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Make it earn the investment cost
1097_ 10/28/11 - Celebrating their 30th year in business, we've tracked down Ron McKey, founder of the Colorado based FlyingBeds. He's gone from Murphy Beds to FlyingBeds in more ways than one. He's had a ton of experiences, has a fabulous, unbelievable website, does a lot of business online not only in Colorado but all over the country and internationally. He is in all respects a real character - and it comes through... over the phone, in an interview and on his website - and people love what he is and what he does. His furniture is custom made and he helps the would be designer/client re purpose a room to be beautiful and valuable. Ron explains the problem with this concept is that not everyone is not a born designer - it just isn't in their blood. So Ron lends his vast experience to help guide the process. Starting with, what do you want this room to accomplish? One of my favorite lines, found on his website is the 'deceptive purpose' of a room. Ron says, "I want the room to become valuable. Make it earn the investment cost." It may look like a beautiful home office with fabulous surround furniture in Cherry (you'll positively drool looking at the photos on his site) that turns into a state of the art guest room for that special visitor, with a view of the Rockies over the Cityscape of Denver or Singapore or... He'll talk with you, work with you and help you bring out that special, one of a kind, heirloom quality room with the right questions, renderings, drawings and an entertaining conversation. We wanted to know what Ron's most difficult task was. He said it was getting the client to realize "we aren't a Murphy Bed company". It's the combination of Hollywood movies and sofa beds that are stuck in their mind. - Think "I Love Lucy". It is easy for the customer to forget we are a space design company and not a joke. Larry asked Ron why and/or how FlyingBeds is different from other Murphy Bed type manufacturers - Ron replied, We say, "What do you want?” not, “This is what we have." Listen for more...
Related Links: FlyingBeds Home || FAQs || Economy Builders || Blog || Keywords: Ron McKey, FlyingBeds, Murphy Beds, Furniture, Custom Made, Space Design Company, Home Office, What do You Want this Room to Accomplish - bytes=7676136
Listen to: Ron McKey, Founder & Pres, FlyingBeds

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Inventors, entrepreneurs, and revolutionary thinkers
1099_ 10/27/11 - We are here with a world renowned futurist, Tom Frey at the DaVinci Institute Vault, actually sitting in the 'vault' at the Vault. Tom explains the Vault is a co-working space. There are more and more people working from home and they suffer from two problems, either isolation or distractions. If you have a lot of kids at home [or even one] you understand distraction, we're sure. After working at home for a while, one begins to crave conversation with like minded people, and that's what you get at the DaVinci Institute. "You're around people doing similar type work..." Tom says the true value is in all the sidebar conversations that go on here. Larry asked Tom for his view of the changes he's seen over the past ten years - As a futurist, he gives talks all over the country and internationally and has a perspective that most of us don't get to indulge. It is interesting, few have the time or luxury to reflect, so Tom points out, to begin with we have gone from desktop computers to mobile devices which is just a massive, huge change. "It was just March of 2008 when Steve Jobs announced the software developers kit for the Apple iPhone. And it was July of that year when Steve Jobs announced the first 552 apps and the Apple App store. Within the next three days there were 60 million downloads of apps. Today, within the last few months, we broke through the barrier, there are over one million apps available that can be downloaded on both iPhone and android devices." Tom predicts that sometime next year, the number of apps will exceed the number of books in print. It's an interesting comparison; Tom tells us there are 3.2 million books in print. Tom just came out with a new book, Communicating with the Future, The reengineering intentions will alter the master code of our future. And Tom says, "We look at this whole idea of our relationship with the future. Most people think we don't have any control over the future. We actually have much more control than we think we do." In the book, Tom discusses different techniques that he uses and how to manage and control the future in better ways. Their big event is the DaVinci Inventor Showcase - November 5th, at Noah's Event Center in Westminster. What's happening at the Vault? Listen for details...
Related Links: DaVinci Institute || DaVinci Inventor Showcase || Amazon || Mastering Change Blog || Free Newsletter || Keywords: Thomas Frey, DaVinci Institute, The Vault, Mastering Change, Futurist, Inventors, Entrepreneurs, Communicating with the Future, Steve Jobs, Apple, Inventor Showcase - bytes=4833596
Listen to: Tom Frey, Sr Futurist, DaVinci Institute

