This is a quickie! While surfing the’net today I found this article of ways people can make extra money without ‘technically’ getting a second job. In the case of a teen entrepreneur, I thought it would be a good option if you are trying to get your business off the ground and need a fast way to raise some start up funds. So I thought I would share the article. While I don’t think suggestion #2 would go over really well with teens of today, I have to tell you….sometimes we have to make short term sacrifices for long-term gains. Dats all I’m sayin’

You can peep the article here.

And just because it’s Friday and I am ready to get my full throttle fun on, I will leave you with Asylum Street Spankers and their Hick Hop  (Country Western Ballad meets Gangsta Rap) video that I discovered a few months ago (be advised: it contains profanity). Cheers.

Kind of sounds like a riddle huh? If you want to be exlclusive, then try being inclusive.  Too often I see young entrepreneurs who aspire to be like some certain ’successful & branded’ person or accepted into this certain circle of ‘friends’. Now don’t get me wrong, role models are important and all but what is it about that person that you idolize? Is it their lifestyle? Their fame? Their attention? Their money? All of the above?  

Before many of those people were rich and famous and branded….they were what?

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Yanik Silver made me go there. That’s all I can say.  He made me break out my old school teflon coating suit and sky bike (see image at right). This was a Shonikamine custom designed for me back in 2004 by my friend James Canty of Click One Media. He took close ups of me (when I had much shorter hair) and he did some kind of 3d rendering thingamajiggy. Yes, I know. I was also hip and dangerous a long time ago…don’t act so surprised. ;-) So today, I am back in the lab dusting off and testing my old toys. And I’m also playing around with the new ones that Yanik just sent me. My challenge of the day is to modify my special teflon coating suit. Those curves are still there, but seems they just aren’t where they used to be, lol.  A teflon coating suit is critical when you go on a mission such as this one because you have all those haters and folks trying to dissuade you from going where you KNOW you need and want to go. So you need something that won’t allow those old ideas and ideals to stick. So anywhoo, let me go ahead and share why I had to back go back into the virtual abyss-

Yanik Silver, yes, “THE” with an emphasis on THE…’Serial Internet Millionaire Making, Maverick Business Insider Mastermind Creating, Underground 5 Online Seminar Quaking’ Yanik Silver, invited yours truly, Shonika Proctor aka [words cannot do my coolness any justice] to go with him on his next Top Secret Mission.  So as I prepare I need back up posse–live and uncensored. More specifically I am seeking 10 Entrepreneurs Ages 13-21 [READ: Emerging Young Renegade CEO's] because what fun is getting wild and crazy by yourself? If you’ve ever tried it….it just doesn’t quite work the same. [Sidebar: Leave the parents at home].

These 10 Young People will get to hang with me and Yanik Silver for 3 days in Washington, DC (February 20-22, 2009). Two for one! How fun is that?

But wait it gets better- it’s not even two for one. It’s two for FREE! YOU! Yes, you could be one of ten (10) lucky winners who gets free admission to Yanik Silver’s Underground 5 Online Seminar!

So here’s the quick and dirty:

1. I’m looking for 10 Young CEO’s ages 13-21 who can come to Washington, DC Feb 20-22nd to play with me, Yanik and all our fun entrepreneurial toys. Plus we’ll intro you to all the cool kids.

2.  The 10 best ever, visionary and most fun Young CEO’s will receive a free ’scholarship’ (valued at $2,995 each) to attend Yanik Silver’s Underground 5 Seminar. Here you’ll get schooled by professors who will show you what it really takes to get an MBA (Massive Bank Account)!

3. At the seminar you are also going to get a swag bag with 1,000’s of dollars worth of goodies PLUS you’ll meet self-made millionaires and lots of entrepreneurs (300+) who can open some secret doors for you and your business PLUS you’ll get a closed door coaching session and a special VIP lunch with Yanik and moi.

The contest ends on February 4th…so you totally need to register today:

Enter contest here: http://www.undergroundonlineseminar.com/challenge

If you want to peep the site to see what Underground 5 Seminar is all about and some of the fancy smancy people who will be there visit: www.undergroundonlineseminar.com

Now where did that Zap-a-Minder 5000 disappear to?

I stumbled across this funny ’visual’ blog post about a week or so ago- “Fun Logos After the Crisis”. I believe they were designed by social media marketing students at UCLA. How many companies can you identify?

http://tinyurl.com/7o7ruy

Matthew Turcotte, Teen CEO and founder of North Shore Web Development and Host North Shore lives in a very progressive small town on the mighty and beautiful St. Lawrence River. He attends the local high school and is a straight A student and accelerated student. Two years ago he acquired the rank of Eagle Scout. [btw, I recently learned that only 2% of all youth who enter Boy Scouts ultimately achieve the honor of Eagle Scout, so congrats to him]. He enjoys mountain climbing in the nearby Adirondack High Peaks region in the spring, summer, and fall. As fate would have it, it seems that the life experiences which dot his past (dating back to first grade) make him the ultimate poster child for his company, North Shore Web Development. His company, a full service web design company, along with his recently launched hosting company, provides web design and online marketing strategies with a strong focus on small towns and the small businesses within those small towns. As Matt grew up in a small town and currently lives in one he is extremely knowledgeable on helping them build a big presence on the webwithout compromising their quaintness and charm. Today’s Innerview covers lessons learned and his experiences as a teen CEO in high school.

