Free Ideas

Steve Hoffman, or Captain Hoff as he’s called in Silicon Valley, is the CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading incubators and accelerators. He’s also an angel investor, limited partner at August Capital, serial entrepreneur, and author of Make Elephants Fly, the award-winning book on radical innovation.

Scott Young is a writer who undertakes interesting self-education projects, such as attempting to learn MIT’s four-year computer science curriculum in twelve months and learning four languages in one year. He lives in Vancouver Canada.

Ivana Taylor is the publisher of DIYMarketers.com a resource for entrepreneurs who want do LESS marketing and make MORE money. She’s listed as one of the most influential people in small business by D&B and in 2010 she ranked 21 out of 30,000 of Fast Company’s Influential people on the internet. She is the book editor for Small Business Trends, a contributing author to AMEX Open Forum and has appeared on MSNBC.

Clate Mask is an entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of Infusionsoft, which makes small business sales and marketing automation software. Mask co-authored Conquer the Chaos, a New York Times best-selling book. Mask has made contributions writing about entrepreneurship for VentureBeat, Entrepreneur and Fast Company.

Most people think that it takes a ton of effort and time to remove mental roadblocks and alleviate the self-sabotage holds us back. But Erin Pheil, founder of The MindFix Group, has a track record of getting lightning fast results for her clients—and, the results are permanent.

Sillie Mugo is the founder of Activate your Purpose Program, which teaches creatives how to stand out online by telling their stories in an authentic way, so they can build a profitable and impactful business.

Justin Gray is the CEO of LeadMD they are a bootstrapped what has become the most successful full-service performance marketing consultancy, having helped over 3500 organizations build scalable revenue engines.

Grant Aldrich founded OnlineDegree.com with a purpose-driven mission: make higher education more accessible and affordable for everyone. After graduating college with an overwhelming amount of debt, he was determined to change how students embark on their college education. Grant has spent his entire career working in startups with nearly 15 years of experience and 2 exits.

Raphael Paulin-Daigle is the CEO of SplitBase, they help fashion, luxury and lifestyle ecommerce companies sell more online by increasing website conversions and profits through our Testing Trifecta optimization program. They’ve increased conversions by hundreds of percents for their clients, creating million dollar impacts. Notable clients include L'Oréal, Kiehl's, BestSelf, Primal Pit Paste, Frank + Oak.

After launching dozens of companies and side-projects over the last 10 years, Greg Koberger realized how difficult API’s were to understand and use for most people. That’s why, as Founder of ReadMe, he is making it easy for millions of people and over 1,700 companies, including Lyft and Trello, to build and use awesome products with API’s.

Matt Baker is VP Strategic Planning at FreshBooks. Matt has a long track record successfully bridging business and technology. Prior to FreshBooks, Matt was a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company and a Senior Strategist at Google, Inc.

Chris Ducker is an entertaining, dynamic and knowledgable speaker that never fails to deliver. A combination of years of entrepreneurial experience, coupled together with a ‘No BS’ attitude to getting things done, Chris is as energetic on stage, as he is empathetic towards business owners and entrepreneurs in general. Chris is the Virtual CEO of Virtual Staff Finder, Live2Sell, and founder of Youpreneur.

Ryan Hanley is a keynote speaker and the chief strategist at Hanley Media, a boutique business strategy firm focused on the implementation of leadership, marketing, and sales initiatives for abundance-minded organizations.

Joe De Sena is the CEO and founder of Spartan. He is also a NY Times best selling author of Spartan Up , Spartan Fit  and The Spartan Way.

Tayo Rockson, was raised in Nigeria, Sweden, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, and the USA, He is a speaker, consultant, and media personality who co-founded UYD Management – a strategic leadership and consulting firm that helps organizations incorporate sustainable diversity and inclusion practices. He has spoken at TEDx four times, the World Bank, the Global Summit for the International Youth Leaders Assembly (IYLA) at the United Nations, The United Nations Foundation among many other places and his work is heard and read by thousands of people in over 100 countries.

