So I started to look for business opportunities. I found a place called The Fastlane Forum, and that’s where I found out about copywriting and online marketing. It was true love at first sight, the kind that makes you smile in your sleep at night. ### What’s information publishing? What is it that you do, exactly? **David Hegedus:**An information publisher sells information on topics like hobbies, health, wealth, and relationships. I’m mostly dealing with information publishers in the business and self-improvement niches. An info publishing business educates and entertains. They help people solve their problems, and achieve their dreams through online courses, books, seminars, and more. It’s a noble pursuit. Plus, there’s a lot of profit involved because the production costs are usually pretty low. That allows us to focus more on marketing. As for what I do, there are lots of moving parts depending on the project. Usually, my clients already have a solid offer or two out there. They need me to help them figure out what to sell next, how to sell more and to write every piece of copy to achieve that. Emails, sales pages, advertorials, all that stuff. ### How is your copywriting process different? What makes your services special? **David Hegedus:** I like telling good stories to sell stuff, but what I love even more is research. I’m kind of a nerd like that, but it’s amazing what you can do with the tech available nowadays. When I take on a new client, I always start with asking for all the data they can give me. I review their Google Analytics, heat maps on previous sales pages, all customer communications, survey answers, their competition. I want to see everything and then I extract the intel I need to develop killer campaigns. If they haven’t conducted good surveys before, I help them set it up and use the answers. I’ve come up with unique methods to do that. Some clients tell me they haven’t seen anything like it from anyone else. Before writing a word, I’ll be able to pinpoint our customer’s hopes, dreams, desires, and pains. I’ll know the exact phrases and words they use to describe them. I’ll know the context in which their minds operate. It’s powerful stuff. And it doesn’t take a big budget or months of time. ### Wow, that sounds great! Now, let’s take a step back from marketing… What’s your dream? **David Hegedus:** Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently! I want to lead a cult one day. Not like a big one. Just a couple dozen freaks, on a private island. Make them think I’m god. Sorry, just kidding. Eventually, I’ll teach a couple good people my exact processes and start an agency with them. This way we can scale my services beyond my limited time. I like the idea of being able to positively affect as many people as I can. But for now, I’m happy being the self-employed consultant and copywriter that I am today. ### How do you creatively advertise your services? **David Hegedus:** Referrals are my main source of business, but when I need more clients I’ll send out mildly entertaining cold email campaigns, or physical mail. I do my best to stand out and instantly connect with the decision makers. It takes research, creative thinking, and good writing chops to successfully do that. What better way to demonstrate my skills to potential clients, right? ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **David Hegedus:** Early in my career I’ve worked for more than a month on a single product launch that has completely flopped. Both the client and I were anticipating a big win. Yet the results ended up being so bad we lost multiple thousands of dollars on it. I cried and swore I’ll get a job at McDonald’s the next day. Of course, when things got less melodramatic I looked back at what happened and learned a lot. I spent a lot of time writing that promo, but I didn’t spend enough time on going through data and coming up with fresh ideas. That’s where I realized just how important in-depth research is. One thing is for sure, I’m not making that mistake ever again. As for successes, they all seem the biggest and best when they occur. I’ve helped people make as much as $20,000+ with a single email, conducted 6-figure launches, helped completely turn around companies. It feels great when our marketing pulls in big numbers. But at the end of the day, you’re only as good as your last promotion. And we’re always left chasing that next thrill. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **David Hegedus:** What I see a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with is that they don’t have a clear idea in their heads on the 3 most important things: who their customers are, what they’re doing for them, and how can they communicate this in the best possible way. I know, most people know they should have a customer avatar. They know they should talk to their customers. They know they should gather data and test things… But in my experience, few do. So that’d be my best advice. Do what you know you should be doing. Sit down with your customers, or have a phone call with them. Don’t be afraid of their criticism. Negative customer feedback is still better than a customer who silently disappears without buying. ### Teach us something about creating a successful promotion that we might not know. **David Hegedus:** Okay, well I’ve been writing promotions professionally for over 3 years now and still, my first ideas usually aren’t the best. What this means is that when I’m writing a sales letter, an advertorial, a landing page, or even just an email, I always brainstorm lots of ideas before I pick one. This can mean sitting down to write 20+ different headlines for the same sales letter or article. This can be developing 5 different lead ideas or concepts. You’ve got to make your brain work hard on it if you want to come up with something great. ### That’s a good one! And in your opinion, what should an entrepreneur focus on? **David Hegedus:** I might be biased, but I believe in selling over everything else. If they’re a new company, they should focus on selling to their first customers. If their campaigns don’t work out, they should reach out to customers personally and figure out why they’re not connecting with the company’s message. If they’re established, they should focus on maximizing the revenue they get from their existing customers. In most cases, if someone has already bought from you, they are much more likely to buy again than the next guy. You just have to give them something new or better that’s still related to what you’ve already sold them. That’s why the ability to come up with and promote new offers that make customers salivate is so valuable. ### Those are great answers, thank you! Those were all my questions, but do you have anything else you’d like to share? **David Hegedus:** Yeah! My website is currently under reconstruction. But if someone’s reading this and wants me to help promote their business, or just give them a couple ideas, feel free to reach out on Facebook. I’ll write back. Thanks for sharing your story with us David, best of luck to you in your future endeavors! --- ## This Entrepreneur Sold $1 Million Dollars in 8 Months then Quit his Job to sell Matcha Green Tea URL: https://futuresharks.com/brody-cord/ **Meet Brody Cord, a determined and ambitious entrepreneur from a small town called Loomis in Northern California. Post college in upstate New York, Brody lived in South America and learned Spanish, then was recruited by H&E Equipment Services to become an outside sales representative. After selling over a million dollars in equipment, Brody made a leap of faith and never looked back.** ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Brody Cord:** I am working to make the world a healthier place, one cup of Tenzo at a time. After being confined by the boundaries of corporate America that didn’t let me *create*, *explore*, and *build*I knew I needed to make a change. I quit my day job to throw myself into the fire and truly test my antifragility to see how much I could grow as a human and as an entrepreneur. The decision was difficult, but the impact I can have on the world at Tenzo Tea is monumental in comparison to working for the weekend… ### How is your company different? **Brody Cord:** The Tenzo Team has more drive and determination that anyone in the industry. We’re constantly iterating, learning and adjusting faster than our competition to optimize matcha sales in the US. We also established incredible relationships with farmers and manufacturers all over Japan to ensure *we maintain the best quality matcha for the price*. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Brody Cord:** Our dream is to make the Healthiest Drink on the Planet the drink of choice in America and the World. If you’re anything like me, you probably love caffeine and many forms of unhealthy energy like coffee, energy drinks and pre-workouts. Although they taste good and give you a quick boost, they’re extremely detrimental to the body over a long period of time. After years of intense caffeine consumption, I started getting palpitations and new something needed to change. So, when I was introduced to Tenzo and got a [natural boost in mood and energy](/healthy-productive-routines/), I realized I could be a part of something bigger than myself. I could provide a healthy way to give people the energy they need without causing jitters, crashes, and more serious health problems caused by repeated caffeine overloads. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Brody Cord:**  1).I use Linkedin and other social media platforms to document my entrepreneurial journey and inspire a following for myself as well as Tenzo. 2). I constantly make our clients feel like they are my BEST friend. I don’t just make them feel good. I don’t stop at providing incredible value with our products and services. I make them feel like we are BEST friends. Their problems are bigger than my biggest problems, and when I solve them, they tell everyone they know about the Tenzo Team. ### What is your core competency? **Brody Cord:** Emotional Intelligence. I believe the single limiting factor between where you are now and where you want to be lies in your ability to understand and communicate with other people. Knowing why people do the things they do and being able to sympathize with them will open endless doors in professional and personal settings. ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Brody Cord:** Biggest Failure: lack of time spent learning new technology. What I Learned: start learning as much as I can every day to 10x my efficiency. As I learn about technological advances, widgets, apps, coding, etc, the more I learn I *need*to learn! Biggest Success: deciding to leave a high paying job where I was comfortable, to throw myself into the fire (aka startup life) and truly test my antifragility and ability to learn. In the last month at Tenzo I have learned more than all of 2016 selling construction equipment for a giant conglomerate. What I learned: The sharpest and truest of blades undergo the most intense stress in the hottest of flames. If you truly want to test yourself and see how quickly you can learn, don’t just move close to the flames and peer in, let go of your desire to maintain comfortability and dive head-first, right into the middle. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Brody Cord:** Spend 99% of your time creating and 1% consuming. When you create, you solve problems and add value to others. When you consume, you don’t add value to anyone but yourself. Only consume when you need to learn to create ### Teach us something about networking: **Brody Cord:** GIVE ENERGY during every interaction. Whether you can actually benefit from a connection or add value to someone right now does not matter. But, if you smile, are interested in them, and they enjoy your conversation, they will remember the way you made them *feel* every time you’re put back in contact. Your network is only as good as your connection with each person. If you are consuming energy, you’re worthless. If you’re always giving energy, you’re infinitely valuable. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Brody Cord:** Linkedin and Facebook are the two most valuable, and free, tools out there today and anyone can take full advantage if they want to. By building a strong personal brand and network, you can continually leverage it for anything you or your company needs: food bloggers, VC’s, advisors, content creators, marketers, etc. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Brody Cord:** Reading people’s emotions, putting myself in other’s shoes, and asking thought provoking questions. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? ***Brody Cord:** Their customers*. Who are your customers? Where do they live? What do they consume? Why do they purchase your product? What do they do everyday? What do they like? What do they hate? Who do they talk to? Do they tell others about your company? How can you better service them? How can you grow them? How can you find more people just like them? ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? The Everything Store – Jeff Bezos When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead – Jerry Weintraub Zero to One – Peter Thiel, Blake Masters Elon Musk – Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – Ashlee Vance How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Brody Cord:** Hopefully, Tenzo’s matcha green tea will be consumed daily by millions of people worldwide in the coming years, helping make the world a healthier place one cup of matcha at a time. I see myself leading the charge in national and global sales to provide the Healthiest Drink on the Planet to people and businesses all over the world. --- ## How Griffin Stoller, Stanford Student turned Music Entrepreneur, Gained Over 1 Million Monthly Listeners On Spotify In Under A Year URL: https://futuresharks.com/griffin-stoller/ Griffin Stoller is a 22 year old Music Producer/Vocalist based out of San Francisco, California. Known initially as an award-winning violinist with a Carnegie Hall debut at age 16, he has recently exploded onto the Dance Music scene with a flurry original music gaining over 15 million streams on Spotify this last year. His music has been supported by Martin Garrix, R3HAB, Louis The Child, and Sam Feldt. My personal favorite is his song called “How To Feel”.  **City where you’re from:** San Francisco, CA **Hobbies:**Playing ukulele and photography **Favorite quote:**Music doesn’t lie, if there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music – Jimi Hendrix **Social accounts** Spotify Instagram Facebook YouTubeTwitter Soundcloud ### Great having you here Griffin. What is unique about your music? **Griffin Stoller:** I got into music production my freshman year at Stanford. I was always interested in making my own original content but struggled to find the right vocalist. One day the vocalist I was working with cancelled on me so I said… Maybe I’ll just try sing the part myself. Even though it felt awkward at first, I began to grow into my voice and haven’t looked back since. ### Where do you see your music 5 years from now? **Griffin Stoller:**It’s really exciting to see how people have reacted to my music over the past year. I attribute the rapid growth to releasing original content consistently, a new single almost every month. I want to continue to push myself to release quality music as frequently as possible over the next few years…and hopefully collaborate with some other producers and vocalists along the way.    ### How do you promote your content? **Griffin Stoller:** For every song I release, I make video content for Facebook to help drive traffic to my Spotify page. I pay attention to my demographic information from my Spotify listeners and use location, age, and music preferences to help target my facebook posts and ads to reach the right people. This strategy has helped me break through in a heavily saturated market. ### How do you Interact with your fans? **Griffin Stoller:** I try to make connections with people who enjoy my music. Whether it’s responding to YouTube comments or reaching out to fans individually through e-mail and Instagram DM, I find that connecting to my audience has been an invaluable tool in sustaining an active community around my music. ### How did you gain a big Spotify Audience without a record label? > **Griffin Stoller:** Before I released content on Spotify, I had many people in the industry tell me that it was a bad decision to release original content without the support of a record label. Eventually I just went for it. During the process, I realized that if the content was good enough and the marketing was on point, the songs could get traction. Breaking into Spotify’s Viral charts in the U.S. and U.K. markets on my first single was a huge milestone for me. I found it important to build off of this milestone and constantly look towards strong follow up projects. I believe that releasing a track a month rather than five songs at once was critical to my growth on the platform because it retained a large portion of the listeners that were engaging with the latest single. ### How do you balance producing music with entrepreneurship? **Griffin Stoller:** I love making music, but I also want to share it in the most effective way possible…this is where the entrepreneurship components come into play. Online streaming platforms such as SoundCloud, Spotify, and Apple Music have created a monumental shift in the Music Industry, changing the fundamental way people consume and share music. I believe that educating myself on this market shift and its implications is an ongoing process but one that is critical to developing and maintaining a successful project.   ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Navigating through the music industry can be confusing, daunting, and discouraging…don’t let that hold you back. These are a few lesson i’ve picked up in my journey that have helped me stay motivated and sustain a positive attitude. 1. **One-hundred No’s are easily outweighed by one yes: Don’t be discouraged if someone doesn’t vibe with your content…the market is huge**. 2. Keep up to date with how other artists market themselves, and deliver their content. Note what works for them or what falls flat. 3. YouTube is your friend. I have learned an incredible amount about producing music and marketing music just through YouTube videos alone. 4. Use social media as a tool to heighten your brand awareness and as mechanism to keep up with the micro-shifts of the industry. Follow other Artists, managers, publishers and pay attention to how they interact with each other. 5. Reach out to other Artists and tastemakers via Instagram DM every day. It sounds a bit excessive but when it works it’s totally worth it. 6. If someone helps you out, even if it’s very minor, make sure to thank them. 7. Realize that people will give you bad advice. It has happened to me many times. Ultimately no one will care about your music, content, product more than you. You have to trust yourself. 8. If you show your music to your inner circle, friends, mom, dad, girlfriend etc.. and they “LOVE IT”..take that with a grain of salt. The market is how you judge your content. Put your music out, see how many people share it. What do they say about it? The market is the best metric to see how good your music is. Read every comment. 9. Spending a lot of time on one song does not necessarily equate to a quality song. Some of my best songs I’ve made have taken me under 10 hours. I’ve also trashed projects that I’ve worked on for 3 months. 10. A great piece of content can practically market itself. Put the content before everything. ### Tell us about your latest release I just released a new track called ‘Vibes’. I am really proud of this song because I feel that it represents how i’ve grown as a producer and a songwriter over the last year. *“We’re just living life, Holding onto Good Vibes”* Watch Griffin Stoller sing vocals for his last single ‘Vibes’: --- ## Slovak Tennis Player Nina Gajdosikova Shares Her Knowledge Designing For Billion Dollar Companies URL: https://futuresharks.com/nina-gajdosikova/ Not only active in the tennis court (winning many prizes), Nina Gajdosikova has also embarked in design working with many brands such as Heineken, IBM, Peugeot, Philips, Ross and Nespresso. Throughout the years, she has learned how to harness the power of storytelling, design, and critical thinking to create experiences in brands that resonate with their core audiences.   Naturally I was very thrilled to interview her and learn more from her design process. Here are her top 3 tips for designing impactful messages. **** **1. Invoke an emotional response through imagery** **Nina Gajdosikova:** Design is about fostering a relationship with your audience. Throughout my time at SocioFabrica; an award-winning digital marketing agency in SF, I was intensely involved in digital campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands like Ross and Nespresso and I learned that creating a story that people enjoy helps build an emotional connection with your audience. > Approaching customers through their electronic devices is something very personal. You’re trying to get them to click where you want them to click, subscribe for mailing lists, purchase products and build engagement. There has to be a certain level of trust and credibility for them to be comfortable with that. Working with Nespresso, the European coffee giant, I was involved in helping re-build its luxury image to suit the American market. The ability to turn products personality into something the American market can relate to was one of the most important factors here.  ### ### 2. Tell a story and try to use empathy Graphic designer and 2010 AIGA Medalist, Jennifer Morla explains that she “looks for the soul of the brand and let that determine the look and feel” of the message. A designer should not only focus on what the final product is but the main goal should be to design a narrative that gets the audience engaged. Working with a number of global brands as well as smaller local businesses, Gajdosikova came to find out that no matter who you’re designing for, a good story is an essential part of the final outcome. **Nina Gajdosikova:**  Sometimes a company approaches you to help them re-define themselves. That’s when you really have to go in there with an open mind and look at their story from a different perspective. Often times it’s about bringing an outdated brand up to date. Times changes and so do people and their expectations. A designer must be flexible and prompt to react efficiently to these changes and use them to their advantage. ### 3. Understanding the audience you’re serving is key **Nina Gajdosikova:** At Istropolitana Ogilvy, one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world, I worked on an extensive campaign for Piano. Once the campaign launched, it was only a matter of months before the platform successfully started expanding outside of Slovakia and Slovenia into larger European countries and eventually became the largest provider of metered paywalls worldwide. Currently, more than 1200 news and media providers use their platform, globally. The message of reading more to be aware of the world they live in resonated really well and made this campaign really successful. Nina explained that the targeting through current and local events was key to draw great attention to the campaign. The messaging of the campaign was provocative because it directly addressed some of the main issues going on in the country and presented them in a smart way. *“The best executions are the subtle ones, where you don’t have to be literal and straightforward, but people still get what you’re trying to say. For designers to be able to do that, they have to understand their audience first,”* says Gajdosikova. In 2013, Nina and her team were awarded the “Golden Nail”, first place in the most prestige competition in Slovakia in advertising and design. ### Nina told me that understanding and internalizing these principles was essential for her to be able to create a powerful story. *“It’s so important to take risks and go for new opportunites because only this way, you’ll find out what interests you as a designer.”* One thing is for sure, we can keep expecting many great things from Nina. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next ad I see on Facebook was designed by her. Gajdosikova is currently involved in advocacy design with focus on education. This gives her the opportunity to use her storytelling and design skills to fight for a nationwide cause. You can visit her site and projects here. --- ## You Won’t Be A Successful Entrepreneur If You Don’t Have This URL: https://futuresharks.com/what-entrepreneurs-need/ A good indicator to determine if someone is going to be successful is if they have three sequential things: people, processes, and platform. Most people have the hustle, the dream, or the skills but they lack the people, a process, or a platform. A good mentor has the people, the process, and a platform. If you want to be successful, then you need a **good mentor**. # Let’s define what this means. ## People The “**people**” are the network. They’re those who will work with you to help you achieve your goals. They’re those who you will learn from in order to prevent mistakes where time and money is lost. They’re those who will introduce you to other people who will help you find the people you need to accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish. You could either jump around for years from networking event to networking event or you can connect with a mentor who already has the network. ## Process The “**process**” is the interlocking link between people and a platform. Most people may have the people and a platform but they don’t have a process or a system. The process allows them to create repeatable excellence, delegate, duplicate, and create self-sustaining impact. You might have the most intelligent people in the world with the greatest opportunity, but if there is no process, then goals will not be achieved as time-efficiently as possible. ## Platform The “**platform**” is where the skills, hustle, and people can be applied to in order to achieve what they want. If you think about how you will achieve something great, you might think, “Why will I do this? Who will I do this with? How will I do this? What will I do this with?” The platform is the “what”. You can have the greatest people in the world with the greatest process of doing things, but if you don’t have anything tangible to apply this to, then you won’t actually accomplish anything. These three key points work together sequentially. To achieve greatness, you must have all three working together. A mentor helps you find and use these three key points. He or she may already have all three of these things and is simply looking for someone to give them to. Now that you know *why* a mentor is important, you need to understand what constitutes a good mentor. ## Let’s look at Logan Young as an example. In early 2016, Logan Young worked at Pizza Hut. By mid 2017, Logan was traveling around the world speaking at large conferences and hanging out with Mark Zuckerberg. (Left to right: Logan Young, Mark Zuckerberg, Josh Fechter) ## ## What changed for Logan that helped him make such an intense growth journey? Logan Young gained a mentor. That mentor is Dennis Yu. Dennis has the people, processes, and platform in place ready to be given to anyone who wants to be mentored and has the same growth potential as Logan Young. Dennis has been successful in business for over twenty years, so he has the people in his network who gave Logan those speaking opportunities all around the world. Dennis has created the process over the years to help Logan efficiently create repeatable excellence. He created BlitzMetrics which is a platform that allows Logan to apply his knowledge and skills toward. Dennis Yu is a good mentor to Logan Young. A good mentor is someone who genuinely cares about your long-term success and not just immediate results. If you want to have the growth that Logan Young has had, then find a mentor who is willing to give you access to people, processes, and a platform. --- ## One Woman’s Journey to Dominating the World of PR URL: https://futuresharks.com/heather-desantis/ *Meet Heather DeSantis, the woman behind the scenes of every major media outlet in the world.* *Heather mobilizes entrepreneurs, authors, and charities that are on a mission to share their story with the world. She helps those struggling with visibility so that they gain credibility, increase followers and become seen as a global expert.* *Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Heather now lives in San Diego, California and helps hundreds of entrepreneurs get press features every week. Read more to find out how.* #### How did your career get started? *My career in PR (public relations) began at a top agency working with successful entrepreneurs, health coaches, nutritionists, and even the NFL (seriously, how fun, right?). I was responsible for securing 35 placements per week for clients (yep, you read that right!). I learned that I thrive in a results driven environment and that results are 100% attainable when you work hard.* *This was a dream job in some ways – I got to work with amazing clients, honed my pitching skills, and learned a ton. However, something was missing. I didn’t have the ability to take time off when I wanted to, the flexibility to travel, and couldn’t satisfy my desire to be more involved in philanthropy.* *In my heart and soul, I knew I was made to do more. I took a tremendous leap of faith and moved back home with my mom to pursue my true calling – to create a PR community to help entrepreneurs. That’s when*Heather DeSantis Public Relations*was born! I got a part time job in the fitness industry (another passion of mine), set out to partner with the world’s greatest entrepreneurs, and take them to the top! Now I get to work with amazing clients, help grow their businesses, and get paid in the process. (Seriously, pinch me!!!)* *Pro Tip 1: It’s imperative that you follow your intuition… Are you in flow or pushing success to happen? I started an LLC clothing company where we up-cycled clothing. We got the product into two stores in Columbus, Ohio but we made very little profit (less than a few hundred to be exact). What I learned is that I was passionate about marketing the product and talking to people and not passionate about physically making the product. I was not obsessed with the business so I knew it would not happen.* *Pro Tip 2: Give more than you take and be willing to serve for free. Much of my success came from getting people PR and media mentions for free. I truly valued their business and mission and having a connection to them and their endorsement was worth 10x more than anything they would ever pay me.* #### So, just what is PR, and the DeSantis PR firm all about? *Public Relations is the act of getting media attention to your business by getting you*featured on local news*, national media, podcasts, radio, and print newspapers. There’s a lot that goes into PR, and when you choose to work with me, you can focus on your story and leave the pitching to me!* *When it comes to PR I like to think of myself as more than just someone pitching your brand to the media. I’m your Ambassador and your brand evangelist! Seriously, I’ll sing your praises from every rooftop and make sure the media knows not only that you exist, but that you are the best person to tell the story that only you can tell.* *When you work with me, I can do it all: from*writing the pitch content*, to contacting the media, to follow up. It’s full service PR with a very personalized approach. My passion is broadcast media TV and Radio due to the emotions and physical touch that viewers can get from seeing you BUT I love national media too.* *My expertise combined with my drive for results means that my clients enjoy*Guaranteed Results*. When it comes to getting press for my clients, I get so excited because I know the effect that well placed press can have on your business (Hint: It’s huge!) Personally, I love working with Mission oriented social good businesses and people. One of my favorite people in the world is Sean Stephenson, whose massive online brand has helped*millions*of people**overcome their insecurities**.* *Pro Tip 3: Keep things simple in year one of your business and creating raving fans! In my first year of business I did not have a website, run Facebook Ads or have funnels and I still was able to build a successful business simply by getting massive results from clients and referrals.* *Pro Tip 4: Share the journey of being an entrepreneur with your family and friends and take them along with you by sharing them BIG NEWS and advances in your business.* #### What are some qualities that are essential to entrepreneurship success? *While my time at the PR Firm helped me figure out that*I wanted to have my own PR agency*, my entrepreneurial spirit began at a much younger age.* *My dad and my uncle were making it big in real estate, and they were the first to introduce me to the world of business ownership. I loved seeing the dedication they both had to their work and the drive that ultimately led to their mega success. The first key is dedication. If you stick to your goals, you can always attain success.* *I knew it was something I was destined to have in life. Another thing that I attribute to my success is the fact that I was adopted when I was 3 days old. I really believe that my parents created in me a desire to be part of something greater than myself through their demonstration of love for me. The second key is confidence!* *I’ve always been someone with a drive to work hard and go after my dreams. For instance, when I was in college I worked with at risk teen girls and helped them have better futures. I also persuaded the*CEO of Livestrong*to speak at my college graduation (how’s that for persistence?) I think that everyone needs perseverance if they want to be successful!* *Pro Tip 5: Have gratitude to all of the twists and turns that brought you to the entrepreneur that you are today. Realize that you are more than your product and service. It is imperative that you become a thought leader and push yourself to BE THE BRAND. People buy from people.* *Pro Tip 6: Align yourself with people in your industry who are further ahead than you.* **Final Note from the Author:** **It was an absolute pleasure getting to know Heather over the several conversations leading up to this interview. She is the rare type of woman who lives her life with purpose and mission. Her clients are people and companies making a****serious****impact on the world in the best way possible.** **If you’re the rare type of entrepreneur actually making the world a better place, give Heather a call.** **You can reach her on**her facebook page**, her**company’s website**or**her secret group**.** --- ## It’s All In Your Head; Inspiring Story Of How One Entrepreneur Went From Homeless To Hero. URL: https://futuresharks.com/rick-moses/ There are 35,000 individuals who are homeless in Las Vegas NV and **Rick ‘Siloh’ Moses** believes that, no matter where you live, that no one person should ever go hungry…ever. Siloh Moses has been called a philanthropist, crusader for the homeless, humanitarian, and leader in giftivism—the practice of radical generosity that transforms the world. He’s been Awarded Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition by The United States Congress for an unwavering commitment and leadership to help the disadvantaged people of Las Vegas. He’s also been Awarded Senatorial Recognition by The United States Senate which has been signed by Senator Dean Heller and he just recently has been Awarded Las Vegas Top 100 Men of the year. All of this recognition has only come over the past few years. Before that, just three years ago, Siloh Moses himself found living living among the community that he currently serves today, that’s right, he serves on the same streets that he used to sleep on. You heard right, just a few years ago, he too was homeless. Since then he’s created an organization that, to date, has had over 5,000 locals come down and pay it forward with his group (now over 105 volunteers) and has given out over 91,000 individual meals to those who are less fortunate all for free. His community projects have included such sponsors such as, Rich Products, Starbucks, Einstein Bagels, Trader Joe’s, Coca-Cola, The 98 Cent Markets, numerous local restaurants, and more! He is an inspiration to speak with and you can’t help but leaving his presence with a huge sense of hope and gratitude for life and all of it’s splendor. Here is an inspirational story of how one entrepreneur went from homeless to hero and used business smarts to to get there. **City where you’re from: **Las Vegas, NV. **Hobbies: **Binging on Tedx Talks. My persona speaking engagements. Gym six days a week. Reading great books. Eating healthy and being on the field playing soccer. **Favorite quote:** “I’m not trying to change the world…I’m just trying to create one that matches my vision for it.”**– Siloh Moses** **Social accounts** Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/silohmoses/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrpotofspaghetti/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/siloh.moses ### What are you working on? Today I’m currently working on my new project which I’ve happily named WeWin360! (or We Win Full Circle.) ### What is it and how did you come up with this idea? Originally the concept behind WeWin360! was to become a matchmaking service for local business owners who were looking to connect with reputable local nonprofits. We the concept was came to me after reading an article on Forbes about how within the first one hundred days of our new presidency, how (since then) financial charitable donations to nonprofits have skyrocketed. Being in the ‘pay it forward’ space myself at the time, the problem that I saw was that, they indeed have skyrocketed, but only towards the national well known nonprofits? That none of that was ever felt on the local level where that same money could have gone further and helped more people. I immediately thought, this is a problem and someone has to fix this. So I jumped on it and began to create WeWin360! Which originally started off as as three day classroom intensive to bring both local business owners and non profits together under one roof at the same time. To match them up based on a deeper connection outside of just ‘writing a check.’ Since then, WeWin360! has transformed into a more personal individual experience. Now, instead of matching local businesses up with local nonprofits, we’re matching up individual students with their life path…we’re helping them connect with their ‘why’. It’s been pretty interesting to say the least. It’s been really fun. ### How is your company different? I tell my students all of the time, ‘Just know that I will never ask you to do something that I haven’t done so myself.’ What this means is that they can rest easily knowing that the techniques that I teach, which can be applied to any and all life’s circumstances, are the same exact steps that I used to get out of homelessness. Not only did I use them to get out of the most dire circumstance but I was be able to rebound out of homelessness and start a movement that served 91,000 individual meals and has granted me the recognition from The United States Congress for leadership in philanthropy based on those same exact principles. Techniques in which I still used today to obtain phenomenal results. I believe that I am a better teacher (leader) when I teach them principles based on my very own personal results and experiences. No one else’s. ### What do your students leave with when they complete or graduate from your three day classroom experience? Great question! First and foremost, those who attend our three day classroom experience are (from what we’ve found) are CEO’s / Executive Directors, Founders, Marketing Specialist, Salespeople, and Recruiters in their own professions. Not to say that people who are not in those professions can’t attend, you are always more than welcomed to attend. It’s just that we have found that more of their professions are in our classes more than other profession. Where I was going with that is this, those who attend who are also ready to be ready, who embrace the processes and who aren’t afraid to create change, those who come with an open heart and an open mind, who really take on our lessons, tend to take off pretty quickly and when they do they tend to the be ones that leave (graduate) with a feeling of a renewed purpose in their lives. They graduate with a feeling of being off of the well beaten path and back onto their own very specific path (their journey), the one that was meant only for them. They graduate feeling anchored, grounded in who they are, what they believe in, and where they stand in this world. The masks are removed and they graduate with a more authentic feeling of themselves and with a deeper appreciation for their own personal story. It’s really fun stuff. ### What’s your dream with your company? We truly believe that with WeWin360! That we truly have the opportunity to change communities everywhere, but before we first change those communities, we must first change those who live in them. The people who make up those communities. Why? Because when we change the one’s who live in those communities, they become better people…people who start to take leadership roles in their communities thus, they go out and start to volunteer, they start organizations, and give back in way that makes them happy. When they do that, they begin to pay it forward from a good place and they then begin to change lives. Lives of those who they serve and those who serve with them. Our dream is that with every student that comes through WeWin360! That they become better people. That they then go home and create better communities, better neighbors, better co-workers, that they go out and serve and to bring it full circle, they go out and change someone’s life (who because of them) who becomes no longer less fortunate. Now you know the meaning behind our name, WeWin360! ### How do you creatively advertise? We creatively advertise by leveraging great content (stories), great pictures (high def), and great calls to action. We also leverage fantastic ‘word of mouth’ on social media in every possible form with hashtags, tagging, and by communicating with students via direct messaging. Which also utilize DM’s on social media, private groups, and messaging apps like WhatsApp. ### What kind of results have you achieved using those kinds of methods to advertise? We’ve achieved phenomenal results that speak for themselves. Last year our volunteer organization (outside of WeWin360!) had over 5,000 locals come down and pay it forward with us. Expanded our core volunteer group to over 105 volunteers and was the one and only reason we were able to serve over 91,000 individual meals to those who are less fortunate all for free. Not to mention has connected us on community projects that have included such sponsors such as, Rich Products, Starbucks, Einstein Bagels, Coca-Cola, The 98 Cent Markets, and numerous local restaurants. By the way, who called us…we didn’t call them. So, obviously, something must be working! ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? Going homeless. Nothing says you’ve failed more than finding and eating your dinner (which someone else deemed useless to them) out of a garbage can. What I learned was that there is going to be some point (I call it a Choice Point) in our lives where we must take 100% responsibility of where we are and how we got there. Then and only then, can you take 100% responsibility for getting out of your current circumstance and get to where you want to go. This is a challenge for most people because inside it feels good to point fingers and have someone or something to blame but, what I have found is that by having someone or something outside of us to blame, that the blame only keeps you in our bad circumstance even longer. Breaking free from your current circumstance by taking responsibility gives you 100% complete freedom…the freedom to take a stand and to become everything that you were meant to be! ### Value-add questions: ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. The best entrepreneur advice that I have is to know yourself. Know yourself to the core of your very own being. You can’t have anything in life (let alone a successful startup or business) until you know yourself and the very fiber that you operate on. This is crucial. The world, your best friend, your parents, your employees, your market at times, investors will all tell you at some point that you suck. That you have no idea of what you are doing and that your idea is crap. You have to know thyself so well, that when these conversations, comments, or feedback, shows up in you life that you don’t hear them. As if you are standing at the mountain top and they are screaming from the valley down below, you just don’t hear them. Why? Because, those comments have a way of knocking you out of alignment and worst, if you give them the power, they will have all they need to kick you off your God given path which is rightfully yours. Respectfully, they are not you and you are not them. I would suggest looking into some Emotional Intelligence courses based in leadership and personal development. I would do this prior to starting your business. This is how important it is. If you have already started your business…it’s never too late to get started on raising your emotional E.Q. If you have any questions about where to start when it comes to personal development or emotional intelligence classes, feel free to email me at [WeWinFullCircle@Gmail.com](mailto:WeWinFullCircle@Gmail.com) and I will be happy to introduce you to what we do or if not, point you in the direction of where you can start. Emotional intelligence has been the absolute biggest contributor to all of our and my own personal success. It’s a must have. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Every entrepreneur needs to know what you stand for, what you believe and where you stand in a world full of eight billion people. Knowing what unique characteristics (not talent because everyone has that) that’s attractable in you that makes you stand out. Emotional intelligence, personal internal development, personal brain growth (books and experiences that expand your brain capacity to grow), creating a happy place for your employees and vendors etc, (because happy employees and vendors make happy customers), and most importantly, learning how to say ‘No’. Community contribution is in there as well. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? ‘The brain that changes itself.’ by Norman Doidge ‘The Talent Code.’ By Daniel Coyle and ‘Ask And It Is Given.’ By Esther & Jerry Hicks ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see WeWin360! Changing numerous communities and those who live in them including LA, Washington DC, NYC, MIAMI, and in Atlanta in next four years. In the next ten years expanding into international markets, impacting over one million lives and changing thirty communities, small towns, and cities across the globe. **Last but not least, who are your inspirations?** **Manoj Bhargava**. He’s an Indian American businessman and philanthropist (currently a billionaire) who is known for producing the 5-hour Energy drink. He has recently dedicated to investing 99% of his fortunate into humanity and moving our species forward. **Howard Schultz.**The executive chairman of Starbucks and a former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics. Simple because of what he stands for. He was one of the first major household name brands to donate all of their unsold food to local charities. I have to admit, I am a little biased tho because they are one of our sponsors but, I still like where his head is at and his story is impressive. Last, but not least. **Jeff Bezos,** Chief Executive Officer of Amazon.com, the world’s largest online shopping retailer. His philanthropy game is on point and plus, he’s a ‘beast’ in business. --- ## Beginners Guide To Blogging For Money URL: https://futuresharks.com/beginners-guide-blogging-money/ Blogging is big business these days. People with a talent for words and a personality that others are drawn to have learned to use technology to carve out a new source of income. While there are millions of blogs out there, there is always room for more. As long as your blog is a great one, you will succeed. Let’s look at four steps to beginning a money-making blog. 1. Choose a name This sounds easy, right?  Well, it is not. Your name has to be something easy to remember and easy to find. Getting too creative with your blog name hurts you more than helps you because it doesn’t stick with the reader. Another issue is that there are so many blogs out there, your first choices for names may be taken. For example, if you want to have a blog name of Brendasblog.com it is a safe bet that another Brenda already took that name. You will have to be patient to find a good blog name that connects to your blog website. ## 2. Create your website In this DIY society, people run to the first “fill in the blank” website program and think they have a winner. The truth is, that website is so amateur and probably outdated, that a high school kid will laugh. Technology is rapidly growing. You need to spend time blogging, not trying to make a website. There are reasonably priced web designers that are much more qualified to give you a professional website. Try this web designer in San Diego. They can do more than you can do on your own and you will make more money because of it. ## 3. Topic The most important part of this entire project is the topic you choose to blog about. [You must be passionate about it](/sohil-malik/). It must mean something to you. It is not enough to know a subject and offer reports on it. Your readers want to feel your emotions. It can be anger, fear, love, happiness, or humor. They want to feel what you feel when you write about a subject that strikes a chord with you. If you have writing skill, and you have a passion, you can make money with a website. It is not enough to know a subject and offer reports on it. Your readers want to feel your emotions. It can be anger, fear, love, happiness, or humor. They want to feel what you feel when you write about a subject that strikes a chord with you. If you have writing skill, and you have a passion, you can make money with a website. If you have writing skill, and you have a passion, you can make money with a website. ## 4. Brand Building and Promoting Blogging means building relationships with your readers. They connect with you and come back often and soon you are just part of their lives. It takes your time. This is the most important investment. Use social media to open doors, but do not turn into an advertiser. Simply invite people to visit your site. Go on other websites like yours and comment, follow, and promote theirs. They will promote yours too. This is the way the internet works. Visit forums. Put yourself out there and build your brand. You will find many ways to earn money from blogging. You may start with display ads that pay you for hits. You might use it as a springboard to other financial endeavours such as launching your e-commerce project . Other options are publishing e -books, or booking speaking engagements. You want to have money coming in from multiple sources. It will all come together and soon you will arrive at your blogging destination. --- ## Meet Sohil Malik: High School Senior Helping Students in Villages Succeed URL: https://futuresharks.com/sohil-malik/ **Sohil Malik** is a high school student at JP Stevens High School. He is the Co-Founder of School for a Village, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that brings technology and educational resources to students across the world. At school, Sohil is Co-President of Latin Club and Historian of the National English Honor Society. Outside the classroom, Sohil teaches photography at his local community center and has pursued independent research in the field of psychology. He is currently working with a professor at Montclair State University on a neurocognitive study. Sohil hopes to pursue biological psychology studies in college. **City where you’re from:** Edison, NJ **Hobbies:**Photography **Favorite quote:****​**“You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!” – Dr. Seuss **Social accounts:**Twitter Personal Blog, S4V Website, S4V Facebook, S4V Instagram, S4V Twitter ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Sohil Malik:** While on vacation in India two years ago, my family and I came across a remote school in Ladakh. The students welcomed us into their classrooms and offered to show us what they were learning. I immediately noticed how different their classrooms were in comparison to my own. Not only were there not enough desks or chairs for the students, but there was also a lack of basic supplies. We returned to the school shortly after with a bag of school supplies. Laughter and excitement filled the rooms as we handed each student a pen and notebook. That was when I realized how fortunate I was and how a little help could go a long way in improving the lives of others. Back home, I teamed up with my incredible friend, Anjali Gupta, to discuss potential ways to help students in underdeveloped areas. This is how School for a Village came to be. Our mission is to provide students with technology and educational resources to help them take the next steps towards a brighter future. Every student deserves an equal chance at achieving their dreams and we believe that education is the key to doing so. Our most current project is the construction of a science laboratory at Vidya Mandir School, located in Bahjoi, India. ### How is School for a Village different? **Sohil Malik:**School for a Village creates a unique course of action for each school. In order to make the most direct impact, we make an effort to truly understand the needs of students. Because a majority of Vidya Mandir School wishes to pursue a STEM-based career, a science laboratory became our main priority. In focusing our efforts in one area, we are able to make progress quickly and efficiently, rather than spreading our resources thin over multiple goals. Not only are we building the facilities for a science lab, but we are also equipping the students with the knowledge of how to use them. By doing so, we help the students make the best use of their resources rather than inundating them with devices that they are unfamiliar with. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Sohil Malik:** As a student-run organization, we hope to foster an international community of students passionate about education. With chapters throughout the United States, every fundraising event and idea is the initiative of a team of dedicated high school and college students. Although fundraising plays a prominent role in the activities of each chapter, we hope to cultivate a direct network of communication between students in the United States and students in villages across the world. This communication net would motivate conversation and empathy in America about the lack of education in impoverished areas. We hope that individuals then will help to instill the same resourceful education available in the United States to the impoverished abroad. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Sohil Malik:** We recognized the importance of advertising at an early stage. Our first step was to have an online presence and we did this by creating a websiteand by connecting with our audience through social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). We then focused on creating tangible advertising methods such as brochures, t-shirts, and banners. To raise awareness in our community, we organized several fundraising events ranging from a family carnival night to a music & arts festival. We needed to start somewhere and the best way to do so was among our friends and families. By allowing families to participate in enjoyable activities and showcasing the talents of our fellow high school peers, we were able to promote our cause in a familiar context, surrounded by local community members. Our next priority was to raise awareness on a more national level. We have had the opportunity to speak on a few television shows and radio stations. We also had the privilege of working with Chhavi Verg (Miss NJ USA 2017 and First Runner Up at Miss USA 2017) to help share our message with a larger audience. ### What excites you everyday to work on your charity? **Sohil Malik:**We often take for granted the amazing resources we have: capital, technology, problem-solving skills, and team spirit. Bringing it all together to make a difference in the lives of the students in need of these resources is what excites me every day. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Sohil Malik:**Our biggest failure was definitely our naive thinking during the initial stages of School for a Village. We realized that being a 501(c)(3) organization was not enough to get people to support our cause. While knocking on doors in our local neighborhood, we hoped people would listen to our message and possibly make a donation. However, many people simply shut their doors and shooed us away. One of our neighbors had even told us that it was impossible for two high school students to make a significant change. And while we refused to be discouraged, this definitely got us thinking. We realized that in order to convince people of the importance of our cause, we had to both create a brand and garner the support of our friends. Marketing became a huge priority as we then focused on creating a website and establishing a social media presence. Having brochures and banners on hand played a major role in getting people to take us seriously. By inviting our friends to join the first chapter of School for a Village in our own community, our organization slowly began to grow. People no longer viewed us as high school kids with hopeless ambitions. People were finally able to share our vision and even offered to provide sponsorships for future events. Within our first year of operation, we have raised over 70% of the cost to build a science lab in Bahjoi, India. We are incredibly grateful for the amount of support we have received over the past year and are excited to connect with more passionate students in all parts of the world. Thank you for letting us share your story here on Future Sharks Sohil! Keep up the good work. --- ## Best Routines to Get More Done and Live Healthier URL: https://futuresharks.com/healthy-productive-routines/ According to a Nielsen study, 85% of the consumer packaged good (CPG) companies die within the first 2 years. With this statistic, it almost sounds ridiculous to even try to start a company in that field. Unless you have the right procedures and routines in place and the mindset to succeed. On July 1st, 2016 two former UCLA athletes, [Steve O’Dell](/steve-odell/) and [Robbie Page](/robbie-page), founded Tenzo Tea, a matcha beverage company. Today, Tenzo Matcha is enjoyed daily by thousands of people across the United States and is dubbed one of the healthiest drinks on the planet. I’m always curious to learn what habits people have that have allowed them to achieve success so I decided to ask these 2 athletes how they organize their lives to be not only productive but also well-balanced. Here are their best tips: ### 1. Build Effective Routines Routines help to reduce mental load so you can be more productive while doing less. But, if you’re like most of us, building stable routines can be very hard. One solution to create strong and repeatable routines is by forming specific habits and then string them together. It might be hard in the beginning, but like riding a bike, writing a paper, or really anything in life, the more you practice, the better you’ll get. ### 2. Start Early – The Morning Routine *The early bird gets the worm*. Instead of loafing around for an hour getting ready or pounding the snooze button 10 times, these guys religiously follow a morning routine to get started fast. The founders begin each day at 5:00am sharp, pointing out that waking up early has major two advantages. First, it allows you to better plan your day. Having a few extra minutes in the morning to plan your day will save time later because you won’t constantly be thinking about what’s next. Secondly, starting early allows you quiet time to get serious work done before the bustle of the normal workday begins. It’s best to use these hours to handle your creative or most difficult tasks because your brain is the freshest in the morning, especially without the distractions. Next up is a warm cup of Tenzo matcha, which is perfect for everyone who wants to be productive*and*healthy because of it’s long lasting energy with no crash and numerous health benefits. Robbie pointed out that “contrary to coffee or energy drinks, Tenzo matcha has a rare amino acid called L-Theanine, which distributes the caffeine in your blood over 4-6 hours.” Instead, of the bothersome jitters and wild roller coaster effect commonly associated with coffee, matcha gives you a relaxed, focused energy. After they’re feeling energized and prepared for the day, the founders head into a 5:30am management meeting to tackle problems and discuss key objectives for the day. This lasts for 30 minutes and then Steve immediately walks to a local coffee shop for some quiet reading time while Robbie prepares a well-balanced breakfast. > ***Pro Tip:** Robbie recommends following advice from learning expert Jim Kwik and avoids all social media for the first hour when he wakes up. Checking Social Media early leaves you in a reactionary state – you focus on what your friends did last night, rather than what lies ahead.* ### 3. Healthy and Productive – The Afternoon Routine Each day at 3:45pm the Tenzo Team promptly stops work and begins their second routine. *Team workouts.* The Tenzo Team heads to the kitchen and begins the ritual. Before every workout, the team gathers round and takes a concentrated shot of Matcha green tea. Why you ask? Matcha acts as a preworkout because of it’s 50mg of caffeine, but doesn’t have all the synthetic junk found in a C4 or redbull. It also, boosts your metabolism, which increases the rate that calories are burned during the workout. At the gym, you can continue this routine all the way through your workout. Steve recommends standardizing your warm-up and most of your exercises. Mentioning that “It’s so much easier to get through a good workout if you follow a plan that you’ve done before, because you don’t need to spend time between exercises thinking about what you need to do next, you just do it.” > ***Pro Tip:** Use operant conditioning to form good routines by pairing two habits together. For example, Steve and Robbie love matcha but aren’t meatheads. So, when they first wanted to get in a solid lifting routine, they paired something they loved with something they knew they needed.* ### 4. Keep Going The hardest thing about routines is getting over “the hump”. It’s the reason so many people sign-up for gym memberships each January with hopes to become healthier, but never do. They can’t get over the hump, where an action goes from something new that you’re just trying to a true habit. If you still have to get motivated to get through a new routine…it’s not a routine yet. When it becomes intuitive or mindless, then it’s become a routine. ### So, how can do you do this? The single most important thing to form powerful and efficient routines is discipline. If you want to live healthy *and*be super productive, there’s nothing stopping you. Start small and add 1 healthy routine to your live. Stick with it for a month until it becomes a habit and then add the next one. Stay disciplined and eventually, you’ll develop powerful routines too. --- ## Meet an Investor in Startups Who is Determined to Burgeon Businesses URL: https://futuresharks.com/richard-moore/ **City where you’re from:** London **Hobbies:** Taekwondo, Running/building businesses **Favorite quote: “**Live life. Don’t just pass time.” **Social accounts** (Twitter): Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Medium ### What are you working on? **Richard Moore:** I’m an investor in small businesses so I’m spending much of my time consulting with startups in the $0-$250k range. I have most impact there as I focus on action and commercialization. This allows me to get a good view of if I want to invest in the business or not. ### How did you come up with this idea? **Richard Moore:** I always invested in companies on the stock market, but found I preferred working with ones where I knew I had a good understanding of how they were working. So I decided to sit as an advisor to startups, so I could ‘peer in’ to businesses more. This not only gave me a better view of candidates to invest in but also allowed me to have an impact on those businesses that I put my time and other resources into. ### How is your company different? **Richard Moore:**It’s clear that many startup business ‘coaches’ don’t have much skin in the game. There’s a lot of advice flying about that is often just rehashed from books or common sense. That’s fine, but where my clients win is in working with someone that has actually been in the trenches. I’ve spent almost two decades in this space and directly built businesses of my own as well as help grow and coach leaders in multi-million dollar and higher companies. This is why I have corporates up to and including 9-figure businesses in London that have me as a consultant to their sales and leadership teams.   ### What’s your dream with your company? **Richard Moore:**To keep bringing great value to those with incredible ideas that need help getting off the ground. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Richard Moore:** I’m a big content producer. I have blog posts and a lot of value-led content on my platforms each day. I’m also a contributor to Influencive.com. One of the main things I’m known for is my weekly Live Q&As on Facebook. My Startup Business Q&A is every Monday at 1pm London time and has been running over a year now with literally hundreds of questions being answered. The Sales Q&A is every Thursday at 1pm London time and focuses on pure sales. Further to this, my team works Facebook ads to get the most from the audience beyond my organic reach. ### What’s the one skill an entrepreneur should hone? **Richard Moore:**Sales. Without a doubt, one of the main reasons why I’ve been successful with my four businesses and my clients have done so well is because I understand sales, having made millions in the 2000s through selling different products in the City. With sales, you always know you can generate more money if needed and never worry about waiting for the next paycheck… you write them yourself! ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Richard Moore:**Biggest failure would have been my first Facebook ad campaign. I spent thousands and didn’t get the basics right. I learnt a lot of lessons doing that and as a result became very strong in that space. Biggest success would have been my corporate consulting business. I never expected to be able to make more money than when I had my “9 to 5” job in the City. But I remember when I was first being paid $500 a day, then $1,000 a day, then $1,500 a day and so on. It was crazy. But I knew I was worth it and the value I gave produced a serious return on investment. Moreover, they kept inviting me back so I knew I was making an impact. Bottom line, I’d been through a lot in business, built teams, recruited, made multi-million pound companies, managed P&L, sold millions myself and so on. So I had plenty to give. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Richard Moore:**Consistency is king. If you can’t show up for your business at some level, every day, including if you’re at a wedding, if it’s your birthday, an anniversary, or even Christmas Day, then you’re not in the game enough. It doesn’t have to be all day long, but I liken the commitment to a business to being like having a child (I have two children, so I know). Be there for the business, whatever it needs, whenever it needs it. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, yoga, sales funnels or another topic you pick} (must be actionable) **Richard Moore:**Whenever you are on a sales call, remember “question or command = control”. In short, if you ask a question or give a command, you have control of the conversation. This means that if someone asks you something, you can answer, but then ask a question or issue a command right afterwards to regain control of the conversation. This works with everyone. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Richard Moore:** How it feels when you have a team of people, each looking after a different part of your social media with you. Having a guy for Twitter research, one for Instagram, a video producer for YouTube and an operations team for Facebook, for instance, frees up a huge amount more time than I expected it would. ### Teach us something we don’t know. **Richard Moore:**Reading 15 minutes a day, twice a day, *everyday* will give you so much insight that when you share the knowledge people will start thinking you’re a voracious reader. Truth is, I never really read much, but this ‘little and often’ approach has had an immense affect on my content and the perception of me. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Richard Moore:**Listen. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Richard Moore:**Generating new customers every day… By a million miles this is what they should focus on. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Richard Moore:**Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life“, Seth Godin’s “Icarus Deception”, Simon Sinek’s “Leaders Eat Last“, Phil Knight’s “Shoe Dog” and Miller & Kanazawa’s “Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters“. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Richard Moore:**I’ll have new products in a couple of years – I’m constantly about creation, with my courses. Still, I’m certain my Basics of Sales course, or EightStepStartup for example, will still be going strong. Thanks Richard for sharing your story here with us at Future Sharks! Keep thinking big! --- ## Meet the Digital Expert Managing Over $500k a Month on Facebook URL: https://futuresharks.com/rohan-sheth/ Somewhere there’s a client who is having all of their digital marketing problems taken care of. One of the consultants who is part of this movement is Rohan Sheth, founder of Rohan Sheth Consulting, a company he started from a love and expertise he learned about himself. Rohan takes the time to make personal house calls, buy fine wine for his clients, and more importantly, get results with his marketing services. In an era where customer service is king and social engagement is the new normal, Rohan outshines the rest with his exceptional ideas and strategies. But it’s never been relaxed working hours for Rohan. Not so long ago he was a McDonald’s employee who was doing the nine to five workday. It’s amazing how people like Rohan Sheth break out of their shell, let’s find out more. ### Rohan, what made you decide to start your own digital marketing company? I started working at McDonald’s at fifteen because I saw what bad money management could do to your life. By the age of 17, I was already a manager at McDonald’s and climbing the ladder quickly. I quit McDonalds for a few years to focus on school, but when one company offered me a job with less pay than what I was accumulating at McDonald’s, I simply went back to McDonald’s. One thing I excelled at was direct sales, after McDonald’s I went into this line of work and began making $15k – $20k per month. During this time I started developing a love for online marketing. I was already great at working with people, so once I learned I could combine online marketing, direct sales, and the power of persuasion I had with people I started a digital marketing firm that I run today. You have to figure out what you’re great at and then drive toward this goal. Sometimes people get lucky and find it earlier in life than others. Sometimes you find yourself learning this at a later stage in life, but the important thing is to FIND your talent. ### What were your views on your startup? Did you develop a team of people early on? From the beginning, I was a jack of all trades type person in my company. I would sell it, fulfill it, manage the deal, and pretty much do everything myself for the agency. Once I had scaled the company to where I couldn’t provide productive growth anymore by myself, I began to bring a team of people on board to help continue the vision I had for my company. Sometimes it’s necessary to bring on a team in the beginning. Especially if you have startup money to do so. More can get accomplished and it doesn’t take a long time for growth to happen. However, since most people don’t have startup capital, they have to do it like I did, grow the company solo. Once you do decide to bring on a team of people to your business, make sure you are onboarding employees or contractors who bring value to your business in a positive way. Since my team onboarding in 2015 until today, we have tripled the company in value and growth. ### Was there a moment when you were scaling your business alone when you realized this could be something big? I realized the full potential of the company was right before I began to onboard team members in 2015. This was when I started to see the big picture and huge numbers from the growth happening online right before my eyes. Once I saw this happening, I capitalized on the visibility and started to double down on everything I was doing that year. One thing which was important for my business was the ability to stay consistent in order to reap these conclusions for my company. How can you reap the rewards if your audience doesn’t get a chance to see what you can do? Only taking advantage of your business during certain high times is not the way to scale a business effectively. You’ve got to be down there in the trenches, even when everyone else can’t see where your business is heading, it’s important to keep that vision intact. It’s like a seed you bury in April. You can’t see the seed, but you water it daily. You have faith that the thing you planted so long ago will finally sprout from the ground and begin growing. It’s only when the seed sprouts from the earth that everyone else can see what you have been seeing faithfully for so long. Keep watering. ### What are some of the biggest accomplishments of your business? One thing that stands out specifically to me is how we took a company from $30,000 to $1.6 million. We have taken multiple companies into the value and growth of over a million dollars each month. Honestly, while all of these numbers are great to look at, the thing which I feel is our biggest accomplishment is seeing a customer come to us in the beginning and feel like their business won’t make it. It’s like the seed they planted and watered, their faith wavers a bit and they need help. Our biggest accomplishment is watching these clients leave our office showing the results of what they first envisioned so long ago. That’s why I do what I do. To create a happy customer, a successful customer and there’s no better feeling than than. ### Finally, how are you transitioning your customer base to learn more about your many areas of expertise within your company? For a while, my company was known for building your business using Facebook ads. However, we have transitioned our customers into a broader work arena for my business by sharing information about the successes of other social platforms and strategies as well. For instance, we share information about YouTube ads and other media buying outlets which can provide growth and leverage for their company online. Today people understand we are a large media buyer with expertise in all things digital marketing, not just Facebook ads. It’s the simple theory of producing informative strategies that will work for our clients. This can come in the form of blog articles, YouTube videos, Facebook Live video’s, and even simple social media posts. Any kind of way to get the information out there is a great strategy to leverage more expertise for the business. --- ##  Level Up: When It’s Time, It’s Time URL: https://futuresharks.com/chris-brown/ How the CEO of Lenus Medical Consultants went from a broke and homeless drifter living out of the hospital–where his premature daughter spent her first 3 months– to a leader, visionary, and branding guru, who owns one of Dallas’s fastest growing Medical Sales & Marketing companies in less than 3 years. “The only limitations we have are the one’s we put on ourselves.” **City where you’re from:** Dallas, TX ( I was born in Memphis, TN but grew up in Dallas.) **Hobbies:**Reading, writing, music, soccer, football and playing with my daughter Madison. **Favorite quote:**“Success consists of the ability to go from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” -Winston Churchill **Social accounts** Personal Facebook, Public Facebook Lenus Medical Consultants Facebook ### What are you working on? **Chris Brown:**My latest venture and the one that will probably end up having the most longevity is my company, Lenus Medical Consultants. We bridge the gap between Doctors and more personalized patient care. If you can help Doctors earn more money for providing better patient care that is actually geared towards not only healing or curing the patient, but preventing them from needing to come back to the office then the world just becomes a healthier, better place. ### How did you come up with this idea? **Chris Brown:**I was a pre-med student in college and my plan was to use the pharmaceutical sales space to fund Med school but once I got a glimpse at the corruption and deception that was in the industry I actually dropped out of school and vowed to never look at the medical industry again. That was more than 10 years ago, a lot has changed, a lot more regulation and compliance enforcement is beginning to come about and the goal of Lenus is to help fuel this wave of personalized, more effective, and just overall better patient care. The corruption in the industry prior was like anything else, fueled by money. We fuel this movement the same way, by driving substantial compliant revenue streams back into the Doctor’s practice. ### How is your company different? **Chris Brown:**It’s simple. We care! There are a lot of positives happening in the medical industry right now, many of which were predicted to cut off a lot of the money in the industry but we believe that when you are advocating for those who need it, when you’re being a voice to those who go unheard and just doing the right thing in general, the money will always follow. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Chris Brown:**To make a difference in the industry and to help fuel this new movement of better, more personalized patient care. To rid the industry of the generalization of patients, their symptoms, and how they are treated. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Chris Brown:**We don’t do a lot of advertising at the moment other than Facebook. I’m a strong believer in Facebook but for the most part we are a boots on the ground type of business at this point in time. ### Who is your biggest influencer or mentor? **Chris Brown:**That’s a tough one with guys like Gary Vee, Cardone and Eric Thomas out there but I think I would have to say my brother Jacob Cap has made the biggest impact, although Eric Thomas and John C Maxwell are both a close runner up. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? **Chris Brown:**My biggest failure had to be my first live event I ever hosted. It was called “Summertime Madness” and we lost every penny we put into it, luckily it was just a little over $10,000. ### What did you learn from them? **Chris Brown:**I honestly did a good job of turning that into a positive. I had one of my most ingenious marketing ideas come from that event and it ended up being what fueled our success in the industry there after. So what I learned was that a failure is only a bad thing if you write it off as a failure, we chalked it up as a W even though we walked away with $10k less than we started and in the end we were right for doing so, but only because we chose to be. ### You mentioned you were homeless, tell us more about that. My daughter was born a full 3 months early and it really threw us off track for a while. I went from having it all figured out and having a plan to not having a single clue of how to take care of my new family. My fiancé, Maitlynn and I had to live in the NICU with our daughter for the first 3 months of her life, sharing the 3 meals they gave to Maitlynn for being a breastfeeding mother because we had nowhere else to stay. After that we spent nearly a year homeless going from family members homes to friends homes and even to sleeping in our old beat up honda accord. I have to give it to Maitlynn for hanging in there with me when most people would’ve said “this guy is crazy, just get a regular job you bum.” she didn’t though, she hung in there and has been a huge factor in the successes we have had. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Chris Brown:**Just don’t give up. If it were easy then everyone would be cashing in on their dreams. Don’t worry about the naysayers, we all have them, they come with the territory. Just know what you want and never compromise your willingness to achieve it ### Teach us something: **Chris Brown:**Social Media Marketing is a powerful tool and it’s just so easy to create virality. I think the trick is just producing consistent, relevant content that brings value on some level to your audience. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Chris Brown:**How important your health is. I have recently gone vegan and it is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. When you’re healthy you just have so much more energy, focus and mental clarity. I noticed nearly every billionaire is either vegan or vegetarian and it made me think man there must be something to this. ### Teach us something we don’t know: **Chris Brown:**Leveling Up; Success comes in levels or layers. Very rarely do you just shoot to the top in one fell swoop. Before every new level you’re going to face the hardest trials of your life. The first few levels are the hardest and the change in levels is the smallest, but its almost exponential in both apsects. The further along you get, the more equipped you are to deal with the difficulties you face and the increase in quality of life improves drastically between levels. When it’s your time, it’s just your time and there is seemingly little you can do to mess it up once you make it to that part of the journey. Most people just never make it far enough to discover this. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Chris Brown:**I think I’m better than average when it comes to dealing with the stuff life and business can throw at you. I have learned to adapt in almost any type of situation. I know what I want out of life, I’ve always had the same vision and when you can see it like the tape at the finish line, it’s easier to keep pushing. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Chris Brown:**Themselves. So many people get caught up worrying about the people judging them while they are just failing their way to success. Just know that while those that don’t understand sit on the sidelines and judge, their are those of us who have been their and respect the hell out of you for pushing through it. Failure in my opinion is essentially the key to success as ironic as it sounds. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Chris Brown:**“Crush It” by Gary Vee (This one changed my life and was the start of my entrepreneurial journey), “The Art of Deception” by Nicholas Capaldi and Miles Smit and “Who Moved My Cheese” ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Chris Brown:**On an island. Seriously though I see myself still doing the same thing I’m doing now, but with more time to spend with my family. Startups are time consuming but we are moving through the startup phase so fast that $100MM in 3 years wouldn’t shock me. What I do know is that I love what I do, it almost doesn’t matter what industry or project I’m working on, I am in love with the process. --- ## Jake Shafer – Success at 23 URL: https://futuresharks.com/jake-shafer/ From turning down the chance to attend The United States Military Academy in West Point, NY, to dropping out of Sam Houston State University, to working retail, **Jake Shafer** has achieved the success that would normally take a lifetime. Through determination and networking, Jake was given the chance to alter his own path. Edward Yip (current business partner) brought on Jake to his private mining company just based on his hard work ethic, quick learning abilities, and his personal morals and values. They rebranded and grew the company within only a few years. With Jake’s motivation and character, their company, P.W.I. Investment Group, Inc., not only owns China’s second largest barite mine and multiple other types of mines in Mexico, but they also are involved in dozens of other industries and projects. **City where you’re from:** Houston, TX **Hobbies: Cars, shooting range, piano, traveling, camping** **Favorite quote: “**Never lie, steal, cheat or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away.” -Hitch (Will Smith – Movie) **Social accounts:**  Twitter: Facebook LinkedIn ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Jake Shafer:** I am always working on different ventures. For many years, to this current day, I have provided valuable minerals such as barite, gold, and even silver to dozens of industries. This has created a large network for myself and has given me the ability to help others in their own ambitions. Now many of my other projects include helping entrepreneurs with their own start-ups, assisting networking based companies, private investments, motion pictures, commercial development, commodity trading, freight forwarding services, oil & gas land acquisition, business consulting, and even helping inventors with world changing ideas. I am very fortunate to be given the opportunity for success. I started from nothing. No degree. No experience. What I did have was the dedication to reach the impossible. I wanted to not only show my family, but myself that I could do great things in life. When this impossible goal became a reality, I knew it was only right to start paying it forward to those around me. ### How is your company different? **Jake Shafer:** Pacific Winds International (P.W.I.), and our subsidiaries, provide different services and opportunities just like every other company started by entrepreneurs. What sets us aside is the reach we cover globally, our assets, and my business partner/best friend/brother Edward Yip. P.W.I. has acquired one of the largest silver mines as well as China’s second largest barite mine. Aside from mining, P.W.I. has that ability to help your large oil corporations to your high school student looking to turn an idea into a vision. We established a unique open door policy. No matter the age, the industry, or the location, we will sit down with every individual or company. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Jake Shafer:** My dream is to break the mold. Business isn’t like yesterday. Your network is now just as valuable as your degree, if not more. My goal for the company is to inspire future entrepreneurs. I want to connect the older generations with the new as business today  continues to change. Hopefully this will lead to finding cures for cancer, developing new technologies, or even discovering more secrets of our past. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Jake Shafer:**My most important form of advertisement is by creating real relations through events, various clubs/memberships, and everyday interaction. Now that business has taken to social media, I am currently showing the internet the capabilities of my companies and the morals/values we hold. Your content is essential online, but your actions after those posts or videos are the key principle. ### What are your mistakes or regrets? **Jake Shafer:**I have made many mistakes just like everyone else. These have caused financial troubles, the loss of relationships, and even the loss of great, life changing opportunities. But I DO NOT have any regrets. Our world learns and grows from our history. Societies thrive based on learning from our mistakes. So why should I regret a mistake if it has helped me develop as a person later on? ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Jake Shafer:**First, always stay true to who you are. Never change for money or social status. Secondly, NEVER GIVE UP! I had to start working offshore for a while. Our company came to a halt, no income was generated, our lifestyles completely changed. For 3 years I had to be gone 20 days a month. My sleep schedule changed every 10 days. I was outside 80 hours a week learning the true meaning behind “earning a paycheck”. Still through literally the blood, sweat, and tears, I used my down time to work on bringing our company back to life. If you truly want something don’t give up. It may take years, you may not see any results, but you will achieve those goals! ### Teach us something about public speaking **Jake Shafer:**Whether it’s advertising on YouTube or hosting an event, public speaking is very important to entrepreneur. It gets your brand or product out there while showing the audience who you are. You do not have to be great either. Take Mr. Elon Musk for example. He is terrible at revealing a new invention to a crowd, but he is one of the wealthiest men alive. Public speaking ranks next to death in one of the top fears people have.  ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Jake Shafer:**Just recently, I learned a lot about financial management companies. I found that even though these experienced professionals are good in what they do, it is imperative to follow and ask about their strategies. I learned so many different way to utilize your capital in some of the most unusual ways. ### Teach us something we don’t know: **Jake Shafer:**I am sure you have been asked to sell a product before. Make sure you research it until you keep getting the same answers. One of our main products we mine is barite. Most in the oil and gas industry know it’s used as a weighing additive in mud for drilling. Unless you are knowledgeable in other industry productions, most do not know barite is used to make the brakes on your car, the plastic or rubber you find in almost everything, or even used in the medical field. So make sure you always research! ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Jake Shafer:**Inspiring those around me. I went from being a college dropout with nothing to my name to a successful businessman that has led meetings with corporate executives at just the age of 23. I lead those around me and show that it is possible for anyone. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Jake Shafer:**As an entrepreneur, I would suggest to focus on communication and relationships. Whether you are interested or not in that email a contact sent you, always reply. It shows respect. You could potentially harm that relationship. You never know if their good friend is the guy who wanted to invest $50 million dollars into your company. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Jake Shafer:**Honestly, the best books I’ve read have either been my college history textbooks or military related. The history books have taught me the mistakes I shouldn’t recreate. Books like The Lone Survivor show me the true meaning behind motivation. But most importantly, remind me how fortunate I am to be given the opportunities these brave men and women provide. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Jake Shafer:**In the next couple years, I see myself traveling to speak at more events throughout the country. My vision for our company is to lock in 5-10+ year contracts so I can 100% focus on helping others through my own experiences. I want to leave a great legacy behind for my kids. Thanks for sharing your inspiring story on [Future Sharks](http://futuresharks.com) Jake! Best of luck to you in your future endeavors! --- ## “Revolutionizing The Dining Industry While Making Humanity More Efficient” URL: https://futuresharks.com/michael-uribe-gamboa/ **Michael Uribe-Gamboa** is no stranger to hard work. Growing up in the city of El Paso, he had to overcome many challenges in order to get to where he’s at today. Failing course after course in school led him to the eventual discovery of entrepreneurship. At the ripe young age of 21, Michael is clearly set on making a name for himself in the software industry. “Making humanity more efficient” is what his sole purpose is. **Cities where your from:**El Paso, Texas **Hobbies:** Researching and learning about artificial intelligence and robotics, anything health related, fishing, hunting and reading. **Favorite Quote:** “Formal education will make you a living, self education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn **Social Accounts:**Facebook(preferred)**|**Instagram**|**Twitter **Bold 1 category:** **Business**, Apps, Artificial Intelligence, E-Commerce, Environmental Entrepreneurship, Fitness, Hardware, Marketing, Saas, Secret Projects, Social Entrepreneurship ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**What I am currently working on is a restaurant based service by the name of QuickDine, which aims to help users dine out way more efficiently and easily. By allowing our users to get a customized dining experience all through a convenient mobile app, it can drastically reduce the time people wait in restaurants for their food to arrive. I came up with this idea one day when sitting in a restaurant with my family and realizing how slow the service was. Many people were getting upset so I quickly brainstormed and thought of a solution to resolve the problem. ### How is your company different from your competitors? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**My company differs in that it allows the user to have a more in depth, thorough and customized dining experience that can be adjusted to meet the individuals needs. Compared to my competitors who offer a very bland and meek solution to the problem when its frankly, not really a solution at all. My company offers the freedom to each and every one of its users in that it allows them to pre-order their food and drinks for a scheduled dine in time and even choose what seat they want to sit at specifically once arriving at that restaurant. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**The dream I have for the company is to allow it to change the restaurant industry forever. In a time where everybody is moving, everyone is about speed and having technology take over certain things to make that thing even better, why not optimize the restaurant industry by using artificial intelligence/software to allow people to have more time on their side. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**Right now, QuickDine primarily focuses on advertising through word of mouth and Facebook. Being a company that’s still being developed, we’re somewhat limited in our options for right now. Although in the near future running creative Facebook ads and customized blog posts seems like a really sound thing to do. Good quality, unique and consistent content always attracts more visitors to any business. ### Being that QuickDine focuses on improving one industry can this technology be used to benefit any other industry’s? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**I do indeed believe that the technology incorporated here can be used to benefit other industry’s. Particularly those which require people to wait. Examples of this include movie theaters, grocery and retail stores etc. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**So far my biggest failure was having to move back home after moving states and trying to make it on my own with no knowledge nor sense of reality in doing things on my own when I was 18. What I learned from that failure was a few things actually. Number #1: Learn and know what your doing before making any big decision. Number #2: Never get comfortable. You must always be on the offense and you must never get lazy. My biggest success so far had to be when I got my first job when I was completely dead broke, in debt and scared. Why? Because it gave me opportunity. No matter how many job interviews I had that ended in rejection, I never gave up and stayed persistent until I eventually succeeded. ### Value add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have: **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**The best advice I can give entrepreneurs is to be someone who can adapt well. What I learned is 95% of the time things never go the way you expect them to. Therefore by being someone who is a really good adapter, you can quickly think on your feet of a solution to whatever unexpected result just occurred so you don’t get thrown off your game and beaten. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fund raising, yoga, sales funnels or another topic you pick} (must be actionable) **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**Do you want to know how to be a good business owner that has everything involving your own business down to a tee? Simple. Find people who are strong in what your weak in. In other words, out source and build a great team around you that can capitalize on your weaknesses. This might not sound like something that is being taught but trust me, a ton and I mean a ton of people think that they must strengthen their weaknesses in order to be successful and that’s simply not the case at all. Focus on your own strengths and have someone else add strength to your weaknesses! ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**I learned that your outer world is simply a reflection of what’s going on in your inner world. You want to be successful? Focus on your inner self first, then the outer portion will manifest. ### Teach us something we don’t know. **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**I secretly love helping people win at life whether its through me contributing advice to them that’s life changing or making someone’s day so they can pass it on and do the same for someone else in need. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**Give a damn about other people. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**Impacting the world/humanity in a major positive way and improving their mindset. Mindset is king in anything you do. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill,Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker, The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason and More Wealth Without Risk by Charles J. Givens ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Michael Uribe-Gamboa:**In a couple years I can see myself and my product impacting humanity for the better. In a really really huge positive way. Thanks Michael for letting us feature you on Future Sharks! Best of luck to you in the future with your endeavors! --- ## How This Minority Millennial Woman Has Built a Seven-Figure Business That’s Disrupting The Financial Services Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/breana-patel/ As I write this, Breana Patel is currently in the middle of taking French classes with her firm’s recent top-performers. Later, they will be heading to a nice French restaurant in Brooklyn, a stone’s throw from their offices in the Financial District of Manhattan where Breana and her team are doing something in the financial services industry that no one else has been successful at in recent memory. It’s all part of a friendly work environment where profits are shared, client partners are encouraged to be “intrapreneurs” within the company, and of course, dogs are welcome to visit the office. Breana, the Millennial-aged person of color running Bonova Advisory, with degrees from the University of Greenwich in London and MIT in Boston, Massachusetts, sits atop the only woman-owned business in the financial services industry that specializes in risk management for Fortune 500 organizations, major banks and hospitals, and public sector institutions. Founded in 2014, the firm already has dozens of team members tackling all different types of business challenges and finding success, whether it’s helping large banks save over $52 billion in fines, putting up to $50 million back into clients’ pockets by eliminating redundant processes from their day-to-day operations, building entire compliance departments for various government agencies, or something else entirely. ### Breana, what made you decide to open Bonova Advisory? How did you get started? Prior to founding Bonova, I worked as a “solopreneur”, providing consulting services to various banks and financial service institutes. My average contract was anywhere from six months to one year, and there were two things I gained besides the obvious through these engagements. First, I built a network of other consultants. I also learned some “best practices” across the industry while at the same time finding this white space between the needs of the banks in Risk and Regulatory and firms offering niche services in those areas. With regulations, one size does not fit all. What may work for Bank A doesn’t necessarily work for Bank B when handling compliance for the same regulation. Throughout my experience of working across a number of banks, I learned how to develop an approach to problem-solving that would work for any given bank. There are a lot of factors to consider while designing the roadmap and strategy for regulatory compliance such as the lines of business our clients operate in, their total assets, risk tolerances, current systems in place, the skill sets of existing staffs, and many other factors. With each new client, I reached out to my network of consultants and asked if they were interested in providing consulting services through my firm. The added benefit would be owning a certain percentage in the client account given that they’d be responsible for the account day-to-day. I thought this was a simple business model where everyone benefits from the services Bonova Advisory offers, and it was an immediate hit. Our clients were happy that they had access to a pool of niche resources in predictable supply versus working with our competitors who may lose their talent to other firms midway through a client engagement. ### Is there a certain dialogue or opening conversation you have with all new clients of yours to ensure a successful working relationship? What do you do to put clients at ease, who are responsible for millions, or even billions, of dollars and are writing large checks to you and your firm, despite the fact that Bonova Advisory isn’t as large or well-known as the Deloitte’s and McKinsey’s of the world? We are small and this allows us to be nimble. For example, have you ever been to a bar where the wait staff asks if they can help you every ten minutes, and all the while you’re trying to impress a date, read a book, or have a conversation with your friend? That’s exactly what we don’t do. Our process is simple. Before we approach a potential client, we dig deep into what their business is all about. We see if there is a need for what we offer instead of waiting for them to approach us so that we aren’t bothering potential clients, but present them instead with a solution to their biggest problems at the time in which they need our help, therefore doing them a great service. We obtain an understanding of what matters to them, including their vision and mission. We refuse to be generalists and pride ourselves on being specialists. Our subject matter expertise is what puts our clients at ease. We are not a Big Four consulting firm, but we know exactly what our prospects are looking for at any given time. And, if I combine the experience of all my consultants, then I’m confident we know a little bit about every bank on Wall Street, which has a really big compound effect when we make our pitches. ### You have a very employee-friendly environment at your firm. What made you decide to provide profit-sharing opportunities to your team members, and does that help your clients at all? I come from a family of doctors and engineers who were very diligent employees for their firms. In spite of stellar educations, they wanted more power to create and work as they pleased, but ended up being limited in their 9-to-5 jobs. Growing up and seeing this firsthand, I always thought that success to me would mean being able to live on my own terms. When I launched my business, I wanted everyone who worked with us to have that ability too. I wanted to give them the freedom and power to lead the lives they wanted. The employees at Bonova don’t work for me. We have a flat structure and don’t value bureaucracy. Our staff doesn’t work for us. They work for themselves, and that benefits the business. We get things done. By giving them power, everyone is responsible for their own projects, accountable to one another, and “intrapreneurial” in their efforts. This helps us serve our clients in ‘above and beyond” fashion. When your workforce is happy and motivated, it nurtures creativity and innovation, which makes everyone more successful and helps us all earn more loyal clients together. Additionally, In recent years startups have been disrupting the industry. Many people are leaving their 9-to-5 jobs and starting new companies or joining a startup. Co-working spaces are booming, and have now become hubs. The workforce now wants to be where they feel invested in a company’s culture and success. It is surprising that it’s more common for someone to leave a $100K job at a large corporation for a $60K job at startup, and while we aren’t a startup ourselves, knowing our workforce has allowed us to retain top talent. We aren’t a start up but knowing your workforce is important. ### What do you think our peers stand to learn from someone like you that, if they didn’t pay attention to now, could seriously hurt them in the long run? We all need to pay attention to workforce trends and changes. Millennials are reaching their prime spending age, and there are more Millennials than Baby Boomers. Spending patterns are changing with the shift in dominant generations, which means the way we invest is changing too. Sharing cars, homes, and offices is the norm now. While all this is nice, it has many of our peers trying to create the next big app, or start the next unicorn company. Our peers should invest in themselves instead. Deepen your knowledge in something you want to do for the rest of your life, regardless of marketplace trends that will only be around for a few years. It is necessary to run fast in this day and age, but not at the cost of running the wrong direction. ### What are some books, articles, or white papers you’ve read that you think other Millennials should check out? The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab (founder of the World Economic Forum). This book is a great insight into our current era, which he called the “Second Machine Age”. Self Made: Becoming Empowered, Self-Reliant, and Rich In Every Way by Nely Galan. This book resonates with my ideology of being self-made and living without excuses. ### Finally, where do you see yourself in 20 years? What legacy are you hoping to leave, either on Wall Street or elsewhere? I love building new things and contributing to my community and our society. Ten years is a long time, but I definitely see myself expanding our firm’s presence globally and taking a lead role in tackling social issues that are important to me such as economic empowerment, combating elder abuse, and curbing child labor. *To hear more “Stories From The 3 Billion Under 30”, check out our YouTube series where we interview some of the world’s smartest and most talented Millennials as well as the celebrities, Fortune 500 executives, and “mentors” that guide us. You can also read our latest book at* *3billionunder30.com**. Know another “world-class” Millennial we should be featuring? Send your suggestions, and feedback, to jared@3billionunder30.com.* --- ## Generate Leads on Facebook Groups Without Advertising URL: https://futuresharks.com/bruno-domingues/ **Bruno Domingue****s** is the founder of Multiuniversal and “Evolution”, he has helped coaches, consultants & service providers all over the world grow their businesses to 5 and 6-figures per month, while serving with total transparency. **City where you’re from:** Wakefield (I’m living in UK but I’m originally from Portugal so this is the city I live in now) **Hobbies:** Traveling, Driving Supercars, Beach Volley **Social Media:** Facebook ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Bruno Domingues:** I’ve just launched a new lead generation program for Coaches, Consultants and Service Providers, based on generating leads from Facebook Groups. In August 2016 after investing $9000 in training for myself to the positioning of my offer and streamline my business, I discovered Facebook Groups for the first time. I went on explore not expecting much out of it but as I engaged in conversations and participated in the groups, people started adding me as friend and coming talk to me, sometimes to talk about their business, other times to ask about mine. In that moment I started writing down every post I made and measuring what outcomes it had, eventually building a step-by-step approach to maximize attracting ideal clients while providing value to the group, without any pitching or promoting. Over time I got to know more about the business owners in the best group I found, Entrepreneurs Lifestyle Group which had around 35000 members. A few months later the right opportunity came up and had a chat with the group owner, Gallant Dill, who owns several businesses and he became my client, additionally I got promoted to admin and go-to person in my area, to provide even more value to the group members, which has now grown to over 80000 people. With all of this, many asked me to help them generate leads from Facebook Groups which prompted me to build a Lead Generation program and a whole system behind it to support my clients, the program now has it’s own CRM, about 25 video modules and activities, weekly Q&A calls and 1-on-1 support to make sure every person get’s a personalized approach that fits their business, niche and personal goals. ### How is your company different? **Bruno Domingues:** Unlike most businesses who offer programs like ours, who just build a cheap WordPress membership area using a plugin, we decided to invest in building an entire custom system from scratch that doesn’t have all the downsides of WordPress or other Open Source systems, it is extremely fast as pages load instantly and there are no limitations since our full time development team is constantly improving it with feedback from our clients. Currently our clients have instant access to our custom CRM, Link Shortener, updated list of the best Facebook Groups which is linked to the CRM to track how many leads and sales come from each group, Viral headline building tool, Activity management to manage tasks, calls and meetings, Calendar and much more as we’re making public soon our auto-responder, the landing page building tool, our webinar platform and our call booking platform. We decided to build all these tools integrated into our platform so our clients don’t have to spent hundreds of dollars per month paying subscriptions to different providers neither waste countless hours setting up, figuring out how each one works and how to integrate them all. On those platforms they also do not have the ability to ask for changes or new features and have them within a few weeks. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Bruno Domingues:** We’re looking to open our platform to other program and solutions providers, make it even easier to use and bring in more providers who have high quality offers so that their clients can use our platform as a membership area rather than use other lower quality systems. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Bruno Domingues:** We advertise on Google, Facebook and generate large amounts of leads from Facebook Groups. At this point with a single post with a 2000 active people audience we can generate more than $100k in leads (potential sales), with a large active audience such as the 80000 members Facebook Group that has around 39000 active weekly, one post can generate up to $3.5M in leads. This just shows how powerful these groups can be when we have the right system in place. ### What types of businesses do you work with? **Bruno Domingues:** I only work with coaches, consultants, service providers, at one point I worked with a few ecommerce businesses but felt I didn’t have enough experience in that area to deliver the outcome clients deserve. I have been since 1996 in the consulting and coaching industry and doing it since 2004 with my own company. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Bruno Domingues****:** The biggest failure was when I tried to “get there” on my own and in 1 year invested $24000 in an office, staff and barely had any growth. I realized then I needed to invest in training for myself rather than try to make it on my own like I always did. Once I decided I needed to invest in training it was about finding the right program to invest in, which I did. It cost me $9000 and within 2 months I was making in a month what I used to make in a year. The big lesson I learned was that trying to make it on my own rather than get training is a bad idea as it massively slows down progress. I’m planning to invest in a program from the same provider to learn how to build and manage a sales team as that’s the next stage, expand our current sales team and streamline sales operations. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Bruno Domingues:**Don’t try to make it on your own, find the best training program you can find that delivers the outcome you want, save up some money and invest in it. Don’t allow anything to distract you while doing the program, follow instructions, be coachable, don’t think you know better than the people teaching you. I’ve seen some people fail because they suddenly think they know better than the guys making big money who are coaching them. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, yoga, sales funnels or another topic you pick} (must be actionable) **Bruno Domingues:**One simple tip that will get you free leads from day 1 – On your personal Facebook Profile Intro, add a short link (must be trackable) to your landing page and say who you work with, keeping it very precise. For example on my profile intro I wrote: “Founder of “Evolution” for Coaches, Consultants & Service Providers” That link is a short link from our link shortener so we track how many people go to the link, how many leads and sales we get from it. Since I added it about 1 month ago we got 48 people who visited it, a few leads and one $7000 sale. This with less than 2000 FB friends. It works best if your FB friends are your ideal clients and the more you have the more will take a look at what you do. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Bruno Domingues:**I learned that making certain type of polls are the best way to identify the ideal clients in a group and get them to talk about their current business needs while providing them with value at the same time. ### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) **Bruno Domingues:**While most people see competitors as a competitor, in the influencer perspective we see our “competitors” as potential allies. Every business has their own strengths and weaknesses and you can build Join-Ventures or even get a lot of work outsourced to you from larger businesses. Think about your competitors as potential clients/partners and a lot of good things can come out of it. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Bruno Domingues:**What people usually notice most about me is my ability to focus and find the simplest quickest path to solve problems. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Bruno Domingues:**Focus on the biggest outcome and don’t let distractions get in the way. Entrepreneurs often deflect and procrastinate to avoid facing their fear of failure. Meaning they mostly need more clients for example but end up working in everything else except in generating more business, this is a form of procrastination and avoidance that is very common. Entrepreneurs should focus 200% on getting to the outcome, being consistent and don’t let distractions from all the new shiny things that pop up every day get in the way. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Bruno Domingues:**When I was looking to improve my communication with clients I read a very good book about NLP which allowed me to immediately put to practice what I was reading with one of my best clients. “The Leader Who Had No Title” from Robin Sharma is also quite good for those struggling with focus, self-belief and discipline. “Implementing Iso 9001:2015: Thrill your customers and transform your cost base with the new gold standard for business management” is excellent for streamlining business processes. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Bruno Domingues:**I see a one-stop platform with a few dozen high quality providers providing massive value and outcomes to tens of thousands of people every month. Thank you Bruno for letting us share your impressive story on Future Sharks! Keep up the great work! --- ## Antoine Airoldi’s Perspective on Writing URL: https://futuresharks.com/antoine-airoldi/ **Where you’re from**: Montreal, Qc **Hobbies:** Work & Travel **Favorite Quote:** “Art is what it is to be human.” – Seth Godin Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn **Category:** Branding/Writing **Antoine Airoldi** is an author, ghostwriter, and copywriter. After learning the theoretical side of English literature, Antoine was on a journey to learn about making money as a writer. Most professors fail to mention how it’s possible; Antoine took his money from a summer job to make an investment. When buying his first online course on copywriting, he was alienated, but he was able to learn a whole lot about the art of copy. Before even graduating, Antoine wrote Insights from Professionals, which comes out this fall with GenZ Publishing. Antoine put his love for journalism and marketing in the format of a book. With many failures behind him, he plans to grow, and keep on growing to speak at events and share his passions with the world. ### What do you set to accomplish in the next few months? **Antoine Airoldi:**For one, I appreciate having your time and attention: if you’re reading this, I appreciate it. In the next few months, I am releasing a book I wrote during my last year of university. About five months ago, I made a choice to stop regretting life and releasing a product. I didn’t know product market fit too well at the time, so I apologize in advance if the book’s concept isn’t more organized. However, I do know that writing my first book made me grow as a person and a marketer. Erik Wahl being the most famous artist in my book sheds light on Art and how he can change the world with it. With that in mind, the book allows college students that are unfamiliar with the real world understand it more. With the book’s release, I will slowly make my way to speaking events. Furthermore, at the end of September, I am making my way to Las Vegas with my cousin for a networking event. Even if my job is to write, I must attend all events worldwide as they help leverage my brand. My day-to- day focuses on acquiring new clients and getting to talk to amazing people. I am presently writing a lot of blog posts for people. I sometimes talk with TED speakers and coaches. I talk with the best minds. The smarter the person is, the higher chances I speak to them. Note that I never once said a thing about income. While income is the most important thing in every business, income may only come by learning from the best. Invest in yourself first. Money is a byproduct of the work you deliver to the world. ### What’s the best advice you can give about entrepreneurship? **Antoine Airoldi:**When you’re running a business, talking about it isn’t enough. You must become the business, live every second of every day leveraging it to your full potential. While most of you dream about making a lot of money, you must first give value to others. Find your niche and target audience. If you’re a struggling entrepreneur, the only piece of advice I have—for the time being—is to get a success coach. You need someone that understands your vision and purpose. Email coaches. Talk to them, communicate, and see if they fit with your goals. ### Teach us about copywriting. What is one mistake one person makes when selling products online? **Antoine Airoldi:**Copywriting is the art of selling through words. For every ad you see online, that is a form of copy. Whether it is short or long copy, people always tend to make the same mistake: It’s not about you, it’s about them. When selling online, most gurus tend to talk about how their product changes lives. However, when selling a product—it must never be about the person selling—more about the person consuming. If your product is only how it transforms your life first, you will have to change the ad copy or landing page right away. Make sure the benefits speak for themselves. The product must always explain what it can do for others. It’s as simple as this: “Buy this new watch so you can keep track of time, message your friends without grabbing your phone, and make sure you’re fashionable.” This example is one of many, which helps the consumer know that this product is not to give someone else money but to help them. Give value; I see way too many gurus that want us to opt-in nowadays. What will I get in return if your free webinar is meaningless? I suggest that gurus tone it down online. ### What’s something you’ve learned this last month? **Antoine Airoldi:**I learned two things this month. 1. You need to be present. You need to show up to every event. I tell you this because you know this, but are not doing it. You like the fancy car and vacations, and you are not willing to live life. You want everything right away. 2. People care about your message. If you are a writer or speaker, stop being shy. Speak up about it. You owe it to yourself to share your message. ### What do you think you’re better at than most people? **Antoine Airoldi:**I am better than most when it comes to accomplishing the impossible. If I tell you I’ll speak at an event, I’ll do it. If I tell you I’ll outwork you, I’ll do it. I never once talk about owning mansions or fancy cars. I turn the impossible into something that can be made easy. I work to show others that I don’t care if I work on a Saturday or Sunday. If ever you have a crazy business idea, send me an email, and I will make sure you make it a success. ### What are the best books you’ve ever read? **Antoine Airoldi:**All entrepreneurs need a book. To leverage your business, you need a personal brand. People want to know what you do every day. People want to know how your business plan came to be. People want to know everything. You can start by going Live on Instagram and Facebook. You can also turn blog posts into a book. Kate Chopin – The Awakening Seth Godin – The Icarus Deception Lisa Messenger – Daring & Disruptive Russell Brunson –Expert Secrets Grant Cardone – The 10X Rule ### Where do you see yourself with the product you created? **Antoine Airoldi:**The product is not my destination. However, its message is. I want to be speaking in universities and marketing events about finding your passion. My intuition says that I will speak in many schools about finding your passion. Too many students are living life without figuring out their purpose. I want to be a vehicle to their destination. I will make sure every student figures out their purpose in life. Thanks for sharing your story with us on Future Sharks Antoine! Best of luck to you in your future endeavors! --- ## Understanding Human Needs with ConvertLoop CEO Nayib Abdala URL: https://futuresharks.com/nayib-abdala/ Though his LinkedIn profile doesn’t mention it, Nayib Abdala is an undercover anthropologist. Fascinated by people and their intricate hidden stories, Nayib’s favorite pastime has long been setting himself up in a coffee shop and observing the people around him, Jane Goodall style. When someone peaks his curiosity, he is the type of guy that finds himself compelled to ask total strangers about the motivations behind their choices. His love for understanding people, their motivations and problems, brought him to where he is today, the CEO and Founder of ConvertLoop, an innovative company dedicated to increasing personalised online communication to empower companies to interact with online users at scale. ### So where are you from? Bogotá, Colombia. (Lebanese Grandfather, that’s why my name is Nayib). ### What do you like to get up to? Bike riding, teaching, meditating, playing guitar, programming and putting on my anthropologist hat and guessing the archetype of random strangers walking around me (I don’t actually have a hat… I wonder if they sell those on Amazon). ### Got a favorite quote? “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how” by Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche and Viktor Frankl are two of my favorite authors. I used to have long talks about their works with my father, and it’s one of my fondest memories of him. That quote has always inspired me because it helped my father, whom I greatly admired, get out of bed every single day when he got cancer. ### So what makes you tick, what are you all about? Helping people. I have always been passionate about understanding human behavior: learning about people’s motivations, frustrations, and actions and finding ways to use technology to improve people’s lives. I combine my willingness to help people and my love for creating solutions to set in motion an infinite loop that aims to permanently create value. Nowadays, there is a “hustle culture” in the world of entrepreneurship. The workaholic culture is really hurting up and coming entrepreneurs. I think balance in life is essential, because in the end, it is all about people. You do not want to look back at your life and feel that you wasted it. So, for me, helping people is what makes me tick. ### What originally attracted you to the entrepreneurial world? I have been immersed in entrepreneurship since I was a child. My father’s family, with Lebanese origins, were merchants. I spent my holidays learning about business with my family’s merchant veterans! But to tell you the truth, my real interest was always about understanding people and creating solutions. Later in my life I understood that that’s what business is all about! After my father died of cancer when I was quite young, I grew up taking care of my family. Early on in my professional days, I worked for a big tech company in Europe. After a few months there, I felt really frustrated. It wasn’t because I was an employee (I really respect that path in life, and I have learned a lot as an employee), but because, in those days, what I really wanted to do was to identify people’s needs and create solutions. I was in an “Execution environment”, and not a “Search environment”, like my mentors Steve Blank and Bob Dorf frequently say. So, after my experience in a big European tech company, and wanting to create new stuff to help people (that was my internal call), I decided to pursue studies in Technology (at the time, my background was mainly in Business). Since then, I started creating my own businesses by identifying problems and creating better solutions to improve the lives of specific groups of people. ### What was the inspiration behind starting your venture? Back in Colombia, after my experience in Europe, I took up Web Application Programming as a hobby. This hobby transformed my life because it led me to meet my Business Partner, Germán Escobar. He created a Software Programming Bootcamp called Make It Real Camp, which revolutionized the way people learn how to code in Colombia. I joined the Bootcamp as a student in 2014, and today we are Business Partners in Make It Real. Through Make It Real, we uncovered the need to communicate with our students in the most effective and opportune way. To do so, we needed a tool that showed us exactly what our specific users were doing on our Web App, so we could use that information to create personalized communications, at scale. This need gave us the opportunity to start innovating how we communicate with users, allowing us to message them in a human way, but also at scale. That way, we could provide a better service, boost retention, and increase the completion rate of our students. So German Escobar and I created ConvertLoop. After creating the first version of ConvertLoop, we shared the new product with a small group of people who also had online products offered as services. In 2017 we created a new company, ConvertLoop Inc, that aims to improve communications with online users by giving businesses the right tools to communicate with their users at scale, but without losing their human touch. ### Go ahead and shamelessly tell us us about your baby, ConvertLoop I’m currently working with German Escobar (my Business Partner and CTO at ConvertLoop) and a great team, to create a better way to communicate with online users at scale. We want to engage users and get them to take action based on their unique experiences with a product. We always approach this in a human way, a way that understands that each user is unique, and has their own motivations, needs, and time-frames to take action throughout their journey. To date, we have created our first version of ConvertLoop, and are continually improving the way businesses can communicate with their online product users, with cutting-edge technologies in the fields of behavior understanding, and automation.   ### What’s the big vision for ConvertLoop? ConvertLoop is definitely a people-first company! We strive to give businesses that provide online services the possibility to communicate with their users at scale, but in a personalized, human way, seeing each user as a unique individual, with their own needs and motivations. This helps businesses provide an excellent service, which increases engagement and revenue for the company, and makes the user’s overall experience exceptional. ### How is your company different? We are a human-driven company. This makes us different in two main ways: our solution, and our principles. Regarding our solution, we allow online service providers to accurately understand users as individuals, and communicate with them in a human way, but also at scale*.* We help them understand what really interests their users, based on what they do, or any other personal attributes that our clients want to record related to the user’s interactions with their product. Regarding ConvertLoop’s Principles, as a company we value: - Simplicity over complexity - Fixing over complaining - Being explicit over bluffing - Lifestyle over money - Long-term over shortcuts - Scientific approach over imposition - Spending wisely We create software that improves people’s lives, not for the money, but for the pleasure of helping people. As a group of people, in ConvertLoop we always remember that we have a cause greater than ourselves: being helpful. ### What was your biggest challenge getting ConvertLoop up and running? Balancing the work that each of the founders, Germán Escobar and I, had to do for our other companies while putting in the effort needed to create a great beta version of our product. We originally meant for our product to be a solution to our own company’s needs, however, as soon as we started using the solution we created, we realized that other businesses that provide online services would also find our solution to increase online user engagement and retention as valuable as we had. ConvertLoop became an independent business so we could share the benefits from the solution we had created. ### What have you learned from your journey with ConvertLoop? By accident, we discovered that a great way to create a new product that can go on to become a great business is to solve your own problems. After that, you can find some peers and offer it to them to try out. These first users will be your early adopters. Once you have your first users, focus on delivering a great experience, maybe not with the product (since your first version could have bugs and limited functionalities), but with your attentiveness and the customer service you provide them. (Years ago I read this advice from Paul Graham somewhere, but now I have lived the experience.) Don’t worry about scalable practices at the beginning, when you’re getting early adopters; instead, focus on getting to Product-Market Fit with a narrow niche. If possible, create the first version of your product on your own, and put it in front of users as soon as possible. This is the quickest way to learn what you need to fix, and it will help you define your next steps in terms of the upcoming product and market cycles. Most people will dismiss and discourage you from creating something new, but remember that the vast majority is *not*your first target audience in your go-to-market strategy: your initial target market is comprised of the early adopters, the people who have the same ‘Job to Be Done’ that you have, and who are experiencing friction with current solutions, either because they are simply not enough, because of cost, performance or availability issues. ### What do you see in the future for automation technology? Basically, the future is about how we as humans can implement new technologies to create more tailored  experiences for people. Business-wise, this would result in an increase in engagement, retention, and revenue, and people-wise, it would make technology work for us while we, as individuals, invest our time in what is really important for every single one of us. ### As an entrepreneur, what advice can you give someone seeking to start their own business? Start by solving your own problems, those that you really care about. Then find similar people who have the same problem. If you are in a context where this does not apply to you, then think about how you can serve others. By serving them the right way, you will create things that add real value. Once you have identified what you want to create, build a great team. Keep in mind that you will iterate a lot, but you have to start somewhere. People will come and go, but at the end of the day, you will find a few who share your vision and who can help you build something great. It is really important to pick a field that you love and enjoy working with (for example, “Education”) or a problem that you face (for example, “cold, spammy, generalized communications that bother online users”) . Otherwise, you will run out of gas in the middle of your journey. Motivation is limited, and emotions change daily, life has continual ups and downs like a roller coaster. In order to have the momentum to make it over the humps and through the low points, you need to pick something that is *meaningful*to you, that is aligned with your life’s purpose. With passion driving you forward, you won’t give up when you feel like you can’t go on. Be loyal to your vision, to that which is deeply meaningful to you;  change the strategy, the product, the market, etc., but stay loyal to your vision. If you do, you will create something great and improve people’s lives. --- ## Boost Your Productivity With The “5 Hour Rule” URL: https://futuresharks.com/5-hour-rule/ When you think about it, the **5 hour rule** is nothing complicated to remember and practice: The Five Hour Rule*i**s based on spending just one (1)  hour a day experimenting, learning, or generating creative ideas every weekday. It’s one of the best investments you’ll ever make toward your personal growth.* It’s tough competing in today’s online and completely remote business world. Almost all of us feel like we **have** to work 24/7 – otherwise we are simply not being productive. A completely irrational thought invades our heads and causes anxiety: *If I take a break now even for a tiny bit, I am missing all the huge opportunities and income to my competition.* You will hear a lot of people complaining that it’s often impossible to find time to grow and learn. But, is it? The successful people are those who have managed to find the balance between the work life and the private life – without sacrificing neither of them. If you’ve been struggling to be productive throughout your life, you’ve probably picked up some bad habits that are limiting your ability to produce. It may seem practically impossible to achieve the levels of productivity that you desire because of the bad habits you’re having a difficult time breaking. With that said, we’ll take a look at some of the most common bad productivity habits today. Because identifying them is the first step in figuring out where *you can improve*. Once you’ve learned more about your weak points, you’ll be able to reverse the curse and begin developing positive habits that will help you improve your productivity levels tremendously. ## Bad Productivity Habit #1: Failure to Keep Track of Your Productivity throughout the Day First and foremost, it’s going to be nearly impossible to determine when you are at your most productive if you aren’t tracking everything you do throughout the day. As an example, if you’re working on a particular project and you need to track the hours for billing purposes, you’ll be able to use an online time clock like Clockspot to keep track of everything. Not only will this tracker help you with billing, but it will also help you determine when you’re being your most productive and when you’re being your least productive during a project. By examining this information, you’ll be able to discover what you were doing during your least productive hours. And then you can use this info to avoid making the same mistakes the next time you have to work on a similar project. ## Bad Productivity Habit #2: You Are Easily Distracted For many of us, we have a tendency to waste hours of our time during the day on social media websites, video sharing sites, our favorite crowdfunding site, or our favorite blogs and news sites to name a few examples. If you absolutely know that you are going to go down the rabbit hole of distraction when looking at these websites, then it’s imperative that you avoid these sites like the plague when important work needs to be done. Some people like to use apps to block certain websites that they frequent the most during their least productive times. If you suffer from this problem, you may want to look into software that will prevent you from visiting your favorite websites at times that are least convenient for you. To help you get started, a few highly rated options include Freedom, Rescue Time, WriteRoom or Dark Room, and Anti-Social. ## Bad Productivity Habit #3: Reading Email & Text Messages at Inappropriate Times At this point, it’s nearly impossible to get away from our smart devices. We have dozens or even hundreds of calls and text messages coming at us every day, and it’s a minefield that people are having a difficult time navigating. You have to get tough on email and text messages. And most important of all, you have to get tough on yourself and learn to act in a disciplined manner. It’s important to learn this discipline not only to increase your productivity, but also to be prepared for some unexpected situations, where you will be left with no choice. Let’s say, your iPhone needs to be repaired. You cannot start panicking, and going on impulse shopping for a new one if it can be repaired. To avoid that stress completely, learn to control your cell phone usage. So, if you have something important that you have to get done during the day, do your best to shut down your phone and email. And if you cannot shut them down completely, avoid answering calls and text messages unless it’s from somebody that has something really important to say. ## Conclusion It’s really easy not to be productive. As you have learned, we have developed some really bad productivity habits. Use this guide to break the cycle today and watch your productivity numbers soar. Here’s another article on how to be more productive using automation tools. --- ## From Broken Home To Viral Music Sensation- Learn How Rajan Gahunia Is Building A Music Empire URL: https://futuresharks.com/rajan-gahunia/ When you are able to evoke an emotional response from a person through your work, you have achieved the most critical aspect of marketing that most major companies and entrepreneurs fail to achieve. ### Who Is Rajan Gahunia ? Rajan has achieved so much at 22 years old. His Raptors Anthem “Northside Since 95” has went viral during the Toronto Raptors Playoff Run  and covered by major media outlets like: *Huffington Post*, *Metro Toronto*,***Toronto Sun*,CP 24, Sportsnet and many more. His recent single “Cocaine Fantasy made it onto the front page of iTunes in the Hip Hop / Rap category. Not only that, had a once in a lifetime opportunity not many artists get a chance to do and that is open up for the one of the most popular artists of our time: Drake. Yes, you read that right, Drake “OVO”, the “6” ! ### The Start of The Journey Rajan started his music career at the age of 16 when he moved from Winnipeg to Brampton, Ontario. People in his high school coined him “The New Kid” in his high school and treated him differently. A guy who had very few friends started using music as a medium to voice his story and create music for those that could relate to his hardships and be a voice for the “silent ones” When he started putting YouTube videos of his music, he was getting great positive feedback but as equally he was getting a lot of negative and hateful criticism which only powered him to prove the naysayers wrong and continue to strive in his music career. Being apart of a family where everyone has an innate talent for entertainment whether it be music or dancing; Rajan definitely has talent and work ethic to make his passion into a full time career. ### 2 Powerful Tips To Build A Music Brand There are 2 main ways to build a brand in the music industry. First, you look at the mainstream trend in music and the audience’s preference and you create music accordingly to suit their interests. An advantage of this is this kind of music produces the most money and a larger audience at a faster rate. A great example of this is “Future” who creates a plethora of music which generally has similar content and a similar theme in most of his songs. The second way is to be genuine and create music that appeals to your personality and authenticity. According to that, a certain group of people willingly gravitate to the music especially if it’s amalgamated with consistency to build a solid audience. As  a rapper who is trying to produce music that evokes emotions which isn’t as glamorous as the “trap”/mainstream music, Rajan is focused on leaving a legacy like Tupac through impacting the lives of millions through his music. ### Rajan’s Secret Strategy For Viral Music Content You expected this line to say something along the lines of “He used Influencer and FB Ad Targeting to make his music go viral, right ?” Well here’s the thing, Rajan used 0 social media strategy to get tens of thousands of views on his songs. I was very impressed by this and questioned his rationale for not asking for shoutouts from influencers or anything along those lines. At this point in his career, Rajan is solely focusing on producing quality music that he holds to high standards and prefers releasing nothing less than perfection. Even though he understands the power of consistently producing music which could build a fan base faster and gain more audience traction that artists like Russ use; He prefers that every song of his creates a moment and a unique experience for the listener to evoke strong feelings and emotion that listeners can reflect on at any moment in their life. > ***Virality occurs when your audience enjoys your music so much that they feel compelled to share it with their friends and followers which is genuine and not “forced” through advertising.*** ### What Does The Future Hold ? Rajan is working on pursuing his goals of moving to LA to pursue his entertainment dreams of becoming a musician, an actor, and a big-time director. He wants to create a film about his song “Broken Home” which chronicles the life of a child that has grown up in a “Broken Home” and the trials and tribulations they experienced to achieve success in their lives regardless of the circumstances. Furthermore, he wants to be able to collaborate with one of his inspirations J Cole because he believes they can make some fire happen and guess what ? I think they’ll both burn the house down once that single drops. **An interesting fact:** Rajan is a big Toronto Raptors fan and believes that one day; he’ll own a stake within the organization. The chances of him owning the entire team ? That’s still a long shot away but nonetheless, owning a stake in the organization that he loved since  childhood is a huge accomplishment within itself. He has also released his latest EP: Atlantus which allows people to get a glimpse into his world and let the audience understand his passion for music and the kind of music which not only inspires him but that people will appreciate. You can check out his latest EP on: https://soundcloud.com/rajan/sets/atlantus You can follow Rajan on Instagram and Twitter @Rajan905 for his awesome music and the climb to pursue his dreams of staring on the Hollywood big screens. --- ## Leveraging An $8 Billion Dollar Industry To Create Social Change – Elaine Huang, Founder Of Neon Owl URL: https://futuresharks.com/elaine-huang/ Elaine Huang is the founder of Neon Owl, a media company and lifestyle brand that focuses on creating positive, inspirational content, while connecting artists and fans to give back to charities around the world. She left her six-figure income position as VP to create a life of passion and purpose. Since starting Neon Owl 2 years ago, the company has made waves in and outside of the industry, taking charge in leading it towards connecting music with philanthropy. Neon Owl has put together multiple charity shows to support youth, music and the arts, as well as other non-profits. She has also partnered up with some of her favorite artists to join forces in creating their Dance. Give. Inspire. charity line, where 100% of the proceeds goes back to building wells for clean water in developing countries like Haiti and Uganda. Elaine also founded Gypsy Social, where she specializes in vision coaching, tribe building, and supporting others in weaving their passion projects. **City where you’re from:** San Francisco **Hobbies:** Traveling, listening to music, attending festivals, eating delicious foods, having meaningful conversations, writing, personal development, sipping on coffee, exploring new places big and small, charity work, and brainstorming new ideas to take over the world with love and compassion. **Favorite quote:**“Fortune favors she who dares” and “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” **Social accounts:** - Elaine’s website - Elaine’s facebook - Elaine’s instagram - Neon Owl’s website - Neon Owl’s facebook - Neon Owl’s instagram - Neon Owls’ twitter ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Neon Owl, a charity focused music media and lifestyle brand. We support talented musicians, create inspirational content, and connect artists and fans to help charities around the world. The idea came to me coming back from EDC one year. I was already starting to lose passion at my 6 figure job, because I wanted to create something with more meaning and impact in this world. My friends were super depressed on the drive back from Vegas, sharing about how miserable Monday was going to be and how much they were looking forward the EDC next year. A wave of emotions came over me. A part of me felt sad to hear that, not just from them but so many other people that were dreading the return to “real life” and wanted to stay in fantasy PLUR land forever. I can see the appeal of the dance music culture, because everyone was so accepting, loving, brave, bold, and free. They were dressed up in full expression and loving on one another. But I also thought to myself, “Why can’t everyday be like this?” Why can’t we live with compassion and lead with love in our everyday lives. Why can’t we be the bold, expressive version of ourselves out in the real world making friends and stirring up conversations? So the seed was planted in my head of bringing this festival culture into our everyday lives. How it all came together is a whole other story, but the mission of Dance. Give. Inspire. is what I wanted to spread in that very moment, and every leap of faith into the unknown has helped create this community around the world of music lovers, dreamer, and givers. ### How is your company different? My company is different because it doesn’t fit into a box. Some consider us a blog that shares positive, motivational, meaningful content. When I started this, I made a vow that we would never release click bait content of just rave booties, pastie chicks and which DJs are beefing with which DJs. There is too much brainless entertainment floating around, when really it is absolutely not what the scene is about. Music is the one universal language that connects us all and has the power to heal and lift, which is what music content should be about as well. Others consider us an apparel company. We create unique apparel for people to rock in and outside of festivals. From day 1, we decided that we were going to give a portion of each purchase back to charity. A lot of people say that they will give back when their company profits a certain amount or when their bank account reaches a certain amount. Like Tony Robbins, I am a big believer that if we cannot give away a dollar of our ten, we definitely will not be giving away a hundreds of thousands when we make millions! Last year, we also launched our Dance. Give. Inspire. charity line in collaboration with some of our favorite DJs to build wells for clean water through generosity.org. 100% of the proceeds from this line goes to charity, and is a great way for the artists to step forward and use their influence to make a positive difference for those less fortunate. Lastly, some consider us a promotion company since we put together shows. Our shows are charity focused and we have helped organizations like The Fenders Music Foundation, The Apollo Aid Foundation, AIDS WALK San Francisco, Generosity, and many more to come. For both our content and shows, we make sure to feature established artists as well as support up and coming acts with just as much talent. We have collaborated with artists such as Andrew Rayel, Mat Zo, Psy Fi, BEAUZ, Ken Loi, Nifra, RAM, and Feenixpawl just to name a few. Our vision is to create community and lift it up as a whole, instead of compete. So when people ask me what makes us different or what we are, I tell them all of the above and that we are here to cause a disruption in the industry. We are not just a blog, an apparel company, or a promotion company. We are a movement that is uniting artists, fans, and innovators in the music industry to create community and give back. ### What’s your dream with your company? My dream is to be the leading company that creates a new standard in and outside of the music industry to lead with people over profits. It is to leverage the power that music has to truly do good. I want people to take a step away from brainless entertainment like gossip, rave booties, and drama. Instead, I want them to truly think about the issues going on in the world, question their own purpose on this planet, and take action to create and inspire. My dream for my company is to inspire people to go after their dreams, create their passion projects and build companies that speak to them. I want Neon Owl to be the inspiration which will birth many socially conscious companies. I want it to be a place where good music and talent is cultivated and supported. I want it to be a place that people can call home and a true community that believes not in competition, but growing together. Lastly, my vision for this company is to impact the world in the masses beyond my time. ### ### How do you creatively advertise? The funny thing is we have spent very little ad money. I feel like when you have a strong enough vision that people can stand behind, they market for you. You see people at festivals all over the world rocking ourmerch, chatting about us, and representing our brand. Some of these people we know, and some of them we don’t. It’s because our mission of dance, give, inspire is something that people are bought into and want to go out there to share with the world. So our best advertising is building a very solid and loyal tribe that goes out there to spread our mission of dance, give, inspire. ### So you were in quite the different industry making big bucks before you decided to leave and start Neon Owl. Can you tell us more about that and what was going through your mind? Haha, people always turn to look at me twice with wide eyes when I tell them. I was actually VP at my last company in the construction and renewable energy industry. My job was to oversee the company’s growth every year, sales, marketing, business development and to build and maintain relationships. It was a 6 figure career where I was offered the partner position, but I turned it down to go after my dreams. Every single person I told called me crazy, including those closest to me, but I just knew that it was the right thing to do. It was a great job with a lot of freedom, but after a while it felt like my growth was capped and that I was working hard to build somebody else’s dream. I wanted to be lit up again, and fired up every single day waking up and going to bed. So I started asking myself the tough questions of whether I was living a life without regrets, and if I was truly pursuing the difference I am meant to create in this world. It didn’t take me long to come up with the answers, and the decision took even less hesitation. I knew that the only way to ignite that fire was to start building my own empire through the things that I was passionate about (music, travel, people, and philanthropy). Many think I made a 180 flip, which I did as far as industries, but the fundamentals are the same. I used to convince people that we were the best company for the job. I am now convincing artists, brands, and people that we get to create a lasting impact through the music that already has so much influence in today’s world! DJs control crowds of 50,000 people easily, and festival companies are making millions after millions packing hundreds of thousands of attendees over 3 day events. Tickets go for $300-$500 easy, but not a lot of it is going back to those less fortunate than us. So how much harder would it be for these artists and brands to take the limelight and support issues thats matter? I saw a lot of money in the EDM industry, and an opportunity to shift some of that money towards social good. So I decided that I was going to create that shift, although I had zero clue of how and not the most stable bank account. I just trusted that my WHY was big enough for me to make shit happen and my intentions were pure enough for the universe to be on my side. Life is one big sale, or what I like to call enrollment. Either you are enrolled into building someone else’s dream, or they are enrolled into building yours. Every now and then synergies meet, and you can have both. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? I don’t consider anything to be a big failure in my community. There are many failures, but I call them learning lessons. I am a big believer in failing forward, because each time we miss a mark or target, it teaches us what we get to tweak to hit the next one. Each day I am failing, but each day I find little and sometimes big wins! When we first started, we had zero clue of what we were doing but went for it anyway. Most artists ignored us when we were trying to set up interviews, and most festivals were like “who’s this dinky little blog with 500 likes?” Fast forward to today, although we don’t have the biggest platform or reach like many other blogs, I am confident that we cause one of the greatest dents. We leave a dent in people’s hearts and minds, and that is why they want to be a part of our tribe regardless of whether they are artists, another platform, or the raging fans on the dance floor. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. There is no such thing as preparing for the right moment when it comes to chasing your passion or pursuing entrepreneurship. No risk, no reward. If it were easy, everybody would do it. Jump off the cliff first, and a safety net shall appear. Most people “want” to become an entrepreneur, but the passion, courage, and commitment is what sets apart those that “want to be” and those that “become”. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Focus first, and learn how to say no to things. A lot of entrepreneurs are creatives, and a lot of them are excitable. I consider myself creative and excitable, which makes many objects extremely shiny. I feel like I can do it all because I can. But the question is can I do them all well? The last month has really been honing in on what I am THE MOST PASSIONATE about, not just what I am good at and what opportunities come my way. If I decided to give birth to every single one of my awesome ideas, some of my babies would definitely get neglected and none of them would reach their full potential. So every time I am faced with a decision or presented with an opportunity, I ask myself if it truly aligns with my passion, what I want to create in the world, and does it fit into my 10 year plan. If the answer is not yes to all 3, then it is a no. ### ### Tell us something we may not know. Did you know the the EDM industry is an 8 billion dollar industry? Yup, 8 billion dollars. So for those that say electronic music is a phase that will fade soon, may want to think again. Dance music is not going anywhere. It will continue to evolve year after year with its trends and fads, but it will never go away. Turn on the radio next time and you will notice that half the songs you are singing along to are electronic music, whether it be songs from Justin Bieber, Rick Ross, Selena Gomez, Weeknd, or Lupe Fiasco. ### What do you think you do better than most people? Building relationships of all kinds, from my tribe to influencers. Being able to share my passion with others and having it become a part of their vision. I am also blessed to be able to draw out the vision in others and support them in making the jump. I have been able to work with many people a few steps behind me in their journey seeking alignment with their career, passion and purpose. I have been able to support them in clarifying their vision, relentless chasing after that, and building their passion projects. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Creating a brand that people can stand for and stand behind. Ideally creating a brand or product that can add value to the world, solve problems, and bring people together. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? Darren Hardy- The Compound Effect is still the best book I have read. Very practical, straightforward and actionable. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Neon Owl will continue with our efforts in supporting talented artists big and small. We will continue to create content that matters and inspiring people to go after their dreams. We will grow our community to be filled with artists, influencers, and fans to support important causes all over the world. I see Neon Owl as a worldwide movement with an ever growing tribe that will only continue to multiply year after year. I will continue working with visionaries in aligning with their path, chasing restlessly after their dreams, and inspiring the birth of many socially conscious companies. My vision is to disrupt not only the music industry, but every industry to lead with people over profit. --- ## From Rebel Dropout to Fresh Queen of Badass URL: https://futuresharks.com/mieko-louise/ **Mieko Louise** is not only the Founder of Badass Street & Sportswear, but a mom of 2 who decided one day to believe in herself and just be a badass. Here is her story in summary: As a girl for years she was abused by a mentally ill step mum. She suffered anxiety all of her life as a result. Runaway teenager. High school dropout. University dropout. Got involved with drugs, sex and rock’n’roll. The wrong crowd. Multiple failed businesses, one that succeeded. Failed marriage but two beautiful kids. Became a born again badass on a mission to spread badassery everywhere. **City where you’re from**: Copenhagen. Live in Australia. **Hobbies**: Gym, Golf, Tennis, Mt biking, Hiking **Favorite quote**: “Fortune favors the bold.” ### Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? **Mieko Louise:**Because I like being the boss and there are no limits to what you can do. I still have a long way to go but I am enjoying this new stage in my life. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? **Mieko Louise:**The moments that defined me the most were my rock bottom moments of which I’ve had my fair share but I just keep learning and growing. If you look at failing as another word for learning then you can never fail in anything, you can only learn. Having had a near death experience in my twenties really put things into perspective that time is precious, every minute of your life counts so once I started appreciating my life and not taking it for granted is when things really shifted. ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Mieko Louise:**My e-commerce fashion business www.houseofbadass.com is about encouraging people to be Badass with their attitude and to never give up on their dreams. Ive always loved fashion and been good at visual design so I came up with the idea to create a line of clothing which represents this attitude and also for my own selfish reasons to have a creative outlet and have something new in life to master. I also started an email marketing agency called Digital Deft www.digitaldeftmarketing.com aimed at e-commerce store owners. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? **Mieko Louise:**Our vision is simply to inspire people to be their best most badass selves, to believe in themselves and have a badass attitude in life which will carry them far in life. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? **Mieko Louise:**Customers are mostly from USA as that is who we target and they come to us through our social media channels. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? **Mieko Louise:**Yes, its been a process of trial and error in marketing to specific audiences. In the beginning we went to broad with our reach and have now narrowed down to specific niches. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Mieko Louise:**The best advice I have is to invest in yourself, never give up on your dreams, believe in yourself even if nobody else does and stay humble but be badass! I started out with nothing but I was determined so I went on a learning spree and am still learning so much about entrepreneurship everyday. So read books, take courses, build up your knowledge and skills. Also get a few mentors who have the real life experience and success in the same vocation as you. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? **Mieko Louise:**I learn from a bunch of different mentors so if you’re just starting out, go with your gut and pick the best mentor for you, there’s so many ways you can make money online these days if you just scroll your Facebook ads feed. I started out with Tai Lopez and grew from there. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Mieko Louise:**What you are best at, where your strengths and genius lies. There are many kinds of tests you can take that will give you a clearer picture here: https://www.geniusu.com/psychometrics ### What are some of your favorite books? I don’t read books anymore, only listen to audiobooks or take courses related to business. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Dominating the Sports and Streetwear landscape. Thanks Mieko for sharing your inspiring story with us on Future Sharks! --- ## 3 Brothers Tackle The Key to Standing Out From The Crowd, One Bow Tie At A Time URL: https://futuresharks.com/will-tyler-josh-kenerson/ **Will, Tyler,**and**Josch** specialize in the art of handcrafted bow ties. A skill passed down from their Grandfather, who owned his own bow tie business, for over 35 years. They have taken this knowledge to create a product of the highest quality, that inspires people to be uniquely different. **City where you’re all from:** Vernon, Nj **Hobbies:** Gardening, disc golf, and self-development **Favorite quote:** “Be the change you wish to see in the world” ### ### Background ### Why did you decide to become entrepreneurs? We’ve always had a dream of helping others, and having the time freedom to do so. We grew tired of working for someone else, and knew that the only way to accomplish our goals and truly add value to other people’s lives was to become entrepreneurs ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your lives? Our grandpa was always our biggest role model; he owned various successful businesses throughout his life, a bow tie business being one of them. Whenever we visited him, he always showed us how hard work pays off, and just how far self-discipline can take us. The defining moment for us was more of an ongoing experience that allowed us to have an epiphany as we got older. Growing up, our parents constantly struggled to put food on the table; that was a tough thing to witness. As we got older, and began seeing just how limitless our potential was, we knew that if we continued down this path of entrepreneurship, we could make sure that our parents never have to worry about money again. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Handcrafted bow ties are our specialty! Our company is called The Bow Tie Collective. It’s a trade that is inspired by our late grandfather, who owned his own bow tie business for around 30 years. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? Bow ties allow you to stand out in any situation, as well as providing an outlet for creative expression. Not many people know how to tie bow ties, so each bow tie we send out comes pre-tied with a unique buckle system in the back. This allows our clients to wear our bow ties without knowing how to tie one, but always have the option of untying and learning at their leisure. The vision of our brand is to provide a creative space for like-minded individuals to come together and create a positive difference in the world. That’s what the “collective” part of “The Bow Tie Collective” comes from; it is only when we come together that we can make a meaningful difference, on both a small and large scale. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? Our customers range from high school students looking for a way to express themselves in a unique way, to people in the fast-paced world of business looking for a means to stand out from the rest. We find out customers through online marketing on social media platforms (mostly Facebook and Instagram) as well as face-to-face interactions at craft fairs and vendor events around the country. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Of course! We experience failure on a daily basis, it’s the only way to learn and get better as a company in our opinion. One of the biggest things that we’ve learned through our failures is if you want something done, go out and do it yourself. When you depend on others to build your dream, it will never happen… that’s a guarantee. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Take action! You can read the books, listen to the podcasts, learn the guidelines… but if you don’t apply what you learn and go out in the world to do it, it will never happen. If you want it, there is ABSOLUTELY no excuse but to go out and get it… the worst you’ll get is a no. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Know your audience/target market well enough that you can run specific ads to attract your dream client. ### What are their aspirations? What do they struggle with? How can you solve their problems and add value to their lives? By far, one of the best tools for learning how to market yourself and your brand online is Russell Brunsons “Clickfunnels”, as well as Dan Henry’s classes on Facebook marketing. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Your pitch, knowing your product in and out, and the confidence to show the world how much value you can give. ### What are some of your favorite books? “How to Win Friends and Influence People” -Dale Carnegie “Think and Grow Rich” -Napoleon Hill “Blue Ocean Strategy” -W. Chan Kim and Reneé Mauborgne ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Bow ties are just the beginning for us; our eventual plan is to be a key player in building small businesses and getting them to a position where they can then give back to their local community. Thanks for sharing your story on Future Sharks brothers! Looking forward to taking a good look at the progress (get it)! --- ## Conversation With A Real Estate Investor URL: https://futuresharks.com/jose-andres/ **Jose Andres** is an Award Winning Investor. He is a student at Renatus Real Estate Education. He has helped countless families in hopeless situations. Keep an eye out for great things coming from him. Jose Andres currently resides in Modesto, CA. **City where you’re from**: Modesto, CA **Hobbies**: Riding Harleys, Burnouts in Old schools, and Boxing **Favorite quote:** “Hard Work Beats Talent” ### Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? **Jose Andres:**I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Before I had my license I had flipped multiple cars for a profit! It was such a rush making money work for me at a young age. But when I had turned 18 I did what I thought my parents wanted me to go and get a J.O.B. However I quickly realized I had trouble with Authority. Someone telling me when I could take vacation with family or when I had to be in or when I could leave was a huge problem with me. I decided to become an entrepreneur for time and financial Freedom once I got a glimpse into the corporate world. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? **Jose Andres:**I would say there was many influences in my life good and bad. I was hanging out with the wrong group of people going down the wrong path leading straight to self destruction when I was 17 years old. That’s when I had a life altering moment and a victim of a gunshot wound to my stomach. After fighting multiple major surgeries in the upcoming months I knew If I didn’t make a change I wouldn’t achieve the things I knew I could. That’s when I got my first job and realized how much I disliked the concept. That act of God changing my life had to be the biggest influence for me to get my life on track and go for everything life had to offered. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Jose Andres:**Currently I am a Full Time Real Estate Investor specializing in helping people with Real Estate Challenges such as behind on payments foreclosure fixers etc and I always help and mentor people looking to get in Real Estate Investing.. We currently have 3 projects going on at this moment and things are really cranking along! We got into Real Estate I believe just from over the years. I read the book [Rich Dad Poor Dad](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612680194) at a very young age and real estate was always in the back of mind. I was always fascinated with HGTV shows of flipping houses. And more than 75% of millionaires are created through Real Estate. Truly building wealth with Residual income was extremely appealing and that’s when I knew. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? **Jose Andres:**Our service is unique in the fact that we give distressed homeowners guidance. We give them solutions especially when they feel they have exhausted all options. As far as mentoring and helping people getting started in Real Estate it’s so rewarding getting somebody into their first real estate transaction or helping them get a property with no money down! Bringing value into others life is the vision! My goal is to create 15, 6 figure earners within the next few years!! ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? **Jose Andres:**My customers are distressed homeowners and landlords. I find a lot by referrals and marketing efforts such as Road Signs, door to door flyers and what I like to call the 3 foot rule. Which is telling everyone within 3 ft of you what you do. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? **Jose Andres:**I have failed over and over and over again and that’s why I will succeed. Failure is apart of the process. But only if you learn from it and move on and keep going. I fell on my face so many times my first couple years in the game. But from each experience I became a better entrepreneur. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Jose Andres:**To have an action plan directly related to your goals. Yes have goals have huge goals! But be sure to create step by step daily actions to reach these goals. It’s not enough to say I want to make $100,000. Tell me how you’re going to reach that mark? How many people do you have to talk to you? How many ads? Phone Calls? New connections? And this brings me to another point RELATIONSHIPS are the most important thing to me. Your NET WORTH is because of your NETWORK. So Build build build them like crazy! ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? **Jose Andres:**I would highly recommend collecting and tracking your data and progress. You can’t grow something if you can’t measure it. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Jose Andres:**C.A.N.I., Constant AND Never Ending Improvement small daily actions over time transforms lives. ### What are some of your favorite books? Rich Dad Poor Dad As a man Thinketh The Four Agreements ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Jose Andres:**I see myself helping others creating wealth with the trail I have learned from others! Thanks for sharing your Story on Future Sharks Jose, keep thinking big! --- ## Don’t Just Snap It, Sell It! Or Earn Top Dollar For Your Footage! URL: https://futuresharks.com/lance-ophof/ **Lance Ophof** is the CEO/Co-Founder of Scoopbroker ….. his Co-founder Peter Ogren, is from Stockholm…. ScoopBroker is based in Santa Monica, CA. **Hobbies**: Photography (Drone), Beach Volleyball, foodie **Favorite quote**: “Don’t fear failure. Fear being in the exact same place next year as you are today.” **Twitter**: https://twitter.com/ScoopBroker ### Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? **Lance Ophof:** I’ve grown brands, products, and businesses for other people and companies in the past and was tired of making millions for other people while seeing their companies grow. I wanted to grind and grow a business of my own, while providing a new way for our users to make money on the side. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? **Lance Ophof:** Being an immigrant from the Netherlands, my father and his family were amongst the poorest class when they moved to the states as children. He had to learn a new language and work to help support his parents as a kid and put himself through college. He retired as a colonel in the USAF and was the Direct of Staff for Bolling/Andrews Air Force Bases. He taught me that hard work, dedication, and never quitting is the key to success. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Lance Ophof**: ScoopBroker is the Uber for News and Media Footage. Peter was reading a newspaper in Sweden and saw an ad for the Newspapers app to download, asking for users to submit their footage to the newspapers app where they would pay you for footage used. A few weeks later we saw the movie Nightcrawler, staring Jake Gyllenhaal and that’s where it all clicked.We witnessed a car accident after seeing the movie and started filming the wreck/emergency services. We called the local news station to see if they would be interested in the footage and they tried getting us to submit it for free. Knowing we could make money off of the footage and going through the process of contacting multiple news rooms, we knew there was a flaw in the entire process. ScoopBroker was born that night. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? **Lance Ophof:** We envision ourselves as the leading marketplace for Citizen JournalistsNews and Media footage. A place where users can submit their footage for sale, and News and Media buyers can search, view, buy/or bid for license agreements. We NEVER own the rights to your footage and always want to help you earn top dollar for your footage. We’ve also built an assign menttool for our News partners that allows them to send assignment notifications to our users app. It notifies users who are in the area of a news event with a detailed description of the footage needed, turn-by-turn directions, and the price they’re willing to pay for a non-exclusive license agreement. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? **Lance Ophof:** We partner with Broadcast groups who own affiliate News stations like ABCAction News, Fox News, CBS News etc. With other Media sites like TMZ and the Washington Post also gaining access. Our users consist of Citizen Journalist (anyone with a smart phone camera, drone, GoPro, etc.) News Stringers, Multimedia Journalist and Paparazzi. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? **Lance Ophof:** Without failure, there is no true success. Every entrepreneur will tell you they’ve failed somewhere along the road. You’ve got to trust the process and learn.grow from the experience of failure. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Lance Ophof:** Don’t fear failure. Fear being in the exact same place next year as you are today. Know that even the big boys started out small. Stay humble and always hungry. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? **Lance Ophof:** Network, Network, Network! Sales Statistics: **48%** of sales people never follow up with a prospect **25%** of sales people make a second contact and stop **12%** of sales people only make three contacts and stop Only **10%** of sales people make more than three contacts **2%** of sales are made on the first contact **3%** of sales are made on the second contact **5%** of sales are made on the third contact **10%** of sales are made on the forth contact **80%** of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact A great resource for first time entrepreneurs is a website/platform called Secret Entourage. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Lance Ophof**: Your OWN roadmap and game plan. Don’t worry about what everyone else, including your competition is doing. Have a finger on the pulse, but ultimately trust your own process and path. ### What are some of your favorite books? The Lean StartUp by Eric Ries The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen R Covey The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Lance Ophof:** ScoopBroker will be on the same popularity level as Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Saucy, etc. by 2019. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Lance Ophof:**ScoopBroker will be on the same popularity level as Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Saucy, etc. by 2019. --- ## Zain Jan’s Story: How this Young Entrepreneur Built a 24-Million Dollar Company In Just One Year URL: https://futuresharks.com/zain-jan/ When **Zain Jan** first came into my network I could immediately notice his expertise. Right away, I knew that he was a great fit for [Future Sharks](http://futuresharks.com) so I decided to bring him here. The first thing you notice when speaking to Zain is his energy and very positive entrepreneurial attitude. Throughout his life, he has been focusing on developing a great team, character building, and the achieving goal after goal incessantly. With extensive leadership experience and deep analytical thinking skills, he has been able to incorporate certain core principles into building high performing teams in numerous sales models/channels. One of Zain’s core strengths is in monitoring operational performance and proactively identifying opportunities for operational improvements. With business discipline, focus, strategy, and clear performance management, Zain has had tremendous success in a myriad of business markets. Today, I wanted to discuss his latest venture which involves solar energy. Hope you enjoy this interview! **City where you’re from:**San Francisco CA **Hobbies:**Reading, working out, entrepreneurship, **Favorite quote:** **“There’s lots of bad reasons to start a company. But there’s only one good, legitimate reason, and I think you know what it is: it’s to change the world.” – Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote. Social accounts:**Instagram****Twitter **Facebook** Linkedin ### ### Great having you here Zain, tell us more about the work you’re doing with your solar company Sungrade. **Zain Jan:** I’m building a residential scale solar energy company, called Sungrade Solar. We analyze and install solar panels on residential roofs helping homeowners reduce their electricity bill by up to 30-50%. Sungrade Solar is a part of the new class of Social Benefit Corporations (B-Corp). Sungrade honors a “triple bottom line,” focusing on people, planet, and profit. Sungrade focuses on residential solar installation, direct sales, logistics, and software development. ### How did you come up with the idea for Sungrade Solar? **Zain Jan:** I helped run one of the largest offices at Tesla owned, Solar City. After becoming extremely successful in the solar industry, I partnered up with Aaron Katz, a well known CEO in the Solar industry, and Owen Gintis, a retired high frequency trader on wall street. I also brought along some of my best friends(Mikey, MJ, Juan, Andrew, Samir) to help start the sales component of the company. Without them we wouldn’t have got to where we have. ### How is Sungrade competing among other solar companies? **Zain Jan:** We recruit young and hungry professionals from all over the nation, and plug them into the #1 sales training platform on the planet, Cardone University. Many companies in the industry don’t provide proper training and guidance for their team, we make training our top priority. Through clear communication, our executive team provides feedback with full transparency, a problem I have seen in many companies. Our leadership has created a great sales team by developing more efficient data and logistical processes. We make sure our sales cycle is simple for the customer and for the sales rep. We have found that many companies in the industry have extremely complicated sales processes, we decided to take a different approach and make our process extremely simple. Because of these reasons, we have been called an anomaly by many power players in the industry such as Spruce Finance, Sunrun, and Solarcity. ### Since you mentioned sales training, what is something you can teach us about selling? **Zain Jan:** In sales one of the biggest mistakes people make is not asking for the close. Many people drag their pitch on for too long, it’s important to ask for the close in the first ten minutes of your pitch. If you are not able to close at that point, just get back into your pitch, and ask for the close 5 minutes later. ### ### In terms of marketing, how does Sungrade Solar reach new customers? **Zain Jan:**We attract new customers by merit of word of mouth. Our clients usually refer their friends to us because of our advanced technology and great customer support. Also, we occasionally use Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Youtube advertising. ### Did you ever deal with contention from your family concerning your entrepreneurial pursuits? How did you handle it? What would you do differently in hindsight? **Zain Jan:** When I first took the leap of faith and decided to start my own company, my parents supported me but still had doubt and were scared for me to fail. My aunts uncles, cousins, all thought I was crazy. At first I was scared to tell them I would never be going back to school in the near future, so I told them that I would only try this for one semester. Looking back in hindsight, I would have communicated my intentions clearly and told them I had to do this for me, or I would regret it. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Zain Jan:** My biggest failure in business was not firing fast, and my biggest success was learning clear communication and how to handle all issues with full responsibility and transparency. I learned to always follow your gut, no matter what. If you see a cancerous person in your organization, fire them immediately, if you drag this on it could ruin your team’s morale and have a much larger impact than you may think. Handling all issues by taking full responsibility, and communication with transparency makes all parties feel way better. ## What do you look for in a business partner? **Zain Jan:** Choosing the right business partners is so important, so here are my top tips: 1. first off make sure you guys get along. You don’t have to have the same vision, or have the same political thoughts, but you have to respect each others’ opinions and communicate with an open mind. 2. You have to make sure your business partners have their ethics in line, and would never lie or hide something from you, no matter what the circumstances are. 3. Make sure you know your business partners’ expectations of you, and what they expect out of the business. 4. Make sure you know how committed they are to the business, and how much time they are willing to and can dedicate to work. ## What do you do to recharge when you’re feeling drained? **Zain Jan:** Coffee always helps me, but I usually do as much activity as I can to get myself back on track. Most people believe they have to slow down, but for me I think I have to do more to get charged back up. I believe one loses energy but not having enough to do, or losing a sense of purpose in their work. ## How do you believe evolving technology will impact the way we do business over the next 10 years? **Zain Jan:** I believe business will become more effective especially with the development of artificial intelligence. I think this will make business processes and strategies more efficient, and more economically viable. I think it will be easier to do business with the right people, and technology will help you make better decisions. On a personal level I beleive people that challenge the status quo, and disrupt the marketplace will have more success, and those that don’t adapt will lose their jobs. ## What is the most unpopular opinion you have on entrepreneurship? **Zain Jan:** I think many people sell entrepreneurship to the world as this glorious thing that is so easy and lucrative. In reality 99% of it isn’t glamorous, but it’s head down hard work. If you don’t want to sacrifice time with family and relatives, and give up weekends, it is not for you. ### What advice would you give to other millennials? **Zain Jan:**Focus on the macro-vision instead of the micro-tasks. I see a lot of millennials seeking instant gratification and losing track of the long-term goals and vision. It is quite sad to see many millennials trying to work on many different things rather than putting their passion into one project and ensuring its success. It is better to dive deeper into one thing and becoming an expert at it than exploring a bunch and becoming an expert in none. ### Drawing back on your experiences, what would be your best entrepreneurial advice for anyone reading this? **Zain Jan:** No matter how you feel, whether it’s positive or negative, don’t let it get to your head. Sometimes we feel amazing, and let that control our emotions, therefore causing us to make irrational decisions. Sometimes we feel bad, and this causes us to quit. No matter how hard it is, try your best to stay level headed. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Zain Jan:** I think entrepreneurs should focus on surrounding themselves with the right people, and finding a great team they can build an empire with! Having a great team is so underrated, and in business it can make or break you. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Zain Jan:** Be Obsessed or Be Average – Grant Cardone Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – Ashlee Vance Benjamin Franklin: An American life – Walter Isaacson Managing Oneself – Peter Drucker Contagious Why things catch on – Jonah Berger ### Last one to close it all. What’s the big vision with Sungrade? **Zain Jan:** Our goal with Sungrade is to provide clean and affordable power on a global scale, while maintaining the highest standard of quality using state of the art technology, and keeping a remarkably accelerated timeline. We also spend a lot of time on developing a youthful and energetic culture focused on health, self improvement, ethics, and financial success. My goal is to continue to build with these principles as we continue to scale nationally. --- ## Teen Social Activist Carisa Shah Tackles the Cyberbullying Epidemic URL: https://futuresharks.com/carisa-shah/ Carisa Shah is a senior at The Dalton School in New York City. She is passionate about using her computer science knowledge for social good. She is a trailblazer who believes that surrounding herself with like-minded individuals is the best way to tackle problems, design creative solutions and turn her ideas into reality. Carisa is a three-time National Center for Women and Information Technology Tri-State Award Winner and National Award Runner-up. She is a HERlead Fellow and a Youth Assembly at the United Nations Outstanding Delegate Finalist. Her research on pathogen identification in prostate cancer biopsies using transcriptome sequencing was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Carisa was a member of the White House Council on Women and Girls and was one of the only high school students selected to attend the White House Summit on the United State of Women and the White House Frontiers Conference. **City where you’re from:** New York City **Hobbies:**Kayaking, cake-decorating, painting landscapes, robotics, reading, tennis, and reading medical case studies **Favorite quote:** “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself Any direction you choose.” ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! **Social accounts**:  Twitter ### Hi Carisa, glad to have you on Future Sharks. What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Carisa Shah:** When I was in eighth grade, my robotics team represented the United States at the World RoboCup Junior Championship in Brazil. While it was an amazing experience, the number of girls at the competition really highlighted the gender gap in technology. There were hundreds of students representing over 50 teams from around the world, but only a handful of girls. Last year, I was invited to the White House Summit on the United State of Women where I attended the STEM Education Agency Forum. I participated in sessions with Congressional leaders and agency administrators focused on topics related to President Obama’s STEM initiatives. It was an amazing experience.  While discussing factors that dissuade girls from pursuing careers in STEM-related fields, I learned about cyberbullying and its devastating effects on young women. Fifty-two percent of students in the US have reported being cyberbullied. Ninety-six percent of children use social media and ninety-five percent of teenagers who witnessed cyberbullying ignored the behavior. Girls are twice as likely to be victims of cyberbullying, which has long- lasting psychological, social, and physical effects. While researching the effects of cyberbullying on children, I learned that many schools incorporate technology into their curriculum, but most schools do not have an internet safety program. To address this serious issue, I created CyberSensibility. CyberSensibility is a free, online internet safety program that provides modules, videos, and worksheets to combat cyberbullying. I worked with my computer science teacher, health teacher, the school psychologist, and other students to understand all sides of this issue. I used Scratch, a game animation software, to create a video to demonstrate the difference between bullying and teasing and to highlight the varying degrees of cyberbullying. I also created a presentation that contains general information about cyberbullying and used HTML and CSS to create a website where my curriculum can be accessed. Each lesson plan contains worksheets that teachers can easily and inexpensively reproduce to reach more students, making the project sustainable. I received a $1,500 grant to implement my project and help reach hundreds of kids. ### How is your company different? **Carisa Shah:** CyberSensibility is different because it offers lesson plans that teachers, students, and parents can easily access and inexpensively reproduce, making the project sustainable and able to reach more students. It is kid-friendly and is meant to teach internet safety in a non-confrontational and non-didactic way. We are working with Cyber Safety Consulting, who with the Clinton Global Initiative, will help disseminate the curriculum to schools nationwide. We are specifically targeting underrepresented minorities in STEM and children from underfunded schools in order to bridge the gender gap and increase visibility in the computer science industry. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Carisa Shah:** Cyberbullying disproportionately affects middle school girls, impacting their confidence, their willingness to pursue STEM, and their desire to hold leadership roles. Most girls have decided whether or not they want to pursue a career in tech by the end of middle school. Cyberbullying prevents girls from going into tech, which further widens the gender gap. Robotics has empowered me, giving me confidence in my abilities. I want other girls to feel the same way. I hope that my program will combat cyberbullying, empower other girls, and help bridge the gender gap. I ultimately hope my company will inspire other girls to pay it forward and to take on an issue that is facing their community. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Carisa Shah:** I recently worked with Joanne Harpel, the founder and CEO of Rethink the Conversation, and partnered with Liz Repking, the founder of Cyber Safety Consulting, to further develop my program and disseminate my curriculum to schools. Both Joanne Harpel and Liz Repking are experts in mental health and bullying and have promoted my curriculum through their extensive networks. I have also cold-called many schools and have garnered wide-spread interest in my program. I hope to roll out my curriculum in many schools across the country during the 2017-2018 school year. I was recently selected to be a HERlead Fellow, a leadership program by Ann Inc. and Vital Voices Global Partnership designed to empower young women, teaching them the skills necessary to become global leaders. Through this fellowship, I was able to network with other fellows and the distinguished speakers, including the editor-in-chief of Marie Claire, Anne Fulenwider, and the CEO and President of ANN INC., Gary Muto. One of the most valuable connections I made was with Luz Maria de la Mora, an advocate of young women, a politician in Mexico, and founder of LMM Consulting. With her help, I hope to expand my program to schools and students in Mexico and to partner with companies aiming to bridge the gender gap abroad. ### Who is your role model and why? **Carisa Shah:** My hero is Ursula Burns, the chairman and former CEO of Xerox. She was the first black woman to head a Fortune 500 company. She is an excellent role model for young women and minorities, two underrepresented groups in technology. Only 3% of the computing workforce is comprised of African-American women, which makes her story even more inspiring. Ursula worked her way up the corporate ladder over 36 years – she started as a summer intern and eventually worked her way up to become CEO. I am particularly impressed by her tenacity and the fact that she is self-made. Her achievements as a black woman in tech prove that every girl is capable of making a difference. Ursula Burns is a champion of women’s rights and recently spoke at Bit by Bit: Breaking the Barrier for Girls in Tech, the high school technology conference that I co-organized. During her keynote, she said life is about making choices and she encouraged girls to channel their energy and compassion into becoming trailblazers and powerful forces of change. I hope that I can continue to make a difference.  I particularly like her quote: “Dreams do come true, but not without the help of others, a good education, a strong work ethic and the courage to lean in” – Ursula Burns. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Carisa Shah:** I have always held myself to high standards. I take pride in my accomplishments and love learning for the sake of learning. My persistence and motivation allow me to excel. Since fifth grade, I have been teaching myself computer science languages and software development tools. I have been fortunate to be recognized for my aspirations in computing by the National Center for Women in Technology at both the national and state level for the past three years. Last year, I was also selected to be the only high school member on the White House Council on Women and Girls. Both of these opportunities have further strengthened my resolve to bridge the gender gap in technology. When I was in eighth grade and witnessed first-hand the lack of women in STEM fields, I was inspired to make a difference. I think this was my biggest success – noticing an issue and doing something about it, it instead of being discouraged by it. I think my biggest failure was waiting for my curriculum to be completely developed and wanting my organization to be fully established before I reached out to schools and programs that might want to use my curriculum. I have always had pride in my work and often want everything to be perfect before taking action. Being a perfectionist has always been a trait that I admire and dislike about myself. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Carisa Shah:** I created CyberSensibility because I am passionate about health and bridging the gender gap in STEM. I would advise every entrepreneur to stick with their passions because ultimately if you are doing what you love, no one can stop you from reaching the stars. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Carisa Shah:** Pay inequality is a worldwide problem that I am passionate about solving. According to the United States Department of Labor, white women make on average 83 cents to every dollar a white man earns. Hispanic women make 45 percent less than white men and black women make 40 percent less than white men.  