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volution
Win The Diet
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Dr. Selene parekh #WorldClass MD
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e¡volve /i’ välv/ verb 1.. develop gradually, especially from a simple to a more complex form.
Innovative Marketing Solutions To EVOLVE Your Business
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Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
Published By Evolve Media Group Inc.
Evolve MEdia Group Inc. DARNELL G DAVIS - CEO Editor In Chief DONNIE BRYANT Photography EVOLUTION MAGAZINE Staff Editors DONNIE BRYANT TAREA WADLINGTON Graphic Designer EVOLUTION MAGAZINE
Evolution Contributors DONNIE BRYANT KATRINA STARZHYNSKAYA DEBI SILBER KEVIN WILSON DERICK JONES SLYVIA BROWDER
Evolution Magazine is a trademark of the Evolve Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or in full is strictly prohibited. Evolution Magazine is a monthly digital publication with limited print copies available in designated markets. Evolution Magazine welcomes all contributions. Evolution Magazine assumes no responsibility for content or advertisement. No representation is made as to the accuracy hereof and is produced subject to errors and omissions.
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featured articles
8 12 Lowercase Branding
#WorldClass Leader interview with Dr nina
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more than just a doctor with dr. selene parehk www.evomag.co
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from the publisher Evolve Media is growing rapidly, and with great success comes great adversity. Over the past few months we have been working on “Team Development” and expanding our staff. The development of leadership skills are essential to the growth and health of any company – that includes yours.
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s we begin to head into a new season of life, I would like to walk with you into the new season of your business. I would like to leave you with four foundational stepping stones, answering this fundamental question: “How would you describe the perfect leader?” You probably used words like control, insight, and poise in your description. The next question I want to ask is: “Is it possible that these qualities could actually hinder great leadership?” According to some leadership coaches, the answer is yes. So, in order to remain effective as a leader, it’s valuable for every leader to develop a repertoire of different leadership qualities.
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Stepping Stone #1 - Knowing When to Hold Them... And When to Fold Them...
Stepping Stone #3 - Understand Your Own Strengths and Weaknesses
Ascertaining when to fight or when to let go is very important in laying a foundation in effective leadership. Often great people gain a position of influence but they fall into habit of micromanaging. The desire to control can be a leader’s largest temptation and can bankrupt your company if not properly dealt with.
Talk to most leaders and they will gladly tell you they have weaknesses. But most of them cannot tell you what they are. Most leaders don’t know their weaknesses because most leadership positions encourage managers to consider the weaknesses of others more than their own personal shortcomings. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses will allow you to build a team that will support you and fill in the gaps.
Most control comes from fear: fear of the unknown and fear of the level of ability of those whom you lead. These fears will cripple your ability to make decisions that affect your business. For example, a business owner notices that a project is showing inherent weakness. However, instead of cutting his or her losses and moving forward, he or she begins to throw more resources towards it in hopes to MAKING it work. The end result is a frustrated staff and a financial loss. Knowing when to hold and when to fold will do more than preserve sanity in the business environment; it will save money and allow growth simply because you stop paying attention to dead situations. Stepping Stone #2- Consider Suggestions from Unlikely Sources Another trap leaders fall into is to assume they are the only ones within their organization with great ideas while overlooking the wealth of information available from their employees. One of the worst things a business owner can do is to assume that their employees are incapable of making meaningful suggestions. Most problems that develop within your organization are experienced by those who are on the front line. These employees often see these issues with surprising clarity because they deal with them on a day to day basis. Your team can be your greatest asset against problems and breakdowns. Listen to your employees and consider their insight. It could save you a lot of time and money.
Stepping Stone #4- Place The Right People in the Right Positions Your team plays a major part (if not the most important part) in how effective you are as a leader. The hardest part is getting to the point where you are able and willing to place the right people into key positions. As a business coach, I have seen companies with great business plans en route to total collapse because of failure to put the right people in the right place to carry out the plan. Getting to know your employees individually and your team as an organic whole is essential to becoming an effective leader. It doesn’t make sense to have someone who is a great organizer working a sales position while your current administrator isn’t working out. You will never know that you are making this mistake unless you know your team. By taking the time to identify the right people for key positions, you can improve your company’s performance and eliminate the unnecessary cost of training people who don’t last. Entire libraries have been filled with books written to help leaders be more effective. In my experience, many leaders want to learn the most advanced techniques while they’re still falling short in the basic fundamentals. These 4 stepping stones, if you really meditate on them and start to put them into practice, will create a strong foundation that will support an impressive organization. Sincerely, Publisher Darnell G Davis CEO/ Evolve Media Group Inc. Publisher, www.evomag.co
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lower case branding Donnie Bryant
From branding consultants to howto books to home-study courses, there’s a lot of talk these days about branding. It’s a big business, and good brands can ensure the success of big businesses. That’s why everyone wants to get it right: Play this card right, they say, and your company will experience success like never before. Let me get this out of the way: There is nothing wrong with branding. You absolutely should have a strong brand. In fact, you’re creating a brand whether you know it or not. You might as well be intentional about it and make a good one. The point is this: My concern is that we’ll begin to focus on creating brands and messages rather than on doing great business. The customer should be “uppercase,” since they are who really matter. The business should be built around taking care of them. The brand is “lowercase.” The brand doesn’t exist for its own pleasure; the brand is about the customer.
