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Writing is a competitive career choice because everyone wants to do it. Breaking into the field isn’t easy, so you have to make sure you outshine the rest. One of the best ways to do that is to build a stellar portfolio while gaining online exposure. There’s a website called VOICED that lets you do exactly that.

VOICED isn’t just for writers – it’s a platform for expression. If you’re an aspiring journalist or like to tell stories or share opinions, then it’s a place for you. On the flip side, it’s a place where you can find voices that inspire you. Here’s how it can help aspiring writers begin their journeys.

Write about anything you want.

VOICED is a fabulous way to carve out the exact kind of writing career you’re seeking, because it allows you to write about anything you want. You choose the topic, write about it, and publish it. With every article you write, you gain more experience and your chance of landing your dream writing job increases.

It’s a great way to test the waters about the subjects you truly enjoy writing about, whether that be politics, relationships, or anything else. No one tells you what to write on VOICED, so you can make every single article exactly what you want it to be.

Gain followers & exposure.

When you join VOICED, you become part of an online community. Your articles can immediately be seen by other members, as well as by anyone who visits the site. You can follow other people and they can follow you. This means that when you publish something new, your followers will see it. They can share it with their friends and family, growing your network of readers.

No barriers.

The great thing about VOICED is that everyone is welcome. There aren’t any barriers to entry, and you don’t have to submit a resume to join. The site exists to give every voice a platform – including yours. Everyone has something to say, and VOICED makes it possible to do so.

No blog needed.

While blogging has traditionally been a way for aspiring writers to publish their work, personal blogs usually struggle to get traffic. This means that talented writers are often overlooked, which doesn’t do much for someone hoping to launch a career. This isn’t a problem on VOICED, because writers gain immediate exposure on the site. If you do want to maintain a personal blog while also writing for VOICED, that’s not a problem – you can link to it in your VOICED profile, which will lead to more visitors.

Build a portfolio.

For writers, the “P” word is everything. It’s the only way that you can show potential employers what you’re capable of writing. But when you’re starting out in the field, it can be hard to have a lot of things to show. That’s why VOICED is awesome. You can write as many or as few articles as you like, building your portfolio along the way.

Head over to VOICED today and create a free account.

The post Head To This Site If You Want To Launch A Writing Career appeared first on Wall Street Insanity.

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Let’s pretend you want a strong marketing strategy for your company. The one that promotes value, not values promotion. Strong in its simplicity and effectiveness. Not strong yelling, but strong convincing. Able to enhance brand loyalty among your customers. That kind of strong.

In practice, marketing isn’t that different from an online casino for many business owners. You go in thinking you need something fruitful, but leave feeling like you’ve thrown your money to the wind with no obvious effect. Why does it happen?

The answer is no brainer — there is no silver bullet in marketing. With a sea of options in the marketing world, you might feel like there is no clear path. In addition, marketing changes fast — I mean, lightning fast. One day, your non-mobile site is just fine. The next day you are flat on your back with decreasing traffic and fading conversion rates.

Being a busy entrepreneur, you can’t expect to know everything about marketing. There are many efforts that you need to do while growing your business. You have a team to manage, a product to develop and deals to close. You also want to make sure that you don’t waste your money aimlessly on so-called Marketing aka Growth-Hacking aka Shining-Guru-Tips-That-Give-You-Almost-Nothing. Below are a few most important things that entrepreneurs should know about marketing right now.

Position your product and validate your business idea.

You must believe in your business idea. But don’t forget to add a pinch of prudence into your efforts. What if your idea is not what the world has been waiting for? Save lots of your money and energy by positioning your product and validating your business idea.

The next step is business idea validation. It is the process of testing your concept before launching the actual product. Business idea validation consists of a wide variety of activities – everything from googling to asking your potential target audience for feedback. Idea validation helps you understand if people will be using your product.

Here is a simple blueprint of practical steps to verify your business idea:

1. Google your idea. That’s simple. Before you even get wrapped up in an idea, pull out your phone and do a thorough search to find out if it already exists. If you find it does, do not give up on your inspiration. Could your target market be satisfied better? Maybe there are ways to improve on the existing product? If you answered ‘yes,’ move on to the next step.

2. Do a competitive research and try to understand what is missing. Read forums and blog comments, do a Twitter search for relevant hashtags to collect feedback. What difficulties do people experience while using your rival’s product? Is there something they don’t like? Holding this small research, you will get some inspiring ideas for growing your product. You can take a look at a great visualization of competitive research here.

3. Build an MVP, or minimum viable product, to determine if it is a product you and others would really use. Once you have this working prototype, test it and ask others to test it as well. If it turns out to be a product that you and your friends would never use … Think about validating your business idea one more time.

Create a marketing plan but leave room for flexibility.

Some business founders might fall into the trap of thinking that marketing efforts are just skippable ads on Youtube or newsfeed promotions on Facebook. Actually, marketing itself is so much more than that. It includes everything from understanding the market to choosing specific tactics you will use to reach that market.

But when you lack a plan, you chaotically rely on random marketing strategies being guided by the principle ‘More is Better’. Alternatively, your marketing plan helps you wisely and systematically choose promotion strategies, and understand exactly that this 320×100 pixels large mobile banner doesn’t justify an investment and shows a low conversion rate.

You won’t develop an absolutely perfect marketing plan. Be prepared to improve it. Whether it’s your first promotion or an email campaign, chances are it will take a few attempts before you really hit the mark with consumers. The key is to measure, learn and adapt quickly.

