The Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine

METRO The

Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine September/October 2014

2014 Power Player Edition

Lead Yourself Effective Leadership Starts With You

Invest On The Gridiron

A.K Ivanova

The Pursuit Of Happiness And The Life Of An ENTREPRENEUR

Build A Business You Can BE Proud Of

Effective Facebook Management

27 Social Media Experts Weigh In

e¡volve /i’ välv/ verb 1.. develop gradually, especially from a simple to a more complex form.

Innovative Marketing Solutions To EVOLVE Your Business

E

VOLVE MEDIA GROUP INC.

www.TheEvolveMediaGroupInc.com

METRO The

Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/Oct 2014

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 Graphic Designer EVOLVE MEDIA TEAM Evolution Contributors DONNIE BRYANT KATRINA STARZHYNSKAYA KEVIN WILSON SLYVIA BROWDER KAREN JETT CESAR RAMERO MARK EDWARD BROWN CAMRI ELLIS

Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazineis a trademark of the Evolve Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or in full is strictly prohibited. Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazineis a monthly digital publication with limited print copies available in designated markets.

Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine welcomes all contributions.

Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine assumes no responsibility for content or advertisement.

No representation is made as to the accuracy hereof and is produced subject to errors and omissions.

Questions and feedback:

Evolve Media Group Inc. 29 South Law Street - Allentown, PA 18105 Phone: (347) 669 2EVO Email: info@themetromag.com Online: www..

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VIEW THE DIGITAL VERSION ON ISSUU.

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featured articles

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The pursuit of happiness and the life of an entrepreneur with ak.

Ivanova

18 32 36 27 social media experts share their #1 facebook page management tip

Principle centered marketing mentorship

lead yourself with karen jett

www.themetromag.com

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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.

A

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.themetromag.com

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editorial

Do People Enjoy “Being Sold?”

Somebody Sell Me Something, Please!

Donnie Bryant Editor-In- Chief

“People hate to be sold.”

You've probably heard that statement more times than you can count. And it seems to make sense.

The quote may be helpful, but it isn't entirely accurate.

It's really just an oversimplification used to illustrate a point.

Think about it: do shoe aficionados hate hearing about the new Air Jordans? Crowds gather outside Foot Locker's door hours before store opening, each person hoping to be one of the first to buy a pair.

It's true that people generally dislike being pressured to do anything. When we don't know what we want, we don't like to be sold. When we don't trust the salesperson's intentions, we don't like to be sold. But when we do know what we want (and we can afford to get it), we end up practically begging someone to help us relieve the tension of pent-up desire.

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Video game fans can't wait until the next PlayStation console is announced, right?

You may be thinking to yourself, Nike and Sony aren't "selling." I disagree. Selling is, as I see it, any effort to get someone to take a defined course of action. Nike isn't making commercials just for the fun of burning through millions of dollars. They want customers to buy stuff. And their customers WANT to buy stuff, too.

What Does This Mean For You?

How can you practically utilize this information as you attempt to connect with your customers and should-be customers?

Focus on Customer Identity Runners, musicians, gamers, weight lifters, mothers of newborns, et. al, LOVE to buy stuff to enhance their lifestyles and display who they are to others. They love to pursue their passion and embark on the newest adventures (often through products and programs they can purchase).

They're practically obsessed. They LIKE being sold stuff that augments their personality, like the athletes in the video linked to above.

You may have heard me tell the story about a manager I had years ago who kindly informed me that "every man should have a Rolex." In his mind, a fancy timepiece is part of what defined masculinity.

• You have to know your audience. Perhaps that means going after customers in an audience that's already been defined, like Rush Limbaugh listeners or subscribers to wine magazines. Tailor your offerings and messaging to appeal to their perceptions of themselves and the things they've indicated they like to do and buy.

• Gather your own "tribe." Be vocal and courageous about what you stand for and/or against to rally other like-minded people. Make ambiguous concepts concrete. Make technical concepts easy to grasp.

Give them unique names to develop a common language. (One of my favorite examples of this is Dan Sullivan's "ceiling of complexity." Look it up.)

promises and puts buyers in a better place to buy from you again in the future.

Foster Loyalty People are going to be loyal to the companies who continually help them get what they want. Businesses that come across as self-serving make selling harder than it already is. Demonstrate your desire to add value to Make the Benefits Impressive your customer's life. Your marketing and sales messages Blow your customers' minds with the value you deliver, should always address "what's in it for me?" from the the wonderful way you treat them and the risk you perspective of the potential buyer. absorb on their behalf. Never settle for giving the bare minimum. Don't try to be "competitive." Do what no If you have a loyalty program, please do better than all one else in your industry is willing or able to do for your the companies whose loyalty cards are stashed in your customers. wallet. They are more concerned with collecting data than winning hearts. A loyalty program can, and should, Referring again to Road Runner Sports, imagine giving do both. customers a 90-day guarantee on athletic shoes (which is one of the benefits of their VIP Family Membership What kind of special treatment can you offer your best program), then sending reminder emails to your clients? Consider how much their loyalty and referrals customers to get out and run! will mean to you and decide accordingly.

This is a fantastic example of making it easy to buy from you and building trust in the process.Also consider offering a done-for-you service if appropriate. That eliminates risk, proves that you can back up your www.themetromag.com

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A.K Iv

Interview by KATRINA STARZHYNSKAYA

vanova The Pursuit Of Happiness And The Life Of An Entrepreneur.

It Is Not All Black And White... www.themetromag.com

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O

ften enough we as entrepreneurs face many life long battles and obstacles that challenge us to give in to the notion that we are not going to succeed. The Metro had an opportunity to chat with AK Ivanova, someone who has met the challenge and defeated her opposition.

In the pursuit of happiness and desiring the life of an entrepreneur, AK faced down her fears and pursued the life that she dream to have for herself and her children.

AK’s inspirational story will compel you to take control of your life. It will challenge you to see your life thought a different lens.

The Metro: Please take some to share your background and the background of your company.

AK: I was born in a tiny town of less than 200 in the northeastern corner of Colorado. Everybody made it their business to know everything about everyone. Gossip was the only real entertainment and succeeding in anything was an impossible dream. Those who stayed married off to one another and those who escaped always had that looming negativity hanging over them that they wouldn't amount to much in the real world outside the town. Positivity can go a long way, but negativity can destroy the most promising person. Like a voice whispering in my ear, I still wonder about the classmates I spent 13 years with. I still have dreams about high school 12 years later. Impressing my hometown has been like a child who aims for perfection, just to get the attention of a parent. That's just the beginning of small town living.

When I finally escaped the judgments of people who don't matter much now, but were the leaders of my high school, I realized I was no longer limited on who I was to be. I didn't have to fit into the mold they created for me in the first grade and then made me live in until I graduated. In fact, you could say I was bullied every single school day of my life. This gave me so much time to think. I thought of business and finding my success, while they thought of ways they could try to make me cry the next day. But the city, oh how it was different. I could be absolutely anyone I wanted to be.

There were struggles in finding myself when I finally became free. For one, I didn't know how to make friends. Every friend I had were the only people I had known my whole life. We didn't have many options, but arguments always worked there way out. In the city when you didn't agree with someone, they would never speak to you again. The people I did know,

were more like acquaintances. One thing I never dreamed would happen was all of the attention I was getting from guys. Where I grew up, I was told I was ugly almost daily. I never looked in the mirror because I believed it. It had to be true if so many people were saying it. But in the city guys liked me. It took me many many years after high school to even have the confidence to look someone in the eyes. Something about this shy mysteriousness attracted me only guy friends and I found myself hated by women. Years later, a girl was kind enough to explain why this was so.

In the process of newly discovering I wasn't ugly on the inside nor out, I was discovering what it was like to hold value in someone's eyes and actually be pursued. By the time I was 25, I had been asked to marry 23 times!!! For the life of me, I could not figure out why friends were purposing to me as if I had been their exclusive girlfriend.

