Guru on mysuccessgateway.com

Guy Finley

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:00:00 CST

Guy is the best-selling author of The Secret of Letting Go and more than 30 other books and audio albums that have sold over a million copies in 16 languages worldwide. In addition, he has presented over 4,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 400 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, NPR, Wisdom Network, and many others. His radio program, "Guy Finley Live," is a live chat that airs monthly on HealthyLife.net as part of the network's "Visionary Celebrity Host Series." His syndicated weekly radio program is aired on several international networks including Healthylife Radio Network, WorldTalkRadio Network, and Contact Talk Radio International. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations.

Guy's career reached this point through a circuitous path. Born into a successful show business family, he is the son of Late-Night TV and radio pioneer Larry Finley. His childhood friends were the sons and daughters of the most famous celebrities in the world. As a young man Guy enjoyed success in a number of areas including composing award-winning music for many popular recording artists including Diana Ross, Debbie Boone, The Jackson 5, Billy Preston, The Four Seasons, as well as writing the scores for several motion pictures and TV shows. From 1970-1979 he wrote and recorded his own albums under the Motown and RCA recording labels.

Throughout his youth, Guy suspected there was more to life than the type of worldly success that led to the emptiness and frustration he saw among his own "successful" friends and colleagues. In 1979, after travels throughout North America, India and the Far East in search of truth and Higher Wisdom, Guy voluntarily retired from his flourishing music career in order to simplify his life and to concentrate on deeper self-studies.

In addition to his writing and appearance schedule, Guy presents four inner-life classes each week at his non-profit Life of Learning Foundation headquarters in Merlin, Oregon. These classes are ongoing and open to the public.

About The Life of Learning Foundation

Life of Learning Foundation is a non-profit organization founded and directed by author Guy Finley for the purpose of helping people to realize their full potential.

Life of Learning is a welcome harbor for anyone wishing to let go of harmful negative states such as stress, fear and resentment in favor of a life filled with more love, compassion, and excellence.

We are a true non-profit organization staffed entirely by volunteers. We operate exclusively on proceeds received from the sale of Guy Finley materials and charitable donations from our generous supporters. No one at Life of Learning, including Guy Finley, receives a salary or any of the proceeds from our activities.

The best way to get to know Life of Learning and incorporate Guy Finley's life-changing principles into your life is to plan a time to come visit. Guy speaks four times each week on the foundation grounds, and every meeting is open to all.

Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most pressing personal and social issues -- relationships, fear, addiction, stress/anxiety, peace, happiness, freedom and lead the way to a higher life.

Earl R. Smith, Ph.D.

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Dr. Smith is a proven entrepreneur, seasoned senior executive, political and social theorist, published author and speaker. A veteran of Wall Street, he has founded two non-profit and six for-profit companies. Dr. Smith advises CEOs and other senior executives. He shows them how to unlock corporate value and improve performance.

Dr. Smith is available for radio and TV appearances, panels, seminars, speeches, key-note addresses, book signings and as a subject-matter expert. He is a motivational speaker who combines humor with lots of content.

About Earl’s Services

Entrepreneurial Experience: Dr Smith is a serial entrepreneur, political and social theorist, published author and speaker. A veteran of Wall Street, he has served as CEO/Senior Partner for all of the companies which he founded.

Proven Track Record – Across All Major Corporate Functions

Dr Smith’s experience includes designing and organizing companies, business/technology management, team building, strategic alliances, negotiating complex arrangements, governance & compliance, resourcing & financing, mergers & acquisitions, management/team/board assessment, coaching and strategic and tactical planning and implementation.

He serves on boards of directors and advisory boards, as well as in interim senior management positions. Dr. Smith’s expertise includes innovation, governance, succession planning, mergers & acquisitions, team building, strategic planning, turnarounds and reorganization.

Experienced Senior Executive Advisor

Dr Smith has been a highly effective executive advisor to over two dozen CEOs and senior team members and a strategic advisor to numerous senior management teams.

Skills & Selected Achievements

Dr Smith has strong written and verbal skills, is highly personable and able to work with CEOs of emerging technology companies and major corporate boards. Proficient in solving problems and forming and managing teams to implement complex solutions, he is the ultimate “hands on executive”, capable of efficiently managing at all levels. He also possesses a wide ranging network of important contacts. Dr Smith has:

Founded and managed a company that revolutionized the financing structures of the US film industry.
He worked at the top levels with money center banks, investment banking houses, accounting firms and major studios.
Founded and managed companies that acquired, financed, renovated and managed multi-family real estate and hospitality properties in six states.
Helped manage IPO and secondary underwritings for Real Estate Investment Trusts and Public Limited Partnerships in excess of half a billion dollars.
Also organized and led teams which delivered advisory services to clients such as Lockheed Martin, Tetra Tech, Tenix Datagate, Gerson Lehrman Group and Maxim Systems. He has assembled and managed tailor-made teams of experienced professionals to advise clients on a wide range of complex issues.

During his career, Dr Smith has:

Founded six companies in a wide range of industries.
Worked extensively with Wall Street investment banking houses, venture capitalists and accounting and law firms. He speaks CPA and legalese fluently.
Over three and a half decades of experience across the entire range of building and growing businesses both as a principal and an advisor.
Helped launch a major division at a front line Wall Street investment banking house.
Founded a NASDAQ broker/dealer and managed several million dollars in offerings.
A history of success in start-up, mid-size and front line corporate environments

Stuart Elliot

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Stuart Elliot has been covering advertising and media since 1982 and has been with the New York Times as the advertising columnist since 1991. He was an advertising reporter with the USA Today, Advertising Age and consumer marketing automotive subjects in Detroit before coming to the Times.

About the New York Times

Welcome to our Company Web site. Here you can find out about our history, our business and journalistic endeavors and how our powerful and trusted brands are committed to quality news, information and entertainment in the U.S. and around the world. We strive to leverage our brands across multiple media platforms, to the benefit of our readers, advertisers, employees and shareholders.

To accomplish this, we are executing on our strategy of:

developing innovative new products in print and online,
expanding our research and development capabilities,
rebalancing our portfolio and
implementing operational efficiency and cost reductions.

The New York Times Company, a leading media company with 2006 revenues of
$3.3 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers, WQXR-FM and more than 30 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

Charlie Jones

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Charlie Jones entered the insurance business at age 22, with MONY. At age 23, he was awarded his agency's Most Valuable Associate Award. Ten years later, he received his company's highest management award for recruiting, manpower and development, and business management. In 1965, he founded Life Management Services to share his experience through seminars and consulting services.

Thousands of audiences around the world have experienced nonstop laughter as Mr. "T" shares his ideas about life's most challenging situations in business and at home. Two of his speeches, "The Price of Leadership" and "Where Does Leadership Begin?" have been enjoyed by millions. He is the author and editor of nine books, including Life is Tremendous with more than 2,000,000 copies in print in 12 languages.

He is featured in the "Leadership by the Book" series with Ken Blanchard, "Excelling in the New Millennium with Jim Rohn," "Dynamic Achievers World Network" series, "The Automotive Sales Training Network" satellite training service, "Insights Into Excellence" training series, Nightingale Conant's "Executive Treasury of Humor" series and two thirty minute programs by Salesmasters, "The Leading Edge" and "Learning - A Tremendous Experience."

Guest lecturer, Emory University, Goizueta Business School; University of Southern California, Purdue Life Insurance Marketing Institute, L.S.U. Insurance University, University of Tennessee, Lamar College, Harding University, Southern Missionary College, Dickinson College, Palmer College, Logan College, Life College, Parker College of Chiropractic, Pensacola Christian College, Executive Management School of the America Management Association.

President of Life Management Services Inc, Executive Books and ToolsCart.com. Advisory Board of Investment Timing Service, Chairman, Pneumedic Corporation, member of the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame (in 2001 was recognized as one of the top twenty speakers of the 20th century), member of the prestigious Speakers Roundtable, West Shore Chamber of Commerce, International Platform Association, Gideon's and Christian Businessman's Committee, Past Director of Harrisburg Association of Life Underwriters, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Association of Life Underwriters Awards Committee and Sales Congress, President of Harrisburg General Agents and managers, Board of Associates and Chairman of Development Committee of Messiah College, Director, Youth for Christ International, Ken Blanchard Faithwalk, and Guideposts Cabinet.

A FEW OF HIS HONORS:
Doctor of Humane Letters - Central Pennsylvania College
Doctor of Public Service - Parker College of Chiropractic
Doctor of Christian Education - Canyonville Christian Academy
Doctor of Chiropractic Humanities - Texas Chiropractic College
Central Pennsylvania College Library named "The Charles "T" Jones Leadership Library" in honor of his dedication to reading and sharing great books.
Pennsylvania Gubernatorial - Citation for Dedicated Service
Pennsylvania Senate - Citation for Dedicated Service
Office of the Mayor - Citation for Community Service
Man of the year Award - 35 Years of Community Service - Harrisburg Association of Life Underwriters
Life is Worth Living Award - Crystal Cathedral International Ministries
American Christian Patriot Award - Day Spring Academy
Mr. Sales American Award - MSA Association 1973
Lifetime of Sales and Marketing Excellence Award - Sales and Marketing Executives
Speakers Hall of Fame CPAE Award - National
Speakers Association, 1981
Legends and Star Award - Veteran Speakers Association
Speakers Roundtable - Elected 1969
Platinum Book Award - Tyndale House Publishers, for one million in sales of Life is Tremendous
Angel of the Year Book Award - Excellence in Media for The Tremendous Power of Prayer
Honorary Chairman - Cancer Recovery Foundation of America
Honorary Registered Financial Consultant - for fifty years of service to the insurance industry.
Honorary member of Patton's 10th Armored Division - for Patriotism
Honorary Lt Colonel, Alabama Militia - birth state

Chiropractic Honors:
International Speakers Award - Parker Chiropractic Resources Foundation
Commencement speaker, Palmer, Logan and Parker College of Chiropractic
Citation - ACA for Dedication to Chiropractic Professionals
Citation - ICA for Dedication to Chiropractic Professionals
Citation - Life University for Distinguished Service to the Chiropractic
Profession Professional Service Award for forty years of contributions to State Associations

About Executive Books
The heart of my life is books. My favorite saying is this: “You are the same today you’ll be in five years except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read. In every turning point and crisis of my life, there’s always been a book that helped me think and see more clearly and keep laughing and keep looking up and keep my mouth shut. I would never tell anybody I ever had a problem, so everybody always thought I was on top of the world, and yet I was just like everybody else with problems coming out of my ears. Now, when people come to my office, they come to talk to me. Instead of conversing with me like they think they are going to do, I get them reading. I pick out some great books and have each person read three or four sentences. I just received another email from a person recounting how his life was changed by learning the power of reading together--rather than talking. I just can’t get over the power of a little book--sometimes only 30 or 40 pages--that literally turns and shapes an entire lifetime. Yet most people say, “I don’t read.” My heart aches for those people since I remember when I didn’t read because I was so ignorant. In my case, I was always blessed because I was ashamed of my ignorance; most people are proud to be ignorant.

We gave away over 25,000 books last year. This is how it all started. Years ago, I discovered that people throw away your business card. I could never imagine that people would be dumb enough to spend money on something that people throw away. I am not brilliant, but I am not dumb either: I gave away books as a business card and wrote my name and phone number in the book. People never threw them away! So I have given away hundreds and hundreds of thousands of books over the years and people remember me around the world. Many people say, “You’re the first person who ever game me a book.” What makes you different is not what you have in your head, it is what you have in your heart. It is reading that helps you see more clearly and grow: You can not be interesting if you do not read.

Dick White

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Mr. White built Program Resources, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in government contracting, from its inception to $150 million in sales before selling the company in 1989.

Earning a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Computer Science, Mr. White dedicated his career to government contracting and computer-related fields. He has served as a management consultant with Booz, Allen, & Hamilton and as President of Macro Systems, Inc. As a federal contractor, he headed a 300-person computer services organization and a 1,200-person federal facility management division. He has extensive experience in overseeing the development of large Internet publishing products, such as ITBids and Bidengine. He currently serves as President and CEO of Wood River Technologies, Inc.

Mr. White is a national authority on federal, state, and local government marketing and sales. He is the author of the email installment series "Doing Business with Government" and is a frequent speaker on federal contracting topics. Recent speaking engagements include among others, the "Winning Government Business" seminars, conducted on a quarterly basis in Washington, D.C. Mr. White is a recognized expert in government marketing and sales. He knows the nuances of selling to governments, including the sales processes used for individual government markets defined by procurement size, multiple award schedule sales, negotiated procurement sales, and proposal writing. He is knowledgeable in all aspects of government electronic procurement including bid opportunity publication, electronic catalogue sales, and request for quote electronic processing.

About Fedmarket.com

Richard White, our company’s founder, recognized the enormous potential of the internet early on and decided in 1995 to launch Fedmarket.com. He drew upon his vast experience in government contracting and his information technology background when starting up the web site. Prior to 1995, Mr. White was the President and CEO of Program Resources, Inc. (PRI), a management consulting firm specializing in government contracting. Richard and his business partner founded PRI and built it into a company with $150 million in annual sales prior to selling the company in 1989.

Richard teamed up in 1995 with Tom Luparello and Eric Aaserud to create Fedmarket.com, an Internet portal for government vendors. Fedmarket’s web site was primarily designed by Tom with input from both Richard and Eric. It included free content (written by Richard and Eric), links to help vendors locate federal, state and local bid opportunities online, and current news concerning the federal sales market. 1998 was a landmark year for the company; Fedmarket.com introduced one of the first bid search tools available on the Internet, Bidengine. The introduction and eventual success of this product led to Fedmarket’s development of more refined government bid collection and distribution systems for federal public bids and the technology industry. Our product line has grown to include market intelligence products such as FedBuying Intelligence, Contract Search and our various Roadmaps covering federal agencies such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and more. In 1999, we added a GSA consulting services division and also began creating software and Internet-based tools to facilitate the process of proposal writing in general.

In speaking with Fedmarket’s customers, Richard recognized that an untapped market existed for training companies in the nuances of doing business with the federal government. In the late 1990’s, Richard began to travel the country to host seminars on topics such as winning government business. Based on the success of his seminars, Richard opened the Federal Sales Academy, a permanent, state-of-the-art training and classroom facility in Bethesda, Maryland and hired Eileen Kent to run the Academy. Ms. Kent now spends two weeks a month at the Academy and the rest of each month traveling the country to present the Academy’s numerous training courses.

Fedmarket.com has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and other trade publications. Our customer testimonials speak to our competence and expertise in helping customers win federal business. We have been singled out by public and private organizations - - including the Small Business Administration and federally-funded Procurement Technical Assistance Centers - - as the most comprehensive government contracting resource in the industry. Our free web site content includes weekly newsletters on GSA Schedules, Proposal Writing and Federal Sales.

Mr. White’s new book, Rolling the Dice in DC, is now available at Fedmarket.com and amazon.com. The book was written with sales managers and salespersons in mind. It describes the day-to-day dogfight of competing and winning in the federal market. The book provides insight on the good, bad, and the ugly of the federal market, what it takes to enter the market, and the potential returns.

Jim Stovall

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Jim Stovall has been a national champion Olympic weightlifter, a successful investment broker and entrepreneur. He is Co-Founder and President of the Narrative Television Network, which makes movies and television accessible for our nation's 13 million blind and visually impaired people and their families. Although originally designed for the blind and visually impaired, over 60% of NTN's nationwide audience is made up of fully-sighted people who simply enjoy the programming.

Jim Stovall hosts the Network's talk show, "NTN Showcase." His guests have included Katharine Hepburn, Jack Lemmon, Carol Channing, Steve Allen, and Eddie Albert, as well as many others. The Narrative Television Network has received an Emmy Award and an International Film and Video Award among its many industry honors.

NTN has grown to include over 1,200 cable systems and broadcast stations, reaching over 35 million homes in the United States, and NTN is shown in 11 foreign countries.

Jim Stovall joined the ranks of Walt Disney, Orson Welles, and four United States presidents when he was selected as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Americans" by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. He has appeared on "Good Morning America" and CNN, and has been featured in Reader's Digest, TV Guide and Time magazine. He is the author of a previous book entitled You Don't Have To Be Blind To See, as well as his new book Success Secrets of Super Achievers. The President's Committee on Equal Opportunity selected Jim Stovall as the 1997 Entrepreneur of the Year.

About JimStovall.com

Jim Stovall has been an national champion Olympic weightlifter, the President of the Emmy Award-winning Narrative Television Network, and a highly sought after author and platform speaker. He is the author of the best selling book, The Ultimate Gift, which is now a major motion picture starring James Garner and Abigail Breslin.

Steve Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes magazine, says, “Jim Stovall is one of the most extraordinary men of our era.”

For his work in making television accessible to our nation’s 13 million blind and visually impaired people, The President’s Committee on Equal Opportunity selected Jim Stovall as the Entrepreneur of the Year. He was also chosen as the International Humanitarian of the Year, joining Jimmy Carter, Nancy Reagan, and Mother Teresa as recipients of this honor.

Joe Nunziata

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Joe Nunziata is an internationally known speaker and the author. He has been delivering his life changing message at events and seminars since 1992. Joe has been working in the areas of personal development and human potential for over 20 years. His unique blend of spirituality, psychology, philosophy and the power of energy results in revolutionary new programs and seminars.

