Evolution Magazine #WorldClass Special Edition by Darnell Davis

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Joshua Coburn #WorldClass Leader Special Issue

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Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition

Published By Evolve Media Group Inc.

Evolve MEdia Group Inc. DARNELL G DAVIS - CEO Editor In Chief DONNIE BRYANT Photography EVOLUTION MAGAZINE Staff Editors DONNIE BRYANT TAREA WADLINGTON Graphic Designer EVOLUTION MAGAZINE

Evolution Contributors DONNIE BRYANT KATRINA STARZHYNSKAYA DEBI SILBER KEVIN WILSON DERICK JONES SLYVIA BROWDER

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featured articles

8 12 Lowercase Branding

#WorldClass Leader interview with Joshua coburn

Financing your business throughCrowdfunding www.evomag.co

from the publisher Evolve Media is growing rapidly, and with great success comes great adversity. Over the past few months we have been working on “Team Development” and expanding our staff. The development of leadership skills are essential to the growth and health of any company – that includes yours.

s we begin to head into a new season of life, I would like to walk with you into the new season of your business. I would like to leave you with four foundational stepping stones, answering this fundamental question: “How would you describe the perfect leader?” You probably used words like control, insight, and poise in your description. The next question I want to ask is: “Is it possible that these qualities could actually hinder great leadership?” According to some leadership coaches, the answer is yes. So, in order to remain effective as a leader, it’s valuable for every leader to develop a repertoire of different leadership qualities.

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Stepping Stone #1 - Knowing When to Hold Them... And When to Fold Them...

Stepping Stone #3 - Understand Your Own Strengths and Weaknesses

Ascertaining when to fight or when to let go is very important in laying a foundation in effective leadership. Often great people gain a position of influence but they fall into habit of micromanaging. The desire to control can be a leader’s largest temptation and can bankrupt your company if not properly dealt with.

Talk to most leaders and they will gladly tell you they have weaknesses. But most of them cannot tell you what they are. Most leaders don’t know their weaknesses because most leadership positions encourage managers to consider the weaknesses of others more than their own personal shortcomings. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses will allow you to build a team that will support you and fill in the gaps.

Most control comes from fear: fear of the unknown and fear of the level of ability of those whom you lead. These fears will cripple your ability to make decisions that affect your business. For example, a business owner notices that a project is showing inherent weakness. However, instead of cutting his or her losses and moving forward, he or she begins to throw more resources towards it in hopes to MAKING it work. The end result is a frustrated staff and a financial loss. Knowing when to hold and when to fold will do more than preserve sanity in the business environment; it will save money and allow growth simply because you stop paying attention to dead situations. Stepping Stone #2- Consider Suggestions from Unlikely Sources Another trap leaders fall into is to assume they are the only ones within their organization with great ideas while overlooking the wealth of information available from their employees. One of the worst things a business owner can do is to assume that their employees are incapable of making meaningful suggestions. Most problems that develop within your organization are experienced by those who are on the front line. These employees often see these issues with surprising clarity because they deal with them on a day to day basis. Your team can be your greatest asset against problems and breakdowns. Listen to your employees and consider their insight. It could save you a lot of time and money.

Stepping Stone #4- Place The Right People in the Right Positions Your team plays a major part (if not the most important part) in how effective you are as a leader. The hardest part is getting to the point where you are able and willing to place the right people into key positions. As a business coach, I have seen companies with great business plans en route to total collapse because of failure to put the right people in the right place to carry out the plan. Getting to know your employees individually and your team as an organic whole is essential to becoming an effective leader. It doesn’t make sense to have someone who is a great organizer working a sales position while your current administrator isn’t working out. You will never know that you are making this mistake unless you know your team. By taking the time to identify the right people for key positions, you can improve your company’s performance and eliminate the unnecessary cost of training people who don’t last. Entire libraries have been filled with books written to help leaders be more effective. In my experience, many leaders want to learn the most advanced techniques while they’re still falling short in the basic fundamentals. These 4 stepping stones, if you really meditate on them and start to put them into practice, will create a strong foundation that will support an impressive organization. Sincerely, Publisher Darnell G Davis CEO/ Evolve Media Group Inc. Publisher, www.evomag.co

lower case branding Donnie Bryant

From branding consultants to howto books to home-study courses, there’s a lot of talk these days about branding. It’s a big business, and good brands can ensure the success of big businesses. That’s why everyone wants to get it right: Play this card right, they say, and your company will experience success like never before. Let me get this out of the way: There is nothing wrong with branding. You absolutely should have a strong brand. In fact, you’re creating a brand whether you know it or not. You might as well be intentional about it and make a good one. The point is this: My concern is that we’ll begin to focus on creating brands and messages rather than on doing great business. The customer should be “uppercase,” since they are who really matter. The business should be built around taking care of them. The brand is “lowercase.” The brand doesn’t exist for its own pleasure; the brand is about the customer.