That said, there are important ways to establish or strengthen a company’s identity without forgetting a company’s main objectives. What’s a Brand, Really? A brand is simply the identity of a company, product or service as perceived by consumers. There are powerful brands like Nike. People around the world instantly recognize their logo,know their slogan by heart and value their products. In fact, it is the brand that gives the product its heightened perceived value. Having shoes is nice; having Nikes is something special. Why is Coca-Cola so popular? How can Starbucks charge so much more for coffee than the competition and still have “enthusiastically satisfied” (Starbucks’ own words) customers during hard economic times? And more importantly, how can you start to do the same thing?
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Branding Rule #1: It’s Not About You. Sales and Marketing 101 teaches us that customers don’t want to buy drills; they want holes. Elmer Wheeler said, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” The same is true about building a brand. You don’t create a world-class identity by trying to create a world-class identity. Don’t focus on yourself or your business. Concentrate on the people you’re trying to influence. What do people desperately want? How can you give it to them? Can you associate your product with something that people already go crazy for? Branding Rule #2: Admit Your Awesomeness. Make the strongest statements you can about how your audience will benefit from buying from you. Why would you water down the truth about your awesomeness? If you follow
Branding Rule #3, you have a product or service that genuinely improves people’s lives. You have to get them to buy it for them to experience the improvement, though. You’re doing your prospects a serious disservice by downplaying the good you can do for them. Never promise more than you can deliver, but don’t shoot yourself in the foot by under-promising either. If you don’t stand out as the best provider of what you sell, your customers might overlook you and buy from someone less committed to meeting their needs. Don’t let that happen. It’s up to you to make the big promise. Branding Rule #4: Do over-deliver. Surprise your customers with how awesome their experience with your company, product or service is. If you promise that they’ll double their Mandarin vocabulary in 30 days by takingyour course, delight your patrons by tripling it. When people get more than they ask for, they can’t wait to tell someone
about their experience, and your quest for worldrenown for your brand will take off. Commit to making a great product or giving a great service. Don’t focus on getting what you can from your customers. If you want to be the next Mercedes-Benz, give 10 times more value than you plan to get back from your clients. You could probably make some good, fast money by shortchanging everyone and cutting corners on quality to maximize profits. However, you will never build a sustainable, respectable brand by doing business like that, and you will have traded in your integrity and good name for a quick buck. Branding Rule #5: Make purposeful statements about who you are as a company. Your brand is as much about how people identify with you as it is about who you actually are — maybe more. Roy Williams wrote in one of his Monday Morning Memos, “Brands are identity reinforcement, just like art and architecture and music. Brands are a way of shouting ‘This is me!’” There will never be one unified brand
identity; everyone will have their own interpretations of your company’s direction and message. In some cases, people may not come to the correct conclusions about your company. Here are some thoughts to consider when drafting your brand messaging: • Always be truthful. • Though you’re talking about yourself, you must identify with the customer. • Tell them who you are and why it matters to them. • Have one overall message: one thing you stand for, oppose, believe in or are working toward. • Encourage interaction. Make your customers part of your “movement.” • Never be boring. Be bold and unique. • Find something only you can say, and say it.
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Ways Team Commitment Can Impact
Team Building
By Scott Siders
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The importance of team commitment is often overlooked by managers when they’re developing teams. They bring together employees with the right skill sets and give them a task, set goals and expect the best. But they forget about the role commitment plays in building teams to achieve personal , departmental, and organizational success. There are five questions managers should consider when evaluating the level of team commitment . 1 Do team members actually want to be part of the team? Do the team members perceive that they had a choice in deciding whether to work with the team? Although the type and size of a company, department dynamics, project type, and team member skills are among the many factors that contribute to putting teams together making participation feel mandatory can reduce team commitment. Motivation is a key component of creating team commitment; give members a reason to want to engage by empowering them to help set the direction, define goals, and make decisions. Team members are almost always more committed to a project when they are encouraged to "own" it by a manager
who sets expectations and provides guidance then trusts the team to execute its own strategies.
be boosted by explicitly connecting individual performance with a shared expected outcome.