Joe has always recognized the importance of working from within. He teaches that to be truly successful, you must make powerful changes and break destructive patterns of behavior. These unconscious patterns are connected to deep emotional energy that must be changed to facilitate long-term success in all areas of life.

Joe’s new book Spiritual Selling is now available. This book combines powerful spiritual concepts with proven sales strategies. This new sales philosophy is being embraced by many people and corporations in today’s business community. His other books and programs include: No More Mental Barriers, No More 9 to 5 and The soon to be released, 7 Keys to Transformation.

Joe has appeared on television including Good Day New York on Fox, plus various radio stations including KFNN, Phoenix, AZ, KTHO, Sacramento, CA, KCEO, San Diego, CA, KLMO, Denver, CO, WXCT, Hartford, CT, WPLC, Washington, DC, WOKB, Orlando, FL and many others.

About Spiritual Selling and the Attractor Sales System

It’s not just what you do….it’s how you think and feel. – Joe Nunziata

We have all been conditioned to believe that hard work and determination are the keys to success. I am not saying you do not have to work hard or be determined but, there is another critical piece of the puzzle you must have to become truly successful.

Your success is not tied to the action you takehttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com.it is tied to your unconscious energy and feelings. To make positive long-term changes you must transform your internal energy from the inside.

This book will show you how to make these simple, yet critical, adjustments that will have an incredible impact on your business and life.

This unique book combines powerful spiritual laws with proven sales strategies. The result is my new, Attractor Sales System. This revolutionary new system is designed to turn you into a magnet for new business and opportunity.

Joel Block

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Often dubbed a "growth architect" by his clients, Joel thrives in helping audiences to overcome business challenges by transferring powerful and usable skills so that participants can help their companies to achieve its highest potential.

He's well known and respected in his field both nationally and internationally, developing start-up, pre-revenue and middle market businesses within a range of industries, offering advisory services and professional speaking engagements including conferences, workshops, telephone seminars and university appearances.

Joel Block is a best selling author, assisting hopeful entrepreneurs worldwide with publications in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and Investor's Business Daily.

Joel began his career at Price Waterhouse, later developing his own successful real estate syndication firm.

His proudest accomplishment to date was in the successful creation and marketing of Financial Fax, a personalized newspaper of selected stock market information. Financial Fax was sold to Los Angeles Times in 1995, at which time it was widely distributed throughout the investment community.

In 1990, Joel founded his current business, Growth-Logic. In this role, he does what he most enjoys -- teaching other entrepreneurs and business leaders how to be extremely successful. An out-of-the-box strategist, Joel speaks to corporate audiences to help improve their skills -- making them stronger contributors to their teams. He also advises companies on ways they can be more profitable in their ventures using innovative and entrepreneurial means.

As "America's Business Growth Guru", Joel's media-coined title, he accelerates organizational growth, helping both new and existing businesses recognize their greatest potential and retain their competitive edge in our growing global marketplace.

About Growth Logic

Growth Logic is a full service business advisory firm dedicated to promoting successful entrepreneurship. Our mission is to unlock an enterprise’s untapped value so that the company can be the best that it can be.

All businesses, whether start-up or growing concern, have underperforming resources – capabilities, people, ideas, capital, tangible and intangible assets. We help companies to see and to seize the opportunities hidden in those resources to take the business to the next level of success.

We work with companies to define and hit their business and financial bullseyes by monetizing the opportunities and resources that are buried deep within it.

Entrepreneurs built our great country and those who are creative and inventive will continue to build it - creating both value and wealth.

All of the members of the Growth Logic team have spent their careers as entrepreneurs – building businesses. The entrepreneur business has been very good to us: we have successfully built businesses and have accomplished what you may be trying to accomplish right now.

The opportunities for people who want to stake their claim are unlimited and we want to help every business succeed and optimize its opportunities. This is why we say that “if your success matters to you, then it matters to us”.

Gordon Quick

Fri, 18 May 2007 00:00:00 CDT

After decades of leading businesses and companies, Gordon Quick formed CEO Mentors, LLC. His goal is to share his hard-earned lessons with other CEOs, enabling them to accelerate their learning process and achieve lasting success.

Gordon has served as a senior executive for most of his business career of 30 years. He has been the CEO and COO of both private and public early stage companies, and has also run divisions for a Fortune 500 company. In most cases, he has entered the business when a turnaround was required, and left it after achieving rapid growth. He has led a very early stage company to just under $100 million in revenue, ultimately resulting in the sale of the business for $800 million. He has taken a private company public and a public company private. As CEO he has had experience with many different cultures while managing offices all over the world and working with customers on six continents. Gordon has worked in a variety of industries, including software, fixed and wireless telecommunications and transportation/logistics. One thing he found was that the principles of successful stewardship of a company were quite consistent across his diverse assignments.

Working with a friend and business colleague (co-author Bob Fifer), Gordon has synthesized his 30 years of business experience into the widely acclaimed book The Enlightened CEO – How to Succeed at the Toughest Job in Business. This book serves as the foundation for much of the guidance he offers his clients.

Gordon earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics, marketing and management, culminating with a Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

About CEO Mentors

CEO Mentors, LLC was established to assist CEOs and senior executives in building successful businesses. We have documented our proven approach to creating a culture of high performance in our book – The Enlightened CEO: How to Succeed at the Toughest Job in Business. We use the principles articulated in the book to help create a culture which, when led by an enlightened CEO, leads to exceptional company performance. To get an overview of the key elements, see the brief summary on creating a high performance culture.

For CEOs of evolving small to mid-size companies, we augment this approach to meet their specific challenges. Between start-up and $200 million in revenue, these companies face unique hurdles as they work their way through the key stages of growth. To build these businesses, CEOs must understand and remain focused on the primary objective of each stage. While employing the same principles described in The Enlightened CEO, we complement the book’s prescriptions based on our experience in meeting the specific challenges faced by senior executives of these early stage companies.

CEO Mentors helps with both the understanding and the execution. That is, we not only help you understand what you need to do differently, but we work with you to see it effectively implemented.

Do you believe that you have to face your issues by yourself?
Do you think that no one has faced them before?
Don't you think it's possible to accelerate your understanding and resolution of the issues you face -- allowing you to minimize the missteps along the way?

There are many challenging thoughts our clients typically struggle with before enlisting us to help. However, once we are engaged they have found that consultation and mentoring are the fastest paths to improved results.

The role of CEO Mentors is to accelerate the development of a high performance culture, led by an enlightened CEO, that leads to exceptional results.

J.J. Ramberg

Tue, 15 May 2007 00:00:00 CDT

The weekly, half-hour program, hosted by JJ Ramberg, which focuses exclusively on America's small business entrepreneurs, is the place to go for news, advice, guidance, and tips for small business owners.

Each week, "Your Business" presents a profile of a small business owner, highlighting both the challenges and successes they have each faced. Guest panelists, who include venture capitalists, angel investors, business journalists, academics, and successful entrepreneurs, weigh in with their expertise and answer questions from viewers.

"Your Business" also features a segment titled 'Elevator Pitch,' where entrepreneurs get a chance to pitch their new business ideas to a panel of experts. Also included in the program are the latest small business headlines, interesting websites for small business owners, and the 'Small Biz Top Five,' the weekly top 5 tips for improving your business.

"Your Business" telecasts weekly on Sundays at 7:30 am (ET) and re-air the following Saturday at 5:30 am (ET). http://www.mysuccessgateway.com

Host JJ Ramberg joined MSNBC from CNN where she reported on a wide range of topics from breaking news to profiles of the country's top business leaders. Passionate about small business, Ramberg has first-hand experience, co-founding the search engine GoodSearch.com. Ramberg has a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Scott Leon is executive producer of "Your Business." A veteran broadcast journalist for over 30 years, Leon was formerly executive producer of MSNBC's "Entertainment Hot List" and "MSNBC At the Movies."

JJ Ramberg is the host of MSNBC's new small business show, “Your Business.”

Before joining MSNBC, Ramberg was a reporter at CNN, where she covered a wide range of topics, ranging from breaking news to profiles of the country’s top business leaders. Her extensive field experience includes reporting from Biloxi, Miss., and New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She also hosted the daytime talk program “The Flipside” on CNNfn and was a producer on CNN’s profile program “Pinnacle.” She began her television career at NBC News, where she was an associate producer at “Dateline NBC.”

Ramberg is passionate about small business and has firsthand experience as an entrepreneur herself. With her brother, she co-founded GoodSearch.com, a search engine that donates 50 percent of revenue to the charities and schools its users designate. Ramberg also spent two years after business school as the director of marketing and one of the first employees at Cooking.com, an Internet-based cookware retailer.

Ramberg has spent her career balancing business with public service, spending considerable time during the past few years working for microfinance organizations in Uganda and India.

Ramberg graduated cum laude from Duke University with a bachelor of arts degree in English and received her MBA from Stanford Business School.

"Your Business" telecasts weekly on Sundays at 7:30 am (ET) and re-air the following Saturday at 5:30 am (ET). http://www.mysuccessgateway.com

Paul Miller

Tue, 15 May 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Paul was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin. He received a BS in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. Paul served as an aide to former U.S. Congressman Les Aspin.

In 1996, Paul took a leave of absence from Washington and went back home to Wisconsin to run for the Wisconsin General Assembly.

Currently, Paul has his own lobbying firm Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies, LLC.

In addition to his work for his firm, Paul was elected as the youngest President of the American League of Lobbyists, the national association representing the lobbying profession.

Paul also is the founder of the Hoops for Hope charity basketball event that pits members of Congress vs. lobbyists each year in an effort to raise money for children's charities in the Washington, D.C. area. To date this event has raised over $250,000.

Paul has vast experience in the lobbying profession and in January of 2006, he introduced the first lobbying certification program. A program designed to help lobbyists keep pace with the profession and its standards.

Paul has led the fight to bring about changes to the electronic filing system in the House of Representatives. This new change makes it easier for lobbyists to comply and meet with obligations under federal law and allows the general public an opportunity to view lobbying reports online.

Paul was also instrumental in shaping the debate on lobbying reform in 2006 and 2007. As chief spokesman and lobbyist for the profession, Paul met with leaders from both parties on the issue of reform. He has appeared before both the House and Senate and has appeared on most television programs educating the public on the issue of lobbying and proposed changes to the Lobbying Disclosure Act. He has been a tireless champion in the fight to protect every citizen’s right to petition their government through lobbying activities.

As a leader in his profession, Paul has traveled abroad to talk with foreign leaders about their efforts to implement lobbying rules and regulations. He has met with leaders from Peru, Indonesia, Great Britain, Viet Nam, Czechoslovakia, Scandinavia, and Japan.

About Miller/Wenhold Washington D.C. Small Business Lobbyists

At Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies we believe that the most important quality a government affairs firm can offer to a client is trust. This trust is built on results, a principle our firm was founded on. Reputation, Relationships, Results, the three R's of politics, are what you seek and what Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies delivers.

We pride ourselves on having an excellent reputation with policy makers. We put that reputation to work for you. We believe that strong relationships with our clients and policy makers are fundamental to providing responsive representation. We put those relationships to work for you. We understand that at the end of the day the job must get done. We get the results you need. This combination of experience and personal attention gives our clients the competitive edge in getting results.

Paul Murphy

Mon, 14 May 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Mr. Murphy is an economist, researcher and writer / programmer specializing in the area of federal procurement and federal grants. He is the founder and President of Eagle Eye Publishers, a firm he started in 1986 to help researchers understand federal spending trends and to help vendors market more effectively to federal agencies. He has extensive knowledge about government contracting trends and his company serves hundreds of domestic and international clients.

In 1988, Mr. Murphy developed the first-ever CD-ROM database of U.S. federal prime contracts for desktop computers. It remains the premier procurement database application for researchers who require comprehensive, transaction-level contract details for all agencies and markets. The application, now fully updated through FY 2005, contains detailed and summary information on 190,000 companies, 800,000 contracts and thousands of markets and agencies. Eagle Eye’s clients currently include over 100 major federal contractors as well as subscribers at the General Services Administration, the Department of Justice and other federal agencies.

Over the last decade Mr. Murphy has authored dozens of government and commercially- sponsored reports and studies. Under contract to the federal government in 1996, 1998 and again in 2000, Mr. Murphy designed and conducted groundbreaking analyses of bundled contracts and their impact on small federal contractors.

In 2002, Mr. Murphy authored two reports for the SBA. One analyzed the impact of government credit card purchases on small businesses and the second updated and expanded upon his original analysis of contract bundling. Mr. Murphy also contributed as a sub-contractor to an extensive analysis of small business contracting trends in the Forest Service and to a study of veteran-owned firm utilization by federal agencies. Both contracts were primed by Jack Faucett & Associates.

In 2005, Mr. Murphy authored five reports for the SBA. The first measured the generally minimal achievements of most agencies in meeting their procurement goals with Small, Disadvantaged Veteran-owned businesses. The second analyzed the extent of small business coding inconsistencies in the federal procurement database. A third study compared small business shares of federal procurement by NAICS code compared with corresponding small business shares of NAICS markets in the economy as a whole. The fourth study assessed small business participation on GWAC contracts.

In 2006, Mr. Murphy authored a pending analysis of small business participation in the GSA’s Coop Purchasing Program, which makes the GSA Group 70 Schedule available for use by state and local governments.

As a result of these and earlier studies, Mr. Murphy presented testimony to the House of Representatives’ Small Business Committee in 1999 and to the Senate Small Business Committee in 2003 in order to inform small business legislation and reforms to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 19. Mr. Murphy was invited back to the House Small Business Committee in 2005 to provide testimony about small business procurement issues and trends.

In 1999, under contract to Pew Charitable Trust, Mr. Murphy merged federal contracts data with the Commerce Department’s jobs model to create a groundbreaking analysis of the true size of government-related employment called The Shadow Government by Paul Light. Mr. Murphy created an all-new contract jobs model for Mr. Light when Mr. Light updated The Shadow Government at The Brookings Institution in 2003. Mr. Murphy completed a third contract-jobs model for The Shadow Government’s third update in 2006 to be published by New York University.

Other studies performed by Mr. Murphy include The High Technology Small Business Sourcebook (Eagle Eye, 1997) and Congress and Defense (National Journal, 1988). Mr. Murphy’s data and views on various procurement-related topics have been widely quoted and cited in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, Business Week, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Washington Technology, Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News, Federal Times, Government Executive Magazine, The Washington Business Journal and its affiliates around the country, Minorities in Business Insider, Set-Aside Alert, Industry Week, and others.

For the last five years Mr. Murphy has authored Tips and Stats, a weekly electronic newsletter that profiles key procurement issues and trends and is sent out to 5,000 subscribers. Mr. Murphy also provides the procurement analysis for Eagle Eye’s monthly Agency Business Intelligence Seminars, a monthly event held since 2004.

Patrick Wanis

Fri, 04 May 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Patrick Wanis is a renowned Celebrity Life Coach, Woman Expert, Human Behavior Expert, Clinical Hypnotherapist, and Author with extensive credits and successes worldwide. He has coached various celebrities such as Hulk Hogan, consulted for major corporations, appeared on radio and television, and published various books on human behavior, the mind, hypnosis, relationships and personal development. More than four million people have read his work in English and Spanish.

Wanis is a charismatic and persuasive presenter. His expertise includes communication, human motivations, interpersonal relationships, body language, and persuasion. Much of Wanis’ work has focused on examining the role of the mind, body and physiology on behavior and psychological functioning, as well as the areas of body language, relationships, sexuality and women’s issues. His degrees include a Bachelor of Science in Communication and Associate Degrees in Dramatic Arts (Media) and Speech, Script-Writing & Communication from Australia, Associate Degrees in Advanced Hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic

Programming (NLP) from the World Institute of Cognitive Sciences, Pennsylvania.

Wanis has appeared on radio and TV and has authored various books, publications and columns on human behavior, relationships, and the mind. He consults and presents custom programs for major corporations such as El Paso Energy, Exxon, Doubletree & Hilton hotels, Rinoval (Mexico and Canada), SuperClubs Bahamas, and Alpha Model Group. Clients and corporations use Wanis' Subconscious Personality Test - a unique personality and behavioral analysis for productivity and results.

Patrick Wanis began his career in Australia on stage, radio, and Television. He worked as Executive Producer and talk show host of News/Talk Radio 3AK in Melbourne, and TV Political reporter for Tens News Television. The Australian Journalists Association awarded Wanis the elite ranking of A+++ Grade Journalist and at age 25, Wanis became the youngest talk show host in Australian history.

Wanis soon traveled around the world and worked in Spain, Africa, England, Mexico and The Caribbean. In West Africa, Wanis studied the link between the belief in Juju spells and the behavior of various tribes. Later, Wanis began motivational training programs & workshops for Steiners Services, Carnival Cruises. Wanis also produced large-scale events including the Clinton/Gore 96 campaign visit to Orlando and Blues Brothers 2000 for Daytona 500. Allegro Resorts recognized Wanis' skills in management, leadership and show production with various awards. He also began consulting to large corporations such as Fox Television, Club Marival Mexico, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. From 1998 to 2000, Wanis was a regular co-host and Hypnotherapist on America Talks Health, syndicated radio show.

