This evening Teen CEO Daniel Uribe of Lazer Bearings will be interviewed on the Teenaged World of Maddy.  Daniel will be talking about his marketing efforts with getting his skateboard bearings in retail stores, organizing his first charity event “The Art of Skateboarding” and what it was like being chosen as one of 5 finalists in Russell Simmons Race to Be Film Competition.

The Teenaged World of Maddy is co-hosted by none other than the sweet and very thoughtful “Maddy” along with her spicy friend Katherine and I am assuming the neutral party and 3rd co-host ’Katelynn’. The Teenaged World of Maddy is an online radio show that focuses on timely yet timeless topics that appeals to today’s multifaceted and multi-dimensional teens. Maddy encourages listeners to call in to make the conversation and interview more lively and dynamic. The call in # for her show is: (646) 478-0017.

The show will be airing live this evening TODAY Wednesday, November 26, 2008 at 5 pm Pacific Standard Time and you can listen to it from your internet free of charge

You can find the link to the show here: http://twurl.nl/shcee1

They say that history belongs to those who write it….and with my Teen Authors in the making it seems that they are making good on the Renegade’s brand. Without a doubt they are determined to make history and not follow it…those doggone Gen Y’ers :) It has been a tremendous and inspirational week for me and my rebellious and deviantly curious teen boys…all whom I LUB very much <3! Everyday they never cease to amaze me with the things that they are dreaming and DO’ing!

November 20, 2008:

Murph, a 17 year old teen from the U.K., kicked things off last week. He wrote to me on Thursday November 20, 2008 and said he had an idea that he hadn’t told anybody about and he wanted to share it with me. So he told me about it with much enthusiasm and how he had been eating, drinking and sleeping this ‘thing’ for the past 6 years. He had been trying to build an online community but coding was taking forever and the project was getting overwhelming. Well I explained to Murph that if he is a Pioneer in his niche industry that he needed to get his idea out there in a big way that made a statement- he had to be fast and first because indeed someone else somewhere in the world was thinking about something very similar and trying to put their idea in motion as well. So he explained to me that he didn’t have much disposable income as he is brand spanking new in the entrepreneurial start up phases. So I basically said to him, well thanks for the VIP Pass to the Pity Party but I am afraid I’ll have to pass.  I told him to work it out and focus on what he would be able to creatively do with the resources (i.e., translation, read between the lines, get a clue, aka) your intellectual property. It’s something you have at your disposal NOW and it is free and you have an unlimited amount of it. Then I told him to get back in contact with me once he was able to think of something. Well…let me tell you—LOL,  when I get my boys fired up and thinking on their own of the possibilities and what is at stake they think of solutions and ideas fast.

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Hello Everybody!

This information comes courtesy of Mike over at More Than Grades website. As you can see by the name of the site your chances of getting a scholarship goes beyond ‘good grades’. Genius observation huh?

Here is the info passed directly from Mike:

Another site for scholarships and college information is http://www.morethangrades.com With their new re-release, they will be posting the “Show us why you are more than a grade” contest. The award will be $20,000. Besides that scholarship, there are numerous other scholarships based on talents and skills. Sign up and see what it is all about!

Thanks for sharing this tremendous resource with our community Mike. Very much appreciate it.

This has totally got to be my looooongest post ever (for my adult readers out there) :)

This week Motrin made headlines when they launched a controversial ad  (it’s relative) that blasted babysling wearing mom’s during get this “International Baby Wearing Week”; one of my talented and very respected designers got broadcasted by name, no less, on Twitter (not by me) because of his “inability to complete a project to a client’s satisfaction”; and this morning one of my favorite social media personalities  Chris Brogan posted about the simple genius of  Sheraton Four Points Hotel and their free water ad campaign (with clever packaging design/slogan). So being that 3 times a charm I decided today to blog about design and my experiences working with freelance designers being that BY FAR this is where the the largest part of my operations budget (probably 2/3) is invested and also it brings me the greatest returns (without a doubt).

The term ‘Creative’ is relative:

Before we get started…let’s just say what people think of great design is relative. It’s a preference. I am not a designer. I am an entrepreneur who is constantly thinking of what I think are the best ideas ever, lol. That’s the first thing. Choosing the best designer depends on a lot of variables, your personality, your culture and for some your budget.

(the photo above shows one of the favorite parts of the house- my one of a kind spiral staircase. I loved it in its raw form…and all its potential…it was actually made for outdoors. The designers thought of the clever idea to invert the treads and add wood to make it ‘warm’ and suitable for indoors and they also custom made the wooden handle which is actually one continuous piece…they accomplished the objective)

At any rate this brings me to my point- working with others in the creative space.