2 Do team members feel valued? Another way to increase team commitment is to communicate an employee’s individual value to the team and the entire team’s value to the organization. Managers can also strengthen team commitment if each member sees the value of the team in the development of their skills and career.
5 Do team members receive recognition for accomplishing individual and team goals? Even seemingly small amounts of recognition along the way can make a big impact on team commitment and give team members the confidence, encouragement, and motivation to continue working hard to reach the desired goals.
3 Do team members believe the mission, vision, and goals of the team are important? Team members want to feel like they are part of something larger than themselves, and want to know how achieving the team’s goals fits into the overall mission of the organization. They also want to know their individual skills and contributions to the team are critical to accomplishing its objectives.
Rewarding performance at significant project milestones also improves morale.
4 Do team members know their roles and responsibilities? A manager must be able to clearly articulate expectations of team members and how fulfilling their specific roles and responsibilities will impact the success or failure of the team. Team commitment will
If you want to learn more about how team commitment impacts the process of building effective work teams, visit www.ThinkBlueThinking.com.
Managers who keep a pulse on the level of team commitment and ensure it always remains at a high level are rewarded by better productivity and greater success of the team and what they contribute to the entire organization.
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12 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
Win The Diet
WAR A #WorldClass Interview with Dr. Nina Savelle-Rocklin
Fads, diets, shakes and workout programs available all over the place and yet most still are not happy with their bodies or just cannot get rid of the unwanted pounds.
them in different ways. So yes, I think men are just as prevalent. They are just not coming forward, although they are starting to come forward more and more.
I had the awesome opportunity to sit down with Dr. Nina Katrina: What is the main reason behind Savelle-Rocklin and our conversation will encourage eating disorders such as binge eating, overeating and you. Today you too can win the diet war. compulsive eating? Katrina: Dr. Nina, you do consulting both men and women. What is the ratio? You don’t hear much about men struggling with eating disorders. Dr. Nina: I think the ratio probably about fiftyfifty, but a lot of men don’t want to get help. They think, “That’s a chick thing.” Actually, it’s a human thing because it’s a way of managing something inside. People have feelings and conflicts and they learn to express
Dr. Nina: People ask me, “Dr. Nina, what’s it like to treat eating disorders?” and I say, “I don’t treat eating disorders. I treat people and people develop eating disorders for all kinds of different reasons.” There are a myriad of different reasons why people engage in this behavior, but the bottom line is it’s kind of a “frienemy”… it’s a friend as well as an enemy. It’s a way of coping with something inside. It is always about trying to resolve a www.evomag.co
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psychological problem, conflict or emotion through an action. That may be different for different people. Katrina: I understand you had some kind of eating disorder yourself. That’s why you came up with your program.
Win The Diet
WAR
Dr. Nina: I’m very candid about this because I really think that it’s helpful for people to know – not A #WorldClass Interview with Dr. Nina Savelle-Rocklin only do I treat this clinically as a psychoanalyst, but I know what it feels like to be struggling with it. I know that you can overcome it and that there is hope. inside,’ because they go right to food to distract from what’s going on inside. Here is what I’ve basically When I was five years old, I suddenly, randomly decided noticed: everyone has a go-to food when they binge. that I was fat and I wasn’t fat. I decided my legs were fat, When people are seeking smooth, creamy food like ice and if only my legs were thinner, life would be better. I cream or pudding, they really want comfort. When they was five years old; I wasn’t reading magazines, I wasn’t want pizza, pasta, cakes or breads, anything that’s really watching TV, there was nothing about body image or filling and bulky, that’s associated with filling a void, anything that was affecting me. This started what later loneliness, emptiness or a sense of yearning. Anything became a cycle of anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. with a crunch like potato chips, that is associated with I would just go through the cycle of restricting and anger. starving, binging and purging, and it would just go around and around. I finally went to therapy, but here Again, that’s totally unscientific, but I have found it to is the thing: I did not tell my therapist what was going be exactly right almost every time. I often help people on with food, not once and I went to her for three years, realize, “Okay, you may not know what’s going on inside, once a week. I talked about my relationships; I talked but you’re an ice cream person. That would indicate about guys and school, all those things. Never once that maybe you need comfort. Let’s find a different way did I talk about anything to do with food and eating for you to get that comfort other than ice cream.” disorders. At the end of that three years, my eating disorders were gone. Katrina: People are addicted to all kinds of things, not just food. What do you think causes all of those I realized it was never about what I thought it was addictions? about. I didn’t talk to her about it because I was too ashamed. It was just too humiliating to talk to anyone Dr. Nina: I don’t really use the term addiction about it. I realized it was never about what I was eating; myself, but it’s important