Podcasting from Fort Collins Colorado, this is the StartupFoCo podcast episode 2.  I am your host Vanessa Pagan, gearing up for the 2018 Techstars Startup Week Fort Collins.

In this pre-event episode, we have 6 guests from the Artup Week and Music tracks of Fort Collins ranging the gamut from Graphic Novels to sold out concerts.

Episode Notes

Interview segments with:

Chris Bates – https://fortcollinsstartupweek2018.sched.com/speaker/chrisbatesart

James Lopez – https://fortcollinsstartupweek2018.sched.com/event/Daew/podcasting-krfc

Kit Baker – https://fortcollinsstartupweek2018.sched.com/speaker/kitbaker

Mike Baron – https://fortcollinsstartupweek2018.sched.com/event/Dbmf/the-current-world-of-illustration-graphic-novels-cartoons-and-comics

Sara Durnil – https://fortcollinsstartupweek2018.sched.com/event/DMmx/pack-the-fckng-room

Steven Dourmashkin https://fortcollinsstartupweek2018.sched.com/speaker/steven199 

Episode Recognitions

Todd Simmons, Wolverine Farms http://www.wolverinefarm.org/about/staff/todd-simmons/

Jeanne Shoaff https://www.fcgov.com/culturalservices/contact-us.php

Dawn Putney https://www.artlabfortcollins.org/about/team/

Andrew Schneider https://startupfoco.wpengine.com/speakers/andrew-schneider/ 

Nathan Scott https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-scott-a2b97b67/

B Sharp, FC Symphony http://www.fcsymphony.org/news-media/bsharp/

Lou Ann and Kim Yee https://www.karatewestinc.com/about-us.html

Ann Baron https://fortcollinsstartupweek2018.sched.com/annbaron

Episode 02 Artup & Music Transcript

Vanessa Pagan: Podcasting from Fort Collins, Colorado, this is StartupFoCo podcast episode 2. I’m your host Vanessa Pagan gearing up for the 2018 Techstars Startup Week Fort Collins. In this pre-event episode we have six guests from the Artup Week and music communities of Fort Collins ranging the gamut from graphic novels to sold-out concerts.

Let’s get into the interviews.

So I’ve got Chris Bates on the line. He is a local artist from Fort Collins, and he owns MightyFineArts.org. Hi Chris How’s it going?  Great. I want to ask you a little bit about what you hope people get out of start-up week.

Chris Bates: I just really hope that I’ve got to be part of one way the other last couple years I think it’s just a great opportunity for people to broaden their horizons, meet new people, get some plan going forward on their business ventures creative ventures and chance to collaborate and up your game on whatever you’re trying to do in life.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome, and you’re doing a session with collaboration. Can you talk a little bit about what you hope the attendees of your session gets?

Chris Bates: Just from my side just one person’s view on how to kind of build a local business by involving people in your creative process how to take your talents and meld them with others to create things that are greater than could be accomplished, otherwise and the benefits of in such a personal ego-driven career such as music and arts and theater and how to use that to your advantage to work with other people to create bigger and better things.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome. That sounds like what is a piece of advice that you would like to share from your experience as an artist?

Chris Bates: Think over the last decade of working trying to become a more and more successful visual artist is to find a nice balance between really pushing hard to make things happen and putting yourself in situation and letting things happen. Also, just preparing yourself for the opportunity as they come and just being ready to say yes by setting on your own personal guidelines and things that you want to see happen for yourself and your career and your life and situating yourself in position to make those things happen for you.

Vanessa Pagan: As a local Fort Collins native, could you talk a little bit about the vision that you hope Fort Collins has for its future in five maybe ten years?

Chris Bates: I really like to see the creative community come together even more than it has to kind of leverage their, I don’t know if power is the correct word, but whether their influence I guess on the community to really show and understand their value as it fans culturally and also financially and monetarily and then just have that kind of boil over to have the decision-makers the people that work within the city and the community at large kind of reflect that value as well so the creative community that we have right now. They will be able to live and work here and innovate and be strong and stay in town that’s been growing more and more expensive and difficult to stay in for people in the creative community, but that have a lot to offer.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome. Is there anyone that you would like to recognize for their hard work in the local, Fort Collins community?