You have to give your marketing strategy a long time before it will pay off. You need to be consistent. You need to market month after month. Your marketing plan is like a harvest. It needs time and great efforts to grow to bring you fruits.

Pal up with data for the glory of marketing.

Marketing used to be thought of as an art or craft. But today marketing becomes analytical, data-driven and measurable. For example, the majority of entrepreneurs is quick to invest into paid ad campaigns but a whopping 83% of businesses don’t even bother to measure their ROI from these efforts. So, make sure to equip your team with a powerful analytics tool to enable your team to measure marketing activities.

Replace lacking yet necessary marketing people with tools.

You never seem to have enough people on the marketing team. But there is an ocean of low-cost and free platforms that help increase marketing productivity and save time. They offer robust capabilities to streamline repetitive tasks and make it easier for your business to market, measure and optimize efforts.

• Social media management: Hootsuite (free for your first 3 social profiles), Buffer (a free plan lets you connect a profile from each network).
• SEO: Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Open Site Explorer, SEO Book, Keyword Tool.
• Design: Canva, Pablo, Gimp.
• Real-time analytics: Google Analytics, MixPanel (free for 25,000 events per month), Go Squared (free for the first 100 visitors and 1,000 data points).
• Website performance optimization: Inspectlet (free for 100 recorded sessions), SumoMe Content Analytics.
• Marketing team communication:  Chanty, Slack, Flock.

You don’t always need a trendy website.

The most important goal of any website is conversion and income. Design should always come second. Don’t let a web agency convince you to spend money on a redesign if your existing website drives conversions effectively. Between times check your website navigation, speed, usability, content, but always focus on your business goals.

The majority of people are mobile addicted. Meet them there.

Every person keeps a smartphone in their hand. All your potential customers are mobile users who will approach your content through their mobile devices. If your website and content load too long or don’t look good on the mobile screens, you will fail to convert smartphone users into your customers. Once they become impatient, they will never come back.

Thus, work on mobile-responsiveness of your website in order to increase the conversion rate. Mobile users will never put their smartphones aside to use a laptop to access your content.

There are many ways to make your website mobile-friendly. For instance, you may use short headlines to adjust them in small screens of mobile and you can also use different navigation options that go well with smartphones.

Develop your brand story, not sinking in endless brand perfection.

Coca-Cola does not win the taste test. Apple does not have the most powerful devices. Brands win. Launching a product without developing a compelling and authentic brand story, is a huge mistake. Without it, you won’t differ from the rivals and convey your value to your target audience.

On the other hand, many businesses spend months, sometimes years, polishing up their product without showing it to the public.Investing in your brand perfection too early will result in throwing your money to the wind. Branding will naturally evolve as you get closer to fitting your market and customers, taking into account their opinions and feedback. So, implement an agile,  iterative method to your brand’s development.

Using common marketing channels, don’t forget about non-traditional ones.

Your acquisition strategy may include some classic marketing practices. A hundred to one, a corporate blog. For sure, Facebook and Google ads. Probably, email marketing. Maybe, guest posting. Let’s spice up a little bit your marketing efforts with:

1. Influencers.

Focus on connecting with people who already have that influence and credit of trust: journalists, community leaders, market influencers and everyone in between. That will help you to spread a word about your business around the world.

2. Reddit Advertising.

Reddit is often ignored as a paid marketing channel though it is very affordable and always worth trying out. This social network isn’t suitable for every business niche. But if your audience use Reddit, its granular audiences may help you target your prospects quite efficiently.

3. Quora.

Let’s be honest, we all waste time reading weird stuff on Quora. It is amazingly easy to lose hours reading user-generated answers on different topics. At the same time,Quora could be a perfect marketing tool, especially for B2B entrepreneurships. In fact, tons of questions and answers on Quora are promotional. You can do the same creating the awareness for your brand. All you need is initiate a discussion on a particular topic or start answering questions related to your product.

4. LinkedIn and Facebook Groups.

Many LinkedIn and Facebook groups seem to consist of cheesy real-estate salesmen. Nevertheless, some niche groups are a great chance for you to find high-level professionals who are decision-makers in your industry. Cost of this type of ultra-targeted promotion? Next to nothing.

In short, find relevant groups, start conversations, take part in heated discussions and pique group members’ curiosity about your product.

Takeaways

Effective marketing is an essential ingredient to the overall success of a business. In order to make your marketing efforts effective, try to:

1. Position your product clearly and validate your business idea before any development.

2. Make your marketing data-driven. Data is your best friend who will never lie.

3. Benefit from online marketing tools that are often low-cost or even free.

4. Strive for effectiveness, not design trends, when it comes to web presence.

5. Use an iterative method to your brand development.

6. Spice your marketing efforts up with unusual channels: Reddit Ads, Quora, Facebook and LinkedIn groups, influencers.

That’s it! Following these tips will help to ensure your business has the best possible chance for success. What about you? What are your top insights and takeaways on marketing? Drop a line in the comment section below!

The post What Every Successful Entrepreneur Should Know About Marketing appeared first on Wall Street Insanity.

Unsplash/Olu Eletu

One of the best ways to get closer to your goals in life, expand your vision, and improve yourself is to learn from others who’ve already succeeded.

You can do that by reading about the greatest men in history and the leaders of today, to check out their biographies and study the doubts and fears they had when they once started, or the techniques they used to grow their revenue, or how they found balance between work and life, and between success and staying true to themselves.

But you can also take a look at the things successful startup founders do, the passionate business owners, productive creatives, and those who break from conventional wisdom and go after what they want in life.

