Nicole's Commentary 2 January 2009

As I reflect on this year, I realized that college prepared me to be an employee. The last 2 and ½ years books from Barnes and Noble, Borders and Amazon.com prepared me to be an entrepreneur. I know there is a million dollar business somewhere in my soul and the knowledge that I feed my mind (like the food that I feed my body) is the key to bringing it out. This is how I plan on educating the next generation of entrepreneurs and growing my business.

Our children will go to college and study in the Business School for People who Like Helping People (Robert Kiyosaki). At college, they will learn how to become Campus CEO's (Dr. Randall Pinkett). To become campus CEOs, they must Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill) and get straight A's in Relationships 101 (John C. Maxwell). They also need to learn How To Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie) so they can reverse The E-Myth Revisited trend that 50% of all businesses fail within the first 5 years. The Secret (Rhonda Bryne) is out - wealth is attracted, and I have been blessed to understand the The Slight Edge (Jeff Olson) principles of changing my philosophy into self-disciplines that create habits. These habits I used to attain an MBA, build my health and to build Newman Networks.

Philadelphia in 2009 is on the verge of The Tipping Point (Malcolm Galdwell) to connect the city of neighborhoods into a united community. At the same time, Newman Networks has completed the first half (employee and self-employed) of The Cash Flow Quadrant (Robert Kiyosaki). Through network marketing, I am learning how to become a leader with the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (John C. Maxwell). Now it is time to move to the business owner quadrant and use The Blue Ocean Strategy (W. Chan Kim) of cohesiveness and business coalitions to embark on my true calling which was found in A Purpose Driven Life (Rick Warren). This will allow me to live as a Go Giver (John David Mann & Bob Burg) and then DiversePhilly will be seen as a network of Endless Referrals (Bob Burg). I have The Audacity of Hope (Barack Obama) that I can help my mentor and friend, Sulaiman Rahman, realize his vision of making Philadelphia a better place to live, work and play.

Nicole's Commentary 15 December 2008

I just returned back from Hollywood, Florida where our friend, Stacy Straughter, allowed me to see the big event. Stacy is the marketing manager for the national Count Me In Campaign. Count Me In was started by Nell Merlino, founder of Take Your Daughter to Work Day (my mom had been doing this for years.....). Count Me In's mission is to economically empower women by creating 1 million women who own businesses with revenues of 1 million dollars. As Nell explained, 41% of women owned businesses generate revenues of 10,000 or less. 73% of women owned businesses generate revenues of $50,000 or less. Only 3% or 250,000 women owned businesses have revenues of over 1 million dollars. I went to the national event where I got the chance to hear a 2007 winner tell how her business was generating $800,000 last year to just under 6 million this year.
As Oprah says, that was my Ahh-Ahh moment. This is where I realized why network marketing is driven by getting people to the big event. This event showed the potential to grow my company into a million dollar business. I must admit, I did not go to our big event when I first joined but I now make sure my registration is paid for way in advance. For 2008, Count Me In is creating the Make Mine a Million Race (how appropriate for the marathon runner!). Business ownership is not a sprint; it is a marathon. To run a marathon, we must reach training goals along the way. There are three categories for this year's race. The walker is the business owner with the goal of $250,000. The jogger is the business owner with the goal of $500,000 and the runner has the goal of $1,000,000 for 2009. For the $100.00 registration fee, we will receive mentoring and tracking logs so every month we can see how we measure against the goal of 1 million (or $250,000 in my case).
My network marketing business is already preparing me for the challenges of 2009. Robert Kiyosaki talked about how to create business owners in his book, CashFlow Quadrant. The cycle of life is about moving a person through the cash flow of employee to self-employed to business owner to investor. As I transitioned from employee to business owner, I understood that it was necessary to go through self-employed stage. This is where we document all the jobs in the company and find ways to create a team to execute the jobs effectively. The key to execution of any job is LEADERSHIP. Companies live and die on leadership skills of the business owner. If I own the company but I am not setting the guidelines and finding ways to motivate employees then eventually the company will not attract good talent and the company will cease to exist. I feel truly blessed to be able to attend a 2 day leadership retreat where we will study under John C. Maxwell and prepare for the challenges of managing exponential growth in 2009. Leadership is influence and leaders learn how to influence people to perform to the best of their abilities and face their fears (usually of change) that hinder growth (both personally and professionally).
What network marketing does and Newman Networks does and what Deloitte did was invest in people. I made a promise that I will not attend the big event alone. We will create a team of leaders who get trained on leadership. These leaders will be the ones who set the goals to make their business a million dollar business by registering for the Make Mine a Million Race and plan on attending the next big event. With the system of each one, teach one we will work together because "team work makes the dream work". Nell Merlino had a conversation with the Barack Obama transition team because just as during World War II, when the men left to fight for our country, it was the ladies who put on the hard hats and made the supplies and planes to keep this country moving. As this economic crisis continues, now is the time for the ladies to step up to the challenge and create million dollar businesses which create jobs and will keep this country moving again!