Wanis hosted three TV talk show specials with teens on Terrorism and September 11 and. Wanis has authored numerous books. His published titles are: How To Find Happiness, What A Woman Wants, Finding God, How To Get Over It –Breakups, Betrayals And Rejection (audio book), How to Connect with a Woman, How To Hypnotize Anyone, How To Tap Into The Hidden Powers of Your Mind (two prints, and English and Spanish), Soul Mates (English and Spanish), Soul Mates –Find Your Perfect Match Now, Angels, Angel Encounters, and coming in 2006: The Art of Persuasion and; Get What You Want –Using The Power of Your Mind.

Jim Peake, Dr. Joe Rubino and Blair Singer

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Living in the Age of Refinement and Innovation Roundtable Pod-cast Monthly Podcast

Virginia Tech Massacre: Leaders Speak of Global Transformation and Political Transformation

Jim Peake Host, CEO of My Success Gateway, LLC
Dr. Joe Rubino, Panelist and CEO of The Center for Personal Reinvention & The Self Esteem Book
Blair Singer, Panelist and CEO of Sales Dogs and Sales Partners Worldwide

Lloyd Chapman

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Lloyd Chapman, President & CEO of the American Small Business League who is a man on a mission assisting small businesses taking back their government contracts from the Fortune 500-1,000 companies who kicked in the back door. Think about a million man small business march in Washington, D.C. and other cities demanding change and winning back their $50 Billion + of SBA contracts from the Fortune 1,000. Lloyd Chapman is a man on a mission, and if he chooses to set his mind to it you just might see it happen.

About American Small Business League

The American Small Business League was formed in 2002. The founders were small businesses increasingly frustrated by abuses and loopholes that allowed large companies to get government contracts that Congress had set aside for America’s small businesses.

The League’s roots are based in an association of computer software and equipment sellers seeking proper administration of Small Business Act implementation guidelines. They and other small businesses were being hurt as contracts ostensibly guaranteed to small businesses instead were awarded to giant companies with 10,000 or 100,000 employees. They formed the Microcomputer Industry Suppliers Association. Throughout the 1990s they took their case to Washington, attracting media attention to the situation, pressuring members of Congress for remedy, and dealing directly with the Small Business Administration under both Democratic and Republican presidencies.

The issue was again brought to light in 2003 by Representative Nydia M. Velazquez (D-NY), the ranking Democratic member of the House Committee on Small Business. She issued the fourth annual Scorecard report evaluating 21 federal agencies, accounting for 96 percent of federal procurement, and was highly critical of their mandated small business goal achievement. “Even though the government bought more last year, it still failed to meet a single one of its small business goals for the third straight year, ” the report said.

The government missed its statutory small business goal of awarding 23 percent of its contracts to small businesses and its 5 percent goals for both women- and minority-owned businesses, the report said, costing small businesses an estimated $13.8 billion in federal contracting opportunities. The grades that Congress assigned to the 21 agencies were no A's, four B's, five C's, nine D's and three F's. The overall grade given to the federal government in Scorecard IV was a D. The 2004 report is expected to be released soon.

"Small businesses just need a chance – a foot in the door so they can show federal agencies what they can do,” Representative Velazquez said in July 2003. “After all, small businesses are the lifeline of the American economy. I know that, you know that. Now we just need the federal government to figure it out."

As the Microcomputer Industry Suppliers Association saw that their problems were shared by other companies in other industries, they morphed into the American Small Business League – coexisting and sharing a website for more than a year, then solely becoming ASBL in 2004.

Kim T. Gordon

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Kim T. Gordon is one of the country's foremost experts on the small business market. A multi-faceted author, marketing expert, media spokesperson and speaker, her work has helped millions of small business owners increase their success. In 1991 Gordon’s firm, National Marketing Federation Inc., was among the first to pioneer coaching by telephone to entrepreneurs nationwide, bringing the same high-level marketing consultation that was once available only to big-business clients, to small and medium-size businesses across the US. Through her Entrepreneur magazine columns and online columns that appear on AOL and other major sites, Gordon offers solid advice on growing a business to between three million and fifteen million readers monthly.

Gordon is a professional and polished interviewee who has appeared: On network television interviews (including CNN and ABC World News Tonight) and on TV affiliates in every major market; on twenty-one major radio networks (such as the Wall Street Journal and the Business Radio Networks) in addition to independent stations throughout the country; in newspaper interviews from the Los Angeles Times to the Washington Post; and in numerous major magazines from Newsweek to Business Week.

A recognized broadcast spokesperson on small-business success, Gordon works with Fortune 100 companies to help them effectively communicate product and service information to the small-business market. In 1994, Gordon completed a national press tour, which featured television and radio appearances and print interviews, as the national spokesperson for Canon. During 1995 and 1996, Gordon spoke at conferences across the U.S. as spokesperson for Office Depot Inc., and in 1998 made special appearances at Office Depot stores throughout the U.S. and Canada guiding business owners and entrepreneurs in effective strategies for marketing their businesses.

In 1998, Gordon made television and radio appearances as a national spokesperson for Sprint to announce Sprint Sense Home Office, and continued in that role in 1999 with additional media tours for Sprint, as well as successful national tours for Nortel Networks and Hewlett Packard. She returned as spokesperson for Sprint for Small Business Week 2000.

For Small Business Week 2002, Gordon was a spokesperson for eBay, completing a successful radio tour promoting eBay's business and industrial products. Throughout 2002, she partnered with Oxygen, the television network for women, as a spokesperson and consultant, playing a major role in the network's annual Build Your Own Business Contest.

In 2003 and 2004, she was a national spokesperson for Visa, introducing its newest Visa Extra Rewards programs for businesses through media tours on radio and television as well in articles for publication. Also beginning in 2003 and continuing through 2005, Gordon served as a radio, print and online spokesperson, and wrote bylined articles for national magazines, on behalf of major Web host, Interland. Beginning in late 2006 and continuing into 2007, she currently provides consultation to the United States Postal Service and is Editor at Large of its branded small-business magazine, Impact, and its online e-zine, Virtual Impact.

Gordon is the author of four books, including Maximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars: The Top 50 Ways to Grow Your Small Business (April 2006, Kaplan Publishing). Providing step-by-step guidance in the newest tactics, as well as unique twists on tried-and-true marketing methods, this book presents more than thirty small business success stories that illustrate how to create a winning marketing mix regardless of budget.

In 2005, Gordon released an e-book available exclusively on Entrepreneur.com, Big Marketing Ideas for Small Budgets: A Step-by-step Guide to Growing Your Business. This handy how-to e-book contains 21 chapters, and is divided into four important subject areas – marketing strategies, tools and tactics, sales and promotion, and planning for success.

Her second book, Bringing Home the Business: The 30 Truths Every Home Business Owner Must Know (2000, Perigee/Putnam), contains the straightforward truths about successfully marketing a home business, combined with expert, step-by-step information to help readers increase their incomes and create the lifestyles they’ve always wanted. Gordon's first book, Growing Your Home-based Business (Prentice Hall/Simon & Schuster), brought her sales and marketing communications know-how to this expanding market, offering home-based businesses the same proven strategies and tactics used by some of America's largest corporations.

Her popular online columns appear regularly on AOL Small Business, MSNBC, Yahoo Small Business, and other major websites. For the past decade, Gordon has been a columnist for Entrepreneur Media. Gordon's monthly column began in Entrepreneur's Business Start-Ups magazine in August 1997 and continued until May 2000 when she began as marketing columnist for Entrepreneur magazine. Her popular Tactics column appears there monthly. She was the author of the SOHO S.O.S. column on the Web at Entrepreneur magazine’s HomeOfficeMag.com for several years, and in April 2000, she began a featured column on Entrepreneur.com, the largest small business site on the Web, where her columns continue to appear monthly. Her articles and special features have appeared in Home Office Computing, MAC Home Journal, and Independent Business magazines. For more than two years, Gordon was one of just ten national experts selected by TIME Inc. to be a member of the "Board of Directors" for its interactive on-line magazine, TIME Vista Boardroom, where she answered questions from small-business owners worldwide.

An experienced manager and executive, Gordon is president of National Marketing Federation, Inc. Prior to founding NMF, Gordon held senior-level corporate positions, as vice president of marketing and executive committee member of a $2.5 billion real estate company, and vice president of development for a $300 million marketing communications company. Gordon is a past recipient of Sales and Marketing International's Distinguished Sales Award presented by the late Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, and served for three years on the Board of Trustees of a treatment hospital for disabled children and adults. In March 2007, she founded and chaired the highly successful Woman's Hope Concert to benefit a shelter for women and their children left homeless due to personal challenges and domestic abuse.

Tom McCarthy

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

SPECIALIZING IN RESULTS When every dollar counts, it's good to know that your going to get a return on your investment. If the result you want is to take your organization to the next level, Tom McCarthy is the specialist that can help you achieve it.

EXPERIENCED For more than a decade as a corporate consultant, speaker, trainer and coach Tom has successfully taught hundreds of thousands of people how to dramatically increase their level of performance in business and in life. He has presented more than 1,500 seminars, workshops, and training programs to corporations and associations around the world.

WALKS HIS TALK Tom not only speaks about success in business, he lives it. After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1983 where he was an honor student and a member of the nationally ranked football team, Tom became the youngest stockbroker ever hired by a prestigious Wall Street firm. By his second year Tom had become one of the highest producing brokers in the entire firm. Later he founded Thomas McCarthy & Associates, a thriving training and consulting firm, which works closely with clients ranging from new ventures to Fortune 500 companies.

PROVEN SUCCESS 1986, when the leader of one of the country's largest training organizations, Anthony Robbins, was looking for a leader to coach, energize and train the Robbins Research sales force, he chose Tom McCarthy. He become it's first National Sales Trainer and National Sales Manager. As a result of Tom's training, management, and leadership the company's sales more than doubled each year he was there. Tom then became one of the first people Anthony Robbins personally selected to teach lead his Mastery University seminars. In addition to coaching and training peak performers in business, Tom has also been hired to work with 3 Olympic Gold Medalists as well as several World Champion athletes and teams. Tom resides in Rancho Santa Fe, California with his wife Stacy and their two children.

ONE OF THE WORLD'S LEADING EXPERTS . . . When you select Tom McCarthy for your next meeting or event you're not hiring just another speaker. You're selecting one of the worlds leading experts in helping individuals and organizations to move out of their comfort zones and limiting patterns into new levels of peak performance. Every training Tom presents is customized to meet your outcomes and comes with a satisfaction guarantee!

Aliza Sherman

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

"It's a man's world out there in cyberspace - but not if Aliza Sherman has anything to say about it. Her mission: empower women and girls through technology." -- The Wall Street Journal

Aliza Sherman is the Original Cybergrrl - an Internet thought leader, highly sought-after online marketing expert and passionate evangelist for the Internet, particularly as a valuable and useful tool for our personal and professional lives. She is a motivational and inspirational speaker who has spoken around the world about the Internet, entrepreneurship and women's empowerment.

Named by Newsweek as one of the "Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet," Aliza Sherman is a Web pioneer, online marketing expert, published author, international speaker and regular contributor to national magazines and web sites.

Pioneering Work: Sherman founded the first woman-owned, full-service Internet company - Cybergrrl, Inc. - in the early days of the World Wide Web,. She also founded Webgrrls International, the first women's Internet networking group that grew to over 100 chapters worldwide in its first year. She is known as the woman who pioneered the Web for other women and has been building online communities for women since the early 1990s. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her innovative work on the Internet including the prestigious Avon Spirit of Enterprise Award.

In 1995, she built the first 3 websites for women (Cybergrrl.com, Webgrrls.com, Femina.com), preceding both Women.com and iVillage.com, and is considered the pioneer who helped pave the way on the Web and in the New Media industry for women.

New Directions: In 2005, Sherman moved from new media to "old media," producing, writing and narrating an original 12-part documentary series for Wyoming Public Television - "Wyoming Families First." She and her husband started a production company - Moonbow Productions, Inc. - to develop film projects, publish books and create art with a purpose. Her first independent film is about miscarriage.

She has produced radio segments for "Marketplace" heard on NPR as well as for Wyoming Public Radio and Alaska Public Radio Network.

She is a regular freelance contributor to ENTREPRENEUR, HOME BUSINESS, PINK MAGAZINE, PROFESSIONAL WOMAN, MINORITY ENGINEER, and many others. She is currently working on her 7th book - a business guide to the Internet for late adopters to be published by Adams Media in 2007.

She continues to work on a variety of multimedia projects including a book about her year-long solo travels across the country in an old RV and a handbook about miscarriage to help bring much needed information to women.

Recent Activities: Aliza recently spoke at the Women's Forum in Deauville, France as well as at the annual convention for the Society of American Travel Writers in Santiago, Chile. In 2005, she spoke about women and cyberspace issues at the John Marshall School of Law in Chicago, Illinois. She also presented at a major workforce conference to be held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in June 2004 with Jimmy Orr, former Whitehouse Internet Director. She has taught Internet, business and marketing workshops throughout the state of Wyoming as well asInternet courses at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming and the University of Wyoming in Laramie.

Aliza received the 2004 Small Business Administration's annual Small Business Journalist Award in the state of Wyoming. She appeared as a regular guest on Wyoming Public Radio's evening talk show "Wyoming Today," speaking on business and Internet topics.

Consulting & Advising: While with Cybergrrl, Inc., she was a highly regarded Internet strategy consultant for major corporations seeking to reach women online including Avon Products, Inc. and Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. for whom her company built the first web sites for the Jane Cosmetics and Origins brands. She also built the first breast cancer awareness resource online for Avon's Breast Cancer Awareness Crusade.

Her company pioneered one of the first custom shopping carts on the Web for another client - Dr. Atkins. She also consulted non-profit organizations including Girls, Inc., the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, the Bone Marrow Foundation, and NYC Planned Parenthood on their Internet strategies.

In addition to serving on the Advisory Board for Wyndham's "Women on Their Way" program, the "Frank About Women" program and Oxygen/Markle Pulse, she has beenan advisor to several nonprofit organizations for girls including GenAustin and numerous websites and women-owned businesses such as HipGuide and College Broadband. She was part of the American Association of University Women's gender and technology task force and has served on the SBA Braintrust for women-owned businesses.

Extensive Press Coverage: She has been profiled internationally as well as in U.S. publications such as PEOPLE, USA TODAY, WALL STREET JOURNAL, US NEWS and WORLD REPORT, TIME DIGITAL, and ELLE magazine. She has been featured on CBS News with Dan Rather, CBS "This Morning," Fox "Good Day New York," Lifetime TV's "New Attitudes," and has had frequent appearances as an Internet expert and book author on CNN, CNN-FN, MSNBC, and CNBC. Radio credits include NPR, CBS Radio, Newsweek Radio and numerous local radio talk shows and Internet radio shows.

In 1999, she appeared on the cover of USA TODAY as part of a technology summit and was the only woman and the only small business owner on the panel of today's technology leaders including Michael Dell of Dell Computers and the CEOs of Lucent Technologies, 3Com and Comcast.

Book Credits: She is the author of: The Everything Blogging Book (ADAMS MEDIA, 2006) PowerTools for Women in Business: 10 Ways to Succeed in Life and Work (ENTREPRENEUR PRESS, 2001), Cybergrrl @ Work: Tips and Inspiration for the Professional You (PENGUIN PUTNAM, 2001) and Cybergrrl: A Woman's Guide to the World Wide Web (BALLANTINE, 1998) among other bookshttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com.

Personal: Sherman spent all of 2001 on an extended double booktour promoting her 2nd and 3rd books, traveling the country in an RV with her chihuahuas. Her travel diary can be read at RVGirl.com. She is married with 2 Chihuahuas, a Black Lab, a wonderful husband and beautiful baby girl.

Al Lautenslager

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Al Lautenslager is an award winning marketing/PR consultant, direct mail promotion specialist, author, speaker and entrepreneur. His businesses have helped hundreds succeed in their own businesses. He is the principal of a Market For Profits, a Chicago-based marketing consulting firm and also the president and owner of a small business, The Ink Well, a commercial printing and mailing company in Wheaton, IL. Al recently appeared on radio, as a marketing expert to review Super Bowl commercials. He has also appeared on TV.

Al has started up businesses and closed them down. He has walked the walk of a guerrilla marketer. He is a multi-winner of business of the year awards from various organizations. His articles can be seen on over 20 online sites in addition to being a featured business coach for the online site of Entrepreneur Magazine, entrepreneur.com.

A member of USA Today's small business panel, and a certified Guerrilla Marketing coach, Lautenslager is also a much-in-demand speaker on the subject of marketing. Recently, Fast Company Magazine announced that Lautenslager is a finalist for its annual Fast 50, "ordinary people doing extraordinary things" as "leaders, innovators and technology pioneers".

Al speaks to audiences wanting to learn more about building their businesses through low or no cost marketing tactics. Many in his audiences leave with strategies and tactics they can use the same day as they hear them.

His leadership has extended to his involvement into the community, is on the board of directors of five non-profit organizations, including two chambers of commerce.

About Market For Profits – Al Lautenslager – Corporate Spokesperson

If you have a product or service, or an orientation and focus that helps people start, build, manage, grow and prosper through business, Al Lautenslager is the ideal media/company spokesperson to reach your target audience.

Every company or organization needs to clearly communicate their goals and objectives in order to distinguish themselves from the competition and positively impact the bottom line.

Biba F. Pedron

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Biba F. Pédron, also known as "The Connection Queen", is a marketing consultant and entrepreneur, launched Biba4Network in May 2003, specializes in Networking for small business owners in the greater New York Area, and Focus on Career, a one-stop-shop, dedicated to help solo-entrepreneurs to start their own businesses.