Pay inequality affects women in the United States and internationally, and in both cases, it makes it harder for women to participate in their communities. Pay inequality also affects economic growth and health. Living in a society that has a large wage gap can cause undue stress and ultimately result in adverse health consequences. There are many downstream consequences of having less pay for equal work, but most importantly it makes it harder to support a family.  Families are more likely to be impoverished and malnourished, launching them into the cycle of oppression. With each generation, the gap between men and women created by pay inequality widens. I believe that in order to make sustainable changes, we have to start at home. If women earn the same as their male counterparts, they will be empowered and help drive economic and social change, both at home and abroad. Investing in women is the key to building stronger and healthier communities and ending poverty. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Carisa Shah:** In eighth grade, my robotics team represented the United States in the RoboCup Junior World Championships in João Pessoa, Brazil. I remember eagerly waiting to meet people from around the world. Once we landed in Brazil, we realized that all of our tools had gotten lost in transit, so we had to borrow whatever we could from other teams. However, the majority of people at the competition did not speak English. We ended up playing Charades with every team until someone could guess what tool we needed. This experience gave me a deep appreciation for diversity. I also learned that, despite how different we may be, we actually have a lot in common. I recently participated in the HERlead Fellowship, a program attended by people from diverse backgrounds. Even though we did not have similar backgrounds, I was able to connect with every fellow because we were all working towards a common goal. I realized that sometimes the easiest way to connect with others is to identify a common link. In many ways, my personality allows me to be open to people, cultures, and experiences different than my own. I am friendly, sincere, and intellectually curious. I love stretching my mind and challenging myself, and I am always actively engaged with my surroundings. I really enjoy meeting people and having new experiences, and I’ve found that this willingness to engage is often reciprocated. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Carisa Shah:** I think that the most important thing that an entrepreneur should focus on is having a well thought-out, developed business model before they take their project from a vision to reality. This will ensure that the business runs seamlessly once the fabrication process begins. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? *The Help* by Kathryn Stockett *The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer* by Siddhartha Mukherjee ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Carisa Shah:** For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a surgeon. I want to use technology and my love for robotics to develop minimally-invasive surgical and diagnostic procedures to improve the quality of patient care and the lives of people. Robotic surgery is already a reality, but with continued improvements in programming and technology, the future of technology in medicine is limitless. I am uniquely positioned because of my passion for computer science and robotics, my love of science and biology, and my desire to help others. I would like to continue to develop my passions in computer science and robotics to create innovative solutions, reduce the burden of disease, and ultimately help people live better everywhere. I also want to serve as a role model and mentor for other girls who want to get involved in STEM. There is a gender gap in computer science, engineering, and surgery. I would like to play a role in bridging this gender gap by inspiring other women to pursue their technological aspirations. I hope that in a few years, CyberSensibility will be used worldwide to combat cyberbullying, empower girls, and bridge the gender gap. --- ## 19-Year Old YouTuber Muaaz Shakeel Gains An Audience By Helping Others Build Theirs URL: https://futuresharks.com/muaaz-shakeel/ Muaaz Shakeel is a YouTuber who took his passion of helping others and brought it to the internet for millions to see. He uploads videos to help upcoming YouTubers find success with online content creation through how-to’s, YouTube tips, and much more. **City where you’re from:** Milwaukee, Wisconsin **Hobbies:**Creating videos, gaming, and of course binge watching Netflix. **Favorite quote:**“Don’t downgrade your dream to fit your reality” – Stuart Scott **Social accounts** (YouTube /muaaz | Twitter @mws | Instagram @mxaaz): ### What got you serious with YouTube and how did you choose your niche? **Muaaz Shakeel:** I’ve had my YouTube channel since 2008 and have uploaded random videos just to put something out there ever since. Although I never built much of an audience doing it that way, I found the concept of random people across the globe watching my videos mind boggling. Near the end of my senior year in high school, I noticed that all of the videos I uploaded in the past few years have received a couple thousand views each and if I ever wanted to try YouTube seriously, now would be my last chance before college starts in the fall and I get busy with my personal life. Less than two years later, I’m sitting here having accumulated nearly 50,000 subscribers and have received over 6,000,000 total video views. My channel is currently based around helping upcoming YouTubers find success with online content creation. I upload technological videos, how-to videos, YouTube tips, and much more. The reason I chose that for my content style is because throughout my life, it’s clear to anyone on the outside that I enjoy helping other people solve problems and bring them closer to reaching their goals. ### It seems that a lot of YouTubers who are successful at the moment always had it figured out, does that also apply to you? **Muaaz Shakeel:**That’s actually a great question! A lot of the YouTubers who I’ve become friends with throughout this journey were in the same boat as me at first. We all wanted to do something else and experimented with a bunch of genres until we found something that we enjoyed and also brought us growth. I myself originally wanted to be a comedy channel after watching YouTubers like Smosh and Fred back in the day. After that didn’t work out (probably because I was trying to make skits on a phone camera, in my room, by myself, in 360p haha) I decided to try gaming as it was my biggest hobby at the time. The reason I wanted to give gaming a shot was because I saw YouTubers like FaZe Rain and other Call of Duty content creators gaining such a large following by doing something that I did everyday anyway, playing CoD. The issue I faced when trying to become a Call of Duty channel was that I pulled up to the train station but the train had already left months ago. The Call of Duty scene was and still is so oversaturated with creators who already have 99% of the available audience. Due to that, there isn’t much else a content creator can do to be unique on a simplistic game like Call of Duty. Everyone who came onboard the train when it first arrived found success but everyone else was never able to do the same. So the answer is no, I didn’t have YouTube figured out straight from the bat. From my experience, most content creators don’t either. YouTube is something that takes a lot of trial and error but you can’t give up trying because if you do, someone else is already lined up to take your spot. Keep working towards finding something you’re passionate and are willing to share with everyone else. This can be life stories, your daily activities, short films, gaming, and honestly the ideas are endless when it comes to passion. ### You’ve mentioned things like vlogging, gaming, short films, etc. do you think that someone who wants to start a YouTube channel should be uploading anything and everything they can if they’re passionate about all of those genres? **Muaaz Shakeel:**Wow haha, another fantastic question! I would say that it’s not a bad idea to try that when you are first building up a small fanbase but once you have that fanbase, it would be best to stop. If we’re talking long-term, then I would say that you definitely don’t want to upload a bunch of random stuff like cooking videos, vlogs, gaming videos, etc. in hopes of finally driving traffic to your channel. A lot of the decisions I make for my channel usually come from me putting myself in a viewer’s shoes. Let’s say someone likes your gaming videos so they subscribe to you. Then, all of a sudden you start uploading cooking videos or vlogs because you wanted to try and expand your audience. You as the creator wouldn’t see an issue with this as you’re just trying to find opportunities for yourself, but the issue here is the viewer subscribed to you for gaming videos and you aren’t meeting their demand for them with the supply of content on your channel. This will inevitably lead to an unsubscription or an inactive subscriber (neither of which you want). My biggest tip would be to stick with one genre until you know that your viewers are watching you for your personality rather than what you upload. When you reach that status, you can experiment with expanding into different genres because you will have a large amount of people there to give you feedback on your new content style. ### How far do you plan on taking your YouTube Channel? **Muaaz Shakeel:**Honestly, I never thought I would get this far in general so I don’t want to set any limits on myself and the rest of this journey. Gaining over 1,000 new subscribers weekly could have only been a dream back in 2008 but now it’s a reality. I never saw myself coming close to 50,000 subscribers or having over 6 million total video views but I proved myself wrong. It seems like we’re only heading up and this is just the beginning so I’m going to keep riding this wave until I stop having fun with it but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. ### Do you think you could make creating videos on YouTube a full time job? **Muaaz Shakeel:**YouTubers get paid monthly and not bi-weekly like a lot of normal jobs so that can be an issue when trying to provide for a family or something like that but honestly yeah. I definitely feel that making YouTube a full time job wouldn’t be too difficult if I kept at it and continued working hard. At the moment I earn enough to be able to buy whatever I want but definitely not enough to provide for a full family. Lucky for me, I’m not pretty big on blowing all of my money like a lot of teens my age, so if I keep at this, I could definitely see it becoming a full-time thing but at the moment I think of it less of a job and more of a hobby. ### What are some mistakes you find pretty common for aspiring YouTubers? **Muaaz Shakeel:**I have an offer on my channel where if a viewer wants me to check out their channel and give them feedback on how they can improve, they just need to DM their channel link to me on twitter and I’ll get back to them as soon as I can. One of the biggest issues I’ve noticed after looking at hundreds of aspiring youtubers is that often times they forget the importance of consistency. In my opinion, uploading often is the key to finding success on YouTube. I feel like it should be obvious that uploading 2 videos every 3 months isn’t going to gain you a dedicated audience. I say that because in the break you take away from YouTube, your potential audience has already found someone else to watch in their freetime. Again, like I said before, think about it from the viewer’s perspective. Would you want to watch a channel that uploads once every few months or watch someone pushing out new and fresh content weekly if not daily? It would be safe to assume that the viewer’s answer would be the latter of the two. ### Do you have any tips from personal experience to give to upcoming YouTubers so that they can avoid making that kind of mistake? **Muaaz Shakeel:**PRIORITIZE. I know that a lot of aspiring YouTubers are young adults who are going to school, might have extra-curricular activities after and probably even a part-time job. My biggest tip if you’re taking on multiple roles like being a student, an employee, a student athlete, etc. is that you just need to learn how to prioritize and work harder. Think about it, there are people out there like LeBron James, The Rock, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a bunch of other people who all have way more on their plate in comparison to you and I but still get so much more accomplished than we can. You just need to stay dedicated when trying to take something else (like YouTube) on and that holds true in all aspects of life. I hate when people who want to be YouTubers tell me that they don’t have time to pursue it. Them saying that bothers me because that can only hold true if that individual truly gets 0 minutes of sleep because in that case, they are seriously using all 24 hours of their day to the best of their ability. In reality that’s most likely not the case with people who want to be YouTubers. I, just like the next person, love watching a couple episodes of a series on Netflix before heading to bed but the time I spend watching Netflix could’ve been used working on a video, doing homework, or honestly anything more beneficial and productive. The same goes for hanging out with friends or really any type of activity that can be pushed off until later. A lot of entrepreneurs lose a couple hours of sleep a night just to make sure some of the work on their plate gets completed. When you’re sleeping, someone else is working to take your spot — Losing that one hour of sleep to do something productive can bring you that much closer to succeeding with the goal you have set for yourself. So what I’m saying is don’t stay up until 2AM watching Netflix or just staring at your monitor but stay up until 2AM doing something that matters more and will benefit you in the future. Pick the things in your life that matter most to you, create a schedule, and go from there. My priorities in order are family, school, work/YouTube, then friends. Of course some of those can switch back and forth depending on the situation at hand but for the most part, that’s how it’s been and that’s how it’s going to stay (at least for a while). Here is a typical day for me: I wake up and then go to school for a few hours and once I’m done, I head off to work for a few more hours. After all that, I come home, eat dinner and spend time with the family. By now it would already be near 6 or 7PM and I get started on my school work. Once all that is done, if I have time then I move onto my next priority, which is YouTube. I often get texts asking to game with my friends around that time too because that’s usually around the time a lot of kids my age get their schedules cleared for the day but since YouTube is a higher priority than gaming, I get that done before I spend the rest of my night in Skype calls with my friends playing CSGO. ### What is your biggest tip for helping YouTubers rank higher in search results or even getting on the front page? **Muaaz Shakeel:**Use your resources as much as you can! A lot of new YouTubers come into the scene uploading videos with a simple title, no thumbnail, no video description, and usually just skip adding tags and then they wonder why no one is noticing their content. You need to take advantage of everything around you! Make your title appealing, make your thumbnail something you yourself would want to click on, add tags relevant to the video so that your video shows up when a user searches for something related to the topic at hand. Meta tags can make or break your channel so that’s why it’s crucial to take advantage of them as it’s a free tool available for you to use. Just don’t go around abusing it and adding information irrelavant to your video or you can get a strike or termination from YouTube just for misguiding traffic to your channel. ### Tell us something you take pride in with your channel. **Muaaz Shakeel:**I’m sitting here gaining over half a million video views monthly and due to that, I receive a fair amount of comments/DMs as well. The one thing I take a lot of pride in is that I’m always interacting with my viewers whether that’s on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc. At the moment I make time everyday or every other day to get back to 99% of the messages I get (as long as they aren’t asking me for a shoutout). A lot of YouTubers for some reason tend to grow an ego once they pass 10,000 subscribers and cut off their personal connection with their fans. I honestly have no clue why you would want to do that considering they are the ones taking time out of their day to watch your videos. I personally don’t think it’s unreasonable to take a minute out of your day to respond to fans because you could just make someone’s whole week by getting back to their comment or just holding a short conversation with them through DMs. Whenever I used to watch my favorite YouTubers, I would always leave a comment hoping for a response and once in a blue moon, I would get one. It was an unexplainable feeling knowing that someone you look up to took time out of their day to get back to you and that’s essentially the type of feeling I want to keep recreating. I want to share that feeling with others because I know first hand how good it feels to be acknowledged by someone with a following on a completely different scale in comparison to yours. ### Who are your biggest influences? **Muaaz Shakeel:**As cliche as it sounds, I would have to say that my parents are definitely my biggest influences. White growing up, I heard multiple stories of how my parents moved from Pakistan to the United States of America in hopes of better lives for my sister and I years prior to being born. They came here [USA] with literally zero understanding of how to speak the English language. Sit back and think about how scary that actually is, traveling to a completely different country with close to no money and no family in hopes of finding a job and home with no understanding of the English language. I honestly have no clue how they did it but my father worked his way up from working 50+ hour weeks at a $4 an hour wage to where he is now and I couldn’t be more proud. My mom and dad would always give anything up so that my sister and I wouldn’t miss out on something. Due to growing up with a role models like that, I just want to do the same for the family I’ll have in the future because if I can be at least half the parents my mom and dad are then I’d say I’ve done a good job. I value their thoughts a ton and it’s safe to say no matter how much success I find in life, I’ll never be able to repay my parents for all they’ve given up for my sister and I. My parents truly never cared for what I did as long as I brought home good grades and stayed away from the wrong group of people. They’ve been nothing but supportive ever since day 1 and it’s truly a blessing. ### How do you continue to create content on YouTube without getting bored? It must get repetitive right? **Muaaz Shakeel:**That’s actually a question I get asked pretty often and yeah, you’re right, it can definitely get repetitive at times but I feel like the best way to not get bored with YouTube is to just not treat it as a job. When you treat it as a job, you feel obligated to push out content, even when you don’t feel like doing it. I myself treat YouTube as a priority but not a job because I don’t want to lose interest in a hobby I’ve been having fun with for the past few years. ### What is your ultimate goal with your YouTube channel? **Muaaz Shakeel:**To help as many people as possible find their passion and then lead them to find success with it. I say that because why spend your whole life doing something you’re not enjoying when if you do something different in your young-adult years, you could end up living the life you always wanted. ### You said you don’t plan on making YouTube a full-time job. What do you plan to do for a career in a few years? **Muaaz Shakeel:**At the moment I’m leaning towards being a software engineer but I also love hardware so I’m going back and forth between Computer Science or Information Technology but since I am fond of both I know I’ll be happy doing either-or for the rest of my life. ### What is your dream? **Muaaz Shakeel:**My dream consists of my parents being retired, happy, healthy, and living the lives they always wanted. I want my sister to be set with the career she’s been dreaming about. I would love to know that all my friends have multiple opportunities available for them to make careers out of. You might be asking why I haven’t said anything about myself and that’s because honestly, if everyone else I care about is doing well in life, I’ll be content. Of course I want the mansion, the Louis Vuitton duffle bags, etc. but just like I said earlier, family comes first. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Muaaz Shakeel:**Being a successful entrepreneur more than likely means that you will come face to face with failure a fair amount of times and how you deal with that failure says a lot about who you are. Don’t let messing up ruin your dream, get back up, learn from your mistake and don’t let it happen again. Also another piece of advice comes from my favorite quote at the beginning of this piece, “Don’t downgrade your dream to fit your reality.” Every dream can become a reality if you work hard enough for it. Just don’t downgrade your dream thinking that your surroundings won’t allow it to come true because if you do that, you’ll never be content. ### Celebrity Crush? **Muaaz Shakeel:**Kendall Jenner, duh 🙂 ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Muaaz Shakeel:**I can amaze people with how much I procrastinate some things but when it comes to it, I can get things done in a short amount of time and sometimes it will be better than if I had worked on it for weeks. However, when I know I’ll have a lot of tasks to complete in a short amount of time, I’m exceptionally good at getting it all done without stressing over anything. This all goes back to what I said earlier in the article, PRIORITIZE. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Muaaz Shakeel:**Haha, it’s irrelevant to entrepreneurship but I was listening to a podcast the other day and I found out that the reason our fingers and toes get all pruney when we’re under water is so that we have better grip on wet or submerged objects like rocks and things like that. It’s pretty interesting when you think about it. ### What have you been watching lately and what are your favorite shows on Netflix? **Muaaz Shakeel:**I actually just caught up on The Fosters so I’m waiting for the next season to start up in July. There’s a lot to pick from in regards to my favorite TV Shows so I’m just going to list a few: How To Get Away With Murder, Friends, One Tree Hill, Dexter, The Flash, Daredevil, The Office, and Grey’s Anatomy. If you want me to recommend you a show then just DM me on twitter (linked above) and if you have any recommendations then just do the same haha. --- ## Loveable Plush Interchangeable Animals – Your Dreams Come True URL: https://futuresharks.com/kurt-smolek/ **Kurt Smolek**grew up a with the wonder of trying to figure how things work. From taking old radios apart to toys. As he grew older, he then tried to figure out how to make them better. Now with kids of my own I can use their imagination and wonder and combine it with my experience and education. It’s a great mixture to great new ideas **Where he is from**: Westfield, Wisconsin **Hobbies:**Spending time with my kids, fishing, spending time with my kids, fishing, bowling, and inventing **Favorite quote:** HERE GOES SOMETHING ### Background Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? **Kurt Smolek:**I have always loved creating and inventing things. I would love to make a living at inventing things.  ### Who were your biggest influences? **Kurt Smolek:**Both of my grandfather’s created things. I can remember making lamps from bowling pins and the other grandfather made picnic tables and wooden lawn ornaments. Both ad shops where they build things.  ### Was there a defining moment in your life? **Kurt Smolek:**Probably when I had kids. It enforced my already passion of creating. I can bounce ideas off of them and get an honest opinion. I can use their youthful imagination combined with my education to create neat things. ### Now What are you working on? **Kurt Smolek:**Connectimals.  ### How did you come up with this idea? **Kurt Smolek:**My daughter cut a leg off of one of her stuffed animals and made it a 3-legged dog. She said it had been an accident (she wants to be a vet). This made me think about stuffed animals. Almost ever single kid grows up having them and adults even collect them. What more could I do to make them even more fun..? Make them interchangeable. Their paws, ears, and heads are all interchangeable. You can make a frog with pig ears and duck feet.  ### How is your product/service different and unique? **Kurt Smolek:**You can make unique creations and animals from our invention. With our accessories you can also put on wings, hats, holiday items, etc on a plush toy. ### What’s the vision? **Kurt Smolek:**To make them available to anyone who wants them. We have already had a toy manufacturer make a prototype and now we are trying to get the funds to produce and manufacture all 5 (pig, frog, bear, duck and giraffe) in series 1. ### Who are your customers? **Kurt Smolek:**People who saw us on ABC’s The Toy Box are already contacting us. Kids love them. We are thinking about making a few of them in a limited color so adults can collect the rare limited ones. ### How did you find them? **Kurt Smolek:**We are going to use social media at the beginning and then hopefully get into a few stores. ### Did you experience failure along the way? **Kurt Smolek:**Magnets were a concern for the judges on the show along with small parts (ears). We have looked up toy regulations and are making our parts big enough to pass regulations and use magnets that aren’t “high” powered. We are going to keep everything kid safe. ### What did you learn from it? **Kurt Smolek:**We needed to do a lot of reading about safety and toy regulations.  ### Value-add questions Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Kurt Smolek:**Follow your dreams with an opened mind. Sometimes you may be onto a good idea but listen to good advice to make it great. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? **Kurt Smolek:**I have tried a kick started to get the money to manufacture our Connectimals but failed. Facebook is a good way to spread the word. There are many good articles on the internet of ho to accomplish you goals. We have a Connectimals Facebook page and webpage. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Kurt Smolek:**That your idea doesn’t already exist. Do research once you come up with an idea. A patent is important but a copyright and trademark are cheaper and just as powerful. ### What are some of your favorite books? **Kurt Smolek:**Books on old and ancient inventions. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Kurt Smolek:**In full production and it being my full time job. To have a series 2 and even a series 3 of Connectimals out and available for purchase. Possibly besides just animals to also move into comic and superhero characters and have them interchangeable as well. You could create weird and unique characters. --- ## Haris Reis: “Be Crazy Enough To Know It Will Work” URL: https://futuresharks.com/haris-reis/ Haris Reis is the President & COO of Changing Lanes International. He is also a 2X National Award Winning Entrepreneur, 2X National Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker and Elite Marketing Consultant.**He has helped Changing Lanes International become a 6-figure business in less than a year. He was previously a growth hacker at Vayner Media building Gary Vaynerchuk’s personal brand and ran paid media for the top 1% users on Facebook. The videos he has created have been shared with people that have over 130k followers, has been in videos that collectively reached over 1.5 million people, created videos that cumulatively received over 5 million views, and has produced nearly $100k in sales for products/services over the phone. He has been featured in The Young Entrepreneurs podcast, College Startup, Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Live Out Loud, Experts Showcase, The Ambitious Life Magazine, the Life Leveraging Series and many more! Haris is a very proud immigrant from Bosnia and is a 22-year old college student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (Go Mavs!). City where you’re from:** Born in Wadern Germany, raised in Bosnia **Hobbies:**Fighter, kickboxing mainly, jiu-jitsu, mma **Favorite quote:**Winners focus on winning, losers focus on winners **Social accounts**: facebook.com/haris.reis     instagram.com/haris_reis ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Building people’s company and personal brands. I am passionate about helping others and this is what I am best at. Working with Gary Vaynerchuk helped coming up with the idea but I have been adding value to people since I was 14(my first business) ### How is your company different? I am an immigrant. I have an extremely strong work ethic and drive. ### What’s your dream with your company? Build something that lasts long past I am gone. ### How do you creatively advertise? On social media, speaking, podcasts ### Are there shortcuts to success? Absolutely not! This is the hardest thing you’ll ever do but the truly successful do not stay satisfied. They have a very strong work ethic and they visualize everything until it happens. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? Where do I start. Biggest failure, launching 4 companies that failed by the time I was 17. Losing every dollar I had. Having $50.13 in my bank account once. Throughout it all, I envisioned everything I wanted. I knew I was doing the right things and taking the right steps. I stayed consistent and worked hard and throughout the journey(which is still going), I built a six figure company in under a year and worked with some of the top brands and personalities in the world. Biggest success if also the hardest thing for me to talk about. I got runner-up 2 years in a row for entrepreneur of the year at the largest collegiate entrepreneurs organization in the world. It was more about proving it to myself than anything.    Kevin Harrington Testimonial For Haris Reis #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Visualize what you want everyday. Even if you are working for minimum wage, tell everyone your goals and see them happening. I used to be a bouncer and bar back and told everyone I’d run my own company and become a national best selling author…they all laughed but today they all want to be friends since I did it. So stay focused and see what you want everyday. ### Teach us something about internet marketing I mean this in the nicest way but nobody cares about you when marketing online. They only care about what you or your service can do for them. You need to share your story because people will resonate with it but that should not be the main focus. It should be about what you or your service can provide to them. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? Being patient is hard but needed. ### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) I am a fighter and businessman. Because of martial arts, I am successful in business because people figuratively tell you business will knock you down, which it will but fighting literally knocks you down and you have to keep getting up. Teaches you a lot about yourself. ### What do you think you do better than most people? Caring ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Their goals and nothing else. Not about who is President, weekend plans, collecting debt…..just the goal. ### Favorite book? 3 feet from gold.  ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Being one of the leading entrepreneurs, not by talking about it but by building something significant. --- ## Jonathan Maxim is Making America Fit Again with Vea Fitness URL: https://futuresharks.com/jonathan-maxim/ Jonathan Maxim is an app designer, digital marketer and thought leader in the fitness and technology realms. After leaving his job at a Fortune 50 company, he merged his management experience with his passion for technology and innovation to create Apps that encourage fitness and wellness. Educated at San Diego State University first in Graphic Design and User Interface, he went on to gain his Masters of Business from SDSU as well. Currently he serves as founder and CEO of Vea Fitness, an app that rewards you for working out with monetary incentives. **City where you’re from:** San Diego **Hobbies:**Weight lifting, yoga, graphic design, travel, snowboarding, tech/startup communities **Favorite quote:**Asking for permission is asking for denial **Twitter**: @veafitness **Instagrams:** tcg_style veaofficial designselfies tcgstyle higherlifestyle ### What are you working on? **Jonathan Maxim:** Vea is the fitness app that rewards your workouts with discounts and free gear from top retailers like Saucony and New Balance, as well as allows you to join group fitness challenges to win even bigger prizes! ### How did you come up with this idea? **Jonathan Maxim:** I became so inspired by fitness in college, that I knew I had to share this motivation with others. But didn’t know how? I had become happier, more energetic, more successful and in better shape – all starting from a fitness habit. But how do we reach the masses with motivation? Then it came to me – can we give them instant gratification for working out, in addition to long term results? Can we make brands pay them to workout? ### How is your company different? **Jonathan Maxim:** Vea Fitness is the only app that rewards you for every workout, and gives you entries into challenges to win bigger rewards. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Jonathan Maxim:** Make America Fit Again. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Jonathan Maxim:** We host private penthouse fitness events at various rooftops throughout the city for fitness influencers with 5k+ instagram followers. Then we provide them marketing content to share. ### What was your biggest struggle that has now become an asset? **Jonathan Maxim:** I was born dyslexic – I couldn’t read properly, and therefore school was incredibly difficult. But I didn’t realize at the time, so I didn’t seek help. I ended up studying way longer to achieve similar grades. But then In college I realized I was blessed in the creative side of my brain, and with interpersonal connections. So I doubled down on them, and my network has offered me way more value than any genetic predisposition toward an analytical mind has. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Jonathan Maxim:** Biggest failure is that I didn’t write systems for my first few businesses, and ended up reinventing the wheel for most tasks. It sucked all the fun out of work and made me very stressed because I couldn’t delegate. This turned me into a systems-obsessed neurotic, and now my two businesses can run without me needed. I’m also much happier. Biggest success: Getting a $45K raise within 8 months of my first big house job. It wasn’t even on purpose, but I learned some amazing negotiation skills from it. #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Jonathan Maxim:** Don’t reinvent the wheel every time. Write processes for every task in your company, and that way you only “have” to do work that you want to. The rest you can delegate to a virtual assistant. ### Teach us something about meditation **Jonathan Maxim:** Meditate with Insight Timer (free on app store) in the morning for 10 minutes before a big day. It kills awkwardness, social tension and intimidation – making your presentation much easier. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Jonathan Maxim:** How to handle sales objections by Grant Cardone – extremely valuable knowledge for any salesman and I highly recommend. ### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) **Jonathan Maxim:** Having no marketing budget can be a good thing. It teaches you to be scrappy – to get out in front of people, to try creative marketing tactics, to growth hack. That way once you start making revenue, you can scale those scrappy efforts much larger. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Jonathan Maxim:** Network. I don’t turn down opportunities to meet people, especially when I know they hold the keys to business opportunities. I rent a penthouse with some fellow founders, and host social affairs there. I’ve had everyone from top tier VCs to Kanye’s producer and film team over. But I almost NEVER attend “networking” events. Instead, I build friendships. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Jonathan Maxim:** One key metric. Then model your whole marketing plan around that. For me, that’s downloads. For you, that might be sales. Forget about vanity metrics like Instagram followers. They are nice to haves, but don’t matter unless there’s attributable downloads. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Jonathan Maxim:** For realizing my purpose – the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho For business – [Zero to One](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804139296), by Peter Thiel For lifestyle – Four Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Jonathan Maxim:** Vea Fitness will have an A List key celebrity endorser. We’ll be widely adopted as THE way to workout – and will have finally made fitness fun for everyone. Brands will be engaging with users through fitness in a personalized way – by sponsoring each of your workouts. We’ll have over 2M downloads. For myself, I’ll fully location independent and have a fully automated creative agency, K&J Growth Hackers. I’m living in Los Angeles, with my wife and kid. I made Forbes 30 Under 30 the year before. --- ## Meet Anjali Gupta: High School Student Bringing Education to Villages Around the World URL: https://futuresharks.com/anjali-gupta/ Anjali Gupta is a high school student at the Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Technologies. She is the Founder of School for a Village, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that brings technology and educational resources to students across the world. Actively involved in scientific research, she has pursued independent laboratory research projects in the fields of genetics and allergy/immunology, and currently leads a DNA Research Club at her school in collaboration with Rutgers University. She has been recognized for her work as a Siemens Competition Semifinalist and New Jersey Winner of the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award. **City where you’re from:** Edison, NJ **Hobbies:**tennis, Bharatanatyam Indian classical dance, piano **Favorite quote:**“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” -Milton Berle **Social accounts**: Facebook S4V Twitter S4V Instagram S4V Facebook S4V Website ### ### Hey Anjali, What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Anjali Gupta:** Throughout my childhood, my grandfather was one of my greatest inspirations. He was a huge advocate for education, and believed very strongly in its power to lift entire communities out of poverty, as it had done for his own family. He saw education to be empowering, and felt that any person, when equipped with the unique tools offered by education, could emerge as an independent citizen ready to change the world. Only after I entered high school, however, did I really begin to understand this unique ability of education to completely change lives. Education is a fundamental necessity. Education isn’t about mathematics or history; it is linked to general developmental goals including improving health, reducing hunger, fighting poverty, and spurring economic growth. There are so many brilliant children, who if given the opportunity, can bring immense change to their communities. It became my mission to provide these students this opportunity. So, I founded School for a Village, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, with my amazing co-founder, Sohil Malik. The mission of our organization is to bring technology and educational resources to villages around the world. We want to equip brilliant young minds in all corners of the world with the tools to bring big change. Most currently, we are building a science laboratory at Vidya Mandir School in Bahjoi, India. We have an upcoming benefit dinner that will feature a special meet-and-greet with Chhavi Verg, Miss New Jersey USA 2017. ### ### How is S4V different? **Anjali Gupta:** We address the needs of each village school separately. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to improving education in underdeveloped areas. Our model is to approach each school separately and to truly understand the needs of that school. In this way, we are able to make the most direct impact, providing exactly the resources that are missing and bringing tangible change. Additionally, School for a Village emphasizes STEM education. Today’s world is growing increasingly dependent on technology. To this end, we believe that STEM education is absolutely essential to preparing students for success in the 21st century. Many graduates of Vidya Mandir School have gone into STEM-based fields such as medicine and engineering. And this allows them to not only bring economic opportunity to their families, but also to their communities. By creating an environment in underdeveloped areas that facilitates free, quality education, students have the opportunity to spend time learning in the classroom, rather than performing labor-heavy jobs from a young age. #### What’s your dream with your company? **Anjali Gupta:** My dream for School for a Village is to continue reaching a greater number of amazing students around the world. As a completely student-run organization, we have recently grown to include several chapters throughout the United States, with high school and college students working towards this cause. This expansion has really given us the opportunity to increase our audience and spread our message to a greater number of people. One of our ultimate goals is to gather an extensive international network of young changemakers dedicated to our cause. We hope to connect this group directly with students in underdeveloped areas. This way, we will not just be providing crucial educational resources through increased fundraising, but we will also be able to work on specialized programs to help underprivileged students build the skills necessary for success in today’s world. We will be able to bring immeasurable opportunity to underprivileged students by connecting them to the world outside of their village. This is truly one of our major end goals for the organization. ### ### How do you creatively advertise? **Anjali Gupta:** When we first started School for a Village, our biggest challenge was building a brand – how could we convince others of the importance of our cause? Early on, we focused heavily on creating brochures, t-shirts, banners, and an Internet presence. From the beginning, we have been relying very heavily on the power of social media to reach vast audiences. Some of our best resources have been community groups on social media; these have included both STEM-focused groups and location-based groups. We’ve also recently had the opportunity to speak about our cause on a few television and radio stations. This has given us the chance to spread our message to Americans nationwide. We also have the pleasure of working with our spokesperson, Chhavi Verg (Miss New Jersey USA 2017) to gain further exposure. As we continue to expand, one of our main focuses is refining our brand, especially with the expansion of our team to include members with highly specialized expertise in technology, social media, fundraising and program development. ### Who inspires you? **Anjali Gupta:** My role model is Malala Yousafzai. She defied the Taliban in her quest for girls’ education. As an activist for education and women’s rights, her strength and resilience in the face of adversity is remarkable. She’s a testament to the power that each individual has to inspire change. I am inspired by her ability to motivate people regardless of age and background, and amazed that she is only three years older than me. She is the ultimate personification of a leader; a visionary and unbelievable communicator. I want to emulate her in this respect as I develop my non-profit organization, and in my day-to-day life as a leader. Beyond this, I hope to be strong and resilient as I tackle challenges in my career and strive to make a tangible difference in the world around me. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? Our biggest failure occurred when we were first getting this organization off of the ground. Despite being a 501(c)(3) certified organization, people often didn’t take us seriously because they didn’t believe that a team of high school students could bring change. However, we have seen a huge shift in perspective as we began to heavily market our cause. People began to believe in our dreams for this organization; we were no longer seen as JUST high school kids. The response we received was overwhelming. So many people began to support our cause through sponsorships and donations, and radio and TV stations even offered us free airtime. Within our first year, we had raised over 70% of the cost to build a science lab in the remote area of Bahjoi, India. I truly consider this as one of our greatest successes. My journey as the founder of this organization has really taught me the power of my own voice and my strength as an individual. I am truly driven by the amazing work we do at School for a Village, the inspirational people I meet along the way, and our mission to create a better educational environment for students across the world. #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Ask. You’ll be surprised by how much you can get just by asking. Starting something can be daunting and it is okay to accept help along the way. The key to being a successful entrepreneur is not juggling hundreds of tasks at once. It’s about understanding how to best manage and use the different skills of your team to build your organization. If you believe strongly in your mission, those around you will follow. So, really find your passion and use that to make a difference. --- ## How This 5-Time Entrepreneur Is Redefining The Software Consulting Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/rahul-varshneya/ Rahul Varshneya is the co-founder of Arkenea, a technical partner to motivated non-technical founders. He has helped 150+ founders build and launch a successful tech business. Rahul has been featured in Forbes, Inc, Thrive Global and CIO Review, among others. **City:** Dallas, Texas **Favorite Quote:** The worst enemy to creativity is self doubt – Sylvia Plath **Social accounts:**Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Rahul Varshneya:** My current company is in software consulting for non-technical, founder-led companies that are either building a product ground up or looking to ramp up their existing teams. I started this business with a cofounder 6 years back inspired by the challenges that we faced ourselves in building and scaling our tech businesses. Having leveraged outsourced development teams in addition to our internal resources, we found that almost every single time, the outsourced teams would just never be as aligned as the in-house development teams. We spoke to our fellow startup friends and peers that were building tech product companies and all of them faced similar challenges. We started this company to resolve those challenges for founder-led companies when hiring outsourced developers. ### How is your company different? **Rahul Varshneya:** We found out after digging through the business models of various outsourced development companies the reason for not delivering value beyond code. The number one reason was that their engineers that work on clients projects are appraised on project completion on time, rather than delivering a product that their customers would love. And so, the engineers were only concerned about completing a task rather than adding value to the product or its features. This was the inspiration to differentiate in the market of existing software consulting businesses. And so, the following are our core differentiators: 1. The founders of Arkenea have actually built and scaled successful tech product companies – so walked the talk that most other software consulting businesses have no first-hand experience in. This first-hand experience helps us understand our client – an entrepreneur and their business challenges better and provide a much better solution. 2. Our engineers are appraised on the product’s NPS or Net Promoter Score, and not merely on filling timesheets efficiently. This means that each of our engineers have a stake in the client’s product to make it a better experience for their customers. 3. We offer end-to-end software and business consulting, where clients pay only for software consulting. We help our clients in product strategy, revenue and monetization strategies, go-to-market strategies, effective onboarding, engagement and customer retention tactics – in the belief that if our clients are successful, so will we. 4. We help our customers actively in building and scaling their business by making introductions within our wide network for potential partners, customers or even investors to raise money. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Rahul Varshneya:** To see the entire software consulting landscape for founder-led businesses change to a model that we’ve built and even improvise on it – so that less and less founders have terrible experiences with their outsourced development teams. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Rahul Varshneya:** We’ve built a strong brand for our company – firstly by delivering quality products for our clients. 40% of our business comes from existing client referrals. The remaining comes from our personal branding efforts – I am an invited columnist to write on ‘ building technology business by non-tech founders’ for Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur and Huffington Post. I have also been featured in numerous publications such as Forbes, Inc, Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Success and CIO Review magazine. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? In one of the tech product companies that I built earlier, we weren’t flexible enough to adapt to the changing nature of the industry. We hung onto the model and that caused the company to shut down soon thereafter. Flexibility to change and adapt to the needs of the customers is extremely important for any business to stay relevant in the long run. The biggest success that I’ve had was a successful exit of my last EdTech company. You can turn a failing enterprise into a successful one if you’re persistent and stay true to your vision. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Persistency, coupled with flexibility to adapt is so underrated. It has the power to even turn a failing company into a successful one (as in my earlier company’s case). There are many times in business when it’s challenging and there aren’t the best of times. But putting your head down and working through them is the mark of a great entrepreneur. Versus those that give up at that stage and blame their idea or the market/competition or customer, etc – the problem almost always lies within. ### Teach us something about Internet Marketing **Rahul Varshneya:** Stop thinking tactics unless you’ve got your strategy nailed down. The biggest mistake most people make is to go after the flavor of the season – Instagram marketing, Snapchat marketing, etc without knowing anything about their customers. Start with a strategic marketing plan that should answer the following questions and then take the path towards channel tactics. 1. Who is your customer (nail it down to as much specific details as you can) 2. What are their likes, dislikes, what do they like to read, consume 3. Find out where do they hang out that also depicts their buy behavior – for instance, you’d have almost no success selling software on Instagram versus selling a clothing brand. On the other hand, think what’s the first place that your customers go to for researching on the product before buying 4. Have a primary channel and two secondary. No more than 3. 5. Create a strategic plan to promote your product/service using this medium – research your competition (the successful ones) well and see how and what they’re doing. 6. Now use tactics/growth hacks to get the best leverage of the marketing channels. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Rahul Varshneya:** The road ahead and not the obstacles. Think of a F1 driver – if they were to focus on the obstacles, they would almost certainly crash. Rather, they stay focused on the road they’re traversing. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Rahul Varshneya:** There are just so many, besides I’m sure I still haven’t read many more of the great ones. But some of the recent books I’ve read that left a mark were: The One Thing, Never Split The Difference and Trust Me I’m Lying. --- ## Teenage Entrepreneur Priya Mittal Proves How Technology Can Solve The World’s Most Complex Issues URL: https://futuresharks.com/priya-mittal/ Priya Mittal is a Senior at The Dalton School in New York City. She has a deeply rooted passion for the visual arts, technology and social entrepreneurship. Priya is a curious and passionate person who has created her own app and company, GroGreen, stemmed from her commitment to utilize technology to spark change in her community. Priya’s work on GroGreen has led to major accomplishments. She won second place at the Technovation World Pitch Summit and was a finalist in the #BUILTBYGIRLS Challenge. She won the Greater New York Area Award and was a National Honorable Mention Runner-Up in the National Center for Women & Information Technology competition. She is very committed to promoting girls in STEM and is not only co-President the Girls Who Code chapter at her school, but has been part of organizations like Made with Code and Global Citizen that are dedicated to this mission as well. **City where you’re from:** New York City **Hobbies:** Photography, Paddleboarding, Science Research **Favorite quote:** “When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” – Walt Disney **Social accounts:**Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn ## Hey Priya, what are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Priya Mittal:** One day in October of 2015, I was strolling through the Union Square Farmers Market in NYC, rummaging through the produce items being sold. Like many, I repeated the same steps countless times: pick up the item, turn it over, and then inspect it. If perfect looking, drop it in my bag, but if dented even in the slightest, toss it back in the crates. It was not until I got home that I started to wonder what actually happens to the produce that gets left at the bottom of the piles. I started to look up phrases like “Farmer’s Market Waste” or “Produce Left in Crates at Market” until suddenly I came across a shocking term coined “Ugly Produce.” What I learned was shocking. Every year, over 6 billion pounds of produce is being thrown away because it is judged to be “ugly”, and therefore, is not being bought. That is enough produce to solve world hunger! In fact, 1 in 5 produce items is wasted because it does not meet the cosmetic standards of supermarkets. It is not economically viable for farms to throw away so much time and money worth of healthy, edible produce. The produce wasted at these farmer’s markets had to be healthy if it was being sold at all. Anyways, food should only be judged by taste and not looks.This was the start of GroGreen. GroGreen aims to turn wasted food into wanted food by minimizing the amount of ugly produce wasted each year. As it turns out, restaurants and juice and smoothie bars are the perfect beneficiaries of this produce since they transform the produce to the point where the original form no longer matters. On the other hand, farms benefit from using GroGreen since they can sell produce that would otherwise be wasted. GroGreen is an iOS application that has two platforms. When restaurants log in, they will be able to place an order by selecting the desired, produce, and quantity they want to purchase, and then pay. Next, farms log in, see what orders they need to complete, and then when finished, archive their order. As a company, GroGreen will act as the trade and delivery service, transporting these produce items from farms to restaurants local to New York City. ### ### How is your company different? **Priya Mittal:**As a company located in the heart of NYC, GroGreen has the potential to benefit from partnerships with local farmer’s markets. Likewise, we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of upcoming city bike lane developments and ensure that these deliveries continuously remain very efficient and time sensitive. Ordering through GroGreen implies that restaurants will solely be receiving produce that is imperfect. In this way, GroGreen acts as a campaign by encouraging consumers everywhere to normalize the stigma of “ugly” produce. There is unfortunately a low demand for blemished produce, thus restaurants save money with GroGreen because they will be buying produce that is below the market price. Similarly, farmers gain access to alternative markets or their irrationally unwanted produce. The ability to open up to very large markets for both the farm and restaurant industries are part of what makes GroGreen so unique. Although there are quite a few apps pertaining to farmer’s markets, GroGreen stands out in its core mission to help the economy and environment. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Priya Mittal:**GroGreen’s mission is both a local and global one in its dedication to minimize the amount of produce waste each year. While I do hope to start the company in the NYC area, once it proves successful, I will be expanding it to many more cities in the United States. My dream is that after the success in these domestic areas, I will be able to expand the product to the global market. GroGreen is an app that is extremely accessible. All you need is a username and password to join, thus it certainly does not matter where the user is located. This inclusive mentality is vital in our commitment to making sure that no produce, no matter how much, will be wasted. Eventually, I do hope to expand GroGreen not from just from the restaurant and produce sectors but to corporative spaces such as organizations, companies and schools as well. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Priya Mittal:**For GroGreen, advertising needs to be very creative and innovative right from the very beginning. The two industries I hope to bring together are the restaurant and farm sectors. Because we operate under a double segmented market, advertising needs to be as efficient as possible to ensure that both sides are interested and aware of the product. It is important to be aware that farmers and chefs might not be the most tech savvy, and so what I have been doing to creatively advertise is create paper based flyers that I can hand out to farmers at farmer’s markets. Word of mouth is a great way to advertise in this way because since farmer’s markets are communities in and of themselves, if one farm hears about GroGreen, it is inevitable that others will too. I have been cold emailing over 200 restaurants in the NYC area about GroGreen and am thrilled that they are so receptive to the idea. I also send out a monthly newsletter in which I highlight news about the farm and restaurant industries as well as the food and agricultural sectors as a whole. I hope to use this platform as an educational platform on top of the business aspect. ### How do you motivate yourself when faced with a challenge? **Priya Mittal:**Like anyone, there were times when I felt discouraged throughout the process. However, I continuously told myself that what I was doing was a good thing. I saw the crates of discarded produce in my head could visually see the change I hoped to bring about in my community. I knew what I wanted to do and who I wanted to help, but reminding myself of this was really important in keeping up my motivation. I think that is what makes social entrepreneurship so special; anyone who is taking on this journey is so motivated to take initiative of the change they want to see in the world. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Priya Mittal:**My biggest success was seeing my entire company come together. I started off the entire journey having a very clear sense of what I wanted GroGreen to ultimately look like, but understanding how to actually create it was something very new. After months of watching video tutorials and reaching out to people with any questions I had, I began to understand in more depth topics like creating a business plan or networking that I did not really understand before. The success of seeing the entrepreneurship and tech side work cohesively together taught me to never give up. It sounds cliche, but honestly, if you put your mind to something and tell yourself you are not quitting no matter what, you can push through and achieve something really great. My biggest failure was not allotting enough time to fully develop my business model. I realized far too late that there were some holes in ideas I thought would work, specifically revolving around GroGreen’s delivery service. In a startup, the technical and business side of the product really do work together. Only once I acknowledged this and fixed up concepts in my business model was I able to move on to the more technical side to fully develop a product I knew both customer segments would really use. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Priya Mittal:**The best entrepreneurship advice anyone has ever told me is to “get outside.” A lot of people think that slaving over creating a tangible end product is the most important part of the journey of entrepreneurship. However, unless you get outside and talk to your customer segments or potential users, you will be unable to create a well rounded product that has features that appeal to a diverse group of people. If you sit inside all day, before you know it, you will have created a product that only appeals to a select group of users and thus limiting your market. And you do not want that. ### Teach us something about how to reach out to people **Priya Mittal:**During the past month, I have learned so much about outreach, not just towards chefs and farmers, but to people in my community that can learn so much about the “Ugly Produce Movement.” I have launched GroGreen’s first website and I have a special section dedicated towards monthly newsletters that I create. Every month, I send out a newsletter to customers, friends and family, writing about news in the food and agriculture industries but also about what people are doing to combat food waste. I think it is so important to keep people in the loop, especially interested customers, about whatever subject you are focused on. The more they understand it, the more you are able to show them why it is important, thus gaging their interest. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Priya Mittal:**This past month, I have been focusing a lot from learning as much as I can about entrepreneurship from professionals themselves. One educational tool that I have found to be incredible is Guy Raz’s podcast entitled “How I Built This” where he interviews a leading entrepreneur about their companies, and their journey, while asking them to share such profound advice to listeners along the way. A common message that many entrepreneurs have alluded to is this concept going with the flow and not being so constrained to what you want to do or what you think you have to do. Rather, it is important to take advantage of all the experiences you will encounter and all the opportunities that come your way even if you did not plan to participate in one. No matter how seemingly obscure or irrelevant the activity is, you will inevitably learn something from that experience that will help you at some point in your life. ### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) **Priya Mittal:**GroGreen’s logo is an ugly apple representing my home state New York with a spoon and rake crossed representing the two industries that I hope to bring together. Here at GroGreen, it is so important that every component of our business be in line with our mission of being as environmentally friendly as possible, the logo being no different! ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Priya Mittal:**In entrepreneurship, one of the most important tools to have is the ability to think outside of the box. The world is always changing and you will always face problems, but the way that you respond to these challenges will determine the success of your product. I have always been a very creative person who is very motivated and I think being able to craft well developed, innovative solutions is essential. This ability to think outside of the box has enabled me to think of ways to combat all types of problems that I face along the way. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Priya Mittal:**It is important for an entrepreneur to focus on maintaining a futuristic mindset. Sure, the problem you are trying to fix at any given moment might be extremely important, but the world is always changing. It is important to not just think about what might be needed today, but what will be needed in a couple years. Entrepreneurs should not just get held back by nitty gritty detail or by small problems, but they should be thinking about the greater problem and challenges they may face going forward a year from now. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Priya Mittal:**“The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries about entrepreneurship and “The Third Plate” by Dan Barber about the future of food. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Priya Mittal:**I am currently a Senior in High School, but in college, I hope to study Computer Science, Social Entrepreneurship and Visual Arts. I would like to use these skills in order to make a difference in the world by addressing an unmet need that has significant impact on our community. Without computing and technology, it would be impossible to create GroGreen. Obviously, computing is also necessary to further develop the app, as well as external databases and API. However, without a significant focus on Visual Arts, even the best idea can fail. As Apple’s success has taught us, the user interface is critical to the long term success of an app or any consumer facing technology. I really hope to not only continue working on GroGreen in college, but also join initiatives like CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that are trying to combat food waste. This environmental goal is something so important to me and I hope that I will be able to make a difference within this subject wherever I go. --- ## Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree Candice Galek Show Us How to Achieve Massive E-Commerce Success URL: https://futuresharks.com/candice-galek/ **Candice Galek** is the Founder and CEO of Bikini Luxe, an online designer swimwear retailer. She’s a featured honoree on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List, and a Social Media Today and Inc. Magazine columnist. You may have seen her on LinkedIn where she went viral recently as the most viewed person in the world. **City where you’re from:** Miami, FL **Hobbies:**Creating content, networking, island hopping, and playing tennis. **Favorite quote:**“Is this appropriate for LinkedIn?” **Social accounts** : Twitter: @BikiniGeek Facebook: @BikiniGeek Instagram: @BikiniGeek Linkedin: @Bikini ### Hey Candice, great having you on Future Sharks. What’s something new you’re doing with Bikini Luxe? **Candice Galek:**Currently we’re focused on creating a user submitted content platform to give up and coming fashion bloggers and influencers a place to voice their opinion. Our blogs draw in a good amount of traffic already, but our writers are maxed out with all the work we give them. Many girls ask us to guest blog, so we thought we would give them a shot at creating content and let them share their style secrets, makeup tutorials, and best smoothie recipes with our readers. ### How is Bikini Luxe different? **Candice Galek:**We primarily feature fashion labels that are doing good within the community, but are still luxurious. They may only employ single mothers, or teach women who have faced homelessness or abuse a skill and provide them living wages. Some of them plant a tree for every product sold, others support the welfare of dogs in Bali. We’re focused on helping women make smart decisions when it comes to fashion and social causes. If you’re spending money on luxury swimwear, why not do some good for the community at the same time? We’re big on looking and feeling good, and I wanted to combine two of my passions which are shopping and helping others. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Candice Galek:**I’ve already exceeded my original expectations, so my goals have shifted. I’d like Bikini Luxe to have it’s own charity fund, to manufacture products that serve a larger purpose. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Candice Galek:**I like to spark conversation between strangers on social media. If you can get two groups of people to share their point of view, it often times leads to massive engagement thus thrusting your post to be seen by more people. ### Who is your customer, and why? **Candice Galek:**A #BikiniLuxeBabe is someone who doesn’t skimp on quality, because she knows what she wants and values style and fit. She is also someone who cares about the welfare of others, so she chooses Bikini Luxe to spoil herself while donating to important causes simultaneously. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Candice Galek:**My biggest success was probably in learning how to pitch effectively and landing in Forbes 8 times in 2016 and the 30 Under 30 List in 2017. Ironically, my biggest failure was taking on too much at once while I was getting a lot of publicity led to me being burnt out. You can’t do everything and be everything to everyone, at least not if you want to be good at it. #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Candice Galek:**Focus on what you’re good at, and delegate everything else. ### Teach us something about branding **Candice Galek:**Be true to your brands personality. When your unique voice shines through, the followers and customers will come. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Candice Galek:**I’ve been soaking up as much advice from authors as possible. I’ve learned how to lay out ideas and schedule out chapters before writing so that you don’t go off on a tangent about something you won’t even be including. ### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) **Candice Galek:**You can be more effective if you word out tasks on your to-do list so that they don’t leave you asking questions. For example, instead of adding “Email John Back” you should write “Email John back providing him with a price sheet for services.” Your brain will view it as easier to accomplish when there’s no question as to what you actually have to do. Also, if it takes less than two minutes to do, just do it right away, don’t even add it to the list. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Candice Galek:**Solve problems. I love to strategize. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Candice Galek:**Execution of ideas. We’ve all got great ideas, but those who execute end out on top. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Candice Galek:**Who knows, I never expected Bikini Luxe to turn into what it has, or that I would be able to share my lessons learned with others. I hope to be more hands off with the business, and be working on two to three more. --- ## Brooke Lynette Went from 0 to 1M likes in Just 8 Months! URL: https://futuresharks.com/brooke-lynette/ The millennial world of social media is a hot bed of breaking new talent. Brookelyn however is one of the frontrunners of this new business frontier. In just 8 short months Brookelyn has nurtured her brand and talent becoming one of the fastest growing UK social media influencers out there. She has amassed a staggering 1 million Facebookfollowers in just **240 days**, yup that’s **4,166 people per day** liking her page), and it continues to grow! Her monthly reach often exceeds **100 million+**with her comedy antics and tongue in cheek parodies raising eyebrows across the globe. Instagram is also following suit. Her Insta platform has grown to **350k** in total, with almost **1500 likes per day**. Her engagement via this medium is probably the most impressive of all though, with 3 of her recent video posts reaching over **1 million** views each, the highest engagement of those surpassing **4.2 million**views. Pretty mouthwatering no? Brookelyns’ focus in the coming months will be to hit the **1 million**followers on the platform. To date, Brookelyn has had over **1 billion**video views in total with **500 million** directly attributed to her social platforms. The result is simple. Brookelyn can no longer be ignored, her reach mammoths her piers and shows no sign of slowing. With several high profile brand collaborations already under her belt in 2017 her brand portfolio is also really taking shape this year too, validating her as a key player in the world of social media influencers. The future holds much promise for the self made marketing machine as the millennial star hurtles towards the **2 million** follower mark at a pace Watch this (social) space. **City where you’re from:** Edinburgh, Scotland living in London for past 12 years which is now my home! **Hobbies:** I love to cook, work out and travel as much as I can. **Favorite quote:**“Acceptance not Expectance” > When Your GirI is a Creep.. ??? > Wait until the end!!! ? > Follow me on Instagram- MissBrooke_Lyn ? > Posted by Brookelyn on Thursday, April 20, 2017 ## Hey Brooke Lynette! What got you into making your influencer account? When did you start? **Brooke Lynette:** I featured in a video for other influencers (woody and kleiny) and loved being part of it then I decided to make my own page and content to see where it would take me, that was just 8 months ago. What are some secrets to virality in your most successful platform (Fb) The general public love content which is relatable, they love to laugh and they love to be able to tag their friends or share it for others. If you find an idea which is very relatable and you can make people laugh or shock them then you’re in with a good chance of it doing well. You also need a big share network in order to push your content out, a fan base which engage on your content on upload is also key. ### If you had to build your following all over, how would you do it much quicker? **Brooke Lynette:**I think reaching over a million in 8 months was pretty quick but if i could do it all over again I would put out more content and aim for 2 million in 8 months 🙂 > Every man & woman during pregnancy ???? (tag ur partner) w/ @woodyandkleiny ? > A post shared by BROOKELYN (@missbrooke_lyn) on May 10, 2017 at 12:12pm PDT ### Who are other influencers you look up to? **Brooke Lynette:**Ah there is so many other influencers out there which i look up to, you have the likes of Logan paul, King Bach, Amanda Cerny, all killing it right now. Those 3 are my favourites, Amanda more so for being beautiful, sexy, smart and funny! Did I mention she’s female? I love powerful women! How did you promote your content in the early days? I started with Woody & Kleiny who helped me massively then I have always used the help of the community of people i share with to help me get out there, collabs also help alot especially when you’re new and have not got your face and name out there. ### How long does it take you to produce your content? Which software do you use to make your video and track its engagement/promotion if any? **Brooke Lynette:**From thinking of the idea to filming then editing then uploading it varies on each video. The average sketch takes 3 hours to film and 1-2 days to edit it to be ready to upload. My main editor (kleiny from ‘Woody and Kleiny’  uses final cut pro but i have worked with others who use premiere pro too. Every video varies! > OMG Wait Until The End!!! ??? > Tag a coffee lover.. ? > Follow me on Instagram- MissBrooke_lyn ? > Posted by Brookelyn on Thursday, May 25, 2017 #### Value-add questions ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month (whether some new social media update or a new marketing technique)? **Brooke Lynette:**I’m always learning new things on a daily basis, i would have a list full so i won’t bore you but everyday you learn something new in this industry, that’s why it’s fun! ### What should an influencer focus on? **Brooke Lynette:**Themselves! Focus on your own growth, your own content and not on others. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Brooke Lynette:**The alchemist was a great read. ### What’s your ultimate goal with your account? **Brooke Lynette:**To grow as big as possible and as quick as possible. ### What’s your dream? **Brooke Lynette:**Well my dream 6 months ago was to be doing this full time and now here i am, i guess to keep going for as long as possible. Related: Read how [Goubtube got over 1 Billion combined views on his Facebook account](/go-viral-facebook-goubtube/). --- ## High School Dropout Johnny Brown Finds Success Leveraging The Power Of Social Media URL: https://futuresharks.com/johnny-brown/ Johnny Brown is a 25 year old entrepreneur utilizing the power of social media marketing to drive thousands of sales per month to various brands. **City where you’re from:** Myrtle Beach, SC **Hobbies:**Powerlifting, traveling, and content creation. **Favorite quote:**“If you’re not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better.” **―****Will Smith** **Social accounts** @Fortify ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I invest all of my time, energy and resources in eCommerce. My main focus right now is a women’s swimwear company that I launched over Spring Break. In addition to my eCommerce ventures, I work alongside my fellow shark, [Zachary Dempsey](/zachary-dempsey/), to encourage the growth of his marketing firm. Zach’s company plays a crucial role in both the daily operations and overall success of my business, so the partnership was really unquestionable. We’ve driven just shy of 500,000,000 impressions to the store in only 3 short months, while simultaneously delivering an equal or greater amount of impressions to our clients. The synergy of the two companies is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. ## How is your company different? eCommerce is all the hype right now — If you want to be successful, you have to venture from the path. I think what separates my company from the (many) others of it’s kind is not only the content we create, but how we promote it. For example, most companies publish stock photos of their products on white backgrounds. I think we can all agree, as consumers, this is the most lackadaisical form of (visual) advertising known to man. You want your customers to be enthralled with your product from the moment they see it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bathing suit or your dream car, you’re not going to feel inclined to buy it if you can’t envision yourself both using it and being absolutely, totally in love with it. The best form of (visual) advertising is  *real people using real products*. Give your customers the opportunity to see the product in it’s most flattering form, and I guarantee you’ll see an increase in sales/conversions. ### ### What’s your dream with your brand? I want to build a culture around the brand **―** My primary focus is creating a visual representation of what the brand signifies, then attracting customers that identify with those values. I want the consumers who choose to support the brand**to feel like they’re apart of something great. ### How do you creatively advertise? Influencer marketing is the driving force behind our success. We work with hundreds of influencers each day to generate leads for our brand. We strive to work with individuals whose follower demographic correlates with our own, as well as parody accounts with predominately female followers. Working with parody accounts can be tricky, seeing as the traffic is (in most cases) extremely untargeted. It’s imperative to know your target audience before assuming the risk of buying ad space from parody accounts, especially if you’re expecting an immediate return on investment. If you’re a store owner or aspiring store owner, make sure you have a means of collecting customer data in place prior to working with these types of influencers. Data is priceless. ### How do you determine or evaluate success? Give me an example of one of your successful accomplishments. Success is subjective. I think anyone who measures success by income or net worth is blindly pledging allegiance to a standard derived from greed. Income only creates opportunities. I’m able to devote my time and attention to the things I love, each and every day. I’ve spent the last 5 years traveling the country, collaborating with some of the brightest minds of our generation, while simultaneously being able to financially support my family. No matter how “successful” I become, that will always be my greatest accomplishment. ### Teach us something about social media ads. Every impression counts ―**If you’re curating content for social ads, ensure that you’re displaying the most advantageous creative possible to represent your brand or product. ### Teach us something we don’t know about you (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) I earned my first six-figures playing the Halo series on Xbox Live. I dropped out of High School as a freshmen to devote more time to the business, where I began playing a minimum of 18 hours a day for nearly two consecutive years. It took me almost 3 years to exhaust the earnings I accumulated via PayPal. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Growth, in every sense of the word. Regardless of what field you choose to pursue, personal development should always be a priority. Becoming an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart, self awareness is imperative for anyone who chooses to go out on their own. There are going to be things you enjoy, things you are good at and things you can improve on. My best advice is to find something you love that stimulates growth, and do that. ### Where do you see yourself in a couple years? As long as I’m able to continue learning, growing and pursuing my passions, I don’t think the vision will change. I’m content with the direction my life is headed and I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished thus far. The ultimate goal is to create multiple, self sustaining brands that thrive amidst their niches, make a charitable or global impact, and travel the world with my loved ones. --- ## Auctioneers Used To Be Old Cowboys From The Midwest But This Young Female In NY Had Different Ideas URL: https://futuresharks.com/erin-doherty-ward/ Erin Doherty Ward is a third generation auctioneer who has spun the auction industry on its head to fit her passion.  Growing up she loved her family’s company, but she knew she didn’t fit the auctioneer mold.  In an industry that is only 14% female, and the majority of auctioneers are from the Midwest, she felt her life was spent apologizing for being different.  She left the family business, received a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree from SUNY Purchase in Women Studies and Art History, and set out to travel the world.   As she grew, she learned more and more that her heart yearned to work in the nonprofit industry.  She wanted to change the world.  She knew her home was still New York, even after living in many countries.  Erin realized that her history and experience meant she could help thousands of nonprofits.  She created a company that specialized in fundraising auctions.  Erin told her family she didn’t want to be the type of auctioneer they showed on TV, she wanted to work in the glamourous world of New York and make a difference in the world using a talent she didn’t want to apologize for any more.  Follow her journey at www.starbenefitauctions.com. **City where you’re from:** Islip, NY **Hobbies:**Traveling, Stand-up Paddle Boarding, Yoga, Swing Dancing, Vespa Driving, Raising Millions to Save Lives* **Favorite quote:**“To the world you are just one person, but to one person you can be the world.” -Anonymous **Social accounts**: Twitter: @benefitauction   Instagram: @auctionerin   Facebook: @starbenefitauctions ## What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Erin Doherty:** Several years ago, I founded Star Benefit Auctions.  At the time, there were only a few companies in the world that were strictly focused on fundraising auctions.  Most auctioneers conducted benefit auctions on the side to promote their other auction companies. I wanted to only specialize in benefit events.  I knew that with great dedication I could find what was really needed at organization’s special events.  I could use my history and life knowledge with that need and I could really affect the world.  After endless hours of education and experience with nonprofits and their special events, I have recently realized a major shift and my past of fast talking might not be the best service I can provide.  I realized my skills in reading the room and consulting with nonprofits is the real value; and the new trend of special appeals at events is really going to be the game changer for organizations.  So now I’m working as hard as possible to create magic moments at every event and breaking their fundraising goals that will make the change.   ## How is your company different? **Erin Doherty:**I’m a member of the **National Auctioneers Association (NAA)** and I attended the I attended the World Wide College of Auctioneering in Iowa and sat in a class with cattle auctioneers.  Back in New York, the auction world was a stuffy English style and at my galas it was class and style, but looking for fun.  I was able to provide all of that.  I talk fast, but I am certainly not a cowboy.  Because of that, I never fit in with any groups. There lies the internal battle of most entrepreneurs. Where do we fit? ## What’s your dream with your company? **Erin Doherty:**I want to help as many nonprofits as I possibly can.  Each event I work for makes a tangible difference in the world. I never leave an event feeling bad about the difference I helped create.  In years to come, we will be growing and using more auctioneers that provide the high level service in addition to my consulting services.  We do not just show up the night of an event, we work months before an event with our clients to make sure the short amount of time we have on stage is set for maximum fundraising. ## How do you creatively advertise? **Erin Doherty:**I am mainly word of mouth.  No one thinks auctioneer.  No one thinks female auctioneer.  And no one thinks New York City female auctioneer.  So the best way I have found to advertise is just getting out there and providing the best service I can.  I also host seminars and have vast amount of videos of our auctioneering.  Recently, I partnered with Eataly in NYC to create pop-up show auctions and we aired them on Facebook live to thousands of fans.  It was like a short, modern reality TV show.  That got me a lot of attention!    ## What have you learned this year? **Erin Doherty:**To stop apologizing!  Like I said, I never fit in.  I am a minority in my industry.  So I tried to fit in. To dress like someone that fit in with the Midwest style or to try to slow down in the New York audience.  I realized trying to fit into molds that existed was not helping anyone. Once I decided to just be my greatest version and hold my head up that’s when I started seeing my company really blooming.  I am one of a kind. Growing up, many people tried to put my mom and my family down telling us we “weren’t normal” and today I am more proud of that than ever before.   ## What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Erin Doherty:***I guess my biggest failure (so far) was a divorce.  I know that wasn’t a business fail, but I worked really hard at the “normal life” and when that failed I was crushed.  It took me a while to come back from it, but that is when I stopped trying to fit into something.  My ex one day in a fit yelled “you don’t have a career you have a b%@@$#*t showboat hobby.”  At that moment, I realized how much “normal” was holding me back.  That weekend I raised almost half a million dollars for a group that saved and educated orphans in Haiti.  My “hobby” saved lives.  I learned that I needed to stop holding myself back to fit into other people’s opinions.   My biggest success was a recent compliment from a guest at an event.  After a great fundraising evening, a donor stopped me in the hall and he said “I go to these type of events all the time and you are wonderful.  I love to give, its easy to give, but you got me to do something I’ve never done. I will donate a lot tonight, but I will also sign-up to volunteer my time and my physical labor.  You opened my heart and spoke with such passion that I will do more than just donate money.”  That success for me reaffirmed my choice.  I was given many challenges and advantages in life and they all created a part to make me great at this job.  I know I’m on the right path. #### Value-add questions ## Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Erin Doherty:**I know it’s said all the time, but stick with your passion.  Follow your heart as honestly as possible.  Be a good person and act with honesty and integrity.  Your heart and passion will shine through and help you grow your dreams to reality.  If you lose site of your dreams find a friend and set-up an accountability call with them.  Don’t give up, but always be honest with who you are to yourself and to the world. Teach us something useful **Erin Doherty:**LISTEN!  All too often we speak or we spend time thinking about what we want to say when someone else is talking. Listen to others before you speak.  Practicing active listening will help you in all areas if your life.  It will increase your relationships. Your memory of moments will be more sincere and you might learn something. ## What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Erin Doherty:**I learned how to outsource.  I thought I had to do everything myself and I have felt very guilty when I didn’t get it all done.  There are places you can outsource and get help easy and quick.  I haven’t been able to really utilize this yet cause I tend to be a control freak, but knowing they are there has been very relaxing!  Haha! ## Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) **Erin Doherty:**Auctioneers use filler words.  In between the numbers they are saying the rhythm and fun sounds come from some basic filler words. Such as “bid ‘em at”, ”I have”,  “bid to buy”, “anybody bid”, “gotta get”, “can you bid”, “wanna bid” or “wanna buy” those sounds can create tongue rolls and fun beats.   ## What do you think you do better than most people? **Erin Doherty:**Connect people, solve problems and buy presents.  I’m really good at figuring out what people want or need and finding a way to help them get it.  Not as good at this for myself, but I can find great answers for other people. ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Erin Doherty:**The why behind the why.  Why are you doing what you’re doing.  Not I bake cookies because people like cookies, but why you. Why are you a baker.  Focus on your core and make sure its clear and strong because you may end up alone with that core and sometimes it’s all you have. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Erin Doherty:**Recently reading the book of Joy and it’s pretty special.   ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Erin Doherty:**I think there will be some major growth and innovations because the fundraising climate has changed and I want to help events change with it.  I think I will be very busy and I think I will have more services to provide.  I am excited for the future. --- ## Matthew Edgar Uses Data Analytics to Help Small Businesses and Non-Profits URL: https://futuresharks.com/matthew-edgar/ Matthew Edgar is web consultant at Elementive. Since 2001, Matthew has helped hundreds of businesses and nonprofits grow through a process of analyzing and improving their website and online presence. He is the author of Elements of a Successful Website published in 2017. Matthew regularly speaks at conferences and teaches workshops about analytics and technical marketing subjects. You can connect on Twitter @MatthewEdgarCO or on his blog at MatthewEdgar.net. **City where you’re from:**  Centennial, Colorado **Social accounts**: https://twitter.com/MatthewEdgarCO, https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewedgar ### Hey Matthew, welcome to Future Sharks. What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Matthew Edgar:** My company, Elementive, is focused on helping small businesses and nonprofits understand how to use and benefit from their data and analytics. My business partner and I formed Elementive in 2014 after seeing so many smaller organizations struggle with integrating analytics and data into their day-to-day processes. It can seem challenging, especially for smaller organizations with limited time and money. But what my business partner and I realized is that it doesn’t have to be that way. The more you can start using analytics, the more informed your decisions can be and that leads to better results. ### How is your company different? What’s your dream with your company? **Matthew Edgar:**Our services are focused on analytics and a lot of our work is for smaller organizations and non-profits. These are companies who generally don’t think that they need analytics or data–that is for big companies! Or, so the thinking goes. My favorite moments are when we help clients understand something new about their business or when we help them see a problem in a new way. That is the exciting part of relying on analytics–it is a different way of thinking about a problem and can show you new opportunities you wouldn’t have found otherwise. Our vision with Elementive is to continue to help people at those smaller organizations find simple and easy ways to use data and analytics. ### How do you uniquely market your company? **Matthew Edgar:** We focus heavily on educating and providing resources online and offline showing different ways of utilizing analytics to improve your marketing or better understand your customers. There is less of a focus on “selling” or “promoting” ourselves. Like with the Go-Giver mindset, a lot of our marketing is based on how much value we can give and how well we can serve. ### What is your most successful service? **Matthew Edgar:**The most successful service, and the one that drives the most value for clients, is our ongoing support and consultation. With this service, we work with clients every month to help them measure how their website and online marketing are performing. Based on those metrics, we help the client decide where to invest their time and budget over the coming month. What they should tweak? What new tactics make sense to add? What tactics should they stop? It is the slow and steady process of continually measuring and improving that leads to the biggest long-term growth. ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Matthew Edgar:**Prior to forming Elementive, I started a software company. While it did okay, it never really took off with customers. This clarified for me a problem I’d seen happen with clients as well: even though the product and the marketing were great, and even though we did everything technically right, things didn’t work out as planned. This serves as a good reminder that while you can (and should) improve your marketing and product, there are so many other factors involved as well, including timing, competitors, and larger global trends. As we work with clients now at Elementive, we’ve placed greater focus on competitive metrics as well to start taking account of some of these other factors. Elementive is the most successful thing I’ve ever been involved in. I credit my business partner with a lot of that success–while I’d run my own businesses for seven years prior to forming Elementive with her, teaming up allowed us to determine where to focus, where we can make the biggest difference for clients, who we should serve, and exactly the kind of services clients needed. This has also served as a great reminder that collaboration is key. #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Matthew Edgar:**The best advice I can give is to remember that you and your business are unique. There is no secret formula and anybody claiming to have one is probably trying to sell you something. Instead, what I’ve learned—personally, from clients, and from partner businesses—is that every single business is unique. What works for you won’t work for anybody else (and vice versa). So, don’t try to just copy what somebody else did or follow somebody’s “winning” formula. Instead, make your own decisions and find your own path forward. You should definitely listen to and consider what others have to say. That might include the experts with the secret formula, trusted advisors, customer feedback, or even studying your competitors. This also includes considering what your analytics and data have to tell about what’s working–data and analytics are great at showing you what your customers are thinking and showing you what is happening in the market. Don’t let that input though take you off your own course though. Use it as a guide for questions to ask and possibilities to consider as you find what is right for your business and the people you serve. ### Teach us something about web analytics **Matthew Edgar:**The biggest question clients ask as they start looking at their analytics is how their numbers compare to an average. What should the numbers be? What’s a good amount of time for people to spend on my site? What’s a good conversion rate? How much of my traffic should come from one marketing channel? But the answer is that there is no answer. Averages and industry benchmarks are pretty useless when it comes to knowing how your website should perform. I’ve seen companies succeed with low and high conversion rates. I’ve seen companies have great performing websites where people spent very little time on the site. Before you look at your analytics tools, you need to determine what the right numbers are for your website and for your company. Then compare the actual numbers against what would be right for you. For instance, do you need a high conversion rate? Maybe, if you are selling a cheaper product. But if are you selling a luxury good, a lower conversion rate might be just fine–even preferable, since it means only the best quality converters are getting through. Do you need people to spend a lot of time on your site? Maybe, if you have a lot of content for people to read through (like Future Sharks does!). But, alternatively, people might be coming to your website to check a quick stat and a lower time on site is better. In terms of resources to learn about web analytics, certainly Elementive’s website contains resources to learn about analytics. Beyond our website, though, I’d highly recommend Moz’s blog, Avinash Kaushik’s blog, and Justin Cutroni’s blog. All three contain highly-actionable information about using data and analytics as part of your business. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Matthew Edgar:**Lately, I’ve been growing increasingly interested in voice interactions and what this means for the future of the web. This is an area that is continuing to grow and expand. Some projections say voice interactions will grow 30% by 2020, while others provide even bigger projections. Voice interactions completely change everything about the way users interact with information. For instance, right now interactions are predominantly visual with reading text or viewing graphics. But some voice technologies, like Alexa, largely remove the visual component. It will be interesting to see how voice features expand in the future and how voice technology can overcome some of the interesting challenges it presents. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Matthew Edgar:**Focus on serving your customers. At the end of every day, you should be able to say, with 100% conviction, that you did everything possible to make your customers lives better–now, in the short term and but also in the long term. It is incredibly easy to get distracted and focus on other things, like new technologies or new ways to improve an internal process. But, as those distractions arise, continually ask yourself if your customers need that from you. Are your customers better served by you building out that new technology or just solving their current problem? Are your customers struggling because of that internal process or are the problems with that internal process only bothering you? The more you challenge yourself to stay focused on customers, the better your chances of having happy, satisfied customers, which means a healthier business long term. Related: Learn how to build a business that generates $100k/mo. --- ## Meet the 17 Year Old Bridging the Gender Gap in Tech: Malavika Vivek URL: https://futuresharks.com/malavika-vivek/ Malavika Vivek is the founder of Women Tech eXchange and director of Girls Make Apps, both organizations that seek to provide pathways for more girls in tech. Attending the Middlesex County Academy in New Jersey, she is extremely passionate about science, technology and social entrepreneurship. For her efforts to close the gender gap in technology, she has been recognized as a national runner-up by the National Center for Women and Information Technology as well as a 2017 Stanford #include fellow. Malavika is also the President of her school’s Girls Who Code chapter and co-Captain of her VEX Robotics team. **City where you’re from:** Edison, NJ **Hobbies:**Singing, Designing, Machine Learning, Coding **Favorite quote:**“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus **Social accounts**: Malavika Vivek, @purpleivy8, Girls Make Apps Facebook, LinkedIn ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Malavika Vivek:** Ever since I became a high schooler in a competitive STEM high school, I immediately noticed the lack of women in technology and the effects imposter syndrome was having on my talented, interested peers. They didn’t see a place for them in technology because there weren’t many female role models in tech being pushed like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. This is where my passion for bridging the gender gap in STEM began. In order to affect change, I partnered with my co-founder Akshaya Dinesh and the National Center for Women and Information Technology to create Girls Make Apps, a national organization that hosts workshops and hackathons for young women from middle school to the college level. Our recent events have included a 8-week pilot program partnered with Microsoft NYC which taught middle schoolers how to create android apps and about entrepreneurship and a VR camp for high schoolers in the Bay Area. Coming up, we have ByteHacks, and incredible 24-hour hackathon event at Spotify NYC with awesome prizes and opportunities. ### How is your company different? **Malavika Vivek:** Girls Make Apps was created around providing girls and women with a positive experience in tech. For many of our program participants, our events are their first time doing a technical project or program. We work to create a unique experience that shows them the infinite possibilities of technology and how there is a place for everyone. With our middle school pilot program, we focused on teaching the girls how to make apps to solve social issues. Driving the theme of social entrepreneurship, we found that the girls found technology incredibly easy to learn when it was used as a tool to pursue a cause they truly cared about. Before we knew it, these girls were tackling complex issues they faced in their communities from learning English as a second language to depression to nutrition. After our program, a post-survey showed that 100% of our participants were now interested in technology and wanted to pursue a future in it. We show everyone that there is a place for them in tech and build our programs around creating positive first experiences – that is how we are unique. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Malavika Vivek:**My dream for Girls Make Apps is expanding our outreach internationally. I would love to form more chapters around the world and have more program leaders directly affecting change. With our launch of programs nationally, we have been able to truly diversify our base of program participants and provide a pathway for more girls to become involved in tech. I believe that expanding internationally would allow us to focus on regions that don’t have opportunities for girls in technology and education and thereby allow us to target the larger problem at hand. I would also like to use Girls Make Apps as a platform for social impact by spreading awareness about issues women face in the technology sector. Using social media to connect all our program participants and eventually create a community of informed, excited changemakers is truly one of our end goals. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Malavika Vivek:**Our biggest marketing technique has been connecting with and seeking the advice of the existing women in tech community. Through organizations like the National Center for Women and Information Technology and ProjectCSGirls, we have been able to increase our impact and reach many more participants. Women in computer science groups at universities have also been incredible with helping us and partnering with us to bridge the gap. Another incredible resource has been faculty and guidance counselors at middle and high schools. We recruited participants for our pilot program by reaching out to these dedicated teachers and counselors and were truly stunned by the support they gave us and their students. We realized that connecting many communities would really help us make a difference and build that support network of mentors and students that was essential to our mission. ### What motivates you when you encounter a challenge? **Malavika Vivek:**I am constantly motivated by the mission of Girls Make Apps. My co-founder and I both learned how to code from free online tutorials and were never formally taught. We realized that we would have been so much more inspired if we had mentors to guide us and role models to look up to. We began this organization as a way to provide this experience for girls and women across the country. Despite the many challenges we have encountered and will continue to face in the future, I am unrelentless in my mission because I truly believe Girls Make Apps is making the world a better, more inclusive place. We seek to inspire our participants to aspire and teach them not only the power of technology, but the power of their dreams. All our challenges seem small when what we are doing is far greater than us itself. ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Malavika Vivek:**My biggest failure was in the early stages of recruiting for our pilot program. Initially, registrations were slow and I felt overwhelmed because I couldn’t come up with a marketing strategy to reach middle schoolers in the area. This is when I began reaching out to tech teachers and middle school counselors in an effort to spread awareness about the program. The response astounded me. They were very vocal in their support and were willing to go above and beyond to make sure their students were afforded the opportunity to attend. One tech advisor went so far as to chaperone her students to and from the program for all eight weeks and learn with them. This both amazed me and taught me that programs are built on the dedication of whole communities of people. My greatest success was seeing the pride and excitement on the faces of our students as they presented their completed products. Hearing middle school girls talk about market research and pricing models and the features of their app with confidence was simply an incredible experience. They were genuinely passionate about technology and seeing them grow and learn so much in that time was so rewarding for me. #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Malavika Vivek:**You don’t have to start big. Ideas can take off in smaller stages too. In the beginning it feels like all of your goals have to be accomplished and everything has to go according to plan. When you start something, you have to be ready for the plan to change all the time and be accommodating of that change. Take it step by step and set goals that feel doable. Find that motivation to drive your passion and you will be unstoppable. --- ## It’s All In The Family – Family Takes On The Craft Whiskey Business URL: https://futuresharks.com/kevin-hough/ My name is **Kevin Hough**. I am 25 years old. I studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. After graduating, I spent some time in sales and as a field service engineer in the electro-mechanical world. My family and I (parents: Jim and Ellen and brother (27 years old) Robbie) decided to start a family business, making whiskey. City where you’re from: Pittsburgh, PA Hobbies: Ice hockey, golfing, rock climbing, cooking Favorite quote: “Think like men of action, And to act like men of thought! Live life with intensity, And a passion for excellence.” -Gen. James Mattis Facebook: Liberty Pole Spirits ### Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? **Kevin Hough**: As a family, we wanted to capitalize on the opportunity to do something that was rewarding personally and professionally. Our business, Liberty Pole Spirits, is rooted in the history of the Whiskey Rebellion and the farmers of Western Pennsylvania. Like these farmers, we felt a strong passion about paving our own way. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? **Kevin Hough**: Aside from my family, who I feel are some of the best team members on the planet and each have such a unique set of skills, there are a few influences in my life. In my former career, I had a mentor who had created a successful business. He inspired me to reach for something I am passionate about. There was a moment while I was working in corporate America, that I decided the entrepreneurial route was much more fulfilling. I was chatting with some older gentlemen who seemed unhappy with the current state of the company. Compensation programs were being decreased and 401ks were being slashed. I listened for 5 minutes or so, when suddenly, like a lightbulb, hit me that I did not want to end up like this. What better way to control your destiny than to do it yourself? ### Now What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Kevin Hough**: Currently, we are in the process of growing a craft whiskey business. We operate a 300 gallon still and make a line of 5 award-winning whiskies. We were amateur home-brewers and after studying the trends of craft distilleries, decided that it would be a good time to open. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? **Kevin Hough**: Our whiskies are unique in flavor and attention to quality. Our flagship product, Peated Bourbon, is a cross between a bourbon and a scotch, and recently won a gold medal at the American Craft Spirits competition, one of only 9 gold medals awarded this year. The vision of our company is to create a whiskey brand associated with quality and excellent flavor. Our goal is to create the best possible experience for every single person to walk through our doors or try our whiskey. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? **Kevin Hough**: Our customers range across all age groups. They are typically interested in ‘craft’ beverages and have a passion for quality. We find most of our customers by word of mouth and social media marketing. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? **Kevin Hough**: Yes, there have been countless roadblocks and hiccups. The best thing you can do when you fail is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep on going. Value-add questions Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Staying motivated on difficult days is one of the biggest challenges. Before embarking down the entrepreneurial path, make sure you find your reason for truly wanting to own your business. The Navy Seals describe this as finding your reason to “keep your feet in the sand.” During BUD/S training to become a Seal, you can quit at any time by walking off the beach and ringing a bell. Only those who truly want to be a Seal will have the motivation to keep their feet in the sand. When you have a rock-solid intrinsic desire to be an entrepreneur, you will be able to ‘keep your feet in the sand’ when others would quit! ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Kevin Hough**: An entrepreneur should focus on the positive ways your business can make in impact in the world. Avoid getting lost in time-consuming minutia. There are only so many hours in a day! ### What are some of your favorite books? **Kevin Hough**: “The Energy Bus” by Jon Gordon is a must read! “Brother’s Forever” by Tom Manion and Tom Sileo “Brewing Up a Business” by Sam Calagione Thank you for letting us feature you on Future Sharks today, Kevin! Best of luck to you with the brewery! --- ## High Schooler Briana Berger Is Revolutionizing Code For Girls URL: https://futuresharks.com/briana-berger/ Briana Berger is the CEO and Founder of coderGirls, an international nonprofit to get girls to code and connect computer science to their passions. Briana is a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, President and Founder of SeniorTechNet, and on the Florida Technology Council’s Student Advisory Board Committee. In terms of coding, Briana knows ROBOTC, Java, Python, Swift, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, SQL, PHP, jQuery, MITAppInventor, and Scratch. **City where you’re from:** Gainesville, FL **Hobbies:**Photography, Biking, Tae Kwon Do, Computational Musician, and Coding **Favorite quote:**“If not me, who? If not now, when?” – Emma Watson and “Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.” – Malcom Gladwell **Social accounts**: @briana_berger, coderGirls Facebook ### Hey Briana, what are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Briana Berger:** I live in central Florida, thus I was never given the computing resources as my friends in Silicon Valley or New York have. So, I had to learn code independently through books or online courses. In addition, there was barely any female specific coding groups in my area. I had to explore the world of coding on my own. So, I decided that I wanted to make a change, especially in my tech-lacking community. So, I made my organization, coderGirls. A main mission of mine was that I wanted to show the creativity of code. I wanted to show girls that code is like poetry. In poetry, you can write words effortlessly painting an image in a person’s mind. Code allows you to create anything you want without the obstacles of class or education. Coding is not simply zeros and ones. Coding is about impacting humanity. Due to coding’s universal ability, I set out to impact as many girls as I could. I wanted to share what I saw in code and how each girl could be the next Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace, or Margaret Hamiliton. With my original goal in mind, coderGirls is now an international nonprofit organization for female middle schoolers and high schoolers to learn computer science. I originally started the organization due to the lack of girls in my computer science classes. coderGirls works to empower minority groups in technology by dismantling negative stereotypes surrounding technical careers. In doing so, coderGirls wants to create an impact, so the main focus is for our chapters to connect computer science to doing community outreach and their passions. In terms of chapters, we are currently established in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Ukraine, Florida, Georgia, New York, California, Nebraska, Connecticut, Maryland, Alabama, Texas, and more. Since the beginning, I have been working to implement chapters and curriculum with 85 Girl Scout councils and over 350 schools to impact over 500,000 girls. Currently, coderGirls is the first coding nonprofit to impact middle school and high school females internationally. Through my position in coderGirls, I have learned and I’m still learning how to run my own nonprofit and how to educate more girls in computer science. coderGirls is an international nonprofit organization for female middle schoolers and high schoolers to be empowered in a technical career and to learn computer science. Then, we are partnered with White House’s CSForAll, National Center for Women and Information Technology, Let’s Start Coding, CollegeBoard’s endorsed Mobile CSP, and more. With our partners, there is an impact on 900 organizations, on 30 states, and with the potential to impact 100% of U.S. girls. ### How is your company different? **Briana Berger:**When I was originally looking into girl coding programs to join, it was usually the same concept. You come for a couple hours and code. Yet, for myself, I have always loved to help others and connect computer science to something I am passionate about. I believe that encouraging others to code through outreach exponentially intensifies the drive within students to join computer science. Thus, each chapter learns how to code, yet also does so through connecting computer science to community outreach, friendships, and their passions. Under coderGirls, I demonstrate to the girls that coding is about innovation and expression of thought. coderGirls does this by connecting computer science to their passions and friendships. I founded the coderGirls National Competition, where high school girls connect computer science to their passion, such as, music or dance, through a video. Moreover, I founded  “inspire_her” as a coderGirls outreach by featuring high school students, college students, and technical professionals. It is coderGirls’ approach to inspire young girls by looking at female coder role models in high school and beyond. In addition, I started a mentorship program to help each chapter in code and management. Then, with our recently updated curriculum, our courses align with our goal of connecting code to passions through courses, such as Python With EarSketch to Make Music, MITAppInventor to Create Apps, JavaScript to Animate, Scratch to Draw & Animate, HTML & CSS to Make A Website, and C++ For Hardware Coding. ### ### What’s your dream with your company? **Briana Berger:**My dream for coderGirls is expand to more countries and to truly impact girls. In my experience with coderGirls, I realized that even though I’m only a teenager I can make an impact whether locally or internationally. I realized that making an impact requires patience and determination. It tested my resolve. It kept me up late at night and prompted me to wake up early to keep working on my initiative. It taught me to keep my eyes on the goal. It taught me to manage my anxieties to balance my school life and project timeline. The one thing that kept me going was that I could make my dream into a reality. To make a code a universal bridge for communication of an idea. To have girls considered as equals in work and in society. The secret? I finally realized that all you need to change the world is a little faith, trust, and code. Our plans are to continue growing and to continue being a game changer for the tech gender gap. As of now, we are gaining funds to offer future scholarships for females pursuing coding and to winners of our national competition. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Briana Berger:**In terms of marketing, we focus on our ability to connect code to passions. Then, I use Facebook and other social media to propel coderGirls. For example, I contact women in tech Facebook groups to notify them on our newest opportunities and trying to recruit for our international team. ### How did you get interested in computer science? **Briana Berger:**It all started when I googled some Java tutorials in middle school on my computer. I typed in the simple code: System.out.println(“Hello World”). I could barely contain my excitement as my mouse clicked on the run button. It loaded and loaded and loaded. Then, an error message popped up saying: “Syntax error, insert “;” to complete Statement.” Yes, I did fix the error and the beautiful message of “Hello World” was printed, yet the error made me fall in love with code. I loved the bickering my code and I had when it came to errors. I loved the problem solving and how coding challenged my logic. Throughout my life, I was the kid that wanted to know the inner workings of things and was not satisfied by just the answer. The process of discovery is the essence of what I love about computer science and led me to where I am today. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Briana Berger:**My biggest failure was not being organized in the beginning of coderGirls. I never imagined how far it could grow, so I’ve had to learn along the way. Now, to stay organized and focused, I create a schedule. Personally, each day, I schedule out hour by hour with tasks. Then, I usually have an hour scheduled out, just in case I don’t follow my schedule precisely as anything can happen during the day. In terms of motivation, I just keep looking at my goals and I continue to pursue them by aligning my daily tasks with what I want to accomplish. Also, when I work, I usually play classical music to keep my mind from wandering off. Now, I know I sound like a schedule-maniac. Trust me, I’m not. But, in all honesty, I’m human. I’m imperfect, and sometimes I don’t follow the yellow brick road like I set out to do. But, that is the purpose of life and entrepreneurship: to explore the unknown, to think outside the box, and to follow your passions regardless of where they lead you. My biggest success was overcoming the anxiety of asking people for help, whether CEOs or friends. It is hard to put yourself in that position and you have to be ready to face rejection. So, I had to learn how to structure emails and phone calls, and how to calmly face rejection. Yet, in my process, I realized the world is more willing to help than you think. Gaining chapters, resources, and partners, it requires a lot of asking. The results? The majority of people were more than happy to help. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Briana Berger:**Pursue something because it makes you wake up in the morning. Don’t pursue something for the sole purpose of fame and fortune. Pursue something that makes you excited to work and invigorates you to work harder. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? - [Outliers](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316017930) by Malcolm Gladwell - How to Make Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - Own It by Sallie Krawcheck --- ## How 2 UCLA Grads Are Re-Imagining Personal Finance for the Snapchat Generation URL: https://futuresharks.com/tim-yu-susie-kim/ Tim Yu is the CEO of Pluto Money. He’s a recent UCLA grad (‘15) with a B.S. in Cognitive Science (specialization in computing, near-minor in Entrepreneurship). While there, he was an inaugural UCLA VC Fund fellow, a William F. Sharpe Fellow, and an active leader in the startup and hackathon community. He has previously worked in product and program management at Expedia and leading Brain-Computer Interface startup NeuroSky. Susie Kim is the Chief Creative Officer of Pluto Money. She’s a recent UCLA grad (‘15) with a B.A. in Art History and a Certificate in Marketing Analytics. She was the first UCLA VC Fund marketing associate, and has worked in design and branding for several Silicon Beach startups. She previously founded Cera & Coffee Lab, a coffee roastery & ceramics studio franchise in Korea that generated over $1M in revenue. **City where you’re from:** Tim – Cupertino, CA; Susie – Seoul, South Korea **Hobbies:** *Tim* – Playing violin, mixing music, attending concerts, hardcore sports fan, hiking new trails, scenic road trips, exploring cuisines, craft beer and places; sampling food at Trader Joe’s *Susie* – Living in new cities, going to museums/concerts/operas/musicals, taking spontaneous trips, motorcycle riding, searching for new favorite jazz, winery hikes, criticizing decent coffee **Favorite quote:** *Tim –*“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey *Susie* – “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.” – Oscar Wilde **Social accounts**: *Tim –*Twitter, LinkedIn, [Email](mailto:tim@gopluto.io) *Susie* – Twitter, LinkedIn, [Email](mailto:susie@gopluto.io) ### Hey Tim and Susie! What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Pluto Money:**We’re founders of Pluto, the personal finance app for the Snapchat generation. Pluto is currently available on an invite-only, first-come first-served basis. Susie and I both struggled to manage our money while at UCLA. I recklessly spent most of my internship earnings from Expedia during my junior year summer, because I had no clue how to save. Susie gave up on her dream arts and language program in London & Florence, because she didn’t feel financially secure or confident. We tried nearly every solution out there, and none worked for us. Traditional budgeting and tracking tools like Mint didn’t drive action, didn’t motivate us, required too much effort, and were filled with financial jargon. Automated saving tools like Digit didn’t educate us on our finances and behavior, and didn’t drive behavior change. We realized that current solutions weren’t designed for our generation’s lifestyle and mindset about money. So we founded Pluto. With Pluto, there’s no more stressful micro-budgeting and wasted time staring at graphs and numbers. Our iOS app helps you reach your saving goals and improve your money habits in small, attainable increments. You can easily save for the goals you care about by completing simple challenges recommended based on your finances and spending habits. Imagine spending $50 less than your average on eating out this week, and automatically setting aside that $50 towards your favorite music festival. It’s that simple. ### How is your company different? **Pluto Money:**Pluto’s unique goal-challenge system drives *both* tangible results and long-term behavior change, while our direct competitors focus on just the former. Our approach is designed based on famed psychologist Dr. BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model and Tiny Habits method, and on how you naturally think about your money. It’s personal finance without information overload and abstract terms. The data generated from our action-based approach also gives us deeper insights into your behavioral intents and financial decisions, allowing us to provide more meaningful and relevant recommendations for you down the road. Finally, we’re initially targeting college students. Over 70% of them are financially stressed. It’s also a myth that they don’t have money. As of 2016, they spend $207B annually on discretionary items! A lot of them just don’t know how to manage their money. We aim to become the go-to personal finance brand for college students and beyond. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Pluto Money:** We want to empower our generation to make their dreams happen and achieve their desired lifestyle — by making personal finance more doable, engaging and approachable. We want to create positive relationships between people and their money, and help millions of Americans to feel confident about the financial decisions they make. Ultimately, we believe financial literacy and management skills should be easily attainable by anyone! ### How do you creatively advertise? **Pluto Money:**We build and leverage relationships with college student organizations that care about our mission to improve financial literacy and management skills. For example, we presented Pluto at UCLA’s first ever financial fitness bootcamp hosted by the UCLA Financial Wellness Program. We also create and share engaging content on Facebook that empathize with our audience’s financial struggles and desires. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Pluto Money:**Our biggest failure to date was not inviting enough people to our Alpha test. We kept it small, because we had learned enough from early data to know that we had to completely re-design Pluto from the ground up and make it more scalable. We didn’t want to risk “wasting” users. Looking back, we should’ve invited more people from our wait list, as there’s no such thing as “wasting” users! We could have uncovered more insights with statistical significance, gained more early evangelists and committed testers, and grown our momentum. Losing early users doesn’t matter in the long run, especially if there’s a huge market. You can still re-acquire them as you make improvements to your product. Our biggest success has been launching a completely re-designed and more scalable Pluto into the App Store. **Special shout out to our crazy talented co-founder & CTO Dante Monaldo, who’s somehow working full-time on Pluto while still a CS/EE/Math student at Seattle University!** We had to stop being hesitant and make some tough decisions with the product to move forward, and accept that it would take time to roll out all the features we wanted. This was a culmination of all the user interviews we conducted, usage data we collected, countless design sprints, late night coding, and hard lessons learned about needing to embrace speed and imperfection. #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Pluto Money:**Don’t be afraid to be wrong. Always remember that what you think is the right approach might not be the best solution to the problem you’re solving, and what you think is the right assumption might be completely wrong. Being wrong doesn’t mean you’ve failed. As long as you acknowledge it and adjust, being wrong can turn into an invaluable learning experience. ### Teach us something about how to change behavior. **Pluto Money:**Changing behavior, especially old habits, is really hard. The most effective way to change behavior is when **high motivation**, **high ability** and **well-timed triggers** simultaneously converge. An example of high motivation could be a strong desire to seek pleasure or avoid pain. One way to achieve high ability (ease of the new behavior) could be minimizing the physical and mental effort required. Finally, a trigger must occur at the exact moment when enough motivation and ability is present to activate the new behavior. This could be anything from a phone alarm to a push notification to an existing routine. However, turning that new behavior into a new long-lasting habit is a whole another story… To learn more, we highly recommend you to read Dr. BJ Fogg’s paper on his behavior model theory and Nir Eyal’s book “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products”. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Pluto Money:**Maximizing your output with the limited resources available. How can you generate the best results without mentally, physically, financially and temporally burning out? There’s no easy answer to that. You just have to keep experimenting and stay strong! ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? Some of Tim’s favorites: - 11/22/63 by Stephen King - The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman - The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil Some of Susie’s favorites: - The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli - What Kind of Creatures Are We? by Noam Chomsky - Le Papillon des étoilesby Bernard Werber ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Pluto Money:**Our vision for Pluto is an end-to-end platform that understands your goals and the financial context around them, recommends you simple steps to reach those goals, and makes those steps stupid easy for you to act on. As we scale, we’ll leverage artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and contextual data to preemptively stop you from making bad financial decisions and proactively guide you to make good financial decisions. For example, we might recognize you’re walking next to your favorite Starbucks right before work, and challenge you to instead save the cost of that venti towards your trip to Europe instead! In a couple years, we hope to have improved the financial lives of millions – especially college students and young professionals — across America. Sign up for pluto here! *Pluto Money –*Website*,* Facebook, Twitter, Read our Medium Blog --- ## This Millennial Entrepreneur Aims To Be Actively Involved In ‘Nation Branding’ URL: https://futuresharks.com/nikhil-alok/ Nikhil Alok is a 20 year old entrepreneur and innovator, currently completing his National Service in the Singapore Armed Forces. At the age of 17, he co-founded his first business in which he helped to both fund-raise and implement projects for multiple start-ups in the Asia Pacific Region. Nikhil attended the Global Young Leaders Conference 2012 in New York and served on the Executive Committee of Colombo Model United Nations 2013, before completing his high school education as a full boarder at Gordonstoun School in Scotland. **City where you’re from:** I consider both Singapore And London home. **Hobbies:** Adrenaline sports, travel and watching Football **Favorite quote:** “Look in the mirror.. that’s your competition.” **Instagram:** @nikhilalok **LinkedIn**: @nikhilalok ### What are you working on NIkhil? How did you come up with this idea? **Nikhil Alok:** Apart from fund raising for start ups with my first company, i am actively working on a lifestyle tourism venture to help with the branding of a nation in South Asia. There are particular countries that I am in love with and I feel that they have so much to offer but are not fulfilling their potential in terms of tourism and foreign investment. I decided that I needed to help change that. ### How is your company different? **Nikhil Alok:** Having grown up as a true international citizen and seen how countries and businesses have developed at such a young age, I have been exposed to the patterns for developing successful brands. I feel that a country can have the same model, which can boost tourism, foreign direct investment and its start-up culture. My company is one of the first to be in the business of ‘nation branding’ and we would operate more as ‘brand managers’ for countries. We would be working with businesses and governments to achieve customised goals on a larger scale, which is different to marketing agencies who usually work with individual businesses for the sole purpose of helping them to increase their profit. We have already picked the country that we intend to start in first. #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have **Nikhil Alok:**Firstly, it would be to focus more on making an impact rather than making money. Once you make an impact and are adding value, everything else will come to you. Secondly, it would be to meet as many people as you possibly can. Some of the least expected people that I have met have changed my way of thinking and therefore, changed my life. Also, it’s a numbers game and the more people you meet, the more opportunities will come your way. Third, before starting your first venture as an entrepreneur, try and experience as many things as possible outside of your comfort zone. Those experiences are what will shape you as a person, making you more self aware and allow you to be the best version of yourself. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Nikhil Alok:**A 10 minute focused meeting is more powerful than a 1 hour meeting. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Nikhil Alok:**That’s a tough question but I would say that I’m a good listener and listening to the successes, advice, failures and regrets of so many people that I’ve met over the years, has allowed me to really think about things on a much deeper level. ### Teach us something about finding your passion **Nikhil Alok:**It’s actually usually something that has been part of your life for a while, it never left. As you get older, you start to recognise it more and more, especially during tough times when you are doing things you don’t want to do. Its one of those things that can make the rest of the world zone out. The only way to truly find/recognise your passion is to participate in as many things as possible and the one thing that you’re constantly thinking about doing during doing all of that is what you’re passionate about. --- ## Brandon Gomez- The Rise of Gains N’ Ripped URL: https://futuresharks.com/brandon-gomez/ **Brandon Gomez** was born in Galveston TX but my family and I moved around a lot from Texas City, then to Dickinson and Houston and now I live in the small place called Brenham, TX. which is home to Blue Bell creameries. Hobbies: I love to lift weights. Powerlifting is my favorite sport! I do it to relieve stress and get stronger. Favorite quote: “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” -Napoleon Hill another is “You control your thoughts and by controlling your thoughts you control your actions. You can create the life you want and because of this you are exactly where you are in your life because of your actions. Control the outcome.” This last one is from me and was more of a thought I had one night while earlier on in my entrepreneurial journey but it has always stuck in my mind. Twitter: Brandon Gomez ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? **Brandon Gomez:** It was almost by accident actually. When I remember back it’s funny how a moment can change your life. I actually wanted to be a scientist, neuroscientist to be specific. I just loved how the mind worked and how a shift in attitude or mentality can affect the body so much. I am a power lifter after all so it’s something that interested me. Before I workout I always watch a motivational video to get my mind right. I stumbled upon a video where the narrator was talking about how the mind impacts your life and success. I loved his philosophy because it was similar to mine. I found out a week later the man narrating the video was Napoleon Hill. I had no idea who he was but i have always been a curious person so I researched his life. I was amazed by his life, more interestingly was the man who changed his life after an interview, Andrew Carnegie. I researched who Andrew Carnegie was as the only Carnegie I was familiar with was Carnegie Hall. His life is a true rags to riches story and after watching a video on YouTube about his life motivated me to do something about my life. How he rose up from nothing really struck a chord with me. I knew I had a choice, I could either be a scientist and make ok money OR I could pursue this field of business/entrepreneurship. I knew if he did it I could too. I began then and there to learn all I could about investing, finance, interest rates, personal finance, corporate finance, economics, accounting, how prices are influenced by interest rates, how bonds work, different asset classes, etc.. I spent probably 8 to 10 hours everyday learning all I could, it became an obsession. It became my goal in life. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? **Brandon Gomez:** As I said, Andrew Carnegie was a major influence on me. I began looking into other well known successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn , Richard Branson. There was a defining moment actually. It may seem silly or weird to some people but this is true. I have never written it down but I can recall it vividly. A few days after watching that video of Andrew Carnegie I had a dream. I guess I was still contemplating if I should really quit science for business, they are after all two different areas. I dreamt I was in a graveyard and I couldn’t see anything. There was a tombstone that had my dad’s name on it and when I saw it I broke down. Then there was a voice that said, “There are two realities. Your father try as he might can never seem to get ahead. He works and works and never able to save enough. If you stay on this path he will die a broken man. But if you take this other path, although it is riskier, you can live a life most only dream of! It will be hard and you may want to give up at times, however if you stick to it you can change his (my dad’s) world. You have everything you need, you just have to find it. You have the power to change his world.” I remember waking up at 2:30 in the morning with tears in my eyes and i was drenched in sweat! It was part nightmare but it was a realization for me. I stayed awake and with a burning desire coupled with rage I began my search. As I learned more and more about business and investing, it has never stopped. This desire has grown and grown. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Brandon Gomez:** I am currently working on my Ecommerce business, Gains N’ Ripped. I started the business with my cousin, George. I had actually had a previous company called G&R Solutions, LLC which was meant to own my other website Investing4teens, which was a blog I started to teach and explain teens/young adults the benefits of investing, saving and personal finance topics. My cousin is involved with Strongman and I am a power lifter so we workout together. We were actually joking around and he said something like “Are you looking to get gains? Are you trying to get ripped? Well we have the solution, G&R Solutions!” I thought it was a great slogan so I told him I could have my lawyer change the company to include our new business if he was serious. We just kind of rolled with it from there and thus, Gains N’ Ripped was born! ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? **Brandon Gomez:** Well right now we have Europa Sports as our main supplier but are currently looking for more suppliers to expand our product lines to offer our customers more options and something budget friendly. We utilize drop shipping to sell our products due to the lack of inventory costs. If there are any vitamin/supplement companies that drop ship we are open to doing business. My vision is to keep making sales and beyond getting more drop shippers to reinvest the profits back into the business. If we can reinvest into buying bulk inventory it will lower the cost per unit and increase our margins. The good think about using drop shipping is there is no cost to list a product. If a product doesn’t sell you can just take the listing off the site or focus on brands/products that do sell, as it’s easier to just list them all from your supplier and see which do best. Since you now know which ones are best sellers you can just contact a wholesaler and order inventory of that product. Fast inventory turnover rates mean more money. Eventually I would like for us to start our own brand of supplements. It would be amazing to see the company brand on a container of protein or something. I have been on the lookout for companies that can formulate, produce, and package our products with our brand, all we have to do is market it. It’s a little bit aways but I like to look into the future as opportunities are always around the corner. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? **Brandon Gomez:** Right now our customers have been our friends and family. I have been using social media like  Facebook ads and Instagram as a means to draw more people to the website and spread  brand awareness. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? **Brandon Gomez:** Yes I did. I try not to look at it as failure, it is more of a learning experience. My first mistake was when I started the first business, the blog Investing4teens. I had a friend help with the funding and we were so focused on getting the business up that we wasted a lot of time and money. I spent over $1800 of my own money getting the lawyer, Benjamin House. He’s an amazing person and helped us out big time in the beginning. However, we spent money on business cards, posters, the website ect. A lot of it was unnecessary and didn’t add value to the business. Another hurdle I faced was getting drop shippers for Gainsnripped. There were alot of supplement suppliers but most were foreign companies and the ones based in the U.S. did not offer drop shipping. My cousin and I contacted over 25-30 different companies and only got approved by 2! So if someone says no or not interested, don’t give up. Just move on and keep hustling and keep your enthusiasm alive. People don’t want to do business with someone that sounds depressed on the other end of the line! I learned that if you’re starting a business, focus on the business! If you want to sell party supplies, do not worry about setting up a LLC or Corporation. Don’t worry about business cards or suits or a logo ect. Focus on getting suppliers and if you plan to sell online, get a website and hosting, maybe a P.O. box as your “office”  but that’s it! Facebook ads seem to get more exposure than other marketing channels but Instagram works too if you use the right tags. If you do get business cards DO NOT get the highest bulk quantity, you may mess up or change names or your logo and you waste all the unused cards. Also it helps to learn abit of accounting to familiarize yourself with terms you will have to use in business. I got a few deals closed because I knew the lingo (and I actually knew what I was talking about.) ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Brandon Gomez:** The best advice I can give is if you have an idea, think is it viable? Then act quickly! There are too many dreamers today and not enough doers! It’s even better if it is something you are passionate about. If you are passionate about the subject or idea go with it! Being passionate makes it harder to quit when things get hard and they will get hard! ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? **Brandon Gomez:**Using ads can be a little expensive especially if you are starting out so you have to be a little creative. We had a limited budget and only ran a few ads on facebook. What I realized was I could use Instagram and post eye popping/ creative photos and by using the tags I could reach a certain audience also looking for similar interests. By using tags you get more engagement with your posts and people like and/or follow you. You can build an audience for free on instagram, although it may take longer and just include a link to your website or facebook page at the top of your account so as people like/view or follow you they will click on your link and see your website or facebook page. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Brandon Gomez:**Focus on the business! Don’t worry about the little things. Use the 80/20 rule. ### What are some of your favorite books? **Brandon Gomez:**I am a big reader as that was how I gained all my knowledge about finance and investing. This may be an unpopular opinion but I believe you don’t need school. If you have drive and passion you will make it, as long as you act. My favorite books are “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, [“The Intelligent Investor”](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060555661) by Ben Graham, “The Millionaire Mind” by Thomas Stanley “Security Analysis” by Ben Graham, “The Quest for Value” by G. Bennett Stewart which was given to me by my mentor Mike Appling, CEO of TNT Crane and Rigging. It is a very thorough book and may seem complicated to some who read it but I found it very eye opening and use the methods taught there to analyze prospective investments. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Brandon Gomez:**I see a bright future. My business will be successful and I will have all the abundance I ever wanted. I want my company’s brand to become the go-to brand in the supplement industry. I will keep reinvesting my profits back into the business and other investments. My goal is to not only make it on Forbes but to join the top like Bill Gates, Carlos Slim and Mark Zuckerberg. Once I reach my goal I will give away all my money to charities and others, much as Andrew Carnegie did before me. Of course I will leave a small sum to my future wife, of course for her to live but beyond that, give it away. That is my goal and would be a life well spent. # ### --- ## Jules Schroeder Lives an Unconventional Life URL: https://futuresharks.com/jules-schroeder/ Ranked by Inc Magazine as one of The Top 27 Female Entrepreneurs Changing The World in 2017, Jules Schroeder is the founder of Unconventional Life, which operates a popular podcast on the Forbes Under 30 Channel, an online content and community hub, and international live events. At 28, Jules is leading a movement to empower millennials to create a life by their own design. **City where you’re from:**Boulder, CO **Hobbies:**Yoga, snowboarding,authentic relating , traveling. **Favorite quote:**“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” **Social accounts**:  facebook.com/UnconventionalLifeShow @julesschroeder7 ### Hey Jules, very excited to have you on the show. What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Jules Schroeder:** I’m currently developing a methodology that activates and upgrades cellular DNA for entrepreneurs through transformational live-event experiences. The idea came to me in a dream I had last August in which I saw a vision for 30 entrepreneurs gathering in Bali. Though I had never hosted an event before or had a desire to the dream was so vivid that I knew I had to bring it forward. Within 7-weeks of launching we had sold out the first business accelerator. What happened in Bali was life-changing: I realized I was pioneering a new paradigm for entrepreneurs to live a life of service, purpose, and alignment.  It was in the closing circle of the last day that I realized how much impact had been made and on the spot I told everyone, “If you want to do this again I don’t know when, where, or how much, but you could give me a deposit and we will definitely do it.” On the spot 30% of people said yes. In that moment I then knew I was onto something. We just hosted our second event for 52 entrepreneurs in a castle in Italy, and have been fine-tuning our methodology further. On the horizon, I am planning upcoming events for 25 people in Nicaragua and 150 people on a private island in November. ### How is your company different? **Jules Schroeder:**Unconventional Life is different because it wasn’t created with a concrete plan but rather through a process but I called rapid visioning where are you execute moment by moment by moment.  I had never planned to turn Unconventional Life into a company it was more a passion project to tell the stories of my peers earning their living and nontraditional ways. It wasn’t until the end of this last event where I saw the potential and the desire to really grow Unconventional Life– realizing it had accidentally made six figures in the first six months. I thought to myself wow, if we did that already we should actually make this into a business and are now slated to grow it into a seven-figure company its first year. (Related: learn how to build a successful business)  At UL, we follow rapid visioning and don’t map out 100 steps we’re going to take in order to arrive at a particular destination. We don’t work 18-hour days and we don’t hustle. We work in flow, meaning we are receptive to what wants to move through us in the present moment. We recognize that we are the vessel for divine inspiration so we commit to remaining open and listening.   What’s also unique about our company is it’s literally been built by my sister, Raya, and I as a team of two sisters. Raya and I have complimentary skillsets and a similar outlook on the world so our voice and vision tends to be unified. Where I am big-picture oriented, she is detail oriented, so we fill in each other’s blind spots and execute together as an effective team. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Jules Schroeder:**My dream with Unconventional Life is for people to find us and feel like they found their “home”. Our community spans across so many countries already with entrepreneurs from such a diverse group of backgrounds and industries. Each one of us is so incredibly heart centered and committed to growing ourselves and creating a business that is in alignment with what we care about and what the highest expression of our gifts are. We are creating a vehicle for people to connect to themselves and their tribe, and learn how to create a business that is wildly profitable and matches who they really are versus who society tells them to be. We are pioneering the unconventional path and my goal is that through the community and our stories the “Unconventional Life” becomes the new normal life. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Jules Schroeder:**We don’t do much advertising at Unconventional Life. Most people hear about our events offerings through word of mouth and referrals. We also have a dedicated fan base on our podcast and were recently ranked the “#1 Podcast For Entrepreneurs in 2017” by CIO. We don’t advertise because we want our community to feel intimate and personal, and like to keep it “in the family” so to speak where someone knows someone who knows someone. However we love welcoming in new like-minded people. Our events our highly curated, as we are committed to holding a tight container at our events- however we don’t curate based on just the usual criteria on what do you do and how much money do you make doing it. While this may sound counterintuitive, it actually creates more hype around our events: we were flooded with 300 applications for our last event with only 50 spots to fill. ### What is one practice that has helped you most with your success? **Jules Schroeder:**I am a huge advocate for self care. I believe that we each are a channel for inspiration and it is only in taking care of ourselves that we are able to *hear* what wants to be created through us. Self care helps us to replenish our wellspring of creativity and to have the resources we need to create things that matter. My favorite self care practices are going to yoga and crossfit, eating a healthy whole-foods diet, taking salt baths, playing with tarot cards, and reading. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Jules Schroeder:**My biggest failure occurred when I was 23 and my publishing company went bankrupt overnight after I found out one of my business partners had been embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. I lost everything—my business, my romantic relationship, and my health—in a very short period of time. While it was a nightmare, it actually was exactly what I needed to “wake up” to what really mattered. From a place of having nothing, I realized I actually had everything. I had myself, and I was determined to build my life again on a foundation of self-love that could never be shaken. The experienced helped show me who I was and shifted the way I did business forever—from a place of authenticity and alignment within myself. I consider my biggest success hosting my most recent event in Italy. Though I had also just ended my most recent relationship with the man I thought was going to be my life partner, I didn’t back down from creating the event. I didn’t wait for my life circumstances to “sort themselves out” so I could throw the event. I showed up as I was, I brought myself in honesty and humility, and I found strength in my vulnerability that was capable of inspiring others to show up as their authentic selves and to own all of themselves, too. It is my ability to be transparent and real in the face of whatever terrain I am traversing in my own life that has provided the space for others to do the same and for real connection and strength to emerge. #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Jules Schroeder:**Forego working when you think you *should* for when you feel *inspired* to. Don’t say yes to an opportunity or to working with someone unless it feels like a “hell yes” for you. When you say no to something that isn’t a “hell yes,” you create space for something better to show up. It requires trust and reverence for yourself—you deserve the best. Be yourself, be authentic, and know that everything you need to create what is meant to be created through you will be provided for you. ### Teach us something about sales funnels **Jules Schroeder:**When you include a video on your sales page, it results in so many more sales. Our 20-second videos are our secret weapon to selling out our high-ticket events. You can see what I mean here with our Bali promo video. Put the video at the very top of your page so it’s the first thing your audience sees. Aim for 20-30 seconds and set it to engaging music. Add lines of bolded text on screen overlaying short, 1-2 second video clips that invite people to experience your product. Your video should increase the excitement factor and invite your audience into the *experience*of working with you. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Jules Schroeder:**I’ve recently begun creating on the principle of minimum movement, maximum impact. I am interested in taking action that is most effective. I am putting my energy into things that I *know*will advance my company, rather than things that don’t move the needle. So I can take one step forward and get ten steps out. Instead of worrying about how many followers you have, work on enhancing the quality of your product and on getting feedback from your customers so you can serve them more intimately. ### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) **Jules Schroeder:**If you’re having trouble creating partnerships and collaborations with people, here’s the key—find the “win-win.” If you can add value to someone else, they’ll likely be in a position of gratitude and willingness to work with you. I can’t tell you how many emails I receive from people in which they simply tell me who they are and what they want. I delete most of them before I finish reading. The emails I keep come from people who take the time to get to know and understand me and propose a value offering or exchange that’s tailored to me. I feel flattered that they took the time to connect with me on a human level, and I usually say yes. This also has worked for me when I’ve reached out to “big fish” in my industry—personalization and value add is my secret. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Jules Schroeder:**I am better than most at enrolling others in a vision that doesn’t exist yet. I find that the more I believe in my own vision, and the more genuinely excited I am about it, the more others get enrolled. Because you see, it’s not*what* you’re creating, it’s *why* you are creating it that counts. People get excited about the passion in your heart and the fire in your belly. I do a good job of conveying that and it tends to help me enroll the right people whose help is needed in making my vision come to life. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Jules Schroeder:**Focus on doing business for the right reasons. It’s easy to get carried away with wanting to make a name for yourself, having a ton of followers, and making profit for the sake of profit. But I’ve learned those things will not sustain you. If you’re doing business for your ego, you won’t be able to survive the storms of entrepreneurship. Go into business because you want to make a difference in the world. Serve something and someone you care about. Doing business from this place is exponentially more fulfilling. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? **Jules Schroeder:**The Book Of Love And Creation, by Paul Selig; Whatever Arises Love That by Matt Kahn. (Read more recommended books for entrepreneurs here) ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **Jules Schroeder:**I would have never imagined I’d be throwing international events with my company if you’d have asked me where I intended to go just a year ago. So the truth is, I am remaining open to what emerges and am looking forward to where that takes us. In the near future, I see us growing Unconventional Life into a huge global movement and company. Where we are the go-to community for millennials who are creating their life on their own terms and following their own path. I see us expanding our international events and having a global network for people to connect, discover what it is they really care about, and create a business vehicle that is in alignment to support that. We have already created a few big strategic partnerships and have several online programs coming out later this year. This is just the beginning! --- ## Bolivian Entrepreneur Gabriel Ruiz Launches Kickstarter To Provide Education To Impoverished Bolivian Kids URL: https://futuresharks.com/gabriel-ruiz/ Bolieve works with impoverished artisans from one of the poorest countries of South America, Bolivia. For each handmade backpack sold, they will provide a day of EDUCATION to an average of 25 poor kids from Bolivia which creates the perfect synergy for solving the most fundamental difficulties in poverty JOBS opportunities and quality EDUCATION. **** **City where you’re from:** Tarija – Bolivia **Hobbies:**play tennis, outdoor adventures **Favorite quote:**“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” by Nelson Mandela **Social accounts**: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter ## Hey Gabriel Ruiz Auad, it’s wonderful to see a fellow Bolivian taking the initiative. What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Gabriel Ruiz:**It all started 6 years ago in Bolivia. At the time, I was very passionate about tennis. I made the decision to switch from day school to night school so I could practice during the day and then go to class after. Although I didn’t think it was a big change at the time, this experience made a huge impact on me… I quickly noticed that most of my new classmates were laborers that would work during the day just to afford their basic needs. It was very evident that these impoverished students lacked opportunity and financial support. Impressed with their ambitions and hard work ethic, I began to look for ways I could help. > I quickly noticed that most of my new classmates were laborers that would work during the day just to afford their basic needs. It was very evident that these impoverished students lacked opportunity and financial support Upon my high school graduation, I decided to continue my education and tennis career at a University in the USA. I started to see the opportunities a quality education would give me and it was then that I was able to understand the importance of education. My night High School in Bolivia was two blocks from these stores of artisans that make the most beautiful handmade backpacks I’ve ever seen. Impressed with the craftsmanship of these bags, I decided to bring one back for my American friend named Van and he loved it. It was then that I thought of the idea to sell these amazing backpacks and donate a portion to the money to help both the artisans and the students next door. So then after a long time of trying to figure it out how to make this idea possible, I’ve decided to implement the one for one model but raising the bar and trying to make a bigger impact. I’ve decided to approach the model in the following way, *for each backpack sold we will fund a day of education for Bolivians in need*. This way we tackle the most important factors of poverty, lack of education while also creating jobs. Our Official Kickstarter just launched! Check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233028593/one-backpack-education-for-kids-and-jobs-for-artis ### How is your company different? **Gabriel Ruiz:**Bolieve will thrive to deliver to our customers the highest quality of handmade products and our main focus would be customer satisfaction, however, what really set us apart from other companies is the strong connection that we are going to build between our clients all over the world and the people that they are helping. We will provide to our clients every two weeks reports, and testimonials of our wonderful artisans and poor kids from Bolivia. Our main goal would be to develop a strong, durable, and transparent relationship between our clients and the people that they are helping. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Gabriel Ruiz:**The ultimate goal with Bolieve would be to build a store where people can find all kinds of handcrafted products made by impoverished artisans and as we grow optimize the ONE for ONE business model to deliver a bigger impact to communities in need around the world.. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Gabriel Ruiz:**Bolieve uses our Social Media platforms as a main tool for advertising. We are currently looking for other avenues to spread our idea. For example, finding influencers, bloggers that write about topics related to our project, and we try to talk about our project in every face to face interaction. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Gabriel Ruiz:**My biggest failure would be to not start with social entrepreneurship before. I believe that social entrepreneurship is an outstanding way to create a sustainable impact in our societies. #### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Gabriel Ruiz:**My advice to entrepreneurs would be to implement a [social cause in their businesses](/category/social-impact/), nowadays, people wants to help change the world therefore, besides creating a strong business we can develop impact that changes the lives of those in need. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Gabriel Ruiz:**For the past month I’ve been focusing intensively in social media marketing, email marketing, and PR. ### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) **Gabriel Ruiz:**The key for our success will be been obsessed on delivering a genuine customer service to our clients. ### ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Gabriel Ruiz:**An entrepreneur must be capable of motivating their team and transmit the vision of the project to their team. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? Think and grow rich, how to win friends and influence people, rich dad poor dad, the promise of a pencil, start something that matters, the secret, etc. Read our recommended books for entrepreneurs. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In a couple of years I envision my product to be in multiple countries around the world, evolving the giving aspect, launching more handmade products, and finding more ways to implements businesses with a cause. Support Gabriel’s Kickstarter here: --- ## Learning From Experience with Haasith Sanka URL: https://futuresharks.com/haasith-sanka/ Haasith Sanka is undergraduate at UC Riverside interested in developing innovative and fun application that make an impact on people’s lives.  **City where you’re from:** San Diego, CA **Hobbies:**basketball, playing video games, hiking **Favorite quote:** **“**Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever”(Gandhi) **Social accounts**: @facebook @linkedin @instagram ### Hey Haasith, what are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? **Haasith Sanka:**I am working on Foodies, the tinder for food, where users can swipe on food to figure out where they want to eat. I came up with this idea by talking to my friend on a bus ride to a hackathon where I told him about the tinder model and we bounced back on some ideas and I ended up coming up with tinder for food. I ended up working on this idea over my winter break and ended up releasing it at the end of my spring break for a beta. I heeded people’s concerns and improved it before I released it again. ### How is your company different? **Haasith Sanka:**My company is different because we are based in Riverside, CA where there has not been major entrepreneurial activity recently. However, there is a major shift in the amount of entrepreneurial activity recently because of incubators in downtown and the city’s push to create more jobs through entrepreneurship. All of the people in my company have only been in the entrepreneurial space for only a two years or less, so we are all learning from each other and driving each to be the best we can be. ### What’s your dream with your company? **Haasith Sanka:**My dream for my company is to help as many people as I can and to change the way food has been discovered. ### How do you creatively advertise? **Haasith Sanka:**I use tips for posts from our facebook and instagram page people can use when they plan to go to the restaurant. ### What’s the best way to learn how to be an entrepreneur? **Haasith Sanka:**The best way is to learn by beginning your own startup or by joining an early stage startup. In my experience, I feel as if you cannot learn how to be a true entrepreneur without actually experiencing it. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **Haasith Sanka:**My biggest failure is when I did not have written agreements for my first company and my company and my relationship with my friend got ruined. I learned that having the equity negotiation set in stone initially with paperwork is mandatory to avoid equity negotiations later. My biggest success was when I released my first app to the app store with my team’s help. We went through many designs and improved it each time, and finally it got approved to the app store. Even from my success, I learned that I have to keep improving the app and get user feedback to truly make an app that is used by millions of people. After all, my customer’s opinions should be the most important for me to decide what the next feature I should add to the app. **Value-add questions** ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Haasith Sanka:**Users first, UI/UX are key factors. Make sure to make a first good impression with your product because a lot of users don’t come back after a first bad experience. ### Teach us something **Haasith Sanka:**For social media posts,give people something that can relate to and something that they can use immediately. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? **Haasith Sanka:**I’ve learned that I need to keep pushing out updates and use push notifications more to engage users. ### Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) **Haasith Sanka:**Get user feedback after every update so you know what they really want because if you deliver what users want they are more likely to keep using your app. ### What do you think you do better than most people? **Haasith Sanka:**I think I communicate with people really well because I follow and make sure everything is going according to plan and nothing is wrong with my teammate’s personal lives. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? **Haasith Sanka:**They should focus on user feedback, communication skills and finding the right people to work with on their venture. They need to find people who are as passionate as themselves to work on their project. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see my product becoming a go-to application for people who want to go get something to eat. --- ## Learn How Filtr Is Changing The Game For Graduate Recruitment in New Zealand URL: https://futuresharks.com/lucas-gammie/ ## Welcome to Future Sharks Lucas! Tell us a little description about yourself: Lucas is an experienced business consultant and co-founder of Filtr, a new job seeking platform that makes it easier and more simple for both employers and job seekers to connect. Lucas has been involved with Filtr for just over six months, and played a crucial role in preparing the platform for launch in February 2017. Since launch, Lucas and business partner Steph have been busy connecting employers with job seekers from all over New Zealand. They now plan on raising capital to continue growing in the New Zealand market and begin exploring other potential markets. **City where you’re from****:** Wellington, NZ **Hobbies:**Outdoors enthusiast – spearfishing, snowboarding, surfing and hiking **Favorite quote: “**There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure” – Colin Powell **Facebook:**FiltrNZ **LinkedIn:**Lucas Gammie ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? My interest in entrepreneurship first started back in high school. I still remember attending a workshop on the basics of starting a business and being filled with a weird sense of nerves and excitement. During the workshop we formed teams, attempted to solve everyday problems and pitched our solution to a panel of judges. After losing rock-paper-scissors, I was chosen to pitch my team’s idea to the judges. I spent the next five minutes nervously explaining how our cycling gloves (with indicators on them) would be in such high demand with cyclists riding at night. Long story short, my team didn’t win. But that didn’t matter. I got a real sense of achievement from creating a mock business and now wanted to make it real. The problem was, I didn’t fully understand what it meant to become an entrepreneur. Like many of us, I’ve had business ideas, but didn’t pursue them because I was too preoccupied with what people would think or worried that my ideas would just fail. It was only last year when I realized that if I took a risk, worked hard and ‘hustle’, sooner or later opportunity would find me. I was seeing friends and family around me succeed and wanted to create my own success. The best decision I made was to get involved in the Wellington startup community. This gave me access to networking events like Startup Weekend where I managed to find people with the same ambition and drive as me. People I knew I could help and who could help me. As fate would have it, it was here I met current business partner Steph. We shared a passion for changing graduate recruitment and decided to do something about it. So we launched Filtr. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there defining moment in your life? The two biggest influences in my journey have been my dad and a bunch of my close mates (although they probably don’t know this – until now). About three years ago, my dad brought a business called Journal Surf. This company gives teachers access to literacy materials so they can plan out their classroom lessons. I still remember when dad got the company. He went straight down to his office and started mapping out his goals and strategies for the business. Over the years, it’s been fascinating to watch the outcomes of each decision come to life. Some decisions worked, and others didn’t. The thing is, he never got disheartened when a decision didn’t pay off. Instead, he tried to understand how he could make a better outcome next time. Seeing this play out has been really inspiring. It has challenged me to focus on my own decision making. Regardless of the outcome, I’m always trying to make a better decision. My other inspiration has come from watching a couple of good mates start their own businesses. Seeing them quit their full time jobs to do what they’re passionate about has definitely challenged me to ask more of myself. Their ability to risk a stable income, a 9-5 job, and a career to decide of their own futures has been eye-opening. And to their credit, they have all tasted success at different times, and in different ways. For me, this epitomises “fortune favours the bold”. ### Now ### What are you working on? I’m currently working on Filtr, a new job seeking platform that takes the hassle out of recruitment by making it easier and more simple for both employers and job seekers to connect. For employers, Filtr provides instant access to the student and graduate market. No more posting lengthy job adverts or ‘pesky’ applicants taking up all of your precious time. Employers now deal directly with the job seekers who fit their requirements (we help Filtr the rest). This helps employers focus on what really matters, making great hiring decisions. For job seekers, we make getting jobs easy. Once a job seeker creates a profile (this includes personal information, ambitions, competency profile and a video elevator pitch), interested employers can contact the job seeker directly and share a role they have available. No need to search and apply for jobs anymore. The employers find you. ### How did you come up with this idea? The idea came from Steph and I seeing an opportunity to challenge the way graduate recruitment was being performed. We had both seen friends struggle to get jobs and experienced some of the frustrations ourselves. I had helped write CVs for a number of my friends, and Steph had seen intelligent friends miss out on jobs because employers were looking for someone who “knew the industry”. What we quickly learnt was job seekers were not the only ones frustrated with the current process. Employers were feeling the pain as well. One employer told me a story of when they received over 300 applications for a role and 95% of them were not suitable. The worst part was it took 20 hours to look through these CVs and find this out! ### How is your product/service different and unique? Filtr fundamentally changes how recruitment is performed. The current process of using job boards and CVs doesn’t work well. Too much time is lost searching for jobs, applying for jobs and filtering through CVs. We change this by redefining the recruitment process. With Filtr, ‘the hunter becomes the hunted’ – i.e. employers can now search and find (only) job seekers that fit their requirements. This means employers don’t wait for applications and job seekers are contacted by employers interested in them. We also equip job seekers and employers with the ability to assess cultural fit by specifying what type of job seeker/employer they are looking for and creating a 60 second video clip to ‘sell themselves’. Finally, Filtr has been designed with simplicity in mind, profiles take less than ten minutes to set up and employers can find job seekers in a matter of minutes. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. It’s pretty simple really, commit to an idea and hustle to make it succeed. If you’re not willing to execute on your ideas, they will only ever be ideas. As Wayne Gretzky (professional ice hockey player) put it, “you miss 100% of the shots you never take”. If you want to succeed, you need to commit to an idea and hustle to make it a success. This means sacrificing those nights out to stay home and code or trying to constantly make the best out of any given situation. The results will speak for themself. The question you need to ask yourself is what are you willing to sacrifice to make your ideas succeed…? ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I hope to be the co-founder of the number one graduate job seeking platform in New Zealand. Although ambitious, we believe Filtr does enough to distinguish itself from competitors and creates real value for employers and job seekers. We’re also very determined to take our service both abroad and into different industries based in New Zealand (watch this space). # Thank you for joining us here on Future Sharks Lucas! --- ## USC Freshman Markian Benhamou Blows Up on Social Media URL: https://futuresharks.com/markian-benhamou/ Markian, aka The Smiling Redhead, is a social media influencer with over 750k followers, a young entrepreneur, and a college student at USC. **City where you’re from:** Marbella, Spain **Hobbies:**Soccer, Entrepreneurship, Dancing, Leaving comfort zone **Favorite quote:**There’s nothing worth worrying about in life **Social accounts**: - Facebook (680k) www.facebook.com/markianb - Youtube (60k) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi1ynaf3mWz-mgim7LvqjzQ - Instagram (20k) www.instagram.com/markianb - Snapchat: @mformarkian **** ## What’s good Markian, awesome having you at Future Sharks. What got you into making your influencer account? When did you start? **Markian Benhamou:** 2 years ago, I started a monetization platform for Youtubers so it made sense for me to create my own channel in order to reach out to Youtubers and understand how they work. I saw the value in creating content and building a large following so I’ve been making videos ever since. My theme has always been making people smile so I make acts of kindness videos/fun challenge vlogs on Youtube – short, funny skits on Facebook. **Don’t get your hopes up ?? Posted by Markian on Wednesday, July 20, 2016 ## What are some secrets to virality in your most successful platform (Fb, Twitter, IG, Snap, etc)? **Markian Benhamou:**Viral content elicits emotion. Doesn’t matter which emotion, but all viral videos make you feel someway and want to share it with others. My video ‘What It’s Like To Have a Sister’ was the 55th most viewed Facebook video of 2016 with over 100M views. It was impactful, funny, and extremely relatable. ## If you had to build your following all over, how would you do it much quicker? **Markian Benhamou:**Definitely start on Facebook. It’s much easier to grow a Facebook page compared to a Youtube channel. Facebook has great shareability functions that allow videos to spread, such as sharing, tagging, commenting and liking. ## Who are other influencers you look up to? **Markian Benhamou:**I really like Jerome Jarre. He makes fun videos in a very positive, light-hearted way. An upcoming Youtube channel that I’ve enjoyed watching is Yes Theory, who do positive challenges to leave their comfort zone. ## How did you promote your content in the early days? **Markian Benhamou:**First step is to send your channel to ALL your Facebook friends. And I mean private message them (not public post on your wall). This got me my first 100 subscribers in a week. Next steps is to create unique, high-quality content and send it to blogs that could hopefully write articles about your videos. It’s all about experimenting, practice and persistence. ## How long does it take you to produce your content? Which software do you use to make your video and track its engagement/promotion if any? **Markian Benhamou:**Facebook videos are relatively quick to produce – 2 hours to film, 2 hours to edit. Youtube videos take longer – 3-6 hours to film, 4-6 hours to edit. I use Final Cut Pro to edit and the stats can all be tracked from each platform. ## Value-add questions ## What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month (whether some new social media update or a new marketing technique)? **Markian Benhamou:**The power of chatbots. Chatbots are the future for Facebook pages. Chatbots allow you to instantly message any of your followers who have either commented on a post or previously messaged your page. This is extremely valuable because when pages are doing promotions or running events, they can send that individualized DIRECT message to their followers. ## Teach us something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) **Markian Benhamou:**I’ll teach you the best way to approach strangers. I have approached hundreds of people in my videos – giving flowers to people, asking strangers on dates, getting strangers to call their moms… Whether you’re giving out flyers, taking surveys, asking people to be in a video, or just want to meet people, here are my top 3 tips. First, confidence** is everything. If you don’t appear confident, nobody will commit to talking to you. Fake it (being confident) until you become it. Second, don’t open with a Yes or No question. This just gives people the opportunity to say no and move on. Start by giving a compliment or making a statement ‘I need your help real quick’, ‘I love your outfit!’ The time you spend talking builds trust with the person and they’re more likely to follow through with your next requests. Third, always SMILE! Approaching people with a genuine smile is extremely powerful. People will reciprocate that positive energy and be willing to interact with you. Final tip: practice, practice, practice. It all comes by just doing it, getting rejected, and doing it again. I used to be very shy and not-confident approaching strangers. Now I have no problem. ### Youtube: Asking Stranger on Dates with Snapchats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYwH11Ugbd0 ## What should an influencer focus on? **Markian Benhamou:**An influencer should focus on building a relationship with their followers – that’s what influence means. Having a large following but very low engagement loses its value. It’s crucial to keep your fans connected and feeling like they want to talk to you. There are a number of ways influencers can do this through social media: replying to comments, replying to messages, referring to fans in videos, call-to-action, asking questions in posts, and implementing their feedback. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? - DotCom Secrets for anyone in social media/online business world. - Tools of Titans for best/successful life habits. - Predictably Irrational for business psychology. Find more books in the list we compiled at Future Sharks. ## What’s your ultimate goal with your account? **Markian Benhamou:**My end goal has always been to create my own companies. Having a large following is an extremely valuable business asset that will help me leverage my startups. The current goal is to grow my fanbase across all platforms and monetize through different revenue streams (merch, online video series, book). At the same time, be able to inspire young adults to leave their comfort zone and add positivity in people’s life one smile at a time. ## What’s your dream? **Markian Benhamou:**My dream is to be on my death bed and say ‘I lived every moment of life. I have no regrets.’ I wish to travel the world, have meaningful experiences, constantly learn, and help underprivileged societies. --- ## Circumstances Inspire Surgeon From India to Evolve into A Serial MedTech Innovator, Author and Stand-up Comedian URL: https://futuresharks.com/jagdish-chaturvedi/ Dr. Jagdish Chaturvedi is an Ear Nose Throat Surgeon and an expert in the Stanford Biodesign process. He has co-invented numerous medical devices suited for the Indian healthcare system and has been recognised as one of the 35 innovators under the age of 35 by MIT Technology Review, 2016. Dr. Chaturvedi attributes his successes to his innate ability to fail and make mistakes and has authored two books on the subject of failures – “Inventing Medical Devices: A Perspective from India” which talks about failures while developing new medical devices and “The benefits of failing successfully” which shares lessons from personal failures that helped him become an entrepreneur. He is a stand-up comedian who specializes in observational, narrational and clean material. **City where you’re from:** Bangalore, India **Hobbies:**Stand-up comedy **Favorite quote:**First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win – Mahatma Gandhi **Social accounts**: @facebook @Twitter @Linkedin ## ## Awesome having you here Jagdish, what led you to become a medical devices innovator from being a Doctor? **Jagdish Chaturvedi:** I started out to be a conventional Doctor and after finishing my undergraduate training in medicine, went on to do my masters in Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Surgery. During my training as an ENT surgeon, I came across a unique situation where I noticed patients with throat cancer would come to the hospital with advanced stages of cancer that were going undetected in rural regions. During my rural visits, I used to struggle using mirrors and head lamps to pick up tiny lesions in the voice box. I felt as a Doctor, I was not doing enough by using available tools that were ineffective. I decided to buy a better visualisation device which turned out to be very expensive or not available to buy in India. I therefore made a conscious decision to make my own tool that can help me see through a video camera, lesions within the voice box. In the process I received immense support from my mentor and guru Dr. Ravi Nayar under whom I trained in ENT. As I ventured into forming a company and developing the device, I learnt that I had a knack of making a smart yet simple solution that could be used by the masses for throat cancer screening. I was eventually able to license out the technology to a larger company who brought the device to market, now called ENTraview and has been used to screen over 200,000 patients in India for ENT conditions. However, I needed to learn the process better and was selected into a fellowship called Stanford India Biodesign which taught me the process​ of inventing medical devices. This was the turning point that got me involved into developing over 18 devices in the last 7 years. I am now the Clinical Director of a Medical Devices company in Bangalore called InnAccel Technologies Pvt. Ltd, where I implement the Biodesign process along with teams to develop new medical devices designed and engineered for the Indian healthcare ecosystem. I continue my clinical practice by running a private clinic and operating surgeries in partnering hospitals. **** ## How did you venture into writing books? **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**Again, it was due to a situation that compelled me. India has a nascent Medical Technology ecosystem and one of the primary reasons for this is the limited involvement from Doctors towards new inventions. There was also a significant lack of understanding and know-how regarding how Doctors could work together with engineers and designers to develop new medical devices. There was no readily available resource that entrepreneurs could use to understand this space better. I therefore decided to write a book “Inventing medical devices – A perspective from India” which shares in a very Indian context, the road map for inventing a new technologies in India. It shares with challenges, pitfalls, case studies and hands-on sections, how one may invent and take an idea all the way to market successfully while maintaining realistic expectations. The book also shares factual numerical information such as investment requirements, actual development costs, salaries and licensing deals. This book became a bestseller in the Medical technologies category on Amazon.in in a matter of months and is presently the go-to resource for inventing medical devices in India. As people read this book and were inspired to venture into becoming entrepreneurs​, only few people actually chose to take the path. I realised that there was a second road-block that stopped many from pursuing this seriously and that was because of their fear of failures. This unfolded the hidden stigma and insecurities related to mistakes, failures and their perception among peers and in society while pursuing an entrepreneurial path. This prompted me to write a book called “The Benefits of Failing Successfully” which takes 10 personal failures from my life and illustrates how they have been beneficial towards paving my entrepreneurial career. **** ## Whats the story behind being a Stand-up comedian? **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**I have been acting in plays and performing theatre since my farthest memory. Perhaps since the age of 5. Having performed in over a 100 plays in the genre of comedy and satire, I possess a constant urge to vent this energy through a performance every few months. Due to my recent involvement in medical device innovations and writing books while maintaining a clinical career, I find it hard to spare time for long rehearsal schedules and commitments that go in to performing and acting in plays. Stand-up comedy was therefore a natural alternate for me to vent this need for delivering comedy and have been pursuing this for the last couple of years. It allows me the flexibility and the freedom to write, practice and perform based on my availibility and schedule. **** ## ## How do you balance your time managing these diverse roles? **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**Maintaining flexibility at all times is the single most important factor that has helped me manage time. While there have been times where clinical practice overtakes my schedule, it is the flexible arrangements with teams that co-develop medical devices with me and my self-managed schedule to set time for writing books and performing comedy that helps me manage all roles effectively. Similarly, if my requirement for medical device inventions increases, due to a flexible self managed clinical practice, I am able to balance my time effectively. The bottom line being, having direct control on my time in each domain, I am able to balance them as and when requirements change. ## How has this impacted your image as a Doctor? **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**Though I had perceived this to negatively impact my image as a Doctor, by appearing confused and unfocused, the reality is on the contrary. Infact, my Doctor colleagues, patients, audiences have shown support and encouragement for the activities that I carry out. The clinical community benefits by the new medical technologies that improve opportunities for them to provide better care through new procedures and skill sets. The Medtech teams benefit by my clinical expertise and on the ground access to hospitals and other doctors. People who read my books and watch my stand up comedy find my diverse experiences interesting and many times entertaining. Patients often reach out to me seeking newer cure for their clinical conditions and are often very supportive of trying out new treatments through the devices that we have launched in the market. #### Check out one of Jagdish’s comedy skits ## Are you going to add more dimensions to your profile or is this it? **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**There is no reason not to. If I do find that I need to do something else in order to improve my productivity as a Doctor, then I will certainly try to achieve it and figure out a way to balance it with whatever else that I am doing. ## ## Why do you attribute your successes in life to your ability to make mistakes and failures? **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**I personally believe that failing is not an outcome but a step towards achieving the ultimate outcome which is Success. So the sooner I have failed or made mistakes, the sooner I have corrected them to become better and more effective. Making mistakes on numerous occasions has helped me deal with complex situations which I could have avoided if I was more careful. But dealing with difficult situations has made me stronger and given the confidence to face more challenging situations. So the single reason that drives me to do something is because I have failed in achieving it already. #### Value-add questions ## Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**Team comes first. Then the need. Then the idea. The need and idea in itself cannot do anything. The team can identify the need and solve it with an apt solution. **** ## Single best advice to Stand up comedians **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**Do not write a joke to please an audience. It will force you to be someone whom you are not. Instead, find an audience who likes the jokes that you can write naturally and build that community. Being yourself is more sustainable in the long run. **** ## Single best advice to Authors **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**Anybody can write and Everybody can read. The best time to put your thoughts into a book is NOW, because the first mover is always at an advantage. **** ## Teach us something we don’t know **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**Hiding your mistakes and pitfalls makes you look artificial and less likable. Showing your mistakes and pitfalls makes you human and more likable. **** ## What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**When I want to do something that can be done in a few minutes, I do it right away. When I want to do something bigger, I try to achieve it in two weeks. Never more. ## Where do you see yourself in a couple years? **Jagdish Chaturvedi:**On the cover page of Fortune Magazine. --- ## Julius Dein, the “British Cheeky Bastard” with 8M+ Followers on Facebook URL: https://futuresharks.com/julius-dein/ **Julius Dein** is a social media influencer with millions of followers on social media. He got super famous thanks to the magic tricks he does. This morning I got on a call with him to learn how he got started, how we built his following and what his next plans are. Let’s jump right in. ### Who’s Julius Dein? **Julius Dein**:  Julius Dein is a British cheeky bastard from London that does mind-blown magic tricks, travels the world, talks to pretty girls and is good at social media. ### What got you into making videos? **Julius Dein**: I had been trying to find myself. I have always been interested in magic, always been interested in social media, entertainment and comedy, and found a way to intertwine all that through my videos. ### How and when did your career as a social media influencer got started? **Julius Dein**: I started making videos online in late 2015 for six months with no success. But then I experienced a level of success through one viral video and that gave me the motivation and certainty that this was my correct career path. After seeing the success of a few videos, I started realizing that this could become a job so I started building my social media following. > How to impress a girl with magic tricks! ( p.3 – Ibiza) > INSTAGRAM/SNAPCHAT @JULIUSDEIN > Posted by Julius Dein on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 ### ### How do you create viral content? **Julius Dein**: I took inspiration from other social media influencers. You look at what makes their videos go viral: it’s snappy content with clickbait thumbnails, and originality. The key was to reach out to bigger pages and get them to share your content. > What’s the recipe to make a video viral? It’s snappy content with clickbait thumbnails, and originality – Julius Dein For the first few videos, I reached out to 3 big pages and they shared my content which helped me build my following. ### So Julius, who comes up with the creative ideas for your videos / magic tricks? **Julius Dein**: I’ve got good friends and I’m creative myself as well. My friends give my ideas, I look at what’s on the Internet, I go to magic shows. It’s 50% my own and 50% elsewhere. ### ### If you had to back and build your following again, what would you focus on? **Julius Dein**: Pranks! (laughs) They are simple and the fastest way to get lots of followers. People just love them. Pranking your grandma, pranking your girlfriend, etc. The secret is that they tag their friends, tag their boyfriend, which triggers the Facebook edge-rank algorithm. ### What would you tell someone that is reading this and wants to start their own page? **Julius Dein**: Just think about your content. Are people going to want to share this? > To build a social media following you need two things. You need good content and good distribution. – Julius Dein If you don’t have good content, you can have the best distribution network in the world but no one is going to care. Similarly, if you have good content and no one sees it, then it’s also pointless. #### Here’s an interview of Julius with Deutsche Welle ## ### Should they start in one social media platform or try to go for all at once? **Julius Dein**: Some people find their niche on one, some exploit it all. For me, I started on Youtube and Instagram.  