Guillaume Moubeche is the Co-founder & CEO at lemlist.com. Which is a cold email outreach SAAS platform. I originally learned about Guillaume from AppSumo. We signed up initially, used it, and quite frankly didn’t like the platform. But that wasn’t his fault. At the time, we simply didn’t know how to use Cold Email the way we do now! Lemlist is a very unique organization and it’s ran by an even cooler person.

Stephanie Mitchell is the founder of The Rolling Mat - Mobile Yoga Studio, based in Atlanta GA. Since the start of her mobile yoga adventure, Steph (aka: Rollin’ Yogi) has been shaking up the yoga industry by providing well-round, community drive yoga experiences outside of the 4 walls of a studio space!

Kat Jost is the founder of Skilled Not Ill a mental health consulting firm that helps companies to achieve mental wellness in the workplace.

Shane Barker is an accomplished digital marketing consultant. From working with celebrities on digital reputation management to obtaining a #1 national ranking with PROskore as a social media consultant, Shane has built an impressive list of accomplishments in digital marketing. As a regular contributor to publications like Salesforce, Yahoo Small Business, Marketing Profs and others, he continues to grow and share his knowledge.

Today's Masterclass features Andre' WYZE The Founder of Humble Genius Media who talks to us about the impact of storytelling in business and the self work and healing he had to do in order to obtain success.

As a community builder and a coworking pioneer, Alex is always thinking about the intersection of people, relationships, trust and business.

Today's episode of Community Conversations features Charles Jay the founder of Urbane.US. Charles is a cancer survivor and self taught designer with an inspiring story.

For years his Linkedin headline read "World’s Most Handsome Social Media & Content Marketing Strategist." But today he prefers to go by another title: Superhero Jeff Gibbard is the Founder of The Superhero Institute, a training and development company that shows people how to be super and human at work and in life. Using a combination of his proprietary Superhuman Framework and the X-Factors, Jeff reveals the inner workings and simple strategies that unlock heroic potential of leadership, communication, strategy and enduring growth.

Today's Penji Masterclass features Roopali Chaudary of Lotus STEMM and Steliana Moraru of Global Women in Tech who will talk about breaking barriers in a male dominated industry.

Lindsay Tabas is a Product-Market Fit Expert and Startup Strategist. Under Lady Engineer®, Lindsay helps founders design and sell the right product before spending too much with developers building the wrong one.

Aaron D'arcy is the Invitation Coordinator of MKP Philadelphia. The ManKind Project is a men’s community for the 21st Century. MKP is a nonprofit training and education organization with three decades of proven success hosting life-changing experiential personal development programs for men.

Wayne Kimmel is a sports tech venture capitalist, entrepreneur and author of Six Degrees of Wayne Kimmel. He is the Managing Partner of SeventySix Capital, the venture capital company he founded in 1999, and invests in startup consumer facing tech companies in the sports tech, esports, and sports betting industries. His portfolio companies have been acquired by companies like Aramark, Intel, IBM, Walgreens and Yahoo! His partners at SeventySix Capital are Jon Powell, a leading real estate executive, and Ryan Howard, MLB legend and World Series Champion.

This episode of Community Conversations features Lurein Perera the Director of Givecard - a nonprofit that is revolutionizing how to donate to homeless people with debit cards. Lurein speaks about the epiphany moment that led him to starting the organization, how he balances a double major with multiple brands, and his passion to fix things in society.

Scott Paladini is the CEO and founder of Bear , a direct-to-consumer retailer of mattresses, pillows and sleep accessories constructed to promote faster recovery and a better sleep using the latest advancements in sleep technology. Paladini manages a growing team of 12 industry experts and oversees the day-to-day operations and strategic vision for Bear. His efforts have helped develop Bear into one of the fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands in the sleep space. Paladini launched Bear in 2015 after nearly a year of product development and testing. During his first year in business Paladini navigated Bear past the seven-figure revenue mark, garnering interest from professional athletes and media alike. Today, Bear ranks among the nation’s top ten e-commerce mattress brands. Prior to the launch of Bear Paladini worked in finance before opening a brick-and-mortar mattress store in 2012 (which he sold in 2017 to focus all of his efforts on Bear).