Biba F. Pédron is the author of "Start Your Dream Business Today - The Proven 11 Steps to Start and Grow Your Business" a simple yet informative and easy to follow, step-by-step guide to everything a new entrepreneur should know when starting a business.

And the author of "Power of Networking Secrets" a 5 Step Program to Maximize YOUR Networking Results.

For over 15 years, Biba has served as a sales & marketing manager for a number of companies in her native France. Recognized as someone who powerfully connects with people, professionally and socially, Biba brings her successful networking techniques to both sides of the Atlantic.

Biba’s motto is "Stop looking for a job, start your own business doing what you love. I started companies in both France and the USA, my experience can save you lot of time and money."

She has managed numbers of salespeople in different companies before she started her first business F.P Communication in April 1998, where she helped dozens of her clients—mainly small business owners—grow their businesses through telemarketing. She brings her personal experience, know-how, energy and sensitivity to her clients who are typically experts in their chosen fields. Biba helps her clients structure, organize and grow their businesses.

Biba is well-known for her unique blend of business networking through her own company Biba4Network. She organizes meetings on a monthly basis throughout the greater New York area and in Paris & Lyon -France). The events provide entrepreneurs and small business owners the opportunity to meet each other in a structured setting, exchange ideas and resources. Biba makes a concerted effort to create the right environment that fosters growth and development and she strives to help her members meet the right partners for their businesses.

Because networking is much more than just shaking hands and collecting business cards, Biba4Network facilitates business meetings by connecting entrepreneurs with other small business owners and service providers who are committed to help grow their businesses and improve their client bases.

Using her own experience and struggles to start her own business, Biba launched Focus on Career, a one-stop-shop to help new entrepreneurs start their own businesses in a fast and easy manner in the New York Area.

With a team of experts: Business Lawyers for legal advice and immigration purposes, Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), and Business Consultants, Biba helps her clients save time and money, get started with their Business Plan, run their marketing survey, develop their marketing system, and improve their networking skills—ALL the important ingredients to make the business work and generate profit.

About the Connection Queen

Biba Pédron in 2003 started Biba4Network, specialized in Networking for small business owners in the New York area (in now in France). Today, my clients call me « The Connection Queen » because they were able to grow their businesses by 30% in 3 months attending the meetings and using my strategies. I help people to maximize their networking results, connecting them to who they need to meet & training them to network more effectively so that they can grow their businesses faster.

I connect you with who you need to meet and I train you to network more effectively so that you can maximize your networking results and grow your business faster.

Glenn Livingston, Ph.D

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Holding a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology ('Scientist-Practitioner' model) from Yeshiva University, Dr Livingston formally studied research design and analysis for 9 years. He was an instructor for the multivariate computer analysis of behavioral data labs on the Einstein Medical Campus. Dr. Livingston also holds a web programming certificate from the University of Illinois and is responsible for developing all of The Livingston Group proprietary web-research technologies.

Dr. Livingston has published extensively on creative market research and psychological theories (e.g. in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, American Demographics, The Chicago Sun Times, The Milwaukee Business Journal, The Indiana Star Ledger, Marketing News, Quirks Marketing Research Review, etc), and has been interviewed frequently on radio and television (WCBS Radio NY, WABC Radio Seattle, UPN News Baltimore, WNTN Boston & WGN Chicago).

Dr. Livingston also spent five years researching the nature of creative processes in individuals and groups, has published several journal articles on creativity, and has spoken on the topic of creative advertising strategies at gatherings of the American Marketing Association, the Advertising Research Foundation, and the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA).

Dr. Livingston previously handled focus group projects for high technology clients such as Panasonic and AT&T, medical clients such as Novartis, Henry Schein Dental, Marrion Merrel Dow, and Parke Davis, and psychological research for clients such as Ford Motor Company and Lipton/Unilever. Prior to joining Executive Solutions Inc. in 1991, Dr. Livingston spent several years working with clinical patients in major NY Hospitals (Nassau County Medical Center & Creedmore Psychiatric).

Dr. Livingston presently maintains a private clinical practice. Several of his private clients/patients are Presidents or CEOs of major corporations.

I love to hike. Long, strenuous, scenic "you can learn everything you need to about life from this mountain" get away from it all kind of hikes. I compose jazz-classical fusion piano music. I can juggle five balls.

About the Livingston Group

The Livingston Group is all about Insight Mining - discovering precious hidden gems of knowledge lurking beneath the surface that can propel your business to new heights.

Learn much more about your market, your customers or potential customers, obtain a fresh perspective on your products, uncover the drivers and motivators necessary to create the strongest brands possible and communicate messages that will resonate with your target audiences.

Learn how to "crack the code" to your customer's mind so you know exactly how to market your product for maximum impact.

Tell us how can we help you today to:

Reach your target audience
Position your brand
Test your message
Refine a product idea
Find out what consumers are thinking
Discover what drives physicians to prescribe
Uncover what motivates patients to ask their doctors for certain products and not others

Eric Graham

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Internationally recognized as a leading authority on eCommerce and Internet Marketing, Eric Graham is the founder and CEO of several highly successful online and offline companies. Eric has over a decade of entrepreneurial and hands-on marketing experience.

Unlike many consultants, Eric has been in the trenches and knows what works and what doesn't from personal experience, not just from academic theory. As an already successful business owner, he quickly recognized the potential of eCommerce and has been marketing his products, services and companies online since 1994, developing a net worth of well over a million dollars by the age of 28.

His services as a speaker, consultant and author are in high demand due to his knack for solving problems and significantly increasing the bottom line for his clients. Eric's clients come from many different industries, from Aviation, Security, Finance and Medicine to Sports and Entertainment. Businesses both large and small have relied on Eric's passion, vision and uncanny ability to identify the under performing areas of their business and capitalize on overlooked opportunities to explode their sales and profitability.

Eric's talents and abilities in corporate and technical training have benefited companies such as Intel, Lucent Technologies, Owens Illinois, IDT, Northwest Airlines and The United States Air Force.

About the Conversion Doctor

My goal is to make your business as profitable as possible by discovering gaps in your current conversion process, identifying opportunities for improving sales and providing expert, objective guidance.

To keep my services affordable to a wide range of businesses - big or small - I have structured my consulting, speaking and website evaluation services to ensure that there is an option that fits within every budget.

My entry-level Website Evaluation and Telephone Consultation products start at $250, and my more advanced consultation, usability testing, on-site workshop and staff training services range from $2,500 to $25,000. Most of my products and services are scalable and customizable to your specific needs, goals and budget.

Website Evaluations
My line of website evaluation products will assess your site's ability to convert visitors into customers, based on your goals and objectives. These eye-opening, objective evaluations will help you diagnose the most costly leaks in your current conversion process. You will receive a set of detailed, actionable recommendations based on your current website design. Duration: 1-2 weeks.

Usability Testing
You'll gain many valuable and profitable insights when you see your website through your customers eyes. Usability testing will identify (and help you repair) many potential "points-of-failure" in your sales and conversion process. I offer several usability testing packages customized to each website's needs. Duration: 3-4 weeks.

Training and Workshops
I offer a variety of programs for training you, your staff or in-house teams in the conversion rate optimization process. Each program is highly customized to your specific company, site, goals and needs. I can also conduct and facilitate in depth workshops where we focus on a specific component in your conversion process in a team environment and develop a specific solution for your business. Duration: 1-3 days.

Consultation Services
Profit from my experience and expertise on a one time or ongoing basis.

Do you have one or two quick questions you need me to answer over the phone? Order a phone consultationhttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com.
Do you need me to develop a detailed written report, plan or strategy for a specific area? Get a quote for a written consultationhttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com.
Do you need me to come to your location for an in-depth, in-person strategy session or one-on-one mentoring? Get an on-site consultation quotehttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com.

Duration: Varies

Still unsure which product or service is the best fit for you or your website? Contact me to discuss your needs.

Paul Lewis

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Paul is CEO of a thriving Online Agency MindComet.com. Paul talks about the old way of doing things. The media consumption of generation Y is totally different. They throw away phone books, their hours per day watching television has migrated to online.

If you are going to be establishing a presence on the internet, I need a web site to be in business today. It is only a starting point. You will want to plan a digital communications strategy. Blogs are being creating every second. Blogs are about hobbies and every other subject under the sun. The challenge is how to interact with the blog-o-sphere. How can you get that 2 way communication? It is great to search blogs to search in the specific areas and find the niche you are seeking.

Paul shares that Payperpost.com or pay per blog is a place where you can pay people to blog about you. Pay Per Post is a market like e-Bay is a market. If you are launching a new travel web site, think of something more viral think about writing about your worst travel experience. It is hard to get people to read and write about your blog. You can get search engine value of blogging.

Paul says that if you want to gain a reader then think about making the article edgy. Make the article either a human interest article or make it edgy. It is a very good to reach a hard to reach group. When certain keywords come up in a Google alerts or a RSS environment, micro markets can be tackled easily.

MySpace.com is one of the number one places to go on the internet. MySpace.com has over 115 million registered users. Paul goes into an example of Dove’s advertising campaign. How people can look even better. Dove ran the campaign on YouTube.com and it worked better than an ad on the Superbowl. Paul demonstrated that they had a bigger response from social networking.

For smaller businesses you can compete for a fraction that what it cost before. The secret and the challenge is to create something funny and creative to create the buzz and viral effect. The reallocation of advertising dollars was 2% online in 2000 and now in 2006-2007 it is climbing up to 20%. Because people are getting better results and you can track it.

Creating an ongoing relationship is a huge factor for success. That is the crux of all marketing; frequency and reach. The majority of people do not convert. What value can I give you today that will allow you to remarket back to the person. Paul is practicing what he preaches. He is giving away his information in podcasts and whiteboarding. He has a series of blogs with Internet marketing VooDoo and e-mail newsletters. Way’s to reach back to the folks who have already been there.

Paul talks about traffic, conversions and how to add value and the last component is what people are saying about you on the web. What is the feedback, i.e. brand monitoring. It is controlling and understanding what people are saying to you. The tools to monitor blogs are the free tools, Ice Rocket and Technorati to brand monitoring services, sophisticated monitoring services with natural language parsers.

There are a lot of video services to syndicate your videos like Google video, Yahoo, Meta Café and many others as well as podcast syndicates. If you have a business that wants to take your online presence to the next level you might want to reach out to Paul and MindComet.com or PayPerPost.com for you advertising and online social networking presence.

About MindComet

MindComet is a unique mix between an interactive marketing consulting firm, an interactive agency and a marketing technology developer. We have implemented relationship building marketing, communications and eLearning solutions for many Fortune 500 companies including Coca-Cola, Tyco, Nextel, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, UPS, Walt Disney and others. Our team delivers an unparalleled combination of strategy, creativity and technology to produce solutions that deliver results for our client partners.

MindComet is a privately held company, headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company operates offices in Atlanta, New York City, Los Angeles and Austin. Founded in 1999 by Ted Murphy, MindComet is widely recognized as one of the premier agencies of its kind.

What We Do MindComet assists our client partners in optimizing their stakeholder relationships. Stakeholders include customers, employees, vendors, media, investors and other individuals and companies our clients communicate and interact with. Our team architects and implements comprehensive relationship strategies that create awareness, drive conversion and increase the lifetime value of a relationship. We call this process Relationship Synthesis.

Re•la•tion•ship n._1. A significant connection or similarity between two or more things, or the state of being related to something else. 2. The connection between two or more people or groups and their involvement with each other, especially in regard to how they behave, feel toward each other, communicate and cooperate.

Syn•the•sis n._1. A new unified whole resulting from the combination of different ideas, influences, or objects. 2. The process of combining different ideas, influences, or objects into a new whole (formal).

The methodology of Relationship Synthesis is simple. Listen to your stakeholders, create a strategy based on your findings, communicate with them and repeat this process often.

Joanna Meiseles

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Joanna Meiseles is the creative mind, founder and president of Snip-its, the fastest-growing franchise of children’s hair salons in North America. Under Joanna’s vision and direction, Snip-its has revolutionized the children’s hair salon industry by creating a branded entertainment concept designed to ease the fears and challenges experienced by parents, children and hair stylists.

The company was born in 1993 after Joanna experienced a heartbreaking hair salon experience with her then 3-year-old son, Ben. A young mother, she arrived at a local salon with baby gear in tow to videotape her son’s first cut. It soon became clear to her that the salon wasn’t interested in cutting her son’s hair nor was it trained to deal with little customers.

With no business experience and motivated by her entrepreneur instincts, Joanna set out to create a magical and comfortable children’s grooming brand and salon specifically designed for young customers. Her big break came in the form of a $10K check from a family friend. That vote of confidence motivated her to raise additional funding and eventually open her first salon in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1995.

Each salon is a magical and positive adventure for children with vibrant colors, wholesome larger-than-life animated characters such as Snips, Flyer Joe Dryer and the Clip-ette sisters, plus games and parties. Parents appreciate that the stylists are professionally trained to cut children’s hair and that each styling station has a cushy parents’ chair to ease all involved in the cut from the little customers to the stylists.

It should come as no surprise that Snip-its is an enchanting experience for children. Joanna’s family roots hail from the entertainment capital of the world. She was born and raised in California and is the granddaughter of actor and comic genius, Jack Benny. Her father is movie producer, Robert F. Blumofe, credited with films, such as Bound for Glory and Yours, Mine and Ours.

Away from Snip-its, Joanna is active with The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), a global community of business owners, and is a frequent public speaker in the Boston area. Joanna holds a B.A. from Duke University and resides with her husband and family of four children in Wayland, Massachusetts. In her free time, she enjoys waterskiing.

Her favorite Snip-its hair care product is Tangy Apple 3-in-1 Shampoo for its one-step cleaning, conditioning, and detangling properties, plus it smells like fresh Granny Smith apples. With four children and a business to run, she rarely has time to slow down.

About Snipits.com

Back in 1993, Joanna Meiseles sought a hair salon that catered to her young children. But instead of a salon, she discovered a business opportunity. That's because at each hair salon she visited, she either found (1) stylists not wanting to deal with wiggling, squirming kids (2) suboptimal cleanliness standards, or (3) little or no originality in the design - a few books, crayons, a toy here and there or maybe a video (the same one your kid has probably watched a thousand times at home) - nothing innovative. Joanna knew there had to be a better way to crop kid's hair while entertaining, so that kids would be captivated rather than tearful, and parents would be fascinated rather than fearful.

Even before launching her first Snip-its salon in 1995, Meiseles knew she wanted to create a brand that would be synonymous with quality children's hair care, all surrounded within a welcoming and entertaining environment. Everything about Snip-its would be proprietary and wholesome: the Snip-its characters, the games and stories, the Magic Box that dispenses a prize in exchange for a swatch of hair at the end of a visit and an all natural line of hair care products specially formulated just for kids.

After two years of extensive research, planning, developing a cast of entertaining characters and creating the Magic that would become the essence of the concept, Joanna opened the first Snip-its salon in Framingham, Massachusetts to rave reviews.

"We're turning what can sometimes be a challenging experience into a fun-filled, entertaining, family adventure," says Snip-its president and founder Joanna Meiseles. "The result is a hair salon no kid can resist and a business model enticing to prospective franchisees."

It's not too surprising that Meiseles finds entertainment to be the key to getting children through a haircut. Entertainment is in her roots. Meiseles, daughter of a Hollywood producer and granddaughter of the late comic Jack Benny, has thrown her show business heritage into creating a hair salon chain where the haircut is high theatre for young clients. Snip-its is haircuts, parties and lots of other things to smile about.

With blogging in vogue, Meiseles recently launched a blog to share her challenges and rewards of being a working mom and an entrepreneur, The Great Working Mom Adventure.

Todd Brown

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Todd is going to look to do right by people and not expect anything back. Todd Brown is from New Jersey and so am I, however we are from different exits. Todd is all about taking action. Todd Brown is a student of the Habits of the Top Internet Marketers. Todd Brown is a former self-proclaimed working stiff and now is a full-time internet marketer, he gives back to the industry that freed him from his job, allowed him to move his family to Florida, gave him a brand new hummer, and continues to let him live the life of his dreams.

Eric Groves

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Eric Groves, Senior Vice President, Sales and Business Development, has been at Constant Contact since January 2001.

Eric has more than 16 years of senior level experience in sales, business development, marketing, and Internet strategy. Prior to Constant Contact, Eric held senior positions with AltaVista, iAtlas, InfoUSA, MFS Communications, SBC Communications, and Citigroup.

Eric has been a featured speaker on a variety of topics including The Power of Relationships (educating small businesses on building relationships, customer loyalty, and boosting sales with email marketing).

Recent speaking engagements have included the 2005 United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE)

National Conference, The Boulder Chamber of Commerce Regional Business EXPO, and the Northwestern Ontario Tourism Development Conference.

In addition, Eric has participated on small business marketing strategy panels at the 2004 US Chamber of Commerce National Small Business Summit, the Small Business Administration Expo 2004, and numerous other small businesses and industry conferences regionally and nationally. Eric holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Grinnell College and a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Iowa.

About Constant Contact

More than 100,000 small businesses and associations use Constant Contact®, the leading permission-based email marketing solution for small business.

Why? Because we help small businesses build stronger and more profitable relationships with their customers. And that is the single most important factor in helping small businesses grow!

In a recent independent survey from Web Marketing Today®, Constant Contact was voted the most popular email marketing tool by small businesses.

