Announcing Summer Business Break With The Rise To The Top + Anna Kournikova + You!

Announcing Summer Business Break with The Rise To The Top + Anna Kournikova + You

A few months ago I sat down with Elizabeth Erickson (Designer/Event Rock Star Planner you can check out her interview on The Rise To The Top here) and Dani Apted Schlottman (GM/Co-Owner St. Louis Aces Professional Tennis you can check out her interview on The Rise To The Top here) about creating THE most fun and entertaining event in St. Louis this summer.

We wanted to create something to get everyone away from the office and have a great time with an amazing crowd of like-minded young and young-at-heart entrepreneurs, business owners and simply those who just want to enjoy a great night this July all while offering some GREAT value and an unforgettable experience. Mix our private tent, some networking, complimentary open bar and Hors d’oeuvres (courtesy of our sponsors Grey Goose, Fiji Water, Heineken and Sub Zero Vodka Bar) gift bag of some GREAT items, box seats to take in high-energy professional tennis (this isn’t your grandfather’s tennis match…trust me), helping the community through our charity raffle supporting Lift For Life and you have Summer Business Break coming up on July 11th.

Oh…and Anna Kournikova is going to be there and will be stopping by our private tent for a meet + greet with all of you and you will have a chance to nab a picture with her as well. There will also be some other very special guests we will let you know about as we get closer to the event.

Tickets are now on sale right here and are very limited. We want to make sure it is an incredible experience for everyone, so once they are gone, they are gone.

Here are the details:
When is Summer Business Break? July 11th, 2009 at 5:30 PM (Private tent 5:30, tennis action begins at 7:15 PM)

Where is the event located? Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park (St. Louis, Missouri)

How much does my ticket cost? $100 (per ticket)

Where can I purchase my ticket? Tickets can be found exclusive through our website.

What do I get for my ticket price? Everything you ever dreamed of, or close at least
-Private Tent Party Entry
-Complimentary Open Bar & Hors d’oeuvre
-Box Seat to take in professional high-energy tennis
-Meet and Greet with Anna Kournikova
-A fantastic gift bag to take home
-Networking with our ALWAYS high-energy crowd
+ some surprises

Who is going to be there? Entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship-supporters, young professionals, CEOs, forward-thinkers. For the young and young-at-heart. A great event to bring a significant other or friend to as well!

Are there sponsorship opportunities? Absolutely! We have some great sponsors for the event including Grey Goose, Fiji Water, Heineken, Sub Zero Vodka Bar, We Make It Happen Concierge Services and Creative Entourage. To check out our sponsorship packet, click here.

I’m a small business own or entrepreneur looking to get my name out there at the event. Are there any special options for me?
Yes! We realize entrepreneurs and small business owners may not have zillion dollar budgets quite yet and being entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand. We have created a special package for you under our “Sponsor Ticket” package.
With a $175 (per ticket) sponsorship ticket you receive EVERYTHING you get with a regular ticket: (Private Tent Party Entry, Complimentary Open Bar & Hors d’oeuvre, Box Seat to take in professional high-energy tennis, Meet and Greet with Anna Kournikova, A fantastic gift bag to take home, Networking with our ALWAYS high-energy crowd + some surprises) and you get the following:
* Company Name Listed on Highly Visited therisetothetop.com
* Company Name Listed on Event Sponsorship Banner
* Rights to Place an Item in Event Gift Bag
Sponsor Tickets can be purchased on our special ticket website right here. If you have any questions, feel free to email me (David AT DSGagency.com)

Time to get out the sunscreen, put away the pleated pants and come out for Summer Business Break!

See you there! Will Ron Ballsiak make an appearance or is he banned?! Find out soon.
PS: If you want to stay updated on other special guests attending and occasional event announcements leading up to the event, simply enter your email in the upper-right corner of the website and subscribe to our Rise Blast.