That said, there are important ways to establish or strengthen a company’s identity without forgetting a company’s main objectives. What’s a Brand, Really? A brand is simply the identity of a company, product or service as perceived by consumers. There are powerful brands like Nike. People around the world instantly recognize their logo,know their slogan by heart and value their products. In fact, it is the brand that gives the product its heightened perceived value. Having shoes is nice; having Nikes is something special. Why is Coca-Cola so popular? How can Starbucks charge so much more for coffee than the competition and still have “enthusiastically satisfied” (Starbucks’ own words) customers during hard economic times? And more importantly, how can you start to do the same thing?

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Branding Rule #1: It’s Not About You. Sales and Marketing 101 teaches us that customers don’t want to buy drills; they want holes. Elmer Wheeler said, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” The same is true about building a brand. You don’t create a world-class identity by trying to create a world-class identity. Don’t focus on yourself or your business. Concentrate on the people you’re trying to influence. What do people desperately want? How can you give it to them? Can you associate your product with something that people already go crazy for? Branding Rule #2: Admit Your Awesomeness. Make the strongest statements you can about how your audience will benefit from buying from you. Why would you water down the truth about your awesomeness? If you follow

Branding Rule #3, you have a product or service that genuinely improves people’s lives. You have to get them to buy it for them to experience the improvement, though. You’re doing your prospects a serious disservice by downplaying the good you can do for them. Never promise more than you can deliver, but don’t shoot yourself in the foot by under-promising either. If you don’t stand out as the best provider of what you sell, your customers might overlook you and buy from someone less committed to meeting their needs. Don’t let that happen. It’s up to you to make the big promise. Branding Rule #4: Do over-deliver. Surprise your customers with how awesome their experience with your company, product or service is. If you promise that they’ll double their Mandarin vocabulary in 30 days by takingyour course, delight your patrons by tripling it. When people get more than they ask for, they can’t wait to tell someone

about their experience, and your quest for worldrenown for your brand will take off. Commit to making a great product or giving a great service. Don’t focus on getting what you can from your customers. If you want to be the next Mercedes-Benz, give 10 times more value than you plan to get back from your clients. You could probably make some good, fast money by shortchanging everyone and cutting corners on quality to maximize profits. However, you will never build a sustainable, respectable brand by doing business like that, and you will have traded in your integrity and good name for a quick buck. Branding Rule #5: Make purposeful statements about who you are as a company. Your brand is as much about how people identify with you as it is about who you actually are — maybe more. Roy Williams wrote in one of his Monday Morning Memos, “Brands are identity reinforcement, just like art and architecture and music. Brands are a way of shouting ‘This is me!’” There will never be one unified brand

identity; everyone will have their own interpretations of your company’s direction and message. In some cases, people may not come to the correct conclusions about your company. Here are some thoughts to consider when drafting your brand messaging: • Always be truthful. • Though you’re talking about yourself, you must identify with the customer. • Tell them who you are and why it matters to them. • Have one overall message: one thing you stand for, oppose, believe in or are working toward. • Encourage interaction. Make your customers part of your “movement.” • Never be boring. Be bold and unique. • Find something only you can say, and say it.

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Ways Team Commitment Can Impact

Team Building

By Scott Siders

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The importance of team commitment is often overlooked by managers when they’re developing teams. They bring together employees with the right skill sets and give them a task, set goals and expect the best. But they forget about the role commitment plays in building teams to achieve personal , departmental, and organizational success. There are five questions managers should consider when evaluating the level of team commitment . 1 Do team members actually want to be part of the team? Do the team members perceive that they had a choice in deciding whether to work with the team? Although the type and size of a company, department dynamics, project type, and team member skills are among the many factors that contribute to putting teams together making participation feel mandatory can reduce team commitment. Motivation is a key component of creating team commitment; give members a reason to want to engage by empowering them to help set the direction, define goals, and make decisions. Team members are almost always more committed to a project when they are encouraged to "own" it by a manager

who sets expectations and provides guidance then trusts the team to execute its own strategies.

be boosted by explicitly connecting individual performance with a shared expected outcome.

2 Do team members feel valued? Another way to increase team commitment is to communicate an employee’s individual value to the team and the entire team’s value to the organization. Managers can also strengthen team commitment if each member sees the value of the team in the development of their skills and career.

5 Do team members receive recognition for accomplishing individual and team goals? Even seemingly small amounts of recognition along the way can make a big impact on team commitment and give team members the confidence, encouragement, and motivation to continue working hard to reach the desired goals.

3 Do team members believe the mission, vision, and goals of the team are important? Team members want to feel like they are part of something larger than themselves, and want to know how achieving the team’s goals fits into the overall mission of the organization. They also want to know their individual skills and contributions to the team are critical to accomplishing its objectives.

Rewarding performance at significant project milestones also improves morale.

4 Do team members know their roles and responsibilities? A manager must be able to clearly articulate expectations of team members and how fulfilling their specific roles and responsibilities will impact the success or failure of the team. Team commitment will

If you want to learn more about how team commitment impacts the process of building effective work teams, visit www.ThinkBlueThinking.com.

