My small group of teen entrepreneurs with BIG DREAMS, BIG HEART and BIG POTENTIAL is at it again and based on what they have scribbled down on the timeline for Q1 2010, things are definitely not slowing down anytime soon. I am ECSTATIC to report that in November 2009 the Top 4 Producing Renegade CEO’s (under my direct care) with an average age of 17.5 were ‘balling big time’ – having grossed nearly $100k combined in their respective businesses. They are igniting the energy and living through their entrepreneurial endeavors which is motivating the others. They represent a variety of traditional, service and technology related businesses and some even had to do the old school handshake big dollar contract get up.  How is that for Keeping It Renegade?

So how did they do it? Same as just about everybody else – They built their “big idea” starting with zero dollars, zero business knowledge and a lot of determination. I would have to say in my experience in collaborating and sharing with these teen entrepreneurs, the difference between them and most people is they LISTENED……………………..to themselves. It’s an art in itself.

And what was my role in all this?

I cared …………and connected with them, oftentimes when nobody else did. Nothing more, nothing less. I ask the same of you and will continue to ask it of others I meet along the way.

Just because the majority of teens do not have money or a recognized name especially when they are trying to launch an idea whether it is business or otherwise, does not mean they don’t have value.

Alas, their life circumstances dictate that they are teens by default . But let it be known, they are Renegade by choice .

Stay tuned as we decide on the best way to introduce them and their respective stories.

@teenbizcoach

From being selected as a National TV Business Commentator for a show that reaches over a half million viewers daily to being chosen as the subject of a documentary that will reach in the millions of viewers- the past few weeks have brought a whirlwind of incredible news, amazing partnerships, international recognition and tremendous opportunities for the Renegade CEO’s and emerging Teen Entrepreneurs across the globe.

To the most amazing business coach who has helped me from nothing to everything and understands me. Devon Landers, 19, CEO, TexasCrawlers.com @DevonLanders on Twitter

Inquiries, questions, well-wishes and nastygrams gotta love them- have come from all over the place, from teens and adults, new and long-time friends, organizations and family, all asking me about my journey to this point and wanting to know how I got the ‘Golden Touch’. So what is this experience in the limelight all about and how does it feel? My teens have been famous for a long time so I have learned to live vicariously through them. Needless to say the question inspired me to write a post today about ‘Growing Up Renegade’.

BLOG CLIFF NOTES (Since I know I can sometimes be long-winded, tee hee he):

So how does it feel to be in the spotlight?

Just like it feels sitting at the conference table when you enter a new partnership- one person is looking at you with a big grin and thinking ‘we love these guys because they bring a fresh voice’ and another person is looking at you with a big grin and thinking ‘we love these guys because the real pundits are going to have them for lunch.’

Alas, it’s the same as it ever was….

Entrepreneurship is not a course or a class, but a level of consciousness. Therefore, in order to learn it you must first LIVE IT.

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What a fantastic week…it was! We had so many big things happen I don’t even know where to start. So I guess I will start from the beginning of the week.

1. Ed Nash, 18, UK, got his iphone app submitted for approval to Apple. Go Nashy! We also started his official marketing campaign for LamboFaces.com LamboFaces is his philanthropic endeavor where people pay 1 British Pound to upload their face on a website. The 100,000 most interesting and beautiful faces will be painted onto a Lamborghini. The ‘World’s First People’s Lamborghini’ will then be auctioned on eBay with no reserve price and the money will be used to build a hospital in a poor community in the south of Zanzibar. No idea where people think of this stuff. I swear I had nothing to do with this, lol.

Twitter @Nashy (I am not going to spill the beans on his app, but perhaps he will. I have to say it is a pretty cool concept…in a teen tech genius type of way).

2. Ben Lang, 16, (barely 16, lol) is on fire! First he did a book review on his blog which got 25+ comments. So we were able to line him up with a feature article on next month’s Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Blog which gets a whole lotta traffic.  Ask and you might receive. But threaten the influential blog owner who fears the worst if he doesn’t feature your teen entrepreneur and you know something, that usually works Also, Ben got his first article published in his local newspaper. It is a multi part article and just might turn into a regular syndicated column. WHEW HEW! When I heard that, it totally made my day. He is such a giving person and is sincerely and truly deserving of it.

