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10 Lessons Entrepreneur and #Amplify Co-Creator @BriSeeley Taught Me By @ClinkAndChat

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by Mella Noir | Featured Contributor

Have you ever met a woman who is passionate about supporting women to live on purpose and BE inspirational women in their lives – everyday?  One who speaks, writes, and mentors women to connect with their unique passion for life and to build inspirational lives for themselves?

Bri Seeley and Thaís Sky. Photo courtesy of The Amplify Collective Facebook page.

I have, and her name is Bri Seeley.  Bri is the founder of The Inspirational Woman Project, a movement which aims to tell the stories of every woman, and the co-founder of The AMPLIFY Collective, an un-networking movement for women. She is a regular contributor for The Huffington Post and has been featured in The Today Show, NBC, Kickstarter and PBS. She is a phenomenal leader, a fearless entrepreneur and a true friend who has built herself up from scratch. I met Bri when, through the power of Twitter, she reached out to me to invite me to be one of the interviews for her book, The Inspirational Women Project.  I was thrilled, touched and honored that she chose me and since then have watched her grow, spread her wings and flyyyyyyyyy…

Today, we get together to share a few ideas, so simple to Bri, but so enlightening to our brains, spirits and hearts.

  1. Don’t give up on your dreams. Your biggest successes will always happen on the other side of wanting to quit. You will experience great successes if you are able to move through your breakdown and emerge on the other side! As Dory said, “Just keep swimming!”
  2. Look inside of yourself to identify your passion and mission for life. Being in alignment with these things will always create greater results than if you are being guided by money or fame or superficial things. It may take a little time to do this inner work, but keep going with it. Your answers are all inside of you.
  3. Take care of your body! Prioritizing nourishment, health, exercise, and movement is a game changer. It can be super easy as an entrepreneur (or just generally busy person!) to put it off until tomorrow. But it is in the prioritization of these things that will bring greater success for you as an individual, business person, and overall badass.
  4. Life is all about who you know! Don’t abuse your relationships, but the connections and secondary connections that you have in your life will open the most doors.
  5. I see life as a continual exchange of receiving inspiration and being inspirational. Both are equally important and keep you balanced.
  6. If you don’t ask for what you want – the answer will always be no!
  7. Everyone goes through tough times, even if they don’t talk about or share them. Social media likes to show us people’s ideal lives, but it’s not reality. Everyone is facing something in their life right now. You are never alone!
  8. Working harder or more hours is not always the answer. Entrepreneurs already work 63% more than others, and when we’re not experiencing the results we want our natural propensity is to work more. But it’s not in doing more that creates the results you want. It’s working smarter and working in alignment that will create a greater impact.
  9. Compassion has the power to change the world.
  10. Life isn’t about having time – it’s about making time for what’s truly important to your heart.

What I learned from Bri is to BELIEVE that you can do it…because YOU CAN.  Choose your time wisely.  Use your gifts to help others to elevate.  Thanks for the lessons, Bri!

10 Lessons Vegas Magnate @NicoSantucci Taught Me by @ClinkAndChat

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by Mella Noir | Featured Contributor

Ever met an impresario, who started as a 16 year old kid, creating his vision by taking on old, decrepit projects that people saw no value in and were willing to throw away, or destroy? Then, seeing potential, putting on some new parts, shining it all up to the original beauty and reselling to an adoring audience for a profit?NICO1I have, and his name is Nico Santucci.  He has become one of the top entrepreneurs around Vegas & Los Angeles via various properties, mansions, restaurants and nightclubs.  Building, renovating, buying, selling, owning…you name it, his hands are in it. When he was just 16, driving with his father in the family pickup truck on the way home, they passed a junkyard with rows of taxis waiting to be demolished. Nico’s father explained to him that these taxis had reached 200,000 miles and therefore were unusable by the city of Chicago.  Nico wondered why they had to be destroyed…they were perfectly drivable, vintage vehicles. An idea was born! He bought those taxis one by one, all 40 of them, fixed ‘em up and sold each one for a fat profit. A way of thinking emerged…

Since then, he has never been afraid of taking that leap off a cliff. And, with a running start. Whether he soars through the sky (most of the time), or lands with a bump and bruises, he always keeps going back up the hill to dive off that mountain. The spirit inside him is always seeking to create. Example? Catch one of Nico’s facebook posts: “Contemplating my NEXT Los Angeles project… So, should I convert a top secret SILO?” Ummm… yeah, think that says it all.