These are the entrepreneurs of today and they are the real face of success. It’s worth getting to know their daily routines and habits so that you can see what makes them stay on top of their game every single day, how they manage to handle all the work and still have passion in their eyes and energy in the evening.

So here’s what behaviors and mindsets they develop early on that help them achieve massive success later in life:

1. They fail a lot.

We hear about famous entrepreneurs’ wins and achievements all the time, but people rarely talk about their failures. Which, in fact, were much more plentiful than the successes.
That’s because failing means you’re trying. And because you can’t know what works at the beginning, you need to try what doesn’t work first, do it wrong, learn from that and never make the same mistake again.

Failure is inevitable and the earlier you accept it as a part of the journey, the better.

2. They wake up early and get to work.

If you start reading about how successful people spend their day, you’ll see one simple tendency first — they start it quite early. What’s more, they start working on their most important tasks right away, often after a productive morning ritual.

Such a morning can help you kick-start your day and be energetic and action-oriented till the end of it.

Waking up earlier means you’ll add extra time to your day, but it also leads to making the most of your morning. It’s often the only period of the day without any distractions, so you can use it for focused work, or just enjoy the peace and silence and drink your coffee and read something inspirational. Both will help you a lot later on.

3. They say yes to less.

Average people — although rarely doing something about their life — like to mention the many opportunities around and how grabbing them is important.

Truth is, these days most opportunities are either distractions or temptations. People and notifications are fighting for our attention, and there’s so much to be done at any moment that we indulge in unproductive, unhealthy behaviors and so on.

All that leads to a lot of time wasted and no progress.

That’s why it’s time to start saying “no” more often.

Every successful entrepreneur knows how valuable time is and that he needs to be selective. So he prioritizes, he eliminates anything that won’t get him closer to his goals and which isn’t essential. You can do the same.

Soon, you’ll start taking decisions faster and more deliberately, as you’ll always choose the option connected to your priorities in life. You’ll also never wonder what to do first again —there will always be items on top of your to-do list.

You’ll be more determined, decisive and will see results sooner, if you say “yes” to less and focus on the essentials.

4. They care about the work they do.

Finding and following your passion is one of the most common pieces of advice you can hear, but it still appears to be one of the best things you can do with your life.

Mark Zuckerberg wouldn’t have been working for weeks in his dorm room on creating Facebook if he wasn’t passionate about coding, or if he didn’t care about helping people connect with each other more easily.

These same urges are what helped him grow the social network beyond imagination. To this day, he’s as passionate about it as he was back then.

5. They put in more effort than is expected.

It’s true that entrepreneurs often quit working 40 hours a week just to start working 80 hours — for themselves. You can’t go without hard work here.

But what you get in return is priceless – freedom, independence, satisfaction, challenges, living on your own terms, the ability to scale and work on any new project whenever you like, and much more.

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and founder of Square, works an 8-hour shift in the first company, followed by 8 hours in the second one. And he doesn’t seem tired at all.
If you truly find the work you’re good at, are passionate about and for which people are willing to pay, you won’t feel overwhelmed and will have the chance to contribute to the world by doing it.

6. They are lifelong learners.

Last but not least, every successful entrepreneur is a learner from the moment he realizes there’s more to life.

You need to be willing to make many mistakes and learn from them, to meet people and listen to their advice, to read and consume the right information all the time, to travel and learn from experience.

Most importantly, you need to accept that life is a learning process and find a way to enjoy it. Then it will feel less like a struggle, and more like one big adventure.

That’s what successful people start doing early on so they can achieve a lot later in life.

The post 6 Habits Every Successful Entrepreneur Has Developed Early On appeared first on Wall Street Insanity.

Image courtesy of The Mensch On A Bench

The Elf on the Shelf might need to scoot over a little bit more this coming holiday season. It’s time to make more room for Mensch on a Bench, the Neal Hoffman creation that gained attention on Shark Tank in 2014, and previously was featured here and here on Wall Street Insanity.

During the 2015 holiday season, it appears that Mensch on a Bench will feature more prominently on store shelves, in some instances as part of an entire Hanukkah section. This season, the Mensch can be found adding cheerfulness to shelves at Barnes & Noble, Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Party City, local Hallmark stores and Michael’s. “Our goal is to be in the Hanukkah section, not to be next to Elf on The Shelf,” Hoffman tells Wall Street Insanity.

“We’re not in all stores,” he explains. “Nor do we want to be … In New York, for example, there’s a big Hanukkah section and we’re a big part of it. In North Dakota, there are no Mensches because there’s no Hanukah section.” That’s when customers can order online, and have Mensches packaged by Hoffman himself. Products are sent to homes everywhere from North Dakota to Hawaii. The company is looking to ship to Europe and Mexico next year.

Building the Mensch brand.

Now that Mensches are in every store Hoffman wanted to see them in, he is explicitly focused on expanding the product’s presence within stores. This year, there’s a Mensch Menorah that sings, teaching children Hanukkah prayers. There’s a plush dreidel, an activity kit in Target, and candy bars in some stores.

Image courtesy of The Mensch On A Bench

As more products are being sold, Hoffman is conscious of moving too fast. “I want to stay with items that are core to Hanukkah and have an educational element to them. We don’t want to go crazy.”

Through his creation of new items, Neal has seen endless opportunities to create. There have been opportunities to market Mensch cups, wine toppers, aprons, etc. However, it appears that Hoffman is focused on staying true to the holiday, and adding fun elements slowly, and with discretion.

