 by Manny Larcher, CEO Stopwatch Creative
We've all seen them; the posts or messages that are “over the top” sales oriented. This is now something that is happening on all platforms it seems like, with this post, we will focus on LinkedIn. The reality is, that being transactional can be a big mistake. Our team has nearly two decades of experience growing brands on LinkedIn, which works very well in pay per click advertising/marketing and direct mail. Not so well on LinkedIn. It took us time to learn that LinkedIn is different. Whereas the former is more what we call transactional - the short game so to speak - make an offer and get a response, we've found that many professionals on LinkedIn doing this approach, however, LinkedIn is definitely relational - the long game. What do we mean by that? You can even say that it’s similar to dating. You create content through regular posting, it is then seen with likes and comments and based off the success of the LinkedIn algorithm, you can even get significantly more likes and comments within several hours after posted. We've found that creating thoughtful, “value up front” content both personal and business posts and as importantly, is the secret sauce. Many people respond better to personal messages. By being more vulnerable, or wearing your heart on your sleeve, so to speak, we’ve found the right people will engage. Remember this: people buy from who they like; they care who you are. That’s not the “tell me yes, tell me no, tell me quick, I gotta go” approach. It’s about the relationship and experience developed along the way. We’ve had to change our thinking and execution on LinkedIn for clients periodically, because the algorithm, and well the times are constantly changing. Doing "life" or not being transactional, is always a great approach. Interested in learning more about Stopwatch Creative and our approach? Feel free to schedule time to speak with us here at this link.
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 Think Make Live Youth is bridging the gap between youth and politicians through virtual civic engagement. During this event there will be special virtual performances and an engaging conversation with black youth and black politicians on current problems and solutions to some of our community social justice issues. This event features: - Erica Crawley, Franklin County Commissioner - Lashanna Potts, 1st Assistant Chief Columbus Police Department - NiQuille Bell, Owner of Isolation Clothing - Dontavius Jarrells, State Rep. District 25 - Nick Bankston, Columbus City Council - Napolean Bell, Franklin County Sheriff (DE&I) - Latyna Humphrey, State Rep of Ohio's 26th Houser District - Michael Young, Moderator, Pastor at City of Grace - Ty'Keice Cox, Motivational Speaker - Deandre Gaston, Think Make Live Youth - Quinazia Branham, Think Make Live Youth - Alana Henderson, Think Make Live Youth 
Collaborate and Elevate was created to help other entrepreneurs, small business owners, corporate professionals, non-profit organizations, universities, and students, get more value compared to the existing tools out there.
Not trying to throw shade, but we saw a problem relying on the giants like facebook/instagram, google ads, LinkedIn premium, etc. - to be able to help the small businesses that we saw in our community, so we rolled up our sleeves in March 2020 when the pandemic began and changed our focus. Create something that every business owner can afford to try for one month. A crazy thought, but I just wanted to help the restaurant owners, lawyers, real estate professionals, and other entrepreneurs I knew who were struggling because of the effects of the pandemic. Today, we have helped hundreds of C&E members around the United States and other countries, including the Philippines, Canada, South America, England, and more! We are adding value to non-profit organizations in rural communities and helping college students connect with career opportunities. New membership tiers and Enterprise plans have been rolled out silently in early 2022 as we establish relationships. We have no plan to eliminate our entry membership, which is $4.95/month, which has enabled us to transform and change lives. Our team has also been learning and building in web3/metaverse - see this article about one of our members' who launched Disrupt Art. Collaborate and Elevate connected these members (founder and web developer) to complete and build this NFT marketplace. I also have been living in Miami, attending numerous crypto events, including DCentral Miami, The North American Bitcoin Conference, and local NFT gatherings. Through these experiences, I am excited to share our own NFT community #diamondmakerclub💎. In addition, we are giving early members and supporters NFT's for every month they have been with us! You can view more about our NFT project and utility here at this link. As the year progresses, we continue building out our tech stack, automating processes, and integrating artificial intelligence to improve and scale our operations. With over 200 active paying members since starting and retention over 90%, the entire Collaborate and Elevate team is humbled and grateful to continue to add value to other entrepreneurs and companies. - Manny Larcher, founder Related readings: How I went From AfroTech in San Francisco, to Belgrade, Serbia in a year, all from Columbus, Ohio (2018)  This interactive virtual meetup and Q&A will offers insights and lessons learned in 2021 from 7 entrepreneurs in various industries!