to distinguish between it was about what was eating at me. It was bothering me a process addiction and a substance addiction. A that was getting expressed with this behavior. That was substance addiction is drugs and alcohol. The addiction a really pivotal time in my life and I really wanted to is to the actual substance. A process addiction, a help other people who were struggling and help them behavioral addiction is addiction to the behavior that understand it in a different way. brings about distraction from what’s bothering you. Katrina: Have you noticed a relationship between To answer your question, I believe that there is a problem foods and the different emotions that cause people to in our culture that says “Don’t feel anything. Feelings overeat? are bad. You’re strong if you don’t feel anything.” Our culture says if you’re angry, take an anger management Dr. Nina: It’s funny that you should say that because class; if you’re sad or depressed, take a pill. If you’re I have. I have these anecdotal, non-scientific ideas about anxious, there’s a pill for that too. Even if you’re happy it’s the relationship between what you are eating and what’s like, “Maybe you’re too happy. Are you manic?” We get going on inside. all these messages that our feelings are bad and because A lot of people say, ‘I have no idea what’s going on of that, people don’t know what to do when they start 14 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
Win The Diet
WAR A #WorldClass Interview with Dr. Nina Savelle-Rocklin
having human reactions and feelings. They use different ways of coping because they don’t know how to nurture themselves, comfort themselves, talk to themselves, and process what’s going on inside. Katrina: On average, how long does it take for a person to change their behaviors? To find out the root cause and change them? Dr. Nina: Finding it out and changing it are two separate things. I tell people that it often takes three to six months before they start seeing changes, but often these changes are not to do with food. Their changes are to do with their relationship to themselves, to recognizing what they’re thinking, and feeling. They start speaking up for themselves, standing up for themselves, and that’s the beginning of learning how to relate to themselves differently, which eventually changes how they are with food. One woman said to me, “I have been going to therapy for a whole year and I am still binging.” I said, “You are 55 years old. You’ve been dealing with this your whole life. Therapy once a week is basically 50 hours. Two days, accumulatively. You have spent two days addressing this.” It does take longer than people would like. I had a magic wand in my office and I liked to wave it and someone once told me, “You know that wand does work, just very slowly.” But what I help people do is not just deal with the problem, but eliminate the problem. It takes time to do that emotional gardening and get rid of the root. Katrina: If somebody wants to get in touch with you what is the best way to find you? Dr. Nina: The best way to find me is my website, WinTheDietWar.com, or they can access my podcast, my video series, my blog; through that there is a number
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Escape
Your Shape
Fitness Expert Edward Jackowski Ph.D
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We had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Edward companies in the country. Jackowski, Ph.D., an icon in the health and fitness industry, whose research and patents are changing the But the real story is how Edward persevered and sifted way we look at exercise. through the fitness & weight loss industry – an industry ridden with a plethora of inaccurate information that From the beginning, Edward had a vision while taking has confused and misled the public as to what to do to an entrepreneurship class in college. He wanted to achieve that nirvana called fitness. help people reach their fitness goals without relying on gyms or a lot of unnecessary exercise equipment. During Exude Fitness’s first few years in business, After borrowing $400 from a fellow student, he made Jackowski garnered surprising empirical evidence. that vision into reality, establishing the innovative He started warning the public that certain exercises, company EXUDE Fitness (www.exude.com). Today, although they could be beneficial from a fitness and Exude, headquartered in Manhattan, NY, is one of the health perspective, didn’t guarantee that an individual most successful motivational and one-on-one fitness would attain the aesthetic goals that he/she was seeking. 20 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
As a result, he started to write columns and then selfpublished a book. He took that book to Simon & Schuster and quickly became one of their most prolific fitness authors. Currently, Dr. Jackowski has written seven books, including the best-seller Escape Your Shape, with four of the largest publishing houses in the motivational fitness, weight loss and golf categories. He was appointed the first-ever fitness expert and columnist for AARP’s Modern Maturity Magazine. His writing credits also include being a sports/fitness columnist for The New York Daily News website, a contributing writer to WebMD, eDiets.com & weightwatchersformen.com as well as a syndicated columnist for various papers throughout the USA and a resource expert for worldrenowned Bottom Line Newsletters. He has even written for the U.S. Armed Forces. He is one of the few fitness experts ever to have been interviewed by Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer and Pat Robertson, and has appeared on numerous shows and networks including; World News Tonight, CNN, Fox News Channel, ET and Extra. Jackowski knew from the get-go that instead of wasting money that he didn’t have on advertising, he would forge a relationship with the media because they could write articles with unlimited space and, at no cost to him. More importantly, he was smart enough to realize that because his industry was over-crowded with gyms and the like, that consumers were more apt to consider an article written about his firm that was featured in the New York Times & Vogue Magazine versus an ad placed there. Among his many accolades, Avon voted him Fitness Guru of the Year, as Edward has also designed educational fitness-related videos, manuals and exercise equipment for Avon’s Wellness catalogs. Exude cares…and over the years, Jackowski and his staff have donated time, money, fitness equipment and services to over 300 hundred different causes including diabetes, obesity, MS, MD, CMT, cancer and the super-seniors, just to name a few. For years, he was one of the keynote speakers for the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) annual expo. He was appointed the fitness expert for the ADA in New York City visiting minority schools, community centers,