Why? Because we understand that time and money are your most precious commodities. And we make sure that you get real, measurable results - right away - without investing a lot of your time or money.

Over 100 well-known Partners and over 1,500 Business Partners have chosen Constant Contact as the email marketing service they offer to their customers. Take a look at our Global Partner portfolio.

In Constant Contact, you also have a trusted partner. We will continue to champion the interests of small businesses as the industry seeks a solution to the spam problem. With Constant Contact, you will have the latest information and features for automating email marketing best practices and compliance with spam regulations.

You benefit from our high email deliverability rates due to our strong partnerships with ISPs and our leadership role in organizations like the ESPC (Email Service Providers Coalition). Become a Constant Contact customer, and you will understand why 96% of our customers said they were likely or already have referred their friends and business associates to Constant Contact.

Vicki Donlan

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Vicki Donlan is publisher and founder of Women’s Business Boston, a 25,000 controlled-circulation newspaper devoted to women in business in the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island region. She is a regular guest discussing women in business on New England Cable News' Business Day. Ms. Donlan was the first Executive Director of The Commonwealth Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by twelve prominent Boston women CEOs to assist women entrepreneurs in the growth of their businesses.

As co-founder and first Executive Director of the South Shore Women’s Business Network and founder of The Alliance of Women’s Business and Professional Organizations, Ms. Donlan has been instrumental in the growth of networking for women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. She was honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration as the Massachusetts and New England Women in Business Advocate for 1994 for her efforts in working with women in small to medium size businesses. In 1997, she was honored with the South Shore Women’s Business Network ‘s Women Mean Business Award for her continuing efforts to help women achieve business success. The Boston YWCA inducted her into their Women of Achievement Class of 1999 and she was honored, June 2000, with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus’ Abigail Adams Award as an outstanding Massachusetts woman. Pine Manor College recognized her at its 2001 graduation with a honorary Doctors of Letters degree as its most distinguished alumnae. Patriots’ Trail Girl Scout Council recognized her as a 2002 Leading Woman. The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce honored her with its Achievement in Business at the 2002 Pinnacle Awards. In 2004 the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston honored her with their Achievement Award.

At the community level, Ms. Donlan is the former president of the Patriots’ Trail Girl Scout Council and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Key Bank. Having spent more than twelve years of her early business career in the newspaper business, Ms. Donlan is fulfilling a dream launching a newspaper that will give ‘ego to women and change the face of business news.’

About - Women's Business Boston

Women's Business Boston was launched in 1998 by Vicki Donlan and circulates in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

In 2004, Donlan sold the monthly publication to Herald Media. Women's Business Boston is the only regional publication profiling senior executive women and women entrepreneurs and enjoys a broad reach to the city's decision makers.

Dick & Rick Hoyt

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.

For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.

At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.

"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now."

The couple brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible. Within five years, Rick had two younger brothers, and the Hoyts were convinced Rick was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to agree: "Because he couldn’t talk they thought he wouldn’t be able to understand, but that wasn’t true." The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. "We always wanted Rick included in everything," Dick said. "That’s why we wanted to get him into public school."

A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build — using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to call it "my communicator." A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.

When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first "spoken" words. They had expected perhaps "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad." But on the screen Rick wrote "Go Bruins." The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. "So we learned then that Rick loved sports," said Dick.

In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing."

Rick’s realization turned into a whole new set of horizons that opened up for him and his family, as "Team Hoyt" began to compete in more and more events. Rick reflected on the transformation process for me, using his now-familiar but ever-painstaking technique of picking out letters of the alphabet:

"What I mean when I say I feel like I am not handicapped when competing is that I am just like the other athletes, and I think most of the athletes feel the same way. In the beginning nobody would come up to me. However, after a few races some athletes came around and they began to talk to me. During the early days one runner, Pete Wisnewski had a bet with me at every race on who would beat who. The loser had to hang the winner’s number in his bedroom until the next race. Now many athletes will come up to me before the race or triathlon to wish me luck."

It is hard to imagine now the resistance which the Hoyts encountered early on, but attitudes did begin to change when they entered the Boston Marathon in 1981, and finished in the top quarter of the field. Dick recalls the earlier, less tolerant days with more sadness than anger: "Nobody wanted Rick in a road race. Everybody looked at us, nobody talked to us, nobody wanted to have anything to do with us. But you can’t really blame them - people often are not educated, and they’d never seen anyone like us. As time went on, though, they could see he was a person — he has a great sense of humor, for instance. That made a big difference."

After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon — and for this Dick had to learn to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old."

With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick’s waist as he swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father’s Day 1985.

"We chuckle to think about that as my Father’s Day present from Rick, " said Dick.

They have been competing ever since, at home and increasingly abroad. Generally they manage to improve their finishing times. "Rick is the one who inspires and motivates me, the way he just loves sports and competing," Dick said.

And the business of inspiring evidently works as a two-way street. Rick typed out this testimony:

"Dad is one of my role models. Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it whatever it is, until it is done. For example once we decided to really get into triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even when he was working."

The Hoyts’ mutual inspiration for each other seems to embrace others too — many spectators and fellow-competitors have adopted Team Hoyt as a powerful example of determination. "It’s been funny," said Dick "Some people have turned out, some in good shape, some really out of shape, and they say ‘we want to thank you, because we’re here because of you’."

Rick too has taken full note of their effect on fellow-competitors while racing:

"Whenever we are passed (usually on the bike) the athlete will say "Go for it!" or "Rick, help your Dad!" When we pass people (usually on the run) they’ll say "Go Team Hoyt!" or "If not for you, we would not be out here doing this."

Most of all, perhaps, the Hoyts can see an impact from their efforts in the area of the handicapped, and on public attitudes toward the physically and mentally challenged.

"That’s the big thing," said Dick. "People just need to be educated. Rick is helping many other families coping with disabilities in their struggle to be included."

That is not to say that all obstacles are now overcome for the Hoyt’s. Dick is "still bothered," he says, by people who are discomforted because Rick cannot fully control his tongue while eating. "In restaurants - and it’s only older people mostly - they’ll see Rick’s food being pushed out of his mouth and they’ll leave, or change their table. But I have to say that kind of intolerance is gradually being defeated."

Rick’s own accomplishments, quite apart from the duo’s continuing athletic success, have included his moving on from high school to Boston University, where he graduated in 1993 with a degree in special education. That was followed a few weeks later by another entry in the Boston Marathon. As he fondly pictured it: "On the day of the marathon from Hopkinton to Boston people all over the course were wishing me luck, and they had signs up which read `congratulations on your graduation!’"

Rick now works at Boston College’s computer laboratory helping to develop a system codenamed "Eagle Eyes," through which mechanical aids (like for instance a powered wheelchair) could be controlled by a paralyzed person’s eye-movements, when linked-up to a computer.

Together the Hoyt’s don’t only compete athletically; they also go on motivational speaking tours, spreading the Hoyt brand of inspiration to all kinds of audiences, sporting and non-sporting, across the country.

Rick himself is confident that his visibility — and his father’s dedication — perform a forceful, valuable purpose in a world that is too often divisive and exclusionary. He typed a simple parting thought:

"The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday life." David Tereshchuk is a documentary television producer. He currently works for the United Nations.

You will not meet anyone who will give you more inspiration.

About Rick Hoyt

Rick was born in 1962 as a spastic quadriplegic, cerebral palsy, non-speaking person. The ability of his mind and person have always been strong, and his family have been hearty supporters of his quest for independence and inclusion in community activities, sports, school and the workplace. Rick is a graduate of Boston University.

About Dick Hoyt

Dick has recently retired as a lieutenant colonel in the air nation guard. He has served his country for over thirty-five years. Dick is a friend of the "Presidents Council on Fitness".

Larry Emsweller - Want to Get on the 6:00 News?

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Larry Emsweller has been a mass media insider for the past 35 years. He started his career as a television journalist and anchorman, then progressed to investigative reporting and then into the role of news executive. Mr. Emsweller made his move into management and television programming when he was asked to come to San Francisco to help further the development of the nationally-syndicated television program PM Magazine. PM Magazine was the Granddaddy of the TV Magazine Genre of Television programming.

Mr. Emsweller has worked in the local market and at the national level with corporate CEOs and group presidents of mega-media giants such as Viacom, Meredith Corporation, GE, Paramount Syndication, Worldvision Television, Aaron Spelling Productions, and CBS. He has won 4 Emmy Awards. Larry has earned a reputation as a start-up and turn-around expert. He is a trouble-shooter. He can go in, assess a problem and correct it. As one Media CEO, once said, “ I ask Larry to do the impossible, and he continues to do it.” Mr. Emsweller is also known as a “Billion Dollar Boy.” contributing billions of dollars in revenue to the companies he has worked with. Larry possesses both a creative flair with a solid understanding of the business side of Media, and business in general. Larry’s philosophy is 60 cents of every dollar spent should fall to the bottom line. If not, you are spending too much money.

He has now turned his attention to working exclusively with the small business world using the Internet to help businesses bulletproof their online entities by better understanding the importance of combining the offline world and the online world. “It is a necessary step, and most people don’t know how to do it. I can help ” said Mr. Emsweller.

In the past few years, Mr. Emsweller has worked as a consultant for small, medium and corporate businesses. While versed in all areas of business, his preference is to help small businesses learn how to get free media, which equates to free traffic. Offline traffic can triple an individual’s unique visitor response, yet many small businesses are unaware of the opportunities available to them that are free or very low cost. Mr. Emsweller and his varied background in the Media has the skill sets to advise them and teach them these skill sets to make them adept at doing this. His background in News, content development, program production, story telling, story selection are part of his business took kit that he shares with his clients.

Mr. Emsweller has built a stellar reputation by providing his clients with specifics on how to accomplish a particular goal and backs it up with the philosophy of why it needs to be done a certain way to achieve success.

Unlike many in the product-oriented world of the Internet world, Mr. Emsweller believes in small group one on one coaching for a reasonable fee in a two-month goal oriented environment. His products are designed as a stand alone, providing information that can be used by them, or if one wants to grasp the concepts more clearly, he offers a 2-month coaching club. He is also an expert in the areas of Branding, Event creation, and more traditional business processes, but Free Offline Traffic through no cost or low cost media is the primary focus of his product list and coaching club.

Arne Brun Lie

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

In 1940, Arne "Bels" Brun Lie was a young Norwegian with a passion for sailing. When Hitler invaded Norway, the sailing stopped, and Arne and his friends joined the Resistance. Still in training, he was arrested by the Gestapo, and at age 18 began a journey that wound through the horrors of three German concentration camps. His friends were executed, leaving Arne with only his dreams of the open ocean, his will, and luck to sustain him till war's end.

For more than forty years, the memory and meaning of the events of his youth were buried, living only in his nightmares. At age 65, prompted by a near fatal heart attack and his emigration to America, Arne decides to revisit the camps and then sail his beloved boat to his new home.

About Night and Fog the book, the journey.

When the Nazis controlled his native Norway, Arne Brun Lie was arrested by the Gestapo for resistance activity. He was sixteen years old. Imprisoned in a series of camps where filth, silence, and torture were ever present, he watched while his friends weakened and died at the hands of the Nazis. Arne was one of the few to survive until the British came.

For decades, that past haunted and blighted Arne’s life. Even emigration to America failed to put the horror of the war years behind him. Then, with two young friends, he set out to sail a small boat from Boston to Norway. At sea he told his companions the story of his wartime past. By the time they reached Norway, he had come to terms with his life. He would marry the American woman he loved and make peace with the past, perhaps even with the German people.

Told with a moving simplicity and clarity, and with a sanity and goodness of emotion that must have come from courage, this is an inspiring and captivating story.

Darrell Zahorsky

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Darrell Zahorsky is the President of Profit Innovators, Inc. and a Business Channel Guide for About.com. He has published over 100 business articles and maintains a popular newsletter. He is an “accidental” speaker. Unlike those who choose to become a speaker and develop a topic, Darrell's widespread recognition has led to companies calling him directly to come speak to their audiences.

Darrell is an internationally recognized authority on entrepreneurship and innovation. His work has been recognized in Harvard Business Working Knowledge, Fortune Innovation Blog, and others media. He is the author of upcoming books The About.com Guide to Starting a Business published by Adams Media and A Cup of Rich Innovations.

He began his business journey 18 years ago working for FitnessLand founded by successful entrepreneur, Harv Eker, best-selling author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Darrell's built a national chain of fitness stores for NordicTrack with 300 employees and $18 million in annual sales. He has worked with companies ranging in size from $5 million to $5 billion. Today, he serves on The Board of Distinguished Judges at The Stevie Awards and The American Business Awards.

Darrell is the creator of The American Innovator Game, Keep the Zebras and A Cup of Rich Innovations. He has brought his innovation strategies to companies including Sage Software and The New York Times. Darrell's message has been presented to small groups and audiences as large as 3,000. He helps businesses brew small ideas for profits, talent retention, and customer attraction through workshops, keynotes, and advisory programs.

Darrell has been called 'thought provoking', 'informative', and 'insightful' providing audiences with hard-hitting viewpoints to challenge conventional wisdom and leapfrog their business to new levels. The old, the tired, and worn presentations make your audience yawn as they listen to all the business concepts heard before. Audiences today want fresh, unique ideas to bring home and apply to their business immediately. Hiring Darrell Zahorsky, expert, author and columnist to your next business event will leave your participants with new perspectives and original ideas.

About About.com

According to Nielsen NetRatings, About.com is a top 10 Web property used by one out of every five people on the Internet. It holds a valued role in the lives of more than 29 million opinion leaders as a preferred source of original consumer information and advice. The success of About.com centers around our unique Guide System that features 24 content channels and promotes original content from more than 500 topical advisors or "Guides." The Guides are the heart and soul of the About.com experience, sharing their passions across 57,000+ topics and offering actionable information and advice that is always useful, practical and personally relevant. Our robust library, with over 1.2 million pieces of original content, represents one of the largest of its kind on the Web today.

About.com has unparalleled reach and an extensive viewership that connects to more women than iVillage.com, more men than ESPN.com and more teens than MTV.com. Together, the practical solutions offered on About.com generate millions of page views.

A Brief History of About.com

About.Com was founded in 1996 (as The Mining Company) by Scott Kurnit and a dedicated group of entrepreneurs. It was re-named About.Com in 1999 to reflect its growing breadth of content, services and ease of use. In 2001, About, Inc. was acquired by PRIMEDIA Inc. In 2005 About, Inc. was acquired by The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT).

David Frey

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Standing on a naval ship off the coast of Nicaragua as a young sailor back in 1985, I never thought I would be the President of a marketing company (and several other companies) and the author of one of the best selling marketing books on the Internet.

In 1989, after spending six years in the United States Navy as an electronics technician, I decided to become a missionary for my church and serve in the South American country of Bolivia.

It was the best two years of my life. I learned more about people and life in those two years than I did in my previous 24 years. Y tambien, aprendi el bella idioma de espanol!

After returning from Bolivia, I was 27 years old and I always had a dream of getting a college education. So I packed up my bags, jumped on my motorcycle and headed up to Utah to go to school.

Five years later I graduated with a master degree in Accounting from one of the top three accounting programs in the nation - - only to determine that accounting didn't excite me very much.

But I did enjoy technology so I entered the illustrious world of business consulting with a company called Arthur Andersen (yes, the company that went down in flames with the Enron scandal).

One of my assignments with Arthur Andersen was to help small companies who had been acquired by large companies meet their expected earnings requirements after their acquisition.

It was during this process that I learned that you can only cut costs so much from a small business. Most of the earnings improvement needed to come from the "top line" or revenue side of the income statement.

And that meant that I needed to learn marketinghttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com.and fast. So I dived in head first and devoured every marketing book I could find.

The world of marketing fascinated me. I began to realize that marketing simply comes down to two things, (1) human behavioral psychology and, (2) numbers.

About Marketing Best Practices

Hi, I'm David Frey, owner of Marketing Best Practices. I've developed this website to provide you with information, ideas, and inspiration to help you market your small business more successfully.

Whether you want just a few good marketing strategies or a comprehensive marketing system, you'll find it on this website.

I suggest you start by signing up to the Marketing Best Practices Newsletter. In it you'll receive strategies, ideas, and know how to move your business forward. And did I mention that its free?

In fact, you'll find many interesting and unique free marketing articles on this site. In many of my articles I give you specific step-by-step instructions on how to implement innovative low cost marketing techniques.

Danny Flamberg, Ph.D. (Piled Higher and Deeper)

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Danny Flamberg is marketing strategy consultant and lead generation practitioner working with leading and insurgent brands in professional services, outsourcing, financial services, pharmaceuticals, telecom, high tech, hardware, software, banking and other industries around the globe. He was Vice President of Global Marketing at SAP. He also has worked as Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Digitas LLC in New York and Europe where he represented American Express, General Motors, Federal Express, Morgan Stanley, Ann Taylor, Wolters Kluwer, and the Kingfisher retail group. A pioneer in online marketing, Danny was President of Relationship Marketing at Amiratti Puris Lintas and Lowe Worldwide where he contributed to the success of brands such as Dell Computers, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Ameritech, UPS, Lego Toys and Burger King. He earned an A.B, an M.A. and a Ph.D. in politics and economics at Columbia University. He lives with his trophy wife, talented daughter and lovelorn dog on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Lauren Freedman

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

In 1994, Lauren Freedman leveraged her 15 year retail and catalog career and passion for merchandising to found the e-tailing group, inc. The firm’s mission was, and continues to be, providing strategic and e-commerce solutions to online merchants as well as businesses targeting that market.