Twitter: @entrepreneurpro (Ask him about his new sponsored comments program, it is a really cool concept!)

Full of grace and inspiration, Danielle Herb, Founder of Drop Your Reins, the Only Official Grrrl Renegade CEO, celebrated her Sweet 16 on October 23rd. Happy, Happy Birthday to Danielle!

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Just in case you didn’t get the memo on it: Service Organizations are supposed to serve the people. While I realize that we live in a capitalist society it is still very possible to achieve your social mission and make money and today’s teen entrepreneurs are doing just that.

Having my pulse on society I am feeling that all the world needs now is a little organic cleansing. These organizations that have been around for years and years whether non profit or for profit are going to be flatlining soon. I am on the grassroots level and very connected at the community level. Like a bad criminal who has left too many clues, their tell tale signs are evident. Everyday I am making calls on behalf of my teens and my work with teens. I look for opportunities at the local, regional and national level where they can take an active role, serve on committees and board of directors and have their voices heard especially as it pertains to policies and topics that directly impact them and their future. Before I go off on my 1 min tangent about these bullies in the ’social’ service space I want to share some tips on how my visionary teen proteges and emerging young leaders can avoid going down that same path.

5 Tips on Serving For Young Entrepreneurial Leaders:

1. Companies are built for customers not for you.  Without customers your business cannot exist. You must serve before you can lead. My average client is 17 years old and from Day 1 it is my duty and honor to serve them and support them like the great leaders they are of our time.

2. Walk with them. Don’t tell people to take a different path or lead them to the path if you are not going to walk with them. Embrace. Educate. Empower.

3. Know Your Impact. My global program strategist, Wheatle Peart taught me about the importance of tracking metrics and reach. You need to know your numbers. Use a list management system such as http://bit.ly/madmimi1 (up to 100 people can register on your list before you incur a monthly subscription fee). This is a program that will allow you to capture emails of people who visit your website/blog.  It is IMPERATIVE that you have one of these. When you need to connect with your audience to make an announcement, offer a new product, host an event it helps if you know where they are and can reach them at once. Encourage people to keep in touch via your email list or social networking site.

4. Build a Bridge for the People. You need to serve as a conduit. If people are connecting to you, that usually means they respect your work and want to be involved. If you don’t want to personally take the calls have someone on your team (i.e. your mom/dad/grandparent or a college intern in marketing, business or social services) who will accept the calls/emails on your behalf and have a way to build a bridge to get people where they want to go. If you don’t know what is happening at the ground level you can’t continue to stay at the top. You need to know the challenges that exist in the marketplace so you can innovate and evolve with the ever changing marketplace. Use a survey or feedback system like Survey Monkey.

5. Leverage Your Community. You don’t need to do anything and everything on your own. Other people will gratefully and humbly support your cause. Don’t be afraid to ask. Be inclusive and express your sincere appreciation. If you give them a space they will fill it.

So what inspired this post today? Even though I am so tempted at this point, I will not even put high profile Acronym ’service based’ economic development organizations on blast in this post. Long story short- Since the late spring/early summer I have been calling, emailing, calling and emailing some very high profile ‘urban’ organizations that have presence at the national level. While they advertise that they are all about economic empowerment, working with the community and uplifting today’s youth, the reality seems to be unless you are an ‘elitist’ (you are a person with a branded name who only talks to other people with branded names) or a ‘victim’ (a national story can be made to profit from you) it is not likely you will get a call back.  So tell me…who are they really helping?

Until next time kids….challenge not the limits of society but the limits of oneself.

@teenbizcoach

Teen Renegade CEO Patricio Quezada, 18, CEO of Hispanics Learn is going to be featured on an upcoming segment of CNN (in the next week). We will share the link with you as soon as the story airs. The story will air on CNN plus all its affiliates and on the web. This kind of exposure, which is free and will be in millions of homes across the globe is priceless.

The Renegade CEO’s are becoming the go to place for the hottest teen and young entrepreneurs. So make sure you are connected with us because for the past few stories we have had requests for multiple teen entrepreneurs in certain geographic regions or industries. So you never know when we are going to be seeking you out. 