This led me to research which fit right in with my already programmed thoughts of succeeding on this world. Through surveys and interviews and a great deal of observation, I was able to write my first book "Win His Heart." It only made sense to share with the world what I had accidentally stumbled upon and funny as it is, I get to thank my home town village for the torture they put me through. But every girl has a heart break. I watched many friends do many crazy things over a guy and then I watched these guys take my lunatic friends back over and over. I then had to turn this observation into a book and released my second book "Get your ex back."

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The Metro: At what point did things change for you as you journeyed down the path towards reaching your The Metro: success goals?

How did the Master Key Network change the direction of your pursuit?

AK: Once I had full blown confidence in who I AK: am and plan to be, I definitely became more With residual income leading to substantial selective in dating. Always daydreaming about growth and the freedom away from a 9-5 job, successful businesses being my escape, I found Master Key Network has eliminated the struggle. a common theme between the guys I related to We have literally simplified online marketing for best. None other than entrepreneurial spirits. I leaders to present to their team, saving them was most attracted to guys who were not shy thousands of hours training and building. We and who were paving a way for themselves. This then integrated multilevel marketing into an particular personality is exactly what introduced online platform eliminating the need to reach me to multilevel marketers and online network out to your warm market, which for some marketers. The only problem I faced was that I included trying to sales pitch your dentist!!! loved that they could do this, but I didn't have much of a warm market. Reaching out to my There is no pitching with Master Key Network.We home town friends would solidify I needed them, I first teach you how to drive people any offer you didn't have many girl friends, and trying to bring a choose; it can be a business you built or even guy into my downline would only convince him I your favorite product or service. You can even was interested in more than friends and he would earn an income just by using Master Key as a eventually quit when it didn't go anywhere. You home-based business or I really should say a could say I loathed any kind of affiliate marketing, work-from-anywhere-you-want business. Master but if I wanted to understand what the guys I was Key Network pays you to build your clientele.” most attracted to wanted to talk about, then I needed to learn something. Back to researching! After people are heading to your offer, everything is automated from there. Emails get sent and a What I discovered was that many people video gets displayed without any face-to-face loathed marketing for the same reasons I did. selling. What’s amazing about this video is that After years of daydreaming of businesses to fill it says what no other company is willing to say: the void left by my lack of close relationships, the truth about multilevel and network marketing.

I could look at a business and discover exactly It eliminates objections by pointing out that we why they weren’t profiting and what they could know what they are. It paints a canvas of reality; do to make it better. Often, just for the fun of it, everyday we set the rate at which we value our I would create businesses with a better model. time and then we go to work, trading out time for money.”These can be some intense topics and Then it hit me, I knew exactly how to give people we selected a cartoon doodle video to deliver the same option of building wealth that marketers this message so that it lightens the mood and have, without doing all the stressful things that entertains to keep the attention of the viewer. marketers often do. That is when Master Key Network was born. www.themetromag.com

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What's so fantastic about the way everything is intricately set up, is that at the end of the video Master Key Network actually invites the viewer to explore your offer. You don't have to chase down your list, they come to you. The value of the video alone has already begun changing lives, but the back office managing platform is what just created freedom for countless affiliates across the world and anyone interested in having the freedom to work for themselves.

The Metro: What makes you a “Power Player”? Give us 3 unique things about yourself that will allow our readers to get a glimpse at what makes you YOU. AK: I am a knowledge seeker. Not having much to do when growing up, I did a lot of reading. During that time, I discovered that if I have thought of something, then that thought is mine. It has been given to me through experience and knowledge gained. After realizing that I own that particular thought, I saw clearly that it must be possible to complete. I set out to do this, no matter how big or small. When I thought, “I should write a book,” I did, even though I had never done it before. When I saw a nanny let her charge pee on the floor in a coffee shop and then just walked away, I decided I would start a nanny agency. When I visited Costa Rica and our group realized our travel agent did a terrible job, I instantly started making connections with the locals and partnered with a friend to start a travel agency. I never say no to myself and I think that it’s important that everyone knows that it is true, if you can dream the impossible, then you can certainly achieve it. Those thoughts belong to you.

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I can relate to every single person out there who had an idea and was shut down by someone who didn’t believe in us. I have taken this negativity and turned it into positivity. From experience I know that our thoughts can be creative and productive, but they can also be our worse enemy. Everyday our conscious mind tells our subconscious mind that we need to change this and our life will be great, we just need to go to the gym more and she or he will notice us. I have learned how to tame these thoughts, how to love myself every single day and I write about this in my third book Master Key, Master Mind, Master of Success, exclusive to Master Key Network members.

I understand the “I don’t have the time” mentality.

Everyone wants to be successful or go to the gym, but after a long day of work or being home with the kids all day, they convince themselves that they just don’t have the time. Some will take this time issue all the way into the bedroom with their spouse. The truth behind this is that we get comfortable and anything but comfortable.

Amongst all of the businesses I have started and the little things between, I have a passion for working with children. I know I don’t need to, but I spend everyday I can with 3 little boys. Over the past 15 years I have helped raise over 30 children in our future generation and I choose to do this every day while building countless thoughts of mine into reality. Our time is ours and anything is possible. We all have the same 24 hours a day to work with. Turn your vision into reality.

A conversation and a cup of coffee can do amazing things www.themetromag.com

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Social Media

Experts Give You Their #1 Practical

Tip

For Managing a

Facebook

Page

Is your business struggling to see results on Facebook?

Does it feel like not enough people are seeing the content or engaging with your Facebook page?

With so much information out there it can often be tough to decide what to follow or who to listen to. That is why I believe one of the best ways to learn and grow your business is to listen to those who have already achieved success using Facebook marketing.

So to help you out I have gathered a great list of social media experts who have all experienced success with their Facebook pages to reveal their #1 practical tip for managing a Facebook page.

So get your pen and paper ready or open up that blank word document and get ready to be inspired! www.themetromag.com www.evomag.co

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1. Vanessa Lewis, Social Catapult Get into the minds, and hearts, of your target audience. Put yourself in their shoes… what do they want and need in terms of relevant information, ideas, inspiration and entertainment? Notice what they respond to and tailor your content accordingly. Be social and make relationships! It’s only by doing all of these things that you establish trust, and in turn yours will be the first business they turn to when they have a need you can fulfill.

2. Andrea Vahl, Andreavahl.com Managing a Facebook page happens best when you participate both on your Page and on the Pages of others. Make sure you are replying to comments or at least acknowledging comments with a Like. Then also watching the Pages of your community members. Tag them in a post, post a comment on their posts, or participate on Pages where they are participating. Widening your community space to include other Pages will help your visibility as well. You can use tools like AgoraPulse to show you your Top Users to help you keep track of.

3. Mark Schaefer, Businessesgrow.com Consider “engagement” strategically. It is not a goal in and of itself but a tactic that leads to awareness, connection and eventually loyalty. Engagement comes at a cost, both in terms of time, attention and content creation resources so consider that engagement needs to support a metric for the business. Engagement is not necessarily the metric that matters.

4. Emeric Ernoult, Agora Pulse My number 1 tip for managing a Facebook page is to understand that this will require the same amount of time and efforts as it takes to build and nurture a “real life” network: – it will not be great overnight – you’ll have to give a lot first before you can expect to receive – you have to invest in maintaining the relationship alive. People forget you quickly when they don’t hear about you for a while – some people will give back after 2 weeks, some after 2 years. But you’ll have to treat them all the same (i.e., very well!)

– people will come and go, don’t get mad, that’s normal. – when you care about your people, have their problems at heart and think about them before you think about yourself, it always pays off, always!

5. Scott Ayres, Postplanner My #1 tip for managing a Facebook page is to be human.No one likes to follow a page that never responds or responds with a regurgitated answer over and over.Call people by their first name and give them the respect they deserve. Make sure you tag every comment with your name so people know who they are talking to and they are reminded there is a human behind the brand.Part of being human also means to not delete negative comments or posts just because it makes you look bad. Own up to it and respond. You’ll get more traction and respect from doing that than simply deleting/ hiding the comment.

