Cynthia Kocialski is the founder of three tech companies. What makes her unique is that she has experienced many start-ups and seen them from the inside out, including the day-to-day trials and tribulations, not just the milestones and status presented to passive investors and outsiders. In the past 15 years, she has been involved in dozens of start-ups and has served on various advisory boards. These companies have collectively returned billions of dollars to investors. Cynthia has held various technical, marketing, and management positions at IBM and Matrox Electronics. Cynthia has engineering and mathematics degrees from the University of Rochester and the University of Virginia.

You can read more about Cynthia Kocialski book by visiting www.cynthiakocialski.com or
www.startupfromthegroundup.com.

Yvonne Wu – What is the first sign that a startup will be a failure?

Cynthia Kocialski – When I speak with the founders and there is a sense of arrogance. It’s the attitude that we’re planning this great product and company, and no one is going to tell us what to do because we know what to do. They don’t want to listen to anyone. But I know that whatever they are planning, won’t unfold as they expect and if they hold to their grand plans, the company will fail.

Yvonne Wu – What marketing advice do you give new business owners?
Cynthia Kocialski – Marketing should be started as soon as possible, even before the product is ready for customers.  Marketing creates demand for the product or service. Marketing builds awareness for your company and product. Like it or not, products don’t sell themselves. Customers always prefer to buy the familiar. In the customer’s mind, that which is familiar is less risk.

Yvonne Wu – The title of your book what does it mean?

Cynthia Kocialski – The title is meant to imply the seed stage or early stage start-up company, those new businesses just opening up. The subtitle shows that it is a how-to business book, and was chosen to embrace target keywords for search engines.
The book title itself was crowd sourced. I conducted surveys and asked recipients to name the book.  I selected the best ones and conducted another survey to see which title was the best choice. My original title was Start-Up In The Sky, a variant of pie in the sky. I thought it was clever, but nobody liked it.

Yvonne Wu – Describe your book in 3 words.

Cynthia Kocialski – Practical Business Creation

Yvonne Wu – Tell us where “Startup From The Ground Up” is available.

Cynthia Kocialski – The book is available from amazon.com and from www.cynthiakocialski.com or
www.startupfromthegroundup.com.

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-business-report/id302459315

Learn more about Cynthia, download Cynthia Kocialski’s podcast in iTunes

Paige Agnew is the author of “ Seven”. Seven talks about seven strangers who are thrown together to be pawns in a psycho’s mind game, they realize that they have to work together to reach their true potential or it could very well mean their death.

Seven strangers. Seven stories. One chance to not only save their lives, but to change them in ways they’d never even imagined possible.

Visit Paige Agnew’s website at http://paigeagnew.com

Yvonne Wu –What age group would enjoy reading Seven?

Paige – While I target young adults like myself, I think that adults could enjoy this just as much. Some of the main characters are adults and the themes within it are universal.

Yvonne Wu –What was the most difficult chapter to write?

Paige – I can’t say that there was one specific chapter that was hard, but I definitely struggled with the middle of the book. I struggled with it so much, that I stopped. Writers block hit me and it hit me hard and I moved on to other projects, leaving Seven unfinished. I think what made it difficult is that there’s the transition from getting to know the characters to the sudden whirlwind of them being captured and thrown in this experiment. So that transition was the hardest for me.

Yvonne Wu – Where can we purchase Seven?

Paige – Seven is available for purchase at:

Amazon.com
paigeagnew.com
barnesandnoble.com

Paula Renaye is the author of “The Hardline Self Help Handbook: What Are You Willing to Do to Get What You Really Want?” Paula shares with her readers a cut-to-the-chase approach towards personal development and self-improvement.

Paula Renaye is a certified professional coach, motivational speaker, regression hypnosis practitioner and award-winning author. She has been a consultant for 18 years and is a member of the International Association of Coaches. She presents classes, seminars, hands-on workshops and events on self-development and self-healing, as well as writing and publishing. Her passion is helping people face reality and take personal responsibility for their choices in order to reclaim their own power and live the life they really want.

Yvonne Wu – The title of your book is “Hardline Self Help” what does the title mean?

Paula Renaye – Hardline Self Help means that you stop letting yourself off the hook—stop giving yourself excuses for why you don’t or can’t have what you want—and you hold your own feet to the fire, face reality, take responsibility for your life right now and get busy

doing what you know you need to do.

Yvonne Wu – What do you mean by “What Are You Willing to Do to Get What You Really Want?”

Paula Renaye – When we are in tough spots in our lives and are in a loop of pain we just can’t seem to find a way out of, we may say that we’re willing to do anything to make things better. But is it really true? Many times, what we’re really saying is, “I‘ll do anything not to hurt anymore as long as I can keep things the way I want them.” For example, if what you want is a loving, peaceful and trusting relationship, but you’re in constant turmoil and upset over the situation you’re living in, what are you willing to do about it? Personally, I was willing to do absolutely anything except the one thing that I had to do—get a different partner. When I became willing to let go of my limitations—my attachment to that particular partner—I opened the door to being able to have what I really wanted.