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New Episode of The Rise To The Top: Featuring Guest David Newman, Learning From Mistakes, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, + more!

The Rise To The Top: Entertaining, Energizing and Empowering Entrepreneurs

A brand spanking new edition of The Rise To The Top is now live and in color (I’ve always wanted to say that). Marketing expert David Newman reveals secrets to help your business, a lesson from The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz, ideas to spark your business from Bounce U and much more.

Let us know what you think by commenting here or on the show page.

Live Passionately! – David Siteman Garland – The Creative Opportunities Specialist – www.therisetothetop.com

PS: In St. Louis? We will see you Wednesday at Sub Zero Vodka Bar in the Central West End beginning at 6 PM for our End of Season #1 BLOWOUT Party. We have a HUGE group of entrepreneurs, experts, fans and cast/crew of the show coming out. You can RSVP to RSVP@DSGagency.com (we appreciate it!) or just show up Weds.

PPS: Summer Business Break with Anna Kournikova and The Rise To The Top – details are now online! (click the blue Summer Business Break tab). Tickets will go on sale Thursday and will go FAST. Don’t miss the premier summer event in St. Louis. We will have everything from food/drink, meet+greet with Anna Kournikova, charity raffle, give-a-ways for EVERYONE, box seats to watch Anna play and 150+ young and young-at-heart entrepreneurs, forward-thinkers, young professionals and much more.

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Content Producing: 7 Tips For Young and Young-At-Heart Entrepreneurs

The Rise To The Top: Entertaining, Energizing and Empowering Entrepreneurs

Have you ever thought of yourself as a content producer? Are you a solid writer? Have great speaking voice? Love to tell

stories? Are passionate about something?

The bottom line is you, yes you, can become a content producer no matter what your experience level. There are usually two major reasons why folks do not take the content plunge:

1. Fear: Fear you won’t be good. Fear no one will listen/read/watch. Fear you can’t do it. Fear of understanding the technology.
2. Time: When am I going to find time to do this?! How often do I have to update my content? This is going to take FOREVER to produce.

Taking these one at a time. Fear of getting started is extremely common but what is the worst thing that happens? You put something out there and you learned how to content produce. Hooray, learning. And you have a good story to tell. On the other hand, imagine people DO like it and YOU like it. After some hard work you have a group of raving fans and are seen as an authority figure in your niche. Oh, and advertisers love you and come knocking at your door. Cool!

In terms of time, sure it takes time. Perhaps one less rerun on TV (unless you are watching The Rise To The Top and in that case, keep watching!), getting up 30-40 mins earlier or staying up 30-40 mins later. Sure you can spend hours on each blog post, podcast or video but pumping out quality content takes less time than you think with today’s technology.

The barrier of entry for content producing is so low it is not even funny and the benefits are extremely high. You don’t need a broadcast degree or journalism diploma or massive TV network behind you to establish a following anymore. Nor do you need a $10,000 camera, expensive software and a massive studio.

So without further ado, here are 7 tips for young entrepreneurs (or young-at-heart) on content producing:

1. Free Blogging Software. Free is always good. Make sure to check out all the options. Personally, I used Typepad for awhile but switched to Wordpress and I really like it. You can blog for free or you can purchase/create a template. You can always get fancier over time, but the bottom line is the software is painfully EASY to use and you don’t need a second mortgage.

2. Quality Cameras and Dropping Price Tags. You don’t have to spend $10,000, $5,000 or even $1,000 on a quality camera anymore (unless you are shooting for broadcast television like we have to do for The Rise To The Top…oy). From the $200 Flip Camera to webcams, you can create your online video blog or podcast without breaking the bank. And like everything else, you can always upgrade over time!

3. You Don’t Need To Be A Techie. Technology for everyone. Remember the Internet is a teenager (14 years old) and software and other goodies are being designed for the AVERAGE consumer in mind. Sure there is tech-crazy-cool-fancy stuff for the techies out there, but there is quality technology that EVERYONE can use and enjoy. Wordpress is quite simple to use and so is a platform like Tumblr. My step-dad is 69 years old and on Facebook. Case closed.

