Boston | MO.com on www

May8

“While I do believe life balance is important and also a measure of success, it is also necessary to sacrifice in order to achieve one’s specific goal.”

Chris Sinclair

The Anthem Group

President

The Anthem Group is a network of companies in the event, experiential marketing, strategy, entertainment and hospitality industries.

The Anthem Group is the parent organization of all Anthem-related companies and projects. Anthem Entertainment, Anthem Marketing and Production, Anthem Strategy and The New England Dessert Showcase are among the marquee companies included in The Anthem Group.

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Anthem was founded by President Chris Sinclair in 1999. What began as Anthem Entertainment, a specialized events firm, soon grew to encompass business-to-business as well as public-facing programs. This breadth of unique experience has propelled Anthem into activity in over 70 markets across five continents.

MO: What inspired you to launch your business?

Mar4

“The process involved discussing hundreds of ideas and then boiling them down to just one that withstands every process and passes every test.”

Hilmi Ozguc

Swirl

Founder

http://www.Swirl.com

Hilmi Ozguc founded Swirl with the goal of revolutionizing the retail shopping experience by making in-store shopping more inspiring and productive through the use of mobile technology. He has been a successful entrepreneur and executive in the software industry for the past 20 years, having created groundbreaking companies that realize the Internet’s potential as a global communications and marketing vehicle. Hilmi previously founded Maven Networks, an early leader in Internet video, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2008 and today powers the video content and advertising infrastructure for the world’s largest network of Internet media properties.

Swirl is a fast-growing tech startup that is harnessing the power of mobile and social technologies to reignite consumers’ love of in-store shopping. The company is led by an accomplished entrepreneurial team with deep consumer mobile, digital media, social marketing and e-commerce experience. Swirl is backed by top-tier investors including Softbank Capital, General Catalyst and Longworth Venture Partners.

MO: How did you come up with the concept for Swirl?

Dec27

“Storytelling, like most skills, gets better the more you do it.”

C.C. Chapman

The Cleon Foundation

Founder

http://www.CC-Chapman.com/

C.C. sports the pro cred to be a talker (working closely with such clients as American Eagle Outfitters, Coca-Cola, HBO and Warner Bros.), and the passion and gumption to be a doer (creating content for the emerging Online Dad market, marketing professionals, music fans and more). He’s helped create, manage and execute ambitious online and offline marketing campaigns for startups and multinationals — and has the invaluable good sense to know which outreach strategies work with audiences, and which ones fall flat.

MO: Why have you always taken the road less traveled and what advantages has that provided you both personally and professionally?

Sep17

“Harvest the Creative Gold in Your Business”

Gail McMeekin

CreativeSuccess, LLC

Founder

http://www.CreativeSuccess.com

Gail McMeekin is a national executive, career, and creativity coach as well as a licensed psychotherapist and writer located in Boston. She has over 30 years of experience helping women entrepreneurs achieve their personal, professional, and creative goals. She coaches clients about how to leverage their creative ideas into prosperous businesses. She is the author of The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women: A Portable Mentor among many other books.

Gail is a frequent guest on radio and TV and has been quoted in The Sunday New York Times, Investor’s Biz Daily, Redbook, Self, Shape, Woman’s Day, Boston Magazine, Boston Biz Journal, Chicago Tribune, Training, etc.

MO: What influenced your decision to focus on helping women entrepreneurs?

Jul31

“The process will change, but the vision should always stay the same.”

Georgette Blau

On Location Tours, Inc.

President & Founder

http://www.screentours.com

Georgette Blau is the President and Founder of On Location Tours, Inc. ”If you film it, they will come.” Armed with just a van and a driver, Georgette introduced the concept of TV and Movie tourism to New York City in 1999 at the age of 24.

On Location Tours, the world’s largest TV and movie tour company, with tours in NYC, and Boston. The tours feature sites from the hottest and latest on the big and small screen. Founded in 1999, it is one of the East Coast’s most popular tourist attractions, serving over 100,000 tourists and locals annually. Some of the tours include: our signature New York TV & Movie Sites, Sex and the City Hotspots, Gossip Girl Sites, Sopranos Sites, Brooklyn TV & Movie Sites, Central Park TV & Movie Sites and Boston TV & Movie Sites.

MO: What did your “aha moment” look like?

Jul5

How To Spot Bad Advice

Konstantin Danilov

Networking Strategy Guide

Author

http://networkingstrategyguide.com/

written by MO.com Subject Matter Resource Konstantin Danilov

A large part of networking is seeking out information and getting advice on how to accomplish your goals. That advice and information can lead you to the opportunities that will help you achieve those goal. That means if you’re doing a lot of networking (which, if you really want to accomplish your goal, you should be), you’re seeking out, and receiving, lots of advice. In order to succeed, you must be able to differentiate “good” advice – which is informed, objective and actionable – from “bad” advice.

Jun14

The Networking Edge: Creating Your Advantage

Konstantin Danilov

Networking: A Strategy Guide

Networking Strategy Guide/Author

http://networkingstrategyguide.com/

written by MO.com Subject Matter Resource Konstantin Danilov

In many ways, the game of poker is very symbolic of business and life, and there is one major skill that separates a merely good poker player from a great poker player. A good player will know not to play a game where they might be at a disadvantage; however, a great player will know not to play in a game even when they are evenly matched. They will only play when they have an advantage: perhaps the other players are not as skilled, or they are tired, or perhaps they’ve had too much to drink. If there is no advantage, the best outcome is breaking even. Great players on only play to win, so they either find a way to create an advantage or look for a better opportunity. Their pride does not cloud their judgment – they are honest with themselves about their ability, while weaker players delude themselves into believing that they are better then they are.

