Name: LEADUP – PowerUP: How to kick fear in the face and live the life of your dreams
Presenters: Byron Cheung and Emily Lim
Many leaders are lacking the right soft skills to break their limitation; moreover, hard skills will cover the technical aspects, but soft skills will approach the vision. LEADUP is a community founded by Emily Lim, the Pastor of New Joy Church, to help young leaders to train, teach, grow and inspire their leadership skills. The community is to allow young leaders to break through their limitation and discover their potentials. LEADUP invites Byron Cheung, the winner of the Golden Voice Award, to share his leadership lessons from his singing journey. The presentation will follow by Emily Lim’s energy presentation to discuss the importance of energy management.
Byron Cheung
Byron Cheung asked a simple question that most people are afraid to face. The question is “Am I happy with my job?” and most people’s answer is no, but they are afraid to deal with it. Based on statistic, most employees are not satisfied with their salary and the percentage of them who love their current job and the percentage of them who think their career is meaningful is significantly low. However, Facebook has managed to increase the employee satisfaction of over 90%. Byron believes the difference is that they discover their purpose and have the right mindset to achieve their purpose.
GO FAR
Cheung learned many new valuable lessons from different jobs he had. He believes every job is a stepping stone to another job. However, his journey is not as easy as what people think.
In 2012, He received second place in the New Talent Singing Awards Competition. Even though he won the best vocal award, but Cheung still feel defeated. He was disappointed when he discovered one of the judge is the champion’s teacher. In addition, he started to give up.
In 2013, he was invited to another Hong Kong Sining competition and he could not past the second round. The result was a big hit for Cheung. In 2014, he graduated from the Art Institution and his academic path helped his music passion reunite. He learned he had the mindset of competing others, which limited his ability. He decided to change.
In 2015, he started his own recording studio and an expected opportunity came by for Cheung. He was invited to compete the Golden Voice Award in Hong Kong. He was hesitated to join because of his previous failure, but with the support from his friends and family, he overcame the obstacles. With his new mindset, he won the competition and received the singing contract.
“No success is self made”
Leaders are living in the culture that working alone is necessary to be successful. However, Cheung disagrees. He believes working as a team is important. He develops the GO FAR system to help leaders to overcome fear.
GO stands for “Goal Oriented”. Cheung believes it is good to be competitive, but leaders should compete themselves, not others. F stands for “Focus”. Leaders need to stay on track with the goals. Leaders must continuously practice to ensure they are laser focused on their goals. A stands for “Attitude”. Leaders should not let any circumstances to control their direction. If the odds are not in favour of leaders, it is their obligation to change the odds. R stands for “Reason”. Facebook is successful because they know their “why”. Leaders must discover their “why”. Cheung wants to influence the society. He discovers Hong Kong music industry is dying and he believes he can change it. Therefore, it is important to know why leaders are achieving their goals.
“Do not live by fear”
Emily Lim
Emily Lim is the Pastor of the New Joy Church. She founded the LEADUP community to help young leaders to laser focus their goals and passion. The community will help young leaders to focus and unleash their purpose within. It will also empower the better vision of them and it creates the driving force to their fullest potential. Lim is also a motivational speaker who has the passion of developing soft skills for young leaders. Moreover, her voice and messages have encourage many young leaders to reach their maximum potential.
Lim believes the major resource is not time, and it is energy. Lim provides the saw mill example. A worker works hard in his saw mill job. The harder he works, the lower his productivity. At the end, he realizes the reason he could not improve his productivity is because he did not sharpen the saw.
Leaders need to focus on emotional energy. When leaders manage their emotion, they can leverage their success. Emotions can either be good or bad because it depends on how leader harness the emotion. More importantly, Lim wants leaders to focus their goal with the right emotions.
Lim believes leaders must use their emotions to blow past the inertia of procrastination. Success comes from long term perspective. With the right decision making, leaders can launch their vision. Lim shares 3 surprising energy drawing saying for leaders to discover their limitation.
Saying #1: I am a hard worker
Leaders will say that they are hard worker. However, this is misconception because the universe do not reward hard work, it rewards recognized results. Leaders should not focus on hard work. Lim shares the Sisyphus story. Sisyphus has one job, and the job is to work the stone up to the mountain. He is considered to be a hard worker, but he is not rewarded with the work. If he changes his thinking and breaks the stone, he will be able to use the small pieces of the stone to build houses. He will then feel empowered because he is building a community.
“Hard work is not your goal, it is simply a likely by-product of a worthy mission accomplished”
Saying #2: I do not have time
When leaders say they do not have time, the truth is that they do not want to face the reality. Everyone has 24 hours and many leaders waste their time to procrastinate. Lim indicates when leaders say they do not have time, it means the time is managing them. Instead of that statement, Lim suggests leaders to say “I choose not to make that a priority”. This will allow leaders to manage their time. If leaders cannot control their time management, they do not have guilt. When leaders make priority, they will know what is important.
Saying #3: Someone made me
Sometimes leaders believe happiness comes from other people’s actions. However, Lim believes it is their responsibility to be in charge of their happiness. It is important for leaders to know that it is not right to allow other people’s to control leaders’ own happiness. Therefore, leaders should say “this person did this and I choose to be mad”. This statement will allow leaders to take back the power so they can move on. This statement will also change leaders’ emotions.
“We do not want to be thermometer, we want to be thermostats”
Leaders might have unlimited resources, but they have limited energy. Lim suggests leaders to put their energy in the right place.
Lim provides 3 interesting tips to take control energy and emotions.
The first tip is to get rid of the old letters. When leaders receive the letters, it serves the purpose to provide the emotion. When the purpose is met, leaders should thank the letter and throw away. The second tip is to have a capsule closet. Leaders can limit their clothes so they do not need to use the energy to choose their clothes in the morning. Based on statistic, when people make too many choices, their judgement will reduce. The third tip is to know their emotion energy tank. Leaders need to know when their emotion energy tank fill up. This will give themselves the permission to be themselves and control their emotions.
Wheels of life
Lim provides the wheel of life chart. The chart contains attitude, career, finance, personal growth, health, family, relationship, and social life. When leaders rate their wheel of life, they will discover the strong and weak elements.
In order to improve the wheel of life, Lim shares the formula.
E + R = O
E is events, R is responses, and O is the outcome. Leaders cannot control the events, but they can control their responses. When leaders should always put their energy they value the most. Their actions must be congruent to their vision. They need to develop their own personal mission statement and always self assess all the time.
Name: Leaders of Tomorrow Success Series – Business Etiquette
Presenter: Carey McBeth
Successful leaders have strong professional etiquette in their careers; moreover, professional etiquette is the fundamental key for successful leaders to drive their impression to excellence. Leaders of Tomorrow invites Carey McBeth to discuss the key elements of professional etiquette for young leaders. In addition, young leaders will learn the secrets behind etiquette to enhance their performance and confidence. Carey McBeth will share her business experience and strategies to help young leaders to be more effective on their own personal branding to their road of success.
Carey McBeth is an international etiquette expert and customer experience training consultant. McBeth is featured on many media coverage, including Global News, The Vancouver Sun, and Business in Vancouver. Her passion also includes communication and networking. As a professional speaker, McBeth has trained many professionals in different fields. Moreover, McBeth also contributes her time to help raise awareness and funds for non-profit organizations. Many leaders receive significant results from her training program.
The Power of People Skill
Carey McBeth believes excellent customer services comes from excellent people skills. Young leaders in this generation are required to enhance their professional brand, become digitally savvy and effectively network in a digital world.
First impression always last. McBeth indicates in any professional field, young leaders make the first impression in the first 5 seconds of any conversation. Young leaders must realize the way they present themselves in public describes the brand they want other to receive.
One of the secret rules of etiquette is dress to impress. McBeth explains many young leaders have the conception of matching the culture of business environment; however, they must understand the gatekeepers are the one who invite them to be in the business environment. In any business events, it is important for young leaders to dress for success, dress for industry, and dress for professionals.
Body language is another essential for business etiquette. Over 55% of communication comes from body language. Young leaders must show they are approachable. McBeth wants young leaders to use a simple smile to overcome their fear in business events. Smile can make other more comfortable. Direct eye contact should be 40-60% of the time. Less than that will show disrespect and more than that will take other people’s space. Eye contacts presents a signal for others that leaders are listening. McBeth mentions customs can be vary from different countries. The rule of thumb for young leaders is to follow the customs in the country where business is taken place.
Handshaking is the only form of touch in professional field. McBeth explains handshaking will show confidence. The proper way of handshaking is to use web to web connection. 2 to 3 pumps with shoulder to shoulder stand are enough to impress professionals.
“Start with handshake and end with handshake”
Spatial distance is important for business etiquette. Young leaders can use space to represent their confidence. Space can categorize in 4 different levels: intimate, personal, social and public space. Different professionals may need different level of space. Furthermore, McBeth wants young leaders to choose the right space at the right situation in business conversation.
Introduction is the power punch to professionals. It opens up the circle of influence. McBeth believes an effective introduction starts with other first name and last name. Then follow by what they do and what they can offer. Young leaders might be surprise that professionals often will help others when they ask. The best way to meet is in the elevator.
How to become digitally savvy
Technology can simplify many business procedures and communication, but there is a time to shut off the technology. McBeth wants young leaders to understand digital is here to enhance, not to replace. People want service and they pay for how they want to be treated it. Therefore, it is important to think about what other feels.
Young leaders should effectively manage their online reputation. Instead of just looking at the web, they should look at the image and videos. Professionals will google other professionals. LinkedIn ranks high in Google search, which means young leaders must have effective LinkedIn accounts. Everything they post will be live in the public and there is no way to delete it. Young leaders must be aware of what they post. This will influence they online brand reputation.
“If you are not comfortable of what you post to be on the front page of newsletter, do not do it”
Communication is the key. It is important to give people the time and respect. Young leaders must be mindful to others. Young leaders should keep their email professional. Email should respond within 24 hours, and subject line should be used with appropriate wording. It is important to avoid text talk because young leaders cannot guarantee other people will know the meaning behind the text abbreviation. Business card is personal brand. It reflects the company image. They should be given out in appropriate time. McBeth wants young leaders to know that giving business cards means to invite others to connect with them. Instead of putting other people’s card immediately, they should hold it until the end. Young leaders can write notes on the back of the card for memory.
“Always have the business cards in place because you will never know who you will meet”
Effective networking in a digital world
McBeth defines networking is to find ways to help other people. Young leaders can network anywhere as long it is appropriate. However, they need to pick and choose the right demographic to be effective. McBeth provides a networking strategy to use dogs as conversation openers. It will help young leaders to network with people they do not know. Young leaders should search for individuals who seem receptive. They should avoid groups of 2. McBeth suggests young leaders to use other people’s name in their conversation. Young leaders can master small talk to identify common interests and experience. This will engage other people in the conversation. Always focus on other people and less on themselves. In any conversation, it is important to make fewer statements and ask more questions. This is the opportunity for young leaders to get facts about others.
Young leaders should end conversations with an invitation to connect again. They need to figure out the best way to get a hold of others and always ask permission to connect. Small courtesies create a powerful response in others. It shows appreciation and thank you notes should be done separately. McBeth states a physical thank you note will stay on the table for 5-6 days.
McBeth believes online networking is mingling, not joining. Young leaders must have the mindset of contributing and helping others. In LinkedIn, young leaders should have professional photos online and they should become a LinkedIn powerhouse. This means they should utilize LinkedIn functions to analyze their connections, find out their activities, and learn from others. The quality of connections is more important than the quantity of connections. McBeth recommends young leaders not to use generic LinkedIn introduction; instead, they should personalize it.
Lastly, McBeth encourages young leaders to become a resource. People will work with people who they know and trust. It is all about relationship.
Questions and Answers
When young leaders want to reconnect their lost connections, McBeth suggests them to provide acknowledgement and accept the responsibility. It takes time to recover the connections, but be trustful and honest will eventually reconnect the conversation once again. Young leaders should not be afraid to help people who are above their level, and they should also not be afraid to get assistance from the top.
McBeth suggests young leaders to walk away with at least 2 new connections in any business events. Moreover, young leaders should give other people opportunity to step aside as well.
Name: How to Communicate Your Way to Riches with Dan Lok
Presenter: Dan Lok
Successful entrepreneurs are required to have effective communication skill. Moreover, entrepreneurs must master their communication ability to influence others. Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group invites Dan Lok, the multi-millionaire and serial entrepreneur, to help entrepreneurs learn the true ability of communication. This presentation will allow entrepreneurs to enhance their professional relationships and improve stage fright. Entrepreneurs will understand the true intention behind communication. In addition, Dan Lok will guide entrepreneurs through his powerful system and increase their business productivity.
Dan Lok is a multi-millionaire and a serial entrepreneur. Moreover, he is also the Founder of Charm Junction. Lok is the expert in internet marketing with the title of “Millionaire Mentor”. Lok has published many books to help entrepreneurs overcome their obstacles and barriers. With his business experience, Lok becomes a professional and motivational speakers. Many entrepreneurs look upon his ability and admire his journey. Lok is considered a legend icon for many young entrepreneurs.
Communication is important because communication is the ability to persuade freedom. Lok defines the ability of communication is equivalent to the amount of wealth. When entrepreneurs use communication for good, they can influence others with integrity; however, when entrepreneur use communication in the bad way, they consider it as manipulation. Moreover, communication is all based on interpretation. It is important for entrepreneurs to continuously improve communication skills.
“The better communicator you are, the wealthier you will become”
Great entrepreneurs are great communicators. Lok indicates there are two types of communication forms that successful entrepreneurs must mastered. The first form is internal communication, which focuses on the internal dialogue within entrepreneurs. The second form is outward communication, which focuses on the ability to influence other people. Lok makes a point that the influence in outward communication is not the same as manipulation.
“If you think you can, or think you cannot, you are right”
All entrepreneurs must believe in themselves. The stronger entrepreneurs believe in themselves, the stronger their certainty. Lok emphasizes entrepreneurs can influence others when their level of certainty is higher than others. Ideas will not go anywhere unless entrepreneurs can get them across. Many entrepreneurs have difficulty influencing many people at once. Lok suggests entrepreneurs to start one-on-one first and work their way up. If entrepreneurs cannot convince someone in one-on-one conversation, it will be extremely difficult for them to convince in global base.
The art of communication is the language of leadership. Lok shares a statement that a leader can lead people to where they want to go; however, a great leader will take them to a place they do not necessarily want to go but ought to be. With effective communication, entrepreneurs can sell something to people who they do not even know they want it but they will appreciate it at the end. Moreover, if entrepreneurs cannot sell their ideas, they are not helping others. It is difficult for entrepreneurs to force people to move in the same direction, but their passion can motivate and inspire people. In addition great communicators must obtain the ability to create high energy and the ability to influence themselves first. All greatest accomplishments require passion. Entrepreneurs must always maintain high passion and always be in hungry mode. Successful entrepreneurs will prepare whatever it takes to complete their goals.
“When lion is hunting a rabbit, the lion is still at 100%”
Every entrepreneur has a little voice in their mind. It is important to overcome it. Entrepreneurs need to argue against the little voice with higher energy level. The little voice acts as protection for entrepreneurs and it will keep entrepreneurs from going forward. The strength from the little voice are fed by entrepreneurs. Lok wants entrepreneurs to conquer their little voice. High confidence with high passion leads high control. Therefore, communication can help entrepreneurs to reprogram themselves.
Lok recommends entrepreneurs to talk to themselves in the mirror and try to persuade the person in the mirror. Entrepreneurs can use this opportunities to discover their internal voice and internal obstacles. Great communicators can mange the little voice
If entrepreneurs want more people to like them, trust them or respect them, they need to be a good listener. Listening to other people’s emotions may be the most important skills for entrepreneurs. The Chinese character of the word “listen” is a combination of ear, eye, undivided attention, and heart. Lok explains out of all leadership skills, listening is the most valuable skill, but it is also the least understood. Successful entrepreneurs will never stop listening because that is their secrets to identify unseen problems and take advantage of opportunities. Human beings have two ears and one mouth, which means it is necessary to listen twice as much as talk. Listening can sustain trust from others. If entrepreneurs lost others’ trust, it will be difficult to gain it back. Moreover, it takes more work to do active listening.
“People do not buy from you not because you can sell, it is because they understood”
5 Ways to improve listening skills
Lok believes complex is the enemy of execution, so he will share 5 simple ways for entrepreneurs to improve their listening skills.
Maintain eye contact
Make notes
Allow people to finish their own sentences
Respond so the other people knows they are listening
Ask core questions
When entrepreneurs maintain eye contact, they show others that they are paying attention. The amount of eye contact can be various by other people. Lok suggests entrepreneurs to mirror other people and watch for their body language. Making notes can reinforce entrepreneurs’ memory. It is advisable to ask permission first. Therefore, good entrepreneurs will take notes all the time, which makes other people feel important.
Entrepreneurs need to allow others to finish their sentences and should not jump into the conversation. This will indicate respect for what others are saying. Entrepreneurs need to respond. Response can be simple as nodding or a simple action. This gives respect and recognition for others. Entrepreneurs need to ask core questions, especially the “why” questions. The “Why” questions can help entrepreneurs to go deeper into a particular subjects and gain greater understanding of their situation. Entrepreneurs should provide questions for people to respond with open and end answers. Moreover, entrepreneurs should start with broad information and continue seeking more specific responses.
“When you listen, it is a powerful weapon, you will stand out”
Lok believes the most powerful gift entrepreneurs can give to others is one profound question. Entrepreneurs need keep asking questions because what entrepreneurs say might meant something big for other people. Ultimately, all knowledge leads to self knowledge, which is to understand themselves.
Public speaking
Lok explains all entrepreneurs are the artist of commerce. All speaking is public speaking. Simply, all kind of speaking can be either good or bad. Lok shares his story. Lok was terrified at speaking at high school. Lok would avoid any presentation. During his communication course, he was required to give a presentation. Lok was nervous, but he did it, which planted a seed for his future. Lok knew he needs to overcome the fear, so he joined toastmaster to practice public speaking. With enough feedbacks and constant improvement, he mastered the skill. Lok wanted to become a public speaker, so he started to pay attention to big success motivational speakers. Many students in toastmaster shared similar dream with Lok, but only Lok made it through. Lok believes anyone can do it.
Lok emphasizes stage time is wealth time. All entrepreneurs must cherish their stage time. Public speaking skill can leverage entrepreneurs to deliver more values to other people. Public speaking creates more opportunities and success; therefore, as pubic speaking improves, the earning ability increases.
How to overcome stage fright
A traditional advice for pubic speaking is to picture the audience naked. Lok believes this is an ineffective tactic. Lok will share the 3 quick fixes for public speaking to help entrepreneurs.
Focus on the audience, not themselves
Change the state
Practice and record on video
Entrepreneurs should stop being self-fish and start focusing on audience. The purpose of presentation is to provide values to audience, and the objective of any presenter is to teach the audience to grow. Entrepreneurs should not focus on internal and focus on external. Entrepreneurs should always ask themselves if they deliver enough values to other. Before any speaking, Lok will do a ritual. He will visualize a light beam go through his body and the light will brighten the room. The energy helps Lok to relax and focus. Lok will change his state by making the switch from his own developed power move. Power move is a movement that allows entrepreneurs to shift energy. Moreover, Lok will record every speaking engagement for feedbacks and improvement.
“Cherish the stage time, you never know who is in the audience”
5 tips to improve your public speaking skills
The difference between professional and amateur is one gets paid and other does not. Sometimes speakers do not connect with audience. Lok explains professional speakers will engage audience to believe the speaker is talking to each individual.
Tips #1: Speak to one person, not to the group
The audience is always have one-on-one perspective with speakers, but speakers are looking at group perspective. Sometimes speakers will use certain phrases that will lose the connections with audience. In hence, audience will lose interests. Lok has provided a sample list of phrases entrepreneurs should not use during their presentation.
You are such a good crowd
What a good looking group
You all got up early this morning
Ladies and gentlemen
Take your seats
Without further ado
“Speak like you are talking to the individual”
Tips #2: Do not hide behind the black box
Most entrepreneurs limit their movements in their presentation. Lok recommends entrepreneurs to move around constantly. They should never present behind an object because it will reduce their confidence and lose engagement with the audience.
Tips #3: Deliver from your power spot
Entrepreneurs need to find their power spot in their presentation. The power spot is usually the spot that can see the most audience. After they discover their power spot, Lok suggests them to move to their right when they talk about negative or past. They will need to move to the left when they talk about positive or future. Lastly, they will deliver the present in the middle, which is the power spot. The theory behind this is that left brain focuses on logic and right brain focuses on creativity. In the audience’s perspective, when entrepreneurs move to their left, it will trigger the feelings. When entrepreneurs move to their right, it triggers the analysis. Most people write from left to right, which symbolizes from beginning to the end.
Entrepreneurs can offer their produces by putting it on their left, so it shows it on audience’s right side, which represents the future.
Tips #4: Speaking from diaphragm
Lok recommends entrepreneurs to speak from their diaphragm, and not from their throat or chest. Chest and throat usually provide soft voice and diaphragm will provide longer and powerful voice. Moreover, speaking from diaphragm can penetrate their voice to the crowd.
Tips #5: Entertain, educate, empower
The speaker’s goal is to entertain. When people have good time, it means speakers have successfully deliver the message. Entrepreneurs should focus on how to make their speech more entertain. After entertain, they can educate new information and empower them with something they can take away from the presentation.
In business, everything entrepreneurs want and do not have, they can get it form other people. Lok believes the way entrepreneurs communicate with others and with themselves ultimately determines the quality of their lives. Entrepreneurs should always master communication skills.
Name: CTRL ALT DELETE – Young leaders Reboot the Conversation
Presenters: Melody Ma, Amie Rotherham, Natalie Cartwright, Sarah Goodman, and Nikki Wong
Many thought young leaders and experts come from various intersections of many different industries. Moreover, young leaders will recognize various of disruptions when they reboot their conversations. SFU Woodward presents “CTRL ALT DELETE” presentation to educate and motivate young leaders in Vancouver to revisit the experience and lessons from successful young leaders. The presentation invites Melody Ma, the Developer at MEC & Kids Code Advocate, and Amie Rotherham, the Account Executive at Rsquared Communication. Furthermore, the presentation will include a panel discussion. The panelists include Natalie Cartwright, the Co-Founder & COO of Payso, Sarah Goodman, the CEO of VitalSines, and Nikki Wong, the Program Director at Spring.is. This presentation will focus on technology sector and young leaders will learn the experiences and valuable insights from all presenters.
Melody Ma
Before Melody Ma stepped into the world of web developer, she was a Product Manager. While working as a Product Manager, she was trapped but she could feel there was a black box she wanted to pursue. Ma quitted her job and took the risk to join the coding camp. She developed a simple mini game and realized she enjoys coding. It took her 10 years to realize her true passion.
Ma believes she did not have any access of technology when she was young. In high school, Ma never thought technology sector would ever across her career path. Later that year, she made a New Year resolution to help kids to realize their options of learning. She decided to find a way to help students from kindergarten to grade 12 in British Columbia to learn how to code at school.
Many countries have already introduced coding as mandatory courses in their education system. This will help students to maximize the exposure of technology advancement. British Columbia is not in the list, so Ma wrote a letter to the Ministry to attach coding program framework as education criteria of digital literacy. However, her idea was rejected. Even though the idea was rejected, the ministry realized there was a need in digital literacy component.
Ma will not allow this response to stop her passion. She continues to help students by hosting workshops to create awareness for Ministry. In last December, currently there were over 400 students in age 8 to 18 in 4 BC cities to code for free. Ma believes this is just the start of the awareness. The team is in the transition to reboot this conversation for the new society.
Amie Rotherham
Amie Rotherham started her journey in the passion of journalism. However, the media was not an easy path for Rotherham. In university, Rotherham transformed her passion into something deeper, which is public relation.
While working in a local newspaper company in her town, she experienced a whole new opportunity. She refocused her passion even deeper, which is lifestyle public relation. While she worked in Rsquared Communication, she learned to love her career. Technology can change people’s lives and simplify people’s work.
Rotherham explains that there is a dirty “D” word in her industry that many people are trying to avoid. The word is “Disrupt”. Many people encourage her not to use this word, but she feels the word, “Disrupt” can change behaviour. It is difficult to perform, but it can be very effective. Telling stories with technology is a new way to expose coverage for daily news. Rotherham believes young leaders have limitless room to tell stories by using the right technology. It is interesting to see the shift of traditional approach of journalism career to new digital century of journalism career.
Many media companies are covering more serious news. Local newspaper companies are aware of losing customers due to selections from other online media companies. The growth increases due to engagement and media. Media impression has increased significantly. The technology cycle changes significantly and the future of work is important to notice. Nevertheless, technology companies are now holding high standard due to media coverage.
Rotherham suggests young leaders to go beyond what they are and what they know.
The panel
Many young leaders believe all founders are considered themselves as the alone wolf. The panellists disagree. Natalie Cartwright believes in her entrepreneur journey, she receives many peer supports. When she was blindsided by someone who she trusted, she was depressed. However, that moment made her realized she has many supporters in her company that she was grateful for. The emotional support is equally important as any tangible support. Sarah Goodman mentions people will introduce her to other great young leaders. The connections set her up for more opportunities and peer support keeps her going in the direction she wants to go. Nikki Wong also believes alone wolf is a myth. There is always peer support around young leaders if they look hard enough. In community, building strong network is essential. People know the tides and people are there to motivate their peers. This happens not just in professional network, yet they become their personal network.
There are many things the panelists believe things should change in Canada. Cartwright emphasizes payment method is something Canada needs to look into. United States is way further ahead than Canada. Sweden is the next country to be cashless. Based on statistic, many countries are doing better than Canada. Canada is currently copying other countries and they are not really ahead. Goodman believes showing positive impact is important. This brings new matric to attention. Wong believes young leaders are creating things to be innovative. They should think reverse innovation. This means instead of taking exiting solution from other country and meet the needs, they should identify the fundamental problem and start there.
Many young leaders will need to take a stand from what they believe. Cartwright provides an example that many financial technology companies own most customer relationship. This hurts the traditional banks. What they should have done is to be collaborative. Goodman mentions Health Canada and Fraser Health Authority have different standards. They are very sensitive towards the response of diagnostic. Perhaps, young leaders should seek health professionals for further assistance. Wong mentions there is a misconception of being profitable and successful. Success will not be together in social entrepreneurs, so it is a learning curve for social communities to create impact to society.
The panelists provide some suggestions for young leaders. Wong suggests young leaders need to have peers support. Young leaders should initiate the conversation and peers should have the responsibly to council young leaders. Cartwright suggests young leaders to believe confidence is always there for them. In entrepreneurship, failure is not real failure. Goodman suggests young leaders need to figure out what is working and not working. They should make the mistake quickly and ensure they do not do it again next time.
Questions and Answers
Goodman met her co-founder 32 years ago. Her business partner is her father. Cartwright met her co-founders from passion and ideas. She indicates co-founders relationship feel like marriage.
Goodman believes public usually hear the financial announcement, but they never follow through. It is interesting to hear the process, but many people in public never have interest to look deeper.
In her journey, Cartwright learns to adapt the jobs that do not exist, which is the meaning of evolution in business. Goodman learns it is important to overcome obstacle as quick as possible. Wong learns she has the confidence to become a founder in the future. Ma learns skills can be transferrable in any business industries. Rotherham learns that in order to develop relationship, young leaders need to see values in other people’s stories.
“Develop relationship by seeing values in stories”
Name: StudioThink – Fall 2015 Digital Marketing Conference
Presenters: Todd Mumford, Rick Sloboda, Josh Loewen, Eric Reynolds, and Renee Neptune
There are many key elements in digital marketing that all entrepreneurs must understand. Moreover, all entrepreneurs must identify if they have the right ingredients to market their brand digitally. StudioThink invites the digital panelists to review the necessary components in digital marketing for all entrepreneurs. The panelist includes Todd Mumford, the Principle and Founder of Riverbed Marketing, Rick Sloboda, the Senior Web Copywriter and Content Strategist at Webcopyplus, Josh Loewen, the Co-Founder of The Status Bureau, Eric Reynolds, the Director of Marketing at Jelly Marketing, and Renee Neptune, the Director of Business Development at StudioThink. The panelists will cover the important digital marketing points for all entrepreneurs to prepare for the Fall of 2015. Nevertheless, all entrepreneurs will be able to take advantage of the digital market to promote their brand recognition.
How to set up and run in inbound marketing campaign
Todd Mumford believes any great marketing does not have to be difficult. Many entrepreneurs overthink about marketing and complicate the process. Instead, sometimes entrepreneurs must think simple. Entrepreneurs must know their goals. By understanding their growth goals, entrepreneurs will ensure they are approaching to the right direction.
Set the right targets is important for digital marketing. Entrepreneurs must specify their target audience and know their target audience intimately. This means entrepreneurs must recognize their situation, challenges and patterns. Mumford suggests entrepreneurs to document and interview their target audience at least twice a year. By knowing them is not enough, entrepreneurs must know where they can research their problems and solutions. Moreover, it is important to know where audience like to see their solutions.
The keyword usage by target audience is important. The keywords are categorized by awareness, consideration and decision. Mumford wants entrepreneurs to think about symptoms. Entrepreneurs must map their contents based on educate, inspire and inform. By building a content calendar, entrepreneurs can create group discussion with their teams to develop new ideas.
Entrepreneurs must build remarkable content for audience, not for themselves. They need to ensure they are sharing and promoting the content consistently, which will increase the scope, recycle the content, and increase the share content. Mumford recommends entrepreneurs to automate and connect the dots by measure, adjust and feedback.
“Stop thinking about getting started, and just get started”
Why you should get excited about emotional branding
Rick Sloboda believes the role of brands is changing. Instead of concentrating on production or needs, entrepreneurs must focus on consumption and wants. There are over 20,000 advertisements appear each day. In addition, entrepreneurs are competing with everyone, not just their industries.
People are emotional creatures. Consumers are buying based on how they feel about a company. Sloboda realizes emotions play a significant role in consumers. In average, it takes about 0.55 seconds to get first impression online. There is no right or wrong ways to market. In fact, each way is early valued. Therefore, the difference is the consumers feel good or feel right one over the other. Branding must aim for the heart with emotional story. Storytelling can help entrepreneurs to identify and understand the motivations behind consumers’ behaviours. They are the emotional triggers.
It is important to incorporate storytelling in branding because it helps entrepreneurs to connect information and emotions. Furthermore, they can get people to care, act and buy.
“Instead of saying what do you think, say how does it make you fail”
Listen to people, trust data
Loewen believes too many entrepreneurs are trying to do too many things at once, but most of them are forgetting the most important task, which is listening to people. Listening to people can capture trustful data. Entrepreneurs can retrieve these data from many digital tools, such as google analytics and webmaster tools.
It is important to set buzzwords for digital branding. Buzzwords can be created by the right optimization and ROI. However, people seems to set it and forget it. They never have the time to go back and review it. Marketing changes everyday and entrepreneurs must have the habit to go back and check it.
Success is not a straight line, yet it comes with obstacles. There is no template for success because it works for one but not others. Good news is that it is fail proof. Loewen wants entrepreneurs to continue working on it, receive feedbacks, and improve it the next time.
Loewen shares 6 simple steps for digital marketing. The first step is to set up tracking, which allows entrepreneurs to evaluate. The second step is to start on mobile when most consumers are on mobility. The third step is to throw a wide net, so entrepreneurs can try the possibilities and eliminate the unnecessary ones. The forth step is to reply more on start or stop channels by focusing on where the audience is. The fifth step is to optimize based on the data, not opinion. the last step is to rake in that dough.
MozCon 2015 event
Eric Reynolds had the opportunity to attend MozCon 2015 event. MozCon is one of the major digital conference where many major digital marketers united in one place to share their strategies. Reynolds will give some high level learning concepts will entrepreneurs.
Promise more than marketing
Content loyalty is more important then content virality
Make customers better version of themselves
Mirror the landing with advertisement
Coding is more easier than before
Interruption, accepting meetings, and emailing are critical pain for marketers
The power of personalization is in how they wield it
Capture list, drill down for personas, and get them to buy
Keywords might not matter in 2020
Many factors will affect mobile
90% of budget on people and 10% on software
If entrepreneurs want to sell a CEO, think CEO
If entrepreneurs are good at marketing, they are good at providing a service
Do not take short cut, understand human nature
Create global PR and the key to PR success is speed
Sometimes entrepreneurs need to be inefficient, make mistakes and then evolve
Rediscover who the audience is as often as possible
Google trends
Relationship on brands is created by values to give
Graph search allows users to search for people based on everything
9 ways to get visitors to stick
Renee Neptune will share 9 ways entrepreneurs can implement to retain their visitors on their websites
The obvious
Usability
Funnel
Landing pages
Call to action
Fresh
Rescue
Sharable
Maintain
Entrepreneurs need to create a website that is polished and professional. The navigation and layout must be easy to find things for visitors. Entrepreneurs need to ensure they have a clear avenue of information that funnel traffic to site. The landing page should be created to demonstrate the needs. Entrepreneurs must have a call to action. Call to action should be straightforward and simple and not vague. The webpage should always have fresh content to establish their expertise and show they are care to stay current. Webpage can be a hub for sourcing valuable content. This helps entrepreneurs to become the trusted expert. It is important to expose themselves to others networks by making the content on website easy to share. Lastly, entrepreneurs must maintain their websites. Broken links, outdated design and old information will create the image for entrepreneurs that they do not care.
“Think your website as your car, you need to maintain it”
Name: Company of Young Professionals Success Series – Project Management & Execution
Presenters: Matt Bilbey and Aaron McHardy
Many young leaders are failing to meet project schedules due to poor execution. Moreover, young leaders must develop engagement to their project vision. Company of Young Professionals invites Matt Bilbey, the Senior Vice President and Group GM of EA, and Aaron McHardy, the FIFA Line Producer of EA Sports, to discuss their approaches to project management and execution. Young leaders will learn their proven ways to manage team project process, maintain quality assurance, and contribute to large scale projects. Furthermore, both presenters will help young leaders to identify the missing links in project management.
Matt Bilbey is the current Senior Vice President and Group General Manager of EA Studios. With over 20 years of experience in EA, Matt Bilbey establishes strong business leadership skills and leads many top market videogame franchises. Matt Bilbey inspires many of his teammates to their next level of careers. His passion in EA gives him the substantial reputation that many young leaders are willing to follow. Aaron McHardy is the current FIFA Line Producer in EA Sports. He works with EA over 20 years and helps EA Sports FIFA franchises to achieve top results. Moreover, his leadership insights encourage many young leaders in the gaming industry.
Matt Bilbey describes his leadership style is “People First”. In Bibey’s journey, there were many challenges in FIFA franchise. The product quality was significantly low and the simulation play was not attractive. Overall, the FIFA business is in turmoil. As game quality decreases, EA was experiencing low global market share. When Bilbey was facing the critical decision of continuing the FIFA franchise, Bilbey decided to restructure the project proposal. Bilbey implemented the concept of “Vision”, “Passion”, and “People”.
“Result of bring passion to people, it accelerates”
The project changed the focus under the leadership of Bibey. The team tapped into the passion of global fan base. The statistic was showing there were 2 billion football fans, 30 million EA Football gamers and over 251 million football video gamers. By looking at the consumer interests, the team was able to identify the real addressable target audience.
Bilbey had the vision of becoming the biggest game in the world. Bilbey introduced high quality and innovation strategies and produced 1 billion annual business growth. The project opened up new football’s social network and simulated people around the world to be a part of the game. There were over 25 nationalities in the project team and Bilbey believed in the team to seek more opportunities.
As of now, Bilbey indicates many football clubs are using EA FIFA games for training purposes. It allows players to prepare games. It also creates opportunities and image for people around the world by taking the real life experience into game. Moreover, it brings the game live and stays predictable.
Aaron McHardy introduces the EA Sports game development framework.
Pre-production
Production
Final
Live Service
Each stage has its own time frame. The pre-production will run from October to January. The production stage will start from February to April. The final stage will be in May to September, and the live service will begin from September and beyond. McHardy explains each stage is like a series of gates. It helps EA to set milestones. Each stage will give the team the opportunity to review the leadership and evaluation. They will analyze and measure the situation and change the course to ensure the production is aligned with the vision.
The purpose of each stage is to help the team to stay connect and engage with the audience. McHardy mentions the key evolves around the project management is engagement. Engagement in EA Sports includes the console, FIFA Ultimate Team, components, mobile and social. The analysis and measurement will help them keep track of daily users and on time feedbacks. The matric EA uses is Net Promotion Score. The score will help EA to obtain feedback and it also creates direct conversation with users. It will help them focus on the right energy.
McHardy indicates the result of the process will increase product quality, increase engagement, and increase market share. In addition, it increases the demand.
McHardy believes EA is focusing three main components for future.
Player first
Digital transformation
One team
Engagement is the project metric. Bilbey believes engagement will ensure there is 365 day live service, the ability to embed the metric into the fabric of the sport. Furthermore, it helps to connect globally and provide experience for players. Bilbey believes great people work with other great people. Bilbey suggests young leaders to work with great people, take control of their own career and encourage others to do the same.
“Be passion about vision, people will see it and want to be a part of it”
Questions and Answers
Many EA games are stumbling in the first gate. Bilbey and McHardy believe identify the issue early is important. They believe they will not discontinue the project. Gates are there to motivate the team. It also make opportunities to re-direct the plan to reach the objective. The gate will also help the team to re-allocate resources to improve the quality.
Projects can influence the franchise licence. Bilbey and McHardy believe projects improve the role because it centralize the engagement. It also connects the world deeper and help everyone to identify the market in a broad view.
Name: Using Clients’ Tax Returns as a Roadmap to Tax & Financial Planning
Presenter: Don Nilson
Tax returns can be a useful tool for leaders to gain high level insight of their clients’ financial and wealth management position. Moreover, leaders can add values to their clients based on the analysis from their tax returns. Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia invites Don Nilson, the Principal of Nilson & Company and AFT TRIVEST Management Inc, to discuss his insight of using tax returns to manage high level financial strategies for clients. This presentation will teach leaders the method of systematize financial planning into tax preparation. In addition, leaders will develop strong approach to integrate financial strategies in the details of annual tax returns. Leaders in financial planning services and accounting will benefit from this presentation. This presentation will focus on Canadian Taxation.
Don Nilson is the Principal of Nilson & Company for over 30 years. After achieving both the Certified Management Account and Certified Financial Planning designations, he became the Registered Portfolio Manager. Nilson spends many years lecturing in accounting topics in many major academic institutions, such as University of British Columbia, and CGA, and the Society of Management Accountants. In addition, he delivers many webinars and seminars across Canada and United States. Nilson serves on National Boards and involves with local communities. Furthermore, he receives many career achievement recognitions based on his contributions to leadership, teaching, and volunteerism.
Don Nilson defines Return on Investment as the number of insight over time. Nilson believes leaders must focus on “Fission”, “Fusion”, and “Fishin”. Fission means the act of process of splitting into parts. Fusion means the process of combining two or more things into one, and Fishin means the process undertaken with the hope of discovering information. By focusing on behavior knowledge, patience, experimentation, observatory power, and procedures, leaders will be able to raise their standards.
Nilson emphasizes leaders must understand who is in charge of client’s well-being and who the role they play in. Most leaders can categorize as value-added or a commodity. Nilson describes knowledge and skills as iron bar, which means it will only worth what leaders do with them.
“The way leaders create with knowledge will raise their value and worth”
In tax return process, it can lead to compliance and planning. Leaders must understand the planning part is place for them to create value for their clients. However, Nilson shows there is another value added area most leaders forgot, yet leaders can add value in advance from tax. Leaders must think forward and help their clients to see their status in next 15 years. Based on statistic, a majority of people of their income level stay the same. People need to think forward and leaders have the obligation to do help them.
Nilson creates a term called “Family Confab”, which means inspiring a healthy and successful approach to the custodian ship of money across family generation by having all family members actively engaged in that process. Leaders must understand that due to multiple generations, the traditional wealth management needs to change. He believes wealth can be impacted by 6 dimensions, which are financial, human, family, structural, spiritual, and societal. Leaders need to understand both concepts of giving and receiving. Many people learn money from school, observation, and self-determination. Based on genome mapping, leaders learn their financials from their family background. Therefore, leaders must start with observation and change their mapping structures.
“Got to move before time to move”
Nilson develops a system to produce diagnostics for tax compliance, tax planning and financial planning. The system will flag over 92 different strategies and tactics to help clients add value to their wealth management.
Information Page
Birthdate can lead to different pension implications. It signals leaders to ensure if there are enough assets to set aside to retirement. Nilson suggests leaders to build a retirement cash flow proforma to help their clients understand their retirement cash flow.
Other implications can be Old Age Security, Canadian Pension Plan, and the convert of Registered Retirement Saving Plan to Registered Retirement Income Fund. Leaders must ensure they are applying the new regulations to maximize the benefit. The conversion can signal leaders to many different options, such as elect younger spouse’s age and change cash flow production. Leaders can use this opportunity to revisit the designated beneficiary elections and other investment strategies.
Address can help leaders to determine the right tax and financial implications. Leaders can change approach by based on either the property is owned or rent. If there is an address change, leaders can help clients to determine if they are eligible for first time home buyers credits.
Married status can change the tax and estate planning implications. When there is foreign property verification, leaders can help clients to see if they are required to pay other countries taxes. Even though Tax Free Saving Accounts is tax exempt, but other countries are not. Leaders must be aware of these changes.
Death date can signal leaders to revisit the will. Leaders can revisit designated beneficiary elections and other life insurance policies. Nilson recommends leaders to draft a 5 year comparison to check for sources, fluctuations, risk exposures and other qualifications.
Total Income
T4 employment can also flag many strategies. Leaders can determine if clients are entrepreneurs. This will change the management of capital gain deduction and any other significant retirement asset building requirements. Preferred redemption management should be visit and death benefit payout policy should revisit.
The slips can indicate if the amount of OAS, CPP and other EI are correct. If clients are over 65, leaders must ensure they have enough cash flow and determine paying in or paying out strategies. Leaders can help clients to research if they have company benefit plan or other foreign pensions. Based on the policies, leaders need to determine if clients have the eligibility for pension splitting. If clients are withdrawing pensions, leaders need to determine if clients have cash problems. Leaders must help clients to prepare tax management.
If there is a maternity leave, Leaders can help client to start Registered Educational Savings Plan. When clients are withdrawing RRSP, leaders must understand if that is an opportunity or contribution trap.
Limited partnership income can have some pregnant tax shelter issues. Dividends and interests can provide insight to risk profiles. If there is investment income or T5 slips, leaders can use these insight to do financial investment strategies. Foreign income needs to file Foreign Income Verification. The form can help leaders to verify if clients are exposed to US Estate Tax. Different investment strategies can be varied based on different kind of rental or self-employment income.
Net & Taxable Income
Leaders must watch out for pension deductions. They should also watch out for reasonable risks from claiming deductible investment interests. Support payments should have appropriate tax treatment and resource claims should be using tax shelters.
In schedule 1, leaders must clarify the rules of tax breaks for donations. Disability amount transfers can be used as a strategy. The notice of assessment will show the carry forwards, carry losses, and RRSP contribution room. This will help leaders to create future tax management. Leaders can verify if clients are applying all the necessary benefit. Nilson suggest leaders to do couple comparative to check for marginal tax brackets, unused credits, and craw back. Solutions such as income split or portfolio management are used appropriately to maximize clients’ wealth. Leaders are client’s GPS and it is important for leaders to take up the responsibility.
Name: The Pacific Club – Jeff Booth, the Founder of Vancouver highest profile tech companies
Presenter: Jeff Booth
E-commerce is becoming a trend in many industries. Moreover, entrepreneurs must realize the advantage and incorporate to their current business operations. The Pacific Club is Vancouver’s most contemporary speaking and social club. The club invites Jeff Booth, the CEO and Founder of BuildDirect, to share his entrepreneur journey. In addition, Jeff Booth will discuss his insight on raising capital and the future of E-commerce. Entrepreneurs will learn the mindset behind Jeff Booth’s entrepreneurship, and they will develop stronger concepts to enhance their businesses.
Jeff Booth is the CEO and Founder of BuildDirect. With his leadership skill, Booth manages to turn BuildDirect into one of the fastest growing E-commerce building supply retailers. Booth has been voted Person of the Year at 2015 BCTIA. Booth creates new online channels and distribution methods in home improvement product industry. Booth is also a speaker and has the passion to share his thoughts to young entrepreneurs. As a member of Young Presidents Organization and a board member of Costal Contacts, he contributes his time and give back to local communities.
Jeff Booth mentions he got into real estate industry after college dropout. When he sold his house to invest in his real estate business, he started a building company. The first house he build is his own home, which created attention for other investors. The company expanded.
In Booth’s career perspective, he looks for biggest solution. He believes what makes consumers feel, which is empathy, will help him do differently than any of his competitors. Booth mentions success is not always look like what market says; in fact, his perception is different. Success comes from hard work and excitement. Money is not the primary factor that keeps Booth continue his career. Even though Booth has no idea what comes next, he will build it simpler and better.
Booth emphasizes building relationship is important. BuildDirect had significant growth until the Finance breakdown from 911. Booth needed to lay off employees and rethink his approach. Booth managed to create strategy to bypass the channel from Costco building materials. With hard work, people started to trust him. Revenue started to go up.
“Keep on going, keep on figuring it out”
Booth states that when entrepreneurs go fast, they will hit the wall faster. In order to sustain further growth, entrepreneurs need to upgrade their teams to see in advance. In addition, if entrepreneurs only drive by themselves, thy can only reach certain point. They need others to drive with them.
Sometimes when entrepreneurs approach one direction and see others go to different direction, Booth encourages entrepreneurs to keep going. This will lead them to become the best. When power is increasing, the immunity will increase as well.
When entrepreneurs get knocked down, Booth believes it is their responsibility to stand up and understand what they learn. There are too many people make excuses not to stand up; instead, they should look at what they can do differently. Entrepreneurs should not blame the market condition; otherwise, they will become the victim.
“Best company always come out from the worst”
Booth does not have mentor, but he is an active listener. He has the habit of trying to learn from everyone. Moreover, he feels he is in service for everyone else.
As for the future of BuildDirect, Booth wants to create a movement. People unite for a common cause to do something great. Booth believes in 10 years, stores will not be the way they are now. Store is a storage for people to pick up. Traditionally, production used to be close to the vendor, which creates the existing steps through different channels. Booth indicates only consumers should be in stores. With the power of users, they have the ability to lead market, not experts anymore. This kind of pattern starts to go on to different industries. Therefore, E-commerce is the new evolution.
Many companies in E-commerce tend to have short business life cycle because it is difficult to find the sustainable values. Booth recommends entrepreneurs to be aware of this issue.
When technology advances, services should stay the same. Process of business growth remains the same, which is identify the problem, fix the problem, and repeat the process.
When companies set free users for people, they are gathering people to one location. This attracts buyers and sellers. Afterwards, everyone will start to go there. Booth considers this as network effect. Public stock market is facing a situation where there is no significant growth from public companies. Since investors could not make money in public market, they will go to private sector. Investors will feed into company before IPO. This shift is another example of network effect.
Will Amazon ever be profitable? Booth comments that when a company has enough cash flow in their assets, profitability is not their concern anymore since they do not need to do anymore financing. Booth believes the key element that drives the success from retail is to look into supply chain. If goods do not go through supply chain, it does not make sense to go through the same channel anymore. Therefore, the existing supply chain management is not working and entrepreneurs need to fix it.
Booth gives young entrepreneurs a valuable advice. If they know what is ahead, they will not know if they even want to start. Therefore, they should always jump in and go for it. Young entrepreneurs should always believe in their ideas because no one else would.
Vancouver startups are wild. Many Vancouver companies pave the way and pay it forward. It takes ambition for entrepreneurs to start a company because nobody will believe in them at first. There are many amazing talents in Vancouver and there will be a breakout in future for Vancouver.
“It is not up to others, it is up to the crazy one to start”
Booth provides many tips for raising capital. It is important that investors need to know entrepreneurs believe in themselves. People will invest when they see the trend. Many investments offer common shares equity. Booth believes there are too many entrepreneurs chasing what success look like from other people’s view. Entrepreneurs need to understand the vision of their success. Eventually, the right investors will find them.
“Sales are like outputs. The logistic will break the components from outputs, which allows customers to get information faster and reliable”
Wisdom comes from mistakes, and success comes from many mistakes. When entrepreneurs encounter the problem of having too many advices or suggestions, Booth suggests entrepreneurs only listen to people who actually perform the action.
Most people think entrepreneurs are high-risk taker, but Booth believes they are actually asymmetrical bets. This means they have unlimited upside and limited downside. Entrepreneurs who put all in are worth more than they were before. They look for bets that are hard to lose.
Most companies in Vancouver choose not to go IPO. Booth believes the reason is because they are afraid of lockdown. People tend to sell at IPO instead of buy. If companies have the same valuation in both private and public sectors, there is no point of rushing into IPO. In future, companies in Vancouver will eventually go IPO. This is a timing thing.
The purpose of this presentation is to provide the key elements behind the power of inspiration. Successful leaders inspire other successful leaders; moreover, inspiration will allow them to understand their primary reason of what it takes to become a great entrepreneur.
Inspiration will help leaders to discover their characteristics. With the right “why”, leaders will able to inspire others with the right inner belief.
This presentation is inspired by Simon Sinek’s TED Talk. Leaders will inspire other with “Why”, “How”, then “What”.
Presenters: Terry McBride, Kate Ross Leblanc, Arran Stephens, Sean Clark, and Christine Day
October is the month for entrepreneurs to celebrate their contributions to their local communities. Moreover, it is important for entrepreneurs to take time to inspire the success of others. Small Business BC presents INSPIRE event to provide opportunity for local entrepreneurs to inspire other successful entrepreneurs’ strength, determination, and passion. The panel includes Terry McBride, the CEO and Co-Founder of YYoga, Kate Ross Leblanc, the CEO and Co-Founder of Saje Natural Wellness, Arran Stephens, the CEO and Co-Founder of Nature’s Path, and Sean Clark, the Co-Founder of SHOES.COM. Entrepreneurs will also get the opportunity to listen Christine Day, the CEO of Luvo, to discuss her journey and experience of entrepreneurship. Moreover, entrepreneurs will receive their personal advices in this presentation and discover the key aspects of a becoming a successful entrepreneur.
The Masterclass Panel
Every companies have their own culture. People can sense the culture. Kate Ross LeBlanc believes culture can attract light-minded people. Culture can identify the real values, and values should not mainly focus on aspiration. LeBlanc believes companies want to connect deeper and meaningful values. If people show they care, they will nurture the culture.
The setback can be different for many entrepreneurs. Terry McBride shares that there was a time when he sold his house to ensure capital for his business expansion. Many great leaders lead by example and they all make decisions from love and passion. Moreover, love and passion are natural characteristic of leadership.
Success does not come easy for Sean Clark. He mentions he started his business in his basement. He never gave up of becoming an entrepreneur, and he did all he could in order to make his dream into reality. The process allowed him to learn the value of dollar in business. Entrepreneurs need to focus on sales because cash flow will run out one day. For many entrepreneurs, they will face the outcome of either bankrupt or becoming the next billionaire.
The tipping point for Clark is to when he made the decision let go all his staff. Clark took the opportunity to search deep about himself and the business, which made him grow. Clark encourages entrepreneurs to spend time on personal development.
Arran Stephens believes success only fail when entrepreneurs give up. 80% of entrepreneurs fail and only 20% of entrepreneurs will continue. Furthermore, 80% of those 20% who continue will succeed. The value and principles are important, and entrepreneurs should never sacrifice money for quality. Stephens suggests entrepreneurs should only expand until they are in control.
“Entrepreneurs build business to last, not to sell”
If business is at the point of sell, McBride believes finding the person who will move forward for the business is significant. LeBlanc and Clark both agree that the person must add values, create values, and align with mission of business.
In order to maintain strong relationship, LeBlanc suggests entrepreneurs to share the right values because the right values will lead to the right direction. When there is disagreement, Stephens believes it is a good thing. Disagreement can help people understand the differences. As long as there is generous heart, entrepreneurs will find the way to resolve disagreements.
Entrepreneurs have their own ways to motivate. For Clark, it is wine. McBride will do yoga and Stephens will do garden and meditation. McBride will mediate 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning. 15 minutes of meditation is equivalent to 4 hours of energy rest. Moreover, Stephens understands meditation will inspire and energize for entrepreneurs to make better decision.
LeBlanc ensures her employees understand the values in corporation. A part of orientation for Saje Natural Wellness is to ensure the new employees are clarified with the corporate values. Clark encourages his employees to hashtag the values because it will help them reinforce the message.
“Align the value with people is critical”
The biggest challenge for McBride was when he took off the training wheel for his business too early. The result of that costed him a significant amount of learning curve. Stephens shares he once opened up a breakfast cereal company, but it failed. However, He did not give up and soon the company has silver lining. LeBlanc had once lost her trademark. Because she could not able to downsize the company fast enough, it took her years to recover the damage. Stephens also mentions there are many incubators in the industry to help startups. Moreover, they will learn by challenge their mistakes.
“No such thing as mistake; mistake is opportunity”
Stephens recommends entrepreneurs to reinvest themselves, prepare to change and change every mark. Clark recommends entrepreneurs to implement system and think big all the time. LeBlanc recommends entrepreneurs to document everything and create the right structure. McBride wants entrepreneurs to understand instead of holding what they had, they should throw it out open and understand the emotional behaviour of their customers. They need to have dialogue with customers and understand who they really are.
Keynote Presentation
Christine Day, the CEO of Luvo, believes her career journey in StarBucks and Lululemon have strengthen her to become what she is today. By helping these top brand corporations, she learned that her path of entrepreneurship does not get easier, but she gets wiser.
Day will share her top great values she learned from her experience.
Great #1: Purpose
Employees will join with the right purpose. With the right purpose, they are able to share branding experience and create loyal customers. Purpose can help people engage, and employees will challenge new problems to align the purpose. When employees are inspired with the purpose, they will stay. Day believes every entrepreneur needs to live the value and share the value. Moreover, public companies with good values create opportunities.
Great #2: Differentiation
Entrepreneurs should not be afraid to go first. They will seek what they need to accomplish their purpose. Entrepreneurs will look for white space in the market to add value to the exiting consumers. They look for patterns and analyze insights. Connection and communication are important for entrepreneurs because it can help them scale with multiple global systems. Day believes by mastering customization for consumers, entrepreneurs will seek new disruptive opportunities.
“Speak the patterns and differentiate with others”
Great #3: Knowledge
Entrepreneurs need to know the business, the frontline, and the scale. They need to know what it takes to survive in their market. Entrepreneurs need to be clear what good looks like. Entrepreneurs need to build models with good qualities. Efficient and effective are two drivers for entrepreneurs. By knowing what matters, entrepreneurs can make decision that match with the brand.
“Do not run your business with average”
Great #4: Team
Successful entrepreneurs engage with high potential team. The team can help entrepreneurs to develop strategic planning. When entrepreneurs create opportunities big enough for their team, they will build the better values. Entrepreneurs should always hand off opportunities to others and allow them to perform. Sometimes strong culture can prevent people from reaching potentials. Day believes team should not be any contests; instead, it should be collaboration.
Day believes all entrepreneurs have these 2 abilities.
The ability to make future
The ability to create opportunity for others
Entrepreneurs will make risks into values and allocate resources to accomplish the purpose. Great entrepreneurs know themselves well and take on great responsibilities. Entrepreneurs lead themselves and other. They also teach and coach others how to lead and manage. Entrepreneurs develop internal talents and never disconnect to themselves out of the market.
Sometimes ego can get away from ideas for leaders. When people are treating them as authority figure, they are not connecting in business. Therefore, Day suggests entrepreneurs to listen and embrace awareness and values from other people’s talents.
“Be bold and brave; if not, you will be talking about someone who does”
The scariest thing for Day is the fear of failure. Day conquers the fear by trying her best, and have confidence that purpose will get her though. The advice she will give to old self is to dream a bigger dream.
Feedback is a gift and it is the responsibility for entrepreneurs to tell others to perform well. Day advices small business owners to be nimbleness, authentic , and proximity to the truth. Many big corporations are stuck with their legacy traditions. They could not get away from the brand they created. Day believes small business owners can scale up their business by creating new attractions to inspire new consumers to buy. Do not be afraid to create new attractions.
“nimbleness, authenticity, and proximity to the truth”
Presenters: Bruce Croxon, Arash Fasihi, Laurie Schultz, and Roger Hardy
Vancouver startups are creating an exponential impact to British Columbia’s economic, especially the technology sector. Moreover, entrepreneurs need to be aware the new movement. PlentyOfFish and RBC present this presentation to explore the upcoming changes in technology from many world class companies. This presentation invites Bruce Croxon, the Co-Founder of Lavalife and the ex Dragon on CBC’s Dragon’s Den, Arash Fasihi, the Founder of Cymax, Laurie Schultz, the CEO of ACL, and Roger Hardy, the CEO and Co-Founder of SHOES.com. Entrepreneurs will learn their valuable lessons from their journey of entrepreneurship. Moreover, this presentation will inspire entrepreneurs to take actions and lead their vision to the future.
Bruce Croxon, the Co-Founder of Lavalife, feels Vancouver is his home. When he first met Markus Frind, the Founder of PlentyOfFish, he saw the potential. Croxon is excited to see how Frind has evolved his company brand into an international recognition.
Croxon believes success comes from hard work. Entrepreneurs need to pick something they love to do. Traditionally, startups are facing technology barriers. Nevertheless, due to evolution of technology, technology barriers are disappearing for many startups. Entrepreneurs need to use this opportunity to collaborate their ideas with technology experts.
Croxon emphasizes 2 primary for all startups.
Vision
Value
During the first year of any startup, entrepreneurs need to plan their vision with their teams. It is important for teams to understand the hidden message in vision. Teams must have the characteristic of open-mind, teamwork and team-oriented. Values will help startups to develop innovation, build culture, and continue the right path.
Vision and values will help startups to set where they want to go and the people they want to work with. Entrepreneurs can use these as criteria to choose the right teammates for the team
“How to take the words on the page to action”
The Panel
Many entrepreneurs are facing the challenge to keep their momentum in their startups. To continue their momentum, Schultz suggests entrepreneurs to disrupt their existing rules. Entrepreneurs need to have the attitude to re-learn their businesses to gain new sparks in business.
Raising capital can be a challenge for many startups. Fasihi mentions if he has the opportunity to go back to starting point, he would find ways to raise capital earlier as possible. Money is important, and so as the talent.
In Hardy’s perspective, startup success comes with 3 key elements. The first key element is to have great people to work with, the second element is to seek opportunity, and the last element is to work together. Croxon states there is over 230 pitches per day in CBC’s Dragon’s Den. The pitches are ranged from good to useless. Croxon realizes young people are picking up essential business tips from the show. This shows young people are starting to grow the idea of startups. Young people in this generation are experiencing positive side of startups; in fact, young people are starting their journey of entrepreneurship early than before.
Vancouver is starting to become the next technology hub for startups. Fasihi believes talents will rise in Vancouver, but the risk of talents relocate to United States is also increasing. Schultz believes culture diversity will be strong in Vancouver. However, Vancouver is still lacking career opportunities in technology sector. New talents are looking for a reason to stay in Vancouver, and it is important to give them the environment they need to develop. Hardy believes even though Vancouver has good health care, education, and lifestyle, bringing people to Vancouver can be a challenge. Croxon agrees with culture diversity, but there is no obligation for large corporations, such as banks, to reinvest young people’s future. Vancouver is starting to see banks provide startup loans for new entrepreneurs.
In order to build startups in a city of lifestyle, Hardy believes in work hard and play hard. Entrepreneurs need to use lifestyle as the balance point to connect. Schultz indicates companies are starting to hire people with adventure DNA to improve innovation.
Building culture is important for startups because it gives people a reason to stay and to seek other opportunities. Croxon believes people hangout with people who think the same way. Culture is made up by the values, and it is important to share the values with others. Fasihi wants entrepreneurs to help upgrade their team experience and encourage them to seek new challenges and improve it.
Fasihi suggests entrepreneurs to access public data to create benchmark for their startups. Schultz suggests entrepreneurs to join peer groups to discuss problems, and set best practice matrix to measure and compare startups benchmark. Hardy suggests entrepreneurs to set internal goals.
Aside from providing salary compensation, Schultz and Fasihi recommend entrepreneurs to combine equity into people’s salary package. This will also a way to keep talents in the company.
Croxon mentions it is now easier to access funds than before; however, the funding gap is still exist. Entrepreneurs cannot raise funds by ideas. Fasihi wants entrepreneurs to use technology to influence the funding gap.
To scale the business faster, Croxon wants entrepreneurs to focus. In this generation, who ever solve the problem the fastest will be the winner; therefore, Hardy believes fast is the key to scale the business.
Name: SociaLIGHT Conference 2015 – The Ultimate Leadership and Entrepreneurship Event
Presenters: Various
Inside of every entrepreneur’s heart, there is a movement of a dream to empower or inspire others. Moreover, the ability to give or contribute is the nature of any entrepreneurs. Theresa Laurico, the Founder of SociaLIGHT, presents the annual conference to inspire entrepreneurs to take actions. This is a space for entrepreneurs to seek possibility. The conference invites many extraordinary leaders in the community to discuss their experience. These leaders are Jack Lee, the Co-Founder of T&T Supermarket, Farhan Mohamed, the Partner of Vancity Buzz, Wilson Lee, the Founder of Wun2free, Dan Lok, the Serial Entrepreneur, Alano Edzerza, the Tahitan Multimedia Artist, Melissa Orozco, the Founder of YuluPR, Jason Butcher, the Founder of Kickstart Business Catalyst, James Coleridge, the Founder of Bella Gelateria, Steve Curtis, the Founder of Zag Group, and Jairek Robbins, the Lifestyle Entrepreneur.
The presentation will also include a panel discussion. The panelists are Ray Walia, the CEO of Launch Academy, Keith Ippel, the Co-Founder of Spring, Vicki Saunders, the Founder of SheEO, Jill Earthy, the Director of Futurpreneur, and Alphil Guilaran, the Co-Founder of Financial Literacy Counsel. Entrepreneurs will gain insights from all leaders to enhance their business and personal lives. The theme of this conference is “Ignite” and the values behind this conference is “People”, “Planet”, “Profit”, and “Perspective”.
Legacy Entrepreneurship
Jack Lee, the Co-Founder of T&T Supermarket, believes in connection. Lee inspires a Taiwanese published writer, Louis Lee, because of similar attitude. She used her instinct and intelligence to prove his writing skills in Canada. Often many entrepreneurs will discover the limitation from their obstacles and challenges, and yet the ones that make it through will be remembered in the history.
Jack Lee shares his story of his first import business in Canada. In 1980, his import business was facing cash flow issues due to Canada and United State currency exchange. He could not control the international market, and could not make both ends meet. Business had taken Lee’s family time away from him and it was time to find the exit strategy. Lee was forced to find an alternative way to keep his passion, so instead of exit the market, he downsized the warehouse and save overhead costs. By reallocating to his basement, he was able to reduce the market exchange rate risk and kept a slim profit to survive. After 3 years of struggling, Lee was able to turn around his business.
Lee believed there must be something he could do to reduce the overhead cost. To reach new customer needs, he forced himself to lower his status and educate the foundation from the local environment. He realized there was a demand for pork stomach in the Cantonese market in Canada. He found a slaughterhouse to supply his food and sell it for 4 times more. Afterwards, Lee expanded the number of suppliers to increase profitability.
Lee emphasizes the secret of his success is to think big. Many new immigrants want to work in their circle of culture. Lee needs to think big, so he creates join venture with international food and bring the international culture to Canada. Furthermore, T&T supermarket is born.
Lee decides to change his vision to take care of his grandchildren and contribute his skills back to the community.
“In every business, there is a special customer needs, which is innovation”
The Story of the Largest Digital-only Publication in Western Canada
Farhan Mohamed, the Partner of Vancity Buzz, shares his dream and passion of his entrepreneurship. After he decided to quit university, he took on the opportunity to do something he loved. However, the failure of his first campaign led him to the right direction. He returned to college with a new set of passion and approached the opportunity to work for Vancouver Sun. Mohamed has the goal of working with social media. One day, he met the co-Founder of Vancity Buzz and believed the company will fulfill his dream.
Mohamed believes when there is passion, entrepreneur will stay up late at night until things get done. Vancity Buzz is a small business, but he believes magic will happen. Vancity Buzz helps Mohamed to take the initial vision into reality. The company has expanded the operation and they are taking their vision into something bigger.
Mohamed indicates there are 7 ways to ignite the life of entrepreneurs
Ignite #1: Do not be afraid to stand out
Mohamed believes whatever entrepreneurs are doing will make them different. No one will hand it to them for free. They need to discover the story that they are not telling and have the confident to share it to the world.
Ignite #2: Do not underestimate the power of online relationship
Social media is the new communication network for this generation. Many people are utilizing the tool to connect with people around the world. Mohamed wants entrepreneurs to use the tool to build meaningful relationship.
Ignite #3: The path might not be the right one
Entrepreneurs should have the courage to change his path. Many people are scared to change. Moreover, change can lead to new adventure.
Ignite #4: Do not be afraid to fail
Mohamed believes when entrepreneurs are not failing 50% of the time, they are not trying hard enough. Failure is a proof that they tried and failure will lead to success.
Ignite #5: When entrepreneurs want something, they go after it
If entrepreneurs want something, they will go for it. They will not procrastinate because they know that no one will give them the key to the door.
Ignite #6: Believe in the work they do
There are times when entrepreneurs are facing alone. They should have the right and positive mindset to believe in their work. When they believe themselves, they will impact others.
Ignite 7: Everything entrepreneurs do matters
Every conversation matters. Entrepreneurs should always nurture and build every relationship.
It is all a Game
Wilson Lee, the Founder of Wun2free, has the opportunity to change his game. He believes his success comes from a simple message, which is “take actions”.
Lee started his career when he was 16 years old. After pursuing Psychology degree, he learned how people think. He got tired of working in the corporation because he had the burning desire in business. He realizes there is no entertainment section in the Richmond Night Market, so he took actions to pitch his business plan to them. He also took actions to find the right suppliers. To execute his business plan, he maxed out 3 credit cards and 2 lines of credits.
The hard work paid off for Lee. He continued his success on to PNE. Furthermore, he is now creating the first ever Vancouver Winter Wonderland that brings the winter festival indoor.
Lee reflects his journey and believes he had a couple of moments of doubting his execution. He admits he fears he might fail his team and has no energy to go for that extra step. However, by taking actions, he manages to break his limitation and become what he is today.
“When are you taking action?”
7 Lessons Dan Lok Learned on Building a 10 Million Dollar Empire
Dan Lok, the Serial entrepreneur, shares his childhood story. During his childhood, he faced isolation from his classmates. After his parents got divorce, he moved to Canada. Growing up with no confidence, he had hard time meeting people in Canada. He dropped out of college and got involved with business. After many failures, he got stronger. Lok believes his childhood is the reason that makes him stronger. Lok believes adversity is the advantage. When entrepreneurs receive pain, there will be breakdown, but after breakdown, entrepreneurs will get stronger.
“My dysfunctional childhood is the reason I am a functional adult”
Lok shares 7 lessons he learned to become a serial entrepreneur
Lesson #1: Develop the muscle to fight pain
Lok emphasizes the game of business is not for the weak. He is playing the most competitive game on earth, which is business. Game of business comes in different forms. When entrepreneurs are not ready, they should sharp up their skills.
People believe if the do what they love, the money will come. Lok disagrees with that statement. Lok believes it is important to make sure the passion is unique and add value to other people’s lives. When entrepreneurs add value to others with their passion, then money will come.
Lesson #2: Love what you do, and be good at it; make sure you pay for it
It is important for entrepreneurs to master their skills. Entrepreneurs are in business to make money, so they need to ensure people are paying their services.
Lesson #3: Save yourself before save the world
Lok stats the best way to help the poor is not be one of them. This means entrepreneurs should have the ability to make money before contributing. Sometimes in business entrepreneurs need to be jealous to become generous. Entrepreneurs need to be what they want to be.
Money earn is by product and creation. Lok emphasizes the only way to make money is to create impact and add values to others. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to understand that making money is a gift.
Lesson #4: Promotion over creation
Most entrepreneurs take too much time on creation. They fail because there is no attention from their market. Lok wants entrepreneurs to generate enough attention of awareness to show them they are dominating the market.
Consumers only remember the top 2 to 3 products in the market. It is entrepreneurs’ obligation to promote their products all the time. There are a lot of noises in the market place and entrepreneurs need to get their attention.
“Money follows attention; attention is the new currency”
Lesson #5: Stop pretending and start asking
When people have the habit of saying they are “fine”, it really means they are “Freak out”, “In debt”, “Not making enough money” and “Emotionally stressed out”. There are only 15% of entrepreneurs will ask questions for help.
Lok shows there are two ways to create negative connections when entrepreneurs network. The first way is to when entrepreneurs approach with a sale pitch. The second way is they ask the wrong questions. Lok wants entrepreneurs to play the contribution game and start building their future bank account.
Lesson #6: Master, do not dabble
Most people have the shiny object syndrome. They go after too many things at once. Entrepreneurs should master one thing at a time, and continue one after another. It is not wise to jump all over the place. Therefore, entrepreneurs should build their skills on top of another.
It is important to get feedbacks. Feedbacks can change entrepreneurs’ approach. The changes will help them approach their skills easier and faster. Lok stats that people always start bad, so entrepreneurs should not be worry about it.
Lesson #7: Do not have to get it right, you just have to get it going
Lok thinks many people in this society are having too much mentally masturbation. Perfection is the enemy of progress and making progress is the key. Lok believes if entrepreneurs are not embarrassed by their first version of their products, it is too late.
Lok suggests all entrepreneurs to always promote and give, ignite the fire within, and make things happen.
BC’s Trail Blazing First Nations Artist and Entrepreneur
Alano Edzerza, the Tahitan Multimedia Artist, believes the best way to connect the world is through art. Art is a way to tell the story of the great west to the world. The story brings the art to BC.
Edzerza indicates it is not easy for entrepreneurs to create their own paths. They must stay positive and creative. It is important to ensure they have the childhood creativity. Childhood creativity is a nature skill that brings out the essence of people’s passions.
By sharing the heritage to the world, entrepreneurs will be able to inspire, continue and create. Art can help entrepreneurs to create greater movement, which can regrow their religion. Edzerza wants entrepreneurs to engage online and share because by sharing, it will break down the stereotype.
It takes hard work to succeed in art. Journey is slow, but it can be educational. The more positive people entrepreneurs surround the better success they will be. The opportunity to grow in the community is available more than ever, so entrepreneurs should reach out to educate others, not working alone, and support progress. Uplift the people around them and inspire with movement.
“As tide rises, we help each other”
Dream Building, Movement Leadership and Triple Bottom Line
Theresa Laurico, the Founder of SociaLIGHT, understands powerful questions can lead to self-discovery. The question Laurico wants to ask entrepreneurs is “what are you going to do if you fail?”
Coming from Toronto, Laurico wanted to be a doctor when she was a child. However, she had strong passion to be on television. Laurico decided to take courses in journalism. After reading Tony Robbins’ book, she had the crazy idea of mixing TED talks, MTV and Oprah.
Laurico loved working in media conversation. By the age of 28, she asked herself an important question.
“Is what I work up doing everything worth it?”
Laurico took the initiative to submit the crazy idea to CityTV, but she got rejected. The failure led her to decide her career path of business. By applying the systemic leadership, Laurico discovered business needs triple bottom line to impact the world. Laurico decided to launch SociaLIGHT.
The first conference was in Toronto and there were 1000 people showed up. Richard Branson opened up the conference and the momentum was created to move humanity forward. On the launch day, Laurico received the news of family member passed away. She choose family, but the emotion stayed with her. The meaning of conference changed her life.
Laurico involved with “One Act” conference to help a girl to celebrate her graduation. She realized her formula of success.
Taking something you love + Taking something you hate = Love in action
As human beings, they should not forget who they are. Great presenters will treat the audience like they are the only one in the room. Entrepreneurs is likethe Rubik’s cube because they will not always know what they are doing, but the goal is always the same.
“Love what you do, if not, keep searching”
“What are you lying about? Stop lying to yourself”
Laurico believes in power of mindset. The answer is always at mind and heart, but people always look away. It is not easy to build the dream, but Laurico believes with the mindset of ask, believe and receive, anything is possible. Laurico suggests entrepreneurs to start sharing ideas and help people build sustainability.
“If you want to make a billion dollars, you need to help a billion people first”
Business can drive social solutions and conversations are the network. With the right heart set, mindset and habits, entrepreneurs can build their vision and imprint the message to the society.
Laurico trusts the universe will show when time comes.
Growth, Scale, Innovation and Money
This panel presentation is moderated by Andrew Dilts, Lawyer of MacPherson Lesile & Tyeman LLP.
For startup, Alphil Guilaran wants entrepreneurs to be prepared to do everything. Jill Earthy expects entrepreneurs to keep asking for supports. Vicki Saunders mentions there is no right or wrong way to do a startup, but she encourages entrepreneurs to follow their own steps instead of following what others do. Keith Ippel states entrepreneurs should now confuse the vision and startup, and Ray Walia believes talking to customers will show if startups are going in the right direction.
Many panelists share their challenges during their startups. Walia experiences founder depression. Entrepreneurs will feel they are alone without supports from peers. However, supports are out there and entrepreneurs should keep searching. Ippel believes sometime the startups can be overfunded. The amount of money for startup is equal to the amount of money for launch. Entrepreneurs should have the habit to cut the budget in half to ensure they have the enough cash flow for the operation. Many entrepreneurs over build their startup launch and they should be lean about it. Saunders wants entrepreneurs to start building the network as soon as possible. Entrepreneurs’ network is their net worth, and they will never know when they need it. Earthy always valuates herself by asking the question “why”. This will help entrepreneurs to check if they are in the right direction.
“Love people, use money, and do not confuse the two”
Vancouver is experiencing new trends for the future. Guilaran believes there is a need to teach business for young generation. Business is a way to help them engage the world. Earthy believes the resourceswill be easy to access. Entrepreneurs are starting to simplify the roadmaps for the future. Saunders emphasizes many entrepreneurs are concentrating on making life and work balance. Ippel expects more collaboration with small businesses and aim for globalization. Moreover, Walia expects all industries will be influenced by technology.
Impact Story Telling and The Future of PR
Melissa Orozco, the Founder of YuluPR, shares that many entrepreneurs are managing their public relations with ego. Orozco believes there is a connection of PR with finding the right story. The story does not have to be exciting because media just want the truth.
YuluPR was founded 4 years ago and now it becomes one of the major benefit corporations that connect with social and communities. With the right social innovative in business, the values will recognize. Moreover, values will have meaning for the society.
Many people are willing to give their resources to help communities. Charities do not provide impact, but people do. Many entrepreneurs are judging others by actions, but they should also judge them by their intention. With the right intentions, it will lead to right actions. Moreover, impact will follow by the right actions.
Let’s Kickstart Vancouver
Jason Butcher, the Founder of Kickstart Business Catalyst, shares many entrepreneurs are facing the fear of failure. Traditionally, there was no platform to help other business owners. Now, the Kickstart Business Catalyst is created to give supports for business owners.
“I am inspire, people inspire me, and I inspire others”
Butcher introduces his mentor, Dan Smith, to the stage. Smith believes entrepreneurs create their own positive and negative beliefs about themselves. The important thing is that they need to know who they really are. When they figure out who they really are, there will be no fear for anything. By discovering their own intention in their business, they will discover there is nothing can hurt them, and no one can tell them who they are and what to do.
Universe has its own way. Entrepreneurs are the dream. By changing inside beliefs first, outside will eventually change.
Butcher introduces Janice, the CEO of SexyStory, to the stage. When she was 5 years old, she wanted to be a meaningful leader. However, she discovered she was diagnosed with 5 rare diseases will she will not expected to see her 40th birthday. Janice travelled over 5 different countries for cure, and with the right determination, she did it.
Janice believes people around her give her purpose and vision. She wants to provide a platform to help other’s dream come truth. It is important to take life fullest. Everyone has their 5 minutes of shine and it will feel great if someone can help them achieve their legacy.
Butcher introduces Ryan Philips to the stage. Philips wanted to be a national hockey player. He left home at the age of 16 and achieved his dream in his young age. However, he felt it was not real. In age of 20, Philips decided to take charge in his family business. In age of 24, he was in jail for personal reason.
He was not able to go back to United States to see her daughter due to the result of the sentence. The darkness was around him and happiness was not even near. Philips decided to pursue a meaningful business. He wrote a card for himself that he will find a way to return to United States to reunite with his daughter.
Philips started to give positive contributions to the society. The happiness started to return to Philips. Now he is granted to see his daughter once again.
Philips believes entrepreneurs can achieve anything when they put their hearts into their dream. When they find a way to eliminate the fear, they will become who they want to be.
“Entrepreneurship is to stop doing for yourself and start doing something for the humanity”
The Power of Purpose
Steve Curtis, the Founder of Zag Group Inc, asks all entrepreneurs an important question of “Why do you do what you do?”
In Curtis’ childhood, he was very active, but he was labeled as the bad kid. When Curtis was expelled from many elementary schools, he felt outcast. He started his business at the age of 19 and wanted to prove to the world he is good at it. The hard work paid off, but he sacrificed everything else in life.
Business was good and successful, but he hated his life. He pushed his body over the limit and got diagnosed with a rare type cancer. He fired his doctor and never accepted the truth. Until one day, he realized there was no treatment for his cancer and he only has 2 years to live.
Curtis started to think what he had accomplished. The cancer was his calling to connect a meaningful purpose. He believed if he could solve his cancer, he will save and help others. He started to believe he is connected in a meaningful way.
Curtis found a young MD to be his researcher. During the research, he realized the drug and health are different. It showed him a way to rethink about body and cell. Cell is responding to each other, so he needs to find a way to show up in the world to influence the cell.
Curtis was healed without any medication. Curtis used the ancient way of meditation and a way to love himself. Cancer in his body has stopped the spreading. Curtis discovers the cure is simple and why no one is announcing it. The reason is because people cannot make money off from happiness.
Stress can influence the progress of cancer. Curtis uses plants to calm his life and have better control of his body. In business, revenue will grow when entrepreneurs define purpose. Purpose can push business through. With purpose, every day will be amazing. Purpose is calling from a distance and purpose creates possibility for entrepreneurs. The challenges and obstacles are hints in life towards purpose, so entrepreneurs should open themselves up and find their purpose.