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Matthew Turcotte, Teen CEO and founder of North Shore Web Development and recently launched Host North Shore  was featured yesterday evening on the Teenaged World of Maddy.

In his first radio interview Matthew holds nothing back as he talks about:

• How we got inspired in first grade to start his business along with experiences that dotted his childhood that kept in motivated on that path
• How he started a business with a passion but no ‘formal’ training
• How he has learned to leverage adult owned small business owners in his personal and professional networks and;
• Mutual funds and compound interest

Listen to the full interview online now: http://tinyurl.com/d4tc4q

Learning to Fall by Bryce Maddock, Founder of Task US

In yoga, one position I can’t master is the handstand. Every week I am put to shame by the 50 and 60 year old yogis who effortlessly toss themselves in and out of the position. Last class, as my frustration surged, I took it upon myself to ask one of the handstand masters, “How did you learn to do that?”

“I learned how to fall,” she responded.

This lesson applies to business and life: In order to truly succeed one must be willing to fall. We all know people who are too afraid to fall. Unwilling to take risks, they never get off the couch, never pursue the guy/girl they are attracted to, never escape their mind numbing 9 to 5 job. 

If you are an entrepreneur you have already demonstrated a willingness to take a big risk. However, simply being willing to fall is not enough. Ultimately it is a numbers game. The more risks you take, the more you increase your chances of success, but the more falls you have to be willing to take as well.

This is why the most successful entrepreneurs have fallen many times. Russell Simmons launched the now defunct website 360 Degrees of Hip Hop. Richard Branson was forced to sell off his prized possession, Virgin Records. The Donald has lost fortunes on multiple ventures, and even went bankrupt.

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So the TEEN CEO question of the year seems to be: How do I earn some side money during slow times in my business without cutting into my business marketing and work time? Translation- how do I earn quick and easy money without having to work too hard for it?

And the survey says…while I know a number of ways I can’t share all my best secrets at one time… so for starters- write freelance articles for your community newspapers. You soooo didn’t think I was going to say that did you? Well here is the quick run down on the benefits:

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Eye for Change, a Baltimore based non-profit just announced their annual competition for DC and MD based business owners (both existing businesses and new start ups are encouraged to apply). See following message for details:

So You Think You’re a Boss?

You asked for it…Confessions of a bad girl [with good intentions...of horse]. LOL, get it? of horse??? Anyway, that is the translation of my blog post title today. And naturally, it was difficult to think of something “creative” because you put me on the spot. So I took a very simple thought of what the post was about and added a silly twist.

Everyday people ask me how do you think of these snappy titles for your blog posts and articles? How do you think of all these ideas? How do you come up with all these wild and crazy antics? How come your world is so seemingly small and you know EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE? Short and dirty answer- I learned it from my mom. She is the REAL creative idea & networking fairy. In fact, she makes my ‘creativity’ look like a kite in a wind tunnel. On the flip side, logistics and technical instruction I learned from my dad. It is why I am both linear and lateral in thought.

But before we get into the details of this and really ”go there”, it is only fair to tell you that I really DO ”go there” ALL the time. This is what helps you build real experiences and thus inspires your own creativity. I am random and curious yet I am interconnected because I talk to strangers all the time. I create real experiences with real people everyday. I know everybody in my neighborhood from the bum who lives at the end of my street to the person who owns every building on the street, LOL. If you are standing on the corner waiting for the traffic light, or sitting next to me on the bus or waiting with me in the elevator and our eyes connect I have to smile and say hello and wish you a nice day because it is just strange to me if we don’t do that. You know the universe might be trying to send me a message and I don’t know who is delivering it. So you have to be tuned in and have self-awareness. That is kind of the premise behind how creativity starts. If you can talk to a complete stranger about anything, then you are definitely on to something And for those who once said I was weird now say I am a creative thought leader…funny how that works now. So now you know what is meant by being a leader and not a follower

It is a day like today that people who we met 5, 10, or more years ago can search for us. Who would have ever guessed the interesting people we met in our lives long ago in passing we could get a chance to renew our bonds? I get “friend” requests and emails regularly from people I met traveling in other countries , to people who remember racing shopping carts with me in dormitory hallways and remember things I did in the 4th grade classroom (and the teacher hitting me on the head with a pencil for being a class clown…)

So anyway, let’s carry on with THIS POST, LOL. The topic today is creativity…which by the way is ALL RELATIVE.  What’s creative and hip to someone else is the stupidest and most ridiculous thing to others. So REALIZE, ACCEPT and UNDERSTAND that first. And then you can better absorb this post.

Soooo- what is MY DEFINITION of creativity? It is the confidence to act on YOUR ‘deviant curiosity’.

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