hospitals and non-profit organizations – educating them on the importance of proper fitness and eating sensibly. In July 2013, Jackowski was appointed the firstever Lifestyle Expert for The CareGiver Space (www. thecaregiverspace.org), America’s leading organization for providing support to over 65 million caregivers here in the USA. www.evomag.co
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A true pioneer in the fitness industry, after 20 years of research and development, Jackowski invented the world’s only patented fitness regimens based on body types. This system identifies people’s shape as Hourglass®, Spoon®, Ruler® or Cone® body types, each with its own precise exercise prescription that are guaranteed to improve anyone’s problem-areas within 30 days. All of these gadget-free fitness routines can be performed at home, in the gym or even while traveling.
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As a natural extension of the work going on at Exude, a lifestyle brand called Escape Your Shape emerged. Products and services include an upcoming infomercial, books, DVD’s, motivational CDs, fitness accessories and programming, marketed through websites and catalogs. You can see one product example at http://www. amazon.com/Escape-Your-Shape-21-Day-Makeover/ dp/B00EF0NSG4
Jackowski’s patent has now drawn the interest of the medical community. He recently licensed his body type system to one of America’s most-respected universities for a major medical study to demonstrate the efficacy of his fitness methods compared to the federal guidelines of exercise here in the USA. Additionally, he is now packaging a first-ever fitness system for HMO’s and insurance companies because his patented exercise prescriptions has been proven to lower blood sugars much more effectively than any other form of exercise
currently in the market place. After interviewing Edward about this journey, one can easily see why he aptly named his company Exude – as he exudes a tremendous energy, passion and laser-like focus. His quest for making proper exercise part of our hectic lifestyle, in now well-within his reach.
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24 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
Dr. Selene parekh #WorldClass MD www.evomag.co
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When is a doctor more than just a doctor? Our guest personifies what it means to think outside of the box. We sat down with Dr. Selene Parekh a surgeon that has gone far beyond just being a doctor.
my office as quickly as possible. Making sure we’re delivering care in a way that that makes people feel good about what we’re doing. It also makes me think about delivering care that is cost-effective. So when there’s a new device or implant that’s out, Evolution: How has your MBA but it’s not cost-effective, then impacted your career as a I’m not going to be one of the doctor? first people to use it. An MBA also teaches you that Dr. Parekh: It has forced me you can think outside of the to start thinking about how long box. When I’m challenged in the patients are waiting to be seen by operating room or I’m challenged me. Getting them into and out of seeing patients in the office, I’m 26 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
thinking, “How can I do this better? As I have ideas, I go to industry and say “Let’s develop this new device. Let’s develop this new plate, screws,” whatever it might be. Things that can potentially change the way we take care of particular diseases. I’ve also started thinking about information technology, software and ways that we can implement Google Glass or wearable technologies. We are now involved with multiple
companies who are looking for Evolution: I have seen that solutions to integrate wearable you have performed surgery with technologies into delivery Google Glass. Tell us about that. systems. That comes from the business background. Dr. Parekh: Let me give you some background. Evolution: Can you tell us more about some of the innovations As I got my MBA and I started you’ve been involved with? reading about different industries, I would read things Dr. Parekh: When I started and say “That has an application my training at the University of in what I do in medicine.” As I start Pennsylvania, I wanted to make reading more about technology, sure that I continued to foster the I started saying, “Maybe there MBA side of my mind. I ended up are ways I can implement these doing some stuff at the Wharton technological solutions in what School of Business, where I I’m doing.” So when Google did a fellowship in Healthcare Glass made the call for their Entrepreneurship, learning “Explorers,” I put in a proposal how ideas go from concept to based on some charity work my marketability and sales. All that family foundation does in India. laid the foundation so that when I was in my own practice. As I had ideas, I started going to industry, saying “This is the idea I have. This is why it makes sense. This is going to be your return on investment. This is the market cap you are going to go after.” So there I was as a surgeon, speaking their language, convincing them that it wasn’t just a good idea for clinical reasons, but from a return on investment perspective, as well.