Facebook was the last one I tried, but now it’s my most profitable channel. I would definitely say to focus on all of them. The most difficult thing is making the content. Once you make the content it’s easy to send it to many platforms. There’s no reason to not use all the social media channels. ### How much time do you spend creating your content? **Julius Dein**: I’m going to New Castle right now and will be spending the next 4 out of 7 days on just one video. I’m hoping to get between 20M-50M views. ### What are your plans for the future? I saw that you wanted to create an offline following as well **Julius Dein**: Social media is very fast paced so it’s very important to get offline, if you can build an offline following that’s huge. Word of mouth is the most valuable thing for a brand, for a magician. If people keep talking about you without seeing you, that’s huge. ### What has been your favorite thing that you’ve gotten out of this year and a half influencer experience so far? **Julius Dein**: I’m loving impressing girls with magic tricks. I get to travel to different countries every week, I get to talk to incredibly attractive women, I get to entertain people, make friends, work the magic. I get to experience new cultures and live my life doing what I love: magic + travel. I find this experience really liberating. #### Here’s a compilation of the best tricks by Julius > Magic tricks compilation! > Posted by Julius Dein on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 Don’t forget to follow Julius Dein on Facebook! #### Read another interview with an influencer with billions of views If you enjoyed this interview, you will certainly like the interview we did with Goubtube (with 1,000,000,000 views) where he went into more depth on the [step-by-step formula to go viral on Facebook](/go-viral-facebook-goubtube/). --- ## ‘It’s Not About Being An Entrepreneur, It’s About Teamwork And Building Value’ Says The Team At Leophile URL: https://futuresharks.com/leslie-gu-leophile/ In China we have a proverb: “It’s easy to break a chopstick, but they become unbreakable when we put all of them together,” says Leslie Gu, head of marketing at Leophile. Leophile, a company that devotes itself in designing the most ergonomically suitable Bluetooth headphones, believes strongly in teamwork as the key to bringing value to the entrepreneurial world. **Leophile headquarters in:**Shenzhen, China ## First of all, Leslie, tell the readers a little about yourself. Here at Leophile, we’re not just one person, we’re a company. We’re a group of five dedicated product designers that work together to achieve what we have today. Over the past few years we have all built up our own experience in the tech, entrepreneurial industry by designing products for varying brands. What failed to impress us, was most companies cared solely for profit or the creation of the newest trend. What they were forgetting was the user experience and what someone would value. This brought us together and forms the foundation of the teamwork we have created today. ### Why have the members of your team pursued entrepreneurship? We did not enter the business world with the intention to become successful entrepreneurs. We came together from our shared perception of life, attitude and value. We wanted to build value and attract the appropriate audience that can appreciate what we have created.   ### ### What prompted you to take the decision to invest time into the creation of Leophile? We all came together for the same reason and this motivated our creation of Leophile. We simply felt our previous experience in various companies lacked the right attitude. It’s not just about profit or success. It’s about user experience. And that’s what we wanted to create. Leophile’s product is ideal for active wear therefore we consider our audience to be quite playful and adventurous. So in addition to designing ergonomically suitable headphones, we wanted to help others to become more “playful” with their life. In fact, we remind ourselves that our work attitude is to face life with a playful attitude ### What’s the vision for Leophile? Besides designing the most ergonomically suitable headphones for people, we want to deliver value to our potential customers. To keep this up we always remember life can be tough but it’s beautiful so embrace whatever comes into our path. Pursuing our passion should never conflict with our happiness. ## What has been the biggest difficulty the team has faced in getting Leophile up and running? We don’t like to think of issues as difficult. They’re more of an interesting and adventurous redirection and an active part of our journey. It’s better to see a difficulty as a game that we can play with -if we fail, we will start over. ## What lesson have you learnt from working together in Leophile? We believe that teamwork is far more valuable than an individual’s ability and effort. In China we have an old saying: “It’s easy to break a chopstick, but they become unbreakable when we put all of them together.” ## ## As an entrepreneur what advice can you give anyone seeking to start their own business? Don’t think about creating a successful business, nor reaching great profit. It’s all about the value you bring and the attitude you maintain. Think about what YOU want to build before you start a business. It’s never going to be easy, but it will be an adventure. --- ## Benjamin Yee Disrupts The Way Business Owners Manage Their Wholesale & Trading Companies URL: https://futuresharks.com/benjamin-yee/ # Welcome to Future Sharks Benjamin! Tell us a little about yourself: Benjamin founded Higher Identity in late 2010. The company built EMERGE App (emergeapp.net) with a vision to put affordable software in the hands of all businesses selling physical products (distribution, wholesale, trading & e-commerce model). The visions’ to revolutionize small business are ran through technology. Benjamin also founded Drooling Apparel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (previously called Drooling Closet) during his student days. The company produces customized t-shirts with a factory in Malaysia. It grew into a strong local brand, serving major companies, school and government agencies in Singapore. Benjamin now serves as a non-executive director at Drooling Apparel, where the company remains profitable. #### City where you’re from: Singapore #### Hobbies: Playing tennis, traveling. #### Favorite quote: “Sales solve everything” – Mark Cuban Twitter(s):  https://twitter.com/emergeapp; https://twitter.com/benjaminyeejh Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-yee-a0370b2a/ ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? Initially it was the excitement of selling things and making money at the same time. Soon after, i felt that i needed and wanted to be able to scale the value that i can bring to the society. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? There wasn’t a single defining moment, always been selling things since young. One thing lead to another. I guess it was my parents who were also doing business. Hence, the environment was right ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Estimated 95% of product wholesale & trading company globally are using spreadsheets, hardcopy paperwork & memory (yes, memory) to manage their orders, inventory & billings. This process is extremely unproductive and especially if the team is small. This man-hours loss instead should be focussed on sales related activities to grow the business.**I wanted to help this gigantic industry adopt software at a much faster rate. I along with my team developed a cloud solution:EMERGE App, focused on user-friendless**, **affordability** & **flexibility.**For traders not keeping stocks, keeping partial stocks or selling entirely from stocks, simplicity is the key to disrupting in this industry. I started EMERGE App after failing to find a suitable solution online for my T-shirt business he started during Polytechnic School days. I believe if this problem if faced by me, millions of entrepreneurs worldwide will face it too. Developing EMERGE App was not an overnight thing, and I along with my team met at least 150 product wholesale & trading companies around the region to understand their pains before launching the App. Also, while creating EMERGE App, we also implemented the software as customized enterprise solutions for companies that had actual inventory and order management issues. This experience was also translated making EMERGE App as it is today: a tried and tested problem solver. A cornerstone of EMERGE App was when 2 employees decided invest their own money into the company. EMERGE App is also backed by venture funding, and leading investors include TNF Ventures & 21 Black Partners. ### ### How is your product different and unique? What’s the vision? EMERGE App focuses on companies that are growing (3-10 employees) and selling both online and offline will find it difficult or near impossible to find a complete solution for their inventory and order processing needs. Our user access control, order, purchasing tools & pricing structure puts EMERGE App above our competitors. The SaaS for E-Commerce inventory management focus purely on the online order & fulfillment workflow where else the traditional software companies selling on-premise ERP / inventory management solutions are way too costly for our target customers. #### The vision 1. Become the #1 go to solution for wholesalers, traders & distributors globally 2. Provide end-to-end solution from software, integrations, logistics & sales channels ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? We focus on companies that are growing (3-10 employees) and selling both online and offline will find it difficult or near impossible to find a complete solution for their inventory and order processing needs. Our user access control, order, purchasing tools & pricing structure puts EMERGE App above our competitors. Our customers find us via organic searches, communities. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Entrepreneurship isn’t easy, I have faced many challenges in the journey and here is the top 3 challenges I have faced. #### Staffing challenges Founded in Singapore with lack of engineers to begin with, it was extremely difficult for us to attract great talents with long working hours and depressed wages. Initially, we relied on foreign engineers but after a short while, the Singapore government wanted to protect jobs locally and decide to make it difficult to hire foreign engineers. It was awfully difficult for us then but we overcame it by setting up our Vietnam team. #### Employee share options in Vietnam We wanted to attract the best engineers in town with a lowered salary & planned     to issue employee share option program to our team. However, the response was poor as Vietnam does not have a history of employees being issued with Shares. Despite the response, we committed to it and it has worked well for us #### Managing Cashflow As we bootstrapped from the beginning engaging in software customization projects, every cent that was going out had to count. It was years of regular sleepless nights going to bed not knowing if you are able to issue month end salary. This taught us to invest our money wisely and perhaps one of the most important aspects of running a startup: cash. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Keep it simple – Don’t try to over complicate things ### Teach us something about marketing Marketing is all about connecting people, you got to find people who have the problem which you are trying to solve. To connect with right people you got to find right communities. One of the breakthrough we had was finding the communities where our target customers hang out. It can be a forum where your ideal customers hang out or Quora or any Q & A site. Keep finding more communities and start partnering up. ### Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? - GrowthHackers.com – You will thank me later about this, it’s a place where you can get tons of ideas on new growth channels, retention. - Angel.co – Place where I try to reach out to find the right investors for my startup. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Different stage of an entrepreneur will have different priorities and it’s essential to only focus on a few priorities at any stage. For example, if you’re just starting out, you need money to build the product, you focus on fundraising and try building the product with whatever little resources you have. When you have the money and the product already in the market, you focus on growth such as acquiring customers So I wound not say what entrepreneur should focus on, but know when to focus on what. ### What are some of your favorite books? 1. On Building Business – Secrets of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses by Adam Khoo 2. On Building Product – Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Serving 30,000 customers.  Thank you for joining us here on Future Sharks Benjamin! Best of luck to you in your future endeavors! --- ## Steven Benson: Grit Wins URL: https://futuresharks.com/steven-benson/ Steven Benson is the Founder and CEO of Badger Maps. After receiving his MBA from Stanford, Steve worked in Sales at IBM, HP and Google where he was Google Enterprise’s Top Sales Executive in 2009. In 2012 Steve founded Badger Maps, the #1 Sales App in the Apple App Store, which helps Field Salespeople be more successful. **City where you’re from:** Chicago **Hobbies:**Mountain biking, Camping and Snowboarding **Favorite quote:** **The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of will. – Vince Lombardi Twitter** : @SteveBenson ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I love that running ​my own business gives me the opportunity to create something. I get to talk to people everyday whose lives are different and better because of the product I envisioned and led the team to build. ​Entrepreneurship is​ the only thing that I can think of where you can​ see a problem, and create​ a business model around fixing it.​ I also love the challenge – when you start a company, it feels like your job is to tak​e​ off in an airplane, except you​ are standing at the beginning of the runway with nothing, you have to ​find the parts and ​put them together to make a plane ​that can take off ​while​ you’re running down the runway. ​​When it works, there is no feeling like it – it’s hard for me to imagine a greater level of responsibility and accountability in a career than running your own business. ​ ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My first Sales Manager at Google, Mark Flessel, helped me become a better salesperson by giving me great advice. He told me to focus on understanding my prospect’s and customer’s business, their KPI’s and their business goals. Then I could map my solution to what makes them successful. I have found time and time again in sales, taking the time to ask the right questions to understand my customer’s business drivers has allowed me to differentiate my solution over my competitors. Another influence for me was Ravi Belani, who runs the Alchemist Accelerator. Badger participated in the accelerator program, and it was a great community to join. Ravi helped us understand the importance and strategy of early monetization, as well as gain insights into the startup capital markets. I don’t know if there was a single defining moment in my life, but more of a defining period when Badger was a new company and it really seemed impossible to get it off the ground. We couldn’t bring in money fast enough to pay for the resources that we needed to run the product – it really felt like squeezing water from a rock and we were dying of thirst. Over a period of about two years, I worked as hard as I could and really gave it my all. That process changed me a lot and shaped who I am as a person and as a leader today. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I am the founder and CEO at Badger Maps, which is a solution that helps field salespeople optimize their routes and schedules to get more meetings and sales. My job includes mostly managing Sales, Marketing, HR and Recruiting. I came up with the idea when I was frustrated by having a problem no one was solving. I knew a lot of other people had the same problem, and I believed I knew how to solve it. The way I got into that unique position was that my career has been spent in field sales, and so I understood the challenges faced by field sales people first hand. Also, when I was working on the Google Maps team, I got to know how powerful mobile mapping could be, and had first hand experience with the types of solutions and apps that mobile was capable of enabling. I knew I could improve my performance at my job as a field sales rep if I could combine my customer data with a mobile mapping system, and I could envision a solution that could schedule and plan my time selling in the field in a more efficient way. Looking back at it, it was a combination of my role in sales and the industry background with software and mapping that made me well positioned to launch a company to solve the problems of field sales based on a mobile mapping platform. ### ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? The Badger map is focused on one particular type of salesperson – the Field Sales Rep. A Field Sales Rep does business with customers face to face. We believe that this particular type of salesperson has been overlooked by other sales solutions in the marketplace, so we created Badger to help them become more successful.  Field Sales People are special because they’re always on the move. They need mobile solutions more than anyone. As a result, Badger prioritizes a great mobile experience via iPhone, Android, and tablet – not just a desktop. Badger Maps is a sales routing app that provides automatic territory management for Field Sales Reps. It helps them take action on their customer data by visualizing it on a map. Badger focuses on solving their daily problems in minutes rather than hours, and showing the best opportunities along the way. Sales Reps using Badger save time and gain focus, spending less time on driving and busy work and more time on what matters – Sales. Badger reduces driving time by 20% and creates 25% more daily meetings. Our vision is to make our customers who are field salespeople more successful, do busy work for them automatically, and make their lives better. There are a lot of field sales people in the world, and we plan on continuing to solve more and more of their problems and challenges, to make their job easier and make them more successful. We’re looking to continue to serve our customers, and treat our employees well, to solve real problems that field salespeople have everyday. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? We have experimented with Facebook ads, but haven’t been able to make them profitable. It’s potentially user error, or perhaps it’s just hard to nail down our demographic on there, because ‘Field Salesperson’ is not the type of demographic data they allow you to target by. LinkedIn does let us target down to title, but we haven’t been able to get that to pencil out economically either. Google Ads, on the other hand, are profitable for us and we use them a lot. The most important channel for us remains referrals from customers who enjoy using our product and experience more success in their field sales job because of it. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? My background is in Sales, so I’ve failed a lot over the years – it goes with the territory. One of the best parts about starting your career in Sales is that it gives you a thick skin and an attitude that you can press things to overcome objections and obstacles. That certainly helped to prepare me to start a company, which is essentially overcoming a series of impossible obstacles. ### ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. The first question that someone considering the path of entrepreneurship should ask is “Am I a planner?”. If you are going to run your own business, you have to get used to thinking a couple of steps ahead. It’s also important to have the basic blocking and tackling in each area of business – Sales, Marketing, Technology, Accounting, Finance etc. A big surprise to a lot of people who start companies is how much time they need to spend selling to be successful. You need to be a jack of all trades, because a big miss in any of these areas can be company killing.   ### Teach us something about sales funnels. Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? My best advice is to think about your sales and marketing funnel as one big lifecycle, and to break it up into as many steps as you can think of that make sense. The people who are exposed to your business are the top of the funnel, the next step would be an engaged lead, then a trial user, then an opportunity, then a sale, then a customer to support and make successful. As you look at every stage in the funnel, evaluate how many people go into this stage and how many people exit it. Look for ways to make that percentage higher. In my experience, people tend to over-optimize the top of the funnel “number of leads”, and the point of the funnel where “opportunities go to closed business”. But there are often big opportunities in the middle and at the bottom of the funnel (customer success) that are overlooked. A great website on entrepreneurship that covers not only the sales and marketing funnel but many other aspects of entrepreneurship with a focus on SaaS Software is www.SaaStr.com. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) One of the biggest learnings of my career is that companies in America today, in my opinion, underinvest in their relationship with their employees. Companies try to squeeze everything out of them and they don’t invest much in training or making them better. They operate with very little transparency, focus on the short term and not the long term, and in general, they treat the relationship like the employee is replaceable. As a result, employees switch jobs a lot, searching for something that is a little less miserable. Companies therefore end up with a short term relationship with many of their employees. But creating a company and culture of long term employment can be really beneficial to companies. Someone who has been around for 5 years is a huge asset to a company because they are experts in the company and its business processes. They have the internal relationships and knowledge to get things done far more effectively than someone who is new to a role. I believe that companies should work to foster an environment where they have a healthy, mutually beneficial, long term relationship with more of their employees.    ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? First of all, I block out distractions. Turn off notifications, put your phone on silent, no vibrating messages, stay off facebook, snapchat, IM, etc. We think that we can multi-task, but we cannot. By turning off everything you will accomplish way more in life. I also sort all my tasks by importance and due date. That way in the busy times, I don’t forget to get back to important customers or investors. There are a lot of great productivity apps out there, but I’ve always been a fan of the personalization and simplicity of a spreadsheet. I put my to do list into a spreadsheet and regularly sort by what’s important, what’s due and highlight things that are important but not urgent. This helps me stay organized and on top of my tasks throughout the day. Besides, I have focused quiet time every day and spend it on the most important things that I need to accomplish that day. Every day, I go home from work around 8:30 and have dinner and hang out with my wife till around 10:30, when she goes to sleep. Then I go back to work till around 3am, then I go to bed. This quiet time is absolutely critical to my productivity. Lastly, coffee is my secret weapon (cold brew is my latest passion). Without coffee and tea and chocolate, I truly believe I would have accomplished less than 50% of what I have in life. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Focus on maximizing monetization because money is your lifeblood when starting a business. There are a lot of ways to monetize from the beginning on. Look to have key high value employees do small consulting engagements. Charge customers for features that they request as a consulting engagement. Early on you can even find a big company to fund the building of your product if saying something like “I’d love to get you on-board here, and as an early adopter, you’re paying 1/10th of what people are going to be paying in a year, because we’re going to be doing so much more so much better. And your price will be locked in now. Also, you get to have a hand in shaping the direction of the product to solve your exact problems first.” That makes it feel a lot more reasonable for your prospects to buy early. This combines customer development and monetization. A key thing that we did early on was get companies who were early adopters of our technology to pay for multiple years of the service up front. This is a pure arbitrage play. A big company doesn’t choose your solution if they don’t want it for years. And they have a low cost of capital. You need money to pay engineers to make the product better that they want to be better. And you have a high cost of capital. There are plenty of ways to negotiate to a win-win here. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. The first questions to ask yourself when starting a business are all about money. Do you have access to money? How much money do you need to live? How long can you live on the amount of money you have. Money is the lifeblood of businesses, and businesses take awhile to get going – usually things take longer than you think. You always have to keep your eye on your runway – how long your business can survive (pay the bills and the payroll) without additional capital. If you have access to money from savings, that is good. If you don’t you’ll need to get investors to support you and your business. If you aren’t bringing on investors, you’ll need to bootstrap the business. People say this is “impossible”, but Badger and lots of other companies prove that it’s not. The 3 key qualities that allowed us to bootstrap Badger Maps were: 1. Keeping cost down 2. Focus on maximizing monetization 3. Solving a problem that people were willing to pay to solve When starting to hire people, there is so much to learn when you are a small company. You can’t afford to hire people who already know how to do things. This is why the most important thing you can be as a business leader is an educator. Educate your customers and employees about everything, and enable your team to educate each other. To grow the company, we found the referral and the ‘land and expand strategy’ to be most successful for Badger. Referrals are where people that are currently using your product tell their friends, colleagues, ex-co-workers, new co-workers, etc about your product. Why would they do this? Because they love you. People don’t tell their friends about you unless you are so great that they are willing to associate their own ‘personal brand’ with you. The ‘land and expand strategy’ is related to the referral strategy, but it’s a little different. You get one person at a company to use your product, and because you make them successful, their coworkers and management find out about you and you spread around the organization. Some of our biggest customers have been acquired this way. One person finds out about you, then their manager sees their success and wants it for the rest of his or her team. Then the regional manager sees that one manager’s team doing well, so then all the regions get it, then the division, etc. Really though, our true secret to getting where we are today is creating an environment where our team can thrive and grow and where everyone is happy. An organization is made up of its people and by coaching them to be successful at their job, I help my company perform at its best while increasing employee satisfaction, productivity and profitability. ### What are some of your favorite books? My favorite book that I would recommend all entrepreneurs to read is ‘Smart People Should Build Things’, by Andrew Yang. The premise of the book is that instead of going on the traditional path that successful students take – management consulting, finance, big companies, medicine, law, graduate school, etc, top students should start or join small businesses. I also like [‘The Lean Startup’](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307887898) by Eric Ries. You don’t have to join the cult or anything, but it’s worth understanding why there is a cult in the startup community surrounding the philosophies outlined in this book. If you’re starting a SaaS business, read ‘Impossible to Inevitable’ by Jason Lemkin. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? My goal is to build a business that enables the people that work for it to grow and have a satisfying and happy work experience and that it helps make its customers lives better in a meaningful way. As the company has grown, I feel a greater and greater amount of responsibility to my employees. It’s so important that I work as hard as I can to keep the business successful, and every time one of my employees has a child, or another life event, I’m reminded of that time and time again. Badger Maps is growing so fast, and it’s hard to even know what problems we are going to be able to solve for field sales teams over the next few years. Our objective for the future is to be the best technology for field salespeople to do their jobs better. There are so many ways we plan on helping salespeople be more successful in the next few years, but my dream is to keep coming up with new problems that we can solve for them. --- ## Laone Desert: The Girl from Botswana Who Said: “I Can And I Will, No Matter What” URL: https://futuresharks.com/laone-desert/ Laone T. Desert is a dreamer, a visionary, activist and entrepreneur who sees the world through the eyes of curiosity and tries to finds ways to quench her curiosity. She is driven by her dream to see a better Africa, a better Botswana….sustainable and self dependent. **City where you’re from:**  Gaborone, Botswana **Hobbies: Public Speaking, Reading** **Favorite quote:** **Live today like tomorrow will not come. Achieve daily. Find Laone here:**   - Facebook - Twitter - Instagram - The Business Intervention | Facebook ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Well, I am currently working on a project called **The Business Intervention** which is an project that aims to address the issue of unemployment in Botswana and believing to expand into other African countries. Unemployment is a global concern and the most affected are the youth and matters have gotten out of control that we now see graduates on the streets failing to find secure and sustainable jobs. The mandate of **The Business Intervention** initiative is to create awareness on entrepreneurship and how students can take advantage of it to secure their future in an already saturated market. We present entrepreneurship as a viable career path. The birth of **The Business Intervention** was brought by the escalating number of graduate unemployment and a solution had to be found. It was called for, a need for intervention arose and this initiative became the answer. ### ### What experiences led you to start your venture? As a final year student at the University of Botswana, the reality of me finishing school is finally kicking in and had me wondering much about my future. Questions like; what am I going to do after graduating? There are no jobs, what other alternative do I have? Am I in a position to change the situation that I am sure is not only affecting me but those in the same class as me? So I sat down and mapped a plan to come up with an initiative that would help many graduates and final year students to plan their university exit well in time and to start engaging in entrepreneurial activities as early as possible so that when they graduate they would have already built companies, enterprises that would sustain them if they do not find formal employment. ### ### How is your company different? The Business Intervention looks beyond its own interests and accommodates the interest of those it is intended to serve. I am bringing a solution to a social problem that does not only affect my country but the globe at large. Unfortunately for my country the impacts are newly felt yet harsh hence the need for aggressive intervention. ### What’s your dream with your company? To achieve the major objectives of the project which are; 1. To make effort towards changing university students’ perspective towards entrepreneurship as a way of addressing the issue of graduate unemployment. 2. To accelerate the induction of entrepreneurship into Universities. 3. To improve varsity students’ engagement in investment, wealth creation and entrepreneurial activities. All our services are geared towards meeting these objectives and changing the lives of those who come to us for help. ### How do you creatively promote your company? We have used our facebook page to reach out to our target group, we host business seminars and events to generate more interest on our offerings. And we have an annual leadership and entrepreneurship seminar dubbed The Business Intervention and for this year 2017 we pooled from across the city universities hundreds of university student and grabbed the attention of more than two thirds of Botswana’s media houses from newspapers, radio stations  to television. We also engaging with different universities to have the initiative registered as a club in their schools so that we can easily reach to the target audience and closely service them. ### Who are you? I am today’s leader and tomorrow’s legend. ### What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? My biggest failure would be starting off too late. And my biggest success would be starting anyway despite the time. I have learnt that indeed the race is not for the swift, what matters most is to get to the finish line successfully. **Value-add questions** ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have; To become an entrepreneur means to step out of the ordinary and become an extraordinary person. You have to think like an entrepreneur, act like an entrepreneur, communicate like an entrepreneur. BE EXTRAORDINARY, LIVE ENTERPRENEURSHIP. ### Teach us, how do you become the best at what you do? I have learnt the art of consistency and gradual improvement as a necessity to succeeding as a leader/enterpreneur. Inconsistency brings doubt and makes one questionable and gradual improvement allows one to change with a caution placed on adaptability. So, as an Entrepreneur or leader one has to learn how to be consistent lest his competency be questioned and if he is to change an existing norm or improve it he should do it gradually so that those affected can easily adapt without having to stomach too much at a time. ### What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month? I have learnt how**to maintain a balance** in my busy life. No area of my life has to suffer the most at the expense of another. Balance, consistency and focus makes great leaders. ### Teach me something we don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) Why is it that, with everything availed and achieved, one still feels like there is something missing in their lives? This is simply because one has not realised his purpose and his souls is  in constant grief and plea. Until we fulfil that purpose, the void and the thirst will remain there. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I start my day with a short prayer and end it with one. I map my day before I get out of bed and every evening when I get to the house I make sure I reflect on it before doing anything else. Gives me balance and focus. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? First define the type entrepreneur you are and why you entered business in the first place.  Then you will understand as to whether to focus on profit making or impact. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? - The Alchemist - The Capitalist Nigger - The Challenge of Africa - Succeeding on Purpose - The Monk who sold his Ferrari - The Fault in Our Stars - Good Morning Holy Spirit (See the list of best entrepreneurship books we curated) ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see The Business Intervention impacting many lives across Botswana and neighbouring countries and myself as fulfilled game changer who has actually changed the game. --- ## All About (Film) Locations, Locations, Locations with Brian “BLT” Tan at WRAPAL URL: https://futuresharks.com/brian-blt-tan/ Brian L. Tan “BLT” has worked at Dreamworks, Paramount, and Digital Domain, working on films such as Tron: Legacy and X-Men: First Class. He has also worked as a Director for several shorts and commercials before co-founding Wrapal, a startup which connects filmmakers and photographers to locations. In other news, BLT is addicted to traveling, cars, diving, caffeine, long walks by the beach, and talking about himself in third person in bios he totally didn’t write himself… **Hobbies:**Travel (more of an addiction than a hobby at this point though), scuba diving, photography, racing, fencing, foodie-ing (is that a thing?), and crossing off bucket lists. **Favorite quote:**Better to try and fail than fail to try. **Twitter**:www.twitter.com/blttavo ; Don’t judge me too much, but all I use Twitter for is to rant at the official American Airlines account when my flights are delayed/cancelled, which happens more than you’d think. At least it’s no United though…. ### ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? It’s funny how what society now calls entrepreneurs would have been called wackjobs or heretics just a few decades ago. I never really set out to be an entrepreneur or craved the label; I just wanted to solve a problem the best way I knew how – By being a part of the solution. To me, entrepreneurship is a means to an end. *Me on the long road of entrepreneurship, filled with trips up, down, and sideways.* ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? I’ve always had the idea of starting an AirBnB for film locations, but never pulled the trigger until my Mum passed away a few years ago. She was relatively young when it happened and it was a wake up call to me that anything can happen to anyone at any time. Mortality was my motivation: I had to pursue my passions before it was too late. Though I had enjoyed my work at in the studio system on productions like Tron, X-Men, and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I quit and embarked on this crazy adventure. *This was my Mum, she was so gangsta this was my Facebook profile pic for a while.* *Rooney Mara and I hanging out, like the BFFs that we are.* **Now** ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? We launched WRAPAL, a startup that connects creatives like photographers and filmmakers to properties, in 2016. I’m a filmmaker, and finding a location was easily one of the most challenging, time-consuming and arduous parts of the filmmaking process; there was no way of location scouting sets virtually. So we figured we’d start one. I’m an avid traveler who has used AirBnB extensively throughout the 70+ countries (here’s a shameless plug to my Instagram travel photos: www.instagram.com/blttavo) I’ve been to and I thought: Why not take that concept to the film world? ### How is your product/service different and unique? Unlike traditional agencies or other sites, WRAPAL is the only platform that puts you in direct contact with the property owner or manager. As a marketplace, we function more like matchmakers than middlemen and also offer affordable $99 flat rate insurance through Lloyd’s of London for all bookings through our site, something no one else does. We’re creatives ourselves and know that every production calls for new, different locations. In order to give projects as much breadth in choice as possible, we’re the only site with more than 1,200+ locations currently in Los Angeles and 200+ in the New York Metro area spanning the spectrum of residential, commercial, and industrial. From houses to hospitals, we’ve got any project covered! *Me pretending to know what I’m talking about at the Holdout Premiere and Wrapal Launch Party.Instagram @stevenlamphoto* ### What has been your favorite moment with it? My favorite moment was getting to launch it last year. About 500-600 people came to our launch and it was so heartening to hear how excited everyone was for our startup; we even got featured on CBS News the next day, which was amazing. Not saying that external validation is everything, but it was heartening to witness all our hard work pay off. *Getting interviewed by CBS and attempting to not look too dorky.* **We’re also a family at Wrapal and one of my other favorite moments was taking our Wrapresentatives (did I mention we love puns?) to a mountain ‘Wretreat’ for the weekend followed by a ridiculous dining experience at Medieval Times when we got back. *At our mountain ‘Wretreat’.* *We felt like kings for a knight. (Gettit? Night? Knight? No? Ugh.)* ### What’s the dream? Everyone’s a photographer or filmmaker these days, and the dream is to bring WRAPAL to every city America, and then the world so we can help creatives find their dream location – Be it for their feature film, wedding portrait, music video, commercial, short film, indie documentary, YouTube video, Snapchat Story, and more. Our dream is helping others fulfill theirs. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? Fortunately or unfortunately we’re a completely bootstrapped startup, meaning we’ve never taken any external investment. We’re the David in a sea of Goliaths out there so finances are tight and we don’t have the resources to buy ads, hire a publicist, make social media purchases, etc. Our publicity is all based on leveraging our backgrounds and what modest funds we do have and have had a few modest successes . We shot a few commercials around our snarky director mascot named Jo Wrapal for virtually nothing, and also managed to get a ton of press by leveraging connections we had or sending out cold emails like when we got featured on No Film School. However, making in-roads in the film industry is all about relationships, and nothing beats good old word of mouth to get us out there. *The folks at our premiere/launch event.* *On set filming our Wrapal commercial.* ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Lots of them, though I’d categorized them more as lessons than failures. We’ve definitely been dealt some setbacks which have been incredibly frustrating but that just helps us hone and refine our brand further. For instance, we tried a bunch of really creative brand ambassador giveaways and gimmicks to get properties to sign up, but found out that calling them manually to tell them about ourselves had the highest success rate. Sometimes there’s no school like the old school.   *Us in the early days, working out of an apartment. The beware sign was quite appropriate.* ****Value-add questions** ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Being stubborn aka: perseverance. We live in the instant gratification generation and entrepreneurs think that success is always immediate. Sure, that’s true for that lucky one in a million, but always plan on it being a long, slow slog to the finish line. Entrepreneurs have to realize that it’s not just about talent and hard work. It’s talent, hard work, connections and luck and they need to stick it out long enough doing the first two in order for the latter two to catch up. That being said, I’m no Richard Branson or Elon Musk (yet), so take it with as many grains of salt as a margarita. *This is what being an entrepreneur is like, except you can’t cheat a photo around it.* ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? I’ve found the most useful learning tools to be audio books, specifically the autobiographies of successful leaders in different fields. Learning from them is like a free lesson in being a good trailblazer. I’m stuck in LA traffic 50% of my day, and I use that time to glean information listening to their books or podcasts, such as ‘How I Built This’ by NPR, that are a brilliant source of not only knowledge, but inspiration too. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) Society is facing increasing inequality. Regardless of your politics, the statistics speak for themselves – the United States, and by extension much of the world, has not faced this level of inequality since the 1920s. My hypothesis is that films are facing the same squeeze. You have about a dozen $100 million+ Star Wars, Marvel, Fast & Furious, superhero, DC Comic, etc. franchise films every year; and everything else is low budget web content. It’s very much 1% vs. 99% and the middle is getting squeezed out. Potential investors and Venture Capitalists (VCs) always ask me to target big budget studios, which looks and sounds glamorous, but they’re honestly not our market. They have enough money to hire established location scouts and managers from the Location Managers Guild of America (LMGA). Our target demographic is budget conscious independent and student filmmakers and photographers who need to cut costs.  Every dollar counts in those situations and WRAPAL can help make their projects possible. *I’ve also learned a thing or two from visiting Pablo Escobar’s house in Columbia. But that’s another story for another day…* ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? Does lots of caffeine count? I’d say keeping in constant communication with my team to know what their needs are, and blasting some epic music. Music = Motivation.   ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Focusing on your product/service is important, but every entrepreneur should take time to focus on themselves too. I’ve seen many friends crash and burn throughout the years, and many fail to realize that if they burn the candle at both ends so much, their products, services, and team will take a hit. We need to have balance, to travel, to get inspired. We have a culture that glorifies overworking (Silicon Valley is a great HBO show, but it’s still a **show**), and we often forget that we need to focus on ourselves too in order to then focus on our ideas. Believe me, it isn’t easy – I have a hard time following my own advice. ### ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. Believe it or not, I’ve actually had this idea since 2012 and mocked it up with our co-founder Melissa on a napkin back then. My co-founders and I took 3 years and 4 different developers (and lots of wasted time, money, and effort) to finally connect with Aaron, our awesome developer and Chief Technology Officer. From there, it took us another year to build our current site from scratch and launch it at a slick red carpet premiere at the Crest Theater in Westwood last year. *The night we launched! Feels forever ago.* ### What are some of your favorite books? The $100 Startup, the Great Gatsby, 1984, Brave New World, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Timothy Zahn Star Wars books, and any autobiography I can get my hands on. However – I should say my latest popculture guilty pleasure has been Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari. He is freaking (I don’t think I can cuss on here can I?) funny. I don’t think a book has ever got me laughing more than that. I really want to meet Aziz one day. #dreams ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? **For WRAPAL:** A thriving production and property Wrapal community (aka WRAPSTARS!) in every city, and a happy, balanced workplace at our main office in Culver City where people enjoy coming to work because we’re a close-knit family. **For myself:**Hopefully still alive, and getting a few steps closer to happiness, which to me is defined as having a tangible, positive impact on the people, places, and projects I care about. If you have any questions about my experiences or just want to share a joke (I love puns, so PUNT away), hit me up anytime at [blt@wrapal.com](mailto:blt@wrapal.com) --- ## 99 Creative Words of Wisdom for Business with Randi Brill URL: https://futuresharks.com/randi-brill/ **At 14, Randi Brill announced she was going to be in charge of something. Randi has been in charge of many creative “somethings” ever since. Armed with a BFA in Graphic Design from Carnegie-Mellon University, $57 and a fierce drive to succeed, Randi launched her first design business—and many since. Currently in her role as *Chief Creativity Lab Guru* for QuaraCORE, her thriving creative design agency in Chicago, Randi uses 99 powerful business Words of Wisdom (WOWs) with staff, clients, family, and friends to “create great results that help them soar.” She’s authored a new book on the subject, *99 Creative WOWs for Business,*to help new and striving creative entrepreneurs jump start their own entrepreneurial journeys. The book will release this summer and will be sold on Amazon and other major marketplaces. In addition to her “day” job, Randi is an avid speaker, radio host, author, and blogger—the latter activities occurring most often from 2 to 4 in the morning, when Randi is typically wide awake, busily creating her luck. **City where you’re from:** Chicago, IL, born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA **Hobbies:** walking, calligraphic design **Favorite quote:** **Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient. —Jeff Bezos ## Hey Randi, why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I didn’t really decide to “become” an entrepreneur; I simply always was one. My first business was co-founded with my brother; I was nine and he was six. I’d broken my arm and we sold tickets to kids in the neighborhood. For ten cents per spectator, my brother dramatically brought them up to my room so they could see the cast and hear me moan. For thirty cents, customers could autograph the cast. We made almost four dollars until our mother shut us down for operating out of my bedroom without a license—or permission. Needless to say, all profits were rapidly returned to their rightful owners.  Ha love this! From my first babysitting job and first freelance business in college to today where I run currently two successful entrepreneurial entities, I have always been comfortable in the driver’s seat. As an entrepreneur, it’s my job to figure out what needs to happen to help our clients achieve the success they seek—and then to deliver smart creative results that get them there. I also believe that it’s also my job as a successful, established entrepreneur to help new creative entrepreneurs figure out the challenging lessons of business—more rapidly than I did. While my formal education ended with a BFA in Graphic Design from Carnegie-Mellon University along with the vague awareness that CMU prepares its graduates to lead, not follow, my true education began exactly where CMU prepared me to go—into the leadership hot seat. The design education I received from CMU was an excellent foundation for running my first business as a creative designer, but it wasn’t enough. It was not until I did my post-graduate work at Randi’s Real-World University, majoring in Take Smart Risks with a double minor in Figure It Out and Gee, That Really Didn’t Work, that I began to fully understand what it takes to succeed in business. ## Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My mother significantly influenced me; she always told me I could be and do anything I set my mind to—that no doors were closed provided I had the skills, resources, and determination to open them. That belief instilled in me a confidence that even when I do not know what to do, I still possess the ability to figure it out. My mother also had a strong sense of balance, eventually realizing that her entrepreneur interpreted timing and urgency differently than most others. She eventually tempered her initial counsel with “Why not become the Vice Queen instead, just for a little while? I’d love it if you got some sleep.” That never happened. My defining moment also involved my mother. I was 25 years old when I decided to open my first design firm. I had decided that I would offer to deliver only some design services for many companies instead hoping any one company would give such a new designer enough opportunity to create to the level I’d decided I was ready for. I’d been working for a start-up as a junior designer. When I resigned, the company offered me a newly created position at four times my salary with a car, stock and much more. The position was very new—created for me immediately upon my resignation. When I told my mother about it that night she sighed and said, “Oh, Randi. It’s more money than your father and I have ever earned, even together. I don’t know many 25-year-olds who would ever be offered this kind of opportunity. And I know only one who turned it down. You turned it down, didn’t you?” I did turn it down. I decided if they thought I was worth that much, I must be ready to be on my own. I respectfully declined the position and never looked back. That start-up went on to become one of my company’s biggest clients for many years. Wow! ## Now What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? In addition to my work as a Creative Director and President of QuaraCORE, I am the Chief Creativity Lab Guru. The “Creativity Lab!” is an amazing creative resource for clients across a wide swath of industries. The lab concept works incredibly well because creative problem solving can be messy, indirect and even silly. QuaraCORE’s Creativity Lab inspires experimentation, hypotheses and clarity to boost confidence and “give new directions a whirl.” We don’t stop there. We then rapidly prototype, test, revise, reflect, and retool as often and as quickly as challenges demand. The lab metaphor continues as we document, protect, and deliver creative solutions through clear processes, reliable execution, and market-driven messaging that only comes from being integral to the creative strategy. QuaraCORE’s “Creativity Lab!” began because I detected a distressing pattern the more I worked with thought leaders across so many different industries. Leaders risk (and waste) vast amounts of time, energy, and money solving problems they DO see while often missing CORE problems they SHOULD see. So, we developed the proprietary “Creativity Lab!” process to help avoid this dangerous obstacle to success. With markers in hand, I love to personally lead QuaraCORE’s clients through this defining exploration to verify problems, distill messages and construct smart creative products, campaigns and solutions. QuaraCORE then masterfully brings the vision to life to deliver on and beyond the market’s expectations—as well as our clients’. ## How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Our products and services are unique because we are a highly unique team of creative and business minds at QuaraCORE. My favorite moment is that “ah-ha” moment when clients and creative ideas click and we begin to really solve the right problems together. Clients typically come to QuaraCORE’s “Creativity Lab!” for three reasons: Clients have a complex creative challenge they aren’t sure how to solve. Clients know what they should do, but schedule, market, or budget demand they create something different and equally effective instead. Clients need a quick and thorough turnaround solution to fix an earlier creative plan that didn’t deliver the right results. ## How do you uniquely market your company? In addition to our website, and a strong portfolio of past assignments, we invite people to join us for a Creativity Lab!™ PREVIEW** session where we “colLABoratecollaborate” together for a short time so they can experience the powerful outcomes before committing to a full-scale Lab experience.  We’re also launching a new radio station in the fall, **Design Biz LIVE,** to showcase creativity in business. In addition, we prepare customized proposals to assess client opportunities and articulate how QuaraCORE uniquely adds value to a range of clients across many different industries. ## What scares you? It’s likely that whatever scares you is also holding you back. Look your fear in the eye and break it down into smaller bites. It will seem a lot less scary and you’ll be better able to act.  Randi, what scares you? Maybe a statement like “For me, it was xyz so I xyz and conquer it…” ## What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? **My biggest failure** was starting a business I was not passionate about, thinking that others could run it, sell the services and care for the customers. They did, but not like I would have. It eventually made more sense to close it rather than fund it. I learned that not everyone can sell like I can and that my companies have to fuel my creative passions and “get my attention” because they engage, excite and energize me to create smart solutions as a result. **My biggest success?** While I’ve had many significant successes in my entrepreneurial career, as a true entrepreneur, I’m sure you can guess my instinctive answer to this question—**my biggest success simply hasn’t happened YET. It’s definitely on my to-do list!** ## Value-add questions: Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. I’ve just written a new book, **99 Creative WOWs for Business,** scheduled to release this summer on Amazon and other online marketplaces. WOWs are words of wisdom. Throughout the years, I have hired and inspired many talented professionals, from those with no work experience to those with highly seasoned track records. Regardless of where team members were on this experience spectrum, it took at least a year and often longer to begin to “get” my companies. I ultimately realized that it wasn’t the companies they didn’t “get”—it was my business, creative, and personal philosophies that they didn’t immediately comprehend. As issues arose, I realized that we saw the world differently. This pattern of disconnect led me to discover why. Businesses of a transactional nature are complex enough. Businesses with corporate structures are tougher still, even with predictable protocols and in many cases, right and wrong answers. Compound these business intricacies with the subjectivity that’s intrinsic to creative services, and even bigger challenges abound. As the boss, I knew the financial and business demands and how they had to fit into the relationship connections with our clients. As a designer, I directly experienced the intense creative pressures associated with subjective creative service offerings. Creative services cannot be measured easily; every requirement box can be checked and a design can still be rejected. I could see all of these puzzle pieces; through many missteps and false starts, I had learned how to fit these pieces together to achieve successful outcomes. Many capable subject matter experts on our team with deep skill sets could not connect these dots, however. I began to understand, much more slowly than I would have liked, that it was my job as the creative entrepreneur to not only lead, protect and inspire team members—I also had to teach them how to “see” with my entrepreneurial lens. It’s taken 35 years to distill my hard-won business expertise into a cadre of 99 succinct WOW (words of wisdom) reminders and rules upon which to operate. I apply WOWs to the business, personal, and creative exchanges in which I engage—they work for me. My battle scars have morphed into quickly applicable, sound business advice. 99 Creative WOWs for Business distills what I’ve mastered into sound bites ideal for recent design graduates, creative entrepreneurs and professionals eager to achieve dynamic business results—NOW. ## Here are three pieces of entrepreneurial advice to inspire— ## Teach us something about {Internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? See above and below. Here are three more WOWs from **99 Creative WOWs for Business** that will help entrepreneurs in business—and life. ## While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc.) As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned that it is easier than you might think to learn what you do not know. In today’s technological world, just a few swipes, clicks, and taps will lead to more information than you can possibly digest. By zeroing in on the reason WHY you are researching, you will be well served in your journey. WHY is the ultimate filter. ## Teach me something I don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) Everyone likely “knows” this, but few tend to follow it more than entrepreneurs. **Trust your gut.** Through practice, you’ll learn how to listen to that nagging feeling, that little inking andor that overpowering hunch. Do this every day in even a small ways for 21 days and you’ll soon be ready to trust your gut on bigger opportunities. Trust me.It’s a habit worth forming. Trust me. ## What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I walk 5-9 miles every day I possibly can. Walking keeps me focused, energized, and helps me make interesting creative connections. I’m also an avid listener to audiobooks, podcasts and music across a range of categories. They keep both my feet—and mind—moving forward. ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? Entrepreneurs should focus on the unique talents and results they care capable of delivering to the world—to help others become their best, make the world a better place, invent new solutions and generally add value. ## Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. No matter the challenge, here is the process I have used successfully since my start. ###### Start-Create-Repeat 1. Just start. Capture initial ideas. Ask questions. 2. Do homework. Ask more questions. 3. Research what is currently happening. Ask more questions. 4. Create a new vision. Don’t stop with one. 5. Create three different solutions. Ask tough questions of yourself. 6. Show the work to others (client, market, world). 7. Listen carefully to what others say—and don’t say. 8. Revise, refine, redo. Succeed or fall flat on face, there’s rarely any in-between. 9. Get right back up. Figure out what went right and understand what went wrong. ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? - Atlas Shrugged - Rudy Giuliani on Leadership ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Continuing to do amazing creative work and shaping new products and solutions for companies and individuals, continuing to write the next books on my list, and of course, the intent of it all—spending time with my family. As for the products, they will pave the way for even more entrepreneurial creativity. Of that, I am confident. --- ## Meet the Founder of “Successful Dropout”, Kylon Gienger URL: https://futuresharks.com/kylon-gienger-successful-dropout/ Kylon has founded and co-founded multiple businesses in the construction, fitness, food service, real estate, and online education industries since 2013. After selling his companies in 2015, he launched Successful Dropout, a podcast recently featured in BuzzFeed as a must subscribe to in 2017. Successful Dropout features interviews with inspiring and successful individuals who left school to pursue their business, idea, or dream job. Kylon is a rising authority on the subject of what it takes to succeed in business and in life without a college degree and he is passionate about providing solutions to those who want a challenge beyond formal education. **City where you’re from:** Easton, WA **Hobbies:**Snowboarding, eating breakfast burritos, snowboarding, building businesses, and snowboarding.  **Favorite quote:**“Life is always happening for us, not to us.” – Tony Robbins **Instagram:**@kylongienger **LinkedIn:**https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylongienger/ **Website:** SuccessfulDropout.com ### Hey Kylon, tell us a bit about you. Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I’m a very independent person…also stubborn…so throughout my earlier years into young adulthood I always had trouble with institutions. High school, the military (Navy), college, being an employee, even church – I always wanted to do my own thing, and so it was difficult to fit into these environments and I just knew I wouldn’t be happy in the long run. The logical solution was to create my own environment, which lead to my interest in starting my own business. That business ended up being a residential/commercial painting company and it was all downhill from there. That first foray into entrepreneurship got me hooked and I’ve been building businesses ever since. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My dad. I grew up with my dad working from home, his dream home, mind you. He had built a business around work he truly loved, and work that was making a huge positive impact on other’s lives. He had meaningful work, a beautiful family, a schedule that was his own, and his dream location. I was raised with the mentality that I could design any kind of life I could dream up through hard work and faith – believing in that which is still unseen. My dad taught me this, and I’m forever grateful. I was also (and still am) surrounded by some amazing friends. Remember, you are the average of the five people you hang around the most. My friends are ambitious and driven and it causes me to stay hungry for the next thing. I was homeschooled most of my life, but I went to formal high school my senior year. Somehow I got it into my head that I had to pick a “safe and secure” route through life and that forging my own path was too risky. I remember calling my best friend, Riley Wilkinson, and telling him that I had decided to become a dentist, and I was going to go to school for this, marry a cute blonde girl that was in my senior class, have the white picket fence and everything. I remember he was like “no, no you’re not…are you kidding me? That’s too easy”. I was like “yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking”. That short call yanked me back into the reality of who I was. Every other classmate of mine was going to do the same thing – I was meant for something different. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Almost a year ago I was helping my sister come up with name ideas for her podcast. I wanted to start a podcast too, and one of the names I threw out was Successful Dropout. She didn’t like it, but it stuck with me, and an entire vision flooded into my head. A month and a half later I launched the podcast which features interviews with successful and inspiring individuals who dropped out of school to pursue their idea, business, or dream job. I’m a dropout myself, and so the subject is very personal. The podcast has taken on a life of its own, growing organically by 75%-100% every month. It was my intention to set myself up as an authority in this space of alternatives to traditional education, and it worked. We are currently working on a startup that will be a solution for the Successful Dropout audience. The goal of this new venture is to help motivated individuals completely circumvent college, and get a full time job at a startup in less than a year for under $15,000. It’s an apprenticeship program, that’s all I can say right now. Stay tuned. I also own a hot yoga studio, a juice bar, and a house flipping LLC, but I own them with partners and my wife so they don’t take up too much time. I sold my first business, the painting company to my business partner in 2015. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Successful Dropout is, on one hand,  just another podcast that follows the interview format and formula. What completely sets it apart is the subject matter, the philosophy, and the attitude behind it. You won’t find another resource on the web that has a more open and in depth conversation about how to succeed without a college degree. We believe college is just a “credentialing factory”. You spend thousands of dollars and years of your life earning a credential that signals to the rest of the world that you are now ready to enter the workforce and create value. Are you really that prepared though? The majority of employers say no. Instead, we preach the concept of direct-credentialing, or auto-credentialing – a belief that says you can create your own value signal to the world by taking on real projects that give you applicable experience and skills. Take two 22 year olds applying for the same job – one just spent the last four years building their own marketing agency, the other just spent four years studying marketing in college. Which of the two would you hire? Let’s say neither of them are applying for a job, but instead they want to build their own businesses. Well, one of them is already there, miles ahead of his peer because he just got to work instead of studying theory for 4 years. My favorite moments have been when I see the concept above “click” with my listeners. We are such an institutionalized generation, raised to follow societal norms blindly. My goal is to help people break free from the college credentialing mindset and dependency, get off the treadmill, and realize the kind of freedom they can unlock when they choose to forge their own path. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I don’t know a successful entrepreneur who HASN’T experienced failure. I’ve failed more times than I can count. My first business almost went bankrupt, I’ve lost plenty of time and money on multiple failed ventures or failed ideas within other businesses. If you can learn from failure, it’s just a stepping stone to success. When you were young, did your parents ever cheer when you fell off a bike learning how to ride? You still need to have that mentality. Failure is good and should be celebrated because it means you are trying new things, moving forward, and it’s an opportunity to level up and get better. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. The most successful entrepreneurial ventures in my life were the ones I feared to pursue the most. Entrepreneurship is a calling, and to be successful at it you need to be willing to take risks, be bold, and do the things others are too scared to do. That’s where the opportunity is. Fear can be used as a barometer to measure whether or not you are operating in the extra-ordinary. The more scared you are of a work or calling, the more sure you can be that it’s something worth doing. Resistance (that unseen monster that causes you to procrastinate on the things you know you need to do) is like a compass that always points to true north. If you follow resistance, you will almost always look up to discover that you are living the best version of your life. ### Teach us something about marketing. Look, I’m sure this has been mentioned before, but it’s still important. People crave authenticity. The days of fancy formatted emails and expensive graphics on your ads or wherever are dwindling. My most successful auto-email that I send to my new listeners looks like I hurriedly typed it out at Starbucks before receiving my order. I just ask them how they found the podcast, and to tell me a bit about themselves. I leave typos and incorrect grammar intentionally, the subject line just says “hey” and about 5 out of 10 subscribers send me an email in response, completely unaware that its just apart of my email sequence. I’m not trying to be deceptive, I genuinely want to connect with each and every one of my subscribers, but there’s so many now I can’t type a personal email to each one, so I make sure my auto emails are formatted and look like an every day email that I would send to friends and colleagues. Very few people do this. You are all still sending these elaborate emails that take you 30 minutes to design in MailChimp. You don’t do the same for a friend you are shooting a thoughtful email to…why are you doing it for your audience? Don’t they deserve to be treated like your friends? The line from Disney’s Aladdin comes to mind, “just beeeeeee yourself” (RIP Robin). There’s too much distinction today between your “personal brand” and your “authentic self”. People have this personal brand where they put up all sorts of fronts, and the every once in awhile they decide to tap into this authenticity trend and post something meant to draw tears with the hashtag “real talk” or “authentic” and they think their work is done. That’s crap. Your personal brand and your authentic self should be one and the same. Everything your “brand” does should flow from who you really are. People get all caught up with how to differentiate themselves from everyone else and their dog. Well, humans being are already born unique. No two are alike. Why are you making it so hard in yourself? If you would just be who you are to your audience, you are automatically differentiated because no one else is like you. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) You don’t need a college degree to be successful in business and in life. We only hear about the Bill Gates’, Mark Zuckerbergs and Steve Jobs’ of the world – these entrepreneurial gods who dropped out of school. People think you have to create the next Apple if you are going to drop out and be successful. That’s just not the case. I talk to Successful Dropouts every week who you’ve never heard of but who are out there living life on their own terms miles ahead of their peers. Also, for podcasters out there, use Acuity Scheduling to schedule guests on your show. For streamlined scheduling, sending auto emails, creating appointment forms etc I haven’t found anything else like it. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? Meditation. Not in any kind of spiritual way, but in a way that requires you to exercise control and focus over your thoughts. This helps tremendously when it comes to staying focused on tasks throughout the day. Your mind is like a muscle – you have to exercise to make it stronger. I recommend the Headspace app for this. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Solving problems, always. That’s the calling of an entrepreneur, to solve problems no one else is solving, and if you do a great job solving the problem people will pay you for it. Focus on people, get to know them, what are their needs and pain points? ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. Step 1: Take action Step 2: Take more action Step 3: Take even more action Step 4: Fail miserably Step 5: Figure out what went wrong and what you need to do differently Step 6: Take action… ### What are some of your favorite books? Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Successful Dropout will be the number one resource on the web for anyone interested in succeeding in business and in life without a college degree. We will also have a solution for our audience that will see thousands of participants getting great jobs and starting great businesses without wasting thousands of dollars and four years of their life earning a diploma. --- ## Success Requires Focus, Work and Effort URL: https://futuresharks.com/richard-lowe-jr/ Richard Lowe Jr is a bestselling author who has published 63 books, ghostwritten 12 books, and produced several hundred articles for blogs and publications. He is the owner and senior writer of The Writing King, which provides services such as ghostwriting, book coaching, WordPress implementation, blogging and copywriting. **City where you’re from:** Clearwater, FL **Hobbies:**Photographing women and performers, traveling the US to photograph renaissance festivals **Favorite quote:** **“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” Carol Burnett** ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I worked as the VP of consulting for two companies for 8 years, then as Director Technical Services for Trader Joe’s for 20. After 33 years working for someone else, I realized my dream all my life has been to be a professional writer and bestselling author. So in 2013, I retired from Trader Joe’s, moved to Florida, and since then have been building a writing business. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? When I first began working for a small consulting company called Software Techniques in 1981, as the first employee, my boss and first mentor, Steve Davis, was a huge believer in networking. He took me to conventions, introduced me to people, and helped me understand the importance of building a network of like minded professionals. His wisdom has guided me ever since. A defining moment in my life was when my wife of 12 ½ years passed away due to complications of smoking and lung disease. She had been sick for 8 years and finally succumbed to the disease. This showed me that life is short, and spurred me to live to the fullest. I became a photographer, in addition to my day job at Trader Joe’s, and soon became known as the belly dance photographer for Southern California. I photographed over 1,200 performances, and also 400 or so renaissance festivals all over the United States. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I am working on a series of three books about how to make a living as a self-published author. The first volume has been published: And the second book is in progress. I came up with the idea because many authors are struggling with the new self-publishing model. I decided to help them by explaining everything I’ve done and know that’s needed to be successful at writing and self-publishing. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Most books of this nature focus on the quick buck or some gimmick. I’ve tried all of the get-rich quick schemes for writers, and none of them work. What I wanted to do was show authors they need to treat their writing as a professional, build a brand, and work hard over time. This is what makes books sell. My favorite moment was finishing the book. It took a long time and a lot of research and experimentation and now it’s complete. ## How do you uniquely market your company? I own a blog called The Writing King where I published many articles helping writers. I’m also active on the speaking circuit and attend quite a few local networking groups to build my brand. Every day I scan Facebook and LinkedIn, looking for authors that I can help. ### What is the problem most people have with making themselves a success? I’ve found most people are unwilling to put in the work and effort needed to succeed. There seems to be this belief that they are owed something by society. The truth of the matter is society doesn’t care until they prove themselves to be useful or enlightening, and put in the work needed. ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? My biggest success was having made enough income and have the experience to be able to retire at 50 years old and start my own business. My biggest failure was watching my wife slowly pass away for 8 years, knowing that she simply needed to stop smoking but being unable to get her to do so. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Follow your dreams – but create an actionable plan, ensure you have the financing and backing, and build your network. ### Teach us something about marketing a book. To successfully market a book, you have to create a brand that other people want to follow. That brand can be yourself as an expert (that’s more or less my brand), your works (such as JRR Tolkien) or your products or services. People buy books because they believe in the brand. ### ### Teach me something I don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) I’ve photographed over a thousand women, including a couple of supermodels, and I’ve found what most women want in a man is confidence. And that’s also true of your brand. The more confidence you show, the better you’ll do. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I plan each day in the morning with the to-do’s, then get them all done during the day. The most important thing is to ensure you create a to-do list that you can actually get done. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Successful actions. Building and maintaining a professional network. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? - People are idiots and I can prove it by Larry Winget - 1001 Ways to Market your Book by John Kremer - Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? As a bestselling author of both nonfiction and science fiction, plus a strong writing consulting business. --- ## Learn from Goubtube (and His 1,000,000,000 Views): How To Go Viral On Facebook In 4 Steps URL: https://futuresharks.com/go-viral-facebook-goubtube/ Amassing over 1.5M likes, over 150,000,000 views on his Facebook page and over 1,000,000,000 views on Facebook over all, Goubtube is one of the most watched sketch makers in the world. His most watched video on his page surpasses 90M views. We sat down with Goubran Bahou, the genius behind Goubtube to learn his process for **creating viral content on Facebook**. ### Hey Goubtube, amazing having you here to share some of your Facebook virality secrets. Let’s just jump right into it. What are the 4 steps for going viral on Facebook? Goubran: Thanks for having me. First off a disclaimer: This guide is not a guarantee you’ll go viral.. but it’s how I went viral.. consistently for the last year.. I’ll come back to consistency later on. ## Step 1: Content People’s average attention span is under 7 seconds on Facebook.. if you don’t have them hooked straight away, then say goodbye to that viewer.. **What you upload ultimately decides how viral your video is going to go!** What’s your approach? Funny, informative, cute, food, sport? Before confirming an idea you need to to have an in-depth think about how shareable/relatable/tag-able/engaging the content is. If your intended demographic aren’t compelled to view, share or tag, then you’re already lost. By far the best question to ask yourself is: > “what conversation is going to happen in the comments?” Some videos go viral and the comments section is abuzz with life and it’s not even the intended conversation of the video maker. For example look at the comments on nearly every bfgf prank video on the internet; is littered with angry comments about the unethical/fake/violent nature of the video. It may be unintended, but the unwanted comments still generate a huge amount of traffic. > Tag someone that needs to see this ??? > Follow my Instagram/Snapchat: Goubtube > Posted by Goubtube on Monday, May 1, 2017 ## ## Step 2: Aesthetics If you’re at a fruit and veg market.. you meticulously look over each piece of food, before you make your decision to buy right? Facebook is no different. The thumbnail: Easily the most important aspect of your video aesthetically, is the picture you choose to promote your video with. Treat it exactly how businesses do with the packaging on their products; when I choose candy it’s usually dependent on how the packaging makes me feel. Your thumbnail needs action/life. The most effective thumbnails are the ones that encapsulate the most exciting part of the video, without giving away too much information. Sometimes your thumbnail doesn’t even need to be a still from the video it self and can be something completely different; still garnering the attention needed for a viral post. > …and she wonders why I’m moody every morning > Like my page for more! ❤️ > Snapchat: goubtube / johannah.arts > Music: RaceCarBed > Posted by Goubtube on Monday, October 24, 2016 ##### ##### Examples The old adage “Sex sells”, is poignant here, as a pair of boobs/ab/bum will increase te likelihood of clicks (sad but true). A thumbnail showcasing action is also a winner, by “action” I mean an action shot from the video that isn’t static and boring. This makes the audience want to see what the hell is going to happen in the video. Finished product thumbnails also help, so if the thumbnail is detailing the crescendo of the video, that makes the audience feel the need to watch the video to find out how the crescendo was achieved. #### #### The Caption: The caption is essentially the thumbnail’s cousin.. they are viewed simultaneously and together help the casual viewer decide if it’s worth their time clicking on the video. The caption has to sprite the audiences attention by describing what’s happening in the video accurately/vaguely.. both angles work but are completely dependent on the agenda of the video; Say too much and the audience may be put off clicking .. contrarily say too little and you’ll suffer the same fate. **Don’t forget the call to action!!! E,g “tag a friend that..”, “share if this is you” etc.. this technique could turn your video from 10k to 1M views.** ## Step 3: distribution When starting small expect little to no growth, engagement or views (although truly viral content won’t adhere to this, if something is a viral it will move naturally) but whatever you do don’t be put off. Send your content to as many publications, fb pages, influencers, friends, strangers, long lost cousins and pet cats as possible. Swallow your pride and push.. if you don’t push your content to as many eyes as possible, going viral becomes a myth. Once/if a network is established and if your content is good and you’ve followed the steps above, all it takes is for just one of these new found friends to share/upload your content and BOOM you have yourself a viral video. **Your distribution pipeline is everything!!! Without one you will find it incredibly difficult to make any progress alone…** ## Step 4: consistency **If you’re not failing every single day .. then you’re not trying hard enough**. In a year’s time you’ll look back and wish you started today. Now you know how to go viral, it’s time to learn how to monetise it… we will cover that on another interview. --- ## The Quest for Smart Buildings URL: https://futuresharks.com/paul-amelio/ Paul Amelio is Co-founder, Inventor and Chairman of N2 Global Solutions, Inc.,  a New York City-based technology company that has developed “the first integrated wireless network” of its kind—an Internal ‘Super Grid’ that consists of modules that retrofit into a building’s existing electrical junction boxes, that communicate remotely with an existing Building’s Management Systems (BMS), and support today’s new construction Net Zero initiatives and formidably aid in documentation and compliance with the US Green Building Council (USGBC) Well Building Standards. **City where you’re from:** **​**Now in New York City, Originally from Calabria Italy​ **Hobbies:** **​**I love art… marketing, design, painting, studying art all fascinate me. I also am into health and sports.​ **Favorite quote:** **​**“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.” and “The future is not something that you go into, it’s something you create.​” **Twitter**:  ​N2SuperGrid ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? ​I have always had ambition to do​ more and a regular job was never regular as it always cut into my personal time– constantly working overtime didn’t satisfy me. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? ​When I was in 7th grade, my English teacher handed me a book from the collection of books that she retrieved from donations. Anyone in the class was welcome to take a book and didn’t need to worry about returning it… the book was called ROCKY, but what fascinated me more about the book was what the author Sylvester Stallone went through to make it a movie.​ ### Now ### What are you working on? ​The SuperGrid; ​​The architecture to the platform of the Internet of Things (IoT). A major change in managing and optimizing the way we use electricity, demand response, identifying atmospheric issues.   ​ ### ### How did you come up with this idea? ​I couldn’t help but notice that the face-plate on a wall outlet had similar characteristics as a smart phone while watching a documentary that pitted Nicola Tesla vs Thomas Edison.  I thought about whether anyone ever thought about putting smart-phone technology into the electrical infrastructure. ### ### How is your product/service different and unique? ​My technology is made up of learning, technically savvy (computerized) wall sockets, switches and light fixtures that are modular, each with an array of sensors that detect and detail harmonics, voltage, moisture, acoustic analytics, and so much more. They communicate from one component to the other creating a mesh network from sub-basement to rooftop of a building. ### ### What has been your favorite moment with it? ​ ​​It’s been a challenge… I have started businesses before but never have I ever introduced a product into the marketplace.  Although every moment of this ride has been exciting, there is no better place to be than where we are now—preparing for commercialization and manufacturing. ### What’s the vision? ​To reinvigorate the economic and environmental climates.​ ### What untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? Viral; YouTube, Social Media outlets to share information, Guerilla marketing, and mass mailings, etc. ### Did you experience failure along the way? Yes, you can’t learn without failure…​ ### What did you learn from it? There is nothing more satisfying than succeeding and succeeding another failure, it’s just a part of the process. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. ​Listen only to your gut and your heart and not the voice inside your head. Naysayers are everywhere; they could be best friends or family that are accompanied by lack of sleep. To succeed, you need to believe in yourself… and don’t give up, DON’T EVER GIVE UP! ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? ​Your resources are based on your invention. Many have used crowd funding to raise capital.  Since my product is marketed first for commercial​, I couldn’t use crowd funding. Your best bet is to start raising funds through friends and family. They say that you will know who your true friends are and which family member will actually go out of their way to support your dream.  However, I highly recommend exposure. Credibility comes from visibility… showcase your product at conferences and trade shows. Become a great presenter and learn your elevator pitch — you will be surprised with the results.  Talk about elevation—some of my elevator pitches were done traveling on an airplane! ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) ​There is too much to share in one paragraph.  However, working and dealing with municipalities, understanding people… body language and knowing when to pivot becomes instinctive as you go through the process. Beware of the person who offers you his shirt but doesn’t have one to give.​ ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? ​Ambition… although, it’s not a daily habit, it is a way of life for me. If sleeping is important to you, don’t become an entrepreneur. I am constantly on my toes, ready for anyone to listen to my pitch.  Other than that, being an entrepreneur can be exhausting. I read a lot and I love to learn and although I like to catch up on the latest news, I am mostly eager to learn of news within my space. I recommend a sanctuary such as a gym where you can leave your phone behind and pay attention to you. I’m constantly on the go but I wouldn’t say that my habits are the best, so I wouldn’t be a good role model when it comes to nutrition and sleep.  I get a rush from succeeding at what I do best​ and I am a tireless worker bee when it comes to success but I always think twice before I act. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? ​Expediting the minimum viable product​… get into the marketplace and pivot as necessary. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. ​It took 8.5 years for me to get where we are today because our vision on a new technology was ahead of it’s time. For example, once we finally took the graphic design aspect of our technology and added engineering, we realized that the components that made up all of the wants that we anticipated were much larger than we had anticipated. Relays were the size of alarm clocks and sensors were the size of a human fist… so we were at a loss as we began to pivot. So we took a modular design approach that made things better but not where we wanted them to be.  But with some divine intervention, smaller and new products were introduced into the market place. Relays came down in size considerably and so did the sensors. Building machines that communicate is a lot more difficult than creating an application, however, nothing is easy and time is always of essence.​ ### What are some of your favorite books? ​There are several books that I like a lot in the business arena.  My favorite is ‘Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive‘ by Harvey Mackey. Although times have changed since the book was written there are real life experiences included that are sobering and influential. Also I recommend Steve Jobs; The Man Who Thought Different because it takes you through the development of a true entrepreneur whose success is unlike any other with potential insights on how to grow your business.​ ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? ​Helping children and people with disabling conditions with the use of technology.​ --- ## Iowa Mom Seeks To Help Women Heal From Early Motherhood Trauma URL: https://futuresharks.com/emmy-kissinger/ Emmy Kissinger is a school-based professional, blogger and mom. As a woman obsessed with learning she is always trying something new.  Her main interests include gentle parenting and mental health during motherhood.  You can find her blog and ebook store at www.brightlittlemama.com **City where you’re from:** Ridgeway, Iowa **Hobbies:** Blogging, raising chickens, spending time with my family and reading. **Favorite quote:** > “Everyone was sent here to learn different lessons.” -unknown ## Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? Early motherhood was far more challenging than I ever imagined it would be.  I experienced many struggles and I feel called to share my experiences with others because I learned a lot of helpful information throughout my journey.  I sincerely want other women to enjoy and find happiness in motherhood so I built a business about this idea!     ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Pam England (Author) and Brenda Burke (Local Midwife).  I attended the 2016 International Cesarean Awareness Conference.  On the last day of the conference I had the honor of listening to Pam England speak.  It was as if her words were everything that I needed to hear to start my healing journey.  In that moment I figured out exactly what I needed to do in order to heal from my birth trauma.  In this moment I was finally able to see a vision of how to help myself which transformed into a mission to support other moms on their deeply personal journey.     ### Now ## What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I am now working on an ebook that focuses on healing from trauma that resulted from an early motherhood experience.  *Birth trauma*is a buzzword right now but after talking with many friends the potential for trauma seems farther reaching than birth.  Early motherhood is an extremely stressful time for new moms.  The ebook will feature each of the strategies that were essential to my healing journey.       ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Once I realized that I had experienced trauma and needed support to recover and find peace I started searching for anything that might help.  There was a lot of information to sift through and every resource that I found generally included one helpful tip.  What I ended up needing was a series of different strategies.  It took me over a year to find all of the information that I needed to make the flashbacks stop.  My ebook is different from other books about healing from trauma because it includes a menu of strategies so that women who have experienced trauma can find what they need to heal.   My favorite moment was when I submitted a simple google survey asking women to submit their stories to be included in the ebook and with very little outreach the responses kept pouring in.   ## How do you uniquely market your company? My business is primarily marketed through my blog (which I LOVE writing)!  I primarily share information on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and through *word of mouth*.  I plan to launch the book in early August of this year.   ### Write your own question: The early days of parenting are hard, whether you are a new mom or a new dad.  Do you feel that you experienced any trauma during those early days or months of parenting your new baby? ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? My biggest failure at this point has been watching too many *free webinars*.  After watching a new webinar I always want to take action right away and then end up neglecting the other action steps that I had on my list.  My biggest success has been sharing information with my blog readers and as a result getting personal messages from women who feel inspired and excited about trying something new.  This has helped to remind me to keep moving forward because the work I am doing has value.        ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. My best advice is geared toward mompreneurs- you have to be willing to get up early and stay up late in order to dive into your passion.  Nap time just isn’t long enough!   ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? I am in the process of taking the *BookBoss Course* by *Just a Girl and Her Blog*.  I love it and have found a great deal of value in the information that they are teaching.     ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) My heart is eager to promote local businesses on my blog so I have made a point to contact local businesses and barter the services that I need for my ebook.  This has been a great networking strategy!  Example: banner ad for photography session.   ## Teach me something I don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose): I think many women don’t realize that they are carrying the weight of early motherhood trauma with them everyday for years of their life.  There just isn’t enough awareness around the topic.   ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I get up at 4:45.  Make coffee and get at least an hour of work in before my 2 year old wakes up for his morning snuggles.   ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? I review blogs and websites that I find beautiful and reflect on what makes those pages beautiful.  I then try to put my own spin on those elements to improve my page, photos and writing.   ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. I started with an amature blog on the wordpress website.  I read free articles, watched free webinars and spent time creating and dreaming.  My biggest challenge was actually creating a page that I loved.  Once I figured out how to do that I got a great confidence boost which allowed me to get to where I am today.     ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? 1. Birthing from Within by Pam England. 2. Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Our family plans to stay living in rural Iowa and I hope to continue working for our local area education agency during the school year.  