This episode of Penji Masterclass features Mitch Schoenman, the Cofounder of Showtime Media Mgmt. In this episode Mitch details his daily routine for tracking new trends, keeping up with an ever changing social media landscape, and the pros and cons of having your spouse as a business partner. (edited)

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine, and SEO for Growth. His newest work, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur: 366 Daily Meditations to Feed Your Soul and Grow Your Business taps into the wisdom of 19th-century transcendentalist literature and the author’s own 30-year entrepreneurial journey to challenge today’s entrepreneur to remain fiercely self-reliant while chasing their own version of success.

This episode of Penji Masterclass features Bruce Marable the Co-Founder and CEO of Employee Cycle, an all in one dashboard to help HR professionals collect data. In the webinar Bruce details tips for onboarding and maintaining new talent, ways to reduce new employee turnover, and boosting productivity when you’re in a new position.

Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. The M.I.T. Technology Review dubbed Nir, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.” Nir founded two tech companies since 2003 and has taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. He is the author of the bestselling book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.

This episode of Community Conversations features Rachel Klausner the CEO of Millie. Millie is a platform that matches people with nonprofits to help them give back in a direct and effective way. During our conversation Rachel discusses why millennials should focus on philanthropy, things people need to know about running a nonprofit, and how she hopes to gain more competitors in her industry!

Leonard Kim is the coauthor of Ditch the Act: Reveal the Surprising Power of the Real You for Greater Success. In his book, Leonard reveals the seven-step brand process, which teaches readers how to own and expose who they truly are, form meaningful relationships that move the needle and ultimately, uncover the greatness that already exists from within, to stack success.

Today’s Masterclass features podcasters and business coaches Joe Pardo, Carrie Arick, and Marquise Richards. Some of the takeaways from the webinar include strategies to find your niche when creating a show, what makes a good interviewer, and how to make your content stand out from the rest.

Megan Grassell is the founder and CEO of Yellowberry- a bra, underwear, lounge and activewear company for girls ages 8-14. Megan grew up on a ranch in Pinedale, Wyoming and later in Jackson as a competitive ski racer. She founded Yellowberry when she was 17 years old as a junior in high school, and is revolutionizing the bra industry for young girls from Wyoming.

This episode of Community Conversations features Neetu Agrawal a Senior Pro Trainer of the nonprofit Playworks. In the interview Neetu talks about how playing outside is linked to emotional wellness in children, how she creates engaging workshops for children, and how she handles working with a generation obsessed with technology

This episode of Penji Masterclass features Rachael Spiewak a talent recruiter for Acquire Talent and Amanda Rivera a social media guru. During the conversation we discuss what makes someone an authority, making genuine connections on social media, and why fake it til you make it is a terrible idea!

This episode of Community Conversations features Matt Amalfitano of Raised By Us. A nonprofit workplace social good program. Matt talks to us about opening conversations of philanthropy in the workplace, why big and small companies are obligated to give back, and switching from finance to the nonprofit world after his mother's passing.

Sahil is the founder and CEO of Gumroad. Gumroad exists to help every creative earn a living selling the stuff they make directly to their audience. Previously, he was an early employee at Pinterest. In his spare time you can find him thinking and pondering life’s most valuable questions and also painting which we will talk about in the beginning of the episode.

Stacey Brown Randall is a member of the business failure club, a contrarian on how to generate referral and a supporter of the entrepreneurial dream. Through her programs, she provides a roadmap to take control of your business. Stacey is a three-time entrepreneur, author of Generating Business Referrals...Without Asking, and host of the Roadmap To Grow Your Business podcast. Stacey has taught her “no asking” referral generation strategy to hundreds and hundreds clients and audiences. Her clients include well-known corporations and franchises such as Bank of America, Liberty Mutual, Mass Mutual, and so much more. The term asking for a lead is something we have all heard and probably said before. The term is “Asking for a refferal” Stacy is strong on the idea of not having to ask but more so building it into our lives and sales strategies.

Domenick Cucinotta has spent the last decade proving that his attention to detail and commitment to deadlines redefine what it means to be a part of a successful production team from start to finish. From his ability to manage a production company that has filmed, directed, and edited million dollar feature films to working with the world’s biggest social media influencers, he has done it all.   Dom is as creative as he is business oriented, committed to helping clients meet their financial and business goals.

