They have started to put together a series of interviews and Q&A sessions with different industry figures, experienced entrepreneurs, and successful business people to build a Mentor Series. Wednesday will the second event.

Head over to Under30CEO and sign up today for tomorrow’s small business mentor series with the Editor of Inc.com Mike Hofman.

Mike has been the editor of Inc.com and a deputy editor at Inc. Magazine since he joined the company in 1996. Inc.com was nominated for a National Magazine Award for Digital Media in 2010, and was named the best business website by Folio Magazine. In 2006, Hofman was part of a team of writers nominated for a Webby Award for best business blog.

The event will be about 1 hour long where all attendees will have the chance to ask Mike their small business questions. The session will open with a handful of pre-determined questions.

Don’t forget:  Wednesday, May 4th at 3PM ET

Also, if you are interested, here is a list of some of the people that are already lined up for future Mentor Series events:

• Rod Kurtz, Editor of AOL Small Business
• Mike Micalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
• Carl Grant, Cooley LLP
• Donna Fenn, INC Magazine
• Pam Slim, Author of Escape From Cubicle Nation
• Barry Moltz, Author of BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World

Thursday night I went to a social media presentation in Downtown Orlando that was put on by Doterati. Doterati is an Orlando area based group of social media interested people. You can read more about the organization and see their upcoming events on their website www.doterati.com. They have a tweetup coming up [tonight] night which I am going to try to make it to.

Anyway, the presentation was about utilizing social media and a little bit on the side of social media consulting. One of the slides was titled “Do Epic Shit” and the idea was that you should be making big moves to get your self noticed on Twitter, the blogosphere, Facebook or wherever else.

I liked the idea of “Do Epic Shit” because it does not just apply to your social media and networking presence but to business in general. So I thought I’d make a quick video about it. I recorded this Thursday night after getting back to my hotel.

I’d love to hear your comments about doing epic shit and hustling to get your business out there and noticed!

So after I got off work I headed into downtown Orlando to the Izea office to check it out, drink some green beer, and meet some new people. I was very surprised when I walked in to find a security guard checking ID’s, giving out wrist bands, and also giving directions to the office. Yet, he seemed like a nice guy. Anyway, I headed up the fourth floor to check out the Izea office and see what was going on.

I snapped a few pictures of the incredibly colorful office as I walked in. The office is really wide open with just little cubicles in the center and a few rooms on the sides. Here are a few pictures.

I was also sort of surprised that there were not more people there. I mean free beer, why not right? Oh well. It’s hard to put together a meet up via Twitter and a blog only, plus for the amount of time that I knew about it, it was still a good size crew, even if majority of them were Izea employees. Ted also did a UStream show for Ted Tube while the party was going on, so that was actually pretty funny to watch as there was about a 10 second delay from what they were saying/doing to when it came through on the TV that we watched it on.

As I was thinking about leaving, Ian Fernando rolled up and others started leaving. As the crowd died down I got a chance to chat with Ian about dropping out of school, Twitter Banking, affiliate marketing, and much more. Ian’s a great guy and incredibly nice and willing to help those around him, so it was a pleasure to catch up with him. Here is a picture of us as well as some more from the night.

What did you guys get into for St. Patty’s Day? See some of the tweets from last night with the tag #paddytweet.

Ryan is also pretty well known as a speaker at many events on entrepreneurship including the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization conferences and the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour.

At the CEO conferences, when he gives a keynote, he likes to be real and break it down. Literally, he dances to Soulja Boy on stage as seen in the video below – dancing starts at about the 1:20 mark.

CEO video:

Ryan had been recruited as a speaker at the Underground 5 event and it just happened that he was still in town on Sunday. Now, some of you may remember that Ryan was nice enough to sponsor a Dorm Room Biz contest and supply a signed copy of his book to a winner, so thanks again for that Ryan!

I knew Ryan was a great guy and seemed very laid back, but besides that, I honestly had no idea what to expect from him. So when he said that he’d be more than happy to meet and chat, I figured it would be a quick 10 minute thing. Yet, Ryan was more than happy to hang out with a group of young entrepreneurs for about an hour, giving his time and insight, as we talked about everything from business to sports in the UK to helping children get an education in Africa.

