Club E Speaker, Kimber Lanning

Kimber is one of the most outstanding and hip entrepreneurs you'll meet. Right away she's someone who you know loves to rock out and stick it to the man. At tonight's Club E Phoenix event I had the privilege of meeting her before she went up to speak. She blew me away with her passion!

Kimber lives, breathes, and loves entrepreneurship. She started her first business Stinkweeds , a local record store in downtown Phoenix at the age of 19! A few years later she banned together with local artists and musicians to create Modified Arts , a concert venue for local bands and gallery for artists. And now, they're both still going strong and making an impact in the community.

This is really the essences of her passion; Bringing together the community to create better business and people. She's a big advocate of small and local business working together to not get stomped out by the big corps. She wants us to make the community more fun and bringing the culture back to Phoenix. Kimber is actively engaging the community and legislators to fight for small business. Since Modified started, the downtown area (especially near Roosevelt) is a great place to hang out. That's the way Kimber likes it.

She has also started a non-profit called Local First Arizona , which highlights and supports local business and for a better economy. Its the organization that aligns with Kimber's vision of a united small business community. Take some time to go downtown and check out what the community has done. A perfect chance to do so is First Fridays .

You missed a great and passionate speaker if you couldn't come out tonight. Don't miss the next one!

Present Yourself

Don't you hate it when you're talking with someone and all of the sudden you realize their eyes are glazed over and they haven't heard the last 3 sentences you said? That gut wrenching feeling of "Oh crap, I'm a rambling idiot." It's that careful balance of communication of give a little, take a little. As entrepreneurs we have a tendency to get really excited about our business and when we talk about it, we go on forever! I know I do!

Basically what it comes down to is knowing your audience and what they want to hear. Everyone can be interested in what you're talking about, as long as you cater it to peek their personal interests and values. This also plays into elevator pitches. This is much easier said than done. Anyone who has tried to craft a 30 second elevator pitch knows this.

I recently read one of my favorite blogs, Presentation Zen . This blog covers how to present your business, create investor pitches, etc. This specific entry caught my attention and gave me that "Ah ha!" realization of how to address this conversational issue.

This blog entry talks about the careful balance of depth and width (or scope) of your presentation. You can really only go one of the two directions. Either you go into detail of one specific aspect, or cover all aspects to the very minimal of degrees. That funny glazed over look that people get comes from either sharing way too much about something they don't understand or care about, or covering too broad of information for them to handle.

This principle plays into just about every conversation you have, whether business or personal. Even in academics. Think about what the education system does in a class. They usually cover a broad scope of information, but then never touches on the details. Its a completely unspecialized system of education and leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation and loss of information. I definitely experienced this in my business classes. It was a constant push of information with no room for questioning or clarification.

Now consider going out on the town. When I meet a new person they inevitably ask me that question that gets them an earful. "What do you do?" This always gets me smiling, because I know they're about to fall off their chair. But now, I think I finally have a tactic to share my passion and have it be well received. I have my hands in a lot of things, and as so will start with a broad coverage of what I do. They'll let me know what they're interested in and I can go into depth on that.

I often times try to drive conversation too much. I'm excited about what I do! I've always known its important to leave room for some pull. Let there be questions - especially when it comes to investor pitches. I recently had to craft a presentation for my company RPM'S and had to makes that tough choice of exclusion. What do I leave out? Everything is important! But realizing my audience I crafted something that I felt they would understand and want to hear about the most.

This takes practice, and its better to start now rather than later. If you're just getting into a start up start creating presentations for investor and clients. Pretend your friends are your audience and practice your presentation. Go to networking events and practice different pitches. When the time comes for a real presentation you'll be primed.

Whopper Freakout!

One of our members blogged about this on their personal blog, but I thought it was too awesome not to share.

Just for one day, one Burger King discontinued their Whopper to see what would happen. The literally took it away, and didn't offer it. I'm not much for fast food, but I do see this as a great experiment in customer loyalty.

http://www.whopperfreakout.com

Watch the video and listen to what people are saying. They're quoting the slogan, upset about the brand change. Most importantly their pissed to see a different chain's burger.

This brings up an important note. Is your business' brand this powerful? Do your customer come to you for something they can't get anywhere else - despite the price? What makes you unique, and why people buy into you is very important information you should know.

Don't forget that!

PS: I totally just participated in viral marketing for Burger King :(

Art and Entrepreneurship

Many people will say that to be a true entrepreneur you have to work on your business not in it. That means as a business owner you have the ability to step away from the business and its can still run without you. Otherwise you end up becoming, what Michael Gerber calls, a technician having an entrepreneurial seizure – you’re the main cog that makes your business go, and without you it falls apart.

So what does this mean for the people who are their business? The movie stars, stand-up comedians and artists? Well, in my mind, entrepreneurship is about systems and innovation. So if you are your business but have developed systems to market and sell yourself or your work in a unique fashion, then you’re still an entrepreneur in my book.

This is a great example. Phil Hansen , is an artist with a unique twist. His art is created and marketed in very unique ways. For instance his piece called “A Moment” where he ask people to call him and tell him a story that changed their life. He then picked out a piece of that story and wrote in on a canvas. With the combination of stories he created a picture.

One of my favorites is “Bruce,” Hansen literally Karate Chopped his canvas to make a picture of Bruce Lee.

He records his sessions to show how the art was made, and then offers them for sale via his website. This is an awesome viral marketing strategy and an excellent way to get the word out. You gotta love YouTube!

Junior Achievement & Club E

Over the holiday weekend the Club E team got together for a little project. Club E has sponsored a shop of Junior Achievement's Biztown. A great little virtual city where young students (5th and 6th graders) get to try out their newly acquired business skills. JA teaches them through a specialized curriculum for business essentials.

The Biztown consists of shops in a city with the specific purpose to test these skills real time. One of which Club E has sponsored. Its spectacular to see these little chillin's making "real" business happen. Club E couldn't help but show them what Entrepreneurship is all about.

As part of our shop Club E is presenting a short video of the young Club E entrepreneurs sharing their passions for business. A little inspiration for the next gen entrepreneurs!

Kevin Pringles - The Big Picture

Corey Kossack - A Few Pointers

LeeAnn Dobbs - Business Has Purpose

Appreciate Today, Succeed Tomorrow

I spent all of yesterday (November 8^th) with the greatest people I know at the 2^nd Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference. I had a great talk with Lon Safko about balancing ones life during lunch. Its something we all know. We have to be able to keep ourselves healthy and social no matter how busy business gets. Sometimes we even have to force ourselves to take time away from business and spend it with family and friends. His advice could not have come at a better time.

Shortly after our discussion during the afternoon keynote speaker at the conference I received this email…

If you hadn’t already guessed, it’s an obituary. My grandfather on my biological father’s side died on Monday, November 5^th. I was fairly close with this part of my family. Every year I visit Germany I would take the time to go see my grandparents, and spend a day or two with them. Eventually he also got an email account so I could keep in touch during my time here in Arizona. When I received this email I was shocked. It was unexpected news. I realized that they very moment I had a choice of how I would let this affect my day.

My grandfather was always very supportive of me. No matter what I was doing or where I was going he would wish me the best. He was proud to know that I was following my dreams ever since I was a little kid, and supported me in everything I did. It was at this very moment I considered my situation. I was sitting in a room full of people sharing their passion for entrepreneurship, something I believe in as well. I knew at that moment if my grandfather knew what I was doing that it would make him proud.

I decided to continue my dad as I had intended to from the time I woke up. I found new purpose for my being there through his passing away. Not only would I fulfill my day by sharing my passions with 250 other people, but at heart give my grandfather one last thing to be proud of. I did not get to spend time with him in his final days, and have not yet received word of how he passed. But in his passing found new strength and purpose, and with that purpose celebrated my grandfather’s life.

I didn’t tell anyone what news I had received that day. In fact, this is the first time my any of partners or friends would have even heard about it. I decided to keep it to myself until I had more time to reflect. Even in tragedy comes opportunity; an opportunity to reflect on your own life and purpose.

It’s important that even with our need to succeed and achieve great things that we remember we’re human and alive. We cannot lose focus on what we do and how we do it. There is much more to life that money, power, and success. Keeping ourselves balanced between success and living is crucial for entrepreneurs (and everyone else). Take your time to appreciate the things you have today, before you run off to succeed tomorrow.

2nd Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference, and then some...

What’s better than getting up at 5AM to hang out with your best friends, and the greatest entrepreneurs in the valley for an ENTIRE day? Nothing. I can’t think of anything I wanted to do more than help my friends run one of the coolest conferences to ever be held in Arizona.

I got up in the early morning after a long night of meeting with my partners to pick up Seth Adamson, a new Club Entrepreneur intern, and head over to the Marriott Hotel. On the way Seth was telling me about his entrepreneurial dreams and how excited he was to be a part of our group. We couldn’t be more excited to have him; he’s a great guy and really has the passion and spirit of an entrepreneur.

Upon arriving at the conference we helped finish up with the setup. Then the people started rolling in. This is always my favorite part. I get to hang back and greet some of the coolest people I know. We had our regulars showed up, all good friends, and then a bunch more from all different businesses. We had VC’s, radio stars, film producers, innovators and inventors… the works!

After the morning keynotes by Pat Sullivan, Founder of ACT and SalesLogix, and
Marc Canter, CEO of Broadband Mechanics (both great presentations!) it was time to start the tracks. As expected, most people waited about 10 minutes into the sessions to network outside in the hallway. Everyone was chatting about business, dreams, and new deals. That pretty much happened the entire day. The afternoon keynote by Dan Morrison, Co-Founder and CEO of ITtoolbox was excellent. His company was recently acquired so he had some great stuff to say about his experience with that. Lunch was great, and the afternoon sessions rocked. I got a lot of great feedback from our guests. The ending keynotes by Corey Kossack, Ingrid Vanderveldt, and Michael Gerber were the best (I might be biased). They really demonstrated what it meant to be an entrepreneur and how it feels from the inside out. It was a wonderful talk on the mindsets and lifestyles of the entrepreneur.

Right after the conference it was time to gather the whole team together and head over to the Junior Achievement grand opening of BizTown. Club Entrepreneur sponsored a shop in their mock city – If you don’t know what Junior Achievement is then you’re missing out. Go there and get a tour from Marilyn Raigel. She’ll blow you away with the happenings there. It’s a great space for Club E to be. – Unfortunately we were a little late to our own ribbon cutting (hey, we’re entrepreneurs not clock makers), but we were still able to get a 2^nd chance photo op. We had a few of our members join us, too. Jamie Forseth (who by the way was there on time to appear in the first photo of the ribbon cutting, thanks Jamie for stepping in!) and Justine Matthew a longtime member from way back in the day.

After chatting with Marilyn for a while the gang headed to the Hyatt Hotel to let loose for a while. Ingrid also had an interview with a great guy about a new hydrogen fuel he has created. (His name fails me right now, but I’m sure someone will correct me) The evening was a great chance for us to just hang out. Liz Fischer from HBMG, the website developers for the network, was in town to get a little face-time with the Club E team. They’re based out of Texas, and until yesterday we hadn’t ever seen her in person. It amazing we’ve been working together for over a month now and never hung out. But I’m glad we got the chance. The team is becoming an even more closely knit group as the days pass and I’m looking forward to the months to come. Its time to rock out and really start turning out some stuff for our members, so stay tuned!