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India is the first country to setup a National Knowledge Commission
544_ 10/26/11 - While Sam Pitroda, Chairman of WorldTel Ltd., has an illustrious technical background including patents and founder of multiple high-tech and digital startups in the United States and Europe, Sam spoke about his lifetime passion during his interview. Larry contacted him at his Chicago, IL. office and focused on 'education' and leadership'. This might seem like quite a leap from his high-tech background which included founding Wescom which was one of the first digital switching companies in the world. "I spend most of my time these days as chairman of India’s National Knowledge Commission. We set up a commission to look at various aspects of knowledge institutions and infrastructure that India will need in the 21st Century. The commission is made up of 8 people coming from all walks of life; academicians, businessmen, professors, economists, mathematicians. Technology has played a very important role in all our development. Life expectancy has gone up, infant mortality has gone down, and communications have substantially improved the world over. We are well connected. But at the same time we are going through turmoil. I believe a lot of this has to do with the fact that technology changed too fast. And the organizations, government, policies, mind set, hasn’t kept pace with it. We have the mind set of the 19th and 20th centuries and we have technology of the 21st century." Sam has a new take on 'leadership'...listen now.
Related Links: National Knowledge Commission || C-Sam || TiE Rockies || PodCast Directory || Keywords: Sam Pitroda, National Knowledge Commission, India, TiE Rockies, Education, Leadership, WorldTel - bytes=9950670
Listen to: Sam Pitroda, Chairman, WorldTel Ltd

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Private lenders rather than banks for raising money
1098_ 10/25/11 - We're here with a guy who does a great deal with money. He's the author of the book, "Where To Go When the Bank Says No" - from the 'Hard Money Series'. This is Steve Replin, CPA, MBA and JD at Replin & Rhoades, [their practice is] a pretty unique boutique walk through, between Chicago and Los Angeles, focusing on entertainment law, representing fashion designers, film makers, authors, publishers, musicians, record labels and the like. Representing them in their business formation issues, a bit in their tax planning, in their business structure, in the contracts they need to go out and grow - dealing with contractors, employees, agents and managers - to kind of just watch their career grow and to make sure they're legally protected.
For 30 years, Steve was a provider of alternative funding for people that have a very difficult time at a bank or for some reason they are not otherwise institutionally fundable. Steve's niche is: entrepreneurs who had terrific ideas, great dreams, passions, aspirations and nowhere to go to get financing. We got Steve's overview or Reader's Digest version of his book. He explained, "As the economy has become more problematic since 2008, banks have become more restrictive in their willingness to loan money, because loans have increasingly gone into default. So what this book discusses is the rather loose affiliation, across the country, of private lenders who will provide financing for entrepreneurs and small business that are in various stages of their growth strategies; for people that have opportunities but need to take advantage of fairly quickly; sadly sometimes for people who are in need of solving a problem fairly quickly and they don't have a relationship with the bank or they don't have the time to deal with the bank that in all probability is going to tell them no anyway. So it's kind of an overview of what that whole system is. I lead them from loan rejection to a loan approval in really a number of easy steps. Steve's goal is, at the end of this book, that people understand how to get financing in a matter of days without the aggravation of having to go through a bank." Listen for much more...
Related Links: Replin & Rhoades || Amazon || Rockies Venture Club || Entrepreneurs Channel || Mastering Change || Podcasting Directory || Keywords: Steve Replin, Replin & Rhoades, LLC, Where To Go When the Bank Says No, Entrepreneurs, Hard Money Series, Banks, Rockies Venture Club, Private Lenders, Free Newsletter - bytes=6739072
Listen to: Steve Replin, Replin & Rhoades, LLC

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534_ Change Is Not an Event, It Is an Ongoing Process (the Same is true with Chaos) 10/20/11
Mastering change is one of Pat and Larry Nelson's favorite topics. There's a good reason. They have lived in and owned businesses in five foreign countries stretching from Norway to Australia. They are truly serial entrepreneurs as they have started more than a dozen companies. Some were extremely successful and others learning experiences. One thing that was true in every situation were the rushing changes. At times they were victims and others they were victors. Larry has conducted seminars for numerous companies both large and small, public and private sectors, in dozen countries, on the subject of 'Mastering Change in the Midst of Chaos'. In this recorded discussion Larry and Pat discuss the 'Six Truths About Change'. The topic includes; Resistance, Involvement, Making Losers, Vision, Benefits, and Follow up. Like the Nelsons say, "Master Change Before It Masters You." Listen now...
Related Links: Beyond the Trends || 3-Filters || Mastering Change || Free Newsletter || Keywords: Mastering Change, Chaos, Pat and Larry Nelson, Involvement, Making Losers, Vision, Benefits, Follow up > Bytes: 8472349 LISTEN to Pat & Larry Nelson, Inst. for Change Research

Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek come to Colorado
832_ 10/19/10 - At the 26th National Space Symposium, Larry and Pat had an opportunity to have a discussion with Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame. But Nimoy is so much more than that. They decided to talk about other topics that help us learn more about him and what has shaped his character over the past 79 years as well as understanding his hot buttons. We started out by reflecting on some poetry Leonard read as 'whale song' was heard in the background...that was decades ago but it opened up insights to his current interests and concerns. When asked, Is there something businesses can do to motivate children?" His reply was an ouch. "I'm not a sociologist, I'm not a businessman, I can't speak intelligently about that. I'll tell you what I am concerned about; I'm concerned about how much television kids watch that is not uplifting, or educational or inspiring in any way. It's all about celebrity, and if you're celebrity, come and tell us about your celebrity. What have you accomplished? I'm a celebrity - I'm famous for having a lot of children, so I want a TV show - It's crazy. What we have descended to in our education, it's crazy! It's really sad, I could go on about that, I'm not going to." He had a great deal to say about advice he would give to someone following his career path. "The biggest fantasy, myth about my work, about being an actor is people who think a look will get you somewhere, be at the right place and time, that kind of thing - luck plays a big role, but I never believed that, not even as a teenager...Education, it's all about education. Learn, learn, learn and devote yourself to a profession. Be professional about it." Larry asked, "Do you feel the U.S. is losing its position in terms of space?" Leonard replied, "Yes, I don't know to what degree this is true. I don't want to be an alarmist about this, but I do think we've got some work to do." We did end with a Vulcan salute. Listen for much, much more...
Related Links: Space Technology Hall of Fame® || National Space Symposium || Space Foundation || More About Nimoy || Nimoy and Nelson || Space Symposium PHOTOS || Keywords: Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek, Spock, Vulcan, National Space Symposium, Space Foundation, Education, Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award 4/26/10 Chnl: News bytes: 5458968
LISTEN to Leonard Nimoy, aka Mr. Spock

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Building your business marketing strategy and development
1096_ 10/18/11 - We're going to be talking about marketing, strategy and development today; we're here in the downtown Boulder office of Slice of Lime with Kevin Menzie, CEO-Founder and Daniel Feld the COO and Partner. Slice of Lime bills themselves as a web strategy, design and development company, and they've been around for ten years. Their focus is on creating results oriented marketing websites as well as user interface designs for web and mobile applications. "Across all of that there is always a focus on strategy", said Kevin Menzie. Before jumping into the design of a client's project, Kevin tells us they spend time thinking about the target audience of their client's project; the goals they want to achieve with the project and planning around those objectives before getting into design. When developing your website, there are some common mistakes to avoid. Don't gloss over determining your target market - that should be step number one. It doesn't make sense to focus on the visual, but occasionally clients will start with a technology they want to use to drive the site, or focus on another site that they like but isn't relevant to their target audience. So, it is a mistake to jump right into the visual, in to the wiz-bang technical stuff without knowing who you're trying to speak to with the web site. Know what it is you want to achieve, do you want the user to buy something, fill out a form and collect information, to drive leads? "Without considering all of that stuff first and planning what the structure of the web site should be to achieve those goals, you'll probably miss the mark. And, that's the most common mistake that we see." said Kevin. Apparently there are a lot of common mistakes being made as Daniel Feld added. "Another mistake is trying to do too much with the content, actually getting too much content to too many different audiences. You have about three to five seconds to make an impression on the web site." Either people understand what you do, and sell, and offer and they want to engage and dig in more, or... Daniel points out that it is a science of refinement and being strategic about who you're communicating to. Edit, be purposeful with your content, your imagery and make sure there is a call to action. Listen now...
Related Links: Slice of Lime || Software Channel || Entrepreneurs Channel || Podcasting Directory || Keywords: Kevin Menzie, Daniel Feld, Slice of Lime, Marketing Strategy, Websites, Science of Refinement, Target Audience, Wiz-Bang Technical stuff - bytes=9280264
Listen to: Kevin Menzie & Dan Feld, Slice of Lime

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Residential energy efficiency and conservation service
1095_ 10/17/11 - We're talking with another winner of the 50 Colorado Companies to Watch 2011 program, Steve Byer, CEO of Energy Logic. Energy Logic is a residential energy efficiency and conservation services company which covers a lot of ground. They work with a really broad spectrum of clients from individual home owners all the way up to large utility companies. That includes doing things like energy audits of single homes to running programs for the utilities. They work with lots of home builders and they train people into the industry through one of their divisions. As well they have another division developing software for the industry.Steve deals with a wide variety of businesses and people, Larry wondered from Steve's point of view, in light of what we've been through, what advice would he give to business owners and leaders today? Steve said he was lucky to do a speaker thing at UNC every semester or so and one of the things that he tells the students there, every time, "The thing that I needed to learn most was to understand my books. That may not be the most exciting thing, but understanding our numbers and our books has been vital to our being able to weather the storms of this economy. Being able to understand the metrics and the numbers has been very critical for me." Energy Logic has been in business since 2006, it is the product of a merger between Steve and his wife's company and their business partner Robby Schwarz's company. This month Energy Logic has three new, major initiatives. The first is a software that EnergyLogic is part of a team on, their part being technical support, customer service, sales and marketing. The software called 'Optimizer' is an energy analysis/energy auditing software. The second initiative is an evolutionary step in a sense (from their Energy Professional Services Division) they are launching the Energy Logic Academy. Here they've pooled their intelligence (from their training division along with their experience in the field and experience with the various sectors) into an eLearning environment. The third initiative...Listen for more...
Related Links: Energy Logic || Colorado Companies to Watch || Colorado Companies to Watch Channel || Top 50 Companies to Watch || Gala Event || Keywords: Steve Byer, Energy Logic, Edward Lowe Foundation, Colorado Companies to Watch, Gala Event, COCTW, Second Stage Companies, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Energy Efficiency, Optimizer bytes=7328394
Listen to: Steve Byer, CEO, Energy Logic - CCTW