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6. Robert Caruso, Bundle Post If you’re not paying to play there’s little to manage.

7. Aaron Lee, PostPlanner Sometimes it’s easy to forget to post daily. The way we do it for our Facebook page is we plan and schedule our content calendar with a variety of content 2-3 weeks in advance. By doing so it helps us to save time, focus on building quality content and most importantly focus on getting social and building an authentic relationship with our fans.

8. Joshua Parkinson, PostPlanner The Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously said “No man steps in the same river twice” — referring to the fact that every time you dip your foot in a river, the river has changed. So it is with your Facebook community. You never really post in the same community twice — because (1) The community is constantly evolving (fans are coming and going) and (2) A different subset of that evolving community sees each post.

This is why you MUST continue re-posting your evergreen blog content on your Facebook page.

Each time you re-post an evergreen article, it’s reaching fans who’ve never seen it before — and thus sending new traffic to your website. So that’s my #1 tip for managing a Facebook community — to not be afraid of posting the same content multiple times on your page.

9. Christian Karasiewicz, Christiankonline.com When building a community on Facebook, one of the best ways to do this is to engage with your audience.

You can do this a number of ways: Respond to posts and messages from fans Respond to comments Tag fans in posts, photos, and videos Share quality content Ask your fans what they want to see Building a community on Facebook isn’t a one-way street.

By taking the time to connect with your audience through discussions on posts or engaging with them to find out why they came to your page and how you can help them.

You can start to build a loyal following and strong community presence on Facebook.

10.Francisco Roles, SocialMouths Use Audience Insights to learn more about your own community I think the best way to manage a Facebook page is to start by learning more about who its members are. I mean, beyond the demographic data. This might sound a little “basic” but you’d be surprised to see how many community managers fail to take the necessary time to understand who they’re talking to.

Page Insights and Graph Search can help you get started, but the new Audience Insights will take you even deeper to learn things like other interests, occupations, purchasing behaviours, and Facebook activities among other things that were not available before.

Once you have a good understanding of who’s behind your community, you’ll be able to create a better strategy to SERVE them.

11. Mike Gingerich, Tabsite

Jay Baer says that people use the Internet for 2 reasons…

To solve a problem, or To be entertained I think he’s pretty much right on! So if you want to do well on Facebook you need to understand that most people are not there to solve a problem. They want to be entertained. Your Facebook page content needs to connect with them. It is a social network! To do this your posts must create an emotional connection and that connection will then be associated with your brand. Posts that prompt a laugh or a even tear can do this. And what communicates that way? Stories. How can your posts tell a story? Imagery. That’s why images continue to win and that’s why Pinterest and Instagram (and tools like Canva) are on the rise!

Let’s put it another way. Author John Maxwell notes that, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” It’s about the connection! Companies on Facebook need to keep this in mind. It’s critical and underlines the importance of connecting emotionally with your community. You can’t be all “selly sell” (Chris Brogan speak) on Facebook. Users are on Facebook mostly to be entertained. So to connect with them you must entertain. The more you connect, the more they engage, the more they will see your other posts that click through to your website and apps, and the more likely they will be to click through and go! Do NOT overlook the need to connect and entertain on Facebook. It’s the gateway!

12. Ian Cleary, Razor Social Pay for advertising on Facebook.

We pay our email marketing tool provider to email our email subscribers; we pay Google if we don’t rank organically for content so we should pay Facebook for increased reach of our posts. Provide content that is only relevant to your target audience and promote the most relevant content through paid advertising. If you deliver great content relevant to your brand you will increase trust of your audience but if they don’t see your content you won’t build that trust.

13. Michael Todd, xeeme.com/michaelqtodd Talk regularly on the pages of other businesses in your niche and/or locality.

This will put your brand in front of the people you want to connect with and be seen by and you will only be a click away from getting new business. Be fun, friendly and educational and you will have great success with this strategy.

14. Hugh Briss, Social Identities The power of social media is not in selling directly but in inspiring and motivating others to do it for you. That doesn’t mean you only need to post content your fans and followers will share but first and foremost, you need a quality product they can believe in and a solid brand behind it. When you have that, your followers will create their own content There’s only so much any of us can do with a few social pages but once you have hundreds or even thousands of brand advocates, that’s when you’ll see the true power of social media.

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15. Jenny Brennan, Virtual office Worx Running a Facebook page is a full time job. Like any other community you need a strong leader who understands the needs of the fans. Define a vision for your community and you will find it easier to create and curate amazing content that people will want to engage with and find value in! Having committed fans is the key to your success but you don’t need hundreds of thousands to be successful. Attracting the right fan that believes in and can be part of your vision is your ultimate goal!

16. Pam Moore, Marketing Nutz Always focus on the needs of your community. It is what happens “after the like” that matters most. Inspire them to connect with you with a goal of helping them achieve their goals. When you help your fans achieve their goals, you achieve yours by default. Inspire, connect, achieve. Don’t make it harder than it has to be.

17. Kim Garst, Boom Social The #1 tip for managing my Facebook page starts with a solid content plan. The key to a content plan is to develop a list of types of content that you think your ideal customer will relate to. For me, this includes social media and business tips, related blog posts, inspiration and motivation, personal or brand stories, humour and, of course, my marketing message.

I recommend an 80/20 split on your content. Eighty percent of your content should be useful and value based to your ideal customer and the remaining twenty percent can be used to weave in your marketing message. Once you have a content plan in place, consistency is critical. I post relatable content that ties back into my content plan, 6-8 times a day; sometimes more. This content strategy has helped me build a great community of engaged fans!

18. Dennis Yu, BlitzMetrics Change your setting to be fully open in terms of letting people comment, tag, reply, and so forth. Unless you are absolutely vilified, you’re opening yourself to a lot more growth and positive feedback. If you have a large email list, you can invite them (up to 5,000) people and run custom audiences.

19. Blake Jamieson, Pool Supply World Facebook changes so often – and the changes are entirely out of the page manager’s control. It’s important to stay up-to-date with platform changes, but even more important to diversify your points of contact with your fans. Leverage your Facebook page to grow your other social media channels, as well as email list. On the PoolSupplyWorld page I manage, we offer a coupon to our fans, but collect an email address before sending them use a coupon. This gives us the opportunity to stay in touch, even when Facebook throws us a curve ball.

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20. Brian Carter, Briancartergroup.com My number one tip would be to really get + know who your audience is by keeping track of the engagement rate you get when you post to them. Divide the likes by the reach.

You should get at least 1%, then try for 3-5% and I have some pages now where we’re trying to hit 6-9% regularly. It’s painstaking but each month, look at the list of posts and their engagement rates, then sort them so you can see which posts got the most and which got the least. What do the least engaged with have in common? Avoid doing that in the future. What do the most engaging post have in common? Try more of that. Every audience is different. Make sure you’re really talking to who your unique audience is. Also, use graph search to find out what other interests and pages they like- that can be a great way to start!

21. Liz Azyan, Liz Azyan’s guide to engagement online & research There are so many things we could do to really excite our Facebook communities. We can share valuable information, recognise our community members creatively by putting the spotlight on our members, run contests and interact with them on a daily basis. But the main common thread that runs through any successful Facebook community is their ability to create unique and memorable experiences for their members. Understanding their connection is not only with you, but with each other and the wider Facebook community. The core of it all lies in NOT what type of post they like, or comment on or share. It’s what type of post makes them FEEL happy, sad, excited, awesome, motivated, inspired and most of all what makes them FEEL connected and have a sense of belonging to your community. So ask yourself, how did you make your Facebook community FEEL today? If you can answer this question, you’re on your way to creating a Facebook community that is one of a kind.