I am an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon and 99% of my practice is focused from the knees to the toes. In India, everything orthopedic is up to par with anyone in the world except for foot and ankle surgery. You can imagine a population of over 1.2 billion people; that’s a travesty. So my family set up a foundation seven years ago to start training orthopedic surgeons in India on foot and ankle care and doing charitable surgeries and clinics while we were in India. It’s really had an impact. My thought was, I’m doing all this stuff in India, but it’s only episodic. For the few days I’m there, I make an impact, then it’s lost. I thought Google Glass
I’ve been involved with the development of plates that are used currently in orthopedic surgery. I have been involved with screws that are now being implemented. I’m part of the design team for a new total ankle replacement system that will hopefully change some of the limitations that we have with current systems. I am very much involved with industry, helping to refine, design, implement and educate on new devices. www.evomag.co
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was the perfect platform were I could take advantage of the time zone difference between India and the US. While I was operating and taking care of patients in America, the surgeons in India could watch and ask me questions about foot and ankle care. That was my proposal to Google. One day, I got an email from Google saying I had been accepted to be one of the early people to Beta test the product. I got the Glass in October. In January, I was doing some of my charity work while in India. We had a press conference for our charitable work the night before the work started and I happened to pull out Google Glass in front of the media and
they went crazy. They wanted to see it in action. So the whole night the hospital administration and I stayed awake; we had to drop in new bandwidth lines dedicated for Google Glass. The same day we broadcasted, for the first time ever, a total ankle replacement to the whole world. Katrina: What words of wisdom would you give to students in medical school or business school? Dr. Parekh: Number One, be open to opportunities. If someone told me when I first started medical school that this is what I would be doing in my career aside from taking care of patients, I would say “You’re crazy,” because I never saw this
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path. You never know where life will take you. Secondly, you got to find things that you’re passionate about. That means being open to new experiences, being open to hearing different thoughts and ideas and gravitating towards things that you feel strongly about, because if you get the passion going then getting up every morning is invigorating, regardless of what time it is. Number Three, try to be creative in life because creativity is fun. If you can work that other side of your brain, you end up constantly having fun. Creativity can be in the form of music or art or creativity with medical devices or software, you name it. Be creative.
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Crowdfunding A Revolutionary Alternative Funding Source for Small Businesses Sylvia Browder
A
revolutionary source of funding sweeping across the internet in droves is... crowdfunding! According to Growthink.com, US $100m was pledged in 2011 on the crowdfunding site kickstarter.com alone, launching over 27,000 projects at a 46% success rate. Now that’s impressive!
Loan, Unsecured Line of Credit, or even a Credit Card to no avail, then perhaps your next step is to consider this hot new trend in financing.
What is Crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is a cutting-edge way of raising the much needed money required by businesses to sustain themselves or to begin in the first place. When you are starting or growing a Typically, a small group of investors small business, the main stumbling finds out about a project independently block typically comes down to capital. of one another. These investors want It's extremely difficult to have or find the project to succeed, and invest a the resources necessary to raise the particular amount of money (often amount of money you need to get your small, but can be very large) to build business off the ground. Funding is a the project's capital. If enough money is very important element to the success raised by the investors, the project can of any business remaining relevant in be implemented. Often investors receive a competitive marketplace. If you’ve perks like t-shirts, products related to applied for a traditional loan, SBA Micro the project, or an advanced release of 30 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
the project itself. Many platforms can take advantage of crowdfunding: from political campaigns, service- or product-based businesses, artists, scientific researchers and software developers.