An extensive client list has included Fortune 500s and start-ups. From involvement with the initial launch of sites like Toys “R” Us, The Vitamin Shoppe and Kodak to specific initiatives for clients including Scholastic, J.Jill, Orbitz, USA Today, CTW and MSN, her role becomes Strategist, Merchant, Facilitator, Educator and Spokesperson.

As a veteran and visionary within both the Retailing and the Internet industries, Freedman is a frequent resource to the trade and business press and her speaking engagements have spanned the globe. Freedman most recently completed her first book, It’s Just Shopping, which provides a comprehensive; behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of multi_channel selling. The book served as the basis for her foray into teaching at Chicago’s Roosevelt University, where she was nominated for Most Valuable Teacher award in 2003.

About E-Tailing Group

Strategists: Merchant savvy strategists dedicated to improving multi-channel customer experiences

Industry Pioneers: Passionate promoters of best-in-class online merchandising and customer service

Researchers: Developers of proprietary mystery shopping, merchandising and merchant survey research

Expertise:

E-commerce
Online merchandising
Multi-channel retailing
Category-specific selling strategies
Industry benchmarks
In-depth merchant knowledge…factoids, strategies, contacts

Christine Kloser

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Christine Kloser, “The Conscious Business Coach”, is an internationally recognized business coach, consultant, facilitator and author of the “Inspiration to Realization” book series. Her success comes from combining 15 years of “real world” entrepreneurial experience with her innate understanding of Universal and Spiritual principles. Emerging from the verge of bankruptcy to now being a multiple six-figure business owner, Christine shares her business knowledge and manifesting strategies through the Conscious Business Connection ezine, the Conscious Business Circle, individual coaching programs, retreats, book publishing and products that help conscious business owners transform “what is” to “what’s possible”. A former television host, Christine has also appeared in numerous television and radio programs and has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Woman’s Day. Welcome Christine!

Manifesting Meditation Recording by Christine Closer

This is the perfect place and recording for energizing your future vision. Sit back or layback and enjoy Christine’s soothing cadence.

Energize Your Future Vision

About Conscious Business Owner

Conscious Business is becoming a popular “buzz” word. The times of “me, me, me” are over! Thank God. Conscious Business owners are quickly becoming the visionary leaders of the world. And, if you’re still reading this, I know YOU are one of them. Yup! You’re the entrepreneur whose book shelves are filled with “nuts and bolts” business books like The E-Myth as well as spiritual titles like Conversations with Godhttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com. and your movie collection probably includes The Secret.

You believe in an abundant Universe, limit your exposure to “doom and gloom” news, trust in One Universal Source of energy, integrate spiritual/universal principles into your business and want to make a lot of money while having a positive impact on the world.

How do I know? I’ve been there. I suffered the ramifications of being an unconscious business owner for years. But, I transformed myself and my business and now enjoy a successful, lucrative and meaningful conscious business. It wasn't an easy journey, which is why I created the Conscious Business Circle. So, your journey can be quicker, easier and a lot more fun.

Daniel Kehrer

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Daniel Kehrer, Editor of Work.com and its sister site Business.com, has over two decades experience as a business & financial publishing executive, magazine and online editor, columnist, author and entrepreneur in New York, Washington, DC and Los Angeles. He writes a nationally-syndicated small business column known for its accessible style and hands-on solutions for business owners and startup entrepreneurs. Daniel has helped conceive, plan, organize and launch several national business magazines and Web sites, including Independent Business (now called MyBusiness) and Emerging Business, both winners of multiple awards, and now Work.com. Kehrer's business books, such as Doing Business Boldly: The Art of Taking Intelligent Risks (Times Books/Random House), Save Your Business a Bundle (Simon & Schuster), The 100 Best Resources for Small Business (BizBest Media) and 12 Steps to a Worry-Free Retirement (Kiplinger Books) have been published in multiple languages worldwide and hailed by publishers such as Dow Jones and Forbes as must-reads.

About Work.com

Work.com is a new service from Business.com, the largest business-to-business search engine and directory. Business.com and Work.com help small business decision-makers solve their most pressing business problems and realize their most compelling opportunities. They make it easy to find the most useful business websites, products, and services saving our users time and money.

Whereas Business.com targets the ready-to-transact business-to-business buyer, Work.com is the entrepreneur's owner's manual to where to go, what to know, and how to get the most value from the ever-growing array of Web resources for the small business owner/operator. It is comprised of more than 1,000 How-to Guides written by business experts. How-to Guides are straightforward, quick-read descriptions of how to get something done, and where on the Web are the best places to help you check those tasks off your to-do list.

Work.com is a community of small-business owner/operators. Users may rate Guides on how useful the are to helping solve business tasks, participate in open discussion forums for each Guide, suggest new Guide topics, or write Guides in their areas of expertise.

Tom Butler Bowdon

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

In the early 1990s, Tom was working as an adviser at the New South Wales Cabinet Office in Sydney, writing briefing papers for senior ministers. He took a year off to do further study in the UK, but put aside his political economy textbooks to read a growing pile of motivational and self-help literature. On his return to Australia, Tom spent some time in the Outback, where the idea came to him of writing about the classic books in the self-help literature.

Tom now writes full-time, runs Butler-Bowdon.com, and does select speaking engagements. He has a BA (Hons) degree in politics and history from the University of Sydney, and a Masters degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics. Tom is based in Oxford, UK and travels frequently to Australia, the United States and Asia.

About Butler-Bowdon.com

Butler-Bowdon.com provides insightful information on key works in the personal development literature.

The site began as the companion website to the publication of Tom Butler-Bowdon's book 50 Self-Help Classics in 2003. This initial site presented versions of commentaries that appear in the book. Since then, Butler-Bowdon.com has expanded to include material adapted from Tom's subsequent titles in the series.

50 Classics series

The 50 Classics concept is based on a belief that every subject or genre will contain at least 50 books that encapsulate its knowledge and wisdom. By creating a list of those landmark or representative titles, then providing commentaries that note the key points and assess the importance of each work, awareness of these key writings is spread to readers who may not otherwise have known of their existence.

50 Self-Help Classics was initially released only in Australia in 2001, then in the UK, US and rest of the world in 2003 by Nicholas Brealey Publishing. 50 Self-Help Classics has been translated into 15 languages and is sold in over 25 countries. In 2004 it won the US Benjamin Franklin Award, and was a finalist in Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year awards.

Tom's second book, 50 Success Classics (2004), covers the landmark works of motivation, prosperity and leadership. Rights have been sold in 13 languages. His third, 50 Spiritual Classics (2005) explores some of the famous writings and authors in personal awakening, and has been translated into 10 languages.

The NEW book, 50 Psychology Classics is available now.

Susan Solovic

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Susan Wilson Solovic is CEO and Chairman of SBTV.com and SBTV Creative. SBTV is America's only online television network providing news and information exclusively for the small business market place. Solovic began her professional career as a television news anchor and reporter for NBC and CBS affiliates. Subsequently, she joined a Fortune 100 company where she was named vice president, director of corporate marketing, of an international asset-based lending division. While working in an executive capacity, she attended Saint Louis University Law School and graduated with honors. Her legal background provides her a unique view of American business.

SBTV also launched a national television program called, “Small Business Beat,” which is a half-hour program providing information and inspiration to small businesses. The program aired in approximately 30 million households three times each week during the first quarter of 2005.

Solovic is the author of the popular book, “The Girls' Guide to Power and Success,” which was originally released in June 2001 and in 2003 was re-released in paperback. The book is also being published in Korea, China and Thailand. She is also the author of “Reinvent Your Career: Attain the Success You Deserve and Desire” which offers motivational and practical advice for those individuals seeking to re-ignite their careers and “Hanging onto the American Dream: A story of Business Leadership and Leaving a Legacy.”

Recently, Solovic was appointed by the President to the National Women's Business Council which counsels the President, Congress and the SBA on issues impacting women business owners. She was named one of the Most Influential Women in St. Louis (2004) by the St. Louis Business Journal and received the 2004 YWCA's Special Business Leader award for Entrepreneurial Success. Solovic also served on the John F. Kennedy School of Government Women's Leadership Board at Harvard University. She serves on the national Advisory Board of the Women Presidents' Organization. Recently, on behalf of SBTV.com Solovic accepted the Stevie Award for the Most Innovative Company up to 100 employees. The Stevie Awards are considered the Oscars of business.

Solovic is a popular media guest on radio and television programs across the country, and you'll also see her frequently quoted as a career expert in Cosmopolitan magazine.

About Small Business Television SBTV

SBTV is the first television network on the web devoted 100 percent to the small business market - from business start-ups to established enterprises. We believe that being an entrepreneur is a way of living - not just a way to make a living.

Founded in 2000, SBTV is becoming the number one choice for small business information on the net. The average viewer stays on our site for more than 30 minutes at a time. Business owners rely on SBTV because it provides expertly produced content by professional journalists and industry experts that is informational, practical and compelling. SBTV offers:

The Right Information -- On SBTV you'll find: technical information on how to run your business; inspirational success stories from entrepreneurs across the country; information about small business conferences and associations; and resources that can provide you with the right solutions for your business.
The Right Place - You can watch SBTV right on your computer with just the click of a mouse.
The Right Time - Because your life as an entrepreneur is hectic, SBTV is available 24 hours a day - 7 days a week. You can watch the programming of your choice whenever it is convenient for you. And best of all, there is no charge to you.

Lisa Druxman

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CDT

Lisa Druxman, M.A., the creator of Stroller Strides has been in the fitness industry since 1990. Lisa Druxman received her Master's degree at San Diego State University in Psychology with an emphasis in Exercise Adherence and Weight Control.

While there, she worked with their weight control clinic and has since published and certified as an educator in this field. She created a weight management program called L.E.A.N. (Learn Eating Awareness and Nutrition) which has been offered at exclusive health clubs such as The Sporting Club at Aventine in La Jolla.

She has worked as a group exercise instructor, personal trainer and club manager at some of the country's finest health clubs. She has lectured and taught at renowned spas such as The Golden Door and Rancho La Puerta. But it wasn't until she became a mom herself that she realized the need for specialty "mom" fitness. As soon as Lisa's son was born, she got outside with her stroller. Not having the time to get back to the gym, she created a series of exercises to get her back in shape. Before you knew it, a new workout was born! Now, moms all over the country are getting a chance to Stroller Stride!

About Stroller Strides:

We will help moms achieve their ultimate potential, both physically and emotionally. We will offer support and education for moms. We will inspire moms to reach optimal health and well being. We will inspire children to emulate their moms and make fitness a part of their lives

Skip McGrath

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:00:00 CST

I love to write about eBay, but I am always uncomfortable writing about myself, so I asked my friend, marketing consultant Emerson Brantly to write a short bio about us.

In 1997 Skip and Karen McGrath closed their small antique shop in New York’s Hudson Valley, and followed their dream of moving cross-country, to the great Pacific Northwest. They never imagined the incredible changes that would come with this decision. It began innocently enough…after they relocated, their son found he could buy and sell cool comic books online, on something called eBay.

Skip wondered if he could do the same with some of their smaller antiques… the only remnants of their previous family business they had brought with them. He was amazed at the results! Not only did they sell, they brought higher prices than they ever had in the family store! Skip and Karen were hooked! But, like most sellers at the time, they could only fumble along – learning by trial and error, trial and success.

Within a few short months they were Power Sellers, averaging over $5000 a month. Already a host of “eBay gurus” had sprung up, and Skip ordered and read every new guide that came along. He burned up several printers on these quickly-written “e-books,” but found them filled with speculation and conjecture, outdated half-truths and often, just plain bad information. Some authors had simply rewritten eBay’s own tutorials, and had little if any significant personal experience on eBay. The ones that did have experience had built their business by selling their e-book! Nevertheless, by the end of their first year, Skip and Karen’s had grown their business to over $10,000 a month -- and it kept on growing.

Finally one day, as Skip was ordering yet another “Ultimate eBay Secrets” ebook, Karen told him, “You and I already know more about eBay than most of these people! Instead of wasting money on another book, why not write one yourself!? But if you do, give the people a real BOOK they can actually hold and use, not another dufus download!” Fortunately, Skip listened!

That night he sat down and outlined the book that became, The eBay Power Sellers Manual. He published it as an actual physical manual… even though the first edition was only 70 pages long! The response was immediate: in its first week the Power Sellers Manual sold 40 copies on eBay! Skip continued to add new material to help students grow their businesses, and since 1999 this one book has sold over 5,000 copies.

Skip’s next book was for beginners. The Basic Guide To Selling On eBay, followed by the Wholesale Buying System. Each new book reached different levels of eBay sellers to help them take their own “next steps.” Today over 25,000 eBayers own Skip’s manuals, including many of the top Power Sellers! Thousands of personal testimonials credit Skip’s material for teaching them how to grow their business successfully. Almost 35,000 subscribe to the eBay Sellers’ News, to stay on top of changes and new opportunities as soon as they are available.

As eBay expands and Skip and Karen’s business and reputation continues to grow, he continues to pass on new information, tips, techniques and resources to his students. In 2003, Skip combined his most powerful information into a comprehensive business system, The Complete eBay Marketing System. This all-inclusive System updates ALL previous material and takes it to the next level… helping students grow from Power Sellers to Super Sellers!

Like many, Skip found only frustration whenever he tried to return some of the many lackluster eBay guides he ordered. So early on, Skip determined to back all of his manuals and courses with a No-Questions-Asked, Unconditional 100% Money Back Guarantee that even included shipping costs! It was a risky gamble, but Skip believed in the quality of his courses so much that he was willing to take all the risks on himself. His decision paid off, because since day one Skip has averaged only one-tenth the return rate of most major instructors and trainers nationwide!

Skip and Karen have truly “Been There, Done That!” What’s more, they continue to personally grow their eBay business even today. Nowadays, $20,000 - $25,000.00 months are the norm. Their entire family, even their married children, are all part of the family business. Their auctions feature thousands of different items, including famous name brand clothing and accessories, firepits and barbeques, and the EZ Cube Light Tent (which Skip says directly improved his auction photos and increased his average dollar sales!)

They were among the first registered eBay Trading Assistants (allowing them to sell for others on consignment), and in 2004 published How to Start & Run an eBay Consignment Business. With eBay Consignment companies going public and selling $25,000 franchises, this one book lets anybody start and run a serious consignment business, and keep 100% of the profits! They are also honored members of PESA – the Professional eBay Sellers’ Alliance, whose membership includes the elite of eBay Power Sellers (some of whom have relied on Skip’s courses to guide their growth!)

Bob Ramstad

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 CST

If yer jest joinin' us, howdy, pardner, and welcome! My name is Prophylactic Pete -- "The Condom Cowboy", as mi amigos like to call me, and this here is the finest place to buy condoms and other below-the-belt-buck'l items -- on the Web since 1994.

The good folks who dot the i's and cross the t's told me I should scribble down everything that comes to mind in regards to this great thing we got here, Condom Country. So here goes, and we look forward to doing business with you.

Here's a whole mess o' links so y'all can feel right at home. The stuff on the left is pretty much all the nuts and bolts all lined up in nice little rows, good an' proper. The stuff on the right is just for yer informashun.

Hi, there. I'm sure you know by now that my little ol' five and dime known as Condom Country is theee oldest place on this frontier where you can purchase condoms and other below-the-belt-buck'l dee-vices. But this was not always the case, no sir. So sit right down there, young varmit, and let me tell you the legend of how Condom Country came to be:

It all started many, many moons ago when my daddy, Prophylactic Paul, opened the doors on Condom Country right next to the Valley of the Dolls, a drinkin' and cavortin' establishment in eastern Kansas, juss across the state line from Joplin', Mo-ssuri. I remember many an aft'rnoon when I'd come home from school early for nuthin' but to help daddy run the store. Don't go lookin' for it, tho', it ain't there no mores.

My daddy, he was a good man and an honest one too, but when the great saddle rash of '72 hit, he was forced to sell his last 3-pack and close up shop. The unbar'ble sorrow of the moment left him a dried and whithered old condom cowboy, and he passed on soon after.

Well, I wusn't doin' nuthin' at the time, so I took my chances, hitched up my faithful horse Latex, and brung the idear for anuther Condom Country to The Big Apple, Nooooow York City, where I reckon' I becames an urban cowboy of sorts.

Latex and I, well we found ourselves down at the end of ol' Bleeker Street in Greenwitch Village. It was in that very same lo-kay-shun that The Country, as our many admir'rs preefer to call us, enjoyed modest success.

But Latex and I, we were born to the wayward wind, so we picked on up and moved to Boston, where to this very day we enjoy a fine relat-, relat-, relat-, ah, a fine standin' among all our neighbors, from Cambridge to the Back Bay.

We was goin' along real nice when our first big break come and hit us like a bolt of Loosiana lightnin'. It seems that our very own Condom Country was seee-lected from among eight of our fiercest competitors to provide the "One condom--soiled" which was used in the opening scene of that classic picture show, The Blues Brothers.

