FastTrac Graduation Night

Last night 14 students graduated from our 10 week Entrepreneurship course. It was a time to reflect, network, and fellowship.  Some of the attendees invited their family and friends, and my brother Ashley came out and offered support. We were honored to have many people from the City of Columbia and past FastTrac graduates in attendance, including Nathalie Gregg, author of Leading in Stilettos. 

Prior to the speaker, each entrepreneur had the opportunity to update the class on what they have done in the past week.  Some of the activities included signing new contracts; research; new partnerships; cleaning out "junk"; and ordering business cards.  Each entrepreneur also took the time to introduce themselves in a 30 second pitch, as well as note what they got out of the class.

Our speaker for the evening was Charles Weathers of The Weathers Group. He conducts motivational presentations/speaking engagements. He shared with us 5 questions that we should ask ourselves: 1) How have you defined success? 2) Who has helped you define success? 3) Do you see a problem or solution? 4) Are you willing to question the status quo and innovate? 5) Do you have transactional or transformational relationships?  He also gave us an extra bonus by giving us the 5 I's of developing a relationship- 1) Identification 2) Introduction 3) Interest 4) Involvement 5)Investment. Mr. Weathers concluded with an analogy about high trust relationship. You must have both character and competency to have credibility which creates a brand, whereas trust equals confidence.  In a similar vain, he noted the book The Speed of Trust whereas the faster you trust someone, the lower the costs. If you are slow to trust, it will cost you.

Our Instructor, Mr. Tom Ledbetter, closed the night with a final PowerPoint slide that recapped our lessons and presented a few challenges/summarizations: company must have a competitive advantage; cash flow must be positive; personal, professional, and financial goals must be aligned to be successful; involve the right people; plan before you commit financially (keep your day job a little while longer); and meet the needs of the market today, tomorrow, and in the future.

As Rhonda and I close out our 10 weeks, our reflection have been both triumphant and bittersweet. We lost a relationship with one of our strongest supporters over differences in our passion and business purpose. However, I've always believe that some people are not meant to be in your life for a lifetime. Some people are only meant for a season. We helped each other get a start in the indie filmmaking world with projects that can be considered our "calling cards". It's now time for him to move forward (hint..Hollywood) and we'll keep the connections within the local community thriving. It has been triumphant in that we saw a need with a compelling service in the community beyond producing TV/film/video projects by providing workshops/seminars. 

All things considered, the relationships that was built in class was awesome. We can see ourselves either using or recommending everyone's service/product in the near future. Whether we're sending our nieces to Lauren's self-esteem camps; having the lighting in our nieces and nephews Richland 1 schools illuminated by Sammie's new product; our movies highlighted on Edwin's media platform; having our yard landscaped by Mark's crew; enjoying desserts and pizza at Cici's in N. Main Plaza; utilizing Tammie's marketing prowess to pitch screenplays and ideas to TV/film Development Execs; getting our feet pampered at Kimberly's Natural Escape Day Spa or hair washed at the Currys' New Look Barber & Beauty Shop, both in N. Main Plaza; having Ian take production stills on set; having Ricky develop an award winning website; getting the crook out my back by Tammy and Chris at First Choice Rehab Ctr in N. Main Plaza; or recommending an older adult to Susan's Adult Day Care Ctr. Everyone had a business that served a purpose, and patronizing and referring others to their business is how we'll stay connected.

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