How to be the Best in the world
James Coleridge, the Founder of Bella Gelateria, believes all entrepreneurs have their mountains to climb. There are too many people in life say “no” to ideas.
After graduation, Coleridge continued his passion of making gelato. In 2014, he was awarded the Gelato winner in Italy. That moment gave him the drive to prove what he can do.
The most important question for entrepreneurs is “why”. Everyone has 86,400 seconds in a day, and they should be grateful of the moment in life. Coleridge decided to build a Gelato restaurant in Vancouver.
“You do not run away from competition, you are in competition”
Coleridge discovers entrepreneurs should not accept “no” to ideas. Coleridge appreciates everyone in his life and always treats his customers with honor respect. Entrepreneurs put all effects into their businesses. They do not learn from praises, and they learn from constructive criticism. They need to satisfy their curiosity so their dream can come true.
Road to success comes from failures. In Coleridge’s restaurant, there are two rules every employee needs to follow.
Do screw up
Have fun
When entrepreneurs allow their team to fail, they can learn from their mistakes and grow from it.
“Dare to dream, dream come true”
Live it! Achieve Success by Living with Purpose
Jairek Robbins, the number 1 bestselling Amazon author, performance coach and lifestyle entrepreneur, focuses on strategy. He believes life supports that which supports life make entrepreneurs grow. Anything that does not support life, it will be eliminated. In business, when entrepreneurs are not adding values, they will be eliminated.
Some people can look good from outside, but they are slowly dying from inside. Robbins believes it is important to be someone who lives their life fullest.
Robbins shares his past story. One day, he got sick and refused to take any doctor’s medication. Until he realized he only got 5 days to live. That moment, he was away from his family and people around them did not seem to support him. He learned a very important statement in life.
“When you leave house the first time, you know everything in life, but in reality, you know nothing in life”
Many entrepreneurs work for the rest of their life but accomplish nothing they desire. Robbins believes many entrepreneurs are imitating what other successful people are doing and expect the same results. However, their ways do not mean it will work for all entrepreneurs. By looking what works for entrepreneurs, they need to integrate other people’s ways and make it personal.
Robbins believes entrepreneurs go through repetition and habits until they are effortless. It will become realize pattern. Every entrepreneur should master the pattern. When entrepreneurs get bored and lonely, they will want to find someone different. There will be arguments, but after hard work, it will become effortless. Entrepreneurs need to figure out “effortless”. They need to search who they are.
Robbins sometimes questions himself if he spends too much time working. All entrepreneurs wonder about the work and life balance. Robbins believes if work and life are balanced, nothing will happen it will be boring. Instead, entrepreneurs should look for progress. When people win jackpot, it is the worst day of their life because that is the day when they lost the ability to function their body. The research shows when people who receive jackpot, their happiness start to decrease. This happens because there is growth of expectation. People with jackpot will think they expect more from others.
Robbins believes the best way for entrepreneurs is not to raise the expectation what others owe them. The formula is to lower the expectation and raise the standard of contribution.
“Are you living your absolute ideal day?”
Robbins shares 3 primary questions for all entrepreneurs.
Do I really live?
Do I love?
Does it matter?
Robbins wants all entrepreneurs to imagine the day is perfect. Most perfect day comes with live, love and matter. There is a difference between the vision they see and the mental rehearsal. Vision is the idea in mind and mental rehearsal is to see the nature of problem happens and how they hit it back. Vision and reality are different. Unexpected things happen and entrepreneurs need to do mental rehearsals. With enough mental rehearsals, when reality shows up, it will be natural for them to act.
Robbins explains there is a difference between pleasure and fulfillment. Pleasure is temporary and fulfillment will stick with entrepreneurs forever. Too many people are not focusing on the entertainment. They become the master of pleasure but a failure of fulfillment. Too many people want to reach for pleasure. However, in business, focus on desire and create fulfillment life is extremely important. Robbins has two questions that entrepreneurs need to ask themselves.
What do you do in your life and business when seeking momentary pleasure?
What do you do to create lasting fulfillment in your life and business?
“Make majority in fulfillment”
Many people are focusing on minors instead of majors. By focusing too much on minors, entrepreneurs will not set the right foundation for themselves. In reality, not a lot of people compliment on foundation of life. Robbins believes it is important to focus on foundation. Foundation includes health, emotional intelligence, relationship, family, professional life, finances, and spirituality.
“Minimum investment, maximum return”
People need to build the habits around foundation. Since brain goes on auto-pilot, entrepreneurs need to train their brain differently. Robbins emphasizes there are 3 steps to create habits. The first step is called Que. Que is to set off the routine with triggers. The second step is called Routine. Routine is to control the habits. The last step is called Reward, which is to create emotional payoff and celebrate for success.
Based on statistic, there is 40% of things in life is auto pilot. Entrepreneurs need to set rewards to build habits. In average, people make 200 decisions a day. Their brain utilizes the capacity to make important decision. Study shows within 30 seconds after people wake up in the morning will check their phone. However, brain needs a jump start and it takes 2 hours. Therefore, Robbins wants entrepreneurs to structure their days with no distractions, so they can make their best decisions to start the day. Robbins has another 2 questions for entrepreneurs.
What is one good habit you like to build into your daily life?
What is one bad habit you like to eliminate from your daily life?
Entrepreneurs should start with small wins. This is the keystone to lead to other great habits. Robbins explains the best way to breathe is 4 seconds in, 4 seconds out, 4 seconds hold, and 4 seconds in. Entrepreneurs can use positive and encouragement phrases to help the breathing. Robbins suggests entrepreneurs to continue repeat vision planning for 10 and 20 years.
Robbins introduces a concept of emotional rocket fuel. The fuel can help entrepreneurs to apply the right state, strategy, and story. The story can carry with them all the time. The strategy provides the framework and that state can impact mental, physical, spiritual moments in life.
Robbins recommends to all entrepreneurs to think about these 3 questions.
What you focus on
How your body moves and reacts
What you say to yourself
Entrepreneurs should always remember to find the reason bigger than life to fight for and always control their state.
Name: Business Excellence Series – Leveraging Technology
Presenters: Elizabeth Vannan, Greg Malpass, Lindsay Smith, and Craig Brennan
Most businesses are now relying on new technology solutions to strengthen their products development, marketing and customer engagements. Moreover, leaders need to know how to adapt technology to increase business productivity and efficiently. Business in Vancouver presents the Business Excellence Series for business leaders to understand how to leverage technology in their operation. This presentation invites Elizabeth Vannan, the Senior manager and BC technology consulting lead for MNP LLP, Greg Malpass, the Founder and CEO of Traction on Demand, Lindsay Smith, the CEO of Massive Media, and Craig Brennan, the CEO of QuickMobile to discuss their perspectives on the current technology trend. Along with the moderator, Eamonn Percy, the Founder of The Percy Group, they will share their experience and guidance to help leaders to build the right technical innovations of their businesses.
The statistic shows in the last 24 hours, there are over 9 billion videos view on YouTube. There are over 200 billion emails send over the internet and over 5 million smartphones are sold across the world. Furthermore, there are more smartphones sold than baby born.
Craig Brennan believes the biggest technology trends for Vancouver businesses is the concept of changing analog to digital. Technology is putting sensors on everything for businesses to create insights and actions. Businesses will collect the insights to increase business performance.
“Data is the diamond for business”
Lindsay Smith mentions technology will analyze client’s information. Many companies are still flying blind and they are not leverage the data to make smart decisions. Greg Malpass emphasizes technology can lead companies to access faster or fail faster. Technology only creates opportunities and leaders need to seek what is available. Elizabeth Vannan believes the technology will create competitive advantage on utilities, so leaders need to think about the next strategy.
Malpass wants leaders to fix the beginning process. Leaders should find ways to improve the root of the business. Vannan wants leaders to spend where the money is. Leaders should find system that helps their businesses to reduce risks. Smith mentions the world will be either digital or traditional. it is important to put technology into multiple area of business that will impact the operation. Therefore, Brennan encourages leaders to start with paper dashboard. This will allow leaders to identify their business key performance factors. This will give the ability to understand the driver of the business and allow technology to automate it.
“Simple way to put finger in business”
Malpass shares that Telus implement technology system to their traditional door to door sals team to explore and understand their target audience. This allows Telus to create unique experiences for customers. Smith shares that some hotels are afraid of technology advancement. By providing the right knowledge, hotels are able to understand technology can help them fine tune their customer attention. Vernon shares that many non profit organizations are not able to use technology to connect and interact with donors because of old system. Instead of maintaining their current system that is not working on operation, organizations should put strategy to take advantage of cloud system to reduce their down time and create opportunities to save money. Idea of technology can help business grow.
There are some bad experience as well. Brennan mentions there is a company that implement a system without the right fundamental, which results of complex operation procedures. There are too many leaders look too far. They should look at the fundamental first. Leaders need to simplify the basic operations first.
Many leaders have the misconception of believing technology can save the day. Smith emphasizes technology can only support the operation and it takes team effort to make up the rest of the factors. Leaders need to research on competitors.
Malpass states 3 factors that might lead companies to low productivity.
A lack of executives support
Use the historical data collect from original IT system
Change management
Many people are still lacking technology skills, and leaders need to seek them and train them. Smith suggests leaders to focus on data management. This will help them focus on the actions. Many jobs will be automated by technology and new startups should look into the next 5 years on how they can complete on technology change.
Brennan suggests leaders to read “The circle” and “The second machine age” books to understand more on the impact of technology on businesses. He also suggests leaders need to identify at least 10 elements that data can analyze to help business future. Smith suggests leaders to invest technology in the role of business. Malpass suggests leaders to create technology group in the companies to brainstorm new ideas for business. Vannan suggests leaders to create their IT plan.
Leaders need to find ways to recognize and appreciate people. Malpass recommends leaders to curve time for employees, give them bandwidth and show them the right IT definition. When leaders find the right people, they will form a team and they will recruit others.
For small businesses, Brennan shares a formula to help them change.
D x V xF > R
This formula means when the factors of dissatisfaction with how things are now, vision of what is possible, and first concrete steps towards vision are greater than resistance, the change is possible for small businesses.
Vannan wants small business to look for the cheapest way to solve their problems. Small business should not focus on fancy; instead, they should focus on efficiently.
Many organizations are fear of letting technology take too much control. Smith recommends leaders to understand how technology can help them. Brennan wants leaders to start mastering on their analytical skills. When companies collect the data, their next phase will be going back to their fundamental questions. When leaders have the right analytical skills, they will be able to drive back to insight and create the result they want.
“Need to be more proactive thinker”
Technology can track everything. Leaders need to implement the system that can automate the ROI. With the right system, it can help business to be faster, lower cost, improve performance and have compliance.
Name: How a 27 year old built a $600K business in 2 years with no prior experience
Presenter: Dan Lok and Wilson Lee
Many entrepreneurs are not focusing enough on dealmaking strategies and techniques. Instead, they focus on micro management and lose the profit opportunities. Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group invites Wilson Lee, the CEO of Wun2Free Entertainment, to share his experience in negotiation for bigger profits. This presentation will motivate entrepreneurs to have the dealmaker mindset. Moreover, entrepreneurs will learn to determine if the deals are makable or no chance of closing. Dan Lok, the Founder of Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group, will also present his perspective on Apple’s marketing strategies. Furthermore, entrepreneurs will be able to adapt the tactics on their business marketing campaigns.
The secret to Apple’s marketing genius
Dan Lok, the Founder of Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group, believes many Apple product consumers are attached and loyal to their products because of the Apple’s marketing strategies. Lok states over 47 major retailers announce closing over 6000 stores across the country. This increases the competition and impact many small business owners. The retail apocalypse forces small business owners to be aware of the change, innovation, and relationship.
Based on eMarrketer from Fortune, because of the new release on iPhone, Apple increased their lead productivity and increase the profitability of $4,798.82 in sales per square foot at the end of 2014. In June 2015, Apple announced the quarterly revenue of 49.6 billion with the net profit of 10.7 billion. Moreover, Apple has over $203 billion in cash reserve in their balance sheet.
Lok shares the top 5 powerful ways for Apple to cultivate loyal fans.
Way #1: Give people products that are exceptionally good
Apple makes innovative products for their consumers. Furthermore, their products are extraordinary comparing with their direct competitors. Lok wants entrepreneurs to revisit their products and ask themselves how their products can be different and unique with direct competitors. Moreover, Lok shares it could be difficult for entrepreneurs to design products by focus groups because a lot of time people will not know what they want until entrepreneurs show it to them.
Way #2: Their product are fun and easy to use
Apple sells products with simplicity. Their products can be used by kids. Lok mentions complexity is the energy of execution and simple can be harder than complex. It takes a lot of work to make things simply for entrepreneurs, but the result will impact for long term.
Lok suggests entrepreneurs to picture their prospects as Homer Simpson. If entrepreneurs can explan their products to Homer Simpson, they got something right. In business, Lok chooses his battle by entering the market with high margin, lousy competitors and bad customer experience. Lok will have the ability to make it stronger, faster and cheaper.
Way #3: Apple strives to deliver unique and outstanding experience from the moment of contact
Apple delivers unique moments for their consumers. The consumers are purchasing the access to their system, not just the product. When consumers buy Macs, they are joining the community. Entrepreneurs should always think beyond the product itself. By creating impact and experience, consumers are willing to pay more. Consumers are linked with people who have elevated status. Moreover, perception is reality.
Steve Jobs has been positioned as the iconic celebrity in the Apple world. Furthermore, he helps Apple to create exceptional experiences through their retail stores.
Way #4: Apples has very wisely taken an overall look at what the computer market is, figured out what they really want to do with their computers and build their platform around that
Apple expands their market platform because they put themselves in their clients’ shoes. They analyze consumers behaviours and offer what and when they want. Entrepreneurs need to ensure their back end is simple. Entrepreneurs can direct leverage their client base to increase their backend with join venture.
“Go where the money is flowing and then just stand in front it”
Way #5: Apple is absolutely shameless and relentless about self-promotion
Apple promotes their product well. Lok believes attention is the new currency. Entrepreneurs need to market more when they do not need to market. Most companies go out of business because of obscurity. It is easier for deals come to entrepreneurs than chasing deals.
“Visibility is more important than ability”
Lok suggests entrepreneurs to have their personal media platform. The platform can be a community that serves greater good for other. Platform can help entrepreneurs to get attention, but it is slow to build. Entrepreneurs should start immediately. By leveraging other platform, entrepreneurs can help other people gain attention together. Moreover, there is no such thing as over exposure.
“Be somebody, do something, be somewhere”
Journey of Wilson Lee’s entrepreneurship
Wilson Lee, the CEO of Wun2Free Entertainment, started his career when he was 16 years old at an ice cream booth. After graduation, he felt his desire of entrepreneurship was still burning, so he took the opportunity to host Bubble Tea booth to gain entrepreneur experience. During one of the Carnivals, he realized the potential business opportunity in Carnival game and began his journey in game market.
Lee believes in confident. He emphasizes building the game is not the hard part. The hard part is to sell the entertainment business idea. Lee experiences difficulty of flying back to China to look for sources and stocks. Moreover, Lee has no connections in China, but he never gives up. Lee understands if people have the mindset of “do not know what to do”, they will not exceed to the next level of their business.
Lee utilizes the night market to expand his career. With Lee’s effort, Lee increases the amount of games and staff employment opportunities. Lee pitches his business idea concept to PNE based on his night market portfolio, and the revenue for the second year is double.
Lee stats there are over 700 thousand visitors per one month during the peak season of night market. Lee shares 2 main business lessons from the night market.
Leverage the existing business for the next
Always be determine and nothing to lose
Lee never categorizes himself as “the event guy”. He always strives to new improvement. It is just business. Lee leads his team with good principle. Since most of the employees are in average of 17 years old, he acts as the cool boss and have fun with everyone.
“With growth, there are things to work on; keep building, keep seeing, and keep going”
Lee sees himself to continue in game market for the next 5 years. He loves the idea and he enjoys the process. Lee emphasizes it is not about money, and it is about passion. He chooses to be in business. In his theory, entrepreneurs do what they love.
Lee sees many business opportunities in the future of his business. He will explore in gambling games and give more back to the community. In average, business will only contribute 20% return to the society. However, he insists of contribute back 30% or more. He understands attention is the key to promotion, and he is willing to spend resources for attention.
Lee announces his new project called “Vancouver Winter Wonderland”. He wants to use this business idea to provide business opportunity for indoor activities at winter season. With the right people, he establishes his vision within 2 years. Vancouver does not have indoor season place for festival and he wants to use this idea to create more magical experience.
For most people, Vancouver is branded for the boring place. Lee wants to change that. He expects within 10 days, the Wonderland will have over 90 thousands visitors. The Wonderland will partner with Chamber of Commerce and other tourism attractions for advertisement.
Lee does not believe in making mistakes. He indicates entrepreneurs have the drive to be persistent. All they have to do is just ask when they need help.
Presenters: Gretchen Rubin, Captain Phillips, Marshall Goldsmith, Dr. Liane Davey, and Colonel Chris Hadfield
The world is craving for new leadership. The world is looking for guidance. Everything in leadership is about action. The Art Of, the leading media and event company, presents their signature event “The Art of Leadership” to discuss the meaning of leadership in today’s world. This conference invites Gretchen Rubin, Captain Phillips, Marshall Goldsmith, Dr. Liane Davey, and Colonel Chris Hadfield to share their leadership style and experiences. This presentation will impact many leaders who are looking for inspiration and innovation. Moreover, leaders will learn the strategy to lead a better team in their organizations.
The Art of Leadership believes it is important to stand beyond the product and stand for community. Leaders must realize people are looking for emotional connections. People will not care about organization values unless there are connections. Leaders should remember to be a rebel with a cause and do not just say it, live up to it. In addition, organizations do not change, people change, so leaders should take the inspiration and do something about it.
“Principle is just principle when it costs money”
Gretchen Rubin
The author of “The Happiness Project”, Gretchen Rubin draws the concept of habits and believes habits can lead people to be happier and healthier. Habits can be considered as self-commends.
Many people are fascinated with habits, but it can cause people frustration. A majority of people think certain attitudes can lead to similar habits. Overall, Rubin believes habits is the architecture of life, which can shape people’s presents and future.
The key of habits is decision making. It allows people to make decision and create self control. Rubin emphasizes any type of actions from people are already decided a long time ago. People can change habits. Habits can be changed by first understanding the habits. People need to discover what is the truth for them.
Rubin shares 2 types of strategies to change the habits.
The first strategy is the strategy of abstaining. Leaders must make decisive decision. All decisions can be either or. There is no between. Rubin calls people who are making indecisive decisions the moderator. They change all the time. Leaders must be abstained, not moderated.
The second strategy is the strategy of treat. Many leaders conceptualize treat as reward. Treat is not a reward, it is a want. Treat can give self charge and they must be healthy treat. Many bad habits are created when there is unhealthy treat, such as food or scream plan. Instead, leaders should consider health treat, such as music. Health treat can give people the feeling of desire.
Many leaders create satisfaction when they accomplish a goal. However, they are not happy at all. This is caused by leaders believing the goal is the finish line. When leaders treat goals as milestone, they will find their satisfaction from the process of their accomplishment.
Rubin shares her theory of 4 tendencies in life: upholders, questioners, obligers, and rebels. Each tendency has their own ways to meet their expectation. Upholders are uneasy and they lock in to their expectation. They accept rules and they meet deadlines. Questioners have the characteristic of good organization skills. They tend to question everything. They love research and they can drain and frustrate people around them.
Obligers can meet expectation, yet they also have outer accountability. They use outer expectation to control inner expectation. Moreover, they are easy to be burned out because they do too much work. Lastly, rebels think outside of the box. They are not afraid to do things differently; however, they can be hard to demand. There is more pressure and resistance from rebels. They have the characteristic of wanting to prove to the world.
Rebels and obligers can have strong long relationship. Rubin emphasizes each tendency is not categorized by the type of gender. They are personality and it is format for leaders to understand more about others. All tendencies can have weakness in the organization. Base on patterns of habits, people can determine their tendency type. When leaders can change their habits, they can change their lives.
“Tendency is not just looking at other people, it is the reasoning that differentiate the tendency”
Captain Phillips
The author of “A Captain’s Duty”, Captain Phillips will share his leadership experience as a sea captain.
Phillips shares his journey began at a cab experience. After graduating from school, Phillips faced the problem of not knowing what to do in life. Phillips started his career as a taxi driver in order to gain outside experience. One day, Phillips was inspired from a sailer in his cab; afterwards, he decided to sail.
His ship is called “Maersk Alabama”, and the life of a sailer is very different. Phillips mentions the life of sailer is the cycle of 90 days on the ship, and 90 days home. Philips is the captain and the captain is not a part of the crew; instead, captain takes care of the crew.
Phillips shares 3 major leadership lessons.
Leaders are stronger than they think
Failure only viable if leaders give up
Teamworks work together can solve problems
Phillips believes leadership has the major component of imagination. Imagination can enhance leaders experience.
Phillips indicates the biggest problem for any sea captain is the pirate attacks. Pirates can highjack captain’s ships. While on the ship, Phillips started to discuss all the possible problems with his crew. Later he discovered some crew members are not familiar with some primary functions. Phillips believes leaders must allow their crew to come up with great ideas and talk it through to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Phillips shares the experience of his pirate attack. The ship was about to face a pirate attack. Even though everyone was terrified, they knew what to do. Phillips believed there is always a way out from any danger. When pirates aboard the ship, they were controlling the ship. Unfortunately, they could not find the rest of the crew. Pirates forced Phillips to call them out from the PA system, but because of prior training, the crew would not show up without the right secret phase.
Taking care of the crew was the primary responsibility for Phillips. It will take baby steps to gain back the ship control. After negotiation, Phillips was forced to be on a life boat that led the ship. Phillips realized in leadership, people cannot solve new problem with the old system. Phillips negotiated with the pirates, but the negotiation failed.
Because of the humid temperature, Phillips played the mind game and discovered the opportunity to jump out from the window. At the right moment, Phillips made the attempt but failed. Phillips had faith that someone will rescue them. When US Navy arrived, the pirates realized the odd is changing. Phillips jumped out of the window again and US Navy took the opportunity to control the ship. Phillips and his crew were alive.
“Well trained professionals can overcome any obstacles, running will not, see it through”
Marshall Goldsmith
One of the best New York Times bestselling author and world-renowned leadership expert, Marshall Goldsmith believes creating behaviour that lasts will help leaders to become the person they want to be.
Traditionally, many executives are ashamed to hire executive coach. However, the trend is changing. Goldsmith believes there are many behaviours that are easy to understand, but they are hard to do.
People know who they want to become, so they follow them. However, in reality, million of people come with the result of discharged or dissimulated. Goldsmith emphasizes this is all because of trigger. Trigger is any stimulus that may impact behaviour. When triggers happen, leaders are in control. There are two types of controls: internal and external. Internal control gives leaders the feeling of creating the world, and the external control give leaders the feeling of the world is creating them. When there is a lack of control on both internal and external, they will be in random state. If leaders have both control, they are called “mutual creation”, which means they feel they can create the world and at the same time, the world is creating them.
Triggers lead to impulse, and later turn to behaviour. Goldsmith believes there should be another step, which is impulse leads to awareness then behaviour. Triggers can have negative and positive impacts. Moreover, it is important for leaders to be aware of triggers.
Goldsmith indicates the world has many distractions, such as email, television and social media. For most people, the biggest distraction is their dream. When leaders believe it is just a dream, they will treat it only like a dream.
“For most people, dream is their biggest distraction”
There are many reasons why leaders are not doing and are distracted. The first reason is that leaders think planning and doing are separate. The second reason is the understanding gap. The third reason is that it will not take long to do. The forth reason is the high probability of low probability distractions. The fifth reason is treating it as special day. The sixth reason is to believe leaders have the wisdom and courage to objectively evaluate their own behaviour. The seventh reason is leaders believe they have the willpower that will not deplete. The last reason is they do not admit they need help or structure their goals.
Goldsmith wants leaders to feel it is normal to ask for help and structure. The role of coaching is different in this world. Instead of fixing losers, leaders help winners. Many athletes, movie stars and other world leaders have multiple coaches. If leaders can fix it by themselves, they would probability be fixed by now. Goldsmith recommends leaders to change the behaviour of expecting their team to come up with solutions. It is all right to come without solutions.
Leaders tend to have ego and they are too proud of them. Ego will get in their way. Leaders must understand that the important factor of changing is to change the client, not the coach. Leaders should never make coaching about their own ego. If people do not care or if leaders do not care, they should not waste time. Leaders should not tell others what they need to become because people will change if they want to.
Goldsmith shares the 4 key wheel of change: creating, preserving, eliminating, and accepting.
Creating is for leaders to know who they want to create. Leaders should create that person that they want to become. Preserving is for leaders to preserve what they want. This means to have gratitude for their past and continue to seek future challenges. Eliminating is for leaders to eliminate what they want. Leaders know what to eliminate and when to eliminate. Lastly, accepting is for leaders to learn to accept present. Leaders should let go of their past by forgiving and accept the environmental limitations with prioritizing their actions.
Whenever leaders are struggling to make any decision, Goldsmith suggests leader to answer this question.
“Am I willing at this time to make the investment required to make a positive difference on this topic?”
If leaders answer yes, they should go for it. If not, they should let it go. Leaders should always question why the process works and how the process works. Leaders should make a list of active and passive questions. Active question focuses on what they can do to make a positive difference for them and the world. The passive question focuses on what the world needs to do to make a positive difference for them. When leaders answers these questions daily, they will see a pattern of their behaviours.
Goldsmith suggests 6 active questions.
Are you happy?
Did you find the meaning?
Are you fully engaged?
Are you building positive relationship?
Are you setting clear goals?
Are you making progress towards goal achievements?
Goldsmith wants leaders to be happy, help others, and do what they think it is right.
Dr. Liane Davey
The author of “You First: Inspire your team to grow up, get along and get stuff done”, Dr. Liane Davey shares most organizations are facing dysfunctional teams.
The sad reality of teams is that when revenue are declining, it shows the impact. The impact of the employee base affects from top to bottom positions. Senior management teams are losing faith and have many disagreements. Employees realize the management is not doing right. Employees are frustrated and they are bring the depression back to their families. Davey believes this is toxic. Toxic means something is wrong but leaders are not aware of it.
Davey mentions 5 different kinds of toxic teams.
Team Toxic #1: Crisis junkieitis
When there is stressful time, it will influence teams. There are four major elements that need to form in the team.
Role clarity
Priority
Resources
No politics
When any of these four major elements is missing, leaders will give up and wait for crisis to join up. This shows this kind of toxic will force people to get things done when there is a crisis.
Team Toxic #2: Royal Rumble-osis
Team can be filed by passion, but they show low EQ. Teams with this kind of toxic are aggressive. They debate back and forth, and nothing will happen. This kind of toxic will force the team to find new engagement.
Team Toxic #3: Bleeding back trauma
People believe if there is nothing nice to say, do not say anything at all. These kind of people are lacking of conflict skills. This will slow down the process of decision making in any team. This will also cost teams their money, time and energy.
Team Toxic #4: Bobble heads
People do not risk to think differently. When they compromise, they get rewards. This kind of toxic forces people not to have any obligation to disagree. When they do not get comfortable, they will show things down.
Team Toxic #5: Spectator syndrome
People in this team work individually. They only have direct conversation with their manager. People feel they will only say things they care for themselves. There is no team chemistry and no one is managing the risk.
In reality, many leaders use the quick fix method of conducting team building options or tissue meeting to assemble the team together, but it will not solve the problem.
Davey believes the most important thing is to change team member behaviours. There are 3 types of characters in any team. Either they are wicked people, who are being aggressive, wounded people, who are being underwater, or witness people, who are doing nothing at all.
After discovering the characteristic of each team members, Davey shares 5 solutions to fix the problem.
Solution #1: Start with a positive assumption
Brain use s neutral system that filters the negatives. When people thinks about negative emotions or feelings, they will feel hostel. Davey suggests leaders to be aware of any assumptions they make and open up with curiosity.
Solution #2: Amplifying other voices
Many teams ignore other who are not thinking the same. Minority people are not in the voice of majority people. Therefore, leaders tend to block out of minority ova and tend to devalue them. Davey wants leaders to give full attention to the minority and involve them to the conversation.
Solution #3: Know when to say no
Good team players will say yes, but they will tell the trust in the team. When teams say too much “yes” can create bad and negative atmosphere. Davey recommends leaders to think about if the statement is worth the time to do before say the word “yes”. After saying no, leaders can provide reasons and alternative solution. Leaders need to allow others to become the contributor.
Solution #4: Embrace productive conflict
People need to get into different mindset. Leaders should stop thinking what is right or wrong; instead, leaders should start understand the truth behind the conflict. Leaders need to validate the outcome and reinforce back to the team. Instead of creating tug-or-war, leaders need to create a feeling of Allie for others. Davey wants leaders to say it with friendly way.
Solution #5: Time to change
Leaders need to open the option to change. Leaders need to decide the actions and make it obligation to change. Davey expects leaders to get good feedback. Good feedback makes up of the situation, behaviour of others, subjective, and make it like the feedback is theirs.
“Get comfortable being uncomfortable”
Colonel Chris Hadfield
The first astronaut and first Canadian Commander of the International Space Station, Colonel Chris Hadfield, defines leadership as the art of influencing human behaviour to accomplish mission in matter of desire leaders. Leaders lead people, and they get people to change what is next. Passion can lead to dictate.
Hadfield states the odd of dying on spaceship is one out of thirty-eight. It is still an amazing feeling for Hadfield. Spaceship experience gives Hadfield the change to live through a process to ready for taking risk.
Hadfield emphasizes he always questions himself what could be the next thing that will kill them. In his leadership style, focus is the key. Leaders can be overwhelmed by distractions, but there is no problem that it will make it worst than in space. Hadfield believes leaders must have a balance. A balance of focus what is important and recognize the right actions.
When the spaceship launches to space, Hadfield feel powerless. The 7 pounds of thrust ignites over 80 million horse power in a tube of explosive, and Hadfield describes it as the feeling that people put cement on him. The eight minutes and 32 seconds is the time he feels weight less.
How do Hadfield organize and lead?
Hadfield believes leaders need to direct themselves first. Leaders must identify the perfection in their teams. This means leaders should imagine if everything is in ideal condition, what would they need to do.This will create common objectives and construct long term definition of perfection. Life is the sequence of choice of what leaders make next.
Hadfield will break down the tasks to sub tasks. Sub tasks will lead to perfection. In space, Hadfield had the experience to see the world. With one glance, it snaps him the set of skills and rewards.
After conducting the long term goals, leaders need to build personal competence. People will follow leaders with competence. Moreover, leaders need to gain competence. Even if leaders have perfect something, there is always something changing. Therefore, Hadfield suggests leaders to remember not to satisfy their current competence. Leaders should always continue to grow.
In order to get his team ready, Hadfield needs to prepare them the ability to solve anything. By training together, they know what skills are required. Hadfield has 4 statements he wants his team to remember in space.
Survival
Health of vehicle
Love the experience
Science done for NASA
Culture can be an issue for leaders. Hadfield bridges the gap by clearly state the objectives for his team. Afterwards, he lets lose and check for progress.
First time in space
Hadfield shares his first experience in space. His first assignment was to help Russian to build shelter that connect to the dock. Hadfield led his team by visualization and practice for years. Hadfield instructed his team to visualize failure. When they knew what the most likely to go wrong, they will practice for it.
“People are busy to visualize failure, but leaders will do it anyway”
Everything could break in space. A spark happened and Hadfield required immediate action. Hadfield and his team were required to perform space walk. The incident was out of his control, but he believed his team because they are prepared for the worst. In leadership, Hadfield gave a part of his ship away as a decisional authority. By giving decisional authority to others will help them enhance their decision abilities. At the end, his team members, Chris and Tom, completed the task.
Hadfield thinks they did not save the station by luck, it is all because of proper preparation. Leaders prepare their skills, which will give them the right confidence. The leadership principles work with everything in life. Because of leadership, people have the ability to create new innovative machines, software enhancement, and other technology.
Hadfield mentions the biggest problem they are facing is launching. 50% of all the risk is at the first 9 minutes of launch. Currently, many people are finding ways to make the launch faster, safer, and cheaper.
The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, believes it is possible to retrieve the rest of the rocket for reuse. This will improve the launch and landing and reduce costs. So far the experiment is still in progress.
Hadfield believes early success is bad because it reinforce failure. Leaders want things to fail early to gain insight for improvement. Leaders have responsibility to his team. When they make the next decision, they are responsible for the next. The leaders in this generation have the responsibility to nutrient the next generation.
Hadfield mentions when they return to earth, it feels like a meter. They use the soft landing rocket, made by Russia, to help them out. Hadfield starts with an impossible quest, but he made it possible.
The next phase for Hadfield is to live proud and interesting. He will educate other people with his experience and help other become better leaders.
Networking is an important skill for leaders to improve their connections in their industries. However, many of leaders are reluctant to network and they are costing them many potential opportunities. The Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (CPABC) Richmond Chapter invites Sue Clement, the Founder of Success Coaching, to discuss how powerful networking can bring to professional. Sue Clement will share her strategies to help leaders to overcome the fear of networking and utilize networking skill to gain advantage in leader’s career and market.
Sue Clement is the Founder of Success Coaching. Clement has the passion to help small business owners to overcome marketing and sale limits. For over 12 years, Clement provides many webinars and workshops to improve business owners’ success and profitability. Clement also published a book called “Insider Secrets to Referral Success” to help business owners to leverage their connections in the business world. Moreover, Clement is a professional speaker who inspires innovative solutions to business problems.
Sue Clement believes networking is a way to make winning connections. Networking skill is important because successful leaders will network all the time. Clement shares she felt it was uncomfortable at first when she started to network for her business. She forced to network and she hated it. She hated the fact many people only talk about themselves. When she began to realize the power of networking can bring meaningful connections, she started to enjoy the process. Later, she became a business coach to teach professionals how to turn conversations into connections and profits. As of now, 80% of her business, resources and connections come from networking.
“Training without application is entertainment”
Sue Clement creates the CASH system to help leaders to network. CASH is the abbreviation for “Connect”, “Ask”, “Skills”, and “Help”.
Connect
Clement wants leaders to make meaningful connections. Leaders must treat networking as life skill in social place. Furthermore, networking is not equivalent to sale pitch.
Good networking comes from good listening. Leaders must always ask good quality questions and show interests. It is important to make leaders feel important. When leaders listen, they will connect. Clement recommends leaders to seek to impress people they meet. By discovering what impress about other people, leaders will able to share conversation.
Ask
Clement believes it is important to leverage networking time. Clement indicates the word “ask” is to present a call of action that might solve other people’s problem with their current expertise. Leaders need to remember to ask for introduction and connections. This will open up opportunity to meet other people’s needs.
The difference between ask and sale is the target audience. Clement emphasizes sale is target on individual and ask is target board and global. Leaders must ask without expectation because the people they meet may know someone in their connections who might meet the ask. Ask is important because it will lead to meaningful connection. Ask will help leader to connect with people who are behind other people’s connections.
Clement encourages leaders to ask because other people might be waiting for leader’s expertise to solve their business problems.
“If you do not ask, you do not get; we do not know who knows who”
Skills
Clement believes leaders must master the conversation skills. One of the conversation skills all leaders must master is to have the host mentality. This means leaders should act like a host, be early and stay late in the networking events. Leaders should make more than one impress on their network to help others remember them.
Clement suggests leaders to mingle by the door or coffee station because that is the area where people appear. Attitude is everything, so leaders should always smile. Most leaders make the mistake to sit down during the networking events. Clement wants leaders to mingle and stay standing as much as possible. Leaders can try to bring other people into the conversations.
Clement provides 3 strategies to help leaders to exit conversation. The first strategy is ask them to walk with the leader to get coffee. While leaders are getting the coffee, they can introduce them to other people. The second strategy is to shake hands and walk away. The third strategy is to let other people know they are taking too much of their networking time and ask permission to connect with them later in the future.
Clement indicates when leaders realize other people are not engaging the conversation within 28 seconds, they should walk away and move on to other conversation.
Leaders must have a compelling networking introduction. Clement recommends leaders not to say what they do and the current position job title. Instead, leaders should introduce themselves by stating the problems and solutions they provide. This is an ability to have more conversation with others, and it will create deep relationship.
Leaders should follow the 4 steps in the conversation.
State the summary statement
Tell the story that has problem, what they did, and the outcome
Do an ask
Close with tagline
Networking does not just happen at the event, leaders must work for it. Connections in network give leaders more than money itself. Leaders should treat business cards as gold and respect. Leaders can write comments on the card to remind them their common interests. Business cards is a connection point and leaders must do follow up. Meaningful followup will create meaningful relationship and connections.
“The fortune is in the follow up”
Help
Networking is a two way street. Leaders can get help from others and give help to others. Clement believes leaders should stop hunting for prospect and start seeking for collaborative partners. By leveraging the connections, leaders can grow their network. When their network grows, their net worth will begin to increase.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go with others”
Leaders should look for these 3 types of people in the networking events.
Clients
Reciprocal
Ambassador
Clement shares her Referral Success Formula
Know
Be known in the market
Like
Become likeable
Trust
Become Trustable
Opportunity
Connect with right people
Mindset
Have the mentality to give connections
Understand
they need to know how to help others
Leaders should find the “go-to” person and be the “go-to” person. This will increase their creditability in networking circle.
Name: Global Forces – Major trends and opportunities for British Columbia
Presenter: Dominic Barton
Leaders need to understand how global forces can impact the business operations in British Columbia. Moreover, leaders need to adapt the changes to create more business opportunities for locals. Vancouver Board of Trade invites Dominic Barton, the Global Managing Director of McKinsey & Company, to share his perspective on global forces. Leaders will learn how forces can change their business landscape and seek better implications. This presentation will benefit many leaders who are looking to capture new opportunities in the current global economy.
Dominic Barton is the Global Managing Director at McKinsey & Company. In his 29 years of experience, Barton has helped out many businesses in many industries, especially in banking, consumer goods and high technology. Barton was also the Asia Chairman for McKinsey at Shanghai from 2004 to 2009. Barton has published over 80 articles on society, leadership and financial services. Moreover, Barton is the co-author of a book called “Dangerous Market”. Moreover, he involves with many society works, including the member of Canadian Prime Minister’s Advisory committee and the chair of Seoul International Business Advisory Council.
Barton announces McKinsey & Company will open a Vancouver office this year. Barton seeks the digital trends in Vancouver and believes it is the right time to capture the opportunities.
Barton states in order to improve the odds of success in any organization, leaders need to accomplish these 3 steps.
Starting point
Global trends
Bold moves
Starting point determines who they are. The global trends represent where they are going, and the bold moves illustrate what they need to do. By looking at the power curve, many organizations usually stop in the middle of the curve; however, leaders need to make bold move to push organizations towards the top.
Starting point refers to the size, resources, structures, and productivity. This represents 20% of the impact. Global trends focus on industry and geographic trends. Nevertheless, bold moves are strategic choices in M&A, capital, expenditures and resource allocation. Barton indicates 20-40% of leading companies will focus on bold moves.
Barton shares the 5 forces that will change the global business.
The rise of emerging markets
The power of disruptive technologies
The aging of the global population
The changing nature of capitalism
The return of geographic politics
The world economic centre of gravity is shifting back to Asia and Barton believes many organizations are not aware of this change. Nearly 2.2 billion new middle class will be in the population by 2030 based on the forecast of 5.0 billion people in 2030. The emerging market cities will fuel nearly half global growth, which result of increase 45% in global growth.
The pace of digital disruption is accelerating. This means organizations are expected to be exponentially faster, smaller, cheaper and better. The disruptive technology will have substantial economic impact by 2025. This includes mobile internet, automation on knowledge work and cloud technology. The technology is disrupting every aspect of people’s lives and the consumers are setting the bar higher than ever. Therefore, digitization is the key to drive massive improvement s in efficiency.
Barton believes the steps will be typical, improvement, and then digital. In the future, the data flow will reduce downtime and increase velocity. Digitization has a ripple effect, which creates second bounce to other industries. However, not every organization will survive, but Barton expects the extent of disruption will be over 5 years for all industries.
The average lifetime of organizations is declining. Comparing with 1935 to 2011, it has already reduced over 80%. Barton explains the new technology is upending the fundamental truths of business what traditional leaders used to believe.
Barton shares 6 different ways organizations can adapt the change.
Prepare for disruption
Think about data holistically
Experiment and innovate at speed
Redesign the organization
Invest more in education
Manage risks
Prepare for disruption can be assess digital quotient. Data holistically relates to appoint Chief Digital Officer. Crowdsource is an example of innovate at speed. Leaders can redesign the organization with flatter, smaller and more autonomous structures. Organizations can provide lifelong learning and reduce business loss from cybersecurity.
Barton believes British Columbia has strengths in human capital, industry and geography; however, British Columbia has weakness in human capital, such as talents and aging population, and industry, such as transiting economy and turbulent commodities markets.
Organizations can create action plan based on these 5 potential bold moves
Agriculture
Tourism
Innovation
Education
Infrastructure
Agri-foods growth can quadruple the export value by 2025. The key driver is to harness the power of sensors through internet and leverage advanced technology. Barton mentions British Columbia can adapt new investment in innovation, private sector and education. By investing in Asia tourism can improve the performance of British Columbia destination.Vancouver can be the next technology hub if there is high ambition, public sector investments, and private sector collaboration.
British Columbia has 3 high performing universities, many motivated industry partners, and deliberate leadership. These factors are considered to be “research quadrangle”
In order to continue to develop BC as a logistic hub, Barton believes momentum needs to be build. With the right talent, Asian links, and grass roots potentials, BC can fully utilize the asset to become next hub.
The hub will help the global to integrate government, business, and institutional planning. The networking and knowledge sharing will improve and it will create incentive for business to grow in BC.
Barton emphasizes 3 mindset shifts to raise the ambition
Aspire to be global hub
Challenge all orthodoxies
Take a long-term perspective
“Help Vancouver continue to develop into a global hub”
Name: Introductory guide to navigating this hot market
Presenter: Gary Wong
Entrepreneurs often find there is a strong connection between real estate market and their business industries. However, many of them do not understand how to navigate the current real estate market. Social Butterfly Club Meetup Group and Bubble Tea Vancouver invite Gary Wong, the author of “The Book on Vancouver Real Estate” to share inside tips, guides and strategies to analyze the real estate market. In this presentation, Gary Wong will provide some guideline for entrepreneurs who are looking for some introductory knowledge about real estate.
Gary Wong is the author of “The Book on Vancouver Real Estate”. Wong is a full time land-development realtor, licensed under MacDonald Realty, that focuses on structuring, negotiation, implementation and acquisition. Moreover, Wong has the passion to help his clients to find the right property that aligns with their long term vision. Wong is certified in negotiation, and is awarded 2013 MacDonald Realty Sales Achievement Award and 2014 Award of Excellence.
Start of Real Estate Journey
Gary Wong shares before he became a professional realtor, he was having a hard time climbing the corporate ladder in his job position. Wong decided to go back to school to pursue MBA program for further education. After completing MBA program, the reality hit him and realized practical experience in real estate career is far beyond what he expected. Therefore, he decided to start his realtor career from scratch.
“Only can absorb when you admit you know nothing”
Wong was inspired by Jeremy Lin Youtube Channel and decided to take change his approach in his real estate career. He began to ask himself an important question: “How do I compete?”. He created his career with a simple business model that helps other, serves other, and add values to other.
The business model helped Wong gained market recognition. Afterwards, he met his first mentor and published his first book.
Wong’s Real Estate insights
First time home buyers need to watch out for pre-qualify. Wong emphasizes pre-qualify is just an estimate figures and it is not guarantee. Wong suggests all first time home buyers to get a written confirmation letter from lenders. They should also watch out for letters that contain “subject to”.
Many buyers use building war strategy. In this strategy, Wong believes buyers should figure out the market value first and their willingness to pay. The bidding war usually have subject offer and subject free bids. Ideally, subject free bids will win; however, if buyers can incorporate seller’s interests into the offer, they will increase the chance of winning the bid. Wong suggests buyers to photocopy their bank draft to show commitments to sellers, which can increase the chance of winning the offer.
Wong introduces three types of mortgage brokers.
Mortgage broker who are working with independent brokerage firm
Bank Mortgage broker who are promoting their bank products
Bank Specialist who receives commission
Wong recommends buyers should never shop for the rate. They need to find the terms that fits their needs.
Simple Techniques that save thousands
Wong suggests buyers to look at the features and add values to it. They must be picky because they can find opportunity to squeeze something out to indicate to seller that it is moving condition. Wong also suggests all buyers to find a backup plan and never lock themselves into one offer.
Buyers should initiate home inspection. Home inspection can identify unknown issues and it is a good way to gain advantage in negotiation. Buyers can use the strategy of exaggerating the issue to push pressure on seller during negotiation. A concept Wong wants all his buyers to know is “expanding the pie”. This means they need to incorporate other services other than price. Buyers need to think outside of the box and figure out how to benefit sellers.
“Swap tangible with tangible”
Wong recommends buyers to submit two kinds of offers. The first offer should have the condition of subject to everything, and the second offer should be low price with subject free. This is a strategy to signal sellers that buyers are willing to adapt risks with low price. Furthermore, Wong believes time kills all deals.
The main benefit from a home inspector is to analyze the depreciation reports. The report contains problems with they building and plan to fixe it. Depreciation reports are mandated in the bylaw; however, home inspector cannot give any appraisal.
Wong suggests buyers to get home inspector every one and a half years. Wong believes all buyers should keep “3 always” in their mind during home inspection.
Always get home inspector
Always be there during the home inspection
Always choose a good home inspector
It is important to read strata documents because the documents can give buyers the right information and condition about the property. Meeting minutes, AGM, and strata plan are also important. However, buyers need to be aware that if the condition is not in bylaw, strata cannot force it. But bylaw changes all the time.
The Right Realtor
Wong believes there are 5 main characteristics that realtor should have
Knowledgable and able to educate
Willing to find answer
Disclosure and ethical
Build long term relationship
Confident
Many buyers have difficulty to choose either to rent or buy properties. Wong shares a benefit that most people do not know about renting is that based on statistic, landlords usually charge below market rate on rent. In addition, it is not easy to kick tenant out of the property.
As for buying the property, buyers need to remember buying a home is not an asset, it is a liability.
Winter can be a slow season on real estate market and spring can be a high season on the market. Wong believes the real estate market is very similar to any business cycle, which means there is pros and cons in every season. To determine the best time to buy or sell, Wong provides an advice of “Buy when you are ready and sell when you are ready”.
Real estate investing is not simple. Wong indicates it depends on situations, conditions, and goals. There are many ways to invest in real estate. The bottom line is, entrepreneurs usually charge high rent by providing additional services to add values to clients.
As for pre sell properties, Wong suggests entrepreneurs to select the right units that provides more values in the future. As for town house or apportionment, Wong believes it is not a good investment for short term flipping. Moreover, entrepreneurs should renovate to add value, and not just do it for no reason.
Oil tank inspection is also important, especially for 1970 or older buildings. The life span of the oil tank is 25 years, which means oil tank might leak. If oil tank leaks, it might create potential lawsuits.
Another advice from Wong is not to low ball the offer. Sellers are emotional and buyers should be careful not to jeopardize the offer. There is bargain everywhere. People see overprice listing and they walk away. Mark people will give offer to overprice listings because of no competition. Many people believes in Feng Shui. Sellers should take caution to people who use Feng Shui during the negotiation.
Sell for top dollar
Wong has some tips for sellers to increase the impression of their properties.
Make property as neutral as possible
Provide professional staging and photography
Focus on benefits and not the feature
Paint a vision for the buyers
Forecast of the real estate market in Vancouver
During early 2015, the Canadian government announced the decision to cancel China investment option for immigration. Many people predict the real estate market will drop significantly. However, the market did not slow down.
Wong analyzes that when China’s market goes up, people will buy and invest oversea properties. As a matter of fact, when China market goes down, people will still buy and invest oversea properties. This means the market in Vancouver will still go up. In addition, since the market is high, many locals are selling their homes for profits. The market will still go up and the competition will increase significantly.
Name: 5 tools every digital marketer needs and how to use them
Presenter: John Morton
Digital marketing is a tool every entrepreneur needs to grow their businesses today. In additional, it is important for entrepreneurs to be aware how to use them effectively. BrainStation, an organization that offers digital education beyond traditional, invites John Morton, the Digital Strategist at Catalog Digital Agency, to share the 5 essential tools for all digital marketers to create impact in the current market. Entrepreneurs will understand different alternatives to create brand recognition for their businesses, and improve their social engagement with various of communities.
BrainStation has the vision to crate an ecosystem that fosters innovation. By working with leading technology experts, their members will receive practical knowledge from 3 different sectors: digital marketing, web development, and user experience design.
“Dream big and make your mark in the tech space”
John Morton is the digital strategist from Catalog Digital Agency. Morton is also the lead educator for Digital Marketing program in BrainStation. With the background of music industry, Morton pursues the opportunity to connect people and business online. Morton is the founder of FluidArt Management, and company that supports many bands and musicians with their marketing. Moreover, he has the passion to educate many entrepreneurs to make advantage of digital marketing.
Morton believes digital strategy is the practice of using digital tools to listen and respond to lead-nurturing cycles, connect brand experience and activate consumer relationship. Digital strategy can lead many entrepreneurs to accomplish their desire objectives and meaningful conversations.
Morton shares 5 different digital tools that will help entrepreneurs in their businesses.
Digital Tool #1: BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a tool that helps entrepreneurs to find the right influencers on the web. By determining the right influencers, entrepreneurs can develop robust content strategies. Many entrepreneurs use BuzzSumo for their research on their competitions, trends, and topics.
Morton emphasizes this digital tool is mainly used for aid topic searching. Entrepreneurs can benefit from this tool when they are building communities. BuzzSumo will identify the best platform for entrepreneurs and enhance their web presence.
Morton suggests entrepreneurs to find influencers and add them to their personal network. Entrepreneurs can listen and respond to these influencers to build long term relationship. With the right topics, entrepreneurs can compare contents to find the edge of their market.
Digital Tool #2: Canva
Canva is a tool that helps entrepreneurs to create and edit graphics. Canva is simple and easy to use and it has the basic photoshop functions that entrepreneurs need. Many entrepreneurs use Canva to create useful social media work and SEM display advertisement.
Morton believes many entrepreneurs do not have the time to learn photoshop primary skills. Instead, Canva is an easy and hands-on application that can design the right media for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can develop new logos and images online.
Morton suggests entrepreneurs to make use of Canva and delete the photoshop software on their laptops to save hard drive space.
Digital Tool #3: Strikingly
Strikingly is a web development tool that helps entrepreneurs to build their personal landing page. Strikingly has user friendly functions that can drag and drop images to create landing page for business. Entrepreneurs can use this tool to build their portfolio for their clients.
Morton mentions Strikingly can also host domain for business websites. It is customizable and diverse. Strikingly takes care of most SEO basic and it has good user support. This also includes landing pages for SEM and mobile integration.
Morton suggests entrepreneurs to develop and insert Google structured data into custom code to boost the SEO for their business website.
Digital Tool #4: IFTTT
IFTTT stands for “If this then that”. This is a very powerful automation tool for entrepreneurs to connect with any social media network, plug-in, API and sites. IFTTT is a web and application base and it will automate digital marketing for entrepreneurs. Many entrepreneurs use this tool to pair actions to implementation.
Morton believes IFTTT can help entrepreneurs to take advantage of community receipts. It also can help their clients to automate their social postings. IFTTT can pair up with social network and platform to impact SEO.
Morton suggests entrepreneurs to use IFTTT to sync with their Google accounts or business pages. Entrepreneurs can utilize IFTTT to duplicate Facebook posts to show up on their Google accounts to increase SEO.
Digital Tool #5: SEMrush
SEMrush is a strong tool that provides competitive analysis of client’s competitors in SEO and SEM. SEMrush helps entrepreneurs to gain strategic insight, understand businesses, gain keyword insight, and many other predictions.
Morton wants entrepreneurs to use this tool for keyword research. SEMrush will help entrepreneurs to determine competitor spend and Google Adwords.
Morton suggests entrepreneurs to use SEMrush to match a significant dip in organic search traffic with a Google algorithm update.
There is another useful digital tool called SEO SiteCheckup that can help entrepreneurs’ business. SEO SiteCheckup can crawl any site and give an in-depth analysis of the search.
SEO SiteCheckup is used for delegate manual crawl and summarize into a report. The report will tell entrepreneurs how to fix their site. The report has enough information for any client preparation and up-sell.
Morton suggests entrepreneurs to make use of SEO SiteCheckup report to prospect businesses.
Name: Win the credit game by learning its Nine Rules
Presenter: Richard Moxley
Many entrepreneurs do not understand how their credit score can affect their financial aspects of their businesses. Moreover, by understanding the secret rules, entrepreneurs can take advantage to improve their credit score. Vancouver Business Network invites Richard Moxley, the author of “The Nine Rules of Credit”, to discuss the inside secrets to increase entrepreneurs’ credit score. Richard Moxley will also share his experience to help entrepreneurs to prevent common misconception about credit history.
Before publishing the best selling book, “The Nine Rules of Credit”, Richard Moxley was a licensed mortgage broker for over 8 years. With his financial industry background, he decides to help people to remove their errors or fraud from their credit reports. In addition, Moxley has the passion to educate the right concepts and regulations about credit score to entrepreneurs. Therefore, he speaks across Canada to create awareness for entrepreneurs. Moxley also creates a step by step procedure system to help entrepreneurs win the credit game that they deserve.
Richard Moxley has a vision to understand how credit works and empower people the rule of the credit game. Many entrepreneurs receive bad credits are not because of finance, it is because they do not understand the rules. Therefore, Moxley wants to help entrepreneurs by work backward to help them understand.
Moxley shares many entrepreneurs thought they are playing by the rules, but they do not know that people make up the rules. The advantage is always on other side. If entrepreneurs are not clear about the rules, they will never win.
“It is not because it is not fair, it is because they do not understand the rule to win”
Credits affect everything in business, even relationship. Moxley states the biggest cause of any fail relationship is from poor financial report. Until this day, many online dating website are required to credit report submission.
Moxley will share 9 important rules for entrepreneurs.
Rule #1: Pay the bills on time
Moxley indicates when entrepreneurs pay the bills on time shows stable cash flow and responsibility. It also creates a good credit history to show they are reliable.
Rule #2: High balances equal low score
Many entrepreneurs have the misconception of having high limits on their credit cards will have low credit score. However, Moxley emphasizes the credit score is based on the ratio balance between the credit limits and credit amounts. The ratio balance must be under 50%. For example, if the limits is $1,000 dollars, entrepreneurs will need to keep their credit balance under $500 dollars.
Credit companies will only report what banks push. The time banks push is random. This shows why people pay bills on time will receive bad credits. To reduce this risk, Moxley suggests entrepreneurs to either keep the ratio under 50% or increase the credit limit because increase credit does not affect credit score.
Credit score is like the first impression of business.
Rule #3: It must have established credit
The credit companies will use a simple formula to determine a good credit status. Credit companies must see two credit accounts that have established 2 years of history. Both credit accounts should have at least $2,500 or more capital.
Rule #4: Some types of credits are better than others
Moxley indicates there are some credits that will not show up in the credit report. They are utility bills, Canadian Revenue Agency taxes, rent, and auto payment. However, it is important to know that if these credits go to collection, they will show up.
There are many companies that are not registered in the credit report. The only way entrepreneurs will know by check with their credit report periodically.
There are credits that will show up on the report, but they will not affect the overall credit score. These are mortgage, cellphone accounts and debit visa. However, even though cellphone accounts will not affect the credit, but if they are bad accounts, it will affect the chance of approving the new loans.
Entrepreneurs can build their credits from credit cards, line of credits, and loans.
Rule #5: What they do not use, they lose
Moxley believes if entrepreneurs do not use credit, it will show as being inactive. Bank will charge inactive fees for anyone who are not using credits.
Rule #6: Be careful of joint credit
Moxley wants entrepreneurs to know that they cannot have death with joint credits. This means if someone who are in the joint credit is bankrupt or died, the other person will be 100% responsible to inherit the whole debt. Even though entrepreneurs have a good credit history, a small bad credit from other people’s joint credit account will ruin everything.
A bad credit history will follow entrepreneurs at least 6 years.
Sometimes entrepreneurs have supplement credit accounts with other people. Moxley indicates when they close the supplement credit accounts, they will lose the credit history. Therefore, Moxley suggests entrepreneurs not to attach their name to their children’s credit because if their children ruin their credit, it will ruin theirs as well.
Rule #7: Applying for credit, lower the score
Moxley recommends all entrepreneurs to not purchase any assets or use credits until they have conversation with their finance or mortgage advisors.
Rule #8: Closing the credit account, lower the score
Entrepreneurs need to know that only the active and current credit accounts will be considered the history of the credit. If entrepreneurs close the accounts, it will wipe out the credit history on their credit report.
When entrepreneurs pay off their loans, all the hard work of history will be gone because they will close the account. This means if entrepreneurs want to use the credit for another loan, it will be better to process it before they pay off the current loans.
New credit card number does not mean it is a new account, but if entrepreneurs upgrade the credit card, the bank will close the existing credit card number and open up a new one. This will also wipe out the credit history for the old credit card account.
The strategy is to have both cards on active. If the bank cannot approve the finance due to high credit limits on credit accounts, Moxley suggests before entrepreneurs apply for finance, they should lower the limits, wait for 30 days and get the finance. After their finance is approved, upper the limits back to original.
Rule #9: Do not let someone else wreck the credit
It is important to check what is on the credit report. Entrepreneurs need to check for errors from both Equifax and TransUnion. The score is important, but it is more important to know what is on the report. It might take at least 6 months to correct the credit report. Moreover, entrepreneurs can check their own report any time and it will not influence their credit score.
Many entrepreneurs are struggling to accomplish their success because they do not understand the right methods. Successful entrepreneurs will balance success and happiness with the right tactics and strategies. In this seminar, Kieron Sweeney, the CEO of Breakthrough Leadership Academy, will share his strategies to reach 6 figures. In addition, Kieron Sweeney will help entrepreneurs to implement 6 simple steps to elevate entrepreneurs’ success. Lastly, entrepreneurs will learn the important 6 mindset principles that all successful entrepreneurs live by.
Kieron Sweeney is the CEO of Breakthrough Leadership Academy. He is an international business coach and he is one of the successful detail entrepreneurs in the world. With his motivational course, “Buy back your life”, he empowers many entrepreneurs with the right mindset and techniques to grow their businesses in the their markets. He also hosts a show called “Nutrition for the Mind” to support entrepreneurs with powerful business concepts, including psychology of wealth.
Kieron Sweeney shares in his early age, he started the ski product business. After he sold the business, he invested in food export business. Sweeney began to realize the needs of personal development training for entrepreneurs. Moreover, Sweeney decided to delicate his time and effort to help people change the way they think about business practice.
Sweeney believes mind is everywhere. Mind has many unresolved issues and have good things as well. The way entrepreneurs operate their minds can be different; however, there are some common interests. When experiences build up, entrepreneurs will crate the manual in their mind, which influence the way they operate their businesses.
Everything starts with thoughts. There are positive and negative thoughts happening in the conscious mind. Nevertheless, entrepreneurs have the ability to set what thoughts are in their sub-conscious mind. Sweeney believes by focusing on the supportive thoughts, entrepreneurs will able to rewire and re-pattern their sub-conscious mind.
Everyone lives in the inner and outer realities. The inner reality consists of thoughts and emotions. Thoughts lead to emotion, which can trigger it to action. When there is action, result will show.
In order for entrepreneurs to physically affect the outer reality, they need to change the mental, emotional and spiritual stages of their lives. Sweeney wants entrepreneurs to work on their mind everyday because thoughts and emotions create energy. Universe is conspire with the energy and it is up to entrepreneurs to pick up the right energy in the universe. When entrepreneurs are able set vibration to the thoughts, their outcome will appear. Entrepreneurs must commit high vibration because it gives high level energy.
“Commit to operate a high class vibration”
Sweeney shares his 6 business mindset principles that every entrepreneur need to understand to achieve success in any business.
Mindset #1: Thoughts are real force
When thoughts become energy, it can be a strong and powerful force to help entrepreneurs to elevate their level of success. By sending and receiving the right thoughts, entrepreneurs can attract the right vibration to lead to right outcome.
Mindset #2: Mind is sending and receiving stage
Mind can be a non-stop machine that helps entrepreneurs attract energy. Entrepreneurs need to understand that whatever the thoughts they come up, it will attract something. Mind works 24-7 and it is important to create massive positive thoughts consistently to allow the mind to help direct entrepreneurs to the right path.
Mindset #3: Law of attraction
Thoughts become emotionalize. Sweeney believes mind can attract similar thoughts. As long as entrepreneurs are determined with their goals, their mind will attract the result they want.
Mindset #4: Law of control
Entrepreneurs have the control to accept or dismiss any thoughts. They are not obligated or bounded to follow every thoughts. When entrepreneurs are in control, they can filter the right thoughts in their mind to produce the right outcome.
Mindset #5: Law of insertion
It is possible to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts. With the right amount of positive thoughts, entrepreneurs will not be limited by the negative thoughts.
Mindset #6: Law of connection
The inner reality connects with the outer reality. When entrepreneurs attract the right thoughts, it plants a seed in their mind. It is important to nurture the seed. In the right timing, seed will grow and doors of opportunity will open.
“You can create what you want”
The relationship with thoughts is fundamental. When a group of entrepreneurs have the similar thoughts, it creates a similar frequency. This is where synergy forms. Sweeney emphasizes there are many entrepreneurs are disconnect with high energy and they need to utilize it.
Build business
Any business needs the right structure. A right structure can lead to freedom. In order to build the right structure, entrepreneurs need to have the right components.
“Some people are good at something, but they are suck at keeping it”
Sweeney indicates there are 3 primary components.
Income
Impact
Inspiration
When entrepreneurs have all three components, they can build the right system, structure and support. This will help entrepreneurs to achieve their business goals. Sometimes entrepreneurs can get frustrated with their challenges. Their bad habits will start to appear when they are struggling with their challenges. However, when entrepreneurs overcome their challenges, they discover a new diamond. Therefore, it is important for entrepreneurs not to caught up with negative thoughts.
“Diamond is created by pressure, just like challenges”
Sweeney will share 8 business principles that will help entrepreneurs to get the edge of their market.
Principle #1: Must have a perfect pitch
When entrepreneurs have the perfect pitch, they can involve people’s emotions and experience of outcome. It can have power and clarity that allows entrepreneurs to engage them. People can sense if entrepreneurs have the passion in their pitch, so it is important to formulate the pitch so people will talk about it.
Principle #2: Publish a book, media or publication
Entrepreneurs can get their ideas out from a publication. It gives a clear framework and define their niche. Many entrepreneurs want authority in their business, and since the word “author” is in the word of authority, entrepreneurs can utilize it. Sweeney suggests entrepreneurs to publish digital magazine. It will help them combine context, republish ideas, and distribute information.
“Publish vehicle that separates your competitors”
Principle #3: Productize
The world is in the age of technology and information. By turning the information to a product, entrepreneurs will able to share it to their market. Content marketing is everything and entrepreneurs need to take advantage of it.
Principle #4: Profile
The fastest way to create recognition is to combine the traditional media with social media. Social media is free and it can market the brand for entrepreneurs. People join people, not business. It is important for entrepreneurs to establish why they are good.
Principle #5: Partnership
Sweeney recommends entrepreneurs not to do business alone. Entrepreneurs can network for partnership to find leverage for joint venture opportunities with other entrepreneurs. Networking is to find the right fit for partnership, which builds business relationship. Sweeney believes there are 2 main questions entrepreneurs need to ask to find the right fit for partnership.
Does it align with the vision, value and passion?
Does it have the product that attract their contact list?
Principle #6: Capitalize
Most entrepreneurs are under fund. Cash flow can stress many entrepreneurs. Sweeney stats the average customers per business is around 10,000. A successful business will need 3 years of operating capital. Entrepreneurs can find other new ways to fund their business, such as crowd-funding.
Principle #7: Digitize
Everything need to be digitize. It is important for entrepreneurs to find ways to systemize and integrate their operation in every way.
Principle #8: Public speaking
Entrepreneurs need to be comfortable speaking in the public. A powerful speaker can influence emotions. In addition, entrepreneurs need to push beyond their limitation and attract and engage with their potential clients.
Name: Founder’s story – How we turned RentMoola into BC’s next billion dollar company
Presenter: Philipp Postrehovsky
Many entrepreneurs discover ways to solve people’s problems. With enough dedication, the solution can become a profitable business. The Non-Technical Entrepreneurs Meetup invites Philipp Postrehovsky, the Co-founder of RentMoola, to share his story of building a company from zero into BC’s next billion tech company. This presentation is moderated by Vicki Li, the CEO of LETT. In addition, entrepreneurs will learn the motivation, inspiration and experience behind Philipp Postrehovsky’s vision of helping people to solve their rent problem.
Philipp Postrehovsky is the CEO of RentMoola. Aside from his own business, Postrehovsky is also the Founder and the Ambassador of Grind For Kids program for BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. RentMoola is a company that provides online global payments for tenants and property owners. Postrehovsky has the passion on building brand, communication and social media strategies for foundations and companies. With over 9 years of experience of online marketing, Postrehovsky has the confidence to help making complicated problem into a simple solution.
Philipp Postrehovsky started his vision in 2010, where he discovered his brother in Shanghai was struggling to pay rent on time. Because of foreign exchange and the labour of writing out the cheques, Postrehovsky had a vision to help people simplify the procedure. In 2011, Postrehovsky was dedicated to the idea of helping people reducing the process of writing cheque and paying their rent online.
In 2012, Postrehovsky incorporated the business company. In order to have buy in from property managers, Postrehovsky needed to figure out the needs and other pain points from various of tenants. Postrehovsky partnered with a mobile payment company and started to build, test, and sample the beta version of RentMoola. During this year, Postrehovsky focused on feedback and modification.
In 2013, Postrehovsky officially launched the business. Postrehovsky mentions that if there is something he can do different, he wishes he could hire a technology advisor that provides honest feedback. During 2013, Postrehovsky hired his first employee. The company kept on growing and expanding.
In 2014, Postrehovsky hired his own in-house development team instead of outsourcing to external companies. He managed to expand the team into Vancouver, Toronto and Lindon.
Postrehovsky believes RentMoola has the potential to become the next global opportunity. Postrehovsky is honoured that RentMoola is recognized in BC Technology Industry Association.
Question and Answer
The value proposition from RentMoola is to eliminate the idea of writing rent cheques. Postrehovsky introduces the alternative way of cash payments. As for property manager, they can utilize the system to reduce stress on the process of processing cheque payments. Many people prefer online instead of cheques. Most merchants will absorb service charge and RentMoola will help tenants to negotiate the fair rate. Therefore, RentMoola introduces MoolaPerks program to reward their customers. MoolaPerks will help tenants to save time and save money
Postrehovsky shares his experience of approaching his first developer is important to his growth of company. Moreover, the first developer supports his vision and accepts the equity to grow the company. In the end, the developer becomes the advisor for RentMoola.
Postrehovsky has a clear vision already since the first day of the launch. Nevertheless, he is considered as the gatekeeper of his company. RentMoola has seven in-house developers to work on the next integration projects. The company will release new features, enhancement and user-friendly reporting structure. Nonetheless, the system is PCI compliance with strong securityprotocol to protect tenants information.
Postrehovsky wants entrepreneurs to know it is important to hire a team to handle press release. Press release provides the excitement to the crowd and the audience. It also delivers the simple idea that people can relate on. Entrepreneurs need to understand that investors are looking for teams that can accomplish press release. Moreover, investors want to see how company can grow in the market. Financial technology is significant and customer acquisition is also important.
Postrehovsky shares if he can start over his business journey, he will try to do everything in-house at the beginning. Outsourcing can be risk, especially oversea. Therefore, Postrehovsky suggests entrepreneurs to do business with local as much as possible.
The perfect team comes from referrals, relationship and trust. The main quality of the team is to have the right culture fit. In the future, RentMoola will target their focus on integrating their system with other accounting systems. Postrehovsky believes Vancouver is an established tech hub for many tech startups. Vancouver is ranked number 19 in the world in development of startup tech companies. In addition, the government supports innovative technology startups with tax deduction and government grants.
“Have idea is great, but execution will get you there and you will be ahead of 95% of people. Remember, do not just talk about it, do it”
Presenters: Arnold Singh, Victor Wong, and Amanda Collinge
Career paths from successful accounting professionals can be different in different industry. Moreover, they are distinguished by their unique leadership qualities. Leaders of Tomorrow, one of the signature programs from Vancouver Board of Trade, invites 3 successful designated accountants to share their perspective of leadership qualities in their career paths. Leaders will learn many of their great lessons takeaway from their leadership journeys. Moreover, they will learn the benefit and impact from having the Certified Professional Accountant designation for their careers.
Lessons from Arnold Singh
Arnold Singh is one of the partners in KPMG firm. Singh started his career in KPMG after the graduation from Simon Fraser University. His original path was to move on to different industry after he received his CA designation from the Institute of Chartered Accountant of British Columbia. However, his experience in the firm created his passion, which leaded to his path to become the partner of KPMG.
Singh mentions accounting is not boring, but exciting. Many accountants in KPMG involve with charity events to help out with the community services. In fact, it is more than just debits and credits.
Singh shares a statistic that by 2028, 75% of workforce will be millennials. They tend to move from one organization to another. They pursue their career paths and explore different career options. Moreover, flexibility is one of the main fundamental traits for millennials. CPA designation meets the needs of the changing workforce.
“CPA is open based on your imagination”
Singh shares 6 leadership lessons from his career experience.
Check the ego
Take the hit for the team
Prove that it is important to genuinely think of others by the actions
Know when to dial it back
Be honest and admit when mistakes are made
Do not be afraid to deliver the tough messages
Singh believes it is easy to train someone with talent, but it is difficult to train someone the right attitude. Trust always connect with leadership and actions speak louder than words. Singh wants leaders to remember that not everyone share the same goals and it is important to know when to step back. In addition, tough messages can lead to royal relationship.
“It is not about how many follower you have, but how many leaders you create”
Lessons from Victor Wong
Victor Wong is one of the senior Associate from MNP. After the graduation from Simon Fraser University, he began to pursue Certified Management Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator designations. Wong has the passion to be involve with community services, such as CPA Vancouver Chapter, SFU mentor-in-business program, and junior achievements.
Wong provides business valuation services for business enterprises. He focuses on transition, litigation support and fair value accounting support. In leadership, Wong believes CPA designation can provide four major qualities: employability, stability, transferability and growth opportunity.
Wong was originally a Financial Banker, but in his career, he realized the benefit of accounting can impact more people he can help. He decided to expand his career in the field of accounting. Wong realizes everybody needs an accountant. The skill can be move or transfer to different industries. Moreover, CPA designation opens many doors and give leaders the right foundation.
Wong emphasizes CPA has expanded his career even further than he can imagine. CPA has helped him develop the right knowledge of hard skill and soft skills. The recognition and networking opportunities help him explore new advancement in different specialist fields. CPA gives him the confidence and platform to pursue his career.
CPA can be competitive. Wong believes it is difficult to find the right interest within the accounting because there are many options CPA can provide. CPA creates connection to other career paths because CPA provides the right fundamental skill set for successful leaders.
Lessons from Amanda Collinge
Amanda Collinge is one of the project manager at Raymond James Ltd. Collinge has an unconventional career path. She is a broadcaster, accountant, consultant, project manager and financial educator. Her experiences from different job roles makes her unique and standout. Moreover, her skill sets can interchange from one industry to another, which makes her valuable in any industry.
Collinge mentions she choose to pursue CPA is because of variety of career path opportunities CPA can provide for her. CPA gives her the flexibility of working while learning and applying knowledge. The ethics and standards from CPA have shaped her the type of leader that people can trust.
Collinge believes the only way to move up is to move to another company. It is important to seek someone in the industry that can bring other people up the ladder. Collinge wants leaders to know that leverage the skill set by seeing a need and addressing is important in any industry.
“Be the leader you want to have”
There are many advantages from changing companies in the career. Leaders can mitigate the issue of the seniority and office politics. There are more possibilities open up in the market than internally in one company. In addition, it is an opportunity to take the lessons learned and strengths from previous companies and leverage it at another firm.
Collinge believes leaders should not leave the company when there is a right mentor at the workplace. The corporate culture fit can be the main factor as well. Also, the succession plan in place can fulfil leaders’ personal goals.
“Culture fit is game changer”
Leaders need to discover who can bring them up in the company. By establishing the mentor relationship, leaders can learn from them and seek new opportunities in the company. Collinge indicates by leveraging the skills, leaders can solve problem, create efficiency, streamline process, add value to clients and impact the community in a positive way.
Leaders to know who they look up to and who they work well with. Leaders can discover other people’s management and communication styles. They can develop strengths and warmth to enhance their skill sets. Furthermore, they can also emulate leadership qualities that they inspire.
The panel
Singh believes leaders need to have a mentor who can look at their perspective and not just the company. Wong believes leaders need to have the right depiction to focus on what they love. Collinge believes leaders need to have the guts to take risk with the career.
Aside from accounting, Collinge wants to be involved in the dance industry. Wong wants to be an entrepreneur and Singh wants to be a professional golfer.
Singh admires leaders who have the skill to interact with staff members. Wong admires leaders who can take the bullet for the team, and Collinge admire leaders who have the balance of strength and warmth.
The panel believes community involvement is something every leader needs to have. By giving time to help the community, leaders will learn the value of helping the less fortune.
The panel has insight of the affect from mentorship. Wong believes successful mentors will elevate the mentee to the next level of success. Singh believes successful mentors can strive with mentee with their personal agenda in a two way communication. Lastly, Collinge believes mentee needs to have that ability to absorb the guidance from mentors and execute the right actions.
Name: Launch a Launch – The way to a successful startup
Presenter: Ray Walia
Many people are inspired to become the next big thing. However, their startups often become their unsuccessful memories. The way to a successful startup can be difficult. ZEED is a startup incubator in Vancouver. The organization provides services for entrepreneurs who are looking for supports for their business ideas. ZEED hosts an even called “Launch a Launch” and invites Ray Walia, the CEO of Launch Academy, to discuss startup strategies for early entrepreneurs. This presentation will inspire early entrepreneurs to step out and develop their creative ideas to the world.
Ray Walia, CEO of Launch Academy, helps many early entrepreneurs to launch their ideas to reality. Walia’s passion of helping entrepreneurs leads him to become the 2014 Entrepreneur Mentor of the Year for British Columbia. Walia is one of the business listed under Forty under 40 in Canada. In addition, his background includes involvement in global concert and events for Bollywood movie industry. Aside from Launch Academy, he also co-founded LX Venture.
Journey of passion
Ray Walia mentions his idea of Launch Academy started from his first business fast food restaurant franchise of Dairy Queen. During 2002, Walia had an idea of selling cakes for celebration on mobile device; however, his idea was not convinced by many current mobile providers. He managed to build a website with using a coupon system and used mobile app to deliver the coupon. Walia realized there is a strong potential in technology. Therefore, he started the company in technology industry to help people who need support for their ideas.
The greatest challenges can be different in different stages in Walia’s business journey. In his restaurant, he had the difficulty to manage people who are more experienced and senior than him. In the technology company, he needed to find a way to stay on top of the trend. Many ideas can be too early to convince present investors and it can be a road block. Walia believes timing can be a biggest challenge for many early entrepreneurs. No matter what, Walia always believe execution is the key of everything
“Execution is everything; idea is not enough, execution is the key”
Startup ideas can change the world, but the problem is that it is difficult to let people understand the vision. Entrepreneurs who are on the third or fourth ideas have the higher chance to convince investors because of their experience. When entrepreneurs can show their experience of what they capable of, it will lead to higher network and resources.
Walia believes entrepreneurs can have bad days. The important thing is to find a way to continue going forward. Entrepreneurs need to find a way to motivate themselves to continue to love their ideas. Everything is about consistency and determination.
Walia shares the idea behind Launch Academy is to provide enough available resources for early entrepreneurs to start their business. Launch Academy provides the environment to give them the chance to network and build teams. The fundamentals in Launch Academy are to share resources, build ideas together, and add back to the community. Walia believes in the technology industry, information is the key. Information comes from individual and people can learn form each other.
“Pay it forward, help others grow”
The most important values in Launch Academy are mentorship and community. By learning from someone who just overcome the similar obstacles or problems, entrepreneurs can accelerate their business more quicker.
Walia symbolizes the members in Launch Academy as “Phenix”. When members realize their ideas are not ideal in the market, they often discover unique relationship with other members and create new ideas. New collaboration happens every day and members come back for new ideas when they are recharged. Launch Academy allows people to know there is a place for them to test, sample, and to market their ideas. Moreover, Launch Academy helps entrepreneurs to access many accelerators and connect with other investors.
Based on stats, 40% of members will fail, 30% will come back with new ideas, 20% will still continue to accelerate and 10% will succeed. Launch Academy will not take any equity from any of members’ startup.
Launch Academy will screen the right members by asking two major questions.
Do the entrepreneur have the ability to get things done?
Is the entrepreneur coachable?
“Help people lead their company to a stronger structure”
Launch Academy can provide attraction for early entrepreneurs because the organization invites many leaders to share knowledge of their strategies.
Walia believes the future of Launch Academy will focus on the pipeline of building the bridge to Silicon Valley. Walia will grow Launch Academy to become the gateway to Asia and North America.
Walia believes the most common failure for startups is to have the product before customers. Customers can lead entrepreneurs to the right path. The product can be a bad product, but if there is enough customers, the product will be successful. Another common failure is the team. If entrepreneurs have the best product in the world, with a bad team, it will never sell. A successful team can drive the product to industry.
Another misconception from entrepreneurs is funding. Entrepreneurs cannot start looking for funding when they need it the most. Walia suggests early entrepreneurs to talk to investors for opinions and advices first. After they act on the opinions and advices, they can go back and ask for funding.
Walia wants entrepreneurs to realize that the most rare resource is time. People give their time when they care. Therefore, entrepreneurs should not waste their time when they are not ready. When entrepreneurs share their ideas and prove to them the idea is worth it, even if they do not invest, they will connect them to other investors. Therefore, the conversation is the warm lead to the next investors.