May30

“Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”

Casie Gillette

Grasshopper

Online Marketing Manager

http://grasshopper.com/

written by MO.com Subject Matter Resource Cassie Gillette

When Al Pacino said this in The Godfather: Part II, he certainly wasn’t talking about Google. But if he was living in 2012, watching Google delve deeper and deeper into our personal lives, maybe he would’ve been.

With the advent of Google+ and Search Plus Your World, Google knows a whole heck a lot about our lives. Whether we love it or hate it, let’s be honest, as a business, especially one just starting out, we’d LOVE to have the information that Google does. What are our customers doing online? What do they like? What sites do they visit? What are they searching for?

Apr19

“Great service is much more defensible than price. It’s easy to compete on price, but I dare you to try and steal a loyal customer from Zappos.”

Nick Francis

Help Scout

Co-Founder & CEO

http://www.helpscout.net/m/sm/

Nick Francis is the Co-founder and CEO of Help Scout. Help Scout is a web-based product that makes it easy for companies to provide scalable online customer service. It provides all the efficiency and scalability of a help desk, but in a way that’s personalized for customers.

MO: What problem is Help Scout solving?

Apr9

Reverse-Engineering Networking

Konstantin Danilov

Networking: A Strategy Guide

Author

http://networkingstrategyguide.com/

written by MO.com Subject Matter Resource Konstantin Danilov

What exactly is networking? When asked that question, the first image that comes to mind for most people is probably a networking event where people wearing suits make awkward small talk, and then exchange business cards. In reality, networking is much more complex process that consists of many different parts. Let’s take a moment to deconstruct – reverse-engineer, if you will – the process of networking and identify the key components.

The process of networking can be broken up into two major parts – let’s call them the “foundation” and the “exterior”. The foundation is your networking strategy or, in other words, your plan. The cornerstone of your strategy is your Goal – the one big thing that you’re trying to accomplish. It might be launching a new business venture, or it might be finding a better job, or switching to a completely new career. Whatever your goal is, it can be broken down into a bunch of smaller goals; in turn, each smaller goal is made up of even smaller objectives and tasks. Once you get down to the most granular level, you will find that all you’re left with are people who have influence over each of those goals. No matter you’re what your Goal is, once you deconstruct it you’ll discover that the smallest building block is a person, or a group of people. The global economy can be broken down into industries, which can be reduced to individual companies; companies are comprised of business units and departments. Departments are just organized groups of people that make decisions like funding companies, hiring employees, or purchasing products.

Apr2

“Perhaps someone may think it is overkill for a tiny indie jewelry shop, but if you think small that is what you will always be!”

Christine Lorenzo AKA "Sari"

SariBlue

Founder/Designer

http://www.sariblue.com/

Meet Christine Lorenzo she is a passionately obsessed jewelry maven who adores eclectic craft, not only her own work but tends to get carried away once she discovers other artists of any genre who are just as passionate and open to the world of art she adores. Christine will tell you she has been seeking something creative to sink her teeth into since she was a child. She had been leading a creative life vicariously through others, with ardent artistic admiration for film, art, music and fashion while working in a world of international high-tech. Finally last spring something called out to her: the historic Nazar Boncuk, the Evil Eye Bead. This calling led her to her shop, SariBlue, where she has been setting her creativity free.

SariBlue is a fun, hip, wear-it-everyday jewelry collection centered on the power and theory of this universally recognizable symbol. The earthy bohemian style jewelry has a bit of an industrial edge to some of the pieces, a luxurious sense to others but every piece is centered on the fascinating bead, at least one in every piece of the collection.

The SariBlue collection (Sari is pronounced “sutter” in Turkish meaning blonde/blondie/yellow; Lorenzo’s nickname) uses exclusive Turkish handmade glass beads which are made using centuries old traditional methods. This method may be one of the oldest eco-friendly recycling techniques around. Turkish artisans collect recycled glass pieces, mix them with special dyes and melt in their primitive adobe furnaces that burn naturally clean-burning pine logs. They shape the red hot molten glass, fuse colors together and create these amazing beads using only simple hand tools. Every bead fashioned has its own identity, lending every SariBlue piece its own distinctive nature. The collection ties together past and present in a distinctive, modern way.

MO: Can you please share the story behind SariBlue? Why design a line of jewelry based on The Evil Eye?

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Spotlight: Boston, Massachusetts

Spotlight Interview: Gordon Logan

Spotlight Interview: David Allen

Spotlight Interview: Chris Babel

“While I do believe life balance is important and also a measure of success, it is also necessary to sacrifice in order to achieve one’s specific goal.”

“Harvest the Creative Gold in Your Business”

“The process will change, but the vision should always stay the same.”

How To Spot Bad Advice

The Networking Edge: Creating Your Advantage

“Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”

“Great service is much more defensible than price. It’s easy to compete on price, but I dare you to try and steal a loyal customer from Zappos.”

Reverse-Engineering Networking

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