Damian Smikle: An ambitious investor and entrepreneur at the early stages of his career! Eager to connect, assist and learn from people in any field who are also on their journey toward success. Connect with him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damian-smikle-29318428/ ---- Erika Pryor: Dr. Erika Pryor works at the nexus of marketing, community building and tech to help clients connect and create innovations which delight and support With EPiC Creative + Design, Erika leverages her dynamic training, broad experience, and diverse network to support clients and companies launching innovative tech products and projects, community outreach initiatives, and diversity and inclusion strategies. Connect with her online: www.linkedin.com/in/erikapryor/ ----- Jennifer Sanger: Jennifer is a "Mompreneur", a small business owner at Jamison & Bexley, a Children's Clothing Boutique Owner, as well a Global Speaker. Learn more online here: www.jamisonandbexley.com ----- James McIntosh : James McIntosh has been helping others achieve their financial goals for over 4 decades now. Learn more online here: www.acmetaxrelief.com ----- Terry Nunnie Green: Empowerment guru? Motivated leader? Social justice activist? Yes to all. Terry Green is the Founder and CEO of Think Make Live Youth nonprofit organization. He is a national social justice consultant and nonprofit executive providing a hallmark experience in supporting opportunities for justice-involved young adults, innovative civic engagement practices, and workforce development strategies. His ambitious drive to serve has led him to become a solution-driven effective social justice expert. Learn more online: www.tmlyouth.org ----- Gaea Kassatly: Gaea Kassatly is managing partner at GK Law Co. You can learn more on gklawco.com ----- Hosted by CollaborateandElevate.com Founder and CEO Manny Larcher  Patrick Sweetman (sweetman.eth) is a web3 engineer with We Mint Songs and also a developer championing a future product with Bankless Dao. In this interview, we discuss meeting each other in 2018 at The Wave Innovation Center, ran by Michael Redd and Danny Ortiz, building voice enabled software very early and more! The audio is available on all platforms, click here to listen. Watch the interview below: In Fifth Title Defense, Israel Adesanya Defeats Robert Whitaker at UFC 271 by Unanimous Decision2/13/2022
 Lack of transportation is one reason some people claim they can’t climb out of poverty. How can they get to a job and make money if they don’t have a car or aren’t on the bus route?
“Somebody lost their job today, and because they couldn't get to work, right? And tomorrow, yesterday, that happened, that's going to happen,” says University of Cincinnati graduate Paul Perkins. He hopes to change that when placing rental e-bikes in low-income neighborhoods. Perkins is the CEO of ORION Electronics Company. He now has bikes to sell and rent. ORION’s test market will be Columbus in 2022 and in Cincinnati and beyond in 2023. “We are headquartered here, (Cincinnati) but we've just honestly gotten a lot more support from the city of Columbus. And I think Columbus as a whole is going to be a great test city for us that will help us pilot Cincinnati and bring it down here,” he says. You can read the full article via WVXU here at this link.  Stopwatch Creative is a full service marketing and advertising agency incubating community driven SaaS platforms like collaborateandelevate.com. Now in year 5, Stopwatch Creative serves clients from all over the U.S. including New York, New Jersey, California, South and North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Nevada, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and 8 other Countries.
From startups to thriving small businesses and global enterprises, their unique approach and skill set enable us to add value and improve your bottom line. Stopwatch Creative services:
Learn more and connect with them online at stopwatchcreative.com! Meet Terry Green, Prison Fueled This Founder’s Passion To reduce Recidivism & Improve the Community2/10/2022  Columbus, Ohio was in the crosshairs after 2020 and 2021 were deadliest year in capital's history. ABC 6 News recently did a story taking a deeper look into the violence impacting the Columbus community. You can click here to read and watch the entire story. Terry Green is a community leader, with boots on the ground working to save lives through his nonprofit organization Think Make Live Youth. Watch the feature below: About Think Make Live Youth
Think Make Live Youth provides youth with mentorship, community engagement and leadership development training through our monthly empowerment programs and annual community events. Learn more and consider making a monthly donation on tmlyouth.org  SEA Change offers training to help social entrepreneurs move forward further, faster. With a data proven 14-module curriculum and intensive experience, participants are empowered to identify their sustainable financial model, determine their meaningful and measurable social impact, integrate into their local social enterprise ecosystem, and have the opportunity to create meaningful relationships with industry experts and a community of like-minded peers.