The CNN Producer reached out to me for leads and had considered several teen CEO’s for the story. Three days full of anxiety and anticipation would pass before I asked my teens if any of them heard anything back. Patricio non chalantly says to me ‘oh yea, she been called me back and finalized a date for me to come to the studio.’  !!!Teenagers!!!…Go figure, lol! Luckily, we have long been ‘READY’, hence, after creating a few marketing promos special to this media feature and some interview coaching, we were able to flow with the energy and bask in the magical experience of the day. 

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Routinely, across the globe, teenagers are brainstorming radical business ideas and niche businesses. The 365 Infinite Expedition (www.infiniteexpedition.com) will bring these innnovative thinkers’ ideas and stories to the attention of the public. The 365 Infinite Expedition is centered around the new book by the same title and the accompanying web site that will take online submissions. Both are a follow up to the succesful Book “Teen Entrepreneur Success Secrets” (www.teenceobook.com) and this blog.

Shonika Proctor, creator of 365 Infinite Expedition says to these teens:  “It is the very people who tell you to break the walls around you that are the ones who built them. The only walls to break are the ones within you…and then YOUR Infinite Expedition will begin…”

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Everyday there are radical niche businesses created by young people in their teens. The 365 Infinite Expedition centers around a book and website/blog which is aimed at bringing these innovative teen leaders to the forefront of public awareness. The 365 Infinite Expedition will be a collection of (365) inspirational teen entrepreneur centric stories + (12) High Profile CEO’s who began their entrepreneurial journey’s as teens. There will be a website/blog that collects inspirational stories from all over the world. 365 serves to accomplish these 4 objectives:

1. Inspire and give hope to young people that the world of possibility is already within them.

2. Help young people understand they “are” society and how they can go about creating a socially conscious community.

3. 365 will provide young people a learning experience directly from their peers that exposes them to opportunity and possibility.

4. Further advocate the Renegade CEO philosophy of seeing tools where others see obstacles and building self-sufficiency within their global community.

We will be accepting story submissions from teens in the U.S. and abroad via an online submission form. We will also list a place to mail in stories for those who may not have internet access. Stay tuned this week for more news on how you can submit your inspirational entrepreneurial success story!

Being a teen entrepreneur coach, of course this headline touches my heart: “UK Teen Entrepreneur Writes and Publishes a Book in 30 Days”. But imagine how emotionally overwhelming it would be to have been a part of that experience. Luckily for me- I WAS!!! In today’s post I am going to share a special journey that I have been on with an amazing and incredibly thoughtful teen from the other side of the ocean.

Congratulations! Today is your day, you’re off to great places, you’re off and away. -Dr. Seuss, Oh the Places You’ll Go

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(Note: This is Part 2 of 2 from our innerview 2 days ago….sorry we were having “technical” difficulties yesterday).

Here is Part 1 if you missed it: “Part 1″

In Part II of his INNERview, we ask Teen CEO “Nashy” of ClastaZ.com questions that inquiring minds want to know . These questions were asked by our Renegades Community and Teen Biz Coach “Shonika Proctor”.  Hope everyone will find this useful as you continue to push forward with your own entrepreneurial pursuits:

1. You said you have been online since the age of 12…at what age did you start your first business and what was it?

Yea, that is right I have actually been active online since I was 12 either just browsing to find ways to make money, or attempting to create my own site. Looking back I don’t think you can call my first site a business, it was a free site I set up on freewebs! The only thing I paid for was the name: www.rediz.com. It was a shopping portal that simply displayed a lot of different sites selling numerous things. I was an affiliate of all of them, so was paid on click thru and also commission if a user went on to buy a product. It actually worked out well to start with but eventually traffic slowed down and commercially it turned out to be a failure. Having said that, I was so young at the time the money it made me felt like a lot and I learned some really valuable experience on the way.

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Increasingly more and more on the internet I read comments on blogs, forums and other social networks where people are posting that they are starting their own business because they hate the 9 to 5 grind and that Corporate America truly sucks. And for anybody who has this mentality let me tell you what sucks more YOU DO! Punch buggy green, no punch backs.

Need I explain why?

(And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with working long hours when you start your own business)

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