Here’s another example. A lot of people tell me they’re going to write a book. Great! When? How? What are you willing to sacrifice to make it happen? Are you willing to watch less television to make time for writing? Are you willing to give up golfing on weekends? How bad do you really want it? I asked myself the “what are you willing to do” question repeatedly throughout the process of writing and launching this book. Every time the answer was the same—whatever it takes, which meant working 12 to 16 hours a day for months straight. Sure, I got tired, but I loved what I was doing, and getting this book in print was that important to me. I was willing.

Yvonne Wu – Where is Hardline Self Help available?

Paula Renaye – The book is available at http://www.amazon.com , Barnes&Noble ,

http://www.hardlineselfhelp.com and on Kindle.

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-business-report/id302459315

Learn more about Paula Renaye, download  Paula Renaye’s podcast in iTunes

This business primer makes it easy to understand how to do business online. How? “Boost Your Revenues by Turning People Away”. Part 1 identifies who your company’s ideal client is, and how that ideal client becomes an ideal online visitor when searching the Internet or looking at your company website. Part 1 also includes links to various worksheets to help a businessperson identify the ideal client. Part 2 outlines three simple ways to put together a website, so your ideal visitor feels confident about your ability to identify and solve problems. Part 3 tells your ideal visitor how to find your site. Alison’s aim is to help clients reach their online marketing potential. She wants customers to understand how to leverage the Internet to build their businesses. Most of the book’s content comes from real dealings with clients and providing answers to commonly asked questions.

Visit Alison’s website at http://idealvisitor.com/idealsite/book-2/

Yvonne Wu – How do you determine your ideal client?

Alison Silbert – “I” determine my ideal client by asking myself “who do I want to help?”, “what characteristics are included in my definition of an ideal client?”, and “what are the top 3 problems my ideal client has that I can solve quickly and easily for him/her?”

Yvonne Wu –Who is your intended audience?

Alison Silbert – Anyone interested in learning for himself/herself how to put together an effective website that starts the sales cycle for them.

Yvonne Wu – Tell us where “BOOST YOUR REVENUES BY TURNING PEOPLE” is available.

Alison Silbert – The book is available from amazon.com,  Barnes & Nobile and from. http://idealvisitor.com/idealsite/book-2/.

Rocsanne is the pen name of Raluca Popov, born in Romania many years ago, when communism was still the way of life in her country. She desired to escape communism and find more about a freer way of life in the West. For this, she left Romania as a tourist, and never looked back. Her education includes Geological Engineering and Construction Estimating, thus being able to find work wherever she went. During all these years she wrote short stories, mostly about the people she met, finding them extremely interesting. But always she was sure she would write a novel someday.

After she retired, she finally found the time to transform her dream into reality, and four novels in the Historical Romance genre were written, one connected to the next through their common heroes and heroines. And here she found herself in a quandary — where to send the banished sorcerer — the solution to her fourth novel, in which Edmund, the bad sorcerer is banished by his enemies, and disappears in thin air.

She says that inspiration comes from the most extraordinary places. In this case it was the TV, watching an animated movie for children. Forgotten was the romance, and children, together with their parents, became the new heroes. When you read the book, please do not forget to give her your opinion of it. Rocsanne/Raluca would love to hear what you have to say.

Visit Rocsanne website at www.rocsanneshield.com

Yvonne Wu – Tell us about “Save Magic City.”

Rocsanne Shield – When I retired, it was not because I wanted, but because the company went through a very dramatic restructuring — 20% of all the International complex had to be shed, to keep the company profitable. So, when I started writing this book, I did not have a name in mind, I simply put on paper ideas as they came. But after the entire population voted to change the name into Magic City, saving it was of the utmost importance! Hence the name.

Yvonne Wu – Why did you write this book?

Rocsanne Shield – At first, because I wanted to give Edmund a chance to rehabilitate himself of all the bad deeds in his past, but once I had Leo and Leona, I wanted to help them save their
beloved city.

Yvonne Wu – Where is “Save Magic City” available?

Rocsanne Shield – Save Magic City is available at

http://www.rocsanneshield.com/

http://www.amazon.com/

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/

And other retailers.

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-business-report/id302459315

Learn more about Rocsanne, download Rocsanne Shield’s podcast in iTunes

Twitter

Twitter is a great way to expand your online reach.   Twitter.com is a great site to use for expanding your online reach.  Twitter is like a online business card. You can use twitter to advertise new services that your company may have, advertise your blogs and create awareness of services you offer. Twitter is also very resourceful in assisting you in targeting your target market. Your followers can be individuals that you can learn from. Your profile can be customized with various backgrounds and you can summarize your available services on your profile. This is definitely a modern word of mouth tool.