Ask advice-> execute-> ask for more advice more execute-> ask for funding
Building relationship with strategic investors is important. Walia suggests entrepreneurs to find the right people and ask the right questions.
When investors are not ready to invest, they usually means the entrepreneurs are not mentally ready. When people invest, it is their obligation and responsibility to ensure the idea works. It is their hard earn money, so entrepreneurs need to be ready to add values for investors.
When the partnership is formed, Walia wants entrepreneurs to start the negotiating. It is important to hold themselves accountable, do the due diligence, and understand everyone’s abilities and capabilities.
The future of startups in Vancouver
In Vancouver, most business are in the form of Business to Customer. In the future, many small companies will be mature and investors will start to see many Business to Business. There will be many game changers in Vancouver because many different industry players will come up with different and innovative solutions. The engagement is the key to the future and the connection will lead to success. Entrepreneurs will need to bring new ideas and add values to other industries.
Vancouver cannot become the next San Francisco because Vancouver is considered the place for product development. Vancouver is a place to build foundation. If companies want to expand, they need to leave Vancouver to find other growing markets.
In the next 2 years, many companies in Vancouver will attract the talents oversea. These talents will generate ideas for the next 5 years. It is important to sustain these talents in Vancouver and provide them the good base foundation sot they will not leave Vancouver. This means companies need to maximize the environment, culture and resource.
Suggestions for early entrepreneurs
Walia indicates idea is like a seed. Entrepreneurs need to get out there and discover the real customers and the real issue. Many entrepreneurs build their system based on their assumption. However, they need to get out of their comfort zone. They need to learn to talk to their customer first because customers will lead to the right path.
Walia suggests entrepreneurs to revisit their mission and objectives. They need to remind themselves the right direction. When entrepreneurs realize the market is not the right one, they need to act quickly and change. Entrepreneurs should not hesitate and procrastinate.
Walia mentions many factors for successful pitch in front of investors.
Team
Add value, not just the Return of Investment
The size of the industry
The game changer
Key performance indicators
The financial figures
Revenue stream
Previous experience
The drive
Other advisors
“It is not how much you want, it is how much you can justify what you need”
Many people are often influenced by their net worth and self worth; however, successful entrepreneurs have the way to link between them. The “Rich From the Inside Out” series invites Brenda St. Louis, the Certified Money Coach, to share a special technique that can help entrepreneurs to explore their concepts of scarcity, abundance and how much is enough. Entrepreneurs usually associate their relationship of shame, guilt, and self-worth with money. In addition, this presentation will help entrepreneurs to release these money blocks and discover their money shadows.
Brenda St. Louis is one of the Certified Money Coach from Money Coaches Training Institute. Louis has over many years of experience to help many entrepreneurs to explore their relationship with money. Louis always believe by tapping to entrepreneurs’ limitation can seek opportunities, discover awareness, and expand strategies to change. Her role is to help entrepreneurs to be more confidence and happy towards money.
The brain is amazing because the number one job of the brain is to keep people safe. It can remember the pain and experience. However, pain can lead by manipulation, which can associate or trigger unconscious emotions that can influence people’s standard and beliefs. Louis believes brain associate with pain, especially with money. Based on statistic, 15% of entrepreneurs’ brain is conscious and 85% is unconscious. Unconscious programming is a million times more powerful than conscious programming. If entrepreneurs can overcome the unconscious part of the brain, they can overcome their money blocks.
Brain is a pattern maker. Louis believes once entrepreneurs release their unconscious mind, clarity will show up and money will also show up.
Tapping
Louis introduces a mind-body technique called “Tapping”. This technique is to help entrepreneurs to release emotional blocks in their nervous system. It opens up the acupressure points in our body. The function behind Tapping technique is to disconnect the negative thoughts and the automatic body reactions.
There are 10 major tapping points.
Karate chop
Top of head
Eyebrow
Side of eye
Under the eye
Under the nose
Chin
Collarbone
Sore spot
Under arm
By tapping to these points in our body, it will open up the channel to disconnect any body reaction. It sends electric shock and shift the nerve system. While entrepreneurs are tapping the points, they will need to rehearse scripts. The scripts will help entrepreneurs to be more receptive. Entrepreneurs are suggested to tap 4 to 8 times per each point. Each tapping session will help entrepreneurs to amplify the feeling towards money. As the feeling gets stronger, entrepreneurs will discover the underline problem that are hiding in their money blocks.
Louis believes it is important to start with script for negative money blocks. The script will manipulate entrepreneurs’ feeling and desire about their money blocks. As the process continues, entrepreneurs will switch to positive script, which can repattern the brain.
“Ensure you are running the show, not the brain”
In the presentation, Louis demonstrates some case studies that helps entrepreneurs discover the underneath message or questions behind their money problems during the tapping process.
Case study #1: Never enough
Many entrepreneurs create happiness with money, but it can only sustain up to a certain point. In order to continue, entrepreneurs need to contribute. Contribution leads to happiness. Entrepreneurs never taught the meaning of what is enough. Entrepreneurs need to discover the feeling associate to the question “what is enough”. The feeling and drive that links towards that question will show the link that associate with money.
The underneath question behind “what is enough” is “what is blocking the job with money”.
Case study #2: Meaning of money
Entrepreneurs associate money with power and significance. Entrepreneurs need to ask themselves how powerful it is, what is based on and what is the underline belief that associate with power. Entrepreneurs need to explore the meaning of money. Many entrepreneurs are lost with money’s purpose and it is important to acknowledge it.
Perhaps the underline message behind the meaning of money is to personify the money’s relationship.
Case study #3: Never had any
Entrepreneurs associate their past relationship with money with current situation. To change the current relationship requires acknowledge the feeling from the past. The past experience will trigger body motion and nerve system. When entrepreneurs are lacking focus, they are allowing their past experience lead their beliefs. Moreover, it is important to honour or recognize the past, but not tie it with the present. Entrepreneurs are afraid to step forward to new challenge because of the past makes up the story. In addition, entrepreneurs should create their own story and do not let their past because the story.
Leaders need to learn the art of conversation. Moreover, effective conversation can help leaders to inspire, motivate and encourage other people. Smart Savvy LeaderLounge is a community that improve the way leaders think, communicate, influence, mentor and strategize. Smart Savvy LeaderLounge invites Peter Reek, the President of Smart Savvy + Associates, and Catherine Ducharme, the Co-funder of Outsidein Communications, to discuss how leaders can create better conversations with other individuals. Leaders will also learn how to build meaningful relationship, values, and interaction by having a confidence and compelling conversations with other leaders.
Peter Reek is the Owner and President of Smart Savvy + Associates. Reek has the passion to help many companies make effective decision making to expand their operations. Moreover, he helps organizations to identify their “why”. Furthermore, Reek was a Vice President of Sensus Research and the Principal of Brandsense inc.
Catherine Ducharme is the Co-Founder of Outsidein Communications. Ducharme has over many years of industry experience to help many corporation on their communication. Ducharme has the background of biotech sector and strategy on branding and marketing. Moreover, Ducharme has the passion to build relationship with other leaders and help many leaders to enhance their connections and opportunities.
The anatomy of a conversation
Reek and Ducharme both believes all conversations are two ways. All conversation can lead the question or has the opportunity to know about other party. Every conversation has a beginning, middle and end. In addition, small talk is conversational icebreaker. Therefore, leaders can use question to start a conversation and add values to others, and they have to opportunity to listen and figure out the clues.
Leaders can identify their common traits from their conversationalists as their conversation characteristic. Reek identifies 6 laws of great conversation.
Law #1: Risk taking
Reek believes fears hold leaders back from making great conversation. Fears can create awkward silence, rejection, low self-esteem, and rejections. Therefore, Reek indicates many leaders are experiencing the fear of nothing to say. Reek wants leaders to identify their risks and overcome these obstacles.
Law #2: Self awareness
Ducharme believes every leader has their own unique conversation style. However, the important thing is to understand how other people perceive their conversation style. Leaders can irritate other people based on habits and beliefs. In addition, Ducharme suggests leaders not to be a conversational narcissist.
Ducharme recommends leaders to identify their strengths and opportunities, such as things they know they can be good at and can capitalize on. In enhance, leaders also need to mitigate their weakness and threats.
Law #3: Listening
Reek emphasizes good listeners can validate others and not worry about what they will say next. Leaders need to become good listeners because it helps them generate better ideas, heighten awareness, and stronger recall. Leaders need to shift the focus on other people. Reek indicates leaders need to have the ability to pick on what other people said and more in tune with themselves.
“Listen to understand, not to response”
Law #4: Genuine curiosity
Ducharme shows that based on statistic, many people prefer likeable people over confident people. Reek suggests 3 ways to approach conversation.
Sound of their names
Genuine compliment
Everyone has an interesting story
Each conversation can allows leaders to learn something new and connect with others.
Law #5: Perspective taking
Reek shares perspective taking often trumps empathy. Many people have the misconception that perspective taking and empathy are identical, but they are not. Empathy is understanding how other people feel. Perspective taking allows leaders to understand why they feel in the state they are in.
“Empathy is heart emotion, and perspective is head cognition”
As for leaders, their conversation must keep it cognitive.
Law #6: Shared experiences
Ducharme believes people gravitate to others who are like them. Therefore, it is important to use conversation to find their common interest. Ducharme shares 3 ways to help leaders find commonalities.
Ask questions
Share things about themselves
Compliment others
Reek and Ducharme believe it is important to have good conversation openers. Conversation openers can be different for different leaders. The rule of thumb is to interact and engage the conversation with others.
All conversations must come to end. Reek believes the 3 primary results can be as follows.
Leaders do not care because there of unclear connection
Great well it last
Beyond the event
Conversation enders can be a simple as shake other people’s hands, introduce other people, or leave a connection to continue the conversation. A silence pause can also be a good conversation ender as well.
Reek and Ducharme want leaders to balance from listening and contributing, oversharing and under sharing, and humour and creditability. There is a fine line between conference and arrogance, enthusiasm and disingenuous, curiosity and intrusiveness, sharing intel and gossiping, active listening and overactive listening, intentionality and intensity, and humour.
Reek and Ducharme suggest leaders to read more articles to improve conversation, listen to other thought leaders, stay on current events, choose the right programs, utilize social media, understand the geography, involve some political landscape, know the audience, follow the playoffs, and attend other events.
Name: Cash is flowing, is it going in the right direction?
Presenter: Melanie Buffel
Many entrepreneurs try to budget but still spend more than they intend. Moreover, entrepreneurs allow this to happen because of a lack of system in place. The “Rich from the Inside Out” series invites Melanie Buffel, the Money Coach, to help entrepreneurs to develop a simple system to manage money to achieve their ultimate goals. Entrepreneurs will learn the practical methodology or solution to prioritize their financial cash flow. Moreover, it will create new awareness to increase entrepreneurs’ confidence towards their future destination.
Melanie Buffel is the Certified Money Coach from Money Coaches Canada and faculty of the Women’s Financial Learning Centre. With the psychology education background, she manages to inspire and encourage many entrepreneurs to take control over their financial situation. In addition, her passion of designing simple system to help entrepreneurs establish their financial and life balance. She helps many entrepreneurs to stay on track with their financial goals.
The purpose behind Money Coach
Melanie Buffel believes her career purpose is to help people build financial foundation. Buffel will help entrepreneurs to fill the gap in the market place. Money Coach refers a term called “Bankish”, which means the language from bankers. The message behind “Bankish” is to pass power to other bank for financial advice. Money Coach will help entrepreneurs to reduce the risk and understand the financial language. Buffel will also help entrepreneurs to discover the reason “why” behind their intention.
Many entrepreneurs get confused when money comes into their lives. Buffel will help entrepreneurs to clear the money fog and work towards develop peace of mind for entrepreneurs.
Buffel wants entrepreneurs to have the habit of planning for future. Entrepreneurs need to discover what is important to them. Entrepreneurs should have short term and long term goals that leads to the ultimate lifestyle. Moreover, entrepreneurs need to share their goals and allow others to celebrate and support them.
Buffel explains that money comes from two streams: saving and cash flow. Entrepreneurs need to discover what it takes to achieve their goals and their time frame. By using reverse engineering concept, Buffel believes entrepreneurs will discover their path of achievements.
Buffel emphasizes the word “budget” can be a bad word for many entrepreneurs. Budget connects to scarcity, which gives an end feeling towards their goals. Spending and saving plan can be abundance. Successful entrepreneurs will have mindful spending habits, living within their means. If there is a way to pay down debt faster for entrepreneurs, they can save their ways to their goals.
“Taking control of you money”
Many entrepreneurs use the traditional method of saving. The traditional method is to deposit all income into cheque accounts and transfer the funds to the debt. Afterwards, the remaining will consider to be their saving amount.
Buffel believes entrepreneurs should setup an automatic system. Buffel wants entrepreneurs to remember the number one rule to help them receive balance financial lifestyle.
Number one rule: Income = Spending + Saving
The sum of spending and saving should be equal to the income. Income can come from employment, child benefit, rental income or investments. Spending comes from the monthly fixed and variable expenses. This also includes any debt repayment. Saving is for fixed annual bills and irregular variable expenses. However, this is also the section to include goals and dreams.
People get used to be in debt. In long term, people will pay more interests. Buffel believes it is possible to save even if entrepreneurs have debts as long as there is a system. Buffel wants entrepreneurs to put debt elimination as their number one priority. The key is systemic payment plan and this key will ensure entrepreneurs to get off the “never ever” plan.
Entrepreneurs should set a deb free date. Buffel mentions entrepreneurs should always look for ways to reduce the interests. Entrepreneurs should also determine their monthly payment amount. Entrepreneurs can automate that amount monthly.
Plan for the goals
Buffel illustrates a simple calculation to determine the monthly amount requires to achieve goals.
Cost of the goal / the number of months to reach the goal
Entrepreneurs should prioritize the goals and make them as fixed costs. Entrepreneurs should always pay themselves first. Moreover, they will be able to bridge the budget to their lifestyle.
Cash flow management for success
Buffel revels the simple system for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need to create 4 major categories: monthly spending, fixed monthly expenses, annual lump spending, and long term savings goals.
The monthly spending category should includes the daily necessities, such as groceries, cleaning supplies, traveling, entertainment, and dine out. The fixed monthly expenses include rent, insurance, property upkeep, utilities, lease and other insurance payments. The annual lump spending should include irregular annual fees, such as property taxes and insurance, subscription, membership, maintenance and other annual fees. Lastly, the long term saving goals should include be retirement, investment, eduction and other emergency fund.
All the dream goals should be under the category of annual lump spending. Clarity is important and entrepreneurs need to allow the system to automate the transfer to each different categories. The system should adjust based on the income flow.
Buffel suggests entrepreneurs to breakdown all the categories. This will help entrepreneurs to keep track of their financial situation. Moreover, it gives them the permission to spend and save. Resistance is fertile; therefore, entrepreneurs need to change their confidence in their spending habits. Entrepreneurs should allow themselves to take control and force to take action.
The system will create attention for entrepreneurs to aware their finance life.
Name: Succession Planning – Staying connected with the family business
Presenter: Tina Lee
A good succession planning will drive business forward. In addition, succession planning can help leaders to identify and fill key business leadership positions. Local Leaders event, hosted by Small Business BC, invites Tina Lee, the CEO of T&T Supermarket, to share her business journey with T&T Supermarket. This presentation will inspire many leaders to understand how the value of family business can optimize in the future of corporation. Moreover, Tina Lee will share her experience to overcome challenges of developing current T&T Supermarket customer base.
Tina Lee is the CEO of T&T Supermarket. She also received honours in BBA from University of Western Ontario and also completed her MBA from the Anderson School of Business at University of Los Angeles. Tina Lee was a Strategy Consultant at Deloitte Consulting. When she moved back to Canada, she started in T&T Supermarket as the Chief Strategy Officer that oversees the eastern region operation. Her passion to bring the best asian fresh into Canadian market has inspired her to advanced in her current role. Furthermore, she manages to increase up to 5000 employees in the operation of T&T Supermarket.
Before accepting the CEO role, Tina Lee understands her path in Deloitte Consulting will bring her bright career, but it can also easily replaceable. Lee moves back to her family business of T&T Supermarket because she believes her mother, Cindy Lee, the founder of T&T Supermarket, has given her the platform to create wealth. The decision is tough, but Lee believes it is a chance to build family equity.
“Be brave enough to give away the golden handcuff”
Lee shares her experience in the succession plan involves 3 major components.
Component #1: Love & passion
Lee believes she needs to learn to love the family business. Lee understands the vision behind the T&T supermarket and she evolves her passion towards that vision. Lee needs to learn to love her employees. T&T Supermarket is a platform that provides opportunity to new immigrants. People appreciate it and T&T appreciate them.
The most important lesson she learns is to learn to love her mother and herself. When Loblaw company decided to acquire T&T supermarket in 2009, it was a difficult choice for Lee. Her mother disagreed Lee to continue her career. Her mother knew the hardship of flying from Ontario to Vancouver can be tough for Lee. However, Lee wanted to lift the pressure from her. She finally compromised her mother’s decision to sell the business, but she felt emptiness in her. However, Loblaw company chose Lee to become the CEO after acquisition. Lee persuaded her mother for this role because nobody cares about the business more than her. Lee could not leave the organization because she already fell in love with the family business.
Component #2: An earth with two suns
When her mother steps down the executive position and retired, the company now has two different leaders, which can potentially be distractive for employees. In order to resolve this issue, her mother and Lee agree to complete 3 important tasks The first task is to allow her mother to list 5 points that she thinks it is significant to pass over to Lee. Lee uses this opportunity to learn and give her mother the chance to say everything she needs to say before her retirement. Her mother announces to all employees to appoint any future events to Lee.
The second task is to allow her mother to provide advice but not too upset. Both Lee and her mother have the same vision, but the road can be different. The third task is to allow her mother to give positive support to the management.
Lee respects her mother at work since she is the one who created the T&T Supermarket. In addition, Lee suggests leaders to learn to admit when they are wrong because everyone is learning. When mistakes happen, Lee admits the mistake to show her mother that she is learning. Her mother will build confidence in Lee. Lastly, Lee lets her mother do the final decision until the transitional phase is complete.
Component #3: Phoenix takes flight
Lee describes the succession plan is like a pass from mother to daughter. In Asian culture, phoenix is a god figure that takes the sacrifice. Lee calls the succession plan as “Phoenix”. Lee recruits new Chief Operating Officer and Chief Finance Officer. Moreover, she believes she needs to build the right team, the right culture and the right structure.
Lee believes the culture of T&T Supermarket builds up from these 3 phases and she does not want the business to fade away the foundation that makes up the culture.
I choose you
I believe you
I trust you
In order to frame the right strategy, during the succession planning, Lee takes the whole executive team to Phoenix Arizona for offset. The trip helps the team to build self awareness, introduce new vision, implement new framework and improve new value evaluation. Lee emphasizes the right corporate culture is important to T&T Supermarket.
Lee indicates she needs to drop the bad and keep the goods. She terminates the top down hierarchy model and implements the empowerment structure. Lee encourages staff to develop innovation because she believes constant innovation is the future. Moreover, she resolves the issue of pointing fingers by giving new level of authorization to the team.
Questions and answers
Lee’s mother wants to fade away her existence in T&T Supermarket. She illustrates the phase as “becoming the moon instead of the sun”. She is currently enjoying the retirement because it is her next goal of life.
Lee suggests all women leaders not to limit themselves in leadership. Lee wants them to always concern with the customer by understanding their needs. By meeting their needs, leaders can continue learning. Leaders can learn from their bosses and help others succeed. When others succeed, leaders will succeed. It is important for leaders to always think about win-win situation.
Traditionally, many women leaders are not confident in their opinions. Lee recommends all women leaders to learn how to talk with more confidence. Never drag when communicating with people. Leaders need to speak up and ask for more.
Many leaders, especially male leaders, have difficulty to swallow pride. It is important to give their boss the idea that they are still learning; otherwise, it will be difficult to go up the ladder.
Lee explains T&T Supermarket has established 4 areas of potential customer base.
First generation of East Asians
Second generation
South east Asian
Asian Cuisine
T&T Supermarket will keep on improve to breakthrough the language barrier in the current market. By engaging more online platform, such as social media, it will bring more energy to the business.
Real estate property is one of ways entrepreneurs can create wealth with their investment. Moreover, many entrepreneurs understand the method but not the concept. Keyspire, a company with a purpose of helping people to create wealth through real estate investing, invites Scott McGillivrary, the executive producer of the show “Income Property”, to reveal his secrets and strategies on real estate investing. In this presentation, entrepreneurs will learn how to utilize real estate property as a financial tool to achieve their financial freedom.
Scott McGillivray is a skilled contractor and an award winning TV host of the show “Income Property”. He has the passion towards helping homeowners to make smart investment decisions on their property. With his industry experience, he manages to own over hundred of properties in United States. Furthermore, McGillivray is also a keynote speaker that inspires many entrepreneurs with his tips and advices on home improvement investments.
Scott McGillivray believes real estate investing is like an invisible business in the market. People need to figure it out in order to understand the concept.
“Real estate has hurtle, not obstacle. People put it there and you just need to jump over”
The beginning of the journey
McGillivray started his business from his undergrad business project. When he was still a undergrad student, he discovered a common problem for students to find a place to live. In his practicum class, he researched that problem and discovered the solution of buy and rent out property. However, nobody supported him except for the data and his partner. McGillivray used his student loan as deposit payment and proceeded his plan. With some strategies of withdraw date planning, the income from all tenants were able to cover all his expense and his current job.
At the end of the school year, McGillivray wanted another property. By using the refinancing strategy on the current mortgage, he managed to receive over $30,000 cheque. McGillivray discovered his passion. He reinvested that cheque for 2 more properties.
McGillivray emphasizes real estate investing can get entrepreneurs rich, but with a slow pace. The process can take time and it will work with the right proven system. People always feel a bit too late to enter the market. McGillivray believes the best time is yesterday, and the worst time is to wait. The timing is important. Therefore, Keyspire is born with the passion to help people understand the right proven framework.
“Love real estate? No, love what real estate can do for you”
McGillivray indicates it is easier to train entrepreneurs the right method instead of fixing what is wrong. Furthermore, it all started with a trigger point called “Instant Gratification”.
Instant gratification must work with a long term growth strategy called “the compounding effect”. The compounding effect will not give entrepreneurs the wealth in short term; however, the long term result will surpass the short term wealth. It starts off slow and painful, but good at the end. Therefore, there is a simple system for real estate investing, but it takes entrepreneurs the dedication and patient to do.
McGillivray explains 4 primary ways to create wealth from owning the real estate
Way #1: Positive cash flow
McGillivray suggests the most effective way to create wealth is to create a passive cash flow, not finding it. The income rental should set to a point to cover the total expense. When entrepreneurs create bigger positive cash flow and minimize the expense, the higher profit it will generate. McGillivray wants entrepreneurs to understand that market interest in real estate is the largest expense. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to seek and take advantage of the market value and the tenants.
Way #2: Mortgage paid off
McGillivray suggests entrepreneurs to set the rent deposit from their tenants relevant to the date of mortgage monthly deadline. It is important for entrepreneurs to keep track of the payment deadline.
Way #3: Forced appreciation
Most people believe the best way to gain profit from real estate is the strategy of flipping. This means entrepreneurs will purchase a property under value, do renovation and sell with a higher value for profit. Many entrepreneurs like this method because it gives instant gratification. However, McGillivray suggests entrepreneurs to keep the property and continue to generate the cash flow. Without selling, entrepreneurs will not need to pay for the capital gain, real estate agency commission, and other associate costs. Other people promote flipping strategy because the seller will pay them first from the gain.
McGillivray shares his “flip to yourself” strategy. This strategy is to buy hold and rent. When entrepreneurs purchase the property, they will use 3 months to renovate. After the renovation, rent will start, which will cover the holding fee. Entrepreneurs need to restructure the debit and pull the equity out to reinvest the next property. Since there is no selling transaction occur, entrepreneurs do not need to pay others. The strategy works with the compounding effect. When entrepreneurs stop the traditional flipping strategy, their income will stop; however, if entrepreneurs use “flip to yourself” strategy, their passive income will continue even they stop flipping.
There are two methods to make money in real estate. The first method is to bring money in and the second method is to save money. Entrepreneurs need to keep as mutes they can and bring in as much as possible.
Way #4: Market growth
Real estate value is growing on the market. Based on the market, the value will continue to go up. However, entrepreneurs cannot control it. McGillivray revels market growth can hurt people. When the market goes up, people will acquire property. When there is nobody lives in there, the bubble will burst and the market will crash. This will force people to sell at lower cost. McGillivray considers them as market spectator. Instead of focusing only on that segment, McGillivray wants entrepreneurs to diversity risk to all 4 ways.
McGillivray reveals the 12 strategies to win in real estate investing
Strategy #1: Effective ways of accessing capital and creative financing
There are many ways to do finance deal, and the most cheapest way is mortgage. When entrepreneurs show they have good credit, they will receive more. In hence, if they have bad credit, they will receive nothing. It is important to start invest when entrepreneurs still have something. When they start to burn out, they will discover the leverage is not on their side anymore. McGillivray suggests entrepreneurs to have tactic to finance the next one.
Strategy #2: The business around real estate
Buy and rent is not the only method to generate wealth. Around real estate investing, there might be other opportunities to invest. McGillivray wants entrepreneurs to keep their eyes open and seek the opportunities.
Strategy #3: Asset evaluation and optimizing leverage
The conventional wisdom can only take at certain level. Since the traditional mortgage from conventional wisdom is not working, entrepreneurs should not use the method. McGillivray suggests entrepreneurs to take risk and discover the new ways to improve their wealth, and not sticking to the old method all the time.
Strategy #4: Multiple investing strategies
McGillivray shows other 6 different investing strategies entrepreneurs can use aside from buy and sell.
Buy, hold and rent
Fix and flip
Flip to yourself
Rent to own
Second mortgage
Development
Strategy #5: The art of getting a great deal and negotiation
Many entrepreneurs are unable to close the deal because they do not know how to negotiate. Entrepreneurs need to know investors will buy if they need it. Based on the weekly market fluctuation statistic, McGillivray demonstrates that people will buy more on weekend and average seller will drop lower value on Monday due to hype on weekend. Entrepreneurs can save over $4,000 with a listing of $598,000 property by shopping on Sunday instead of Friday.
The listing is usually within 80-90 days. When the listing is about to expire, home owner will be desperate to sell. They will ask the agent to lower the price. McGillivray suggests entrepreneurs to research the listing days.
Strategy #6: Rehabs and renovations
It is important to find a good contractor to renovate the property. People is a visual creature, so the first impress is important.
Strategy #7: Securing a great tenant
If entrepreneurs cannot find good tenants, they can create it. Entrepreneurs should create a system in case tenants have problem. McGillivray suggests entrepreneurs to give them a gift when they move in. They will feel they are in debt and this is a good way to create the good relationship foundation.
Strategy #8: Property management
If entrepreneurs are unable to free up time to manage, they should hire someone to do it for them.
Strategy #9: How to leverage a power team and network
Entrepreneurs need to surround a group of individuals who understand them. Find the right people who can find the right solution for entrepreneurs.
Strategy #10: Ownership structure and tax relief
Entrepreneurs should discuss with their accountants to determine if the property should be under their personal or corporation.
Entrepreneurs need to figure out the plan first. McGillivray suggests entrepreneurs that business before pleasure.
Strategy #12: Take cheques to the bank
McGillivray suggests entrepreneurs to keep track of the payment and never miss a deadline.
McGillivray believes successful people are successful because they have a specific goal setting. They also have continuous improvement. The continuous improvement can add up over time to help them get out their comfort zone and the flexibility to push their limitation. Lastly, they use optimism and practice positivity. The more they believe in their ability to succeed, the more likely they will.
“If you think you can do it, or you think you cannot do it, you are right”
Leaders must understand that the trend of cloud innovation will transform the business world today. Moreover, leaders should take the advantage this innovation. The Dun & Bradstreet Cloud Innovation Centre invites Adrian Cockcroft, the former Netflix Chief Architect of Cloud Services, to discuss the prediction how world of business industry will integrate the cloud applications. In this presentation, leaders will learn the concept of cloud innovation and his perspective of future transformation. Leaders in the Information Technology industry, especially software engineering, will benefit the most in this presentation.
Adrian Cockcroft is the former Netflix Chief Architect of Cloud Services. He is considered as one of the early pioneer of public cloud technology. With over many years of developing cloud innovation, he is one of the world most visible person in cloud computing. Adrain Cockcroft speaks in many conferences and also the author of many books related to his industry. Moreover, he is one of the founders of eBay Research Labs, and technical fellow of Venture Capital Firm, Battery Ventures.
Adrain Cockcroft explains the world is adapting the concept of cloud innovation. During the adoption stage, the world ignores the possibility to integrate cloud into their business. Cockcroft shares Netflix is one of the early companies that integrates the technology of cloud. The adoption is still in progress. When more people start to try the application, cloud computing raise the awareness. Furthermore, everyone is on the road map in 2015.
Cockcroft later joins Battery Ventures to expand the awareness since more audiences are interested in the cloud. His job is to explore the disruption and opportunities to mature the concept of cloud innovation.
Cockcroft believes the enterprise infrastructure as a service (IaaS) has 4 concerns. The first concern is staying power, which is to maintain and monitor the infrastructure. The second concern is the support, which is able to create the helping aid for the organization. The third concern is the size and the last concern is the location. Cockcroft suggests two largest open sources for enterprise IaaS. They are Amazon Web Service (AWS) and Azure. Based on the geographical region, AWS is 5 times more than everyone else combine. Cockcroft predicts within one year, the size will increase to 10 times, which will capture 91% of the market.
There are other future expansions for other open sources. Google might be the next competition and AWS will focus in the India market.
Cockcroft emphasizes from 2013 to 2015, the number of sites host increase significantly. The growth indicates the world is adopting the cloud technology and it has become a requirement for future business.
The cloud technology will focus on 3 major elements.
Agility
Functionality
Cost savings
Cockcroft believes people need cloud to build the next big thing. Cloud technology can help business speed up the process, flexible with multilevel functions, and it is cheaper to shut down.
Cockcroft mentions platform as a service (PaaS) is also the next trend for business. PaaS will focus on container, communication, orchestration, and policy. Cockcroft suggests business should look into Docker or OpenStack as their options to integrate PaaS because they will be the new standard for business.
Using a docker is a low cost for enterprise, such as compile builds in seconds, package dependencies, and docker startup.
“Venders will co-opt and fragment OpenStack”
As for Software as a Service (SaaS), Cockcroft indicates it is everywhere because it is a standard for enterprise. However, leaders must be aware of the future disruption. As installation increases, the revenue will increase. Until a certain point, the revenue will start to diminish.
2014 is the year where enterprise embraced the cloud and developers. The key goals for cloud and developers are to align with the information technology in business and try not to get breached. Many people are experiencing the security blanket failure, which is not able to trust firewall anymore. Cockcroft believes developers have the responsibility to get faster, cheaper and safer. Operators have the responsibility to automate the API platform.
Product development process
The product development process is a cycle of innovation, big data, culture and then cloud. This means it is a continuous delivery of observe, orient, decide, and then act. Cockcroft suggests instead of using monolithic delivery method, the product team should use microservice method.
Monolithic method is when there is a release plan, the plan goes to all developers. After that, it goes to QA integration then replace the old with new release. This method works well with small company with small numbers of developers because it is a simple and linear structure. However, if there is bug, it will delay the process.
Microservice method is different from monolithic method. It releases many plans to many developers. When developers finish, it will start deploy the feature to production. This method will not block anyone if there is any delay because each plan is independent. This method requires monitoring tool to ensure if any microservice is fixed when there is non function.
Monitoring -> site reliability -> available matrix
Cockcroft also suggests business to put managers or VP engineering above developers for productivity. In addition, if there is a change, microservice method is better off to change one thing at a time.
Microservice method can also help oriented loosely coupled services with bounded context. Cockcroft shows 4 major coupling concerns.
Convey’s law
centralized database scheme
enterprise service bus
inflexible protocol versioning
With using microservice method, the flow can be challenging. Therefore testing can be expensive. Cockcroft suggests a tool called “Build Spigo Program” to simulate the microservice.
Questions and Answers
Cockcroft believes feedback is important. Cloud can help business in planning because cloud’s purpose is to optimize speed. However, business must be aware that implementing cloud can create culture shock challenge.
Reviewing the code is also important. In business, it is important to allow each other to know the code so they can support. Cloud is international, so the infrastructure can be misleading. Cockcroft believes as long as business follow the traffic, they will find the right location to host on the cloud.
Cockcroft shares 5 years ago, people thought cloud technology is not secured and people were crazy to implement this idea. Now, people can see the simplicity of using the cloud and they believe cloud can be secured.
Cockcroft hopes the next generation can develop a software to reduce the abuse comments on social media. There should be a law reinforcement on that issue. Traditionally, people need to purchase the software to learn and train the skills. Now, people can use AWS to retrieve information for low cost. Cockcroft can see the increase trend in the financial industry. In addition, many organizations still decide not to use cloud because of bad experience, money problem and too large of scale to fit into cloud. More importantly, if there is not enough growth in business, the organizations will not consider using cloud.
Entrepreneurs need to understand that money is a powerful force that can help them shape their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. This seminar is the first part of the “Rich from the Inside Out” series. Brenda St. Louis, a Certified Money Coach, is invited to discuss the types of Money Archetypes that will help entrepreneurs to identify their clients’ characteristics. When entrepreneurs identify the right archetype, they can help them to make informed financial decisions.
Brenda St. Louis is a Certified Money Coach from Money Coaches Training Institute. With over many years of financial industry experiences, Louis is able to develop the framework to associate people’s relationship with money. Her passion leads her to help many entrepreneurs to reveal their financial limitation and strategize tools to create their awareness. Moreover, Louis is also an international speaker, writer, actor and even massage therapist.
Brenda St. Louis reveals when people are associating with money, they will either feel pain or pleasure. Some people put too much weight or pressure on themselves that they can be out of the control. Money Archetypes is an identification of their behaviour patterns associate with money. If people can discover their personal Money Archetypes, they can better understand their relationship with money.
“Money is just a measurement tool to release inner awareness”
Louis shares the 8 common Money Archetypes that can influence people’s behaviour with money.
Type #1: The Innocent
Louis believes people with the type of “The Innocent” shows the fear of financial information from inside. They usually will avoid the situation because they can easily be influenced by the overwhelming financial decisions.
Type #2: The Victim
“The Victim” is a type of Money Archetype that can show irresponsible and passive aggressive attitude. The impact is created from the past failed experience, which result of pain emotion. People with this kind of Money Archetype usually blame other people or factors.
Type #3: The Warrior
People with the type of “The Warrior” is commonly seen as successful business in financial world. Louis believes these people demonstrates a strong confident and competitive attributes. They will do whatever it takes to make things happen.
Type #4: The Martyr
Louis reveals the type of “The Martyr” is someone who will risk anything to help others. They usually have the characteristic of low self-esteem when they fail to meet their expectation. People with this kind of Money Archetype have the mindset of perfectionist or secretive.
Type #5: The Fool
“The Fool” is a type of Money Archetype that shows fearless and optimistic. These people usually lives in the present and never worry about the cause and the effect. People with this kind of Money Archetype are like gamblers.
Type #6: The Artist
People illustrates “The Artist” as someone who are going on a spiritual or artistic path. Their relationship between money is related to the negative beliefs about materialism. They look beyond the situation.
Type #7: The Tyrant
Many people with “The Tyrant” shows a strong control over the usage of money. Moreover, they fear the loss of control and never feel enough. However, they will follow the standard and the regulation to ensure they receive what they want.
Type #8: The Magician
Louis believes “The Magician” is a special type of Money Archetype that allows people to transform or manifest their finical reality. They develop the balance between inner spiritual and outer materials. Nevertheless, they are knowledgeable to surpass the meaning in the past.
Louis emphasizes every Money Archetype has their own purpose. Entrepreneurs need to understand that people can transform from one to another depends on their current situation. It is wise to shift to the right Money Archetype to address the right outcome of the situation.
Inner Work for the Money Archetypes
When entrepreneurs identify their clients’ Money Archetypes, their next step is to help them improve their understanding of their types and mitigate their weaknesses.
As for “The Innocent”, they need to learn the concept behind money to reduce their fear of money. Their journey will feel more capable when they are educated with the right financial knowledge and sense, which can lead them more confidence when they face money.
“The Victim” can be tricky. The first thing they need to do is to forgive their past experience. By releasing the anger will help them see their true selves. Entrepreneurs need to allow them to realize their spirt and energy, which can possibility turn to the next “The Magician”.
When entrepreneurs identify their clients with “The Martyr”, they need to let go of their past. Forgiveness is the key element to reduce their weakness. They need to find a way to love themselves and let got the concept of relying others to provide pleasure and love.
“The Artist” can sometime be lonely and independent. They need to integrate their spiritual and material worlds. Louis believes “The Artist” has the potential to become “The Magician” until they are embraced with the outer world. They need to develop the system to change their belief about money.
Louis mentions people with “The Fool” archetype need to be more present and connected about their feeling towards money. They need to recognize that their decisions and choices will affect the future. To escape the “What is next” world, they need to beware their behaviours that will impact their financial loss.
People with “The Tyrant” are imprinted with the concept of give less and receive more. Entrepreneurs need to find a way to trigger their emotional side and allow them to access their innate generosity. Community work can be good option to help them search their emotional side. They need to discover their contribution can make a difference for others.
“The Warrior” is someone who goes forward that might ignore the true purpose. Entrepreneurs need to slow them down and help them discover their true needs and wants. Entrepreneurs can help them turn their focus towards community work, which can help them receive more awareness. This will help them discover their strengths can be a better use in other places.
Louis believe to improve “The Magician”, entrepreneurs need to fully heal their energies from the past. In addition, they also need to cultivate their intuition and inner body awareness. It is important to allow their body and spirt to become as one.
Louis shares a method that can help people to improve their health and wealth. This method is called “Ho’oponopono Forgiveness”. Through this method, people will let go of their negative thoughts and pursue a happy and positive lifestyle. The method is to say these four statements through the days, and the impact will gradually occur.
Name: Skyrocket your sales by building an audio broadcast empire
Presenter: James Martell
Entrepreneurs can use audio broadcast to send their message across their market. Moreover, audio can help entrepreneurs to leverage their sales and position themselves above their industries. Vancouver Business Network invites James Martell, the Co-founder of JambMedia, to explain how powerful podcast can help entrepreneurs to receive unfair advantage over their competitors. In this presentation, James Martell will share his strategy to utilize podcast in any business. In addition, entrepreneurs will learn the value of integrating their business with podcast and explain their target audience to new marketplace.
James Martell is the Co-founder of JambMedia. With over many years of podcasting experience, Martell is the first entrepreneurs who integrates podcast in the affiliate marketing industry. Martell is also one of the top 25 influencers in Performance Marketing in 2014. Moreover, he expands his expertise into web-content, SEO and monetization to help entrepreneurs. Martial is also a speaker in many large conferences, such as Affiliate Summit and Think Tank.
James Martell believes if entrepreneurs are able to architect a podcast that can give them an unfair advantage, they will increase their recognition awareness to their target markets. Podcast is used to call audio newspaper due to the trend of Apple’s iPod.
Martell defines podcast as a episodic series ofaudio for people to subscribe and download. Podcast can trigger personal emotions and based on stats, most people listen to podcast than watching videos.
James Martell started his business through internet affiliate system. The idea of podcasting started with a telephone conversation. Martell saw the opportunity to record the conversation and sell it. The podcast business took Martell from struggling life to dream life.
“If you got internet and head bud, you are ready to go”
Martell emphasizes podcasting is a strategy that can work in any industry. He shares the top 10 reasons for entrepreneurs to start their own podcast.
Create an audience that predisposed to buy
Strength relationship
Establish entrepreneurs as experts
Human voice is a natural way to communicate
Easily to develop fresh high-quality content
Reach entirely new market
Each episode can help you get hot prospects 24/7
Easy to start
Create high impact in less than 1 hour
Hottest in 2015
Martell shares a case study that doctors can use podcast to expand their practices. Podcast creates 3-4 minutes of audio attention to connect with the right prospects online. It creates creditability and emotion. In addition, it converts listeners to action.
Another case study Martell shares is the political elections. The politicians can use podcast to create strong 15 minutes of message across the community. This also creates the opportunity to talk to the audience. The podcast can also create call of action, which allows the audience to do specific actions.
Martell suggests the audio message should have a professional intro. It is important to hire someone, such as virtual producer, to introduce the people into the interview. The final question and thoughts can link with the audience and the speaker. Furthermore, speakers can use audio to reach their audience.
Martell shares another case study that entrepreneurs use audio as testimonial. It creates better connection, share knowledge, and deeper relationship. The last case study Martell shares is to use podcast as part of landing page. When audience visit the page, it creates engagement.
Podcast can solve many business challenges. This includes standing out with competitors, creating productive time, staying in touch with audience, and building a list of possible client base.
Audio can be a simple solution for many entrepreneurs. Martell explains the 4 major trends that podcast can be used for entrepreneurs. The first trend is the explosive growth of smartphone because it is easy for people to consume audio. The second trend is the proliferation of WIFI everywhere. The third trend is the innovation of putting WIFI in the car. The last trend is 2015 is the year of podcast due to high demand of download from iTune.
Martell wants entrepreneurs to ask this question: “Is there a show in you?”. Entrepreneurs can use podcast to share information with their clients. Many entrepreneurs use podcast with their blogs. The combination will allow entrepreneurs to reach new market.
“Your listeners are not listening because of your voice, it is the information you share”
Anyone can setup podcast. The first option of equipment is a computer and a headset with microphone. The second option of equipment is a smartphone with a free application. The third option of equipment is a tablet with free application. Martell believes if entrepreneurs use podcast correctly, it will create the ripple effect. By setting the podcast with RSS, websites can reach podcast market. The podcast can reach to social media and connect to third market platform. This is the power of automation.
Audio can create loyal listeners with killer contents. Entrepreneurs always need to update the podcast. Podcast can help entrepreneurs to be recognized as expert and increase speaking engagements.
“Podcast is all over the news”
Martell mentions 4 strategies to integrate business with podcast. The first strategy is subscription. Entrepreneurs can use podcast to product up sell with excellent content and special offer. The second strategy is the instant customer call. Entrepreneurs can use podcast to build relationship, seek hot prospects, and shorten sales cycle. The third strategy is the call of action. Entrepreneurs can use podcast to book appointments and complete lead forms. The last strategy is speaking engagement. Entrepreneurs can use podcast to improve speaking ability and expand their presence.
Martell mentions 5 strategies to use podcast to attract listeners. Entrepreneurs can provide values through their audio content. Entrepreneurs can create point of sales to add value to their clients. Entrepreneurs can create influential guests to involve clients with interesting conversation. Entrepreneurs can create speaking engagement with incentive for clients. Lastly, entrepreneurs can create podcast directories to attract different type of listeners.
Martell suggests entrepreneurs to follow 12 core elements that will maximize the value of using Podcast to their businesses.
Name: The 3 biggest things leaders learned from a billionaire that make them rich
Presenter: Douglas Vermeeren
Successful entrepreneurs follow a successful pattern. This pattern will lead entrepreneurs rich and financially free. Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group invites Douglas Vermeeren, the author of the Guerrilla Marketing series, to explain the hidden concepts that makes up the necessary pattern or blueprint for entrepreneurs to be successful. Moreover, Douglas Vermeeren will give all entrepreneurs the missing piece of their puzzle to become financially free. This presentation will help entrepreneurs to set the right mindset and attitude to become wealthy and maximize their bottom line.
Douglas Vermeeren is considered to be The Modern Day Napoleon Hill. Vermeeren is a professional motivational speaker and has successfully help many entrepreneurs transform their patterns. The author of Guerrilla Millionaire, Millionaire Wisdom and The Millionaire Frequency, Vermeeren has help entrepreneurs to find their purposes and clarity. Moreover, Vermeeren is the producer behind The Opus, The Gratitude Experiment and Wealth Creation. Vermeeren has involved with many media coverage, and Vermeeren has the passion to change the lives of successful entrepreneurs.
Douglas Vermeeren believes the reason why people hate rich people because they could not do what rich people can do. Entrepreneurs can discover their past by looking at their current situation. Nevertheless, entrepreneurs can discover their future by looking at their current decisions.
“What is the return of doing nothing? nothing”
Vermeeren shares his career change started from a book called “Think and Grow Rich”. The author, Napoleon Hill, changed his life and he started to connect with successful entrepreneurs. Instead of learning from photocopy, Vermeeren wanted to learn from the main source.
Vermeeren shares a question that helps him continue his learning. The question is “Who else do you know I should talk to?” This standard question is able to help Vermeeren interview many successful entrepreneurs.
The interview gave him the wealth advice. After Vermeeren applied the advice, he could see the wealthy result. Vermeeren began to teach his advice and concepts. Most entrepreneurs go from point A to point B by trial and error and struggle, Vermeeren is willing to be entrepreneurs’ mentor to lead them to a faster route. Vermeeren always remembered his mentor told him that it needs thinking and experience to take a $400,000 idea to execute a $400,000 profit.
Vermeeren believes money comes and go, but opportunity comes rarely. The real cost is if entrepreneurs do not even try it. Vermeeren emphasizes entrepreneur is someone who has something they want to contribute.
The biggest key of wealth is gratitude. Vermeeren wants entrepreneurs to think money is not just making money, it is contributing back to community.
Here are some common reasons why people want to be rich.
Finanically Free
Improve lifestyle
More respect
Prepare for retirement
Quit current job
More time
Support struggling
Own business
More freedom of choice
Get of the personal debt
Acquire Assets
Successful entrepreneurs always have the certain patterns that lead them to success. Therefore, Vermeeren will share 3 key elements that he learned from billionaire and 2 additional key elements to sustain the pattern.
Key Element #Clarity vision and direction
There are 4 stages entrepreneurs will go through: financial insecurity, financial security, financial free, and financial abundance. Many people only know experience, but Vermeeren believes in order to achieve financial abundance, entrepreneurs need to know what their dreams really cost. If entrepreneurs want to be billionaire, they need to look and break down their goals until it is more retainable.
Vermeeren suggests entrepreneurs to do one step at a time and find the right recipes that are specific and clear.
Vermeeren shares there are 4 pillars to achieve self made millionaire. The first pillar is to own business and not operate it. Until the timing is right, entrepreneurs need to sell it for profit. The second pillar is real estate. The third pillar is investment. The more easy and accessible of opportunities, the less interest of return will receive. The last pillar is intellectual property. It is not about the resource, yet it is about creativity and innovative.
Key Element #2: Skills
Average entrepreneurs can only reach up to $200,000 revenue per year. The difference of millionaire and those average entrepreneurs is the skill. Vermeeren mentions the most expensive thing in the world is ignorance because it will cost time. Once time is gone, it is gone forever.
Many entrepreneurs are advised to be a good money manager. They will stop at the point where they discover the excess of cash flow. However, successful entrepreneurs are advised to be a good money strategist. They will take the excess of cash flow and do smart moves, such as reinvest themselves for better skill set.
Key Element #3: Action
An advice from Vermeeren is that entrepreneurs should not be a dork of their money. Successful entrepreneurs will spend money on three major areas.
Quality of life
To create
To contribute
Everything entrepreneurs buy is their investment. Their choice how they live and they need to expand. Contribution will provide the most joy in life, and creation is where all the money is made. In average, people only spend 10% of their actions in the area of creation. Furthermore, successful entrepreneurs will spend most of their actions in creation.
“People think it is only $20 dollar, but what you do with that $20 counts”
When entrepreneurs spend money, they will make money. This is called investment and that is the way rich people get rich. Vermeeren suggests entrepreneurs to figure out what things they are excited about. Entrepreneurs should do things they will never regret in the future.
Successful entrepreneurs will only invest things that are easy to understand. Simplify is the key. Vermeeren believes if entrepreneurs want to have wealth, they cannot delegate thinking to someone else.
When opportunity comes, many people will think how much will it cost. Vermeeren indicates the right question is to think how much will it make. When entrepreneurs have more experience, they will move from risk to evaluation.
“You need to be at the right frequency, but you need to keep doing it frequently”
Key Element #4: Optimize your environment
Successful entrepreneurs’ income determine by the average of 5 people they spend their time with. Therefore, they need to build network.
Vermeeren shares the word “Network” is actually two words. It is a “net” and you need to “work” for it. When the net becomes bigger, entrepreneurs will realize their difficult problems will get simpler. The key is to find the right people for the right insight. If entrepreneurs have high worth of people in their network, it will help them.
To distinguish the right people, Vermeeren suggests entrepreneurs to rank their network into five different piles. All relationship is in motion so people might move from one pile to another. This will help entrepreneurs to determine the priority in their network.
Key Element #5: Mastering psychology
People are who they are by how they think. What they understand and what they do are based on what they think. When entrepreneurs say they cannot afford it, Vermeeren treats it as scarcity statement. When entrepreneurs are caught themselves with scarcity statement, they need to change it so their thinking will not be influenced.
“If you do not know does not mean you cannot”
Vermeeren shows that building wealth needs consistency and beliefs. Entrepreneurs need to believe they can do better. When entrepreneurs believe themselves, their mindset will trigger and believe it can be true.
In average, entrepreneurs can be millionaire within 2 years. If entrepreneurs do not act, time will pass either way. Therefore, the benefit of learning to be rich can come form personal reason. Learning to be rich and help entrepreneurs approach investment and create jobs for others. It is also have the benefit of supporting family and relationship. Entrepreneurs can use the learningto give back to the community and leave a legacy. Vermeeren believes if entrepreneurs are not willing to give back when they are broke, they are unlikely to give back when they are rich.
“Your wealth is not going to change unless you commit”
Presenters: Richard Rees, The Honourable Andrew Wilkinson, Lori Mathison, and Mary Anne Davidson
This is the moment for all accounting professionals to celebrate the success of uniting all accounting designations in British Columbia into one. Vancouver Board of Trade invites the panelists to discuss the impact of the proclamation of this proclamation. The panelist includes Richard Rees, the President and CEO of CPABC, the Honourable Andrew Wilkinson, the Minister of Advanced Education, Lori Mathison, the Vancouver Managing Partner from Dentons Canada LLP, and Mary Anne Davidson, the Director of Vancouver Board of Trade. All industry experts will discuss their view of how this new entity will impact the business in British Columbia.
Richard Rees announces the unification of all designations (CMA, CGA, and CA) will bring forward positive impacts. The process started 15 years ago. With over many failures, Rees believes this unification will improve the current vision of CPABC, the patent and how CPABC compromises with the society.
CPA is one of the largest bodies in the education industry. The education has enough flexibility to meet everyone’s needs. The bylaws and regulation have harmonized across the world. CPA provides great mobility to international market. Rees mentions CPA regulates with highest standard to ensure they are fulfill the confidence in public trust. Rees indicates CPA unification will serve better to the public. Moreover, CPA creates Financial Literacy program to provide financial education for children and adult, including person with disability. Rees believes CPA has established the privilege to serve the long term and open up many opportunity for the community.
“Trust the vision, service the public”
The Honourable Andrew Wilkinson believes CPA is the home mark of the company. It provides reliable financials to all companies. CPA has provided enough transparency and creditability to gain the trust of the community. Wilkinson presents the appreciation for the act of unification of 3 designations.
To ensure financial are protected, CPA members are required to raise standard from their learning process. The usage of CPA will represents the solid foundation to the society. Wilkinsonreports based on BC job plan, Auditor ranks the top 4 in career choice for new generation. Wilkinson encourages accountants to involve with community board by giving back the skills to support the community.
The panelists
The unification can impact many businesses. Davidson believes in employers’ perceptive, the unification allows them to look at CPA for the external qualification. CPA provides employee’s professional development which can bring clarity back to the organization. Mathison believes the unification can bring simplicity. This allows the public to cut the noise and focus on what CPA really believes in. This also shows specialization to the society.
Rees believes there will be more international recognitions. It allows CPA members to build and develop on their international markets. Wilkinson indicates CPA provides the accuracy of liquidation on transaction, internal control and transparency. The agreement of unification shows the ability to maintain integrity towards the public.
Mathison understands CPA provides the standard recognition. It gives people the common language for easy communication. It will mitigates the international barriers as well. Moreover, it is easier for other countries to share and follow.
In corporate perspective, Davidson believes internal and external audits are the main concern. CPA will enhance the standard to provide greater insurance for corporates.
Wilkinson mentions the process of unification is now the legislation across Canada. People seems to understand the importance of CPA, which encourages many buy in during the process.
Rees believes one of the main key elements is to improve the quality exam and continue the strong ethic. Mathison believes the mobility of CPA can help public interest. Davidson identities the main challenge is that the current CPA members might have the impression that it is necessary to start over the investment of their professional education. Rees will ensure CPA will have a strong framework to mitigate this issue. Mathison believes CPA will help people understand the financial perspective.
Rees ensures CPA has the responsibility to public an economy. Orientation will be provided to new members. The CPA has 3 important elements to the public.
Technical Skill
People Skill
Geographic management skill
Rees suggests accountants to be involved with volunteer boards. This will help CPA to be more connected with the community. By sharing the framework, CRA are relying on CPA. The unification will improve the communication with the public.
Name: The World of 2050 – Drivers of change and opportunity
Presenter: Professor Ian Goldin
It is important for leaders of tomorrow to be able to identify the key global issues that are affecting the future. These challenges will impact many businesses of all industries. Vancouver Board of Trade is proudly invited Professor Ian Goldin, the Founder of Oxford Martin School, to discuss his observation towards the next 25 years. Ian Goldin will focus on technology, demographics and globalization issues that will change the current trend in the market. This academic presentation will provide leaders the insight of upcoming business world.
Professor Ian Goldin, the Founder Oxford Martin School at University of Oxford, is also an university professor of Globalization and Development. Golden published over 50 article and 19 books, including“The Butterfly Defect”. Furthermore, Goldin has been nominated the Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. His experience and engagements have helped many companies around the world.
Goldin believes the world needs to plan long term to sustain for the future. Technology leads to globalization, which will sustain the quality of life. Leaders need to adapt new ways to support the health generation.
Thinking about the future, Goldin indicates the walls are down, which signifies the connectivity in the world is getting stronger. However, the edge of the world will still impact the global. Leaders need to prepare for the future by improve the shape of life and the foundation of the community.
Goldin defines the word “Change” as to accurate and continue. There will be unexpected surprises, which will push many companies to the edge. These organizations must find ways to execute simple ideas that can improve people’s lives. The world has connected over 1 billion people, and the number will increase to over 5 billion people in the future. To sustain the connectivity, Goldin believes leaders must include the 3 elements, which are give, learn and advance.
Leaders must unlock the creativity talent in the new generation and allow them to participate. The resources are now more accessible than before, and leaders must understand how the global flows work. If global flows are improving, GDP will increase and the world income will grow. This will lead to sustainability for the new globalization.
“Ability for things to move”
The measures of financial integration is increasing. Comparing with the previous years of GDP, The current GDP is doubling every year and the income growth will rapidly increasing.
Is this sustainable for future?
Goldin mentions the life expectancy for people is 20 years more than before and the literacy will be halved. Inventions are improving and the creativity of new ways is the trend.
In the economic prospective, Goldin is concerned if the new generation has the ability to sustain. Therefore, two major concerns for economy are mentioned by Goldin.
Walls are down, but the other walls are coming along
The systemic risk will still exists. Even though people are more connected, they are also connected with other risks as well
Future prediction
Goldin predicts the population for the future is slowing down. The life expecting will start to decrease. Elderly are growing and there will be rapid decline of fertility. There will be huge increase in middle class people as well and the life expectancy from female is still greater than male. Goldin believes leaders need to put new structure. People need to mobilize the pension, and the migration will be a huge issue for Canada.
Migration is the key variable for the future and skilled and unskilled people will determine the economic growth. In the economic growth, Goldin stats the macro is in good shape. People are investing in high rate and the future is more surprise than ever. The project income per capita for many countries are increasing. The GDP will increase. The emerging markets are driving the growth.
The technology is changing and more than million of people are powered every year. The information is available more than ever. The risks and the costs of new data will start to go down. However, the piracy is still an issue for the globalization. The danger of collapsing bank from internet connection is still a concern for the future. Goldin believes leaders must focus on the management the technology because artificial intelligence will take over 50% of the job in the next 20 years
The tragedy of the commons is still exists. The quantity of fishes will decrease, scarcity will increase, ocean will reduce and high climate change as well.
Goldin suggests leaders to find a way to monitor the global governance. New players are coming and it will impact the benefit of change. New technology will be formed and leaders must pay attention to the integration. The future is uncertain, and people know that. However, Goldin wants people respond, not going back and pretend nothing will change. The world needs more connectivity.
Questions and Answers
To respond any global complexity issue, Goldin believes the cause of the effect will important. Therefore, Goldin suggests leaders to manage complexity with the right model and judgement. Politicians need to look long term because they usually under estimate the problem. Therefore, Goldin believes the world cannot let politicians capture the money.
Goldin emphasizes there are 3 things will impact the trend in economy.
Antibiotic issue
DNA sequencing
Game change
Goldin believes the housing price of real estate in Vancouver will increase. There will be high level of women in support of non profit sectors. The biggest challenge business will face is shortage of labour. Business will also face the issue of the transition of energy policy and the change of shareholders in community.
As for foreign crisis, Goldin believes people are still repeating the history. There will be more demand on intellectual property. Restructuring is needed.
“How confident are you? Are you prepare to restrict the things we use?”
Name: Women in Leadership Foundation – Championing Leaders
Presenters: Sarah J. Howard, Wendy King, and Catherine Van Alstine
Many great successful leaders across many different industries have championed to leadership positions. Moreover, the path behind their success is difficult and inspirational. Women in Leadership Foundation is a community for female leaders to gather, share, and celebrate their successes. Women in Leadership Foundation invites Gwen Gnazdowsky, the founder of One Conversation, to discuss with the panelists about their strategies and tips for their success. The panel includes Sarah J. Howard, the Managing Partner and President of Compton, Wendy King, the Vice President of Capstone Mining Corp, and Catherine Alstine, the Partner of Boyden Global Executive Search. This presentation will benefit many female leaders who are looking for motivation for their road of entrepreneurship.
Sarah J. Howard is the president of Compton Fundraising Consultant Ltd. She works in the non profit organization industry,specializing fund raising, for many years in the executive position. She mentions she come across an article that shows a huge difference in gender performance evaluation in workplace. The article summarizes male tends to react and women tends to respond in emotional. Howard shares she experienced gender discrimination in leadership when she started her career. There was a gap between different gender with different compensation. In her perspective, female leaders face different expectations than male.
In Howard’s experience, she saw people distinguish female leaders have the attributes of common care and compassion and male leaders have self confident. The bias between male and female made her feel unjustified. Even though the rules were clear, the politics were still in favour of male leaders.
Howard emphasizes the board was still dominated by middle age male leaders. During one of the board meetings, she was asked to acquire franchise instead of buyout. She could accept the decision, but she wanted more. Her mentor suggested her go beyond, and that was the moment she decided to go for the top.
In Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, the members nominated Howard to run the club. However, the remaining members on the board proposed the motion not to allow her to run. Howard stepped up the game and ask for the election to allow all membership to vote. The result is in Howard’s favour.
Howard mentions her godmother is her mentor. Her mentor gave Howard the advice that changed her work life. The advice was to allow her to choose the battle carefully, and eventually the respect will be earned.
Wendy King started her career as a tax lawyer, but eventually turn to legal care. Before working in the Capstone Mining Corp, her desired dream was to work in the law firm for 10 years and gradually moved to business. King believes any leader requires a long strategic goal and always do what they really love.
To achieve her goal, she knew education was the stepping stone. She used up 2 years to get her master. After her education, she decided to apply for KPMG to upgrade her knowledge because the resources in accounting firm are better than law firm. She moved on to BLG Law firm after.
The lesson King wants leader to know is that when opportunity comes up, it could be a hard decision for many leaders. However, leaders need to take risk to open up a better door for their future.
King indicates she does not have good mentors when she started her career. It is important to have a strong self-direct early as possible. This will help leaders to identify their strengths. Leaders should always continue to build up their tool kit. King believes in this generation, leaders with specialize skills are in favour of those who only have general skills. Leaders need to believe how valuable the skills are. Skills can be transferable in any career, but leaders need to know the value behind their skills.
King suggests leaders to be involved with community board to learn and grow their leadership.
“I never focus on the next advancement. I focus on the experience to grow because the next advancement tends to come by”
Catherine Van Alstine is the Partner in Boyden Global Executive Search. Alstine used to work in the bank before travelling to Vancouver. When she arrived to Vancouver, she needed to figure out what she wanted to. Alstine mentions her passion was to be involved with people and helped them change.
Alstine mentions her career builds around the passion of matching people to meet their dream. She wants to take the existing and make it better. Alstine suggests leaders to focus on bring new people into the team. By allowing new people to be successful will bring in new opportunities and outcome.
“Always be the person to champion other’s skills”
The career does not satisfied Alstine. In addition, she looks for community work. Many people feel hesitant about themselves. Alstine suggests leaders to think about what they want and what they want to be successful. Leaders need to find the right champions who can support them to the next level.
“Do not worry what you choose, just do it better. Figure out how to make it happen”
The panel
Howard believes leaders should always look for opportunity and prepare for challenges when time comes. When there is a tough decision, King suggests leaders need to have the confidence to believe themselves. They need to have the courage to take the risk. Alstine wants leaders to figure out what they can give to others. By understanding what other needs, leaders will be able to direct them to place where they want to be. Leaders should never say no. Moreover, leaders should say yes and figure out how.
Howard believes balance lifestyle is important. Leaders need to park their ego and set their boundary. King mentions she is lucky because her husband do at least 50% of work. Alstine believes leaders define their own balance.
Alstine believes her father was the leader who influences her the most. She is proud to work with many entrepreneurs by taking ideas and build to a business. King emphasizes each mentor has his or her own style. Different styles show different characteristics. Even though Howard never has a formal relationship with her mentor, Howard has a team of advisors who can support her.
Alstine believes if leaders do not have a business degree, they should find a way to show something that equivalent to a degree. Leaders need to understand that degree is important, but what degree can do for them is more important. Leaders need to articulate the reason of having a degree. King believes business degree is a way to fill the knowledge gap. It opens doors for leaders, but they must have content.
“Education does not mean you will get the job. People want to know why”
The world is shifting from less to more women in leadership. Howard advices female leaders to pick their battles carefully. King advise female leaders that sometime it is not necessary to fight; instead, it is necessary to understand the perspective. Traditionally, men leaders start from entry level and work their ways up. Alstine believes they do not know how to deal with female leaders because they are afraid. The society is changing and in the next 6 years, baby boomers will shift. The new generation will notice and the distribution of labour will change.
Alstine recommends female leaders who are currently on the board to be a leader with the other members on the board. It is important to be positive and get the points across. Howard suggests female leaders to be prepared all the time. This will earn their respect slow and show equal players at the table.
Self-direct is a concept to reach out for the next goal, seek opportunity externally and be always learning. Leaders need to be active learner.
“If you are not self-direct, you might not know where you want to go”
The ways leaders think can impact their high performance. Moreover, leaders must adapt the right thinking in order to improve their leadership. Global Legacy Builders event invites Ryan Walter to discuss his leadership model for leaders who are looking for high performance. Ryan Walter will explain the reason behind the mindset change and help leaders to discover their interests towards their leadership. With over many years of playing and coaching in National Hockey League, Ryan Walter’s experience will shift many leaders’ performance from good to excellent.
Barry Borthistle, the co-Founder of Global Legacy Builders, believes there are 4 principles that can change leaders. The first principle is the law of expression, which leaders can align their actions with the right words. The second principle is the law of blessing, which leaders can support others who are in desperate needs. The second principle is the law of awareness, which leaders can reach their support from the people surrounded by them. The last principle is the law of reciprocity, which leaders can understand to serve before receive.
Leaders need to develop personal awareness from looking at their physical, emotional and spiritual sides of their lives. Many leaders are not aware that they are spending the way out of their problems. Wealth is connected to life purpose and it is important to rearrange the priority and establish the right path of life purposes.
“If you make an appointment, anything can happen. If you do not make an appointment, nothing will happen”
Hungry for change
Ryan Walter is a former professional hockey player in NHL. Walter is also the assistant coach with Vancouver Canucks and the head coach of Canadian National Women’s hockey team. During his year in NHL, he helped his team, Montreal Canadian, won the 1989 Stanley Cup. During his career, he was award the Budweiser NHL Man of the year in 1992. Currently, Ryan Walter is an author of the book called “Hungry” and a motivational speaker for many business owners. Using his experience in hockey, he helps many organization leaders to transform their teams to the top.
Walter believes in order for leaders to activate their high performance, they need to understand their inner game. When leaders explore their inner game, they will discover who they really are in life.
“People do not meet each other in success, only in pain”
Walter explains that leaders need to understand their team energy. Team energy comes from the relationship between purpose and passion. When team experiences low purpose and low passion, the team will form an energy called “Ambivalent”. This means team’s energy has pulled out of the game.
When team experience high purpose and low passion, it forms an energy of “Frustration”. High passion with low purpose will form the energy of “Entertained” and high purpose and high passion will generate the energy of “Hungry”.
The energy of “Hungry” can help the team to be more energized, open and determined. This also improve confidence and excitement.
Walter believes successful leaders must go deep with their teams. They need to care and grow their people. Leadership is all about change. If leaders do not like the result, they are not providing enough clarity. Walter believes leadership is like a movie. Therefore, leaders need to think 2 questions before the change.
What should be in the movie?
What must come out of the movie?
Performance ladder
Leaders need to work with their inner game and outer game to create high performance. The inner game includes the mindset and the belief system. Successful leaders need to have success habits. With the right amount of practice, leaders will have the right mindset. Walter mentions leaders should not matter what other people think about them; instead, the most important is the right self-image. Right mindset will direct the right belief system.
Belief system is the fundamental of the inner game. The belief system will help leaders to create the right mentality and confidence. Once leaders believe themselves they can do it, they will execute high performance actions. The outer game includes the actions, habits and results. The right belief system will execute the right actions. The right actions will create the right habits. The right habits will lead to the right results.
“How are the habits of your team?”
Thinking tendencies model
Walter designs a model that can help leaders to drive their best results. There are two types of people in life: thermometer or thermostats. This means either leaders change or stay constant.
Leaders can be in 5 types of mindset.
Past negative thinking
Future negative thinking
Past positive thinking
Future positive thinking
Flow
When leaders are in past negative thinking, they feel regret. Leaders will focus on what they do wrong and this will deflate their energy. When leaders are in future negative thinking, they feel doubt. Leaders will focus on what they do not want and this will paralyze the energy. When leaders are in past positive thinking, they feel proud. Leaders will focus on what they do right and this will regenerate the energy. When leaders are in future positive thinking, they feel motivated. Leaders will focus on what they want and this will activate the energy.
What leaders focus on in their mind will tend to show up in reality. If leaders think negative, they will encounter negative in reality. Leaders need to establish their mind shift to grow. Leaders will look at what they want instead what they do not want. This will also help leaders to visualize their vision.
Leaders will focus on opportunity instead of fear. They will find ways to inspire others instead just motivate others. They will prepare to win instead of loss before they start.
The shift is the key. Walter shares in average, it will take 5 positive to balance 1 negative. In relationship, it will take 5 to 1 to hold the line.
The last mindset is flow. Flow is the balance between the other 4 types of mindset. With the right amount of challenge and the right amount of skills, leaders will be in the flow.
“Under pressure, you do not rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your awareness”
Hero’s qualities
Walter indicates many leaders have their own heroes. When leaders can identify their heroes’ qualities that they respect, admire or impact in their lives, These qualities usually are the reflection of leaders’ personal qualities.
Leaders cannot love other people unless they are identified the love quality from their heroes. If leaders can identify their qualities, they can grow their businesses on it.
“The number one way to get people above the line is to get them point to the best”
As business grows, many entrepreneurs are caught in the hamster wheel and they cannot get off. Moreover, they are looking for ways to increase productivity and reduce workload. Dan Lok, the Founder of Vancouver Entrepreneur Group, will share his strategy to turn entrepreneurs’ business lives to be more productive. In addition, entrepreneurs will discover their limitation and Dan Lok will help them break those limitation beliefs. The strategies Dan Lok provide will benefit many entrepreneurs in their journey of success.
Dan Lok believes all entrepreneurs must go through the stages of the success cycle. It starts with attraction, retention, optimization, systemization, delegation, automation and then expansion. The first 3 stages will determine how business can maximize the values for entrepreneurs’ clients. In this presentation, Dan Lok will focus on the delegation stage.
Dan Lok shares a story of a successful business entrepreneur who are exhausted with the business. Lok provided a vacation advice to the entrepreneur and the entrepreneur was freaked out with the suggestion because the entrepreneur believes it is important for him to be present in the business. Without any doubt, the entrepreneur took the advice. After the vacation, the entrepreneur felt the business will collapse without him. However, the business got better.
Lok believes entrepreneurs are the ones who are choking their businesses to death.
The objectives for entrepreneurs are to create values, look for opportunities and focus on what they are good at. Entrepreneurs cannot maximize their values if they are in stress.
“Less control is more control”
Lok defines a business as a commercial profitable enterprise that works without the owner. Moreover, Lok defines an entrepreneur asa person with a vision who orchestrates other people’s time, talents, and money to make their vision real. In other words, entrepreneurs act as the coordinator in business. Entrepreneurs need to communicate their vision. Lok emphasizes earning money is not a vision. Vision should be precise and quantified. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to find a way to measure their vision.
Business is a team sport and business is competitive. Entrepreneurs should always open up and receive help from anyone they can.
“If you are the smartest person in your team, your business is in trouble”
Many entrepreneurs have a to-do list. However, as business grows, entrepreneurs will involve with other people’s to-do list, and their lists will get smaller and smaller. Lok suggests entrepreneurs to focus only 5 primary tasks per day. Many entrepreneurs will find other things to do after they complete the list. Furthermore, Lok believes that is a bad habit. Instead, entrepreneurs should set a time to think about their business. They need to let their minds go blank. When they are in the relaxation mode, they will discover ideas come when they are in peace. Lok mentions he will take an hour a day to think and talk to himself about business.
Lok shares 4 questions entrepreneurs should ask themselves before doing anything.
Can it be done cheaper?
Can it be done faster?
Can it b done better?
Can it be done by someone who like it better?
“As a leader, your job is not to do the job, but to make sure the job gets done”
“Your time, knowledge, and energy are your most valuable commodities”
“Everything in business is replaceable, but time is not”
Lok believes there is a question all entrepreneurs should ask themselves every single day. The question is how do they protect their time, energy and money so they are only spending them on things that will make them close to their goals.
Many entrepreneurs are not charging enough to their clients because they have doubt on themselves. Lok indicates it is important to charge others the amount more then they can provide. The charge should be as much as the market can play. This shows seriousness and entrepreneurs are more likely to get the result faster.
How much the time is worth?
Lok provides a simple calculation formula for entrepreneurs to figure out what their time is worth. Entrepreneurs need to forecast the total amount of income they want to earn per year. If entrepreneurs work 220 days per year and 8 hours per day, there will be 1760 hours per year. By taking the total forecast and divided by 1760 hours per year, entrepreneurs will discover the magic number. However, Lok mentions entrepreneurs need factor their productive time, so by taking the magic number and multiple by 3 will be the final magic number.
The magic number shows how much entrepreneurs is worth per hour. Every hour entrepreneurs do unproductive activities or tasks, they will lose that magic number. If entrepreneurs are not working, they are not meeting that number. Therefore, Lok wants entrepreneurs to always think about the return on time invested (ROTI).
Lok believes if entrepreneurs do not know how much their time is worth and what it needs to be worth, they cannot make effective decision or what activities they should be spending their time on and what activities they should have others do for them. Examples of non-productive time tasks are talking to friends surfing on internet, checking email, or organizing desks; nevertheless, examples of productive time tasks are creating products, closing sales, marketing products, managing money-making projects, setting up joint venture deals, and create system.
In average, if entrepreneurs can be productive for at least 1/3 of the day, they are considered as good productive. In business, there is only 2-3 critical success events that will make business successful. It is essential to ensure entrepreneurs are focusing on those events.
Many entrepreneurs are lacking of self-esteem and they are avoiding the productive tasks. Lok believes if the “why” is strong enough, they will discover a way to work around the tasks they need to get it done.
Traditionally, many entrepreneurs do everything on their own because they are taught to believe delegate means lazy. However, Lok wants entrepreneurs to only delicate and master 5 things that they are good at and delegate everything else to other people.
What exactly is delegation?
Lok defines delegation is asking another to do all or part of a task they wish to complete. However, delegation does not mean to give away the responsibility. Entrepreneurs should always be in charge.
The purpose of delegation is to ensure entrepreneurs can be themselves to do things they love to do. The benefit of delegation can help entrepreneurs to enjoy life, do less things they do not like, stay away procrastination, and have more freedom. When entrepreneurs delegate their tasks out to people, these people can benefit from enjoying the tasks, get paid for, learn the experience and expose to different interests.
Lok mentions if entrepreneurs think it is a trouble or bothering others when they ask others for help, they are robbing their opportunity of satisfaction.
There is a misconception from entrepreneurs that people can only delegate when they are rich. However, it is the opposite. Entrepreneurs have to delegate to get rich. It is important to start the habit of delegation early.
Many entrepreneurs do not like delegation because they think they can do it better by themselves. In addition, they do not trust other people to do their tasks. Lok believes these are just mental belief and they can be change.
Entrepreneurs can delegate many things. These include responding to email, receiving phone calls, responding to customer service, scheduling appointments, data entry, bookkeeping, graphic design, programming, website design, tracking expense and paperwork. The list can go on. However, what holds back from entrepreneurs to delegate is the fear of losing control. They are afraid of asking someone because they are fear of rejection and fear of being thought of as inadequate.
Hiring others can be a skill for entrepreneurs. Lok wants entrepreneurs to know that many people will treat entrepreneurs as paycheques, and only true friends will work for free.
Lok shares many ways to delegate for free
Barter the services
Ask friends or family members
Ask an employee
Ask someone who already works for them
Sometimes paying is actually cost less than doing it by themselves
What is a rugged individualist?
Many entrepreneurs think they are on their own and they need to do everything by themselves. Lok demonstrates a chart that shows most companies will hit glass ceiling when their business are grown to certain size. Most companies will fail when entrepreneurs are burnout from trying to exceed the ceiling. Lok believes the skill that makes entrepreneurs successful is exactly the thing that holds the back from being successful.
It is difficult for entrepreneurs to let go their mind because they witness their success from their skills. However, when business are at plateau, they need to talk to other entrepreneurs’ perspective to gain insight. Lok suggests entrepreneurs not to be rugged individualists.
There are six levels of abilities: brilliant, great, good, average, bad, and terrible. When entrepreneurs discover their top 3 brilliant abilities, they need to find ways to master and upgrade those abilities. When entrepreneurs discover their terrible abilities, they need to delegate those out. At first, they need to delegate only the terrible abilities. They need to learn the lessons of delegating with their terrible abilities. By working their way up to the next level, they will earn the right to delegate higher tasks.
“if you spend your life working on your weakness, your life will fail with many weaknesses”
To discover the strength, people around the world will tell entrepreneurs.
Lok recommends entrepreneurs to delegate as much as they want. The question they should ask is what is stopping them from getting the task complete. Even if the task is small, but little tasks can add up. Entrepreneurs can retain people who are already brilliant at the tasks. By retaining these people, entrepreneurs will earn responsibility, leadership and relationship.
Lok shares many ways to find the right people for delegation.
Mentors
workaholic4hire.com
elance.com
99designs.com
guru.com
fiverr.com
freelancer.com
Lok designs a 4 step system to find the right people. The first step is to check their references and feedback. The second step is to have a big task and break it into smaller tasks. The third step is to be very specific in the job description. Lok suggests entrepreneurs to have this phase in the job description “This job should be easy for you if you know what you are doing”. This phase will filter out many unqualified candidates. Moreover, the last step is to use the private message to communicate their qualification. Remember to ask many questions.
The difference between out-tasking and outsourcing is that out-tasking is only for try out and one time only. However, outsourcing is to create long term business relationship.
The 8 rules of effective delegation
Lok discovers 8 rules that will help entrepreneurs to make delegation successful.
Rule #1: Clarify the task in your mind.
Rule #2: Delegate to the right person with the right brilliant ability
Rule #3: Always have a deadline that should be challenging but also realistic
Rule #4: Communicate orally and in writing the plan in action
Rule #5: Ask pop to provide progress reports
Rule #6: Be sure to delegate the authority along with responsibility
Rule #7: Give praise and feedback at the end of the project and additional responsibilities
Rule #8: Do not be a perfectionist
“People do not do what you expect, they do what you inspect with respect”
“It is about progress, not perfection”
7 effective tools for managing a virtual team
Lok provides top 7 tools for entrepreneurs to use to managing their team.
yammer.com
hubstaff.com
basecamp.com
skype.com
dropbox.com
googleapps.com
techsmith.com/jing.html
It is difficult to keep good people in the team. Lok shares 3 secrets that will help entrepreneurs to keep good people in their companies.
Name: Local Leaders – Turning a simple, local concept into a serious business
Presenter: Andrew Shepherd
Many local leaders start their entrepreneurial journey from a simple idea. Furthermore, with enough executions, they turn their ideas into profitable business. Local Leaders event, hosted by Small business BC, invites Andrew Shepherd, the CEO of Vancouver Island Salt Co, to share his journey of building his company from scratch. In this presentation, leaders will learn the challenges and strategies from Andrew Shepherd and apply them into their businesses. Moreover, Andrew Shepherd will discuss the motive behind his business.
Andrew Shepherd, the CEO of Vancouver Island Salt co, came from the background of culinary arts. With over many years of working in the kitchen, Shepherd established the passion toward gourmet retail products. Based on rare bet for a case of beer, Shepherd discovered the sea salt from Vancouver Island. Shepherd was awarded as one of the Western Living Magazine’s Top Forty Foodies Under 40, Canada’s Top 20 Food Artisans, and 2014 Winner of the Telus and The Globe and Mail’s Small Business Challenge.
Shepherd mentions within the 6 years of business, he focused 5 years on sustainability. There is a huge demand market that wants the sea salt. Shepherd starts his business from a simple concept of boiling water. By continuously boiling water, he managed to discover a system to process sea salt with efficient procedure. Shepherd considers himself as the expert of sea salt.