However, having the opportunity to work part-time and promote my ebook would be beyond amazing for myself and my family! --- ## Mompreneur in Business Against All Odds URL: https://futuresharks.com/ankitaa-gohain/ Ankitaa works as a Digital Marketing Strategist, with proficiency in web design, SEO, social media marketing, content development and brand management. She is the Founder of AnksImage which help organizations worldwide achieve higher online visibility, better brand presence, and more website traffic by creating and implementing highly successful digital marketing campaigns. Mother of a rambunctious preschooler, she mostly works from home in Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), about 250 kms from New Delhi (India). She also runs an offset printing firm, alongside a partnership with her husband in a corrugated boxes manufacturing enterprise locally. She is the unofficial editor and soon-to-be official publisher of her father’s books. She loves getting immersed in the different worlds offered by books and movies. Nowadays she’s trying to be more healthy in life, and wants to get into app development soon. And maybe write a novel too! **City where you’re from:** Rudrapur, Uttarakhand (India) **Hobbies:**Reading, watching movies. **Favorite quote:**“People will stare. Make it worth their while.” – Harry Winston ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? It was the need of the hour. I wanted to be financially independent after marriage. In India, it’s still difficult to step out of the house after marriage – one has to get a good offer/reason to do so. I was told to join the “family business”. I did and I soon realized I was part of the business only in namesake. So I opted to start an online business to provide image consulting services. My image consulting business evolved into digital marketing over the years, and now I’m working full-time as a Digital Marketing Strategist for businesses in India, US and China. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My biggest influences are my parents. My father has taught me to work with ethics, and never compromise on quality of work. My mother has always been a housewife, and she drilled into my head that I need to be financially independent, be more than what the world expects me to be. She’s the voice inside my head, all the time. The latest defining moment in my life was when my daughter was born. I had a high-risk pregnancy, which means I spent all the months of pregnancy under complete bed rest, and yet with all the precautions and care, she was born at 33 weeks. I was told she fought with destiny to be with me, and I promised myself that I will be the fighter my daughter deserves. Since then I’ve been a warrior in life – I fight to get the best projects to work on so I can get her the best of everything I can afford, I fight daily to be the role model she can look up to as she grows up into a young lady, and I fight to not lose myself as an individual while I try to be a good mother, daughter and wife. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I am helping businesses reach their full potential with digital marketing. There are many businesses worldwide who don’t have a clue as to how digital marketing and proper online strategy can do wonders to their marketing and sales efforts overall. I am providing a one-stop solution of digital marketing services like web design, SEO, social media, content writing, content development and branding for organisations looking to explore the online world for better business. Truth be told, I had no clue what to work on. I was interested in image consulting, and that’s what I started. My business was driven by consumer demand. People liked my image consulting, so they asked me if I could use my ideas of image consulting to write for them. Writing then evolved into designing. I already had an affinity for web development, so I started my own website, and seriously took up SEO and social media for myself because I couldn’t find anyone in India to do all that for me at that time, a decade ago. Then I realized I could offer what I had learnt for myself to other people who were already interested in my writing and branding skills. And that’s how slowly I turned into a full-time digital marketing agency. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? I am the USP of my business. I am active on social media, and I never promote my services. My business leads are people who have found me on social media, and have come to me based on what I talk online. I do use different marketing strategies for my clients, but my entire business is based on word of mouth marketing and my writing skills on social media. My favorite moment is when people can’t believe it that I work from home while hanging out with my preschooler. My vision is to be able to make my business more dynamic. I want to add AI to my business model, and get into content intelligence that boost branding. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? It’s been a long time since I used any Facebook ads for my own business, but I actively use Facebook ad campaigns for my clients. I particularly like Boosted posts, instead of traditional ad campaigns on Facebook, and that too with the Preferred Audience turned on. I plan to use Twitter ads for one of my clients next month, but I don’t want to use Google ads ever. All in all, I am more comfortable with using free tools of marketing, rather than paid ones. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I experience failure every month. Most people reject me outright when they learn I work from home, and that too from a place which is nowhere near any major city of India. Then even if they are okay with remote location, many can’t handle the fact that most of the time my preschooler hangs out with me. Not that it has ever compromised the quality of my work, but these people associate women and children with holidays, and they feel I will use my daughter as an excuse in the future for poor quality of work. It was very depressing in the beginning but now I have learnt to recognize the signs. I only speak to those leads who are genuinely interested in hiring me because they already have had witnessed my work somewhere somehow. It’s not me, it’s them. It’s their loss that they let go of an individual who could have really added tremendous value to their organization. Maybe I’m a fool to believe that, but I believe I’m truly better off with such people in my work life. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Don’t wait for someone to get your started. You want to do something, get up and do it yourself. Forget your ego, and concentrate on what you want. Be polite always. Skills can be picked up along the way, but your personality can take you places if you’re true to yourself. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Email marketing is still one of the best ways to promote your brand because you are engaging with the consumer directly and privately. Most users online are passive social media users. They do not engage directly, rather they are actively involved in digital listening. So the best way to reach out to these people is via emails. And the best way to hook them to sign up and share their email addresses with you would be through valuable content upgrades like ebooks or free trials. I follow the blogs by HubSpot, Buffer, Neil Patel, Syed Balkhi, and HootSuite. Yoast is also really good. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) Here are the 9 Best Tools that help in Content Marketing: 1. Outbrain 2. Mailchimp 3. Evernote 4. Easel.ly 5. MixPanel 6. Atomic Ally 7. HubSpot 8. BuzzSumo 9. GIMP ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I work out in the mornings and always cook dinner at home. Both activities help me unwind and destress. When things get more hectic, I read a passionately romantic novel by Nora Roberts and I am ready to jump back into the whirlpool known as life. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? As an entrepreneur, it is important to focus on people working with you, around you and for you. It’s very easy to get lost in getting more clients, expanding your business, or simply working on your product or service. But at the end of the day, it’s the people who matter, starting from those you work for, to the people who work for you, and finally to the people who wait for you at home. If you lose your humanity, you lose sight of what’s important and things go bad. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. I started my business, AnksImage, back in 2008 a few months I got married. Being a housewife didn’t suit me at all, I was bored out of my mind. So I had many many discussions with my husband, spent hours and hours online, and finally started my business by launching my website www.anksimage.com in 2009. My first client was in New Delhi and I travelled 6 hours by car to do a half hour session on image building or branding. It was glorious. Then started many such trips to New Delhi and I was slowly able to establish myself as a consultant in branding and image consulting that companies started approaching me for training and other services. All of it happened through WOM – word of mouth marketing. Meanwhile my website started getting a lot of hits internationally as well, and I got my first writing assignment in 2010. It was a copywriting gig that lasted for more than a year, and the person who hired me was a marketer himself. Anton Rose gave me all the books I had to read up on content writing, link building, marketing strategies, etc. basically all different modules of digital marketing. While I was working for Anton on websites, copywriting, blogging, and online submissions, I started applying the same techniques on my website, and it was a great success. I got more companies to hire me directly and I started working on web design and social media, as well as content writing. During these projects, I understood the importance of SEO, and finally by 2012, I was working full fledged in web design, SEO, social media, content writing and branding. I took a long sabbatical from late 2013 to late 2014. Once my baby was old enough to not require constant supervision by my standard, I got ready to get back to work. Given my reputation, I was confident I would be choosing the best projects. Soon that belief was crushed when everyone congratulated me for being a new mom but no one offered me any project. So basically I had to start from scratch. So I did. I called everyone I had ever worked with. I emailed everyone I crossed paths with. And in six months, I landed my first job as a marketer for a company in Texas. The person who hired me was someone I worked with when I was living in the US and working at Fisher Price (New York) in Business Intelligence Reporting. He knew me and gave me this opportunity not because he knew how good I was in digital marketing, but because he told me he remembered how hard-working, diligent and technical I was. He even told me to get back into Business Intelligence Reporting in IBM Cognos because I was already certified in Cognos, but I was more comfortable with digital marketing. I still work for him. I signed up on freelancing websites – now there are so many in India as compared to what it was like back in 2008 – and started getting projects from those sources too. Thankfully, I was able to turn most of these clients into monthly retainer clients, some of whom I still work with presently. Back in 2016, I joined Quora and I started answering questions solely for the purpose of helping people. Everyone loved my no-nonsense, no-self-promotion answers, and I became one of the Most Viewed Writers in Content Writing on Quora. And that’s when I started getting leads through Quora also. I’ve never looked back since. Now I am focused on the regular clients of AnksImage, and freelance only when I love the projects coming my way. I get to pick the projects I want to work with. That’s a privilege I don’t want to lose. And I will try my best to work on preserving this privilege. ### What are some of your favorite books? I am a big Nora Roberts fan. I can read her books anytime, whenever I get the opportunity. I don’t read non-fiction because I feel that it will affect my own writing skills. And thats why I read 10-15 blogs every day. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself deep in app development, with apps – free and premium – coming out every few months that help with content development. I want to integrate AI into my services and foray in content intelligence, most possibly with the support of an app that I create. I also want to write a fiction novel. --- ## Foam Finger Nation: 25,000 Miles to Glory URL: https://futuresharks.com/rhett-grametbauer/ A passionate sports fan, filmmaker, writer, and entrepreneur, Rhett Grametbauer decided to change the narrative of his life so he bought a 1967 VW Bus and traveled the country to experience the world through the lens of the NFL. Every stadium, 32 teams, 16 weeks, 1 incredible adventure all captured in the documentary and book 25,000 Miles to Glory. His stories have appeared in Sports Illustrated, the Huffington Post, Inside Tailgating, Kombi Life and Roadtrippers.com. He also started a website to help take game watching parties to the next level, Foam Finger Nation. **City where you’re from:** Austin, TX **Hobbies:**Working on Hail Mary my ’67 VW Bus, Coaching youth baseball, and Promoting Foam Finger Nation and 25,000 Miles to Glory **Favorite quote:** > *The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.*– Mark Twain **Twitter**: @foamfinger @25KMilesToGlory ## ## Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I don’t know that I ever consciously decided to become an entrepreneur. I have always had a mind fertile with imagination and ideas. I believe in my ideas and want to share them with the world so I don’t think I had a choice. I have done other things from sell candy at elementary school to being the owner of a business devoted to vintage Star Wars collectibles, to traveling the country in the name of football to Foam Finger Nation. ## Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Growing up watching sports and in particular NFL Films with Steve Sabol. I viewed him in much the same way as I did George Lucas. They created these worlds that I just wanted to make mine and live in. One was football and the other was science fiction but both were equally compelling. I think the defining moment in my life was when I was working for the state of Texas and we decided to become a sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys. More like me being a huge football fan I decided for the state of Texas that the we would be a sponsor. The two people I met that worked for the Cowboys, Tommy Finn and Gina Owen, opened doors for me that I would have never thought possible. It also gave me a renewed confidence that anything was possible in my life. ### Now ## What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Foam Finger Nation is the premier online destination for sports fans to connect with each other locally and across the globe. Centered on bringing fans closer together through shared watch-parties and events, FFN also creates revenue for alumni groups from their watch parties and looks to help bars attract and retain patrons through incentive-based promotions targeted at specific fans and alumni groups within the area. ## ## How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? There are other companies who were or are in the sports fan social network space. These include Sports Fan Live (no longer live), Fanatic.co, MatchPint (U.K.), Proud Crowd and Fancred (not a direct competitor). Other companies that could enter this space are ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, Facebook, Turner and Yahoo Sports. The former companies do not provide the revenue stream to alumni groups or watch party packages similar to that offered on Foam Finger Nation. Instead these companies rely on crowdsourcing watch parties that are not connected to the sports bar or restaurant believing that if enough fans show up at an establishment they will play the game. Fancred was a social network for fans to share their photos of watching games either at the actual game or with fans at sports bars. The more a fan participates the more “cred” they build on the app. There was no financial benefit to fans. What makes Foam Finger Nation different is we either offer everyone in the sports game-watching ecosystem (bars, fans, alumni groups) a way to save money or generate additional revenue from existing activities. We also offer businesses the opportunity to target a highly sought after demographic by sponsoring watch parties. We are adding some really cool graphics to the website that further incorporate the foam finger in our name and brand. This doesn’t sound like much but I believe it will make a tremendous difference in the look and feel of the website which is extremely important. Every day that we move closer to launching the full potential of Foam Finger Nation brings about a new favorite moment. The vision for Foam Finger Nation is to own the watch party experience for sports fans, alumni groups, sports bars, and teams from the time they consider what they are going to do for the game to when the game is over. We want to continue to evolve as the way fans consume media and be as much a part of the game watching experience as the teams and games themselves. ## How do you uniquely market your company? Foam Finger Nation is in a unique situation. We have are going to use the film and book that I produced and wrote, *25,000 Miles to Glory*which documents my travels around the country to every NFL stadium in 16 weeks. Currently, we have a plan for a screening tour to help benefit Vet Tix in 16 different cities in 2017 ending at the Super Bowl in Minneapolis. Part of the screening tour is promoting Foam Finger Nation and organizing watch parties in these 16 cities. Vet Tix alone has an email list of 500,000 people. In addition, Dave and Buster’s has approached us about using our platform in their locations around the country. We currently have a database of every regional alumni group for 40 of the largest collegiate alumni groups in the United States. We also have contacts for most of the marketing departments for alumni groups at these colleges and universities. In addition, Foam Finger Nation has a database of over 4,000 sports bars. ## What was more difficult: Building a social network, directing a film, or writing a book? Without question building Foam Finger Nation is the most difficult thing I have ever done. The complexities of creating all of the functionality that users take for granted takes hours of planning and even longer to program. The minute something doesn’t work correctly users leave so it is vital to the success of the website to make sure everything works properly. Writing a book was probably easier than producing a film. The film has sound, graphics, music, and color. You are also limited to what was filmed to what you can show in the film. The book was easy as I was only limited by my memory and my vocabulary. ## What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? My biggest failure is thinking how obvious it should be of the benefits Foam Finger Nation provides sports fans and bars. People would just self-identify themselves and automatically want to sign up. The biggest success to date is finishing third in the Nightclub and Bar Show in Las Vegas for leads generated from our booth. It validated our idea and we made some invaluable connections around the country. I learned the concept was sound and would take off if executed properly. I also learned that benefits weren’t obvious to sports fans and the best way to gain a critical mass was not going after the fans but the alumni groups and sports bars themselves. ### Value-add questions ## Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. There will be a lot of rejection, difficult times, and problems to work out. If you aren’t able to handle these then don’t start down the road of entrepreneurship. Dan Rather said that if all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all. The road to success is a long journey and it is impossible to know everything that will go wrong and what will go right. The best thing to do is to start out and then adjust to what takes place in the real world. ## Teach us something about online marketing. Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? I think you need to take into consideration your demographic and how they best interact with internet marketing and social media. It is important to get potential customers into the sales funnel in as few clicks as possible. I have tried many different types of content to promote through social media. What seems to works best is content that is very specific to an audience. Instead of a general sports topic make the post as timely and relevant and about a specific team as possible. I scour the internet for ideas and advice. I like looking at the blogs on SEMrush and Moz but generally I Google for a lot of topics and always find a new relevant blog about what I am looking for. It is important to consider your specific market and customer demographics when applying the advice written on the internet. One solution doesn’t work for every business. ## While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) Most fans of sports teams do not live in the same area as the team they root for. At most, only about 30% of fans live in the same city as their team. This means that the market for Foam Finger Nation is even bigger than I originally anticipated. It is a staggering figure to think that if the Dallas Cowboys have 10 million fans that 7 million fans don’t live in Dallas and need to find a watch party. If you just get $1 every watch party from these fans that is over $100 million in one season. Now extrapolate that to every team. ## Teach me something I don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose) A ’67 VW Bus doesn’t have air conditioning, power steering, and wasn’t intended for long road trips despite the romantic vision people have of the vehicle. There is also a network of air-cooled VW people around the country that if you break down will come and help you fix your vehicle. ## What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I focus on three things every day. They are all designed to take me further down the path of completing Foam Finger Nation. This allows me to feel like I’ve accomplished something each day, gives me something to be excited about and allows me to believe in the vision I have for Foam Finger Nation. I also look to make connections on LinkedIn every day. The more connections I have, the more people are exposed to Foam Finger Nation. ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? I think entrepreneurs should focus on the problem they are solving and constantly get feedback from potential customers. This feedback could prevent some unforeseen issues with the final product and could save time and money. I think it is important to understand that there are no finished products. There will always be new features that need to be added. Decide what the minimum viable product is for your company. It doesn’t have to be perfect or finished but it needs to solve a problem for customers in an acceptable manner. ## Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. I want to accomplish three things every day. These change day to day but I break everything that needs to be done down to three action items every day. It is a daunting task knowing what needs to be done for Foam Finger Nation and *25,000 Miles to Glory* but if I see these a three steps every day then I will make significant progress. If I don’t write these things down then I am lost and overwhelmed. ## ## What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? *25,000 Miles to Glory*but I’m biased. It is about more than just football, it’s about having the courage to pursue your dreams and if we all did that how the world would be a greatly different place. Another book I recommend is *Trust Me I’m Lying.* It changed forever how I see the media and how I look to get media coverage for everything I do. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I honestly see a bigger company buying Foam Finger Nation in a couple of years. It is too big of a market and when we execute it properly it will get the attention of a bigger company. After that I plan to do more films and write more books about sports but always with a human-interest angle. --- ## Taylor and Bianca Share Their Experiences As Entrepreneurs Building UNIQ STUDIOS URL: https://futuresharks.com/taylor-bianca/ UNIQ STUDIOS is a PR company that produces projects and events for individuals who appreciate art in varying forms. We believe that it’s beneficial to work solely with entities within the Midwest to fuel a growing evolution. We want to offer substantial opportunities for our peers through public events, exhibits, and prospect networking. To collectively achieve and bring a new awareness to the Midwest is what will continuously encourage us in everything we pursue.   Both, the executive producers and founders of UNIQ STUDIOS, are graduates of Stephens College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Communication. Taylor has interned with Serious Business PR, in addition to being the Marketing Coordinator for Gazelle STL Magazine. Taylor also has professional experience in event planning, public relations, and marketing. Bianca Fitzpatrick has interned with Badgley Mischka, PPQ, Bora Aksu and Think Tank PR. She’s also studied fashion, public relations, and merchandising internationally in London and Milan, Italy. In addition to her studying abroad, Bianca has an extensive background in graphic design, social media, styling, and public relations. **City where you’re from** — St. Louis, Missouri **Hobbies** — Thrift shopping, gallery hopping, traveling, and happy hours **Favorite quote:** “Nothing comes to a sleeper, but a dream” **Twitter:**UNIQ STUDIOS ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? We decided to become entrepreneurs because we were heavily influenced through our training during college, at Stephens College in Columbia, MO. Attending the university allowed us to learn and perfect our personal skills, which lead to us finding there is a need for what we can offer. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Our biggest influences were the experiences and opportunities provided to us. We have been grateful to be able to travel abroad to Italy, twice, as well as professional experience with established businesses. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? We are currently working on expanding our presence, not only on social media, but physically within the community. Doing so, we are working towards exclusive events and gaining clients. We came up with the idea to begin a fashion PR service because there is a need in our town, but no one to offer it. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Our service is unique because we offer what others lack at. Everyone wants to own a business, or be involved with fashion, but do not know the proper way to brand, operate social media, or how to plan a successful event. Our favorite moment thus far, has been when we received a membership with CIC@CET, here in St. Louis. It is a co-working opportunity that allows us to be surrounded by other established entrepreneurs locally. ### How do you uniquely market your company? What makes our marketing unique, is that we post news in black and white on all social media platforms. This is done to encourage interpretation. Color can heavily influence one’s opinion, but when viewing something in black and white, you pay attention to the contrast. ### ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? Our biggest failure was getting 80% of our short film complete and having to cancel the project. This was our biggest failure because it taught us what our strengths were, that we could transform visions into quality projects, and how to fulfill our business needs with little to no resources. Our biggest success would be gaining our co-working opportunity with CIC@CET. This was our biggest accomplishment because it showed us that we were on the right track with our brand and what we have to offer. To have a well-known and very established company acknowledge us, out of all participants who applied, was very humbling to say the least. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. If one thing doesn’t work, it’s okay. Your failures will lead you to your success. In the midst of the situation, it gets hard to stay positive and to keep turning over every rock when  you haven’t received that sign of “keep going” or “you’re doing great’. This is your story and your journey. No matter how often you may not reach your goal, let that be the fuel to your fire. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) Knowing your target audience is imperative. This is what will keep you and your business on track. Knowing your target audience will allow you to learn what their needs are as consumers, and hopefully your business will fulfill those needs. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? First off, prayer. Anytime we have had a high, we pray in thanks. Anytime we have experienced trials, we prayed for guidance. Outside of that, I am constantly reading up on what’s going on in my industry. Being knowledgeable about world events and your industry allow you to create channels for your business, depending the industry. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Serving for others through your business. The moment an entrepreneur begins to think of their role for themselves, they can begin to lose clientele, or customers. When running your own show, consumers want to feel that you’re specifically doing it for them (especially if you have a unique niche). Being an entrepreneur allows you to build the best customer relationships because there is no middle man. They get to know you directly. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. Trial and error. Ponder on an idea you truly love and research the best ways to execute. In this process, you’re planning, making contacts with others (use your resources!), and laying the foundation to get to your goals. Through experience is what will lead you to the next step/level. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In the next few years, we see our company growing and gaining a consistent client base. This includes clients here in St. Louis, as well as traveling for work outside of Missouri. In doing so, we wish to have worked PR for major events, as well as attending major events in terms of networking. --- ## Phd In Exercise Science And Nutritionist Team Up To Create Healthy Protein Beet Brownie URL: https://futuresharks.com/austin-robinson-sofia-sanchez/ Austin Robinson, PhD and Sofia Sanchez, RD co-founded Beet Strong, a company that makes protein brownies with real ingredients like dark chocolate and almonds, contain no added sugar and about one serving of beets. Beets contain a compound that promote blood vessel health, Austin’s area of research. **** **City where you’re from: Originally from Chicago, now re-located to the Philly area** **Hobbies: Exercise!, cooking, gardening** **Favorite quote:** **“Whether you think you can or you can’t – you’re right” – Henry Ford** **Twitters**: - Austin @ubuntu_fitness - Sofia @sanchezsofia ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? During Austin’s doctoral studies, he and Sofia began making protein chocolates for themselves to cut costs on buying pre-made protein bars and to avoid junk in popular protein bar products at grocery stores. “Our school was hosting a startup competition, so we thought ‘What the heck, let’s enter our bars.’ We ended up winning second place out of 60 teams and decided to make it into a real business,” says Dr. Robinson. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Gary Vaynerchuk, an NYC entrepreneur has some incredibly motivational, inspiring and hilarious content on YouTube that we’ve come across, and his work has been pivotal in our business decisions. We’ve had a terrific support system through friends and family, and winning 2nd place in the startup competition led to many great Chicago-area business connections for feedback and advice. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? We’ve been tinkering with our protein brownie. Right now we’re focusing on marketing and getting our name out there. As a nutritionist, Sofia understands the additives, oils and preservatives in many protein bar products and Austin has the expertise in exercise. They teamed up to create a delicious tasting nutrition product as something that they’d both enjoy. ### ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Beet-based nutrition products have been on the market for some time as a means to promote blood vessel health and exercise performance. However, many of these products don’t quantify how much beet is in their product (needed for athletes to dose for their exercise) or contain a lot of sugar or not enough protein. Our products uses responsibly-sourced ingredients like fair trade 100% dark chocolate, non-GMO and organic ingredients, and no added sugar. We use the highest quality, cold filtered beet powder that is lab-certified. We love seeing the product go from conception to finished product and sales. Our alma mater, University of Illinois at Chicago, featured our product in a story, which generated our biggest sales to date. It was such a surprising experience to have real customers order from us across the country. ## How do you uniquely market your company? We’ve been experimenting with Instagram, Facebook ads, and creating short, captivating videos. We will also be launching an Influencer campaign in the next month or so. ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? Perfecting our made-to-order operations has been more of a challenge than we thought. From changing our recipe to details on our packaging, we learned create mass numbers of bars was hurting us because if we changed one thing, we’d end up with a lot of leftover old inventory, which is not a good thing. Especially in the food business. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Be open to feedback from others. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Gary Vaynerchuk is an excellent, free resource on this subject. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? Austin: “As a researcher in cardiovascular physiology, I am always coming across new scientific studies that give me ideas on new ingredients or flavors we can add to our healthy protein brownies” --- ## Transforming The Job Market – Diversity and Inclusion Matter! URL: https://futuresharks.com/lilia-stoyanov/ # Welcome to Future Sharks Lilia! Tell us a little about yourself: I’m an Investor & CEO at Transformify, previously a Director at PTP Europe Coca – Cola Enterprises, GM & CFO at Skrill/ Paysafe, auditor at EY. ACCA, PGDip Financial Strategy Oxford University. City where I’m from: London Hobbies: paragliding, parasailing, sky diving Favorite quote: “If you know what you want, you will always have it at the end!” Twitter: @Transformify ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? My first business was founded when I was 21 and still in university. The two small shops were later sold to competition as I decided to pursue a career as an auditor with EY. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My father and grandmother were always there for me and their support is invaluable. Speaking of a defining moment, I would say that it was when I saw lots of experienced people lose their jobs due to business transformation. As a senior executive you don’t think much about what will happen if you lose the job bringing comfort into your life until you face it. The best way to be prepared is to have as many alternative sources of income and entrepreneurship and investment are the right choices. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Transformifycombines the power of fintech with CSR to provide access to jobs and secure payment to people worldwide. Imagine that you are living in a post-war zone with political instability, no investors or jobs, and you don’t have a work permit allowing you to immigrate. You don’t have many choices, right? Transformify was founded initially to help expand diversity and inclusion when hiring by mitigating the risks for the business while providing a source of income. Soon we realized that our business model is much more than that as it addresses unemployment driven immigration, rural development,  inclusion of people from vulnerable groups and refugees into the workforce, digital skills gap and much more. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? Addressing pressing social issues while transforming the job market is not something one may encounter all the time. Corporate social responsibility is an aspect that is often overseen and as a result millions of people don’t have access to jobs, online training, and secure payment methods.  Our vision is simple – people need jobs and secure payment methods and businesses need access to global talent no matter the location. Transformify is a B2B marketplace that lets these individuals meet, connect, and benefit from each other. There is no need for the business to have a subsidiary in a foreign country to employ independent contractors. Transformify manages the legal arrangements, billing/ self- billing, and payments worldwide providing a secure environment for everyone. Businesses have only one point of contact and independent contractors get paid straight by Transformify. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? We have two large groups of business customers – corporates having CSR budgets and technology startups and SMEs looking to hire great talent and optimize costs. Most of the time these customers find us as Transformify is a certified woman-owned enterprise backed by Virgin and a member of Social Enterprise UK and the Digital Coalition of the European Commission. There are articles published all over the world about what we do and our mission encourages many potential clients to contact us.    ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Launching Transformify wasn’t an easy journey. I have to say that the single most valuable lesson is to stay focused and committed no matter what. Quality is never to be sacrificed and it is better to hire a very qualified employee and pay double as it pays back on the long run. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Cost savings are a necessity most of the time, but could hit you badly if you save from quality hires. Team always comes first and it is your team that will back you during hard times. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Time management is key when you manage both remote and on-site teams. Keeping an eye on team velocity and performance will give you a great idea into what is working and what is not working. Valuable pieces of advice could be found on the blog of Time Doctor. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Success has two elements – building a great team and securing funding. These should be the two focus areas of entrepreneurs. The team will take care of the product and the clients. Funding is obviously needed in order to be able to hire the right talent and bring the product to the market. ### What are some of your favorite books? I enjoy ‘’ Valuation’’ ( McKinsey) and Corporate Strategy(Oxford University edition). ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Transformify has already registered job seekers from 143 countries and business clients from the US, EU, and Asia. In a couple of years we should cover the world and bring hope to millions of people in need. There is no better motivation than transforming people’s lives for good. Thank you Lilia for letting us share your inspiring story here on Future Sharks! Keep up the good work! --- ## How These 21-Year Old Cousins Are Helping Startups Grow: Meet Manik & Pankaj Sharma URL: https://futuresharks.com/manik-sharma-pankaj-sharma/ # Welcome to Future Sharks Manik & Pankaj! Tell us a little about yourselves: Manik & Pankaj Sharma are both India born 21 year old cousin brothers who started their company at very young age and soon  made it a profitable venture by just bootstrapping it. Today, they have many national and international clients and help them grow their business through digital marketing channels. They both are featured in Huffington and Paypal’s Inspiring Entrepreneurs list for the same.  Let’s talk to them and get some valuable leassons. City where you’re from: Amritsar, India Hobbies: Reading,Researching, Listening to Podcasts Favorite quote: “What we think, we become.” – Buddha Twitter: @manikness @ipankajofficial #### Welcome Manik & Pankaj ! It’s great to have you here to share you story! Now tell us a little about yourself to our readers. Hello & Namaste Everyone ! First of all Thanks Nicole for giving us this great opportunity we always been a big admirer of your work .Well,Me and pankaj we both our 21 year old cousins from Amritsar,India.We always been entrepreneurs and risk takers.We started our first business when we were 16 years old and quickly learned the importance of having a strong web presence. We took an early interest in digital marketing as a teenager, and this passion carried over to our professional career. Since 2011, We have started and sold many websites providing a problem solving services. In addition to our digital marketing activities, We have launched many successful Android Apps, Games and Websites. ## Background ### Why did you both decide to become entrepreneurs? Maybe it is in our blood since childhood we used to run our own money making gimmicks . I remember when we were kids, me and pankaj used to build Rides,See-Saw and Swings on our terrace and charge our friends to play in our amusment park. We love to make money since then  only difference is now we have  better business model (laugh..hahah..) ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Our biggest influence is every single person who follow his dreams and follow the road less travelled . People Like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk & Dhirubhai Ambani those who started from the scratch with no big investment and no excuses. Well, there is no as such any defining moment we were just crazy enough to start and succeed in life. ## Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? We are working on our digital marketing companyPOPO . It all started back in 2011 when we helped a local institute getting more admission through social media ads  and since then we are helping and empowering business owners getting customers online. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? Our USP (Unique Selling Point)  is that we have experience in all type of verticals like Lead Generation, App Installs,Ecomm Sales etc. Not only we bring customers to our clients but we also make customer acquisition cost very affordable as we know very well that startups are really tight with budget and need a lot of cash to grow. For startups who cannot afford our services but have a promising product/service for them we make  a special deal where we take some portion of their equity and work with them like extension of their company as our vision is to help as many startups as possible because growth of their business is directly proportional to growth of our business. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? Most of our customers are the startups who are in early phase of growing . Currently, We are working with startups from India, Italy and USA. Things we like about working with startups is that they are as passionate as us and want to succeed.Startups  know the importance of digital marketing which make our work more smooth and easy. We find our potential clients through outbound and inbound marketing channels but most of the time clients  come to us by referrals of our other clients. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Failure? .. All the time . Actually , we no longer even consider it failing , for us it is just a lesson that will make our  service better and better. One common thing we have learnt from our failures is that it’s just temporary.So, there is no need to worry about it . ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Try Now , Fail Now, Learn Now and Do it again and again untill you get it correctly. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Only way you can get more customers is by **Giving Value**. Make sure you provide valuable things to your potential  customers because people don’t care about you or your company what matter to them is what you have for them and how that can help them. For Example, if you are running a lead generation campaign for a Real Estate firm the best way you can get more leads is by inviting your potential customers on  Free Webinar on Buying Real Estate (**Value**) and later on you can pitch to them and make them your customer! ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Entrepreneurship is not as glamorous as it seems to be on Tv or Social Media. It’s tough and ruthless sometimes, Only do it if you are insanely passionate about building business otherwise get a good job. ### What are some of your favorite books? Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki Zero to Oneby Peter Thiel 4 Hour Work WeekBy Tim Ferriss ### Where do you both see yourself and your product in a couple years? We see ourselves helping future entrepreneurs build businesses and making digital marketing affordable and easy for everyone so that every good product can reach to the  hand of right customer. Here is an interview we did with Manik Sharma & Pankaj Sharma and hope that these amazing advices will help you. Thank you Manik and Pankaj for your time for this interview, best of luck to you both in your future endeavors! --- ## How This 22 Year Old Is Taking On The Crowdfunding Industry URL: https://futuresharks.com/felix-hartmann/ Felix Hartmann is the 22 year old CEO of FundThis.com, a disruptive new Crowdfunding Platform. He was named one of Everipedia’s 30 under 30, and one of Temple University’s 3 under 30. Next to FundThis, Felix is also a bestselling dystopian fiction author, known for his breakout novel Dark Age. **City where you’re from:** Boca Raton, Florida **Hobbies:**Creative Writing, Fitness, Travel **Favorite quote:**“Every man dies, not every man really lives.” – Braveheart **Twitter**: @felixohartmann **Instagram:**@felix_hartmann ### ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? Entrepreneurship has been in my DNA from early on. All my immediate family members were Entrepreneurs, so I became used to the ‘work hard, play hard’ nature of entrepreneurship. Throughout the past years prior to committing to Entrepreneurship I had played with the idea of going into politics or going into the corporate world, both of which ended up feeling too limiting. I knew I could make a bigger impact outside these constrained frameworks, and realized that I could not maximize my potential working for someone else. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? In retrospect, my family was a big influence, since I was used to seeing them work long days and nights often six or seven days a week. Most people are too soft where they think they maxed out their day with a regular 9 to 5, so luckily I was never brought up to think that way. There are two defining moments that come to mind. During my gap-semester following High School graduation, I worked at minimum wage in my mother’s e-commerce business stocking warehouse shelves, counting inventory, and other manual jobs. My brother was sitting a few doors down, coding, listening to music, eating pizza and seemingly having a good time, all the while getting paid 4-8 times as much as me an hour. I realized the important connection between skill sets, value, and income, something most people don’t realize until after they graduate with their degree in philosophy, women’s studies, or history (all cool subjects, but you’ll still be working a bar). So I started the transition by listening to university lectures, Tony Robbins, and variouses courses on anything I could get my hands on while working my repetitive and rather boring job for another few months. The second big moment was in 2015, when one summer I started reverse engineering success based on those that had already made it. That summer I laid the foundation for everything I am doing now. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Now I am the CEO of FundThis.com, a disruptive new crowdfunding portal that brings together the world of crowdfunding platforms and marketing agencies. With FundThis we are creating a powerful tool and destination that allows entrepreneurs, inventors, and creatives to crowdfund more successfully with no risk. I came up with this idea after initially struggling to gain traction for the site. I studied the market, had dozens of industry phone calls, and found what was missing. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? What makes us different is that we are an end to end service, meaning that I take on entrepreneurs, inventors, and creatives, and do everything with them, from pre-launch preparations, to full campaign marketing, and post-campaign business development strategy. In a way it’s like an accelerator with the product launch/crowdfund at it’s heart. My favorite moment has been working with all our creators. It’s an amazing experience truly helping others to realize their dreams. The relationships are genuine and synergistic, since all of us have skin in the game and only make a dime upon success. I think it’s the greatest job in the world, as I get to network with innovators every day, and learn about countless industries from tech to fashion to music on a daily basis. The vision is to really reshape the way companies get funded through an integrated three step approach that guides creators from reward based crowdfunding to equity based crowdfunding to VC. ### How do you uniquely market your company? We uniquely market FundThis through constant innovation and staying fresh in our marketing. Some of our big name competitors have such a big piece of the market share that they have not innovated or developed new technology in years. We make the effort to always challenge the standard and are always developing new features. A lot of our competitors have also grown out of the startup size and have gotten a very corporate feel, which is quite a bit off putting when their main target audience is early stage startups. We make every effort therefore to stay fresh and relevant in our marketing, and are not afraid to be authentic. ### What’s your long term vision with FundThis I want to create the ultimate system that allows great ideas to be funded fast in big ways. FundThis is not the end, but rather a means to an end for me. 2005-2015 was the era of social media. Everyone wants to make their own social network now, but I do not believe that is the future. In my opinion 2015-2025 will be dominated by smart tech and AR (Augmented Reality). We saw the first wave of that with smart watches like the Apple watch, and smart home devices like Amazon Echo. Soon our fridges, shoes, and beds will be smart. 2025-2035 I believe will be the golden age of AI and bio-tech where we will see massive breakthroughs in terms of life extension and making machines as intellectually dynamic as humans. I see myself as an innovator, and with FundThis I create the mechanisms that will allow me to be at the forefront of all these waves of changes, where I can have a true impact on the future of tech and thereby society. ### What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? My biggest failures and biggest successes are yet to come. And they always will be, as the scale of your problems and wins increases at the same rate. Some of the big failures of the past, like failing to fund my first startup, initially seemed life-defining, but really they are irrelevant now looking back because I kept going. A guy trying to be my mentor once told me, how big of a deal something I accomplished was. I had two big wins the same night, and he said “That does not happen to many of us, this will be one of the best 3 days in your life”. It’s not even been three years and it barely breaks into the top 10 now. Don’t let nostalgia keep you from scoring. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Have a vision but be practical. Know the macro, but then focus on Day One and Month One. People get hung up on 6 month game plans 12 month strategies, and all kinds of crap. If you want to see any progress you need to stay close to the grindstone, and get out of Lala land, aka all the nice little dreams and ideas you have. The way I make it work is put 70% of my time on the actual work, 20% on planning, and 10% on learning and growing. ### Teach us something about crowdfunding? Crowdfunding in a nutshell is a high momentum product launch before you have the actual product. So without any product, how do you get people to give you money? The key is making them care. How will this product make their life easier and what can it do for them that nothing else on the market can do? That’s how you can compel them to invest their money into something that is yet uncertain to be completed. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? The difference between successful and unsuccessful Entrepreneurs. I get to work with lots of Entrepreneurs as I try to help them raise funds, and I also luckily pass on a lot of Entrepreneurs applying to our site. You can tell the difference between a successful Entrepreneur merely by talking to them. Excuses are the key differentiator. Those that fail, use excuses right and left, either why they won’t be able to do something, or why they weren’t able to do something. If you want to be an Entrepreneur you have to understand that it requires one big thing: Ownership. The buck stops with you, and if you don’t make it happen, no one else will. That’s why I think a lot of “Entrepreneurs” are too soft, and need a punch in the face to get their act together in order to deserve that title. So if you are reading this, do some honest self-assessment to see whether or not you are really giving it your all. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? The most continuous daily habit I have is health and fitness. Work can be demanding on your mind and body, and no matter how successful you are, it can all be gone if you get sick. So every day I go to the gym, and every day I track my nutrients, which allows me to go 110% all the time. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Do something valuable that you are passionate about. That’s it. **Do** – You actually have to get your hands dirty and clock some time to make things happen. **Valuable** – Don’t just become another guru because there’s quick and easy money in it. Build a meaningful business that can make an impact. **Passionate** – Entrepreneurship is a marathon, and you won’t make it till the end unless you are truly passionate about what you are doing. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. 1. Find an industry you feel passionate about 2. Study the industry and its users 3. Take note of what seems off and inefficient 4. Find a solution that would remove said inefficiency 5. Architect the solution 6. Ally with powerful partners 7. Brand the solution and give it identity 8. Launch the solution and market with everything and anything at your disposal 9. Refine and improve 10. Expand ### ### What are some of your favorite books? - Shoe Dog (Phil Knight from Nike Biography) - Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance - Total Recall (Arnold Schwarzenegger Biography) - Everything Store by Brad Stone (Jeff Bezos Biography) - Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Isaacson - Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris - Bigger Leaner Stronger by Mike Matthews (only fitness book you need) - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - 1984 by George Orwell - And of course Dark Age by Felix O. Hartmann 😉 ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? FundThis will be the household name for anything relating funding, as products and brands of various stages will come to us for crowdfunding or venture capital. Furthermore we will have our own division of inventors that develop the cutting edge of next generation products in house that will be funded through our platforms. --- ## When You Focus On Your Money Amazing Stuff Happens! URL: https://futuresharks.com/lisa-chastain/ Lisa Chastain is a Life Coach that specializes in personal finance. She has been working as an advisor, coach and mentor for over 20 years. Today, Lisa offers individual services, group programs and seminars that are aimed at transforming people’s relationships with money and life. Attention to detail, good listening skills and great empathy are symbols of her appreciation by her clients. You can learn more at lisachastain.com **City where you’re from:** Las Vegas baby! **Hobbies:**Hiking, writing, spending time with family, friends and pup Cricket **Favorite quote:**St. Francis Of Assisi — ‘All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.’ **Twitter**: @moneycoachc ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I left my great job in higher education and told myself I would never work for anyone ever again.  I wanted my freedom to create and be whoever I say I am without having to seek approval from anyone.   ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Growing up my biggest influences were my sports coaches and leadership coaches.  On the grand stage I have always looked up to Martin Luther King and Jane Goodall for their perpetual stands for freedom and love.  Maya Angelou has been a major influence, the list goes on but these are the top ones. The defining moment most recently was September 2016 when I decided to leave my firm and start my own company.  I was exhausted and at the end of my rope trying to make it as a financial advisor for a private firm.  When I realized that I had to be on my own and that what I really love is coaching and mentoring young people, I jumped and haven’t looked back! ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? My passion right now is my SISTER (Successful, Independent, Strong, Talented, Empowered for a Financial Future) Mentorship!  After leaving my firm I got clear about who my ideal client is – Millennial women who make great money but mismanage it and have little to show for themselves.  I help them get on track with their money, set up systems to support them in building their dream lives.  It’s amazing!  I have created a 6 month program for women to transform their relationship with money so that they can transform their lives!  My mentor runs a program similar in structure for female entrepreneurs, and I knew that I was going to create something for women to come together, talk about money, stretch and grow together.  One month in, it is already had an impact for the women, this first one was sold out!  I’m building my second program (SISTER02) as we speak.   ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? My product/service is unique because there aren’t many people focusing on personal finance coaching for millennials, specifically.  Also, I’m not an advisor – I don’t just tell them what to do and how to do it.  I teach them and inspire them to be in committed action to actually make something happen!  I’m in this so that after working with me these women are empowered and will make great choices with their money and lives for the rest of their lives.  I’m in this for the long haul with them, I think that’s what sets me apart from my competition.  My favorite moment so far was during my first weekend with my SISTER01 group.  The were sitting around and things got pretty vulnerable.  Suddenly, two of the women were in a very deep and emotion conversation in front of the group, and they both broke through their sense of worth – they were supporting each other – this is not something I could have created from a webinar or working with them one on one.  They are in this together! My vision is to transform the way women think about their money. I am going to inspire the world to be conscious of their spending and encourage engaging and intimate conversation about money.  Money doesn’t have to be a dirty word and my vision is to be a thought leader in gathering women together to talk about the dark side of their financial lives so that they can be free from it! ### How do you uniquely market your company? I market very specifically to Millennial women.  My message is targeted to THEIR problems, what they struggle with.  My messages are consistent across the board – “I hear you, I see you, and I’m here to help”” – I think they really get that and I am building a following of Millennial women who are ready to make some big changes.  Now they have a community of other women who get that too. ### Why millennial women? I believe that they are our future.  They are passionate, driven, educated, talented, ambitious and they need mentors and leaders to embrace their talent so they can manifest their greatness!  Many of them are lost and lack a clear understanding of how to develop themselves.  That’s why I want them in my world – to teach them how to become powerful loving leaders on this planet. ## What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them? My biggest failure was spending my life’s savings ($100,000) to build my business and ultimately having it fail.  I tried so hard to succeed as a financial advisor, but three years into it, I was out of money and ready to throw the towel in.  I spent my last $10,000 to hire my mentor 7 months ago, and that has turned into my biggest success! I’m now thriving, loving what I do, and have generated over $50,000 in sales from hiring her and shifting gears.  Today I know I’m going to be successful, and so will my clients. The biggest thing I have learned from all of this is that I don’t get to give up on my dreams just because things aren’t going my way.  I have learned to keep swimming through the swamp of finding my way, giving up is never an option.  I have also learned how important it is to have the right people to mentor and support me as I reach for big goals.  Having the right people will ensure my success as long as I’m reaching out for coaching.  Finally, I learned that failure is just feedback that what you’re doing isn’t working.  I should have listened to my feedback much earlier than I did.   ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. FIND A MENTOR who has proven results in what you are aiming to do.  Pay them whatever you need to pay them, you’ll make the money back.  Having a mentor will ensure you’re going to take the right steps and avoid pitfalls.  You don’t know what you don’t know, and your mentor will help guide you because they have done what you’re doing and can help to keep you on track. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? I have spent less than $100 on technology and I have built my business 100% online. You don’t have to invest big money on technology when you’re first starting out.  Your iPhone will work just fine.  Use Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to build your brand to start.  People need to know you exist, and they’ll watch you grow from the ground up.  Don’t invest a ton of money, just get out there, target your message and start talking to the people who are going to be your consumers.  I joined a mentorship – RobynCrane.com, and that’s where the majority of my content comes from.  I don’t follow a particular website, although I do love podcasts!  Tim Ferris is my current favorite. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc): What I have discovered is that contrary to the “popular” opinion about Millennials that they are “lazy” and “entitled” **I have discovered that they are profoundly conscious, ambitious, and creative**.  They have new ideas about how they want to see the world operate, and they are frustrated that they don’t know how to operate in a world or make big changes in a world that does not want to hear them.  Our leaders need to listen to them more, they’ve got great ideas!  Just like what I’m doing, they need great mentors to not speak over them, but to listen and get them involved, teach them.  They are very powerful and talented! ### Teach me something I don’t know I love teaching clients about how what you value translates to your bottom line in your personal finances.  When you get clear about your life vision, and what you really really want instead of operating out of your unconscious mind, you will begin to generate wealth and feel like you’re living on purpose, its pretty cool! ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I’m up every morning with coffee and guided meditation.  I also walk my dog sans music every morning, taking in the natural world and allowing my mind to wander.  I have also realized that my brain works in frenetic ways. I don’t make a list of “to-do’s” and I don’t overschedule my day.  The more free time I have the more productive I am!  I make a list of things I will NOT be doing that day so that I can allow my brain to create whatever it needs to for the day. I am in bed every  night at 9:00 p.m. and up every morning at 5:00 p.m. – this keeps my body on track and consistency is key to health and longevity. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? An entrepreneur needs to focus on what brings in the money the fastest, especially when starting out.  Easy money is out there, and building anything takes time.  Focus on making cool shit for people who really need it, and take your business up a level each day, that’s how true success is built, not by focusing on the 10 year plan and getting so overwhelmed you’re paralyzed.  When you’re stuck, just ask, what’s the next step?, and do that. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. One:  I had to take was to get clear on my ideal client.  Once I knew who she was, I started to talking directly to her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, in the community.  She had to know that I exist. Two:  build pricing and sales models that support her getting into my world so that I can help her.  Without clarity about how she can work with me she will not.  So I developed a three step sales process that gets her into my world, gets her help fast with a compelling offer for her to join me for 6 months in my programs.   Three:  build my brand.  This is my website, my YouTube Channel, and be a maniac on a mission to communicate as much value and passion about who I am and what I do.  When I’m out in the community, everyone locally has seen my videos, they get who I am and what I’m about and they want to support and partner with me in helping my clients. Four:  Hang on!  I’ve had many ups and downs in this first part of my journey but being a part of a mentor group has helped me stay clear and focused. Five:  Set tangible but stretchy goals that kept me focused.  I had my monthly sales goals on my bathroom mirror.  They were staring me in the face each morning.  I didn’t know how I would accomplish them but I was committed to making it happen, it was on the top of my mind EVERY morning. In the first three months of the year I crushed my goals.  Staying focused had a lot to do with that! Six:  Always thinking about the next step – not the next ten steps – just one step at a time. Seven:  Write, speak, repeat:  joined blogs, write for HARO, apply to be on Podcasts, speak publically, post videos on YouTube regularly, and shout my name off the rooftops so that people know who I am and what I’m up to. ### What are some of the best books you’ve ever read? - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou - Power of Vulnerability – Brene Brown - Power of Intention – Wayne Dyer - To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee - Any John Grisham book - Old Yeller and Charlotte’s Web are childhood favorites ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself being a national brand and speaker on women’s finance and female empowerment.  I will be a best selling author inspiring people everywhere to change the way they spend so that they can change their lives and the world! # Find Lisa on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MoneyCoachC Check out her Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCSvPhE5xa_thsJ_NcrNTVdA --- ## Fitpacking Founder Steve Silberberg Shares His Experience Working On His Company For The Last 12 Years URL: https://futuresharks.com/steve-silberberg/ Steve Silberberg founded Fitpacking Weight-Loss Backpacking Adventures in 2005.  He graduated from M.I.T. in 1984 with both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Steve was a software contractor for over 25 years serving dozens of clients including DuPont, Polaroid, Tektronix, Acadian Asset Management, and Talbots. Steve’s other careers include College Professor, Aerobics Instructor, Museum Curator, Expert Witness, Failed Electronic Publisher, Failed Internet Entrepreneur, Failed Stand-Up Comedian, Failed Author and Failed Filmmaker. Steve has the 10th largest Air Sickness Bag collection in the world and his online museum has garnered international press and national TV and radio coverage. Steve hates people and prefers to spend his time backpacking in the wilderness.  **City where you’re from:** Hull, MA ******Favorite quote:**The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. — Bertrand Russell******Twitter**: twitter.com/fitpacking ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? Becoming an entrepreneur is more of a calling than a decision. Many people become very successful in a corporate structure, but for me it’s oddly more gratifying to fail on my own than succeed in a hierarchy. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My father was probably my biggest influence.  I’m generally not inspired by other entrepreneur or trending business leaders.  I looked up to my father, who unfortunately passed away at the age of 54.  In my 40s, I started wondering what I would do with my life if I had less than 15 years left.  So among other things, I decided to spend my time doing what I loved … backpacking.  And thus started Fitpacking. ### ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I’m working on getting Fitpacking to operate without me.  I guess that means succession planning.  That doesn’t mean I plan to disappear anytime soon, just that no business should depend upon the presence of a single individual.   ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? There are plenty of wilderness guiding outfits out there that serve the outdoor adventure enthusiast.  Fitpacking is different because it seeks to draw in people who are interested in getting fit.  These are not necessarily people who already love hiking.  Often, our participants have never slept outside or spent a night in the woods.  Our vision is to introduce people to the wilderness and inspire them to protect it.. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? We have done Facebook ads but our campaigns have been pretty vanilla.  Usually it consists of an image of someone backpacking in a stunningly beautiful destination with a target audience of those who like say, camping and chocolate. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? We experience failure just about every day, just as we experience success just about every day.  The lesson seems to be that the people you spend the most time trying to please appreciate it the least and will take advantage of you. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Do what you love.  You’ll be great at it.  If you’re just starting a business to make money, you might as well get in on the ground floor of someone else’s dream. ### Teach us something about internet marketing. Get as much online press as possible.  Maybe nobody will patronize your business because it appeared in the “Organic Lettuce Today” blog, but the feature will silently increase your Google Page Rank. ### What are some of your favorite books? - Teenage Waistland - Free Range Kids - I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me! - The Legacy of Luna ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? As others take a larger role in the company, I expect the breadth of Fitpacking’s offerings to expand to canoeing, cycling and more international trips. --- ## Marine Scientist Chelsea Tuohy Started Her Company To Keep Herself In The Ocean ? URL: https://futuresharks.com/chelsea-tuohy/ Chelsea Tuohy grew up in land-locked East Texas before venturing off to pursue her career in marine science along the US East Coast and the Caribbean. While in graduate school, she founded a company that hosts tropical marine field courses in Puerto Rico and designed an interactive tablet application that helps users learn how to identify fish – *while underwater*. **City where you’re from:** Tyler, Texas **Hobbies:** Yoga, graphic design, Crossfit **Favorite quote:**“To live is the rarest thing in the world, most people just exist” Oscar Wilde ### ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I chose to build my own career because I was tired of reading about the end of Academia (i.e. ‘adjunct or die’) and listening to colleagues describe their attempt to climb the ladder to professorship before giving up and leaving their field altogether. This isn’t everyone’s story, but it seems to hold true for many recent graduates in the field of marine science. Education is expensive, tenured positions are rare and grants are increasingly competitive (which is only feared to get worse). When I was still in graduate school, I discovered what I loved most about my field was the time I got to spend in the water, under the water and interacting with people who also loved these things. My expertise is fish biology, so I spend a lot of time watching fish, counting fish, dissecting fish, talking about fish and working to protect fish. I realized that my happiness came from doing the research and instructing students in the process. So I turned that passion into something I could call a career, and founded Isla Mar Research Expeditions plus picked up a few other neat gigs along the way (including developing an iPad app!). ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My biggest influence was my Masters advisor, and current mentor, Dr. Ralph Turingan at Florida Institute of Technology. I have never met someone so determined to see his students succeed and someone so willing to give his time and energy to make it happen. Ralph grew up in the Philippines and did not have anything handed to him. He worked hard for his education and landed an incredible job at a great university. He has guided me along the path to starting my business, and encouraged me to take the leap at the time I did, rather than waiting for things to fall into place at the time I thought would be more appropriate. I couldn’t be more grateful for that. The defining moment was when I realized that Academia was not where I wanted to be, that came around the time I was preparing to defend my dissertation. Throughout my entire journey in higher education, I was working towards the goal of getting a tenured position as a top university so I could do what I loved: teach. As I talked with my mentors, other professors, colleagues and recent grads, I slowly discovered that maybe this wasn’t the dream I was destined to follow. In undergrad, we’re told “go to graduate school so you can get a Ph.D. and land a good job”. In graduate school, we’re told “gain experiences so you can be more versatile and competitive… oh, and publish a lot of papers”. Some of that happened, some of that didn’t. And as I set down at my advisor’s desk and hashed out where I wanted to take my career, he gave me a piece of advice that has truly stuck – “You can aim to be a top scientist, publish a lot of papers and land a career where everyone knows your name. Or you can hone your skills on a regionally-relevant topic and become an expert in that field. The latter is where you can also have a family and spend time with kids”. That solidified the obvious. I wanted a career where I could be in the field as often as I wanted, set my own schedule, write my own grants… and have a family. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? One of my biggest accomplishments as an entrepreneur is the app that I envisioned and designed to teach novice surveyors how to identify Caribbean fish while underwater. When I first started my company, I hosted field courses that instructed undergraduate students in a method to survey fish – called underwater visual census. Most of these students had no experience with fish identification. I noticed that it was sometimes overwhelming for students to do a survey and spend the majority of their time trying to describe the fish so they could identify it later with a reference book. That had to change, and there had to be an easier, faster way to train. So I pitched the idea to a graphic designer (hobbyist app developer) friend of mine who instantly saw this as a game-changing idea and jumped on board. Together with a group of volunteers, we crowdfunded to raise money to buy tablets and underwater housing and to help offset costs of development. We unveiled Artediin January 2016, but the story doesn’t end there. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? The app is different from anything else on the market. We are currently the only app that can train users how to conduct fish surveys and learn to identify fish simultaneously. One of the best features of the app (that we will maintain for all new additions and versions) is the ability to upload data as a .csv file. You essentially email it to yourself when you’ve finished your survey, then open it in Excel and all of your data is there, nice and organized. This saves HOURS of post-processing time that most fish biologists are all too familiar with. My favorite moments during development were taking divers out to test the app. It was the best feeling of accomplishment to come up from the dive and have the students rave about how easy it was to use, how helpful it was to learn fish…. It felt like I really found a solution. It brought me back to why I chose to go independent with my career. This was teaching in a real-life scenario, instructing a skill that would be useful to the future careers of these students.. And it got me in the water. The vision is to take Artedi a step further and develop for Android tablets, then to strip the app of the “training” esthetic and integrate more features that expert scientists will find useful. Right now, it’s specifically a training tool. We’ve received some funding from NOAA’s Sea Grant to continue this work, and an Android version plus an expert version are aimed to be unveiled by 2019. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? I take advantage of educational listservs, conference exhibitions and my network – mostly word of mouth for recommendations. But I also use social media advertising on Facebook and Instagram. I have not really tapped into Twitter yet, but I’d love to learn some of the tips and tricks for that market! I have also started using Hootsuite to help manage all of my social media accounts in one place. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I am still experiencing setbacks. It’s part of the journey. I have found the most difficult part is finding the right market and staying on top of advertising. Since my app is free, it’s been a challenge to find the right balance between paid advertising and promoting a more organic (and free) awareness. I’ve learned that it pays to spend time searching for the hints and tricks of the social media game – it’s a lot of computer time, but it does pay off. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Take advantage of your network and the folks who are interested in your service/product/etc. You never know who will be able to hold the door open for you to step into the spotlight. Take time to build relationships with all types of people in various fields, especially in scenarios where you both can mutually benefit. Then, don’t be afraid to say “yes” to accepting help, and be sure to pay it forward. ### Teach us something about crowdfunding. Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? I found that crowdfunding for the initial development of this app helped our team gain a lot of exposure for the idea. We met all kinds of people who had advice, and many who offered to interview us and share the story to help us achieve our fundraising goal. I used Experiment.com, which is essentially a crowdfunding platform for scientists. We met the co-founder who flew down to Puerto Rico to visit with us after our campaign was successful. It was humbling to meet him and discover he was another young entrepreneur. Since government-funded grants are harder and harder to come by, I would highly recommend that young scientists check out Experiment.com and consider crowdfunding their projects. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) My app developer and I used two programs to communicate – Slack and PivotalTracker. Slack allowed us to organize our discussions by hashtags so that we could focus on the various aspects of the design process. PivotalTracker helped us keep up with deadlines and make sure that all the features, bugs, etc. were being completed. And while I was in graduate school, I took advantage of every “student” version of new online chart building sites (Plotly), graphic design (Canva), newsletter and digital media creation (Lucidpress). ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I have really taken a liking to Crossfit, and I go train in the mornings. I love the adrenaline and the surge of energy I get after exercising. I also take little breaks throughout the day – step away from the computer, go outdoors – this helps refocus my mind when I have to reel myself back in. I am also a yoga instructor, so I find that ending my day on the mat allows me to recover for the next day. There may also be a glass of wine somewhere in there too. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? The present. Don’t get too caught up in the future and trying to always be one step ahead of the rest. It’s important to take time to experience the journey because that is where you develop relationships and build your network in a meaningful way. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. Well, my education took about a decade. Without that, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Coming to terms with the idea of working for myself took another year to settle in. That process involved lots of discussions with mentors, lots of slow and steady trial and error, and then a big leap to getting a brick-n-mortar office space with classroom that we have now. In those early stages there was a lot of self-doubt; a lot of uncertainty about whether I should just keep looking in Academia, or branch out and focus on what I truly love doing. Now when I think back on that, the answer seems obvious. But there are tradeoffs – one being financial security. When you’re independent, you can only make as much as you are willing to work for – and when you’re starting out, sometimes it’s hard to really find that limit. But I am a firm believer that hard work pays off, and that challenge has never stopped me before. ### What are some of your favorite books? I love to read and reread The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. This book finds an appropriate time to resurface at various stages of my life. I also really enjoyed Ocean Country by Liz Cunningham and I would recommend it to anyone looking to gain some “ocean optimism” and insight to the hope that still lives among marine scientists. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I want to see the app flourish and be used by students and citizen scientists all over the Caribbean – and eventually the Pacific once we transition our theme to that region. We really want to keep the app free, because we know what it’s like to be students and have little income. The goal was to create something that would be a free learning tool; we pay too much for education as it is. We need something free every now and then. In the next few years, we hope to see the app get picked up by a major sponsor that can help us fund the continued development and maintenance. --- ## Meet the 21 Year Old Running One of Canada’s Fastest Growing Marketing Firms URL: https://futuresharks.com/kieran-mathew/ Kieran is the Founder and CEO of Amplify Solutions Inc. , a student-run marketing firm that changes the way brands communicate with students.  Amplify is one of Canada’s fastest growing marketing firms, Kieran built the organization from a one man shop to a national organization with 60+ employees and 100+ influencer partnerships in 6 months. Amplify creates strategies for businesses to grow and succeed in the student market. They have worked with alcohol-beverage companies, publishers, preparatory companies, tech startups, wealth management organizations and telecommunication companies to drive influence and sales on Canadian university campuses. Prior to developing Amplify, Kieran worked as a business development and marketing specialist with startups both at Western and in Toronto.  He has wide experience in the nonprofit sector, working as Director of Philanthropy at the Huron University College Student’s Council and serving as a marketing executive on numerous, on-campus organizations. He founded Amplify in July, 2016 after interning at a boutique, management consultancy, Fathom Strategies and operating as a freelance marketing consultant for several national brands. **City where you’re from:** Toronto **Hobbies:**Golfing, ice hockey, reading, cooking **Instagram:** @Kieran.Mathew **LinkedIn:** www.linkedin.com/in/kieranmathew ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I became an entrepreneur because I saw an opportunity. I had ideas in the past, but I did not execute. I was immersed into the startup ecosystem, having worked with young brands as a business development and marketing specialist, I realized it was now my time to take a risk and learn. I sat in a boardroom filled with the top executives at a leading national, frozen yogurt brand ready to present data the consulting firm I was interning for had found.  The data told an excellent story, detailing which demographic, age and gender the company should focus its marketing efforts on and why.  But it didn’t tell them how to do it, that’s where I came in. I was a student myself and an avid consumer of frozen yogurt. I knew how the brand could begin engaging myself and my peers, so I shared it.  Interestingly, the executives actually listened! They actively took notes and asked questions as I shared these insights.  So I kept doing it, I helped several brands cater and sell to consumers in the student market. Although these consultations were valuable, consulting, creating programs and implementing them was a far better service, so I built a brand.  I founded the company at the University of Western Ontario, building a small team with my two Partners, Adam Higa and Landon Tulk, and developing an internal strategy.  We quickly scaled in order to provide scalable programs for brands nationwide. We now have teams at most major Canadian universities, helping corporations grow and succeed in the student market. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My parents were my biggest influences.  They supported my vision and my positivity. They expressed no concerns and encouraged me to take this risk and learn. ## How is your service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Amplify is different because we are the ultimate insiders. Who could possibly understand the student market better than student themselves? Our insider knowledge allows us to find the best and most creative avenues for brands to begin penetrating campuses.  We also differentiate by providing an end-to-end service. Amplify conducts research, finding out how the brand in competing in the student market.  Why students choose their client’s brand, and why others choose the competitors.  It gathers learnings into consumer behaviour in the relevant vertical and hears stories from student purchasers in this market. Amplify takes that research, addresses the gaps and finds opportunities for brands.  It creates programs for businesses to effectively penetrate those gaps and implements the programs at scale, utilizing on-campus teams to implement the program and influencers to represent the brands. In the early stages of business development, we did not have case studies or proven success. We had to earn the trust of our clients. In one circumstance, there was a fundamental lack of trust. The client did not think that a student-run firm was capable of performing and drawing success, they thought this was likely going to be a waste of time and resources, but they were willing to give it a shot out of goodwill.  Thankfully, we surpassed all the KPI’s, in our first meeting analyzing these findings, seeing the shock and pleasure on the client’s face was incredibly satisfying.  We knew we had done excellent work and were incredibly grateful to have earned the brands trust. We hope to continue driving success for brands on Canadian University and College campuses and to scaling further throughout the country with this success.  We want to provide students the best possible job experience while in school, one that is full of learning, growth and the ability to network. ## If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? Facebook ads are only effective if you tap into the right market through niche targeting. We do run targeted ads for our clients. These ads have to tell a story in order to blend into the news feed.  Users are expecting to see content from their network; those they have actively chosen to be connected with.  When scrolling through the feed, it is easy to skip an ad when it is obvious that you’re being sold to.  We humanize brands through storytelling, making the ads blend into the feed so that viewers read and engage with the content, before they realize they are being sold to. That being said, you still have to ensure this ad is hitting the right market. So address your target market, target those you like and engage with your page, but also those who like and engage with your competitor’s pages.  If you advertisement is effective enough, people will read, engage and you will begin gradually pulling consumers from the competitors. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? In any business venture development, there will always be small failures and setbacks.  In internal brand development and in business development, I have made mistakes and failed several times. In the early stages I would get bogged down by the failure, further setting me back and displacing myself from the ultimate goal and vision.  That was another failure. The key to these failures is removing an emotional reaction to it.  Step back, analyze it, critically examine your actions, what went wrong and why, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.  Be grateful for the failure because you’re getting better every single time. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Execute. We all feel this a general malaise in taking this risk.  It is imposter’s syndrome.  We look at the challenge and feel incapable. We question and think of all the challenges and quickly forget the opportunity. We do not grow in our comfort zones, we grow outside our comfort zones. Take that imposter’s syndrome, cultivate that energy and channel it into your vision. You will not truly know what challenges come until you begin the process. You will never learn more than in developing your own brand, I guarantee that and the best part is, you do not have to do it alone. There is a massive network on entrepreneurs that will want to hear about what you are doing and offer advice and mentorship. If you do not have those connections, make them and use that support to succeed.  It’s a fun and addictive process. ## Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? When marketing or advertising a product online or in-person, frame your sales piece in a positive manner,  Do not say “We don’t overcomplicate things,” say “We keep things simple.”  Negative frames require far more processing power and despite having a positive connotation, it typically sparks a negative reaction. Mashable and Moz are two excellent sites for marketing and entrepreneurial content, there is a lot to learn there. ## What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? Automation. Waking up at the exact same time everyday, even on weekends, setting up eating patterns and exercise patterns. Our bodies react well to routine.  Energy has increased and so has focus, when you have to make less decisions each day on when you’re waking up, when you can eat and when you can exercise, you put more thought into the things that matter and generally become a more efficient person. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Self awareness. It will be difficult to develop a thriving business venture and lead teams without first looking inward and understand yourself. You will better understand your goals, aspirations and develop an ability to remove yourself from emotions during times of heightened stress and complications, focusing on solutions. Unfortunately, I do not have a three step formula on how to become self aware.  Meditation has helped me immensely, Headspace is a great application for it and generally taking care of yourself. It is important to be selfish sometimes, eat well, exercise and take a bit of time to decompress each day. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. The first step was to network.  Business professionals like to tell their stories and are often happy to find the time to chat.  I did not know anything. I mean anything at all. I could not have even told you the difference between marketing and advertising, so I learnt. I sent countless cold emails to business executives explaining who I was, where I was studying, what I was up to at school and graciously asking for 15 minutes of their time to learn their story and ask a few questions about their career. I chatted, I learned a lot, and each conversation became better as I knew more and had better questions to ask.  I met many interesting people and began volunteering time and effort to work with young businesses in their marketing and business development portfolios.  I learnt more and more, gaining hands-on experience with these businesses, I asked more questions and developed as an individual.  Through these continued experiences in addition to a very hands-on, high-learning internship I began to consult for national brands on how to effectively penetrate the student market, and then I took the leap of faith and built a brand around it.  We scaled quickly throughout Canada and did so effectively, because I continued to network, ask question and learn during this time. It’s all about being willing and open to learn and constantly develop. ### What are some of your favorite books? To Kill a Mockingbird. The Lean Startup. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Shantaram. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In a couple years, I hope to make Amplify a Canadian household name. I want students to be excited to have the opportunity to apply and work for the business and I want graduates from the schools, who had previously worked with the brand to help mentor current employees helping them to learn and grow. I want to continue scaling deeper into the Canadian university and college market, and if the opportunity is there, go international. If you would like to connect with Kieran, feel free to send him an email at [kmathew@amplifysolutions.ca](mailto:kmathew@amplifysolutions.ca), connect with him on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieranmathew/ or follow him on Instagram @Kieran.Mathew --- ## How Sabrina Smai Hacked Her Way To Entrepreneurship URL: https://futuresharks.com/sabrina-smai/ Sabrina is a serial tech entrepreneur and multi-hyphenate born and raised in Montreal, QC. She has started over 8 technology ventures, one of which Placed at Princeton University’s Annual Hackathon 2016. Sabrina is also the Founder of E-Terview, a seamless application for evaluating video interviews using Artificial Intelligence and predictive technology. In addition, Sabrina is part of the Technical Evangelist Team at Microsoft, where she provides educational and technology-heavy workshops to software developers and allies. **City where you’re from:** Toronto, Ontario **Hobbies:** Attending Hackathons, playing volleyball, reading, coding **Favorite quote:** > “When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is … Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it … Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” Steve Jobs **Twitter**:@sabrina_smai ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain. I live by the aphorism about the lure of entrepreneurship. Growing up, I always knew that I wanted to positively impact the world. As a first-generation student, my parents always gave me the “safe” option to pursue either medicine, law or accounting. Naturally, I chose the medicine route as it was most in line with my notion of positive change. So, this is what I did; Life Science at the University of Toronto (UofT). After two short years, I stumbled upon a technology course at UofT with a friend. It was not long before I fell in love with technology and its ability to help revolutionize the way things are done in the world. I quickly switched my science program to the Digital Enterprise Management program at the University of Toronto. This is where I learnt about entrepreneurship in a theoretical sense. However, it was not until I started religiously attending Hackathons that I realized that I am meant to be an entrepreneur. For those that do not know, Hackathons are intensive coding competitions where teams of programmers gather and build a software project, typically over a 24–48 hour period. These competitions served as an ideation session for me along with some prototyping for a potential revolutionary business idea. After this, I was able to apply the theoretical knowledge from school into a viable company. So, after attending over 20 hackathons, I am proud to say that I have started over 8 high impact startup ventures thus far with more to come. ### Who were your biggest influences? Simon Sinek. Through his books and motivational speeches, I was able to learn the most life-changing business and life lessons. My leadership, in the tech entrepreneurship community, inspired actions through exercising his explicit lessons in business. Check out his TedTalk to see why I chose Mr. Sinek: ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? My current startup venture is an app called E-Terview. This multisided platform allows for a seamless way to evaluate video interviews by utilizing the latest Artificial Intelligence and Predictive technologies. Although I cannot get in too much detail about the app due to legal implications, but we are in the beta stage of development and will be launched after our machine is trained enough. This idea came about in a Toronto Hackathon last year. I teamed up with three, at the time, strangers. We were suggested to create a prototype of a technology that will solve a problem that we know most about. After an ideation session with the team, we realized that we all lacked confidence when it came to interviewing with an employer because we were all students. So, after 20 hours of coding and trying to do rapid prototyping for our app, we presented E-Terview to engineers of Microsoft, Google, Qualtrics, and other tech giants. With their critical yet positive feedback, we were able to gain the confidence to take this idea outside of the Hackathon realm and into a viable business. This is how E-Terview was born. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? This app is unique on so many levels. Not only is it first of its kind, but it utilizes the latest technologies in a way that was never done before in this industry. My favourite moment with E-Terview is pitching to venture capitalist. It is incredible how much a product can grow and ameliorate just from taking into account the feedback of successful business individuals. The vision is to scale and revolutionize the recruitment industry in two short years. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Failure is inevitable in the startup culture. The biggest risk E-Terview faced was a couple months ago, when the team was trying to recruitment an AI expert. The hardest part of producing a non-patented technology is threat of intellectual property theft. So, getting the right people to join our team was quite challenging even with a non-disclosure agreement. We created a contingency plan and seek legal consulting as a result. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. The best entrepreneurship advice is by Warren Buffet. He suggested that in order to acquire true success in life and entrepreneurship you must follow these five steps: - On a sheet of paper, list 25 goals that you have. - Eliminate 20 of these goals, and circle your top five. (He said the top five goals are your priority. The other 20 goals are just distractions that are deterring you from reaching those top five goals.) - Make your plan for the top five goals. - Marry your top five goals + plans. (Persistence is key). - Acknowledge your “avoid at all cost list”. (this is knowing what your distractions are aka the other 20 goals). This Warren Buffet test can work the same for finding your passion. This test solidified my passions and goals in life. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) Hunter.io is a fantastic tool for entrepreneurs to find the contact information of individuals that may help with their startup. If you know the individual’s name and the company they work for, this app will be able to provide their company email address in seconds. This was super helpful for me to get sponsorships from large corporations. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I have a morning routine that I follow religiously. I acknowledged several years ago that I am most productive in the mornings, so I would wake up 6am and throw on a pair of running shoes right away to go on a quick run. After a shower and getting ready, I sit down for an hour-long reading session while eating my nutritious breakfast and drinking my coffee. This morning routine allows me to perform at my peak for the duration of the day. Not only do I feel healthy and focused, but I became more productive and smarter than I was the day before. There is no formula for the perfect morning routine, just as long as it works for you. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Entrepreneurs should definitely focus on their strengths. Through experience, playing on your strengths definitely maximizes your happiness and forges a positive path to success. You are able to find higher levels of innovation and creativity with your task on a project as you feel the most confident. Knowing your strengths is definitely a gift that needs to be exploited fully. ### What are some of your favorite books? 1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries 2. The Art of War by Sun Tzu 3. The Startup Owner’s Manual by Bob Dorf & Steve Blank ### Where do you see yourself in a couple years? As a catalyst for positive change, I see myself using technology as a tool to positively impact the world. --- ## We Met The Marketer Behind Bestselling Authors, Fortune 500s, and VC-Backed Startups, Only To Realize He’s A 21 Year Old Who Never Went To College. URL: https://futuresharks.com/jared-kleinert/ ## Have you ever wondered who is behind some of the most successful marketing campaigns on the Internet (or utter failures like the tone-deaf Pepsi commercial starring Kendall Jenner)? ### Why do some brands continuously push the boundaries and innovate while others grow stale? The hard truth is that marketing as we know it is both different today and increasingly unpredictable in the future when compared to “what got us here”. Marketing and business development channels that rely on email or social media, for example, are only a couple decades old, and still haven’t reached their full potential as avenues for business growth. Then there’s conversations to be had about VR headsets, Messenger bots, interplanetary travel, and the role that marketing will play as the sci-fi dreams of Silicon Valley’s elite become reality. This is where Kleinert breaks free from the pack of marketing consultants out there. He’s literally “grown up marketing”, and as early as 15 began the first of his own businesses. Despite never attending college or getting a “normal job”, he’s built a world-class network (and been named USA Today’s “Most Connected Millennial), written award-winning books on entrepreneurship, and made a name for himself among the top experts in the world who hire him because he knows no different other than to market himself and sell his services in that hungry, tenacious way that reminds older folks of their younger selves. ## Getting Off To A Fast Start. Kleinert began his marketing firm Kleinert Ventures at 18 when he brought on his first-ever client – a #1 NYT bestselling author and former Fortune 500 CMO. Since then, Kleinert and his team have helped companies accelerated by 500 Startups to break crowdfunding records, Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees raise more money, and successful seven-figure businesses bring on new clients in a rush. Part of supporting successful businesses and top thought leaders, which are the core types of clients Kleinert and his team work with, is understanding the inherent value someone like Kleinert could bring to the table for leaders who are willing to try something new and become “experimental” with their marketing. “I grew up differently than most peers my age,” he explains. “Instead of spending years of my time and hundreds of thousands of dollars in school, I defaulted to being different by not subscribing to what everyone else is doing. The same is true in my marketing advice and, thankfully, the results we’re earning for our clients speak for themselves.” And they do. One of Kleinert Ventures’ clients generated $282,000 in new revenue (quadrupling their sales) in just 35 days from working with the firm. Of course, in the long run, it’s too early to tell if Kleinert’s decision to forgo school is a good one or not. However, it’s a bet he is willing to make, just like the throng of Thiel Fellows and Uncollege advocates that have surfaced in the last few years. *## The Value Of Thinking Differently “When you actually look into what I’m doing, I’m testing my options in the real world and systemizing what works rather than accepting what’s been known to be true in the past, but hasn’t been proven at the individual level in today’s world. I’m taking a more scientific and conscious approach to designing my own life, leveraging every resource, opportunity, and connection I have, and therefore I’m learning at an accelerated rate from the best people.” When Kleinert says “best people”, he isn’t exaggerating in the slightest. When he isn’t designing marketing experiments and business development systems for his clients, Kleinert has spent the last four years identifying, connecting with, and befriending hundreds of the world’s smartest and most talented Millennials. He’s published two books, 2 Billion Under 20 and 3 Billion Under 30*, sharing the stories of his influential peers, and if you look at some of the names curated in those titles, you may find it challenging at first to keep up with the diversity and breadth of influences covered. From founders of billion dollar companies like WordPress, professional athletes, top internet marketers, celebrated nonprofit founders, and others, these are the individuals that shape Kleinert’s thinking. That’s quite different than most student bodies he’d be around if he were still in school, and a junior like most of his high school friends. And it shows. ## The Life Of A Nomadic Entrepreneur While he’s based in New York City, half the time Kleinert is in an airport or in a new city working with his clients. For years, he’s only worked with clients willing to invest in high monthly retainer fees for three months (or more), mostly collaborating with his team remotely and providing client deliverables from wherever he wanted to locate himself for the week. Recently, he’s been testing out a new business model however. The “VIP Day”, taking the same all-day, in-person strategy sessions that his longer-term clients had access to in order to kick off new client engagements, is now being sold as a standalone service, and they are quickly selling out. Kleinert’s already raised the price on this offering three times, and has booked clients in San Francisco, New York, Green Bay, Atlanta, Toronto, and even Shanghai who are interested in seeing what Kleinert can do for them. True to his motto of questioning the status quo, it’s easy for Kleinert to travel so much. He doesn’t own a car, doesn’t have a lease or mortgage, and only keeps about ten days’ worth of clothes with him in a small suitcase and backpack. He’s opted for a lifestyle of owning nothing, but having access to anything, and uses services like Skiplagged, Turo, Skyscanner, and of course Airbnb, Uber, and Lyft to get around and save both time and money. Without the additional stresses of the average adult, he’s able to focus further on his clients and providing his expertise. ## Standing Out When asked about how others can stand out, Kleinert talks about making conscious decisions to brand, work, and associate yourself differently from your competition. For him, not going to school immediately makes him different from everyone who does. Similarly, a writer that incorporates embedded YouTube videos in every single article will add richer media to their work than almost all other writers. A service business that turns their knowledge into a product and sells that as a low cost way for prospects to learn about the quality of their work will immediately have a unique take on their industry’s standards. Not only that, but Kleinert suggests increasing the amount of options you have in your network, in your business model, and even with your lifestyle if you want to go that far. That’s why he’s made it a point to connect with individuals from hundreds of different industries, provide clients with different ways to engage him and his team, and swap anything that’d tie him down to one location for new shared economy services. Perhaps this isn’t your idea of an ideal business or way of life, and maybe you don’t necessarily want to experiment with your marketing and business development channels if you have a successful business already. However, it is working for Kleinert and his clients, and it is certainly interesting. --- ## How This 21-Year Old is Revolutionizing Student Commerce: Meet Alex Jekowsky, Founder of Ulyngo URL: https://futuresharks.com/alex-jekowsky/ # Welcome to Future Sharks Alex! Tell us a little about yourself: City where I’m from: Tiburon, CA I was the Global Student Entrepreneur of the year for Orange County and rated a top-25 student entrepreneur in the US by entrepreneurs Organization in 2016. Also Ulyngo was rated top-10 eCommerce startup by LAUNCH Festival in 2016. Hobbies:  Playing and listening to music, (I DJ and play 4 instruments) being active (running, playing basketball and baseball, etc.) traveling, drinking coffee, finding awesome craft beers, and thinking about new ideas. Favorite quote:**“**Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there” – Will Rogers Twitter : twitter.com/ajekowsky ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I can tell you that I didn’t wake up one morning thinking, “Today seems like a great day to be an entrepreneur.” Entrepreneurship in my life has appeared when I had a passion that I wanted to share with people or when saw a problem that I thought I could fix. I think that anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur should focus more on solving problems that society face, than being able to call themselves an entrepreneur. For this reason, I resonate greatly with Waze founder Uri Levine, who says, “”**Fall in love with the problem not the solution, and the rest will follow.”** ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Someone who I admire and who has really inspired me is Tony Hshieh, current CEO of Zappos. His book on delivering happiness illustrates the true power of cultivating happiness in life while creating a meaningful workplace. I’m not sure if it was a defining moment, but he showed me how to integrate wellbeing and productivity into a highly successful company/work environment with inspired and valued employees. I’m also lucky enough to come from a family who has found success in many different fields and to whom I look as role models. Whether it’s my father who’s a Grammy-nominated musician and businessman, my mum an accomplished life and executive coach, my brother who was in The Playbook – Magic Johnson’s 32 under 32, or my sister who has a masters degree in Counter Terrorism and who now runs Deutsche Telekom’s Accelerator in Tel Aviv. My family are sources of inspiration daily – they make me look like a slacker! ## Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I’m the founder of Ulyngo, which gives Universities access to the market of used goods on campus through a student-to-student marketplace that increases engagement, revenue, and campus safety. The ideation of Ulyngo started when I was in high school, but it really took hold when I was a student at Chapman University. As a student, I tried to use various avenues to sell goods – Platforms like eBay, Craigslist, even Facebook, and nothing provided me with an easy solution! I discovered there was no real serious attempt at solving the problem on my campus. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? Universities presently use campus stores to sell new products. By not offering a solution that can capture the ’used goods market’ of student transactions, universities push student dollars off campus, causing significant revenue losses and safety issues. Our marketplace is unique because we’ve built our entire platform from the ground up for students, universities, and technology partners in the HigherEd space. Our platform is able to offer customization and integration options that are simply unmatched to the competitors in the space. My BHAG (big-hairy-audacious-goal) and vision is to eventually grow Ulyngo and work with universities across the globe. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? Our customers are universities who are currently detached from the eCommerce side of student life. We do outreach and are contacted by universities through our marketing and sales efforts, as well as our partnerships with the leading campus technology providers. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I once had a phone call with a prospective investor and whenever he asked a question, I had a quick answer. In my mind this was a positive, but in his I came across as a know-it-all, and someone who didn’t want to be coached. It was a turning point in the way I’ve approached every pitch/meeting since and I learned that when building a business, being eager to learn from others is sometimes better than having the answers yourself. But failure is all part of the journey, say if one were to interview 100 entrepreneurs, you’ll hear 1000 stories of failures. I think entrepreneurs have to be excited and not fearful about failure because it simply means you tried to do something. Keep going, keep trying, and keep failing until you find that success. As Henry Ford said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” ## Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Focus on the problem you’re solving and obsess over it. Become an industry expert and know your customers, competitors, and value proposition like the back of your hand. What makes successful entrepreneurs isn’t their drive to be successful entrepreneurs, but their passion to create technology, art, media, anything that will generate value in the world. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? In my opinion, one of the pillars of raising capital is, “Ask for investment get advice, ask for advice get investment.” Going into a pitch/meeting acting like you have all the answers can backfire severely and actual destroy the deal – find the balance between being an industry expert in addition to being coachable and ready to learn. Remember, your goal in the beginning of raising a multi-million series A or even a small seed round, is to demonstrate credibility, develop relationships, and learn. My last advice on fundraising is that it’s not rocket science, the better the numbers, the less of a pitch you’ll have to make, so focus on getting the best metrics before going out to raise the capital. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Simply follow YCombinator‘s tagline: “Make something people want.” Entrepreneurship isn’t about what you want, throw egos out the window. Every feature, marketing campaign, design, etc. has to be focused through the lens of what your users want and need. ### What are some of your favorite books? Things a little bird told me – Biz Stone [Delivering Happiness](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0446576220)– Tony Hshieh Freakonomics –  Stephen Dubner ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In a couple of years I hope to still be running a venture with a team of passionate, diverse, and driven people who share the goal of building solutions that enhance people’s lives. Whether it’s Ulyngo or another company, I cannot wait for what the future holds! It was a pleasure interviewing you today Alex, best of luck in your future endeavors! --- ## Comfort in Ambiguity: A Lesson by Waseem Shabout URL: https://futuresharks.com/waseem-shabout/ Waseem is a 20 year old user experience designer and student entrepreneur from Dallas Texas currently attending Babson College. He is the co-founder of Jinn Tech, a modern software development firm helping founders everywhere grow their business. He previously was a business development and user experience intern at Modo Payments, where he learned much of what has helped him grow Jinn to what it is today. **City where you’re from:** Dallas Texas **Hobbies: Soccer, Travel, Coffee, Wandering** **Favorite quote:** “There is always another way” -Neal Caffrey **Twitter**: @Wshabout ## ## Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I never decided to become an entrepreneur. I did however decide that I would never allow myself to enter a 9-5 work life where the weekends were my salvation. With that said, I’ve worked as a burger flipper at Wayback Burgers and loved it, I’ve worked as a referee for a few years and enjoyed every minute of it, done a million weird side jobs, and interned at one of the coolest and fastest growing fintech startups (modo) and loved every single second of that. I guess where I’m trying to go with this is I never really knew what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I’d pick up jobs and go down different paths not because I knew where it would lead me but because the work itself interested me. Now somehow after a couple years of doing that I’m one of the co-founders of a successful software firm out of Boston Massachusetts. However getting to this point was not at all a clear cut path, I am where I am because of the million failures behind me and the understanding that there are still more to come. So in short, I never decided to become an entrepreneur I kinda just stumbled my way into it. ## Who were the biggest influencers on your life? The biggest influencers on my life I would have to say are my parents and great uncle. From the day I was born my parents provided me with structure and guidance but more importantly with the freedom to explore. As a kid I would go down these different paths of interest and become 100% invested in what I was doing. One month it would be soccer, one month it would be playing with electronics, the next month it would be building bicycles, the month after would be arrow fletching and the list goes on and on. But throughout every new interest my parents didn’t ever shut me down or tell me to focus on something else. They would support me throughout my weird interests. Though they wouldn’t necessarily give me cash to try things out they would encourage me to use what I had to make what I wanted. I remember this one time I decided I really wanted to go fishing… but I had no fishing pole or bait or anything like that. My parents weren’t going to buy me a fishing rod but they said I can use things in the house to create my own. So I took some tupperware, rope and duct tape and made the most ghetto fishing apparatus the world has ever known. Or another time I became really really interested in archery but there was no way my parents were going to buy me a bow and arrow. But my dad was growing a palm tree in the back and he said that the branches of the tree would be just as stringy as a real bow. So I got into bow making and arrow fletching and not once did my parents tell me that I should stop or do something else. Being allowed to have this kind of childhood I truly think is the biggest influence on my way of looking at the world. But the day that my eyes were truly opened to the world of business is when I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with my late grandfather’s brother and successful entrepreneur Amou Amir. This man opened my eyes to the potential of what curiosity, financial literacy and passion together can allow for you to do in the world. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Im one of the partners and co-founders at Jinn LLC. Jinn is a full service software development firm working day in and day out to ensure entrepreneurs everywhere have the technical resources they need to grow their business. Whether that be a technical founder who needs our help to increase his/her development capacity, or a non technical founder who just can’t seem to find a development team to build out his/her vision. We operate as a consultants and as an agency working literally 24/7 to deliver crazy projects on crazy timelines. Getting to this point was really not clear cut what so ever. My partners and I had tried and failed at starting multiple businesses in the past, from equity crowdfunding solar energy plants to automated bill splitting, to an international Jugaad based marketplace, we successfully failed over and over again. But throughout each of these failures we learned so much about ourselves, technology, operations and how we work together as a team. Then one day it hit us… with all of the things we have learned there are many other founders who probably would benefit from our knowledge – maybe even pay for our help! So we said “screw it,” registered a company under the name Gynus, LLC realized that name sounded really bad when you read it out loud so changed it to Jinn, LLC the next day and started marketing our services. After a few short months, we had clients coming from every direction and could no longer do the development in house. So we started reaching out to our friends and people we’ve worked with previously and offered them part time dev gigs to help us increase our bandwidth. We soon realized utilizing this model would essentially permit us to have unlimited growth potential. So we adopted it as our only way of operating business and now are always running a minimum of 4 projects simultaneously at any given time, have over 25 employees and contractors from 10 different states and cities and those numbers are only growing.   ### How is your product/service different and unique? The key to our growth and the reason we will continue to grow is our unique approach to the development process – we operate as technical consultants and as an agency. This allows for us to be very involved in the design stages of the project, but then allows for us to not take on the heavy development and instead use that time to build deeper relationships with our clients and spend more time managing the human aspect of technology. This slight difference in operating model permits us to literally scale as quickly as our clients need us to while still allowing us to deliver high quality products on crazyquick timelines. ### What has been your favorite moment with it? My favorite moment so far can’t be pinned down to just a single instance. It is the overall rush of never really knowing what is going to come next or what kind of project I’ll have to dedicate my time to. It is the lack of routine but ability to quickly learn and adapt that I find to be what really makes everything so enjoyable. For example we had a client call us on the hotline at 1 am with something he needed by end of week, and what we thought was going to be an early night turned into an all nighter. I love the ability to operate like that. Oh, and the day we realized we have enough cash on hand to live in a Mansion for the next year was pretty cool too… now our home office will literally be located on 8 acres of land. But that is a story for another date. ### ### What’s the vision? Our vision is to dramatically change the way that the technology development industry operates. We are honestly fed up with the fact that when startups go out and begin to seek development services, the firm either over charges or under delivers… or sometimes both. As an entrepreneur you shouldn’t have to pay a premium because your firm decided to go out and purchase a new 15 inch macbook for each of their employees. We want to enable every entrepreneur and every business with a technical need to get their product built on their timeline. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Of course! But we failed successfully… meaning that failure after failure after failure never demotivated myself or any of the partners. It just taught us insanely valuable lessons that we now utilize when speaking with our clients about what path they should take. The reasons we are where we are today is 100% because of our ability to fail quick and learn fast. All in all we learned that failure is your friend, and if you can begin to quickly realize when you’ve failed and what lead you to that failure, that ability is invaluable. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Never be scared of ambiguity. Not knowing what is going to come next, or having a clear cut path isn’t something you should ever fear. Finding comfort in a state of not knowing is something as someone who is running their own company, you really have to be okay with. “Moving forward” even though you might not necessarily know where “forward” is vital to the success of any business. ### What are some of your favorite books? - The best interface is no interface – Golden Krishna - 48 laws of power – Robert Greene - Richest man in babylon – George Samuel Clason - The new paradigm for financial markets – George Soros - Brave New World – Aldous Huxley ### Where do you see yourself and your service in a couple years? I see Jinn having offices around the country, deploying products on the daily and helping to move society forward through enabling entrepreneurs everywhere. As for myself, I’m not sure but I don’t see myself ever settling. --- ## She Grew up With Nothing in Peru – Now She is Using Social Media to Rethink American High Schools URL: https://futuresharks.com/silvia-li/ Silvia Li’s experience ranges from building the largest publication on Medium to creating a viral marketing campaign that reached millions of Latinx entrepreneurs. Silvia believes in tech for social impact, leading her to launch a fundraiser for landslide victims in her hometown Peru. She is now at the XQ Institute, a national nonprofit committed to building a community-led movement to rethink high schools. **City where you’re from:** Lima, Peru **Hobbies:**Hiking, writing, cooking, eating, photography. **Favorite quote:**“You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -Mahatma Gandhi” **Twitter**: @lisamsilvia ### Why are you interested in the intersection of education and storytelling? With no knowledge of the culture and language, my parents saved money and emigrated to Peru with few belongings and the desire to have a brighter future. Growing up, I always felt like an outsider. At home, I had to be Chinese and at school, I had to be Peruvian. Because of that, high school was tough, though I was still getting good grades. I moved to Los Angeles to attend USC, and I was working in a nonprofit that taught design thinking and Lean Startup to underserved communities. Here, I realized that the American education system shared similarities to the Peruvian one. A lot of immigrant students shared a similar story to mine, and I thought to myself, “I wish I could’ve shared my problems when I was younger. I wish I had a platform to do so.” Education is so important to me because it is the foundation of the future. Today’s ideas and voices from students will shift how each of us learn and behave. With my skills, I want to amplify the voices of unheard heroes in education because their stories matter. ## Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My mom. Three years ago, my mom got diagnosed with breast cancer. Can you imagine how hard that is? I couldn’t and still can’t. But this woman has sacrificed every single thing in her life for my happiness. She’s resilient, loving, and caring. I wish I was at least 10% of who she is. The world would be a better place if we all could be more like her. ### Now ### Where are you working at? I am working as the Social Media Specialist at a national nonprofit called the XQ Institute. We are a national nonprofit committed to building a community-led, bottom up approach and movement to rethink high schools, create new learning opportunities for young people and open up the possibilities of the wider world. We began in September 2015 with an open call to America to come together to build student-centered school models that reflect the needs and experiences of the students they will serve. In the past 100 years, we’ve gone from the Model T to the Tesla; from the typewriter to the touch screen; from the switchboard to the smartphone. Yet high school—the very institution charged with preparing America’s students for future success in college, careers, and life—has remained unchanged and fallen behind. There is a crucial link between our schools and success in America, and the extent to which we as a country are failing to prepare our students for today’s world limits our ability to grow as a country and as a society. Our kids need us. From its beginning, XQ has aimed to harness the ingenuity and creativity of America to rethink and create new approaches to high school that provide every student with the tools and opportunity to succeed in today’s world. Through XQ: The Super School Project, communities have been empowered to show what can be and create a movement for individuals across the country to get behind. In September 2016, 10 Super Schools were selected. ## Who is behind XQ? The Institute’s board of directors is chaired by Laurene Powell Jobs, President of Emerson Collective. The CEO is Russlynn Ali, former Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education and is Managing Director of Education for Emerson Collective. ### What was your biggest growth hacking achievement? I’ve growth hacked publications on Medium. Most of the publications I’ve grown are on the top 10 list. Medium has been a great asset to build a network of writers including NYT best selling authors and top founders and venture capitalists. It helped us reached millions of people for $0, while re-directing traffic back to the original website. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. “People remember stories and emotions, not facts and data.” The next time you’re pitching something to an audience or trying to communicate with users, share the story of why you started this journey. Otherwise, you won’t be able to convince anyone anything. ### Teach us something about education and social media. All the marketing buzzwords we use in business like ‘virality’ and ‘growth hacking’ can also be applied in a complex topic like education. Because of social media and these strategies, important movements and entire communities have grown. People complain about social media because it has taken over their lives. But maybe this is a self-control issue. What about the bright side of social media? I’ve seen students working on similar projects connecting via Twitter and Facebook. Students who are now working together on a national nonprofit to elevate student voices. Isn’t that amazing? I find writing and marketing to be powerful tools to show people’s voices. We have far too much hate and negativity. Hashtags or even marketing don’t change lives. Community and social media do. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) At my current job, I’ve been traveling throughout the Midwest learning about how people are thinking about education. We want to engage with them and get to know them deeply because they are the movement to rethink high schools. After many conversations, I’ve encountered folks that opened up and start asking questions that they might not have even ask themselves. At the same time, I’ve also met people in the community that I can’t connect in a deep level. The pattern I’ve noticed? Truly giving people your presence. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. This works in marketing and social because your users don’t want to just buy another thing, they want someone that can listen to their needs and help them solve them. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I started a positivity routine recently where I start dancing for 4 minutes after I wake up. Then, I do my ‘YES’ power pose. I get to choose how I feel every morning, and I want to make sure I do it right. ### What should a social media marketer focus on? When you think about your strategy and goals, focus on what your audience really wants. Besides looking at data, I’ve learned that spending time getting to know your users really matters. It might sound cliche, but listening to their needs really makes a difference on results. They start noticing that you actually care about them and will start opening up about their problems. Honesty, vulnerability, and feedback are 3 things you need to start creating powerful content. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. At the age of thirteen, I started taking care of my sister, who is six years younger. We were poor at the time and since my parents were so busy with multiple jobs, I became a “third parent” for her; I cooked her meals, did laundry, and made sure that she had everything she needed. Simultaneously, I was going to school and also working part-time. We didn’t have much. Unlike many of the kids, I had to grow up fast and be an adult. I was very overwhelmed at the time and I couldn’t complain about it. When I think about our family bonding time, I remember very few but I smile every time I recall these memories. Those were some of the happiest days of my childhood. When I first moved from Peru to California to go to college, I was almost 17. It hit me very hard to be faraway. I was very excited at first, but I got homesick quite fast. I used to hate writing because I was not a native writer. But a good friend encouraged me to write as a way to get my thoughts out there. Surprisingly, my writing went viral. Thousands of people in the world read my stories and shared them. It happened for almost every single post. I told myself, “I have talent for this.” I started freelancing for nonprofits and tech startups. I even built the largest startup publication on Medium. Through all these experiences, I learned to be more empathetic, which helped me become become a better listener, storyteller, and marketer. ### What is your favorite book? My favorite book is “The Sense of an Ending.” It has taught me so many valuable lessons that apply in life, business, and relationships. Every time someone causes us pain or vice versa, we should re-think why because we don’t know why the other person acted that way. This book narrates how our brains blind us from looking at situations holistically. Often times, we want to remember only the convenient memories, the ones that make us look like heroes. ## Where do you see yourself and your career in a couple years? As part of my commitment to re-think American high schools, I want to see our whole country to be involved in some way. Whether it’s through engaging in a conversation with someone different, or whether they are creating a new school, I see myself making education more accessible to every single person in this country. This movement will take time, but I am 200% devoted to make this happen. --- ## The Co-Creative Journey Featuring Sasha Boussina URL: https://futuresharks.com/sasha-boussina/ # Welcome to Future Sharks Sasha! ### Tell us a little about your upbringing: I am an entrepreneur in the digital and social world, dedicated to the life of building value and growing together. I was 17 years old when I founded my first social company, Marin Soccer Academy, a soccer organization that aimed at providing soccer coaching and camps to give back to the youth in the Marin County area. Now I am currently involved as the founder and CEO of Excelsis Labs, a digital agency that is focused in app development and digital value creation. The goal is to show the necessary need of applications and digital content for companies and personal branding.  City where I’m from: San Francisco, California Hobbies: I play Division 1 soccer, like to go to the beach, and like to explore new places Favorite quote: “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” Instagram: @sashaboussina ## ### Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? When I was 17 I saw that youth soccer from where I was from was missing the point of why we played soccer. It was fun. It was our passion and it was what we loved to do. However that concept was lost when parents and coaches started to not teach the love of the game to these kids so I saw that I could make a difference and help. I started Marin Soccer Academy and received great reception from our first summer operating as we had over 60 campers in just 3 weeks. From there it grew and this summer it will be our third year. After that I saw that by having a good heart and idea you can make anything happen. Thats where I say the co-creative journey comes in. In my ideas entrepreneurship is rarely a solo ride. It works best when you have the goal of having value created for both sides and when you truly follow that vision. I began to understand that the core values of anything I was working on would have to fall under this co-creative idea.   ### Who are your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My biggest influences have been the people I surround myself with. This can be cliche but I owe the success of anything in the future to the team that works on it with me. I said above how it isn’t a solo journey but a collective one and I find that is true. The team works so hard to achieve anything they put their mind to and that is how I would want my “legacy” to be. I want it to show that we rose together. I mean this fully as well. This isn’t for myself or for my parents or to prove something to someone. My idea of entrepreneurship is for everyone to bring up everyone and to provide opportunity for everyone. I know I didn’t answer the question that great but my biggest influences in my life are the people who I surround myself with. From my core team of Esen, Ryan, and Matt to my soccer team to my girlfriend Alana to even my family. I do it for them and they do it for me. They are the driving force and the biggest influences in my life. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I am currently working on a digital tech agency called Excelsis Labs that prides itself in its ability to work quickly while also having the highest quality of work. At Excelsis we are focused on providing our unique process on digital content and value creation in any environment. We break it down into three stages: Design, Development, and Data (Launch). We start our sprint method by identifying design and functionality in the app during our product design sprint. Coupled with that is our lightning fast development so you can have a working product in weeks. We provide routine 48 hour check ins during each development sprint as well so at the end both sides are ecstatic with the final product. We break up the whole project into sprints based on functions and after each sprint the customer will be able to have a fully working product of what functions were developed in that week. After we provide services for in depth data analytics to help make more informed decisions for the company. We guarantee all of our apps to be completed in under 60 days as well as our website design in under 1 month. A very trusted friend of mine and partner Dominic Whyte is my CTO and him and I realized that there is a huge issue in the digital tech agency industry with lack of transparency and people providing services and not living up to what they say they will deliver. We put together a team of driven people from Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Harvard, and BU to work on these projects and thus Excelsis Labs was born. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? My customers are anyone with an idea or a need. We are working with investment companies, A list celebrities, non-profits, and others. We also do value creation so we have weekly meetings to think tank ideas that we then pitch to companies to show how they can implement these ideas into their company. We have a group of interns currently working on client acquisition and its going outstanding and I couldn’t be more proud of them. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I have experienced failure along the way. Recently we did a pitch for a non-profit and both sides were super excited about it but we couldn’t come to a conclusion and so the deal fell through but our team learned so much from it. We learned about what it means to be hungry for more as after that meeting we were sitting down in the living room of my apartment and one of the team members said, “now what?” There was some silence before everyone pulled out their notebooks and laptops and began cranking on new projects. We didn’t sleep until 5am that night. That’s why my team is special and are apart of this co-creative journey. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Don’t quit. Simple. You hear this all the time from your parents and people you have in your life, but chances are if you are reading this we may have never met before and honestly I don’t mean much to you yet. But hear it from me. Don’t quit. You cannot. You will not. It will ache and tear at your soul and heart when you fail and things don’t go your way but you will prevail and if you believe in your idea you will make it happen. With my soccer camp I had no idea what to do and how to market. I decided to do something about it. I spent hours and hours collecting business cards from parents and once I had around 500 I put them into an excel spreadsheet and emailed them. You cannot quit because it isn’t easy. It will be insanely hard and you will want to quit but don’t. Eventually you will reach the point where you are addicted to making things work when you thought they were impossible before. Once you hit that point then you will never want to quit again. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Hubspot’s inbound certification is huge for marketing. It takes about 7 hours but it is so worth it. Other than that it is trial and error. Figure out what works for you as people can give advice but it doesn’t mean it will work necessary for you. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Striving for success for everyone. Don’t be selfish and fall into the entrepreneurial pitfall of not being able to take a step back and see the best path to continue through. Listen to everyone. It doesn’t mean you have to do what they say but it gives you another look on what you are doing. ### What are some of your favorite books? The Gunslinger, Outliers, The Tipping Point ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Changing the world around me and providing for my family. --- ## Emang Rabogadi (19) Motivates Millennials Through Social Media URL: https://futuresharks.com/emang-rabogadi/ Emang Rabogadi is the founder of Stars revealed, which is a program that hopes to empower and engage young people into acting on their goals. She also motivates young people on social media platforms and a small business owner. **City where you’re from:** Gaborone, Botswana **Hobbies:** Reading, politics, debate, swimming and singing **Favorite quote:** It is better to try and fail, than to fail to try. ## Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I have always had the urge to become an agent of change. Contributing with whatever I have has been a part of my growing up, mainly because of my mother. When I first came to Australia, I owned a shoe business to supply to Botswana and around Australia. The business was essentially for pocket money to support my parents, as they support me with my living expenses. After that, curiosity led me into network marketing and other small businesses haha. ## Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My biggest influence has always been my mother. She is a problem solver, and her positive mindset allows her to view things from a positive perspective when she faces challenges. My dad is also a hardworking person and generally have a very supportive family. The defining moment was getting the opportunity to come and study in Australia, since it was always a goal. It allowed me to broaden my mindset and to explore my abilities through volunteerism. ## What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I am working on a ‘community organisation’ that will be based on the internet..Haha. The first step was to create a blog, the blog features entrepreneurs, fashion lovers, athletes and artists around Botswana. This is to create a networking platform for young people, and to also promote local services and products to the globe. ## How is your product/service different and unique? I believe it is different as it will be based on the internet to allow more people to be reached. My long term goal is to have a TV show/Youtube channel that will discuss issues that we have as a country, and to create a platform for young people from all over Africa to come together and become problem solver with the information I will gain from the youth. This is to look at problems in the continent, as well as to show the young people that they can still make it by sharing inspirational stories. ## What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? My favorite moment has been to see the support I got from the community. Also, the fact that taking the first step allowed me to come up with other ideas to help it grow like having documentaries of Africans who moved from other countries around the continent to Botswana, in order to exchange culture and to learn more about other countries so as to improve the connections for future leaders. My vision is to see a connected Africa, I believe the power is in the young people. I believe social media platforms have the power to engage and network young africans with a voice to better the continent. I also hope to work with people from all over the World to promote young people, and invest into the  knowledge and upbringing of our younger generations. I grew up in Botswana, so i can relate more to the problems they face and hope to be an agent of change with the knowledge and skills i get from studying in a first world country, like Australia with vast amount of opportunities and also through travelling all around the world to meet up with empowered and motivated young people who will help me grow. I hope to gain enough knowledge to discuss with our leaders back in Botswana, in order to have policies that are essential for development. ## If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? I rarely use facebook ads, however when I do I like to focus on location and age group. Since my whole idea is based on the youth. I target people who have an age ranging from 15-34years. I also use instagram and facebook to market my idea by being consistent and engaging the youth through topics of debate that could possibly lead me to wanting to find solutions. This helps me get an idea of what young people take interest in, as well as explore other platforms like twitter and Youtube. Instagram is good as you can get people engaged through hashtags and good quality pictures. Being consistent in your posts also helps people to take interest in what you are doing. ## Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Yes, failure is part of it all. Failure helps me grow. I like to look at my mistakes and find possible ways of how i can improve and become better at what I do. It also taught me to plan ahead of time, and to take more risks believing it will all work out in the end. ## Value-add questions Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Believe in your ability to achieve your dreams. Taking the first step enables you to learn more about your strengths and weaknesses. Find your purpose and live to serve it. ## What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I have a diary where I write everything down. This diary helps me to plan my days ahead and have a schedule of tasks I have to complete on a daily basis. This helps me to stay focused and prioritise. It also enables me to see where I went wrong, and how i can go about solving the problem. ## What should an entrepreneur focus on? The main goal. Understanding the purpose of your goal helps one to keep pushing no matter how difficult the path gets. Being optimistic and motivated throughout the pathway of achieving your goals helps you to not give up when you face challenges along the way. ## Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. I had to first identify my purpose. I then started volunteering and becoming part of many community activities. I volunteered as a student mentor at college, to help during orientation and was later chosen to be a student representative at the student liaison board as a student Ambassador. This helped to improve my confidence, my leadership skills, working well in a team and to meet people from all over the world. I then became more passionate and worked with organisations that help minority groups across Australia, and also groups that aim to motivate the young people through conferences and networking seminars. I was honoured to travel to Macedonia last year at a Networking forum, that brought together young people from all over the world mostly from Europe. We discussed social and economic issues. Networking led me to being chosen to represent international student at the Queensland parliament, where the topics were unemployment and problems faced by young people in Australia, particularly QLD and how we can solve them as young people. I have also worked with aboriginal children in organisations that help build broken homes by providing them with psychological help as well as activities on a monthly that bring them joy and happiness e.g park games, beach visit and many more. ## What are some of your favorite books? The Success principles by Jack canfield, Nelson Mandela and Kevin Trudeau. I like reading biographies. ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I hope to become a member of parliament back in Botswana, an activist for human rights and a medical researcher. Stars revealed will hopefully grow into an organisation that will feature young people from all over the World, to create a bigger network as we celebrate the success of the youth. Thanks for the opportunity! --- ## Meet The Founders of Sinolife Media Consulting! – Future Sharks URL: https://futuresharks.com/jonathan-walters-marquitta-blair/ #### Meet the Co Founders of Sinolife Media and Consulting! Here is a little snippet about them: Co Founder, Jonathan “Fenni” Walters grew up in Southwest Atlanta. Attended Tri-Cities High School Of the Performing Arts. He states, “Hip-Hop is my first love because it speaks about my lifestyle and represents who I am and what I’m about.” He has a passion for new ideas, developing branding packages and working in a team atmosphere. Fenni started Sinolife Media and Consulting, dba Sinolife, LLC in 2009, doing artist management, and after having much success in this arena, he opted to branch of taking on small business clients, as well. Networking and consulting his clients is what his day to day consist of. Always educating himself and staying on top of current social media trends, Fenni is. very resourceful and aggressive. Proficient in CMSand Metedata with a background in Content Management Experienced and seasoned in several areas of the consulting industry. Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, SC, NC,NY, and various international cities. Co Founder, Marquitta “Mahogany Stylez” Blair grew up in New York, attended college at SUNY Purchase New York, studying communication. She move to Atlanta, Georgia in 2009 in pursuit of growing and building her own brand. Having direct marketing experience in both the corporate world, and entertainment field, Mahogany quickly grew a natural passion for business development and entrepreneurial education. She started Blair Girls, LLC. in 2014 and was quickly brought on as Co Founder of Sinolife, LLC. to bring her corporate background to evolve the small business side to the consulting entity. In her day to day, she actively works to grow her clients’ brands and business dreams. She enjoys music, fashion, and lifestyle curation. ### City where you’re from: Marquitta: I’m from Nanuet, New York, a small suburb outside of NYC Jonathan: Between Atlanta, GA & Seattle, WA throughout the years here and there. ### Hobbies: M: I enjoy art and fashion. I’m a lifestyle observer. J: Music, gaming, and anything food related. ### Favorite quotes: M: Cliche, but “Carpe Diem,” the phrase just embodies the idea of taking action J: “Failure is apart of Success” I try to think failure is just part of the process. This phrase keeps me going when I drop the ball on a project. ### Twitter: M: https://www.twitter.com/mahogany_stylez J: https://www.twitter.com/fennicasino #### ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneurs? M: Like so many other entrepreneurs, I have always wanted a sense of freedom, the ability to create and inspire, yet on my own terms. J: I dont remember why? But I remember when. I was around 10 when I washed my first car. So yea 10.  I think it was the money at the time, now its a bit more complicated.  I guess it becomes a lifestyle, and before you know it you’re an entrepreneur. At some point you become passionate about making something, from nothing and watching it grow. From there hope you inspire other to do the same. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your lives? M: Women like Oprah Winfrey, and Eve, who have done an unprecedented job in merging the Entertainment and Business J: My Dad was is biggest influence. He really just gave me good examples of leadership and business. My Grandfather also influenced me in certain areas. I’m also fan of Sean Comb, Troy Carter Clive Davis, Quincy Jones, and Mark Zuckerberg. A defining moment in my life was when I started to understand my purpose. Around the sametime I made my first bad investment early 2009. ### Now ### What are you both working on? How did you come up with these ideas? M: We are presently evolving and expanding our boutique Brand Management and Consulting Firm, Sinolife Media and Consulting. Currently we are transitioning from a referral only business to now actually marketing our company’s services. J: We needed to open up our network and still keep it exclusive. It has been a tough past few months transitioning and coming up with a game plan.   ### How are your products/services different and unique? What’s the vision? M: I believe what truly makes our service unique is that myself and my partner are a dynamic duo, and our customers essentially get the dynamic duo that is us, as a part of their customer experience. Our backgrounds and professional experiences balance one another so well that it only yields for a great result! Nowhere else, at no other Brand Management/Consulting Firm will our clients get the opportunity to gage my business partner and I and our approach to the consulting business. J: Referral only wasn’t easy getting traction. But that model created strong relationships with premium creators and businesses. During our artist consulting services you are mentored, educated and coached in your field of expertise. Atlanta is a growing market, businesses need competitive branding and marketing and we provide them both. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? M: Our customers are visionaries. They are those with a desire to succeed in the world as an entrepreneur. They are creators and business architects. They are those with passion who just need the right guidance to get them on a path success or advance them to the next level. J: Customers come by way of our website or social media. Networking. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? M: Yes! With any business, there are learning curves, and sometimes failure is a part of that. I learned to accept it and immediately think of a way to overcome or push forward and then implement that. J: Failure came in many forms. Still does. I learned you have to position yourself in place where you don’t fail twice at the same thing, but instead fail at different things that are New, ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. M: The best entrepreneurship advice that I have is to not let fear hold you back. You have to be willing to take risks, step out on what seem like crazy possibilities, and run with it. Once you do that, commit, and the rest will fall into place, if you work hard. J: Advice is know what you want. Plan where you want to be. And write down everything. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? M: I would say the importance of targeted marketing is extremely important. Knowing who your target audience is, how to find them, how to have a strong strategy for how to gage them and how to convert that into sales. J: Be confident and direct while on social media. Use the tools each social media platform has. Take a few minutes to understand the difference between the type of platform you are marketing on and what message you want to display. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? M: Focus on building your network and building strong customer relationships and solid customer experiences J: Strong Business Planning, Quality and Family Time. ### What are some of your favorite books? M: Catcher and the Rye, not the A Typical Entrepreneur inspired greatness that we have available to us J: Bible, [48 Laws](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140280197), Rich Dad Poor Dad, John L Maxwell Books, “This is The Music Business” ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? M: I envision Sinolife being the pioneer entity in our field, striving to be leaders in bridging the gap between business and creativity. I envision us working on larger projects and campaigns, and doing more International work. I envision us continuing to diversify our portfolio and our network of clients. J: Continuing our international expansion. As well as working with more colleges and educators. --- ## It Takes A World Influencer To Find Other World Influencers – Future Sharks URL: https://futuresharks.com/luke-faulconer/ # Welcome to Future Sharks Luke, thank you for joining us today! Tell us a little about yourself: Luke Faulconer is a 22 year-old entrepreneur from Kansas City. He is the CMO for a company called My Cape, Inc., founder of a nonprofit organization called Troolu, and is working on a few other ventures including a digital media company and pursuing his passion for real estate investing. City where you’re from: Kansas City Hobbies: traveling, running, tennis, reading and socializing with like-minded individuals. Favorite quote: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I first learned what entrepreneurship really meant through reading. I never knew what career I wanted to pursue, but realized how many ideas I was always creating throughout high school with friends and dreaming of these ideas felt so good. I’m very passionate about growing purpose-driven businesses and have found that entrepreneurship is the only path that will help me achieve my goals of financial freedom, creating tangible change in the world and finding true happiness in life. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My biggest influences have been my parents. They have always supported me along this amazing, yet extremely challenging path and it would be difficult to maintain the motivation and vision I have without their support. I wouldn’t say there has been a defining moment in my life because I truly have always been entrepreneurial and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Right now I’m working on a few different things which is a lot to manage, but is allowing me to find what my true interests and skill sets are. I recently joined an amazing company called Capewhere I am the CMO. Cape connects standby passengers to unsold seats from airlines. Right now, 20% of all the seats on their flights never get sold. After exhausting all their other sales channels, airlines turn unsold seats over to us a few days before departure. We make those seats available to our users who are ready and willing to fly standby at a moment’s notice. I discovered Cape in an article and really loved the idea and innovation behind it. Between my interest for startups and traveling, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join this team filled of entrepreneurs all working on amazing things. I am also the founder of a nonprofit organization called Troolu. Troolu is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that empowers and recognizes young people that can change the world. We do so through scholarship and grant programs, encouraging our youth to tackle social issues and create effective solutions. I came up with this idea because of my love for entrepreneurship and innovation and believe everybody should have an opportunity to use their creativity to respond to social issues and contribute to building a better world everyday. Along with these two things, I’m also working on an early-stage digital media company with some amazing minds and I’m beginning to pursue my passion for real estate investing. Real estate is something I’ve always been interested in and have read dozens and dozens of books about. I hope to start my investing career this summer with a great friend of mine and work our way up to apartment complexes and commercial developments.   ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Entrepreneurship is definitely not for everyone. Many people like the idea for entrepreneurship because they believe it’s an easy way to become successful. If you decide you want to start a business you need to put in the work, out-work others, out-think others, and realize there are no shortcuts. Entrepreneurship is a marathon and there will be many bumps in the road. If you learn from these bumps and stick to your vision, you will be successful in so many ways. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? From my experience in marketing, I’ve found the importance of creating content that is engaging and valuable to your target market. Companies often want to be too straight to the point and salesy, but with the emergence of social media, we’re really seeing how important it is to first build relationships and a community and then sell. If you do it the other way around, it’ll be very difficult to build a solid brand, especially with millennials and Generation Z. If you can draw people in by creating content they actually align with rather than offering no value to the consumer, you will eventually create a following and generate sales. Some of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs that I’ve learned so much from are Influenciveand Prsuit. I’m old-school and prefer books over most online publications, but these two sites along with some others produce some really valuable content. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? I think an entrepreneur should focus on creating a solid vision and creating sales. I’ve had the tendency in the past to just sit and think too much and develop analysis paralysis, while I could have been applying myself. When it comes down to it, sales are the most important thing in any business, so no amount of time spent on this is wasted time. You can also learn a lot from the process of selling such as proof of concept and learning about your market. ### What are some of your favorite books? How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. This book is a must read for anyone, especially entrepreneurs. It dives deep in psychology and will help anyone develop people skills and selling skills. [Rich Dad Poor Dad](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612680194) by Robert Kiyosaki. This was the first business book I ever read so it holds a lot of value to me. The E Mythby Michael Gerber. Another one of my first business books, this was the catalyst for my entrepreneurial path. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? This has always been a tough question for me because I’ve found the harder you work, the luckier you get and that more opportunities come your way. Ideally, I’d like to see Cape grow into something huge in a couple years, which I have great confidence in. I’d like to have a couple businesses of my own that are more passive and that can provide good jobs for others. And I’d like to have a couple investment properties under my belt, leveraging these into more and more investments. I hope to be able to work remotely and travel the world, discovering and learning from other people and new cultures. I’m really excited for the next couple years and hope to continue growing as a person and as a businessman. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? I’ll stick to Cape for this question! We are the first-to-market in this category and our partnerships with the airlines are exclusive. We believe that our ability to execute and knowledge of the industry is our primary competitive advantage. The vision for Cape is to enable people that may have not been able to beforehand, to fly and travel, giving them access to adventure and learning opportunities, while seeing new perspectives. Life’s too short to stay in the same place all the time. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? Our customers are last-minute travelers who would otherwise not travel at all. We are focused on adventure-seeking and free-spirited people who have a passion and desire to travel. We find these people through social media, forums, events and groups. We are building a community comprised with people that fit this description. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I have definitely experienced some failures along the way. From realizing some of my ideas were not worth pursuing to simply not having the means and resources to continue a project, there have been setbacks. I know it’s cliche, but these failures truly do make you a stronger person and there is no better way to learn. I am light years ahead of where I was even 6 months ago in terms of business knowledge and people skills. Experience is what allowed me to learn and know what not to do again. Entrepreneurship is really just problem solving and if you can solve difficult problems, you’ll find yourself in a much better position again and again. --- ## From Humanitarian Work to Personal Safety with Hannah Milward URL: https://futuresharks.com/hannah-milward/ Hannah Milward is a Nurse from New Zealand who recently co- created a Personal Safety tool helping to serve workers at risk, and vulnerable people within the wider community around the world. **Inspired from personal experiences of dangerous working environments and violent relationships, Hannah is highly motivated to help a diverse range of people with many different safety needs. From women who have just left dangerous partners, to realtors, health care workers, first ‘daters’, solo travellers and kids walking home from school. The risks are real and faced by many. City where you’re from:** **Wellington New Zealand Hobbies:******Hiking, cycling, climbing, yoga, martial arts, travel, adventure,  tattoos, cooking, art, reading, writing, live music, comedy.. And the list goes on.. **I just wish I had time for each and every one 😉** **Favorite quote:******“Always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that’s the one that is going to require the most from you. “**** **Twitter**: twitter.com/VerisafeHelpApp ## Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I saw a need, a problem that needed a solution and an opportunity to create. **Deep down I think I always knew that I did not fit into a traditional workplace.. Being a creator, rather than an employee offers endless and limitless freedom (with hard work, focus, resilience and an ability to meet challenges with a positive mindset). I have big goals as far as serving others and I needed a way to do so sustainably without financial or location related restrictions. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My Influences have been pretty diverse. My family (for generations they have owned their own businesses). My teammates while working overseas in developing countries (who are the most selfless and amazing humans I know) And some of my favorite authors and teachers. (Like Jo Dispenza and Esther Hicks). There have been a few defining moments in my life (so far). I lived and worked as a nurse in Cambodia. On a few occasions things were scary.. But one in particular event was life changing. A team mate was in a very bad accident in the middle of the jungle. If we were not behind him, and if it were not for mobile phones. He would have almost certainly bled out on the middle of the night in the jungle. If he had set “At Risk” (one of our features) to be active during the journey and had been solo, he would have been able to be located upon escalation, even without the ability to reach his phone Escaping a highly volatile relationship, yet still living in fear of being ‘tracked down’ for two years has been a motivating factor behind some of the Verisafe features. It makes me feel sick when I think of all the people out there living in fear. Even after leaving a violent situation, there are still huge risks. Many, (women in particular) are too scared to leave their homes because a perpetrator still lives in the neighborhood. Verisafe’s “at risk” can add a layer of confidence to these people’s lives. ## How is Verisafe different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Many safety apps and systems require an *action* to activate. Setting up groups before leaving a bar and *hoping* that friends would be sober enough to respond in a worst case scenario, or apps only working when you shake, take a different route home or press a button (if a pop up add does not get in your way). Some ‘safety’ systems even encourage users to fumble around and take a picture of an offender (great way to turn an assault into a murder).. It seems like many software designers have never actually been victims or faced personal safety risks.. Verisafe gives users a “Help” button an “At Risk” button and the ability to schedule and receive safety check text messages. A help request generates an alert via phone call, text and email to a user’s contact people. They can then immediately see where that person is located on a map. But it’s not always wise or possible to make a call for help or press a button. We needed to create a tool that would still deliver an escalation alert after activating a ‘Risk Status’ even if a phone was broken, out of battery, or stolen. (All Verisafe alerts are sent from a secure server). We needed a tool that would discreetly track users without needing to get their phones out around volatile people. (After setting ‘At Risk’ for a chosen period of time, GPS data is picked up and logged onto the Verisafe server at ten min intervals). At any stage users can add notes which are sent and stored, alongside location details. We needed to be able to add multiple people to an emergency contact list, and to have these people validate their contact number/s and email addresses to ensure that alerts would be delivered correctly in times of need. We wanted to create a tool that we could use when travelling alone, one that would easily allow users to change mobile numbers while not affecting emergency contacts in any way. My favourite moments on the verisafe journey have been around supporting not for profit groups that hire volunteers that face daily risks. Being a semi-finalist for New Zealander of the Year Awards in the “Innovation” category was an amazing moment too. Every single day involves learning, and I love learning. So really. Every day has an element of joy! The vision is to one day create a trust where we can help fund community projects and support people in developing countries – especially those at risk and with marginalized people (or those disabilities) to gain education and skills for their own enterprises** ## How did you come up with this idea? This idea came about after thinking about situations that are common while working or travelling alone. When travelling, police will need more information about a missing person than just a phone number and last known location.**## What are the next steps? The next step with Verisafe is to add a ‘full profile’ feature, giving our users the ability to add ID, pictures, health conditions, next of kin, insurance and passport details and customize all emergency directives. All that information will to be able to be received by a  24/7 monitoring service that will respond if no one else can. ## If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? I use facebook ad’s occasionally, (at the moment) we will be ramping this up when we release our ‘safety vault’ and monitoring option. We do a great deal of direct email marketing, networking events, engaging with universities, community groups etc. I like to build mutually beneficial relationships with businesses that share our goals and values and who are looking to offer ‘personal safety’ as an opt in or as something that adds value to safety training/ first aid etc. I use social media (twitter, facebook, linkedin and instagram) daily to share content and create useful infographics every week or so using either Canva or Snappa. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I don’t know if I’d call it failure, but there are always ups and downs. It has been a steep learning curve moving from a hands on profession to the business world. There are people who simply ‘don’t care’ about the safety of their teams who work in risky environments and this can be a little disturbing. But at the end of the day, we want to work with people who do care. So it’s rejection, but a blessing in disguise.********Value-add questions** ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. I’ve found it useful to have a purpose much bigger than myself, I want to have the freedom to give back and serve the wider community. **I want to be able to give Verisafe to vulnerable people (and not for profit groups) who can’t afford a safety tool, also recycle and re- distribute old phones along the way. Long term I want to be able to volunteer in developing countries every year – team up with like minded people who want to teach people how to make online businesses from poor and remote communities. When times are tough, always seek a ‘better feeling thought’ and try to visualise exactly, and in great detail, how things will be when you achieve your goals. Surround yourself with positive inspiring people, books, video’s, vision boards, affirmations etc. Don’t be scared to cut negative people from your life, if they are dragging you down, or draining your energy. You might have outgrown them… Eat well, move lots, get good sleep and maintain your close relationships. Find your peak work times and make them work for you. Everyone is different some like the 5am ‘get up and go’, others prefer to smash out their work at 10pm. Tune in and take note of when you are in the ‘zone’. Be stubborn in your vision and desire. Believe it and you WILL get there. Desire + Strong Belief = eventual manifestation of the outcomes you dream of! ## Teach us something about social media. Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? I have found it incredible, how many people and businesses engage on social media when I post about ‘life’ just general day to day realities I’m facing. Showing our human side has become a really important part of Verisafe. It feels like people  out there these days are far more willing to trust a human, rather than a logo.    businessinsider.com.au Appsumo https://www.ziglar.com/blog/ LinkedIn and Linkedin Today https://steveblank.com/tools-and-blogs-for-entrepreneurs/ Quora – ask any kind of question! It’s a great tool! Blog.penelopetrunk.com ## While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) It takes on average 72 hours** to find a missing person. If found at all. **It is estimated that some 8 million children**go missing **around the world each year******In the **United Kingdom**, *The Huffington Post* reported in 2012, over 140,000 children go missing each year. (WOW) that’s shocking. In 2015, there were 110,114 family violence investigations by NZ Police (That’s just NEW ZEALAND). ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? Good sleep habits. Daily Yoga, daily workout, *good* coffee, real food. Creative time, nature time and social time Finding my personal peak ‘work hours’ has been great. I find i work well early mornings and in the evenings. I batch tasks so that I don’t get too scattered. Everyday I look for things to appreciate and never have to look far. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Positive aspects.. Of EVERYTHING. We get what we focus on 😉 Have fun in what you are doing. Make it fun. Seek a thought that actually *feels* good every day. If it’s a decision between dwelling on a negative comment or using it to create something positive, pivot, change tact or think differently. Choose the positive. It’s simple advice but not preached enough! ## Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. Hardcore personal experiences 🙂 Idea and brainstorming phase Development of a web page and basic ‘app’ with HELP button and Safety Check sms features Set up all social media channels and gathered feedback Refinement of website and addition of “At Risk” feature Hustle hustle hustle First clients on board Made PDF guides Made videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC78suRH1_MMn_ElNXXWZMug Refined website Found another shareholder (amazing guy with great ideas) More hustling, more clients Further upgrades and additions to Verisafe app and website Hired aan wesome intern and now ready to take on the world 😉 ## What are some of your favorite books? You Are The Placebo The Divine Matrix The Spontaneous Healing of Belief The Way of the Peaceful Warrior Siddhartha The Alchemist ## Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I can see Verisafe being the safety tool of choice for many different sectors and will have re-sellers around the world. We will be making a huge positive impact on the community, serving vulnerable people and family violence survivors. Personally, I will be more heavily involved in the community side of the business and lining up groups that we can help in many ways. --- ## Gail Coppinger: Never Lose Your Hustle – Future Sharks URL: https://futuresharks.com/gail-coppinger/ # Welcome to Future Sharks Gail! Tell us a little about yourself: I came to Marin County in 1975 and since then I have worked as a line cook, sous chef, chef, carpenter & sidewall shingler. In 2002 I bought a little produce stand worked produce for a dozen years called “Shorty’s Golden Point Produce.” Now at the age when most people retire I’ve decided to build a distillery and make some booze. “Never lose your hustle.” City where you’re from: When I think of home it’s St Louis, Missouri even though we moved around a lot as kids. St. Louis was where I went to high school and where my parents lived until they passed away. I’ve lived in California since 1975 but Missouri is home. Hobbies: I’m a flea market junkie, I love to collect, mostly stuff from the 30’s and 40’s they really made things to last with beautiful design and color, I’ve always been drawn to that era of design. Favorite quote: Noel Coward once said “ A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with Gin and waving it in the general direction of Italy.” Twitter: not on Twitter ! (I know, maybe someday) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gail.coppinger ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I’ve always been one, I’ve owned 3 companies and I’ve worked for myself since I was in my early 30’s. I hate having a boss and I’m not a great employee, solution? Start something! ### Was there a defining moment in your life? I’ve always been influenced by women that blaze the trail, that are first in their field, when i was cooking in kitchens in the early 70’s there were no women in the restaurant kitchen, only guys. I met this chef named Annie Stoner she was probably 40 which seemed so old to me, I was 19, i got a job in her kitchen at a high end supper club in Wyoming and she taught me timing, and how to move on the line, and most importantly she taught me to kick ass in a man’s world by fitting in not with disruption. That moment, that time with Annie was when i knew i could do anything. ## Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? My business partner Scott Woodson and i are building a craft distillery in Santa Rosa, Ca . We’ve been working on it for about 4 years and we are almost in production, maybe 4 more months. It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? Our distillates, Botanical Gin, Vodka and Single Malt Whiskey will all be made with local grains and using all equipment made in the USA. We farm out in Point Reyes and the climate is very similar to the coast of Scotland, in other words, the grain we grow makes really really good whiskey. Our vision is to make the best product with the purest ingredients. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? Our customers are everywhere and from all demographics, anyone over the age of 21 who enjoys a cocktail after a hard day or a celebratory drink, that’s our customer. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? You can’t succeed if you don’t try and of course sometimes you fail and sometimes things get crazy and you think the train is going off the tracks but you must keep going and learn from failure. You’re guaranteed to not succeed if you don’t try, that’s what I’ve learned . ## Value-add questions Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Don’t be afraid, you will be able to pay the rent, just keep plugging away! Trust yourself . ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Not my area of expertise although I have learned about fundraising in the last 2 years and what i’ve learned is that if you believe in something with all your heart, people will believe in you and invest in your idea. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Write a good business plan, it will teach you so much about yourself and the business you want to start. If you’re having difficulty with getting started go online and research how to write one, there are sites that help you achieve this. Writing a plan will help you focus on what you want to achieve and the reality of achieving success with your idea. Don’t forget to have fun! It’s invigorating to start something new and to be your own boss! ### What are some of your favorite books? I read a lot. I loved “All the light we cannot see” by Anthony Doerr , “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates , “Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman” by Miriam Horn , “Kitchen Confidential “ by Anthony Bourdain , “The Ploughman” by Kim Zupan… I could go on and on… ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In a couple of years i see our products featured in many many bars, stores and restaurants in the Bay Area and beyond. Maybe even at AT&T park as a sponsor for Giants baseball. I do know one thin , we’re going to have a lot of fun with this! --- ## From Holding The Fort As Military Wife To CEO – Future Sharks URL: https://futuresharks.com/esther-inman/ # Welcome to Future Sharks Esther! Tell us a little about yourself: I have created eCourses, digital content and workshops for some of the biggest players in the digital marketing space under my agency Esther Marie Creative. As a military wife and Mom I had to work from any space, and now I offer a Virtual Assistant training program and community Virtual Assistant Internship.  City where you’re from: San Diego, CA but I am a digital nomad and we are currently in Portland, Maine. Hobbies: Reading, Masterpiece Theatre shows, museums, plays, music, yoga, wine, journaling, travel, being outside, good food and good people Favorite quote: “When preparation meets opportunity, success is inevitable” Twitter: www.twitter.com/esthermcreative Facebook: www.facebook.com/esthermariecreative Virtual Assistant Internship Facebook: www.facebook.com/virtualassistantinternship ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? As a new military wife and Mom, I had to find something extremely flexible and that could 100% be done remotely. These kinds of jobs are difficult to find unless you want to do customer service for $10/hr. So I entered the world of virtual assisting but then found I didn’t like helping another entrepreneur make their dreams come true so I started offering my own services and programs. ### Who were your biggest influences? I grew up with an entrepreneur Dad and a very encouraging Mom. They truly taught me from a young age that I could do ANYTHING I wanted to if I was willing to work hard enough. I also grew up seeing that you didn’t have to work a normal 9-5 job. My parents were always around and involved, we took trips whenever, etc. So I grew up with confidence I could do whatever I set my mind to AND was modeled a flexible and rich lifestyle by design. I also have to say I was mentored by Sean Roach who helped me craft my niche, offerings, messaging, gave me speaking and leadership opportunities and took me from 0-100 in a short amount of time. Very thankful for him. ### Was there a defining moment in your life? There’s too many to count. The amount of tragedies and intense shitty life events I’ve had to endure in the last few years would shock you. I will say though that the main 2 were: 1) When I just decided to up and quit my corporate job 4 years ago. My ex husband supported me 100% and we had no idea what was going to happen but we knew I was unhappy and THIS wasn’t it. That’s what began my Virtual Assistant ventures, led me to Sean Roach which taught me about group programs and moved me into my eCourse, digital content and workbook agency. And 2) Would be more recently when sadly my son and I had to very suddenly leave my husband. We’ve made the best of it and decided to be digital nomads but I had to get my business ass in gear. I had to get consistent clients vs. project based and get my automated funnels going FINALLY. When you don’t have your spouses income or another job as a safety net it PUSHES you like nothing else. My businesses have exploded ever since. ## Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Right now I am focusing on marketing my Virtual Assistant training program for military wives and Moms and getting the word out to military communities that legit work from anywhere EXISTS and it doesn’t involve selling crap to your friends and family. I was a military wife and stumbled upon the Virtual Assistant life. As I grew my eCourse and digital content creation agency, I needed VAs to refer to others and I wanted to hire fellow military wives to help me too. But NONE of them knew what the hell I was even talking about or didn’t have the skills. So I started mentoring some girls and then turned it into a program so I could help more than just a few women at a time. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? There are other virtual assistant or freelance training programs out there I am sure, but none of them understand more intimately then I do the military community’s need for this. I also built my entire program and community without spending a dime on Ads. Just word of mouth, Facebook Groups specific to my military wife community and marketing hacks I’ve learned from my agency clients. This speaks to the huge NEED for this program. I am incredibly passionate about this, simply because being able to work from anywhere and anytime is REAL and the military community has no idea. Everyone is targeting them to sell wraps, shakes and junk and not actually showing them how to make GOOD money by the hour or even on salary from home as a virtual assistant or other online gigs. I am actually a bit angry about it honestly. Our community and government isn’t sharing this lucrative opportunity and career path with our disabled veterans who can no longer work a traditional job. Or with the family’s that support active duty service men and women and have to move every 2 years, parent alone during frequent deployments and can’t sustain a traditional job. We have to do better to spread the word about these legit home based career opportunities and help connect our men and women with them. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? For both my VA training program and Esther Marie Creative agency, I find them from referrals, Facebook Groups, and give away a lot of good free content to attract people and show them my expertise. I give incredible free online classes, not a webinar full of just pitching my stuff, I actually give a real class and just reserve the last 10 minutes for anyone who wants more. I give aways books, Facebook Live trainings in other groups with my target market, etc. Any chance I have to GIVE to my target market, whether I pitch or not, I jump on it. It always comes back to you. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I truly believe 50% of being an entrepreneur is failing. Literally, the only difference between me and someone else is that when I failed I didn’t give up. I just kept going anyway. This continues to be true almost everyday. Marketing campaigns fail, nobody shows up for your online class, you take on too much work and then clients get angry you are so behind, etc. The biggest thing I’ve learned is to remain honest. Be honest with your clients when you aren’t going to be on time with something. Be honest with your participants when your life went to shit and you need to take a few months off. Be honest with yourself when you fail so you can outline how to avoid it next time. Pride doesn’t win in this game. ## Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. I know you hear a lot of “don’t ever give up!” for entrepreneurs. But I have to disagree to a certain extent. Sometimes your ideas are crap, there’s no market for it, or you need to tweak and change things as the industry changes. You have to be flexible and wise in your perseverance.   ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? You can not launch a product or program without properly testing it. This is extremely frustrating to me as an eCourse and program creator. Every entrepreneur sees people doing courses, products, programs, etc and thinks they can just record some shit and launch it. You have to properly test your program with a handful of people or 10-15 BETA testers and have real tangible results from them to show others. You must use their testimonials in your sales copy, video reel, marketing, everything! Even in eCommerce, you have to have social proof in this day and age otherwise it simply won’t sell. There’s lots of ways to test and do this, I have a bunch of info and examples on my blog www.esthermariecreative.com/blog and personally for my program I took 3 women through it intensely before I ever even considered selling it. Then with my initial launch I had crazy low pricing so I could continue to gather social proof before charging higher fees. ### ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Automating everything. Anything you repeatedly do needs to be turned into a system ASAP with either software tools and virtual support. For tasks I find myself doing a lot and don’t want to pay a VA to do every week I’ve even considered investing in a developer to design custom code for me to take it off my plate. This isn’t just so you have less to do and can relax more. It’s so you can get out of the weeds ASAP and then focus on GROWING and what’s next in your businesses. Technically I have 3 businesses and have another 1-2 I want to do but know I can’t until my first 3 are 90% automated. My income is limited by the systems I have in place. ### What are some of your favorite books? Honestly, I learn a lot from webinars and podcasts these days because I can have them play in the background while I do other things. Since I work in a digital space, I feel like unless a book has been entirely written and launched within the last 3 months, by the time I read it it’s probably already out of date so why bother. For business and life I love the Tim Feriss podcast. He and his guests keep me on my toes and challenge me to just *do better.*Both personally and in business (they are so intertwined, and he gets that). I also love to see how he does his marketing because he’s down to earth and his genius is hidden amongst that. Otherwise my favorite book is Les Miserables. ### Where do you see yourself and your accomplishments in the coming years? I really love teaching. It’s what I went to school for and did initially, it’s in my bones and I am really good at it. I am more comfortable teaching and being in front of people then behind the scenes. I see myself creating and running my VA programs and Creative agency consulting and classes full time with the occasional speaking gig, workshop, or podcast opportunity. I see my VA program being accredited so military wives can use their spouse education benefits on it. I see it being a non profit so we can get into bases and events easier to spread the word about this opportunity. ### --- ## From College Dropout & Fry-Cook to Internet Hustler URL: https://futuresharks.com/danny-velez/ # Welcome to Future Sharks Danny! Tell us a little about yourself: I am a student of life, an adventure junkie and relentless go-getter. For 5 years I had experienced failure after failure after failure. In the last 6 months, I’ve been able to hone in on some unique skills acquired through the last 5 years to finally accomplish my long-sought-after pursuit: establishing a source of residual income via the Internet. City where you’re from: I was born in the Bronx, NY, raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico & currently reside in York, Pennsylvania! Hobbies: I love to learn! Spend time with loved ones! And travel. Favorite quote: “When a person really desires something all the universe conspires to help that person to achieve their dream.” Paolo Coelho, The Alchemist Twitter: N/A Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DannyVMarketing ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I decided to become an entrepreneur when I was in the 6th grade. Our teacher asked the students what they wanted to be. I wrote: “Big business owner.” She laughed. Also once I dropped out of college, I knew I had to do something or I was going to end up homeless so I couldn’t keep a job to save my life. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? I’ve gotta say that my biggest influences have been my parents – they always instilled belief in us. They raised us (I have a bro & a sis) with the mentality that we deserve to live life on our own terms. ## Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I currently operate a Facebook Ad Agency – Adcension Pro. We help large & small businesses 10x their profit by generating high-quality, specifically targeted demographics using the Facebook Ad platform. This idea isn’t mine (obviously) but I got started – funny enough – through clicking a link on a Facebook Ad. I am also creating a podcast titled The Entrepreneur Collective Podcast – we’ll be interviewing entrepreneurs from all over the globe so stay tuned. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? Adcension Pro not very different from other Facebook Ad agency in that the product is virtually the same: a professional sales funnel & lead generating system – and that’s ok, I didn’t intend that part to be different. The difference comes into full-bloom within my client relationships. I make sure that they are fully satisfied and if not they don’t need to pay me. Also, I am fluent in Spanish & English so I can create ads that appeal to these two gargantuan demographics. The vision moving forward is to continue expanding into larger markets. My income goal is $1M/month with Adcension Pro. Eventually I’d like to create my own course teaching others how to create their own agency. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? My customers are typically chiropractors, dentists, plastic surgeons, gyms, yoga studios, real estate companies, restaurants, etc. I find the bulk of my clients through networking and facebook ads of course! ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Oh my god… You know that part in The Dark Knight Rises when Bane says to me Batman “You merely adopted the dark. I was BORN in – molded by it.” Yeah well replace “dark” with failure and that was me throughout my 5 year journey as an entrepreneur. I was a fry-cook for 1 whole year so yeah. As a side-note, I’d like to say, failure should become your best friend. Failure is the crude ground on which your own unique success will be built on. Learn from each stumbling block and make from them your stepping stones to reach your goals. Nothing should fire you up more than some good ‘ol failure! ## Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. My best advice is quit being lazy. I was broke for 5 years because, honestly, I was lazy. I wasn’t putting in the hours, the sweat, the tears. I was only half-time. There’s a certain magic in 100% commitment. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? My greatest advice on social media marketing is be real. There’s too many people faking it till they make it and that doesn’t provide value to anybody. Be you – and do so unapologetically. People will like you more for it and your business will profit from it. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? 2 things: Self-awareness & hustling. The Latin’s had a saying: “Temet Nosce” – in english that translates to “Know Thyself.” Focus on cultivating an inner-awareness. What I mean by that is, spend time alone and ask yourself “who am I?” “who do I want to be?” and “what am I willing to DIE for?” That will be your most powerful tool against failure and your most potent teacher along the path. Hustling is self-explanatory: GET OFF YOUR ASS! ### What are some of your favorite books? As far as business goes, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a foundational book – it taught me the power of cultivating character & self-awareness. The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo helped me realize the power of listening to and following your heart. Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl has taught me that the meaning of life is a life of meaning. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself & my business freaking HUUUUGE. No – all jokes aside – as I stated earlier, I see me moving into teaching Facebook Ads to students at a certain point in the future and hiring a staff to manage the Facebook Ad’s piece for me. # --- ## Darsh Thanki Refuses To Wait For Opportunities URL: https://futuresharks.com/darsh-thanki/ Darsh began his career in tech at a young age, which lead him to found WebMotion Studios, an agency that focuses on building professional responsive websites, creating lead-generating Adwords campaigns, designing engaging graphic designs for clients. Darsh is also is the co-founder of RafikiMedia. **City where you’re from:**Calgary, Alberta, Canada **Hobbies:** My work is my hobby (a quite dangerous hobby if I might add), other then that, long drives, reading business books, and photography. **Favorite quote:** > “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it”. – Steve Jobs Twitter username: @darshtha ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? Well for me, I started quite early. The reason I became an entrepreneur was because I noticed there was a lack of opportunities for me when I was young where I could do something meaningful other than follow the herd. Of course at the age I began my entrepreneurial journey, most people are focusing on school and sports. I focused on school but I also focused more on building flash games and developing my website. Essentially, I wanted to create opportunities for myself and others rather than wait for them to come my way. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My biggest influences were my parents and Steve Jobs (I know, it’s quite generic). My parents worked and continue to work extremely hard for my future. When they first immigrated to Canada, they worked long hours and odd jobs to get to where they are now. They didn’t shy away from the challenges they faced. I can’t even imagine how hard that must have been but it’s taught me dedication and perseverance. Steve Jobs was the next influence for me, not only because I’m constantly surrounded by Apple products but because I truly believe he was one of the greatest marketers in the world and integral to Apple’s success. I remember watching a video about him talking to the marketing department at Apple. He spoke to the department about how specifications don’t sell, feelings do. That resonated with me. I started adapting that strategy to my business by building relationships with clients rather than selling them on specifications. The defining moment in my life was the day I got my first cheque. Not for the money but because It was the day I realized that I (as a 14 year-old) could do more and help businesses establish their brands. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Well, I’m working on a few different things right now. I’m most actively working on my web design business, WebMotion Studios, as well as a social media/brand management agency called RafikiMedia with my good friend and fellow entrepreneur Manu Goswami. With WebMotion Studios, it was completely unintentional. I had developed quite a few skills related to web design by building a website to display the flash games my friends and I had made. Eventually, a family friend got in touch with me to develop a website for their personal business. RafikiMedia was another story, I was working with Manu Goswami on Canada Thinks (as VP of Marketing), and one day we ended up talking about a new idea to build a social-first digital agency because we had worked pretty well together. We worked on a few projects and got quite a few clients. Now we’re here! We faced quite a few challenges managing client projects so Manu and I decided that we’d devote some capital towards R&D to build products for freelancers and other agencies to use. So we’re working on some exciting projects on that end. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? With both agencies, we’re unique because we’re young. We’re Gen Z and millennials. This gives us an advantage in marketing because we’re actively a part of the groups that businesses want to target for the next few decades. For both, WebMotion Studios and RafikiMedia, many of our clients employ us because of the fact that we’re young and know how to target our age group. My favourite moment has been with RafikiMedia. We had built a campaign for Debate Camp (which now operates in both Canada and the US) along with a brand new logo. With the use of our campaign, Debate Camp gained a significantly higher registration base compared to previous years. Additionally, the logo I had made for them was displayed everywhere. They used it on their van (which they drove across the country), t-shirts, pens, and print ads. It felt great to be able to see great results, not only analytically, but physically as well. The vision for RafikiMedia is to be an established digital agency that has a suite of SaaS for other marketers to use as well as a notable client base. WebMotion on the other hand, my vision is to have a seat at the table with the big players in the ad agency world. In many ways, it’s alongside RafikiMedia but I’m more fluid with WebMotion Studios. It’s meant to be a full service agency specialising in all things related to digital marketing. I want WebMotion Studios to have built innovative websites and campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? I personally like to use creatives that generate conversation. I find that infographics or profiles are a great way to do this. However, it’s not enough to just post it. If the audience takes the time to engage with you, you have to take the time to engage back. Respond to their comments, engage them in further discussion and build constructive relationships with them. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Yes, I’ve experienced some failure along the way. I take every unreached attainable goal as a failure. Maybe that means I’m harsh on myself but I hold myself to a standard of my future self. It’s taught me to be self-reflective and simply focused. There’s also been project failures that I’ve been unable to complete. Except from those failures, I’ve learned a lot about time management and customer service. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Firstly, being an entrepreneur is all about learning, whether it’s from your adversity, mistakes, or successes. If you’re stuck in an unfavourable situation, make the best of it. Adversity can be your greatest strength or your greatest weakness. You’ll always hear people complaining about the situation they are in instead of spending that energy on getting themselves out of the situation. To me, an entrepreneur is someone who recognizes unfavourable situation or outcome and tackles the problem. Not someone who complains about the problem and waits for someone else to fix it. My second piece of advice is to be humble and respectable. I engage in this everyday even with my businesses, it’s important for me to have the trust and respect of my clients to be able to provide them with value. I’ve been quite blessed to have clients who trust my abilities and respect my work. However, there have been instances where I’ve rejected or dropped out of a project because no matter what results I had provided, the client couldn’t trust my efforts. If you’re generally a trustworthy entrepreneur and have the respect of individuals and businesses, you have already torn down many barriers to your success. I say this because being trustworthy and respectable is essential to finding people who are willing to help you in your journey. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? With designing for digital mediums, it’s easy to outdate yourself. It’s important to keep up with the latest design trends to make sure your websites or apps are relevant. Design trends keep changing all the time so subscribing to a lot of design blogs and seeing a lot of design inspiration are key to keeping with the trends. As a designer, it’s incredibly important to keep iterating my designs to keep them fresh and to ensure they provide for the best user experiences. A great place to keep up with these design trends is Dribbble which is a show and tell platform for designers around the world. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) While working on both, WebMotion Studios and RafikiMedia, I’ve learned the concept of under promise, over deliver. Now this definitely DOES NOT MEAN underwhelmingly under promise (that’ll never help you get the client in the first place). But I’ve learned that it’s a great way to keep clients happy. There is a fine line with this technique though. You’ve got to be careful not to promise too much but you also don’t want to over deliver to the point where you’re not respecting your own work. This is however, what I use in WebMotion Studios to go above and beyond for our clients and deliver them incredible work. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? Reading articles. I like to spend time on Mashable and other platforms. Specifically design related ones that have design inspiration and business. This keeps me up to date on new developments and keeps my eye for design on point. Some days, when I get the chance, I like to sit down with my computer and open up Illustrator and play around with some designs as well. My last daily habit is to sit down for a while and have zero tech around me. With my business and school, I’m always on my phone or my laptop so not having it around for a few minutes lets me reconnect with myself. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? I think an entrepreneur must always focus on personal development. I say this because I believe entrepreneurs are leaders and as a good leader, you should know what you are, who you are, and constantly work on being better than who you were yesterday. There’s this concept about the Johari Window which is this concept that maps your self awareness and self disclosure. This window shifts based what you know about yourself, what you share with others, what they know about you (but you don’t), and what you and others don’t know about yourself. For the past few years, I’ve taken this concept to heart because when I initially did a personal reflection using this model, I found that I had a HUGE blind spot. There was a lot of stuff that others knew about me but I didn’t. This was startling because it meant there was a lot that could be used to manipulate my actions. Now, the one way to decrease this blind spot is by working on personal development. So I’ve done a lot of personal development and reflection and I feel a lot better for it! ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. The first step was to ideate. I had all these skills and I had no clue what to do with them. So I sat down, wrote down what I knew how to do, and then figured out what I could sell as a service. That’s when I created the framework for WebMotion Studios. From there, it was going out, making myself known as someone with these skills. This included doing things like sharing on my projects on social media, showing off the website I had made for my flash games. Eventually, I got a family friend as my first client which turned into a few referrals. However, I still had no clue how to handle clients and keep them happy. Obviously customer service was important but I wasn’t sure exactly how it worked in the industry I had just jumped into. Now the next step was quite hard for me because, at the time, I was still an introvert. I did a quick Google search for medium-sized agencies in Calgary with decent-sized portfolios and I picked up the phone and gave them a call. I was extremely surprised to see how supportive all of them had been but they gave some great advice on working with clients. One of the larger ones even connected me with the founder who gave me a roadmap to how he had gotten to where he was. After learning all this valuable information, I went straight to work and implemented it with my existing clients. I set up a client relationship management application to keep track of all the work I was doing. I also redesigned my website to make it more appealing (in hindsight, it was still awful). One of the biggest pieces of advice I got from the agencies was to make sure I put my logo on every website I created. They said that although many people never notice this mark, there will be at least one person who becomes a client because of it. So I did, and a few months later I found probably one of my best clients to date. After this, I kept getting referrals from my previous clients and the business has simply grown from there. ### What are some of your favorite books? - Momentum – Shama Hyder - Zero to One – Peter Thiel - Let the Elephants Run – David Usher ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself fulfilling the vision I previously mentioned. I’m not as hung up on materialism as I am on happiness. In the next couple of years, I’d like to happily be at the help when WebMotion Studios and RafikiMedia become successful and for them to have a seat at the table with all the larger agencies. I also see myself helping other entrepreneurs and youth capitalize on their value in the future in the form of possibly speaking at events or mentorship. --- ## Katie Melissa Drops Gold Marketing & E-Commerce Tips URL: https://futuresharks.com/katie-melissa/ At the age of 21, Katie began feeling out of place in college. The monotonous everyday routine was all but fulfilling. She knew she wanted to create something big and make a change in her life, as well as in others lives, as soon as possible. A few months after putting her college career on hold, her e-commerce business soared to 30k monthly gross sales. From then on, she knew she wanted to harness the power of online business and help others along the way. **City where you’re from:** Carmel, California **Hobbies:**E-commerce, digital marketing, meeting people, spreading value, learning. **Favorite quote: “**What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” **Twitter**: @katie__melissa **Facebook:** katiemelissaryan ### Hey Katie, why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I decided to become an entrepreneur after realizing I wanted to create. I knew I didn’t want to work towards someone else’s dreams, but rather, my own. I believe many people want this as well, but some may not see a clear path or feel empowered enough to make the change. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Kathleen Ryan (Mom), John Ryan (Dad), Sarah Naso (great grandmother), and many others. I am grateful for having such a supportive family rooting me on to follow my dreams. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for them. When I was young, around age 8, my mom started taking me to Boglehead events where I started gaining an awareness about investing and business from Vanguard Group founder and investor, John C. Bogle. Also, growing up, I would hear stories of my great grandma Sarah who was an exceptional businesswoman. She owned several shops in Carmel-by-the-Sea and worked as a CPA. She excelled in her business pursuits and challenged gender stereotypes of the time. I have looked up to her throughout my life. Lastly, a portion of my entrepreneurial influence comes from my dad, John. John made his way through life working for himself and at times, bending the rules. I certainly know where this side of me comes from! ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I am currently focusing on my digital marketing agency which launched in early April. Starbound Marketing focuses on social media marketing and advertising. The goal is to help small to medium-sized businesses strengthen their online presence using cutting-edge techniques. The idea sparked after chatting with my (now) business partner about his agency. He described how interesting it is to learn about new businesses in various niches. Everything he said resonated with me, and I knew I loved helping people and businesses work towards their goals. I feel my training, mentors, and experience with social media marketing and advertising empowered me to create my own digital marketing agency. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Starbound Marketing studies and analyzes businesses and their competitors before anything else. We also provide free business audits/evaluations which showcase the pros and cons of a business’s social media and website efforts and provide a list of recommendations. There are many services we offer that other agencies don’t. We customize and tailor packages for each client so we can address all their needs and deliver the biggest bang for their buck. The vision is to, of course, please our clients and for them to realize the power of online marketing! We couldn’t be living in a more exciting time, especially for doing business online. We have the ability to hyper-target individuals based on annual income, education, marital status, purchase habits, and location down to a one mile radius. If that’s not exciting for businesses and advertisers, I don’t know what is! ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? My favorite Facebook ads to create are offers and promos. (Mainly because I like making pretty flyers). But really, the image you choose as your Facebook ad is important: High quality, correct sizing, very little text, etc. Videos are another favorite of mine because of the potential reach. The potential for shares and virality is greater than other types of ads, extending the reach and lowering the cost. Facebook actually rewards you if your video gets lots of engagement, gets full screened, or when people turn the volume up. They reward you with more organic reach which lowers your cost. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Yes, in the beginning, I had a failure rate of around 20%. It’s extremely likely you won’t target your audience correctly on your first few ads. You have to test, test, test. Each time you fail, you learn something new. You understand what NOT to do the next time around. Tweak and test your target audience (using split testing). Over time, you will learn the finer nuances of each business niche and their corresponding audiences. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. 1. It may sound cliche, but don’t give up. Nothing worth having comes easy (for most of us!) Successful entrepreneurs are those who are resilient and bounce back from failure with enthusiasm and an increased desire to learn. 2. Secondly, surround yourself with people who you look up to. Network with intelligent people in your niche. You are, like it or not, an average of the five people you most frequently engage with. 3. My last piece of advice is to be someone of value. You always have something to offer, whether it be knowledge, experience, referrals, connections, etc. Take the time to help others and provide value. Solve problems. Help friends and peers achieve more. The favor will be returned, often at the very time you need it. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? - My top resources for social media management: www.SocialPilot.co  (schedule your posts). An alternative I previously used was HootSuite. - Top picks for ads: An alternative to creating traditional Facebook ads is a site called www.AdEspresso.com. This platform allows you to create multiple ad campaigns with just a few clicks. It’s great for testing and offers in-depth analytics. - Bonus resource: Check out . It’s basically an index to search for any type of ad you can think of. This is a powerful tool you can tap into for free. I highly recommend trying it out. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) - Read Sell Or Be Sold by Grant Cardone. - Also consider How To Set-Up Your Business For Under $1000 by Dan Fleyshman. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? - A strength of mine is being extremely organized. My business partner knows this to be true and pokes fun at it — but it has served me well. If I wasn’t so organized, my thoughts and work would be so scattered. I feel like I wouldn’t be as productive. Organization is critical to my workflow and personality. It’s been a trait of mine my entire life. - Have either a daily or weekly goal in mind when you wake up. Work towards it. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? An entrepreneur should focus on emphasizing their strengths and learning from their weaknesses. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. Growing up in Northern California, I had a simple and stable life with my two supportive parents. Throughout my academic career, I had great marks in all subjects. After my second year of college, I felt a shift in myself. It was uncomfortable, but it was a realization. Despite my strong desire to learn, I was tired of the monotonous routine and schoolwork day in and day out. There was no challenge in it for me, and I felt something greater was out there. I just wasn’t sure what. I dropped out of college after my second year, knowing I wanted to create something lasting and enjoyable for myself. Long story short, I dove into e-commerce, with the help of an online mentor, first becoming an Amazon seller. To my surprise, after about six months selling on Amazon, I was grossing 30-40k in sales per month. By that point, I knew e-commerce had incredible potential. I started providing one-on-one trainings for serious people wanting to start successful Amazon stores. For a few months I continued selling on Amazon while branching out into other e-com platforms like eBay, Shopify, Groupon, and Etsy. Today, I own two storefronts using the Shopify platform (which I LOVE!) I now enjoy Shopify more than Amazon because there are less limitations, more room for creativity, and potentially larger profit margins. My main focus as of now is my digital marketing agency. After years of social media marketing (and advertising) experience, I decided to launch Starbound Marketing in early April. The agency focuses on helping small to medium-sized businesses strengthen their online presence and increase revenue. I am thankful for the confusion and unsettlement I experienced in college because it led me to where I am today. ### What are some of your favorite books? - How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie - Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - Daring To Trust by David Richo - The Magic Of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz - The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I plan to grow my e-commerce stores for the next few years, then sell them and start fresh, duplicating past results. In regards to my digital marketing agency, my business partner and I plan to work with Northern California clients for the first few months. After the six month mark, we will likely begin accepting clients across the United States who need help making an impact online. Depending on the size of our agency, we may or may not sell it within the next five years. The number one goal is to provide value and excite our clients. --- ## Doing Things The Right Way. The Grant Wise Way URL: https://futuresharks.com/grant-wise/ Grant Wise is a serial entrepreneur and Founder of Real Estate Marketing University, an online media training company. Starting in the construction industry, Grant has worked with every aspect of the home building process. His move into the real estate world was a welcome dream. From working on building a brokerage to building an amazing business training platform, he’s always kept himself busy and stayed focused. “Focus” is something he’s developed over time and it’s something he teaches his students. **City where you’re from:**Rogers, Arkansas is home. Always has been. Always will be. That said, I have given serious thought on more than one occasion to packing up my belongings and bright ideas and moving to Colorado. There is just something about it for me; but things are different now. I have a family and I am looking forward to raising my two children in Northwest Arkansas. I’m also going to continue to build my business here in a booming, local economy. **Hobbies:** I love to spend time with my family whether it’s just fun time or working with them to help build initiatives to help people all over the world. We already have one project in the works. More on that as it develops later. Spending time with them is always a treat. It doesn’t matter what we do. Other than that, I work and enjoy the hell out of what I do for a living. **Favorite quote:** “I’m not trying to be the most successful as much as I’m working to be the most valuable.” **Twitter:** @likegrantwise ### ### Great having you here Grant! Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I was born into this. Since birth, I’ve refused to do what others told me to do. The job thing made absolutely no sense to me. The idea that I go into an office and work and then receive a tiny bit of money never made any sense to me. I’ve always been a thinker; an idea guy; a creative; an artist…whatever you want to call it. I had “it.” I’ve always had that bug. I get up every morning and want to make the world a better place. ### Who were your biggest influences? Or Was there a defining moment in your life? There have been a few defining moments in my life: 1) my faith. My life transformed immediately in October of 2015 when I got very serious about my faith. 2) bankruptcy. I was hemorrhaging money and making terrible decisions. For example, I bought a 2015 brand new Jeep Cherokee. It was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I couldn’t even make the first payment. I asked a friend of mine if he could help me with what was actually the third payment. He said he would get back to me later that night. He did, but with a different plan. He told me that I needed to reevaluate. “You don’t deserve anything that you have in your life right now,” he said. “You need to evaluate where you are and where you’re going because I don’t think it’s somewhere you want to be.” Right then, I did a 180. I made the decision to file for bankruptcy, but that conversation was a defining moment. I remember everything about that day: what I was wearing; what I was thinking about;  what I was drinking. I had help though. I had grace, love, and people who cared about me and helped me get out of my own way. ### What are you working on? We are building Real Estate Marketing University which teaches real estate agents how to grow their business using the power of social media; how to sell; how to structure; how to get organized; how to automate and more all to support the life they’ve always wanted to live. We now have Social Hustle which is designed to teach people how to grow and build a social media agency which extremely exciting for me. Witly is our newest creation. It’s a software company that invented Intelligent Marketing Software that pre-builds landing pages, email automations, text sequences, communication sequences. It’s a smart CRM, but it’s also so much more. ### What triggered your idea? Teaching real estate agents using social media is something I was just thrown into. At the time, I had nothing else to do. I was kicked out of a business I spent two years working with. I dedicated my life to that and got booted out of it. A week later, I decided I was going to teach people what I had been trying to teach them all along which is how to grow their business. From there, the idea of the entire university blossomed. It’s changing people’s lives all of the world. Social Hustle was triggered by need. I had a lot of agencies asking me how I did what I did. I decided I would teach them and that’s what Social Hustle is all about. Witly was created out of necessity as well. I saw a problem and I created a solution. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? Intelligent Marketing Software doesn’t exist. There are no platforms that currently automate systems that are easy to use. We are innovative, but we stand out in the way we deliver; the way we teach; and the way we get results. People log in to our platforms and get results if they do the work. There is something to be said for the way our clients get results. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? Our clients are real estate agents, mortgage agents, and brokers who are all trying to generate leads using innovative ways to grow their business. We find them via referral or our paid social media advertising campaigns. ### Value-add questions: ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. I don’t think entrepreneurship can be taught. You can teach people how to own a business, but you can’t teach a desire to wake up everyday and work for free for the greater good. You need to work. Don’t talk. Work. Just execute. It’s never going to be perfect. Take imperfect action. Show up every day to help make someone else’s life successful; make someone else great. I often think about a quote from Zig Ziglar: If you can help other people achieve what they want, you can achieve what you want. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media, fundraising or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Yes, Real Estate Marketing University and Social Hustle. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Focus on that thing in their brain that never goes away; that tick in their heart that keeps things in motion. They should focus on the vision that they were gifted; that divine purpose that most entrepreneurs are born with. It doesn’t matter if you’re not getting paid right now. It doesn’t matter if it takes years, but that’s what you should focus on. ### What are some of your favorite books? The Bible. That’s first on my list. After that, I love all of the works of Tim Ferriss, Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuk. I am working my way through “Tools of Titans” right now. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Changing more lives than I ever have in a few years. I see the exact same thing happening a few years after that. I wake up every morning thinking about how I can change other people’s lives. I’m going to wake up one day and have the most amazing relationships; the most amazing connections. I will have changed people’s lives. I will have created movements. I feel like things are going to scale in ways that I cannot foresee. This is what I challenge you to do: Wake up every single day and think about how you can make one single step in a direction towards your dream and the dream of other people. If you do that, you’re going to wake up a couple of years from now and you’re going to be blown away by what’s happened. --- ## Interview with Designer Yoel J Gonzalez URL: https://futuresharks.com/yoel-j-gonzalez/ Yoel J Gonzalez is a young self taught ui/ux designer, photographer, a creative thinker & entrepreneur, from the beautiful city of Miami.Over the past years he has worked with a variety of clients and startups.Getting involved at a very young age in design gave Yoel the experience and knowledge to understand every corner and aspect of the artistic world. **City where you’re from:** Miami, Florida **Hobbies:** Drinking Coffee & Outdoor Photography **Favorite quote:** Think Different; Steve Jobs **Twitter:**https://www.twitter.com/yoeljgz ### Hey Yoel, why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I never thought I’d be the man I am right now and I never thought that I will become an entrepreneur. Why so much negative thinking? I had to leave Cuba my country of birth at a very young age (7). That change affected me in different ways, one of the hardest ones was the language. Being a kid without knowing the language at school was difficult. It brought me many problems with teachers and fellow classmates for a couple of years. My mother started to take the good things away from me. As a reward, she uses to tell me that I had to start learning English. From that day on I started to be more responsible with school. Being more disciplined guided me thru a path that at age 12 I was basically doing everything by myself. Fixing my room, doing homework and going to school by taking public city buses. Along the way I saw that it was difficult for my mom to help me out with my expenses. From there on it was hard for me since my state (Florida) doesn’t allow childrens with age 12 to work. I had to stay weekends without going out with friends and much more. I finished my 8th grade and decided to apply for a local semi-private high school named Miami Lakes Educational Center without knowing if I was going to being admitted. Weeks later I got accepted. In Miami Lakes Tech, it where things got different. While in freshmen year, I was taking a class that it was mainly about how to prepare yourself for college and what it takes to being an entrepreneur. On one of our main projects was to create like your dream business. I didn’t took it as a dream and sadly I failed that class. I don’t have any regrets of failing it, why? Because along the way I was putting every little detail that I learned from it into an idea that I started to evolve. With my knowledge in computer graphics that I got by self watching tutorials videos on Youtube (Thenewboston Channel) I started my own web & design business with my best friend. Along the way, me and my friend separated. I continued with the adventure that I embark myself. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Back then the only influencer was my mom. She taught me how to do everything by myself, which sometimes is a bad thing because you start to feel that you’re alone in this world, but she is my mom and I knew she was doing it for my good. Deciding to leave my part-time job and to drop out of the local community college I was attending, to move and to study in a new school (Academy of Art) on the other side of the country was the best decision i’ve ever made. ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Currently I’m working on my own startup that I co-founded with my uncle which is Obtem and doing on the side branding projects for upcoming startups or business. Obtem is an on demand delivery app where clients can order anything from there local merchants and have it delivered to them. I came up with idea when I came back from San Francisco. One night I was watching a movie with my girlfriend, and she randomly told me that imagine a company where at this current time (1am) could bring us anything that we order. Right after she told me that something inside of me sparked. Back in San Francisco I had the same idea but I wasn’t sure that it was going to work out in my home city (Miami) so I didn’t put that much attention. I jumped out of the bed and started to contact my friends that I knew that after telling them the idea they will fall in love with. And yes they did. Next morning we scheduled a meeting to start planning out everything and Obtem was founded. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? Obtem is an on demand app where by the position of the user the app itself will display a list of all the local merchants he has around. Giving the opportunity to order from them. On the other side the associates our couriers will accept the coming orders and execute them by going to the selected merchant and buy the products. All this happens while the client tracks the order. It’s hard to point out one favorite moments when you are working with an amazing team. But I will point out one, launch day. We were all nervous that day when we’re about to click the submit button to launch the app into the app store. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? One of the campaigns that helped us to reach potential clients in our current zones, were Facebook ads. The type of campaign we did were download now ads. Where we target certain strategic areas that we knew people was in the need of a delivery service. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Thru Obtem we had minor failures and most of them were internal. I had to take some hard decisions as a founder that everything was for the best of the company. ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. The best advice I can give to those who are reading this article is do what you love. If you have an idea inside of your head don’t fear by thinking that no one will like. There’s always that one person that will love it. One thing I learned was to ignore those will reject your idea, those that after you tell them that you want to create something, the first thing they will said are “ oh you are not going to make it”, “it’s hard you are crazy” etc. Ignore them, we know is hard because most of those people are your friends and family members. You cannot have one foot in the ground and the other in the boat. What I mean by saying that? Is that you gotta go all in. Take risk, you will fail sometimes, but learn from it. Sometimes the hardest decision you can make are those who will change you. At Obtem we use the technique growth hack is basically trying to find many different channels to put your brand out their. Mostly without spending too much on ads. All business have different ways of advertising. We currently working with word of mouth, local SEO and Facebook/Instagram ads. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Currently on my spare time I like to watch The Futur podcast videos from Chris Do and his fellow mates. They talk about mostly business designs and how to succeed. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) At Obtem we use the technique growth hack is basically trying to find many different channels to put your brand out their. Mostly without spending too much on ads. All business have different ways of advertising. We currently working with word of mouth, local SEO and Facebook/Instagram ads. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? Driving every morning to Dunkin Donuts for an Iced Coffee keeps me up with all my tasks. --- ## Rafi Chowdhury Is Not Concerned With His Net Worth. He Cares About His Net Knowledge URL: https://futuresharks.com/rafi-chowdhury/ Rafi Chowdhury is the founder of Chowdhury’s Digital and co-founder of myCampusHacks. He helps companies like Vapetek, Shapes Brow Bar, Win Hyundai, Wound Care Surgeons, and Easley Transportation grow their revenue. Examiner.com calls him the go-to guy for traffic generation, SplashOPM says he is one of the top Growth Hacking gurus on the web, Start-up Dhaka says he is one of the youngest and most successful marketers ever to come from Bangladesh, and Northeast Today Magazine calls him a web analytics Expert. He was recognized by the University of Memphis for creating one of the most innovative start-up websites for the students, While The Hans India considers his blog posts to be “incredible”. In his free time, Rafi is an advisor to the British Young Asian Entrepreneurs. **City where you’re from:** Dhaka, Bangladesh **Hobbies:**Chess, Basketball, Ping Pong, Swing Dancing, Nutrition and Fitness, All things Marketing & Business **Favorite quote:** **“**Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” **Twitter**: _rafichowdhury ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I knew that there was only one way I can be in control of my time and my finances, and that is to be in business for myself and build my own customer base. There was not any other available options for me. I always knew that simply trading my time for money and helping someone else build a business was not going to be something I could do for the rest of my life. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? In general it would be my parents, my grandfather, and my mentors. I think they have given me the proper direction and have helped to ground me in my faith, beliefs, and principles. After the foundations are set, I think it’s just a matter of experiences that determine where we end up. But, I know that at the end of the day, if I am ever unsure on how a decision should be made, I will always reflect back to my morals and beliefs and know exactly what the right thing to do should be. God is always there to answer any question 🙂 But in the business world, I have learned a great deal from people like Neil Patel, Brian Dean, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeet Banerjee, Cameron Johnson, and so many others I can keep listing. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I’m working on www.organicallureshop.com. I met my business partner over dinner in California and we decided that we each have the skillset needed to make this into a million-dollar company. We are working hard to make this company a success and stand firmly behind what the company stands for and the products we offer to our customers 🙂 ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? We believe that everyone has the right to be and feel beautiful without harming their bodies in the long run. We help people achieve their beauty goals by presenting them with natural beauty products which not only work beautifully but causes no damage to the body. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? Check out the Organic Allure Facebook page for some examples. We also run lots of Amazon ads. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I have failed over and over again and again. This is my 9th start-up. Most of the stuff I tried failed. Each time I failed, I just learned so many ways not to try to do something the next time. While I do think my failures obviously made me sharper as an entrepreneur, I do think that it was unnecessary. The best trick is to actually learn from other people’s mistakes instead of your own. And learn from mentors: those who have already done what you are about to do. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Start as early as possible and partner with rich and successful people who have already done what you are trying to do. ### What are some of your favorite sites? - www.rafichowdhury.com - www.fourhourworkweek.com - www.chowdhurysdigital.com - www.quicksprout.coom - www.neilpatel.com - www.moz.com - www.backlinko.com ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? Add all your customers as friends on Facebook. Just keep adding and adding and adding. Make new accounts and add more more. Once you build a huge community of customers, the rest is easy. Build a super strong personal brand by constantly sharing every aspect of your life. It will make it so much easier then later when you go to sell something. Become friends with rich and successful people. Take them out to drink, have lunch with them, party with them. Always spend time with with people who are better at the thing you are trying to get good at. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? Read [“How to Win Friends and Influence People”](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671027034) by Dale Carnegie. I practice those habits every single day. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Being satisfied and having a life full of fun, satisfaction, and love for others. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. www.rafichowdhury.com/about ### What are your top 10 books? 1. How to Win Friends and Influence People 2. Blink 3. The Tipping Point 4. Outliers 5. Rich Dad Poor Dad 6. You Call The Shots 7. The 4-hour Workweek 8. The Black Swan 9. Influence 10. Thinking Fast and Slow 11. (Bonus) David and Goliath ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? At the million dollar mark 😉 I see myself as a more mature and satisfied person than today. Hopefully, a bit more knowledgeable too 😉 --- ## Jordan French Emerges as A Force in the Robotics Race URL: https://futuresharks.com/jordan-french/ Jordan French is a five-time start-up entrepreneur, engineer and marketing expert. A biomedical engineer by training, he worked for NASA’s Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts before becoming an intellectual-property and energy-law attorney. He has ties to both Locke Lorde in Houston, Texas and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC. Among his first forays in entrepreneurship his first marketing firm, Status Labs, ranked on the Inc. 500 and Fast 50 based off the growth during his tenure as CEO and COO from 2012 to 2015. His work as a bootstrap marketer with “seemingly limitless connections,” according to one adviser, caught the attention of the inventor of NASA’s first 3D food printer, Anjan Contractor, who was assembling a team to launch BeeHex as a food robotics and automation gaming company. Among the most-covered robotics startups in 2016, BeeHex marketed its way to earn the attention of Jim Grote, the founder of both Grote Company and 300+ store pizza chain Donatos, who led a seed-round investment of $1 million in the company according to TechCrunch. On the leading edge of marketing, in 2017 French was a keynote at PR Summit and moderator at Millennial 20/20 Summit in New York. **City where you’re from:**New York, New York. **Favorite quote:** I have two that resonate with me: > “Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectants.” — Judge Louis Brandeis. A good story isn’t always based in facts but eventually the facts come out. Second, in Picard v. United Aircraft Corp., 128 F.2d 632, 643 (2d Cir. 1942) (Frank, J., concurring) (discussing the role of predictable rules for patent enforcement in helping a smaller “David” compete with a larger “Goliath”):    > To denounce patents merely because they create monopolies is to indulge in superficial thinking. We may still want our society to be fundamentally competitive. But there has seldom been a society in which there have not been some monopolies, i. e., special privileges. The legal and medical professions have their respective guild monopolies. The owner of real estate, strategically located, has a monopoly; so has the owner of a valuable mine; and so have railroad and electric power companies. The problem is not whether there should be monopolies, but, rather, what monopolies there should be, and whether and how much they should be regulated. > And so patent monopolies may still be socially useful; they may, indeed, as I have said, foster competition. The David Co. v. Goliath, Inc. kind of competition is dependent on investment in David Co. the small new competitor. And few men will invest in such a competitor unless they think it has a potential patent monopoly as a slingshot. It’s a profound quote that captures the incentives created by a patent grant. Without a strong patent regime has a far slimmer chance of fending off and disrupting much larger, well-funded competitors. I credit much of the American economy’s advancement to its patent regime. Twitter: jordan__french ### Hey Jordan, your story is very powerful. Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? We’re seeing–and going to see– more and more scholarship on this subject. Entrepreneurship is very much part of the fabric of American culture. American culture has been and remains driven by immigrants and what I call the “immigrant mentality.” The “immigrant mentality” shows itself in the tenaciousness, speed and willingness to take risks, face uncertainties and translate the currencies of authenticity and confidence into a novel business. Some of us–whether that is first or second generation– just have that unbending drive to create. That creation comes from within and can differ across siblings–even twins as I’ve witnessed. And no matter the obstacles or setbacks with that “immigrant mentality” we drive forward with whatever the mission it is we’ve set out to accomplish. It’s a pretty incredible sight to see that conversion of energy into action because ultimately it leads to higher productivity, GDP and a better standard of living for everyone within its reach. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? I’ve been lucky to meet and work with a number of just incredible people. Earlier in my life Vanderbilt Dean Sandy Stahl, now-Dr. Jimmy Kerrigan up at Cleveland Clinic, Erika Wagner and Thaddeus Fulford-Jones at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was under the Mars Gravity Biosatellite umbrella come to mind. Of course, like puzzle pieces, there are too many people to thank or mention. More recently I’ve earned inspiration from serial entrepreneur and author Jon Fisher, computer expert Walter O’Brien, Gerard Adams and Gary Vaynerchuk, among others. In many ways simply helping other people and adding value no matter where they are or where they sit in life can really bring meaning. It’s really all about relationships. And a shame to the extent that people get short-sighted or opportunistic. Some of the relationships I’ve had more recently and especially through younger entrepreneurs coming up the ranks have been most inspirational. It’s a wonder to see that journey and the most satisfying part is being able to genuinely help someone on his or her way.   ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? My focus right now is on BeeHex, the 3D food printing company I co-founded in 2016. We’re just light years ahead, technology wise, and it’s been a lot of fun to market the company and identify where the best fit is. When you have revolutionary technology, as the Director General of the Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory put it: “You can drown in opportunities.” So a disciplined approach has gotten us this far and we’ll continue to demonstrate that discipline because it works. BeeHex, besides a stellar team, was lucky enough to add Donatos founder Jim Grote as a partner in the business. Now that we’ve created the technology, we’ve realized that there are many possibilities for the printer. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? BeeHex systems use a pneumatic system to print any range of viscosities. It opens up–for the first time–markets in the complexities of automation in fresh foods and personalizing those foods. In the long-run a firm like BeeHex is a data play. A robot attached to a computer, clients already want to know and can learn when, where and how their customers demand food, whether it be desserts or baked goods like pizza, coming from the BeeHex Chef 3D. The vision with BeeHex systems is to make fresh food available where it’s difficult to provide it today. Our pilot programs prove that 3D printed food isn’t some farfetched idea from the future, even though we love the analogies to the Star Trek Replicator and Back to the Future: Part II rehydrator. It’s technology that’s available right now and has a range of applications in personalization, entertainment and reliability. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? The key to any successful marketing campaign, particularly for a business like BeeHex, is to add value and from that value leverage your connections. I think that the rise of the internet and social media has made people start to move away from networking conceptually, but networking is still critical for any type of marketing. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Of course I’ve experienced failure along the way. There’s really no way to avoid failure completely when you’re an entrepreneur. The key is to have the right mindset when failure happens. If you fail at something, you learn. From my failures, I’ve learned about the importance of connections–as in genuine, real connections. It’s really all about relationships. It’s amazing what people miss out on when they fail to see the long game and collaborate or at least ask about what’s available. # Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Find like minded people to work with. Being an entrepreneur without interacting with anyone else is nearly impossible. If you’re just becoming an entrepreneur, find a mentor. Mentors love to teach everything they know and you can benefit from the knowledge of a successful entrepreneur. ### Teach us something about fundraising Fundraising is for many the least favorite part of entrepreneurship because it can feel like a time suck. But it doesn’t have to be. It’s pretty difficult to convince someone to give you their money for a piece of your future cash flows that might not have materialized yet. My advice for this comes back to leveraging connections. If people trust you, they’ll invest. Always make sure you’re expanding your network and talking about your project or idea– but most importantly add value. This can make fundraising much easier. ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) I’ve been spending a lot of time going from one expo to another, and I have to say, these are some of the best places to be. Expos that are related to your field are full of likeminded individuals. You never know who you’re going to meet and you could end up running into someone who is interested in your business or has relevant advice. In 2017 I was invited to join Momentum Events as an advisor to “pay it forward.” For experienced and successful entrepreneurs speaking at a conference can be a great way to share knowledge and also build your brand. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I think that being positive and kind toward others can perpetuate goodness. The better your attitude and kinder and more generous you are to others, the more likely you are to get the same in return. A positive workplace full of happy partners is exactly the type of business people want to build. That’s the type of atmosphere where ideas are generated–and most importantly– can be executed on. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Entrepreneurs should focus on getting better every day. Find that one thing that you do exceptionally well and double and then triple down on it. Even though you start a business, your business is going to depend on your ability to act and react. The better equipped you are, the better chance you’re going to give your business. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. My “first step” as an entrepreneur at age 12 started after a death in my immediate family that, like a vacuum, sucked me right into entrepreneurship on the basis of need. My polished writing and good pedigrees are a far cry from the relative poverty and blue collar and rural environment in which I grew up. My seed begins among apple orchards and the grittiness around me from people who were building and maintaining farms. I bootstrapped the success of Status Labs with a cunning pupil and later, partner. As CEO and COO of that company– and a strong team that never got enough praise–I ranked the company on the Inc. 500 and Fast 50 based on its growth from 2012 to 2015. The funny thing about betrayal, though, is that it comes from those people closest to you. It’s all about relationships. In many instances, though, people have a “number” and they’ll do anything once they reach it. From there it just became about doing more. The next steps for me after Status Labs were BNB Shield and Notability Partners. Throughout the process you begin to meet more people and get exposed to more ideas. Last year I was fortunate enough to co-found BeeHex. That’s where I am now. You could say I know a thing or two about business partners. Over eight in total I’ve witnessed a death, betrayal, and engineers, marketers and a female cofounder. Based in part off some of my work with Dr. Kathryn Anderson at Vanderbilt University it’s somewhat easy to see in the data that female founders and hires, in general, have a good shot at outperforming their peers. My own anecdotal findings match that conclusion. ### What are some of your favorite books? All of Gary Vaynerchuk’s books are good reads, especially for an aspiring entrepreneur. Gary is one of those guys that’s successful and enjoys everything he does. He also has a talent for energizing other people to reach their potential. Tim Ferriss’s Tools of Titans is a solid anthology. Books from Michael Porter, Benjamin Graham, Christensen and Drucker are must-reads but you can find them in practically any “top books” list. Ryan Holiday put himself into a good position where he has the time and penmanship to assemble and share through books and articles. He’s worth following in an effort to celebrate intelligence. --- ## How Ishan Goel Launched An Empire While Still Attending High School. URL: https://futuresharks.com/ishan-goel/ Ishan Goel is a Youth Marketer, Entrepreneur, Photographer and a full time student. He has managed to network and connect with top professionals in his community and owns three companies. He is featured in Forbes and Business Insider and continues to motivate young professionals on a daily bases. **City where you’re from:** Born in Boston grew up in Dallas **Hobbies:**Writing, Photography, Basketball, Brainstorming, and Volunteering. **Favorite quote:**“Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way.” **Twitter**: IAmIshanGoel ### ### Hey Ishan, it was great connecting with you via Facebook. Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I realized early on I had an act for doing things the way no one else would. In middle school I raised over $5,000 for the American Heart Association’s Hoops for Heart program with a simple donation form. From there I had the help of my mentors to guide me and help me unlock my true potential. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? The biggest influences would be my ability to find the right people at the right time. Putting my contacts and connections together to harness the true power of collaboration. The people who I met acted as role models and they would be there on the phone for me every time I had a good idea or a bad one. Diana S Zimmerman the world’s best lady magician helped me understand the true meaning of being different and how it was normal to get out there and do something no one else was. She has published many books and even ran a full marketing firm.   ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I am working on multiple projects mainly related to online marketing. There is a lot of power on social media and companies that aren’t figuring out how to harness it are slowly slipping downhill and losing tons of market space by those who are using it. I help companies and startups develop strong social media representation, public relations and strong ROI/T when it comes to Facebook Ads. ### What makes you unique? What’s unique about me is my ability to prove I am the market they are need to sell to. I represent generation Z, people born after 1995 – the most tech savvy and connected generation that has ever walked this planet – I show companies that direct mail flier aren’t as product ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? It was hard for me to balance school work and my businesses. It caused a lot of stress on because one side of me was always unbalanced. I had to learn how to prioritize myself and I learned time management…sometimes you can’t do everything and it’s better done than perfect. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. I think networking and first impressions is something that a skill anyone who is entering the entrepreneurial world should be able to do very productively. You are as strong as your mentors and network. ### ### You seem to be very well connected, teach us how to do networking. Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? I will be launching a website soon connected to ishangoel.com that will show young entrepreneurs how to get ahead of the game and provide tips and feedback that can help them grow. It will be a course to the fastline.   ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? Something that makes me productive is my ability to reset after something that knocks me off balance. The fact that life throws a bunch of curve balls at you and knowing what your goals are and where you want to me is very important. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Building an honest track record of success, experience, learn how to take breaks instead of stopping, adaptability, networking. ### What are some of your favorite books? Power of Broke – This book shows the power hustle has and how overfunding disables startups and leads them to believe in a product that will never do well. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself at Hult International Business School finishing an MBA/BBA and continue consulting and launching my ideas. ### Learn more about Ishan Goel here: - https://www.ishangoel.com/ - https://www.forbes.com/sites/laura-inamedinova/2016/09/05/5-networking-tips-on-how-to-reach-most-influential-people-from-a-17-year-old-ishan-goel/#3ad0ff6de816 --- ## Project DataREACH: Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Meets Medicine in Developing Nations URL: https://futuresharks.com/vikash-singh/ Vikash Singh is a junior at UCLA studying Computational and Systems Biology, with a passion for positively impacting healthcare through machine learning. He is currently the founder/CEO of Project DataREACH, a machine learning intern at Silicon Beach startup Heal, and a student researcher at the Cedars Sinai Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Program (AIM). **City where you’re from:** Los Angeles **Hobbies:**Basketball **Twitter**: vsingh_5 ### Hey Vikash, awesome to have you here. What triggered you to start Project DataREACH? I decided to start Project DataREACH the summer after my freshman year essentially as an independent side project using my enrichment funds from the Stamps scholarship I had received from UCLA. Having done research at the Cedars Sinai Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM) program for over the year at that point, I had learned quite a bit about the application of machine learning to medicine, and how it could make a difference in saving lives. I saw the potential for the application of such technology to medicine in developing nations.  During my three week trip to Guyana that summer, I presented to universities, hospitals, government bodies (Ministry of Health/National Cancer Institute) about how machine learning pipelines and advanced analytics techniques could provide powerful solutions to significant medical challenges. I received commendations of service from the nation’s Ministry of Health and National Cancer Institute which demonstrated that I could potentially get support from government entities in these nations, however most importantly the trip made me realize this could be more than than a side project, with the help of a team and a set of dedicated collaborators.   ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? The biggest influences in my life are without a doubt my parents, who both conduct independent scientific research on breast cancer, metabolism, and obesity as part of the faculty of both UCLA and Charles Drew University. They have always emphasized the importance of science as an avenue to impact the world and contribute to the improvement and advancement of society. A defining moment in my life would have to be the summer after my freshman year of high school, when my sister and I both contracted a resistant strain of typhoid fever and were hospitalized for about a week. It was the synergistic antibiotic combination discovered by researchers that ultimately worked, and it was the first time I had experienced first hand exactly how meaningful scientific research was in impacting the lives of real people. ### Now ### What are you hoping to accomplish with Project DataREACH? How did you come up with this idea? Project DataREACH is an organization whose mission is to make a positive impact on medicine in developing nations through data science (machine learning/AI). Originally a side project I started independently, it has now grown to an awesome team of college students (from universities all around the country), international collaborators (heavily based in Cameroon), and a faculty advisor (Dr. Lola Ogunyemi). We are currently working on building useful models with data from the WHO office in Cameroon on the frequency of a variety of communicable diseases, as well as working with doctors and epidemiologists to start the implementation of a full predictive analytics pipeline. Although big data is being used for descriptive analytics in the region, such a project (building a full predictive analytics pipeline) in collaboration with all the health professionals would be the very first of its kind in this region of the world, so we truly are hoping the work being can done can serve as a groundbreaking stride in integrating AI with medicine in developing countries. ### ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Although the Guyana trip was largely a success in terms of starting Project DataREACH  and getting experience presenting to a variety of potential clients, it did not lead to the sort of collaborations I was hoping for in terms of finding dedicated partners willing to invest time and resources on the other to advance to the next phase of implementing advanced analytics. I didn’t give up however, and within a few months I connected with some enthusiastic partners from Songhai Labs based in Cameroon, who I have been working with ever since, and am now looking to expand the client base and the number of projects, and eventually to scale up the team accordingly. ### Value-add questions ### Teach us something about machine learning. Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Given the recent hype about machine learning in the past couple of years, I would highly recommend readers interested in the topic to go ahead and learn more about a subject that isn’t looking to disappear in the coming years. There are plenty of online resources (highly recommend Andrew Ng’s online course) to learn about the subject! I would also recommend looking into participating in a Kaggle contest (predictive modeling) to get a general idea of what libraries and tools are needed to build predictive models, and what kind of factors go into building the best model. --- ## Tanner Cook is Using AI to Change the Way We Deal with Trash URL: https://futuresharks.com/tanner-cook/ Tanner Cook is a serial advanced technology entrepreneur who has been involved with everything from Nuclear Fusion to Nanotechnology. Now he’s using AI to take on trash. City where you’re from: **Aspen, Colorado** Hobbies: **Mountain Biking, Hiking, Skiing** Favorite quote: > ### “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t” ― Jerry Rice Twitter: **@CleanRobotics** ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I caught the bug a few years ago when I began working for a nuclear fusion startup. The fast paced environment fueled by brilliant individuals really sparked my drive to learn and to build a company of my own. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My biggest influences would be my high school teachers and my mentor and Ex-Secretary of Energy Dr. Robert Hunter Jr.. My teachers in high school instilled in me a drive to face challenges and let shine my aptitude for STEM. Dr. Hunter taught me how to be a top level engineer in the murky world of advanced R&D. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? When it comes to trash, humans typically do a poor job of understanding what is recyclable and what is not.  Our award-winning product, TrashBot, is an automated, smart trash can that combines next-generation robotics, computer vision and artificial intelligence to sort recyclables from non-recyclable material.  From corporate workplaces to stadiums and ball parks to universities, schools, airports, grocery stores, restaurants, malls, and even airplanes, the use cases for TrashBot are endless. ### How is your product different and unique? What’s the vision? Trash receptacles have been the same for centuries, were taking them to a place where they can be more useful in a variety of situations. For custodial services TrashBot lets custodians know when the bins are full, so they can save valuable time. Since our AI works so well with object recognition we can give instant waste audits to companies, communities, and governments. And beyond this all we are the first Internet of Things company to offer active and passive advertising. Imagine throwing away a Coke can, then an add and coupon for Pepsi instantly pops up. We can do that. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? Our current customers are high traffic public indoor spaces. Think convention centers, stadiums, airports etc.. We didn’t find them so much as they contacted us! These spaces have a high use for separating recyclables out from landfill as they want to keep a green image. Often times they will hand sort out recyclables which is not only dangerous, but time consuming and costly. Because of this they actively sought us out as a solution to their problems. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Absolutely, I’ve made mistakes in everything from hiring to design issues. I learned that as convenient and easy it can be to hire your friends, it’s not always the best decision. I’ve also learned that if you reach out to more knowledgeable people and ask them for help they will often give it to you. And if you’re polite and passionate when asking, they’ll generally help for free. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Validate everything you do starting with your product market fit. The first 3 months of starting a company should just be research. All this research will prove invaluable later in the life of your start up. ### Teach us something about fundraising. Can you recommend any favorite resources to learn that topic? I’ve had a ton of experience pitching and fundraising for my companies and everytime I think about it I’m reminded of the 5 P’s my music teacher Ms. Beyea taught me in Middle School “Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance”. Being able to answer any question immediately and have resources prepared to show you are a viable company has made all the difference on the uphill search for funds. I’d also have to say an incessant drive to reach out to whoever to raise funds is necessary. You’ll talk to 100 investors, 10 will be interested, and one will invest, but all you need is one. To learn about fundraising I would recommend just googling the type of fundraising you want to pursue. In my experience a blog post will often contain more precise and useful facts than a book on the subject. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? A problem, and a solution for it. ### What are some of your favorite books? [How to Win Friends and Influence People](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671027034) By Dale Carnegie, and The Name of The Wind By Patrick Rothfuss ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? I see myself branching out into other areas of Artificial Intelligence integrated in with Mechanical engineering. As for TrashBot and CleanRobotics I picture TrashBots in every airport, stadium, mall, and convention center helping to make our country cleaner, and using resources in a more viable way. EXTRA Cool stuff - This is my second company I’ve co-founded. My first, Higea Technologies, utilized a nanotechnology I developed to clean up oil spills. - We were recently selected from 1000’s of teams across the world as one of 150 to compete in the Watson AI XPrize. - I was recognized as an Emerging Innovator by the US House of Representatives. --- ## Aldrin Ryan Lupisan Talks About Closed Loop Plastics, The Future of Printing URL: https://futuresharks.com/aldrin-ryan-lupisan/ ### Hey Aldrin Ryan Lupisan, it’s great having you here. Tell us a bit more about you Currently a 4th year Environmental Engineering undergraduate student at UC Irvine by day and an entrepreneur by night, [Will](/william-amos/) and I venture through the unknown terrains of converting typical plastic waste such as into 3D printing filament. ### City where you’re from: Born: Manila, Philippines Grew up in: Long Beach, CA ### Hobbies: Basketball, reading, and boba (tapioca) enthusiast ### Favorite quote: “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot. Nothing is going to get better, It’s not.” -Dr. Seuss ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I’ve always had the mindset of having a productive and practical way of decreasing the effects of humans on the environment. To achieve this, I knew I had to step beyond the idea of working a day job after graduation and devote myself to making my own path to better the world. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? My high school teacher, Edgar Salmingo Jr., instilled in me a passion to be a steward not only for people, but especially for those who cannot fend for themselves such as sea creatures who live in polluted waters. It was his AP Environmental Science class that propelled my desire to pursue a career in environmental engineering and, thus leading me to be a co-founder of Closed Loop Plastics. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? I’m working with Will Amos on improving our working prototype that takes plastic waste from 3D printing and everyday plastic waste such as straws, coffee lids, things of that sort and converting it into 3D printing material to be used once more. I remember Will and I discussed the possibility of making a system, like the one mentioned above, in our room during our 2nd year at UCI. It was just a concept then and eventually manifested into a small demonstration for the ‘workshop of the future’ in the Team OC Solar Decathlon house during our 3rd year. For those not familiar with Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, it is an international competition held by the DoE where teams are tasked to build a house entirely powered by solar through innovative design and disruptive technologies. Our advisor and art professor, Prof. Jesse C. Jackson, sprung the idea of expanding the process by performing the research and development of our proposed system after the competition ended. Thus, our team was created and we worked in Prof. Jackson’s Speculative Prototyping Lab in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. The team consists of students from different branches of engineering and arts. This enabled us to look through different lenses for each problem we faced as a group. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? Most companies are focused on creating the equipment for recycling rather than focusing on the plastic material itself. By upcycling the plastic waste, the value of the plastic increases. We have been working diligently and have been able to bring the quality of our recycled 3D printing material to meet or even surpass, industry standards. Another aspect is the infrastructure that is waiting to be built! Not only are we going to process the plastic waste, but we will also be running the collection process. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? The customers are prototyping facilities, maker spaces, and the everyday 3D printing users! We’ve even contacted local high schools and public libraries in the area that have offered their waste to be collected. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Failures are what keep bringing our team successes. Since the formation of our team almost 2 years ago, we have encountered many difficulties in making the equipment we bought to work the way we wanted it to. By reengineering the system as a whole, we’ve managed to overcome many of the pits we were stuck in. It isn’t to say that the system is now perfect, but it has reached a stage that opens more doors for us to explore. Having the mindset of fail fast to learn quickly while applying proper engineering analysis has had tremendous benefits that help our team continue to work quickly and efficiently. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Design products to love all children, of all species, for all time. Keeping this in mind encapsulates the idea of doing good in as many aspects as possible. ### Teach us something about fundraising. One area of fundraising that our team focused on are grants. There are grants that can cover small projects that can help the ball rolling on your project/company. Be aware that grants can and will take more time than getting donations but with patience, you can get a little more money and help further your progress. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? Investing time in developing yourself. Whether it’s exercise or reading books on topics that directly apply to you alone and/or your company. Because if you yourself aren’t healthy, who is going to carry out your passion and your goals? ### What are some of your favorite books? Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In about 3 years, Closed Loop Plastics will become a vital part of the waste management system of  LA and OC county. I see Will and myself becoming consultants and creating opportunities for more people to adopt our system. And in the following years, expanding to other countries to build communities dedicated to reduce plastic waste in landfills. We previously covered Closed Loops Plastics’ partner [William Amos](/william-amos/) here. --- ## Closed Loop Plastics with William Amos URL: https://futuresharks.com/william-amos/ ### #### Welcome to Future Sharks William Amos! It’s great to have you here to share you story! Now tell us a little about yourself I am a 4th year Environmental Engineering student at UC Irvine. I am an Environmentalist and Engineer. Designing our sustainable future requires the integration of new technology, policy, and activism. To achieve this goal we have to foster a spirit of cooperation and innovation, and I will do just that in any team I am a part of. I am also an eagle scout and a recipient of the national Brower Youth Award for Environmental Activism. ### City where you’re from: Marin County, California ### Hobbies: backpacking, hiking, surfing, meditation ### Favorite quote: “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks” -John Muir ## Background ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I didn’t intend to be an entrepreneur. I just knew that I wanted to be apart of saving this planet from the many issues that it faces. As an environmental engineering student I had hoped my studies would lead me into a career that was focused on such a goal, however, I soon learned after my first year that if I were to stay the course with this field I would never do more than treat wastewater. Not to say this isn’t an important or noble task, it was just not something I was interested in as it was a largely solved problem. I wanted to help with the unsolved problems. During my 3rd and 4th years at UC Irvine I began to realize that more and more if I wanted to solve the problems I saw myself solving I would need to forge my own path. This is not to say I want to, nor think I can, solve all of the world’s environmental problems myself. I just mean to say that the if I wanted to tackle things head on I would need to do it outside of the conventional channels. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? I didn’t think this plastic recycling project would go beyond my college career. I was fairly certain I would get a job after this was all over working as an industrial designer or as a sustainability coordinator. However in October of 2016 my goals were drastically changed. I received the Brower Youth Award for Environmental Activism. Upon receiving the award I spent a week back home in the Bay Area with 5 of the other winners from different walks of life, but all striving towards the same goal of helping achieve a healthy planet. Not only was I inspired by these other college students and the amazing work they did, but I was given a new sense of purpose. I knew I had to take this farther, to see if we could make the world more environmentally sustainable through disruptive products and innovative engineering. ### Now ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Our project began two years ago as a part of the international Solar Decathlon competition. This competition tasks university teams with building houses entirely powered by solar power and bringing disruptive innovation to every corner of them. I lead the team that created the workshop of the future in this house. Within the workshop we displayed the fast growing technology of 3D printing. Aldrin and I being environmental engineers also explored the ways we can make this emerging technology better for the planet. We researched and found that there were some interesting pieces of equipment out there to grind down plastic waste and make that into material for 3D printing. While during the Solar Decathlon we only presented one of the pieces of recycling equipment, after the competition was over we got to work. We began our extensive design, prototyping, and academic research work in what is now known as the Speculative Prototyping Lab in UCI’s School of the Arts. The location is no accident,our lab director and faculty mentor is an arts professor. Our team is multidisciplinary  and represents many different disciplines within engineering and the arts. This pairing of arts and engineering has increased our ability to develop ideas that are outside of convention and thus truly disruptive. In March of 2017, after almost 1.5 years of research, we successfully completed a partially automated working prototype system. The system has generated multiple spools of printable plastic from different kinds of waste, including used drink cups and failed 3D prints. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision? While others have created the equipment necessary to make 3D printable material from waste plastic it has not been successfully implemented on a scale that has measurable impact on the environmental issue posed by plastic waste. Rather than simply give people the tools to make their own material from recycled plastic, Closed Loop Plastics aims to collect, process, and generate the material at a scale that will hopefully drastically change the way we think about plastic waste. We aren’t stopping at the concept, the goal is to put this into wide scale action. ### Who are your customers? How do you find them? Our customers are anyone with a 3D printer. We are currently working on partnering with the forty agencies in Orange County, CA, who offer prototyping services using printers that require large quantities of this spooled plastic. We are working on creating an infrastructure to collect the waste they generate, process that, and then sell it back to them at a discounted cost from what they would normally pay for the material if it were brand new. We’ve found out customers largely through networking with maker-spaces and the maker culture in general. We also attend many events pertaining to 3D printing, sustainable technology, as well as general entrepreneurship events. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? If someone doesn’t experience failure they’re lying or ignorant. Our group overcame so many obstacles. The main failure was that the equipment we bought to recycled waste into 3D printable material didn’t work as it was supposed to. Essentially we spent 1.5 years pioneering technology to solve the problems that the equipment posed. What I learned most of all was that this industry is so new no one really has solved all the problems, even if they state that they have. This isn’t meant to be a critique, but it does point to an overall issue which is that many feel it necessary to find out something first. It isn’t all that important who gets there first, just that we as a world culture get there. Our team isn’t the first to think of taking plastic waste and making it into 3D printing filament. However, we don’t need to be, we just want to make it work on a scale that has impact. ### Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. Passion over planning. Disruptive thinking doesn’t come from being the most business savvy person in the world, it comes from being driving by a feeling so deep in your bones you could never shake free of it. Bring the passion, and the planning will come. When something is wanted enough the right plan will come into view, not miraculously, but through the thousands of hours you put into that idea, that passion. ### Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? Grants. Get grants. Small ones, big ones, tall ones, thin ones. So much of what we do has a community of people behind it that want to back our work. The applications can sometimes be arduous but once a narrative is created then it’s simply adapting that to the topic at hand. Our team successfully garnered over $25,000 in grants to create our first working prototype. For any grants look into your university’s resources. Many of the grants that we won were less than $3,000 but we applied to as many as we could and garnered the resources we needed to achieve our primary goal. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? I would first focus on creating a good product. Many of the other ventures Aldrin and I have looked at seem to have wanted to focus on market research first and then work on developing the product. I would first pour your soul into developing something you can be proud of. Once you do that then the market will become clear. ### What are some of your favorite books? Favorite books: David Brower: The Making of the Environmental Movementby Tom Turner The Design of Everyday Thingsby Don Norman Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Thingsby William McDonough & Michael Braungart ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? In two years Closed Loop Plastics will hopefully have completed our pilot program to make all of UC Irvine’s campus sustainably printing with our recycled plastic filament. After that first year we will move onto expanding to include all of Orange County and then expand the plastic processing to other campuses so as to disperse filament production and expand CLP’s product reach. Here is an interview we did with William’s partner [Aldrin Ryan Lupisan](/aldrin-ryan-lupisan/) about Closed Loop Plastics. --- ## Young, Serial Entrepreneur Maddy Corbin Takes Monetizing Instagram By Storm URL: https://futuresharks.com/maddy-corbin/ From the 10 year old girl with an unstoppable business plan assembled for her “kids news” WordPress blog, to countless preteen hours spent working to comprehend vs , to the owner of a fast growing small business as a Junior in high school, Luxury 45, to the owner of the photography and design LLC Wisconsin & Gold, which has grown into today’s work running a self-branded empire, meet Maddy Corbin. **City where you’re from:** Fishers, Indiana **Hobbies:** photography, design projects, calligraphy, blogging, and meet-ups **Favorite quote:** “In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.” – Frantz Fanon **Instagram:** @maddy.corbin **Twitter:** @maddy_corbin ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? My first step into entrepreneurship was my junior year of high school. Struck with frustration mixing autoimmune skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema mixed with body care products, I formed Luxury 45 and organic and homemade bath and body products business for individuals with hypersensitive skin. This blew up in ways I never saw coming. I had a feature on RTV6 and Huffington Post picked up another one of my interviews. I had products for sale in 3 local stores throughout Indianapolis and it really begun to change my small community’s thoughts on skin care. This kind of started a whirlwind in me, I love the thrill of entrepreneurship and the challenges by going home from high school classes and filing business taxes and making sure everything was up and running smoothly. From there I formed Wisconsin & Gold LLC, my photography and design brand that got me through my senior year of high school. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? In high school my biggest influence was Sophia Amoruso. She is the CEO of Nasty Gal and Founder of Girl Boss. I think my biggest “defining moment” with her was when I realized that she wasn’t handed where she was today, matter of fact, she has a pretty bad childhood but had something in her to become something bigger than that. It made me realize that I could really do anything I set my mind to no matter where I came from, (as I finished that book, sitting alone at my high school lunch table). Her story gave me the comfort and confidence that I could really do this entrepreneurship thing ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Currently, I am working on building, in retrospect, a self branding empire. I am a social influencer, who works with companies across the nation from Indianapolis to supply them with tags to my audience and content that they can then utilize as back-pocket content for themselves. Although I realized that to turn my name “Maddy Corbin” into its own brand/business (not just a photographer, not just a designer, or even just a social influencer) that I couldn’t do it alone. Enter phase 2 of self-branding: I have started a project where I pull in creative individuals from my area (and surrounding areas when I travel) and put them on my collaboration projects with me. In the end, getting to have more creative minds on one concept is giving even more awesome content to these awesome brands. I came up with this idea when I finally learned to be able to say that “I can’t do everything and that’s okay” to get big, to be able to do what I do full-time I need to be able to utilizing individuals from all over, whether they work in a creative industry, or just want a creative outlet, to help me and pick their brain. This will also transition into full-blown small business and self branding workshops. This will be online in and (hopefully) available with travel combined with one-on-one consultations. Basically, I am taking a bunch of crap that I am passionate about, combining with a full-circle or exposure between brand and influencers and getting it to make sense under one brand, Maddy Corbin. ### How is your brand different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? My brand is unique simply because I look at posting about a brand on Instagram or on the blog as a bigger picture. I integrate everything into my everyday life and have a goal of just trying to better myself and my community, not money. My favorite moment was when I launched maddycorbin.com and did my first blog post, called “So What Exactly Do You Do” because it is a question I get asked daily and because of this, is became my least favorite question. I thought that utilizing that post as a content-holder to push the individuals that ask me would make answering emails and DM’s easier, but then I saw my traffic skyrocket, the website almost crashed because everyone was going to it. It was the moment that I realized I had a real audience that was truly interested in what I putting out there, and that this concept of self branding could really work. ### If you do IG ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? I have yet to use any ads, other than the paid content collaborations that I label with #ad because I am still so small, I try to stay personable until I pull on the large groups. Untapped markets I simply engage. You have no idea the wonders that you get back when you engage with people in your industry, the customers of individuals in your industry, or even people that you think would be interested in your content. I always say, “you give love, you get love”. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? Failure is not only my middle name but my best friend. I love failures because they keep me in line and help me stay in the mindset of the vision. People who are afraid to fail, (or “never” fail aren’t learning anything in the world of entrepreneurship. You will learn more in one self-educated failure than you will in an entire year of a college class. # Value-add questions ### Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have. STOP CONSUMING AND START EXECUTING. Stop saying you will, go and do it. Put down the books that are teaching you what to do and get out there and figure it out yourself. Do it, fail, learn from it, repeat. EVERYDAY. **Teach us something about social media management. Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic?** To run a successful social media account, on average, it is good to have a engagement rate of 20%. I’m pretty picky on where to get information on getting more Instagram followers or engagement, as I said in my latest blog post: “Close The Book That Teaches You Social Media” but I think this diagram is a great representation http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/10/19/get-more-instagram-followers ### While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc) No matter what field you are in, being a young entrepreneur, businesses will try to scam you or get around business easier. While this is not new bits of knowledge everyone should know that you can push back just as aggressively. If you decide to start doing collaboration projects with brands on a paid consensus, and they say “…we don’t actually have any money at this time to put toward this campaign, but would be happy to send you a product”, as nice as this is, you can happily decline, “..unfortunately at this time, all collaboration requests have to go through my media kit terms and packages, let me know if you would like to work together in the future”. You have no idea how many times I end up being turned around doing more work than I would have been paid for, all for free. It took me a few times to realize that at the end of the day you are the influencer and you are the one benefitting the brand. You may be young but never be afraid to stand up for the awesome work you know you are going to provide. ### What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak? I start everyday, no matter what, with a to-do list. It helps me stay focused throughout the day having laid out goals and creates a burning fire competition with myself to get stuff done, and if for some reason I don’t, it is #1 on the next day’s list. ### What should an entrepreneur focus on? At the end of the day, your main goal should always focusing arounding becoming a better version of yourself. ### Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today. Passion. Patience. Persistence. It’s really that simple. Each and every day I wake up and I work until I can’t anymore. I am always passionate about what I do to its full extent and I wouldn’t trade the work I do, even if it kills me. Patience. You’re not going to wake up famous, or an expert or rich or whatever your goals is, you have to be patient. Persistence. I’m 19 and have never and will never have the “college experience” and I am more than happy to admit that. I put everything into my work, I’m persistent and I wouldn’t be where I am without that. ### What are some of your favorite books? GirlBoss, The Four Agreements, and Leading Women. ### Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years? Traveling, talking about the world of small business and self branding, getting large groups of creatives together for collaborations and building a stronger brand around what I love to do. --- ## Rob Fajardo’s new FB Live Show Leave Normal Behind is the Best Thing that Happened to My News Feed URL: https://futuresharks.com/rob-fajardo/ **Hey Rob Fajardo! Very nice having you here. Tell us a bit about you?** I am the founder of Leave Normal Behind and host of LNB Tv. I am an advisor to Fownders, a social impact accelerator founded by Gerard Adams. I am a contributor for Influencive and Prsuit. **City where you’re from:**NYC **Hobbies:**Reading, Playing Piano, Athletics, Gym **Favorite quote:**If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together. No man can multiply himself unless he can divide himself amongst all others ### Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? I did not want to allow my dreams to be in the hands of someone else. I realized that giving someone else the ability to determine the outcome of my life was not for me. I wanted to put my life in my own hands and through my own effort determine if I would succeed or not. ### Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life? Initially my biggest influences came from reading timeless books that I believe all entrepreneurs should read. There are certain authors who’s material is necessary when developing the foundation of your entrepreneurial career. Some of these books were: - How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles - The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol - Start With Why by Simon Sinek - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Go Givers Sell More – John David Mann and Bob Burg The defining moment in my life came my sophomore year at Amherst College, an elite liberal arts school in Western Massachusetts. At the time I was a two sport athlete that was recruited to play both football and baseball. I asked myself a big question which was, “What is my major league talent ?” I asked myself if I really wanted to play professional sports and if all the time I was spending focused on athletics was worth it. I knew that my purpose was to help others leave normal behind, become the best version of themselves, and create things that matter. I realized that I would never be so fortunate to be at such an elite institution surrounded by some of the most intellectual minds on the planet and had the epiphany that my major league talent was MY BRAIN ! It all hit me at once. Obviously your brain and the knowledge it holds can benefit your life positively or negatively. I committed to becoming the best version of myself and helping others do the same by stepping into their inner genius and creating things they are passionate about. ### What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea? Right now we have launched a new FB LIVE television show called LNB Tv. It is a place where we share authentic news on trending topics in business, technology, innovation, social impact and more in order to give a millennial lens on the most important topics of the day and educate the under-informed on issues that affect their daily life. We came up with the entire after realizing that there is no talk show host under 30 years old that has a top quality production and discusses important topics in an articulate, researched, and informed way that can give a millennial lens on these topics. Other talk show hosts include Oprah, Ellen, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, and Dr. Phil. ### How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision? We have an amazing LNB Tv studio with all the television equipment necessary to run a full news station and eventually a network. The big vision is to create a network that uses the media to spread more hope, more love, and more authenticity by sharing content that matters and requires people to critically think and engage so that they can use what they’ve listened too in order to shift daily conversation. The best moments are when people call-in LIVE on the show. It’s awesome when people interact with us and feel compelled to share their thoughts, insights, and opinions on the topics we are talking about. One of my favorite quotes by Nelson Mandela is, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It takes a community to impact a generation and with LNB Tv its all about providing value to our community. ### If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of? We are just beginning to run facebook ads. The strategy we are using is all through content marketing. Luckily for us each episode of LNB Tv is an hour long and we address multiple topics. The key is to turn that macro-content into micro-content and create awesome 1 to 2 minunte clips of content that you can run ads too and target the specific niche. For example in one episode we can talk about Donald Trump, SnapChat IPO, and a Personal Growth Tip. Each one of those topics appeal to entirely different audiences. For us we will be promoted the short clips which hopefully compel them to click and watch the whole show. You can only promote the entire 1 hour episode to your fans because the people who do not know you will not watch for that long yet. So in order to wet their appetite a bit you have to target them with micro-content first. ### Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it? I have experienced failure. I have built a company and teams and then lost them and started from zero then did it all over again two more times. Granted, these are all startup companies so the losses were not immense, however I gained tons of business development insight that has helped me connect with celebrities, influencers, and some of the best business minds in the world. The best thing I’ve learned is that you need to consistently always add more value than that of which you take in payment. Not just in business, but even in your friendships. If you are always asking yourself how you can add more value to others than that of which you t