22. Juan Felix, Felix Relationship Marketing My number one tip for managing a Facebook page would be to spend some time to use the right visuals for your content. You know, as social visual communication is becoming more important, you need to search for high quality content and visuals at the same time. So spend enough time to find the appropriate visual before you share an update on your Page. By doing that consistently you develop a sense of what type of content resonates with your Facebook community. Plus you can check your stats to see if you were right or not! And to find the right visuals you need to think out of the box and use your imagination. To give you an example: you could use an image of a delicious dish with fresh Thai food and add a text overlay that says something like ”Six key ingredients to create the perfect Post”. It makes total sense to use the image of colorful Thai food in this context and it will ignite emotional reactions. So, spend some time to curate high quality images that move people emotionally and tell your story 23. Zsusa Kecsmar, Antavo Promotion Builde We see that our customers use contests and sweepstakes successfully to build a vibrant community on Facebook. They deeply involve fans with a photo contest, or run a lighthearted sweepstakes where fans can enter with a single click. A good Facebook contest has multiple, lower value prizes (so the chance of winning is higher), allows public voting (so those people who don’t upload their own entry can participate), and promoted well (unless no one shows up).

24 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

24. Alex Houg, BlitzMetrics Let the community do the work for you. Promote trusted members to admin, share their statuses, and elevate them. Public praise and encouragement shows you have a true twoway community. And nobody is going to do a better job in demonstrating expertise or passion than your best fans. So recognize them!

25. Rosh Khan, SocialRankMedia.com

As many brands have seen on Facebook, there has been a dip in organic reach. It’s also no secret that FB has moved more towards the “pay to play” model. And in an attempt to ‘stay connected’ with their Facebook communities, many brands spend a lot more on promoting their posts. However…

My social media agency has had the unique opportunity to test a variety of strategies for our client and we’ve found that you need to be STRATEGIC about the TYPE of content that gets promoted (either through “Boosts”and/ or Page Post Engagement ads). For us, the trick is to determine if your content falls under one of two categories — it’s either ENGAGING or it’s for BRAND AWARENESS. An engaging post will fuel conversation, increase reach, and drive up your overall EdgeRank. This also has a direct effect on your organic posts — if Facebook’s algorithm notices that a certain amount of folks have engaged with your post, they will serve the next post to more people. Also, by having huge engagement, your post will show up on more peoples’ newsfeeds. A brand awareness post will display products, testimonial graphics, and/or a direct product/service promotion. This assists with “immediate ROI”. (After all, you’re running a business and it’s always great to see some direct measurable “return on investment”.) So once your post is either ENGAGING or for BRAND AWARENESS, it’s worthy of being promoted. The basic premise here is to ensure that you get the “most bang for your buck” by being strategic. How much you spend per post will depend on our budget, your current audience size, and the potential reach you’d like to hit. At the end of it all, study the stats and modify the plan accordingly — the numbers don’t lie.

26. Jon Loomer, JonLoomer.com Experiment with publishing at non-peak times! I’m finding that I get the most reach and (most importantly) engagement from posts that are published in the middle of the night my time. I will schedule posts for 2:15am and wake up to a flurry of activity. While I have an international audience, the number of fans online during that time is only 70% of peak times, yet I get far more engagement when I publish late at night. My theory is that due to less competition, my content is less likely to get filtered out, resulting in reaching more people. And since it gets early engagement, that could be momentum to help it be seen when people on the East Coast in the US wake up (thanks to Story Bumping).

This won’t necessarily work for everyone, but my main point is that you should experiment with publishing times!

www.themetromag.com

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27. Keri Jaheing, Idea Girl Focus On Your Target Market This may sound so simple.

We all imagine our ideal customer reading our posts and loving (liking) what we send out into their Facebook news feed. Don’t we?

For big brands it is fairly easy to grab the attention of their target market on Facebook, as they already have brand recognition and a large base of brand ambassadors willing to interact with them online.

But for the small to medium sized brand, it is a bit more difficult.

And even harder still for the start up and solo entrepreneur. It takes investment of time and money to attract your ideal target market to your Facebook Page!

As you’re personally networking on social platforms and socializing our brand pages on Facebook, it is quite easy to fall into a friendly pattern of marketing to our competition.

The liking, sharing, collaborating – Of course you will see your friends and colleagues. It is natural to want to extend goodwill and cooperate. However, these actions alone can leave your marketing efforts fruitless. And, unfortunately, I see this all too often.

26 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

Avoid that scenario by: * Networking – Online and….Offline! Live handshakes keep it real – Especially with those most likely to purchase your product or service. * Attending Facebook Friday Parties Strategically – Not every week, and vary your visits at different online gatherings. * Advertising – Even a small budget for promoted content can attract your target market to your business on Facebook. * Finding Collaborators – Identify and nurture working relationships that are in your industry and in a complimentary niche (rather than competing).

Eventually you can be supporting each other with referrals.

Until then, you can team up to combine efforts where it fits, and also to reduce some promotional expenses. * Putting A Facebook Like Box On Your Blog – Your content is what magnetizes your target market to your website.

Capitalize on this traffic by placing a “Like Box” on your blog’s side bar. This encourages your ideal customer to click the Like button. In turn, they will see your content in their Facebook news feed will be more likely to interact with you at your Facebook Page community. From there, you can warm up your relationship so they move into your sales funnel.

There are indeed more ways to focus on your target market at your Facebook Page. The above five ways will get you started in the right direction.

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www.themetromag.com

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5

Tips To

Crowdfunding

Success F

or every successful crowdfunding project, there are hundreds that go nowhere.

Many of these projects are devoted to responsible social causes like feeding the poor, paying for medical bills, providing access to basic needs, etc. Other projects have an awesome product that took months to design, yet they end up missing their goal and walking away with nothing but disappointment.

Why?

To help answer this question, I sat down with my friend Luis Moreno and asked him about how he was able to run two successful Kickstarter campaigns and the lessons he learned from them.

Luis moved to China in 2009 to study the language and pursue his MBA. While in China, he realized the poor quality of the materials and work conditions in the fashion industry. This realization gave him the drive to start a company that puts its primary focus on the quality of the products, the authenticity of the materials and the work of the artisans.

Cesar Ramero

Luis is the co-founder of Mamahuhu, a Colombia-based fashion company producing high quality leather shoes and bags, employing over 15 artisans in disadvantaged areas of Bogota, Colombia. From their start in 2010, Luis fell in love with the Colombian fashion scene. It afforded him a rare opportunity to exercise complete control over the entire process – from design to material selection to production.

This enables Mamahuhu to ensure a superior quality and offer unique products based on customer feedback.

I asked Luis to share lessons from his experience with Evolution community. He was more than happy to tell me the five most important lessons his team has learned from running two successful Kickstarter campaigns

30 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

1 – It’s All About How You Tell the Story On Kickstarter, it is not just about the product, but also about the story behind it.

The Kickstarter community is very aware of current worldwide issues and projects that address some of those problems tend to be perform better than projects without such consciousness.

Having just a product probably won’t work. Founders should shoot videos and speak personally about the why, what and how. People want to know the whole story behind the project. Backers will appreciate updates and comments on how the project is progressing. Moreover, if a project seems dead, even backers that already pledged might go away, fearing a lack of commitment from the team.

Mamahuhu’s team appeared in the video and explained the concept, the project and their needs. They also showed the process of making one shoe. They made it personal and let their passion speak for itself.

2 – Reach out to Your Family and Friends First During the first week or two, try to reach as many family and friends as you can. This is an effective way to you get your pledge numbers up and enter the Popular Section quickly. Otherwise, the general public won’t see your project at all. Without visibility, the project won’t get very far.

Once in listed among the Popular campaigns, you will see how the backers come quickly if the project is compelling. The crowdfunding community is extremely active when they like something. By the third day of its campaign, Mamahuhu’s had over 35 backers from friends and family. That put them in the Popular Section, which in turn allowed them to reach 30% of their goal by Day 5.

3 – Be Realistic with Delivery Time A major problem that plagues successful projects is delayed deliverables. It is essential to make the right numbers and to be realistic on how many units you can deliver by a certain date. Limiting the numbers of pledges per item might be wise if your products are handmade or take time to produce. Your backers will understand if you need 3 months to prepare great products, but will kill your project if you delay the delivery date too much.