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Today Teen Entrepreneur Josh Buckley started following yours truly on Twitter. When teen entrepreneurs friend me, follow me or ask me for any type of advice, for me, this is equivalent to being famous, LOL. Indeed I am honored and truly grateful because it means they think I have some clue of what the hell I am talking about

Even though I have been going through and trying to create a gi-normous list of financially accomplished entrepreneurs in their teens or younger for an upcoming ’creative’ project, I am not able to easily connect and find them all before they find me. But anywho, I have been peeping some of his sites and reading his interviews and this kid is off the chain to say the least. Josh is 16 years old and he is based in the U.K. He created this cool frickin’ site called Menewsha…which if I recall correctly, he sold to a larger company. The site allows folks to create and sell avatars which they can then use in virtual communities and such. You have to check it out….great energy on the home page.

At any rate, because of time constraints and being that I am just so darn excited to get the word out about him I found an article that will give you more info about him. I know that he and his 6 figure revenues, yet ability to remain humble and family-centric will definitely serve as an inspiration for my many readers and emerging teen entrepreneurs. Here’s the cool article I found about him on one of my favorite blogs- Retire at 21.  It was done when he was 15 yrs old (makes it that more interesting)…but now he is 16. Still very cool though. Congrats to Josh Buckley on his many successes and accomplishments thusfar and here’s sincerely wishing him many more!

cheers.

African-American Women in Computer Science Grant

Florida A & M University is providing an outstanding opportunity for Black women entering college in the fall of 2009. It is designed to address their absence in the field of computer technology. Dr. Jason Black is the Principal Investigator of a recently awarded $552,000 NSF Grant entitled African-American Women in Computer Science. The grant provides scholarships from $4000 to $10,000 per year for female African American students.

We need your help to get the word out about this great opportunity to build back up the enrollment of women in the CIS Department. Pass this information along to high school or community college students, their parents, and to guidance counselors you may know. The full text of the press release can be found at http://www.famu.edu/?a=headlines&p=display&news=602

You can also contact Dr. Black by email at jblack@cis.famu.edu

(T.E.B. Readers: Please contact me via my contact form if you need additional contact info, Shonika).

Just announced:

GPA Isn’t Everything Scholarship

This scholarship is provided by Cappex.com.  The scholarship is available to high school students who are planning to attend college.  Applicants must demonstrate a strong record of extracurricular, leadership and/or volunteer activities to be eligible for this award.  Application deadline is November 30, 2008.   The scholarship will award $1,000.  Please visit sponsor’s web site for additional information.

http://www.cappex.com/page/account/quickApply.jsp?scholarshipID=gp&code=FW_32

We got some pumpin’ jumpin’ booty bumpin’ news for ya’…..Our Teen Entrepreneur Blog got accepted into the prestigious and uber cool Alltop’s Best of the Best Blogs….And YES! It really and truly is a VERY big deal. Alltop was founded by Guy Kawasaki ….the quick and dirty if you haven’t heard of him- he is an old-school Mac Marketing Guy (from the EARLY 80’s); he currently runs an early stage start-up venture firm for innovative tech companies and he is a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. His site Alltop.com is ranked very high somewhere around the low 100k level in Alexa. You can connect with him on Twitter @guykawasaki where he has around 20k followers (yeah, no joke). So needless to say, we have been recognized by some well-connected social media guru and we legit in somebody’s book …from email inquiries to social networking friend requests to our online ranking jump, we are already feeling a small level of the fame that is sure to follow in just 48 hours of being listed :) I am so thrilled and over the top excited about how much exposure this is going to bring for my emerging teen and young entrepreneurs!

Want to get listed on Alltop.com? Approval is (usually) done via an application process. Here’s where to start along with a few tips of how to improve your chances of getting in. These tips come courtesy of Donna Marie at Indie Business.

Saw this tweet yesterday evening on Twitter: “101 Tips to Rock and Be Rocked by Twitter”.  Of course as soon as I saw the name…I just had to click through , not to mention Shama Hyder always is relevant and is putting lots o’ high quality content out there. Shama Hyder, is the blog hostess with the mostest of After the Launch.Com which teaches folks what to do once they have launched their company/website i.e. How to monetize it, get traffic and business. In Shama’s post she shared 101 fab & groovy tips about cool ways you can use Twitter whether you are the Tweet’ee or Tweet’ed It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out on Twitter or are a newbie. It is a tremendous resource.

101 Tips to Rock and Be Rocked by Twitter, Courtesy of Shame Hyder, After the Launch.

If you don’t know what Twitter is, here is my non-geek speak explantation.

Separated by 6 degrees? Make it 3 with Linked In.  If you haven’t heard of it before, Linked In is an established and extremely credible social networking site primarily for business professionals, regardless of whether you are employed somewhere or are an entrepreneur. The concept behind Linked In is that probably everybody you will ever need or want to speak to or connect with is probably separated from you by 2 levels of people within your network. Think about it this way, you probably always talk to people about common people you know even though there are few times that you would probably ever meet them unless it was a social gathering or some sort. So Linked In puts everyone in a visual format and they show who is connected to you and by which friend or friends they are connecting.

What is Linked In?

What are the benefits of using Linked In? Well there are a number of reasons, but I’ll share these for starters:

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