Canada is a country with clean water. Shepherd believes Canada has the prime position to make sea salt. The opportunity can potentially turn Canada into sea salt nation. Shepherd shares it is important to build the industry because it can create opportunity for people. When they begin to see the trend, they will become the innovator to evolve a simple idea into an amazing business.
It is important to differentiate from locals. Shepherd believes his company value comes from delivering high value of sea salt globally. The growth is unlimited.
Shepherd suggests local leaders to be the first, be the best, be the fast, and be different. Leaders should review their current services and try to discover ways to be different from their competitors.
“Be the first, be the best, be the best, be the fastest and be different”
Many people think they need business plan to start a business, but Shepherd started his business without a business plan because he did not have the chance to do it and he was forced into it. Shepherd recommends leaders to think simple. Business does not need to be fancy. At the start-up phase, business should only be simple and focus. The primary mission is to bring people who are interested into business. Everything can be self-taught from experience. Overall, Shepherd shares his 3 simple strategies.
Start small
Go beyond and change the market
Expand
The important concept in Shepherd’s business is to set a strong price point. Shepherd believes it is important to keep it affordable for locals. This will narrow the economy of scale. Vancouver Island Company starts at a small percentage of the market, but with enough execution and actions, the company is able to sustain growth for future.
The advice Shepherd wants leaders to learn to be patient because business eventually will grow.
Shepherd mentions in his business, it is important to have FDA approval. The paperwork is required for going global because other countries only recognize approval and qualification.
Many major cities have gourmet stores except for Canada. Canada is missing out the opportunity. Shepherd believes salt is the next global impact. Moreover, Shepherd only focus on the quality of the sea salt. In his vision, the quality will help the company to rebrand for competitors advantage.
Shepherd spends a huge amount of time to know the clients. He discovers people are starting to care about health in this generation. Originally, Shepherd only focuses the target market from end users; however, it will miss out the business relationship. Therefore, he refocuses the primary market to wholesale or distributors.
There is a trend for local leaders to implement environmental aspects into their business strategies. Shepherd emphasizes the only way to do that is to allow government to subsidize the green. This will help reduce the price and help everyone to save the environment.
Shepherd has won the Telus and The Globe and Mail challenge award. He shares it is important to show a clear vision. The strategies must relate to local community. It is not necessary to project the future if the company is going to burst. By telling a good story, leaders will leverage their ways to enter the challenge.
In order to have the clean water, leaders can test the water sample. The conclusion shows the best water comes only in peak tide.
Shepherd believes the local community supports him all the way. With farming background, Shepherd mentions people do not make, they harvest. It is difficult to discover the right talent. The work from Vancouver Island is not normal.
Over sea discovery is one of the best way to improve the culture. Shepherd believes on day he will bring from Canada to Hong Kong.
“If your product is good, people will not ask money at front”
Name: The Morning Leader – Achieving team success on the field or in the office
Presenters: Janet Austin, Donna Wilson, and Jim Murphy
Leaders need the ability to strategize their winning team. Moreover, leaders have the responsibility to effectively manage and address team collaboration and conflicts. Women’s Leadership Circle invites Janet Austin, the Chair of YWCA, Jim Murphy, Donna Wilson, the Senior Vice President of LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services, and Jim Murphy, the former professional baseball player and olympic coach. The panelists will reveal their secret of success in team building. In addition, they will discuss their experience about the qualities and attributes of outstanding leaders should have.
Experience from Janet Austin
When Janet Austin starts her career in YWCA, there were only a few women leaders at the board. She understands the team culture and the diversity of programs are the key to success in the business. The organization has over 410 employees and serves over 41,000 clients. Austin has the vision to achieve women’s equality and make a difference in the business world.
YWCA has conducted an employee satisfaction survey to help the organization understand their culture values. Austin shares the intentional values of YWCA include effective communication, respect, learn form mistake, celebrate success, commitment to improve, and willingness to deal with conflict. YWCA has provided the cultural environment of workspace for employees, such as clearly defined goals, empowerment, creativity, adaptable and development.
Austin believes YWCA commits a strong diversity message to the community. Employees and volunteers reflect the community’s direction. Moreover, the respectfulness of unique culture from individuals and solving problems with different perspectives are examples of the image of YWCA reflect on diversity.
Becoming a part of the community, Austin believes it is important to have social interaction, involvement, and a story. Austin describes leaders in any team require to connect individually. The life outside of work must balance. Advocacy for family is important for leaders and they must treat everyone fair and equal.
Leadership requires leader to share common vision of the future to the team. Leaders need to have role-model values. Moreover, self-awareness and mindfulness will help leaders to strive to success.
“Everyone sees themselves as leaders”
Experience from Donna Wilson
As the Senior Vice Present of LifeLabs, Donna Wilson believes building team must be intentional. The LifeLabs has grown over 300 employees since 2013 and the main vision remains as to analyze the health of individuals. Wilson shares the process that LifeLabs uses to cultivate their values and success.
Cultural Audit
Value vision and people strategy
Implement key cultural levers
With cultural audit, LIfeLabs ensures employees must have the ability to share purpose and collaboration. They must acquire personal accountability. Empower others and client focus will help them execute excellence in their work. Competitive and business focus drive their performance and result. Moreover, innovative and risk taking are supplement towards their vision.
The cultural audit captures caring, customer driven, agile and one team. Wilson believes people must care for communities to drive their standard to excellence. They must listen to customers’ expectation and create values for them. They will take advantage opportunities to act and embrace the change. By working together as one, Wilson emphasizes the trust and respect values for each individuals.
LifeLabs looks at the people strategy and come up with four major categories.
Build a high performance culture
Invest in employee experience
Attract, develop and retain talent
Build organizational strength
Wilson believes talent must align and support with the current culture. Experience can reflect the value as a whole team. Identify talent to recruit the necessary skills is important. Moreover, by investing the professional development to people, they will create long term recognition.
Wilson believes actions can make the difference. Actions can help people connect with the vision and values. Leaders can follow the right leadership model to create behaviour that can align with the values. Furthermore, leaders must focus on hiring process to screen for values that can potentially improve the organization.
Wilson indicates the two competencies behind people strategy are core and leadership. Core contains teamwork, job knowledge, solution focused, service driven and self-management. As for leadership, it contains building effective teams, business acumen, creative and strategic agility, quality decision making, and excellence with accountability.
“Actions require lead, align and intake”
Experience from Jim Murphy
Jim Murphy believes the philosophy of “material is you and the container is the culture”. With the sports industry experience, Murphy designs the matrix 3 world model that can help leaders understand their values in team.
In the matrix 3 world model, there are 3 kinds of world. The first world is the individual, the second world is how individual lives, and the last world is the life professional.
In the third world, people faces judgement of others. In the second world, people have control. Moreover, in the third world, people are experiencing their inner strength.
In leadership, the first world will allow leaders to identify they are leaders. The second world will acknowledge leaders that they are leading. The third world will describe the world of leadership.
In the world of leadership, leaders will face results, circumstances, goals, success and failures. Murphy believes leaders usually experience ego in this world. When leaders are leading, they are performing their tasks and making daily decisions. When leaders know they are leaders, they will find their inner character, heart, and freedom.
Many leader are trap in the third world. The goals, result, and process in mind will limit leaders’ beliefs. This will influence the way leaders will lead others. They will fear self-conscious, past, and future. Murphy believes the right way is to lead from the heart. Leaders must expand their vision and be fully present.
“Clarity live, feel and become”
Questions and Answers
When a team faces challenges, murphy believes the keys behind rebuilding a team are to redefine team vision, revisit the vision, and clarity the vision. Austin believes there are two kinds of conflicts. The first kind is when people think it is good to disagree ideas, and the second kind is they do not understand. It is important to deal with conflict immediately. Wilson believes conflict is good in right way. Leaders with leadership must ensure people are capable to deal with conflict.
Wilson indicates leaders understand who they are and how they lead. No one is perfect, but they must be aware the problem in front of them. Murphy wants leaders to connect and inspire with their hearts. Austin believes ego might mislead leadership, so they should admit if they are wrong.
“Men will ask promotion when they receive or fulfill 50%, yet girls are 100%”
The roles between men and women can create conflict in teams. Wilson believes in shift of balance. Leaders must learn from each other. Austin emphasizes social condition is everywhere, which means different standard expectation. In any team, leaders must share. With a little change can make a big difference.
Wilson suggests leaders to see the underline bias, identify the assumption and show where they belong. Austin suggests leaders to occupy their space with no hesitance. Leaders should always promote themselves and learn to take credits.
Austin believes there is no difference between leaders and their mentors except a couple of years of experience. Leaders should always believe they have the capability to lead. Murphy believes there is sunshine over every thunder storm. Wilson believes leaders should always watching and always learning. It is important to be intentional of any decision leader make for their leadership. The interests can help leaders to shape their image. Therefore, always be disciple and bold.
Presenters: Michael Muscari, Darren Jacklin, and Brock Tully
Leaders need to pursuit their purposes to be truly successful. Without the pursuit of purpose, leaders will not be able to fulfil the journey of success. ManTalks invites three different generation leaders to share their milestones. The purpose of this presentation is to help young leaders to gain clarity to their inner purpose and contribution. The insight from each leader will allow leaders in the audience to uncover what they need to fulfil their purpose of life.
Connor Beaton, the Founder of ManTalks, believes there are two generalization of purposes. The first one is intellectual thinking. In this stage, leaders will doubt their ability of thinking “Do I think I can?”. The second one is road block, which leaders will doubt their confidence of thinking “Do I deserve this?”.
Beaton shares the fundamental purpose requires to answer those two questions. Leaders need to find the space to answer those two questions.
“Intersection of being and doing is the purpose”
Journey of Michael Muscari
Michael Muscari is the owner of NanoNutra, a company that focus on creating healthy supplements. Muscari focuses on freedom, health and harmony. With the passion of helping people gain knowledge in their health, Muscari believes he can influence people to become more positive. Moreover, Muscari is also to co-Founder of NeuroGrade.
Muscari shares that in his life in the corporate world, he has no clue of what his life is about. Muscari has a great family and his parents had provided him everything he needed in life when he was a child. However, he never did appreciate it.
Muscari worked hard in his life to achieve what he wanted. However, he never satisfied the life of working in corporate. He shifted his career to become an entrepreneur, but end up failing miserably. Muscari received tips from his mentor to set meaningful goals. A couple years later, he got everything but happiness. The depression forced him to lose everything and Muscari started to question himself what went wrong.
The book from Napoleon Hill helped him spark his purpose in life. He realized without a purpose, there is no meaning in life even he achieved all his goals.
“Purpose must be larger than you”
Muscari starts seek information from personal development. He realizes leaders need ambition. Moreover, he understands his value comes from freedom, health, and financial freedom. His definition of financial freedom is to create value in his life and other people’s lives. He discovers he loves speaking, which motivates him to help solve other people’s problems.
Love is a big priority in Muscari’s life. He emphasizes there are two ways in life: the decision of fear and the decision of love. The purpose will help him to love the best he can from his conscious. Instead of fear, he choose to transfer to love.
Muscari believes there are two important steps that can fulfil his life. The first step is the experience of starting up his own supplement company that aligns with his purpose. The second step is to find harmony between the balance of work and marriage. Muscari made a hard decision of choosing to divorce his wife. He wants leaders to understand that life is like a compass. If leaders are being love, they are going north. If leaders are going south, it will change everything.
“I have a compass now, it is called purpose”
By defining his values, Muscari has found someone to fill his life. The purpose changes his life and he realizes purpose is a constant thing that requires trying, doing and retrying. Purpose makes him a better person and share the love with others around him. Moreover, purpose will motivate leaders to be the best they can be.
Journey of Darren Jacklin
Darren Jacklin is a motivational speaker that has the passion to mentor entrepreneurs and business owners. Jacklin travels to many different countries to help others strategize their business by turning passion into profits. His ability is recognized worldwide, and many media have capture his attention all over the world. Moreover, Jacklin involves many international boards of directors to continue his passion of helping people.
Talking used to be Darren Jacklin’s fear. In the age of 5, he encountered a family tragic issue that detached him away from society and had learning disability. In school, he was label as the one who will most likely not to be successful in life. Jacklin had many suicide attempts.
His father never encouraged him in his childhood, which creates the fear of not being good enough in life. Jacklin attempted many businesses, but they were all failures.
When Jacklin attended Dale’s seminar, he realized people are positive. He was not used to the environment, but it transformed his life. He started to build up his confidence and attend many toast master to improve his public speaking. He accepted many offers to speak in many institutions because he felt it was the opportunity to mentor someone. He volunteered to attend many places to do free seminar. Finally, he landed a contract from a fortune 500 company after at least 17 tries.
Jacklin has mentored many successful entrepreneurs. He believes success comes from many failures. In the life of entrepreneurship, people will call them crazy at first. Then they will call them lucky. Lastly, they will call them crocks.
“Either you come from a problem or heading towards a problem”
Jacklin suggests 7 important things entrepreneurs need to do to pursuit their purpose. The first thing is to create their lives as business. They need to focus and set a list of things they need to accomplish first.
The second thing is to have the attitude and gratitude every morning. The third thing is to write 20 goals every morning and every night to constantly remind themselves to work hard in their purpose. The fourth thing is to read books at least 10 pages a day.
“Instead of blame competition, just dominate the area”
The fifth thing is to ask questions. The sixth thing is to build network before entrepreneurs need them. The last thing is to understand the people who are living worst than them.
It is important to contribute to a great cause because it can set the misfortune free and make a difference. Jacklin emphasizes when entrepreneurs are stuck with something, they can go travel because travel can change their views. Many people are struggling in life, yet people should be grateful of living in a wonderful place in Canada.
Jacklin indicates if entrepreneurs attract new problems in their lives and cannot solve it, they need to go out of their comfort zone and find other groups to help solve the problems. Moreover, they will discover they are growing.
“Nothing is in your way, it is just on your way”
Jacklin wants entrepreneurs to know It is important not to make family as the excuse of their purpose; instead, they should make their purpose first and become the role model for their families.
“Become a go giver, not go taker”
Journey of Brock Tully
Brock Tully, the co-founder of Kindness Foundation, The World Kindness Concert, and Kindness Rocks, is the first person ever ride a bicycle around North America, Canada, and Mexico. Moreover, he publishes 9 books that helps people to reflect their purposes in life. In his spare time, he also coaches many sports teams and involves many different kind of careers.
Brock Tully believes it is hard to know the purpose, yet it is even harder to live with it. In 1970, Tully was one of the football athlete in UBC. However, he felt depress because no one really understand him. He started to ride bicycle to east coast, south Florida, Mississippi, and Mexico. He learned he is not the only one who are going through the same issue. After learning from many people, he decided to write books to express his feeling and reflect his experience to help others.
Tully reflects his life purpose, and he discovers goal to trophy is not the thing for him. Instead, he drives the goal to be happy. Tully describes many people put others down because they feel depress. They are showing they are looking for care. He summarizes his purpose to be the following statement.
“What is the best the heart of good of all?”
In Tully’s family, he was raised to never show love in action. His father is proud of him, but never ever say it out loud.Their way is to express by money, but Tully wants to change that.
During his bike ride, he received many moments of giving. He felt every moment touch his heart. Tully shares another moment at a grocery store. He met a 90 year old woman and said to her she looks beautiful. The woman could not believe he was talking to her. Tully walked her home and later realized her trip to grocery store is the only activity she planned for that day. Furthermore, he realized she dressed up for that day.
Tully believes many people do not share their kindness to each other anymore. He spends time at East downtown to understand the people. Tully wants entrepreneurs to know joy comes from the love of things they do. By following their heart, they can follow their dream. Happiness is not by how many challenge people have, it is how many challenges are handled.
People do not find purpose, they remember the purpose. Moreover, people need to reach out to people as of it is their last day.
Questions and Answers
The panelist shares their purpose statement. Tully believes it is important to just be at present. Jacklin believes it is important to conscious in planet. Muscari believes spread love. Beaton shares the quote that if entrepreneurs want to be billionaire, they need to solve problems for billion people.
To get back on the right path, Tully suggests entrepreneurs to look at signals. Jacklin suggests to discuss with advisory people and have private conversation with themselves by writing a journal. Muscari suggests to surround with good people. Instead of recommending books for entrepreneurs, Jacklin strong recommends entrepreneurs to focus from process to execution. Tully recommends entrepreneurs to give themselves enough credit and learn form failure.
People with inspiration ideas can lead and empower people around them. Moreover, people consider that as leadership. TEDxStanleyPark brings back many local inspirational leaders to discuss their powerful ideas. The theme for this year is to take idea to action. Many entrepreneurs are lacking focus to create ideas into action; nevertheless, this event will create powerful impact to motivate local leaders to start their action plans. Roger Killen, the producer of TEDxStanleyPark, believes this presentation will help many leaders to reach their ultimate goals in their careers.
“Taking ideas to action”
Thinking – is it a lost art?
Peter Legge, the CEO of Canada Wide Media Limited, shares one of his important transformation moments in his childhood memory. During a sports day at private school, he was forced to run a half mile race because his mother sponsored the trophy. He won the race for his parents and encouragement he received from his parents. Afterwords, he realized in order to win anything in life, people need to become participants first.
HIs mentor once said to him that successful people need to realize their runway of life. In their span of life, the history is only for learning because people cannot change the history; however, what matters the most is to develop the actions for the future.
The strongest secret is people become what they think about all the time. Therefore, leaders need to think about their visions, future, and any other important elements that can fulfill their future success all the time. When Legge’s father passed away, Legge would give anything for one more moment with his father. Legge understands in order to change anything in life, he needs to make different decision. Therefore, Legge encourages leaders to take action and start thinking about what they want to be in life.
Yes, we can reduce violence against women
Rumana Monzure, the Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations, believes violence against women can take many forms. The violence happens every moment. Monzure shares the stats of violence happen to various of countries.
21% America
29% Europe
33% Caribbean
40% Africa
Many violence comes from with their intimate partners and unreported.
Monzure shares the incident of her life that changes her life forever. Monzure grew up believing there are different rules for men and women. She was abused by her husband. The only good thing happened in her marriage was her daughter. Monzure needed to build her own identity and started to find her balance. She managed to bring her daughter to Vancouver and got a divorce to end her miserable marriage. However, her husband abused her and caused her the lost of her vision. She never saw her daughter ever again.
When she realized the damage is permanent, she needed to do things different. With the help of her friends, she was willing to try her life once again.
Monzure will not let others to take her control. She believes happiness is a chemical reaction in her head. She questions herself why she survive the incident; perhaps, she needs to become the voice of all innocent women around the world.
Monzure trusts in humanity, which gives her the love form friends and family. The motivation is her desire to live in meaningful life. By raising the issue of violence in women, and believing her inner power to fight the violence, there is no culture will advocate the justice.
“Loss sight, but gain vision”
Fixing the childhood obesity epidemic
Matt Young, the Founder of Innovative Fitness, feels the childhood obesity has become an urgent issue in the society. Children with obesity suffer mental challenges and low self-esteem. Young introduces the Physical Literacy concept to fix the issue. The concept has helped over thousands of people to be more physical active.
Physical Literacy requires three elements:
Develop
Measure
Promote
Young mentions there are five lenses of opportunity to promote the Physical Literacy concept and help fix childhood obesity. The first opportunity comes from the screen time. The average children will spend 7.4 hours a day in front of the screen. The second opportunity comes from specialization. Many schools are designed not to switch up actives to interact children’s physical activities. The third opportunity is the PE teachers. School board qualifies many people who do not have the right education for children. The forth opportunity is the PE cuts. Schools are cutting away the PE time from children. The last opportunity is the fear. Parents are overprotecting their children due to fear of them getting hurt.
Young believes there are 3 areas to promote the concept to the society. The first place is the household. Parents can reduce the daily intake of the sugar level. Also, parents should allow their children to learn from failure. The second place is school. Teachers are afraid to tell others that they are unhealthy. They need to be emerging, developing, acquired and accomplished. The last place is the society. Leaders need to create addictions on demands of high quality food. Young suggests leaders to be accountable to the future of children’s health.
The risk of distracted driving
Brad Gorski, a local resident in Vancouver, shares the event of distracting driving changes his life forever. The distracting driving is the number one cause of death in the world. Before the incident, Gorski believes he mastered the art of distracting driving. Until one day he blew through the red light and crashed by a semi truck 5 minutes away from home. Gorski went into coma and thought he would never wake up. The miracle happened and he woke up from the coma, but the cause of that incident took away his ability to walk.
Gorski was unable to perform the primary tasks, such as sit, walk, talk and eat. With the amazing support form family, he worked his way back to normal with physiotherapy. After 7 months, he walked out of the hospital.
His life changed from that moment. Everything happens for a reason. Gorski hopes his story can provide a warning signal for leaders. Everything can change by a snap of the fingers. Gorski believes life tops everything.
“Nothing is more important than your life”
Masturbation Myths
Teesha Morgan, the sex therapist and the Co-Founder the Westland Academy of Clinical Sex Therapy, believes the society need to change the thinking of the word masturbation. Many people are still tied up with the traditional concept of thinking masturbation is sin to the society. However, there are many false facts about masturbation in the society that are creating the wrong message to the future generation. Currently, there is a still a pattern of women still feel ashamed for self-pleasure and men reply on masturbation for relieve stress.
It is a fiction to say women who love to use vibrator will cause less orgasm; in fact, it will increase more orgasm for women. People who are in relationship will have more masturbation than singles. It is false to say clitoris only a small area; in fact, research shows it differs. Early kids in this generation are encountering more and more sex education. It is false to say too much masturbation will lead to health problem; nevertheless, it should decrease stress. It is true to say masturbation will affect physical activity unless people exhausted from masturbation. It is false to say masturbation will cause premature ejaculation; in fact Morgan believes masturbation should treat like practice for love. Morgan indicates people should make practice and love similar.
The perspective in the society today still feels negativity from the word of masturbation. Society is creating the wrong message with the wrong information to newer generation. Morgan wantspeople to be leaders. A leader that should be more positive and change the misconception from the society for the future.
The cultural taboos of suicide and mental illness
John Nieuwenburg, the award winning business coach from W5 Coaching, shares his depressed moment of attempting suicide. During the suicide moment, Nieuwenburg felt bad to be alive and no energy to try again. Nevertheless, he was suffering a mental illness.
Suicide is caused by mental illness and it can be a public threat. People need to reframe the word suicide. Based on the stats of the cause of death in 2013, heart disease ranks the highest and suicide ranks the lowest. However, there are more than 40,000 people suicide and 16,000 homicide in a year. Nieuwenburg mentions suicide can cost the society over 1 million dollars, and only 6 to 32 survivors.
“1 murder, 3 suicide, and 75 attempts”
Nieuwenburg emphasizes people with mental illness of depression believe suicide is the only solution. Depression can cause people to feel narrow like a tunnel. Nieuwenburg receives many unconditional love from family after the attempt and never though the love is available.
People will face dilemma, where people need to choose between two tragic options. If people feel trap, it makes sense to believe suicide is the most preferable option. There are many misconception about the word suicide in the society. Suicide is not an act of coward, it is not selfish, and it is not cry for help. The mental illness forces the option and people need to be aware of it. Many people put mental illness as the least priority; however, people with depression usually do not show it. Nieuwenburg indicates at least 1/4 of people have the problem of mental illness.
Many people do not go for treatment of mental illness. Leaders in the world should take charge and change the language, educate others, and communicate out loud. Leaders can reframe it.
“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?”
Beekeeping – a challenged profession
Marta Guarna, the PHD scientist working on translational research in honey bee, believes bees are important phase in the society. Bees coordinate many food people eat, but recently beekeepers are aware of low beehives. With the decrease of bees, the whole economic system will be affected.
Guarna is fascinated how bees is contributing to the society. There are 3 types of beekeepers: honey, raise hives, and raise bees. Plants have pollen sperm, and they need bees to move from one to another to plant ovary. Bees help plants’s sex procedure and it takes a lot of patient from moving one to another. In one carnal, there are at least 500 bee hives and over 1 million bees.
People in the society are not appreciated bees. Bee pollination is important, especially for US economy. Farmers can provide seeds to bees to improve poor nutrition. Bees can create natural defence to avoid pathogen and parasites. Beekeepers want to get away from pesticides.
Guarna believes bees are struggling to increase their population because of habitat loss,pesticides use and overwhelm with diseases. Leaders need to balance the economic condition and help beekeepers to create solution to help the future.
Discipline or regret – a father’s decision
David Knapp-Fisher is a father, a husband, and a writer. Knapp-Fisher believes people choose regret but not to discipline. At the end of life, regret usually appears. This happens because people tend to move things to their bucket list and escape the reality in any circumstances.
Knapp-Fisher believes everyone must choose one of two pains in life.
The pain of discipline
The pain of regret
Knapp-Fisher shares his life experience. When he was young, he had the dream of return to Europe one more time. When his marriage failed, he thought he lost the opportunity to go with his son to Europe. His son was diagnosis with muscle illness and it was determined that his son would never able to walk again in the future. Knapp-Fisher knew his job is to give the best to his son, he focused on what he could do, not things he could not do.
In his second marriage, he took his son with him and his wife to Mexico because he knew it might be his last trip. He was able to come up with 18,000 dollars to fund for the trip. His life changed when he discovered he was about to achieve his dream goal.
At Europe, Knapp-Fisher ensured no one will interfere the trip. During a small accident, the local doctor warned Knapp-Fisher that his son was very fragile. 2 weeks after the trip, his son was no longer able to walk. Knapp-Fisher believes if he did not seek the opportunity, the opportunity could be gone forever.
Knapp-Fisher took his son to New York. His son felt happy and fulfilled. His son was motivated from the action of his father and began to pursue his dream. He took the opportunity to work as broadcaster, graduate as high school valedictorian. Knapp-Fisher has no longer look at his son the same way because he did more things than any 40 years old people can do.
Knapp-Fisher is proud to be friend with his son.
4 lessons from Knapp-Fisher for leaders:
Every leader has challenges and every leader should embrace the challenge
Leaders should focus on what they can do
Do whatever it takes to achieve the goal. A tiny disicpline will lead to big reward in future
Leaders should never procrastinate
“When time is there, I choose discipline”
We are citizens first
Daphne Bramham, the Vancouver-based Journalist from Vancouver Sun, believes the society is replacing the true meaning of the word citizenship. Bramham’s family left the Black Sea to a place of freedom. Nonetheless, the place never allowed them to be citizen. They began to travel north and eventually end up in Canada. They build home and become the citizen of Canada to help Canada become a better country.
Bramham believes the society is now looking at citizens as taxpayers. The word has power and the usage of the word citizen has become like taxpayer, which signifies the word corporate.
Bramham mentions there are people taking advantage of taxpayer and as a report, she sees many things garment do with tax money that are wasteful. The distrust in government increases and the voters will decrease. There are people want to deregulation and do not want to give up citizenship. In Egyptian, citizens want revolution and government is overthrown. In Hong Kong, citizens protest on streets to demand full right. In Paris, people are working for tourist attack. All the citizenships are sharing the freedom of speech and expression.
Canadians are lucky because most of the battles are fought by ancestors. If people are not getting what they want, they will demand it. There should not be any argument from citizenship and taxpayer. In Greece, the economic is bankrupt and citizenship lost the control from bankers. However, money is not the main thing. Once people have enough, it does not matter the rest.
Bramham believes social contact, engagement, good government and better employees will make citizens happy. Canada is the top 5 place that has highest tax rate, but Canada is considered to be the happiest place on earth. It is important to take out taxpayer from the word citizenship. Leaders need to work together.
“Good citizen equals happy, wealth, and leave legacy for the future”
Drones have much more potential
Homayoun Najjaran, the Associate Professor at University of British Columbia, believes drones can be a great technology, but it is going to be banned. General public must step forward t save drones.
In order to save drones, people need to ask what is the next thing, product, or applications after drone. People want to see drones to be licensed, just like driver. The society is leading towards a different view of technology.
20 years ago, drones were danger technology because no one was educated to understand the power of drones. Technology is much more mature now and there are research to advance drones beyond the current capability to help the economy. Najjaran believes drones has complete sensor to tell technology what to do. People must believe drones can be used to engage with people’s lives.
There are many new applications with the power of drones: 3D maps, monitor infrastructures, medical sample tests and more.
The society is still have 3 concerns with drones: privacy, security, and safety. These concerns are once raised when interest was introduced to the world. Now internet is a part of people’s lives, people are start to adapt internet. Drones are going to the same route as internet.
Najjaran wants leaders to think how drones can be convent to people’s lives.
“Drones have the potential to change the landscape of our life”
Death with dignity
Grace Pastine, the lawyer and the director for British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, believes people who are suffering from medical conditions have the right to choose their death. Human life is sacred and taking lives from someone is wrong in the society. However, Pastine questions the legal system that why family members cannot ask others to end their lives if they are suffering. The conclusion of the battle has a verdict and Canada has agreed to align the regulation to give people the opportunity to choose their paths.
Pastine shares one of her clients are suffering ALS. The suffering was painful for the client and the client is seeking help to end his life. The client did not see the result of the case and left with regret. Another client wanted a peaceful and not painful death, but during that year, it was against the law. British Columbia won on behalf of Pastine and the Supreme of Canada agrees to give the right to people for the choice; however, the client did not see the result.
Many places are still illegal or legislation pending. This is a global conversation and there are limiting people to access the law. Patine is proud to say now the law is change. It requires two doctors to exam patient to see if they are stable to make the mindful decision. If physician assists the death, the law of responsibility will no longer to the doctor.
Pastine mentions 3 principles: compassion, protection and respect. For compassion, when pain is unbearable, but suffer slowing to death. Government responses no one should suffer that kind of slow death. For protection, people who are suffering do not want to end up suffering the rest of their lives. They are afraid to become what will happen. By escaping, they choose death in their own ways. Government does not encourage people to do that, but now they have the choice. As for respect, people need to have the fundamental rights. Government recognizes people have the right to make decision. When patients know they have the choice, it gives them the peace of mind.
Pastine wants leaders to step up and contact law maker, go public, and join social media to make their voice heard.
“Supreme government gives citizen the right to die with dignity”
Integrity and the life of the planet
Zale Zeviar, the CEO of WhoZaGood Inc, believes integrity can change the world. Integrity brings human collaboration and allows the economy to balance. Integrity can mean differently in different people; however, the fundamental is the same. Quality of honest, and state of being whole and undivided are two main elements in integrity.
Zevair believes without integrity, there will be insanity. Integrity helps people to connect to each other. In early age, Zevair believed money is the only thing that connects him. This led him to chaos. He gave everything he had to corporate world and loss everything at the end. Zevair needed the time to rethink his actions. By retreating from society, he took the opportunity to try meditation. One of the missing pieces in his puzzle is to pay the moral debt. Finally, he saw the whole picture and believed it was a calling to bring integrity to the world.
Zevair understands integrity can tie human together in the society. It is the ecosystem within the ecosystem. Zevair shares people have both integrity cells and unhealthy cells. It is important to allow integrity overrun the unhealthy cells. When people are in pain, cells are responding and it becomes obsess with the unhealthy elements, which it leads to insanity. The mother nature is giving the signs and hints to human nature that earth is in pain. There are at least 5 plastic islands sailing across the ocean. The dumping of nuclear wastes is damaging the mother earth. The spiritual law indicates as long as people align with mother nature, they are safe.
Leaders should not focus just for the money because in the end, they will realize money cannot be eaten. Zevair wants leaders to understand the nature law and do the right thing.
The spirit of the village
Jacky Yenga, originally from Cameroon, Central Africa, believes isolation and disconnect can destroy life of happiness. Yenga was born in Africa and raised in a strong culture community. The opportunity came for Yenga to go to Paris for a better life, and her family and the community gave her the warmest good bye. She could not wait to meet the new community, but later realized the culture shock. In Yenga’s culture, friends become family, but she felt isolated in the new culture. The experience of trauma was giving her the pain and homesick. However, Yenga’s decision of being here was the opportunity to be in a better life.
“I am grateful, but it comes with a cost, the pain of isolation”
Yenga believes isolation should not be the measure of life. She shares 3 simple habits.
The first habit is to refine success. People are into material and abundance. Materialistic should not be the main. The foundation of life is to route everything together. The quality of life increases with singing and dancing.
The second habit is to do it together. People need to remember the important of collaboration. Yenga mentions one stick is fragile, but if many sticks are together, they are tough. Working together should be fun.
“To be without a friend is poor indeed”
The last habit is to live with wisdom. People need to have the knowledge and apply to appropriate matter. People become wise when they are out of money. Wisdom does not come over night, and it continues a small bit at a time. People go to school to learn knowledge, not wisdom.
“How wise are you?”
Yenga suggests leaders to change the 3 habits because it will increase the values of leaders’ lives.
When businesses are growing, many entrepreneurs will face the decision of buying or leasing commercial space. Moreover, there are many factors that influence the decision. Studiothink invites Todd Bohn, the Vice President of Commercial and Industrial Sales and Leasing at Frontline Real Estate Services, to discuss the variables they need to consider making buy or lease decision for their businesses. Todd Bohn will share his experience to help entrepreneurs to make strategic real estate decisions.
Todd Bohn believes for commercial real estate, entrepreneurs have three kinds of options: lease, purchase strata or purchase land. Some entrepreneurs cannot choose the right options for their businesses. Bohn will explain the top 5 mistakes business owners will make in buying or leasing decision.
Mistake #1: Decide they no longer want to pay rent
Lease can be flexible and has the option to change, but in the long run, lease options can be expensive for some businesses. Decision not to pay rent is not the primary decision to switch option. Bohn wants entrepreneurs to analyze their business direction and understand if lease is the best option that fits the business growth.
Mistake #2: Assume real estate will immediately increase in value
Bohn stats the overall real estate market has the average of 7% annual increase. However, the increase is not constant. Bohn believes entrepreneurs should not anticipate short term view; instead, they should look for long term investment. Entrepreneurs need to evaluate the current cycle, the timing, and the buyers in the market.
Mistake #3: Do not spend enough time evaluating staff and customer needs
Bohn suggests entrepreneurs to analyze the proximity, parking, the flow from people, driving time, commercial remedies and the quality of the building. As for parking, the average space is needed is 200 to 250 square feet per staff. Bohn indicates there are limited project for strata near Sky train station.
“Know where you are and where you are going”
Mistake #4: Do not spend enough time evaluating financial goals
Entrepreneurs need to analyze their business long term direction. They need to figure out their expected return and other financial goals. Bohn emphasizes the average up front cost for strata are at least $5,000. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to look at their cash flow and understand their timeline. As for leasing, the average is $25 to $30 square feet and it has less commitment. As for buying, it requires large amount of cash and commitment.
Bohn illustrate the difference between buy or lease in the table stated below.
Buy
Lease
Down Payment
10 – 20% of value
None
Collateral
Assets
Personal Guarantee
Tax
Deprecation
Up to 100% deductible
Mistake #5: Uneducated on market conditions
Bohn believes knowledge is power. 90% of information is stated on MLS, 30-40% will be on CLS and 60% will need to be research on their own. Entrepreneurs need to educate themselves the overall market, understand where the new constructions are planned, and where are the pre-sales. Bohn wants entrepreneurs to step back and understand the big picture before making any commercial estate decision.
Bohn recommends 3 decisive steps for entrepreneurs.
Step #1: Start with the 5 questions.
Entrepreneurs need to figure the answer of these 5 questions.
Where is the business at in 5, 10, and 20 years?
What are the financial goals?
Where should the cash spend?
What are the customers’ needs?
What are the employee’s needs?
Step #2: Identify the ideal location
Entrepreneurs need to analyze the exposure, square footage, zoning, accessibility, drivability, transit and amenities.
Step #3: Get educated on market conditions
Entrepreneurs need to analyze what is favorable and unfavorable in the current market today. Understand the trend and figure out if it is permissible for business to take advantage of the trend.
Bohn shares some additional information on market. As for office leasing, it is considered to be tenant market. RFP process will be on behalf of tenant. There are limited new construction and new projects for landlord. Based on the stats, there is high vacancy in Surrey and Langley. Developers are competitive for strong tenants.
As for office sale market, strata are still to be the viable option. There is limited number of qualified buyers and the cost of improving the space is not recovered or resale. Limited new construction is planned and the developers are waiting for key buyers to kick off a project. Moreover, the lease rate is over 5 years with monthly payment.
AS for developing land, the average price is 1.35 to 1.5 million dollars per acre. It is difficult to find land and those usually for long term purpose.
The journey of being a successful entrepreneur can be difficult. Moreover, many entrepreneurs are looking for ways to be inspired, informed and poised. BCBusiness invites two dragons from CBC’s Dragon’s Den, Arlene Dickinson and David Chilton, to share their success stories and experiences to help entrepreneurs. The moderator, Peter Legge, the CEO of Canada Wide Media Limited, will discuss with Dickinson and Chilton their ways to invest in the current market environment. This presentation will help entrepreneurs to look deep inside of their life of entrepreneurship.
Wisdom from Peter Legge
Peter Legge is the CEO of Canada Wide Media Limited. As a community leader, he involved many community organizations and elected as the past chair of the Vancouver Board of Trade. Legge is also a professional motivational speaker, and a professional author. Furthermore, his contributions to the community have won many awards and help many people to be more positive.
Legge wants entrepreneurs to think about the question of what they can do with their time and their talent. From the time entrepreneurs are born until now, they are considered to be the history. Since entrepreneurs cannot change the history, entrepreneurs should focus on the time from now to the future.
Legge believes the secret of being successful is to think successful all the time. By adding successful people into their lives can help entrepreneurs to be more productive. Legge mentions day is shorter by a day, and entrepreneurs must change the way they think and their thoughts.
“You become what exactly you think about most of the time”
Journey of Arlene Dickinson
Arlene Dickinson is the CEO of Venture Communications and the CEO of YouInc.com. Dickinson has helped many entrepreneurs to balance their lifestyle. As the author of two bestselling books, her leadership skill and experience have inspired many entrepreneurs. Moreover, Dickinson is recognized as Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100.
Arlene Dickinson shares she was born in South Africa and her family sold everything to immigrate to Canada. During her childhood, she moved from Montreal to Edmonton. Nevertheless, her family lived below the poverty line. During the move to Calgary, she learned the meaning of sacrifice when she witnessed her family trade in her mother’s engagement ring for a vehicle to continue their Calgary journey. This impacted her life.
Dickinson witnessed her parents’ arguments and understood the importance of listening. Dickinson believes listening connects with engagement, which can trigger emotional language. Therefore, listening skill leads to become effective leader.
Dickenson was surrounded by family with teachers. However, she did not want to attend university. Her life goal was to become a full time mom. She got married at had 4 children during the age of 27. Since she was struggle with finances, she needed to do everything by herself. When her husband decided to go back to university, Dickenson created a home-based business of helping business to collect bills from their outstanding clients. During that business, she learned there are two kinds of people in the world, the one has the attention to not pay the bill, and the one has the attention not to pay the bill.
Her home business helped her understand the goal of financial freedom. She defined financial freedom to be a way to take care of her family. Her marriage ended with a divorce and forced to find a stable job to get custody of her kids. At age 35, she finally burned out and crumbled. Her dad gave Dickenson the most important life lesson. The lesson was that it was her choice to be in this situation, not anybody else and it was her responsibility to figure out a way out. Luckily, she landed a sale’s job to learn the necessary sale experience. Later she managed to join Venture Communications to maintain her job for her kids’ custody. Dickenson worked hard and had the opportunity to buy off her partner and manage to sustain cash flow. CBC approached her for the role of Dragon’s Den.
“Luck starts when you start something”
Dickenson explained her audition will never happen if it was not for her kids. Her kids motivated her to take the audition opportunity. In fact, during the role, she learned from many entrepreneurs’ stories and experiences.
The show changed Dickenson’s journey. She managed to think different and look different. She is grateful to work with many different entrepreneurs across the country.
Dickenson mentions her experience of speaking in front of the troops at the army base in Canada. She was inspired with the general’s speech. The speech inspired many soldiers and helped soldiers understand that their contribution to Canada matters.
Dickenson is very grateful that her parents decided to move to Canada. Dickenson believes there is no reason that entrepreneurs cannot succeed. Dickenson wants entrepreneurs to love themselves and believe everything is possible.
Journey of David Chilton
David Chilton is a professional author and a professional investor. Chilton’s career begins after he published the book of “The Wealthy Barber”. The book inspired many entrepreneurs about his investment experience. Chilton accepted the cast of Dragon’s Den and begins to let the business world understand his awareness. Moreover, Chilton appears in many television shows, such as The Hour, Royal Canadian Air Farce, Arctic Air, and Murdoch Mysteries.
Chilton shares his career started in the age of 25. Chilton loves to read and continue to read at least 3 books per week. In addition, many people remember him as the character in his book.
Chilton mentions when his kid was in grade 1, he needs to figure what his dad does for living. Chilton defines if people are sick, doctor makes them feel better, and if people’s money is sick, he will cure it.
Chilton believes Dragon’s Den has high engagement with the community. He accepted the role after 6 years of making. CBC recommends him to be one of the casts, and Chilton does not know how big the show becomes until he got involved with the casts.
A funny moment on Dragon’s Den that Chilton mentions is the pitch of the baby seat on the exercise bike. Even though the idea was rejected, Chilton remembers the owner was the world’s best female arm wrestler. Chilton challenged her and dance on his victory. The show aired the dance and made him popular around the world.
Chilton believes the show stars to turn big after 3 years on television. Most of the investments on the show have negative return. Since the show tapes the whole day, sometimes the filming disconnects Chilton with the current business events. Chilton shares CBC will mix up the auditions, which sometimes on the show people will see them wearing the same clothes in some episodes.
Chilton feels lucky to be on Dragon’s Den. One of best pitches Chilton remembers is a couple that sells high end tea and cookies. The business has over 1.1 million dollar in revenue. The couple knows the margin and the detail. The couple has successfully pitched the business and with the help of the dragons, the business revenue has reached over 20 million dollars in revenue.
One of the fun pitches Chilton shares is 3 young engineers from Calgary quit their jobs and decide to become entrepreneurs of series of businesses. They decide to sell ugly Christmas sweater. Chilton believes the idea sounds weird and dumb, but they did their analysis. Chilton decides to invest for royalty and receive return in next 2 weeks.
Vancouver has many goo successful pitches and companies. Chilton mentions their ideas are simple and elegant. The important idea for business is to solve other people’s problems.
Chilton believes the best product requires due diligent. If the market believes in the product, they will request for more. A memorable pitch from Dragon’s Den is Mary’s greeting card business from Victoria. Dragons usually do not invest in greeting cards and board games, but Mary’s pitch is different. Mary has her bird as her assistant to help make the greeting card. Chilton decides to invest, but Mary has no due diligence to show. After working along with the CEO Hallmark for the distribution channel, Chilton receives great return and become close friend with Mary.
Chilton always have positive view. However, he realizes Canada’s national pastime activity is to complaint on everything. Comparing with other countries, Canada is a wonderful place. When everything is getting better in life, people still find things to complaint. Many people are taking things for grant. Chilton wants all entrepreneurs to understand that they should appreciate what they have right now and do not choose to argue the small irrelevant things over the big goal. Life cannot get better than this.
Questions and Answers
Their advice for young entrepreneurs is to not afraid of failure and keep trying until the end. It is important to read books to acquire other people’s experience. Dickinson believes when entrepreneurs are at their lowest, it will be difficult; however, if they keep trying, their minds will find a way out.
One of the biggest mistakes they made is balance. When they are busy on the show, they lost focus on their current business, which result of poor judgement. They suggest entrepreneurs to leave the past where it is and continue to charge forward.
Many people have the misconception of sacrifice happiness for financial freedom. Chilton believes many people are caught up with consumption. It is important not to be materialistic. Instead, find ways to contribute back to society.
“Do not just save 10%, give 10%”
They believe everyone has something to learn from. Their business experience can improve other people’s areas. Mentors can be in different field.
“The best mentors are the one sitting next to you”
They define the definition of success as to become the happiest person in life. Success is never about money and entrepreneurs should always be comfortable of who they really are.
“Liking the person in the mirror; I am who I want to be”
Name: The art & science of money making website for entrepreneurs
Presenter: Ali Tavanayan
With successful and effective websites, entrepreneurs can generate and expand their client base and awareness through internet market. Moreover, entrepreneurs must pay attention to their websites to maximize their customer conversation rates and online sales. Dan Lok, the Founder of Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group, invites Ali Tavanayan, the Founder of TEI Web Solutions inc, to discuss his success insights and secrets of creating powerful website to attract online customers. Entrepreneurs can learn the skills and tactics that are required to operate successful online store and understand the business model behind e-commerce sites.
Insight from Dan
Dan Lok strongly believes the purpose of a website is to contribute to the profitability of entrepreneur’s business. If website does not serve that purpose for entrepreneur, the website is considered to be ineffective. Entrepreneurs focus too much attention on personal design; however, Lok suggests entrepreneurs to learn the tool of Google Analytic to help determine if website is creating values for their clients.
Lok believes websites can be categorized into six types. The first type is authority site. Authority site uses deep content to connect with the voices in certain market. The second type is membership site. Membership site provides premium content for a monthly subscription. Lok indicates the idea behind the membership site is to build a community that connects audience with common goals and interest.
The third type is Niche Blog site. This type of website is to share blog information for a specific market niche. The fourth type is called Lead Generation site. Lead Generation site can direct entrepreneurs to potential sales and opportunities. This type of site requires user opt-in and fill-out forms to build relationship with audience. The fifth type is Personal Brand site. This is the kind of site where entrepreneurs can use to demonstrate their skills and abilities to differentiate from others. The last type is e-commerce site, which is to help entrepreneurs to build and expand their small business.
“Nothing is more than understand the market place”
Turn your site into a cash machine
Ali Tavanayan founded his company, TEI Web Solutions inc, in 2008. With over 12 professional web developers and designers, the team is creating values for local small business owners. Tavanayan has passion with website designs, and he has successfully founded Vancouver Joomla and Magento User Groups to help people understand the value of online platforms. In addition, Tavanayan connects small business owners to implement POS system with their online ecommerce stores. Currently, Tavanayan has helped over 45 different industries.
Tavanayan believes a killer website can kill the customer resistance for taking audience’s actions to go to next marketing. With the right marketing system, website will only use 1/7 of the effort to attract customers.
Tavanayan illustrates the car concept to demonstrate the importance of website building. Without driver and gas, a car will be functionless. This concept applies to the website. If a site has no administration and process to run the site, the site will be useless. Many entrepreneurs prefer to find quick solution by hiring the wrong website designers; however, the site will not be effective in the long run.
The style of any website consists of the right hosted platform, cloud, hosting, open source and mobile function. Many entrepreneurs focus too much on choosing the best platform, but Tavanayan suggests entrepreneurs to pick any platform that can provide the necessary outcome.
There are 3 major rules for creating effective site.
Clarity in purpose
Clarity in design
Clarity in navigation
Tavanayan emphasizes it takes only 5-7 seconds for customers to decide to stay on the website; otherwise, they will initiate the default action, which is to close the window browser. If the website has poor value proposition, which means customers do not understand the purpose of the website during that 5-7 seconds, they will leave immediately.
Clarity in purpose
Entrepreneurs need to understand the website’s target market. The website needs to lead them to the landing page and provide the necessary benefits. Website can use success stories, product features and testimonials to retain potential customers.
Tavanayan shares the top 8 mistakes for making website.
Mistake #1: Call to action
Sometimes entrepreneurs forget to include call to action in their websites. Tavanayan suggests entrepreneurs to use 80/20 rules to figure out the primary target audience by gender, age, education, wealth, and prize. Next, entrepreneurs will use 80/20 rules again on the remaining 20% to figure out the secondary target audience. Finally, entrepreneurs do it again to find the other audience.
Tavanayan suggests the website to use slider to market the website with call to action. The formula is stated as below:
Primary -> Secondary -> Primary -> Secondary -> Other
Mistake #2: Bad/low quality photos
Pictures can attract attentions. Entrepreneurs need to control the quality of the pictures from lighting, resolution, scaling, direction, materials, consistency and performance. Tavanayan wants entrepreneurs to think about their competition to determine whether or not if the information is sufficient enough.
Mistake #3: Ease of use
Customers do not like to insert or register too many similar platform systems. Therefore, Tavanayan wants all websites to integrate with popular or commonly use platforms for registrations to keep it simple and straight forward.
There are 7 ways to find the information on website. Tavanayan suggests website to fully use navigation, search, type, special offers, best sellers, products and bread crumble. Only use 5-7 items in the navigation list.
Mistake #4: Analytics
Entrepreneurs need to learn how to use the analytics and collect the data.
“Numbers never lie”
Entrepreneurs can compare the current content with the data to figure out strategies to increase traffic.
Mistake #5: Social proof
Publicity is important. Entrepreneurs must understand that traffic is the asset of any website. By scoring top google rank, publicity will increase. Moreover, the website can increase number of visitors and number of members as well.
Mistake #6: Marketing
Tavanayan shares several tactics to help entrepreneurs on online marketing. They can upsell related products to promote their website. Share recommendation of product information to help customers choose the right products. Provide newsletter, promotions, special offers, package, and gift cards to attract customers’ attention. Tavanayan believes entrepreneurs should fully utilize the landing page, and use A/B testing to figure out what is working on the website.
Mistake #7: Updates
Many entrepreneurs forget to audit themselves on the website. Tavanayan recommends entrepreneurs to monitor site speeds and site updates. They can review the site to check if there are any redundant slides. Moreover, understand the target audience trend, new content, product updates and shipping is important to keep the site on track.
Mistake #8: Standards
Entrepreneurs need to ensure the category and product listings are correct. They need to check if the product detail view is showing the right information. Update the terms and conditions, monitor the search result and create logos are ways entrepreneurs need to spend time on. Moreover, the website must look trustful and forms must work correctly.
Tavanayan believes many entrepreneurs are not implementing the right system in their website. Without the right system, the labor costs will increase and there will be duplicate efforts and human mistakes. Right integration is the solution to synchronize the data flow from different fields on the website to the right management system. Therefore, Tavanayan suggests entrepreneurs to spend time on their websites to maximize the result and outcome.
“The website that kills your customers’ resistance and sells your products”
Presenters: Igor Faletski, Juggy Sihota, and Tracey Renzullo
Innovation is one of the main elements for the success of young entrepreneurs; moreover, many organizations are looking for entrepreneurs who can lead innovation and engage their passion and creativity to help organizations improve. Company of Young Professionals invites the panelist, Igor Faletski, CEO of Mobify, Tracey Renzullo, the Marketing Faculty of BCIT, and Juggy Sihota, the Vice President of Customer Experience Strategy and Operations of TELUS Health. The moderator, April Yau, will discuss with the panelist of their career lessons and mistakes to help young entrepreneurs stand out from the noises in their industries.
Igor Faletski shares his startup journey starts in Vancouver. His company, Mobify, is a mobile shopping platform that helps many entrepreneurs to retail their products to their customers. Faletski believes it is important to ride on the big wave. Young entrepreneurs should identify if their careers have growth potential. They can start small, but it must be exciting and supporting future growth. Faletski believes young entrepreneurs should hire their friends who have the ability to work together because they already figure out their strengths and weaknesses.
Instead of staying in the same geographic region, Faletski believes young entrepreneurs should get into United States as quickly as possible. The export market is growing and young entrepreneurs should think internationally, not just next door. Young entrepreneurs must have a quick plan to profit. Faletski believes building a model that generates profit with the usage of technology can help young entrepreneurs to handle cash flow. Lastly, Faletski suggests young entrepreneurs to have determination for long term success.
Juggy Sihota is involved with one of the largest health division in British Columbia. TELUS creates the TELUS Health system to improve the local health care services in BC. The system will organize, secure, connect and share information with different health care services. Sihota believes there is a need to improve life of quality in BC citizen. The public sector is seeking support from private sector, and currently the system is used by over 300 thousand of Canadians, 14 thousands of physicians, 2.8 thousands of pharmacy and over 24 thousands of professionals. The system emphasizes the electronic medical record on the digital system, and the system is expanding and reaching to different industries.
There are 4 innovation components in the TELUS Health system: essential, mobile, easy, and monitor. The essential component is to schedule the basic patient information. The mobile component is to upload attachment and usage of satellite GPS. The easy component is to simplify the installation. The monitor component is to create monitor patients in their homes.
Tracey Renzullo believes the concept of life long learnings, and it is important to connect with the right people. Renzullo mentions the concept of self-innovation. Young entrepreneurs should build relationship with content. However, content will be overwhelming and young entrepreneurs need to have the ability to filter the relevant information. Renzullo believes it is important to pick the right passion. There is no way for young entrepreneurs to be expert in everything. Young entrepreneurs can learn the relevant information or skills from many online applications. Renzullo suggests young entrepreneurs to use applications that can customer the feed function to filter the right information, such as Google Alerts, Twitter lists, Swanyy, and Pulse. Renzullo also recommends young entrepreneurs to begin contribute to the community so they can get notice in the crowd.
“Stay young and be innovative”
Questions and Answers
All panelists share their biggest mistakes in their careers. Sihota mentions the fail launch of voice portal function to activate internet usage on cellphone. Faletski mentions the team is growing with the wrong members, and Renzullo mentions the restructure of Canadian sales that frustrates the customers.
Faletski believes the shift from desktop to mobile in marketing will be a trend in the next 5 years. Sihota believes many things are getting more portable and people are looking for ways to access information everywhere. Renzullo believes the industry will need to figure out the gap between systems.
Faletski indicates the biggest challenge is to keep the talent since the industries are changing every day. Sihota indicates young entrepreneurs need to discard the concept of looking for perfect solution. Instead, young entrepreneurs should try it first. Renzullo indicates there are still many organizations only invest in innovation when they need it; in fact, that will be too late. Sihota wants young entrepreneurs to help people understand about innovation and get the awareness from the community. Moreover, it is important to take small steps one by a time.
When Faletski works in a space that is exciting will help him generate his best innovation ideas. Sihota believes passion can lead young entrepreneurs their innovation ideas and Renzullo believes by staying connect with the right people, ideas will come eventually.
Name: Leadership, Culture and Growth: Strategies for driving bottom line results
Presenter: Brian Scudamore
Entrepreneurs need to find ways to build their own culture, their right people, and the right tools to sustain the best result of their companies. In addition, many entrepreneurs are searching for ways to utilize their resources effectively for maximum outcome. Local Leaders event, hosted by Small Business BC, invites Brian Scudamore, the Founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, to discuss his leadership journey from zero to the top. Entrepreneurs can find this event benefit with the information and guidance from Brian Scudamore.
Brian Scudamore is the CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. As one of the BC’s most successful entrepreneurs, Scudamore receives awards from The Globe & Mails’ Top 40 Under 40 and Fortune Magazine’s Small Business Best Bosses. Scudamore founded his company since 18 years old and successfully franchise his operation across Canada, US and Australia. His passion is in leadership pushes him to develop two more brands. Furthermore, Scudamore’s leadership skills drive many of his motivated staffs to the top.
Brian Scudamore shares during his early years, he dropped out 14 high schools from San Francisco to Vancouver. Even though Scudamore could not stay in school, he still has the passion of learning, especially learning from others. Moreover, Scudamore believes as a learner, it is important to keep asking questions. Scudamore emphasizes if there is rule, he will find a way to break them.
Scudamore believes there are three elements every entrepreneur needs to have to create their businesses: vision, people and system. Vision is considered to be the most essential because entrepreneurs need to know where their directions. Afterwards, they need to find the right people. Lastly, there must be process system to do things well.
Scudamore began his journey at the age of 18. He purchased a truck and implemented a basic business model of recycling. This basic business taught Scudamore the mission of vision. There was a time when Scudamore decided to sell his business to focus on school, but he declined because Scudamore learns more in business than school. By talking to the press, Scudamore had a rare opportunity to share journey to the world. His enthusiasm and passion expose his business on the front page of local newspaper.
In 1993, his dad wanted him to finish his college degree. Scudamore wanted to prove his dad he could do it; therefore, he managed to triple the current business operation. In 1994, he successfully reached half million revenue in his business, but he realized he has the wrong people. After he lay off all employees, Scudamore took the full responsibility. He believed it is important to find the right people and treat them right.
“If people are not fit, it is hard to continue”
In 1995, Scudamore build the business like a franchise. The year after, he managed to reach 1 million dollar revenue in his business. His business is qualified in Young Entrepreneur Organization. In the organization, Scudamore learned many valuable lessons, tactic and strategies to expand his business vision. Moreover, Scudamore created a program called “Mental Business Advisor” to mentor young entrepreneurs to growth their business.
In 1999, He felt unsatisfied with his business and started to question his own leadership ability when he discovered the people around him are building more success than him. He later discovered his new vision and saw the new possibility. Scudamore shared his vision to people and work with them to make it happen.
“Crazy ideas will only be great idea if you stick with it”
In 1998, Scudamore reached out for mentors. He took all the business rejections and tried to find ways to solve them. In addition, he redesigned his logo and obtained the ownership of the phone number of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
In 1999, Scudamore found his first partner. Scudamore believed by sharing the great vision to great people, they will come and help. In fact, his partner successfully expanded the business in Toronto.
“People will follow the first leader”
In 2002, people were seeking franchise opportunity from Scudamore. By using the power of PR, Scudamore managed to achieve the goal of franchising 30 locations in 30 different cities. 2004 was a celebration year for Scudamore and Scudamore will continue support people and focus to take his great company to even better.
Scudamore believes by treating people right, he should not just look at the finance. Instead, he should look at the people side as well. Therefore, he changes employee vacation from 3 weeks to 5 weeks.
In 2005, he made one of the hardest decisions in his business life, which is to fire his best friend. Scudamore suggests entrepreneurs to divide the page into half. One side shows what entrepreneurs are good at and the other side shows what they are weak at. Next, entrepreneurs need to find people who have the ability to complete the weak side of the list.
“I love what I do, and I make the ordinary thing to exceptional”
Questions and answers
Scudamore mentions the most important moments from his mentors are that they give him confident and inspiration to continue his vision. Scudamore believes intrapreneurship is important. He loves to see people grow and show how great they can be. In his business, he lets his employee to feel they are working in the best business in the industry.
A great mentor will introduce other mentors when they are not able to answer the question. It is important to keep in contact with them. Scudamore recommends entrepreneurs to ask because people are willing to help. Scudamore will invite his competitors to events to learn from them.
Technology plays a huge role in his business. It systemizes the operations. Scudamore encourages his employees to take the business model and expand it to other businesses because this shows they are doing it right.
Force, faith and effort are the three words that Scudamore goes by. To create trust, entrepreneurs need to constantly connect with people to build trust. Entrepreneurs need to create a one page system. They need to start small and keep it simple.
“Find the right people, they will retain themselves.
Name: Company of Young Professionals Success Series – Innovation & the Entrepreneurial Mindset
Presenter: Mia Maki
Innovation and creativity are the two main factors that set apart good and successful young entrepreneurs. Many young entrepreneurs need to understand creativity and innovation will lead to the next level of their success. CYP invites Mia Maki, CPA, CMA, Principal of Quimper Consulting Inc., to speak about the importance of innovation and creativity. Maki is formerly CFO and COO for a Vitoria-based technology company. Moreover, Maki assists many acquisitions, strategic partnerships and joint subsidiary creation. This presentation will benefit many young entrepreneurs to think about their path of entrepreneurship.
Mia Maki believes creativity and innovation come from theory and practice. In corporation, many entrepreneurs need to understand intrapreneurship. There are research for entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and creativity from many expert theories, such as Simon and Chase.
Maki mentions there are 3 types of entrepreneurs.
Achiever
Freedom Fighter
Crafts People
Crafts people are among the biggest within these three types of entrepreneurs. They usually deliver the most values to their clients.
“Entrepreneurs are made, not born”
Effectuation
Maki indicates effectuation is important for young entrepreneurs. Maki defines effectuation is a logic to be used heavily in the initial stage of venture creation and new product or service development. Effectuation needs to take consideration of the affordable loss. The logic thinking should be shaping the world instead of fitting in to the current world. The logic should use the bird in the hand principle where young entrepreneurs should examine what they currently have. Lastly, logic is helping young entrepreneurs to seeking co-creation, where they understand what others willing to commit to the venture.
Maki creates the effectuation formula that simplifies the theory.
Means -> Goals -> Interactions -> Commitments
The first two steps will contain leverage surprise that will change the goals. The formula will lead to new means, which exposes new resources, or new goals from new commitments to help crystallized the goals. The formula is designed to create new products, markets and firms.
The effectual logic requires low prediction and high control. The casual reasoning starts when young entrepreneurs believe if they can predict the future, they can control it; however, effectual reasoning starts when young entrepreneurs believe they can control the future and do not need to predict it.
Maki illustrates all innovative and creative ideas can be created by setting the primary target market, the type and the emotions. Maki concludes this as forced combination.
Maki believes sometimes being innovative and creative is about intersection. Many industrial problems are often solved by another discipline. For example, chemist solves an electronic problem. The intersection is where innovation comes from.
“Intrapreneurs can bring commitments together in the organization”
Maki believes sometimes being innovative and creative is about clear. Young entrepreneurs need to understand how their companies are different from the competitors. In addition, they need to know how they can be more successful marketing and promoting their companies. They can start by understand their value proposition. By asking questions will help young entrepreneurs to lead to their answer.
Maki believes sometimes being innovative and creative is about asking questions. Young entrepreneurs can think what can make their customers’ lives or transaction easier. The progress can be simplified or changed by adding new values. The process innovations are long-lasting and value creating for companies and young entrepreneurs.
Maki suggests many resources for young entrepreneurs to expand innovative and creativity. In the resource of “Steal like an artist”, there are 10 unique tips for young entrepreneurs.
Steal like an artist
Do not wait until you know who you are to get started
Name: ManTalks – World Class Role Models, Fathers & Sons
Presenters: Andy Zaremba, Ricky Shetty, Horrasias Balabyekkubo, and Dai Manuel
Mentors and role models are important for leaders. With the right role models, leaders will able to exceed their limitation of what they can be and what they want to be. The purpose of mentors and role models are to help leaders to find their deep and long term success, fulfilment and happiness in their journeys. Role models can be powerful because they can awake leaders’ inner voice that can control the direction of their success. ManTalks invites Andy Zaremba, the Co-Founder of Float House, Ricky Shetty, the owner of DaddyBlogger, Horrasias Balabyekkubo, the founder of Cleft of the Rock Foundation, and Dai Manuel, the COO of Fitness Town Inc. The panel will share their experience, knowledge and life lessons to support leaders to develop inner connection with their mentors and role models.
Fatherhood experience from Andy Zaremba
Andy Zaremba is the Co-Founder of Float House and the Co-host of the Vancouver Real Podcast. He has a strong passion to strive to become the best man in his family. Moreover, Zaremba believes personal growth is ongoing process and he will continue to expand his living to life journey.
Zaremba shares his first experience of role model is from his father. His father wants him to step up; instead, Zaremba receives a strong pressure and later realizes it is not his father’s fault o put everything on him.
Zaremba indicates role models can be anybody who can provide attention to the audience. However, mentor is different. Mentors have more experience than others. They can help leaders to guide their lives and keep them accountable. Zaremba mentions his second role model that impacts his life is a doctor who is treating addiction. His honest and wisdom inspire his life and helps him to continue his journey.
“Live it now, takes the principle”
Zaremba starts to take people to meditation. He believes medication is the technique that can help people to go through rough times. Zaremba shares his rough experience that his wife is experiencing UTI infection during her second trimester. In the hospital, they might need to sacrifice their baby to save her life. In the end, his wife recovers, but the baby is premature. Knowing he has no control to treat the baby, he is scared to death. He uses medication technique to calm himself down.
After seeing the documentary, Zaremba learns premature baby will die without love and care. Physical contact is important. He believes the challenge is there for a reason. The risk is high, but he will get through it and keep going forward.
Being a father changes Zaremba. He changes his view of family and starts to take care of himself better.
“Take care of yourself first before being a role model for someone else”
Fatherhood experience from Ricky Shetty
Ricky Shetty operates a website called DaddyBlogger that helps father’s parenting. Shetty also conducts workshops and conference events to help improve bloggers’ personal growth experience. The passion from fatherhood helps Shetty to become a better father.
Shetty shares his parents are together from arranged marriage. However, from Shetty’s childhood, Shetty only remembers fighting and yelling. There is a lack of communication and as a child, Shetty becomes shy and broken. The family breakdown affects his life. In University, Shetty wants to find a way to change his life. His first role model is Vancouver Canucks and he is willing to line up to meet the players. However, Shetty realizes they are just models.
People look up celebrities, but mentors look into people and invest in them. A friend of Shetty is a father and willing to invest into him without any judging changes his live. Shetty indicates mentor is someone who has the ability to listen.
“When he believes me, I start to believe in myself”
Shetty shares his experience in Japan to teach English. In Japan, he is trying to find his purpose and his soul mate. However, he learns a broken man will not have any woman. If women leave her men, the men are reliable and need to man up.
“Feel like a coconut. Brown outside, white inside”
Travelling around Asia helps Shetty to find his spiritually from god. He is able to forgive his father to release his pain. Shetty wants people to know that when people who do not get married in late age, they usually afraid they will be like his father. Shetty wants those people to know they have choices.
Shetty is happily married and he cares about the next generation. He is able to find his identity of family. Shetty finds his purpose from blogging and see the success he can bring to people.
Shetty shares as entrepreneurs, they need 3 things
Mentor
Mastermind
Accountable partner
“Power of listening and the gift of listening and receiving”
Fatherhood experience from Horrasias Balabyekkubo
Horrasias Balabyekkubo is the founder of Cleft of the Rock Foundation and also the director of Nakyessa Christian Primary and Secondary school. His foundation utilizes the tool of entrepreneurship to educate people in areas of Uganda. He is also a motivational speaker and a writer of “Death of the Gospel”. His passion of creating opportunities for people inspires many leaders to engage community development.
Balabyekkubo believes he is born with a purpose of trying to create adventure for people. In young age, Balabyekkubo’s parents change his life around because his parents believe they can change the next generation. With singing and praying, his father is his mentor of true love. Balabyekkubo wants to become like his father, who provide the best to others with love.
Balabyekkubo shares his father is his role model. His father impact his heart and his father always believe Balabyekkubo is born for great thing. Following his father’s footstep, his soul purpose is to love the children. Balabyekkubo likes to take pictures because picture can capture the excitement. His conscious decision wants him to being the kind of father he has.
“Do not let children to feel their dad is not there”
Balabyekkubo’s children are his hero. When his children are born, he feels his father has passed down the mission to him. The mission is to show his children the savior of mankind. When everything falls apart, children look up to Balabyekkubo. Moreover, he wants his children to understand they are black. Balabyekkubo understand the reality can hurt them due to difference nationality and the outside world can be crude. However, it is his responsibility to protect, provide and presence to his children.
Many people save time on vacation more than their families. It is important to look at the life 10 years after to see the impact. Balabyekkubo’s father teaches him the power of love and the more love he gives, the more he gain.
“Teach people what is right”
Fatherhood experience from Dai Manuel
Dai Manuel has over 20 years of experience in health and fitness industry. He is also the COO of Fitness Town. Manuel has the passion to inspire and help the community. As a motivational speaker, his experience inspires many entrepreneurs through tough time.
Dai Manuel shares his moment of life changes. The biggest one is his grandfather. Manuel’s grandfather is deaf, but he always put “I love you” on a piece of paper. Action speaks louder than words. Manuel believes everyone is writing his or her own history and story, and he sees many similarities from people sharing their milestone.
Manuel’s parents are divorced at age of 9. Manuel creates the habit of eating to comfort the pain. The depression leads him to become over weight and thinking of suicide. He begins to seek for help by go to library and learn. Unfortunately, Manuel is still unable to accept the condition since the dialogue is running his mind over and over again. Manuel left Ontario to escape the reality.
Manuel believes his parents are his role model for work. As a workaholic, he stops listening to others. Moreover, he needs to have another deep conversation with himself. He stops drinking because of his wife. Manual does not treat his wife well which leads to separation. When his daughter is born, he starts to make promises to his daughter to change. 7 years later, Manuel experiences another rock bottom and got separated again with his wife. However, his wife still sees him as the person who can do more. This is what Manuel needs, which is mentorship. Mentorship can help people understand who they are.
“Who do you want your daughter to marry? Be that person”
4 things man need to know
I am sorry
I did not mean to
I love you
Please forgive me
Manuel shares that he thought he figure everything out, but he did not. Manuel wants his kids to be proud. In addition, he has the choice and he has the ability to change.
The panel
For daily practice, Zaremba does Yoga. Shetty reads 10 pages and pray. Balabyekkubo gives grace to others and Manuel reflects every night. Zaremba recommends leaders to be vulnerable and do not be afraid to be judged. Manuel recommends leaders to share as much as they can. Shetty recommends leaders to understand everyone can be broken sometimes. Balabyekkubo recommends leaders to show up as much as they can in their lives.
Balabyekkubo shares when everything is down, the decision of being the legendary man help him up. Zaremba suggests people to build up self-talk. Shetty suggests people to overcome the bad day with authentic mindset because bad day leads to better day. Lastly, Balabyekkubo suggests people to let things happen and step it up.
Presenters: Sarah Lubik, Adrian Duke, Jayesh Parmer, and Jeff Booth
Technology is a huge trend in Vancouver and all leaders need to understand where the potential opportunities are in the market. Moreover, the evolution of technology is increasing the competitiveness in technology market. This panel presentation is hosted by GradusOne and BCTIA. Moreover, Manny Padda, the Managing Director of New Avenue Capital, will moderate this presentation. This presentation invites Sarah Lubik, the Director of Technology Entrepreneurship at Simon Fraser University, Adrian Duke, the Co-founder of Skyturtle Technologies Ltd, Jeff Booth, the CEO of BuildDirect, and Jayesh Parmar, the CEO of Picatic. Furthermore, this presentation will benefit young entrepreneurs who are looking for inspiration from technology sector.
In order to keep up the technology trend, Jayesh Parmar looks at the new product line. Jeff Booth looks at the greater landscape. Adrian Duke focuses on things that will impact daily lives. Moreover, Sarah Lubik looks at the needs from the people who will merge their lives with technology.
The panel describes their defining moments that lead their career in the technology sector. Duke believes many classical games are outdated with their current technology. Due to technology trend, it is an advantage for young entrepreneurs to improve the classic. Lubik shares while she was integrating the current systems through co-op at university, Lubik was inspired from the research that takes scientific fiction to reality. The defining moment for Booth is when he was motivated to create a system in his company that will increase clients’ satisfaction. Parmar suggests young entrepreneurs to get outside and figure out their passion and their challenges.
“If I know what I know, I will not start it”
The panel shares what they feel the most important qualities that young entrepreneurs need to be successful in technology startup. Parmar believes young entrepreneurs need the passion of vision, intellect, and without the fear of failure. Booth recognizes young entrepreneurs with curiosity mind, self-awareness, and care for teammates. Duke believes the personality of doers and hustlers, also young entrepreneurs must have the ability to execute. Lubik focuses on passion, commitments, coachable and humble.
The panel shares their hardest parts to break into the technology sector. Lubik shares while she was in the technology sector, she needs to study the technical production to break through the communication barrier. There are many people who know the technology, but they do not speak in engineer language.
Adrian shares the determination is the hardest part to break into technology sector. Many industries are changing due to technology, and the intersection between the traditional sectors and new innovative sectors are getting bigger. Therefore, Booth believes the hardest part is to figure out the passion to improve the intersection.
There are a lot of great ideas, but to find the team to execute the great ideas is difficult. Parmer believes the hardest part is to find a team that can follow the vision. It is important to get the right people and the right market in the business.
“You are doing it for the right reason”
There is a debate of whether business degree is a requirement to be successful in technology sector. Parmer emphasizes many corporation leaders in technology sector do not have degree. They believe in lifelong learning and the ability to figure out the answers. Booth does not believe business degree is important. It is more important to learn on their ways.
“Outside view will never match with inside view”
“If you are not failing, you are not trying hard enough”
Lubik believes education is important. Young entrepreneurs must understand that the degree by itself is not important, but the skills young entrepreneurs gain in the process of getting the degree is significant.
Duke also believes degree is not important. The important thing is to be around with successful people. Education is just a factor in the entrepreneur journey. Degree shows the ability to learn and young entrepreneurs can use education to prepare themselves in the market.
Parmar suggests young entrepreneurs do not afraid to fail. Booth suggests young entrepreneurs not to hesitate on their journey. It is important to jump in and learn to see what others do not see. Young entrepreneurs must believe that they are right and others are wrong. Duke indicates there are many accelerated programs that will help young entrepreneurs to be surrounded by experts who are motivated and driven. Lubik suggests young entrepreneurs to network with people who might be their potential customers.
“Do not assume people will buy it until you build it”
Mentorship impacts the panel in their journey. Duke learned to care for others, the importance of building effective relationship, and to take risk. Booth shares his mentors are his parents. He learned the gift of learning and relationship. Young entrepreneurs can build the level of trust from helping others. Parmer mentions mentorship can help young entrepreneurs to shrink time to get to the answer faster. If mentors do not know the answer, they will refer to someone else. It is important to ask clear question.
The panel shares their examples of their minimal viable products. All their initial designs are not attractive. However, with new modification and upgrades, all prototypes are in the market helping other people’s lives.
Parmer believes volunteering is a great way to find the initial problem. Young entrepreneurs can use the volunteering time to discover what they need to do. While volunteering, Booth recommends young entrepreneurs to act like CEO. Volunteering can satisfy young entrepreneurs’ learning curves. Duke recommends young entrepreneurs to enjoy the moment of volunteering. Lubik wants young entrepreneurs not to work for free; instead, they should think the skill sets they can acquire during volunteering. They need to figure out the initiative, and people will pay.
In technology sector, Lubik believes there is a need of improvement in the Healthcare center. Duke believes the sharing economy will be a trend opportunities in technology sector. Booth indicates the old “command and control” method is gone and empowering is the new trend for the new generation. Parmer asks young entrepreneurs to find the passion that will keep them up at night.
The panel has been asked what they will do if they are not in the technology sector. Parmer wants to be a family member who can create memory for his family. Booth wants to treat every moment with his family to build a stronger relationship. Duke wants to travel and help people. Lubik wants young entrepreneurs to know that jobs opportunities in technology sector will always exist; therefore, they should choose things they believe in it.
Name: How to successfully finance your business through crowdfunding with Mirey Faema
Presenter: Mirey Faema
Crowdfunding is an alternative and innovative way to fund businesses for entrepreneurs. Moreover, entrepreneurs can utilize crowdfunding to capture their ideal audience and demand. Jonathan Chow, the founder of Vancouver Entrepreneurs and Business Builders, invites Mirey Faema, the founder of Business Procedures Masterclass, to discuss her experience to launch a successful crowdfunding campaign. In addition, Entrepreneurs will benefit this presentation by understanding the essence of crowdfunding strategies.
Mirey Faema provides business solutions for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. Faema is also the co-founder of CLIQ Crowdfunding. She has the passion to help businesses to implement new procedures to streamline their businesses. Moreover, Faema connects with many organizations with the concept of crowdfunding by focusing on the right message.
Faema states based on crowdfunding statistic; there is only 40% success rate to launch a successful campaign. The trend is leaning towards reward based crowdfunding, which are offer funds for the exchange of products. The market is extremely competitive and Faema must emphasizes crowdfunding is not free money and it is a method to build community around entrepreneur’s idea. The idea behind crowdfunding is to receive first and support the community.
There must be a strong philosophy behind the crowdfunding campaign. When the technology and gaming industries are booming, crowdfunding becomes the highlight of any funding method. However, when industry is over promised, people get skeptical over the idea of crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is great for product launch campaign because people can physically see the idea. Entrepreneur use crowdfunding to test their market demand.
Faema emphasizes crowdfunding is hard work because there is a lot of preparation and planning. The problem is entrepreneurs do not have the time to delicate the planning. Team is important and team is formed based on the goal of the crowdfunding. Faema suggests business should be solid before launching crowdfunding.
Faema indicates with a goal of $100,000 campaign, it needs 7 people in a team. Team can be involved with these 6 categories.
Developing media
Planning strategy
Campaign design
Branding strategy
Video production
Public relation
Business must be ready before crowdfunding is launched. Faema illustrates crowdfunding can change the infrastructure of a business. Business need to prepare the shift. Preplanning is important.
Aftermath of crowdfunding
Many entrepreneurs forget the procedures after crowdfunding campaign. Faema suggests entrepreneurs to provide deadlines for shipping and logistic. When crowdfunding is complete, the spreadsheet can be nightmare and entrepreneurs need to have a team to analyze the data. If the deliverable is not on time, entrepreneurs need to communicate to their community by offering incentive. The important thing is to keep up the communication.
“People can break your business if they are over promised”
Successful campaign needs a strong network on social media. Entrepreneurs need to structure their network before the launch. The idea planning period is on year and minimum 3 months. Faema suggests entrepreneurs to complete three strategies 6 months before planning.
Build the excitement
Build relationship
Allow others to share
Entrepreneurs need to have minimal reward. Reward must have multiple levels, including pre-purchase. However, Faema shares crowdfunding is illegal if there is exchange for shares or ownership, even perks cannot be transferred. Entrepreneurs can use the subscribe strategy to lead people into the community.
Reward formula
Faema believes reward system should keep it as simple as possible. If entrepreneurs try to offer too much, they will break the campaign. In addition, if they offer too much service, they will dilute the focus of the campaign.
“Focus on primary service with the relevant reward”
Successful campaign requirements
Faema believes a successful campaign needs surround by a good idea. The process of crowdfunding is missing the step of feedback since crowdfunding is direct communicating to audience. Video must be simple and straight forward. The message must be easy to understand. The reward system is simple. If entrepreneurs include early bird reward level, it is important to ensure they have funding for back-end. Timing is the key. Entrepreneurs must launch it when people want it immediately and get them impulsively to buy it.
The visual must be creative. Entrepreneurs can use info-graphic to illustrate their concepts clear. Faema recommends entrepreneurs not to concentrate too much company profile in the video. The emotion can tie into the video; therefore, video should be professionally made. Humor can be a way to bring out the emotion in the video. It can resonant with the audience, relate to audience, and be creative. Overall, the video should answer the why, especially if the cause is for the greater good for the world.
“Instead of telling us why you are awesome, tell us why the service is awesome”
The target must be clear and call of action must be included in the video.
