005 roberto candelaria by EntrepreneursRadioShow

THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

EPISODE #5: ROBERTO CANDELARIA Introduction: You‟re listening to Diamonds in Your Own Backyard. The business owner‟s guide to discovering success, wealth, and happiness within your own business where each week you‟ll hear inspirational stories, strategies, and inside secrets of some of the most powerful small business owners themselves. On the Amazing Women of Power Network powered by Raven International, and now here is your host Travis Lane Jenkins and Sandra Champlain.

Roberto Candelaria Travis: Hey, this is Travis Lane Jenkins. Sandra: And this is Sandra Champlain. Travis: I hear we‟ve got a special guest with us today. Sandra: We do have a special guest, and as you know, I like to only have the most special guest, and I would like to tell you a little bit about this one. Travis: Okay. Sandra: I had attended a conference in Las Vegas, and this fine gentleman was one of the speakers. What he spoke about was sponsorship. Now, his name is Roberto Candelaria and he was an excellent speaker and I have always associated sponsorship with things like the Olympics, or a major sporting event, or something. It‟s the very first time hearing Roberto speak that connect an entrepreneur, a business owner or someone like myself could actually have sponsorship. So listening to this guy he‟s got great products and services, and he‟s got a real passion for the success of businesses and organizations, and he teaches about profitability, growth, and long term sustainability. I know that he‟s worked with people. He‟s directly connected or helped people connect to some major sponsorship from companies like American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Dell computer, BMW, Hilton Hotels, Wells Fargo, State Farm Insurance. I‟m sure there‟s more, more and more so. Travis: Now those are the ones that do the sponsoring not the companies that they sponsored, right? Sandra; I‟m sorry. That was what I meant to say. I‟m a little excited. Travis: Just making sure.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Sandra: Yes, anyway the fact that I had a great conversation with him and he has generously agreed to be our guest today. I am proud to introduce the extraordinary friend of mine Roberto Candelaria. So, Roberto welcome to our show. Travis: Yes, Roberto. Welcome. Roberto: Well thank you. That‟s the first time that I‟ve been called extraordinary. I may have to write that down. Sandra: Stick with us and you‟ll get it more than once. Travis: So, that is pretty impressive Roberto. I agreed that most people don‟t realize most business owners don‟t realize that they can actually have a sponsor. Can you tell us more about that? Roberto: I think a lot of people believed that they can‟t have a sponsor. We‟re kind of grown up in this American culture that we have to do it on our own, and that if you can‟t go out, if you don‟t work your butt off every day and do it all by yourself then you‟re not a success. I like to say that, why not go out and live your dreams, make the impact that you want to make, grow your business to the level you want to do it. To do with other people‟s money while helping them with their mission have their impact as well. Travis: Right, I think not only do people not think they can, I don‟t even think they think about it, right? Roberto: People don‟t think about it. In fact there‟s not many statistics out there in terms of more profit businesses, but in terms of non profit world, there‟s almost 2 million of non-profits here in America. Less than 17% of them actually use sponsorship as the funding source for them, and that statistic is a National Centre for Charitable Statistics. I mean, less than 17% of them, 2 million non profits actually use sponsorship. So, I‟m assuming the numbers probably are even less when it comes to more profit businesses. Travis: Right, right. I was surprised when I first heard about it. I thought why would a big corporation want to sponsor me? Maybe you could answer that question. Why would they want to sponsor a local small business like mine? Roberto: I hear that question all time on the road, and it‟s one that I even as a business owner myself struggle with sometimes. I‟ve been able to go out and do this for other people, and teach other people how to do it, but there are still times in the back of my head, I‟m like “I‟m just one person, why would someone want to do this for me? At the end of the day, the companies do it for a couple of reasons. Number 1 is they want to make a statement. They want to make a statement to their target audience. Like “Hey, we have the same core values as you do. We‟ve got the same belief system that you do,