All of this is part of Hoffman’s effort to go from “a product to a brand and impact more and more Jewish families. We’re setting down that path and we’ll continue. We’ve also sold the rights to our book to a movie studio out in L.A. We’re now pitching networks to get a cartoon going next year. We have a vision of adding more meaningful Jewish moments to the holiday.”

Mensch goes Hollywood.

As we speak, Hoffman is pitching his product-related TV show to networks. He hopes to broaden the story included in the Mensch on a Bench book, and transform it into something that speaks generally to the value in simply being a good person. The goal is to have it appear on TV screens as early as next holiday season. He says networks seem to love the idea, and recognize a need for it.

In the meantime, Mensch has already found another way to showcase the brand in a fun and unique fashion: through an app. The Elf Yourself app is popular nearly every holiday season, and Hoffman seized on its appeal to bring something relevant to those who celebrate Hanukkah.

Thanks to his “dream big” sensibilities, he was able to forge a partnership with the Office Depot-owned app with just a phone call. “Honestly, I just looked up who created the app for them, and called them up and asked if we could do something similar for our product.” He was faced with sticker shock, but resolved to keep trying. He asked if they could introduce him to Office Depot, and the process began.

Hoffman explains that his call with Office Depot was no different from any of his other pitches. “I always start out saying, please let me go through two seconds of this before you hang up. I’m the Mensch on a Bench guy. Jewish alternative to Elf on a Shelf.” Office Depot liked it, and worked quickly to put together a deal that put the Mensch on a Bench on people’s phones. “They’ve been so wonderful,” Hoffman says. “We went to New York, worked in a studio, had choreographers and dancers, including the choreographer for one of the top hip-hop artists out there, and I was so amazed at the resources put behind my little crazy idea. It’s just a message of perseverance.”

A big small business.

Through the studio visits and Hollywood negotiations, Hoffman still remains humble. “I’m still a small business,” he tells Wall Street Insanity. “I like to say, we play bigger than we are. We’re still a one-man operation.”

This is no exaggeration. In spite of its prominence in stores, online, and potentially on TV screens, Neal still runs his shop at his house. His basement is filled with his products. He has three, five-foot Mensches in his home for his kids to lay on. And he continues to do almost everything on his own, including accounting and PR. He explains that, as a “niche business, we’re going to stay small for now. We’re not going to go out and buy a big office building with a huge staff. That’s how you go bankrupt.”

Neal quit his full-time job to make Mensches full time, and savors the opportunity to be hands-on with his product. His cell phone number is the customer service number, and he talks to every customer who calls. This is what he says he loves about the business. He cites a quote he’s heard, “Entrepreneurship is working 100 hours a week so you don’t have to work 30 hours a week for someone else.” For him, that’s exactly what this is.

The authenticity of his product is something he prides himself on. Hoffman’s goal is to keep the product popular, but never bigger than the holiday. The personal interaction and small-business feel of Mensch on a Bench is what Hoffman believes keeps it popular. “I don’t think it would work as well if a major business did it,” he adds.

“Shark Tank” — because it has to come up.

Neal gets asked a lot about his appearance on the December 2014 holiday edition of Shark Tank. He received investments from Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec. They collectively contributed $150,000 for a fifteen percent stake, which Hoffman promised he would return to them within three years.

Image courtesy of The Mensch On A Bench

Today, Lori and Robert serve in an advisory role. Neal is, self-admittedly, very independent. “I’m going to call you if I have a problem, but I’m not going to be high maintenance,” he explains. “Lori is a great product person, so she’s very involved on the product side. She’s helping with products for next year, which I can’t say too much about. But they’re going to be very mindful of the holiday. Lori inspired the main, big item for next year.” He adds that she’s extremely accessible, talking to him on the phone until midnight as they sort through business ideas and concerns.

Hoffman sustains his relationship with Robert, but speaks with him less. “This week, I had an issue with a retailer not sending the product out to stores,” Hoffman tells Wall Street Insanity. It was what he describes as a $100,000 issue. Robert was able to step in on Hoffman’s behalf to help resolve the matter. Hoffman also does annual reviews with Robert and Lori alike, receiving valuable guidance on pacing and focusing on one product at a time.

He has taken every piece of constructive criticism from the show to heart, having changed the face of the Mensch to look “nicer. The doll was good, but it wasn’t as good as it could have been.” Moving into next year, there’s still more feedback coming from Lori and Robert as they suggest new ideas, and encourage Hoffman to adequately space out the release and implementation of his ideas.

Image courtesy of The Mensch On A Bench

The Mensch moves forward.

Neal is still focused on turning his product into more of a brand. The strides already taken through the app and potential tv show are just the beginning. “Ultimately, my goal is that when you walk into any major retailer, there’s a four-foot Mensch section. It’s got your Menorahs, your dreidels, your candy, your dolls, your wrapping paper. We’re not trying to be a $20 million company. We want to break your $2 million mark, your $3 million mark.” Understandably, the greatest challenge is setting and achieving these goals with only a brief holiday season in which to see results.

Still, everything is “really going according to plan,” Hoffman says excitedly. “Everything’s happening in year two or three, even though I had a five-year plan. So now, it’s how big can we dream?”

With lofty ambitions and Neal’s ability to see every vision he has had come to fruition, it’s likely you’ll be seeing lots more Mensches and related products this holiday season. The Elf on a Shelf finally has some company.

The post Mensch On A Bench Sits On More Shelves This Holiday Season appeared first on Wall Street Insanity.

