Friday, September 25, 2009

Broken Cookies and a Cup of Cappuccino

It is not every day that one has the opportunity to meet empowered women entrepreneurs. This month I had the pleasure and honor of meeting both Amilya Antonetti and Jeretta Nord.
Amilya Antonetti is a pioneer in the green cleaning product category, a trail blazer for female entrepreneurship & networking and has established many programs to uplift and excel women including the "Broken Cookie" workshop for empowering women; which I attended (as pictured with Amilya above). Amilya has an immense online social media presence, is an Oprah favorite, and is actively working on many upcoming television projects.
Jeretta Nord is an author and has also dedicated her entrepreneurial path to uplifting the otherwise unheard entrep in her book series A Cup of Cappuccino for the Entrepreneur's Spirit. Jeretta has a successful weekly radio show where she profiles and interviews entrepreneurial stories from her books, as well as other well known go getters including Amilya Antonetti!
As a woman entrepreneur, I am learning to think not only for myself, but to lend a reaching hand to others. We are all in different places on our journey of invention, innovation and business and the helping hands we recieve are invaluable to our success and longevity.
A special thank you to some other women entreps and their amazing innovations and businesses: Julianne Paulson (@YRJewelryGal) - Get Rocked Jewelry, Kathy Partak (@KDPartak) - ZipperBack Gloves, Kendra Kroll (@PortaPocketGal) - Porta Pocket, Kim Shulman (@NoSlipCharlie) - No Slip Charlie bathing gloves, Andi Barness (@Andibarness) - Actress.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Pitchmen, Social Media & Las Vegas

Monday September 14th was the big day! Pitchmen season 2 auditioning from the ERA convention at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Inventors from all over the country poured into Paris for the opportunity to pitch their product to the Pros Kevin Sullivan (Sully) and Billy Mayes (recently deceased - RIP dear Billy!). The Livemercial production team was filming, interviewing and recording pitches one after the other with host Jennifer Crawford. She had an amazing nack for asking the right questions and maximizing the entrepreneur(s) pitch for a chance to pitch to Sully and a chance to not only appear on the Pitchmen show, but make their product a hit in the direct marketing category.
As the tradeshow doors open we all bolted to the sign up table to get our time slots to present our products. While waiting for my time slot, I strolled around and learned a whole new language called direct marketing. The vendors at the ERA (Electronics Retail Assoc) included full licensing companies down to individual production, talent, resource companies able to piece together what each product needed. I returned to the line for my time slot to pitch my product. While in line, I was chosen to actually pitch to Sully (I'll take that as a compliment) and the butterflies went wild! I had samples, my medical scrubs on and a toilet seat for a prop. "Why the toilet seat?" Sully asked - well, your cell phone is dirtier than a public toilet seat, so clean that cell phone!
This audition was not just me and my invention Celly Smellys scented cell phone wipes. The trip to Las Vegas was also a perfect storm of social media gone wild. I have been a twitter user for months now and over the year I have met several entrepreneurs and tweeters that have integrated into my 'twitterverse' to become a strong and viable network of opportunity. I met several twitterers in Las Vegas at tweetups and tradeshows including @Livemercial, @MavenManagement, @SmashYoTrash, @KDPartak, @YRJewelryGal, @Ginellem, @PortaPocketGal, @VegasBill, @24K, @JuliaRosien, @TKPLeslie, @PeterArceo, @LasVegasHilton and so many more.
I networked like a bandit, I learned a new language, I met some great new friends and I grew as a person and an entrepreneur. Thank you to @Livemercial for the production and the VIP party and to each an every person that shook my hand and said "that's a really cool product". Check the Livemercial site and Youtube site for actual video of my audition and pitch to the Pitchmen!