Gist.

(Part 1 of 3)

Omaha, NE. A typical midwestern town.  When I told my friends about my travel plans, many of them asked me, “Why are you going there?” Two words.

Big Omaha.

Sara Davidson, the sister of one of the Founders of Big Omaha, convinced me to attend Big Omaha and I now sit, think and smile because this conference was probably the most inspiring, beneficial and well planned event I have ever attended. Every. Single. Detail.

I have never been in a room with so many intelligent people who had a higher message than work, careers and business. This conference, for me, was about life and how to make every day, every hour, every minute the best by always striving to make yourself better and build better companies, together.  It’s all about people — here are a few that made Big Omaha count for me.

I took notes like a madman and I captured some of the best, most actionable advice that I would like to share with all of you. The only thing I can’t wait for is next year.

An Intro with Roger Fransecky – Serial Entrepreneur

Roger Fransecky, Ph. D., holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from the State University of New York, and a Ph. D. in psychology from the University of Cincinnatti.

Roger gave the welcoming speech and I just wanted to share a couple of quotes from him.

“As human beings we are starved for horizons.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It’s all about what’s next.” – Roger Fransecky

David Hauser – Founder / CEO of Grasshopper

Young Entrepreneur, Speaker, Founder @ Grasshopper, Grasshopper Labs, Chargify

David started his talk by making sure that the conference was ‘hyped’ up. To make sure that every single speaker who came on stage was going to get a ‘Standing O’ he went offstage and ran back on with the applause and energy that truly set the tone for what was to come.

He started with a video that I believe anyone in the world should watch. It is one of those videos that will make you want to get up, do something and always strive to do better. Here is the video

“Entrepreneurs Can Change the World”

He started off with ‘Marketing.’
Grasshopper sells a virtual phone service. He asked, “Who cares about my phone? No one. But we have helped over 80,000 people.”

The message is simple. It is about what you stand for, not what you are selling.

He starts breaking down culture and why it is so important when running a business: It’s your core purpose and value.

Core Purpose: This is your reason for being. The why.

Core Values: These are NOT aspirations. Such as honesty, respect and excellence. Those are total BS. Core Values should
⁃    Never Change.
⁃    Be your guiding principal
⁃    Transend your product or service.
⁃    Tell how.

David proceeded to talk about entrepreneurship and the lack of government funding that is provided for it. Entrepreneur wasn’t even on the spending chart so he drew it in and expressed his opinion on the government’s word supporting entrepreneurship and the facts that the chart showed. Basically, a lot of talk about support but not a lot of action.

He ended with this: “Authenticity is more important the selling” and I couldn’t agree more.

One last thing. To ‘Stand out in the crowd’ and do what many call ‘Guerilla marketing,’ they [grasshopper] sent 5000 bags of chocolate covered grasshoppers to top bloggers and influencers from around the web. The results were awesome.

If you would like to know about all of their marketing campaigns and how successful they were, head over to http://www.grasshopper.com/buzz

You can follow David on twitter here: @dh

Scott Belsky – Founder of Behance Networks.

Scott is the founder and CEO of Behance, a company that develops products and services for creative industries. Behance oversees the Behance Network, the world’s leading online platform for creative professionals; The 99%, Behance’s think tank and annual conference devoted to execution in the creative world, and Action Method, a popular online/mobile productivity application and line of organizational paper products.

Scott is one action oriented man. He just finished his book Making Ideas Happen and his company, Behance Networks, is all about organizing the creative world. His speech was all about ways to get things done. It was a mixture of what works, what doesn’t work and some general observations mixed in as well.

1. Most ideas look like this graph.

You have a great new idea and then over time the excitement wears off. Then, you have a great new idea and over time the excitement wears off. But then, alright, you get the point. You never actually finish an idea because you always want the thrill of a new idea and it is hard to keep focused over time if you lose excitement. He breaks down the secrets to getting ideas done with the rest of his advice.

2.What kills ideas?

• Lack of feeling organized kills ideas.
• Lack of accountability.
• Lack of leadership.
• Lack of feedback exchange. Share ideas.

3. Making Ideas Happen… 4 steps:

4. Spend Energy on Staying Organized.

Scott lays out a simple equation:

Creativity X Organization = Impact.

Like any multiplication factor, one without the other results in zero. They have to compliment each other.

100 X 0 = 0

0 X 500 = 0

10 X 5 = 50

5. 3 steps to running meetings.

1. Action Items
2. Back burner Items
3. Reference Items

6. Share Ideas!

This is one I hear people talk about all the time. Most people are scared to share their ideas but the truth is that sharing ideas is the best way to get ideas done. It creates the sense of accountability and it is the only way you can find people to help you. If people don’t know what you are thinking then they can’t help you.

Scott also had a great take on the word ‘Creative.’ He said when you tell people ideas the word turns into ‘Creative.’ (Create)

7. Insecurity Work.

This was all geared around the little things we feel like we need to do all day but are merely distractions. (i.e. Facebook, Email, Twitter, etc…) The things that we do but we probably don’t need to.

It is safe to say that Scott is one of the most organized and creative entrepreneurs out there and his book would be a good buy for anyone who has ever had an idea.

Scott’s Website: http://scottbelsky.com

Scott’s Company: http://www.behance.com/

Scott’s Book: http://the99percent.com/book

Part 1 of 3 – Big Omaha

This is just the beginning. I will finish up 2 more posts with more great content from the Big Omaha conference and post in the upcoming weeks. To all of the people that I was able to meet in Omaha, thank you. It truly was a great conference and I have to thank the founders: Dusty Davidson and Jeff Slobotski.

What about you? Were you at Big Omaha? Have you came across any of these entrepreneurs before? Any other tips that you could add?

More to come…

Photos were snagged from http://www.bigomaha.com/

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This post was written by Shane Mac, Marketing Manager at Gist. Feel free to contact me anytime with questions, feedback, or if you just want to say hello at shanem@gist.com.