Fundraising and crowdfunding are two different type of funding methods. Crowdfunding is not by donation, it is pre-order. Moreover, crowdfunding can help business to get to the next level without any exchange of equity. Faema wants entrepreneurs to think crowdfunding as a business model. Entrepreneurs use crowdfunding to provide business and the audience will exchange for their services and products. It is important to foster the audience and convert the audience to super fan. Crowdfunding can create relationship and engagement with clients. Entrepreneurs need to ensure they thank the supporter and share or promote other similar projects.
Kickstarter versus Indiegogo
Faema describes if the campaign on Kickstarter failed, entrepreneurs will not get the funding. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to set their minimum goal and stretch the goal later by stating more objectives near the end of the deadline. Most of the time, supporters will support and push for entrepreneurs at the end if campaign is really close because they want to see them to be successful. As for Indiegogo, entrepreneurs will receive the funding no matter what.
Faema do not recommend entrepreneurs to launch two identical campaigns on both platforms. This will confuse clients and it is bad for social media publicity.
Many businesses use Kickstarter platform because even if the campaign failed, the recognition from Kickstarter will brand for the entrepreneurs to get external funding.
Campaign will fail if there is no budget. Entrepreneurs tend to spend too much on incentive. People like crowdfunding because it is open to public and not regulated by corporate traditional rules.
Faema wants entrepreneurs to understand that crowdfunding has no geographic restriction. Crowdfunding is based on creativity to get attention.
The expectation of budget for video is around $3,000 to $6,000. Many entrepreneurs underestimate the budget from holding or offline events.
“Crowdfunding is unpredictable because it takes the right person and the right time for this person to help you”
Outline for crowdfunding
Faema has created an outline for entrepreneurs to produce a successful campaign.
Understand the theory behind crowdfunding by searching and researching the existing product and market
Ensure the message is clear
Determine the minimum funding goal
Ensure business is ready for changes such as delivery and infrastructure
List the element of videos, such as reward based
Pre-launch planning and build referral, network, and branding
Develop campaign team and set time and support
Strategy to show commitment
Link Kickstarter and website to social media
Budget the campaign
Create campaign timeline to execute strategy
Develop the story with personal inspiration
Develop the pitch in video
Engage with audience
Provide well ongoing communication
Evaluate the campaign with performance measures
“Make a compelling video to allow audience’s personal feeling and experience to be a part of it”
Name: Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group – How to generate massive passive income with Dan Lok
Presenter: Dan Lok
Passive income is a term every entrepreneur need to know and need to have. Moreover, many entrepreneurs have no idea how to create passive income. Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group invites Dan Lok, the Founder of Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group, to teach entrepreneurs the mindset and the truth behind passive income. Dan Lok’s strategy in this presentation will allow entrepreneursto realize anyone at any stage in their lives can have the ability to generate passive income.
Many entrepreneurs refer Dan Lok as the world’s leading expert in internet marketing. In addition, many entrepreneurs also refer Lok as the Millionaire mentor. HIs accomplishment starts in the world of internet. By publishing many digital copies of his books and helping others launching successful online businesses, he has the passion to help and motivate business entrepreneurs to create profitability. Furthermore, Lok is the CEO of Charm Junction Inc, and has helped many people transform their lives to the top.
Dan Lok came to Canada at a young age. Without understanding any english, Lok was struggling through his life. His early dream was to become a Martial Art instructor; however, he later realized the path he picked could not provide enough support for his whole family. Nevertheless, he realized he has the teacher heart. His first business was mowing lawn for the community. The business finished quickly because of no customers, and no customers equals no money and business. Lok pursued many businesses and the result was unsuccessful.
“It is not how much you make, it is how you make money”
He focused on many personal development books, but the help was not enough. Lok believed there was something missing in his career. He began to question if rather other successful people are just lucked or smarter than him. Lok started to study internet marketing because he could not understand why people buy junks on internet. After his apprenticeship from his mentor, he started to earn over 10,000 dollars per month. His strategy was selling books online to teach people to protect internet marketers. He repeated his strategy based on the economy trend and he began to generate massive passive income. He had reached financial freedom at an early age, but he realized he was still depressed, until he found the answer.
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off”
Categories of Income
Lok believes there are 4 categories of income: linear, leverage, passive, and windfall. Lok provides examples for each category.
Linear
Leveraged
Passive
Windfall
Salary
Strategic Alliance
Commission Staff
Appreciation of Stock
Overtime
Sub-contractors
Buy-based Networking Marketing
Appreciation of Real Estate
Commission
Goodwill
Renewals
Appreciation of RRSP
Consulting Fee
Clients Contracts
Interest Income
Inheritance
Professional Service
Salaried Staff
Dividend Income
Lottery
Sale based Networking Marketing
Large Bonus
Selling a business
Lok emphasizes it is easier for people to generate linear income because they are taught to work in linear. In the real business world, there is no course available through school that teaches the proper way of managing money. They are brainwashed to work in linear income.
Lok wants entrepreneurs to convert linear to leverage. Afterwards, they can convert leverage to passive. Windfall is dynamic, so entrepreneurs should be based on those income by the current economy. Entrepreneurs should not convert every leverage to passive because leverage can motivate entrepreneurs’ passion and desire in business.
3 myths blocking entrepreneurs from earning passive income
Lok shares the first myth that is blocking entrepreneurs from earning passive income is the term “financial freedom”. Based on Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, the definition of financial freedom is total passive income exceeds total expense. When people reach that status, they can retired. However, when people reach financial freedom, they have the time to do what they love, not retired. Therefore, financial freedom will lead people to be bored.
Lok shares the secret of life is not financial freedom, it is progress. If entrepreneurs are growing, they are fulfilled. When entrepreneurs generate enough passive income, they have to go back to business again. Passive income will drop because economy is changing. Entrepreneurs need to find ways to adapt the changes by changing strategies.
“Just because it is passive it does not mean it is permanent”
Lok believes the truth is that entrepreneurs do not aim for financial freedom; instead, they should aim for financial confidence.
The economy is changing and the concepts will be outdated. It is important for entrepreneurs to have financial confidence. Financial confidence defines as the ability and the skill entrepreneurs they obtain to earn money any time.
Lok emphasizes financial freedom is just an illusion. It gives entrepreneurs fault free and give something for them to aim for. Moreover, financial confidence is the essence entrepreneurs should aim for.
Lok shares the second myth is the term “passive income”. In definition, passive income means it is an income received on a regular basis with little effort required to keep. Lok believes generating passive income is not easy and it takes a lot of hard work. It does not come overnight.
“Passive does not mean effortless”
All successful people do not use the term “passive income” because in reality, none of them got into their business because of free work. Successful people work more hours than regular people and it is all about progress.
Retirement means entrepreneurs can do what they want and when they want. If each successful owners from Forbes 400 is doing that, they have all retired – into their jobs and companies.
Lok shares passive income can be a dangerous fantasy for entrepreneurs. Lok listed four main reasons.
Entrepreneurs cannot stay ahead of competition passively
Entrepreneurs cannot maintain a loyal tribe to customers passively
Entrepreneurs cannot lead great team without passively
Entrepreneurs cannot create meaning, passion, or purpose passively
It is difficult to stay successful than becoming successful. In fact, this is a change of perspective. Lok shares the pursuit comes from purpose, meaning and joy. Therefore, entrepreneurs cannot create meaning, passion or purpose in their lives passively.
Lok believes when entrepreneurs have the intention of getting way from business and customers, they tend to fail. Entrepreneurs should move towards business and customers. When business are not creating values for customers, they will not generate cash as what entrepreneurs hope for; in addition, when entrepreneurs pursue passive income, they usually end up having active losses instead.
Lok believes the truth is to leverage income. Entrepreneurs need to find ways to use other people’s money to generate values. Entrepreneurs do not need rich books to teach them what they should do because there is no magic pill. Everything is about progress. Entrepreneurs should only buy things that obtain the skill or improve the skill that will generate leverage income.
Entrepreneurs should avoid the shiny object syndrome. Instead, entrepreneurs should master their skills first and proceed to the next skill after they master the previous skills. The hardest part to achieve abundance in life is getting the mind to do the right things for the right reasons.
“Build on what you have”
“Aim for leverage in a business you care about, not passive income in a business you do not care about”
Lok suggests entrepreneurs to become the creator or artist of commerce. Entrepreneurs should create value first, leverage second, and then systemized.
“I love this so much, it is the only thing I do for money. It will be unstoppable”
The third myth is people focus on what they do. Many people think it is because of the vehicle that drives the money for them.
In life, people need to master skills. The difference between an amateur and a master is the development of natural reaction. Amateur knows many different ways, but master only know certain ways that works. To become a master, entrepreneurs need to focus. They need to focus until they are good enough that people are lining up to see them. In reality, there is not a lot of masters in the world.
The truth is entrepreneurs need to focus on how they do it. They need to know how to create more leverage with their business. People have more fear in success than failure because their brain only know how to handle failure. Brains will avoid any unknown.
It is easy for people to set passive income and forget it. Lok wants entrepreneurs to understand that passive income is a great revenue source that is earned from persistent, ongoing cultivation.
2 steps to creating and enjoying the wealth you deserve
Lok shares people tend to make up rules to reach wealth. Unfortunately, the rules are usually too broad. Therefore, they will never win. There is no amount of money that will make people wealthy because wealth is a state of mind.
The first step is allow entrepreneurs to know they are already wealthy and free.The worst they can be is other’s fantasy. Wealthy is gratitude. Entrepreneurs cannot be grateful and be stress at the same time.
“what yo are grateful, fears disappear, and abundance appear”
The second step is to do a morning ritual to improve entrepreneurs’ lives. Lok suggests a 10 minutes of visualizing grateful moments and freedom in the morning will help entrepreneurs obtain the feeling of unstoppable.
FU Money Formula
Lok provides the guideline to help entrepreneurs’ business
Platform +
Growing Demand +
Value
X
Automation +
scalability
x
Controllable Leverage
Entrepreneurs need to focus on the niche market where there is a growing demand. Lok believes the biggest reason business fail is because they cannot find enough customers to make transactions before their money run out.
Instead of creating a new market, entrepreneurs can adapt the submarkets or existing markets because they have already obtain the community of people who will purchase products and services.
Automation can be building a team, bringing in partners, automate tasks, or outsource production. Business needs to have scalability. Without any growth problem can help business to take control.
Entrepreneurs should realize they are already wealthy. They need to find a market that can provide real value in the market. Build a strong purpose and leverage their business with automation and scale up. With enough time, business will evolve to an asset.
Name: Building a passive income asset for you and your family
Presenter: Adrian Liu
Entrepreneurs are looking for ways to generate passive income. Moreover, the purpose of building passive income is to ensure their families are well protected with wealth for their next generation. This seminar invites Adrian Liu, the Founder of ACL Investment Services Inc., to discuss the strategy of his passive income investment vehicle. This presentation will benefit families who are looking for stable return with limited risks.
Adrian Liu is a Certified Financial Planner. Liu graduated from McGill University with Finance Major. After working in Freedom 55 Financial Service for 15 years, Liu decides to open his own company, ACL Investment Services Inc., to help and support families in Vancouver. Moreover, his passion is to assist families who are looking for ways to provide wealth for their second generation.
Adrian Liu shares his career journey started from a life changing event. During the incident of 921 earthquake event, his parents’ business was struggling from the impact of real estate market. Liu decided to pursue his career as a financial planner to learn the strategies that will benefit people’s financial lives. The first 8 years was a bull market and Liu build up his working income; however, he lost it all after two years. In 2008, the financial crisis crushed many families’ financial situation. Afterwards, Liu decided to figure out the reason behind the crisis and started to find ways to help people to achieve financial freedom.
Liu shares three important facts about financial freedom.
Passive income is not enough
Financial freedom is a journey
Too confident will ignore risks
While Liu was working in Freedom 55 Financial Service, he was considered as comprehensive Certified Financial Planner who monitors all positions. Liu wants to be different. He wants to educate his clients with the idea of passive income and also help generate significant and stable return. Therefore, Liu will concentrate on “protect asset” by improving clients’ lifestyle quality and “contribution” by donating 2% of wealth to change the world.
Passive income through life insurance
Many people still have the traditional thinking of leaving their investment in the market and expect their investment to grow in the future. Liu emphasizes the problem with the traditional thinking is that the market will fluctuate and the expected return will not be stable. Liu shares the new thinking of investment is to create passive income, provide cash flow, and no need to monitor.
Liu believes in order to achieve financial freedom, people need to generate total income greater than their total expense. The total income includes working income, investment income, and passive income. Working Income and Investment are equally important, but many people are forgetting the importance of passive income. Working income can change due to the status of people’s careers. Therefore, Liu believes it is important to generate enough passive income to cover some work income and investment income. Moreover, Liu will help people to increase passive income to improve their lifestyle qualities.
Liu indicates this is a process that will benefit people in the long term. Unless people have a large amount of assets, they should treat this as a transformation process.
Liu mentions three economic issues that are affecting the next generation.
Low earning
High living standard
Loss direction
All three issues will be affected by wealth. Liu shares 6 different types of passive income generators that can generate wealth.
Real estate rental income
Investment income
Direct marketing business
Sell business
Income from well run business
Retirement
However, Liu will introduce another type of passive income, and it is called “participating life insurance”.
Participating life insurance uses the golden goose concept where people will feed the golden goose until golden goose lays golden eggs. People will invest monthly payments to a passive income vehicle to generate golden eggs, which is considered to be cash flow.
Participating life insurance can help people keep the principle investment. The concept is trustworthy and it is highly regulated by ministry. This type of investment is considered as conservative investment. Moreover, there is tax deduction benefit from power of compounding and tax shelter.
Liu emphasizes participating life insurance can generate constant growth. Based on Canada life dividend, the historical average return is 8.9%. Even with any unexpected events, the return will still be stable and positive. There is no history of negative return.
Liu mentions the concept is using the sequence of return risk from poor to strong. There is guarantee payment in retirement. Moreover, the concept is using vesting method, which means there will always have gain and no loss.
Liu shares 10 more benefits from using participating life insurance.
Life insurance policy
Creditor Proof
No maximum RRSP contribution challenge
Life time investment
Tax benefit of exempt capital gain
Able to use for different purposes
Easy to manage
Installment
Participating
Less expensive than other passive income vehicle
Liu recommends participating life insurance to create second generation retirement fund for families. Originally, people have the misconception of only successful entrepreneurs are eligible to generate golden goose. Now, people can utilize this strategy to generate their passive income and build a strong passive income vehicle for their next generation.
“Building a passive income asset for you and your family”
Name: Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group – Generate $70k/month with blogging, affiliate marketing and Kindle ebooks
Presenter: Stefan Pylarinos
Entrepreneurs need to take advantage on digital trend to improve their branding, growth, and passive income. Moreover, entrepreneurs should pay attention to where the market shift in this generation. Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group invites Stefan Pylarinos, the founder of ProjectLifeMastery, to discuss his strategies and tactics on blogging, kindle publishing, affiliate marketing, infoproducts, amazon marketing and coaching. This presentation will benefit all entrepreneurs to help them connect with their online target markets. In addition, Stefan Pylarinos will introduce his ways to generate passive income.
Stefan Pylarinos met Dan Lok, the founder of Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group, at Canada Marketing Summit. Pylarinos inspired by Lok’s book and decided to run his business. His book impacted him and change his life.
“How to take action; learn how to apply; real power is action”
Beginning of Stefan’s journey
Pylarinos believes people need reference from success. In highschool, he wanted to change his social life. By attending many public speaking events, the transformation gave him the confident to start his business. The passion drove him to learn other business skills, and he started to expose to internet marketing. Plyarinos shares his business journey was a struggle, but he always believed he was developing the necessary fundamental for his future.
“No matter what struggle, the skills you gain is invaluable”
Pylarinos wanted to try something different because the current business model is not giving him the financial freedom. He started to create digital content by providing home remedies with publishing ebooks. He used his skills on SEO to generate the passion income from ebooks. He started to create blogs to declare his public goals, which helped him progress even more. By building videos online, Pylarinos started to generate followers; however, due to recent Google change, the sales dropped instantly. The change forced Pylarinos to discover the power of Kindle publishing. By taking the ebook and upload to Kindle, he utilized Amazon’s system to geenrate more income. He hired ghost writers to generate more Kindle ebooks.
Pylarinos shares his strategy on his blog and starts to coach other entrepreneurs online. He develops a national training program called “KMastery” to educate people on how to publish ebook with Kindle. Pylarinos believes the success people see in him makes his business grow even bigger. The blog records his journey and realizes in order to be successful, entrepreneurs need to add values to other people. The secret of success comes from the difference in contribution to others’ lives.
Strategies on Blogging
Pylarinos believes blogging is the foundation of everything. Blogging is a way to allow others people to know them. Blogging can share entrepreneurs’ monthly report to their audience. Any business can benefit from blogs.
The key to build a succesful blog is to focus on long term branding. There are must be high quality content on articles, YouTube videos and podcast. High quality content can build authority, creditability and trust. It is important to be as transparent as possible and infuse personality into content. Entrepreneurs must have high engagement to allow people to share the content. Blogging can help entrepreneurs to build email list. Most visitors will never come back, but if entrepreneurs can build a relationship from a clear objective, they will support the blog. Therefore, visitors can subscribe the blog and able to market the content for entrepreneurs.
Strategies on SEO and social media
Entrepreneurs need to understand that keywords in title, description and content can impact google traffic. It creates powerful user experience. SEO will analyze the time on page, scroll rate, and social share engagement. Pylarinos suggests entrepreneurs to share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Youtube can engage people on deeper level. With strong and effective keywords, the content will grab audience’s attention.
Strategies on Kindle publishing
Keywords will help Kindle publishing to rank on the top list. The system behind Kindle is simple and straight forward.
Pylarinos shares the formula behind Kindle publishing is to find hot and profitable niches with low competition. It is important to ensure there is demand first. Entrepreneurs can write a killer title and headline for their ebooks. Entrepreneurs can write a book themselves or hire ghost writers. In addition, ghost writers can be beneficial because of leverage and scalability.
Pylarinos suggests ebooks to be short as 20-30 pages that can sell for $2.99. Shorter books sell better and the quality of book is not determined by length. Entrepreneurs need to ensure their ebooks have high quality informational content and provide solutions because people buy books to solve their problems. Pylarinos uses ODesk to post jobs for writers. Entrepreneurs can use this tactic to outsource a 5000 words book for a low as $50-100 dollars. Furthermore, it is important to check on ghost writers’ previous work for creditability and content style.
The ebook cover can be found in Fiverr for only $5.00. Kindle uses Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to publish ebooks. Amazon reviews and sales will rank the ebook on the Amazon search. If ebooks have niche and demand, it is possible to generate up to $1000 per month. Entrepreneurs can make ebook audible.
Entrepreneurs can use their ebooks to funnel their clients into their blog, product, or build email list.
Kindle publishing is very easy and it is a way to make passive income with short investment time.
Strategies on Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is to refer traffic to somewhere else for referral fees. Entrepreneurs can share things to get benefit and paid for it. Pylarinos emphasizes entrepreneurs can use affiliate marketing to promote additional products or services to their current market list. This will build a powerful relationship by creating values for audience. People will trust them and purchase from their recommendation. Pylarinos create contents using vidoes and articles to review things and share with others. Moreover, for return, he will receive commissions.
Strategies on Infoproducts
Infoproducts is a way to sell information online. Pylarinos indicates entrepreneurs must build the list and survey them what exactly do they want. People will line up for the information and purchase from entrepreneurs if there is a strong relationship trust.
By testing out the information from affiliate marketing to see if there is a demand before going through the production of the product. A backend sales funnel is significant to funnel for maximum customer values.
“Successful people loss money at front, but better sell at the end”
Strategies on Amazon products
Entrepreneurs can find hot and profitable products on Amazon that have high demand and low competition. They must find suppliers that can put their brand and ship inventory to Amazon fulfillment centre. Amazon will do all the fulfillment for entrepreneurs. Pylarinos suggests entrepreneurs to create the Amazon lists and rank the product on Amazon using keywords. The more sales and reviews, the higher ranking it will be.
“Focus on free first before rich”
Strategies on coaching and consulting
Entrepreneurs can use blogs, YouTube, podcast, and book to come an authority. It is important to have people come to them instead hustling people. Therefore, it is important to have results that other people want.
By offering one on one coaching, and group coaching webinars can have leverageand scalability. Pylarinos also believes entrepreneurs can aim for live events and mastermind groups. There is always a market for people who want the personalized help from any entrepreneurs. Focusing on customers by adding values, success will come with it.
Questions and answers
Pylarinos provides a workflow for entrepreneurs who are starting the Kindle publishing. Entrepreneurs can start with affiliate marketing. They can brainstorm ideas from Amazon best selling list. Discover the topic from the list and write out the primary keywords. Entrepreneurs need to ensure if there is market on Kindle. Afterwards, entrepreneurs can analyze the book and look for other competitions. If there is competition, it shows market. Find the similar Kindle ebook and figure out the x-factor. Improve the x-factor to outrank the ebook from others from the list.
Presenters: Bradley Morris, Chris Brandt, and Mike Zaremba
One of the important topics in leadership is spirituality. When leaders expose to spirituality, they can unfold many obstacles and confusion. Furthermore, Leaders can discover the deep connection in their freedom, fulfilment and purpose. Mantalks, a community to rebuild relationship with deeper connection and living the truth, invites Bradley Morris, the founder of Cowabungalife, Chris Brandt, the Executive Director of Music Heals, and Mike Zaremba, co-Founder of Float House, to share their journey of spirituality. Their experience will provide leaders a guideline to access their deep understanding of their fulfillment and clarity.
Bradley Morris – Passion leads successful life
Bradley Morris lives as a lifestyle and business coach that educate entrepreneurs the meaning of life and career balance. Morris creates many effective meditation eCourses through his company, Cowabungalife, to support entrepreneurs in many countries. The inspiration and feeling of giving to the world is the fuel of Bradley Morris’ passion.
Spirituality has taught Bradley Morris the meaning of personal growth and discovers everyone has their own unique path to mastery. In Morris’ journey, golf has been his path to mastery. Morris was obsessed with gold since 12 years old. When Morris turned 18, he was determined to play in professional golf. However, work was not supporting his passion. He opened up an online company that sells man shirts, but he got himself into massive debt and got kicked out of the golf club. During his depression moment, he questioned himself and realized he needs to take up responsibility.
The depression forced him to be grateful of every moment in life. He became a speaker and an author. However, due to conflict of interest, he lost everything and lost his momentum. Morris was in depression once again.
Morris started meditation and tried to learn from nature. His life changed when he connected to meditation. He started to teach and conducted workshop; in addition, he launched many eCourses to help benefit people around the world.
The workshop and eCourses cannot sustain his current lifestyle, so he decides to pursue other career for additional revenue. With a rare opportunity, he accepts the job at a golf course and realizes his passion from youth. Morris understands the two worlds has become one and realizes all things in his life are preparing him to understand the missing link in his life. The tension from 10 years ago starts to come back. Morris believes it is time for him to pursue his golf passion once again.
The meditation and coaching have prepared Morris the clarity of his vision. Morris indicates his life has more energy than ever. The spirituality is in Morris’ mindset and now time is his control. Morris will do whatever it takes to conquer his new journey.
Morris recommends leaders to take one moment at a time and one step at a time. It is important to expand leader’s vision to next 10 years and understand what mastery looks like.
Morris shares the path of mastery includes 3 elements.
Connect to leaders’ breath
Penetrate leaders’ targets
Get rid of fear
“Either living in the alignment or moving away from the alignment”
Chris Brandt – Journey of a music spirituality
Working as an Executive Director of Music Heals, Chris Brandt creates awareness for music therapy. Chris Brandt has over 10 years of music experience, including releasing his own record label. His passion of music has broadened his career, such as music editor, contributing editor and radio show host. Moreover, Chris Brandt also teaches music in BCIT and yoga workshops in meditation and educates many people around the world.
Chris Brandt shares people have the conception of believing yoga and spirituality are connected. People are more into yoga than regular tradition. The experience in yoga changed Brandt’s life and believes the idea of helping others is essential. Brandt believes in yoga, people are projecting from the teacher; in fact, it is experience from yoga projecting them.
“Spirituality is like a swimming pool, it all starts in shallow end”
Brandt visits Peru to climb the hill of Machu Picchu. He is able to communicate with himself during the experience in cave. Next, Brandt visits Tibet. He discovers the shift of reconnection is a part of life experience. The region from Tibet grows on him. Lastly, Brandt visits Ashram. He feels the instant karma of able to figure out everything immediately. During his intensive 10 days silent meditation in Ashram, he accomplishes the difficulty of let himself out and communicates to himself.
Last year, he was diagnosed with cancer and he was depressed. However, he treated as the next life test. Brandt realizes this might be the graduate class from his journey. If he is able to relate it to his life experience, he is able to help others with his experience.
Brandt suggests leaders to connect themselves through spirituality. There is always something worth teaching and leaders should find something worth teaching for the next generation.
“Truth sometimes is ridiculous; instead, speak the truth now because it is going to change in the future.
Mike Zaremba – Journey of spirituality
Mike Zaremba, the co-founder of Float House, believes floating practice is an important spiritual practice that uses the contemporary medicine. Mike Zaremba operates the Float House over 20 years in Vancouver. Moreover, he always challenges himself into uncomfortable experience to discover more deep connection with his life.
Coming from a religious family background, Mike Zaremba shares his father believes “spirituality is a crock”. Zaremba received this awareness from his father and determined to research the topic of spirituality. Zaremba shares his 3 phases in his journey of exposing his spiritual life.
Phase 1: Curiosity of knowledge
Zaremba emphasizes at the beginning of his journey, he wants to know everything. He reads all kind books, but Zaremba feels like an empty vessel that is pouring in limitation. Zaremba believes when people describe what they know, they limit themselves. This is the idea of subjectivity. People develop a filter based on their previous experience, which can limit how others are able to communicate their thoughts and feelings. Moreover, Zaremba believes all books are similar and he needs to discover the deeper meaning through personal experience.
Phase 2: Primary experience
Zaremba starts to dive into a practice of yoga. Yoga is believed to be the great way to connect to the inner body. Zaremba also experiences meditation and it brings the awareness to another level. He is able to see the nature’s cons.
The second Zaremba experienced is Pranayama. He is able to sense the energy of his body and understand the way of inhale and exhale from breath work can help him understand his presence.
The third Zaremba experienced is floating. Floating uses a device of float tank to minimize the environment and forces to go within. The depth is infinite and it can embrace people to create dream.
All practices prepare Zaremba to understand the reality. Moreover, Zaremba is aware of his conscious.
“Conscious is like a sea, what is your relationship with these compound?”
Phase 3: Journey in Peru
After the end of Zaremba’s relationship, he realizes there is no conscious connection with his heart. By trying to develop this connection, Zaremba got a great advice from his mentor.
“Focus on your conscious in your mind and bring it to your heart”
When he discovers the way to connect, Zaremba is able to feel the sensation. Zaremba describes the feeling as the force takes him up above the cloud and beyond the space. When Zaremba wants it back, the feeling goes back down. It is considered as the heart connection. Zaremba believes it is important for leaders to understand the importance to have the primary space in their hearts.
Questions and Answers
Zaremba’s most inspired moment in his journey is during his road of recovering from surgery. He feels grateful of everything he has. Morris’ moment is when he realizes he is good enough to believe. Brandt’s moment is when he realizes he does not have to be great, but he has the obligation to help others.
Zaremba’s father quote has created the distance between him and his father, but it shapes him the life his has right now. Zaremba mentions the conscious mind connects him from awareness, sensation and to heart.
As leaders, it is important to do something they love. By connecting their inner self from disconnecting the noises, such as cellphone, from the environment, leaders can discover the force from small meditation. Meditation is considered as daily maintenance. It is a moment of clarity and freedom is a mindset. Fully commit and adopt spirituality.
Name: Shoulders of Titans – Meet the man behind the $360 million dollars Trump Tower Vancouver project
Presenter: Joo Kim Tiah
Successful leaders inspire other successful leaders, and leaders need to learn from other leaders in different industries. Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group presents the event “Shoulders of Titans” and invites Joo Kim Tiah, the CEO of the TA Group of Companies and CEO of the Holborn Group, to discuss his leadership journey. Leaders will learn the unique blueprint and mindsets from Joo Kim Tiah in the industry of real estate. Moreover, Joo Kim Tiah will share his views of success and impact many young entrepreneurs with his strategies and tactics. This interview event will benefit many entrepreneurs and inspire many leaders in Vancouver.
Joo Kim Tiah comes from a wealthiest family in Malaysia. With many academic credentials, including International Business from Macquarie University, and over 10 years of real estate and finance experience, Joo Kim Tiah is considered one of the youngest successful international entrepreneur in the industry. Tiah is currently developing the $360 million Trump Towner in Vancouver.
As a second generation of wealth, Tiah inspires his parents’ hard work in their financial stock business. Tiah believes his career focus will be in real estate industry.
The life of growing up in Tiah’s family
Tiah shares his parents have a strong dominant, strict and harsh personalities. In the Asian family background, parents usually never say good things about their children. Tiah emphasizes his parents do not spoil him; instead, they educate Tiah the necessary skills he needs to be a dominant entrepreneur in challenge conditions.
“In business, you have to be tough, and I thank my parents for putting me in tough conditions”
View of mentorship
Tiah shares his mentors are his parents. When he was young, he always feel alone and independent. The pressure pushed Tiah to have the desire to be different. The energy pushed him to find his own identity.
Tiah believes listen is important. Listening is equivalent to learning, and leaders need to have stubborn conviction to become successful. When leaders do not blame themselves for the result, they will have the conviction about their products they want to sell. If leaders do not have conviction, they will not have the way to convict others about them.
Response for negative people
When leaders are surrounded by negative people, Tiah suggests leaders to thank them. In Tiah’s experience, there were many unsupported people who have doubt in his career. Instead of agreeing with them, Tiah use time to provide them wrong. The Trump Tower will complete in 2017 and it will accommodate with famous Asian Hong Kong restaurant, brand new lounge, and Las Vegas night club. Moreover, the tower will be a part of Tiah’s legend.
Tiah’s management style
Before the Trump Tower, Tiah worked on many small projects in real estate industry. Tiah’s father send him to work in Bank’s research department to improve his poor manner. In his career in the research department, it taught him the ability to analyze and the habit of reading. While working in the low position, Tiah was able to see the view of the world’s environment. Tiah experienced unfair treatments from corporate culture, such as inefficient employees got promotion instead of good working employees.
“I will ensure my company will not have this nonsense”
Tiah indicates his management style is a combination of Asian traditional and oversea cultures. his management style has the essence of Asian empire and general structure with loyalty concept and collective ways of western ownership. Tiah believes the best management style is the balance of both . His intention is to help his employees to achieve their career goals, but he also wants his employees to know he is the boss. Sometimes leaders need to be strong in their vulnerable situations. Leaders need to let their employees know they are in control.
Joo Kim Tiah’s typical living life
Tiah shares his typical living life is working 12 hours on weekday and 4-6 hours total on weekend. There is no right or wrong ways to live as an entrepreneur; in fact, the important factor is if it is effective or not. Tiah believes there are only a limit years in life can catch success and these coming years are his golden opportunity. This is the year to work hard.
Tiah believes if leaders want success, they need to sacrifice their time. Leaders need to accumulate wisdom when they are young to be prepared for future success. Moreover, leaders cannot delicate other people’s decisions before they can do it on their own.
“You cannot be a general before you fight in the battle”
Experience in Trump Tower
To ensure Trump Tower is a successful project, Tiah needs to master everything related to hotel, fitness, restaurant, and clubs. Tiah fulfills his clear vision by understanding what he is capable in this project and identify the missing pieces to measure success. by understanding all the parts that makes up the project, he needs to find people who can help him execute his vision.
Tiah has his certain way to execute his vision. He emphasizes that because if the project fails, no one can blame but himself. Every leader needs to understand that their decisions follow their hearts. Therefore, Tiah suggests leaders to not rely on experts; instead, leaders should provide them the directions to execute.
The decision of using the brand of Trump
Tiah looks at Vancouver to be more left than right, and Trump is more right than left. Tiah wants a brand with good real estate history trend. In addition, he wants a brand that brings the centre of attention and wants people to look at the details of the project.
While negotiating with other brands, Tiah experiences many CEOs never return his offer because due to the length of the contract, they already left the position. Companies are run by executives and it is important to ensure the business relationship sustains in long-term perspective. Therefore, Tiah chooses Trump because he knows he will be around for over 20 years. Tiah suggests leaders to know the life and expectation before any negotiation.
Two skills to be successful
Tiah believes leaders need to be visionary. Leaders need to identify the gap in the market and crystallize and package it to convince the audience. Leaders need to have the ability to explore the reason of why others are successful and why the world is changing.
The second skill is to be fair, honest, integrity and tough. With one bad experience, the life of entrepreneur will be over.
Tiah chooses Vancouver because their parents enjoy skiing in Vancouver when they were here. Tiah’s family has many other investments in Vancouver and they realize the environment is safer than other cities.
Why entrepreneurs fail?
People give up easily and success does not come overnight. Tiah believes leaders need to be the right place, right time and the right people. If leaders do not reinforce the necessary right habits at young age, it will be hard for them to be successful. Leaders need to be humble because no one wants to work with ego. When leaders get older, they will be hard to change. Therefore, it is important to have the right values at young.
Tiah suggests leaders to take business as a part of their lives. Leaders who have businesses must be obsessed with business in their lives. Business needs focus and it takes a long time to master. Tiah suggests leaders to do things people never expect to achieve. They need to spend time to achieve the goals that will achieve their visions.
Many people think they have a lot time to waste; instead, they need to delicate and commit their lives to be successful. The decision they make will make the difference. Sometimes people will feel lonely, but they need to make their lives count.
“People do not see the sacrifice, but sacrifice will be the difference”
Definition of success
Tiah wants to impact people in a positive way. It is important to reach to people who will follow the right leader. People will support leaders who provide positive impact; therefore, successful leaders need to be in a position that can help people. Moreover, leaders, who are on their way to be successful entrepreneurs, need to be recognized in community. Success comes from leaders who are willing to reach to others in different ways.
Questions and answers from audience
The experience with the Trump makes Tiah to raise his team’s momentum. After the negotiation, He knows Trump will be on his side 100%. This makes him proud.
“People should focus on present, and present will be future. I do not worry about future because I only focus on present”
The two superpower Tiah wants are reading people’s mind and healing people.
The choice of using the mix management style is because he realizes the world is going towards that. Tiah shares his hardest experience is during 2009, he needs to deal 4 people resign and 6 people suing on his first day of work in the company. The solution is to give everything to God. He has faith that by doing the best he can, God will save him. Therefore, he prays every morning.
Tiah recommends young entrepreneurs to develop the winning habit. It is important to receive small achievements when they are young because excellence comes from young. There are moments in life leaders doubt about themselves. Tiah suggests leaders to believe they are always the winner. They need to build confidence and create mentality at their best.
People have hard time to stay focus in this generation. Tiah does not multitasking; in fact, he wants to concentrate 100% on one task and nothing else on his mind.
Tiah believes charity work comes later in life. Young people should not focus everything on charity. Tiah will still provide contribution to charity and help others on their way to success.
Tiah is being caution with the project, which slow him down. If there is anything Tiah wants to change, he wants to speed up the process of the Trump Tower development. Tiah does not think about “what if” scenarios. Tiah believes there is always people jealous of second generation of wealth. From young age, people judge people without knowing them and force other people to be like them. Instead of being the clone, he recommends young leaders to write their own stories and be comfortable of who they really are.
Name: Power and Influence – Leadership concepts that earn greatest respect & drive
Presenter: Ryan Thomas
Many leaders are facing a lack of employee momentum problem in their organizations. When leaders are not receiving the mutual respect from their team members, they are frustrated and question their leadership strategies. This presentation is hosted by the meetup group called “I love Bubble Tea”. This seminar invites Ryan Thomas, a national officer from Canadian Forces, to share his knowledge of how the leadership in army supports leadership development. He also published his leadership book, “Become a Natural Leader: What a former army officer can teach you about leadership”. In this seminar, Ryan Thomas will explain the difference between management and leadership. Leaders will learn the simplest method to earn respect; moreover, leaders will improve their strength, motivation, and their identity.
In 17 years of military training, Ryan Thomas served as captain for 11 years. After the completion of his army, he participated in local dance community, accepted Sales Manager role in Australia, and educated leadership concepts in Canada. Thomas believes the passion in communication comes from the words people are using. While training in NLP program, he understands the importance of relationship building, which helps him develop the impact of combining leadership and military.
Is leadership important?
Thomas believes people are the social creature. They tend to be in small group that looking for direction. People need leaders. When organizations do not have leaders, the operation productivity will not be effective. In the end, hierarchy will be formed.
Many leaders think leadership is equivalent to management; however, Thomas emphasizes manager is not always equal to leader. In Thomas’s experience, he explains that he had to choose a direction to serve oversea or Chilliwack. He selected Chilliwack and accepted the instructor role to see day-to-day operation. As an instructor, Thomas trained to handle stress, become solider, and earn respect. Afterwards, he accepted another role of Assistant Operating Officer in Edmonton.
The way to earn respect is a big deal
The way to earn respect comes from action. Thomas shares his colleague from army to his respect from losing a limb and still returns to war. Another colleague accepted the duty in Afghanistan and lost her 2 team members. Thomas indicates in leadership, principle is all the same.
“You cannot force people to give respect; they need to earn it first”
In the military, it is mandatory to complete the leadership courses. The course contains military responsibility, professional development, physical fitness, curriculum activities, and bilingual language. After 5 years of taking leadership courses, the true leadership starts. With all the military leadership training, Thomas encountered many personal leadership challenges.
Thomas shares an example of women issue. Thomas faces a woman who do not feel she has been respected and challenge the issue with unnecessary force. This results of women in anger. Nevertheless, Thomas recognizes he has leadership issue. While he researched the woman’s history, he changed his approach to dissolve the problem. Thomas believes it is important to understand and be accountable.
Thomas shares another example in the military service. Thomas encounters a man with 3 harassment complaints. He could not talk or communicate with people. After the investigation, he realizes he is the one with the problem.
Thomas believes leading by example is important. He is inspired by a military leader who takes the time to know his troops. He manages to encourage army of 1000 to run together. He is also inspired by another military leader that creates the friendly atmosphere. The leader creates the trust and allows others to trust her. People respect back and create more respect between her and her troops.
“If you have a problem without a solution, you are just whiny”
Leadership culture
All leadership concepts are the same. Thomas believes leaders need to inspire people with values and allows values to become a part of the company. Leaders must recognize other values and encourage them to be the character of the company.
Leadership management
Management is given to people to manage the resource. This includes tasks, roles and responsibility. However, leadership is different because it is lead people with values. In the economy, big business and investors will find ways to create system to generate profit without the leaders present. As for employees and self-employees, they need to be present to generate profit.
Thomas believes it will not work if leaders cannot treat people as resources. In fact, leaders need to treat people as a part of system that helps them earn profit.
How do leaders earn respect?
Thomas believes feedbacks from success and failures are significant. Without feedbacks, people might not be effective in military. Thomas provides a simple list for leaders to identify people who respect their role.
Not Respect
Respect
A lot more drama
Not abuse system
Arguments
Inspire to work
Against system
Offer feedback
Bare amount of effort
Extra effort and offer new solutions
Ineffective employee
Job opportunities
Thomas also shares 3 ways to recognize people who give leaders respect.
People who will ask advice
People who will invite conversation
People who will stop talking when leaders are talking
Thomas shares three ways to earn respect
Lead by example
Accountability
Listening
People give respect when leaders perform the tasks in front of their team members. It is important to show people how leaders want them to become. It is necessary to learn the ability to recognize leader’s mistakes. In addition, leaders cannot be controlled by ego. Many people feel weak if they admit their mistakes; nevertheless, Thomas believes in the long run, people will obtain the strength to face the future challenge. It is proportional.
During the interaction, it is leaders’ responsibility to ensure the team understands. It is leaders’ responsibility to reconsider the value from communication. Therefore, leaders need to listen and consider others perspective. Thomas suggests leaders to reevaluate and ensure what other’s need and allow them to be heard.
Leadership assertiveness
Thomas illustrates there are 4 types of people. Passive people have no real boundaries. They believe they are nice people and people will be nice to them. Aggressive people are violent. They force people and people fear them. Passive aggressive people are the combination of passive and aggressive characteristics. They are too afraid to bring it up, but they always say something aggressive. Thomas believes these three types of people are manipulative. Leaders need to become assertiveness people. They are responsible their own believe, actions, and desire. Others can decline, and they can decline others as well. They create their own boundaries with no emotion behind. Thomas believes assertiveness people will earn respect. Assertiveness people shift their relationship and filter out all the negative people in their lives.
Leadership change life
Leadership changes Thomas’ life. In the military, there was a time he felt a complete failure due to his personal issues. He could not handle the stress and started to quit on every opportunities. When he was depressed, his supervisor, Captain Steve Parker, encouraged him to seek for help to resolve issue. That was his first time in military that feels people are listening to him and care for him. He pulled himself out. Up until this day, Thomas is still respect Captain Steve Parker.
“You need to step up or else you are hurting the team”
Questions and Answers
The most pressured moment in Thomas’ military life is when one of the officers’ personal information got leaked. He needed to calm down and control the situation. Even though he was not responsible for the situation, he was accountable for the result.
Many leaders treat work as friends. Thomas feels it is difficult to separate friendship and work. This is a part of his personal leadership style. Thomas believes leaders can still be respectful leaders but they do not need to know all the details from their team members. Create positive communication is what matters the most.
In corporation, employees will see their boss’s effort. The leaders in corporation need to create social atmosphere. Leaders need to demonstrate they are working the extra effort for their corporation values. People respect leaders who they are standing on their values.
The next step in leadership
Thomas illustrates the common leaders’ leadership pattern.
A majority of leaders punish themselves based on the awareness they react, but they are not changing the behaviors in the long run. Instead punish, Thomas suggests leaders to reward awareness. By rewarding awareness, it will eventually change the behaviors.
Name: Small Business Council Success Series – Creating a remarkable brand
Presenters: Mikkel Strojer, Mo Dhaliwal, and Nick Routley
Creating a remarkable brand requires strong commitment from entrepreneurs. In addition, entrepreneurs need to focus on their innovation and awareness to develop their brand identity. The Small Business Council invites Mikkel Strojer, the Director of Marketing and Digital at Vancouver Whitecaps, Mo Dhaliwal, the Director of Strategy from Skyrocket Digital, and Nick Routley, the Creative Director from Visual Capitalist. The panelists will share their insights and experience to help entrepreneurs to build a consistent brand, infographics and market messages. This is a presentation will provide useful tactics for entrepreneurs to enhance their current branding strategies.
The strategy behinds the brand of Vancouver Whitecap
As a Director of Marketing and Digital at Vancouver Whitecaps, Mikkel Strojer has the passion to enhance the current Vancouver Whitecap image. He was named 2013 Major League Soccer Marketing Executive and won over many Marketing awards. In addition, Strojer’s achievements have helped him and Vancouver Whitecaps to capture the more market’s attention.
Strojer mentions Vancouver Whitecaps do all the marketing in-house. When Strojer started his Marketing position in Vancouver Whitecaps, there were many manual paper and information workflows. Many employees do not know the mission statement; therefore, Strojer believes he needs to rebrand the mission, vision and values. The first change is to display the values on the wall for all employees to see.
Strojer believes doing the marketing in-house is a way to save money. Moreover, it secures the branding control and the quality. In Vancouver Whitecaps, there are three channels in the organization that funnel the branding: Senior Manager Marketing, Senior Manager Digital Media, and Know More Guess Less. They are all target at different aspects in the market and they work together as a team.
Strojer emphasizes brand is everything and all pitches reflect on brand. The organization implements project software to organize the progress to allow them to go one step ahead and one step up. The new revolution of branding needs to be appeal to the new generation and that is to create a story that market needs to relate. Strojer suggests entrepreneurs to focus on one consistent story and use actions to reflect on the values. Small projects make small decisions; however, they are all a part of the overall branding. Entrepreneurs need to elevate small projects.
Mo Dhaliwal’s remarkable branding
As a Director of Strategy at Skyrocket Digital, Mo Dhaliwal has passion to create strong and positive experience for clients and communities. Dhaliwal has been recognized as the national recipient of the Arnold Edinborough Award. Moreover, he receives the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for his success in his career.
Dhaliwal believes branding is a spiritual experience from a process. The important aspect from branding is to create loyal sharing with the audience. Dhaliwal illustrates examples, such as Nest that cares for minor details with a strong impact story, Burton that creates enjoyable and memorable personal lifestyle experience, and Apple that demands audience attention and experience from their box design.
Dhaliwal emphasizes Branding comes from craft perception and build equity. Craft perceptions will help entrepreneurs to focus on values, connection and differentiation. Moreover, build equity will help entrepreneurs to focus on longevity, emotion and recall.
The important concept that Dhaliwal wants entrepreneurs to know is the story behind the brand. Entrepreneurs will need to apply AIDA on their brand building. AIDA represents “Attention”, “Interest”, “Desire”, and “Action”.
Dhaliwal also mentions there are 4 stages entrepreneurs need to know where they need to focus their branding strategies.
Each level represents the attention from audience. It is important to strategize the branding to capture the truth moments from each level.
In the new generation, AIDA concept has evolved to the next level. Dhaliwal shares the new concept of AISDALove, which is the abbreviation of “Attention”, “Interest”, “Search”, “Desire”, “Action”, “Like”, “Share”, and “Love”. The 5 elements from AISDALove relate to perception, and the last 3 elements relate to emotion. With all combine, it will drive the relationship for the audience.
“A remarkable brand is a valued relationship of extraordinary experience”
The importance of infographic
As a Creative Director at Visual Capitalist, Nick Routley has passion to improve visual communication for companies. Furthermore, Routley is the Emily Carr University graduate and he believes infographic is the next successful tool for branding.
Nick Routley defines data visualization is data or information presented in a visual ways. These are graphs, flow charts and diagram. In fact, infographics is a combination of those visuals elements within a cohort piece.
Traditionally, infographics are not fad. The early example of visual communication is hieroglyphics. However, in the new generation, people are living in a visual era, which means images, graphics, and iconography are the center of attention in visual communication. This forces the society to believe infographics are fad.
Knowledge is power and people want to make informed decisions. More data and information are available everywhere. Entrepreneurs need to make use of the information. In addition, it is important for entrepreneurs to define the right targets and goals for branding.
Routley suggests 3 methods to improve visual communication using brand. The first method is to tell a data-infused story. The second method is to organize a complex process, and the third method is to turn datasets into insight. Infographic is a solution for entrepreneurs to present their visual communication. They can decide their own unique style and write their own structure. Moreover, infographic can contain informed call that helps entrepreneurs to discover audience’s browsing habits.
Routley recommends entrepreneurs to speak with their designers to design the right infographics that align with the current goals and limitation. There are 6 common tips Routley shares that will create an effective infographics
Put extra effort into the header
Avoid too many colors and fonts
Avoid extraneous graphics, icons, etc.
Go beyond the list of statistics
List your sources at the end of the piece
Avoid “gee-whiz” comparisons
Questions and answers
The decision to go in house or outsource to agency depends on the direction and the budget. It also depends on the nature of the work. If it is for production, the panelists suggest entrepreneurs not to outsource. If it is for strategic thinking, agency might be a solution for entrepreneurs. To choose the right agency, the panelists recommend entrepreneurs to figure out if agency wants to sell their product or understand the company.
It is important to get the story straight. Entrepreneurs need to understand what they are good at and what their targets. There are always both sides to the brand, and the panelists suggest entrepreneurs to interact with both sides and focus on the people who will support their brand.
Name: Studiothink – How to turn web visitors to customers
Presenter: Rick Sloboda
Entrepreneurs need to understand that a majority of customers are from World Wide Web, and it is critical to understand the method to reach the target audience from the web. Studiothink invites Rick Sloboda, the Senior Web Copywriter and Content Strategist from Webcopyplus, to teach entrepreneurs the key concepts of converting web visitors to customers. Rick Sloboda focuses on helping business owners to promote their website contents, and he involves in committee advisor in many organizations. This presentation will benefit entrepreneurs to boost their online sales.
Rick Sloboda wants all entrepreneurs to identify their purposes, goals, and objectives. Entrepreneurs need to figure out their product leads and how they can use website to create awareness. All goals and objectives must associate with their desired audience’s needs and wants. In addition, entrepreneurs need to define their call to action. This will help entrepreneurs to lead their desired audience to the right location.
Sloboda believes building visitor-centric information architecture is significant for all entrepreneurs. In other words, entrepreneurs need to define what their visitors are looking for. A Bad example of information architecture is when visitors are lost on from the content and need to search where they want to see. Many entrepreneurs use organizational chart to categorize their website headings, but this will confuse visitors to determine where they want to go. Sloboda believes a simple two buttons, such as “buy a business” or “sell a business” can simplify audience’s search.
“People do not care about your business. They only care what the business bring to them”
Visitor-centric web content
The concept of website content is “writing to convert”. The content must be about the visitors.
Sloboda suggests all web content to be written in second person narrative. It is important to understand it is not what entrepreneurs want to say, yet it is what the audience wants to hear. Moreover, entrepreneurs need to be more objective and communicate at the lower denominator.
It will be beneficial if entrepreneurs can write in audience’s language. This will reduce the downtime, inconvenience and costs when entrepreneurs use the right language and the right word choices.
Sloboda believes the “features tell and benefits sell”. Benefits focus on growth, profitability, work/life balance, and succession. The strategy can be altering by depending on audience. Entrepreneurs need to identify the audience segment and find the trigger point.
It is important to be different. Sloboda emphasizes entrepreneurs should identify their strength and leverage on the audience. Entrepreneurs will know if they are on the right track when they cannot fit their web content onto their competitors’ website template. Sloboda provides many factors.
Selection
Technology
Example
Geography
Knowledge
Alliances
Credentials
Resources
Expediency
Tools
Style
Customer Services
Third party endorsements
Artificial enthusiasm comes across as spam and it will damage entrepreneurs’ trust. Sloboda believes third-party endorsement can be the best way to create credibility. Testimonials are weapons of influence; however, it will not be effective if audience will not able to read them. Sloboda suggests entrepreneurs to crunch down the long testimonials and distribute them out around the website.
Grammar and punctuation should be correct. Entrepreneurs should hire editor to avoid typical errors, including the incorrect use of language. Keep it short and simple is the key. Web page should use the relevant headlines, subheads, bullet points, short paragraphs, and descriptive links. If contents are long, Sloboda recommends people to use the drill down method.
Entrepreneurs need to ask for sales. However, they need to be direct and respectful. SEO will need 120 words minimum, so the right and precise content is very important.
“Connect, engage, and convert”
“Content comes first; design comes next; design should support the content”
An important concept every leader needs to know in any leadership is to develop others. It is important for leaders to recognize their team members and find ways to exceed their potentials. This presentation invites Garth Pieper, the Director of Lotto Sales in British Columbia Lotto Corporation, to discuss his leadership insights in the area of developing others. Garth Pieper will share his journey of success in BCLC. Moreover, leaders will benefit this presentation and discover their ways to improve others.
Garth Pieper has been in the managing position for over 15 years. Pieper started his career in the beverage industry. Without any initial training, he managed to work from sales to a management position. He discovered his leadership style was surrounded by a question.
“How do I want to treat people?”
For the first 7 years, Pieper had no mentoring and there were not many positive role models he could look upon. In his 8 years in BCLC, he felt the culture was dramatically different. He learned the culture was focused on people. He had the opportunity to manage other managers because the culture encouraged him to lead people through others. Alternatively, he realized leading people could transform others.
Developing others
A method of developing other leaders is to encourage them to ask questions. It requires two way communications. By discover their deep understanding of their career, leaders can align future opportunities and task to their desire achievement. Pieper calls this “big picture approach”.
Pieper believes by helping others increase potentials can evolve their current skills. Leaders can utilize resources to help their teams to reach their potentials. Pieper defines developing others requires joint initiative. In an organization, it is important to encourage employment development, which includes professional and personal growth. Sometimes leaders use pushing method to develop joint accountability with their employees; however, Pieper believes instead of pushing, leaders should lead others to identify their self-awareness on both personal and professional growth.
Leadership comes from any role. Anybody can show leadership as long as they can inspire others.
“If you did not get it, you need to find it”
Leadership capabilities
Leaders need to have certain capabilities to develop others. These include empathy, trust, respect, authenticity, empowerment, and value people. However, Pieper believes the most important capability is to like people.
“If you do not like people, you cannot develop people”
Pieper believes leaders need to know how to do it themselves In order to help others. Developing others includes three elements: encourage, accountability, and confidence. Leaders will not do others work for them; instead, they just need to hold accountable for them. Furthermore, leaders need to distinguish managing people and managing growth.
Pieper suggests leaders need to help others to develop their realistic plans. This includes tough conversations and active listening. Leaders have the ability to do more listening and provide strategic orientation.
Leaders should be transparent to their teams. Leaders need to take their plans ahead by knowing where they want to take their team. Team charter is significant because it will help teams to identify their directions. Moreover, plans will help leaders to understand others career aspirations.
Pieper recommends leaders to set regular meetings. Meetings can categorize to development, operational, and performance meeting. Each meeting focuses on different tangible goals. As a matter of fact, it is important to be clear and put it in context because tough conversations can lead to empathy. Meetings should be personalized because it can help leaders to choose the right solutions for the right people.
“If it means that much to you, you will find no excuse”
Leaders can discover their growth by tracking their progress and accomplishments. Feedback from others can also track others growth.
During the transition, Pieper indicates learning growth is important. In a new career environment, leaders need to create relationship with their new teams and new boss. In addition, leaders need to learn to trust people and treat people with respect.
Pieper recommends leaders to generate a list they want to accomplish. This will help leaders to keep track. Leaders need to be humble and always put other’s needs in front of their own. Start small, and with compound effect, leaders will see the outcome in the future.
Sometimes team members can have different styles. Leaders need to create a clear line with their team. It is important to provide the tough conversation early. Leaders need to be patient and nobody is perfect. Moreover, leaders need to set a clear expectation. If leaders want people to growth, they must be willing let others fail. If leaders do not have that flexibility, they will restrict others to grow.
“More power leadership you have, more people watching you”
Pieper indicates leaders who will not get others motivated, they will not able to get others to grow. Leaders can choose their attitude they want to project. More positive of their attitude, more energy they will change others.
“Before you develop others, you will develop yourself”
Name: Company of Young Professionals – Leadership Café with Great Canadian Gaming Corporation
Presenter: Chuck Keeling
The gaming industry in British Columbia supports many nonprofit organizations. Leaders in BC, especially in nonprofit sector, will know the gaming fund plays a great contribution through their operations. Gaming industry illustrates a major part of BC economic status. Company of Young Professionals invites Chuck Keeling, the Vice President of Stakeholder Relations and Responsible Gaming at Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, to discuss their industry issues and economic opportunities trends. Moreover, the presentation will expect young entrepreneurs to provide innovative ideas to address their concerns.
Great Canadian Gaming Corporation (GCGC) is founded in 1982. Currently GCGC is over 4000 employees in 4 jurisdictions. With over 16 properties, GCGC operates 10 casinos, hotels, resorts, theatres, and 4 race tracks. In addition, GCGC owns over 3 community gaming center in BC and it is public traded company.
Chuck Keeling illustrates the flowchart of the gaming industry.
Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch -> British Columbia Lotto Corporation -> Service providers -> Locations
The mandate of GPEB is to ensure BCLC is regulated by the Gaming control regulations. Therefore; all service providers are following the legal obligations.
Keeling indicates in this setting industry context, GCGC is a service provider. GCGC will ensure all locations are under the Gaming standard.
Keeling shares average of 706 million funding will be generated from GCGC per year. Two third of the funding will allocate to Provincial to support social programs for the community. The remaining one third will be retained by services partners, which includes wages, building costs and operation expenses.
GCGC also allocates funding to Municipalities. Within all the GCGC locations, Keeling states Richmond has the highest revenue report to Municipalities. In average, GCBC participates Community Gaming Grant Program that support over 5000 nonprofit communities with over 135 million funding annually.
Keeling believes GCGC has provided on both financial and on-financial supports. In addition, GCGC focuses on infrastructure development to help the communities. Keeling realizes the GCGC has provided opportunities by offering more than just gaming and hospitality. Furthermore, GCGC focuses on entertainment sector and provide employment opportunities which impact the labor market. The additional and direct economic investments from GCGC also create opportunities to grow in the economy.
Challenges from GCGC
Keeling believes GCGC is facing 5 major issues that could jeopardize the gaming industry.
Problem gambling
Money laundering
Perception that casinos are associated with criminal activity
Gaming as an economic drain to the economy
Overall social stigma associated with gambling and casinos
Overall, Keeling is looking for innovative solutions from young entrepreneurs to solve these two questions.
What do young entrepreneurs feel are the biggest barriers or issues for casinos in BC?
In light of the barriers, what can casinos do to address these issues?
Responses from young entrepreneurs
Young entrepreneurs believes social stigma, which people believe casino has the bad influence on people, is a critical issue GCGC needs to address. They suggest GCGC to provide loyalty program to help gamblers to create self-awareness.
By providing a different set of membership package with exclusive deals, such as other attractions from BC, members are able to relate the message of supporting local communities. Young entrepreneurs recommend GCGC to work with other local nonprofit organizations to educate the social message. With a strong control on advertisement, GCGC can use visuals to impact the communities. Another suggestion is to allow GCGC to have a voting system for members to donate a bigger cause. With a strong media push, GCGC can create a different social message to the communities. When communities are aware of the social cause behind GCGC, they will participate and support the gaming industry.
Name: Board of Change – The future of BC’s tech sector
Presenters: Michael Delage, Amielle Lake, Bill Tam, and Ray Walia
Board of Change is an organization that focuses on value of social and environmental in British Columbia. In addition, the organization evolves around the three pillars: education, transformation and celebration. Sonny Wong, the Chair of Board of Change, invites the panelists to discuss the future trend in technology sector in BC. The panelists include Michael Delage, the Vince President of Technology of General Fusion, Amielle Lake, the CRO and Founder of Tagga, Bill Tam, the CEO of BCTIA, and Ray Walia, the Founder of Launch Academy. With the moderator, Linda Solomon Wood, the Founder of The Vancouver Observer, the panelists will share their experience in the technology sector that will impact leaders in BC.
The most recent research from Conversations for Responsible Economic Development (CRED) shows BC has a potential trend of social responsibility. The BC private sector is made out of over 98% of small businesses. The innovation is the drive of BC sectors and the growth thrives from technology, corner stone, higher multiplier and investment. Even though there is growth in technology, but BC is still underperforming compare with United States. Therefore, BC will encounter a lack of skill staffs and government will need to robust their programs.
Delage mentions it is important to have a clean technology in BC. Based on history, many BC companies are benefit from tech companies. Until now, many BC tech companies are looking for ways to solve economy problems, such as reducing CO2.
Lake illustrates the startup funds for tech companies are available more in BC than before. There are many organizations that will help startup companies with the exchange of equity. The capital is there and there are some programs that do not take too much of equity.
Tam emphasizes the technology sector has outgrown the economic resources. The future will face more intercompany transactions with technology industry. The technology sector is development quickly and it is a good time for investment in technology.
The challenge in technology startups in BC is the talent. Walia believes there are many positions available in technology sector, but there are not enough talent skilled candidates. Moreover, in this current age of technology, Walia indicates “coding” is the new language that new generation needs to know. Coding will be viral around the world and it will be mandatory in technology industry. Companies need to fertilize BC’s growth opportunities by including coding course in students’ education. Baby boomers will transition out in technology industry and millennial need to prepare themselves for the transition phase.
Tam agrees with Walia about the issue. The issue is to find the right people in technology companies. Companies are facing difficult choices to pick the right direction to grow. Nevertheless, they need to seek out to be a part of technology trend.
Schools are now offering more technology courses, but Lake believes it is not enough. The curriculum is still far behind from economic standard, and school system is falling behind. Walia believes technology in education needs to catchup by teaching the right skill set to retain the potential workers in technology sector. B2B is potential, but BC is not seeing that in technology sector.
Delage believes technology is not constrained from resources. BC is good at getting the technology sector prepared, but BC still needs additional support to push the sector forward. Talent and financing are important factors in technology sector and BC needs to put these two pieces together to grow.
Businesses are driven by investors and opportunities are there in technology sector. Delage believes money comes from efficient solutions in technology sector. BC needs invest the opportunities in energy for a stronger social change. Lake also mentions the opportunities come from young entrepreneurs. Young entrepreneurs care about community and they will have the mindset to give back to the community. Young people are driven by social change and it will help people to create more talent. Moreover, talent drives profit.
Tam shows technology sector a platform for people to perform. It is a promise of tomorrow. The issue is how to apply the current knowledge into technology sector for better use. Lake indicates the research industry took a strong hit a couple of years ago. The investment from research industry is sitting at the sideline and waiting for comeback. Investors are willing to diverse the research investment to technology sector, and there will be a comeback in technology sector.
Comparing with the rest of the world, BC is falling behind in technology. Tam responses that because the technology industry in Canada started late in 2012. Therefore, Canadian government does not invest too much research in the technology industry. Tam indicates the gap comes from Canada is too conservative since they are not good at growing the new market. Canada needs to support the talents to create more opportunities for catchup. Walia responses people do not like to invest things they do not understand. BC needs to find ways to educate investors the benefit of technology sector.
Delage understands there are more global companies that are partnering with technology companies. Instead of global companies invest in R&D, they are creating a culture shift to partner with technology sector. Global companies are using venture capital to benefit the technology sector. Moreover, Canada is still developing this phase. Tam believes adaption is a challenge for BC, so BC starts a “collusion day” to encourage companies to partner with technology sector.
BC technology companies usually do not go public because technology companies could not sustain the requirement from public. Technology companies are fast growing with inconsistent growth. If technology companies go public, they will lose the aggressive drive that will break their limitation.
Tam emphasizes patents are not good at private sector. They need support from big companies. BC technology sector is not affected by the rise of real estate market. Walia indicates space will be available for future startup companies in BC.
It is important to plant seeds to educate young generation. High schools are not offering enough technology courses and they are not getting enough support from the ministry.
Name: Mantalks – What women want – masculinity through a woman’s eyes
Presenters: Krystal Gabriel, Kate Muker, and Kelsey Grant
Mantalks is a developing community of men that creates possibilities to connect and engage for stronger growth. By develop strong characteristic and personalities, leaders will improve and engage stronger relationship with others. This presentation will invite three local leaders, Kate Muker, Krystal Gabriel, and Kelsey Grant, to share their views of what their expectations from masculine men. Communication is the key for leaders and leaders need to embrace their conversations in social relationships. Moreover, leaders will be able to understand what feminine are looking for from masculine and they will enhance their insights to build interactive relationships.
Experience from Krystal Gabriel
Krystal Gabriel, the Solutions Engineer from Virtus, has the passion to inspire leaders in many organizations. She helped out with the launch of Mindvalley Academy, an online university that provides leadership education for many leaders. In addition, her contributions through a blogger and speaker impact the communities with many strong messages.
When Krystal Gabriel was young, she was taught to have a balance of characteristic traits of men and women. She witnessed a personal event that believe emotional is her weakness. Nevertheless, she built up a wall by being more masculine, such as never cry in public. Her childhood was influenced by men, and in relationship, she began to become the driver of her relationships. She realized her detective wall is influencing her relationship; therefore, she began to find ways to improve her feminine side. She went to seminars to discover herself.
In Gabriel’s relationships, she studies her men in her life. She was inspired by her mentor that people who are meant to be together in any relationship will do their best to keep their relationships up. Gabriel shares she has a declaration that combines her soft and solid skills.
Gabriel believes man needs three qualities.
Make each other better
Be someone others are willing to learn
Be tolerance
Gabriel understands many women still need their emotional safety net. Therefore, Gabriel suggestions in any relationship, it is important to find the balance between women and men. They need to communicate with each other to understand their agreement. Moreover, they need to invite each other to step up.
Gabriel shares the world need men who are intelligent, talent and have personality. Since everyone has their own stories, it is important to figure out if the other half is lean or repeal each other.
“Dive in and be yourself”
Experience from Kate Muker
Kate Muker, the CEO and Founder of Conscious Divas, has a strong belief that women need to discover their own authentic paths. She is featured in Vancouver Sun, and Globe and Mail based on her inspiration and empowerment with local women leaders. Moreover, her contributions lead to her passion and motivation to help local communities.
In her current 9 years of relationship, 6 years of her relationship are marriage. Kate Muker shares most of her relationships lasted 2 to 3 years. When she was 19 years old, she had a challenged relationship. She knew her partner involves crime, but her decision was driven by her emotion. She isolated her friends and deflated her life because of emotion. When she realized a voice in her heart tries to convince her that she deserves better, she stepped out of that relationship.
Muker started to do self-discovery to increase her self-worth. She learned she needs a relationship with fun and deep meaningful conversations. Money cannot buy happiness; in fact, Muker believes connection and feeling are extremely important in relationship. In her next relationship, she learned the value of friendship; however, she could not surpass the friendship. Therefore, she is on a solo trip once again.
In her current relationship, she meets her husband. She believes the journey of self-discovering will help in relationship. Muker believes there are 5 elements she believes every relationship needs. The first is relationship needs to have a commitment through emotionally and spiritually. Both men and women need to grow a path together share where they are at that moment. The second is relationship needs a strong communication. Both men and women need to be open, honest and receive to listen to others. The third is relationship has the equation of happy wife equals to happy life. Every man needs to understand what woman needs. Men need to have the desire to figure out. The fourth is relationship needs support and space. Furthermore, the fifth is to have the vision to pursue the dream in the world.
“Communication in relationship is like a window. If you throw mud on the window and it will be hard to see each side and need to wash up at the end”
Experience from Kelsey Grant
Kelsey Grant, the Relationship Coach, has the passion to people in the world to have balanced and happy relationships. Her coaching helps people to open up through a healing journey. Moreover, she connects with many women and aligned many leaders with their leadership and relationships. Kelsey Grant publishes “Sabotaged Love – The 12 Archetypes Keeping you from the love you want” that will help many people to find their space in their lives.
Kelsey Grant shares the common relationship problem theme is the unavailable capacity. In Grant’s early relationship, she admits it was her unavailable capacity and commitment that lead to the end of her most relationships. Grant went on a quest to create the habit of commitment by learning new guitar chords, upload YouTube videos and post love blogs online. She believes if she is able to show up for herself, she can show up to the world.
During Grants’ childhood, she would fall in love easily. However, most of her early relationship developed the relationship dynamic where people show up and disappear. Therefore, Grant realized she needs to look for a partner who can stand and clear to the world.
In Grant’s next relationship, she found the man who has similar interest. They are able to produce music and develop the sense of purpose in life. Since her life was surrounded by music, she believed it was necessary to connect relationship with her music. However, Grant realized music was not her life purpose and discovered her purpose was about love and help people. She started her search once again. There was a lot of ups and downs in her next relationship, but she managed to find the partner she had the connection with her life purpose.
Grant believes relationship needs emotion connection and honestly. If people want others to be honest, they must need to be honest first. It is necessary to create space in the relationship to grow. Both men and women need to be vulnerable to have personal access with each other.
“Without honest and clarity, relationship will fall apart”
Grant emphasizes love can bring everything in life alive. Both men and women need to be clear about the values and the boundaries. Relationship needs to have a purpose. Without honestly, there will be ego fighting on the stage. Therefore, Grant suggests every relationship needs these 3 principles.
Know who you are
Act in alignment with your mission
Courage to ask tough questions.
Grant believes all relationship need to have maintenance and promise to listen without over react is important.
The panel
The panel believes there is no checklist for a perfect relationship; instead, people need to concentrate on feelings. If there is respect, people need to navigate. Journey can be different, but strong commitment is always required. Connection can help people to find the right partners. Clarity at the early stage is essential. The panel suggests two questions for relationship follow up.
What is the purpose of partnership?
What can we each bring for each other?
The panel wants people to commit to personal growth and self-love to establish more understand about others. It is important to not over react on others’ reactions; instead, people can only react if they are at the same level. Men need to show commitment and clarity by stepping into masculine role. Women expect appreciation and connection. Therefore, men need to take time to nurture the connection and activities with women that can show they are unique and exceptional.
Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group is a community that links Vancouver entrepreneurs, who have similar financial mindset, together. Dan Lok, the Founder of Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group, is honored to invite Darren Jacklin to share his knowledge about professional business and life growth. Darren Jacklin is the World-Class Professional speaker and an Angel Investor. With over 19 years of business experience, he manages to mentor many strong entrepreneurs and business owners with effective strategies. He is featured on many financial media, such as The Wall Street Journal and Global TV. Moreover, this presentation will inspire and motivate entrepreneurs to avoid distractions for the year 2015 and expand their business wealth.
Darren Jacklin shares his life was at rock bottom at the age of 22. One day, he went Dale Carnegie training that changed his life forever. The event changed his mindset, improved confidence, and surpassed his shame of his past. Jacklin believes the insecurity and “not good enough” is the driver towards his ultimate life goal. He met his first successful business mentor, who only has grade three education, and inspired his advice of “Live out of interest of interest”. Over the life of his life, Jacklin always spend time with specular wealthy entrepreneurs when there is a chance.
Jacklin encourages entrepreneurs to travel. It will change their mindset of life and create the habit of being proactive. Jacklin also encourages entrepreneurs to have their own gratitude jar. When entrepreneurs complete a challenge, they can insert into the jar. At the end of the year, entrepreneurs can review them and celebrate their success.
“How to measure your life success is progress”
Jacklin suggests entrepreneurs to have a journal and write for 20 minutes a day. The journal will give entrepreneurs the opportunity to reflect themselves.
Daily Method of Operation
The first thing Jacklin will do every morning is to focus on the attitude of gratitude. The second thing Jacklin will do is to read 10 pages of motivation books per day. Jacklin believes entrepreneurs do not pay by their time; instead, they will get paid by their results. Therefore, entrepreneurs drive for execution. Many entrepreneurs will send their kids to private school to teach their kids to network. The third thing Jacklin will do is to spend one hour to understand how to raise capital. Moreover, it is important for Entrepreneurs to know how to allocate their time.
“Successful entrepreneurs do not watch news, they make news”
Jacklin believes there are two primary income strategies entrepreneurs need to develop. The first strategy is to leverage. When entrepreneurs realize others pay their portion of meals or activities, they need to figure out the cost and transfer the amount of cost to TFSA account. This is a way for entrepreneurs to save money without any risk. The saving will cumulate over time, and entrepreneurs can use the fund for future investment. The second strategy is to get goals. A majority of people will set goals 2 times a year, and 95% of people will never achieve their goals. Jacklin suggests entrepreneurs to write their goals once at morning and once at night. This will change their mindset, focus on their proactive activities, and align their career direction. Entrepreneurs should have a top 20 goals list. By consistently write day after day, entrepreneurs will change their behaviors.
Entrepreneurs should declare one hour a day to study something they do not know about different industry. By committing one subject a day, the result will be compound. Jacklin wants entrepreneurs to trust the process that will change their lives forever.
Jacklin shares 96% of people in network events do not follow up after their encounters. Successful entrepreneurs will have the determination to follow up and bring people together. Successful entrepreneurs will do whatever it takes to get attention from the noises.
Entrepreneurs will push themselves to another level and create a “must meet list”. The list contains the names of successful entrepreneurs that they want to meet. Moreover, Jacklin believes people are only 3 degrees apart from other people. Entrepreneurs should start asking others for requests. During the requesting, Jacklin believes 3 things will happen: accept, decline or counter. Aside from limitation from authority, people generally will accept the requests.
Jacklin introduces the TAPO system that helps entrepreneurs to plan their success step by step.
Time
How much time entrepreneurs need to spend?
Agenda
What is the schedule look like?
Purpose
What is the purpose of the meeting?
Outcome
What is the expected result from the meeting?
Jacklin believes when entrepreneurs attract new problem they could not solve, they have to go out of their current groups to search for solution. This shows improvement from entrepreneurs. Successful people spend money to save time and unsuccessful people waste their time to save money. Entrepreneurs should realize time is their greatest asset of life. Moreover, entrepreneurs need to spend time to do activities that they can learn from or they can get them excited.
“Success is a series of well managed failures”
Friends and families will call entrepreneurs crazy, lucky or crock; however, they should understand who they can impact. Entrepreneurs need to believe they can make a difference to others’ lives and delicate a cause that is bigger than them.
Sometimes parents intend to send the message “you are not good enough” to their entrepreneurs instead of “you could do better” Jacklin suggests to ask “how do you get paid to do that?” to change their mindset.
How to grow business?
Jacklin believes entrepreneurs should have an idea. This idea can be either “hug” or “slug” by many people. Entrepreneurs need to have the ability to have uncomfortable conversation with others. Therefore, self-aware is the key and entrepreneurs need to run the race where no one is around because there can be time where they will be alone. Entrepreneurs should spend time to understand what others want and how to empower their lives by solving their problems. Entrepreneurs should ask themselves what they fail and what they learn from the experience. Moreover, they need to learn the behind the scene from successful people.
Jacklin indicates it is important for entrepreneurs to change their work environment once a while.
Jacklin recommends all entrepreneurs to ask 2 questions to successful entrepreneurs.
How do you know when you are different?
When do you know when you are different?
Entrepreneurs have the fear of asking for more. However, they do not know what other people are thinking. Jacklin believes sometimes others have more faith then entrepreneurs themselves. Jacklin suggests entrepreneurs to write out 200 reasons why they are good enough. This will help them improve their confidence.
Entrepreneurs should start doing things that will impact their future. The best way is to learn to take action and there is always a solution when entrepreneurs are fully committed.
“Success is something you attract into your life to someone you want to become”
The purpose of GetSetGo Summit 2015 is formed to help entrepreneurs to launch a head start success in the beginning of the year 2015. The organizer, Jonathan Chow, the founder of Vancouver Entrepreneur Business Builders, believes by learning the practical strategies from different leaders, entrepreneurs will acquire the necessary skills, especially social media, to maximize their business results. Entrepreneur needs ambitions and this conference will provide the expertise knowledge to accomplish their business achievements.
Welcome to the future
Nik Badminton, the Regional Director of Freelancer, is invited to share his insight of how software technology will influence the future entrepreneurs. Nik Badminton has over many years of experience in digital industry. With his consulting, he manages to lead and transform many companies to become the influencer in their industries.
Nik Badminton believes software is impacting the world. Technology is involving people’s lives, force to change the way of advertising and travelling. The advanced technology is replacing the traditional world and people are relying on online for efficiency.
Based on the current digital statistic, internet users drop down less than 10%; however, smart phone subscribers is reaching over 25% and the mobile traffic is increasing more than 81%. As business is growing, the traditional B2B and B2C relationship are now less relevant. Now in the world, people can become business within 60 seconds because of the relevant and connection with internet.
There are over 7 billion of people existing in the world and 3 billion of people are online. Badminton believes this shows people are willing to connect with people. Badminton emphasizes people are finding ways to raise their economic status online. In addition, online education is growing significantly. Badminton wants entrepreneurs to know the digital trend will force them improve online economic relationship. As global is changing, the digital marketing is helping entrepreneurs to find a platform opportunities to share and grow their ideas.
There are 30 million Canadians online, and only 45.5% of Canadian business owners are utilizing the technology. Therefore, Badminton suggests entrepreneurs to take this advantage of the new economy.
“Reimagination of everything; software can do everything in life”
Secret strategies for media success
Baila Lazarus, the Media Consultant and Trainer of Phase2Coaching, is invited to share her experience of media success. Baila Lazarus has over 25 years of experience in media industry, including news editor and business commentator on Global Morning News. Moreover, her knowledge will provide entrepreneurs the key to success in public relation.
Many people are looking for market experts to share their professional opinions; however, there are many market experts that are not exposed. Baila Lazarus indicates there are 2 main myths that prevent those experts to be at the top.
Myth #1: I can reach more people with social media than with traditional media
Lazarus believes it is a waste of time if experts are not appearing in the media. Experts need to make the initial step to brand themselves in the market.
Myth #2: If I have a good presence on the internet, media will find me
Lazarus believes good presence on the internet is not enough. In the market, people are looking for experts who can bring additional values to the market. Lazarus has 4 tips to create the necessary impact.
The first tip is to be experts of something in addition of their own business products. Experts need to learn their own business and understand how to help other business owners. If people just want brand recognition, Lazarus believes they might as well stay in the traditional way. Therefore, experts need to understand the current trend that is influencing other business owners.
The second tip is to offer questions that need answers. Experts can suggest questions and ask other experts to answer. If experts are not professional in that area, it is best to find the appropriate expert to answer the question. Therefore, find a way to lead other business owners to other experts will help experts’ reputation.
The third tip is to find the media kit or editorial calendar. Lazarus believes by providing future content or events will create a future trend. This will also create expectation, which will make attention to the market.
The last tip is to submit the pitch. Lazarus believes the best pitch is to have a maximum 6 worlds long, with succinct and clear bullet point as the subject line is important. The body of the pitch should be a maximum of 200 words. Experts will need to ensure their contact information is visible at the top and leave any background information at the bottom. Moreover, experts need to submit the pitch at least one month in advance for editorial time. Lazarus suggests the pitch with point form and straight forward will catch the attention.
How to use YouTube to attract followers and turn them into customers
Josh Rimer, the Marketer of YouTube is invited to share his thoughts on utilizing the YouTube videos as a business marketing strategy. Josh Rimer has over 300 videos and partner with YouTube since 2008. With over 9 million views, 21 thousand subscribers, he has successfully built the community that leads to his career achievement. Moreover, he is now a keynote speaker over many locations to discuss his strategies to build stronger relationship with business partners.
Josh Rimer starts his career as an actor. In 2007, he recorded his performance through YouTube and only received 12 views. He only managed to receive traditional media attention. Soon he realized he needs social proof to become an expert. He went back to school to learn the technical skills in video production, and he started making video for business. Therefore, he is now helping businesses to get more views with YouTube marketing.
Rimer believes it is important for all business to use YouTube videos. Videos can improve the business’s online recognition. YouTube is number 2 video search engine and businesses with videos in YouTube will help them improve the SEO, which will help them to appear at the first page of any search engine.
YouTube is easy to share videos. Rimer believes YouTube viewers can share the video to improve businesses brands. In addition, Rimer also believes YouTube videos can build the engagement with viewers. This will help business to create emotional interaction and improve communication. Moreover, viewers will help business to promote to others and allows others to know what business they do.
Another benefit is the humanizing the brand and bring the potential prospect together. Videos can create viral impact with short attention span. Rimer shares videos are easy and inexpensive. People are looking for content than the quality. Businesses need to look for ways to educate viewers with new and unique content. Videos can also give solution and position business as the expert in their market, which can potentially generate sales.