Today's Masterclass features Wilfredo Hernandez of CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia and Max Zhaniser of Mt. Airy Nexus. They speak about strategies to build community, best traits to look for in partnerships, and unique perks both spaces offer.

Julia Wojnar is the Founder of Unleash Your Presence which bridges the gap between executives' brilliant ideas and their ability to communicate them powerfully. Julia is a leader in stage speaking, performing and communications, teaching executives effective delivery and resilience with her unique non-corporate approach. Julia has been a featured speaker and presenter on world-recognized platforms such as Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), and has been cited as an “authority builder” by The Huffington Post. She’s been featured on Thrive Global, iHeartRadio, and numerous podcasts. In addition to consulting with companies and executives, Julia also speaks and delivers live and virtual trainings to help professionals develop sharp communication skills to tackle tough decisions and express their ideas clearly and confidently.

This episode of Community Conversations features Rachael Whitworth the Founder of Let’s Be Authentic - a company devoted to bringing people together to create meaningful connections. During the interview she talks about the benefits of being vulnerable, finding your authentic self, and how people can build better relationships in their every day life.

As Founder and CEO of inDinero, Jessica loves helping entrepreneurs run better businesses. She has grown the company from zero to multi-million dollar revenues with over 200 employees and has been featured in the Forbes and Inc 30 Under 30 Lists. J essica left high school at age 15 to attend Bard College at Simon's Rock, studied computer science at U.C. Berkeley, went through Y Combinator, and is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO). Her passions and hobbies include mentoring up-and-coming entrepreneurs, encouraging young girls to go into STEM, and flying airplanes. We later found out in this interview that she’s also an avid DJ where she plays house and EDM music.

On this episode of Masterclass we chat with 2 entrepreneurs and self proclaimed introverts on how they network and succeed in business. Aasim Sani and Krishna Fay both run companies dedicated to helping people like them achieve their goals. We talk about breaking the ice at networking events, creative ways to follow up, and building your confidence when presenting to large groups.

Tim Schmidt is a Florida based Digital Marketing Entrepreneur who specializes in start-ups in emerging industries.  A self-taught Internet Marketer, Tim relies on content as the backbone of all of his businesses.  This philosophy led him to teach a course on affiliate marketing, give many speeches at industry events, and has even led him to write a soon to be released book, called Amplifying Average.  You can learn more at his official website.

Matt Straus the CEO of Solve started a chicago based startup with a mobile platform that connects employers to job seekers in underrepresented communities. Matt is passionate about providing access to the people in these communities and using technology to do so. In the interview he talks about his previous career in the VC space, the challenges of changing the narrative of Chicago, and how he develops team members who have dealt with signifcant trauma.

Marc Guberti is a USA Today and WSJ bestselling author with over 100,000 students in over 180 countries enrolled in his online courses. He is the host of the Breakthrough Success Podcast and Radio Show where listeners learn how to achieve their breakthroughs. He coaches content creators on how they can attract more traffic to their content and boost revenue.

Today’s masterclass featured a chat with entrepreneur and business coach Ronnell Richards. Ronnell has been on his entrepreneurial journey for 25 years and has experienced more than most. He talks about combating entrepreneur fairy tales, what makes a great leader, investing in your team, and building relationships of value.

Co-Founder of FollowUpThen, is an entrepreneur, start-up junkie, and all around creative hustler. Like most success stories, his literally started from his garage where he built his first business.

This week’s masterclass includes 3 diversity & inclusion experts - Dr. Lizette Ojeda, Dr. Laura McGuire and Rebecca Baumgartner. During the masterclass we discuss how companies can create safe spaces for their team members, how to handle micro aggressions at work, and dealing with the pressure of being tokenized in your position.

Aaron is the founder of Propelify, built to empower innovators. The Propelify Innovation Festival unites 10,000 innovators with talks, exhibitors, drones, virtual reality, investors, music and more. Aaron is founder of the NJ Tech Meetup, NJ's largest technology & entrepreneurial community.