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

and we want to show you that were here.” They do it to build brand loyalty. Especially right now in this economy and the Olympics right now going on is a great example. Everybody is fighting for that all mighty advertising dollars to show, “Hey we support team USA.” or “We support London,” whatever their country is, they‟re sitting there marketing their sponsorship dollars behind it. And even though if they weren‟t able to necessarily secure the sponsorship or outgoing this canvass marketing around. Just this morning there was this article that came out about Nike and what they‟re doing in terms of canvass marketing to try over power Adidas and all the manipulation for sponsorship for the Olympics. So, they‟re trying to make a statement, they‟re trying to build brand loyalty and at the end of the day it comes down is they want to reach their target market. They want to have, to be able to get a return on investment. They want to able to get future business, and they want to make sure that they‟re serving their audience, and so whether you‟re an entrepreneur or with, it‟s just you and that‟s how my business started, it was just me. Travis: Right. Roberto: Or if you‟re a major Fortune 500 company their sponsorship available is finding the right fit for you in terms of core values and messaging an audience. Travis: So it‟s kind of like a grass roots approach or the, and tell me if I‟m wrong here, so the corporation that would sponsor the company they view it as a grass roots approach for brand loyalty, for building their brand awareness, would that be a good way of explaining it? Roberto: That is a very accurate way to explain it. One of the things that like to tell people or share with people if we drive down the road and we see billboards. I can‟t tell you how many billboards I see here in Houston, and I always say “You know what, I need to call that number. I need to go to that website,” but the fact is 5 minutes later or more realistically 45 minutes later after I‟ve sat on Houston traffic and made it home, I‟ve completely forgot what number I was going to call or what billboard I was going to. So, traditional advertising while it‟s been a way of companies to get themselves out there, it‟s not as strong as it used to be because companies are having difficult time tracking their ROI. So, when they look at sponsorship, yes it‟s very much a grass roots to how do we get connected. It‟s also basically taking a theatre term is taking it from a monologue with that billboard that‟s just up there that‟s actually up there just talking and everybody sitting there is listening to a dialogue. It‟s making it a conversation and it‟s allowing them to do their research and development. Just yesterday, I was talking with a pretty major microphone company about an upcoming event that I‟ll be doing in September with Wendy and as we talked to this organization about microphones we said “Why are you considering this event? And the number 1 reason that he gave us is, we‟re trying to reach physicians and we know that Wendy has a background working with the medical community so being there in Charleston gets us in the room to do the research to make sure that our next product that we develop actually serves the market that we wanted to serve. Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur‟s Radio Show

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Travis: Brilliant. I want to add one thing because I know from personal experience that B2B businesses, in other words Business to business companies, we have a hard time tracking down the business owners. So, this is an effective way to get in front of that business owner or actually, strategically to get in front of that business owner. Right? In that scenario. Roberto: Most definitely, most definitely is. Travis: Yeah. So can I give you a couple of examples, let‟s play with this a little bit and in that way we can make sure that were all in the same page, as far as some examples of how this would work. So let‟s say, my business, one of the businesses that I own help business owners, so maybe a good strategic partner would be Wells Fargo for mine. Do you agree with that? Roberto: I agree, a good strategic partner could be Wells Fargo in terms of reaching to other business owners and helping entrepreneurs. One of the things you want to think about is who‟s your target market and who the target market of the sponsor is, and where do they meet, where do they match, and how is it a win, win, win for everybody. So the agreement is in true integrity. So you benefit, the sponsor benefits, and pretty sure your audience and their audience, and so... Travis: True alignment there, right? Roberto: Oh yes, true alignment. I believe that sponsorship can be that win, win, win it has to be a true value to everyone involved. Otherwise, it can‟t be done in integrity it‟s my personal belief. Travis: Right. Roberto: Some other ideas for you personally would be companies such as State Farm. I have been privileged to work with State Farm now for over 10 years and in different ventures and one of the things is how many of your entrepreneurs that you‟ve worked with maybe don‟t have business insurance, or don‟t realize that they need to have it. So, that‟s where a company such as State Farm, or another insurance company come to be a good fit. There are obviously companies such as the Sands Club or Cosco and half of it is the office supplies store. Staples and Office Depot are doing a lot of business owners right now because they realize “Hey these are the people that keep our doors open.” Travis: Right. People that buy volume from them. Roberto: Correct. Travis: So there are several businesses that, Staples, Office Depot, insurance companies would align with my business because I speak with business owners. Does it matter if I have a list, if my platform let‟s say a hundred business owners, or a thousand, or ten thousand? How much of a difference does that make?

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Roberto: Well the size of the lists truly makes the difference of how much value you can deliver back to the sponsor, in regards to how much of an investment that they would be willing to make in your company as a partnership. Obviously, how many people you reach is crucial to your platform but I find that the core values and your willingness to succeed and deliver to them is more important. There have been times where I know organizations, and I even worked with some of them. We‟ve had only 10 or 15 people in a room and gotten the $15,000 - $20,000 sponsorship, where there‟s been organizations that have 200 people in a room and be able to only get a $5,000 sponsorship. Travis: What‟s the difference there? Roberto: it‟s about showing your sponsor we‟ve got the right people. We have the decision makers you have been looking for, the audience that you‟re looking for right here and the clear picture we can paint to them about, yes, this is your target market the higher the investment is going to be from them. Travis: Right. That makes me think of an old saying that “I would rather convince 10 people a 100% of the way than a thousand people and 10% of the way. Roberto: It‟s very true. That‟s it. Travis: So, it sounds like that would carry a cross with exactly what you‟re saying is because a lot of people don‟t get that. If you can show complete alignment with your platform, your list with the people that follow you, or do business with you, then they are much more valuable to that sponsor, right? Roberto: Agreed. Travis: Yeah. Travis: So let‟s take a harder one. I‟m going to put in the spot here and just kind of come up with different businesses on the top of my head. So let‟s say Jed‟s Hardware. What would Jed look for as a sponsor, as a corporate sponsor? Roberto: Jed‟s Hardware actually one of the place that Jed‟s Hardware could start with is local sales reps. Sponsorship just isn‟t necessarily. “Hey I‟ve got these live events coming up” or “I‟ve started a book” or “I need to buy some TV advertising.” Then it could be some in store promotion, or maybe a community event that Jed‟s Hardware wants to do to draw more traffic into the store. Jed‟s could go to some of its vendors to provide its tools, or the electrical wiring or you could go to the DuPont‟s. Roberto: Yes, you go to the DuPont‟s, you could go to the 3Ms and say, “Hey we‟re going to do this community event and this is going to bring more exposure to the store which is obviously help sell more of your product, and get those local sales reps involved with those major international brands that you‟re working with. Bring them and do an event that serves the community. I always stressed that you