Have you tried Twitterbeep? Twitterbeep will track conversations, Plug in a keyword about your book if you are a Author or about the type of service you provide. Twitterbeep will match you with perspective customers who may be looking or talking about that service or product.

There is not much that I would like to see changed when using Twitter except that when typing a message you are limited in the amount of words you can use. This sometimes prevents communication via Twitter. If you are a Twitter fan checkout Bubbletweet,  Twitxr, TwitPic, Twtqpon, Tweepler, TwitterFox,Tweetburner, Twit This, HelloTxt and FutureTweets .

MySpace

MySpace is a great place to meet and business network. If your target market is people working in Creative industries such as Entertainers and Authors MySpace.com is the place to be. Finding friends seems to be the main way to connect with people who work in industries that may need your services now or in the future and make them aware of your service offering. Your Myspace profile is a advertisement of your business.  Compared to other social media, MySpace allows for more creative control of the design elements of there profile. MySpace also has some great online job advertisements. Unfortunately MySpace group selection is limited and so is its blog utility.

Linked In

The biggest disadvantage of Linkedin is the profile. You are very limited in the information that you can provide in your profile. The template offered is very plain. Linked in’s security restrictions make it very hard to network with new people who could share a common interest. Many times the security settings want you to know the potential contacts email address. The opportunity to comment in Linkedin groups is a great way to build relationships with other business owners. There are some wonderful groups to join. This makes it simple to meet your specific target market. Once you comment the chance to connect with this person and add them as a contact becomes greater.

Facebook

Facebook.com started out as a social networking website for students. Facebook is a entrepreneurs dream. Facebook is an excellent place to post your blog. Your blog can quickly be picked up by the search engines and be listed under your company name. Facebook is a great way of advertising events. This allows the opportunity of meeting individuals in your target market face to face. This feature replaces the old fashion joining of business networking groups in your area.  Facebook groups are not as interactive as Linkedin groups. Facebook has added recent changes to their Fan Pages. You can now view insights. Insights are statistics about how your page and posts are doing. You can now track page activity. The removal of the left hand sidebar makes it  difficult to let your viewer know what your company does without the viewer flipping pages.

The newsfeed reminds me of a newspaper. There is constantly new activity to read. Best of all there are ways to interact.
Building relationships offline and online is still paramount to your business success.  Social media helps you to gain an insight to know various individuals  business, learn about their struggles, and through these observations  you can learn their needs and therefore provide them with a much needed product or service. There has been some changes to the newsfeed that is limiting the ability to read all your friends posts. This should change.

The main thing that you need to remember is that there is no point in collecting a huge amount of friends or connections if you are not going to communicate with them. Most importantly these connections should communicate with you. You need to be available to answer questions. The best method of communication is leaving a private message.
Please provide feedback about your favorite Social Forum.

Some popular video sites are YouTube, Google, Yahoo, Social Media Sites.

How to use Video

Make your videos You can use a digital camera, video cameras, web-cams, cell-phones etc (anything that records video) Keep it under 100mb so you can upload it. You may also need video software to transfer your raw data to the right type of file.

Stay on Topic. Always put your web address in the video. Videos are just another form of marketing and communicating your value to your market. It’s no different than writing a sales letter on a website.

Provide product-related information to aid use of your product or service.

Offer Sponsorship. Sponsors who may have similar products or complimentary products may want to pay to advertise or for you to advertise them.

Connect with people internationally or customers living in remote locations.

Why Every Business should have a Video on there website

Have you ever been at an event and listened intently to someone speaking only to say to the person beside you what did he say? Have you been at a social gathering in which you only had a few moments to talk about yourself and your business only to hear your audience say “What did he say?” or “What does he do?”

With video there are no other distractions like there are in person. You can rewind and fast forward if you do not understand or you are interrupted. You can replay anytime and any hour of the day. You can even press stop!

Do you find yourself spending more time on the internet then you do watching TV? Video watchers are TV watchers. Pew Research Center reports that Online news consumption continues to grow, and substantial minorities of Americans are now taking advantage of specialized web-based and digital tools to get the news.

Videos can be viewed anywhere on phones and on your website. You can add your video as an attachment on your email. Videos can be watched on subways, walking your dog and during your lunch hour.

Videos increase traffic, is less costly then a TV advertisement and much like a sales page or a TV commercial it is a way for you to advertise your site.

Let me know how Video has worked for you!