Venture Café Philadelphia connects innovators and entrepreneurs with high-impact programming and events. They create intentional spaces for individuals and organizations to gather, connect, and build relationships.

Brad Barrett went from being a full-time CPA to retiring with complete financial independence by the age of 35 through diligent savings and investing. Now, as co- host and co-founder of ChooseFI, he’s empowering others to reach for a life of purpose, intention and ultimately happiness through the journey to Financial Independence. Brad and his partner Jonathan have produced 200+ podcasts, have been downloaded over 9 million times, and have 200+ local ChooseFI chapters throughout the world. Brad relishes spending his days with his wife and two daughters as well as focusing on his health, fitness and growing the relationships in his life.

“Being able to have a platform to advocate for mental health and wellness is really important to me. There are so many people who are struggling in silence and I want them to know that they are not alone and it’s okay to seek help, even if that is just a conversation”.

Jason Bannon or better known as JB is the Vice President, Marketing & Communications at Ben Franklin Technology Partners. He is a champion, curator and scholar of brand characteristics and consumer perceptions in building innovative digital and integrated marketing programs and consumer products. He’s also a hands-on thought leader and team builder for global client and agency teams focused on both brand equity and revenue growth.

In today's webinar we spoke with two female business owners about some of the sacrifices they have had to make to attain their version of success. Crystal Johnson is the owner of Nostalgia Well Spa a mobile massage company and Danielle Bilbruck is the owner of Broad Digital Agency. Some of the highlights include: - How their personal and romantic relationships have suffered due to their career journey. - Things they both do to keep themselves going during tough times - Challenges they've faced as women in male-dominated industries - Misconceptions of entrepreneurship

JLD is the founder & host of Entrepreneurs On Fire, an award-winning podcast where I interview inspiring Entrepreneurs to help YOU on your Entrepreneurial journey! John’s goal with Entrepreneurs On Fire is to deliver the inspiration and strategies you need to FIRE UP your entrepreneurial journey and create the life you’ve always dreamed of. He’s interviewed over 2,000 incredible Entrepreneurs, including Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Barbara Corcoran, Tim Ferriss, and many more. Before Entrepreneurs On Fire was even a thought, his journey was full of struggle and searching. After serving as an active duty Army Officer for four years, he tried Law School (1st semester dropout), Corporate Finance and Commercial Real Estate.

Robin Morris, the Executive Director of the Garces Foundation provides resources for immigrants, the behind the scenes details of running a nonprofit, how we can become better allies, and some of her favorite food cities in the country. Here at Penji we support those who are helping their communities. Robin and the Garces foundation are currently looking for volunteers in legal counsel, medical, design, marketing, and teaching. Please support them and share this interview it would mean a lot to us.

The New York Times has called Peter Shankman “a rockstar who knows everything about social media and then some.” He is a 5x best selling author, entrepreneur and corporate keynote speaker, focusing on customer service and the new and emerging customer and neurotatypical economy.  With three startup launches and exits under his belt, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about the customer experience, social media, PR, marketing, advertising, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and the new Neurodiverse Economy.   In addition to his passion for helping people and companies find success, some of Peter’s highlights also include: Founder of HARO – Help A Reporter Out, which became the standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources prior to being acquired three years after launch The ShankMinds Breakthrough Network, an elite, online mastermind of thought leaders, business experts, and change makers Faster than Normal – The Internet’s #1 podcast on ADHD, focusing on the superpowers and gifts of having a “faster than normal brain,” which has helped thousands of people all around the world realize that having a neuroatypical brain is actually a gift, not a curse

This episode featured Kathleen Hayn of Slice Communications and Nikki Barron of Mastin Labs The chemistry throughout this conversation was electric. We talk about the pros and the cons of social media. The magic behind social media, knowing your audience, creating an authentic voice and so much more.

Can you be highly successful in business and highly spiritual at the same time. Let’s take this question a step further. Is there a direct relationship between your spirituality and great success?  Heather Dominick is a woman who is impressively successful, and highly spiritual. A former high school drama teacher who collaborated with none other than Bette Midler. A graduate of NYU where she received her first coach training. Heather is the winner of the 2015 Best of Manhattan Coaching Award and creator of the 2014 Stevie Award winning virtual event A Course In Business Miracles®: 21-Day Discovery Series that attracted close to 6,000 official registrants from all around the world including: Iceland, Nigeria, Russia, Asia, South America, Australia, Europe and the U.S.  Heather is also the founder and leader of the Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur® movement.