3 Business Preparation Tips for Crowdfunding: Select the Best Platform: There are many crowdfunding platforms available, with new ones forming daily. It is important to choose the one that can best fit your project funding needs. Create a ‘WIFM’ Reward Program: Remember “What’s In It For Me?” Well, if you want to have a successful campaign, you’d better come up with some juicy
rewards for prospective investors. The reward you create should be based on the type of campaign you are running. For example, Crescent Theater was forced to upgrade its equipment and as a part of their reward program, the lowest reward offer is a free movie pass. Design a Stellar Marketing Strategy: Consider multiple ways to connect with potential investors. The key is creating a diverse marketing campaign. Many companies, Google included, favor videos. You can also add a slide presentation, a podcast or a simple written message
3 ways that Crowdfunding can help you:
Independence from Banking Institutions: Banks are sitting on their cash and aren’t lending to start-up or small businesses that need capital. At a recent lecture at George Washington University, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke innocuously remarked that lately “small businesses have … found it difficult to get credit.” Most banks have high unreachable expectations along with a daunting process. Crowdfunding offers a more realistic approach to funding. Free Publicity: An opportunity to publicly raise funds for your business idea or existing company to myriad potential investors by way of the internet is astounding! Many entrepreneurs yearn for a chance
to receive the type of publicity crowdfunding offers. If well handled, the publicity can greatly catapult your business to immense success Validation: Validation of concept is empowering. People will generally invest in opportunities that are viable. So, every c your business idea is important. To know that there are people globally who believe in your contribution you receive from people simply means that they believe in the opportunity's validity!
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John O’Keefe John O’Keefe is the CEO of ITelagen, which he founded in 2005. His primary roles in the company center on sales and strategy. He has a degree in Civil and Structural Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After graduation, John worked as an engineer for about 10 months before working has a technical analyst, writing reviews for software and platforms. Soon afterward, he started his first business. His early years were spent in the heyday of the dot. com industry. His focus was on support automation, which used specific software licensed to ISPs to reduce the number of support calls and increased efficiency in providing support. At its heart, ITelagen is still an IT company that leverages value in its service to make providing support better, faster, and cheaper. It brings enterprise-level support to medical practices. 32 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
Today, ITelagen focuses on healthcare, electronic medical records (EMR), and data center facilities, essentially becoming the IT department for medical practices. Unlike other sectors that enjoyed a gradual transition into technology, recent government drivers for EMR have slammed the healthcare industry into the 21st Century. This suddenly created a huge market demand for sophistication from an IT perspective to manage infrastructure and EMR. Approximately 15% of ITelagen’s clientele consists of small to medium-sized traditional businesses. However, the lion’s share of work and new contracts is dedicated to healthcare. When asked what makes the support team at ITelagen so successful, Mr. O’Keefe believes it is due to a couple of things: support automation and the employees. Clients often say, “The infrastructure available is what makes us
successful.” Mr. O’Keefe firmly believes the key to the company’s service is the employees. He emphasized that quality is vital and the company tries to create an enjoyable and happy environment for the staff, stating, “We pride ourselves on very low employee attrition and turnover.” O’Keefe’s vision for the future of ITelagen is promising due to the focus on organic growth and acquisitions. ITelagen had its first round of acquisitions in 2012, with another set for 2015. Specifically, O’Keefe’s team will look at the verticals in the EMR base and diversifying those platforms. The future of the medicine hinges on adaptation to implementing technology while letting go of the decades-old administrative practices. In terms of what can change in the next 10 to 15 years, Mr. O’Keefe
explains that part of the challenge is generational. The majority of physicians practicing today didn’t start off with computers. In fact, healthcare is often the last industry to adopt technology. Seasoned physicians still prefer the tools like Dragon dictation software because it harkens to the past practices of relying on administrative assistants. It is now common in the legal and financial sectors for professionals to type their own letters, bypassing the need for administrative support. However, today’s medical school graduates embrace the current technology and have little trouble with adaptation to current regulatory standards. In turn, this acceptance of technology trends will make it easier to foster future innovation.
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Jump
the Gun:
Selling
Your New Idea
Derrick Jones www.presidentspilotsentrepreneurs.com
S
eth Godin once said the time to start selling your book is three years before writing it. Most writers and aspiring entrepreneurs come up with an idea, leap into the project, and try to figure out how to sell it after the fact. A far better approach is to build a platform of interest in advance and put out samples or snippets to get your fans salivating. Then, release the final product to large fanfare. “Build it and they will come” only works in Hollywood folks. Henry Ford’s biggest problem with his first attempt at the automobile was spending all of his time on the engineering and mechanics of his new idea, while ignoring the need for marketing. Sound familiar? He failed because the general public was not ready for his approach. By the time he made his third attempt, he had primed the public. A group of investors swooped in at the crucial moment to keep the Ford Motor Company afloat. The rest, as they say, is history. More than 100 years later, entrepreneurs continue to make the same mistake. Some even keep their
projects secret on purpose. Ask a new entrepreneur why the secrecy and they often respond, “But what if someone steals my idea?” Sigh.
all to himself, Oliver is everywhere talking about WeMontage, and his efforts are finally paying off. Had he opted to keep it all to himself, he would still be at his kitchen table struggling.