Chris Bates: There’s a ton of people and I guess the kind of people that really stand out to me Todd Simmons is someone that’s been working in their creative community through Wolverine Farms and Publishing and really kind on the literary side, but now he has a base it’s real solid and is doing so much for meeting space and comedy and spoken word and authors. Whatever he can he’s always a willing person that really is there to push things forward, so I mean and the like a person within like the city that I just really respected is Jeanne Shoaff she’s previously running the Lincoln Center, she’s done stuff at  the FCMOA, and she’s just I feel like underutilized huge advocate for the arts and have been in the town for a long long time. Dawn Putney with Art Lab and toolbox creative she’s also someone whose just always been trying new things  and really gets it as far as how to operate within the creative community and how to try to raise the level of business intelligence and acumen with creatives and how to work with them and get them to really light a fire under their under themselves to just be better at what they do.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome alright Chris this was the whole thing.

Chris Bates: Awesome. Thanks so much. Take care. Good luck.

Vanessa Pagan: On the line I have James Lopez, who is the station manager of KRFC. He’s a former copywriter and marketer who’s worked for nonprofits and for profit companies. He’s also a full time performing magician. Hi James. Thanks for being on the line here. So this is Fort Collins Startup Week there’s going to be like a hundred and thirty sessions. What would you say is something you hope an attendee gets out of this entire week?

James Lopez: Well just like last year. the Fort Collins Startup Week  really focuses on creatives, and the creative industry. So really what I hope for for people to get out of startup week is to feel inspired and to feel like that they can be not only creative, but can figure out  a way to support themselves in those creative endeavors.

Whether that be through like partnerships or figuring out how to you know convert, whatever they do into some sort of profitable thing. It’s just a nice week to come together and inspire each other to continue to do what we want to do and and find the money to do it.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome. And Friday March 2nd from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. there’s going to be podcasting at KRFC. Can you talk a little bit about what you hope attendees get from that day?

James Lopez: Sure. So here in KRFC we’re the local Northern Colorado in Fort Collins community radio station and one of the things that we really wanted to focus on in 2018 is helping develop the voice of Northern Colorado, so really kind of inspiring people to do amazing things with their stories and to connect with their communities and one of the ways that we thought of doing that was through podcasting. So during that day we’re actually going to be talking about and discussing the KRFC podcasting network, which will eventually be a tool that people can use to come in and produce their own podcasts and shows to share. So for the whole entire day what we’ll be focusing on is teaching everybody the ins and outs of podcasting. So everything from how to produce a show, how to develop a show, to how to edit your show, and then get it ready for distribution. The goal is to basically introduce people to the resources that we have at KRFC. Introduce them to  podcasting in general and hopefully get them sharing their stories.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s great. I am a big proponent of KRFC, and I’m really excited about the opportunities that you have for podcasting in the Fort Collins community. James, you have quite a rich background of experience. If you could share with us one key nugget of insight that you’ve learned from your personal experience. What would you share with us?

James Lopez: Oh man is all about your network. The main thing that you can do that I’ve learned in the last like decade, decade and a half that I’ve been working is try to be a connector. Right. Try to connect people and fit needs and services with wants and desires. Most of the work that I’ve gotten over the last 10-15 years hasn’t been because of my experience. It’s been because I’ve looked out for other people and they in return have looked out for me. So it’s been super awesome to develop this oh, and it’s a super diverse network too. Don’t stick in one specific area make sure that you spread out across multiple studies, and professions and everything because once you create that diverse network if anything is ever to happen to you, you’re flexible enough to move around. And that’s the biggest lesson that I ever learned in anything that I’ve ever done.

Vanessa Pagan: Thank you for sharing. So we’ve talked a little bit about the voice of Fort Collins and about having a wide and diverse network. Could you share a little bit about the vision that you have for the future of Fort Collins?

James Lopez: Yeah, so one of the things that I have worked on a lot and a lot of my friends, and I constantly discussed is that even though Fort Collins feels like a small town and even though Northern Colorado feels quite small it still feels very aggregated and very segregated, so there’s pockets of communities everywhere that aren’t connecting with each other. So even though a lot of people share the same interest they can still feel isolated and lonely and one of the things that I would love to do is see Fort Collins and Northern Colorado become these incubators and hubs that connect people. Physically connect people. Digitally. And gets people with similar interests who feel like they’re alone, or don’t have anybody their, connecting with them. And just building this whole entire.large support system based on passions and fandoms and desires.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s a great goal. If there was someone that you could acknowledge for their hard work in the Fort Collins and Northern Colorado community, who would you want to give a shout out to?