This week’s episode is all about Taking your business to the next level. We talk to an agency owner and also a startup founder. We figured, why not have some diversity to learn more about the different types of businesses that can scale. We talk about good infrastructure, training, sacrifices, scaling, and more. This interview will be a good point of reference to new entrepreneurs, but also a good reminder to more seasoned entrepreneurs to think back and remember where you once were.

Neil Patel is a New York Times best selling author. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.

Jim Shulman loves working with successful independent practitioners who are frustrated with the direction of their professional practice and their life. His clients tend to be devoted to their families and friends, driven to succeed, and passionate about helping others. His specialists are practice management and development for financial advisors, attorneys, and CPAs, based on thirty years' experience in sales and marketing. This is the crucial link between best practices and empathy with your role, often very lonely, as a business owner and manager.

Ellen Weber is passionate about innovation and about helping build great companies in the region. She is the Executive Director of Temple University’s Fox School of Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute, and an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, she’s a part of Mid-Atlantic Diamond Ventures, and the Executive Director of Robin Hood Ventures (www.robinhoodventures.com), a leading angel group helping to fuel startup growth in the Greater Philadelphia region. David Bookspan is a serial entrepreneur. He’s founded Monetate, MarketSpan, Past president of Robinhood Ventures, he’s a recovering lawyer, Founder of Dreamit Ventures and current founder and executive chairman at Amino Payments, which is a payments company that combines technologies from blockchain, payments, and advertising to bring transparency to online advertising.

As restaurant critic and Drink columnist for the Inquirer, Craig covers the culture of Philly food as he chronicles the rise of our culinary stars, the decline of some, and the dramatic evolution of a dining scene that shapes emerging neighborhoods and helps define the Philadelphia region's identity, one plate at a time.

As you know podcasting is near and dear to my heart. There's a special relationship when you're able to share your story while sitting down and talking candidly. Today on Penji's Masterclass with Sekinah Brodie, we talk about how to drive serious business into your podcast.

How to reach your true potential. A question we ask ourselves this often. However, today we dive deep into another Penji Masterclass series hosted by Sekinah Brodie.

Aurelien Amacker is a french entrepreneur and online marketer who founded systeme.io, a SAAS app that allows people to launch and scale an online business.

This is a Penji Masterclass that discusses the Future of Advertising. We had two professionals within the industry. Greg Star from Carvertise and Mac Frederick from Momentum Digital.

In this noisy digital world, you can’t break through the noise, you just add to it. Instead, you need to get in on the conversation where your ideal customers are already listening. As a Navy veteran who ran nuclear power plants, and an inbound marketing engineer, Tom Schwab has a refreshingly unique approach. He focuses on time-proven strategy, then supercharges it with today’s technology and podcast interview marketing. An author, speaker, and teacher, Tom helps you get more traffic, leads, and raving customer fans by being interviewed on targeted podcasts.

Want to learn how to advertise better? Learn from three qualified experts that share the best practices in all things advertising.

Mada Seghete is an experienced marketer and evangelist leading Branch's Marketing team, as well as many of the culture initiatives at Branch. Growing Branch is an adventure where I get to do what I love most - help and educate mobile brands on how to get more users and optimize their mobile experiences. Mada is the app marketer’s biggest advocate, always thinking of new insights to help app developers grow their apps. When she's not working on the Branch dashboard or partner products, Mada likes to go to growth hacking meet ups, play with dogs, and play the latest addictive mobile game. Mada has a BS in Computer Engineering from Cornell and a masters in design from Stanford.

Community building is always said to be that one thing you need to do in your business, but it’s by far the hardest freaking thing to do. It takes time, patience, understanding, empathy, and did I say time? Building a community is more than just a Facebook group or an email newsletter. It’s understanding your audience and providing valuable content. Like content they actually need! And not just content you want to create!

