Incorporating what's right for you. |
Pamela Slim
Pamela Slim is a seasoned coach and writer who helps frustrated employees in corporate jobs break out and start their own business. Her blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation, is one of the top career and marketing blogs on the web. A former corporate manager and entrepreneur herself for more than a decade, she deeply understands the questions and concerns faced by first-time entrepreneurs. Her expertise in personal and business change was developed through many years consulting inside corporations such as Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and Charles Schwab, where she coached thousands of executives, managers and employees.
"Entrepreneurship at its heart is aligning your purpose for being on earth with a business idea so compelling that you simply must do it, despite the fears that hold you back," says Pam. Her experience teaching martial arts for 10 years to thousands of students including former gang members has helped her clients deal with fear head-on. A world traveler, Pam speaks four languages and has lived and worked in Europe and South America .
Pam is certified as a master coach with "the best-known life coach in America ," New York Times bestseller and O Magazine columnist Martha Beck. Pam's book Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur was released with Penguin/Portfolio on April 30, 2009. Pam is married with three kids and lives in Mesa , Arizona .
Michael Port
The Boston Globe calls Michael Port , "an uncommonly honest author". The Wall Street Journal calls him a "marketing guru". Canada's leading business paper, The Financial Post, declares "the world needs more Michael Ports" . But who cares what others say about him. It's what he's doing for others that matters.
He wrote the mega bestselling Book Yourself Solid so that business owners can get all the clients their hearts desire. He wrote Beyond Booked Solid so that they can stop trading time for money. He wrote The Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (BIG) To Take Typical Sales Advice and Do The Opposite so salespeople can respect their customers. By the way, The Contrarian Effect was selected as the #9 Best Business Book for 2008 by the Editorial Board at Amazon.com as well as the best sales book for 2008 by 800-CEO-READ.
But now Michael is thinking even bigger about his own work and how it will touch people everywhere and ultimately change the world. He finally wrote The Think Big Manifesto: Think You Can't Change Your Life (And The World)? Think Again. This is his most provocative book so far, and he wrote it for only one reason: to rally everyone to think bigger about who they are and what they can offer the world.
The Think Big Manifesto is the handbook for the ThinkBigRevolution.com, an online social network that will inspire people all over the world to lead their own personal revolutions. It's free, always will be. No one owns big ideas.
You may recognize Michael from TV appearances on networks like CNBC and MSNBC or his numerous newspaper and magazine interviews. Or maybe you have seen him headline events with leaders like Tony Robbins, Jim Collins, Seth Godin, Tom Peters, Colin Powell, and more.
Michael did not begin his career as an entrepreneur, author, and speaker; rather, he began as an actor. You might even have been able to pick him out of a crowd from his staring and supporting roles in TV and film projects like Sex and the City, Third Watch, All My Children, Guiding Light, Central Park West, 100 Centre Street, The Pelican Brief, Down to Earth, Last Call, The Believer and more.
There's nothing ordinary about Michael Port. Day to day, he runs one of the largest and most respected coaching programs for small business owners in the world at www.MichaelPort.com. Diverse in his personal life as well, Michael blends his yoga teaching past with his martial art present-holding the rank of black belt. With all this success, his most significant accomplishment and responsibility is probably just like yours: the job of being a devoted parent, son, friend and citizen.
Michael Port's mission to rally big thinkers--prospective, potential, wildly in-motion, and particularly bashful up-and-comers-- is officially in motion. He's at the forefront of a movement of people that are starting personal, professional, societal and spiritual revolutions. Join the movement at ThinkBigRevolution.com.
Books by Michael Port : Book Yourself Solid, Beyond Booked Solid, The Contrarian Effect, The Think Big Manifesto
Web: http://www.MichaelPort.com
Robert Pagliarini
Why should you listen to me? Because I live and breathe this stuff. I'm in the trenches day in and day out as president and owner of Pacifica Wealth Advisors, a boutique wealth management firm recently ranked one of the top firms in the country.
For a guy who hated English class, I'm thrilled to have written the #1 national bestselling personal finance book, The Six-Day Financial Makeover: Transform Your Financial Life in Less Than a Week! I'm currently working on a new book called The Other 8 Hours: How to Create More Free Time to Get a Life & Make More Money, which will be published in January 2010. I also write a column for CBS MoneyWatch.
