As I was wrapping up a pre-ESC business meeting, Shaun Rubrecht, who left 15 months ago on a 30 day trip to Thailand, yup you read that correctly, walked back into the club. Wowzers! Shaun, seated below front left in purple dress shirt, caught the “4-Hour Work Week” bug – if you haven’t read it yet, do so. Also read Entrepreneur Revolution by Daniel Priestly. It is another great book to frame how we Entrepreneurs think and act. Welcome back brother!! Tonight’s (December 1, 2016) theme is “2016 Accomplishments We Are Most Proud Of”. So let’s jump right into the Entrepreneur Social Club hosted again here at HQ – DTSP historic venue NOVA 535.
Daniel Nyiri of 4-U Fitness (below) and I were also chatting before the sit down portion and he was showing me the front cover article on Business Observer. Congrats Daniel!! We got into other uses of his exercise equipment, I mentioned using the equipment for space travel, to Mars. “We are already talking to NASA”, he replied. Interested in MARS? http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/mars/ is a new show about travel to mars, set in both 2016 and 2033. With real footage and interviews from today, weaved in with an obviously fictional, but realistic, manned mission to Mars in 2033.
Below is Nick Mazeika, Julia Marie, Arthur Gueli, Kym Jenkins and far right Tracy Asalita owner of an ESC favorite The Queenshead Restaurant.
Tonight we welcomed the new members, did some business cared reviews after our 20 second pitches, then settled into tonight’s theme.
What are you proud of accomplishing in 2016?
Audrey Jennifer (ESC photographer and Hostess, plus Promoter for NOVA 535 and DTSP) spent 2.5 months around the country, snowboarded for 1st time!
Kelly Willis proud new owner of photo booth company LED inflatable ExtremelyFunPhotos.com was referred to ESC by Shawn More. Fun Photos (biz card review) should use an alias so your email is, example, Smile(AT)extremelyfunphotos.com. Don’t use gmail, create an alias. Patty Filameno, a member NOT in attendance (bad Patty! but excusable as she was recently married!) made the card. What a fun well designed card.
Newcomers Fay McElroy is moving past the death of her husband, one day at a time. Fay McElroy is the President of Community Heights. Her daughter Nia McElroy got smart and moved BACK to Florida, just in time for our “winter”. Welcome (back) to Sunny St. Pete! Nia was directed into the ESC by facebook, and via Christopher Warren.
From Audrey Jennifer, ESC’s photog and hostess “We also met Nia and her mother, Fay (2 ladies on left, above), who had both joined the group more for the social networking aspect than for the business aspect. Hey, we welcome friendly new faces! Nia recently moved back to St. Petersburg from Chicago and is looking to get more connected into the area and Fay is the president of a non-profit in Bethel Community Heights. They provided a warm new addition to our group this week and we were so happy to meet these sweet women.”
Keith Widmer of Acclaim Plastics, kept fighting companies and got back a LOT of monies owed to him. Congratulations!!
Julia Marie – been coming to ESC from March 23rd 2016, has come for 40 weeks and continues to improve. Perseverance!!
Tony LaPorta.com found us through Facebook. He’s been an Entrepreneur for 30 years. [New member – WELCOME Tony!) Tony used to do TV for Bloomberg. He was on the exchange floor, and used to get nervous giving interviews. That is no longer the case, as he recently did 15 minute interview on David Scranton. Nice!
Kathi Harris founder of Hat-a-Tude met Jacob who gave me the incentive to update her website.
(Pictured below, Keith, Julia, Tony and Kathi.)
Keevy McAlavy of BlueCyp.com got married at Sacred Grounds, congratulations!!
Arthur Gueli of InjuryClaimCoach.com implemented new software which has doubled his revenue. NICE!!
Author Keith Long has a permanent itch to provoke attorneys, which he scratched by speaking at Stetson Law.
Tony Michaelides watched a company grow from 5 people, to 1000. It’s called Magic Leap, and has received investment over 1 $billion. Tony is also working on pilot for HBO / Showtime.
(Below is Keevy, Arthur, Keith and Tony.)
River (newbie, pictured above center right, light blue polo shirt…welcome!!) moved into his first home at he ripe old age of 22 years, congrats!! Here in Old NE St. Pete. Bravo! River Grace suggested customer engagement platform, cvcbiz.com BarkBack APP. He found the ESC by Googling “Networking Events St. Pete”.
