Subscribe to News10 Tips In 2 Minutes - Invent Your Future Conference 2010 - May 2, 2010 - Segment Five
Betsy and Renee recap their biggest observations and lessons learned from the Invent Your Future Conference. While it’s important to stay connected to what is happening at the office, try getting rid of your Blackberry when you’re at home. You can still be efficient in your work and use technology, but it doesn’t have to permeate everything you do during every given moment. It’s important for business owners to continue to learn and educate themselves, by doing things like attending conferences. Not only are the travel expenses tax deductible, but so are the fees to attend the conference. Also remember to be thoughtful about how you communicate with members of the opposite sex, as there are very stark differences in how men and women communicate. Very often, when women and men are in a business meeting, a woman will make a comment and it won’t be acknowledged, followed by a man restating the exact same point and getting credit for it. It happens because men articulate things differently, as sometimes people don’t always hear the central point women are trying to get across. Renee advises women in these situations to take the point back by saying something like “Thank you, Jim. You expressly exactly what I said 5 minutes ago. Let me build on it some more…”
2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.
Invent Your Future Conference 2010 - May 2, 2010 - Segment Four
Caller Julie Craft, Senior Director of Business Development at MerchantCircle, explains how the website makes it easier for business owners to sell their services or products to other small business owners and customers online. Just like Facebook allows people to create a free profile and connect with their friends in a variety of ways, MerchantCircle provides a similar service for small business owners, allowing them to build their brand throughout their social circle while creating channels for selling products and services between business-to-business and business-to-customer. Today, MerchantCircle is the largest social network for small businesses, with 1.3 million small businesses today in the U.S. that are actively engaging with their consumers as well as other local merchants. Once a profile has been created, companies can then advertise what they do, communicate with potential customers, as well as create an alliance with other companies in the same market or area. Julie notes that the site provides a variety of free business tools to members with profiles, including templates for building coupons, drafting newsletters, writing a blog, and uploading photos. While MerchantCircle offers an array of free tools, Julie explains that the site is monetized using a premium model, where the basic profile and business tools are all free. However, business owners who really want to expand and differentiate their business in the marketplace are more than willing to upgrade and pay for premium services to help accomplish that goal. For more information, visit the company at their site www.MerchantCircle.com.
2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.
Invent Your Future Conference 2010 - May 2, 2010 - Segment Three
Betsy and Renee chat with Shanti Feldhahn, author of The Male Factor, about what women business owners should know about men and how women approach business differently from their male counterparts. Fundamentally, Shanti explains, men and women not only express their emotions and communicate in radically different fashions, but they also multi-task differently. According to Shanti, storytelling and starting the conversation with the ultimate goal before elaborating the process is the most effective approach when trying to pitch to a man. Technology expert Edith Leung, another panelist at the conference, discusses how important it is to have both male and female mentors, while Laura Carstenson, Ph.D. and founding director of Stanford University’s Center On Longevity, talks about the challenges of saving for a retirement that could last many more years than we ever thought possible.
2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.
Invent Your Future Conference 2010 - May 2, 2010 - Segment Two
Betsy and Renee speak with Ella Bell, the first African American woman professor at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Ella touches on a wide range of subjects, including mentors, company culture, and how generational differences manifest themselves in the business world. According to Ella, it is important to not only have a deep knowledge of the culture of the company you work for, but an idea of how to make that culture work for you. On the matter of generational differences, Ella notes that each generation has its own style, but ultimately, every generation has to understand that organizations only function through teamwork. She also expounds on the idea that a high-level of self-awareness can make success in business realm much more likely.
2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.
Invent Your Future Conference 2010 - May 2, 2010 - Segment One
Betsy and Renee speak with Ruth Stergio, founder and producer of the Invent Your Future Conference, about why the conference was particularly important this year, with the context of the current economic troubles facing the country. Ruth also discusses what small business owners get from a conference like hers, as well as how she made elements like social media and networking into a larger part of the conference. Additionally, Anthem Blue Cross California President Leslie Margolin, joins the program to talk about Anthem Blue Cross’ role as a sponsor of the conference, and why it was important for the company to be involved with the event. Finally, Kristin Van Ogtrop, editor-in-chief of Real Simple magazine and a panelist at the conference, elaborates on the advantages of going to a conference like Invent Your Future, such as the chance to meet people in a variety of fields and learn the particulars about what it is they do exactly.
2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.