Managers who keep a pulse on the level of team commitment and ensure it always remains at a high level are rewarded by better productivity and greater success of the team and what they contribute to the entire organization.

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#WorldClass Leader 12 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition

Photos Provided By Joshua Coburn For interview

Joshua Coburn

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We are so excited to share a #WorldClass Leader, Joshua Coburn. Josh a motivational and an inspirational youth speaker and he speaks to teenagers and college kids. Joshua is known as corporate oddity. He defines stereotypes in life and in business. In addition Josh is also the bestselling author of a book named ‘Inspiration on Demand’ . Katrina: I have done some research and I was really impressed. How did you make the move from The corporate world to motivational speaking and inspiring youth and just become a leader? Joshua: Sure. It really came down to kind of a few simple things. When I got out of small business stuff and moved into the corporate environment, I really liked the more you worked, the harder you focused the faster you kind of get to the top, and when I started to stream-line that and essentially kicked down doors too because obviously I looked quite a bit different in that environment, I realized that really I became kind of a focal point for a lot of people, and as soon as that started to happen, I started to realize you know, hey I can utilize what most people consider a disadvantage to my advantage and it worked really in the long run. Katrina: Define disadvantage, what was your disadvantage? You mean your looks and the way people make assumptions? Joshua: Yes I would say definitely in the corporate environment that’s essentially what happened was a lot of people would be like how do you make it there? How did you get there? How were you able to function in that kind of environment?...and it was the pre-judgments but it also set me up for success in a lot of ways because people’s expectations would be generally lower and I can blow those out of the water rather quickly, so it really was beneficial and for me as that kind of grew to that end, it gave me the kind of credibility that you don’t get as a heavily tattooed small business owner, and once I started connecting with parents and realized how much kids could connect to the way I looked, it was just a natural progression, I mean it was something I always wanted to do since I was a little kid but it allowed me just to do it. Katrina: What kind of small business did you run? Joshua: I owned a small publishing company and record company for years and put out records and you know, and some short run books and stuff like that. I was also part of the body modification community and tattoo community and I did body modifications myself so I was in that business for right around 11 years so that was primarily my focus then. Katrina: Why did you decide to inspire youth, not adults? Joshua: It really comes down to just a couple of things, very simply that with adults you usually kind of focus on re-training,

the whole ‘old dog new tricks’ kind of thing but I thought, what if you start young? Our future generations…if you start them with good habits, with positive routines and they continue that, I mean they put their 10,000 hours, they can be professional motivators by the time they’re in their late twenties, early thirties and they can just be rocking everything that they do, where with adults that’s a bit tougher and it’s really about changing the future for me, leaving kind of a longer term legacy. Katrina: Who were a few role models that lead you down the path to inspire other people? Joshua: Absolutely, it’s pretty varied for me. Richard Branson for all obvious reasons. You know what he did with Virgin and Virgin Galactic and all that stuff but on the other end of the spectrum, guys like Henry Rollins and Nicky Sixx and Phillip Anselmo and other musicians who kind of had a platform for change and speaking from a stage, and that’s kind of where I come in, I straddle this weird kind of middle ground between both is the way I see it. Katrina: You are very different from someone like Richard Branson, so what’s success to you? Joshua: Yes I am. Success to me is defined very simply. It’s very much about the simple things. It’s about getting up and creating smiles and being able to smile every day for myself. There was a time where I couldn’t do that so really being happy every day, being focused every day is success as defined by me. Obviously I have goals at every level, whether it be personal or business but it starts really with treating others well and creating smiles and making smiles stick on my face too. Katrina: Awesome and when you mentioned that before you were not that happy sort, what has changed, how did you changed your attitude to be happy every day? Joshua: Sure. It really came down to just getting up and making that choice. I wasn’t happy, I kind of hit bottom at one point in my life and I knew that I had to kind of rebuild it all, so I started leaving quotes and notes around my home that would kind of say choose happiness or you know start your day with a smile or whatever it was and those turned into my own quotes, which then started getting posted all over the internet and ultimately turned into my latest book Inspiration on Demand but that’s really what dug me out was those kind of daily quotes to set me on a straight focus.