No One Wants to Steal Your Idea
Those Who Matter
Identify Weak Ideas Early
Most importantly, create a strong network for a product before introducing it. If you insist on building your wiz bang widget in an undisclosed location, do not be surprised when the world ignores you as you emerge triumphant from your cave.
This may come as a shock to many of you, but most ideas are crap. Why risk stealing a bad idea? Still, buried in this heap is a gem or two. If you have a genuinely good idea, you may not be the only one thinking about it. Secrecy stops you from receiving much-needed feedback. While you come up with new ways to protect your gem, another innovator may be across town talking up his or her own version.
One of the benefits of sharing your idea is the feedback you’ll receive. You may discover you are attempting to solve a problem that does not exist. Or, like my buddy James Oliver(@JamesOliver) over at WeMontage, you may receive validation that you are indeed on to something. Far from keeping his baby
34 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
Spend your time getting feedback from potential investors, those in your market and other influencers. This is not the time to get the opinion of friends and relatives who do not understand your market. Instead, interact with potential competitors and local business organizations. This is the opposite extreme of keeping everything to yourself.
How Email Marketing Can Improve Your Website Traffic Rebekah Henson
M
any businesses treat email marketing as an outbound strategy; procuring a list and sending out messages with hopes for a good response. Ideally, email marketing should be inbound and offering clear value to customers encouraging them to come back for repeat business - as well as repeat website traffic. Inbound email marketing can effectively grow your site’s traffic in two ways: through attraction and retention. Getting into your prospects’ inboxes is the first step, and staying there seals the deal. Think of email marketing as a relationship with your customers to keep them engaging with your brand, clicking through to your site and sharing your content with others which generates the extra traffic that drives sales.
Attraction
YouTube videos aren’t the only online content that can go viral and generate traffic. Blog posts, articles and even your email content can spread to a wider audience if you’re delivering relevant value to the inbox. Making your emails shareable can increase your traffic growth as subscribers share your content with others, attracting new subscribers who will also convert to new site visitors. Viral email content is about the value you send to the inbox. Don’t just pitch your product or service; engage subscribers in a conversation with information that’s relevant to their interests. Survey subscribers about their interests to send targeted content they’ll want to share. Include sharing links for social networks in your emails in addition to encouraging subscribers to forward your
content to others. When your articles are worth reading or your deals are relevant, your subscribers can generate more traffic for you by sharing your content with their networks you may not have otherwise penetrated.
click through rates will measure your success at getting subscribers to return to your site. The trick is getting them to open your emails and click through to your site in your messages. Here are some tips to get them opening and clicking:
Retention
Spend time crafting your subject lines to get your emails opened. Ask a question or tease your message content to pique your readers’ curiosity.
More traffic means higher search ranking, and higher search ranking means more business. Repeat traffic is especially good for your site’s reputation. This is where email marketing comes in, encouraging repeat traffic to your site by placing you in your customers’ inboxes so they’ll remember who you are. Think about it: the average internet user visits at least 85 web pages in a day, according to data from Nielson. Once a visitor leaves your page, you’re as good as forgotten unless they bookmark you or remember to come back later. Email marketing increases your chances of being remembered by putting your name in their inboxes on a regular basis to jog their memory. Sending a follow up series (auto responders) or a broadcast newsletter are proactive ways to start a conversation that keeps you in front of your subscribers and invites them back for more. They’ll likely visit your site again depending on the value your messages offer.Your emails’
Phrase your call to action to inspire subscribers to click to your site and make sure it’s placed visibly in your email. Don’t scare them off with your wording - a gentle nudge to “Find out more” often performs better than abrasive calls to “Buy now!”Need readers for your blog? Turn your blog content into a newsletter sent as a weekly or monthly digest, but don’t publish full articles. Use a teasing lead instead to entice subscribers to click through for the full article. Once you’re in the inbox, the trick is staying there to keep subscribers clicking and engaging with your content. Stumped on how to build the relationship? Here’s a hint: It’s all about the value. Value makes your emails worth reading and worth sharing; that will drive the traffic and it all starts with the relevance you send to the inbox www.evomag.co 35
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36 Evolution Magazine | #WorldClass Special Edition
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e路volve- to develop gradually, especially from a simple to a more complex form.