James Lopez: Of course one of the biggest one is is Andrew Schneider. He really has been super passionate about everything that he does and tries to make this connection and these community developments happen. Another person is Nathan Scott one of my personal mentors. That he taught me is all about your network, and it’s all about building those connections and relationships and Maya Djarum who the volunteer coordinator at KRFC she’s done a fantastic job of building a strong network as well and really knows how to connect resources and get people together. So those three people have really I think made a huge impact at least on me if not the Northern Colorado Community in general.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome. Thank you for sharing James. I hope to see you face to face during the podcasting at KRFC day, and that is our call. You got it talk soon James. Bye

I’m on the line with Kit Baker who is a writer and arts administrator for Create Places. Hi Kit. Thanks for being here. You are having two sessions during startup week. On Wednesday February 28th at 10:30 a.m. Arting Up Musicals and Operas New Tools New Context New Opportunities, and the second session is at 2:30 that same day Arting up Science: New Directions in Cross Discipline Collaborations. Can you tell us a little bit about what you hope attendees would get out of your sessions?

Kit Baker: Well, I think for both sessions Andrew Schneider whose the force behind Artup  Week shared a story about someone who attended last year. And she had an idea for a new business and a new startup, but really didn’t know where to take it was sort of kind of just simmering somewhere without really much happening, and then she managed to make all these connections and build her network during startup week. Now she’s launched it.

So generally speaking, I think that’s really what I want to offer opportunities for people to really find the people and resources they need to realize the projects primarily artistic. Individually. I think the Art and Science panel really addresses the possibilities in Fort Collins. We already have a very active startup scene with all the research that’s coming out of the CSU and then with all these new companies being created like Spearay and which is keeping Fort Collins on the cutting edge of  innovation, and so I’m really interested in hearing what the mayor says and and there’s a playwright who’s just written a play about the kind of science and mythology of dirt, which I think is fascinating. And then we also have on the panel someone who work in the Rockies Ventures Club who can actually trace the steps that somebody needs to take to actually start up their own project.

So I’m very excited about that you know plugging into what are clearly Fort Collins strengths, long-established strengths in science and providing kind of like the rising roll of arts as an interpreter of science to the public. That’s a particularly interesting strand.

And then with the musicals and opera there’s a lot going on in that field. Musicals are if anything more popular than ever and you have a lot of artists who are actually taking new approaches to musical beyond Broadway. I mean Broadway is still important, but there are so many other possibilities these days especially with the rise of digital media and VR. And we have a real range of people we have the presenter of Lincoln Center. Jack Rogers  who’s been working in theatre and music theatre for 24 years and brings in musical, and he’s got a really interesting slant on both the establish musicals and the new stuff, and then we’re bringing up Chimney Choir, which is actually a band in Denver that create these experiences really that really are you can’t really define them. They’re concerts. They’re interactive performances. The puppetry ritual. So really looking at what bands can do to in a way expand the Concert Experience into Musical and Opera, and so I think that’s I would be really happy if people came out of there and said wow, I can do so much more with my band or my company and incorporating music in a way and again that addresses a known strength of Fort Collins in music.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s great that you’re able to put these together because the intersection of the performing arts and science or technology means that the reach that we can have in Fort Collins is exponential.

Kit Baker: Absolutely. Absolutely yeah, and I think with Fort Collins. I mean I was born here, and then went away for a long time. Lived in London, New York Berlin. You know Fort Collins does have this international prominence that was kind of what was there all the time, but but never really having that kind of in a way that international brand it has now. So the possibilities are exciting. We just have to think in new way to look to non-traditional sources of the support that artists need and scientists need to actually get their work out into the public and get it to be effective.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s great. So as someone who has seen for Collins grow and change can you tell us a little bit about what you hope the future of Fort Collins look like?

Kit Baker: Yeah, I have a very strong interest in the arts. That’s what I devoted my career to and my hope is that we can really look at the ways that the arts in the broadest sense, I mean in the 21st century with digital media for example, but also just in terms of the art really rapid rise and strengthening of arts engagement with environmental issues, with social justice issues to really be smart about how the art can contribute to growth management. How Fort Collins can actually in a way provide resources for the arts to enable them to offer the quality of life that people come here for the mountains etcetera, but the quality of the art A really good example of that is B sharp program with the Fort Collins Symphony. And the Fort Collins symphone collaborated with CSU Alzheimner research, and then created this research project, which really basically demonstrated that participation in the life of a symphony going to concerts going to receptions hearing the music really had beneficial effects on people’s health. And that kind of research isn’t that well-known, but actually it operates for everyone. The arts actually boost performance in schools. It basically is a bit of a glue that keeps our communities together, and I would like to see the Arts play a more Central role in that.