Katrina: Tell our readers more about the book “Inspiration on Demand.” Is it just for youth, for adults, for both and is it available on Amazon? www.evomag.co

Joshua: Yes absolutely. You can get Inspiration on Demand anywhere pretty much. It’s really for overcoming daily obstacles and ultimately reaching your dreams, and it’s just daily quotes so it’s not really intended for any specific audience, it’s for anyone who wants success. It’s not really a straight through read, its not intended to sit down and just blaze through it, it’s really more of, well, an on demand kind of thing; keep it in your backpack, keep it on your night stands so when you get up you just flip it to any page, point to it and just kind of take in a positive message for the day and apply it as you see fit. Katrina: When you say it’s great for anybody who want to be successful, do you mean successful financially or relationships or health wise or it’s a holistic approach? Joshua: Definitely holistic. It’s really about setting goals and if you’re able to set those goals and kind of have that thing at the top that you’re going for, each daily quote is kind of like focusing on that step instead of worrying about what’s at the top of the mountain. It’s just that daily reminder ‘hey keep doing it, keep it up, keep doing what you’re doing and keep climbing ultimately to get there so it’s just that kind of daily motivator just to keep pushing. Katrina: If you work on these teenagers so how would you go about helping them in setting goals for their future? How far in advance should they look and what are the steps of setting goals? Just sit down and right down our vision or what’s your approach? Joshua: Well it depends on a few things but I mean if you have something called the Dream Big Workshops that were just starting for teens and essentially it allows them to look inward and analyze the passions, the things they love because when you’re 13, you know people might say what do you want to be when you grow up essentially and you know they’ll toss out a few things all of which may seem either boring to them or completely out of reach, so we kind of them search inwardly and if we realize hey, they want to be around pets and they love fashion and they love tech and web and sales, we work to kind of put those things together and generate ideas, I mean they can be in pet fashion and sell online various pet outfits or collars or whatever, so it’s really a matter of defining each part of their interest, whether it’s you know passions or if they’re gamers, you can apply all that stuff so that’s what we do, we just idea-generate based on interest and passion.

Katrina: I’m curious, what is your opinion on conventional college education? Joshua: Great question, that’s one of my favorite questions

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actually! I did not attend college and a lot of people asked me why and I decided early on that I wanted to get an education in life. I started travelling and so you know you start travelling internationally and really kind of soaking in what was around me and looking for mentors and you know my dad he didn’t go to college but he’s one of the smartest guys I know, and it comes down to learning on the job and having mentors so that’s kind of the route I went. Conventional college education for me I can’t see putting that much debt on top of my shoulders unless it’s for generating future income. So I’d rather have investors investing in a future business with me than you know getting $100,000.00 in debt for a piece of paper that may or may not serve my future. So I guess that’s kind of my general opinion but its valid in some instances, I mean if you’re going to be a medical doctor or a surgeon then sure you’d better go, but otherwise I’m pretty hard pressed to talk out positively necessarily about that. Katrina: In your workshops for kids do you teach them entrepreneurial skills? Joshua: Well, we start very basic and then we get into goalsetting and you kind of mentioned how far out you look, and kind of setting of time-frames attaching a specific timing to specific goals and really breaking it down that way. We are working on a second part because were just kind of launching this first workshop but part two is essentially giving the rest of those tools to keep climbing up that mountain as they move forward; and coming back, meeting again one year later, six month later to determine where everybody is and ensure that if you got questions, where you at, how can we all grow together and continue to do that up that mountain. Katrina: Wonderful and since we are talking about teenagers and I actually have not been to any events for kids, only motivational events for adults, so I’m curious of what is usually their reaction, their expectations and how their parents react to your events and your teachings. Joshua: Absolutely. When it comes to the students, often the reason I end up at schools is very simply because they, through other students at local communities, local schools see me, they attach themselves to my social media channels and that starts to grow, and the kids tell their parents who are then usually excited because their kids are having a positive role model or having something positive in their life when often on the internet that’s not exactly what you get, but from there, it’s usually the parents who starts adjusting to the school. So generally the plus side is that the kids attach quickly. Parents are pretty judgmental at first, and understandably so, they’re used to individuals in a suit and tie walking into the

school, which you may catch me in a suit and tie occasionally, but you can put a monkey in a suit he still looks like a monkey right?... which is definitely the way it is for me. When I am approached by schools or when I go to schools, I’m usually in a tee shirt that says PLEASE and I kind of arrive like a ball of fire because it’s more like a rock concert than it is some guy in a tie by the podium, but usually the response…as soon as I do something like this, some Skype interviews or calls, it really switches quickly because I’m a nice guy, I treat people well, I’m respectful and that changes everything rather quickly. Katrina: How can we solve this problem for kids that go to conventional high schools, that have to deal with drugs, other the kids that may not want to study or they just have no ambition, no goals; how do we solve that? Joshua: Yes that’s a great question. Usually it comes down to very simple things, like I mentioned having a mentor that they can kind of attach to and understanding that a mentor isn’t defined by anyone but them. I think often when someone says oh you have to find a mentor and you’re 16, immediately you’re like ‘ok well I guess that teacher will work and I’ll meet with them after school’ but it could be some retired businessman down the street that happens to be super nice and willing to share his insights with you, or your father or anyone else locally or you know, we have the internet, who cares if they’re local. If you have somebody you want to meet or reach out to, do it. Facebook is there for that reason, I mean the number of requests I get from students just to talk, and I give that time because they deserve it. So I guess that’s my first suggestion, its go find a mentor, find anyone that you can connect with and ask questions and you know, hound them, they’ll let you know when it’s been enough. Katrina: What kind of books would you recommend to youth that may not have a mentor? Joshua: I grew up in a very small town o I think maybe like 3,500 people so I didn’t have a lot of mentors around so I would do just that, read books, and I stuck with biography because I would read about all these great men and women and I would try to find in the central theme you know, what was it? Was it drive? Was it education you know, what was it that pushed them? I found out that it was mostly drive and passion that made them successful, but as far as it goes as any biography of any person you deem great, grab that, pick it up. Katrina: What’s your favorite? Joshua: The book that I go to the most is ‘The Go Giver’ and I don’t know if you’re familiar with it but it’s a wonderful book about giving, about how everything you want in your life is gained by giving to others. ‘What can I do for you?’ is a