4. No Advertising Budget? No Problem! It used to be you could spend millions and sure enough SOMEONE would listen to you. Not anymore. Let the world decide by making sure you get your content onto social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and let the communities decide how they like it. Some great benefits include getting instant feedback and becoming a part of a cool community. REMEMBER don’t be overly self-promoting and end up being “that guy/girl” and instead focus on giving first.

5. You Become The Authority: When you are a content producer, your authority status goes through the roof. Of course personally you will continue to learn more about your niche and this could land you some great coverage. For example, my friend Ria Sharon is a great Mommy blogger with her site mymommymanual.com. Her blogging led to a recent TV show appearance where she was talking about new baby items just hitting the market. Cool!

6. Age and Personality Doesn’t Matter: More introverted? Perhaps you are better suited for writing. More extroverted? Perhaps video. The bottom line is by becoming a content producer you can focus on your STRENGTHS! Nobody is telling you what to do so go ahead and do what YOU are comfortable with. Old or young, there are no preconceived notions as to who can be a content producer. You don’t have to be an outdated hair-blowing-in-the-wind newscaster to rock.

7. Forget Perfection: So, your grammar isn’t perfect? You have a weird shadow in the background of your video blog? Audio drops on your Podcast? Who cares. Just get the darn thing out there and tell your friends, colleagues and anyone that will listen. Quality content mixed with great marketing is always going to be a winner. Get over whether you use a semi-colon or colon.

The Internet is still the wild, wild west and the opportunity to stake your ground is plentiful but like many opportunities, it is getting slimmer by the day. NOW is the time to become a content producer and claim your space and don’t worry about it if your dog walks in front of your camera when shooting.

Live Passionately! – David Siteman Garland – The Creative Opportunities Specialist – www.therisetothetop.com

PS: Make sure to stay tuned this weekend online for our end of Season #1 BLOW OUT featuring David Newman from Do It! Marketing and much more going live this Sunday at 11 AM (CST).

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The Rise To The Top’s 25 Forward-Thinking Online Destinations That Are Well Worth Your Time!

The Rise To The Top: Entertaining, Energizing and Empowering Entrepreneurs

Your time is valuable. I get it! Now here are some sites, people, destinations that are WELL WORTH spending a few minutes getting to know. I visit these sites every day and I would highly recommend checking them out!
In no order whatsoever:

Technology:
1. Geek Brief: Cali Lewis with a 3-minute-or-so myriad of tech tips each day.
2. CommandN: A little longer than Geek Brief (around 10 minutes per episode) but fantastic tech information to keep up with the trends hosted by Will Pate and Amber Macarthur
3. Stardust Global Ventures: The first couple of technology and new media Sheryl Breuker and Ken Camp. Great ideas and great people.

Motivation:
4. Gary Vaynerchuk: A hero and a mentor to me personally and a fantastic model on how to dominate the new business world. His content is fantastic.
5. MyWifeQuitHerJob: Steve Chou’s Blog with tips, motivational stories, big mistakes and more.

Thought-Provoking:
6. Hello, My Name Is Blog by Scott Ginsberg. Marketing tips and killer questions from “The Nametag Guy”.
7. Four Hour Work Week Blog: Grab a cup of coffee, open your mind and check out Tim Ferriss’ blog posts on saving time, energizing your life and more.

Social Media:
8. Chris Brogan: A humble, social media rock star. He really gets “it” and understands the value of spending time on social media.
9. Linked Working: Thoughts from Lewis Howes, the self-taught LinkedIn expert with a great book. Fun fact: Lewis is really tall. End fun fact.
10. A Twenty-Somethings Digital Strategy : Susan Iskiwitch has great thoughts and ideas coming from a twenty-something who knows what she is talking about.