Vanessa Pagan: Well Kit I can’t wait to meet you face to face during startup week.

Kit Baker: Yeah, me too. It’s going to be really exciting. It’s great. I’m very excited to see not only Startup Week continue because I went last year. It was fantastic, but to see so many more arts panels in it and sessions on it is very exciting.

Vanessa Pagan: Thank you so much Kit this has been a great interview. Talk soon okay.

Kit Baker: Yeah. Take care. Bye.

Vanessa Pagan: Our guest is Mike Baron the creator of Nexus and Badger Mike hello. Your session is going to be Thursday March 1st. The current worlds of illustration graphic novels cartoons and comics.

Mike Baron: Yes, I’m going to be joined by Greg Guler whose head designer at Disney for Phineas and Ferb so and Greg knows all about animation and cartooning.

Vanessa Pagan: I’m glad you’re doing a startup week session. What do you hope that people can get out of coming to start up week?

Mike Baron: Well, I’m going to talk about graphic literature, how it works and it’s strengths and it’s weaknesses. We may know them as comics, but we call most of them are circulated now as graphic novels. Which is a fancy word big collection of comics in a hard bound setting, but now graphic novels have come into their own. They’re no longer based on serial comics like Batman or Spider-Man, but the shelves at Barnes & Noble are overflowing with original graphic novels.  T hat are often autobiographical from every imaginable place like Waltz with Bashir which was a Persian graphic novel or Bill Griffiths memory of his mother’s affair with a famous cartoonist. It’s called Hidden Ink Is another wonderful graphic novel.

There are so many and a lot of them are being optioned for films right now. The films that they tend option are based on real simple translatable ideas because that’s what we’ll be makers like but graphic literature can be used for many things. The armed forces have used them for decades to instruct soldiers on things like how to dismantle a weapon, care for it and put it back together and proper procedure in the field. I’ve worked on a lot of educational graphic products for various businesses like a credit union or Popeye’s Chicken. We did one for them and some are local for companies like insurance companies that are trying to transmit difficult ideas simply. And comics lend themselves to that.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s wonderful. If there was something you could tell an attendee of startup week. What would you advise them, or give them as inspiration?

Mike Baron: If you have a story to tell, I’m going to tell you the most important thing about that which is what’s the story about. That’s the question everyone gets asked, and when you get asked that question you have to be ready. You have to prepare your answer in advance. So that it’s not only succinct but entertaining and makes the reader want to hear more.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s wonderful. What would you say is the vision that you have for Fort Collins?

Mike Baron: You know I like Fort Collins as it is. I am thrilled that they built a new bike trail that connects us with Loveland because I’m a big biker. You know I think Fort Collins is going on just fine. I don’t think the city council needs a foreign policy. They should stick to fixing the potholes, but other than that. I think Fort Collins is on the right track. We’re obviously a tech center. I mean so many technical innovations start here, and it’s also an early adapter city and by that I mean the people I know many friends of mine are very quick to pick up on new technology and use it.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s great. Is there someone that you would like to recognize in the Fort Collins Community for their hard work and efforts?

Mike Baron: One karate instructors Lou Ann and Kim Yee who run Karate West are two of the most selfless people I’ve ever known and they hold multiple fundraisers every year for Realities for Children, and they’re having one coming up in a week or two for St.Jude’s Children’s Hospital. So I think the Yees ought to be recognized for that and also my wife Ann who’s just a world-class networker. And she get’s people jobs because she knows every job up and down the Front Range and she’s gotten countless people jobs but the Yees, yeah.

Vanessa Pagan: Thank you for taking the time and jumping on this call with me Mike.

I’m on the line with Sara Durnil who was the co-owner of Maple Street Music Agency a management company for professional musicians. She’s on a panel called pack the effing room Sara, hello.

Sara Durnil: Hi. Oh you’re welcome. Thanks for having me.

Vanessa Pagan: I’m really glad you’re here because this is probably one of my favorite most descriptive session names that’s going on during startup week.

Sara Durnil: Yeah, definitely creative.

Vanessa Pagan: Yes, the creatives are going to know. Oh, I know at this one’s about. What would you say is your hope that attendees get out of attending your session?