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

want to do something that serves people and by serving and by giving it‟s always going to come back to you in the end. And that‟s what I recommend with the hardware store. Travis: He could do too. What comes in mind to me is I analyze businesses, and so Jed‟s Hardware has two customers. He has the homeowner, and he has the contractor, right? Roberto: Correct. Travis: So, maybe he creates one community event for the homeowner and finds a corporate sponsor that really aligns with that. Maybe Better Homes and Garden, or whatever, and then he has a separate one that is geared towards contractors that is a lunch and learn those guys can come in and buy the products and whatever. So, is that something along the line that you would tell Jed‟s to do with his hardware store? Roberto: That‟s exactly along the line of what I would suggest and since you brought us to lunch and learn, it‟s something that you could even do it by partnering with the local communities. He could do a monthly lunch and learn type of thing, or do with series of it that the contractors come in and every single lunch is sponsored by different one of his vendors, and they give the opportunity to teach these contractors first hand, why their product is the one they need to be using opposed to their competitor‟s products. Travis: Right. While building a loyalty because of that what you said earlier, instead of a monologue you‟re having dialogues. They‟re eating, they‟re talking, they‟re laughing, and they‟re sharing personal stories and building rapport with each other, right? Roberto: Exactly. And it‟s allowing that sponsor with “Hey you know what, we‟re talking to the contractors here in the front line and this is what they like, this is what they don‟t like, and this is what they really wish we would do.” Then they can take that back to their corporate offices and say “Hey, this is the feedback that we‟re getting from the people that actually use our stuff, not people that are locked up in the office just dreaming up what we should make next.” Travis: Brilliant. So let‟s try another one. So, Sandra owns a couple of businesses. One of her businesses is a chocolate shop. Maybe that one is going to be harder for you I don‟t know. What would your take be on that? Who would be the sponsor for that business? Roberto: Well first of all, I love chocolates, and I‟ve been waiting to try. Travis: Sandra, can you send our wonderful guest a package? Sandra: You bet.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Travis: For being on our show. Roberto: Everybody heard that. You know it goes back to her coffee shop, but her chocolate shop. Travis: It is a Coffee and Chocolate sorry about that. Roberto: Score! Coffee and Chocolate are two great things. You know I have a store in Connecticut and one of the things that I would do at a store is. Maybe not necessarily have Sandra bringing in a bunch of sponsors herself but actually working with a few other local businesses and put together something for the community. In terms of, actually we can go a couple of different ways with these. My brain is like, I have an AGV brain that ideas always come into my head and then I actually decide which one I want to go with it. Travis: That‟s just a sign of brilliance. Roberto: Cool, extraordinary and brilliance in a span of a day! Travis: Right. Roberto: There are, unfortunately, I‟m glad these services are available but there are, at least in Houston some battered women‟s shelter. These women sometimes don‟t have the luxury of enjoying Sandra‟s chocolate or someone else‟s chocolate. They don‟t have the luxury of those finer things in life, per say. Maybe it‟s something where Sandra creates an event to partner with other local businesses maybe a day spa, or hair salon, and then go to some of the other vendors in the community. I keep saying the community because I want people to understand that corporate sponsorship doesn‟t mean that you have to have the Dell or the BMW behind you. You can start local sponsorship at a local level with local businesses. These are the businesses that are already there supporting your little league teams, supporting your PTAs. Give your local business owners and small businesses the chance to support you as well. Small businesses is the lifeblood of America right now, and so, Travis: So instead of just big corporations, think of local businesses as well. Roberto: Yes, definitely think of local businesses. They‟re already supporting entire schools, our PTAs, they supporting your little league teams. Give them the opportunity to get that business and put that passion fusion back in your community. Back to Sandra‟s business here, I‟m sorry I go off on rapid trips sometimes. Travis: It‟s okay, it‟s a brilliant idea. I love it. Sandra: Yeah.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Roberto: I work with a Salon, or a Spa, or a nail placer and then go to one of the insurance companies, or go to a bank, or go to someone that‟s looking for, “Hey we need a little bit of an added press right now,” and go to them and put on one of this events or you can go to one of those women shelters and you can take some chocolates and you can have somebody go do manicures and pedicures for these ladies. Give them a makeover that they‟ve probably never had. There‟s an organization that I‟ve been very privileged to do some work with and in the end I called “Hello Gorgeous” and they have sponsors with their local organizations and all they do is go to the local hospitals and work with women who are cancer patients. And they created this mobile page for us and they kidnapped, per say, these women for just a day. To take their mind off from Chemo, to take their mind off everything else and it makes them gorgeous. They give them a haircut; they dye their hair, whatever they want, do facials, manicures, pedicures and massages. Just for a day, it takes away that feeling that I‟m a cancer patient and I don‟t know how much longer I have. Sandra: Wow, that‟s really great. Travis: Right. Roberto: To be able to do something like that in your community with a battered women‟s shelter or with any type of organization or maybe an orphanage, a foster care, how many foster kids may not get the birthday party that they want. Sandra can partner with other people to put on this community birthday parties for people that are in the foster care system. It gives those big sponsors a chance to shine and that it also gives Sandra‟s chocolate shop more exposure in it. It strengthens her roots in the community as someone that‟s not just there as the business owner, but there to serve her community as well. Sandra: Even in holiday times I‟m just thinking of that. So many families and people that just don‟t have enough to give their own kids gifts and to create some kind of a drive or something, give chocolates, give whatever. That‟s a great community based thing. Thank you for that. Roberto: You‟re welcome. Travis: Yeah. Good stuff. So let‟s take this apart and look a little closer at it. So let me describe what I think I‟m hearing and you tell me if I‟m on the right track okay? Roberto: Okay. Travis: So with Sandra‟s Coffee and Chocolate Shop, what could happen is we could have several sponsors, right? More than one? Okay, and so maybe even hers since its all local people, maybe her main corporate sponsor could be State Farm.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Roberto: Correct. Travis: Or could be, maybe the coffee manufacturer. You know, Folgers, that‟s probably not what you use at the coffee shop but anyways someone like that, and then, you can have a second tier local business sponsors as well and then tie it into a community give back type thing simultaneously so it has multiple purposes. It drives good will for all of the businesses that are tied in and that it also is effective that making a difference with people that need help. Is that right? Roberto: That‟s right. I completely agree with that. Travis: And so maybe you have 1 lead big time sponsor and 3 small local talents, or maybe you have 10 local small talents sponsors and no big time conglomerate or big company. It could go either way right? Roberto: It could go either way. I think the most important things when it comes to sponsorship is being able to dream. As a child, the most important thing, the most important lessons that my parents taught my sister and I as little kids was we could go out and dream. There was this one time, I couldn‟t even tell you what I had come up at that time. Because my brain has always been extremely creative and I took these ideas from my parents but I don‟t remember the exact idea. What I remember my parents telling me is, “You can dream anything in the world, why not dream bigger.” I think the same has applied to sponsorship. There are endless possibilities, and it‟s about what you can go out there and create as a fit for you, you can deliver value to a sponsor. In terms of unlimited possibilities, one of the movies I used to love to watch growing up, and so when I think of when people ask what can be sponsors. I think Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory, and you get to that part where everybody has gotten their golden ticket and they all get there, and Willy Wonka takes them to these long hallways and next to that very, very, very tiny, small, square hallways at the very end. From the inside, it looks as if it‟s a small box, but as you begin to turn that wheel and they go in there‟s just this whirl of pure bliss, the chocolate fountains, the river, the liquorice, the lollipops, and all the other stuff, and there was just an endless world of pure imagination. That‟s where I like to say the sponsorship is, that if you can imagine it, there‟s probably a way to get a sponsor, as long as you‟re doing it from the heart based pace. If you truly want to deliver value, not only to your audience, but to your sponsor, make sure they get much out of it as you do. Travis: I love it. I agree with you. Sandra, were you going to say something? Sandra: Because this whole thing has been so new to me, and you said that 17% of non profits actually gets sponsorship. Sponsors have budgeted to give money, right? I mean they have a lot of these big companies, this is a part of what they do, and so I never connected that they are out there, wanting to give.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Roberto: Yeah, you‟re right. You and I got to have that conversation the other day and I think a lot of people aren‟t aware that there‟s money out there. We hear it so much right now the economy, “Oh the economy is crap. I can‟t get any money. Funding is so tight. We‟ve tried to get a credit card lately, have you seen the interest rate? The banks not going to give you a loan, unless you have a incredible credit score, and even then, what‟s your interest rate going to be?” There‟s just all of these horror stories out there. People are trying to get funding, and the interesting part of sponsorship is. Sponsorship has been on the rise since about 2007. This year 2012 it is estimated to have gone about 4.1%, 4.2% over last year‟s which is an increase of 760,000,000 million dollars which makes the United States for 2012 there‟s an estimated almost 19 billion dollars available for sponsorship in the United States, and almost 52 billion dollars globally. So it‟s big money. There‟s a lot of money out there and in terms of live events and causes, study shows from my EG that 25% of that funding is going to Cause and Events marketing. Travis: Cause and Events marketing meaning what we‟re talking about? Roberto: Meaning everything that we‟ve been talking about here, right here, yeah. Travis: Ok. Well, yeah. Adding commentary to what you said, the news is in business of selling fear. Roberto: Yes. Travis: While there have been tough economic times, it‟s just gotten to the point to where I quit watching the news because they‟re so focused on the negative. I can‟t get access to the real news and it‟s really frustrating for me. So, it leads back to the point that you were making that a lot of people that just don‟t realize that there is money out there, and you just not have to know how to access it, and the proper procedures for getting there, which is completely separate from all the negativity that„s been perpetuated by the news and everything else is going on. So I didn‟t mean interrupt you were talking Sandra? Sandra: I just think that there is money available that people don‟t know so they start off with a dream, right, and getting clear of what your messages and jumping on Roberto or whatever else. Really, and then partnering in brainstorm probably to figure out some light minded company that share the same core values, and I think you have mentioned once too that sponsorship doesn‟t just come in the form of money, right? Robert: Right. Yeah, it‟s definitely not just about the cheque. Sandra: Right.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Roberto: Obviously as business owners, we can‟t phone up our electric company or water Company and be like, “Hey, you know what I have this best buy gift certificate, can I pay my electric that way this month?” I wish it works that way but the electric company is not going take a Best Buy gift card for our bills. We need to make sure that if we go into sponsorship that we understand that we cash a huge part of it, because we do have expenses. And our sponsors understand that we have expenses. But there are also times we take that in kind. So, an example this microphone company that we were speaking with yesterday, talking about doing sponsorship level where a portion of that, about 50-60% of that will be in cash and the remaining amount will be a trade off products that we can then use to either A use it for the event, or that we can use as giveaways for a ten digit event. Sandra: I like it. Travis: You know another thing is with so much video, TV on demand; the regular TV commercials for a lot of these big companies are not working anymore because everybody is fast forward and fastened. I know why I don‟t watch anything live anymore, I Tbo everything, and then I watch the show when I‟m ready, and I nuke the commercials. So, they are getting more and more clever about baking it into the cake, and so like American Idol, you constantly see Coca Cola glasses setting thereon right in front of them which is sponsorship right? And there‟s no way you can Tbo that. So, my point is there are so many different channels to get your message out on that‟s another reason that is driving the need for sponsorship here is a lot of the old forms of media you test on a little bit in the beginning. A lot of the old forms of media that used to work decades and decades aren‟t working anymore, and so that‟s a big reason why these guys really want to use your platform to help have that dialogue. Roberto: You hit on the American Idol and it‟s not just American Idol. I kind of laugh when I, one of the things that I love to do with my family is we love to go to the movies every now and then when we‟re all in town. It‟s just amazing, even in movie theatres right now. As they‟re watching that movie a Burger King logo flashes by. I can‟t tell you how many movies now have product endorsements now have product placements. How many iPhones and MacBook Pros have I seen in the movies lately, but before everything used to be just a standard black screen, I mean they black out the Dell logo, they black out Microsoft, you could tell it was an Apple thing. That they had the apple covered and there was just a nice filter. It was a quiet promotion and product placement has become a huge on the sponsorship right now. One of the things that local business owners and even online information marketers consider it as they‟re making videos, think about what products that they used and they like and approach those companies to see if there‟s a way that they can have that product sponsored for the exposure that they‟ll be receiving for an online video. The world is quickly, quickly, quickly moving to online videos and to Google and to local. When it comes to traffic of online, Cisco one of the things that they put out and I know that Sandra and I have had this conversation with one of our mentors, the fact that almost 90% of online traffic by the end of 2013 will be video.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Travis: Wow. That‟s unbelievable isn‟t it? Roberto: That‟s an amazing thing that Cisco is putting out there. One of the other studies that Cisco did also shows that almost 85% is Internet traffic will be from mobile devices. So, we‟re talking your cell phones, your tablet, whatever they‟re going to come up next that just keeps technology evolving, and so, it‟s a great way to go to those local companies, find the local representatives for Canon, for Samsung, for Nikon. Go to your local camera stores and ask who is the local sales representative for X brand and begin to develop a conversation with them about what your platform is, how much exposure you have, and find out if there‟s a way to use some source of sponsorship in terms of products. Since you‟re going to be doing the videos anyway, you might as well have the sponsor behind you so you can get them to have additional exposure that you‟re going to be doing anyway. Sandra: Roberto, I have a big question. Our show is Diamonds in Your Own Backyard and it‟s people that have found their passion in their life and I just want to know how you who were taught by your parents to dream big have now become such an individual in this sponsorship world to connect with people. Like how in the world you got involved and choose this as your passion, that this is your diamond and your own backyard. Can you share a little bit about your story? And how did you become who you are today with us. Roberto: You know, growing up I don‟t know anybody that has ever said, “I want to go raise sponsorship dollars,I want to do fundraising when I grow up.” You always hear the „I want to be an Attorney‟, or „I want to be a Doctor‟ or „I want to be an astronaut‟ and you don„t hear „I want to go raise money for people‟ and that wasn‟t my childhood dream either. My childhood dream was that I was gonna be a performer at Disney. I didn‟t know what I was going to do, I just felt that I was going to perform at Disney, and my parents were kind enough to always encourage that dream. Besides ability to dream, one of the other biggest things that our parents taught my sister and I was the importance of a strong work ethic and the importance of do what you say when you say you‟re going to do it. Sandra: Right. Roberto: And so, my sophomore year at high school I was involved in choir, and drama, and band, and all the fine arts stuff. Our choir had the opportunity to go perform at Walt Disney‟s World Resort in Orlando for part of their Magic Music Base Program, and for anybody who has kids, or knows people who have kids, you know, you just start selling those candy bars just for a dollar, and the school makes 25 or 50 cents. Or you‟re selling popcorn, or wrapping paper, or magazines, or you‟re having those big sales, where you have to go to the grocery store and buy everything. Have your parents or yourself flame over a hot oven baking cookies, and muffins, and all this type of stuff. And then, go on to sell it the next day for a quarter or 50 cents. And I mean who knows with inflation the kids might be charging

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

more nowadays. But that was 13, 14, 15 years ago for me. I just remembered telling myself in my head thinking, “Wow, that‟s a lot of 50 cents to pay for a $1,100 trip.” Sandra: Yeah. Roberto: I sold a lot of cookies, and so, I went out and I started talking to local businesses about ways that they could partner with us to help send our choir to Disney. I didn‟t know that there was corporate sponsorship. I just started doing it, and not only had my trip paid for but also contributed to the larger funds well. So those that who couldn‟t raise all the money were able to go. After that, I was raising the Assembly of God Church. They do this thing called fine arts, they do this national fine arts competition. And I was very blessed to be able to compete at a national level with one of my best friends, and we were on the same thing. It‟s like “Hey, we need to raise money to go to Orlando so we can fly going there, we have to pay seven days hotel, we have to pay the entrance fees. How do we do this?” and so we were back to asking businesses about it, and we were surprised how many local businesses supported us. So, we did that and I went off to college and we‟re still doing it with non profits on the side, and having an absolute blast doing it. I remembered one day, I went to this company, everybody knows BMW, and I had this dream that they were going to sponsor what we were doing. And this is what truly changed my course of me realizing what sponsorship was, and realizes that it‟s something I wanted to do but it still wasn‟t going to be a job for me. I was still just going to be help with non profits on the side. I had a lady told me at BMW, “You know Roberto, you‟re very passionate and I‟m not going to give you any money, just not yet, but what I will do is I will give you access to our press department. We will write all of your press releases, or we will distribute them for you, and you can use our logo.” Now, all these years later, I can look back and say “You know what, that was a pretty sweet gig.” As a child I was kind of bummed, I was like, really? What am I going to do with the press releases? Press releases are going to help you. But, that name and partnering with BMW has allowed us to go forward and work with brands like Dell, like State Farm insurance. We had that first one. We had that first big name. We were BMW. I was working for companies doing this and having a blast, but in 2007 I got ill. In 2007 to 2009, I got several surgeries, all abdominally related. In March of 2009, you know you hear those words that nobody really wants to hear, and I was sitting at the bed at this hospital in the Medical Center here in Houston, Texas and I have a doctor tell you “You‟ve got one year to live.” And that was a wakeup call for me. That was a, you know, what am I doing? I have a great job, I thought I was happy, but if I had a year less, what‟s my legacy going to be? That‟s when I started my business. That‟s when I started helping non profits doing this and working with entrepreneurs to teach them the message of sponsorship, and that they could go out there and it could fund their dreams. They could go out there and achieve their childhood