Historically, this free program was only offered in-person to entrepreneurs based in Central Ohio, but we’re excited to be broadening our reach in recent years with a fully virtual model — and 2022 is no exception…. Applications will be open to social entrepreneurs from:
SEA Change Applicants SEA Change participants care about the well being of our community and want to reach more people in a meaningful way. They’re excited to:
Advisors SEA Change has short and long term volunteer opportunities, and after a quick orientation volunteers can be put to work giving back to their community! We couldn’t operate without the generous donation of time (and talent) from our Advisors! They give back in the following ways: Facilitators As a subject matter expert in one of our covered topics, facilitators join the cohort for 1+ meetings and facilitate discussion and hands-on activities. Training and the curriculum for their module(s) is provided ahead of time – they can follow it word for word, or make it their own! Facilitators give back by helping up to 15 teams per session move forward further, faster. Time Commitment is approximately 3 hours over one or two weeks, plus 1 hour of prep. Mentors Mentors are assigned 1-2 participants, and stay in contact with them throughout the process. There is no specific date/time requirement, but they are expected to remain in touch and be available to meet with their participant(s) over a minimum of 4 months. Mentors receive training and are provided with access to the curriculum to understand what the participants are learning. Time Commitment is approximately 12-20 hours over 14 weeks, depending. Facilitation Topics:
**SEA Change also recruits numerous guest speakers for Meet-up Sessions and panel discussions, and values connections to community & industry leaders for such purposes. Ready to get involved?? Fill out the interest form here!  Jennifer Sanger, founder of growing fashion brand JamisonandBexley.com, shares her story:
When I was a little girl, I would use missing socks to create dresses for my Barbie’s. My mom had a cookie bin filled with sewing supplies and I would use a needle and thread to make these dresses. She saw this passion in me and encouraged it by purchasing me a sewing machine when I was in middle school/high school. This is when my love for fashion really flourished. I made clothes for myself and my friends. Even made my junior prom dress. It was a no brainer that I go to school for fashion. If I could talk to this little girl today, I would tell her that everything she wanted to be in life comes true! Connect with Jennifer on instagram and follow her company Jamison & Bexley!  In a recent article breaking down Digital Advertising in 2022 by Stratechery, they discussed Facebook and Google's dominance in digital advertising - the two platforms alone have over 66,000,000 businesses who advertise monthly from an online report that we found from a few years ago. We can debate the many reasons why, but the article mentions that there is no question that Facebook has been significantly impaired, but the company is by no means doomed, in large part because while search is very effective at finding what you want, there remains the need to make you aware of what you didn’t know existed. This is what Facebook excels at more than any other platform: by knowing who you are and what you have liked or purchased in the past, Facebook can place ads for products or apps you have never heard of in the Feed, in Stories, or, going forward in Reels. But do we want Facebook (or Meta) to tell us what to purchase? Are we tired of seeing ads every 3 posts? Every 3 stories? All over our newsfeed? There's no question that Google is the best at search advertising, however at what cost? Can every business owner learn their system, adapt to the content, create the creative, do the targeting, etc? Also, how much is an average successful campaign? $20? $100? $2,000? $25,000? There are many reasons for new solutions for businesses owners and brands who want to grow to be discovered. They are more needed now. When Manny Larcher launched the business membership during the pandemic for the networking events that he did through Collaborate and Elevate, the push to move these gatherings online were very present. “The community really just started to overwhelm us with with emails and just encouragement to kind of keep Collaborate and Elevate going. It really enabled us to continue to share relevant helpful free information, but really give those who want that one on one attention,” Manny told Spectrum News. “I knew that the internet was fragmented and the tools to help, you know, students, entrepreneurs, business owners was fragmented. So, I knew that there was a need.” A need that turned into a plus for Gaea Kassatly. She opened up a virtual law firm in December of 2019. With about 10 in-person networking events set up to jump start her virtual business, that went out the window quick with COVID. “A good word for it: I felt very defeated, you know? Like, very defeated. Like, oh my gosh, this was my plan for 2020. In January, actually I wrote down my vision. I was so excited about it, and I'm like you know, I'm gonna do all these great things and grow this fantastic company," said Kassatly.
Forced to network virtually or close up shop, she decided to join a few online groups, including Larcher’s Collaborate and Elevate. Dead set on networking in person, she wasn’t so confident that virtual networking could work. “My mindset was you meet people in person and you get that, you know, personal touch this is how they meet you, this is how they trust you, how you build relationships," Kassatly said. But she got quite the surprise. “It worked out very well in the sense that I got my ideal clients this way, too. Tech savvy entrepreneurs who appreciate, you know, more innovative modern law firms. I got more than I asked for where a lot of my business started to come from Collaborate and Elevate network." Learn more about Collaborate and Elevate and how they can support your business on collaborateandelevate.com  The Speed & Scale Plan gets us to net-zero emissions by 2050—and halfway there by 2030.
Speed & Scale is critical reading for anyone who wants to take action on the most important issue of our time: climate change. It's a challenge that feels impossible to solve, but Doerr outlines a clear path forward and how we can get involved to make an impact.— Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube |
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