question that I ask often, and the more that I give the more people that essentially become part of my army as I call it, and want to climb mountains with me, and help me, push me up there. If you ask 1,000 people what you can do for them and you help them, you have 1,000 people asking everyday ‘what can I do for you?’ and that’s huge. Katrina: What is your ultimate vision of yourself? Joshua: You know I guess, really my biggest thing is I want my tombstone to very simply say ‘Lived one life, changed many’ because ultimately I can’t determine how I affect other people, I can only determine how I choose to go about communicating with others and I hope that its positive, I hope that it inspires other people, and I hope it motivates them to go do whatever they want in spite of their insecurities and any issues they may have, because you can overcome all of that stuff if you’re willing to essentially be driven and have enough passion to do so. So that’s really what it comes down to you know, live one life, change as many as I can, so that’s what it’s all about for me.

Katrina: Many people have passion and are driven, but sometimes there are going to be bad days, do you have any www.evomag.co

specific rituals you do every single day, morning or night to keep you going? Joshua: I certainly do. I still to this day get up every morning and the very first thing I do is write a positive quote, and it might be a terrible quote but it’s me trying to generate positivity in my life and create that focus. So every morning I write myself a quote or a little note that kind of gets me on the right track. Every night I step outside and I live in a very rural area so there’s not a lot around. I kind of look at the sky and take it in and absorb the moment to remind myself that as big as we all think we are, were really just this little thing in the world and whatever kind of pebble we can toss in the pond is the best and that’s kind of what I go for. Katrina: How important is it for us adults and for teenagers to set up high standards to succeed in life? Joshua: I think it’s extremely important. Anyone who kind of ends up in a depression or kind of doesn’t want to get out of bed or doesn’t want to get off the couch, if you ask ‘well what’s your reason for getting up today?’ their response is ‘I don’t know, I don’t have one.’ If you have a defined purpose, or goal, even if you’re not pushing yourself yet, if you have a reason to get up in the morning you’ll have success eventually and you know, providing you’re choosing to continually push yourself you’ll grow and you’ll be successful but I think that’s it, I think it’s just simply having that defined kind of vivid passion or purpose that you can drive for. I think it’s exceedingly important. If you don’t have that you’ve got nothing as far as I’m concerned. Katrina: If a person finds a mentor what are the most important questions to ask a mentor? Joshua: The most important questions, I guess for me, my first questions were very simply, what is it that drives you? It came down to very simply, ‘Passion. I love what I do. I haven’t worked a day in my life since I gave up X job or whatever.’ When I heard that I was like, ‘Man I don’t want to work. I want to get paid to be me.’ I remember telling my high school principal that I want to get paid to be me and he kind of laughed and he said, “That’s not a vocation,” and you know what it is and I’m living it. I think it kind of comes down to hearing that, like whatever you’re passionate about you can go after, and if you’re not willing to kind of admit that as a human being, you’re going to be stuck like you said in that 9-5 mindset, but if you’re willing to go after it you’ll get it and mentors, I mean that’s what they handed me. Every one of them said the same thing. Katrina: Have you had any situations in your life that was kind of a disaster that turned out to be a blessing? Joshua: Yes actually my whole speaking platform revolves

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around the fact that I couldn’t leave my apartment because I had gotten so afraid of the outside world at one point in my life, and being judged and talking to people was just hard and I carried all this weight around with me and for a good 12 months I really couldn’t leave my apartment for anything except for work ,and when I speak now it starts out with that story, because if I can get out my apartment stand in front of 5,000 people and talk about whatever it is on my worst days affect me, you can too. So absolutely, that’s…I think it’s those trials that make all of our lives worth it because you can use it, because other people have been there and they’ve experienced being beaten down and they want to triumph as well. If they see it in you, they’ll attach themselves.

