Think | Create | Execute

Lake Wales High School Entrepreneur GroupLake Wales High School Entrepreneur Group, me in the blue shirt, entrepreneur/instructor Bill Lockhart 1st row far right + 25 future entrepreneurs.

Today was a great day. I am a mentor to 25 students at the Lake Wales High School Entrepreneur Group. This morning I got the high school students thinking about what their personal strengths are as individuals. I taught the students that successful entrepreneurs utilize their core strengths every day in their businesses. I gave the students a little worksheet exercise to help them identify their core strengths.

I fully believe it’s our duty as entrepreneurs to give back to the younger generation as the world is changing fast.

The traits of an entrepreneur are in demand in the workforce more than ever before as we move towards a more creative economy driven by technology. Your personal strengths (skills, talents, education and experience) are the value you create for yourself to offer to others.

I realize every person can’t be an entrepreneur. What we can do is teach others how to create value for themselves. If you boil it down in a nutshell, entrepreneurs build amazing products and services because we,

THINK first
CREATE (innovate) second
EXECUTE third and we all know that execution is not only the hardest, its what separates the dreamers from the builders. (more…)

The Starting Point to Real Time Travel Advice: A Location Based Content Delivery Platform

Travel Startup Ideas

This is a guest article from Drew Meyers.

I arrive in a Chiang Mai on a Wednesday morning. Turn on my phone, and am greeted with a push notification, “You have 6 personalized gems waiting…” I click.

  1. I see a promotion for 20% off ZIP lining with Flight of the Gibbon (which is an awesome day trip I went on last year). I book it with one click.
  2. great photo of a pagoda at night.
  3. A tip from a local food junky who lives in Chiang Mai to visit the Mrs Pa’s Smoothies at Chiang Mai gate. Directions are one click away.
  4. A recommendation that Anoma is a great, quiet place to stay once, with superb wifi.
  5. Tomorrow (Thursday) is trivia night at the UN Pub.
  6. Punspace is the co-working spot where geeks work during the day.

Ok, awesome. But I have a question, “where is the best place to get decent American food”? (I wouldn’t ask that given Thai is my favorite food, but I know many would) No problem, there is a prompt to type my question in, knowing I’ll get a response from a trusted human within minutes. Oops, one more question. “Where can I get a haircut near Chiang Mai gate?” Boom, an answer hits my phone a few minutes later, with directions from my hotel one click away and a quick recommendation to take a Songthaew for 20 baht instead of a cab for 100.

All information is personalized, based on my likes, dislikes, and past travel habits. No spam. Everything is vetted and curated. This arrival experience exists for every city in the world.

So, how do we get there? How do we enable a scenario where real time travel advice is streamed to you, in every city in the world? (more…)

Travel Startup Founder Video Series: Tedd Evers Founder TripTuner

TripTuner

Sponsor:  Travel Pitch Get your pitch, opportunity, message or deal in front of of thousands of travel CEO’s, founders and travel professionals. Travel Pitch has received over 4,000 views with new partnerships and deals being done. Check it out.

This video interview with Tedd Evers the Founder of TripTuner is part of the Travel Startup Founders Video Series an exclusive at TravelStartups.co where we publish inspirational short stories from successful travel CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs. TripTuner won 2nd place at the Eye For Travel Innovation Awards.
This was my first foray into video interviews. Not bad. I still have some work to do. Like my suit 🙂

 




The future of the travel industry looks bright + 10 key takeaways from the Eye For Travel Distribution Summit.

On September 22 and 23 I attended the Eye For Travel Distribution Summit in Chicago. It was a jam packed two days. I formed around 30 new relationships, judged the 2013 Innovation awards and interviewed 5 travel startup founders and 2 leading travel CEOs.

I’ll be releasing the 7 video interviews over the next two months. This was my first foray into video interviews and it turned out fairly well.

EFT Innovation Group Photo

From left to right the founders of the 2013 Innovation Awards.

1st Place Winner: Robert Brown Founder of Options Away, Kirby Winfield Founder Dwellable, 2nd Place Winner: Tedd Evers Founder Triptuner, Raj Beri Founder WanderWe, Jonathan Meiri Founder Superfly, Luca Perfetto Founder Freeppie.

(more…)