Mamahuhu wanted to be realistic in their first campaign, so they allowed 2 months to produce and deliver the products. That turned out to be not enough time for some of the items. They made adjustments in their second campaign, estimating 3 months to deliver the rewards.

Even if the product is amazing, many backers are turned off by this failure to deliver.

4 – Don’t Aim Too High on the Final Goal Given that Kickstarter is an “all or nothing” platform, setting a high pledge goal might be dangerous. Setting a more humble target is recommended. It’s better to under-promise and over-deliver.

Mamahuhu’s first project aimed to $15,000, which made them feel the pressure until the last week. If they had chosen $30-50,000 like many projects in the fashion category do, their brand probably wouldn’t exist today.

It’s better to be able to initiate the project with a reasonable budget than to lose the opportunity to even start because of too.

5 – Don’t Panic The last week in a campaign is the most important one.

Those final seven days are when the project really fires up and will make the whole difference to the goal reached.

Having one or two slow weeks in the middle of a project is somewhat normal. Still, it is said that by the first 10 days you should be able to raise at least 35%. A good approach for that is to offer an “early birds” tier, so the first 30-40 backers come quickly because of the limited bargain.

Luis has been so successful with crowdfunding that he’s currently running a 3rd Kickstarter campaign to expand the line of handmade leather bags. You can find out more about the campaign here: http://kck.st/1rqBIPk Crowdfunding is going to be an increasingly popular way to finance projects and start businesses in the months and years to come. These lessons from Mamahuhu’s success can be foundational to helping you put together your own successful crowdfunding campaigns. www.themetromag.com

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Principle

Centered Marketing Mentorship

W

hen I set out to become a coach I was already a leader.

However, being a leader and demonstrating leadership does not make anyone a coach.

The generalized term for the type of coaching I wanted to get into was "life coaching." I couldn't help but think to myself how generic this term was. I created my own terminology for the brand of coaching that I do and I've never looked back.

Mark Edward Brown

At the very root of all that I do with a client is a principle that is based in service and value.

Dictionary.com defines "principle" as: a “guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct."

32 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

The bottom line is that my clients want success whether they live in India, Malaysia, Canada, Europe, or the USA. Because I provide principlecentered marketing mentorship to clients around the globe, I dubbed myself an "International Success Strategist." (Sounds better than life coach, doesn’t it?)

After further specialization and many case studies, I discovered that a majority of clients that I choose to work with fall into 3 categories of needs: 1. Personal Confidence - not to be confused with self-confidence, personal pride, etc.

2. Wealth Creation - how to live the “internet lifestyle� with a successful business of one's own.

3. A combination of the two.

Let me share a story with you that encompasses the development of both personal confidence and wealth creation.

Edward Hagwood recently become a client of mine.

He has overcome tremendous obstacles in his quest for success and his drive is so inspiring that his story must be told in as many venues as possible.

Edward and I teamed up to create a message that will reach a segment of the population that has been underserved when it comes to starting and enjoying an internet-based business. More on that in a second.

We began by getting him involved in an internet lifestyle mastermind group where he could become immersed in principle-centered marketing mentorship. Once he was exposed to the people, concepts, and value available in this community, he started creating his own platform for connecting with a specific niche of business men and women.

Edward is hearing impaired so when he shared with me his goal to create a video of himself sharing his passion and his message about his online success www.themetromag.com

33

using sign language, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

I was in his corner 100%.

Ever since his video was published, he has been busy connecting and mentoring clients of his own.

I convinced Edward to sit down with me and answer these three questions, which I think you’ll find helpful:

the way, I notice some impaired hearing people who want to see strong proof of real income because they are very sensitive.

I think that is good challenge, but I am up for it. That is why I convince them that it is not as difficult as they might think. I really teach them to be trust me and our leaders for excellent business and marketing training. I believe that I have to help my team grow 1) What inspired you to partner with Coach Mark in better businesses for great futures.

My goal is to set good examples for my team and to business? show everyone that we can do anything we set our I am truly lucky to be a part of the Internet Lifestyle minds to except for hearing.

Mastermind Group because it has really inspired, thrilled and motivated me. The community keeps 3) What motivated you to create your first business my spirits up, gives me high personal confidence related video? and joy. I know that if I stay plugged in to Mark's coaching and mentorship my future is going to be I created my video to demonstrate and display my motivation. When I shared my video out to Facebook successful.

I was hopeful that a few people would see the value 2) How do you see yourself filling the needs of the that I have to share and partner with me in this hearing impaired community in an online business business. I believe that anyone who has the will to win and be successful online can and will be when capacity? they apply our team’s teaching to their lives.

I can see myself in this business creating elegant, value-driven experiences that are important to business owners who are also hearing impaired. By

34 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

Greatly improving the way you buy energy and manage your exposure to energy costs over time.

Call 855-ASK-FIVE (275-3483)/Fax 855-FAX-FIVE (329-3483) 130 E. John Carpenter Fwy. Irving, TX 75062www.themetromag.com www.5-five.com

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Lead Yourself We are all leaders – regardless of whether we run our own business, work for someone else, or are unemployed. That is because leadership is about influence and true leadership starts with leading yourself.

to be self-reflective. This activity is what enables a leader to truly understand herself, identify what she values and make informed leadership decisions that guide or lead her behaviors.

Harry Kraemer, professor of management and strategy at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, asserts that the number one task for all leaders is

When was the last time you spent time quietly reflecting on your beliefs? Was it for longer than five minutes? I know, this is challenging to put into the calendar. And it doesn’t feel much like work, let alone important work. And yet, it is critically important.

I’m going to keep this article briefer than most. I’d like to encourage you to take the time you would have used to read a longer post and pause for a moment of self-reflection.

If it’s early in the day, think about what is most important to accomplish. And then think about why it’s important to you. What is the lasting impact that this is going to create in the world - or in your personal world? If your day is mostly over, think about the tasks you accomplished today. What impact will they have in the future? Did you place your priorities in the right places? What would you do differently if you had the chance?

Mr. Kraemer likes to do his self-reflection at the end of the day. During this time he reviews his day to see what went well and what didn’t.

He thinks about both what he would Now shhhhhhhh! Enjoy your quiet do again, in the same way, and what reflection and have a great day! he would do differently the next time. He also thinks about what he didn’t accomplish that he would like to have completed. Why is that task important to him?

Karen Jett Red Knight Consulting www.redknight.com 36 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

There are things in your business you are good at ...and there are things that you are not so good at.

Do you know what they are?

Do you know how to make them really work for you?

The Good How to Leverage Both for Success This 45 minute webinar will enable you to: • Complete a SWOT analysis on your small business • Identify key opportunities • Grow your small business income!

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Investment: $10.00 • Register at:www.themetromag.com RedKnight.com/GoodBad 37

How to Get

'Lucky' In Finding

The Mentors You Desire "I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.� - Thomas Jefferson

If you want to get 'lucky' in finding mentors, you need to know how to play the numbers game. In this post, you will read about how Noam Kostucki, a successful coach and serial entrepreneur, managed to find one of his mentors who gave him his first executive coaching client at 21, and a series of practical steps to effectively find the mentors you desire. Take the time to write down the answers (paper, Evernote, etc.) and do the tasks you are given because both will take you a step closer to finding the mentors you are looking for.

Lujie Chen

"When I went to Poland to set up my business, I really struggled.

For 6 months, I didn't get a single meeting. Everyone told me 'you don't speak Polish, you are too young, we are not interested'. After 6 months, I decided to change my strategy. I wanted to meet the best corporate trainer and executive coach in the country to learn from him. I found what seemed like an endless list of names. After a brief research on each, I contacted all the ones who were even remotely relevant. One of the most influential of my years in Poland is Piotr Tymochowicz. Piotr was said to be the best business coach and PR specialist in the country. Some loved him, others hated him, yet everyone seem to agree he was the best.

