Opinion

Chris Pirillo was our featured guest on #YFEchat last Thursday night. One of the points that stood out during our conversation was on fear of change. More specifically, the fear of disappointing your current audience (or market). You may have started off building out services, products, or content to satisfy a certain interest or part of yourself, but as the years went on you wanted to explore other areas. Or, you may have changed as a person all together.

Pirillo is especially vulnerable to criticism as a popular vlogger with 275,000+ subscribers. He explained his experience in changing his focus and how his loyal followers reacted– watch what happened.

I’m finishing Seth Godin’s book, The Icarus Deception and this message was confirmed. Godin urges us not to do work for approval, but to be the “impresario” and do it for the joy of doing art.

Do what makes you happy, what brings you joy.

Image Courtesy

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In honor of Galentine’s Day and tomorrow’s YFE LIVE guest, Scott Epstein (CMO of Tout) Tout out what YFE you admire and why. We’d love to feature you and your favorite YFE on tomorrow’s live show.

Tout is a social media platform that allows users to shoot 15-second video status updates via smartphones and webcams. Touts are shared real-time and automatically to Tout.com, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, SMS and email contacts. Through Tout’s reply feature, users can engage in Tout conversations. Find out more.

Upload the 15 second video using your phone or desktop camera and tag it with #YFEchat.Check out what people are saying…

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During the first quarter of 2012 Nike came out with a video that caused a stir in the business community. They had hired a film maker to create a short video that marketed their newest product. Instead, the film maker spent the money to travel the world in 10 days and came up with this.

I had posted this on the Young Female Entrepreneurs Facebook Page in April when the news broke and thought it was a brilliant marketing scheme. It made me feel very “Carpe diem!” and most importantly, made me want to throw on my Nikes and live life to the fullest.

Now as we are closing out 2012 I’m looking back through the YFE Facebook Page and found the video again. This time it made me ask myself, did I #makeitcount as Nike suggests? Looking at the video from a more human angle than a marketing one I feel much more in tune with what the video is actually suggesting than what Nike’s objective was at the time. To make every day count, to live life to the fullest, to seize the day, etc.

For those of you that are of the goal setting or New Year’s Resolution type, I’ve compiled the quotes listed in the video to help you on a daily basis as you make 2013 an epic year for yourself and the work you are doing for others (included are pins that will aid in reminding you on late night work sessions).

“Life is either daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller

“Buy the ticket take the ride.” – Hunter S. Thompson

“You only live once but if you do it right once is enough.”- Mae West

“Above all, try something.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“I never worry about the future it comes soon enough.” – Albert Einstein

“One who makes no mistakes makes nothing at all.” – Giacomo Casanova

“Do one thing everyday that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“In the end it’s not the years in your life that count it’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Do more.”

“If I’d followed all the rules I’d never have gotten anywhere.”- Marilyn Monroe

“Action expresses priorities”- Gandhi

#makeitcount

Let’s put aside the Nike marketing strategy and the fact that the guy was able to travel the world on Nike’s dollar. Focusing on the message, what are you going to do that will put more “life in your years” in 2013? How will you ensure you actually do it?

About the Author
Jennifer Donogh is an owner and President of Ovaleye.tv, which offers live, online event production services using Ovaleye’s streaming media engine, to businesses and organizations across the United States. She is also the host of the weekly live show, Young Female Entrepreneurs.

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Young Female Entrepreneurs spends 98% of our efforts on supporting, connecting, and talking about entrepreneurial women in their 20s and 30s. That’s why YFE is here. Just for fun, YFE wants to know who your favorite MALE young, entrepreneurs are. This could be someone that has inspired you, helped you, created a product/service you love, someone that is helping others, etc.

Share in the comments and come back to find out who your peers look up to later.

Who are your favorite young, MALE entrepreneurs and why?

L to R: David Siteman Garland, Scott Gerber, Brent Beshore, Neil Patel, Jake Nickell, Mark Zuckerberg

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Young Female Entrepreneurs has featured a number of women who have some form of grad school experience; of which none regret going back to school. Have you or a friend every said something like, “I really want to start my own business, but first I’m going to go back to school and get my MBA?” I’ve heard this multiple times from my own friends.

What about you? Did you get an MBA to start your own business? Do you want to start your own company, but first plan on going back to school for business?

Check out the popular pro-MBA infographics below and let us know what your thoughts are on higher education and its role in entrepreneurship by commenting below.

Via MBA@UNC MBA Online & Women 2.0

Created by: MBAOnline.com

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

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The CRAVE Company is headquartered near YFE in the Seattle area, but is present in over 35 cities. Hosting “business chats, symposiums, and other fabulous parties to connect you with savvy entreprennesses” along with their city guides and online presence is what they do. In March I was invited to be on a panel with four other remarkable women who have some hand in the Seattle entrepreneur scene. The panel, along with those that attended discussed collaboration versus competition today with a special emphasis on women.

This event was held in other cities in the US and Canada as well. If you missed out, you can get a glimpse of what a CRAVE Chat is all about below.

The conversation took a number of interesting turns that has definitely got me thinking about how I make business and personal decisions on a daily basis. Am I doing something to try and one up another person? What can I do to collaborate with others in my field? I mentioned in the conversation that I hold the perspective that competiveness is gender neutral; that both men and women may hold the desire to compete, some may be more inclined to collaborate and that may change depending on your circumstances. Others in the room thought women were much more inclined to collaborate than men. What are your thoughts?

When do you feel more inclined to be competitive? How have you collaborated with your competition in the past? Was it beneficial for both of your businesses?

PS. BONUS! CRAVE founder, Melody Biringer’s book Craving Success is our first YFE Book Club book! Find out more and get involved before the April 23rd start date.

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By now the majority of you have seen the series “Sh*t Girls Say” where Creator, Write, Director and Cast Member, Graydon Sheppard dresses as a “girl” and makes comments like “so good, right?” or “I’m just kinda like haaa…” There is a corresponding Twitter feed that tweets little gems like “I mean, she’s pretty, but that’s about all she has going for her.”

The popularity of these videos have paved the way for a number of spinoffs, notably LuluLemon’s “Sh*t Yogis Say” and the Wedding Channel’s “Sh*t Brides Say” where they explain “Brides say some funny sh*t and at WeddingChannel.com, we couldn’t love them more.”

While most people get a kick out of the videos others see them as sexist and inappropriate (see Why the “Shit Girls Say” Meme is Sexist, Racist and Should End). What are your thoughts on the videos? Funny? Embarrassing? Crossing the line?

Why keep the spinoffs focused solely on women? If you have ever been to a young entrepreneur networking event you will agree with me that there is plenty of room for parody among the twenty something entrepreneur crowd in what we say at times too… male or female.

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In the quest to find women entrepreneur role models who have been in business longer than five years and are forty and older, YFE wants to know what women entrepreneurs you look up to and why? Comment with her name, where you first heard of her, and why you look up to her in business.

Some examples could be… a woman that is in your industry, who is local to where you live, or who you have seen in magazines or on television.

Thank you for sharing!

The women pictured above (While some are incredibly well known, others you may not of heard of. Be sure to do a search for their name to learn more about their journey to success).

- Theresa Daytner, Daytner Construction Group
- Traci Des Jardins, Chef and Restaurateur (IMG Src 2010frankenyimages.com)
- Oprah Winfrey, Harpo
- Barbara Corcoran
- Eileen Gittins, Blurb
- Coco Chanel, Chanel

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“LOVE what you are going to do because you are, most likely, going to live your new business.”

Read the full profile.

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