Image courtesy of EmazingLights

You may have never been to a rave or music festival in your life. The idea of using your hands to create art, and to perform a style of dance, may have never occurred to you. EmazingLights pushes the boundaries of what we know about dance, self-expression, and celebrating music, turning conventions on their head by embracing and growing a new art: gloving.

The practice of gloving is essentially about putting on a light show, using your hands and gloves equipped with LED lights. Think of it as a form of dance that you’ve never seen before, having quickly grown from its roots in In-N-Out Burger parking lots to a hobby and, for some, career celebrated at the International Gloving Competition (IGC).

When you talk about gloving, one of the first (if not the first) name that comes up is Brian Lim and his company, EmazingLights. Lim might not have invented gloving, but he did help it become widely popular and celebrated. He may be only 27, but he is single-handedly turning gloving into a credible business with a massive following and an exciting future.

Image of Brian Lim, EmazingLights founder. Courtesy of EmazingLights

From burgers to making bank.

EmazingLights was conceived out of Lim’s passion for both electronic music and gloving. After attending music festivals and partaking in their early gloving scene, he soon realized he craved two key things: “better gloves and a more connected community to satisfy my own gloving interest,” Lim tells Wall Street Insanity.

Some people wish for things and wait for them to come to fruition. Having always wanted to be an entrepreneur of some kind, Lim decided to turn his desires into a reality. He began EmazingLights by hosting gloving events at In-N-Out parking lots, blasting music from trucks and putting on light shows using gloves that he had made.

Before long, he was able to monetize his product, making gloves that beat out the competition. “Our product line does extremely well because we design for ourselves first as glovers, but also take the feedback of our collaborative gloving community,” Lim explains. He also fosters this community, putting on programs and events (like IGC) “that have the sole purpose of growing the art of gloving and its competitive side.”

According to Inc., Lim’s company has grown 134 percent in three years. Founded in Anaheim, CA, in 2010, it had revenue of $7.4 million in 2014.

Meeting the sharks.

Lim would have devoted himself to growing the gloving community regardless of his appearance on ABC’s popular reality show, Shark Tank. However, this opportunity inevitably offered his company a massive boost. “The show was an acceleration of our mission,” he explains. We’re extremely grateful for the wonderful experience.” Both Mark Cuban and Daymond John invested in his company, offering $650,000 for 5 percent equity and 20 percent commission on licensing deals.

But for Lim, the show was about more than just the money. Robert Herjavec told him he was perhaps the best entrepreneur ever to come on the show; Herjavec memorably remarked that Lim created his own industry.

Lim agrees with this assessment: “There was no gloving industry to speak of before we came in and pioneered the scene. It was very fragmented, with private meet-ups at festivals, only. We created countless community programs: gloving sponsorships, Facemelt Crews, Glove4Glove, Gloving101 and more.”

Though Lim largely received praise and financial support during his time on the show, Mark Cuban voiced a concern that Brian Lim continues to hear from people who have yet to fully grasp the “gloving community.” Cuban asked him if gloving was transient, a fad. Today, Lim says that he knows it’s not, having founded EmazingLights because he believes it’s an enduring art form:

“There’s longevity in gloving,” he explains. “Gloving is like skateboarding was at an early age. There’s a great product, teams, events, and competitions.” It simply hasn’t become as commonplace — yet. Fortunately, “competitions like IGC give [glovers] an international platform to showcase their talents.”

Gloves & drugs.

One of the major obstacles that has stood, and to some extent still stands in the way of EmazingLights, and really glovers anywhere, is the perception that it’s practiced by people high on drugs who are a liability to live music events. Gloving has been banned by some live music festivals hosted by promoters like Insomniac, a company founded by Pasquale Rotella.

Rotella, who is well known outside of the music festival world as the husband of former Playboy bunny and Hugh Hefner girlfriend Holly Madison, is now in discussions with Lim on the subject.

Instead of allowing bans to keep him from growing his community, Lim used the restriction as an opportunity to “grow outside of raves. It actually pushed us to … grow the competitive gloving scene to build up our portfolio,” he adds. This has enabled Lim to show festival promoters “that gloving is a legitimate dance art form.”

Legitimizing the art of gloving is now part of EmazingLights’ business plan. They’ve implemented the hashtag, #glovingisnotacrime, and are in the process of “putting together an in-depth proposal to lift the gloving ban.” This proposal will have appeal beyond the world of promoters. The idea is to convince city and venue officials across the country that gloving is a safe form of creative expression. “If you’ve ever seen one of our competitions or events you can tell it’s drug-free; you can’t compete at the highest level under the influence,” Lim explains.

Bright lights ahead.

As EmazingLights works to dispel the stigmas that surround gloving, it’s also working to expand its popularity and make gloving a more mainstream art. YouTube and social media were, and continue to be, vital to EmazingLights’ growth. In the beginning, these outlets helped them build up their brand while “being bootstrapped with no advertising budget and only organic communication with their customer base.”

As time goes on, YouTube and Facebook video have enabled the company to explain the beauty and art of gloving. They’ve poured “tons of time and resources into creating the absolute best gloving videos possible,” Lim shares. The work pays off. This video, featuring girls who glove, gained over two million likes in just one week.

In the long term, Lim hopes to build up IGC so that there’s a league in every state. Although business-minded, he’s also determined to simply foster a sense of community. “I hope to have a licensed retail store in every state to provide a place for weekly gloving events, and to support gloving competitions on tour,” Lim shares. Meanwhile, his company will continually be enhancing product lines and “continuously pushing the boundaries of technology in LED gloves.”