38 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

Within 6 months of research and contacts, I had a track record of hundreds of emails I never received a reply to, dead end phone calls and meetings with improbable mentors. I felt as if I’d never find any executive coach who’d understand me. I felt that they were all so patronizing, dismissive and that they kept sending me to the back of the line: “you’re too young, too inexperienced and you need to get 30 years of business experience before doing what I do.” I read Piotr Tymochowicz’s company website and I was impressed. My judo teacher says “it doesn’t matter how often you fall, what matter is that you stand back up and that you keep going”. Remembering his teaching, I gathered all my energy and enthusiasm and send Piotr an email.

that he took 2 hours a week to teach me one-on-one his “Open Communication” technique. After completing the programme and proving my ability to learn and implement this new communication technique, he gave me what I had asked for: the opportunity to coach a CEO of a company. After teaching him the 30 hours coaching program one on one, the university drop out in me was very proud: I was 21 and I successfully coached a CEO whose children were older than me and who earned more in a day than I had in my entire life.

This experience changed my life as a coach because I had finally done what I wanted to do.

Through this experience, I learned that finding the mentor you’re looking for is a numbers game. In Within a couple of hours of sending Piotr an email, I retrospect, Piotr seems like a “God-sent”. In reality, I was invited for a meeting the following week. Half an contacted and met with hundreds of people before I hour into conversation, he told me he is impressed by met Piotr. Piotr was a “lucky draw” in the sense that I my ideas and wants me to meet the rest of his board. The had no idea he would be a better match than others I following week, I met the rest of the board and he took had met. This situation is a perfect illustration of what me under his wings as his protégé. I am very grateful Thomas Jefferson said 'I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. www.themetromag.com 39

How can you start getting 'lucky' and play the numbers game Create an excel sheet and make a long list of names of people who have at least 1 characteristic that makes them a potential mentor (e.g., they’ve got the kind of job you want to have). As a rule of thumb it is good to start with a minimum of 10 names. If you can collect over 100 names, it will make the rest of your work easier and more comfortable.

• Look into your personal network (phone, address book, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) • Ask everyone you meet if they know someone who has this characteristic (friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, etc.)

• Research the Internet for influencer in that field (practitioners, experts, bloggers, journalists, speakers, writers, researchers, business owners, etc.)

Contact your networks to ask for people with the characteristic from their current / alumni networks (schools, universities, former bosses, former mentors, trade associations, student societies, etc.)

Next to each name, add a column with a number from 1-3 for how close you are to this person (3 = closest, 1 = farthest) and another column with natural connection (3 = you feel the most naturally connected, 1 = you feel the most distant). Sort the columns to see the most naturally connected and the closest people at the top.

40 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

Contact the first 10 people on your list starting from the top and tell them what you want to talk about (e.g. you want to find out about their experience in the industry, how you can get the job they have, what they think the next “big thing” in the industry will be, etc.). Ask them for something specific like 10 min / 30 min / 1h to talk over the phone, meet for coffee at / near their office or grab a lunch.

• If they’re the right match, continue the conversation and ask to meet again (more details in the book Seek to Keep) • If they’re not the right match, ask for people they can introduce you to who also have the characteristic you’re looking for, continue to grow your list Repeat with the next top 10 people on your list Start now and get 'lucky' by beating the numbers game!

To Learn More, Get a Copy of ‘Seek to Keep: How to Find the Best Mentors and Keep Them’ at www.bit. ly/seektokeep.

To Learn More, Get a Copy of ‘Seek to Keep: How to Find the Best Mentors and Keep Them

www.SeekToKeep.com

Learning How To Invest On The

GridIron

Canari Ellis

It is that time of year once again when the wives and You have two teams on the field. One team is on ofgirlfriends leave their men to scratch, belch and drink fense and the other plays defense. The overall goal beer all day on Sundays, without too much complaint. is for one team to outscore the other. The team on offense has control of the football and is looking to Football is America’s greatest sport. It is athletic in score points. The defense’s job is to stop the offense nature, but full of mental strategy. Many have said from putting points on the board. The team with the that football is not just a ball game, but a game about most points wins the game. life.

The ultimate goal of every team is to defeat all chalThis article will help you score extra points with your lengers and win the Super Bowl. significant other during game time. Just let her know you’re getting some valuable investment to help you For your average investor, the Super Bowl could retire early. mean exotic travel in their retirement years or paying of a grandchild to go to college.

The Game Every aspect of this game can be linked directly to The Players investing.

For investors, the job of the offensive players is to make money. This is considered a wealth accumulaFor starters every football team is a collection or tion role. Defensive players have the exact opposite portfolio of players. Just like every financial portfolio role: to protect money, or serve in the function of is a collection of various investment vehicles. capital preservation.

42 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

Offensive lineups in investing could be made up of stocks whose companies have great management, excellent business models and huge potential for growth. For example, an upstart tech company that has created a revolutionary technology. These stocks have the possibility to score a touchdown.

Scoring touchdowns in football is like having a winning stock in the game of wealth accumulation.

On the other side of the ball, the defensive lineup is built to protect the wealth that has already been accumulated. Many investors use stocks and bonds to protect their wealth. For example, a utility company with operations in booming metropolitan areas, with stable revenues, but not looking to do anything spectacular from a growth standpoint. This company could be a great player in a defensive position on your investment team.

Each position in football in has a set of characteristics that are needed to support the team’s winning

efforts. This is also true in investing. Every player is chosen for a specific reason, to do a specific job. Every investor should build their portfolio for a specific reason as well. Some teams run the ball extremely well, others throw the ball excellently. A team could be known for their excellent defensive play. An investor’s portfolio should follow suit; where some portfolios are built for aggressive growth, other are built to generate predictable income or protect capital.

Every portfolio should be built with a purpose in mind. If you are younger, you can be more offensefocused. If you are approaching retirement, your defensive game should be a priority. Using the football team model, you can build a customized portfolio to suit your needs. You will find that your investments can be quite successful utilizing these principles Ultimately, you are building your team to help you win the Super Bowl, whatever that means to you. www.themetromag.com

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44 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

2014

Power Player

Edition

Sandra Fan www.themetromag.com

45

“Adapt to having nothing; but thrive to obtain everything.�

46 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

“Made in Taiwan”; “Brewed in New Zealand” – as Sandra likes to introduce herself to new people she meet.

Sandra Fan – a “Kiwi-Asian” moved to the United States (from New Zealand) in May 2011. From only knowing just a couple of people in this foreign country when she first arrived, to now being one of the most well-networked and connected person in the Salt Lake City community. There isn’t any business or entrepreneurial events she goes to that she wouldn’t meet someone she knows or knows her.

Within 18 months of living in the United States, Sandra was listed by LinkedIn to have one of the “Top 5% Most Viewed Profile in LinkedIn for the year 2012” - that's out of over 200 million members LinkedIn has at the time.

people to do door-to-door cold calling sales. As a result, her greatest skill mastered from being in these industries was the ability to talk to absolutely anybody and everybody – and have people notices her presence, drawn to her personality and compelled to connect with her, instantly.

Since moved to the United States, Sandra works with a global entrepreneurial organization called CEO Space International (www.ceospaceinternational).

A by-invitation-only private business club where with a one-time investment fee, business owners and entrepreneurs can become lifetime members of CEO Space and enjoy the benefit of the powerful business network that can help accelerate their ventures nationally and internationally. The lifetime members would meet in Las Vegas five times a year to learn, get educated, network, mastermind, and receive free coaching and mentoring from experts of all industries all week long.

Sandra’s professional background and success in the past decade have mostly been in the direct sales and marketing industry. She had built a very successful Generation Y team with her first network marketing business, followed by leading one of the top B2B sales team with one of the largest direct Sandra’s ability to relate to people of all walks of life selling company in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and helped moved her to the top of the "relationship Europe which specializes in training young sales pyramid" within a very short period of time. She not www.themetromag.com

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only knows a lot of important people, she made sure these important people know her. Her relationship capital has become so enriched with diversity and resources that she rarely comes across anyone that she could not help. Sandra enjoys helping people and believes in the philosophy of “If you can help, why not?” In her mind and her world of selling, there’s simply no such thing as a “cold-call”. There are no “strangers” in this world, just friends you have yet to meet.