Rimer emphasizes people do not create videos because they have the perspective of difficulty. Rimer suggests businesses to optimize the video to be ahead of the market, focus on subscribers by giving them relevant values, and partner with others to create synergy.
5 things to do today to profit from LinkedIn
Wendy McClelland, the Social Media Demystifer, is invited to share her strategies on LinkedIn. Wendy McClelland is a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and also the author of “27 Steps to Freedom”. Becoming a keynote speaker at workshop and training, she helps many entrepreneurs to improve their businesses. Moreover, she was nominated as the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year.
Many entrepreneurs are using LinkedIn in a wrong way. They usually copy and paste their resumes on LinkedIn; in fact, Wendy McClelland believes they are not utilizing the right functions from LinkedIn. McClelland will share 6 tips to improve business for entrepreneurs using LinkedIn.
#1: Profile picture
McClelland believes it is important to have a good headshot profile picture to brand entrepreneurs. McClelland suggests entrepreneurs to smile and use less background space.
#2: Keywords in your profile
McClelland suggests entrepreneurs to provide keywords that represent them. By using the right keywords on social media and on the title will help others to search them on LinkedIn.
#3: Write in third person view
McClelland believes by writing with third person will help the viewers to get more personal impact. Entrepreneurs can use the description to offer and identify potential client types. McClelland suggests entrepreneurs to add connection based on either they can become potential customers, joint venture partners or media contact.
#4: Add extras
McClelland suggests entrepreneurs to use video to promote themselves. This will allow viewers to see them in action. Moreover, viewers can link the video from LinkedIn to other websites.
#5: Give and get recommendation
In LinkedIn, people provide others for social proof. When entrepreneurs complete their profile, they can ask clients to endorse them. McClelland suggests entrepreneurs to write recommendations and ask others for one for return. If entrepreneurs leave a recommendation with the speaker, they will leave a seed to other people’s page.
#6: Making connections and make it personal
In LinkedIn invitation, McClelland suggests entrepreneurs to have content behind the message. It is important to remind others about the conversation to make easier to connect. After the connection, it is also important to send another message and offer something to help them. Entrepreneurs can share, link, or tag articles from other people’s blogs to support them. McClelland believes if entrepreneurs support them, they are likely to support back. Therefore, entrepreneurs can create hot topic at LinkedIn and let other comment.
Instagram for business
Cadi Jordan, the CEO of Jordan Consulting, is invited to share the value of Instagram in business. Cadi Jordan has over 15 years of experience in health and wellness sectors. She is also the author of many books, such as “How to run your social media like an agency,” Moreover, she has the passion to train, coach and manage entrepreneurs with her expertise as social media strategist.
Instagram is a social media platform that uses image to connect relationship. Furthermore, Instagram is a tool that is embedded in Facebook. Jordan shares 6 tips to utilize Instagram in business to increase awareness and branding recognition.
Tip #1: Optimize your profile
Jordan suggests entrepreneurs to figure out the best keywords that apply to their businesses within 150 characters. It is encouraged to use emotion characters. In addition, entrepreneurs should add their contact URL for viewers to connect.
Tip #2: Post relevant content
Jordan suggests entrepreneurs to share information or values behind their brand. It will reflect their brand recognition and create strong connection visual to the viewers.
Tip #3: Contesting
Entrepreneurs should optimize and tag in the post by using hashtag ability. Entrepreneurs should consistently use the same hashtag to connect with others. This is another brand recognition strategy to impact the viewers.
Tip #4: Mention and tags
In the visual, entrepreneurs can use keywords with the caption. The tags will bring attention, and entrepreneurs can add location to integrate with other social media.
Tip #5: Hashtag
With the right relevant keywords, entrepreneurs are positioning themselves to a place where they want viewers to find them. Entrepreneurs can use up to 30 hashtags. Jordan believes hashtag should be connecting with similar topic and interest.
Jordan indicates business uses Instagram to be more visible and more brand awareness in their industry. By using the right visuals, people will remember their brands.
How to get 100,000 twitter followers
Bonnie Sainsbury, the Founder of Social Media Smarter, is invited to share the impact twitter can create in business. Bonnie Sainsbury features in Forbes Top 50, CEO World Magazine, and Top20 Women Social Media. In addition, she is nominated for Shorty Award. She uses strategy to help entrepreneurs to create strategic systems that connects trusted leaders and customers.
Bonnie Sainsbury believes Twitter is the next generation of communication in digital media. Twitter can help business to receive recognition, authority and trust. In addition, trust leads to sales.
Twitter can create opportunities for business. Entrepreneurs can use twitter to get more traffic, leads, and connections. It also provides the channel to market content. Lastly, it creates effective conversations.
Sainsbury suggests entrepreneurs to set up a bio with a recent and recognizable photo. The photo should show personality, quality and brand. The header and description should identify what entrepreneurs are doing in taglines. Moreover, entrepreneurs should state the reason that people want to follow them with location and links.
Entrepreneurs need to identify the community. Sainsbury suggests entrepreneurs to list their desire demographic and their top 5 questions. They need to understand what channel they want to use and how they want to be spoken to. Again, it is important to identify the right interests and influencers.
Entrepreneurs need to grow their followers. Sainsbury recommends entrepreneurs not to buy followers. By creating a solid base, entrepreneurs will attract potential followers and influencers. Entrepreneurs need to retweet and discuss relevant hot topics. Sainsbury believes entrepreneurs should always monitor their active followers and active bloggers. They should start slow and post daily.
Sainsbury also suggests entrepreneurs to post consistently. They can tweet 15 minutes a day to grow their community. Entrepreneurs can find followers’ interest to rich the posts. It is important to retweet to give credibility.
3 mistakes to avoid when networking
Douglas Vermeeren, the CEO of Business Networker, is invited to discuss the strategies of networking. He has passion to help leaders to discover the right strategic partners. Douglas Vermeeren is also the film producer of “The Opus” and “The Gratitude Experiment”. He features in many business media, such as FOX, CNN and CBC. Moreover, he designs the online community for business owners to connect and build mastermind alliances.
Douglas Vermeeren introduces the statement of people who are not networking is considered to be not working. Moreover, connection is connected with income. The problem with people who are running a business that are lonely, broke or frustrated is that they do not have the knowledge to have the right network. In his experience, Vermeeren believes there are 3 mistakes entrepreneurs are making during their networking experience.
Mistake #1: Most entrepreneurs do not begin with goals in mind
Entrepreneurs need to explain what they do and what they can solve. Vermeeren suggests entrepreneurs to identify problems they want to solve and approach the right people with the problems and provide them the right solutions.
Mistake #2: Most entrepreneurs do not provide enough values
During networking, a majority of entrepreneurs will just say about their business and nothing else that follows. Vermeeren believes the key is to know how to serve others. People come to ask for business and harmonize is the important key in networking. Entrepreneurs need to become the expert. Vermeeren suggests entrepreneurs to use 5 words that describe their business, and use those 5 words to network.
Mistake #3: Most entrepreneurs network in unproductive locations
The important concept is that it is not how much it cost; it is how much it can get. Entrepreneurs need to sit around with the people they want to become. They need to associate with making business. Top successful entrepreneurs need two things: connection and what they know. Nevertheless, Vermeeren believes ignorance is something entrepreneurs need to face because it can lose time, lose opportunities and lose connections.
Angel financing panel
The conference invites Thealzel Lee, the President of E-Fund, Darren Jacklin, the World-Class Professional Speaker, and Paul Koros, the Start-ups and Financing Strategist of Zelkor Capital Management. Thealzel Lee is the advisor for many entrepreneurs to focus on their strategy development and operational alignment. Darren Jacklin travels over 40 countries to mentor many entrepreneurs on specific and measurable strategies. Paul Koros helps private investor clients to achieve 12% annual capital growth through technology and business strategies. Along with the moderator, Roger Killen, the Producer of TEDxStanleyPark and co-organizer of Vancouver Business Network, all three presenters are angel investors and they will explain the key concepts to achieve success in angel investing.
They define angel investors are looking for ways to make money. Angel investors expect 1-2 success projects with 27% rate of return. Angel investors usually are the entrepreneurs who have cashed out before with net worth of over 2-10 million dollars. Based on statistic, angel investors are generally men who are over 40-45 and retired at age 60.
The panel suggests entrepreneurs to seek angel investors from VanTec or VA Angel forum. There are many groups, so entrepreneurs can put their profiles to seek for opportunities. Angel investors usually lead to many other angel investors.
In early stage, most entrepreneurs will fail and only 1/10 entrepreneurs will meet the angel investors’ requests.
The panel explains all angel investors are looking for 4 factors from entrepreneurs.
Technology
Team
Traction
TAM
Angel investors are looking for entrepreneurs who have unique product or services. Good ideas are worthless unless they have good teams to invest. If entrepreneurs can sell the product and services to the right market place, they can convince angel investors to invest. Usually they are required to have sales proof. Lastly, TAM stands for “Total”, “Addressable”, and “Market”. In other words, the product must have flexibility to their market.
The panel shares mostly angel investors are looking for 10 times on their return of investment. The time period is around 5-7 years with 55% compound return. Entrepreneurs should consider this process as a part of mentorship.
Entrepreneurs who fail at angel investing is either they are disorganized and cause driven. It is important for entrepreneurs to position them a positive growth to get angel investors’ attention. The panel suggests entrepreneurs to look at Dragon’s Den to learn how to pitch and understand the business valuation.
Communication skill is important. The panel suggests entrepreneurs to practice their communication skill from international toastmaster program. They can practice their pitch at someone who is critical people and pessimistic.
Angel investors who will pull the plug from entrepreneurs are when the idea is not making sales and there is no team that can learn from their mistakes. On the other hand, successful deals from angel investors are from wonderful people with partnership, good scale of business model, and confident. The business valuation comes from sales, market, and operation. Angel investors expect successful candidates who do not work by themselves. They are expecting teams that can grow with them and from them.
The panel indicates angel investors need proof. Every time entrepreneurs ask for investment, they are diluting their business ownership. Therefore, it is important to know in advance how much they are asking. Angel investors will contribute strong network and expertise. Success of business is not from idea, it is from people.
The panel encourages entrepreneurs to share their business with people they might criticize them. They need to be organized and design a powerful story. They need to showcase their business to create creditability. This shows leverage during the angel investing.
There are three types of money: calm money, cause money, and nervous money. Entrepreneurs need to understand angel investors can be cold and heartless. They are looking at numbers and request business plan. Entrepreneurs need to embed their business plan in their mind and justify the right amount of funding.
Using visual imagery to improve your branding and marketing
Ronald Lee, the Photographer and Google Marketer, is invited to speak about the importance of image in business marketing. Ronald Lee is also the Videographer that helps entrepreneurs in visual branding. With his experience, he is managed to help companies to use visual and videos to lead their brand recognition in their desire markets. Moreover, he is also the organizer for the Vancouver Business, Marketing and Entrepreneur meet up.
Photos and videos are important for branding in the business world today. With the right visuals, brands can improve the awareness for businesses. Ronald Lee believes all entrepreneurs need to master the visual imagery strategy.
Why is visual imagery important?
Lee shares Google search engine will reward companies with good photos and videos. Mobile usage is outpaces the desktop usages. Good photos can make great first impression. People do not like to read on screen; therefore, imagery is the key for brand marketing.
Target your audience
Lee wants entrepreneurs to figure out their ideal audience with cycle graphic and demographic. They need to think their photos and videos as art because those can create emotional connection.
Have overall plan
Lee suggests entrepreneurs to understand how picture can fit to their business objectives. By having a good market plan, they can reach out to more customers and create more attention.
Platform Building
Entrepreneurs can use imagery to build something people want to see them as. Lee uses “The Marie Forko Experience” to describe how entrepreneurs can change from business coach to motivational coach using the right image.
Working with photographer
Sometimes investment does not always correlate to quality. If photographer is outside the price range, entrepreneurs can negotiate. It is better to have no videos than bad videos. Many photographers are willing to work for less if they believe in entrepreneurs.
“If you give the iPhone to professionals, they can make it look good, but if you give expensive camera to amateurs, they will make it look bad.
B2B selling: how to build your leads online & grow your sales socially
Moe Somani, the CEO of SOHO Business Group, is invited to share his career insight about B2B selling strategy. Moe Somani was in executive management before he created SOHO. He creates SOHO to promote companies through special events. He manages to connect many companies with B2B marketing strategy. Moreover, he also volunteers his time to benefit many communities and charities.
Moe Somani believes the best practice for B2B is social media platforms. Entrepreneurs need to use landing page to direct potential prospects.
Somani emphasizes entrepreneurs need to provide content that gives high and relevant values. The call to action button from a website need to lead potential clients to the right landing page that contains specialized offer.
Email content is significant for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need to ensure all email contains engaging title, value proposition, one text image, and lead capture form.
Somani explains the proper functions of top 4 social media to generate leads.
LinkedIn
All about connections and connecting
Email Marketing
All about gaining trust as an industry expert with rich valuable content
Twitter
All about timely and relevant news
Facebook
All about story telling in a fun, entertaining way to drive content
LinkedIn is for direct sales tool and schedule meetings. Email marketing is for expert content, network offers and customer loyalty. Twitter is for connect with brands and people, and Facebook is for building personal relationships.
In email marketing, there must have share button. Each email should have valuable content with image. Entrepreneurs can use email marketing for offers and contests. Again, the purpose of email marketing is to use call to action to lead others to landing page.
In Facebook, entrepreneurs can use it for storytelling. Somani uses Facebook to create business relationship and open for others to post. Moreover, there is more personalization and fast response from Facebook.
In Twitter, the comments will generate connection. Entrepreneurs can search by hashtag to identify the current trends. Entrepreneurs can reply back the relevant post to learn about other business’ brand objectives. Twitter has the ability to direct entrepreneurs to more high level connection.
In LinkedIn, entrepreneurs can use for searching business experts through connection and industry target. Entrepreneurs can send introduction message to connect with professional expertise. Somani suggests entrepreneurs do not use any default message; instead, they should always have personalized message.
Relationship selling model
Entrepreneurs should spend 40% of energy building relationship that provides lead generation. They should spend 30% of energy on identifying issues with qualifying platforms. The 20% of energy should be spending on present solutions through trusted activities. Moreover, the last 10% of energy should spend on finalizing the agreement from statement of works.
Somani suggests entrepreneurs to earn the right to move to each stage.
Crowdfunding strategy panel
This conference invites Mercedes Grant, the Crowdfunding Strategist from BADASSANA, and Corey Rollins, the Branding Entrepreneur from Klei Entertainment, to discuss about the idea behind crowdfunding strategy. With over 10 years of experience in film industry, event and public relation, Mercedes Grant manages to design many crowdfunding campaigns from Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Corey Rollins works in gaming industry and help the organization to develop many award winning games. He helps the organization to build the first Kickstarter campaign that reaches over 1010% target. With the moderator, Mirey Faema, the Crowdfunding Strategist from Business Procedure Masterclass, they will provide valuable information to help entrepreneurs to be successful in crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding strategy is starting to change. Many entrepreneurs are looking for reward-based crowdfunding method. Instead of giving back to the funders when the target is not met, entrepreneurs seeking ways to retain funding.
The panel suggests entrepreneurs to start crowdfunding by building the people base first. They should start crowdfunding early to discover if crowdfunding is suitable for companies. Communities expect brand new ideas and their attention will only go for ideas that fit their needs. Crowdfunding is a part of business and entrepreneurs should look at the successful campaigns.
Angel investors only fund the project if they believe there is a huge rate of return; however, crowdfunding will fund based on ideas. There is zero risk for communities because if crowdfunding fails, communities will get their money back.
Crowdfunding needs a strong launch video. The panel considers poor video that are long and pointless. A good video has ask, attention using humor, and entertainment factors. It needs to show excitement and entrepreneurs can use it as marketing material.
The hard part of the crowdfunding campaign is to planning and execution after launch. Crowdfunding is a long process and entrepreneurs need to ensure they can fulfill their promise to the communities. Setting the campaign can be difficult; therefore, the panel suggests entrepreneurs to hire professionals. Entrepreneurs need to figure out the delivery process and they need to keep it simple. They should have a communication plan that communicates with the communities. Without a good planning, it can kill the business.
The panel should have at least 3 months to 1 year of preparation before launch. The panel suggests not rushing the campaign. People use Kitstarter for brand recognition; however, people use Indiegogo to secure funding if goal is not met. People will invest with a strong social cause that attaches to the campaign. If there is a reason, people will do overdrive.
The panel believes the minimum budget for crowdfunding campaign is $6,000. All depends on the funding goal and reward can be costly. If entrepreneurs want to do it by themselves, the panel suggests $3,000 to $10,000.
Building community through blogging and social media
Ricky Shetty, the Founder of YVR Media, is invited to speak about how blogging can influence business communities. Under the YVR Media Group, he also involved with YVR Bloggers, YVR Foodies and YVR Dads. He is also the author of “Wisdom from Daddies” Moreover, he has the passion to create benefit values for communities that engage with similar interests.
During Ricky Shetty’s early childhood, he was very shy at high school because of the breakdown of his family. In age 20, he learned to forgive and on his way to the journey of healing. From being shy to a community builder, he manages to find opportunities to create value to help people in the communities through YVR Dads, YVR Foodies, YVR Bloggers, and YVR Masterminds.
Shetty suggests 5 ways to build community.
Become a servant leader
Establish the brand that people feel they belong
Find people with similar passion
Add values to them
Provide heart-centered service
Shetty shares 3 tools for community building. The first tool is blogging because blogging can connect with someone online. The second tool is social media because it can create relationship. The third tool is Meetup group because it can create passion.
Blogging can lead to Facebook groups. Blogging can help increase entrepreneurs twitter lists, YouTube subscribers, and Instagram followers. Moreover, blogging can increase interaction through Pinterest boards.
How to toot your own horn the art of self-promotion
Sue Clement, the Business Coach from Success Coaching, is invited to discuss the importance of the art of self-promotion. Sue Clement is a certified business coach since 2000, and she impacts many entrepreneurs to exceed business limitation barrier. Coaching is her passion and she with over 30 years of experience, she is managed to lead many companies into leading industry companies. Moreover, she involves in associations and help out with communities.
Sue Clement emphasizes bragging is important for entrepreneurs. Bragging can lead to social proof. If entrepreneurs hide themselves, nobody in the market will know them.
Sometimes people feel uncomfortable to brag because people are taught not to step out. Instead, Clement encourage entrepreneurs to step into the spot light.
When Clement is in age 15, she did not feel easy to talk to herself. She starts to feel procrastinate. In her road of coaching and speaking, she earns the right to talk about history and achievement. Clement believe it is important to acknowledge the success. Entrepreneurs need to have the ability to stand out to make attraction.
Clement shares there are 5 bragging myths that impact entrepreneurs.
#1: My performance speaks itself
People will not remember speakers if there is no uniqueness. Entrepreneurs need to speak up to become visible.
#2: Modesty is a virtue
Canadians are too humble, which shows no confidence. As entrepreneurs, they should not hide themselves because hiding is not good for their businesses.
#3: Others will brag for me
People are self-interest. Generally, entrepreneurs need to promote others first before others promote them.
#4: Humity will get me notice
People feel they are cold. If entrepreneurs are not honoring their success, it is telling the world they do not like success. They will not be comfortable to stand out in the crowd.
#5: Brag is a four letter word
Entrepreneurs need to show the people who they are. People will buy from them if they know them.
Bragging is a form of showcasing the entrepreneurs’ attributes.
Art of Bragging
Entrepreneurs need to believe themselves to build their confidence. Clement suggests entrepreneurs to accept their compliments because it is important to allow people to talk more about themselves. This will create “Brag Bite” stories
“Do not sell yourself short; what comes easily to you most likely does not for others”
Entrepreneurs can brag in networking event, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, email signature, voice mail message, biography, websites, and client testimonials.
In order to create “Brag Bite” stories, Clement suggests entrepreneurs to use the 10 questions.
What do you want others to know about you?
What are 5 of your personality pluses?
What are 5 of the most interesting things you done or happen to you?
What are 5 business success you are most proud of?
What obstacles you overcome?
What lessons did you learn on the way?
What education or training you completed?
What award have you been recognized?
What way you make a difference in people’s lives?
How to position yourself & attract 1000’s of clients with webinar summits
Iman Aghay, the Founder of Vancouver Business Network, is invited to share the benefits of using webinars for business. Iman Aghay is also the Business Development Consultant that helps entrepreneurs to build successful businesses. He designs effective marketing system with marketing strategies to be used by small businesses. Moreover, he won the people’s choice award of being the top 25 immigrants to Canada.
Many entrepreneurs are afraid of marketing for events. They always have concern about whether or not if they can make it or not. 6 years ago, Iman Aghay was broke and have language barrier. He managed to start the Meetup Group called Vancouver Business Network to help local entrepreneurs to connect and attract clients. At the stage, he can only handle and create 100 people event in Vancouver; therefore, he travels around the world to host and organize events. After the burnout, he needs to find a way to reduce the pressure from traveling.
Aghay figures out the solution of webinar conference.
Webinar conference does not need to book a venue. Million people can watch the conference without limitation. The technology is now available for public. Therefore, webinar conference will mitigate the fear of marketing from entrepreneurs.
Webinar conference can bring speakers together to promote a topic or an idea and speakers can share their list of audience to promote the host. Moreover, webinars can help entrepreneurs build their list to generate sales.
Entrepreneurs can set their own rules in their webinar conference. However, Aghay believes even though it is free, it can generate cash flow. Since many people cannot watch all during live, entrepreneurs charge the replay and give offers from speakers to promote their businesses. Webinar conference will promote all speakers during the replay values and recognition from viewers.
Public speaking can position entrepreneurs as expert and they can make money on upscale and become affiliate. Furthermore, the system is able to make mailing list from viewers and speakers. If the viewers are aligned with business, entrepreneurs will have leads.
In average, Aghay indicates the conversion rate is around 5-15%. Webinars have low startup cost that generate great leads. In addition, webinars can allow viewers to have deep relationship with the host. It will lead to sales through conversation.
Aghay believes entrepreneurs do not need to be expert on the topic; in fact, they can interview the expert in the topic industries for answers.
“Webinars have the highest chance of success in marketing and speakers will not say no to speak in front of 1000 viewers”
Name: The Next Spike – Innovation as the key to building a smarter, more caring Canada
Presenter: David Johnston
In the global perspective, innovation plays an important role in the economy. Canada is leaning towards the next level of innovation and leaders are taking the opportunity to create a stronger Canada. Vancouver Board of Trade is honored to invite David Johnston, the Governor General of Canada, to address his view of how Canada can become a global innovation leader. David Johnson was sworn in 2010. He is also the Commander-in-Chief of Canada. Moreover, he is also the author of 24 books and holds over 20 honorary doctorates from Canadian universities. Many leaders look upon David Johnston as a role model, and this presentation will benefit leaders to understand the keys to build a better Canada.
Global innovation comes from economic social process, and David Johnston believes it takes ideas to get better. Johnston indicates improvement, such as the quality of life, from Canadian are significant towards Canada’s growth. However, leaders are not produce enough. Canada needs to seek the window of opportunity for businesses, such as Asia Pacific region. Johnston emphasizes immigration program from pacific nation is fairly significant. In order for Canada to achieve “the next spike”, Canada needs to concentrate on the 4 major key areas to partner with Asia Pacific.
Build trust
Practice Knowledge
Create talent
Recognize excellent
Build trust
It is difficult to overstate trust. Johnston believes Canada is a trust worthy partner in global. Canada considers long term view to build independence and public services. Canada has a strong integrity for public services and strong mutual relationship with other global leaders. Johnston emphasizes these as Canada’s competitive advantage.
Build trust will lead to innovation. Network can help Canada to build trust. Therefore, trust is a part of Canada’s critical success.
Education & knowledge
Canada’s post-secondary education is trusted by Asia Pacific. With the strong education reputation, Canada is willing to help other countries to build their education system. Education leads to trust. Johnston mentions Canada-China Management Program that help corporation from both nations to establish strong education. Diplomacy of knowledge is important for Canada; therefore, Johnston believes cross discipline will improve relationship and innovation.
Johnston believes Canada’s next focus is to support overseas students for next generation. Based on International ranking, Canada’s education brand is ranked the top because there are at least 2 times more graduates from Canada than other nation. With the right education, Johnston believes Canada will strengthen the international trade.
“Complicated problem has simple solution”
Success in talent in innovation
Johnston mentions Canada public education is the growing opportunities for Canada. Develop new talents is the new measurement for success. Diversity is important in talent and Johnston explains there are 1 million immigrants in Vancouver alone, which represents 14% of Canada.
Canada has more language spoken than other countries. However, it is still encouraged to maintain mother tongue. Johnston defines IQ is “Innovation Quotation”. Canada needs to draw new ideas and create the key assets to the world. In addition, Canada’s key talents will drive the next spike.
Want to be the best
Canada needs to be competitive to the world, especially the private sector in Research and Development. Johnston comments that Canada’s GDP comes from the private sectors. A significant amount of resources spends on R&D and research turns resources into ideas. A great example Johnston mention is the Vancouver Winter Olympic Success. Canada needs to seek gold recognition. Investment in Canada will help Canada to change from imagination into reality.
Questions & Answers
Johnston believes Canada’s entrepreneurs have implemented social responsibility to innovative ideas. Entrepreneurs are producing ideas to communities to work together and develop long term relationship.
Johnston comments his trip to Waterloo shows him the improvement of innovation in education from agriculture. In addition, Thompson River University has successfully pushed international education to oversea.
Johnston promotes “We Day” to engage local volunteers to improve the Canadian society for the next generation. The high school education is now required 40 hours of volunteer experience to complete the diploma. Moreover, it is important to celebrate the success to improve innovation for Canada.
Name: Small Business Council Success Series – Targeting Your Sales Strategy
Presenter: Shane Gibson
Many entrepreneurs believe sales is the fundamental of any business in any industry. Entrepreneurs need to target the right customers with the right behaviors and right motivations. Small Business Council is proudly to invite Shane Gibson, the international speaker and the sales trainer of BuildDirect. Shane Gibson will share his sales techniques and strategies that will help entrepreneurs to build their sales deals. Entrepreneurs will be inspired to learn the tactics from this presentation.
Most entrepreneurs fail because of a lack of strategies. In fact, most entrepreneurs use the relationship to get the deal, but in reality, relationship is the deal. Shane Gibson believes it is important to start with the right attitude, trust and principle to build the community with long term relationship.
Gibson designs a 5 steps system for entrepreneurs to bull-proof their sales process.
Always keep the deal and the relationship moving forward
Raise the barrier to exit
Raise the barrier to entry
Get rid of anything unproductive
Keep focused on the game all of the time
Entrepreneurs need to remember they are the decision maker. Gibson emphasizes there are two types of decisions, either positive or negative. Nevertheless, when entrepreneurs make any decisions making, they should relate the decision based on their assets.
Gibson believes entrepreneurs’ assets are made up with time, energy, ability, money and reputation. To make use of the assets, 80% of business should come from 20% of customers. Therefore, Gibson indicates entrepreneurs should spend 80% of their assets on 20% of market. Gibson considers that “proactive time”
The ABC’s of Targeting
Customers can be categorized by “Absolute”, “Beneficial”, or “Convenient”. The rank of category is based on the yield and the amount of the investment. Entrepreneurs should spend their proactive time on category A to achieve high relationship selling, and entrepreneurs should spend their passive time on category B or C for low relationship selling.
Each category can be separated by users class of either “Retain” or “Develop” and non-users class of “Regain” and “Gain”. Retain section should be for potential customers. Gibson believes sometimes entrepreneurs classify their customers in category B with C, but others might classify in category A. This happens because entrepreneurs are not using enough criteria to verify the category. Therefore, Gibson suggests entrepreneurs to use at least 5 different areas of criteria.
Regain section is for customers who might be return from new products. The strategy to move up the category is to either apologize or offer something new. Develop section is for future prospects. Gibson suggests 3 strategies. The first is to increase the knowledge of the customer, the second is to increase the knowledge of the entrepreneurs, and the third is to grow relationship.
Gain section is for prospects that might take up 5 times more effort to convert to potential customers. Therefore, it is important for entrepreneurs to schedule their proactive time on category A.
Gibson recommends entrepreneurs to complete ABC strategy on prospects, steps, corporate activities, education opportunities and personal activities. In prospects, entrepreneurs need to measure their stats using ration analysis to determine their proactive activities. As for education opportunities, entrepreneurs need to attend the right event with the right target market.
“Not just only active, you must be selective”
Gibson believes all entrepreneurs should have the “A” list. Entrepreneurs should identify 10 category A referrals and power centers they must make more time for next month. 10 category A prospects that need more attention or follow up. 5 category A vital signs that need to execute consistently. Lastly, 5 category A personal areas that need to balance and fill with momentum with business and personal lives.
The quality of follow up is equivalent to the quality of lead. Therefore, there are 7 principles entrepreneurs need to build the sales process.
Do the ABC’s on everything
Master value added follow up
Quality people for proposals and quotes
Use a schedule, not emotions
Sell by the signals
Use a social CRM
Learn to scale
“Talent is cheaper than table salt; what separates the talented individual from successful is hard work”
Based on stats, 48% of all sales people stop after one rejection, 25% makes 2 calls and stop, 15% of entrepreneurs make 3 calls and stop, and 12% of entrepreneurs make 3 calls and continue. The 12% are the one who are responsible for 80% of the call.
The 5 relationship development stage
To build a strong relationship, there are 5 stages: attraction, exploration, development, commitment and unity. Gibson refers this with the dating concept. It starts with flirtation, go on few dates, steady dates, engagement, and then marriage. The last stage is when both parties need each other. However, when entrepreneurs push clients too fast to the next stage when they are no ready, they will lose the clients.
Clients will move from attraction stage to exploration stage based on these two questions Gibson suggests:
What unique about you?
What is it in for me?
People lose the deal from small deals because people are looking at the ability to deliver. Sometimes entrepreneurs will over promise and under deliver. Entrepreneurs need to make small promises and act them quickly to gain clients trusts. This will move from exploration stage to development stage.
People are more solution focus instead of price sensitivity. Entrepreneurs need to find personalize the relationship to reach commitment and unity stage. Furthermore, entrepreneurs should track their customers’ stages.
For A category clients, entrepreneurs should do recurring schedule every 3 months, complete frequency goal sheets, understand their activities and follow up every 3 weeks. For potential customers, entrepreneurs should send current events to interact with them. Gibson believes stay consistent all the time will beat people who only did once.
Gibson strongly recommends all entrepreneurs to use the application of “Sidekick”. It is a great way to track customers, send quotes, receive notification, identify prime customer time and test subject heading on email. The software will help entrepreneurs to learn about customers’ behavior and personalities, which makes all connections relevant and focus on the right clients.
Social selling CRM
CRM can help entrepreneurs to pull all interactions together. It will update all current events at once without hopping around to different social media platform. The social CRM will find keywords to engage clients and create social proximity.
Learn to scale
In any sales, entrepreneurs will need to talk to many customers at once. An online search website called “Just ask Iris” will help entrepreneurs to receive deep conversation to improve quality of the service.
Scales through partnership
Gibson believes instead of seeing others as competitors, working together will increase the chance of massive success. Therefore, entrepreneurs should always find win-win situation for any business.
TEDxBCIT is the independent event operates under the license from TED. The purpose of TEDxBCIT is to explore opportunities to become a leader to help build the future for tomorrow. The theme of this conference is “building the future”. In addition, the conference will focus on the opportunities through innovation, society, connection and learning. Leaders of tomorrow need to bring ideas that will impact the future society. Leaders of tomorrow will find ways to sustain a growing globalization for the future culture. Leaders of tomorrow will build the relationship to open up social connectivity. Moreover, leaders of tomorrow will acquire the experience and knowledge to create a better future. TEDxBCIT invites Ceilidh Millar, the BCIT student reporter for CBC and the youngest writer at Global BC Television News, as the host for the conference. In addition, Leaders will be inspired by the speakers to improve the future for tomorrow.
Building your own future
Scott Carr, the founder of Belief Trumps Talent and Empowered Parents Network, is invited to share his experience to seek balance and perspective of lives. Carr will share his knowledge of how mindsets can help leaders to achieve desired results.
Many people view their future by the choices they made based on their past. In fact, Carr believes many people allow their past to represent their present. In order to create a positive future, people need to paint their own future from a blank canvas. Blank canvas starts with the right mindset. Therefore, Carr introduces 5 mindsets that future leaders need to have.
Mindset #1: Get out of your comfort zone
Carr illustrates Felix Baumgartner, the astronaut, is the first person who broke the sound barrier. Furthermore, he trained for this moment for 5 years. When he was 6 years old, he already has a picture in his mind that he jumps 40 thousand meter high in the future. Therefore, Carr suggests leaders need to be comfortable with discomfort to achieve the next great thing.
Mindset #2: Fail forward
Carr illustrates Diana Nyad, a 64 year old who broke the record of 103 mile swim. She has the mantra mindset to find a way. She learned it is important to have a strong believe and never give up. Carr believes successful people are willing to fail the most. Therefore, leaders will always tell themselves to fail forward when they face adversity.
Mindset #3: Fully commit
Carr illustrates Steve Nash, the basketball player, who believes doubters will always discount mindset. During the college season, Steve Nash did not accept any Canadian college because his mind is already set in National Basketball Association. In order to be in NBA, he needs to be in United States. Nevertheless, he joined American college and continue his road to be in NBA hall of fame. Beliefs always trump talent. Since this is the age of continual partial distraction, leaders need to avoid unnecessary multitasking, procrastination and low achievement level. Carr believes leaders’ beliefs levels will decide how they interpret the word “impossible”.
Mindset #4: Growth mindset
Carr illustrates Bethany Hamilton, the soul surfer who lost her left arm, has a grow mindset to control her comeback. After the loss of her arm from shark, she did not give up. Instead of having a fixed mindset of not take risks and resist failing forward, she has a growth mindset to challenge herself to achieve her dream. Carr believes all leaders should have a growth mindset that motivates them to move forward in their direction.
Mindset #5: Believe in dream
Carr illustrates Terry Fox, the Canadian athlete who ignites the hope of cancer research. He ran for the purpose of the cancer foundation and raises over 650 million funds for cancer research. The dedication pushes Terry Fox to accomplish his dream.
Carr believes there are two types of people in the world: the one who allows their past to decide the present, and the one who allows their future to decide their present. There is a difference between being interest or commit, yet leaders need to ensure they have the right mindsets to make their decisions.
What makes a good idea?
Trevor Borland, the owner of Pacific Bolt Manufacturing, is invited to share his knowledge of identifying what is a good idea. After his graduation in BCIT, he understands young people are the future work force in the current market. He works with many communities to develop long term solutions and He is in passion to strive for improvements.
Borland believes there are three elements that make up good ideas.
Benefit
Practical
Well thought out
Ideas come from benefiting others. Good ideas could be a way to improve on existing ideas. Good ideas could make process faster, stronger and bigger. Moreover, good ideas can be profitable.
Borland emphasizes benefits from idea must be balance from people, planet, and prosperity. It is important to understand that good ideas are the balance of all three.
When ideas are created, there must have technology support. Ideas must keep up the current technology. Therefore, sometimes ideas cannot be practical at this moment, but it does not mean it will not in the future.
Ideas will fail if they are not thought out. In order for ideas to be thought out, Borland believes there are 4 important workflows leaders need to be aware of. The first is research. Leaders need to be the expert in that area so they can listen to people wants. The second is process. Leaders need to ensure they have a way to take the idea to practical with simple and achievable method. The third is scenarios. Leaders need to question and challenge the ideas with what-ifs. The fourth is feedback or share. Leaders need to share the idea to receive feedback for improvements. Sharing the idea will continue to develop new ideas. Leaders can break the ideas into pieces to protect the backbone of the true ideas. When leaders receive feedback, they need to fix it. However, sometimes people hate the idea, but Borland believes it happens because they do not want leaders to succeed.
If no one is listening to the idea, Borland suggests getting creditable sources by focus on ideas that sell. Relate the ideas back to money. Leaders can start small ideas, and they can develop small ideas to be big ideas in the future.
Happiness, the paradigm shift
Gwen Gnazdowsky, the conversation coach and the national mentorship program develop in the women’s leadership foundation, is invited to speak about her view of true happiness. As a life coach, Gwen Gnazdowsky helps people to get what they matters the most in their hearts. She conducts workshop at various associations to mentor people to achieve their true happiness.
When Gwen Gnazdowsky is young, she wished to be happy all the time. Based on statistic, 100% of parents choose happiness over wealth, 95% of parents choose happiness over academic excellence, 95% of parents choose happiness over fame, and 90% of parents choose happiness over stress.
“The same old thinking gives the same old results”
During early age, Gnazdowsky feels not special because her sister received all the parents’ attention. She starts to create the idea in her mind that she is not special and her sister is. Starting from that day, she lives in that mindset.
It took many years for Gnazdowsky to realize the mindset is controlling her happiness. Gnazdowsky needs a paradigm shift. Gnazdowsky defines paradigm shift is a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions.
The benefit of paradigm shift is to overcome obstacles and reframe the limiting beliefs. In order to do that, Gnazdowsky suggests leaders to control their emotional baggage, and change their emotional programming.
Human will experience defective, defeat, deprive, and desert. Leaders need to understand all the pain is the same and it is normal to feel that way. Leaders need to reprogram their emotional mindset. 50% of leaders have already set their emotional mindset when they are in age of 5, 80% are at the age of 8 and 95% are at the age of 18. Gnazdowsky mentions there are conscious and unconscious minds and leaders need to interpret different mindset by getting help from others.
Gnazdowsky believes people’s thoughts can create their future. She recommends all leaders to sign their voice in their head by stop comparing themselves with others. What other people think is not as important as what they think about themselves.
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”
“Happiness is a direction, not a place”
Making the impossible, possible
Steve Curtis, the owner of ZAG, is invited to share his road of success that many people think it is impossible. When he was diagnosed with cancer, he formed the TLC Foundation to search for treatment. He has the passion to serve others and mentor many entrepreneurs. He creates Adventure2Advance, which funds over $100,000 for youth. He is now well and conquers the fear of cancer, and he is now focusing on public speaking and publishes books about his journey.
Curtis believes experience life comes together when people do exactly what they love. When people think it is impossible, they are limiting themselves.
Curtis drops out of high school when he learns school is about learning to conform. In his job search, he got discourage because no one wants to hire him. During that moment, he feels worthless and possible of making the wrong decision. One day, when he was at the library, he found a book published by Richard Branson. There is a quote that inspired him to continue.
“Either end up at the school or become a millionaire”
Curtis mentions during his early stage of career, he always hit with a question of “stay or jump off?” He emphasizes it is easy for people to focus on what other people say, but it is difficult to do what they really want. He always feels he is continuously growing, but feel it is not enough.
In age of 24, he was diagnosed with cancer. With only 10% surviving rate, he face the same question of “stay or jump off”. When he faces the impossible, he needs to feel comfortable about the choice he made. Therefore, he flew everywhere and will not give up on the search of cure.
“If you stick with a goal, it will happen”
Curtis indicates most people hide or resist from fear. Leaders need to face it. If people are willing to look inside, any obstacle will disappear. When there is a fear, leaders need to have the courage to jump in.
Curtis suggests leaders to stop thinking. Many people stop dreaming because of their inner voice that is afraid of change. If leaders are willing to let go of the inner voice, they will experience more powerful life.
“Stop thinking, settle in the heart and create the possible”
Lost in Technology
Greg Malpass, the Founder of Traction on Demand, is invited to share his insight about the technology trend. Greg Malpass has a simple purpose in his company, which is to help people to unite their sales and marketing teams. He expands the mission by becoming a positive role towards his community. Using his unconventional leadership style, he grows his company’s recognition as the third best place to work in Canada.
Greg Malpass shares when he used to work in the enterprise, he was not feeling fulfilled; instead, he feels frustrated. He always believes technology is a process to help people to be effective. However, as the technology improves, people are just trying to fit in to technology.
Malpass questions why people turn on the screens. Screens are pulling away the moments between personal interactions. Rather than engaging communication with others, people prefer to look up on the screens. In the old days, people enjoy the moment of high five. Now, people are capturing the moment with pictures. This shows people carve different things in social medial and different portal.
People are spending more adult life working, move up the ladder and inventing technology. Furthermore, this is a signal that people are not separating their life with business. Malpass emphasizes many people put business ethic into engagement.
Malpass suggests leaders to run a community instead of run a company. People like to share experience and interact with human nature. Leaders should think about how the outcomes can bring things together. The objective of companies should create opportunities. In the end, people should have a balance life and harmony. Leaders need to believe in connections instead of contacts. By improving the attraction between friends and family, people will be able to change and expand their connections.
Leaders need to believe in people, not company. Leaders need to build and invest around the people close to them. Leaders should fight for pull, not push. Leaders can choose how technology can affect them. Every technology can be push or pull. When it is a pull, it means technology serves people; however, when it is a push, it means people serve technology. Malpass suggests all leaders to think about the technology around them and understand the purpose of using the technology.
Authentically you
Heather White, the Founder of 2020 Communication Inc., is invited to share the importance of passion in leaders’ hearts. Heather White helps many entrepreneurs to grow their sales. She has a black belt in Jujitsu and successfully be a top performer. She got interviewed by the Vancouver Sun, Fresh Magazine and Under 30 CEO. Moreover, she has the passion to provide advice and support of personal and professional development for entrepreneurs.
Heather White is a believer. She believes an idea can change the world. White understands many people in the world are searching for their purpose in life, and she believes the answers are not out the external world; instead, the answers are in the heart.
People need to have the courage to look inside of their heart. When White was starting her career as a speaker, she encounters a question that changed her life around.
“What are you going to do about that now?”
White believes everybody has a story and story can be excused. When the story can provide freedom, and responsibility, people should act immediately. Responsibility can be difficult, but leaders need to remember there should be no more excuses and complains. Moreover, leaders should always remember lives are theirs and they need to become the author of their lives.
Strong beliefs can bring people alive. When people realize their natural gift, they will mostly likely to improve their quality of lives. However, people have inner voice of “Who are you kidding?” right after the moment of inspiration. This is considered as the voice of fear. White indicates fear is an indication people are about to grow; therefore, White suggests people to act with courage. Courage reminds people that they are alive and courage acts like the muscle of power.
People need a deep reason to believe why they exist in the world. The ability to response is the journey of life. By activating ideas in their heart, people will change their lives around.
“Who you want to be is who you are right now”
The magic question
Robert Murray, the Chairman of GrowthPoint, is invited to share his knowledge to help leaders overcome their limitation. Robert Murray is also the CEO of GPG Technical Services. With over 25 years of business experience, he turnovers over 18 companies from ground zero to billion dollar businesses. He is also the author of “It’s Already Inside”. Moreover, he speaks over 25 different countries as an international keynote speaker.
Robert Murray starts out with a quote that impact many business people.
“Leadership, business and life should be simple but it is often complicated by idiots”
Murray believes simplicity is the key in business. It is important to make life simpler and be creative in business world. By developing a winning strategy, business can avoid complicated procedures.
The world starts to be complicated when Christopher Columbus discovered the world is round, Alex Bell invented the telephone, and the brothers created the airplane. Life gets more complicated as time goes on. As technology improves, people are now surrounding with instant communication and education. When competition is not local anymore, people are now worry about how to standout, relevant, remember or saw after.
When Murray receives promotion, his life starts to get complicated. People are throwing problems and demanding solutions. Nevertheless, he failed his job to deliver the result. After the long hours of working, he was lost. People are not engaged to do anything, which frustrates Murray.
Murray discovers a magic question that solves everything. The question is so powerful that it changes people to act, engage, and commit. The magic question is “What does good look like?”
When the magic question is asked, people start to brainstorm solutions for many bigger problems. The magic question motivates people to create strategy and implement action plan. Murray suggests leaders to use the magic question to create amazing results.
What to feed our food
Kathryn Redford, the entrepreneur, is invited to explore possible food alternative for globalization. Kathryn Redford researches insects and believe insects can be the alternative for nutrition. In addition, leaders will find the world is more closely connected than they think.
Kathryn Redford’s research challenges to produce food in the world with insects as solution. People eat meat and vegetable for nutrient, and Redford believes soil could be the third resource of food.
46% of lands are used to feed animal and plant vegetable. However, the planet is changing and people are getting to the edge of scarcity. Insects can be the alternative for rich nutrients.
Animals eat insects for food because they have the necessary proteins, calcium and other minerals. People have the technology to change insects based on the needs of people’s nutrients. This will release pressure on planet and the usage of land can be different. Insects will produce wastes, but it can use for something else. Therefore, Redford believes insects can be life saving for humanity.
People never thought insects can be sold for food. In the next 4 years, there will be 9 billion people on earth. The growth will increase and people will face the issue of food scarcity. In the beginning of time, people eat insects. This is a cycle because people in the old days rely on different part of natural system for food resource. Insects can be the natural diets for many animals and it is suggested to invite insects back to the world.
Redford believes insects can be a possible solution that can help the world to enter the phase of recover and sustain life for the future.
Our future in 2040
Lindsay Smith, the CEO of Massive Media, is invited to speak about the technology trend that will impact the future of the world. Lindsay Smith works with many leading technology companies to help with digital marketing strategies. Lindsay Smith is the co-founder of many communities. She has the passion to develop ways to improve technology for the communities. She is also the National President of Wired Women Society. She manages to support women in technology and mentor many young entrepreneurs.
Lindsay Smith believes people are taught to embrace technology. However, the change of technology has gone a direction people never expect.
30 years ago, Disney world promoted an attraction called Time Machine that shows the future technology. People invent paper so people will no longer need to read in the cave and make the words portable. People invent printing press to tell the story faster to one and another. People invent television for massive communication. Now, people invent World Wide Web to communicate other people around the world. Furthermore, these are now the reality.
In the next 25 years, technology will be the center attention. Smith believes there are 3 major changes that will impact people’s lives.
The first change is cars will drive themselves. There will be new license for driving automobile. The car will be automatic and there will be new class of car available for people. Most importantly, there will be less distraction.
The second change is drones will fill the sky. The government will need to create privacy policies for flying drones around the world.
The third change is the new improved artificial intelligent. The new system is called Meet Baxter. Baxter will program to learn and take over automatic jobs in the factory. In addition, Baxter will be able to communicate with human.
Smith believes robots are likely to take over 45% of jobs the next couple of decades. This will eliminate 1/3 of jobs every year. The role of human being will change.
People are used to do things over and over again. Robots will take over this role, so human will stop being busy of working and spend more time relax and enjoy freedom.
“What we are going to do to prepare this transition and how do we help others?”
Are you really who you say you are?
Ruth Atherley, the CEO of Aha Creative Strategies, is invited to speak about ethic leadership. She helps her clients and top leaders to address organization crisis. As a communicator, she manages to identify the right thing to do when her clients are facing reputation issues. She publishes many articles in Maclean’s, Flare, and the Globe and Mail. Works with many sectors, she enjoys her passion to develop communication campaigns for many corporations.
Ruth Atherley believes leaders are facing the ethical problem of chose to do the right thing. During Atherley’s career of journalism, she encountered a secret story that can ruin people’s lives when it released. Atherley chooses to leave the journalism because she believes it is not the right thing to do when she profits the story with other people’s misery.
Atherley owns an agency that deals with clients’ crisis. Atherley realizes people want to see as good people who do the right thing. People get upset when they realize others lie to them. When that situation happens, people will defend others until they are hurt. In order to work in a safe environment, the position of power is very significant.
Atherley shares a story in her neighborhood. There was a child getting bullied by a bigger kid. The child stood up against the bully. Atherley emphasizes if a child can understand it, why cannot adult realize the problem?
People call in sick to be on the beach. People lie to do things they want to do. However, people are watching and it could end up a million views online. When people are watching, the situation can turn viral.
It is important to work with clients that they acknowledge the mistakes. Atherley believes this can rebuild trust and fix the issue for the long run. When angel and devil show up, the ghost will hunt people if they do not do the right thing.
Atherley indicates people will face an inner voice that says “No one knows”. Atherley suggests people to be aware because the integrity is at risk. Small choices can turn big results.
Due to the oil spill issue, people on that coast will suffer financial crisis. It happens because of small things from every day. People thought it is unavoidable; however it is due to people who ignore the small things in life.
Atherley believes it matters when people do the right thing. It is important to do the right thing, so people will not regret it in the future.
Learning from our environment
Rick Gibbs, the co-Founder and President of Neutron Factory Works Inc., is invited to share the importance of supporting future communities. Rick Gibbs has over 16 years of experience of installing, manufacturing, processing, and warehousing facilities in local industries. Gibbs won many rewards, such as BIV 40 under 40, BCFPA leadership award, and Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the year. In addition, Rick Gibbs sits on many charity boards to help out communities.
Rick Gibbs believes leaders should focus on empowering future generation. During his childhood, the world was simple. He was taught to appreciate simple things in life. There was a deep connection with the environment and working together was happy.
“There was only one race, which is only human race”
After his parents are separated, his life has changed. The school life is a new experience, discipline is necessary, and bullying is a normal. Kids cannot question authority. When he moves to Canada, everything changes. Teachers’ attitudes towards kids have changed and there is a different world view. He drops out the school and pursues electronic business. After the graduation from BCIT, he focuses on becoming a professional electrician. With the dedication on apprenticeship, he is able to accomplish his career. He owns his own electronic company and work with many different countries.
During one of his business trip, he experiences the problem of poverty. He realizes there is over 70% of people are below the standard of living and 80% of people live on less than 10 dollars a day. Poverty rate is not getting better and Gibbs realizes the problem exists at local.
The difference of rich and poor is still getting bigger. The only 2 ways to break that cycle are either to change the machine or empower the generation. The problem of obesity is affecting kids in future generation. Gibbs believes the cause of this economic problem is a lack of understanding of food system. Gibbs decides to change the football field into a garden to educate kids to respect the environment and have deep connection with the nature.
Canada throws away millions of food away per year. Gibbs introduces the Quest Food Exchange program. The program takes the food and sells to social community programs, such as community kitchen. Gibbs encourages leaders to donate food, especially at Christmas, to local communities. This will create a strong and meaningful connection with the communities.
Gibbs shares that social media has taught the generation that it is mandatory to compete with others; however, nobody will win without the support of the community.
“What will you do to improve the lives around you?”
As the population is growing in British Columbia, the need for energy grows. Business in British Columbia will be impacted from the direction of BC Hydro. Leaders need to understand they are a part of the economic system and it is they responsibility to keep on top of the economic trend for the future. The Vancouver Board of Trade invites Jessica McDonald, the CEO of BC Hydro, to share the corporation’s strategic direction for all leaders. Leaders will learn the future growth, the change of industrial landscape of British Columbia, and the new technology in place for the future.
Before Jessica McDonald was appointed the president and CEO of BC Hydro, she was in the leadership role in the public sector and consultant in major infrastructure and industry projects in BC. She served as the Ministry of Premier that oversight the government operations. She managed to improve 10 pints in employee engagement from provincial government and helped over 30,000 employees in Human Resource renewal program. Moreover, she is named in Canada’s top 40 under 40 and Canada’s top 100 most powerful women.
BC Hydro has managed over 25 billion dollar of assets and served over 1.9 million customers. As the only power source in BC, BC Hydro has over 79 water dame and 300 substations. BC Hydro provides the lowest electricity rates to customers in North America. The power generates from clean resource and 95% are from Peace River.
McDonald indicates BC Hydro is collaboration with other power producer companies in BC. Many people are partnering with BC Hydro to connect with the BC Hydro grid. McDonald believes the grid is a system of a system that provides customer choices and innovation. McDonald emphasizes BC Hydro has a complex system that has more impact on more BC residents than any other BC companies do.
BC Hydro has a huge impact on standard living in BC residents and BC Hydro supply energy in different living development. McDonald believes BC Hydro is taking advantage of new technology and safety, which will improve the environment and social impact for future growth. McDonald wants companies to take advantage of the BC Hydro system to support the standard living for the next 50 years.
McDonald points out BC Hydro will face many challenges for the future. The first challenge is the system will get old. The second challenge is the power will outgrow the demand of energy due to large increase of population from economic growth.
BC Hydro is taking the initiative to bring new future redevelopment plans with large infrastructure. One of the biggest redevelopment plans is to build the new dame called “Site C” in Peace River. The new dame will increase GDP and provide power for 450,000 homes. It will be affordable and reliable for BC residents and BC Hydro is looking for new partners in this plan.
McDonald believes it is important to have proper community relation in social media. The core message from BC Hydro is to work hard to meet the highest standards for BC residents. BC Hydro will ensure to keep low rates with thoughtful discipline. Government will support the capital spending with the fixed 10-year rate plan.
McDonald believes BC Hydro has the mandate to work with customer to conserve. By implementing the power smart program, it will create energy efficiency. McDonald introduces a former program that will sell back the energy from customers than sell it to other companies.
Based on stats, baby boomers are more energy interested than millennial. Millennial is the future and they are making technology to efficient in future; however, baby boomer is concern with cost saving and personal conversation. BC Hydro will offer different choices in the future.
Energy utilities usually get low marks for customer services. McDonald emphasizes BC Hydro takes customer services seriously. BC Hydro will monitor the system to ensure power is in everyone’s home. McDonald wants people to have energy anytime and anywhere. BC Hydro introduces Power Meter system to signal any black out in the neighborhood. BC Hydro provides online key service enhancement for online assistance and use drone to investigate the dame for any outage. The purpose is to understand the rate of structure and act as a battery bank for the residents.
McDonald believes BC Hydro’s core values come from affordable, reliable, open and transparent.
“Will make people’s life bright”
Questions and Answers
Leaders are concerned with the Site C Plan’s budget proposal. McDonald responses BC Hydro has expert from KPMG to look after the budget figures and approval process. The plan uses P50 base model to build the budget. She is confident with the result.
McDonald addresses the issue of the aboriginal community that BC Hydro will be transparent with the process to avoid any impact and focus on the improvement.
Leaders are asking if BC Hydro will take consideration of geothermal technology for the future. McDonald believes it will create great potential resource opportunity.
Leaders are concerned with the impact from the goal of 2015. McDonald responses they will utilize the demand size to improve the energy usage. 99% of residents have already installed the Power Smart meter to move away from manual to automatic. The system will build the communication channel between the customers and BC Hydro. In the future, BC Hydro will implement In Home Energy Monitor to calculate the power cost instant moment, which can help people make choices. The digital technology trend is increasing in the economy and many people are using more energy in many ways. BC Hydro expects energy demand increase in 20 years and BC Hydro will track it.
McDonald suggests small business owners to take advantage in procurement. BC Hydro will give opportunities for any one that provides request for proposal.
Name: Company of Young Professionals Success Series – High Performance Habits
Presenters: Emma Andrews and Gina Buchanan
In order for leaders to maintain their high performance, habits through their minds and their bodies are extremely important. Leaders need to understand their nutrition to maximize their physical output. In addition, mental habits can help leaders to shape their leadership attitude and mindset through the improvement of emotional intelligence. This presentation invites Emma Andrews, the Registered Holistic Nutritionist from Vega, and Gina Buchanan, the Principal of Changeways Training and Development, to discuss the importance of leaders’ physical and mental habits. Emma Andrews will share her insight through her experience in the natural products industry, and Gina Buchanan will share her knowledge to improve leaders’ mindset and attitude. This presentation will benefit all leaders to go beyond their performance limitation.
Eat to Thrive
Emma Andrews, the certified plant based culinary professional, starts her career with a wakeup call from his father’s heart attack. Moreover, she believes there is a strong connection between the lifestyle and healthy food.
Andrews emphasizes it is important for leaders to understand the nutrient density. Andrews defines nutrient density as the fuel for optimal mental and physical performance. Leaders need to identify food that has clean, plant-based functional and easy to digest. Moreover, leaders need to consume food that contains the necessary nutrients.
Net energy gain is significant for leaders. This energy can be found after digestion and absorption. Andrews suggests leaders to look food that is raw, fermented, soaked, enzyme-rich, or minimally processed.
Enzymes are produced naturally by the body. These can be found in fresh, raw, and minimally processed foods. It can consider as aid in digestion. Andrews shares leaders who have poor digestion, malabsorption or nutrient deficiencies can lead to a lack of enzymes.
To maximize the food consumption and absorption, Andrews recommends leaders to the following:
Sit down to eat
Make eating the focus
Deep breath before start eating
Engage all senses
Chew slowly
Andrews wants leaders to avoid fluids with meals because fluids can dilute the enzyme in their bodies. Therefore, leaders should avoid the food combination of carbohydrates and proteins; In addition, leaders should increase the amount of sprouting from nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains. Lastly, leaders can find nutrients from digestive enzyme supplements.
When leaders encounter food sensitivities and toxins, they will feel headache, mood swings, low energy and rapid heartbeat. Based on the research, Andrews shares the most common sensitivity aggravating ingredient is soil.
Leaders should determine if their food can nourish or stimulate their performance. In addition, leaders can use caffeine to enhance performance because caffeine promotes endurance and sport performance by enhancing mental focus. Andrews suggests some alternative for caffeine.
Green tea
Yerba mate
Dandelion or chicory root
Hot coca
Adaptogens
Andrews recommends leaders to avoid artificial sweeteners and stay away from refined sugar.
The Heat Smart Leader
Gina Buchanan mentions there are many words people use to associate with leadership effectiveness; however, these words cannot resemble with the connection with IQ. Moreover, Buchanan believes emotional intelligence (EQ) is the key to measure leadership effectiveness.
Buchanan defines emotional intelligence as high cognitive ability to process complexity of information as well as effectively navigate the social and political landscape. EQ can trigger all other critical skills. Furthermore, it is the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence.
Buchanan shares the most common test to measure EQ is the Daniel Goleman’s research. This test measures EQ based on self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Another common test is Reuven Bar on. This test measures intrapersonal, interpersonal, adaptability, stress management, and general mood.
In leadership, leader’s intention is not equal to impact. Leader’s first task in management has nothing to do with leading others; instead, it should be the process of challenge of knowing and managing themselves first. Buchanan indicates it is important for leaders to label their emotions. If leaders have limited vocabulary that describes emotion, they will have limited responses about others.
“Labeling your emotions is key; if you can name it, you can tame it”
Buchanan recommends some strategies for leaders to grow their self-awareness.
Seek a trusted critic
Keep a journal
Look in the mirror
Suspend judgment
Build a feeling dictionary
Be curious
Practice reflection
Seek feedback
Be present
Listen to your body
Observe
Leaders need to be aware of how their emotions and feelings affect their behaviors. When there is a situation, it will lead to thoughts, feelings and actions. Leaders need to work around these three factors. Buchanan believes leaders need to be aware of their Anger Mountain. When leaders increase their heart rate, their quality of judgment will decrease.
Lastly, Buchanan leaves a process for leaders to develop their performance habits.
Something Happens -> Sense -> Stop -> See your best self -> Strategize -> Succeed
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance”
When organizations face crises, leaders need to take responsibility to act. It is important for all leaders to communicate the right message in the right moment with a positive and effective way. Peter Chevrier, the owner of Paragon, is invited to this presentation to discuss strategies for leaders to prepare for crises. Over 20 years of experience with working with universities, governments, and corporations, his insight will inspire many leaders to take action. The communication planning is significant for organizations and leaders need to ensure they are prepared.
Peter Chevrier defines organizational crisis is any issue or event that is or expected to lead to an unstable and dangerous situation for the organization. The crisis communication is designed to protect and defend organization’s reputation and safety during the crisis. Leaders can treat this as the preventative measures and preparation.
Organizations could face many crises. This includes negative comments, product issues, layoffs, strikes, discrimination, workplace accidents, and even natural disasters. The challenge behind all issues is that organizations have the sense of fear, lack of time, money and knowledge to prepare the crisis. This will lead to result of denial, anger, fear, depression, and acceptance emotions.
Chevrier shares 10 basic tips that any organization in any industry to prepare crisis communication.
Tip #1: What is crisis?
It is important for leaders to learn to anticipate crisis. Organizations will be better prepared if crisis ever happened. Chevrier suggests the key behind prepare crisis is 3Rs, which is research, response, and recovery.
Tip #2: Consider crises that could affect organization
Research and brainstorm any possible crisis that will affect the leaders’ industries. This can be done by review articles and outcomes from historical crises. It is important to learn from the outcome and understand how to handle. In addition, leaders can use this opportunity to list potential crisis that may impact their organizations.
Tip #3: Put together a team
Leaders need to form a team that is calm. Each team should have at least one head of major division. The team should nominate spokesperson, collect information, marshal media, and manage communication. There should be continuing training for all spokesperson.
Tip #4: Develop a plan
Leaders cannot plan for each crisis, but they can plan a general plan for crisis. Therefore, leaders need to develop policies or guidelines. Delegate the tasks to the one appointed person. Start simple and build over time with the policies and guidelines.
Chevrier suggests leaders need to prepare pre-drafted statements, sound bites, tweets, and anticipated questions and answers. These will direct organizations to the right impact in the media when possible crises come.
Tip #5: Practice
Leaders need to run though the plan with a mock crisis. The role play with tough questions and difficult scenarios will cover many different areas for the team and reduce camera pressure. In addition, leaders can review the procedure for any improvement.
Tip #6: Implement monitoring and notification system
Organizations should implement technology-based and conventional media monitoring. Leaders need to educate their employees to stay alert and know who to contact. There are many different channels organizations need to filter to ensure the organization is utilized the communication effectively.
Tip #7: Prepare crisis communication go kit
The go kit contains useful items in case of a crisis. This includes mobile phone, laptop, flash drive, plan and camera. Chevrier believes leaders should have the mindset of better over prepared than under prepared.
Tip #8: During a crisis, understand the position
Leaders need to take the time to determine what happened, why, who is involved, where, when, what is the explanation, how it will be rectified, prevent from happen again. Leaders should work the plan with the senior management to ensure it is accurate and honest.
Chevrier recommends leaders to develop proper message and select the right communication channels when crisis happens.
Tip #9: During a crisis, say something
Chevrier believes the worst thing leader can do during the crisis is say nothing. Silence breeds rumors and speculation. This will also feed perceptions of inaction, incompetence and indifference.
The important thing is to emphasize with the organizations’ emotional state. When leaders are being accurate, honest, factual, focused and calm, they can appear to show they are caring.
Tip #10: Post-crisis analysis
When the crisis is handled properly, it is important to analyze how it is handled and learn to adept the new outcome. Review the situation and understand if it is done right, wrong or better. Leaders need to update their current plan to adopt the changes.
“It is never a crisis until it is a crisis, but does not mean you do not need to plan for it”
“It is worth the investment to be prepared, proactive and professional”
Presenters: Jonathan Becker, Franco Caligiuri, and Kyle Vucko
ManTalks is a community for men that helps them redefine their manhood. The community creates the space for modern men to connect with meaningful conversations and intensive discussions. The community is founded by Connor Beaton with the values of authenticity, community, purpose, accountability, strength and courage. This presentation invites three local leaders, Jonathan Becker, the founder of Thrive Digital, Franco Caligiuri, the owner of Capital Core Financial, and Kyle Vucko, the CEO of Indochino, to share their inspiration and success stories for entrepreneurs. In addition, the intention of this presentation is to address challenges and breakthroughs for many entrepreneurs.
The founder of Thrive Digital
Jonathan Becker started as a freelancer for 3 years before he hits rock bottom in his career. In age 26, Becker describes his life as depress and glass empty. He felt everyone was going forward and he was fallen behind.
He starts his soul searching to change his life around and reinvents his life by creating a solid foundation. His foundation includes the 3 principles.
Want a career, not a job
Want a technical skill
Want to make progress
Becker realizes his solution is to go back to school and focuses on building his future. He is inspired and interested by the topic of SEO and start learning everything about SEO. His new passion begins his new journey. In addition, it leads to Thrive Digital.
Becker believes the only constant in life is change. Entrepreneurs need to understand that people come and go all the time. The only thing entrepreneurs need to know about the future is that it will be different.
Becker learns successful leaders need to learn how to embrace failure. Many leaders think failure the wrong way; instead, leaders should grow from failure. Success and failure are connected together. Leaders feel unbalanced because they learn that failure is not an option. People can change dramatically by having a positive outlook. Life gets better as time goes on, so leaders should not feel failure is everything. Leaders need to understand failure is a natural and normal part of everyone’s lives.
Becker believes the definition of wealth mindset is the point of view people need in order to provide themselves with a powerful existence.
The CEO of Capital Core Financial
Franco Caligiuri shares a negative moment in grade 9 that impacted his life. He lost the hope of dreaming big when his grade 9 teacher told him he will be a failure. However, his grade 12 teacher empowered him by setting him to a different route, which made him believed anything is possible. Caligiuri believes the words to build is important in his path of success.
When his grandmother told Caligiuri the hidden secret of his father, he was devastated because his father was his role model. He could not accept the reality and make his vow that he will never put family in bad situation ever. Starting that moment, his life has a new meaning, which is work and work harder. During his trip to Cambodia, he was invited by the villagers to a meal with their generosity. He later realized the meal is for the whole village and he begins to make his new vow to give things to less fortunate.
“Why horn the money if it can only benefit one person?”
Caligiuri shares the 5 principles he would like his kids to learn about life.
Give more than what you receive
Put yourself in very uncomfortable situations once in a while
Invest in yourself
Learn to forgive
Just try
Caligiuri uses these 5 principles to accomplish his company, The Capital Core Financial, radio shows media interviews, and author of a book. Caligiuri believes journey is what leaders need to experience and journey is what leaders are looking for. Therefore, leaders need to enjoy the journey. Mentor is important, so leaders should surround themselves with people they can point them to the right direction.
The CEO of Indochino
Kyle Vucko grew up from an entrepreneur family when he was young. His family taught him a valuable money principle of “save before spend”. He was also taught of working hard will pay off and eventually will enjoy life one day. He always wanted to surpass his father’s success and believed starting his career young to mitigate the unnecessary risks. He became wealthy but felt success was not enough.
His father once asked if he ever going to take care of himself, his life purpose disappeared. He began to realize he needs to separate himself from work and observe things differently. His career evolves around his reflection and his mood swing, which makes him feel intensive and worry. In addition, he began to question his fundamental of relationship of success and the reason behind acquiring wealth.
Vucko shares the main reason why leaders acquire wealth is to achieve freedom of time and freedom of purchase.
Freedom of time
Time can separate leaders from work. It can change their daily routine. Vucko suggests leaders to budget every activity equally because it will force leaders to think and work differently. Leaders need to review and rank their goals every morning. Moreover, leaders need to be able to know how and why spend every minute of their life. Therefore, leaders need to learn how to spend their time effectively.
Freedom of purchase
The traditional purchase pattern is to be rich and buy the next best thing. This has to do with ego and comparison. However, leaders need to ask themselves the reason behind any purchasing by understanding what they already own.
Vucko has his 4 steps before purchasing. The first step is to find if there is any alternative. The second step is to look at long term if the purchase is feasible. The third step is to search for used items. The last step is to wait for a while before purchase.
Vucko believes researching products is important. Leaders can learn about themselves, such as insight and personality. It can also build deep connections and values. Leaders can change their wealth mindset by save better and spend better. Vucko hopes leaders can find the joy from researching because leaders can find their traits that leads to their personal wealth mindset.
Leadership comes with different shapes and styles, and yet there are certain patterns that could differentiate from good leaders to great leaders. This seminar invites Nick Ringma, the senior counsellor and coordinator of the Last Door Recovery Society, to discuss his view of leadership. Before his counselling career, Ringma works in electronic and packaged goods industries in executive position. He is the author of A Baker’s Dozen, and many other journals and periodicals. He also holds the designation of ICADC and ICCDP and he is the director of Canadian Addictions Counselors Certification Federation. Moreover, his leadership has inspired many young entrepreneurs.
Nick Ringma believes entrepreneurs lead by examples because nobody will listen. The inspiration leads to the expectation. Furthermore, people will see that and they will follow.
Many people still have the belief that the old ways is still more efficient. People are not admitting the changes are impacting the world they are in. Ringma indicates this is the result of not balancing both side of the brains, which result of using one side more than the other.
In order to allow people to believe the new ideas, entrepreneurs need the 3Fs
I feel
I felt
I found
The first F will help entrepreneurs to take the opportunity to understand how others feel. The second F will describe the difference and the last F will share the experience. In addition, Ringma believes it is important to validate what other people are saying.
Trigger Participation
When upper management wants to strategize a change, there are always negative and positive effects. This happens because every level has their own objectives and objectives are usually different. It is impossible to satisfy all the market. Many unsuccessful people are not targeting specific audience, which result of losing a majority of markets. No matter what, someone has to lose. Corporation exists because people pay more than they make. As long as leaders are aware of their market, they can control their audience. Ringma suggests entrepreneurs to take control on the delivery and production to maximize the market share.
6 kinds of people’s traits
Ringma believes there are 6 kinds of traits people cannot avoid.
An attitude of intensity
Tendency to push
Attitude of anxiety
Tendency to sit back
Humor
Control
In business, leaders need to observe these traits to change their leadership. The trait of intensity shows the seriousness of the work. Sometimes leaders assume people need an extra push by forcing them to work. When leaders are not trusting people, they tend to have the attitude of anxiety to micro manage the work. Many others believe nature will take its course, so they have the tendency not to care. Humor can be a factor that creates detachment from life and work. Lastly, leaders might believe everyone is in chaotic world and it is necessary to reorganize everything.
Leaders need to find a way to provide or deliver the message to others. Ringma recommends entrepreneurs to stand back and ask these two questions.
What are we doing?
Why are we doing this?
In the corporate world, there is only one goal. The goal is to maximize growth. It is difficult for many leaders to distinguish that. Many leaders tend to side track the corporation objective. Leaders should always these two questions before making any action.
Can you have empathy for the other side?
Can you grow the understanding for the other side?
The view of the world can impact in different corporations and different industries. Therefore, leaders need to choose their battle carefully.
Ringma believes people listen to get agreements, not understanding. Leaders need to change their approach to not forcing information to people. Instead, achieving mutual agreements are more effective. There is no system or a list that entrepreneurs need to follow to become successful leaders.
To seek out successful leaders, corporations need to look beyond their culture and environment. Ringma believes many people are still looking too narrow. If corporations want to change leadership, they cannot hire the internal candidates because the cycle will continue. Moreover, leaders should look above and beyond.
Road to good management
Many entrepreneurs are searching for steps to mater good management skills. Nevertheless, Ringma believes there is no step to accomplish that. Instead, Ringma believes the most important thing is to become a good self-starter. This means successful leaders should have the ability to move forward.
If leaders want to perform better, they need to give out credits. When teammates receive credits, they will work and follow. Leaders need to be in the position to find opportunities for teammates.
“Create your job is faster than waiting for opportunity”
Successful leaders tell the truth at the beginning. The more straight up leaders are, more easy and transparent they will be. People will be genuine if they know leaders are taking up the responsibility.
“People tend to look at “no” as major issues, but “no” is a directing them to “yes”.
Leaders need to work on their soft line and the hard edge. Successful leaders can balance their lives’ activities. Therefore, Ringma recommends all young entrepreneurs to take the opportunity to be involved with community activities to train both left and right side of the brain. Successful leaders will continue to create values for others and experience in community activities will shape them to the direction of their goals.
Presenters: Rebecca Beaton, George Verdolaga, Keri-Anne Livingstone, Sandy Chernoff, and Emily Chow
Converting ideas to business is always entrepreneurial dream. However, a majority of entrepreneurs is lacking the extra push towards their final destinations. This conference will help entrepreneurs to identify the clarity of business they are approaching. This conference invites local successfully and dynamic entrepreneurs to share their success stories with the audience. Moreover, this conference will help entrepreneurs to make an easy transition from dream to reality. The experiences from the presenters will teach entrepreneurs the ability to craft their business idea and create strategy to tackle their inner fears. George Verdolaga, the founder of How to start a business conference, believes this presentation will benefit all entrepreneurs who have the dream to be at the top.
First steps to starting your business
Rebecca Beaton, the coach/consultant, is someone who has passion in helping people to build their foundation of business step by step. She believes business can be used for good in the world and helping people who are dissatisfy their jobs. Moreover, she believes business with the right purpose can create better lifestyle for everyone.
Beaton believes entrepreneur’s business is equivalent to entrepreneur’s hard work. Many people can make 6 figures because they invest their hard work before the achievement. Typically, three to five years of foundation of fundamental is required for business owners. In addition, this includes the involvement of work and commitment.
Business owners need to enjoy the journey in business. Their mindset towards challenges should be rewarding. Beaton indicates there are 4 steps all future business owners need to understand before launching their businesses.
Step #1: Clarity
Business owners need to create business from impact. The impact leads to purpose; ultimately, purpose will lead to success in long run. The impact includes what business owners are good at what they like; in addition, the impact also includes the understanding of what people are willing to pay for.
Step #2: Know if you can make money
Beaton emphasizes business owners need to know if their ideas are worth investing. There are six processes business owners need to figure out.
Is it obvious?
Talk to people
See what people are searching online
Sell, offer free, and testimonial
Market research surveys and interview
See what people are doing it
Normally, people design and then sell; however, successful business owners should sell before design. Every business should contain three major components: backbone, container, and paths. The backbone refers to the main message. The container refers to the structure, and the paths refer to marketing. It is important for business owners to build creditability, even if it is trial and error.
Step #3: Create your business backbone
Beaton believes the narrower the target audience, the more audience business will attract. Therefore, it is significant to be specific to get the message across. The process of message comes from “why”, “POV”, “Problem”, “Who”, and “How”.
Business owners need to understand why they want to start their business. Moreover, business owners need to understand the goal of business is not to do business with people who need what they have; instead, they need to do business with people who they believe what business believes.
The problem comes from the focus of the audience problem. The solution should be created for business’ ideal clients. Business owners need to figure a way to take the ideal clients from point A, which is the problem, to point B, which is the result.
Step #4: Market research
Business owners need to sell their clients what they want and give them what they need. In order to accomplish that, Beaton suggests the idea of capture audience language. By understanding the responses and reactions from the clients will lead business owners the right direction to improve the interaction with the idea clients.
“Create freedom, impact and money with a business for good”
How to build a client list from scratch
George Verdolaga, the author of The Contractor Lifestyle, and The Job Farmer, is invited to share his knowledge of teaching and helping people to achieve personal, career or business objectives. He has the passion of creating business network for business people. He is also a speaker and a workshop facilitator.
Verdolaga faces isolation and low self-esteemed through his teenage and university years. After working in the corporate for two years, he encounters a rare opportunity to manage a nursing school. He manages to face the power struggle and align people with his vision. Furthermore, he begins to create his personal confidence. 7 years later, he steps back and pursues his passion to create businesses for people.
How to start a new relationship
Verdolaga mentions there are 3 types of relationships: starting, cementing, and sustaining. In order to start a new relationship, Verdolaga suggests people to be the first to approach other. Many people are laying back and waiting for people to come because public speaking can be a fear for many people. Nonetheless, it is important to be the first person initiates the relationship.
How to cement the relationship
Verdolaga believes it is important to establish the rapport effort by giving. This means people need to give compliment. By giving compliment will trigger happiness, and happiness will lower their guard. This will provide people the chance to get inside for deep conversation.
Verdolaga understands giving praise works best if people show application and be positive with honest feedback. People need to be the one to ask questions. This will show interests and provide the opportunity to get to know each other. Verdolaga indicates the best question is “what brings you here?” and “what are you looking for?” People need to pay attention to what others say.
How to make the new relationship into a profitable one
Verdolaga suggests people to be the one to follow up. Many people have a weak follow up skills. A good way to start the follow up procedure is to send a thank you note the next day. Moreover, another way is to invite others to another event or coffee. This will earn the rights to take the relationship to the next level. A good follow up will lead the new relationship to a sustainable relationship.
“Introduction in the first sentence, compliment others in the second sentence”
Daring to suck mindset strategy
Keri-Anne Livingstone, the certified professional coach and speaker, is invited to share her experience to help entrepreneurs to release their full potential. In her career, she designs the unique powerful concept of “daring to suck” that helps many people to unleash their passion towards their business life.
Five years ago, she questions herself her career direction. She realizes getting a degree does not mean there is a guarantee of a better job. However, her life hits bottom when she lost everything she has in her life, this includes job, life and family. Her life got back on her feel because of Oprah’s inspiration. A friend of her encourages her to do coaching and she starts to see her existence. She finally found the door she is waiting for in her life.
Livingstone believes there are 3 kinds of people in the world: the leapers, the dabblers, and the pushed. She is the example of the one who got pushed in her life by her friend. Livingstone understands people need an extra push to continue their lives.
How do you see it?
When people change the way they look at things, the things they look at will change. This means different people have different interpretation. Livingstone’s concept of “daring to suck” involves authentic action, trial and learning, and unattached to outcome. The concept treats the fuel as intention and it has the “worth it” factors. The concept will show people who success is in the effort. In addition, the concept has eight steps to start their business
The first step is to listen and pay attention on things going on in life. People need to understand where they are right now. The second step is to tell the truth to them what the current situation is. The third step is to feel it all. People need to be honest and clean as neutral. The fourth step is to meet clarity needs. This means people need to aware the limitation and seek for help to reduce the redundant pressure. The fifth step is to take the help. Many people can sense the urgency, and it is important to make the connection to receive support. The sixth step is to have conscious action. People need to keep their eyes open for opportunities. The seventh step is to celebrate the efforts and learning. People need to celebrate the win and involve with the good things around their lives. The last step is to apply learning and repeat. People need to look back and relearn the mistakes they made. Moreover, people need to be willing to learn and apply to the next thing.
Choose a story
Livingstone shares that mistakes are expected; however, it is important not to let the noise overwhelm and create negative emotions. People need to have the mindset of “going for it”. People will have negative emotions, such as too difficult, limitation or fear. Nonetheless, people should overcome with positive emotions, such as curiosity and excitement.
This is all about making the conscious choice. Livingstone suggests people to think these 2 primary questions.
What do you need to do?
How do you want to be?
When people are stuck, people can start from the “pain points”. This will help people understand what they really hate right now. After recognizes the situation, people need to make a declaration to remind themselves to change.
How do I keep this alive?
People need to practice in order to change. Livingstone recommends post it notes, theme songs, accountability buddy, phone reminders or inspirational quotes. In addition, people need to know what they want to hear. They need to remember the “why”.
“Do not ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive and go do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive”
Life of soft skills for success
Sandy Chernoff, the owner of Soft Skills for Success” is invited to share her 20 years of experience in soft skill training. She is also the author of The 5 Secrets to Effective Communication. She provides many strategies and tools for her clients to be successful in their jobs with the element of fun in it. Her passion is to conduct corporate training workshops and she is one of the strong corporate trainers who will transform people’s lives from good to great.
Chernoff starts her career as the dental hygienist. After working for 40 years, she realizes her passion is in the wrong field. She resigns and starts to help out in fundraising events. She sees there is a need for people who want to learn leadership but do not have the resource to do it. She begins to train people the role of leadership responsibility.
How to find business?
As a trainer, Chernoff asks the 3 questions to people she networks with.
Do you provide continue training?
Do you have AGM?
Do you hire trainer?
Chernoff will make websites and hire professionals to optimize the SEO. She believes website will generate business clients. The backbone of her training business is the passion of teaching and creates more fun in live. Chernoff emphasizes people are interested in many things, but they usually do not do things. Chernoff wants make things happen so she starts her blog and use her blog to organize ideas for her book.
Chernoff publishes her book to raise profile creditability. She emphasizes whatever people do, they must like it first because in average, 75% of people do not like their jobs. Life can be different meaning
Challenges off the ground
Two main challenges for many businesses are follows.
How do people find you?
Why people want to hire you?
When many people ask Chernoff where they can see her resources, and she begins to create videos to provide her clients a sense of whom she is. Video is a good way to present her profile. As long as the presenter presents authentic, it will show passion of what they can do. Chernoff used to do cold calling or push marketing for her business, but now clients are seek her through website. Companies with good culture will survive, and if not, they will call Chernoff for training.
Challenges now
Chernoff believes her current challenge is to exceed the routine process. She understands it is important to challenge her brain to do different ways. This will stimulate her brain to create new and innovative ideas. Online learning is the trend, but she still believes live learning is most effective. She develops the learning management system for large corporation.
It is good for people to challenge themselves to continue their growth.
How to deal overwhelming
When Chernoff is overwhelming with her work, she steps back and asks for help. She is not afraid of asking for help because figure out what is important. She chooses the important things to do. For instance, she is not on all the social media. She believes it is nice to have profile online, but it is useless if people do not use it. Therefore, concentrate on few to maximize the effects.
Writing a book
It takes Chernoff 3 months to write her book. This is after her blogging. The hard part is the editing because she needs to hire editor and designer to design her cover. In total, she spends 6 months until printing. Chernoff believes when clients see the value, they will buy it.
Advice for early entrepreneurs to start new business
Chernoff suggests people to transition from work instead of burn the bridge of work and go straight to launch new business. By starting something small will help people create some sustain first. This will create momentum to launch new business.
“Communication is the core of soft skill”
“You are your business. If you do not have business, it will be hard to sell your business”
“Whatever your passion is, go fly with it”
Creating an online presence that sells
Emily Chow, the principal of Chow Communication, is invited to share her expertise in social marketing. She has successfully help business owners to utilize the web visitors and transform them to business partners. She is also the expert of communicator and speaker, and the strategic business planner. Moreover, she helps companies identify opportunities to maximize their profits. Her skill makes up her purpose of sales, leads, and conversions.
Chow has the ability to give the audience the “Ah ha” moment. She makes online marketing planning simple and easy for clients. Furthermore, she takes people from confuse to clarity and create websites that work.
Chow indicates it is difficult to brand online due to competition. The website content is easy, but create marketing is difficult.
The million dollar question
The question for many business owners is how to attract customers. Chow believes the secret sauce needs 3 primary ingredients.
Aesthetically pleasing website
Killer website and blog content
Community focused social media campaign
What is SEO?
Chow defines search engine optimization (SEO) as the combination of keywords. Business will be effective if they use 5-7 key words. Moreover, SEO creates creditability and proof for businesses.
Chow will share 3 important concepts to start a new business
Concept #1: Web design
Web design needs heat mapping, layout and conversions. The website needs to have contents that are comfortable for natural eye, which means moving from up to right. It is necessary to have nice headline because it will tell the audience what the business is about. Chow recommends website should have secondary headline to explain more details about the work people do. The important thing is to have a call action with simple instruction. Chow believes the website needs to tell the audience what they need to do within 3 seconds; otherwise, they will leave the page. It is good to have testimonial for social proof. This is a pre-screen strategy because other people will judge. People’s mind is preprogramming to find negative, so website should not have negative. Lastly, all important information should be on the first page.
The way website uses color can make a difference. As for new business website, Chow suggests to us white, orange and blue.
Concept # 2: SEO tactics
Chow’s SEO tactics involves one page, directory submissions and keywords. The website needs to list the expertise for search engine to find. Websites need to show “why”. There are many online tools to help people analyze their website.
Meta data is something people need to pay attention. Meta data works behind the website that triggers SEO. Google will categorize and judge by website’s headline, title tag, and Meta data, description and keywords. Therefore, keywords are extremely important.
Keywords should be the combination of business expertise and business products. People need to see what competitors are doing and do not invent the wheel; instead, do it better. Chow suggests keywords could be short tail or long tail. Short tail consists of one word and long tail consists of description of detail. The keywords fall within the range of “research” to “buy/purchase”. People need to find the keyword that is near the “buy/purchase” to capture the right clients.
The top 3 search engines are Google, YouTube, and iTunes. People need to think digital online. This means people need to create videos, audio and blog to capture audience. People need to publish their information in different platforms. However, Chow believes it is not necessary to create platforms if it is not going to use it. It is ok not to go on all social profile.
If something is not effective, perhaps there is not the right call to action. The webmaster tool or Google analytics will help people understand the traffic and group of audience. In addition, the tools will help business figure out what audience is interested. Different profiles work with different strategies.
Chow suggests all business owners to figure out the keywords, understand the target market, realize the message, and optimize the marketing strategy. Furthermore, Chow wants all business owners to understand it is important to adjust the marketing strategy in real-time.
Canadian ports play a critical role in Canada’s economic growth and Port Metro Vancouver is prepared to support the growth through the balance of people, planet and profit. Robin Silvester, the President and CEO of Port Metro Vancouver, is invited to share his long-term view of Port Metro Vancouver. The leadership and planning from Port Metro will facilitate the trade industry, protect the environment, and connect local communities. During this presentation, Robin Silvester will present the annual update of Port Metro Vancouver, and interview by Frances Bula, the award-winning journalist. This presentation will benefit local logistic companies in British Columbia.
Port Metro Vancouver is one of the largest ports in British Columbia. There are over 184 billion of goods per year and 115 million of goods import and export through Port Metro. The port creates many opportunities for logistic companies and has 9% increase revenue from 2012. Robin Silvester announces Port Metro is a gateway for local companies to the pacific region and connects to the world. Port Metro has sustainability through community and first nation. Moreover, it has commitment by measure actions with core values.
The first principle of consultation of Port Metro is listening to customer, stakeholders, and community. They are able to reach to new people and support community activities.
Land is considered the social challenge in British Columbia. Port Metro has developed an action plan for land usage. The guideline of the action plan will focus the future usage of land and water. Port Metro will use the industrial land to create more job opportunities. Port Metro estimates the usage of industrial land will last for 15 years; therefore, the plan of create jobs and protect agriculture will act immediately. Moreover, the industrial lands use reserve and it creates new roads for local communities.
The vision of Port Metro is to connect oversea market, deliver solution for current infrastructure. The infrastructure will impact the life land for people. 9 billion dollars will be invested through many projects on infrastructure. In addition, new container terminal will be implemented. Port Metro needs to stay economic practice in the community, so the future of Port Metro will remain focus on environment, culture and community.
British Columbia is a global economic player. British Columbia will take a stand to provide unique advantage to protect the jobs and economy. Port Metro is responsibility to help British Columbia to work together.
The interview
After the election, Silvester announces Port Metro will go beyond the minimum to handle the future challenge. Port Metro will build the framework to ensure local projects meet the mandate.
Silvester believes Port Metro needs to review the current issues of lower mainland by understanding the current strength. Silvester emphasizes the usage of land is a challenge. The 15 years guideline will help Port Metro to act immediately; otherwise, it will kill the quality of life. The guideline is a great step forward to utilize the reserve land. The traffic from Port Metro will increase 10% and Silvester believes it is necessary to rezone the land for economic growth.
Silvester indicates the policy of agriculture land is to solve economic problem and remain agriculture as much as possible. The infrastructure of Port Metro will restructure the current trucker’s license by reducing number of trucks and create more accountability on truck companies. Silvester shares the general problem in trucking is low barriers to enter and long working hours. There is a huge need in supply and demand. The legislation law has passed to help companies to be accountable and more stable.
Silvester believes Port Metro has implemented innovation strategies. The innovation will increase the usage of terminal, and improve the efficiency on economy area. The self-cleaning system in terminal will benefit the operation of Port Metro. Silvester announces the plan for pipeline alternative is to create permit from Port Metro. This will increase the traffic and ensures practices are taking place efficiently.
Port Metro will involve the transit in lower mainland. The idea is to work with the range of stakeholders to improve the regional infrastructure. Silvester is confident that Port Metro has demonstrated to build better opportunities for the community. There will be expansion of Port Metro in the future. Silvester believes the expansion of the port requires population and resource of agriculture. Port Metro will create business collaboration with Korean to reduce the barrier to enter and establish creditability. Silvester believes Port Metro can build better on international trade.
Silvester mentions British Columbia has various of resources and property that it is up to the community to take advantage. It is important to work with the terminal, port and province to improve the new economic infrastructure. The collaboration with community will benefit the future of British Columbia.
Name: Small Business Council Success Series – Capital raising for your business in the private placement market
Presenters: Peter Brady, and Larissa Streu
Aside from entrepreneurs and traditional funding sources, many small businesses are looking for private investors for their funding resource. British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) conducts private placement to help small businesses in British Columbia to raise money in the market. This presentation invites Peter Brady, the Director of Corporate Finance of BCSC, and Larissa Streu, the Senior Legal Counsel of BCSC, to explain how securities law affects small businesses. In addition, this presentation will benefit all small business owners to understand how to raise funding effectively and efficiently.
Brady defines security is any document that allows the holder to profit from the efforts of others. Many people believe securities law only apply to companies in public listing or on stock exchange; however, Streu emphasizes the law will be in effect any time securities are traded.
Two important key principles in securities law that all small business owners need to understand are registration and prospectuses. Brady indicates most trades of securities require registration through dealers. Moreover, most trades of securities also require a prospectus. Prospectus will help owners to review documentation; nevertheless, it might be costly.
Small business can qualify as private issuer exemption is when they have less than 50 security holders. The private issuer exemption only allows small businesses to transfer investors who are in the three main categories.
Family, friends, and close business associate
Employee, directors, or officer
Accredited investor
Brady points out the first category only apply if the investors are someone who they know well enough to assess trustworthiness and capabilities. This also includes a direct relationship. As for the second category, Brady emphasizes only investors who are sufficient prior business dealings to assess capabilities trustworthiness. This also includes direct relationship as well. The last category is for investors who have high net worth without including the investors’ home property. The net assets must be at least 5 million and net income over 200 thousand dollars for the past 2 years.
Other prospectus exemptions
When small businesses are not eligible to be qualifying as private issuer, they can apply for two other exemptions. These are investment exemption and offering memorandum exemption.
The investment exemption is for investors who can invest $150,000 at one trade. This exemption only applies individual investors, not combination of investors. The offering memorandum is a legal document that describes how they will use the money. This requires a form to be delivered to investors and filed within 10 days. Offering memorandum can sell to anyone.
Many small businesses are using crowdfunding to raise money from large. However, Streu emphasizes British Columbia do not consider equity crowdfunding in British Columbia. The rules are different in different provinces in Canada. In addition, there are other exemptions that are similar to crowdfunding in British Columbia.
For reporting sales of securities, Brady suggests all small business owners to ensure thy record in file for verification. Any exemptions for sales to employees, directors or officers are not required to report to BCSC. However, any exemptions other than private issuer are required to file report within 10 days of the sale.
“To have fair and educate help business aware the capital”
The ability to influence others is the most important skill people can possess. Douglas Vermeeren, the modern day Napoleon Hill, believes all successful people are using it to lead their successful financial lives. Many people are stumbled through their lives and Douglas Vermeeren has proven to help others change the way they think and communicate. Moreover, he has been featured in many media and has created many successful programs, such as The Guerrilla Marketing. He also produces the move, The Opus, and shares his knowledge throughout many of his seminars all over the world. He will reveal the key skills to help people to become more powerful and effective communicator. This seminar will benefit everyone who is looking for a chance to influence their lives towards the life of their dreams.
3 kinds of learning
Vermeeren believes power of influence starts by understand how people learn. There are three kinds of learning: emotional, procedural, and implementational. Emotional learning is when people inspire by a story that touches their emotion. Procedural learning is when there is instruction to proceed to the outcome. There is limitation because instruction restricts people from going outside of the box. Implementational learning is when people participate and experience the result. It is a combination of emotional and procedural. Moreover, implementational learning is the best way and fastest way to learn.
Words and clarity
Words can be very powerful to influence others. Words represent concept, image and reality. It can build and design the message. Therefore, words are the objective power. Sometimes words can be misunderstood and have different meaning due to limitation; therefore, in order for words to work, clarity is the key. Clarity of words can influence people’s emotions.
Vermeeren shares human influence is based on how people seek for happiness. People are happy if they are in progress towards their goals. The sense of happiness comes when people’s goals are realized. People create negative emotions is when their goals are not met their expectation. Therefore, when their expectations are clear, people can set boundary to help them realize their goals.
In business, the more influence you have, the more compensate you will get.
5 pillars of success
Vermeeren emphasizes success is built by 5 pillars. These are abundance, relationship, health, self, and spiritual.
Abundance comes from freedom, ideas and opportunities. The more influence people have, the more people they will help. The level of abundance will increase when people are influenced. Vermeeren suggests a best way for people to check abundance is to look at their bank statement.
When business improves, relationship will generally increase. When people’s expectations are met, their stress level will decrease. The health will improve. Health usually starts from within and goes outwards. When personal goals are met, people will recognize their success. This creates confidence. Furthermore, people can have their spiritual when their faith and beliefs are fulfilled.
Vermeeren wants people to balance all five pillars. People do not need to be perfect, but they must remain consistent. In addition, it is important to keep all five pillars check regularly.
Achieve goals and objectives
Vermeeren designs four questions that can help people achieve their objectives.
Who will you need to influence?
Where will you find these people?
How will you influence them?
Why would they want to be influenced by you?
All questions start from people’s within first.
Self -> Closest friends -> People met -> People who haven’t met
In order to influence others, people need to start influence themselves first. A majority of factors comes from themselves. Vermeeren believes people need to determine the ability to share an idea or concept in order to understand how they can influence other. People fail to influence others because they make it too complex. If people can make it simply, they can capture others’ attention. Therefore, the key is simplicity.
“A goal that is specific will become attainable and clear”
Human Brain
Vermeeren mentions there are three levels in human brain that helps people accept ideas. The first level is reptilian. This is the area where people are focus, hunt reproduce and fight. It is a protection for people. This level will reject ideas in human brain if new ideas or concepts come to them. The second level is mammalian, which is the area where people think about social, relationship, and peer pressure. The last level is cognitive, which helps people structure knowledge, plan and logic.
People cannot get to the next level unless the current level is satisfied. People’s brains usually try to remain constant. This means people’s brains do not know what is threat and success. Therefore, Vermeeren believes the more obsolete and irrelevant people become, the less power people have to influence.
State of Success
Vermeeren wonders if people’s bullshits are affecting people’s success. People only have one competitor, which is themselves. If bullshit is taking over state of success, people will cash out.
Bullshit is like excuse. Comfort zone creates people’s bullshits, which creates the ability to influence, which creates the state of success. Therefore, Vermeeren believes comfort zone, bullshit, ability to influence and state of success are all connected. Influence comes from within.
It is easy for people to fix other people’s mistakes than their own. Therefore, Vermeeren suggests people not to feel bad on the decision they make; instead, think about how to change them. It is often people do not accept others advice. Vermeeren recommends people to recognize their time value. This can be done by comparing the current time value with the desire time value. People will start to realize who can help them and give them advice.
3 Mode of thinking
There are three modes of thinking: meditate, creative and constructive. People starts at meditate. During meditation, people will develop creative ideas to help others. People will take these ideas and make it constructive. Furthermore, people will go back to mediate and the cycle starts again. Vermeeren believes mediate do not solve everything. The best way to get better is to help others that are softer than them.
“If you are down, you need to get busy and your brain will find the way out”
Powerful people will acknowledge errors and investigate a way to replace bad programming. In addition, poor and average people sometimes will acknowledge errors and carry on as they are doing nothing new.
Biggest enemy to business
The biggest enemy to business is when people accept “dangers do not touch”, and “not only will this kill you, it will hurt the whole time you are dying”. Vermeeren believes these two statements will prevent people from exploring and expand new ideas.
Another statement is when people believe they can figure it out by themselves or they already know it. Vermeeren believes if they figure it out already, they should already be successful. This statement shuts down every opportunity and creates the ability to lose influence.
3 ways to increase wisdom
Vermeeren indicates there are three ways to increase wisdom.
Reflection
Experience
Imitate
People need to feel success before they receive success. People can achieve success by experience, which is trial and error. However, people have limited life time, so the best way is to imitate someone who has already done it before. All people need to do is copy the right blueprint and they can learn the essence.
“Ignorance is the biggest and most expensive thing in the world”
People cannot influence a closed mind
It is important to earn the right to ask. When people have closed mind, they are not prepared. In average, every 1% of improvement, there will be 7% of increase of result. By asking “What are you willing to do?” and “how committed are you?” Vermeeren shares it is not difficult to figure out what people want from their lives; in fact, it is hard to figure out what to give up to achieve the things people desire for.
Many people always say they are “going”, but there is no purpose attached. People need to know why they are doing it.
“Success is something people like to do and even if it is difficult”
Top successful people do their goals
Top successful people do not set goals. They use the law of probability. Top successful people use 3 questions to increase the chance of occurring.
Who you need to talk to
Where you can meet them
Learn what you need
Therefore, Vermeeren emphasizes the key is networking. The more people meet the more better they will do.
“The quality of life is the quality of relationship”
Why are people drawn to certain people?
Vermeeren shares that people are drawn by these four principles
Connection
Confirm our value
Status & Authority
Support in our mission
When people have common interest, they will connection. When people find others who have the same priorities, they have confirmed their values. People will admire when people have certain status and authority. People will link when others have the similar mission statement. Nevertheless, people can be link if they have different mission statement because they want more understanding.
Influence grows with connection and good people bring out the goods in people. People will bring out their feeling and expectation. Vermeeren feels the problem people have usually are themselves.
Vermeeren suggests everyone to write a thank you note for people they influenced in their lives. Pride and connection are never together. Therefore, people need to let go their ego and start making connection. Connection comes from the power of influence.
Online Media Generation (OMG) Social Media, founded by a group of young and innovative entrepreneurs, is to integrate social media through small business owners. Salina Siu, the Co-Founder of OMG, believes social media revolution is becoming a part in business functions beyond sales and marketing. The goal is to simplify social media for small business owners and provide knowledge and opportunities for owners to become a part of online media trend. The conference will benefit all owners who are looking for strategy to improve social marketing. Moreover, OMG organizing committee team invites many top social media leaders to share their marketing insight for small business owners.
Whole Foods Market – 3 keys to digital success
Mary Crowe, the Market Engagement Manager at Whole Foods Market, has over 10 years of experience in retail marketing. By specializing in social media strategy, she leads all branding marketing for Whole Foods Market across internationally. She originally worked as a chef; however, there is no passion for her to continue the current career. She realizes her passion towards engagement, which leads her to the life of her dream in Whole Foods Market.
Whole Food Market is over 4 countries, 12 regions and 402 stores. Over 87,000 team members and over 850 social media accounts are within the organization. Last year, the organization reaches 10.3 million people with only 4 team members on global team.
The philosophy of the organization believes their social media is an extension of their in-store customer services. Crowe believes the success in marketing for Whole Food Market comes from 3 primary keys.
Key #1: Engage, do not rage
Crowe believes it is important to become an authentic story teller. People do not feel perfection; instead, they want to know the true image of themselves. Therefore, organization needs to create empathy, and empathy can be driven by the brand.
Organization needs to listen. It is common to ask questions to interact with the existing and online audience. Listen to customers’ needs and turn them into trends. Organization needs to join conversation instead of rely on customers to find them.
Crowe emphasizes negative feedback is not a challenge, but an opportunity. Organization needs to take control and do not let others to tell their stories. By responding in a timely manner will create more engagement with the audience. Furthermore, organization needs to provide something fun and different to engage with audience with surprise and delight.
Key #2: The new (content) rule of thirds
Crowe believes in marketing, the content should be mixed with 1/3 of products, 1/3 of community, and 1/3 of creativity. The creative content should both reflect on the organization’s brand and shared values between the organizations and their customers.
It is important to let the audience see the behind the scenes. This will allow them to understand the work behind the idea. It can be a powerful tool to increase the interaction between the audience and the organization.
Key #3: Tweet on Twitter, not on Facebook
Crowe wants all owners to clarify that each social channel has its own unique strategy. Facebook is used for engage with community, Twitter is used for tweet community message, and Instagram is used for visual messaging. SpredFast is a social media reporting tool and Crowe recommends owners to utilize the SpredFast app to see if their social media strategy is marketing effectively.
“The brand engagement takes priority over brand messaging”
The Evangelist: Courting your ultimate contributor
Crystal Henrickson, the community manager coach, specializes in online marketing, community builder and community strategy. Her coaching career starts in 2007. Her mandates are to help startup companies, build community programs’ brands, and mentor community managers. In 2009, she successfully helped Yelp to launch in Canada. She believes every organization needs to establish and find their evangelist to survive in the social media.
Why advocates are important
Organizations’ health determines by the number of happy customers. 84% of people trust word of mouth from their close friends. Communities help organizations to achieve their goals. Therefore, mutli-tiered community leadership programs have some of the best engagement rates. These are all come from the establishment of communities.
What is the difference?
There are three levels for audience to become the next evangelist.
Fan -> Advocate -> Evangelist
Henrickson indicates Fan is someone who likes the organization, but not actively talking about the organization. Advocate is someone who loves to spread the words for the organization through social media. Lastly, Evangelist is someone who strongly believes about the organization and involvement. Evangelist is the strongest and advanced form of word of mouth.
There is another level, which is the Ambassador. They are the one who are paid by the company to promote organizations’ events, social share, and brand.
How to create advocate program?
Henrickson believes advocate programs will not work if there is no happy customer. Therefore, organizations need to find their contributors. Organizations need to think about how they can identify their values for their customers. It is important not to skimp; instead, organizations need to provide values by giving praise delight and surprise. Organizations need to measure and track their success and their failures. Moreover, Henrickson suggests organizations to treat them as building blocks.
The way organizations identify their advocates has transform from traditional to innovative. Traditionally, customers are the combination of 1% creators, 9% collaborators, and 90% listeners or lurkers. In addition, this is considered as 90-9-1 rule. In the new innovative way, the customers are the combination of 10% creators, 20% collaborators, and 70% listeners or lurkers. This new way is considered as 70-20-10 rule. Rules are depended on different industries.
The ideal characteristics of advocate
Henrickson believes all advocate should have these characteristics.
Educate others
Invite new community members
Role model behaviors you want to see
Welcome new members
Provide quality content consistently
Passionate
Do-ers
Make thoughtful suggestions
Authentic
Create a program that invites advocates
Henrickson emphasizes build and nurture communication using different kinds of social media channels that are available to the organizations. It is important to ask for help and encourage feedback loop. This means organizations need to consistently ask “are you doing anything after receiving the feedback?” Advocates should have the ability to always invite friends to join. If someone is new to this concept, he or she can become the new friend connector. It is important to encourage mentorship and always remember to acknowledgement, praise, reward, and give access and exclusivity.
Henrickson suggests all organizations to let go of their control; instead, listen and observe the things around them.
“Developing advocates is a practice in friendship”
Culture and Storytelling: The key to building an amazing brand
David Reeve, the Chief Culture Warrior of Unleash Culture, is invited to share his knowledge on creating a successful brand’s story. In the age of 14, he found his purpose of life by inspiring people to their successes. By following his passion, he successfully created 19 famous brands through Canada. He has mastered the skill of R&D, which he refers to Rip off & Duplicate. Moreover, he won over 30 awards of excellence and still continues to help organizations to promote their brands.
Storytelling your story
Reeve believes it is important for all organizations to tell their story to the world. This will attract the sustainable clients and people they want to work for. By becoming a brand ambassador, organization needs to let people tell their stories.
In statistic, 90% of companies focus on telling about what they can do or offer and how they can accomplish it. However, only 10% of companies will focus on the why they exist in the market. Therefore, Reeve indicates the mission statement should be the only reason why companies exist. Culture is the brand character in companies and character is the foundation to tell people the story.
“People do not care what you do and how”
The key foundation of culture
Reeve mentions there are 3 key foundation of culture in companies.
Key #1: Find your purpose
Reeve suggests all companies to remember the times when they are challenging and be humble when times are great. The purpose of companies should be 4 words or less. Purpose should not mention anything about product, price or services.
Key #2: Anchor your core values
Reeve suggests all companies to focus only top 4 core values. These values should mention the people, service, improvement, and general business. Core values should admire people about their existing.
Key #3: You need a hero
Reeve suggests companies to make their clients as the hero. Companies can make the connection with their clients even closer with social attraction.
Reeve recommends all companies to build around their purposes, reflect on their values and always have a hero for people to admire.
Choosing the right digital marketing model
Joe Wozny, the CEO of Concentric and the author of The Digital Dollar, is invited to share his knowledge on the trend of the digital marketing. Digital marketing has taken a huge role in the social marketing and he helps many organizations to strategize their social marketing campaign to integrate digital in to their business. Joe Wozny is the one of the top leaders to improve strategies for companies and he will help organizations to choose the right business model for the upcoming digital trend.
There are over 100,000 small and medium size businesses in British Columbia. In this generation, the more people earn, the more people will check social media outside of work. Moreover, social media is a huge piece in people’s lives.
In Wozny’s research, he helps organizations to think about how their businesses can roll out. The generalization of the process is stated as follows.
Business Plan -> Marketing Model -> Deployment Planning -> Execution -> Operating
Wozny believes the right digital marketing model is important because it is a foundation to build on the current business. Moreover, his company assists organizations to identify the right type of marketing model and help them capture opportunities.
Models
Wozny categorizes all digital marketing models to 5 primary models. They are “Digital Brander, Experience Designer, Demand Generator, Product Innovators, and Awareness Builders.
Digital Brander is after consumers’ product companies. They focus on brand equity and engagement with linear advertising. Experience Designer uses data and insight to build around the customers’ services. Moreover, it reinvents the way to interact with customers. Demand Designer is to drive volume and boost loyalty. It converts sales to maximize efficiency. Product Innovator is to develop and roll out new products. It gathers insight to shape innovation and nurture new sources to increase company values. Awareness Builder is to shift from relevant to conversation. All transactions will support the integration and drive brand presentation. It improves on usage, confidence and perception.
Wozny believes in order to execute the models’ capabilities, companies need to build the insight. These include segmentation, assessment, measurement, real-time decision making, personalization, and targeting. To activate these insights, Wozny wants companies to concentration on optimizing the content and innovation, create social influence and advocacy, and build on Omni channel experience.
Based on Wozny’s research, segmentation and assessment are highly required by Experience Designer. Measurement is required by Product Innovator and Awareness Builder. Real-time decision making is for Demand Generators and personalization and targeting are for Digital Brander and Demand Generator.
As for activation, the optimizing content is for Digital Brander, Innovation is for Product Innovator, Social influence and advocacy are for Digital Brander and Awareness Builder. Omni channel experience is for Experience Designer.
All models are required for all capabilities. The priorities are different for different models. These include the metrics for different models. The top social metrics are used majority by enterprises. The budget spends different in different departments related to social marketing.
Wozny recommends companies to think how social migrates to their cost structure. Companies need to adjust how their content saturate through their business model. Companies should translate the traditional model to digital model to capture social impact. The mobile application is raising and it will change the way businesses connections. Moreover, companies need to consider online aspect in business integration and adapt the model that can provide the best momentum to the industry.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint”
Social media trends in 2015 panel
When social media trends have changed, organizations need to update their social media strategies. This panel invites Bosco Anthony, the Digital Marketing Strategist from Tribe1, Sunny Lenarduzzi, the Social Media Consultant at Hootsuite, and Conner Galway, the Digital Marketing Director from Junction Creative Solutions, to discuss about the social media trends in 2015. With the moderator, Damon Holowchak, the Marketing Director of the Donnelly Group, the panel will share their experience about the changes organizations need to be aware of in 2015.
Looking back on 2014, LinkedIn has successfully created to build lean relationship and provide visual and digital content to retain users. Twitter has updated their SEO for more user friendly codes. However, Google Plus needs to shape up. The trend in 2014 was moving online video with low budget expectation. This includes the upgrade of Twitter embed function. Therefore, users are looking for visual engagement through social media.
The panel believes video has translated and changed the original business concept. The brands will emphasize the real time moment. Users will need to take time to learn the space and find the needs from digital content.
Many social media tools have failed in 2014. The panel believes many digital tools have failed to improve the culture from poor leadership. Many users are manipulating people’s choices through social media and it is creating a lack of transparency. The future trend should focus on engagement.
In 2015, Facebook will change the usage of advertisement. The ecommerce will impact in social media. Social advertising will be the new trend. This includes pay by tweet. Facebook will start to focus on videos for more engagement, which will impact YouTube. The businesses will compete with the quality of the content. Moreover, Facebook will move towards work environment. Businesses will need to include social media as their cost of business.
In order to ease the new digital marketing to businesses, people need to focus on the “why” and “engagement”. Businesses need to find ways to distribute or engineer their operation through social media. The panel suggests all businesses to collaborate social media with other platforms because social media will make everything cheaper for recovering customers, message out, create community values and increase followers.
“Approach with value, not money”
Maximizing loyalty, longevity and success online
Cijaye DePradine, the author and speaker of Cijaye Creative, is invited to speak about how companies can use social media to build relationship and connection. DePradine has 2 decades of online and offline marketing experience and design corporate training programs. She also delivers over 15,000 hours of mentoring to entrepreneurs about SEO and searching advertisement strategy. Her experience will help many organizations in this presentation about identifying the right people and the right channels in social media.
Many organizations are struggling to implement social media tools in their organization. DePradine discovers a formula that can help organizations to achieve results without stress over the tools. It is called “Funcharting”
Funcharting
DePardine defines funcharting is a purpose driven philosophy of making meaningful connections that build loyalty, guarantee longevity and success. The formula starts with the fundamental.
Find and focus on your why
DePardine wants companies to discover the “why” within the operation. When they discover the reason, their distraction will down and productivity will go up. The right people will start to show up and opportunities will exist often.
Unify your why
When companies unify the why with the right people from inside out, the right products will sell. People will believe in the right products. The changes will be clear and people will promote them for the company.
Nourish and nurture needs
Companies should put their customers’ needs first. People will start talking about their products and they will become loyal to the company. It is important to nourish customers’ needs so they will pay attention to the products.
After companies discover the “why”, they need to discover the “who”. When companies target with unique audience, they will have unique needs. The way to fulfil the audience needs depends on their placement on their lifecycle. It is important to understand the audience before companies can expect their results.
In social media marketing, companies need to determine the right keywords their audience is looking for. The keywords will help companies to funnel the right audience. Companies can use “Balance” strategy to reach them. DePardine defines the strategy as “Brand Awareness”, “Lead Acquisition”, “Nurturing”, “Converting”, and “Evangelizing”.
As for Brand Awareness, companies need to focus on the shareable content. As for Lead Acquisition, companies need to measure from consultations and call to actions. Nurturing is about statistic and survey. Converting focus on workshop, development and coaching. Moreover, evangelizing is about results, programs and testimonials.
Charting
DePardine defines charting is a methodical approach to combining hard skills and soft skills to make big difference. This process should be natural. Charting is the reason behind the trend of social media, blogging, and email marketing. Many leaders are using charting strategy to improve their brand recognition. Charting is to “Connect”, “Hear”, “Appreciate”, “Reward”, and “Trust”.
Companies need to know how to connect their services to social media. Different kinds of platform or tools will serve different purposes. The important key is to connect with context. Therefore, companies need to choose their keywords wisely. Connections include hard and soft skills. By using the right keywords, clients will come.
Companies need to hear the concerns from their clients. Companies need to give audience a voice and companies need to respond. Companies can monitor the voice through many social media analytics. It is important for companies to figure out their annotations.
Companies need to show appreciation. Appreciation must be genuine because it will show companies are aligned with the right people. Companies need to provide both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Rewards will lead to motivation. Companies need to earn trust. The art of marketing consist of authenticity, richer connection and trust. Therefore, trust will provide companies’ testimonial and show authentic.
“People do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it”
The social side of search engine optimization
Emily Chow, the Principal of Chow Communication Inc., is invited to share her knowledge on SEO. Emily Chow is a marketing consultant speaker that helps business owners to change their websites to be more effective. After leaving LivingSocial, she gains the reputation by helping businesses to build a solid foundation. Her purpose in mind is sales, leads and conversions. In this presentation, Chow will demonstrate how powerful SEO can do for business and create a post click strategy for engagement and conversion.
Chow believes all business owners need to define their target market and objectives. The goal should be simple and smart. The objective can be measured by brand awareness, searchability, engage with existing customers, sales, promotional campaign, spread news, and encourage word of mouth. Business owners can quantify their objectives by direct purchase, customer acquisition and demand generation.
Chow emphasizes business owners need to look beyond the revenue. By participating with social media, owners can facilitate customer services and boost public relations. Owners need to know these 4 questions.
Who your target market is?
Why they behave the way they do?
How they like to be spoken to?
Whether or not your offerings solve their pain points?
It is important for companies to prove their social worth to Google.
The new way of looking at SEO
It is important to pick the profile strategically because different platforms serve different users. Chow believes since the objective is to build social proof, owners need to get people to share and talk about the content as much as possible. Chow recommends owners to research their target market and hangout at the best platforms to connect with them.
Search and social are two biggest sources that determine the brand online. SEO will look into keywords and social media will look at the response. Chow indicates SEO is the approach optimizes online channels, attracts ideal clients, and drives them into website for conversion.
SEO used to rely on link building, which will help voting and ranking on websites. Google starts to penalize website with fake and manipulation; instead, Google now looks at social media channels. Link building is about social proofing, and owners can use it to convert followers to teammates, crowd sourcing from the links and bring back to mother ship.
Chow emphasizes owners need to prove their worth and build a community of brand advocates to be on top of social media. Owners need to leverage user-generated content campaigns by creating buzz and organic links. Owners need to seek opportunities to convert brand advocates to customers or promoters. Chow believes it can be done by crafting good messages by the art, which is to commit action, and the science, which is the right keyword.
Effective websites that help owners to convert need special landing page, design, graphics, layouts and color choices. Website needs to use good headline, eye catching image, sub heading, call to action, testimonials, and no scrolling.
Chow believes SEO and social media are about multilevel approach, organic and post click experience. The goal of post click experience is to provide simple, straightforward, and easy solutions for audience problems. The website will act like a mother ship and it will help owners to direct traffic to commit specific actions.
“Teaching business owners how to work smarter, not harder”
Social selling: How to do it well and without being a creep
Ada Juristovski, the Program Lead and 1-1 coaching at Hootsuite, is invited to share her experience on social engagement. In Hoostsuite, she is responsible to help many businesses to meet their social objectives. She experiences in monitoring the brand, clients, and industry through social media. This presentation, she will help businesses to find the right conversation and establish them as the trusted source in social media. Moreover, she will help businesses to understand how to close the deal in social marketing.
Juristovski believes social media is a two way street. However, people in this generation treat social media as one way street instead. In average, the activity online can be breakdown as 71% of people’s personal content, 13% of people’s conversation, and 16% of reply. It is important to learn to listen on social media. Juristovski recommends people to concentrate on the reply.
In social media, people can be a thoughtful leader by engage with people, be creative by changing the negative to positive, and be someone people want to follow by sharing amazing content.
When people share amazing content, within 15 articles, 10 should be third party industry, 4 soft landing pages and 1 direct landing page.
Closing the deal through social media consists of two parts: right conversation and trusted source. Customers are 60% are more through the sales cycle when they first talk to a sale person. This will lead people to the right conversation. People need to create content that allows others easily to follow and share. This will help people to become the trusted source.
To use social media effectively, Juristovski suggests people to use hashtag. People need to create user generated content. People need to answer the customers’ tweets to create consistent brand personality. In average, customers expect the reply within one hour. Moreover, people need to provide website location to direct them to the source.
Name: Company of Young Professionals Development Series – Negotiating to win with Shane Gibson
Presenter: Shane Gibson
Negotiation is one of the important skills all business needs to develop. The ability to negotiate can impact the performance and the outcome of business strategy. Young entrepreneurs can get confidence through negotiation and sustain long positive relationship with their customers and partners. Shane Gibson, the international speaker and the author on social media marketing, will share his view and strategies to help young entrepreneurs to develop their communication. He is also the co-founder of the Langara College Online Professional Sales Certificate Program. This seminar will improve young entrepreneurs’ negotiation process.
Gibson underlines negotiator is a high paid job and high paid skill. The best negotiator will walk away feeling win for both sides. Negotiation is like selling. It is about creating an environment where an act of faith can take place. At the end of the day, it is all faith. This is built by trust and creditability.
The goal of negotiation is to leave the other person feeling like they have won. In fact, Gibson believes it is to set it up and let everyone feel they win. This will create the impact for others to see negotiators as friends and trustworthy.
Gibson emphasizes more than 80% of people’s time are negotiating. Negotiation starts anytime when there is an exchange or agreement. Like closing in sales, it is a process not an event. Moreover, this can be described as a cycle with no definite beginning or end.
8 Key ingredients of principle based negotiation
Gibson will share the 8 key components of an effective negotiations process.
Key Ingredient # 1: Preparation
Young entrepreneurs should identify what they can accept. They need to know their best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA). In addition, they need to research multiple sources and brainstorm all possible objections. It is important to create a list of concessions that can be given during the negotiation. This tool that can create closer relationship with clients.
Key Ingredient # 2: Set your terms
Young entrepreneurs need to know the location where they are meeting. The timing and the mediums they use in the meeting. Research the background on the attendees and figure out the strategy to approach these attendees. Moreover, young entrepreneurs need to determine if there are mediators or 3rd parties involve.
Key Ingredient # 3: Focus on Interest
Gibson indicates there are almost always multiple positions to satisfy a set of interest. It is important to figure the other parties’ interests and use it as a part of agreement. Gibson wants young entrepreneurs to know the power is the ability to take action and the more options people have, the more power they have.
Key Ingredient # 4: Center yourself
People can hit others ego easily, and the best option is to not react. When people using bully reaction, they are looking for different response. Gibson believes find a way to center in the negotiation is significant, which is the highest level of self-esteem.
“Whatever direction your enemy is coming from help them on their way”
Key Ingredient # 5: The 3rd space
Gibson believes negotiating is like a living organism. People are able to tell other parties’ characteristics and personalities. The unique space creates between people can identify the contrast and compliment of variety of personal and situational factors. Therefore, Gibson reflects all negotiation can be seen from personal appearance, non-verbal cues and body language, and physical settings.
Key Ingredient # 6: Have a questioning process
During the negotiation, Gibson shows there are 3 types of questions: open, close, and directing. Different situation will use different types of questions. It is important to start general and easy. However, young entrepreneurs should not leave the hard stuff until last. Instead, build into a succession of agreement by starting bad news and then lead to good news.
Key Ingredient # 7: Listen
The rule of thumb is to be a 70/30 listener. By observing the body language, such as breathing, eye movements, how they are leaning and change in tone, will signal the direction of the negotiation outcome.
“It is hard to listen our way out of a deal”
Key Ingredient # 8: Build an ultimate outcome
Young entrepreneurs should concentrate on all 5 senses: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory. They should contrast it with BATNA. Moreover, young entrepreneurs are encouraged to say in other parties’ language and context of other’s interests.
Gibson believes goodwill only lasts for 3 minutes, so it is important to focus on what others value and use it to influence them. If young entrepreneurs can figure out what scares them earlier on, they can use it as advantage.
Tricks
Gibson shares a list of tricks that can help young entrepreneurs to identify the position they are in during the negotiation.
Exact Number
Environment
Minimum Concession
Poor me or I am hurt
Personal attacks
Time thief
Craziness
Explore and question
Thin air facts
Discounts on a promise
Authority switch
Our policy
I can get it better
Flinching
Stonewall
Overall, people are negotiating all the time. Gibson recommends young entrepreneurs to focus on others’ interests, have a BATNA, and remember it is all about awareness and preparation.
“Giving bad news on Monday and good news on Friday. Push when they pull, pull when they push”
The traditional top down leadership strategy is not effective in this current generation. Many business owners are seeking new approach, such as bottom up approach, to produce effective decision making. However, within a period of time, people refer back to the old ways of operating. First West Credit Union presents “Lean for Service” seminar to educate business owners to find the ways to simplify their current operation. Norm Attridge, the Vice President of First West Capital, and Ryan Visscher, the Manager of Leaning & Development of First West Credit Union, will introduce the concept of “Lean” to help business owners understand the big picture of simplification. This seminar will be beneficial for owners who are looking for a change in their procedures.
What is Lean? And why?
Lean defines as efficiency, simplicity and better ways of doing things. It represents the standardization of work procedure. Visscher defines it as to minimizing waste and maximizing member values.
Visscher believes lean is important in business because it can utilize the existing resources and compete with others. The competition is always changing and people are taking their expectation to put in somewhere else. The path of change is rapidly increased every day and businesses need to be able to keep consistent and adapt the new ways of thinking.
The benefit of lean is to reduce the cost, defects, inventory, space and lead time. Nevertheless, it also increases the productivity, capacity and member experience. Based on stats, First West Credit Union helps Envision using the lean concept to save over 15,000 hours of staff time. Lean strategy also helps Envision to save over $577,000 hard cover expenses, 3.12% operating efficiency, and 28,000 membership growth.
What is value?
Visscher defines value as anything clients will pay for. Lean can remove the obstacles in the process of getting the value. In average, only 5% of business time is considered value added for members. There are things to hold them back. In traditional thinking, businesses want to increase that 5%. However, in lean thinking, businesses should concentrate on reducing the remaining 95%.
In addition, Visccher believes all waste can have visible and hidden. The hidden wastes are the one that might be out of control. However, businesses need to figure out the wastes that are blocking their procedures.
8 Wastes
Visccher categorizes 8 types of wastes that could potentially be a threat in business procedure.
Transportation
The unncessary movement from people, products and information
Inventory
The additional storage from supplies, documentation, and information
Motion
The repetitive movements from bending, turning, reaching, and lifting
Waiting
The time spend on one activity to another
Over Production
Producing more than necessary requirement
Over Processing
The additonal efforts that do not create from services to others
Defects
The errors, incomplete information, and scrap
Skills
Not able to release the full potential
It takes extra time to move one thing to another in the office. People tend to hold too much “just in case” in their extra stash. The constant moving can create pressure for staff members. Most of the time staff members are waiting for further instruction. Moreover, people are trying to out think their boss to do more than they need; however, people are also creating redundant effort on small tasks. People need to be aware of errors around the premise and many staff members are not challenged in their job roles.
Business owners need to go down and dig deeper where the decision is made. They need to understand how the process is created and they need to appreciate the work people commit.
3 Kaizen Methodologies
Visccher suggests 3 possible strategies to help business owners to start lean. They are 5s, process time reduction, and value innovation. This seminar will emphasize on the 5s approach.
5s
5s uses visualization techniques to help business owners to create more effective procedure.
Sort -> Stabilize -> Shine -> Standardize -> Sustain
Business owners need to take the current procedure and group them based on their similarity characteristic. After the sorting, business owners need to connect them based on the priority or connection. Business owners can shine them by making them more visible and easy to distinguish. Each part will need to communicate based on the change occur. This will create the standardization. Moreover, business owners need to sustain the process to ensure the change will happen in future.
Business owners can create a time frame to identify the issue and the risks. Simplify the procedures can help business owners figure out the obstacles. Lean for service is not a complicated approach and every business can implement it.
Name: TYPEABC – Million Dollar Traders: Tales of Two Independent Traders/Investors
Presenters: Jason Lu, and Andy Man
TYPEABC invites two independent investors to join the investment seminar to share their experience on investment strategies. Jason Lu, the CEO of Chop Chop Innovation and Instinct Advantage, will provide his insight about hedge funds and investment opportunities. Andy Man, the CEO of SER MAN Traders, will provide his insight about the mental knowledge behind the investment traders. This seminar will benefit anyone who would like to know about the fundamental of investment trading.
After the financial crisis, FED starts printing money to recover the economy. Financial institutions utilize the opportunity to receive instant cash flow from FEDs and companies will receive money from financial institutions. However, the economy improves but the money remains on the hands of financial institutions and companies. FED stops printing money and both financial institutions and enterprises need to change their spending differently.
Financial institutions educate company owners to dilute shares and initiate share buyback to improve the company worth; however, the strategy will not grow the company revenue.
To turn everything around, financial institutions starts to lend money to borrowers. The interest rates increase and bank stock will benefit. As for companies, they will do less share buyback, increase infrastructure spending and release more job opportunity. At QE ends, the US dollars will increase, financial institutions will start lending money to public and companies will start to invest on their business growth. The overall stock market will be benefit.
Instead of share buyback, CEO starts to take the strategy to borrow money and takeover small companies. Therefore, trend shows the investment opportunity is in the growth sector.
Proprietary stock picking techniques
Lu mentions there are two primary ways the Wall Street uses to pick their stocks. The first is called “Intermarket Analysis”, and the other is called “Top-Down Approach”. The Intermarket Analysis is for long term period that analyze the market relationship. This tool will breakdown the pattern and identifies the upward and downward trends within the stock.
The “Top-Down Approach” is a procedure to identify the potential stocks.
Lu simplifies the approach by using the Intermarket Analysis to find the macro trend in the stock market. By focusing the right sectors, traders will pick the stocks from those sectors and perform fundamental checks. Lu believes if traders buy currency stocks in the right sector, it has at least 50% potential gain; nevertheless, if it is in the wrong sector, it will be zero.
Lu emphasizes shopping is a good way to find stock. Good investment opportunities come from large traffic and people who are commonly talking about it. Companies that issue discounts are a signal that they are facing competitions, which means they are reaching the peak. The logic works for a majority of sectors.
ETFs Trading
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are listed on stock market like regular stocks. People can purchase them as much as they want. It is one of the easiest ways to build portfolio for asset allocation strategy.
Many people will buy and sell in panic; therefore, most traders will not receive full gain from the right sectors. Lu suggests a strategy called ETFs for hedging.
ETF hedging is hedge against a drop in the market. This will leverage the inverse of ETFs. Moreover, if market goes down, ETF hedging will increase. ETF makes easy for investment around the world, and this implies to currency hedge too.
Lu recommends everyone not to buy IPO on the first day. There is insufficient financial information due to lack of history. The trend usually drops significantly after the first day. It is a gamble and dangerous. Lu believes there are a lot of investment opportunities in China and ecommerce. Hong Kong is opening up the A-share for everyone to invest.
Lu provides the list of information and resources for people who want to go deeper to investment trading.
Market News
Investment Knowledge
Stock Charts
ETFs & IPO
Investing.com
Investopedia
StockCharts.com
ETF Database
Bloomberg
FreeStockCharts.com
IPOScoop.com
CNBC
Insider Monitor
Market Watch
BNN
“US is affecting other country currency. US is the leader, which reflect on the end of QE”
Mental perspective behind investment
Andy Man is an engineer graduate from University of British Columbia. After taking the mentorship from his coach, Mike, in 2006, he works as independent trader for 8 years. Moreover, he becomes a millionaire trader in 2011.
Man learns investment trading is a nontraditional career that do not based on education, intelligence or capital. He pursues his passion to overcome challenges.
Traders use technical and fundamental to analyze the financial markets. They look for opportunities, and they utilize the charts, news and price to make decisions. Man believes anybody can be a successful and profitable trader.
Trader challenges
There are 5 primary challenges traders need to face.
Challenge #1: Limit beliefs.
People tend to limit their ideas and the way they see the world. They usually limit the potential to pursing the goals. Man suggests finding the inner confidence in people’s abilities. Success breeds more success.
Challenge #2: Giving up
People will stop due to lack of success or excessive loss. In order to overcome the challenge, Man suggests people to use demo account to build up the fundamentals. It is important to focus on developing the skills, not the results.
Challenge #3: Expect instant financial success
People tend to have unreasonable expectations of immediate or instant profit in investment trading. However, Man indicates trading is a journey to build experience and foundation of investment knowledge. Man suggests people build on small success and focus on the process.
Challenge #4: Do not do anything
People tend to do nothing because the lack of confidence. They scare to lose their money and hesitate to pull the trigger. Man suggests people to focus on the minimizing the risks and structure a daily routine to build up the momentum.
Challenge #5: Overtrade
People tend to be greedy and start to capture all the opportunities they can see. This generates a lot of commission and it is not worth in the long term. Man suggests people to focus on the big trading opportunities and set pending orders instead of market order.
Man simplifies the mental strategy is to have mindset, seek opportunity and take actions.
Man’s strategy to become millionaire
Man uses a strategy called “shortening contract”. This allows all traders to borrow resources from contract, sell the product and return back to the contract.
When traders identify the technical rebound, all traders need to find the exit strategy to exit the position. Therefore, when Man is executing the shortening contract strategy, he is using the analysis to figure out when the market will go up. When market goes up, he “long it”. Doing this repeatedly over a course of time, he manages to become a millionaire in investment trading.
“Try not to fall love in position; instead, take control”
“Do not be greedy. Lock it in and control the position”
“Success is a choice. You have been given an opportunity to design your dream lifestyle”
Treat’em Right Seminar is the main signature event from SendOutCards. Kody Bateman, the Founder of SendOutCards, believes sharing something nicely can also help both ways: emotionally and financially. The symbol of eagle is the representation of the attitude from SendOutCards. This seminar is a continuation of the Simple Success System Seminar. This seminar will focus on the personal development side of growth. This seminar will help many people to reach to the next level of success in their lives.
Bateman believes everyone should have a rhythm of his or her own life. SendOutCards is inspired by an event from Kody Bateman’s childhood experience of a black guy who is willing to accept white guy from who he really is. This forms the friendship and teaches Bateman the value of sharing. He uses this as the philosophy behind the SendOutCards.
Bateman uses eagles as the symbol of commitment. Eagles hate crows because crows are noisy. Eagles fly high up until crows cannot catch them. Crows stop chasing because crows use up their energy to make noise and do not have enough energy to continue to fly high. This is like the real life. There are people who are like crows and all they do is make noise. People who will be successful will fly away and get away from the noise. Leaders are like eagles.
“Today, you define who you are and you commit to take action”
The attributes of an eagle
Leaders lead by example. They have goals and objectives for long term, annually, monthly, daily and hourly. Leaders are required to be accountable and hold others accountable. They seek personal growth daily and stay focused. Moreover, they stay positive with public praise and positive criticism. They keep it simple and duplicable.
Bateman believes the true leadership manifests itself through the empowerment of others.
“If you call yourself a leader and nobody is following you, you are really just out for a walk”
Stay in positive energy
Prompting means the intuition of doing something nice. There are two kinds of promptings in everyone’s life. The first kind is called “Inner”, which defines who people are. The second kind is called “Outer”, which defines what people will do with who they are. The more people share, the more volume of inner voice will increase.
Bateman believes when people act on promptings, they are creating an infinite flow of positive energy.
Leverage the law of attraction
Bateman believes what people send out in their life is what they will get back. Therefore, if people send out negative, they will get negative results. If people send out positive, they get positive results.
In this world, 87% of things people experienced or exposed to is negative. Bateman suggests people to flush out the negative, replace with positive, send out the positive to the world and receive the tenfold. In business, people need to be a level 4 business builder. Level 4 means they must have unconscious competence.
Bateman believes energy is sent through by thoughts, feelings, words and deeds. Bateman emphasizes it is not what people say or do, yet it is how they make people feel. It is important to send out to get to them instead get from them. Therefore, if people are sending out to give, the universe will give back.
Express gratitude daily
It is important to celebrate the greatness in others. This is called the act of kindness. People never throw away the cards they receive from others. Therefore, to live in kindness, people need to do relationship marketing, which means relationship first, then marketing.
“You cannot do kindness too soon for you never know how soon it will be too late”
People can create relationship by remember the 3 key touches: thank you, birthday and holiday. The social media is a great tool because they can help you share and promote. People will never live until they do something for someone and never repay back.
“Do all the good you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all times you can to all the people you can as long as you can”
The stories in your mind
Bateman believes it is important for people to focus on what they send out to others. However, it is also important to focus what they send out to themselves.
In order for people to get the freedom, they need to control the time and the money. Bateman believes people need to pay their tribute by creating a story in their mind.
People can focus on things they want and things they do not want. This is all based on the result of the energy flow. The reality is nothing more than the result of the flow of the energy. Therefore, people need to learn how to flow energy differently.
“The story in your mind becomes the story of your life”
The Power of “I am” Statements
The subconscious mind cannot distinguish the difference between the real and imagination. The only way to trigger the subconscious mind to believe the message is to send out message that is in present tense. The subconscious mind will take the root and manifest.
Bateman believe there are many negativity in the world. People are constantly receiving the negative message which are limiting people’s subconscious mind. With the power of two words “I am”, people can take control what flows into their mind and the possibility of what they can become.
Bateman shows “I am” statements are a part of universal law. People are living on the “I am” statements because it makes up the dominant stories in people’s minds. People need to start thinking abundance and prosperity. People need to remember to stay in appreciation because Bateman believes when people are in appreciation, they can focus on the “I am” statements of abundance and prosperity. Bateman suggests people to write their “I am” statements on the card and keep it with them. This will constantly remind them to use positive energy to remain focus on their goals.
Bateman suggests not to refer their issue with the word “problem”; instead, using the word “challenge”. People should use positive words as much as possible.
Bateman also suggests people to use vision board. Vision board is like a lifestyle creator. It can help people focus on the future and ensure they are aligned with the objectives and goals they set for themselves.
“Vision without action is merely a dream, action without vision just passes the time, and vision with action can change the world”
SendOutCards is a company that provides online greeting cards and gifts. The company has two-fold mission to help people to act on their promptings and provide financial success. The company provides a friendly system for people to customize, print and mail their custom cards. Steve Schulz, the President of Field Operations for SendOutCards, will show the Simple Success System that can potentially build a business for people using SendOutCards. This seminar will demonstrate that by sharing something nice can also get paid and reach financially freedom.
Steve Schulz was a school teacher before joining the company. Schulz has been in the company for over 24 years by finding ways to build successful teams that have passion with the idea of sharing. By sharing that concept, he manages to teach many people the simple system to make the world brighter.
Many people are living in the negative world. He believes he has the ability to change it to positive through SendOutCards.
“If I could show you a way to get paid for doing nice things for people?”
Kody Bateman is the founder of the SendOutCards. He founded the company in 2003 at Utah, Salt Lake City. He manages to take the company to the same direction as Amazon, Netflix and iTunes. With his inspiration, SendOutCards is one of the biggest greeting card companies in the world.
Average people send ten cards per year, but many people stop sending cards because they think the process is inconvenient, easy to forget, and it costs too much. SendOutCards has the personalize function that helps people to send out cards easily. It also has notification so people will not forget and the cost is cheaper than the physical card and the postal stamps.
Schulz introduces the system called “Sendcere”. The system can share, tag, like, save, pin, send, and paid. The system has the ability to share the card to social media. This will give incentive for people to take action and become the potential clients.
It takes 4 years for Internet to reach 50 million users. Moreover, it takes 9 months for Facebook to reach 100 million users. In this generation, all the convenient revenue from videos goes to Netflix and the convenient revenue for music goes to iTunes. This indicates the businesses in this generation are changing.
SendOutCards has the business model that users do not worry about inventory, delivery, risk, postage, employees, and bosses. Simply by helping people to sign up will provide financial incentive to people.
Schulz believes people see and people do. People all over the world are acting on their promptings SendOutCards has the monthly manager bonus pool that provides incentives for people who want to sign up for manager. The business model is attached with the system so people can share and get paid at the same time.
“Nothing great ever comes to people who are realistic”
Based on people’s natural instinct, if people have a choice between making money and having fun, they will choose to have fun first. It is important to do both and SendOutCards has the intention to help people to make both things happen simultaneously.
“If someone offers you amazing opportunities and you are not sure you can do it, say yes and then learn how to do it later”
Simple Success System
The SendOutCard has four primary functions for the system.
Simplify, simplify, and simplify
Leverage the power of the products
Make the money flow faster
Make it easier to share the power of SendOutCards
The strategy behind the system comes from these three steps.
Send 1 personal card per day, and send 1 gift per week
Qualify for the manager pool
Teach it to other people
The strategy will use the funnel system. The funnel system comes with three steps. The first step is to use the necessary tools to drive prospects into the funnel. These tools are Social Media, Sendcere, Card Sharing Kits, Splash Paks, Mobile Apps, Personal SendOutCards website, and videos. The second step is to use the business presentation to sort prospects into distributors and customers. The business presentation will include simple success video. The presentation will be in lunch meeting, home meeting or even hotel meeting. The third step is to let prospect decide whether they are marketing distributor or customer.
The idea of marketing distributor comes from the McDonald’s outlet strategy. The incentive to become the manager is the compound interest on the payment. The higher the level, the more cumulative the payment will be.
Lastly, Schulz believes any successful people in any success business will need to do these three simple steps.
Holiday season is important time for nonprofit and charitable organization to maximize their fundraising activities. It is important to ensure all nonprofit organizations to make use of their fundraising capacity. NetSquared invites Steve Rio, the CEO and the lead strategist of Briteweb, to share fundraising strategies that can help charitable organization. This seminar will help all organizations to develop effective fundraising events to improve their donation for the holidays.
Rio works with nonprofit organizations for over 10 years. He believes all charitable organization is facing the difficulty of fundraising every year. Charitable organizations are selling products that their customers do not actually need. Therefore, they are in the business of explain why their work matters. Currently, the best ways are to optimize organization’s website to explain their mission and vision.
Rio will share five strategies to save energy and raise more money for charitable organizations.
Strategy #1: Focus
Rio believes organizations need to identify their customers. It is impossible for organizations to please every target market. Organizations need to change their layout to attract their target market. When charitable organizations are small, they need to focus on how they can appeal to their donors and clients. Organization websites need to raise awareness, provide executive summary with statistics, and have simple and clear call to action message.
Rio suggests charitable organizations to answer these 3 questions to help their organizations to focus.
Who is your most comfortable pitching live in a room?
Who are you talking to?
What is the story?
Strategy #2: Simplify
Rio believes charitable organizations need to explain what they do using simple language. Organizations should implement simple model that show simple and direct description of the company. People will be driven by the impact. In addition, organizations need to simplify their asking. Therefore, it is important to direct their action requests.
Clients and donors are looking for easy way to give. By providing obvious link for donation, donors will know where to donate. Charitable organizations should show the donation link when people are emotional. It is essential to have clean forms and pre populate the option. The less work donors need to do, the higher chance the donation will be made. Therefore, online forms should only ask for necessary information.
“Ask little as possible”
Strategy #3: Personalize
Rio believes personalize involves with the language. Different word choices will help audience to visualize the impact. It is important to create impact experience for audience; therefore, it will give tangible result. Charitable organizations need to have social proofs to identify their reputation. It is important to make it human and show the organizations are connecting to the audience. By creating opportunities to share and give using social campaigns, people will have opportunities to share and recognize the message from the charitable organizations.
Strategy #4: Analyze your data
There are many tools organizations can use to analyze their donors information. By using the right tools, organizations can figure out who are following their campaign. It is important to determine the common giving amount. Organization can use the sweet spot and to improve the donation rate. Organizations can provide the higher amount and lower amount, but make the sweet amount default.
Organizations should know who visit their websites. Organizations can utilize this data to invite them to future events. Rio believes organizations do not say what they do, other people do. Therefore, compare data with similar organizations to enhance the current system model.
There are many analyze tools available for nonprofit organizations. Google Analytics can help organizations to determine the demographic region from their target audience. Hootsuite can help organizations understand what the current audience is thinking and saying. Quantcast will have the entire statistic breakdown in details. The Attentive-ly software application can take the current email list and search for social media profiles. This will help to identify the influencers.
Strategy #5: Follow up
Rio believes follow up is extremely important for nonprofit industry. Manners people is important and it is mandatory to send thank you letters. Rio suggests all organizations to follow up regularly and tell the story to keep them inform. This will make people feel special. Many charitable organizations are using videos, chapter’s events, gathering events, and provide honorary status for all donors. By helping them celebrate together with the organizations, they will feel appreciated. Organizations need to recognize their efforts to ensure their donation can continue in the future.
SOHO is a business group that provides and connects small and medium size enterprises to tools for success. Moreover, they provide resources and advices to promote and inspire local business to grow. Moe Somani, the Founder and CEO of SOHO, presents the main event of SOHO SME Business Expo 2014 to celebrate and engage all local professionals leaders. The conference includes main major sponsors, including TELUS, SAP, and Bell, and keynote sessions. This event creates opportunities for many local entrepreneurs to learn from different industry leaders.
Is email marketing dead? Is social the way of driving new customers?
Email is one of the main marketing tools for many small businesses. Due to the regulation of CASL, businesses need to face more marketing challenges to increase their clients and prospects. The panel includes, Melonie Dodaro, the CEO of Top Dog Social Media, Luke Aulin, the CEO of RTOWN, Roger Graham, the senior manager of Product Marketing from Hootsuite, and Brain Scudamore, the Founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNJK. The moderator, Bosco Anthony, the Business Growth Strategist, will interview their views of the marketing trend.
There are many social media network tools that are available for business owners. It is important to figure out the best fit for the company. Now companies are investing in content marketing because there is a shift from traditional advertisement to digital advertisement. It will be difficult to figure out the effective tool until the company understands the goal and vision. The panelists suggest companies to focus on relationship by telling stories to add value content. Nevertheless, it is all about message, not the medium.
The Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation requests all companies to report spam. Companies are required to get permissions from clients for email marketing. Companies need to keep record tracking for integrity. The panelists believe email marketing is not dead; in fact, the legislation helps all companies to review the procedure. Most companies are not using the email marketing correctly, which results of ineffective marketing and loss interaction. Companies need to ensure to build relationship to provide values for clients. Moreover, clients will accept to be in the email list.
When companies have limited marketing budget, they should pick and choose. Panelists suggest connecting with local press to influence the target market and most companies are moving towards mobile. In addition, it is important to figure out the culture value to attract the right people. Many amazing people want to be involved with the cause; this shows the importance of the right culture for the right team. The right culture will embrace the right team and realize the challenges they are facing are their motivation.
In this generation, the power is in the hands of the customers. They know before they approach to companies. Companies need to find the best tool to communicate with their clients. The panelists recommend all companies to go back to the fundamental and understand what clients are looking for.
“Network size matters, but quality is even more”
“No such thing as the marketing team; everyone is involved”
Money money money: How to get it, manage it, and grow it
Money is one of the key elements for any business growth. Businesses are struggling to find the ways to utilize their resource effectively. The panelists include Jonathan Bixby, the Founder of HIGHLINE, Amy Millman, the President of Springboard Enterprises, Paulina Cameron, the business development manager of Futurpreneur, and Sandra Horvath, the Senior Director of Business Development from Sage. They will share their valuable insights to access the funding and help businesses to manage effectively.
People are making mistakes to access additional funding from investors by either asking too much or asking too little. Business owners need to prepare business plan with proof of statistic to convince investors for funding. Companies need to figure out the right kind of money and right kind of investors because they can influence the direction of the company. The panelists suggest small businesses to use debt equity as their option of funding.
Angel investors are looking for team that builds global business. Their intention is money, marketing, and management. Moreover, they are looking for potential growth of rate of return. There are many other programs that small business can take advantage. Government of Canada is introducing Concierge Programs for small businesses to apply for grants. There are also many innovative technology funding companies that are looking for expansion. The important key is for businesses to look at their vision and figure out the right kind of grants.
The triple bottom line is still an interest for many investors. There are still many investors who will give up the return for social impact. Startup companies are the easiest access to funding because there is no business history. Business history will influence investors’ decisions because companies need to prove to investors their previous money decision. Therefore, companies with long history will be difficult to access funding.
There are still many Canadian investors that invest to companies that are in different countries. It is important to ask in advance for prohibit agreement.
Companies have less visibility will have difficulty with managing money. The impact will lose sight of expenses. Companies should accept payments directly as much as possible because money that comes efficiently will improve the cash flow directly.
Owners should surround themselves with success people. They should hire success group advisors because nobody can do it alone. The panelists suggest company owners to hire advisors as soon as possible.
“Pay them now, or pay them ten times in future”
Panelists believe control cash flow is important. Companies that require immediate cash investment are in bad position. Banks are looking for control and management. Canadian banks have their bank formula to determine the qualification and risk. Companies should build the relationship with their banks.
Panelists believe many entrepreneurs fail to access funding because they can get difficult. They should do their due diligence and look at the rest of the investors group. The behavior is important and they should know who they deal business with.
Dell VIP Lunch – Understanding the Entrepreneurs
Kevin Peesker, the President of Dell, illustrates his view of entrepreneur’s traits. Entrepreneurs are the ones who get up early with passion and commitment. Moreover, entrepreneurs believe risk taking is their essence of life. Entrepreneurs are inspired with stories that differentiate themselves out the world. Entrepreneurs have the power to do more. Furthermore, entrepreneurs have the passion to grow business in the world.
Peesker introduces Dell’s entrepreneur’s pillars of innovation, which includes network, capital, technology and knowledge as their model, and Founders 50, which includes the model of brand awareness, network, sales enablement, technology and capital.
Peesker invites Dell’s directors, Michael Mclay, Jonathan Bixby, and Amy Millman to discuss about the impact of Dell to small businesses in Vancouver. They believe the driver of entrepreneurs is to create opportunities to make a difference in world. There is such thing as entrepreneur DNA and they usually ask millions of questions until they figure out the system. Entrepreneurs are inspired with success stories in their early life to motive them to change the world. The common theme for entrepreneurs is that they do not give up easily.
Entrepreneurs believe if they only have one life to live, they will not make money for someone else. There are many people who talk but less action. They usually give up very easily; however, entrepreneurs will find ways to break that obstacle.
Dell can help entrepreneurs to discover new solutions. They can provide advices for startup companies. In addition, Dell is working closely with entrepreneurs to help them meet with many high level people and access to key expertise. The panelists encourage entrepreneurs to invest their time to Dell for future planning.
“Life is short; just ski down and you will be surprise”
Uncover the Power of Mobile Technology
Paul Romanchych, the Vice President of Bell Mobility, share his view of technology world today. Technology helps people to connect the world they live in. Many advanced technology devices are becoming more integrated with people’s lives. The stats show technology improves customer services by 73%, increase transaction by 28% and connect with meetings by 29%.
In the life of business owners, there are five challenges owners are facing that technology can help to resolve.
The first challenge is “the proof of completed work”. Business owners can use the latest wireless devices to capture the work. The devices are HD videos, high resolution photos, and editable software. The second challenge is “the office to go”. Technology can keep owners connect, work anywhere, and get access to the data from temporary offices, tradeshow and customers premises. The third challenge is “mobile payments”. Technology can maximize owners’ bottom line and process the payment on the go. Owners can generate more sales and evaluate customers experience with technology efficiency. The fourth challenge is “hard environment”. Technology can cater owners to overcome many environment issues, such as rain and snow. These devices are waterproof smartphones. The last challenge is “a remote workforce”. Technology can help owners to track where employees locate all the time. This will ensure the workforce stays productive.
The mobile form of technology is advancing in the generation. There will be no more paper work and the device can help owners to complete forms online instantly. Tablets can make owners more productive and it is important for business owners to leverage the applications and solutions to increase efficiency.
The presentation invites technology experts, David Potter, the Marketing Manager of Citrix SaaS, Mike Agerbo, the Co-Founder of Blink Media Works, Brett Stenner, the Account manager of Samsung, and Mark Asay, the Director of Sales for vCita to share their insights on how technology can help small businesses.
Technology is using bigger screen to capture businesses. The advance devices have the ability to update automatically with no cost. Technology helps business owners to focus on work. Most devices have strong security protocols to test for compliance issue.
Most devices can help business owners to schedule meetings and form back office. As technology progress, business owners are focusing on the touch and the feeling. They are looking for solutions on apps and expect apps to help them market their clients.
In the future, smart watches will be on the trend of technology. The new technology will not require business owners to insert passwords. They will act as the Theo meter of business and provide notification for business owners. Technology can provide many great opportunities for small businesses, including accessing content resources, reaching out to expertise, and presenting their products.
The panelists believe tablets will soon replace the laptop and projectors. It is important for small businesses to invest their resources on technology.
Inspiring Entrepreneurs
Moe Somani, the CEO of SOHO, invites the award-winning entrepreneurs to discuss their journey of entrepreneur. The panelists include Meredith Powell, the Co-founder of The Next Big Thing Foundation, Cybele Negris, the President of Webnames, Kim Cope, the Founder of Early Entrepreneurs, Chris Bolton, the national youth ambassador of The Next Big Thing, and Daniel Dubois, the Founder of Shareshed.
All entrepreneurs start with their passion to change the world. Powell believes her foundation focuses on the scale of business and provides passion to give it forward to the next generation of entrepreneurs. Negris believes it is important to educate people to take advantage of the new technology. Cope inspires by the attitude of entrepreneurs. Bolton inspires by teaching other people the creativity of technology, and Dubois believes entrepreneurs can figure out the reason behind everything.
Entrepreneurs face many challenges in their career paths. Negris believe the main challenge is to find the right people. The right people can bring the right information. This will help entrepreneurs to reduce redundant work. Entrepreneurs need to be more strategic. Moreover, Negris suggests all new entrepreneurs not to give up equity unless it is necessary.
As business gets big, it is necessary to protect the brand. Negris suggests all new entrepreneurs to get as much as domain as possible.
The Next Big Thing Foundation inspires many entrepreneurs to have mentorship early to ensure success. All panelists have mentors. Dubois believes mentors should have the same interest and it is important to not look for the title. Bolton’s mentors are their family members because they give Bolton a chance to watch and observe the company’s procedures. Cope believes mentors should be like big brother and big sister. Her mentor is her harsh school teacher because the teacher can help her see herself in the next future years. Negris has the CEO of Electronic Arts as her mentor. The mentor challenge Negris and hold accountable. Negris’ mentor helps her figure out the life balance.
Entrepreneurs can be lonely. It is important to seek people to challenge and inspire them. It is necessary to surround with success people with similar mindset.
All startup companies have gone through many challenges. Cope shares her challenge is to have the courage to quit her stable job and drive to unknown. Bolton is to determine whether or not to take the risk. Dubois is to determine the proper procedure to take his idea into action.
Entrepreneurs seek advices from different entrepreneurs. Negris’ advice for new entrepreneurs is to start lean and not overspend. Powell’s advice is to focus on how to valuate partnership with people, product, and then pay. Entrepreneurs need to know where they will be in the next future years understand their core values.
“Business integrates your life plan”
Entrepreneurs need to know if they are living to work or working to live. Dubois indicates 10% of happiness comes from social status and 90% comes from having something bigger. Entrepreneurs drive larger vision and understand the life behind the person who works with them. By providing creative work space is important for young people.
Many entrepreneurs are holding back due to lack of confidence. Entrepreneurs need to learn grit, the ability to rebound. Inspiration is important for entrepreneurs and it drives their motivation. Negris is inspired by the online security. Dubois, Bolton and Cope are inspired by the excitement.
Negris suggests new entrepreneurs to read the book “How to make friends and influence people”. Cope suggests “Paint a picture”, Bolton suggests “Why programing sucks”. Moreover, Dubois suggests “Emotional Intelligence”.
Aside from work, entrepreneurs need to find ways to manage their day. Powell recommends new entrepreneurs to be kind to themselves. Negris recommends not to check email in the morning. Cope recommends exercise daily. Bolton recommends to have plants. Moreover, Dubois recommends active exercise.
“It does not matter how old you are. All entrepreneurs go through the same thing”
How to generate more business form LinkedIn
This is a workshop hosted by Melonie Dodaro, the author of “the LinkedIn code”. Dodaro will share her research and techniques to help people improve their LinkedIn profile.
People are overwhelmed with social media. They have many alternative ways to involve, create, discuss, promote, and measure their business with social media. However, many people understate the power of LinkedIn because they do not know the business application in there.
LinkedIn has two types of profiles: makes friend, and makes money. LinkedIn is the only social media that has integrated business module. Based on stats, 2 new people join LinkedIn every second and the average household income is $109,000. People are more confident in the information they found on LinkedIn. Therefore, LinkedIn has 277% more effective for lead generation.
On Google search engine, LinkedIn profile comes on the top of the list. This makes LinkedIn to be the first online impression. People used to treat LinkedIn as resume, but to effectively use LinkedIn, people need different approach.
3 steps formula to LinkedIn success
Dodaro creates a formula for people to increase the success on their LinkedIn profiles.
Step 1: Get Found
Dodaro believes if people are not showing on the first page of the LinkedIn search, they are considered as invisible. People need to pick the right keywords in their profile. It is important to optimize the profile with the keywords that the ideal clients would look for. There are 4 places to optimize the keywords.
The first place is the headline. It is important to choose the keywords that are compelling. The second place is the current work experience field. People can have the keywords on the title and the description. The third place is the past work experience. This will make it more relevant and if people have consistent keywords on the current and past work experience, it will pick up by the LinkedIn algorithm. The fourth place is the summary section. Dodaro believes the optimize profile will improve the search result and increase the number of professional connection.
Step 2: Attract your ideal clients
Dodaro suggests people to write a client focused summary section. The summary section should avoid boring bio and write in first person. The summary section should identify the ideal clients. People can use the summary section to share how they can help them. All summary section should include a call to action on what clients should do at the end. The summary section should be about the target audience. Dodaro believes if people want to attract their ideal clients, it is important for the profile to speak about them. Therefore, people can highlight the bio only on the first two sentences in the summary section.
Step 3: Stand out
Dodaro suggests people to complete all components on their profiles. The more content people provide, the higher chance the LinkedIn algorithm will pull. People need to include a professional headshot. People want to deal with people, not logo. Dodaro also suggests people to include an introduction video to increase the audience interaction. Video can get the audience to feel the existence of users. It is important to add skills to the profile. The more skills people endorsed, the higher the LinkedIn ranking will be. Skills will increase the level of social proof.
Dodaro also recommends people to get recommendation. People will feel more confident and become potential clients when they see recommendations. This is another social proof in action. The review is important. People will buy because of other people’s reviews. Nevertheless, people will distinguish the services if positive is more than negative.
The power of social proof can lead people and people will know. Therefore, Dodaro believes people should always give first before receive.
Dodaro shares The LinkedIn Code abbreviation. People can relate to these abbreviations to build their LinkedIn profile.
Name: CPA Canada – Governance for Not-for-Profit Organizations
Presenter: Lyn McDonell
Many Not-for-profit organizations (NPO) are forming to address the social responsibility of the community. In addition, it is important for non-financial NPO directors to understand the oversight of their financial affairs. CPA Canada presents this event to educate directors about the dynamics of the governance framework. Lyn McDonell, the President of The Accountability Group and the chair of CPA Canada’s Not-for-Profit Committee of the Risk Oversight Governance Board, will present in this seminar. She will share her expertise for all directors with steps to have an effective NPO board. Moreover, all NPO directors will benefit from this presentation.
In the NPO industry, the board has the responsibility of the oversight of operations and the ultimate decision-making. As for the individual directors, they must have duty of care and duty of loyalty. McDonell defines duty of care as directors need to act with the competence and diligence that a reasonably prudent person with similar knowledge and expertise would exercise in comparable circumstance. She also defines duty of loyalty as to act honestly and in good faith in the best interests of the organization. There are 5 important steps to create the governance framework.
Step 1: Understanding the legislative framework and environment
To form the board, members need to ensure they fully understand these five areas of the industry.
Legislation & Common Law
Community served
Social political trends and developments
NPO sector trends and developments
Other stakeholders
These five areas will help members to understand the reason behind the board.
Members will need to elect board directors to oversight the direction of the organization. They also need to appoint external auditors for financial control. The board directors will appoint a chief executive officer or executive director to manage the operation. The board directors will also retain advisers and appoint committees to delicate responsibilities. The CEO or ED will hire employees to ensure operations are performed. Moreover, it is important to elect the right members first to ensure the framework is on the right track.
McDonell believes there are three levels of approval authority under the hierarchy of the governance authority. The first level is the legislation. This ensures all articles of incorporation are provided correctly to government. The second level is the members. This ensures all bylaws are aligned with the mission and the mission is aligned with the articles of incorporation. The third level is the board. This ensures all board policies, which includes vision, strategy and organization policies, are aligned with the bylaw.
Step 2: Designing the governance framework
The board responsibility comes to 3 simple questions.
What is the work of the board?
How will board add value?
How will the framework be evaluated?
McDonell believes the design of the governance framework forms the work of the board. Boards need to approve the mission, vision, values and strategic directions. Boards need to monitor the organizational performance. They will oversee the financial affairs. They are required to select, supervise, evaluate, and compensate the CEO or ED. Assess the risks and opportunities is important, and develop board’s process is essential. Nevertheless, they need to manage the board dynamics.
Boards can add value by assessing the past, present and the future. To assess the past, boards will look at the previous years of audited financial statements, the quality and quantity of the past services, and the health of the staff retention. By looking at the past, boards can learn from mistakes and incorporate to the new direction.
By assessing the present, board will formulate the state of the operation plan, and set and evaluate milestones for projects. Boards will focus if the operation is on track or need to change.
By assessing the future, board will develop strategy to prepare the shifts in government policy, take advantage of the emerging trends, explore the new client markets and services, and understand the new stakeholders and demographic trends.
McDonell emphasizes the governance can only be effective if it reflects the current standard of good governance. It is important to ensure the policies are consistent with the values of the organization. Flexibility to the future, and nurture a health board dynamic are important. Moreover, boards need to foster a collaborative relationship between the board and the CEO.
Step 3: Implementing the governance framework
Boards will need to confirm mission and articles of incorporation; therefore, they will review the bylaws, board and organizational policies.