With the determination of Lim and his team of committed glovers behind it, EmazingLights is moving full speed ahead to fulfill its mission of “inspiring creativity and empowering self-expression.” In other words, keep your eyes out for those bright lights.

Emazing Lights is always looking to give back to the less fortunate. Find out more about their Glove4Glove initiative.

The post How EmazingLights Is Making Bank And Bringing People Together With The Pull Of A Glove appeared first on Wall Street Insanity.

Image via We Heart It

Scoring high on an IQ test does not guarantee success; attending an Ivy-league school doesn’t mean an Ivy-league life. Yet from the moment you begin education, the emphasis is on test scores and exam results.

While IQ is certainly important, putting all your chips in that basket will only mean you fall short. Companies and CEOs are now looking past the traditional cognitive IQ skills and looking more at “non-cognitive” skills. In selecting new HR personnel, The US Air Force switched from a cognitive to a non-cognitive approach and increased its success rate and saved $3 million annually. L’Oreal sales agents selected using non-cognitive criteria sold $91,370 more than other salespeople did annually.

Excellence and success are indeed multidimensional. Here are two forms of intelligence that are better predictors of success than IQ:

Social Intelligence

Otherwise known as “interpersonal” intelligence, it’s the social skills and ability to adjust your interaction styles according to the people and setting you’re engaged in.

It doesn’t mean being disingenuous or putting on a mask. In fact, it requires having more of a genuine interest in others; paying more attention to ensure they feel at ease around you. It’s the ability to perceive and intuit other’s thoughts and feelings with high accuracy, and responding appropriately.

You don’t need to be an expert in psychology or anthropology to have social intelligence, nor must you be an extrovert; you simply need to be intentional with people.

There are two keys to social intelligence: 1) considering the context 2) observing body language. When it comes to context, you don’t want to act formal in a social setting, and you don’t want to act casual in a business setting. With body language, people make judgments and draw conclusions within the first minute of meeting. First impressions will make or break a good interaction.

Here are some basic skills for every interaction:

• Smile and make eye contact
• Be assertive, ask questions and listen
• Stand slightly side on (directly in front can be perceived as confrontational).

Emotional Intelligence

Also known as “intrapersonal” intelligence emotional intelligence is having self-awareness; the ability to be introspective, observing your own thoughts, and processing your emotions. We get frustrated when our actions don’t line up with our emotions. Having this emotional awareness will allow you to align your beliefs with your behaviors, your internal desires with your external expectations.

Mindfulness practices cultivate emotional intelligence. Start with observing your inner processes and emotional response to situations. Label your emotions as they arise and question their validity. Get a notepad and write out how you feel. It will strengthen awareness.

The ancient stoics placed great value on emotional intelligence and self-awareness. Marcus Aurelius said, “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

You don’t have complete control over what happens in life, but you can manage your emotional response. This reduces stress and anxiety, and allows you to function at your best.

Take the focus off your IQ and begin cultivating these “non-cognitive” skills today.

The post These 2 Forms Of Intelligence Are Better Success Predictors Than A High IQ Score appeared first on Wall Street Insanity.

As a writer on entrepreneurship, I’ve been grateful to interview leaders such as Mark Cuban, Barbara Corceran, and Guy Kawasaki. One entrepreneur who has always stood out is Paul Budnitz, founder and CEO of Ello, the social media platform that exploded from 90 users to processing 50,000+ new invite requests every hour. Forbes, Inc, and Business Insider dubbed Ello the anti-Facebook with its staunch user-privacy and ad-free approach.

While the success of Ello seemingly took the world by storm, those closest to Paul Budnitz were less surprised. The adage, “It takes ten years to become an overnight success” sums him up well.
He’s been described as a “creative genius” by investors; one of his earlier ventures, Kidrobot, an art-toy emporium, went from two employees to 90, and from $300,000 in sales to more than $15 million.

His next venture was into a field he knew little about — bicycle design and manufacturing. He had a vision of taking the high standard, quality, and price of professional racing bikes, and applying them to everyday city bikes. It was scoffed at by many. Budnitz told Business Insider, “I remember this executive at Shimano said to me, ‘Paul, what are people going to do, they’re going to ride a $6,000 bike to the supermarket?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, they’re already driving $75,000 cars to the supermarket.’”

Paul recently shared with Wall Street Insanity the insights and advice which has shaped his successes over the years:

Pursue what’s beautiful and meaningful.

Regardless of the work, Paul’s approach has been the same, “I’ve always wanted to simply make something beautiful that I care about.”

We’re all drawn to beauty, whether that’s in nature, music, people, or products. In a culture that champions pragmatism, esthetics is often ignored. But Paul has made a conscious effort to deliver products that not only are functional, but beautiful.

We treat what is beautiful with value, so when you provide something of beauty, you are also adding value.

Put people first.

Ello is listed as a Public Benefit Corporation, a legally binding charter that states the company is “not required to maximize shareholder value.” That’s startling, considering Ello closed out its Series-A with $5.5 million in venture capital funding. But Paul explains that the interest came because the investors bought into the vision, not just the product. And that vision was to put people first.

By taking the focus off the bottom line, they’ve been able to put their energy into maximizing the user’s experience. It’s putting people above profits, and in doing so, they’re able to gain something money can’t buy — trust.

Entrepreneurial vulnerability.

Never let success get to your head. Paul says with passion: “I show up every day at work vulnerable to the reality that my business could tank and fall apart on any day.”