Sandra is now building and running the CEO Space Utah Chapter - one of the fastest growing CEO Space chapters in the entire nation. Through her fun, whitty and “not afraid to tell it like it is” personality, she’s built herself a little fan base through social media platforms. With about 4000-7000 business owners, entrepreneurs and investors following and subscribed to her events – Sandra is building her own “Sandra Fans Club”.

Sandra’s favorite philosophy is: “Adapt to having nothing; but thrive to obtain everything.”

48 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

Learn more about Sandra at www.sandrafansclub. com or follow her on Facebook at https://www. facebook.com/theultimatesandra Sandra mentioned on Forbes December, 2013: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ cherylsnappconner/2013/12/12/can-cooperativecapitalism-succeed/ Forbes article on Sandra Fan in May 2014: http:// www.forbes.com/sites/ cherylsnappconner/2014/05/20/business-lessonsfrom-immigrant-entrepreneurs/2/ Paul Duane Show Sandra Fan interview July 2014: http://www.paulduane.net/2014/07/sandra-fan-ofceo-space/

www.themetromag.com

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David Rachal III

2014

Power Player

Edition

In 2007, David entered the corporatefitness industry as he formed and incorporated HealtheFit, LLC. With HealtheFit’s formation, David expanded his client base to property management companies and law firms in Washington, DC. HealtheFit’s growth enabled David to provide many employment opportunities to some of the best personal trainers in DC.

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The success of HealtheFit provided David with and opportunity to nurture his entrepreneurial spirit and thus he opened the first commercial gym at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, DC. With it, David created Fighting Trim the Gym and openedits doors June 2012. Unfortunately, for reasons out of his control, David was forced to close the doors of his new gym less than a year into his contract but, he didn’t allow that to slow his commitment to changing lives. He has since gone on to become a sought after fitness business consultant, he has co-founded Tactical Performance Corps, LLC,formed Fighting Trim Fitness, LLC, and most recently became the Fitness Manager of Gold’s Gym in Fredericksburg, VA.

ince graduating from Grambling State University, David has dedicated the last 14 years to the health and fitness industry.

During that time, he earned a reputation for innovative strategies and success in the fields of Recreational Therapy, Fitness Management, and Personal Training.

David hasmastered almost every possible technique of fitness delivery through over 12 certifications David’s impact has come through the many roles spanning from Certified Biggest Loser ® Pro to he has served,beginning as a Certified Recreational Certified Tactical Strength and Conditioning Therapist and later as the Senior Operations Facilitator. Most recently, he has transitioned into Manager for 12 Bally Total Fitness gyms in DC, VA and teaching the world’s fastest growing reality-based MD.In addition, heis known as the "Trainers’ Trainer," self-defense system, Commando Krav Maga with working as a Fitness Presenter and Certification students ranging from stay-at-home moms to Specialist with several organizations including the members of the Military. David insists that despite Aerobics and Fitness Association of America(AFAA)- his high level of expertise, he is a full-time student the worldwide leader in fitness certifications. and a part-time instructor.

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Lisa Torres

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orn on July 4, 1970, in the Bronx, New York, Lisa Torres started to pursue her career as an Entrepreneur at the age of 19.

She turned to Network Marketing as a way to create freedom in her life. When she was introduced to the Direct Sales industry, she was fascinated by the idea of working for herself in the comfort of her own home and not having to wake up early to fight the daily hustle and bustle like every other average American. To her, the idea of working for someone else for the rest of her life was simply not an attractive.

In 2007, Lisa was laid off from her corporate banking job where she was making $55K per year. But, when she got her freedom papers, it was the happiest day of her life.

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Power Player

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When Human Resources called her into the office to give her the news that they were letting her go, she asked them to please hurry so she can get out of there.

The following day, Lisa made a decision to figure out how to make money on the Internet because she saw that there were other people doing it too.

So, she started watching other people’s videos on YouTube and was following 3 people who were talking about making money online. She followed these people for about a month and made a decision to join one of them.

A couple of more years passed by and by the time Lisa’s extended unemployment checks ran out, she was already making a residual income of $1800.

And from there she started joining other programs getting her feet wet with the online marketing world.

“I really didn’t care why they were letting me go, I just knew this was my opportunity to work on being a full time Entrepreneur”

She said, “My Mentor told me that if I wanted to be successful, I had to start working on my mindset because success was an inside job and that I needed an income structure set in place that would allow me to have the income breakthrough that I deserved”.

And 90 days after taking her Mentor’s advice, Lisa finally had her first BIG breakthrough and earned over $25,000 and moved her family from her tight 2 bedroom apartment in The Bronx, to a huge 5 bedroom 3 bath house in Atlanta In her first 12 months, Lisa became a 6 Figure Earner and is now one of the TOP 200 Income Earners inside of her company. She had the opportunity to share her story in front of 1200+ people at her company event and is now teaching other Network Marketers how to finally have their own Breakthroughs.

You can visit Lisa Torres’ Blog at www.LisaTorresSpeaks.com

Despite all of the marketing knowledge she acquired over the years, there was still something missing but she didn’t know what it was. In 2013, she found herself 3 months backed up in rent and living in a tight 2 bedroom apartment with her husband and 10 year old daughter. She just could not figure out how to have an income breakthrough and found her residual income checks decreasing month by month.

Then she found a 7 figure Mentor and started learning certain skill sets that Network Marketing companies simply do not teach.

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Franklin Cruz

2014

“The People’s Mentor”

Power Player

Edition

I Screwed Up…So You Don’t Have To”.

His new book coming out “How to MAXIMIZE Profits with America’s Rent to Own Program: Now your DREAM can be Realty HOME-OWNERSHIP.” Franklin’s also is a Managing Member of Bentley Private Real Estate Investment Firm and Founder of LandOwner Club, which is Tampa’s Largest Online Community of Real Estate Investors.

In addition he is the owner of several Internet Marketing Businesses and former co-owner of * TradeMark Property Management.

He and his wife, Bridgette started TradeMark Property Management with 0 clients in built it to over 500 units in less than 5 years. The company was later sold to an Investment company.

Franklin Cruz is an entrepreneur who specializes in Real Estate Investments, Property Management and Property Rehabilitation. He is the founder of several Real Estate companies and projects such as Bentley Private Fund.

Describing MR. FRANKLIN CRUZ is simple because his credentials speak for themselves. The character of a man is defined by the ways in which he lives and conducts himself both personally and professionally. Franklin hits a home run in both fields.

But not only did he beat the odds, he smashed through adversity with a sledgehammer.

Franklin has decorated military veteran, having served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He has appeared on several television programs; “Millionaire Mindset” and “Success Made Simple.”

Author of the book titled, “How To Do Everything WRONG in Real Estate and Still be Successful: 139 Ways 54 Metropolitan Entrepreneur Magazine Sept/ Oct 2014

Abigail Kessler Gabriel Jude

2014

Power Player

Edition

co - founders

Raising Reptiles Evolution Magazine had the opportunity to interview Abigail Kessler and Gabriel Jude, co-founders of Raising Reptiles. They are reptile enthusiasts, firmly dedicated to producing and sharing well-rounded, quality information on reptiles and how to take care of them.

Evolution: Tell us a little bit about your business and how you got started.

Abigail: The business was officially started back in September of 2013. Gabriel and I met on Facebook in August. We quickly realized that we had a multitude of similarities, most notably that we are both givers who care about making a positive impact in the lives of others and that we’re into self-improvement.

I already had the initial idea for Raising Reptiles.

Through many brainstorming sessions, we made that idea a reality, forming a terrific partnership and co-founding the business.

The reality is, the reptile industry has a shady past. It has slowly moved forward, but we haven’t moved forward enough. People’s standards for the treatment and care of these fascinating creatures are still drastically low. Big-name pet stores, breeders, product developers, suppliers and manufacturers continuously spread horrid misinformation that can result in the death of a child’s beloved pet. Hobbyists still settle for bare minimum care. The general public is afraid and critical, and there is a gross lack of funds going to pursue research and wildlife conservation efforts.

