JUUUIIICCCCYYYYYY! Did you get your GenJuice?!!

“JUIIICCCYYYY” (bump bump budda bump bump)

“It was all a dream!…..” (Notorious B.I.G’s deep voice)

is exactly how it all started for GenJuice. Three young ladies(Arielle, Virgillia, and Danielle)  would sit down at a coffeeshop (with a group of 12) to discuss their dreams including goals, roadblocks, etc.   However, this was just the beginning! The “Sit-downs” began to grow and grow where it amounted to 50 people both in California and Singapore meeting biweekly! That’s CRAZYYYY!!! This dream has not only grown into a network but is well on its way to becoming a movement. Correction. It is a Movement!

This summer, GenJuice launched a tour that consisted of  visiting  13 cities in 40 days. I jumped at the opportunity to register for their hosted Unconference in NYC after hearing Arielle’s interview with my buddy/fellow blogger Tony Ruiz. I know what you are thinking… what the hell  is an Unconference? ( I admit, I didn’t know exactly myself oops). According to WiseGeek an unconference:

[Does not] have a specific agenda [and] attendees are expected to actively engage in the event. To date most unconference types have been held in what is called the “geek” community.

When a [unconference] begins, people write up things they’d like to discuss, or things they’d like to present. An agenda for the weekend is then decided, usually with significant break time for small group discussions

In a nutshell, this is eactly what happened at the GenJuice Unconference but too bad it didn’t occur for a whole weekend Maybe next time???

I wanted to share with you a few things from the Unconference:

I was able to meet:

1)  Coach Jennie ( a life coach): @CoachJennie is wonderful woman who wants to help people  have the AUDACITY to defy obstacles and create fabulous lives. I hope to have an interview with her very soon and of course you will see it here!

2) Ryan Stoner from The Cashflow- The Cashflow is an incubator for young urban entrepreneurs. Ryan gave us very good feedback on our pitches toward the end of the Unconference ( I love this word!).  FYI…they funded Carrie from GoodieBox Bake Shop and  they are looking to fund 100 startups with 10 G’s!!! So hop to it!

3) “A recovering entrepreneur”! – his exact words.

I learned:

1) About Stunt Marketing and how they can be used for win-win situations  in getting the word out for both parties involved. Check out an example here:

2) Experiences of a failed startup from a “recovering entrepreneur”:

- “Be a cheap bastard” – Cookforgood.com is an awesome site on cooking healthy food for cheap.

- Stay at your 9 to 5 as long as you can until you have a plan and gain clients. Let someone else pay for your startup.

-Get a “Job-Job” & around networking events.  Creative ideas tend to form during mindless jobs. Networking events tend to be in the evening so you don’t want to get a “Job-Job” that has you working at nights. Makes sense right?

I discussed:

As mentioned before, an unconference begins with people writing what they would like to discuss and at some point we break off to small discussion groups. We had an agreement that if you were not fully engaged, it was ok to get up and move to the next group without coming off as being rude. I decided to participate in the topic of “How to make a movement out of an Idea”.  This is where I learned about Stunt Marketing from Danielle in addition to the basics of coming up with a title of the movement (KEY) and answering the following questions (it’s good to write these down so they can become engrained in your mind):

- What do you want to see happen?

- Who do you want to associate with?

Lastly, I pitched. Stay tuned for my personal project!

Whew! I know this is an exhausting post but I felt it was necessary to share with you the JUICE I received from the GenJuice Tour! To top off the Unconference, a large group of us ended the day with some tasty Dim Sum! Mmmmmm!

Do you have any experience with attending conferences/unconferences? Have an interesting story about your entrepreneurial ventures? Please share in the comments below!

Until Next Time.

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Tagged as: answers, business cards, cooking, food, GenJuice, Goals, marketing, Networking, passion, startups, stunt marketing, unconference