The articles of incorporation are like the guide to the framework. The mission statement shapes the articles. Boards need to ensure the mission statement, bylaws, board and organizational policies are relevant for the future of the organization. Any changes are required to discuss with members and stakeholders. If decisions are difficult to make, boards can acquire other governance expertise for assistance.
Step 4: Getting board dynamics right
The best way to ensure the board dynamics are correct is to perform evaluation. This means boards need to evaluate their own performance, evaluate the committees’ performance, evaluate the individual directors’ performance, and evaluate the CEO’s performance.
McDonell believes all board should commit to independence, continue improvement and strong relationship. Therefore, all directors should be skilled and experienced. This will include courage, integrity, collegiality and good judgment. As for board members, diversity is important. Boards need to have credibility and sound. All committees and directors should have regular evaluation throughout the years.
Step 5: Monitoring, learning and improvement
Boards need to be realistic. They need to have the ability to seek outside governance resources for support. Complicated board is not the efficient way to manage. Therefore, keep everything simple and straightforward is important. Boards to need ensure they have involved senior management team with clear communication.
“An engaged board of directors working within a strong governance framework ensures the NPO has the level of oversight needed to meet regulatory requirements and fulfill its mission efficiently and effectively”
Name: Company of Young Professionals – Leadership Café
Presenter: Michael McKnight
Leadership Café is an event for all members of Company of Young Professionals to offer their innovation and creativity ideas back to community. It is honored to invite Michael McKnight, the President and CEO of the United Way Lower Mainland. United Way is a charitable organization that supports the community needs. The organization delivers funding to support other organizations’ programs. McKnight will present operational issues the organization is facing to members. Members will break into teams and address the issues. Ideas from this event will formulate with the strategic planning for United Way.
United Way has been around for over 85 years. Moreover, the brand is considered to be top 5 in Canada. While British Columbia is going through demographic shift, United Way is trying to keep the brand recognition in the society.
United Way has been raised over 30 million dollars through local business and donors and over 50 million dollars through government. A majority of funding will support children through education, program supplies, prevent bullying, and many senior services. Overall, there are 12 locations in British Columbia. United Way is currently promoting the program “Better at Home” to help senior shopping, transportation and rental.
Due to economic meltdown for the past years, the organization’s funding is declining. There are around 85,000 charities in Canada, and many charitable organizations are competing with the donation pool.
“Giving makes you happier”
McKnight emphasizes many organizations are trying to raise money by themselves by starting their own foundation. The average charitable revenue per year is 10 billion. Most of the new charities are marketing their clients to donate, which creates competition with United Way.
“Giving is linked with a longer life span”
“Giving promotes mental health”
McKnight indicates young people are not writing cheques to donate; instead, they want to be a part of the event experience. They are looking to have fun and expand network while donating their money to the society. If Canadian donated in 2011 at the same rate as 2006, Canadian charities would have received an additional 2.3 billion dollars. Young people from age 30 to 40 are willing to buy event tickets, and auction items, but they will not donate. Therefore, United Way is at risk because they need to find people to continue to donate.
Millennial like to share and they are driven by passion for specific causes. They are willing to donate their time to help because they are looking for experience. Furthermore, they like to engage with community, but few will give money away.
McKnight believes it is important to align their organization with the corporate social responsibility. 82% of Canadians expects corporation to create shareholder values that align with society interests. 54% of Canadians have rewarded companies that achieve goals that are related to socially responsibility. 45% of them have punished companies that are socially irresponsible. Nevertheless, 97% of employees in Canadian companies are very involved with their companies’ causes and make them feel a strong sense of loyalty in society.
The amount of donation in society has not changed. It only shifts from one place to another. McKnight wants members of Company of Young Professionals to answer the following 3 questions.
How can United Way of the Lower Mainland inspire philanthropy and engagement among the millennial generation?
What role do they think the business sector should play in supporting the Non for profit sector and social services?
Is an engagement activity like ALS more important than the cause?
Answers from members
For the first question, members suggest United Way to provide startup kit program for new young entrepreneurs to develop the understanding of the social responsibilities. They will be under the umbrella of United Way. This will also increase awareness and network connection for young entrepreneurs.
Members also suggest United Way to create micro charity for young entrepreneurs. The brand will empower them through experience. It will create story for young entrepreneurs. United Way can host gala networking events associated with young entrepreneurs. Moreover, United Way is recommended to develop mobile apps that can donate directly to United Way.
For the second question, members believe companies have the responsibility to educate and facilitate in the community. Instead of let companies to choose which nonprofit organization to support, coworkers can pick for themselves. This will create awareness through branding and give back the culture. Companies can engage activities through their leadership by team building exercise to teach coworkers the importance of giving.
For the third question, members believe engagement activity is more important than the cause. To change that, members suggest United Way to implement call of action. It is important to create engagement and awareness through story, which can relate to meaningful message. Due to short attention span from people in this generation, there must have a sense of urgency to ask for donation. Therefore, short, simple and direct are the key to connect with the millennial.
Vancouver Board of Trade invites the Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, to discuss about his view of the future of Vancouver community. Gregor Robertson has been the mayor of Vancouver since 2008 and he is the creation of Vancouver Economic Action Strategy. He leads Vancouver to expand the opportunities of technology sector. He successfully builds his legacy of 2010 Winter Olympic; moreover, under his leadership, Vancouver continues to rank as one of the most livable cities in the world. This presentation will provide many valuable insights for business owners in Vancouver.
Gregor Robertson is proud of the current economy and believes Vancouver needs to capitalize advantage through international. Robertson sees Vancouver has the growth in the resource and technology sectors. In addition, government will put strategic effort on developing the technology sector and creating a home for future talent entrepreneurs.
Robertson illustrates the image of Vancouver to be keen, green and innovative. It is important to promote the city’s success. Recently, Vancouver invests the project Tech Hub to support many Vancouver startups with innovative events. Robertson believes Vancouver should not take the success for granted; instead, he believes Vancouver still require a team to recognize and address the global issues, including finance, taxes, and oil tanks.
Ethic culture diversity still remains the competitive advantage of Vancouver. However, Vancouver is still need a stronger attraction. The future goal will provide supporting tools to increase tourism sector and local residents. Vancouver is ranked to be second lowest tax rate city in Canada; therefore, many corporations will bring jobs to Vancouver in future. Robertson’s strategy is to promote the Vision Vancouver.
The reason behind Robertson’s motivation
The current Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, is seeking for support to continue his vision for another four years. The reason behind his strategy is because Robertson wants Vancouver to change. He wants to see Vancouver to utilize opportunities and build on their success. He believes Vancouver has the potential to draw people around the world and take the city to another level of success.
Why is the campaign so dull?
Robertson believes Vancouver is at a stable economy stage. Everything is on track based on the strategic plan. Robertson wants to bring in new plans and development for Vancouver city. Vancouver is at the proactive stage, and city is looking for stabilization. Therefore, Robertson’s strategy is to introduce positive impact that will lead Vancouver to a different future.
What are the current main issues in Vancouver?
Citizens in Vancouver want to see the direction of the city and want to see a positive change. Affordability is a concern for Vancouver and rental housing needs to be addressed. Affordability issue will impact the core of the city and Robertson will bring positive and optimistic strategy for the future.
Response to panic
Robertson emphasizes Vancouver is prepared for any panic crisis. All documents will work away through all types of liability. There are steps for transparency and there will be sufficient communication through media. Many key players are prepared to initiate when crisis comes.
What is the vision of Vancouver?
Robertson thinks the new level of success for Vancouver involves technology. The world is paying attention to technology city, which will attract people to Vancouver. Vancouver needs to create momentum to become the top city of startup companies. This will create more venture capital, which will flow through the city.
Income household standard is low?
Currently the income household increase in Metro Vancouver is around 3.8%. Robertson will create more companies because people in this generation choose companies and move around the city. Technology will be the main attraction to invite more companies to stay in Vancouver. Robertson forecasts there will be an amazing shift the focus from resource to technology.
Vancouver is still mainly focus on service industry. It is important for Vancouver to stay focus and contribute. Robertson ensures the voice of people in Vancouver will be heard.
The biggest obstacle of homelessness
Robertson believes no one should sleep outside of Vancouver. With the current strategic action plan, Robertson believes Vancouver has a good chance to end the issue at the end of 2014. Robertson will not give up. Vancouver will work hard to create partnership with BC housing.
Upset residents from homelessness issue
Vancouver is building more shelter and shifts the downtown eastside to other location. There will be ongoing health providers. Neighbors need to work together to improve and contribute the environment of Vancouver.
Market of Rental Housing
There are many incentives for rental housing. Rental housing will create space and supplies for low income residents. Moreover, rental housing will make people to stay in Vancouver.
Plans for collaboration for other cities
Robertson announces Vancouver is currently working with other local cities to improve job opportunities. Vancouver will reach out to other cities for support and collaboration. Mobile business license for trade and business companies is implemented.
Bike Lane and Parking meter
Robertson implements bike lane strategy to transform the street of Vancouver to many functions usage. The strategy is challenging and the action plan will reduce 50% of cars in download in the future. There are many constructions and it is not great for transportation. Robertson will address this issue. Parking price will not reduce and remain stable because parking meter plays a great role of budget. If parking reduces, the property tax will increase.
Robertson believes bike lane is creating a positive economic impact. Vancouver is leaving a successful legacy. The improvements of transit will definitely improve the transportation in Vancouver.
Presenters: Keith Elwood, Coleen Christie, Victor Chan, Terry Pearson, Jennifer Gardy, Peter Gregson, Jeff Mudgett, Lesley Kim, Jessica O’Reilly, Charles Montgomery, Treana Peake, Jay Demerit, and Chip Wilson
TEDXVancouver is independently organized TED events that shares innovation ideas together with the community. The purpose of TEDX conference is to provide opportunities to join ideas together with community, connection, and conversation. With the host, Riaz Meghji, will invite world leading leaders to speak and interact with audience in Vancouver. The topic is “Tilt”, which means the shift of change or ideas to break pattern. Tilt is a cycle of life and the presentation will take the audience to different stages. The conference will inspire people with remarkable ideas and change the modern pattern to new innovative trend. Each presenter will give 18 minutes to present his or her subject.
Keith Elwood
Keith Elwood is a geographer from US Bureau of the Census. He assists the building of the first geocoding applications of the TIGER System, which leads to the creation of e nationwide digital map database known as GPS. Elwood believes his passion will direct him to emerge stronger technologies that can help mankind in everyday environment.
Elwood always believes the connection of people and surrounding is mandatory in the world today. Moreover, he is fascinated when GPS is created to assist people’s lives. GPS is a tool that can answer “Where am I?”, “Where am I going?” and “How I get there?” In addition, the algorithm of GPS is using network data map to minimize the travel time from one destination to another.
Back in the old days, people are all man maker, which means people have the ability to explore the surrounding. Everyone has a mental map that can define their personal and lifelong project. With mental map, people are able to eliminate stress and build on existing ideas. However, with the invention of GPS, people tend to lose the ability to create mental map. People rely on GPS technology and no matter how advance system GPS has, there is always room for direction or misleading error.
The system needs to address common sense and skepticism. People will lose situational awareness when they rely on machine. Therefore, people need to engineer themselves to trust common sense and let them drive the direction instead of letting machine drive their directions.
“Stop look at the screen, you should look at the window sometimes”
Coleen Christie
The anchor for CTV News Vancouver, Coleen Christie, reports news and events for Vancouver lower mainland. Christie seeks the opportunity to broadcast CTV Olympic. Throughout her career, Christie works as a producer and director for CTV network.
Christie defines news as a product to be sold to consumers. It is a product that has leverage of power. Moreover, news has shift from newspaper to digital. The major issue with news today is the consumers. Consumers do not fully trust the news they see on television.
Christie shares information through mainstream news. The news team will assemble all local news. In addition, debate will take place to discuss ideas that can attract attention from audience. Reporters will assemble the news and deliver to audience. News that has no value will not air.
Christie believes the perception of bias is something news cannot avoid. The mainstream news does not have political agenda. Discipline is needed and it is important to present facts without personal emotion attachment. In addition, mainstream news cannot take side.
Bias is bad for news in business. The average attention span for people these days is around 2 minutes. Therefore, boredom is bias and social media involves bias. People are subject creators of the news today and they will pick and choose their news from their subconscious minds.
News media comes from freedom and bias. People can get facts from any source, but news can provide content to people. Christie believes in this society, they need to battle consumers’ bias and provide more diverse news to the world.
Victor Chan
Victor Chan works 42 years of experience with Dalai Lama. They founded the Dalai Lama center for Peace and Education in Vancouver in 2004 to help students to experience meditation. Chan has interviewed the Dalai Lama extensively and successfully bond a unique friendship. With his experience with the practice, he introduces the importance of mindfulness.
Chan believes mindfulness comes from focus and pay attention to mental and physical wellbeing. The idea is originally from India and it is the mental technique to improve life. The outcome will help people to be kinder to people around them. Moreover, it sends a powerful message to feel satisfaction about life.
In Chan’s first 20 years in Hong Kong, he finds himself to be tired and lost. He is trained to believe education is the most important in life. During his Afghanistan trip, he was kidnap. They travel to mountains and face the critical moment in his life. The unexpected event leads him to meet Dalai Lama.
With a special interaction, Dalai Lama and Chan both are bonded. Chan realizes there is a rebellion from Hong Kong, which is to change the existing education system in Hong Kong. After meeting with Dalai Lama, he leads many people to meditation and practice mindfulness. Moreover, Chan emphasizes to use Mindfulness technique to change students’ state of mind and balance the sense of wellbeing. People can feel less bullied.
Chan believes there is a momentum embedded in education system. By providing education with sense of fulfillment and social responsibility, students will have self-confidence to lead their lives successfully. Empathy is an important lesson to learn and Chan will use mindfulness to make students’ lives better.
Terry Pearson
Dr. Terry Pearson is a biochemistry and microbiology professor in the University of Victoria. He founded the SISCAPA Assay Technologies Inc. to research and develops diagnostic tests for personalized medicine. His research helps people in Africa to lead cure from tropical diseases and sleeping sickness. Moreover, his research discoveries have led many development of clinical diagnostic medicine.
From the result of heath research, he believes everyone has unique biomarkers in their blood. In fact, he also believes the whole universe can be identified from a drop of blood.
Molecules from blood indicate health or disease. It is translated through the flow of biomakers. Biomakers discovers wellness, fitness, stress, and cancer. Moreover, diagnostic tests will determine biomakers to distinguish individual health outcome. Even though people might look alike, their biochemical biomarkers are different.
In the current health care system, the outcome is compared with the herd. It will flag the result if biomakers shows abnormal status comparing with others. In the diagnostic testing, researchers will track each biomakers and provide antibiotic for patients.
Pearson believes the current health care system needs to change. Currently, the health care system uses reactive approach, which means patients will seek medical solution when they discover medical problems first. Pearson believes the health care system should be proactive approach, which means the test will discover the health problem and prevent patients from getting worst in their condition. The research from biomakers will help the health care system to change from reactive to proactive one day.
Jennifer Gardy and Peter Gregson
Jennifer Gardy is a senior scientist in Molecular Epidemiology at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. Her research focuses on DNA sequencing to provide solution for public health problems. Peter Gregon is an award winning cellist and musician that reinvigorating the classical genre with technologies. His passion is to bring engage contemporary music with the digital generation. Together, Gardy and Gregson will bring science and art together and form an extraordinary discovery.
Gardy and Gregson believe there is a way to connect between science and art. In Gardy’s research, chimpanzee is the closest animal to human. Human has a complex system and the main element diverse from chimpanzee and human is creativity. The origin of this research is to look closely to DNA.
DNA is building blocks of gene and the origin lies on gene. Human’s skills evolve when generation goes. DNA will change and shift from generations. In average, human has about 3 billion genes, but human does not have the biggest amount comparing to all animals on earth. Moreover, human also does not have the most types of genes either. What makes the difference is the junk DNA. The junk DNA contains the modify behavior of genes which make language and culture.
Gardy and Gregson believe it is possible to change DNA data to music. This is a called DNA data “songification”. By assigning pitches to the graph of the DNA chromosomes, musician can generate melody with repeat sequence and pattern.
Music is not just about notes, and it is about the spaces between. Music from DNA shows biology does not need to play by the rules. Therefore, science and art are related and music is one of the ways to illustrate the similarity.
Jeff Mudgett
Jeff Mudgett is a lawyer and entrepreneur from the western United States. During his career, he discovers his grandfather, H.H. Holmes, might be the true identity of the Chicago murder case Jack the Ripper. He will take through the audience the evidence he discovered and determine whether or not Holmes and Ripper are related.
In Exhibit A, Mudgett shows a 7 days transit ship and obtain the passenger list. In Exhibit B, the letter that Holmes writes to his lawyer shows his presence in London. In Exhibit C, Holmes is on all major newspaper. In Exhibit D, the autopsy report indicates the suspect is a surgeon and expert in knives. This narrows down 2 suspects. In Exhibit E, based on all witnesses’ interviews, the face of suspect is generated and Holmes and Ripper have similar face structure. Exhibit F shows a letter that is signed by Jack the Ripper when the victim is discovered. The handwriting is identical to Holmes based on the University of Buffalo professional opinion.
The result from audience shows guilty based on all the facts. However, all facts prove Holmes is a potential suspect, not the murder. This shows the power of evident can sometimes mislead people’s perspectives. Mudgett will take this result and go back to the case for further investigation.
Lesley Kim
Lesley Kim is one of 9 greatest Canadians by Noteable. Her efforts inspire people around the world to bring positive awareness in any situation. She organizes Spectacle, a gala that raise over $130 thousands for Seva Canada, the organization that educates blindness prevention. She will continue her work with Seva Canada to spread the awareness and help others in needs.
Lesley Kim has the passion in culinary arts and pursuing her dream career as a chef. However, an unexpected event of lost pregnancy forces her to lose hopes. The toxic feeling revolves around her and provides stress in her life direction. During a year of Halloween, bottle rockets hits her in her left eye and explode. Her left eye is destroyed and by looking at the mirror, she is totally lost everything she hopes for.
After the surgery, a phone call from her sister changes her life around, and begins to learn to ask for help. She let go everything and face the reality. She works with the community support by forming fundraising to help blind. During the fundraising, she receives a video from Europe that inspires her to continue her destiny.
Kim learns to let go and trust the process. She begins to travel around the world and volunteer in the hospital. She realizes the reaction from parents face when their children are in surgery reflects their true impression. In addition, she starts to appreciate life even more. She forgives the person is responsible for the incident because she understands revenge will not get her left eye back. She also learns it is wrongfully to compare the loss of the eye and the loss of pregnancy.
Kim is now able to let go the control, pride and judgment. She believes happiness is a choice and appreciation is above all. It is important to understand it is a part of life. Life is a like ride and the point of going down is to appreciate the high.
Kim is truly gain the greater vision and Kim realizes human is design to heal, not destroy.
“Do not let trauma get you. Understand how strong you are.”
Jessica O’Reilly
Jessica O’Reilly is a sexologist and the author of “The New Sex Bible”, “The Little Book of Kink”, and “Hot Sex Tips, Tricks and licks”. Her work inspires many large national broadcast companies. She also hosts the reality TV show called “Swing” from Playboy TV.
As a Sexologist PHD, she discovers there is a major crisis that can affect personal level and tear family apart. The issue is spreading and influencing modern marriage. The marriage divorce is over 40% in the world and the satisfaction rate from marriage partners is dramatically decreasing. In divorce, 60% of men and 50% of women are trying to flirt away other spouse.
O’Reilly believes marriage is a failure in human design. If something goes wrong or does not work, it is important to go back and innovate from fundamental. From the research, there are three alternatives or options for failed marriage couples. They can do polyamory, swinging, and general open relationship. However, open relationship only has 14 to 15% success rate because in our subconscious mind, people are trained to loyal to one mate.
Based on the current generation, people can distinguish themselves from the relationship scale of either monogamists or non-monogamists. A majority of people are somewhere in middle. The research shows the result is to introduce the solution of Monogam-ish.
Monogam-ish is a new way to help marriage. Marriage couples can think but not act, which means they can think about another mate but not act on that thought. They can talk but not touch, which means they can flirt but no physical. For more advance, they can enjoy live nudes and sex phone line together to spice up the enjoyment. The idea of the environment will change the energy of the marriage.
“Monogam-ish is a mindset, not a formula”
O’Reilly discovers Monogam-ish can deal with jealousy and heal a little at a time. The process will convert the love relationship from hot to lust. It is important to make rules for right circumstances. The boundary will act like a rubber band, which can stretch and expand.
The science of Monogam-ish is to create habits from emotional expression, balance between connectivity and freedom and active on sex life. Therefore, spouse can talk about their feeling, expand self-theory, and put some effort in sex life.
Monogami-ish is not polyamory, swinging or open relationship, it is a way to improve sex relationship from marriage.
Charles Montgomery
An award winning author and urban experimentalist, Charles Montgomery, creates experiment that can help cities around the world to look at different views around neighborhood. During Vancouver 2010 Olympics, he manages to initiate people to open their homes to strangers. In addition, his passion continues to advice many decision makers around the world to inspire and change their cities to have happier environment.
Montgomery passion is to make a happy city. In New York, he conducts his first experiment called “Love night”. The purpose is to get New Yorkers to trust each other in the city. From psychologist’s point of view, when people hold something warm, they will change their feelings towards others. As for the artist’s point of view, people will connect when they are doing something together as a team.
Montgomery believes people will release oxytocin when warm feeling comes. This comes from hugs. In his book, he discovers the most important ingredient is social connection. Happy comes from social, and more trusting cities will result of happier cities. Therefore, when trust in neighbors is increasing, life satisfaction will increase.
“Money matters, but social connection matters more”
The system in cities can influence people’s lives and cities design people’s emotional. If there is a change in infrastructure, people will not feel lonely. It is important to find new ways of feelings towards cities and connect with nature. Instead of city like (close doors), the structure should be town style (open doors). This will help with new tourist.
The conclusion of the love night experiment in New York is positive. People in New York feel more welcome when they are socially connected.
“The way we design has effect on people, and architect can design better for happier city”
Treana Peake
Treana Peake is the founder of the luxury fashion line Obakki Foundation. Her passion of innovative philanthropy leads to grow in communities. Her leadership receives public recognition from international companies. From her work, she develops a new type of fundraising model that engages dynamic and inspiring.
When Peake’s children donate their allowance to homelessness, she realizes the reason behind their children’s actions is “because they need it”. People have layers in their actions of either benefit or protect; however, children share their assets because others need it. People start to forget the main motion of giving and focus on the cost of layers. People tend to make two-way deals and consider the opportunity cost between the deals.
Peake believes if there is no repayment, people will give without thinking for return. This kindness and compassion is a part of human nature. Even though there is a different set of values, people will follow the process of interaction. For example, if someone buys a stranger behind him or her in the line a coffee, the act of kindness will follow the next person.
“With no payback, it will ignite the passion”
During the 25 years in Africa, Peake witnesses the share of giving. People provide medical and education to others. The inspiration comes from transformation and giving. The gift of kindness unites everyone together. Someone, with the gift of kindness, provides financial resource to Peake’s family for many years. This act of kindness inspires Peake to continue her passion to help others.
Act of kindness impact people’s lives. The rapport effect will shape people. Furthermore, smallest favors impact largest change.
Jay Demerit
Jay Demerit, the Captain of Vancouver Whitecaps FC, is a legacy and a hero in many professional soccer players. His story motivates many young amateurs and inspires many athletes to continue following their dreams. After retirement, he and his wife form the Rise & Shine Retreat in Pemberton Valley to offer soccer programs for many youth. His journey will be remembered and passed on to many generations.
Demerit’s greatest tilt is the last goal before his retirement. During his last game, he smiles because his mindset is always prepared and ready. Demerit emphasizes people are wired to prepare for the worst. However, people will over prepare the worst and under prepare for the best.
During his university life, he begins his passion of becoming a soccer player. He is not a defender, but he seeks the opportunity to try out for defender position. Even though he did not get draft, he will continue to follow his dream. He starts his journey by moving to England. His lifestyle is giving a hard time for him, but his passion and mindset help him to focus and trust his choice.
Demerit does all the practices and exercises whenever he can. All he is waiting for is an opportunity to shine. When the coach asks him to play for starting lineup on the last pre game, he is ready and prepared to prove himself. Nevertheless, he manages to get 1 year contract from the performance.
An unexpected event happens during his journey. Demerit’s eye is injured. He races the time to save his eyes and formulate 3 months recover plan. He wants to play at the world cup, so he concentrates on his recovery after the surgery. After his recovery, his manager gives him a shot for the World Cup line up. He shifts the focus and does what he does best. Lastly, 2 months later, he is able to play in the World Cup.
Demerit suggests people should have a success plan. They need to know what their directions and how to get there. It is important to know the work through and prepare for any opportunity.
“Put effort, focus on positive, and you will be on the path of success”
Chip Wilson
As the Chairman of Lululemon, Chip Wilson is a successful entrepreneur and business leader. He receives the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year for Innovation and Marketing from Ernst & Young. He also receives the Distinguished Entrepreneur award from University of Victoria. Moreover, He sponsors BC Children’s hospital and he contributes his commitment to communities by forming Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University to educate students in innovative design for fashion, interiors, graphics, product and technical apparel.
Chip Wilson’s passion continues to support people to take ideas to action. His passion comes from doing realistic work with people he loves, children and education. He is influenced by treating people well and the quality of products.
He sees his business logos as product that everybody wants. His logo gives him the confirmation that his idea is correct.
Wilson defines news media as delivery of facts. News has become entertainment and many people cannot tell the difference. More bloggers are expressing their media perspectives and news become like commodities. Wilson believes the great journalist cannot get the true words out anymore. Everybody hires public relation representatives and they are creating news. He believes in this generation, people are not as focused as before.
Wilson gives opportunities in women’s leadership. Wilson’s grandmother is a business women and he understands the hard work behind women’s leadership. Currently there are about 60% of graduates are woman, and he realizes the market segment for 32 years old women is about to be married. He seeks this opportunity by sustain the women’s work force.
“There is customer like that, and there will be employee like that”
Wilson is happy with his current stage of his life. His wife supports him and run charity like business, which is to focus on quality education for children. He sees his future legacy by asking himself “what it is to be great”, “is life worth living?” and “The way of life”.
Name: StudioThink – What is Digital PR? How can I set you apart from the rest?
Presenter: Nico Bauman
StudioThink, a company that engages and delivers innovative brand to clients, presents “Think60” event to share some professional insights to business owners. StudioThink presents Nico Bauman, the Director of Operations from Jelly Marketing, to discuss the importance of digital public relation in the work of marketing. Business owners will discover the trend of digital public relation can impact significantly to their companies.
Shifting from arts and entertainment industries, Bauman uses her abilities to expand and grow her new success in international public relation. She defines PR is building relationship in branding. She recognizes the TD bank PR video to be one of the best PR strategies to emotionally attach with their customers. People built relationship with PR and PR helps people to engage with trust.
“In 10 years, 75% of marketing budgets will be spend on digital”
Digital Public Relation
Bauman believes digital PR provides techniques that will set businesses apart. In this current market, news can be transformed to many channel and flow through to many devices. Bauman emphasizes the power of conversation and citizen journalists (bloggers) will impact digital PR.
Genuine Public Relation
It is important to understand the audience and provide the relevant information. In the event of “Taste Vancouver Food Tours”, many local bloggers will not write their blog post to promote the event due to popularity. An award-winning blogger, Miss 604, is willing to take the chance to experience the event and provide the real experience garners posts. The event is sold out.
“Experience to believe it”
What about blogging?
Bauman believes blogging is to transform static news into conversations. Bloggers can create digital impression to the audience and loop the audience to revisit the news again. Successful blogging emphasizes quality over quantity. Successful bloggers can track registers and conversations. They can convert conversations to traffic and visitors to registers. Blogging is a form of digital PR and it also helps business owners to track return on investment and other marketing statistics.
Get Wet for Free
Local Splashdown Park creates a digital PR campaign called “Get Wet for Free” by using logos on the websites and post to expose its summer activity. The campaign creates awareness and gives free tickets catch the attention from bloggers to post. Bloggers creates the rappel effect which helps Splashdown park to advertise their water park. Bauman considers this as Experimental Marketing PR.
How to bring your brand to public?
Bauman believes it is important for all business owners to bring the good from their products any way they can to the public. This is called “Content Marketing PR”. Using pictures and logos can bring company image to the audience. Bauman indicates all digital can be re-shaped to create long term relationship between companies and customers.
“It is more important what others about you online than what you say about yourself”
Public relation vs marketing
Bauman considers public relation is a version of marketing through public. Moreover, public relation is fostering and nurturing relationship with public.
First Step in Public Relation
It is important for all companies to ensure their brand can present a story. Each story has an awesome digital brand. Each brand must communicate with audience that leads to the current direction of the company. Moreover, companies need to conduct press release with images to improve brand recognition.
LinkedIn in Public Relation
LinkedIn is a professional social media engine that supports digital PR. Bauman suggests all companies to appear everywhere. By understanding the target market, companies select the proper platform to increase public awareness. In addition, Facebook is for social side, and LinkedIn is for relevant events.
Nonprofit in Public Relation
There are some key aspects to use digital PR for nonprofit organizations
Make things relevant
Stay in touch with core value
Update daily
Show community partnership relationship
Be genuine
Join and engage community conversations
Determine who is talking about themselves
How social media and public relation can affect SEO?
The SEO uses keywords to increase awareness in social media. It is important to know the backend of the relationship between SEO and the companies. Currently, QR code and hashtags are commonly used in digital PR. QR code can store and lead customers to a call of action. Hashtags will record the relevant news and communicate to greater audience. Bauman suggests all companies to choose the hashtags that are short and easy to remember. Furthermore, it is important to research the hashtags to see if there is any unnecessary history recorded that can potentially harm the image of companies’ brands.
Presenters: Naomi Yamamoto, Terry Tarle, Ian Tostenson, MJ Whitemarsh, and Robert White
The Board of Trade invites Naomi Yamamoto, the Minister of State for Tourism, and Small business of British Columbia, Terry Tarle, the CEO of AXYS Technologies Inc, Ian Tostenson, the President of BC Restaurant and Food Services Association, MJ Whitemarsh, the CEO of Whitemarsh Enterprises Inc, and Robert White, the Associate Director of Western Sales of Bell Mobility, to discuss the approach to bring government and business together in BC. The moderator, Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia, the CEO of Century Plaza Hotel and Absolute Spa Group, will interview the panel to address issues that can support small business owners to improve productivity and profitability. Moreover, business owners can take the advantage of new opportunities from this presentation.
This presentation includes the ceremony of the Small business Roundtable the annual report to government.
From the statistic of Small Business Roundtable, 98% of all businesses in BC consider as small businesses. Small businesses provide 55% of all BC private sector jobs and 31% of BC’s GDP is based on small businesses. In average, 32% of businesses in lower mainland are small businesses. Yamamoto indicates the Small Business Roundtable supports small businesses by listening and responding to government. In addition, the primary focus is to cut the red tapes.
Small business is one of the top 4 sectors (First Nation, Tourism, Foreign, and Small business) in BC. Currently, Yamamoto will work along with UBC to increase the awareness of small businesses.
Yamamoto recommends all small business owners to visit OpportunitiesBC website to discover ways to bring Small businesses and capital venture together. The website can provide exit option for local BC businesses. If small businesses decide to retire or close, owners can use the platform to provide career opportunities for local employees.
Yamamoto indicates the biggest challenge for small businesses in BC is volume of customers. It is important to shop local business to improve the economy. By shopping over the border is not helping the local small businesses. Moreover, 30% of local Canadian purchases pay more if it is made locally.
Tarle states BC is focusing more on Green technology. Over 95% of companies in BC conduct international businesses in 50 different countries. His advice to all small business owners is to “Think big, start small, and act fast”.
Tostenson informs government has limited resource for small businesses. It is important to have collaboration with local community. Municipal government is working hard to foster big opportunities for small businesses. Tostenson suggests all small business owners to create an attractive place in Vancouver by engage with local communities.
Whitemarsh reports people are more confidence in Small Business Roundtable. The minsters are accepting the challenges that are raised by the Roundtable. One of red tape reduction strategy is to expand the mobile licensing. Mobile license can help small businesses to be more transparent, which leads to more sustainable revenue. The issues raised by small businesses to Roundtable will flow to government.
White emphasizes wireless technology will improve productivity for small businesses in BC. The trend is to go paperless. Wireless technology will optimize the recent data and talk to inventory. By increasing communication with machine, business are also considered going green. Improve the real time tracking management, security and safety, small businesses will be well prepared in BC.
Successful small businesses are formed by relationship, collaboration, and partnership. Yamamoto recommends all small business owners to take advantage of the import and export guide from government website to improve current production and capital.
Name: Startup Grind – The view of Mike Volker, the Angel Investor
Presenter: Mike Volker
Startup Grind is a startup community that hosts many startup events to support startup entrepreneurs in Vancouver. The event is hosted by Cheryl Mack and Cheryl Draper, Directors of Vancouver Chapter. Startup Grind invites Mike Volker, the Angel Investor of new high technology ventures, and the Director of Simon Fraser University Innovation office, to discuss his view of Angel Investor. Startup entrepreneurs will understand the perspective of Angel Investor so they will know how to approach future angel investor with their innovative ideas.
After graduating from engineering major, Mike Volker founded his company, Volker-Craig Ltd, in 1973. With engineering background, he successfully builds a black box system that can connect screen, keyboard and typewriter to a television. After 8 years of success, IBM announced the innovation of laptop, which destroyed the core value of his business. In addition, he dissolves the corporation and team up with 6 other entrepreneurs and become Angel Investors to help out startup companies.
The first investment encounter experience
After selling his business, he works with the startup company that later becomes Research in Motion ltd (RIM). With 15% of rate of return for 30 thousand, he rejects the offer and suggests them to give shares for technical specialists instead payments. In addition, his suggestion helps RIM overcome the current crises
Volker mentions his first successful investment is a local voice call communication corporation that is sold to Ontario for 90 million for return. Now Volker is focusing his investment on biotech ideas, energy technology innovation and food industry
Volker’s important investment judgment experience
Volker believes integrity is an important factor. There is a time when he got approach from a good idea, but he forgot to check on the people behind the idea. This results of dishonest investment usage from investee by paying back to bank instead of investing in capital. Moreover, due diligent is extremely important for Angel Investors.
“The key to success is to ask many questions at the beginning before investing”
Tips for startup
There are 3 questions Volker will ask to any startup entrepreneurs.
Who am I investing in?
Are you totally in?
What makes it different than everyone else?
In average, 90% of startup companies fail. It is important to treat those failures as learning experience. However, Volker believes entrepreneurs who are stubborn or not coachable or too strong head are the main reason behind those failures.
Volker is impressed with entrepreneurs who have strong commitment and nonstop approach mindset. To request for funding, the key aspect from Volker is to lead the conversation with a strong Return of Investment figure. If entrepreneurs cannot explain their ideas within 10 words, Volker indicates it is a lack of preparation and commitment.
“If someone is not willing to listen, it is a red flag”
In average, Angel Investors team will invest a total of $600,000 at the startup round and 2 million in total during the second round. Entrepreneurs need to go deep to convince the Angel Investors to invest.
Strategy for finding entrepreneurs
Volker invites potential startup entrepreneurs for dinner. He will introduce them to his wife. If his wife thinks they are jerks, Volker will not invest. Volker believes women’s instinct can determine emotional, which helps him with his decision making.
Volker suggests every startup entrepreneurs should have their personal roadmap. Moreover, they need to develop tools, publish website, and attend as much startup meeting as possible.
New trends
Comparing with the traditional startup entrepreneurs, the new innovative startup entrepreneurs will receive feedback quicker to determine the popularity of their business ideas. They are able to exit quickly. The qualities of ideas they present are better due to strong planning and preparation.
Advice for finding funding
Volker suggests all startup entrepreneurs to get involved with BC Innovation Council. Moreover, all startup entrepreneurs should participate with many competitions. People who have successfully built their companies are willing to help others. Therefore, seek them for their advices.
Every startup companies should implement a board. This proves they are going towards the right direction. Many Angel Investors are now looking for board in startup companies to determine their success structure.
Angel Investors are now meeting regularly every week. They expect startup entrepreneurs to provide previews for their presentations. Dragon’s Den is a perfect example of Angel Investors meeting. A majority of Angel Investors will diversify their investments with balance. In average, the investments come across the meeting are usually 27% ROI. However, 40% of Angel Investors will lose everything. Therefore, Angel Investors will at least invest 20 different companies with their money.
Angel Investors will factor startup entrepreneurs experience when they got approach with ideas. They will ask startup entrepreneurs to forecast their 5 years vision. Sometime Angel Investors will ask psychologist for their advice.
Lesson from RIM
Volker believes the main reason why RIM is not successful in the market is because they got sidetrack with other activities. They did not focus on their primary core values and they did not shift when opportunities come.
Future in Angel Investing
Volker forecasts crowdfunding will be the future funding source for many startup entrepreneurs. Canadian Government stats investors need to have million dollar net worth to consider as Angel Investor. In average, only 4% of investors qualify for this requirement. The purpose of this regulation is to protect scam. In the old days, bankers are the gate keeper, but now, it is more flexible and more liquidity. It is essential for all Angel Investors to ask themselves the question “Who should you sell your share to?” before making any investment.
Name: Small Changes for Big Result: How to optimize your online donations
Presenter: Heather Ballachey
NetSquared Vancouver is a global movement supported by TechSoup. NetSquared presents Heather Ballachey, the Marketing Communication Specialist from IATS Payments. In this presentation, she will share the techniques to optimize online donation. In addition, not for profit organizations will benefit from this presentation and will learn more effective ways to improve online fundraising.
The drive of traffic to the organization website and online donation form
Ballachey believes the source of all nonprofit organizations’ traffic are categorized to events, social media, face to face, email, television, and direct mail. The source is important for nonprofit organizations because 85% of all donors donate online and 73% of them are on social media. The dominant channel for new donors is from online. They usually have high cumulative value because online donors tend to give larger contribution.
The average abandonment rate of online donation form in all nonprofit organization is around 50 – 70%. Ballachey suggests 3 ways to reduce the abandonment rate.
The first way is to avoid third party redirect. A majority of donors abandon when they are redirected to another site. It is important to keep donors in the current site and focus on continuity of look and feel.
Another way is to offer a compelling call to action. Nonprofit organizations need to show donors the reason why they need to donate and incite them to take action right away. It is also important to make the personal connection as well.
The last way is to eliminate unnecessary fields on the donation form. By reduce the redundant fields, donors will not overwhelm with entering the information. This will help donors to complete the donation right away.
Donation form is buried on organization’s site
Ballachey believes many nonprofit organizations’ online form is not visible in their websites. Donors are not able find the link and they will reject to donate. It is important for nonprofit organizations to direct donors to find the link instantly. In addition, it will help increase the conversation rate from visitors to donors.
Ballachey suggests all online donation forms should be front and center of the main website. Donation form should be easy to read with obvious language. Provide multiple access points in the navigation for visitors to click and find.
Donation forms should be mobile friendly
In average, only 20% of nonprofit organizations convert their online donation forms to mobile friendly application. Since most of the donors are online donors, nonprofit organizations should make their forms compatible to their needs. Ballachey suggests the solution of invest in response design. This will create a landing page for donors to donate and automatize the donation process.
How to encourage recurring gifts
If donors are encouraged to donate recurring contribution, nonprofit organizations will have sustainable funding. This will also reduce the cost for handing donations. A majority of donors are unlikely to cancel the recurring gift when they are committed to it. Therefore, it is important to keep them inspired.
Ballachey suggests the best way to create recurring donation is to ask them upfront. Ballachey do not recommend separating the one time gift form and recurring gift form. It is important to make the process easy and intuitive. Split the form only if the donor list gets long and massive.
Other consideration from Ballachey to improve the online donation form is to systematize the payment processing integration. Security is an issue for donors.
Another consideration is to set up automated clearing house (ACH) or direct debit as payment method. This will reduce the chance of rejected transactions.
Other factor that might lead to low online donation is the visual representation of security. Donors are afraid of credit card fraud; therefore, nonprofit organizations need to optimize payment prevention strategy to avoid the refund scam.
To optimize your online donations, nonprofit organizations need to ensure these six points are met.
Presenters: Dan Roam, Dr. Vince Molinaro, Hayley Wickenheiser, Charles Duhigg, and Rudy Giuliani
The Art of Leadership conference is held in Vancouver and they are bringing 5 top leaders in different industries to share their views of leadership. Many businesses need integrated people and strategies to achieve sustainability and performance in the business world today. The Art of Leadership will provide leaders the tools and techniques to implement their business to the changes in any culture. Ron Tite, the host and the moderator of this conference, will help leaders to learn the innovative strategies from these top leaders.
Ron believes leadership in this generation consists of health, simplicity and design. Moreover, leaders need to set goals, keep positive and be collaborative to achieve the excellent.
“Technology leads leadership”
Dan Roam, the international bestselling author of “Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures”
Dan Roam emphasizes leaders can solve leadership problems with simple pictures. He defines leadership as the power of picture or the power of using visuals. Visual is defined as “if we can see, people can see”.
Any problem can use visual blue print to breakdown the complexity of problem. Each part of the blue print can act as different tiny problems. For example, making Boeing 787 uses visuals and separate many parts for different countries to build and assemble. Dan believes leaders should do everything with pictures because leaders can compose common language through pictures.
Pictures are considered as common language around the world. If something is wrong, picture can help leaders identify or seek the root of the problem.
Pictures help us lead
Many leaders are bounded by paragraphs and business reports. Leaders should have visual thinking to discover and communicate with their teams. Visual thinking consists of “Clarify”, “Create”, “Convince” and “Compel”. In addition, Dan believes leaders should clarify the problem, create the solution, convince people, and help people compel the solution.
“To lead requires vision, vision requires picture”
A different leadership approach
Visual thinking is not about being artistic, it is to convince. Dan believes the visual thinking unwritten number one rule is whoever best describe the problem is the one most likely to solve it.
“Whoever draws the best pictures gets the funding”
In 1974, Laffer drew a simple parabola diagram that represents the 40 years of the backbone of American economy policy. This shows sometimes words are not able to do what picture or vision can explain. In our minds, everyone has two engines. The first engine looks at the detail and the second engine connects all broad information together. In the current education system, there is no tool to help in our brains on visual.
People are walking, talking, vision-processing machines and the visual mind never sleeps. The second engine is always running all the time. If the visual mind is not interested in the topic, they will force to check out, which will lead to a lack of miscommunication.
6 x 6 Rules
There are 6 principles that leaders need to follow in order to use visual to solve problems.
1) Who, What
->
Portrait
2) How many
->
Chart
3) Where
->
Map
4) When
->
Timeline
5) How
->
Flowchart
6) Why
->
Equation
Leaders need to recognize the “Who What” with an object. Leaders need to determine the quantities of the objects. Leaders need to understand where these objects will locate and when will it position in time. After leaders identify all 4 principles, they can map together a flowchart from beginning to the end. After the flowchart is created, leaders will be able to summarize the conclusion.
“More of the brain is devoted to vision and visual processing than any other known function, including language.”
Dr. Vince Molinaro, New York bestselling author of “The Leadership Contract: The Fine Print to becoming a great leader”
Dr. Vince Molinaro emphasizes the leadership style changes from generation to generation. The community of leaders is different than the old traditional ways and it is necessary to focus in different values.
What does it mean to be a leader today?
Vince explains many new future leaders have amazing passion beyond personal level when they are out of school. Their views change when they are forced to adapt the traditional leadership style in the workforce today. Due to the influence from the the current manager, Vince has the opportunity to change the environment by forming a committee. When the manager leaves the organization, Vince starts to realize the organization is going back to the old style. The upper management decides to shut down the committee because of contradiction of the leadership style. Vince realizes every action has positive and negative impacts and it is depend on himself to choose the right decision. Therefore, he leaves the organization and starts to work with other leaders to pass down the message from his former manager.
Leadership Accountability
Vince believes people need leadership in every level of organization. When strategy and leadership connect, it creates confident. In the current generation, three things are wrong with the leadership today.
Disappointing
Disconnect
Disgraceful
Disappointing
Many bosses act as jerks and in average, 75% of people have stress with their current bosses. 66% of employees will take new boss than new promotion. It is important for leaders to give employees confident and trust. They will give everything they have for working with good leaders.
Disconnected
70% of employees feel they are isolated in the first year. Leaders must find a way to incorporate them into the business culture and let them feel they are a part of family.
Disgraceful
There are many stories with bad reputation on leaders. These will damage the leadership behaviors. People will look differently on leaders with stories.
Leaders are getting worst every day. In statistic, only 7% of employees have trust and confidence in senior leaders. This is hard for organization to be successful. Vince understands leadership holds high standard to a greater behavior; therefore, if they fail, they will let us down.
Vince introduces leadership contract. Many people who take the leadership role do not know the role themselves because they do not understand the obligation.
The leadership contract
Contract # 1: Leadership is a decision (Make it)
Vince believes people need to step up and make the decision. People need to ask themselves if there is anything they want to do. They need to be clear to be a leader and define who they are as leaders. There are two types of decisions: big decision and small decision. As for big decision, people will recognize the leadership style and the purpose is to help others as a whole. As for small decision, it is all internal dialogue challenge. Many small decisions will make up their leadership impact. In other words, leadership with big decision will do what is necessary to impact the big picture, and leadership with small decision will seek all small opportunities.
“Are you all in as a leader?”
Contract # 2: Leadership is an obligation (Step up)
People need to learn more about the organization. As a leader, they are company and they should always have responsibility and obligation. If they forget, they will lose leadership from people. By understanding the primary obligation will help leaders to determine what to leave behind for the organization.
“As a leader, you leave legacy everyday”
Contract # 3: Leadership is hard work (Get tough)
If the solution is not working with the organization, strategy is needed from leaders. Many leaders are stress out because issues are not solved. However, leaders need to take action to solve these issues by themselves. Meetings are there not to discuss issues, yet meetings are there to discuss the future.
The hard rule of leadership is that if leaders avoid the hard work, they become weak. However, if they tackle the hard work, they become strong.
“What hard work are you wimping out on?”
Contract # 4: Leadership is a community (Connect)
There is a bond with leaders and the team. They should have each others back because one mistake loses it all. Leaders need to ensure the team understands that no one is sabotage anyone. Leaders need to remember to have clarity and commitment in any team.
“Who got your back?”
Overall, there are four questions leaders should ask to themselves.
What leadership decision do I need to make today?
What leadership obligation do I need to live up to today?
What is the one hard thing I need to tackle today?
What leadership relationship do I need to strengthen today?
Hayley Wickenheiser, the four time Olympic gold medalist and the captain of the Canadian women’s hockey team
Hayley Wickenheiser leaders with passion and determination can inspire people in sports industry. Before becoming a gold medalist in Canadian women’s hockey team, no one is investing them. However, the audience expect for result. This signals Hayley that “performance on demand” is critical in her hockey career.
There is no second chance because only this moment can determine the next. Hayley figures details matters.
“Dig a little bit deeper”
Hayley emphasizes mental battle is more important than physical battle. Leaders in sports industry should always think about winning and losing equally. They should always prepare how to react in any circumstances.
Olympic Approach
Gold medal is a great thing to get, but Hayley believes if athletes do not have enough, they do not desire to have it all. It is important to remind young athletes to know balance is important than getting the medal.
Hayley comments coaches are hired to get fired. In women’s hockey, leaders need to show direct response to their team. They need to be open to learn. Leaders should lead from front by pulling people to exceed their limits and lead from behind by mentoring. As for athletes, it does not matter what happens, all they can do is accept it and do well on it. By putting ego aside they should embraces it.
After the Olympic in Sochi, the venue is ruined. Hayley is proud to be Canadian because Vancouver Olympic venue is still remains a legacy.
Hayley believes leaders should master the art of energy management. Leaders are either energy giver or energy taker. It is important to become an energy giver, which will create the team bond.
In Sochi, when Canadian team is down by 2 points in the final, the coach asks all players to stay calm and repeat these steps:
Get the puck
Make the shift short
Stick to the plan
By following these three steps, it turns the Canadian team from being hunted to being a hunter. Instead of playing it safe, it motivates players to play aggressive because playing safe will not win.
Lastly, Hayley summarizes three points.
Control what you can, let go what you can
Be able to reinvent yourself because it is a choice
We are not what we do and we can be other things
“Value everyone brings”
“Celebrate the little success all the way”
“Unity in adversity”
Charles Duhigg, New York Times investigate reporter and bestselling author of “The power of habit”
Charles Duhigg studies the organizational habits from accidents and design and determine what impacts leadership. Moreover, he tries to find stories that people can endorse. Charles emphasizes during a riot, the trouble maker attracts crowds. In order to disband the riot, the strategy is to break the pattern and distract crowds to follow something greater. In military, solders are trained with new habits to educate them with good communication. In addition, Charles sees the world of habit and massive habits can be influenced.
How leadership change the habit
In the study of rats, they learn to find chocolate in a maze with this current procedure.
Click -> First Section -> Second Section -> Chocolate
As it progress with repeats, rats react faster and they think lesser because their brains stop thinking at first and second sections. This concludes habits can change daily activity.
The Habit Loop
Charles believes the standard formula to retain a habit consists of three steps.
Cue
Routine
Reward
It is possible to change how people’s habits by manipulating “Cue” and “Reward”. By giving rewards will trigger the loop. For leaders, some habits matter more than others; therefore, it is important to determine the key stone habit. Charles believes leadership is helping people to create good habits and create better lives.
How do you identify the reward?
Charles provides an example of a company called “Febreeze”. Originally, they consists the reward as the get rid of the odor smell with their product. However, the product sales decline. The upper management decides to change the reward as to smell good when the product is used, and the sales dramatically increase. Febreeze eventually understands people want to do things that makes good about themselves, which creates or encourage a new habit.
“Make sure reward is rewarding. If reward is not rewarding, it will not create incentive for habit to change”
How does this change when we start thinking about organizational habit?
Charles provides another example of the London Underground. The subway station in London has a culture habit of not doing other people’s job. When there is a fire, the employees ignore it. When train brings the oxygen, the fire bursts and creates a massive damage. Many people are killed and the investigation shows the cause is from bad habits. Originally, people are blamed to do other people’s job in subway. Because of this habit, it leads to other habits. Each habit have the perfect reason for existing, but it kills at the end.
“Even bad habits exist for good reasons”
Management decides to implement changes, but there is no action after one year. Due to leak the interview from the victims, it creates a public crisis. Finally, all the old habits from the subway organization disappear. Charles concludes crisis can be good because it helps to make habits to become more flexible.
Politician uses crisis to create economy changes.
How do you make this into something tangible?
Charles explains it with the example of Starbucks. Starbucks sells customer services; however, they hire high school students. One day, one of the students misspells the customer name on the cup and create the public crisis that damage Starbucks reputation.
During that time, a new study comes out called “Craving for marshmallows”. This study shows by giving kids more marshmallows if they resist at the beginning will teach them the habit of will power.
Starbucks decides to change the habit by introducing new habit loop called “The Latte Habit Loop”
Cue -> See bad clients
Routine -> Listen to complain
Reward -> Get free coffee
This will teach high school students how to respond to clients and receive incentives for completing the task.
It is important for company to teach people to understand the reason behind all the habits. Therefore, Charles concludes the most powerful reward contain emotion and the procedure is stated as follows:
Know your key stone habits
Which kind of change seems frightening?
Look for opportunities to change
Find rewards that deliver emotionally
“You lead by bring out the best from people”
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City
Rudy Giuliani is the 107th mayor of New York City and it is one of the world’s most respected leaders. He believes leadership is not art or science, yet they are both. Leaders are not born or made, they are both. In Rudy’s perspective, most what leaders success is something they learn and it is something they can teach.
Things Rudy did makes him a successful leader
Rudy manages to change the New York City from deficit to surplus. He manages to change the environment and reduce the crime rate and unemployment rate. He converts New York City as the safest city in United States.
Rudy emphasizes none of his leadership he utilizes are originally from himself; instead, he learns from someone else. In addition, with his perspective and his experience, he concludes his own 6 principles of leadership.
6 principles can use in business life and personal life
Principle 1: Set of beliefs
Rudy believes all leaders need to know their goals and leading. By creating agenda or schedule to ensure they are following their direction towards their goals. It is important to set time to review the success and failure. This will help leaders to set new directions and publish new goals
Setting clear goals before the beginning of the year is essential. Monitor or measure each month by adjusting the direction is also critical.
People will follow clear goals and it is not waste of time.
“What do I want to accomplish?”
Principe 2: To be optimist
Leaders accept the problem and turns to solution. Rudy believes nobody follows negative people; instead, people follows hope and people who will only follow someone that provides solution to their problems
Leaders should use optimist for good things.
Optimist -> Vision -> Hope
By changing the attitude and be calm, leaders will find solution that deals with complicated issue. It is important for leaders to come in with a problem and a solution.
“Absorb problem and turn to possible solution”
Principle # 3: Courage
People think courage comes from being a great hero, so they need to be fearless. Rudy believes people out of fear are crazy. It is normal for people to afraid of things but they can overcome it with courage. Leaders make any decision will incorporate risk and most people fail before succeed. Failure is important part of success; therefore, leaders will not be successful if they are afraid of failure.
Failure can change to success from courage. Rudy mentions in New York, when someone did something heroic, there will be press conference for that individual. However, people are afraid of speeches. They have the courage to do extraordinary things, but they are afraid of talking in front of crowds. This means a lack of training.
Principle # 4: Reluctance preparation
Rudy mentions when he is a lawyer, it takes one hour in court and 4 hours in preparation. Leaders should always be ready and they should anticipate no possible error in every situation.
Leaders need to learn to let others criticize and go over it yourself by owning it. In order to reduce nervous in speeches or public presentation, Rudy shares a statement for all leaders.
“No matter how much you rehearse or anticipate, something will go wrong”
If something goes wrong, leaders will know the answer. By master the subject, solutions will come to leaders; therefore, leaders need to go with intuition.
Many unexpected urgent decision come from other plans. Leaders need to handle it by giving it to people who has experience with those plans. Those are the one who practices and develop the skill to do better every day.
“Practice and preparation remove risks”
Principle # 5: Teamwork
Rudy indicates no one can be successful without the help of others. Many people have the assumption that they are great leaders because god chooses them. This is wrong interpretation.
Leaders need to look at themselves and find their weaknesses. Everyone has weaknesses and it is important for leaders to balance their weakness with their strengths. Leaders should find someone who is strong of what they are weak at. In addition, team will be balance.
“Nobody is equally good at everything”
Principle # 6: Communication
Rudy believes nothing will work if leaders do not know how to communicate. People who respond with “I don’t know because no one told me” indicates they do not receive feedback.
It is important to review team performance. After setting goals, it is important to set up matrix to measure it. Leaders need to provide feedback to see if the team is going in the right direction. Leaders need to care and love people, if not, they are not leaders. People need other people care.
“If you need help, people will help you”
“Government do not love you, people you love will love you”
Name: Women Leadership Circle – The Morning Leader: Mentorship vs. Sponsorship Your Secret to Success
Presenters: Maininder Dhaliwal, Debra Hewson, Fiona Macfarlane, and John Montalbano
Women Leadership Circle (WLC) is a Vancouver board of trade program that inspires women entrepreneurs in business world to connect with other remarkable leaders. This program shares and learns secrets from other entrepreneurs in different industries. This presentation is presented by WLC to help members to differentiate mentorship and sponsorship. In addition, members will learn the experiences that influenced by the panel. Moreover, members will understand the key aspects to find mentors and sponsors.
The panel includes Maninder Dhaliwal, the Vice Present of Pacific Autism Family Centre Foundation, Debra Hewson, the CEO of Odlum Brown, Fiona Macfarlane, the CIO of Ernst and Young, and John Montalbano, the CEO of RBC Global Asset Management. Along the moderator, Lisa Martin, the presentation will be very beneficial to all young entrepreneurs who are looking for mentors and sponsors.
Key difference of Mentorship and Sponsorship
The panel defines mentorship as a sounding board or advice board. In fact, the panel defines sponsorship as the advocacy role or champion role of any industry. In the organization, mentors are the one that young entrepreneurs seek and receive directions; however, sponsors are earned from creditability.
Most of the time, mentors are the one young entrepreneurs look up to in the organization. Nevertheless, sponsors are the one young entrepreneurs need to identify and ensure their voices are heard. In addition, sponsorship is outcome based and it needs a mutual agreement from both parties.
Mentors are not as risky as sponsors because the relationship is mostly all private. In this generation, women have more mentorship ability than men, and sponsorship are vice versa.
Mentors Experience
Based on the panel’s experience, mentors provide tough feedback because they want young entrepreneurs to be successful. Mentors are required for long time commitment and relationship. Mentors help young entrepreneurs to promote their creditability and transfer their expertise to young entrepreneurs.
The panel believes mentors are required to poke holes in young entrepreneurs’ theories. This will help them to save time on research. Therefore, mentors will facilitate their connection to help others, which will lead to partners and shareholders.
Sometimes mentors’ advice will take long time to realize. Young entrepreneurs might not know the progress outcome until further in the future. Mentors help young entrepreneurs to look at long term vision and impact the future and support young entrepreneurs.
Relationship to be successful with mentors
The panel indicates some factors that will help young entrepreneurs to retain long term relationship with mentors.
Trust
Clear communication and expectation
Expect time from mentors
Respect
The panel suggests young entrepreneurs to invest time in finding mentors because young entrepreneurs are putting their brand and themselves to the mentors. Young entrepreneurs need to understand the reason “why” that forms the relationship.
Mentors are the one who will walk the process with the young entrepreneurs. It is important to show aspiration to the mentors and be flexible with each other’s needs. Young entrepreneurs need to have “desire”, “vulnerability”, and “caring” in their search for mentors.
How to find the sponsorship
The panel emphasizes the best way to find a sponsor is to achieve something that can let that sponsor look good. Sponsors are mostly who are leading in social community or industry. They are also the one who can feed the soul to the business. It is important to understand the core value before attempting to find sponsors.
Young entrepreneurs need to build creditability for sponsors. Furthermore, sponsors will recognize them. Sponsors are difficult to find comparing with mentors.
“How can you demonstrate your value to be expanded?
Sponsors are looking for people who are solution based, not problem based. Always identify a problem with a solution.
“Doing well in your job? No, doing your job to make a difference.”
Social media in mentorship and sponsorship
The panel believes social media will help mentorship and sponsorship because it will stay in touch with people in different industries. In average, social media will raise 10 times on the current connection with people. This will build a strong brand for young entrepreneurs.
“Traditionally, mentors and sponsors do not use social media; now more and more people are suing social media as values”
Improve mentorship for entrepreneurs
Most entrepreneurs are afraid to ask for mentorship. The panel is encouraging young entrepreneurs to be noticed and call for action. It is important to take a risk and jump out of the comfort zone. By challenging the pipeline of the current role, young entrepreneurs will increase the chance to be noticed.
The panel suggests all young entrepreneurs to change the traditional culture. It is essential to look at the culture. The panel believes culture is like salt water river. If there are new fishes in the salt water, those fishes will die, so in order to let those fishes survive, salt water need to change.
“By establishing a well relationship with mentors, if mentors move up, you can move up as well”
“Not build to be fair, build to win”
Benefits young entrepreneurs as mentorship or sponsorship role
There are many benefits to become mentors or sponsors. One of the biggest benefits is the learning phase. Both parties can see and experience different point of views. Mentorship and sponsorship both are two way streams. Both parties need to be benefit from each other. Becoming a mentors or sponsors can be source of pride. It will help them identify the trend of future. Both roles can force to be a better listener in multi-level culture. Moreover, it will help the organization to retrieve a better team.
Advice to have boss as mentor
The panel wants young entrepreneurs to be caution for feedback if their mentors are their boss. Feedback might not be what young entrepreneurs are looking for. The panel does not recommend young entrepreneurs to ask their bosses for mentorship.
Young entrepreneurs should look for mentors that bring different things. Therefore, the panel asks young entrepreneurs to look for many as they can. They should find mentors who are non-threatening to their industries internally and externally. Therefore, it is important to get multiple opinions.
How to deal with bad mentorship
The panel indicates sometimes it is possible that people are in mentorship, but they want sponsorship instead. If mentorship is not working, it will self-select them out. The panel suggests young entrepreneurs to be open minded and try it out first. If it does not work, young entrepreneurs can move on and end the relationship.
How to ask people to be mentors
The panel suggests young entrepreneurs to be brave and ask them to become their mentors. It is also suggested to write a thoughtful letter that identifies the reason or reaching out. Provide a reason for mentors not to reject and figure out how young entrepreneurs can help mentors.
“This is not a suck up; it is showing what they can do to add values to the organization”
Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Society (TCCS) is a registered nonprofit charitable organization that promotes cultural harmony between Taiwanese and Canadian cultures. TCCS invites Ken Hsieh, the award winning Canadian conductor from Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, to present his view of business in the world of music industry. His experience includes conducting Hyogo Performing Art Center Orchestra and Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra will inspire and motivate many entrepreneurs who are in the music industry.
Ken believes as a music conductor, the main objective is to conduct everyone in the team to one idea. This is very similar to business where CEO has an idea and tries to incorporate the idea to the organization.
In every music masterpiece, there is a fantasy. Ken emphasizes the goal is to create the fantasy using sound that carry through the audience’s emotions. In business, mission statement is like the fantasy in music masterpiece.
During the early years, Ken’s father’s has a traditional mindset that wants Ken to follow the footstep of Doctor or Lawyer. Ken refuses to continue education due to a lack of interest and decides to pursue his dream of music career.
“What makes you wake up before the alarm clock goes off?”
After transfer to University of British Columbia and complete the education, he pursues his dream in Japan by following his mentor to learn the conductor fundamental. Within 2 and half years, his mentor disciplines Ken and ensure Ken is mentored under many great famous conductors. He continues his further training in Europe to experience life. He returns to Vancouver and Join Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to assist conductor.
“How to speak to people who are more experience in orchestra?”
In the music business, Ken learns it is impossible to please everybody. When he receives bad review, it is important to have a positive mindset to learn from the feedback. There must be mutual respect in any business to retain long term business relationship.
As a conductor, Ken considers the person who promotes others in orchestra. Ken believes in any business, networking is important. Entrepreneurs should always go out and explore new opportunities and become proactive. In Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, Ken establishes a platform to promote other talented musician in their music career. Moreover, Ken believes if people come together and share idea, they will benefit each other by gaining professional relationship for the future.
“You never know who can promote you”
Due to the advance from technology, the attention span is getting weaker. This put music in danger because the average attention span in this generation is roughly 4 to 5 minutes. The source of entertainment is different and it has more variety. Conductors need to conduct the same piece differently. Ken is looking for new ways to enjoy the career and inspire music to audience.
There are 5 types of people Ken dislike in any business career:
People who uses “I am tired” as excuse
People who never try and always say “I cannot do it”
People who are selfish towards everything in life
People who have strong ego
People who have no self-respect for themselves
Ken indicates people who are selfish usually good at saying no to others. People with strong ego usually have no confidence and use ego to hide his weakness as defense mechanism. People who have no self-respect for themselves usually use certain ways to gain quick advantage for themselves.
Ken suggests every entrepreneur to give 120% in everything they do. Entrepreneurs need to know what excite them, and create passion for career. Ken defines leadership as “How to Lead” and “How to inspire people to play your music”.
Wake up Call
Ken emphasizes health is more important than anything in life. A couple of years ago, Ken almost diagnoses with cancer. He realizes without health, everything in life is meaningless. He recommends entrepreneurs to pursue leadership, but do not abuse health. Therefore, life balance is critical.
“What is the point if your career is going but not your health?”
Ken recommends entrepreneurs to be open and receptive. They need to be surrounded by good people. Learn from each other and learn from different fields. It is important to not limit social connection with certain people. Expand is the key to success.
Entrepreneurs need to remember no matter how successful they become, they should give back to the community. People must respect others, must be humble, and must give back to society. Ken suggests all entrepreneurs to think about their vision in 30 years and pursue with passion and desire.
“Life is not linear, it always have ups and downs”
Karen McGregor is an international speaker, author of two bestseller books, and founder of Rock the Stage program. Her passion towards speaking ignites her life purpose. She coaches many business entrepreneurs to overcome the fear of speaking on stage. Nevertheless, Karen will share her knowledge and tactics of what it takes to become a successful speaker. Speaking skill is essential for business entrepreneurs. The techniques of speaking will trigger their business income and influence the people around them. Business owners will understand the importance of speaking skill on the stage through Karen’s seminar.
Speaking: The highest return on investment
Karen believes becoming a professional speaker is the highest return on investment career. Professional speaker is required little or no money up front. Due to this technology generation, internet is filled with many potential topics. Therefore, there is low investment of time because there is no need to reinvest the topics. In addition, there is on-line duplication strategy, such as webinar, can be used for speakers to increase their publicity and revenue.
Referrals welcome
Many professionals are looking for speakers and professionals treat speakers as experts. This creates credibility. Professionals will refer speakers if they like the delivery strategy. Through speaking, Karen emphasizes the best way to receive referrals is the organic way, which is face to face. Therefore, speaking will get high quality referrals in any professional businesses.
Connection Matters
Many professionals spend half of their career in life working in front of the keyboard. Instead of spending time on typing, speaking can help them escape the isolation and feel the energy through live event.
Your audience wants to feel
Many people are busy with their lives, working in the environment, and chasing their hopes and dreams. Speaking will make them alive. It will ignite their enthusiastic and create opportunities and motivation for people who are desperate on facing endless life cycle. Karen believes speaking can give people desire to live.
One to one experience
Karen believes speaking can create connection with audience. Audience will feel the one on one connection with the speaker. Professional speakers can engage one on one experience with all the audience and it will gather everyone together as one.
Why aren’t more people doing it?
People are afraid of judgment, failing and screw up. In fact, many people have a lack of confidence to speak on stage. They are afraid of no results.
Karen believes if speaking is in the system, people can follow the predictable steps. This will help people distress and proceed to the next level in their profession.
“More freedom in structure”
The turning point for Karen
Karen has been an international speaker for many years. She has also published many books. The problem is Karen is not receiving the result she wants in speaking. She believes she did not do the job correct, which results of no outcome from her speaking career. She begins to realize someone needs her help but she is not reaching them. She needs to find the missing piece, so she takes a leap of faith by learning everything she can. She understands speaking is out of her heart.
Things are changing in her life and her income has triple.
Invested in the missing piece
Karen shares her key to success is to learn something new, implement it, and see the result. Teaching people to develop intuition is her direction. Karen will help professionals to be ready to step up the stage and speak.
Who is building their business through speaking?
Here is the list of common professionals who are building their business through speaking:
Coaches
Authors
Trainers
MLM Leaders
Workshop Leaders
Physicians
Health & Wellness
Accountants
Artists
Financial Advisor
“If I am not comfortable up here, the audience will not”Every industry has a speaker. It is important to keep open mind that speaking works in every business. Not many people who become entrepreneurs and speaking at the same time.
3 mistakes that keep audience uninterested & unwilling to invest
Mistake 1: Understanding what the audience is buying
Many speakers will promote themselves with elevator pitch during their speaking. However, Karen suggests speakers to start the story the same, and share the transformation. It is important to understand that people are not buying products from speakers, but they are buying the transformation that the product can do for them.
People want to improve their lives in some ways, so people are willing to buy from either the speakers’ stories or speakers’ expertise. People want to know how the speakers go through their lives, and not their education or credentials. Therefore, speakers need to show them the progress.
Karen recommends speakers to provide testimonials during the presentation. They should pick the testimonials that share others who have done the transformation, so the audience will be able to relate to their experience. The inclusive “so much more” testimonials can also be effective. People are looking for extra content or new things they are not experienced before. The “doubtful to dynamite” testimonials can capture doubtful audience.
Doubtful audience is the best clients for speakers because they will have the biggest transformation.
Why your clients hesitate?
Karen believes the primary reason clients hesitate is that the speakers’ stories have holes or missing links. If speakers did not even accomplish what they ask from clients to do, it will fail. For example, if speakers never want to spend money on charity and they ask clients to donate, clients can see through that and reject speakers’ requests.
“If you want something, do it first. Do what you ask people to do”
Mistake 2: Sharing too little
Many professional speakers never hold back on any relevant information. They tend to share as much as they can to the audience. Karen believes if audience does not feel the outcome, they will not refer. People can search on the internet for all kinds of information. Therefore, the content is not their focuses, yet it is the mindset and personality that capture their attention.
Sharing excessively unfocused content will lead audience confused. Moreover, confused audience will not buy.
Mistake 3: Winging it!
Karen believes many speakers can do well even if they are not fully prepared. However, Karen believes speakers who rely on luck will not always be able improvise the result. It is suggested to go through the system structure to improve the fundamental to ensure speakers are comfortable with their speech.
Best writers or authors do the best speeches. Instead of selling their books on stage, they should tell the story in the book that demonstrates the transformation.
Stage Fright
Karen emphasizes stage fright comes from a lack of system in place. If speakers follow the structure and prepare every step in the system, they will have the understanding of how each process is executed in their performance.
What is selling from the heart?
People care about speakers’ transformation, and speakers must have attitude, but not ego. It is important to work on the transformation and not focus on the money. Therefore, there are 5 steps will help speakers to sell from their heart.
Focus on the feeling of knowing how audience’ lives will be better as a result of speakers services and products.
Put extra efforts in the speech structure to show speakers care about the audience.
Expand audience’s vision of what is possible
The invitation is constant
Deliver the solution to the main problem
Traditionally, people assume speech and sales are separate; however, they are not. If speakers do well, the audience will notice and they will be ready for your sale.
“Instead of chasing, you should invite”
There is always a primary problem among the audience. Speakers need to know the big problem the audience have. If speakers can provide the solution, audience will buy.
Foundations of successful talks
There are 3 foundations of successful talks: educate, inspire and sell. Speakers need to educate the clients or audience by providing extra content. Learn the system behind the talks, and inspiration will gradually come when speakers deliver the speech. Moreover, Karen indicates people do not have to be perfect speaker to have inspiration.
In order to sell from speaking, speakers need to invite the audience from transformation or something audience wants.
“Speak, dream, live”
“Every day do something that makes you feel alive. We need more people to say “I choose life; I choose to live””
“There is a silent urge. When you listen to it, pulsates the truth of your path. It is passionate, alive and relentless in the invitation”
Name: Company of Young Professional Development Series – Building your brand and credibility for career progression
Presenter: Tara Cree
Branding involves reputation, strength and principles. Many young entrepreneurs should always align their branding with their credibility. Dr. Tara Cree, the founder of Cree Leadership Consulting, is invited by CYP to share her experience on developing exiting leadership with branding strategy with young entrepreneurs. They will learn the importance of branding in this presentation.
The power of branding
All corporation logos have different designs and symbols. However, they are all aligned with their corporation image. Personal and corporation branding are linked. In addition, many corporations will create their brand to make people feel what they want them to feel. That is the power of branding and all power of branding is different in all markets.
What is brand?
Brand influences the feeling and actions of consumers. It also increases positive feeling towards specific products. It also highlights the value consumers receive and it depicts the personality or soul of the product.
Cree believes logo is just the symbol of the brand, what matters the most is the reaction of the logo that has created for consumers.
“You are the brand”
Personal Branding
Personal branding can define as a distinct brand. It allows consumers to understand the feeling or the idea of that person. Many people did not realize that the connection of their personal branding is related to their business.
Cree emphasizes career management is brand management. The definition of personal brand is not defined by the business owners, it is defined from people who around business owners.
“Defines from people around you”
Brand you
Cree believes everyone is a brand of themselves. It is important to have control over how everyone is perceived. Based on this century, the days of having one job for life does not exist in the young entrepreneurs’ generation. They need to be seen as the best in class in their field of specialization.
In order to separate from others, the uniqueness of the branding is extremely important. Many promotions from business come from the uniqueness of each individual.
“Having a brand is not an option, managing it is”
What contributes in branding?
There are 4 primary elements that contribute in branding:
Clarity of purpose
Consistency
Authenticity
Credibility
Young entrepreneurs should always be clear of what their brand purposes. The purpose signals the direction young entrepreneurs should present and it leads to different types of personality and feelings that can influence the people around them.
People who have strong brand live with it. The personality will help them to create consistent feeling that can influence the people around them.
Many young entrepreneurs will try to pretend to be somebody who they are not. If their brand is not aligned with their values, it will fall apart. Cree believes it is important to align the branding with their strengths. By realizing the core value, young entrepreneurs will be able to understand and manage their branding.
With clarity of purpose, consistency and authenticity, they are all go towards creditability. For example, most young entrepreneurs prioritize their emails by senders. The name of senders is a brand and that is the promise of brand.
“What brand of you are you sending out?”
Credibility
Cree considers creditability is like currency. It is hard to earn, but it is easy to lose. The perceived values from young entrepreneurs are closely tied to their credibility.
When young entrepreneurs have strong credibility, they will have these attributes:
Progress quickly
Easy to influence others
More successful overall
Makes up credibility – Personal Credibility
The alignment between the brand and actions are based on these factors:
Credentials
Track records
Authenticity
Demonstrated respect
Respect
Young entrepreneurs should always analyze the audience and prioritizes these factors based on their requirements. Branding is all about packaging. People can see through authenticity. Moreover, if young entrepreneurs impact their brand that contradicts consumers’ expectation, it will kill the brand.
“Arrogant ways will derail credibility”
Great Personal brand
To create a great personal brand, young entrepreneurs should always understand about themselves first. Articulate their vision. Define their brand. Communicate to others. Strive close integration of what their passion. Lastly, understand how to spend the time to invest the branding.
Step 1: Know yourself
Young entrepreneurs should recognize their values, passions, talents and skills. Cree recommends young entrepreneurs to take personality tests and get feedback to understand of their personality.
Step 2: Articulate your vision
Cree recommends young entrepreneurs to visualize their goals and direction in 5 years. This will help young entrepreneurs to create their future branding image and work towards that personality.
Step 3: Define your brand
There are 3 questions that Cree suggests for young entrepreneurs to start their brand definition.
What brand is going to get you there?
Who is your audience?
What do you need to do to be credible?
Step 4: Live your brand
Cree suggests three ways to help young entrepreneurs to maintain their brands:
Communicate to others
Constantly evaluate it
Integrate what you are passionate about
Understand how to spend your time to harvest your brand
Vancouver Board of trade is proudly to invite Gregg Saretsky, the president and CEO of WestJet. Saretsky was pointed as CEO in April 2010 and he has led WestJet to a successfully strategic direction. By adapting to the current market, WestJet has remained its core mission statement. To engage with the strong workforce and culture, Saretsky has demonstrated his tactics that can deliver a remarkable guest experience for all customers. This presentation will inspire many business owners.
Staying true, it is fundamental
WestJet focuses on low-cost strategy and customer experience. The WestJet culture engages ownership culture as their work environment. All staff members are eligible to become a part of ownership of WestJet and they are considered as WestJetters. Based on statistic, there are roughly 1000 resumes per year. Moreover, WestJet believes their culture is a gift to all employees.
“Train them well, get out of the way”
Saretsky indicates there are 5 secrets to WestJet’s success:
Secret 1: We care to plan
WestJet believes culture and care are two primary elements for all employees. For culture, Saretsky believes it is important to ensure that their culture thrives and continue to provide WestJet with sense of community within the organization. It creates a sense of pride in association with WestJet. As for care, Saretsky believes execution in are of culture is significant. In addition, WestJet has over 250 programs and celebrate all kind of culture tradition holidays.
Secret 2: We care to share
All staff members are eligible to purchase “Employee Share Purchase Plan”. The Plan will give employees an opportunity to become the shareholder of WestJet. There are over 80% of employees in WestJet that are shareholders. After become the shareholders, they will work harder.
All WestJetters are qualified to the profit share program. The profit share program will give 10% profit dividends twice a year among all WestJetters. In average, all westJetters earn over 300 million in total.
“Treat them well, they will serve well”
Secret 3: We care to really listen
Saretsky emphasizes listen to employees and guest will evaluate the performance of WestJet. WestJet will use culture CNXN, Tech Talk, airport visit to receive feedback from WestJetters. They will use test ideas, such as uniforms, commercial, and snacks on plan, to create personal connection with the WestJetters. WestJet will provide guest surveys and advisory board to evaluate the performance. All feedback will incorporate into WestJet strategic decisions.
Secret 4: We care to design
WestJet designs all their experience and process to make sure all WestJetters can be proud and successful. Saretsky ensures all guests are truly getting the values in everything WestJet can do, which includes lower fare and culture adaption.
Secret 5: We care to celebrate
WestJet wants to create a friendly and motivated work environment. Saretsky encourages all WestJetters to celebrate all success. He understands celebration is a part of successful process. In addition, profit share is just a way to give back to all WestJetters. Recently, WestJet designs the Christmas Santa to appreciate their guests to a part of WestJet.
The start of WestJet
WestJet was founded in 1996. The first flight is in Vancouver International Airport. During that century, all airlines are high differentiated corporations. Many people could not afford the flight premium, so they shared the cost to book the whole plane. They found the market and WestJet is born.
“Mass transit takes flight”.
WestJet is now serves 11 markets in British Columbia and more than 59 daily departures. Vancouver is considered as the 3rd largest base for WestJet. Between 2010 and 2013, the enplanement guest has increased over 20%. WestJet encore has lowest fare and stimulate air travel demand in British Columbia.
WestJet operates over 660 flights weekly from Vancouver International Airport and it has over 1000 WestJetters in British Columbia. WestJet has a high growth profit and provides 400 million bonds in 4% rates.
British Columbia eliminates the fuel excise tax, which creates a potential market for airline. Saretsky announces WestJet will look closely to Abbotsford to create another alternative for Canadians to fly out of British Columbia.
What lies ahead – opportunities
WestJet will provide WestJet rewards for all guests. First bag fee will a part of the low fare and Saretsky will provide the options for guests to enjoy their flight with WestJet. Moreover, Saretsky announces WestJet Plus package with low fare for guests to experience premium seating.
Saretsky believes in customer values is the direction of WestJet and he promises WestJet will continue delivering the best services to customers.
As for security issue, he believes Canada and United States should have the same check security protocol. In the future, WestJet will also implement few more perks for frequent flyers. A better wheelchair accessible seating will be a part of their future strategy. Moreover, as for gender balance issue, Saretsky informs currently WestJet has only 10% female pilots. He will provide more capability opportunities for future WestJet pilots.
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