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

dreams. Have the reach they wanted to have. Have the impact that they wanted to have. To do it all with other people‟s money and delivering them value so they could have the impact in the world they wanted to have as well. That‟s how I got here and along the way I‟ve had some great mentors. People that just crossed my path or I crossed theirs I should say, people that introduced me to Rick Frishman and introduced me to Wendy. Who people who introduced me to Brendon Burchard. This was never going to be my world, and all of it has come true because of my sponsors. Because sponsors have allowed me to live my dreams, and because I was living my dream I was able to cross the paths of these wonderful people who have now given me even bigger reason to dream and to go out and teach more people that they too can do what I‟ve done. Now you don‟t have to go and teach people sponsorship, you can be successful; you can accomplish your business goals, your business dreams by partnering with other people to help them spread their messages as well. Sandra: And now that you‟ve found your passion and you‟re in it and you‟re making a difference, how‟s your health? It‟s obviously...a few years later. Roberto: It took a few years later, and I still have some health challenges we‟re still making it through them. All I can do is one, trust the doctors, and believe that they know what they are doing. But in life we have choices, and the choice that I face that day. I think we all face every day is that we can make the choice to go out and live our lives to the fullest and pray a 100% or pray 110% if you want to be a little excited about everything or we can choose to sit back and play victim. Playing victim was never an option for me. So, I‟m still going through some health to get through it. Every day I get a little bit stronger, but the most important thing is to realize that we just got to find that thing in life that you want so bad and you‟re so passionate about that even if you were not being paid for it, you would do it just to do it, and that‟s when everything will come together for you. Is it easy? Not always. Are there times that you‟re going to want to quit? Yeah there‟s times that I wanted to quit it is part of our human nature but we have to realize “you know what, there‟s a bigger purpose.” And it‟s not just about me. It‟s not just about what I think about, what I feel right now. One of my mentors, his name is Eric, two things he taught me, well; he taught me more than two things. The two things that stick with me is number 1. I was working with a group and Roberto I want to ask you something. Do you want the pain of raising the money? Or do you want the pain of not doing your dream? And that just stuck with me so hard, until I tell people, patience there is for all the time that we‟re talking to people about sponsorship. I say do you want the pain of learning how to actually start doing sponsorship? Or do you want that pain of not doing your dream? And telling it that you didn‟t make a difference in the impact that you know you were meant to go out there to do. And the second thing that he told me was, to always remember what the cause of not doing what you say. You know Sandra, you‟ve got a big mission out there with your book. You‟re going to like just completely change people‟s views about a lot of things that they thought that they knew. With Travis‟

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work with entrepreneurs, I‟ve got to know just a little about it. I know what he‟s doing is an important service that so many people need. We have to ask ourselves, what is the cost of not doing what we say? If we don‟t live our passion, if we don‟t do what were called to do. What is the cost? Not the financial cost, but what is the cost of the other people that we will not have served? It may not accomplish what they need to accomplish because we didn‟t do what we said we would do. Travis: That‟s one reason why I love entrepreneurs is you‟ve got this life ending, life threatening experience and so rather than laying down and accepting it, you choose to fight it. Not only do you choose to fight it, you choose to pursue your passion. So, number 1 congratulations I love to hear that story. That‟s a story of empowerment and why entrepreneurs are so essential to our economy, and so congratulations on that front. Most people I think would have given up and just went some place. Maybe not given up on life but given up on pursuing their dreams. Does that make sense? Roberto: Yeah, it does. And yet there were days that I wanted to do that. But we have to come to this point in our lives where we realize that it‟s not just about us. That we‟re all here, and that we‟re all interconnected for a bigger purpose, whatever you believe that bigger purpose is. That you have a choice, you can either step up and that you can own your piece of victory, and own your piece of greatness, and own your piece of contribution to this world. Or you can just say “You know what, I‟m not just going to show up today.” It‟s a decision that we make every day when we wake up. Whether we‟re going to show up and play, fully present and full out, or if we‟re going to let something get to us. Travis: I think it goes back to your underlying belief and mentality as a young kid is dreaming big. As you still have these dreams and you refuse to let go of them it makes me think of a little poem that says, “I bought her life for penny and penny is what I got. If I had known that‟s how it worked then I would have asked for more.” Roberto: Yeah. Travis: So many people are afraid to dream really, really big. It‟s funny because a lot of what you and I do they are very different are very aligned because one of the things that I found with business owners is most business owners when it‟s much more labour intensive to run a low profit, or business is not making a lot of money, and they have worked an incredible amount of hours, and one of my dreams is to teach business owners to transition their business to a level where they‟re making 200% ,300%, 400%, 500% not just for monetary reasons, but what happens is when that person is not a slave to their business they have the opportunity grow and give back. So, by mentoring business owners to that next level, I also want to teach them to find a charity that their passionate about, and tie that into their business. Now I know that you have done that also because Sandra told me, the Make A Wish Foundation. So, what could be more powerful than for business owners to all of a sudden start making 300%, 400%, 500% more and working half as much and taking that extra time that they have gained