Katrina: What are your thoughts on gratitude and how kids can be more grateful for what they have and appreciate more what they have and not just wanting more? Joshua: Sure that’s wonderful. Gratitude is by and large the way I suggest living, that whole ‘the more you give’ the gogiver again is based around that and your please, your thank you, the basic manners that we all learn is huge. One of my platforms for speaking is if you have something nice to say, say it, and I do, I mean everywhere I go I put it out there. If I see somebody on the street and I like what they’re wearing ill stop them, I’ll say “Hey you know, I really dig your outfit or it’s good to see you today, I like what you’re about” and I

may not have met them and they may think I’m crazy but they always have a smile and they may pull out their phone and jump on Twitter and be like “Hey this crazy guy just gave me a compliment, it’s kind of creepy but I totally loved it, thanks.” The more you give, the more you are grateful for what you have, the more you gain, whether its personally or individuals on your side to assist in the wider giving that you can do for our country and for the world in general so it really comes down to really simply, what can I do for you? Katrina: Wonderful and if somebody wants to get in touch with you and book you for speaking engagements, where do www.evomag.co

they find you? Joshua: Absolutely, joshuacoburn.com or mannersandmotivation.com. You’ll be able to reach me through both of those sites and all my social media is available as well so you can grab me on those. Katrina: Is our book available in digital format and hard copy? How do they find your book? Joshua: Yes you can grab the book at both those sites as well as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, pretty much anywhere. You can get an eBook version of it as well. Katrina: Again it’s Inspiration on Demand right? Joshua: Yes that is correct, thank you very much. Katrina: Wonderful. Thank you so much Josh. Is there anything else that I didn’t ask that you would like to add? Joshua: You know I think you nailed me with some really good hard questions and I appreciate that. I think that’s pretty much it, yes you nailed it, thank you.

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Crowdfunding A Revolutionary Alternative Funding Source for Small Businesses Sylvia Browder

revolutionary source of funding sweeping across the internet in droves is... crowdfunding! According to Growthink.com, US $100m was pledged in 2011 on the crowdfunding site kickstarter.com alone, launching over 27,000 projects at a 46% success rate. Now that’s impressive!

Loan, Unsecured Line of Credit, or even a Credit Card to no avail, then perhaps your next step is to consider this hot new trend in financing.

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a cutting-edge way of raising the much needed money required by businesses to sustain themselves or to begin in the first place. When you are starting or growing a Typically, a small group of investors small business, the main stumbling finds out about a project independently block typically comes down to capital. of one another. These investors want It's extremely difficult to have or find the project to succeed, and invest a the resources necessary to raise the particular amount of money (often amount of money you need to get your small, but can be very large) to build business off the ground. Funding is a the project's capital. If enough money is very important element to the success raised by the investors, the project can of any business remaining relevant in be implemented. Often investors receive a competitive marketplace. If you’ve perks like t-shirts, products related to applied for a traditional loan, SBA Micro the project, or an advanced release of 24 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition

the project itself. Many platforms can take advantage of crowdfunding: from political campaigns, service- or product-based businesses, artists, scientific researchers and software developers.

3 Business Preparation Tips for Crowdfunding: Select the Best Platform: There are many crowdfunding platforms available, with new ones forming daily. It is important to choose the one that can best fit your project funding needs. Create a ‘WIFM’ Reward Program: Remember “What’s In It For Me?” Well, if you want to have a successful campaign, you’d better come up with some juicy

rewards for prospective investors. The reward you create should be based on the type of campaign you are running. For example, Crescent Theater was forced to upgrade its equipment and as a part of their reward program, the lowest reward offer is a free movie pass. Design a Stellar Marketing Strategy: Consider multiple ways to connect with potential investors. The key is creating a diverse marketing campaign. Many companies, Google included, favor videos. You can also add a slide presentation, a podcast or a simple written message

3 ways that Crowdfunding can help you:

Independence from Banking Institutions: Banks are sitting on their cash and aren’t lending to start-up or small businesses that need capital. At a recent lecture at George Washington University, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke innocuously remarked that lately “small businesses have … found it difficult to get credit.” Most banks have high unreachable expectations along with a daunting process. Crowdfunding offers a more realistic approach to funding. Free Publicity: An opportunity to publicly raise funds for your business idea or existing company to myriad potential investors by way of the internet is astounding! Many entrepreneurs yearn for a chance

to receive the type of publicity crowdfunding offers. If well handled, the publicity can greatly catapult your business to immense success Validation: Validation of concept is empowering. People will generally invest in opportunities that are viable. So, every c your business idea is important. To know that there are people globally who believe in your contribution you receive from people simply means that they believe in the opportunity's validity!

www.evomag.co

Jump

the Gun:

Selling

Your New Idea

Derrick Jones www.presidentspilotsentrepreneurs.com

eth Godin once said the time to start selling your book is three years before writing it. Most writers and aspiring entrepreneurs come up with an idea, leap into the project, and try to figure out how to sell it after the fact. A far better approach is to build a platform of interest in advance and put out samples or snippets to get your fans salivating. Then, release the final product to large fanfare. “Build it and they will come” only works in Hollywood folks. Henry Ford’s biggest problem with his first attempt at the automobile was spending all of his time on the engineering and mechanics of his new idea, while ignoring the need for marketing. Sound familiar? He failed because the general public was not ready for his approach. By the time he made his third attempt, he had primed the public. A group of investors swooped in at the crucial moment to keep the Ford Motor Company afloat. The rest, as they say, is history. More than 100 years later, entrepreneurs continue to make the same mistake. Some even keep their

projects secret on purpose. Ask a new entrepreneur why the secrecy and they often respond, “But what if someone steals my idea?” Sigh.

all to himself, Oliver is everywhere talking about WeMontage, and his efforts are finally paying off. Had he opted to keep it all to himself, he would still be at his kitchen table struggling.

No One Wants to Steal Your Idea

Those Who Matter

Identify Weak Ideas Early

Most importantly, create a strong network for a product before introducing it. If you insist on building your wiz bang widget in an undisclosed location, do not be surprised when the world ignores you as you emerge triumphant from your cave.

This may come as a shock to many of you, but most ideas are crap. Why risk stealing a bad idea? Still, buried in this heap is a gem or two. If you have a genuinely good idea, you may not be the only one thinking about it. Secrecy stops you from receiving much-needed feedback. While you come up with new ways to protect your gem, another innovator may be across town talking up his or her own version.

One of the benefits of sharing your idea is the feedback you’ll receive. You may discover you are attempting to solve a problem that does not exist. Or, like my buddy James Oliver(@JamesOliver) over at WeMontage, you may receive validation that you are indeed on to something. Far from keeping his baby

26 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition

Spend your time getting feedback from potential investors, those in your market and other influencers. This is not the time to get the opinion of friends and relatives who do not understand your market. Instead, interact with potential competitors and local business organizations. This is the opposite extreme of keeping everything to yourself.

How Email Marketing Can Improve Your Website Traffic Rebekah Henson

any businesses treat email marketing as an outbound strategy; procuring a list and sending out messages with hopes for a good response. Ideally, email marketing should be inbound and offering clear value to customers encouraging them to come back for repeat business - as well as repeat website traffic. Inbound email marketing can effectively grow your site’s traffic in two ways: through attraction and retention. Getting into your prospects’ inboxes is the first step, and staying there seals the deal. Think of email marketing as a relationship with your customers to keep them engaging with your brand, clicking through to your site and sharing your content with others which generates the extra traffic that drives sales.

Attraction

YouTube videos aren’t the only online content that can go viral and generate traffic. Blog posts, articles and even your email content can spread to a wider audience if you’re delivering relevant value to the inbox. Making your emails shareable can increase your traffic growth as subscribers share your content with others, attracting new subscribers who will also convert to new site visitors. Viral email content is about the value you send to the inbox. Don’t just pitch your product or service; engage subscribers in a conversation with information that’s relevant to their interests. Survey subscribers about their interests to send targeted content they’ll want to share. Include sharing links for social networks in your emails in addition to encouraging subscribers to forward your

content to others. When your articles are worth reading or your deals are relevant, your subscribers can generate more traffic for you by sharing your content with their networks you may not have otherwise penetrated.

click through rates will measure your success at getting subscribers to return to your site. The trick is getting them to open your emails and click through to your site in your messages. Here are some tips to get them opening and clicking:

Retention

Spend time crafting your subject lines to get your emails opened. Ask a question or tease your message content to pique your readers’ curiosity.

More traffic means higher search ranking, and higher search ranking means more business. Repeat traffic is especially good for your site’s reputation. This is where email marketing comes in, encouraging repeat traffic to your site by placing you in your customers’ inboxes so they’ll remember who you are. Think about it: the average internet user visits at least 85 web pages in a day, according to data from Nielson. Once a visitor leaves your page, you’re as good as forgotten unless they bookmark you or remember to come back later. Email marketing increases your chances of being remembered by putting your name in their inboxes on a regular basis to jog their memory. Sending a follow up series (auto responders) or a broadcast newsletter are proactive ways to start a conversation that keeps you in front of your subscribers and invites them back for more. They’ll likely visit your site again depending on the value your messages offer.Your emails’

Phrase your call to action to inspire subscribers to click to your site and make sure it’s placed visibly in your email. Don’t scare them off with your wording - a gentle nudge to “Find out more” often performs better than abrasive calls to “Buy now!”Need readers for your blog? Turn your blog content into a newsletter sent as a weekly or monthly digest, but don’t publish full articles. Use a teasing lead instead to entice subscribers to click through for the full article. Once you’re in the inbox, the trick is staying there to keep subscribers clicking and engaging with your content. Stumped on how to build the relationship? Here’s a hint: It’s all about the value. Value makes your emails worth reading and worth sharing; that will drive the traffic and it all starts with the relevance you send to the inbox www.evomag.co 27

How to Find Mentors 3 Reasons You Are Afraid To Ask For What You Want and How To Overcome Them

Chen Lujuie

Lujie is the author of 'Seek to Keep: How to Find the Best Mentors and Keep Them' (www.seektokeep.com) and the co-founder of the Kairos Society ASEAN. He is a also Sandboxer, part of the foremost global community of extraordinary young innovators under 30 (www.sandbox.is), and a Kairos Global Fellow.