Entrepreneurship:
11. How To Change The World: The famous Guy Kawasaki with stories, tips and chronicles of entrepreneurship.
12. Toilet Paper Entrepreneur: Mike Michalowicz is awesome and he has tons of resources for entrepreneurs. Funny thing is one day I ran out of toilet paper and I thought it would be a funny name for a book. So I googled it and boom up pops Mike (this is before I learned we had TONS of people in common)!
13. StartUp Nation: Rich and Jeff Sloan. All kinds of How-To tips for start-ups by Jeff and Rich Sloan.
14. Club E: No, not that kind of “E”. A great entrepreneurial destination created by Lyn Graft and Ingrid Vanderveldt.

Marketing:
15. Seth Godin: The man that really doesn’t need an introduction and you don’t have to make a huge time investment to read his short bursts of marketing glory.
16. Do It Marketing: Thoughts you can use today with a great marketing expert David Newman who is also my guest on next week’s episode of The Rise To The Top.
17. Strategy Stew with Ivana Taylor. Great ideas and observations from someone who has seen it all from big corporate marketing to entrepreneurial all stars.
Business:
18. Small Biz Trends : By Anita Campbell. A big dog with small business news.
19. Business Pundit: Looking for opinions? You will get them with Drea Knufken…awesome insight.

Saving You Time Online:
20. Ping FM: Update all your social networks with one click of the button. Like magic or something.
21. Tube Mogul: Upload videos to tons of sites with just one measly click.
22. Help A Reporter: Peter Shankman’s genius coming to play on this one. Sign up and receive three emails a day of reporters looking for stories. See one that fits you? You can instantly reply and possibly be interviewed!

Get Involved:
23. Go! Network St. Louis: A great organization helping professionals get back on their feet after a tough layoff.
24. Yellow Tie International: A non-profit trade organization which helps get you referrals and make connections with a give-first attitude.
25. Lift For Life Gym/Academy: Revolutionary way of improving lives for the underprivileged.

In the next list: 25 People Worth Paying Attention To

Like this list? We would LOVE it if you re-tweeted it, sent it to Stumbleupon or any other way you would like to share it!

Live Passionately! – David Siteman Garland – The Creative Opportunities Specialist – www.therisetothetop.com

PS: Looking for not your grandfather’s business show? Make sure to click Watch Now and check out The Rise To The Top designed for young and young-at-heart entrepreneurs and forward-thinkers like you.

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Friday At 5 PM: The Entrepreneurial Test

The Rise To The Top: Entertaining, Energizing and Empowering Entrepreneurs

Friday At 5 PM: The Entrepreneurial Test

Urban legend (or is it Silicon Valley legend?) states that venture capitalists after investing in a company would regularly check in around 5 PM on Friday to see what the entrepreneurs were up to. This sometimes came in the form of a random phone call or the dreaded drop by when the people who bankrolled your company come rolling up (I’m picturing three venture capitalists on a Segway with huge helmets..picture it…smile).

Why? They wanted to see if the entrepreneurs were busting their butt instead of packing things in early for the weekend.

When you are an entrepreneur, you are your boss. And driven by passion, a need to get things done, and huge goals sometimes sacrifices need to be made and it may be your precious Friday nights. It may not be glamorous work that needs to be done, but in the end it will all be worth it.

I’m writing this currently at 10 PM on a Friday night. Most people my age are probably out having some drinks, but I’m getting a bit of work done. Do I have to? Nope. Do I do work on Friday nights often? Nope. Do I want to? Absolutely.

A few Friday nights sacrificed now and then seems like a small price to pay for a lifetime of infinite entrepreneurial possibilities and truly following your passion.

Live Passionately! – David Siteman Garland – The Creative Opportunities Specialist – www.therisetothetop.com

Make sure to check out “Attracting Fans and Goofing Around With Dani Apted Schlottman” on our exclusive after hours show for entrepreneurs like you: Rise at Nite