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2014

Power Player

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People fear what they don’t understand and they seek to put a stop to it. If this industry continues down this road, hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs and livelihood. Animals will suffer and die. Raising Reptiles was born because it’s time to revolutionize this extraordinary industry. It’s time to raise the standards, change the game and work so future generations can experience the wonder of nature and the reptiles within it.

We begin by creating unique, comprehensive, top quality care guides that genuinely add value to reptile lover’s lives, pushing them them to do what’s best for the animal and share that knowledge with others.

Our mission is to continue developing innovative products and systems, to sponsor herpetologists (reptile scientists) and researchers to travel the globe, studying reptiles and their habitats in depth and to open up the world of travelling to dedicated young people. We want to inspiring this generation and the next to properly care for the reptiles in their homes and protect their natural environment.

Evolution: We know when we do work we love, we never really work. How does it feel to be an entrepreneur doing what you love?

Gabriel: I feel blessed and grateful to be an entrepreneur, doing what I love and working with the people that I love to work with.

My parents taught my brother and I three principles to succeed in life. They are 1) serve people, 2) make a difference, and 3) add value. Being an entrepreneur, I get to do exactly that. And by doing that, money comes in naturally.

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The greatest feeling being an entrepreneur however, is waking up every day and working with your partner and the team on ideas and solutions to the problems that are prevalent in your industry.

Knowing what we do is making an impact is what makes me feel blessed and grateful.

Abigail: To be perfectly honest, it’s been an incredibly challenging, stressful, wonderful journey.

The world of entrepreneurship is different from nearly every other career path. The challenges and the stress is 100% worth it, though. Why? Because being an entrepreneur means growing massively as a person and making a difference in the lives of others. Helping and serving them! What greater feeling is there than that?

Evolution: Give our readers 3 things that they can do today that will change their tomorrow.

Abigail: 1) Express gratitude - for what is in your life, for what lies ahead, for the brilliant mind that you have, and for the ability to serve.

2) Go somewhere quiet, away from the hectic buzz of life, and simply think. Recharge a little. Enjoy the silence.

3) Start looking at work like a game. Figure out your objectives, your quests, and celebrate your achievements. Don’t be afraid to give yourself a pat on the back when you’ve done well. Recognize all of the small successes throughout your day, and your life as a whole, smile about them!

Gabriel: 1) Know that you are already successful.

There was a point in your life that you couldn’t do something. It could be walking, talking, passing an exam, driving a car or making friends. But today, those very things are second nature to you. Our lives are filled with success stories of what we could not do initially, and what we can do today. This is

affirmation that whatever goals, dreams and visions we set for ourselves for the future are definitely achievable.

2) Know that every failure and learning from that failure is preparing you for even greater success.

There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.

The first six companies that I started all failed majestically. I learned a lot more from my second company than I did my first, my third company more than the second and so on. I truly felt that all I was getting was feedback that something didn’t work. I learned and tried again.

I believe that if I am not “failing,” I am not learning.

If we are not learning, we are moving backwards, because the world will move forward with or without us.

3) Be in a room of people who are smarter, richer and more successful than you. If you are the smartest, richest and most successful person in that room, you are in the wrong room. I have been blessed by being surrounded by people who are much smarter, richer and more successful that I am. My speed in growth and progress is attributed to these epicsaucesome people. One of the reasons is that true spending a lot of time with them, I “become” like one of them. It is the Law of Conformity, a natural process.

www.themetromag.com

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Michelle Murphy

2014

Power Player

Edition

Michelle Murphy is a driven businesswoman balancing two successful careers while raising two sons; Zachary and Damian. Michelle, a licensed and bonded Public Adjuster, is the Director of Business Development for a remediation company and an Independent Business Owner with Wake Up Now; a publicly-traded company that provides products and services centered on saving families money every month. It’s Michelle’s passion for helping others that drew her to Wake Up Now, where she leads others toward their own personal and professional goals.

Michelle was born and raised on Long Island and moved to the Poconos in 1999. After a successful career in banking, she resigned her position as the executive assistant for the V.P. of Operations for a New York bank, to concentrate on raising her family in Pennsylvania.

The ambition that fueled her rise through corporate banking has fueled several successful businesses, including Wake Up Now. Her skills with territory management, training, public speaking and a natural ability to build relationships, allows her to secure new partners while helping families save money. And saving money is making money!

When she’s not working or enjoying her family, Michelle loves volunteering, reading, cooking, fitness and wellness education.

For more information on how to help yourself and your family in a meaningful way, contact Michelle at win4lifewun@gmail.com

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Brian Wright

2014

Power Player

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Brian is also the host of the internet radio talk show “Success Profiles Radio” on the Toginet Radio Network. Each week on the show, he explores different aspects of success and how to apply them to your life. Guests will come from many different backgrounds, including expertise in leadership, business, relationships, careers, networking, health, overcoming adversity, and much more.

Success Profiles Radio can be heard at www. successprofilesradio.com on Mondays at 6pm EST, and is consistently ranked on the "What's Hot" list on iTunes in Careers and Self Help.

Brian K Wright is the founder of Brian Wright International, whose mission is to motivate and inspire others to discover their unique talents and follow their dreams in life. With extensive experience teaching and training in academic and corporate environments, he understands that many people live far beneath their potential, primarily because they don’t really believe they deserve success.

Through his experience and research, Brian has learned and practiced the principles he teaches in his book “Student Leadership Strategies: 21 Easy Ways to Become a Center of Influence in Your Group.”

Brian grew up in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in Communication Studies, and holds a Masters degree in Adult Education from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He discovered a passion for speaking and influencing audiences by speaking competitively in high school and in college, and by being heavily involved on campus while in school.

Throughout his career, Brian has been a top performer in the areas of sales, customer service, training, and has also written resumes professionally for students, working professionals, and executives.

He is available to speak on the topics of motivation/ inspiration, leadership, careers, and goal setting. He resides in the Phoenix, Arizona area.

www.themetromag.com

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Jenn Kahan “The Ninja”

2014

Power Player

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Born and raised in Southern California. Grew up in a standard, broken, American family with 4 parents and 6 siblings. Got her first real job at Time Warner Cable and became nationally recognized as the #1 agent nationwide. From there she got a start in insurance where she met her fiancée, Richard, for the first time.

She joined the Army and soon after became a recipient of the Army Accommodation Medal for exemplary service and spent the majority of her military career in Savannah, Georgia. She also received her Bachelors of Science degree in Sales and Marketing. In between all of that she had two sons, named Evan and Troy, now 8 and 4. She went back into insurance when she got out of the Army and eventually opened up her own insurance agency with Farmers Insurance. It was then that she was reintroduced to network marketing by one of her clients. It made sense to her and she succeeded rapidly within the company. She explored many different companies and met lots of people before finding her home in the industry.

Jenn is notoriously know for her sarcasm, wit and realness on youtube and other social media platforms.

Training is her passion and watching others succeed because of her impact and education

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A tradition steeped in culture...

The Social Tea House specializes in preserving the cultures and history of Chinese and Japanese teas by importing from the finest tea gardens in the Far East. Enjoy our products coming soon to retailers and a growing list of premier gourmet restaurants centered on the Washington, DC metro area or order online to have it shipped directly to you. We also provide cultural performances of traditional Chinese and Japanese tea ceremonies conveniently for office catering events and at partner restaurants.

In addition we also manufacture hand crafted wooden tea trays and boxes inspired by traditional Asian designs.

TheSocialTeaHouse.com

A Maryland Based Local Business PO BOX 2265, Rockville, MD 20847

HELPING BUSINESSES SUCCEED THROUGH EVENT, MULTIMEDIA AND DIGITAL MARKETING SOLUTIONS.

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CREATIVE IDEAS DESERVE CREATIVE SOLUTIONS TO MAKE THEM A REALITY

www.epicenterus.com www.themetromag.com

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