28 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition

ow often have you wanted to reach out to someone but stopped short because you are afraid to ask?

In this article, you will read about how Noam Kostucki, a successful serial entrepreneur who managed to get one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best fundraisers as his mentor after an argument with him! As well as the 3 reasons youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re afraid to ask for what you want and how to overcome them.

During my interview with Noam, he recounted, “I left Poland for London in 2009 because the financial crisis hit: I thought that after the crisis there would be a need for people who think differently. I found myself giving training to non profits to make money, which turned out to be meaningful, interesting and challenging. As I arrived in the job with little practical experience in fundraising with large non profits, I knew I had to learn quickly. As I started attending conferences and events to learn and find mentors, I saw Ken Burnett give a keynote and I was thoroughly impressed. He founded the first fundraising consultancy in Europe and has received numerous awards for his outstanding contributions to the practice of fundraising at a global level. He was the kind of person I wanted to learn from so as soon as he finished his talk, I was waiting by the stage to talk to him. I asked to meet because I wanted to hear more about how I can help with one of the projects he mentioned during his speech. One of the reasons we got along is that he left home at a young age and he is a self-made man who left academic education like me. He said he was looking for trustees for the board of his charity and I offered to join it. He replied I was too young, too inexperienced and that I didn’t have my place on his board. We had a big argument because I felt terribly offended. After reflecting on our heated discussion, I sent him an email explaining I had been disappointed by his reaction because he told me himself he had been in my shoes when he started and that he believed young people should be given a fair chance. His reply sealed our friendship that still lasts: he told me I was right and apologized for his reaction. I was amazed that this incredibly successful person not only admitted he was wrong but said sorry to me. That behavior really impressed me so I asked him to meet again. I wanted to learn more from him and being around him made me a much better fundraising guide. I consider now Ken to be a good friend and I love meet with him and his wife. From a professional perspective, an unexpected result of this relationship is that his non profit ended up becoming an early client of my first UK company. What I learned from this experience is to ask for what you want. I was afraid to be seen as foolish and arrogant, but I am so happy I did because it drew us closer together. I didn’t get the position I wanted but I got to meet a mentor who I love having dinner with and who inspires me every time I meet him. You won’t always get what you want by asking for it, and if you do ask you will often be surprised by what you get. If you don’t specifically ask for what you want, you highly reduce your chances of getting it.” Now start by writing down exactly what you want: • Make a list of the top 5 people you want as mentors • Write down what you specifically want from each mentor • Ask these 5 people for a meeting and tell them what you want If you’re thinking “there is no way I can actually contact these

people / ask for what I want”, read on because there are 3 main reasons why we don’t ask for what we want, and knowing about them will help you overcome these mental obstacle: 1. YOU’RE NOT CLEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT The exercise above should have helped you clarify what you want. Now that you have spent more time writing out exactly why you want a mentor, what difference a mentor would make in your life, the benefits you want and the kind of relationship you want, you will be able to express it more easily. When it comes to meeting your potential mentors, you can now say clearly “this is what I’m looking for and this is why it’s important for me”. 2. WE’RE AFRAID OF NOT GETTING WHAT WE WANT You’re afraid the person will tell you they don’t want to mentor you. You’re not alone: when I give training in sales or fundraising, I come across the fear of “no” all the time. The reason we’re afraid is because we put too much value on that possible mentor: I really want him/her to mentor me. But bear in mind that the “no” is rarely personal – maybe they don’t have the time right now, they don’t feel like it, they had a bad day, they don’t like the color of your shirt. It doesn’t matter. Do the following two things when this happens: thank them for their time and ask if they know someone else who you ought to talk to. They have already given you some of their time for free and by being thankful for it, you will reward them and make them feel it was worth it. You never know when the conditions may change and they will change their mind. You also still have their email and phone number: you can always get back in touch in 3 or 6 months. Even if they can’t be your mentor, you should always ask them to recommend someone else as it’s the best way to expand your network. By doing this, every “no” will become an opportunity to meet someone else. Don’t take “no” as a bad thing: it’s the majority of answers you will receive because not everyone will be the right fit. And that’s OK because the right mentor is waiting for you around the corner. 3. WE DON’T BELIEVE WE DESERVE WHAT WE WANT Another reason we don’t ask for what we want is that we don’t believe we deserve it. One of our Beta Readers said: “probably the biggest barrier for why people don’t approach other people for mentoring is thinking ‘oh why would they ever want to invest time in me for free?’ After having read that part I think I have new found confidence to pursue a new mentor.” You are your worst enemy. Write down a list of reasons why someone would want to mentor you. By reminding yourself why someone would want to mentor you, you will build the confidence that you deserve to be mentored. To Learn More About How To Find And Keep The Best Mentors, Get A Copy Of ‘Seek to Keep’ www.bit.ly/seektokeep !