I love sharing my ideas with the media. I've become a familiar face on Good Morning America and have appeared on Dr. Phil, 20/20, ABC Morning News, NPR, and in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Money Magazine, and many others.
Andy Sernovitz
Author, Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking
CEO, GasPedal & The Blog Council
Andy Sernovitz teaches word of mouth marketing. He's the author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking and teaches at Northwestern University. His company, GasPedal, teaches word of mouth techniques, and runs the Blog Council, a peer-to-peer support group for the pioneers of social media at very large organizations.
He taught Internet Entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of Business, ran a business incubator, and started half a dozen companies. He created the Word of Mouth Marketing Association around the latest revolutions in blogs, buzz, and word of mouth, and in the dot com days ran the Association for Interactive Marketing.
His fantastic blog is called Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That (http://damniwish.com/)
GasPedal: http://www.gaspedal.com/
Blog Council: http://blogcouncil.org/
Book: http://wordofmouthbook.com/
Sam Richter
Sam Richter, CEO of SBR Worldwide and SVP/Chief Marketing Officer of ActiFi, has more than 25 years experience in advertising, public relations and ecommerce, creating and managing award-winning technology, sales, and marketing programs for start-up companies and some of the world's most famous brands. He is an internationally sought-after speaker, has authored the top-selling and award winning Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling sales intelligence book, and has been featured in hundreds of publications, television programs, and radio shows. Sam was formerly president of a national business research organization, is a member of the Business Journal's Forty Under 40, and in 2007, Sam was a finalist for Inc. Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year.
Richter lives in Minnetonka, Minnesota with his wife and two children, serves on the boards of a number of for-profit companies, and volunteers his time to numerous Twin Cities' based non-profit organizations.
Jake Warner
Ralph "Jake" Warner, after a brief hiatus from day-to-day management, is back in the driver's seat at Nolo. Widely recognized as a pioneer of the do-it-yourself law movement, Warner founded Nolo with Ed Sherman in 1972. He began publishing do-it-yourself law books written by him and his colleagues after numerous publishers rejected them. When personal computers came along, he added software to many Nolo books. When the Internet arrived, he pioneered online marketing of books.
In addition to running the company for much of the past three decades, Warner was an active editor and author. He wrote many books, including Get a Life: You Don't Need a Million to Retire Well and How to Run a Thriving Business. Today, he serves as chief executive officer as well as chairman of Nolo's board of directors. During a three-year break earlier this decade, Warner embarked on a new business venture: TallTales Audio, an audio book production company devoted to children's storytelling, online and on CD.
Warner holds a law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley and an undergraduate degree from Princeton.
Bethany K. Laurence, J.D.
Laurence has been a Nolo editor and author since 1997, combining her legal and financial expertise to edit many Nolo small business books. She is the co-author of Save Your Business: 10 Crucial Steps to Survive in Tough Times or Close Down and Move On and Business Buyout Agreements: A Step-by-Step Guide for Co-Owners as well as co-developer of Nolo's Online LLC and Quicken Legal Business Pro software. She has recently begun to blog about small business issues for Nolo's business customers. Laurence holds a law degree from University of California, Hastings College of the Law, a B.A. degree from Boston University (Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude), and is a member of the California State Bar. Before joining Nolo, Laurence developed online legal products for CCH, Inc. Over the last decade she has been active on the board of directors of several local environmental and educational nonprofit organizations.
Andrew J. Sherman, ESQ.
Andrew J. Sherman is a Partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day, a global law firm with over 2,400 attorneys worldwide. Mr. Sherman is a corporate and transactional attorney and is a recognized international authority on the legal and strategic aspects of business growth. Mr. Sherman serves as a legal and strategic advisor to both Fortune 500 and emerging growth companies as well as athletes, celebrities and high net-worth families and individuals in the areas of business planning, public and private capital formation, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual asset management and harvesting, joint ventures and strategic alliances.
One of Mr. Sherman's areas of expertise is in the strategic management of business growth as well as in the design and analysis of efficient and profitable distribution channels, the structuring of interdependent and synergistic business relationships and in the development of brand-leveraging and licensing strategies and marketing systems to meet a company's domestic and international growth objectives.