NICO2(1)This strong spirit has not only made magic happen throughout Las Vegas and Los Angeles real estate, but he has ventured into many nightclubs, and restaurants.  His Capo’s restaurant is a landmark in Las Vegas: a real “Speakeasy”, featuring a hidden door, password protected entry (tip: the secret word is currently “Shenanigans”)… a nearly completely dark, sexy interior, with red leather booths, outrageously good smells & rave reviews from customers posted across social media.

NICO3Not content with just serving mobster-named meals, (Capone’s Cabonara or Scarface Shrimp Scampi, anyone?), he struck a one of a kind deal to buy the secret recipes of the famous mobster Al Capone’s family. The fascinating details: the Capone Family Secret recipes have been under wraps for nearly 80 years. They were recovered in undisclosed locations following federal raids on Al Capone’s warehouses. Nico saw potential once again, in something nobody had bothered looking at for decades!  He decided the savory marinara recipe was possibly the best he’d ever sampled, and straightaway adjusted his Capo’s  menu to include the “Traditional Red Sauce” and “Spicy Rustico”.  Luckily for us, if we can’t get ourselves to Vegas to snarf a plateful of spaghetti & home-made meatballs with this famous sauce, an alternative is available for all of us to be able to taste this legendary sauce here.

NICO4

I’ll soon be interviewing Nico for our radio show, which is a one on one chat with entrepreneurs, where they share their inspiring story of how they found and followed their passion. We met because of social media, I was searching for a unique and luxurious place to host our very first Champagne Sisters & Social Media Conference (follow along on twitter with the hashtag #CSSM13) and voila! Appearing onscreen like a magical oasis in the desert (no, really?!) was the Parisian Palace. Another of Nico’s projects, he bought an older style mansion, and lovingly revamped, remodeled and redesigned it to suit his taste.  He now rents it out to host fabulous events, parties, video and magazine shoots and more.  It is truly spectacular.NicoToday, we get together to share a few ideas, so simple to Nico, but so enlightening to our ears, eyes and hearts.

Here are 10 important lessons this Vegas magnate taught me, and you should learn too:

1. Answer the phone each and every day and when not possible, return messages/ calls before the end of the day, if even in the evening. Timing is critical and today’s business environment is impatient and unforgiving.

2. Be thrilled with singles, doubles and triples, as home runs will come when earned.

3. Expect the worst from situations, as it will bring optimism during negotiations. When rain is expected a partly sunny day is truly appreciated.

4. Know your business or product from the ground up.  Know your competitors product even better than your own.

5. The fact is, your staff and employees will most certainly never represent your business or ideas as well as yourself.  No person can explain a baby picture as well as mom…

6. When at all possible, use your own investment or sweat equity when building a business or product. It’s much easier to stop searching for a wallet that DOES NOT belong to you.

7. Commission employees as much as humanly possible, salaries (in start ups) bring demise faster than a bad concept.

8. Show your soft side when the opportunity arises. Your fans, followers and customers will always support you more.

9. Be certain that your early partners respect/fear you enough to see your concept or theory through fruition without fragmenting along the way.

10. SELL TO THE MASSES, NOT THE CLASSES. It’s easy to be drawn into the glamour of selling to the top, but how many Donald Trumps live on your block?

What I also learned from Nico, is to sprint toward that cliff if you believe in your idea! You just may soar, if your concept and convictions are sound.  Follow through.  Do what you say you will. Do it better than you promised. If opportunity presents itself, help another entrepreneur, no matter how big or how small they are, if you can. And, most importantly, persistence wins.

Thanks for the lessons, Nico!

NICO6———————————————————————————–

Mella Noir – Entrepreneur Success Stories & Inspirational Profiles

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Mella‘s great love of the English language began her adventures in journalism, with a side passion for sales and marketing. She segued into advertising, and her fascination for both people and Champagne propelled her flute first into event and party planning. Many soireés, fêtes, and galas later, she’s still popping corks, clinking and chatting her way through life. She’s an original “Champagne Sister“, and producer of the Bubbly Talk Radio Network, where each Wednesday on  *Clink, Chat & Catch Up!*, she profiles inspiring and passionate entrepreneurs and shares their story of finding and following their dreams. You can find her in the twitter world anytime: @BubblyTalkRadio, @ClinkAndChat or every Sunday (noon PST) hosting #ChampagneChat. Do you Facebook? Join her there too: BubblyTalkRadio, ChampagneChat and Clink And Chat.  An avid social media lover, Mella’s always ready to “Create Custom Content to Connect You!” at Clink And Chat. Her motto: Keep your flute full and ready to *CLINK!*