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

from getting the right staff in place, and spending it with making a difference with Make A Wish. Wouldn‟t that be powerful? Roberto: Extremely powerful and it doesn‟t have to be Make a Wish, that‟s a cause that very near and dear to me because I have the honour earlier this year to sit with Frank Shankwitz , founder of Make A Wish Foundation and hear his story about how make a wish was started and why they do what they did. They had no intention that Make a Wish would ever become what it would become to this day. But it all started with that dream and a $15 donation from a grocery store cashier. Sandra: Wow. Travis: And so it doesn‟t need to be Make A Wish, it could be anything that your passionate about just like what you talk about in business. Find something that touches your heart. Normally, it‟s something associated with the way you grew up or someone that‟s made a difference in your life. You find that passion in the charity, you‟ll be able to help them sustain their giving for not just a week, a month, or a year, but for decades, as long as your business is around. Roberto: Exactly, and always remember that no matter where you are in your life, we all have different talents and so it‟s not about the cheque, it‟s not about the 5 dollars or 5 thousand dollars that you have given a non profit organization. What you can give them, that‟s more important than that cheque is the gift of your time and your talent. Because if you can show them how to accomplish a skill set, or if you are an Attorney, donate your time so that they don‟t have the expense on legal fees that is when the organization truly becomes sustainable and profitable because they‟re not spending all this money on consultants. Okay so people can find me online, on Facebook, at facebook.com/humanreturns, (H U M A N R E T U R N S), Twitter handle is the exact same @humanreturns. Also, our website is sponsorshipbootcamp.com and if any of your listeners care to go to the sponsorshipbootcamp.com we have a free 3 parts video training series on corporate sponsorship that by going to that page and giving your email address you can have access to. Travis: Wonderful, and also what we‟ll do is if you don‟t mind is will take all of your contact information and we‟ll place it at TravisandSandra.com I‟m not sure how, a lot of our listeners get the podcast from different sources. For those of you who are not aware of TravisandSandra.com that‟s where we keep all of the podcasts and where you can have the opportunity to interact with both of us, as well as videos and other things. What I‟d like to do is we‟ll create a section just below this recording, this broadcast and we‟ll put all of your Twitter, Facebook, and website links so that they can go there and just click on and they can go straight to you. Roberto: Sounds good.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Travis: Listen, you have been a wonderful guest, very impressive, you have the amount of things that you have accomplished in your young life. You‟re on an incredible path of not only great success but making an incredible difference in a large number of people‟s lives and so I commend you for that. And for that reason alone I‟d like to get to know you on a deeper level and spend more time with you. So, I really, really, appreciate you coming in and spending time with us. Sandra? Sandra: And oh from me to Roberto, just the fact that you‟re following your passion and the difference that you‟ve made so far, the difference that you‟re going to make to people that may never meet and people that can also have their dreams fulfilled, have great lives and lives that you will touch. Like I said, you‟ll never see them, most of them. I just really want to acknowledge you for spending some time with us being such a person that followed your passion, wakes up in the morning everyday and actually choose to continue even though sometimes it‟s not so easy, but that you do that. That you are in touch of who you are and what you‟re up to, and so you can count me in your future endeavours and anything I can do so you to make a difference I‟m here for you. Thanks again for being with us today. Roberto: Thank you to both of you for having me, and I look forward to not only serving both of you in the future, but also your audience as well, so that if they need any sponsorship training they can go to sponsorshipbootcamp.com for that free 3 part training series and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

End of Interview Travis and Sandra: Great. Travis: Thanks for tuning in Diamonds in Your Own Backyard and Sandra will be putting up a video here soon. For those of you who don‟t know the back story on Diamonds in Your Own Backyard, it is a wonderful story and were going to put up a video on that here pretty soon. So go to TravisandSandra.com until next time, have a great day guys.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

How We Can Help You We know that finding someone that you can trust online today is hard and that so many “so called gurus” are self-‐appointed and have never really even done what they teach you to do. That‟s exactly why we created the Double Your Profits Business Accelerator. This is an exclusive offer for our fans at a fraction of its normal cost. Here's what to expect. We'll Schedule a 'One on One' private session, where we'll take the time to dive deep into your business and tell you what is missing, so that you can have your best year ever! We'll do this by performing a S.W.O.T. Analysis. This tells us your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats within your business. This will be an eye opener for YOU, for several reasons, however some of the most common reasons are. As the 'Business Owner' it‟s difficult to see the big picture of your own business because you‟re in the middle of a daily management. And you are too emotionally involved to completely impartial. This is a common problem for EVERY business owner. It doesn‟t matter if you are a one-man army, or an army of 150, the problem is still the same.

Travis Lane Jenkins Business Mentor-Turn Around Specialist Radio Host of The Entrepreneurs Radio Show “Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs That Grow Your Business"

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