Brock Blake believes so deeply in the American Dream that he made it his life’s mission to help small businesses across the country fuel their own aspirations. As Founder and CEO of Lendio, the largest online marketplace of small business loans in America, he has helped thousands of business owners access more than $1 billion in funding.

Mental health speaks volumes to us here at Penji. At times it’s incredibly easy to neglect because there are so many things happening at once. But taking each day at a time, understanding your goals, and being able to remove yourself when you see yourself staggering is an important character trait to have early on in your career. The sooner you understand what’s happening to your mind, body, and soul early will be easier to fix as you grow.

The highs of entrepreneurship are high, but the lows are so low. Like everything else in life, there are peaks and valleys. This episode I wanted to focus on how others are able to communicate their stress and fix the low points that they are experiencing in their life. We talk about accountability, processes, and setting a strict regime for you to follow.

Businesses waste thousands upon thousands of dollars a year on improper advertising tactics. It’s imperative for you to understand what works. Now, you won’t figure out what truly works without some form of testing, but it’s critical to test, test, and test some more. A,B,C,D and even Z your way to advertising success.

Today we had Vic Steinman and Jason Crapero on the show. How can one truly know the future of branding? In this Penji Master Class series, you’ll realize that there isn’t that one silver bullet that will be able to push you to the next level. But more so a series of actions that you can take starting today to better understand how important branding is to your business.

Mark Metry is the Founder of VU Dream, a marketing & brand agency founded and operating in Boston, Massachusetts working with startups, individuals & corporations to help customers imagine new future realities in the fields of emerging technology like virtual reality and podcasting. Mark is also the Host of the Global Top 100 podcast called Humans 2.0 featured by Forbes, NASDAQ and Yahoo Finance as the "Top 21 Growing Podcasts you must listen to in 2019." Mark's show has been listened to over 4 million times and features the greatest leaders of our time and frequently converses with Billionaires, Professional Athletes, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and New York Times Bestselling authors exploring today's dynamic of the human experience in modern technological times of 2019.

Luis Camacho grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico and came to the us when he was just 10 years old. He graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelors degree in marketing.  Being obsessed with digital marketing and advertising from a young age Luis started his first company, a clothing line at the age of 19, used social media as his only marketing source and had a successful run with the company. Later realized that what he really loved was growing business he set the goal to get into an advertising agency, where he found that people mainly cared about experience. Started working for an agency writing social media content with the goal of leading their paid advertising department, where in just one year he was able to do so. After working for a couple of other agencies who had worked with SaaS companies he realized that's what he was most passionate about, starting his own agency, Fantôm Agency. Fantôm Agency now helps SaaS companies around the globe scale through various types of paid digital advertising and is working on building the most elite community for SaaS entrepreneurs, SaaS AdLab.

Marc Vetri is the chef/founder of Philadelphia’s critically acclaimed Vetri Family of Restaurants. In addition to his storied career in the kitchen, Marc is also the driving force behind the Vetri Community Partnership, a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower children and families through fresh food, hands-on experiences and education. A Philadelphia native, Marc initially pursued a career in music as a guitarist before realizing his true passion came from cooking. Spending his formative professional kitchen life in Bergamo, Italy, working alongside some of the region's most noted chefs, Marc has become known the world over for bringing a bold, contemporary sensibility to classic Italian cooking. In 2005, he was given the James Beard Award for "Best Chef Mid-Atlantic.” And he’s now a finalist for that same award again in 2019. Wil started Seer Interactive in 2002 as a one-man operation out of his living room. Today, Seer is home to over 150 employees across Philadelphia and San Diego. In his free time, Wil hangs out with his wife Nora, sons Rio & Niko and pup Coltrane.

Dov is a man with a finger on the pulse of the evolving world of NextGen leadership. He is a bestselling author of several books. His latest book is Fiercely Loyal; How High Performing Companies Develop and Retain Top Talent. He is the host of the national (US) TV show “Pursuing Deep Greatness with Dov Baron” on ROKU TV, and the host of the Number One Podcast for Fortune 500 Listeners (globally) “Dov Baron’s Leadership and Loyalty Show” on iTunes and is carried on FM & AM Radio Stations across the US.

