We gathered to celebrate the BIG 40 with legendary bartender Big Pete Quigley, bringing in 3 Time Best of the Bay DJ MEGA to ensure a proper groove all night while enjoying the fabulous magic and amazing card tricks of local magician Cory Van Valin. Here in gorgeous downtown St. Petersburg, Florida the ESC Business Makers gathered in the breathtaking main downstairs gallery at the historic venue NOVA 535 Unique Event Space, while Pete and company partied upstairs in NOVA’s swanky VIP Lounge. Later, much later, after the kiddies had gone home all birthday caked up, and full of the incredibly fresh and amazingly delicious tacos from none other than the lovely Colleen Travers aka “The Taco Lady” famous at our Saturday Morning Market, we adults merged into one big happy, dancing, corn-hole playing, partying family.
See every Thursday night is our Entrepreneur Social Club, affectionately referred to as the ESC, meeting, most always here at special events venue NOVA 535. Occasionally we make it a 100% social event, stepping away for the night from our usual blend of 50/50 fun/productivity mixture. A mixture that has been enjoyed by our ever growing global membership, now in the thousands, since the ESC was officially formed back in 2009. It’s a growing family of business owners and Entrepreneurs, connected by our love and passion for making things better, solving problems, creating, designing, helping, sharing and caring. And by our love of a great time – of the human warmth and camaraderie that only comes in the real world where one receives a hug, a handshake, a high five or friendly slap on the back. Those fully human things we cannot get here from the other side of our backlit devices.
The “S” in the ESC is SOCIAL and that is what every Entrepreneur and business owner needs, especially after another long week of pushing the walls of progress forward.
Our club continues to grow in popularity and yet it’s not for everyone. It’s not networking 101 for the weak. Why not? Because of what we speak about and what we don’t. Club rules forbids any discussion of Religion or Politics, and that certainly helps us all to play nicely. Just like you mother (hopefully) told you as a youngster, what not to discuss at dinner parties. If only the would would also follow suite. This eliminates some. Then there is the “what we DO talk about” and that is just about everything else – the ESC is a Free Speech Adults Only Zone. More to the point is that we speak the cold harsh truth and many people aren’t ready for and/or don’t want to hear that. We’ll tell you that your business card sucks, and then offer exactly what you can do to fix it, step by step, and whom you can hire to do so. See we WANT TO HELP EVERYONE, to make our fragile world a better place for humanity. But not everyone is ready to face reality and they eventually find out the hard way. The market likely will never tell you your goods / services aren’t up to snuff, they just quietly go and buy from someone else.
We love to help, saving you the slow bleed into bankruptcy. Anyhoo, enough “cold harsh” reality, let’s back to our magical party
If you attend the Entrepreneur Social Club regularly, listen, are willing to and make the positive changes we suggest, we promise that you will:
- Be able to clearly explain what you do in 15 seconds or less.
- Will have the knowledge to create a great business card that is clear, legible and describes exactly what you do.
- Understand social media, SEO and will have a presence on Facebook, Linked-In and Google Plus.
- You will have a better understanding of your client’s expectations, and how to fulfill them after making it clear exactly what your client should expect and what they should not expect from you.
- A better of understanding of how you are in your own way and what you can do to fix that.
- A clear understanding of the impact of buying local and how you can purchase more goods and services locally.
- You will have a lot of fun, and make many incredible new friends and business associates.
- If you are really brave you may step into the SUPERNOVA and have your entire business enterprise ripped apart by the entire group as we search for your weak spots during which solutions to your problem areas are offered.
- You will collaborate with interesting business owners, Entrepreneurs and Creative People, creating a strong local network, which will allow you to increase your sales while lowering your operating costs.
So whether you love to learn, grow and be productive, or just want to do some old fashion networking, grab a few drinks, make some new, interesting friends from around the globe, then join us at venue NOVA 535 in downtown St. Pete on Thursday nights, 6 pm – 8 pm for the Entrepreneur Social Club. Then join us as we enjoy a group dinner immediately following, where we dig deeper into the business deals, laughs, creative conversations and more often than not end up in a delightful after party somewhere downtown St. Pete. Just be wary of the after after party… work and the sunrise always follows the ESC.
So raise you glasses to Big Pete for his 40th, LOVE YA BROTHER, and swing in and meet him for yourself on Thursday nights during the Entrepreneur Social Club!
And if your ready for and even stronger, faster growth acceleration, we strongly recommend our pals of the KPI Program. Learn how to become a Key Person of Influence. Many of the ESC members are graduates of the KPI program, and we HIGHLY recommend it to those who are ready to really rock-n-rolla! Just ask the superstar Jodi McLean and KPI leader Topher Morrison how to get started. Remember it’s the Entrepreneurs that make the positive changes and find the solutions to our problems – it’s not anyone else. Keep that in mind. Entrepreneurs make our world a better place for everyone. Join our ESC family, you’ll be so glad you did!
REMINDER: Join us at venue NOVA 535 in downtown St. Pete on Thursday nights, 6 pm – 8 pm for the Entrepreneur Social Club, where we drink, laugh and learn.