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We have to respect both ends of the spectrum
1093_ 10/14/11 - She is well known to the w3w3® Colorado audience as past president of ACG Denver, but Kathleen Quinn Votaw is also the CEO of TalenTrust, a unique, local recruitment firm - Kathleen has 25 years in this space. At TalenTrust, they help small and mid sized companies attract the very best people so they can grow their companies to the next level, using a very unique methodology that is not out there in the recruitment universe. At w3w3.com, we regularly receive the TalenTrust Newsletter and the last issue was a great reminder for those firms looking to hire new employees, as well as the rest of us. The Newsletter talked about ‘respect’. Kathleen said, "Sometimes, not intentionally, there is a lack of respect in the candidate process. Candidates are also looking for the right culture to join, so respect during the candidate process is key. Then once you actually hire someone, treating your team with dignity and respect is of the utmost importance." Kathleen points out that they're fortunate to deal with the clients, the firms needing to acquire talent, and then they have another whole group - business people that we serve and those are our candidates. We asked Kathleen what prompted her to write about this subject. She offered an example of a company that approached the recruiting process in an arrogant manner. You know, 'who are you and what value will you add to the company?' and didn't provide any opportunity for the candidate to understand what value the company would bring to them. Kathleen said, "As we continue to change as a culture, we have to respect both ends of the spectrum, the employer and the potential employee. When you're building those relationships you must know that all relationships begin and end with respect." You can find more articles on the TalenTrust web site that focus on hiring for character first and competency second. Check this out...
Related Links: TalenTrust || ACG Denver || ACG Denver Channel || Mastering Change || Keywords: Kathleen Quinn Votaw, TalenTrust, Respect, ACG Denver, Recruitment Firm, Candidate, Character, Competency - bytes=3661639
Listen to: Kathleen Quinn Votaw, TalenTrust

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Whatever you give out you get back 10 fold
1092_ 10/13/11 - The Second Annual un-conference - Product Camp is coming up on October 29th. Wondering what a non-conference is? It is your opportunity to develop the agenda and create the value of the program to coincide directly with your own needs, extend your network, and get as much out of the conference as you put into it! We spoke with Larry McKeogh and Michael Jones the creators of this unusual, no fee, interesting event that draws a few hundred folks from up and down the front range. Larry McKeogh is a product manager, which means he takes products and creates the best possibilities for them in the market place. Michael Jones says he's sort of a product manager and the vice president of a startup in Boulder - they make manufacturing equipment. And Michael added, "Because we are small, I clean bathrooms and do everything else at the same time." Larry asked one of his favorite questions for business leaders, "What are the biggest challenges people, leaders and organizations are facing in this economic environment?" From Larry McKeogh's point of view it is 'innovation'. Many companies are asking their employees to do more with less. They need to break into new markets and they're asking them to be very innovative. Michael Jones has a different view as a startup at a unique juncture where they have a new product, they have acceptance and a down market. Without capital it's difficult to fund the ramp up [probably will happen next year]. "It is difficult to innovate because they're developing at a slower rate than if we had investment." So for an overview of the un-conference. Larry says, "It's a complete meritocracy - it's driven by the people, for the people and ultimately what you get out of it is what you put into it." This particular un-conference is centered around product management, product marketing and innovation type themes. Registration begins at 8:00am, a keynote speaker at 9:00am and three sessions in the morning and two sessions in the afternoon. It's completely free and lunch is provided. Michael points out that this [un]conference is free money wise - but it's not free on your time - you are supposed to come, present, learn, network - but there's no entrance fee...listen for more...
Related Links: Rocky Mountain Product Camp || Proclivis Product Development || Communication Technologies Channel || Keywords: Larry McKeogh, Mike Jones, Rocky Mountain, Product Camp, Business Leaders, Conference, Un-Conference, Innovation, Meritocracy, bytes=7220143
Listen to: Larry McKeough & Mike Jones, Product Camp

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