Mr. Sherman is the author of eighteen (18) books on the legal and strategic aspects of business growth, mergers and acquisitions, capital formation, and the leveraging and licensing of intellectual property. His eighteenth (18th) book, Road Rules Be the Truck. Not the Squirrel. is an inspirational book about life and was published in the Fall of 2008 (www.bethetruck.com).
In the December/January 2002 issues of Fortune Small Business, he was recognized as one of the nation's top ten (10) gurus and thought leaders on entrepreneurship and the legal and strategic issues facing small and growing companies. In February of 2006 Inc. magazine recognized him as one of the 19 leading resources and advocates for growing companies in the nation
Mr. Sherman is regularly interviewed and has been quoted as an authority on legal and strategic issues affecting business growth, capital formation, mergers and acquisitions, technology development, licensing and the leveraging of intellectual property by publications such asThe Wall Street Journal and USA Today, as well as columns in Dow Jones and Associated Press syndicated. He has also been interviewed on personal and motivational issues by consumer magazines such as Men's Health and Marie Claire. Mr. Sherman has been a guest on a variety of television and radio programs including the national cable shows, Power Lunch, produced by CNBC. He has been interviewed on national and regional radio programs, including National Public Radio's Talk of The Nation, CBS News Radio, Associated Press (AP) Radio Network's Business.
Mr. Sherman has written well over eight hundred (800) articles on legal and management issues affecting business growth, mergers and acquisitions, capital formation, and licensing and the protection of intellectual property, which have been published in national and international magazines and journals such as Inc. magazine and Dun & Bradstreet Reports. He has been the author since 2005 of a monthly column for SmartCEO magazine where his From the Trenches column covers topics such as business growth, planning and strategy, mergers and acquisitions, capital formation and the leveraging of intellectual capital.
Mr. Sherman is one of the nations' leading speakers on the legal, strategic and structural aspects of mergers and acquisitions, franchising and licensing, capital formation, joint ventures, alliances and related growth strategies. He has addressed many of the most widely recognized business and trade groups in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and business growth as a keynote or
Mr. Sherman is active in several local and national business organizations.
Mr. Sherman received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Maryland and his law degree from American University. He has also successfully completed course work in finance and marketing towards a Masters in Business Administration at Virginia Tech and at American University.
Peter Shankman
PR Week Magazine has described Peter as "redefining the art of networking," and Investor's Business Daily has called him "crazy, but effective." Peter Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you harness the power of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and make it work to your advantage.
An entrepreneur, author, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, creativity, and customer service.
Peter is perhaps best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year has become the de-facto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 100,000 sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,200 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO's tagline, "Everyone is an Expert at Something," proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members join at helparepoter.com each week.
In addition to HARO, Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. His blog, which he launched as a website in 1995, (www.shankman.com) both comments on and generates news and conversation.
Peter's PR and Social Media clients have included the Snapple Beverage Group, NASA, The US Department of Defense, Walt Disney World, The Ad Council, American Express, Discovery Networks, New Frontier Media, Napster, Juno, Dream Catcher Destinations Club, Harrah's Hotels, and many others, and he sits on the board of the Scott-e-Vest, the world's first technologically enabled clothing line.
Peter is the author of Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them (Wiley and Sons 2006) and a frequent keynote speaker and workshop presenter at conferences, and tradeshows worldwide, including The Public Relations Society of America, The International Association of Business Communicators, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, OMMA, Mobile Marketing Asia, and the Direct Marketing Association.
A marketing pundit for several national and international news channels, including Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, Peter is frequently quoted in major media and trade publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, and USA Today.
Peter started his career in Vienna, VA, with America Online as a Senior News Editor, helping found the AOL Newsroom and spearheading coverage of the Democratic and Republican 1996 conventions, which marked the first time an online news service covered any major political event.
Born and raised in New York City, Peter still lives there with his two psychotic cats, Karma and NASA, who consistently deny his repeated requests to relinquish the couch. In the few hours of spare time Peter has per month, he's a frequent runner, with 13 completed marathons and three Olympic distance triathlons to his credit, and an "B" licensed skydiver, specializing in free-flying.