Nicole's Commentary on 20 questions

The holidays are here and it is a time of giving thanks for making 2008 such an outstanding year. As I have grown as a person (thank you UrbanPhilly and Paliani Consulting), I have seen my business grow! One thing I do not like to do is mail out cards. Thanks to Tara Colquitt, The Credit Woman, DiversePhilly has been introduced to Send Out Cards. Originally, the program was purchased for a one-time $99 fee to use as a Contact Management System, but now we can use this tool to automate sending out my Thank You cards! Send Out Cards allows me to add the DiversePhilly logo (thank you Universal Concept) to my cards! (subliminal marketing). This is my list of 20 questions:

1) How do I say thanks to LadyBug Marketing and UrbanPhilly for showing me the ropes of the marketing in Philadelphia?

2) How do I say thanks to The Hospital of University of Pennsylvania and The Enterprise Center for my first company contracts?

3) How do I say thanks to Whitney Thomas (my headshot) and Sabr Enterprises (Project Great Potential Graduate) for providing the marketing materials for my company?

4) How do I say thanks to Abundant Home Inspection, Dove Holiday, Enon Tabernacle Capital Fund, Bo's Tire and Rim Shop, Philadelphia Business Journal (especially Sharon Oliver), the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce (Kate Bay) for becoming silent partners and supporting DiversePhilly?

5) How do I say thanks to HDMS and Technically Speaking Radio for producing and broadcasting the DiversePhilly commercials?

6) How do I say thanks to I Won, SIS Fitness, Brian Williams, Exit BenchMark Realty, Professional Insurance Planners for allowing me to talk about DiversePhilly on their radio programs?

7) How do I say thanks to French Mobile Notary, Sovereign Bank (Jonas Tart), Colin M. Williams, JSPN & Company, KMM Financial Services, Soul Purpose by Veronica Freeman for becoming DiversePhilly business partners?

8) How do I say thanks to our DiversePhilly restaurants Delilah's, Bottom of the Sea and Yono's Bayou Cafe for making us feel welcome when we come to the table?

9) How do I say thanks to Eatible Delight, Elohim Cleaning Contractors, Girlfriends, Tomika Bryant, for being such success stories and paying for their DiversePhilly listings for the entire year (cash flow is king to a small business)?

10) How do I say thanks to RL Snaggs, Whole Unit Artistic Development Inc., Whole Unit Studios, Sanders Studio, Yo Darkroom! for creating the successful Wine and Cheese networking events?

11) How do I say thanks to our vendors, 1 Dynasty, Agel, Mylisa Flowers, Full Circle Aestethics, Hackett Global Marketing, Gandomera Business, Abdul Karim, Be Empowered, Agape World Wide Travel for being there as our vendors of choice?

12) How do I say thanks to our Attorneys Athena Dooley and Real World Law for making sure Diversephilly businesses have resources and know-how to legally define our businesses as a separate entity?

13) How do I say thanks for Hair 4 U (Masterman Alum), Can U Handle the Truth?, and Soles, a shoe experience for just believing in me?

14) How do I say thanks to Archer Benefits, AmeriPlan by Marlon Freeman, and CIGNA for making sure we are properly protected from the catastrophic costs of illness?

15) How do I say thanks to CAMP CAYA and Tonya Ladipo as they make sure we have built up our self-esteem which is an extremely important ingredient for marketing?

16) How do I say thanks to First Financial Group/Mass Mutual, Desiree Richardson, Prescott and Associates and May Financial Services who make sure we are doing the proper activity to create generational wealth?

17) How do I say thanks to Orchid Blue Salon, Professional Academy of Cosmetology, Roots Hair Studio, Kazoo's School of Hard Knox, Dr. Smith's Foot Care and Not Just Nails for taking care of our appearances so that we are properly representing our businesses well (as we all know, image is everything)?

18) How do I say thanks to the African American Chamber of Commerce and their members Raymond Holman Jr. Photography, Spruce Hill Properties, Alpha Office Supplies who leveraged multiple networks to grow their business?

19) How do I say thanks to Team-Clean for breaking the glass ceiling and reaching back to grab Nicole Newman and move DiversePhilly to the next level?

20) How do I say to Radiant Properties LLC, Ultimate Concrete LLC, Eley Electrical Contractors, Precision Plus Plumbing, JHL Enterprises as they make sure our real estate assets are developed?

Bonus Question! To JeterActive: How do I say thanks for being the web developer who brought my vision of DiversePhilly and Newman Networks to life? We say Thanks the best way we know how, by marketing your business in the DiversePhilly newsletter. We look forward to creating exciting synergies and sending out our cards this holiday season!

Many Blessings,

Nicole Newman