Lordy, lordy, lordy did that break bring us much popalarity. In fact, we even gained the interest of Sydney Biddle Barrows, and Condom Country soon became the sole bulk supplier of condoms to The Mayflower Madame. Upon Ms. Barrows' dee-mise, some of her old employees brought word of Condom Country's high quality see-lection, ex'llent prices, and rapid service to a young rascally type in the world's oldest profession, Heide Fleiss. It was here that Condom Country gained its repatation as providing "Condoms to the Stars".

The repatation of Condom Country was not limited to the shores of America, tho'. One of our proudest moments come when we were chosen by the Queen Mother herself to provide the condom that Prince Charles shared with soon-to-be princess Diana Spencer on the couple's second date, and the condom that Prince Andrew shared with Miss Fergie on their first date. As a result of our supurb service, yourn truly, Prophylactic Pete, the Condom Cowboy, was knighted.

Now, of course, it seems that the immense popularity of Condom Country just keeps growin' and growin'. Condom Country has been an Official Sponsor of Madonna's last two world tours. We are also the official pro-vider of them dental dam thangs to the Indigo Girls, and are the official condom provider to Wilt Chamberlain, Alberto Tomba, and Joey Buttafuoco.

Condom Country is a 3-time winner of the Margaret Singer Sanger Award for Contraceptive Excellence, given each year by F.L.O.G., the Foundation for Lengthy, Ostentatious Groans.

Ya'all should remember: at Condom Country, no job is too big or too small. Tell your friends about us and add Condom Country to your homepage. The URL is http://www.condom.com

Generic Condom Country Disclaimer

Some of the above claims may be slightly exaggerated. Some of the above claims may be severe hyperbole. Some of the above claims may be completely untrue. Don't hold us to any of them.

David Meerman Scott

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:00:00 CST

At the height of the dot-com boom, I was vice president of marketing at NewsEdge Corporation, a NASDAQ-traded online news distributor with $70 million in revenue. My multi-million dollar marketing budget included tens of thousands of dollars a month for a public relations agency, hundreds of thousands a year for print advertising and glossy collateral materials, and expensive participation at a dozen trade shows a year. My team put these things on our marketing to-do list, worked like hell to execute, and paid the big bucks because, well, that’s what one did as marketing and PR people. These efforts made us feel good because we were doing something but the programs were not producing significant, measurable results.

At the same time, drawing on publishing experience I had gained in my prior position as Asia marketing director for the online division of Knight-Ridder, at the time one of the largest newspaper companies in the world, I quietly created content-based, “thought leadership” marketing and PR programs on the Web.

Against the advice of the PR agency professionals we had on retainer (who insisted that news releases were only for journalists), we wrote and sent dozens of releases ourselves. Each time we sent a release, it appeared on dozens of online services such as Yahoo!, resulting in hundreds of sales leads.

Even though our advertising agency told us not to put the valuable information “somewhere where competitors could steal it,” we created a monthly thought leadership newsletter called TheEdge, with articles about the exploding world of digital news. We made it freely available on the home page of our Web site because it generated interest from qualified buyers.

Way back in the 1990s when Web marketing and PR was in its infancy, I ignored the old rules, drawing instead on my experience working at publishing companies, and created thought leadership strategies to reach buyers directly on the Web.

Guess what? The homegrown, do-it-yourself programs we created at virtually no cost consistently generated more interest from qualified buyers than the big bucks programs that the “professionals” were running for us—and resulted in millions of dollars in sales. People we never heard of were finding us through search engines.

Wow. I had stumbled on a better way to reach buyers.

In 2002, after NewsEdge was sold to The Thomson Corporation, I started my own business to refine my ideas, work with select clients, and teach others through writing, speaking at conferences, and conducting seminars for corporate groups. The subject of all this work: Reaching your buyers directly and driving more revenue using online thought leadership.

Since then, many new forms of online media for delivering thought leadership have burst onto the scene, including blogs, podcasts, video, and virtual communities. But what’s the same about all the new Web tools and techniques is that together they are the best way to communicate directly with your marketplace.

I’ve written over 100 magazine articles and three books:

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing and online media to reach your buyers directly (2007)
Cashing in with Content: How innovative marketers use digital information to turn browsers into buyers (2005)
Eyeball Wars: A novel of dot-com intrigue (2001)

I’m a graduate of Kenyon College, and have lived in New York, Tokyo, Boston, and Hong Kong. I’ve presented at hundreds of industry conferences and events in over twenty countries on four continents.

The thought leadership programs I have developed are responsible for selling over one billion dollars in products and services worldwide.

My work has been recognized in a number of awards competitions:

Viral Marketing Hall of Fame (MarketingSherpa)
Platinum PR Award for excellence in a one-year communications campaign (PR News)
Gold Quill for Business Communication (International Association of Business Communicators)
Internet Product of the Year (Information World Review)
Outstanding Achievement for annual report (American Business Communicators)
IMMY Award for Direct Marketing Excellence (Information Industry Association)
Personal Product of the Year (Information Management Awards)
Book of the Year finalist (Independent Publisher Book Awards)
Book of the Year finalist (Foreword Magazine Book Awards)

What’s the deal with Meerman?

Many people ask me why I use my middle name in my professional endeavors. Well, it is certainly cool that the first-born son in my family going back many generations has Meerman as a middle name. Part of my family came from Dordrecht in the Netherlands and, you guessed it, Meerman is a Dutch name.

But the main reason I use Meerman is that there are so many David Scotts out there that it can be confusing which one of us you are communicating with. I run accross other David Scotts often. Once, the Boston Red Sox sent me tickets that I hadn't ordered -- they had been intended for another David Scott. Alas, I felt compelled to return them.

Dan Janal

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:00:00 CST

Dan Janal is Founder and President of PR LEADS Expert Resource Network. He is responsible for growing the company from startup to more than 200 satisfied clients in less than one year. He is responsible for skyrocketing sales and marketing, creating clever new products and services, establishing mutually beneficial industry alliances and delivering outstanding customer service and training.

He cofounded ShowStoppers Media Showcases, which are exclusive expositions designed to help computer industry vendors gain exposure to A-List media. ShowStoppers are held at Comdex, PC EXPO, CES and other major computer trade shows. Now entering its 10th year, ShowStoppers has hosted more than 700 companies from five continents and 6,000 reporters.

About PR Leads

The nation's top reporters send PR LEADS more than 500 leads each week on a wide variety of topics. Here is a sampling of the more popular topics.

Please contact us if your topic is not listed; we might call it by a different name. If we don't have leads in your topic, we'll let you know. We won't take your money if we can't guarantee that we can deliver relevant, quality leads to you - in fact, we have turned down several experts who have topics that are NOT newsworthy (i.e. beekeepers, Bar Exam preparers and dance instructors to name a few!).

When you sign up for the service, we'll send you leads that match your profile. You can sign up for any topic AS LONG AS YOU ARE AN EXPERT IN THOSE AREAS! In other words, don't pick Movies because you see a movie every month; pick it because you've written a book about movies. We reserve the right to limit your topics to only those that are truly helpful to both you and reporters. A subscription is valid for ONE person only. Sharing leads with colleagues will result in immediate cancellation of your service and forfeiture of funds paid. PR LEADS is available at these rates only for speakers, authors and solo entrepreneurs and experts (including doctors, lawyers and psychologist, for example). PR LEADS is NOT available to PR FIRMS.

Larry Emsweller

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:00:00 CST

Michael Senoff

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:00:00 CST

Michael Senoff truly believes his experiences have made him the luckiest guy in the world! Why?

This was a pivotal point in my life. I learned some very important lessons and began to understand the meaning of leverage. It was clear manufacturing tee shirts was not the path to financial freedom. I continued my quest. I would find something better. Something I could leverage my time with.

After graduating in 1990 with a major in advertising and a minor in marketing, I closed my retail store and moved to Nashville, Tennessee with my remaining tee shirt inventory. Although I didn’t mention this before, I’m part of a set of triplets. We are not identical, --I have a triplet sister Robyn at the top of first page as well as a triplet brother --but we are triplets.

One day I answered a Sunday Ad in the paper and received videotape titled, How to Make $20,000 A Month With Your Own Business. This was a promotional tape put out by a guy named Mark Yarnell. He was a successful MLM distributor with a new and upcoming network marketing company, NuSkin.

This guy was doing a very effective sales pitch on NuSkin and the distributor opportunities available with the company. He was making $20,000 a month. He was living in San Diego, California. I could see the beautiful San Diego bay behind him in the background. There were these sailboats, blue water and sunshine. The Nashville whether in the summer was too hot and humid. The winters were too cold for me and the thought of living in a place with a reputation of having one of the best climates in the world with an average temperature of 70 degrees year round sounded good to me.

A month later, I was a NuSkin distributor and had my mind set to move to San Diego California

I founded my now successful firm, JS & M’s Marketing, with five pens: -one that detects counterfeit money - one that detects pH in paper-one that is a vanishing ink pen-one that marks property with invisible, permanent ink- one that eliminates red-eye from photographs

To expand and refine my marketing skills, I began to reread and to study the masters in depth. Jay Abraham. Tony Robbins. I watched videos. And studied even more. I learned effective, powerful teaching methods. Now I want to teach others. To lead others to discover the marketing secrets of the great marketing gurus.

Harley Manning

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:00:00 CST

Harley leads Forrester's research into how to create a great customer experience and how to determine the business results produced by a great customer experience. His team covers topics ranging from organization, culture, and process issues, to analytics and testing tools. Harley's personal coverage areas include Web site design, persona development, design agencies, Web site reviews, brand image reviews, and cross-channel reviews.

Harley came to Forrester after spending 18 years designing and building interactive services for companies including Dow Jones, AT&T, MCI, Prodigy, and Sears. Most recently, he was at Dow Jones Markets, where he was responsible for international Web sites targeted at brokers and traders. He was also responsible for the design, hosting, and operation of the Markets' intranet site, which later became the intranet site for all of Dow Jones.

Prior to Dow Jones, Harley was at AT&T Labs, where he designed the user experience for projects like a search engine enhanced with ontologies, a universal email/telephone/fax message center, and a Web-based community calendar. He originally joined AT&T as the creative director of its personal online services group.

Before AT&T, Harley worked as a consultant for the MCI/News Corp. online joint venture, as creative director of Prodigy (a pre-Web online service), and at Sears, where he was part of a team that created the first catalog on a videodisk.

About Forrester Research

http://www.forrester.com/rb/research Forrester makes leaders successful every day in business. Whether you are an IT or marketing professional, business strategist, or a technology industry executive, Forrester partners with you to create business and technology strategies that meet short-term goals and position your company for long-term success.

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent technology and market research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. For more than 23 years, Forrester has been making leaders successful every day through its proprietary research, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs.

Rabbi Irwin Kula

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:00:00 CST

Kula is the President of CLAL—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a leadership training institute, think tank and resource center. A regular guest on the Hallmark Channel's "New Morning" show, and "The Lars Larson Show" on Westwood One radio, he was featured on "Frontline" (PBS) on the anniversary of 9/11, and was a repeat guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Frequently quoted in the press, he is in great demand by leaders from such diverse fields as business, technology, relationships, and religion.

Known as both a provocative religious leader and a respected spiritual iconoclast, Irwin Kula has inspired thousands of people across the country using Jewish wisdom in ways that speak to modern life. A cutting-edge scholar, teacher, and rabbi, he brings the insights of an ancient tradition to the challenges of the present to help people live more fully

Andy Sernovitz

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:00:00 CST

Author of "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking," Andy Sernovitz is a 14-year veteran of the interactive marketing business, was a Visiting Scholar at the Wharton School of Business (where he taught internet Entrepreneurship), and is the Founder and President Emeritus of the Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM).

Prior to WOMMA, Andy was CEO of GasPedal, a strategy consulting firm that helps companies focus their internet operations to be more efficient and effective, working with CEOs on the role of ecommerce in their companies and specializing in email marketing best practices. Clients included TiVo, Sprint, AIG, Polo, ClearChannel, and Kimberly-Clark.

In 1993, Andy began pulling the internet industry together under AIM, which grew to represent more internet companies than any other organization. As the de facto Washington representative for the internet industry, Andy was involved in the formative policy debates surrounding privacy, spam, and other key internet issues. In 1999, AIM was acquired by the Direct Marketing Association. Andy holds degrees in Marketing from the Wharton School of Business and in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

About WOMMA

WOMMA is the official trade association for the word of mouth marketing industry. Their members are building a prosperous word of mouth (WOM) marketing profession. Thriving markets are built on best practices, effective standards, and ethical leadership. Those are the qualities that bring WOMMA members together – and we hope that you will join us if you share these values. They are fantastic brands and marketers who know that happy customers are their most powerful advocates. They are innovative agencies who understand how to empower and amplify the voice of the consumer and they are the good guys, committed to protecting consumers with strong ethical guidelines.

Matt Mullenweg

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:00:00 CST

As the Chief BBQ Taste Tester of Automattic, Matt travels the world sampling cuisine and comparing it to the gold standard of Texas BBQ. Although he originally aspired to be a jazz saxophonist, Matt somehow wound up studying economics which took him to Washington D.C. where he began taking pictures and blogging. The rest, as they say, is mystery. He lives in San Francisco and has a crush on Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Joseph S. Rubino, D.M.D.

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 00:00:00 CST

Joseph S. Rubino, D.M.D. is an internationally acclaimed personal development trainer, success coach and best selling author. He has a proven track record in coaching and developing leaders with the ability to train and support all levels of management from supervisors through executive management. He has extensive experience in both developing training materials, facilitating established programs and developing new programs. He is known for his work in leadership and management development, listening and communication skills, coaching, consulting, team building and conflict resolution.

Dr. Joe Rubino's books have been translated into 19 languages and are available in 48 countries. These include: English, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Chinese Simple Characters, Chinese Complex Characters, Dutch, Portuguese, Indonesian, Indian, Greek, Czech, Turkish, French, Lithuanian, Nigerian, Malay and Siamese. Dr Rubino is the CEO of Visionary International Partnerships, an organization that has impacted the lives of more than 500,000 people through productivity training and personal development and was featured on the cover of Success Magazine in December of 1995 and in their cover story. He is a certified success coach in life planning technology and the cofounder of The Center For Personal Reinvention, an organization committed to the personal excellence and empowerment of all people. He is the co-developer of the life changing course, Conversations for Success, a program that provides participants with the tools to maximize their productivity and personal effectiveness with others. As a retired dentist and former owner of an extraordinarily successful multi-specialty dental practice, he is also a national lecturer on dental practice management, productivity enhancement and relationship building. He currently serves on the advisory boards of a number of multi-million dollar international corporations. He is widely published in numerous health professional and business publications. His vision is to personally impact the lives of twenty million people to be the best that they can be and to shift the paradigm around resignation, that is that anyone can affect positive change in their own lives and in the lives of others if they believe they can.

Partho Mondal

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:00:00 CST

Picture this: In a small 12x15 ft room in a crowded, noisy marketplace in New Delhi, India, a young man in his mid-twenties is working single-handedly seven days a week on one computer. That is how Orient InfoSolutions was founded way back in January 1999.

That young man was Partho Mondal, a printer-turned-web developer who founded Orient InfoSolutions from scratch. Today Orient InfoSolutions is a leading end-to-end web solutions provider with clients across the globe.

What Partho did not have is the vital initial capital required in any new business start-up. All he had was this rented room and a computer.

But the crucial asset he had was a vision that could spot the key areas of growth in the booming internet market. And the skills required to innovative, do high quality web development, graphics and 3D modeling & animation work.

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times” (Tale of Two Cities). The internet was booming and everyone who had some or even little knowledge of the web was jumping into the fray.

To survive in such a fledgling, fast changing market it was vitally important to know exactly what would sell and how. Partho knew that to rise above the crowd, one had to provide high quality work at reasonable prices.

Orient InfoSolutions’ first flagship venture meghdutam.com was a website that published and promoted creative writing in English.

Thanks to smart positioning and good quality writing, Meghdutam.com became a much talked about website in literary circles and was even featured by BBC World television channel as one of the four best literary sites in the world in the year 2000.

The year that followed was perhaps the worst in web history. As the dotcom bust dragged down with it hundreds of dotcom ventures, some of them losing millions of dollars in investment, Meghdutam.com too faced a downslide.

Acute financial crunch and lack of a workable revenue-generating business model undid all the hard work that was put in making it one of the leading literary websites of the world.

Bitten but not shy, Partho realized that along with providing high quality work at reasonable prices, one needed to have a foolproof business model that would ensure high ROI (Return on Investment).

With his ability to spot the ‘greenfield’ areas that were slated to be the next ‘Big Thing’ on the web, Partho focused sharply on web development, online marketing, multimedia and e-learning solutions.

His entrepreneurial zeal and keen business acumen has propelled Orient InfoSolutions from that small one-room-office start-up to a rapidly growing firm today.

Overcoming initial hurdles such as cash crunch and infrastructure bottlenecks, he positioned the company as an end-to-end web solutions provider – something that very few companies were doing.

Rather than focusing on only one kind of competency, such as designing or programming or marketing, Partho concentrated on developing each competency to become a crucial part of a wholesome solution package.

His mantra, “You are as good as your team”.

The Team

Orient InfoSolutions’ main assets are its highly-efficient and dedicated team of “hand picked” professionals.

The team comprises of programmers, content developers, copywriters, designers (web, graphics and multimedia), usability experts, web marketing experts, project leaders, project co-coordinators and HR experts.

Today when a client comes to Orient InfoSolutions with say, just a sketchy concept in mind, Partho and his team turns it into a complete product/service.