1. Authors use audio to prepare their manuscript. The Authors thoughts can be recorded and then later they can be transcribed to manuscript format.
2. Pick your favourite photos add your recorded audio and now you have a video.
3. Audio can be added onto your PowerPoint presentations for audience viewing.
4. To assist with scheduling yourself as a friendly reminder.
5. Placed on your website as an easy way for your audience to be provided with your information about your product or service.
6. To cater to an audience that is on the go by creating podcasts, audio books or creating an audio show.

Do you want to know how to download a Free Audio Recorder onto your computer? This audio can be played on your computer time and time again. Download my

How to Record Yourself for free podcast and receive step by step instruction.

URL:

Watch my podcast from itunes,  please leave us 5 stars and a kickass review

Dr. Howard Schubiner is the author of “Unlearn Your Pain”

Dr. Howard Schubiner is board certified in pediatrics, adolescent medicine, and internal medicine and is the director of the Mind Body Medicine Center at Providence Hospital in Southfield, MI. He is a Clinical Professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine and is a fellow in the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. He has authored more than sixty publications in scientific journals and books and has given more than 250 lectures to scientific audiences regionally, nationally, and internationally. Dr. Schubiner has consulted for the American Medical Association, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Mental Health. He is also a senior teacher of mindfulness meditation. He has been included on the list of the Best Doctors in America since 2003. Dr. Schubiner lives in the Detroit area with his wife of twenty-six years and has two adult children.

You can read more about Dr. Howard Schubiner ‘s book by visiting Unlearn Your Pain

Yvonne Wu – The title of your book is “Unlearn Your Pain” what does the title mean?

Howard Schubiner -The most important aspect of dealing with chronic pain is to understand what is causing it in the first place. Modern medicine is good at identifying certain causes of pain, such as fractures, tumors, or infections. However, for the majority of people with chronic pain, modern medicine cannot identify a specific cause and is left with treating pain with medications to attempt to cover up the pain. ―Unlearn Your Pain‖ conveys the simple, yet revolutionary concept that pain is often a product of learned nerve pathways that can be reversed.

Yvonne Wu -What type of illnesses would benefit from your book and your program?

Howard Schubiner -Once a specific medical cause is ruled out, the following conditions are those that can be applicable to the concepts and methods of ―Unlearn Your Pain‖. Chronic neck or back pain, tension or migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, TMJ disorder, interstitial cystitis, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, chronic abdominal or pelvic pain, whiplash, vulvodynia, chronic tendonitis, repetitive stress injury, myofascial pain syndrome, chronic fatigue, tinnitus, paresthesias, anxiety and depression.

Yvonne Wu -What inspired you to write the book?

Howard Schubiner – I was inspired by the amazing recoveries of my patients and their courage in facing their past, their lives, and their pain. I wanted to bring this message of hope and healing to a wider audience.

Yvonne Wu – Tell us where “Unlearn Your Pain” is available.

Howard Schubiner -The book is available from amazon.com and from www.unlearnyourpain.com.

Paige wrote her first book, Starless Sky at age 15 and published it in January of 2010. Starless Sky was birthed during the time of grief and loss while Paige was in the 8th grade.Paige loves to know that she can speak words of life through writing that brings entertainment, escape, or healing to readers. She can write words that make readers cry, laugh, exclaim with excitement, or stay up all night wondering what happens in the end. Her sense of humor and from the heart personality shines through her writing. She was born in Michigan. Her compassion and sense of humor is in all of her writings. When Paige is not writing, she enjoys sports, dancing, singing, playing the piano, reading and attending her brother’s college football games. In addition, spending time with family, friends, and her dog, Tigger are important to her. She is also actively involved in her church and community.
Visit Paige Agnew’s website http://paigeagnew.com

Yvonne Wu - What are the three words that describe Starless Sky?

Paige Agnew -Encouraging, Inspiring, Serious while Entertaining.

Yvonne Wu -What makes Starless Sky unique?

Paige Agnew -How many times have you read a book or seen a movie where a character dies and you can’t help but bawl your eyes out?  (Never? Well then, may I recommend Nicolas Sparks?  Great writer, but grab a box of kleenex).  Because I have experienced my share of tears reading and watching movies, I wanted to write a story where I could tap into something as deep as death, but instead of leaving the reader in despair, I would portray hope.  This makes Starless Sky unique.

Yvonne Wu – What advice can you give to a teenager who is grieving?

Paige Agnew -Talk about your loss, write about it if you are not a talker, but get it out somehow. Share your feelings with someone who can help you and that is not always peers as their knowledge may be limited regardless of how mature or well meaning. Ask to speak with a counselor for additional support. Know that the stages of grief and loss are not really stages that happen in a specific order; know that you are not losing your mind. Healing takes time and it is a deliberate process. Healing does not truly happen just because you will it. Mostly, I am saying, do not go through it alone – let others help you – take some time to be alone if needed but balance it with self care and support.

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-business-report/id302459315

Learn more about Paige, download Paige’s podcast in iTunes