A question I wanted to get an answer to was why he decided to dance to Soulja Boy at the CEO conference during his Keynote and what students can get from attending the CEO conference and other conferences. You can see his response in the video below.

Thanks for keeping it real with us Ryan and hanging out. It was a pleasure to get to meet you finally and enjoy a good discussion about a range of topics. I’m sure many young and student entrepreneurs will continue to follow your journey over the next several years and look to you for inspiration.

If you are not doing so already, subscribe to Ryan Allis’ blog at www.ryanallis.com so you can read about how he got ripped off in China and much more about his business experiences and social entrepreneurship.

With the conference being in Washington D.C. and living within 45 minutes of it, I got the chance to meet up with some of the young entrepreneurs and basically organize a small meetup there in the lobby of the hotel while the conference was going on and met a handful of attendees.

Among the guys there, I got a chance to meet up and talk with Michael Dunlop, Ryan Allis, David Leggett, Garrett Goldsmith, and some others.

We had a great chance to talk about entrepreneurship, social action and social entrepreneurship, sports in the US and the UK, and much more. I’ve got a couple videos that I’ll be posting up over the next few days of Michael and Ryan, so look out for them.

“10 kids will be a part of it so they can take their businesses to a whole new level of sophistication and profitability,” says Yanik Silver, who himself started with a few hundred dollars, and has made over thirteen million dollars in less than eight years with only his wife as a part time employee.

Yanik Silver’s seminars and books have attracted millions of subscribers and followers through over a dozen different websites. He is convinced that this economy is the best time to start a web-based business from home. “I’m still blown away how many people are job hunting – even after being disappointed repeatedly with the shortcomings of employment,” Yanik says.

Shonika thinks today’s teens are different. “Teens will conquer the world if you show them how,” she says.

Last week Yanik and Shonika announced the teen scholarship program, and have already received applicants from around the world. The teens that have applied have all different kinds of companies. Many of them are making great money through companies that they run from a bedroom in their parent’s house.

The Underground Online Seminar ®
February 20-22
Washington, DC

http://www.undergroundonlineseminar.com/challenge/
http://www.renegadeceos.com

However, the Collegiate Entrepreneurs club and the College of Business and Economics at Radford did an excellent job of putting the event together which included 2 rounds of 90 second elevator pitch competitions, 3 guest speakers (each speaker had 2 sessions) and a luncheon with a keynote speaker. For full details on the agenda for the summit, you can check the website.

Two of the speakers I was extremely impressed by – both RU graduates – Brian Cork and John Signorello. These guys have stood the test of time in the entrepreneurship race and have been incredibly successful in their ventures…and incredibly unsuccessful in others. However, their experiences, attitudes, and knowledge has helped them be very successful business people. They both had a lot of great points to make in their presentations and over the next week or so I will be touching on a few of them in posts and in videos.

One of the cool things that did happen this year, was that one of the local TV stations in the area picked up the story and broadcast a quick segment in the morning on Tuesday before the Summit events picked up again. The video wouldn’t embed right, but you can see it here.

Also, here are a couple pieces of press/mentions that the Summit got. I am sure over the next few days and week there will be more including the Radford University student newspaper, and more. I’ll update the post as I come across them.

• Radford University Entrepreneurs
• It’s Still Who You Know
• Young Entrepreneurs Get Real World Advice
• Radford University Entrepreneurial Summit Wraps Up
• Entrepreneurial Summit Wraps Up Today in Radford
• RU Announces Winners of Second Annual Elevator Pitch Competition
• RU Hosts Second Annual Entrepreneurial Summit

I laid a good enough foundation with my planning efforts and ability to get people involved that this years will definitely be better than last and I hope that trend continues year after year. I plan on going back for the summit as long as it continues. It’s almost like a Homecoming, right? I mean this is about the same time that most schools have their Homecoming.

If you are in the Radford, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, or Roanoke area on Monday or Tuesday, then I STRONGLY encourage you to try to attend the Summit at Radford University. The event should be great. If you happen to go – get at me via Twitter @chrispund and we can meet up.