The Orient InfoSolutions team takes care of everything from doing the market research, designing, programming, developing content and promoting the product online.

Partho lives with his wife and one-year-old daughter in New Delhi, India. He is a doting father and an avid reader.

He keeps himself abreast with the latest of the fast changing web technologies and marketing strategies. His hobbies include reading literature, listening music and playing with his beautiful daughter.

Apart from English, he is fluent in two Indian languages – Hindi and Bengali.

Dr. James Kowalick

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 00:00:00 CST

The Taguchi Method allows marketers to consider multiple variables or factors, and test the highest prioritized variables to rapidly determine the best combination of factors that affect success in a marketing program. Dr. Kowalick currently spends most of his time helping very large direct mailing companies increase their response rates by applying the Taguchi Methodology to their outbound direct mail campaigns. Although the discussion is quite technical, Dr Kowalick sheds light on how to spot the difference between a product that properly uses the Taguchi Method and one that doesn’t. Dr Kowalick offers quarterly seminars on the application of the Taguchi Method in Lake Tahoe, the first of which is January 16th and 17th. At these seminars, individuals or corporations can learn the processes and algorithms to effectively optimize their own marketing campaigns.

David Bullock

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:00:00 CST

Do you know how to “build” a page? You don’t write a page you build it using component design using the Taguchi method. There are “language” or “word pictures” and artwork on a page. If you build a page correctly you can deliver a response or a conversion four to five times over base line, instead of a 2-4 percent increase in conversions. David talks about using a scientific and proven and engineered approach that deliver results, big results in the marketing industry. Let the market write the copy for you. No Guessing. Pay attention to what you are saying to them. Make the adaptations and see the results flow. It can be products like nuts and bolts or information based products. We covered a Web 2.0 conversation around a particular niche using everything from Blogs to RSS, forms, syndication, pull content, voting etc. The reason for the success of MySapace.com, Facebook, Friendster, Catster, Dogster is that they all created an interest of like minded people. MySpace is driving almost 2X times the traffic and that is something that we want to pay attention to, something is going on. The Internet is nothing but a series of links. It has everything to do about networks. There are no secrets you just don’t know how to do it, learn how it gets done.

Polly LaBarre

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:00:00 CST

With a sharp eye for the texture of working life and a well-tuned ear for the themes that mark the economic moment, Polly LaBarre has contributed to the business conversation in a range of forums for over a decade. As a core member of the original Fast Company team, Polly played a central role in the remarkable success of a magazine that changed the way leaders think and talk about competing, working, and winning. In her eight years as senior editor, Polly wrote influential articles on strategy, creativity, and personal success. She co-hosted the magazine?s signature annual Real Time conferences?agenda-setting gatherings at which executives, entrepreneurs, and innovators debated the future of business and leadership?and helped to create a high-level roundtable series, ?Fast Talk,? which she moderated around the globe. Polly has delivered keynote addresses around the world and has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, CNBC and PBS?s Nightly Business Report. She is a co-author of The Big Moo : Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable. A graduate of Yale University, she lives in New York City.

Tim Cohn

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:00:00 CST

Tim provides advice on how to generate low cost per click bids as well as shares knowledge on how to begin a blog so that you can drive a lot of traffic to your site. Tim explains that no matter how you slice it learning the Internet marketing game has a very steep learning curve. If you do it yourself you will “pay” with mistakes, if you use a seasoned coach/consultant you will “pay.” However, he explains that using a coach/consultant is a lot less “painful” than going it on your own. Tim was sought after by John Wiley who asked him to write his first book. The book is first being released in the U.K., the new book is called For Sale By Google. Tim explains that he is selective with the people he works with and he is able to be selective since his own web site is generating 100’s of thousands of page views each year with inquiries into his business. Tim’s own Google Adwords campaigns cost him between $0.06 -$0.07 per click. Translation: this is a very cost effective way to market your business, as Tim likes to say he “eats his own cooking.”

Blair Singer

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 00:00:00 CST

Blair Singer ran an air freight business and he was about to shut the company down due to financial hardship. However, his team (employees) had other ideas, his team did not allow him to quit (he was forced to stick by his Code of Honor) and they made a comeback becoming one of the most successful airfreight companies in the business. What is a Code of Honor? It is a set of internal rules and it can be one of the most successful ingredients in a company. He shares how he is able to help large businesses and small businesses. Blair has a successful sales franchising www.sp-ww.com business Sales Partners globally assisting companies grow their businesses between 17 – 300%. Blair makes an offer for anyone listening to the interview. Forging a championship team and what is required. You have to be able to sell to everyone, staff, customers, lenders etc. Everyone and everything sells. Be able to build a great team and avoiding doing it all yourself. Blair talks about his friendship with Robert Kiyosake. Got to be able to teach. Have to have a system to bind it all together. How you can incorporate many of the principles in Blair’s training into your personal life and professional life.

Jack Zufelt

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 00:00:00 CST

Jack Zufelt is just like you and he practiced all of the conventional techniques. He wrote goals and read them daily. He created and recited affirmations every day and visualized what he wantedhttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com. and you know what - you can guess what he’s going to say - none of that workedhttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com. unless the reason for doing all of those so called "success techniques" was to make you and me extremely frustrated and feel bad about ourselves. He wrote goals that he never achieved. Read affirmations that never came true. Visualized results that never happened. And then when he didn't achieve any of the desired results he became depressed. It made him feel and think he was a failure because he never achieved his goals! He knew how to fail on his own, what he wanted was success. And he sure as heck didn't want to feel worse. And many of his friends and business associates felt the same way as he did. We - you, me, and hundreds of thousands of people, many of them Network Marketers - spend $1000's on self-help books, tapes and seminars and NEVER see the results we expect and desperately want.

Lorrie Morgan-Ferraro

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:00:00 CST

I've been a writer all my life, learning to read at age 3, writing for school papers since I was 10 and was the only student in the history of my high school of 1,500 to hold the position of yearbook and newspaper editor simultaneously. And Ralph Waldo Emerson is my uncle (that has nothing to do with anything, but boy do I love to throw that in whenever I can!) Yes, writing has always been pretty effortless for me. So I chose to fight it. Why should life be easy if it doesn't have to be, right? I decided I wanted to be an actress. To satisfy my parents, I got a degree in journalism. I wrote regularly for the school paper, radio station and yearbookhttp://www.mysuccessgateway.com.while I studied acting every chance I got. As soon as I graduated from one of the best J schools in the country (at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) I high-tailed it to Los Angeles. I drove across the country with my cat, my futon and $300 ready to be discovered. See even though I'm a trained journalist and a freelance writer, it wasn't until 1999 that I had even tried doing the kind of writing I'm now known for – copywriting. But basically, clients kept coming to me for their copywriting because my marketing campaigns were consistently successful. I have to admit, at the time it was dumb luck. Yeah I could write, but copywriting is different. And I desperately wanted to learn it. So I surrounded myself with works of the masters, with recordings of experts, went to seminars. In other words I inundated myself with everything I could about copywriting until I started to understand the format, the cadence of it.

Marcia Wieder

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:00:00 CST

Marcia Wieder, America’s Dream Coach® is leading a Dream Movement. With over twenty years coaching and speaking experience, her inspiring message, style and wit has touched audiences from 50-5000 at companies such as AT&T, The Gap and American Express. Whether teaching at the Stanford Business School, speaking to executives in China, or addressing young women at Girl Scout Camp, her riveting style impacts audiences world-wide. Marcia has appeared several times on Oprah, Today, in her own PBS-TV special and has written several books which have been translated into numerous languages. As past president of the National Association of Women Business Owners, she was often in the White house where she met former U.S. presidents, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and George Bush Sr. And as a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, she urged readers to take “The Great Dream Challenge.” Marcia is a successful business woman whose live events include: the Dream Coach Certification program, How to be An Inspiring Speaker Workshop, Create Your Future Now Weekends, Maui Dream Retreat, and a Women’s Program at Red Mountain Spa. Her online global community, My Dream Circle has over 1000 members and features respected colleagues such as John Gray, David Bach, Debbie Ford, Les Brown and more.

Andy Andrews

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:00:00 CDT

Andy Andrews went from homeless and broke to being an advisor to 4 U.S. Presidents. Andy Andrews tells it like it is and is a master story teller. What could this one man possibly have to say that is important enough for the Commander of the Allied Air Forces to ask his help? Why did every senior leader the United States Air Force has in Europe and the Middle East recently assemble in one room—at one time—to hear him speak? Who is this man, that he would walk the golf course with Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez as she played her last tournament as a touring professional? Why was he invited to spend an afternoon with General Norman Schwarzkopf and his son, who was about to depart for college? What would he be asked to discuss with a ninety-one-year-old Bob Hope alone by the swimming pool in the entertainer’s back yard? Hailed by a New York Times writer as a “modern-day Will Rogers who has quietly become one of the most influential people in America,” Andy Andrews is an internationally known speaker and novelist whose combined works have sold millions of copies worldwide. He has been received at the White House and has spoken at the request of four different United States presidents. His two-hour PBS special is entitled Andy Andrews: The Seven Decisions and is now airing nationally to incredible reviews. Andrews lived a relatively normal life until the age of nineteen, when both his parents died—his mother from cancer, his father in an automobile accident. “I took a bad situation and made it much worse,” Andrews says with a rueful smile, referring to choices he made during this tragic period of his life. Within a span of several years, the young man found himself literally homeless (“before that was even a word!” he says), sleeping occasionally under a pier on the gulf coast or in someone’s garage. It was at that time when Andrews asked the question that would focus his search for what would ultimately affect millions of people. The question? “Is life just a lottery ticket, or are there choices one can make to direct his future?” To find the answer, he first went to the library. There, over time, he read more than two hundred biographies of great men and women. How did they become the people they were? he wondered. Were they simply born this way? Or were there decisions made at critical junctures in their lives that led to such success? The young Andrews finally determined that there were seven characteristics that each person had in common. “What will happen,” he mused, “if I study these seven common denominators and harness them in my own life?”

Ari Galper - Cold Calling Sales Expert

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:00:00 CDT

Cold Calling expert Ari Galper is the creator of Unlock The Game™, a new sales mindset that overturns the notion of selling as we know it today. With a Masters Degree in Instructional Design and over a decade of experience creating breakthrough sales strategies for global companies such as UPS and QUALCOMM, Ari discovered the missing link that people who sell have been seeking for years. His profound discovery of shifting one's mindset to a place of complete integrity based on new words and phrases grounded in sincerity, has earned him distinction as the world's leading authority on how to build trust in the world of selling. Ari's deep understanding of human communication and how it can be maximized in the sales process has lead him to discover the solution to the most dreaded selling experience of all: cold calling. He has completely redefined how to connect with people over the phone. In his corporate training sessions, Ari demonstrates his mindset by calling new prospects in front of live audiences

Randy Gage

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:00:00 CDT

For more than 20 years, Randy Gage has been helping salespeople transform self-limiting beliefs into self-fulfilling breakthroughs to achieve their dreams. His motivational story of rising from a jail cell as a teen, to a self-made multi-millionaire has inspired millions around the world. This compelling journey of triumph over fear, self-doubt, and addiction, uniquely qualifies him as an undisputed expert in the arena of peak performance and extraordinary human achievement. His story and the way he shares it, demonstrate the true power of the mind over outside circumstances. Randy will captivate your audience through his unique and memorable personal stories, teaching them the lessons learned from his in-the-trenches experiences in direct selling, as an entrepreneur, and in life. He will help your people see how they can transform challenge into choices, obstacles into opportunity, and tragedy into triumph.

David Neagle

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:00:00 CDT

If you knew that making one decision to change just one thing about yourself, would lead you to the life you've always dreamed of, would you be willing to make that one decision to change? David Neagle knows what it's liked to be faced with that decision and to make that change. When a tragic accident nearly took his life, David awoke to the potential that he had left untapped within himself. He made a decision that day to begin the journey that has changed his entire life. While strengthening his relationship with his family, and with God, David focused on prosperity. And, with one simple change in 12 months David tripled his income and within the next two years the former high school drop out was an executive corporate manager, stock investor, and business owner. He continually sought out new mentors with each new level that he attained, and studied every great achiever that he could find any information on at all! But, it wasn't until David began studying The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D Wattles that he fully understood the transformation that he underwent. It was the change in David's thinking and his attitude that got the ball rolling towards success. With a passion to help others succeed just as he did, David became an internationally known teacher of The Science of Getting Rich, sharing his message in more 7 countries. He is the author of Free to Be Me, and Co-author of The Power of Belief, Understanding Fear and Finding Freedom and Design Your Destiny. David has been the guest speaker and trainer for many organizations including Networking Times, and PSI Seminars. He has also been the guest speaker and trainer for independents distributor organizations for Excel, Neways, and Nikken as well as sales and facilitation trainer for Bob Proctor's Life Success Productions. With his wife and business partner, David founded Life is Now Inc, a company dedicated to creating leaders through spiritually based success principles. Together, they have shared their experience and expertise with thousands of people from all over the world. Living in the Chicago area, David and Jayne have been married for 15 years and enjoy the benefits of raising a large family while pursuing their dreams of inspiring change in the world. Their clients reside in countries all over the world including Australia, Singapore, Canada, the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom. They support their clients through tele-seminars and the internet and also enjoy traveling around the world for speaking engagements and live seminars.

Mark Joyner

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:00:00 CDT

Mark Joyner is a #1 best-selling author of over a dozen books translated in almost as many languages. He is widely recognized as one of the early pioneers of e-commerce, responsible for inventing, pioneering, and popularizing many of the technologies we take for granted today (including remotely-hosted ad tracking, electronic books, Integration Marketing, and more http://www.mysuccessgateway.com.)

One of his books (MindControlMarketing.com) shot to #1 within 36 hours of its release.
One of his websites became the 37th most visited website on the planet within 6 weeks of its release.
His pioneering ebook (Search Engine Tactics) was downloaded over 1,000,000 times years before e-books were common.
He turned a fledgling one-man operation into a multi-million-dollar International corporation with customers in every internet-connected country on the planet in two years time.

Other Interesting Facts About Mark Joyner Earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology through independent study while simultaneously serving in the U.S. Army in the Military Intelligence Corp (he speaks Korean fluently graduating at the top of his class at the Defense Language Institute). Is a cold-war veteran of military intelligence and a former U.S. Army Officer. He held a Top Secret SCI clearance (the highest clearance level in the US) for several years. Was awarded for his military service by the U.S. Army, the Republic of Korea Army, the Korean Consulate General, and the President of the United States. Currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand with his fiancée.

Mike Pniewski

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:00:00 CDT

Mike is a successful actor for 20 years, working with some of the biggest stars in the world -Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Mel Brooks, Gene Hackman, Helen Mirren, and dozens more. He has appeared in almost 40 movies, including Miami Vice; Ray; Bobby Jones-Stroke of Genius; The Clearing; Runaway Jury; A Time to Kill; and Beverly Hills Cop. My TV credits include CSI: Miami, Law & Order, ER, Boston Public, and The Fugitive. As you probably know, the chances of making a living as a paid actor are miniscule, but he’s been doing it for two decades. And based on his success, he developed Act to Win, a simple but proven approach to success that he can assist you. Based on the six principles of Act to Win, he crafted a series of workshops and keynote speeches designed to help people take action toward their goals. Whether your goals concern finances, health, your career, or family, Act to Win can help, because it's based on the idea that success isn't achieved in just one area. Success is a comprehensive pursuit. Mike teaches you how to approach success the same way an actor approaches a role, by focusing on action. Everybody has desires, goals, things they want from life, but it's the actions they take that determine whether or not they eventually succeed. Successful people are action-oriented people. Doers. Setting goals then taking deliberate, thoughtful action is the only way to turn ideas into success. Act to Win is designed to help you spend less time thinking about it, dreaming about it or being angry about it, and spend more time DOING something about it.

Michael Brown

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:00:00 CDT

The celebrated director of twenty-five films, Michael Brown is a pioneer of adventure filmmaking and has received over thirty international film festival and industry awards, including three national Emmys from five nominations. He founded Serac Adventure Films in 1992. Michael\'s tenacity and upbeat attitude has brought him to the summit of Mount Everest three times from two different routes—once while shooting and directing “Farther Than the Eye Can See” about blind climber Erik Weihenmayer’s historic ascent. The acclaimed film marked the first time a high-definition (HD) video camera was brought to the mountain’s peak. Outside the Himalaya, his experience ranges from making first kayak descents of wild rivers in places like Bhutan and Chile to bagging remote summits on all seven continents. But for Michael, making films is about more than winning awards and exploring uncharted territories. He is committed to “giving back” to the people of the world. Whether documenting free life-changing surgeries in Nepal, disabled athletes in Italy, or blind children in Tibet, his films always include moving human stories that highlight personal accomplishment. Michael also lends his production and adventuring skills to filmmakers like MacGillivray Freeman Films, for whom he acted as the mountain unit Director of Photography on the soon to be released IMAX film "Alps: Giants of Nature." He was also a specialty cameraman on the critically acclaimed show "BlindSight," A&E’s "Touch the Top," and on a number of feature films. Though Michael has always loved telling stories (he grew up in family of adventure filmmakers), his real passion is earth science, with emphasis on weather forecasting and climate. He studied weather, climate, and geography at the University of Colorado in Boulder while working at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and has put that knowledge to use in productions for National Geographic Television, NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN, OLN the BBC, Rush HD, and the Discovery Channel.