Complacency is the sneaky cause of a downfall in the lives of many entrepreneurs, especially when their companies grow. A mindset of vulnerability and humility will ensure that your work and success never become stagnant. It keeps you open to learning new ideas, and motivated to keep innovating.

Finally, I asked Paul these three questions:

1. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

“People have a tendency to play to their strengths and hide their weaknesses. Genpo Roshi, who is an American Zen Master living in Utah, once said that when we bury the parts of ourselves that we don’t like, those negative aspects of our personalities eventually come back to haunt us. Our weaknesses are always there, whether we like it or not.

If that’s true, why not use both our strengths and weaknesses to our advantage? Then we’re really taking advantage of who we are as a whole, and not wasting energy trying to be (or hide) who we aren’t.

For me, that’s meant that the things I’m terrible at are kind of a hidden superpower. I’ve learned to ask for help from a beginner’s perspective, without being ashamed of that — even if I’m the one who is running the company, and I’m asking for help from an intern. Actually, my 23-year-old intern at Ello is now running Ello’s customer service department, and doing things that I could never do myself.

If I hadn’t been mature enough to admit that, I couldn’t have seen her brilliance. I’d have been too proud. That would have been a great waste — for her, for me, and for the company.

2. Your biggest failure, and lesson learned?

I don’t see anything that I do as a failure (or a success). I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s really how I operate. It’s all just another step on a road that never ends — there’s always a disaster followed by things working out fairly well, followed by another disaster. It’s a cycle. After a while, you learn to look out for the disasters when things are going well, and take heart when you’re at the bottom that those things will reverse eventually, too.

A few years ago I was running Kidrobot, now I own Budnitz Bicycles, and I am very busy with Ello. I don’t know what I’ll be doing in five years, but it will be all connected. One thing flows into another.

3. What is your definition of success?

Being willing to lose it all, if that’s what it takes.

If you aren’t open to that, you’ll never be able to take the risks necessary to make something truly amazing.

The post The Hallmarks Of Success: Interview With Paul Budnitz, Founder Of Ello appeared first on Wall Street Insanity.

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The average person will spend 45 years of their life working. That’s a lot of time dedicated to a job. Those years can be full of joy or bitterness. Unfortunately, it seems more people hate their jobs than love them. Gallup polled 25 million employees in 189 different countries and revealed that only 13 percent of workers were happy with their jobs.

The study showed that people lacked a sense of meaning and purpose in their work. For those who felt empty and disengaged, these four keys areas were found to be lacking:

1. Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation comes from recognizing intrinsic value — that something possesses worth independent of anything else. Your work is no longer a means to an end, but rather an end in and of itself.

Find work that gives you a sense of satisfaction, regardless of the outcome, and regardless of external factors. Ask yourself this question: “If nobody recognized my work, would I still find joy in doing it?”

An athlete must find as much joy in competing in front of nobody, as she does in front of thousands; the entrepreneur should be driven whether his idea meets success or failure. The key is finding intrinsic value and motivation in your work. It’s about enjoying the process, not just the product.

2. Extrinsic Motivation

On the other side of the coin, value and motivation need to be found beyond the work. This can be found in a sense of contribution to one’s family, friends, or community. Humans are altruistic by nature; connecting generosity to your work will create meaning.

It’s gotta be more than just the bottom line. Einstein said it well, “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” Seek out meaningful relationships. Think through who is benefiting as a result of your work. Making a difference is meaningful.

3. Personal Agency

Agency is defined as: action or intervention to produce a particular effect. Meaningful work is synonymous with having personal agency. That means being active rather than passive, being able to voice your opinion, and feeling like you’re a contributing factor to the big picture.

Even in an entry-level position, agency can be created through communication with your manager to maximize your role. Speak up whenever you are given an opportunity. Don’t be afraid of being assertive and making requests.

4. Measurable Goals

Having goals allows for growth, change, and iteration in life. We often have big long-term goals, but we forget about the small goals. Having both is essential for injecting meaning into your work. You should be able to look back on the past week, month, and year, and find joy in how you’ve progressed and evolved.

And just as important as having goals is consciously celebrating them. The brain releases dopamine during moments of celebration to reinforce and motivate your successful actions. Your goals reflect what you’re passionate about, and that’s where meaning is found.

If you’ve been feeling empty about your work, measure yourself up with these four key points. Whether you switch careers or remain where you are, they will remain essential for finding meaning in your work.

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Image via Unsplash/Ben Rosett

Mark Zuckerberg and Oprah may appear to be completely different, but under the surface they share traits that fuel their work. Entrepreneurs are indeed a different breed, with their own set of stripes, but there’s a pattern in those stripes. Here are the ten essential traits of an entrepreneur:

1. A competitive nature, against themselves.

As much as entrepreneurs enjoy beating their competition, they’re just as passionate about beating themselves. Richard Branson said, “My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself.”

2. Learning from everyone.

Entrepreneurs live off ideas, and know that great ideas can come from anyone. Adopt this philosophy from Bill Nye, popularly known as the Science Guy: “Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.”

3. Thick skin.

Frequently being told “you’re insane,” and “it’ll never work” will make you wish you had a dollar each time. Successful entrepreneurs take it like water off a duck’s back. Critics will see you walk on water and say it’s because you can’t swim; having thick skin will ensure that you’ll just keep walking.

