Stay ConnectedThe Mentors follows twin brothers Vadim and Sergei Revzin as they seek to uncover how successful people build their businesses and careers from day one. Twice weekly, the brothers bring inspiring stories from entrepreneurs, artists, business leaders, and entertainers they meet in NYC, to tell never before heard stories of how people get started, even when they have nothing.
Music by: www.purple-planet.com
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In business, as in life, we find ourselves in many unexpected situations where the natural instinct is to freeze up.
In today’s 5 Minute Pick Me Up (that admittedly is closer to 11 minutes), we talk about the meaning of the phrase “the show must go on,” and how anyone can become better at dealing with difficult situations, just by learning how to move on, and keep going.
We discuss a few moments in our lives, on the stage, in a debate club, and in a high-stakes business meeting, where an ability to move the show along really came in handy.
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Lots of people love to travel, but how do you turn a hobby into a real business? Gillian Morris had a full time job in Istanbul and she figured out that she could get her friends to visit her there if she found cheap flights for them for specific dates. Soon, she was getting weekly requests from dozens of people to send them cheap flight deals, taking up nearly all of her free time.
In part one of our two part interview with Gillian we learn how she was able to turn her idea into a real business after deciding to attend a conference in Europe that would lead to a press release that grew her user base to 25,000. Gillian talks about how as a first time founder she had to learn everything, from how to build a product and understand user data, to marketing and learning how to talk to investors.
In part two you will hear how she ended up getting her first investor, what she did to monetize the app, and why she decided to build a distributed team at Hitlist.
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This week has been full of events for us, culminating in a weekend charity brunch that was executed so well that we decided to do an episode about it.
You will learn:
Events do require significant effort to be successful, but it’s incredibly rewarding to get a bunch of people together in one place to create new relationships. If you've been thinking about organizing something (anything) we urge you to try it. Only good things can come of it.
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Darius was on stage with NYTimes columnist David Brooks in front of 2,000 people, and he couldn't be more in his element. Just a week before that, he found out from a Tweet that he was going to be in the opening Keynote of a major conference. I had a chance to catch up with him after his panel to hear his story and find out how he ended up on that stage.
At 25 years old, him and his co-founders (all friends from Georgetown University) have been able to build an impactful non-profit, GOODProjects, that's already transforming communities in Washington D.C., aimed at reducing gun violence and ending poverty in the area.
In this episode, Darius walks us through how the idea for his organization came about, from running their very first over-subscribed summer camp to growing to 25 team members, attracting major donors and even launching an investment fund in the process.
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If you really want something, don't wait for all of the stars to align to get started.
That's the moral of the story for today's 5 Minute Pick Me Up about an entrepreneur we met from Ghana that's trying to build the Netflix of Africa.
When he got the idea for this tech platform, everyone told him that he won't get anywhere without a technical co-founder. He could have let that slow him down, but instead he focused on what he can accomplish right now.
In this episode you will learn how he:
1) Outsourced the development of his technology until he found the right partner
2) Convinced local producers to provide him with content
3) Got a major distribution deal by focusing on what motivates a major corporate partner
We also discuss why sometimes finding the right market fit for your business simply means looking somewhere new, like a new geography or customer segment.
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For our 100th show we decided to go through some of our most popular episodes and pick out the best parts. If you’re a first time listener, this is a great way to get a feel for our classy style, and if you’re a veteran, we love you and hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane.
Here’s the breakdown of the clips featured in this episode:
Episode 7: Becoming Unstuck – How To Finally Get Started, on Sergei getting a role in a feature film.
Episode 8: Building a 90 Million Dollar Business After 50, with Larry Petretti, on what Larry did when he first started building his business
Episode 11: How to Network Like a Pickup Artist, on the three second rule of not giving a… hoot.
Episode 30: How To Make It In America (aka How To Do What You Love In A Communist Country Part III), on how our parents left their careers and took menial jobs to build a life for us in America
Episode 32: The Secret to Finding Big Opportunities, with Carey Smith of Big Ass Fans, on what to look for when starting a business from an entrepreneur that sold his company for $500 million.
Episode 24: How Julie Smolyansky of Lifeway Became CEO of a Public Company at 27, on how Julie took over Lifeway when her father died.
Thank you for listening, and see you next week. Love, The Mentors.
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For our 99th episode, we've got 99 problems on our mind, and we wanted to discuss some of the ways Vadim and I have tackled seemingly insurmountable problems in the last few years.
In today's 5 Minute Pick Me Up (okay we know it's 10 minutes but shush) we describe the three quick ways to remove the burden of having big problems weighing on you.
First thing you can do is to Act Fast. Here we talk about the accounting problem that almost cost our business, and how we acted fast to solve it with our lawyers.
Second is to Cross Things Off by starting with the quickest and most fundamental next step in front of you, and here Sergei talks about how he was able to plan and execute an entire accelerator program just 2 months before it launched.
Third is to Be Solution Oriented. Especially in the workplace, no one wants to work with someone who just focuses on the problems. Here Vadim discusses how he was able to add value immediately at a startup he worked at by being the person who was willing to solve the CTO's major problems.
Intro Lyrics to 99 (Business) Problems
If you got work problems I feel bad for you son
I got 99 problems, but my business ain't one
I got the tax patrol on the cash patrol
Foes that want ta make sure my biz gets closed
Music Credit: Youtube: MakerOfAllMusic1DS
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Some people have an uncanny ability to pitch themselves or their ideas so eloquently, it makes you feel like it’s an unattainable skill that they’re born with. While it may come more naturally to some, anyone can make significant improvements in this area by following a few simple principles.
We start this episode by talking about what you should avoid doing in an elevator pitch. This isn’t your time to tell your entire story, or to talk about everything that you or your product can do. The idea is to simplify things as much as possible by only focusing on the most important and impressive aspects of what you do while making it relatable to the specific audience you’re addressing.
We also discuss how to actually figure out what your target audience cares about and provide a simple framework for composing your elevator pitch. Throughout the episode we give specific stories of how we’ve helped entrepreneurs refine their elevator pitch which should help you apply it to your own story.
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Just because your idea or big vision isn't quite working out the way you thought it would, doesn't mean that it's not possible to make small adjustments to turn it into something that works.
In this edition of the 5 Minute Pick Me Up, we talk about a founder with a big vision in the computer science education space who was able to turn her business around by listening to the market, and we share some quick tips on how to get better at knowing when to adjust course in with you venture.
We talk about how even Steve Jobs couldn't sell his initial vision of a personal computer in every home, and who he sold to at first while he waited for the technology, and the market to mature.
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Reading Rainbow ran on PBS for 23 years and as the host of the show our guest LeVar Burton developed an immense appreciation for the importance of access to literature for young children. While his initial entrepreneurial skills were developed as a working actor, leading him to land roles in shows like Star Trek and Roots, after Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006 he decided to buy its rights and made it his mission to leave an impact on future generations through reading.
We sat down with LeVar and Alicia Levi, the CEO of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), a non-profit founded in 1966 that has 400,000 volunteers nationwide working to bring books and literacy resources to millions of people. We start by discussing how they think about risk taking and failure, and the best frame of mind to move past obstacles that paralyze you. LeVar tells us how Skybrary, the company he started in 2012, ultimately took off when the Kickstarter they launched raised their goal of $1 million in 11 hours instead of the planned 35 days.
We also learn how their massive new partnership came about, starting from a chance PSA that LeVar did for the non-profit in Los Angeles, and why investing into building your relationships can have life changing consequences.
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