Chris Jenkins (pictured center right, grey shirt and long hair) fundamentally rebuilt the process / production cycle at powerhouse St. Pete Marketing Agency Symphony Agency. It’s a massive improvement! Congrats Chris!
Kym Jenkins made progress inside of her family business V Spicery, PLUS started new company TheFlavorCrate.com. Nice work Kym!
Jacob Chak, a small to enterprise level business consultant, helped a friend grow his company $30K in 3 months. Plus he did interesting side jobs and consulting projects.
Tracy Asalita, The Queenshead Restaurant and Bar, got a full liquor license. Cheers!!
Nick Mazeika, TheFlavorCrate.com and my youngest son turned 18 this year. Bryce launched a Hip Hop Brand, so proud of FaceMelt and his 3 sons being raised. Nick rhetorically ponders “How did I do with launching my kids (vs businesses)?”
Daniel Nyiri has been franchising his business only 6 years after coming to USA, not speaking English. He is now soliciting NASA to use his electro stimulation for space travelers. NASA wants test to lay in bed for 30 days.. vs 30 days with 2x week workout. Best of luck Daniel!
Krystle Pinzker increased her client base and revenues for her company Fluent Bookkeeping. Bravo KP!
Audrey “Entrepreneur Social Club was filled with new faces and new ideas tonight and, per usual, we were not short on discussion and laughter with them!”
Audrey “Kelly, with Fun Photos, was the first to really kick off the discussion. Beginning her business a brief six weeks prior to this week’s meeting, she’d chosen to join us in order to receive insight and understanding around further developing her brand. Her unique and fun photo booth quickly captured the attention of all of our members, as it provides quite a modern contrast to the “typical” photo booth concepts we tend to see at events these days. Our group was intrigued and spent time sharing insight and critique around the connection between her business card layouts and the overall service appeal and it proved to be just the input she was needing in order to really pull her brand together in all areas.”
Shaun Rubrecht (below bottom left purple shirt) moved to SE Asia 15 months ago for 1 month….just returned now. He visited Cambodia, Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong and more.
Eileen Brock (pictured below in blue blouse) has been with Paradise News now for only 7 months and was made SR Rep!!
Audrey “In addition to the newcomers, this week we were happy to welcome back a veteran ESC member, Shaun Rubrecht. Shaun was a regular attendee of our weekly meetings before he moved out to Thailand over a year ago to pursue his business endeavors internationally. He’s back in the area for one month right now and we were happy to connect him with some resources for him as he seeks out employees for his outsourcing agency.”
More from Audrey “Per usual, we ended the night on a fun note, enjoying some food and drinks out at one of our favorite downtown restaurants, Oyster Bar on Central Avenue. Laughs were had, ideas were shared, and we all got a chance to enjoy the company of both new and old members of the Entrepreneur Social Club. Another success for the group in the books!”
Ken Baxendell (below) sued a bank, and won! Also he fulfilled a long time dream and bought himself a boat. Ken is a 25 year aircraft mechanic, Real Estate Investor, Broker and Contractor Residential / Commercial, who moved here in 1993 from Pittsburgh. Welcome to the Entrepreneur Social Club.
Don’t forget to visit Nova535.com if you’re getting married or have a special event coming up! It’s St. Pete’s most unique venue and was voted to be our best “blank canvas” wedding venue. Set up a tour today or come and see me at one of our exciting public events to see it for yourself! And don’t forget to join our ever growing global family of friendly, helpful and productive business owners and Entrepreneurs. We meet weekly, every Thursday night, most always at historic wedding and event venue NOVA 535, in beautiful downtown St. Petersburg, aka DTSP!
Speaking of that dinner at Oyster Bar…
Max Glazer of The Shave Cave (pictured with hat and blue plaid shirt on center right) next to Mandy Keyes of Community Cafe, both joined us for dinner after a LONG day. Welcome!
and then delicious, hand-crafted after dinner drinks at Proof. Remember after 10 pm we don’t allow photos, cause what could go wrong, correct?!? =D
See you next Thursday night for another fun AND productive Entrepreneur Social Club. Check https://entrepreneursocialclub.com/events for exact location details.