4. Considering consequences.

It’s easy to get blindsided by instant gratification, and forget the long-term consequences. Great entrepreneurs always keep the bigger picture in mind. Warren Buffet’s legacy of success is indeed a marathon, and he gives this reminder, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

5. Staying foolish.

Many things that are considered normal were viewed as unrealistic at one point. Steve Job’s advice to “stay foolish” reflected his own journey of constant innovation and pushing the boundaries for what’s possible. A slight sense of ignorance is healthy and necessary in the entrepreneurial world.

6. Sweat equity.

Nothing beats blood, sweat, and tears at the end of the day. You may have the best team to delegate work to, and plenty of support from VCs, but regardless, successful entrepreneurs always find a way to get their hands dirty. There’s nothing more satisfying, or important then knowing you’ve put in 110 percent.

7. Iterating vs. “quitting.”

“Quitting” has an entirely different meaning for entrepreneurs. There are times a project will fail or an idea needs to be scrapped, but iterating means looking beyond the act of quitting and finding the lesson in the failure. It’s ok to “quit” at times, but make sure it’s a stepping stone.

8. Bigger than the bottom line.

It’s gotta be more than just the cash. Entrepreneurs are inspiring and passionate about creating value for people, but their definition of value goes beyond the bottom line. As Tony Hsieh said, “Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.”

9. Fire, aim, ready.

Rather than ready, aim, fire, entrepreneurs have it backward. They fight against the feeling of not being prepared enough, but they take action anyway. The first step is always the most difficult, and trying to get all your ducks in a row will be paralyzing.

10. Taking responsibility.

It’s easy and tempting to blame the person beside you. But even if they’re partially responsible, taking responsibility doesn’t ignore the fault; it addresses it to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Blaming is throwing a blanket on the fire, only to have it light up again. Entrepreneurs are great leaders and take responsibility, making sure the fire is completely put out.

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image via Flickr/ Brad Smith

What do the most successful people do before they go to bed every night? Presumably they brush their teeth, change their clothes and climb under the sheets just like everyone else, but that can’t be all, can it? Of course it can’t. Successful people know that in order to get a good night’s sleep and start the next day with a clear, focused, purposeful mind, you have to adopt certain practices. If you want to be a sleep success story, try these six tips for better sleep and a more balanced life.

1. Turn Off All Electronics

Most people know by now that artificial light from electronics like smartphones and e-readers disrupts sleep patterns by decreasing melatonin and promoting wakefulness by messing up our circadian rhythms. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to put down the electronics. Many people have difficulty letting go; they always need to check their email one more time or “relax” by spending an hour on Facebook or wind down by watching a few hours of TV in bed. Try to break this habit by turning off all electronic devices, or even removing them from the bedroom. You’ll fall asleep more easily, experience a better quality of sleep and be more alert the next day — all essential ingredients for success.

2. Spend Time With Family

“By making deliberate choices about which opportunities they’ll pursue and which they’ll decline, rather than simply reacting to emergencies, leaders can and do engage meaningfully with work, family and community,” says the Harvard Business Review. Using data from five years of interviews conducted by Harvard Business School students with nearly 4,000 executives around the world, as well as a survey of 82 executives in an HBS leadership course, the Business Review states that most of the executives surveyed maintain a work/life balance by involving their families in work decisions and activities, as well as putting in the time to “give both work and home their due.” Spending time with family maintains and strengthens bonds, allows you to recharge and gives you the sense that you’re in charge of what happens in your life — that you dictate your schedule rather than your schedule dictating you.

3. Read

Not only is reading relaxing, it also provides opportunities to learn new things. Having a small amount of quiet time to yourself to read before bed will help you wind down (as long as you’re not reading with an electronic device) and lend itself to self-improvement. Bill Gates once told the Seattle Times, “I read an hour almost every night. It’s part of falling asleep.”

4. Plan

According to Forbes, planning helps relax the mind. When you plan out your day, your brain can rest in the knowledge that the plan is already in place and will be there when you wake up. By creating a list of what you’ve accomplished during the day and what needs to be accomplished the next day, you can organize your thoughts on paper and stop them from swirling around your head.

According to Business Insider, Benjamin Franklin asked himself, “What good have I done today?” every night and tracked his progress daily. Planning and keeping track of your accomplishments eliminates all the distractions and worries that might otherwise prevent you from going to sleep, plus it helps you evaluate different areas of your life and see where you’re succeeding, as well as where you need to improve.

5. Ensure You Have Enough Time To Get Seven Hours Of Sleep

Recent research has suggested that seven hours of sleep may be more optimal than eight; one study showed that people aged 50 to 64 who sleep for less than six or more than eight hours a night had worse memories and decision-making abilities, and people who sleep for around seven hours are more likely to live longer.

“The lowest mortality and morbidity is with seven hours,” Shawn Youngstedt, a professor at Arizona State University Phoenix who studies sleep duration, told the Daily Mail.

Getting the proper amount of sleep allows your brain to recharge so it can perform at its best during the coming day; when you plan a specific bedtime that will allow you to fall asleep on schedule and get your seven hours of rest, you’re eliminating yet another source of worry that might otherwise keep you awake: the fear that you won’t get enough sleep.

6. Create A Routine

Whether it’s meditation, writing in a journal, brushing your cat, watering plants, or just a typical brushing teeth/washing face/arranging pillows routine, establishing a bedtime routine can be very helpful when you’re trying to wind down. The order of the routine will help your brain know that you’re getting ready to go to sleep, says the Huffington Post; by doing the same two to four things in the same order every night, you’re conditioning yourself to recognize that it’s time to go to sleep, setting yourself up for a productive, successful day.

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