Wil is our founder & director of strategy. He has worked across every vertical, including pharmaceuticals & hospital systems to e-commerce and SaaS. With over 15 years experience doing and talking about search, he loves to speak at conferences about the future of search, and tends to lead Seet to think about search through different lenses. Wil started Seer Interactive in 2002 as a one-man operation out of his living room. Today, Seer is home to over 150 employees across Philadelphia and San Diego. In his free time, Wil hangs out with his wife Nora, sons Rio & Niko and pup Coltrane.

Today, I’s like to go over a few things that have been brought to my attention. You all may or maybe may not have heard of Penji. So what I wanted to do is jump on a Facebook live in order to answer some common questions that are consistently asked to use here at Penji.

Managing shareholder and officer of the CPA firm, Ren received his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University. He is certified in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, including the Tax, Information Technology, and Personal Financial Planning Divisions. With nearly 40 years of accounting, tax, and advisory experience to his name, Ren has earned certification as a Personal Financial Specialist (PFS), a prestigious and exclusive distinction shared by approximately 5,000 CPAs nationwide. He has also achieved designation as a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), recognizing his ability to provide financial and non-financial guidance to businesses on performance, growth, and in making critical business decisions based on his extensive experience in public accounting, financial and management accounting, consulting, and the management and operations of the firm.

Lloyd Freeman is a Partner and Chief Diversity Officer at the firm. Lloyd concentrates his practice in the area of commercial and complex civil litigation in state and federal courts in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He has represented clients in trials, arbitration and mediation in both states. As Chief Diversity Officer, Lloyd carries out the firm’s vision to grow diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, as well as implements policies and procedures, and fosters programs to promote diversity throughout the firm.  He does this by promoting diversity and inclusion in the recruitment, hiring, retention and promotion of Archer attorneys, which includes maintaining an ex-officio position on the Personnel and Hiring Committees while serving as Chairman of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

IgnitePhilly Speech Title: Passion is Bull....

Businessman and Life Coach, Aaron Walker, has inspired many through his leadership, mentorship, and consistent pursuit of excellence. He enjoys helping others and believes experience is a great teacher. 39 years of entrepreneurship and marriage have given Aaron a wealth of experience. Aaron continues to reach new heights and broaden his perspective of the terrain by examining his experiences and growing from them. Some of the highlights of this episode are: You ever just talk to someone and instantly connect with them. That’s a perfect summary of this episode. I did a decent amount of research prior to this episode to further understand Aaron’s approach to business. I initially reached out to him because I was curious to hear about his book A view from the top and also about his masterminds. What I got was so much more. Initially, masterminds have been this relatively gimmicky way of getting together like minded people to talk about making money, but never truly do. But from what I learned about Big A, my perspective is wrong. A mastermind is a brother (or sister) hood. It’s a place where you can rely on others to bring you up when you’re down, or celebrate the success you have that surround you.

The Go-Giver Influencer: A Little Story about a Most Persuasive Idea tackles the paradox of achieving what you want by focusing on the other person’s interests. No, not in a way that is self-sacrificial but rather in such a way that all parties benefit greatly. This results in both immediate and long-term success. Bob Burg speaks all over the world on topics related to The Go-Giver, as well as what he calls, Genuine Influence. While his total book sales number well over a million copies, his and Mann’s original book has itself sold over 850,000 copies and has spurred an international movement. Their new book, however, The Go-Giver Influencer, might just be their most important book of all.

Eric Belfi or The Philly Vegan Guy is an Italian who grew up  in South Philly. From a very early age he found out he had a love of good food and a passion to cook.  This has served him well over the years and in some cases a little too well! Back in August of 2011 Eric was overweight at 260 pounds, tired and feeling sick all the time.  He started down a road to ‘get healthy’.  That road had some twists and turns to it and eventually lead him to where he is today – a vegan runner who still has a passion for cooking and eating along with a newfound passion for the welfare of all animals. He’s excited to share all of his experiences in and around Philly with us! Eric believes that there is a vegan revolution happening and wants us all to be apart of it at https://phillyveganguy.com.