Here are the details from the RU press release that went out yesterday:

RU Hosts Second Annual Entrepreneurial Summit,
Popular Elevator Pitch Competition Returns

RADFORD – Last year, Radford University students from a variety of majors gathered in Hurlburt Auditorium to participate in a highly spirited elevator pitch competition. The objective was to present a 90-second pitch to a panel of successful entrepreneurs. The winner of the competition, an interdisciplinary studies major whose innovative idea to sale ads on school buses in order to generate funds for the education system, walked away with a sizeable award. This year, the popular event returns as part of the second annual Entrepreneurial Summit.

The summit, which is hosted by SunTrust, RU’s College of Business and Economics, and RU Collegiate Entrepreneurs, will be held Monday, Oct. 27-Tuesday, Oct. 28. The mission of the summit is to provide entrepreneurial-minded students the ability to learn from successful executives and entrepreneurs.

****

On Tuesday, Oct. 28, workshop presentations will feature Angela Drummond, Juanita Thornton, Beverly Walters and John Signorello. Brian Patrick Cork, a 1984 RU graduate who was recently named among 2008 Catalyst Top 25 Entrepreneurs in Atlanta, will be the keynote speaker as part of the SunTrust Distinguished Speaker Series during Tuesday’s luncheon. A limited number of seats are available for the event. To learn more, contact Mary Weeks at mweeks@radford.edu or 831-5382, or email rumba@radford.edu

To read the full press release and see the full run down of speakers visit the full press release here. You can also see more details at the ES website, http://www.entrepreneurialsummit.com.

For my post today, I wanted to have something witty, catchy, inspirational, or motivational to share with you all as a great call to action. Instead, I want to point out some sites that you all can utilize to help fight poverty today, tomorrow, this month, and the rest of the year. If enough people come together, than we can make a difference and put an end to poverty.

Informational Resources

• End Poverty 2015
• Time Magazine: How to end poverty
• End Poverty Blog

Books

• Our Day To End Poverty
• The End of Poverty
• Creating a World Without Poverty
• The End Of Welfare
• A Framework for Understanding Poverty
• Out of Poverty

Charities/Organizations to Support

• Charity : Water
• Catholic Charities USA – Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America
• International Charity for Africa
• Harvest Help

Donate Now

• Kiva – Blog Action Day Lending Team
• Change.org – The Global Fund

Looking for more ways to do something? Check out BAD’s 88 ways on their action blog.

What are you all doing to support Blog Action Day? I’d love to check out the posts that you all write to help spread the word about what an issue poverty really is.

The Collegiate Entrepreneurs organization has decided to team up with the Radford Relay For Life in an effort to raise money for the American Cancer Society. In doing so, members of the organization will be participating in activities on April 11th – 12th starting at 6 PM and going until 6 AM. During this time, our team as well as all the others, will be continuously walking around a track at the local recreation center. We are working on having local businesses donate money or pledge a certain amount of money for every lap that our team walks.

So, here is where you all, my readers, come in and get a chance to help. At the end of this post, and in the sidebar of the site, I have added a PayPal donation button for you to make a donation to our Relay For Life team, all of which will go to the American Cancer Society. I know there is not much time before the date of the actual event, so that is why I am reaching out to you all asking for your donations – anything is acceptable – $1, $5, $25, or more!

To make it a little more interesting, if donations can reach $25.00, I will also donate all of my earnings from CashCrate for the month of March, sitting at right now about $26.00. If the donations from readers reach $50.00 I will also donate another $25.00!

So I ask you and I encourage you all to donate anything that you may be able to to help support this great cause and our relay team! It seems like just about every single person has been touched by cancer is some fashion – through their parents, grandparents, siblings, relatives, or friends.

I look forward to seeing how much Dorm Room Biz readers can donate over the next couple weeks. At the end, I will also make a thank you style post to all those who made donations and link to their sites if they have one. So, if you make a donation, please include a link to your website in the comments box in PayPal.

Thank you to everyone in advance and I look forward to being able to make a nice donation to the American Cancer Society and Relay For Life on behalf of the readers of Dorm Room Biz!

Here is the donation button: