After her e-book languished a year on Amazon.com, Michelle Kulp focused her legal researcher skills on finding out why. “A year later, I published a book called, Never Work Again: Six Secrets to Earning a Playcheck Instead of a Paycheck. In one day I had 2,128 downloads of that book.” Plunging into a 24-month learning period, Michelle continued her research and worked with a coach. She put everything she’d learned into creating a six-week online course. Half her students got their books to the bestseller list. The other half read the course work but decided it was too much work.
An internationally-recognized author, Jamie Turner is the CEO of 60 Second Communications, a marketing agency specializing in ROI-based marketing campaigns. He has been profiled in the world's best-selling advertising textbook and is a regular guest on CNN and HLN on the topics of mobile, social and marketing in general. “A smart phone is not necessarily a phone as much as it is a remote control for your life,” Turner says. “For every success, an entrepreneur experiences numerous failures. People see and remember your successes, not your failures, so leverage the hell out of every success.”
Working to save Africa’s big cats, Drew Abrahamson founded Captured In Africa out of a pure love and passion for them and the African bush. Growing up around rangers and wildlife veterinarians, Drew had many close encounters with wild animals, and has cultivated a deep love, understanding and mutual respect for all living things. Her passion for lions began early in life, but she detoured several years to become a hairdresser and a mom. She got back on track by connecting with the dynamic Louise Joubert, director of San Wildlife Sanctuary, volunteering in fundraising and public awareness.
Setting goals and achieving them is paramount for everybody, advises Dorothy Neddermeyer, Ph.D., regardless of where they are or what they want to achieve. Most people are not taught to write a strategy with specific steps—including how, when and in what order—so they don't reach their goals. Many people rarely accomplish their goals. Only 8% of people accomplish their new year's resolutions. Many don't set goals that are realistic, for which they have the requisite abilities or can enlist the help they need to be successful. They need a specific plan for each step toward their goals.
The "Hippie Jedi” and “Freedom-Preneur” Justin Verrengia innovates in marketing, social media, and in how society lives. He went from barely being able to afford his rent to a seven-figure income in two years. With his wife D, his top-ranked Weird Entrepreneurs podcast inspires listeners worldwide to live their dreams. After teaching in China, Justin and D settled in their dream location, Costa Rica. Their comfortable network marketing income was suddenly slashed by 75 percent. Believing in divine purpose, he found a new company and created an income of $26,000/month in 30 days.
Founder and CEO Susan Cartier Liebel of Solo Practice University, heads the only online educational and professional networking community for lawyers and law students who want to create and grow their solo/small firm practices. She's a wife, mother, mentor, avid traveler and all around curious about life and the planet we inhabit. With ten years in business before law school, Susan noticed her school’s complete lack of support for the 50 percent who would likely become solo practitioners. Law is the one license that allows you to be self-employed, yet students are being taught how to be employees.
Lee Ellis knew his passion and talents early in life. After college he pursued his dream, becoming an Air Force fighter pilot, and a leader and manager of officer development programs. Later he developed career and leadership assessments that led to his role as leadership consultant, executive coach, author, and speaker. As a fighter pilot, he was shot down and held 5 ½ years as a P.O.W. in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. He returned home more mature, diligent in performing the duties he didn’t like. Always good about work he liked to do, he’d never been as motivated to do those things he didn't like to do.
A lover of life, Adèle McLay is a mother, wife, great friend, dancer, vegetarian foodie and traveler, coaching entrepreneurs worldwide to achieve greater success in their businesses for 20+ years, and a life coach. She has six books being published by 2016. Leaving investment banking, Adèle bought into a consulting firm, working with New Zealand's biggest corporations, midsize companies and charities, helping them to be more successful. In many ways it was a precursor to her current coaching practice. She still uses her financial skills in property acquisition and management with her husband.
NetWeaving takes traditional networking—“how can you help me?”—and flips it to resemble a combination of the Golden Rule and Pay it Forward. Creator Bob Littell developed NetWeaving 16 years ago. He’s been teaching others around the world how it can be a powerful tool for building trusted relationships. NetWeaving amps up traditional networking by teaching three practical skill sets: 1) how to be a better connector of others; 2) how to be a gratuitous resource; and 3) how to be constantly on the lookout for exceptional people to know and to recommend to others to benefit all concerned.
“Val-Unique” is the term Chip R. Bell uses to describe his unique elaboration on the value-added concept, adding elements that surprise the customer in ways that delight them. A world renowned keynote speaker and founder of the Chip Bell Group, Dr. Bell is the author of several national best-selling books. Discovering what he loves, what gets him up in the morning, changed his life. “I think the degree to which you have the opportunity—and that's a key part—to pursue (what you love) can be important. I learned it early and made it my deliberate effort.
An L.A. Times bestselling author and blogger for Psychology Today, Cathy Scott left a secretarial job and broke into journalism. She wrote eleven books and taught journalism at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Recent TV appearances include Dateline and the Today Show. A line of dialog in the film, An Officer and a Gentleman, crystallized her motivation: “If you want something, go get it!” She recalls, “That just resonated with me. You have to go with your gut. That's what I went with. And it was hard.”
With 20+ years’ experience, Alexis Davis Smith is a solid communications strategist, a leader in Atlanta’s public relations industry. She is responsible for creating breakthrough and strategic communications programs for all Precise Communications clients, including leading global companies such as Coca-Cola and Toyota. “I’ve learned that I don’t have to be afraid, and shouldn’t be shy about expressing my strengths, and good work generates referrals. My first client was Coca-Cola Company, working on Super Bowl 34. Coke has been with us 15 years. Most of our current clients come from referrals.”
Through his podcast, the ConsciousMillionaire.com, J.V. Crum III, teaches how to achieve wealth—with a high purpose. He helps entrepreneurs make a positive impact and bigger profits. A mastery of psychology, law, and an MBA enrich his top-ranked podcast. Two new podcasts and a Conscious World Movement top his plans for the future. To succeed, he had to drop two childhood misconceptions: 1) “Wealthy” doesn’t mean you did something wrong to get rich; and 2) Business is not the place you go to lose money. With a conscious approach, “You're doing it from a conscious desire to uplift other people.”
Most Americans don’t negotiate their level of compensation, explains expert Victoria Pynchon, of SheNegotiates.com. Although she specializes in reducing the gender pay gap between women and men, few clients of either gender know the market value of their work. A well-researched strategy can yield enviable results. With hard data about market payscales, and an openness to employer’s concerns, an employee or job-seeker can formulate a negotiating strategy for a win-win situation. Knowing market values helps depersonalize the issue, increasing the prospects for greater personal compensation.
Best-selling author Rob Kosberg, founder of www.BestSellerPublishing.org, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop hunting clients and position themselves as the hunted. His program—Publish. Promote. Profit.—helps clients create their own guaranteed best seller, and grow their income via speaking engagements, free publicity and lead generation strategies. “There are passions and people you're led to have an impact on their lives. You have to do the work internally to discover that and figure it out. When you do, you find a flow where you feel like you're not working at all, and can do amazing things.”
EntrepreneurOnFire.com’s Kate Erickson is Content Creator and Community Leader for, one of the fastest growing podcasts in the world. She blogs, inspires, encourages entrepreneurs and manages marketing campaigns. She leads mastermind Tribe and Podcasters' Paradise, offering support and focused engagement to the Fire Nation community, both online and in person. Getting passed over for a corporate promotion strengthened her entrepreneurial resolve. “…it's one of the best things that have ever happened to me. Nobody else could give what I wanted to me. I could only create and give that to myself.
“Coaching is what I really love doing,” declares Sandy Vilas, owner of CoachInc.com, operator of Coach U and Corporate Coach U. “I love supporting entrepreneurs and professionals in dramatically increasing their business and enhancing the quality of their lives.” He coaches clients from all over the world. “The moment I decided to become a fulltime coach, I noticed this sense of peace and fulfillment washing over me. I was having so much fun. I was so passionate, so excited to use knowledge, wisdom and experience that I'd accumulated over 50 years to help others avoid the mistakes I’d made.
Living and painting in Atlanta, Georgia, Jennifer J L Jones has been creating art for 16 years full time, loving it all. A graduate of the prestigious School of The Art Institute of Chicago, her work is represented in galleries and included in public and private collections worldwide. “Hearing from random people after the disaster of 9/11 that they had seen my artwork and it made them feel better was a huge turning point! I realized my art had a healing effect on other people, not just on me. I felt I was starting to contribute something.”
In creating "NetWeaving"—building trusted relationships by helping others—Bob Littell drew on principles learned from building his own career and company, and by showcasing others who had been “NetWeaving”—before he coined the term over 16 years ago. Learning and living out Netweaving principles continues to enrich Bob’s life. He stays busy sharing them worldwide and enacting the two mottos of NetWeaving: 1) Good things happen to people who make good things happen; 2) When you open the door for someone else, you never know who you will meet as a result.
At The Bee Colony, founder Julie Salisbury helps clients unearth their unique story to blend communications with communities of support and engagement, creating social and cultural movements that support a purpose, belief or brand platform. Her work synthesizes traditional and emerging media to build brands with sustainable social currency. At age 26, she was working at an ad agency that was going downhill. Two clients leaving the agency offered to go with her if she set up shop. Despite never having started a firm, the story of The Little Engine That Could inspired her to take the leap.
Master-protégé relationships have guided James Moore throughout his life, including his transition to his current life as an oil painter from an early analytical career. He captures beauty with a brushstroke, like a musical note, using paint as his music. After the business world stopped being fun. James applied his motto: Move away from things you don’t like, go toward what you do.” He found a master and plunged into his art, foregoing art school. “I could afford to study with an Elvis rather than sit in a classroom. It was essential to overcome feelings of intimidation and fear.”
Her empowerment coaching finds Karina Andersen working with inmates in a South African prison. She takes her Circles of Change work and authentic leadership training wherever she perceives she is led to go. She shares her journey individually and in small groups. “This prison work found me in 2007, because my journey had prepared and molded me,” she tells podcast host Don Hutcheson. “We begin to understand we have imprisoned ourselves in our minds. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't mean that I am coming in and telling people what to do. Love is my Essence. Guidance my Passion!”
Mickey Batsell is a leading authority on long-term care planning and related issues, with 40+ years professional experience in helping individuals and families navigate the path of preparing for the devastating cost of a long-term care event. While working with traditional insurance policies in the mid-1970s, his employer introduced a new product called long-term care insurance. Around that time, he began to be faced with aging relatives who would likely need this kind of help. He set about learning everything I could in this relatively new field.
As creative director and co-founder Cara Barineau of Blue Marble Media, a video and motion graphics agency is celebrating 20 years of award-winning creative and production services for companies like Georgia-Pacific, Verizon, McKesson, Ariba, SAP, Sonoco and many others. Starting out in journalism, Cara soon found she could use more of her creativity in advertising. As agency work was becoming increasingly cut-throat, she knew she faced a life-changing career decision to make. Listen as she describes her “fork in the road” that led to video to Don Hutcheson, host of DiscoverTalentPodcast.com.
The dynamic founder of the Media Buyer Association, Charles Kirkland is aiming high: helping one million entrepreneurs, small businesses, and advertising agencies create successful paid media campaigns through advanced training and resources that are developed from real world experiences. Charles brings the “real world experience.” Surviving and thriving through peaks and valleys, Charles persisted in following his passion. Now, he says, “I’ve been broke and successful so many times, I just want to help other people to avoid the roller-coaster—and enjoy the climb.”