Sara Durnil: Well I’m hoping that there’s a obviously there’s going to be a lot of musicians who are looking to improve their show attendance by the name of the session obviously, and I’m hoping that they get out of it more than just the standard advice of doing posters and Facebook giveaways for sharing. What I’m hoping they’ll take away  is that it’s necessary to truly work every show from booking to advancing to the follow-up of the show. And really going to I know that I’m personally going to encourage bands and musicians to treat their music like a business not a hobby of course. It’s good. If it’s okay if it’s their second job, but when you put yourself in the mindset of being a professional it’s easy. It’s much easier to get your mind around how much work it is to be playing a show.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome, and what would you hope attendees of startup week get in general, so there’s going to be over 130 sessions, there’s going to be something of all kinds of variety of interests and topics. What do you hope attendees get out of the Fort Collins Starup Week?

Sara Durnil: More than anything there’s going to be an underlying message you know of the you can do it attitude and hope people who especially those people who maybe be at a crossroads and be getting burned out of being an entrepreneur because that happens. They just find some inspiration and some ideas to really keep going and make it happen and improve.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome and Sara if you could share with us one of your top lessons learned from your experience and your career, what would you share with us?

Sara Durnil: Oh holy cow. It is a constant learning curve. There is no magic formula in the music business. As soon as you think you have something figured out, it’s going to change. So my biggest lesson has been to be very organized and to really keep track of what you’re doing and making sure you’re consistent and being flexible because things change. Venues change. The climate changes and really what people are looking for changes and technology is changing just as fast as we’re learning it.

Vanessa Pagan: What would you say is your hope for the future of Fort Collins?

Sara Durnil: I need to get those in line for what I think is really going to happen. Right now musicians need to up their games because there is a market saturation happening and the most talented, most talented people need to be the ones who are showcased. So my hope is that the most talented bands, the most talented musicians rise to the top because they’re also the best business people. What is currently happening is sometimes just the best business people aren’t necessarily working on their craft enough not really to say that there is there’s mediocre musicians out there, but I’ve seen so much talent and just because they’re not acting as much like business people as they need to they’re not getting getting the recognition they deserve.

Vanessa Pagan: Yeah, reminds me of Michael Gerber’s E-Myth where he talks about you’re so busy being the technician. There’s no one leading the helm of the overall organization and even musicians your music is the business. So being able to wear the hats really that really resonates.

Sara Durnil: You know there is nothing wrong with the band or a musician who’s willing to work for beer and pizza and really just wants it to be their hobby, and they play every couple of months and have a good time, but I do think that the time for that is going to come is going to draw to a close simply because there’s so many bands out there. It’s going to be harder and harder to get gigs if you don’t have a professional presence.

Vanessa Pagan: Sara, we are out of time, but this has been wonderful. I can’t wait to see you face to face

I’m on the line where the Stephen Dourmashkin, who is founder and CEO of Specdrums. Steven, Welcome to the Fort Collins startup week podcast.

Steven Dourmashkin: Yeah thanks a lot for having me.

Vanessa Pagan: So Steven, can you tell me a little bit about what you hope people get from attending your session.

Steven Dourmashkin: Yeah, I hope that I can kind of like share my lessons about developing a music tech product like specifically like a hardware product.

Vanessa Pagan: What is it?

Steven Dourmashkin: Sure, so Specdrumss are they’re app connected rings that they simply turn colors into sounds. So the point of it is you can then turn like any object into an interactive instrument. So meaning you could like color your own piano, or you could play drums on your clothes. So that’s what it is.  Yeah, and we just had a Kickstarter campaign in the summer, which got funded or actually over 12 times our goal. So we’ve really been working, to finish our manufacturing and we’re updating our app, and we’re about to about the fullfill all of our orders, which is pretty exciting, but  definitely learned a lot along the way, so I hope I can share that and also just get people to know more about Specdrums since we’re Boulder company. So it’s kind of trying to spread the word.

Vanessa Pagan: What do you feel is on a bigger stage? What do you hope people get out of startup week in general? There’s going to be over a hundred and thirty sessions jam-packed

Steven Dourmashkin: Well for me. I guess I can kinda relate it when I first moved to Boulder, I went to Denver startup weekend. That was the around a year ago. I guess it really helped because I really got plugged into the entrepreneurship community. So I hope that it’s kind of the same thing in Fort Collins meet other entrepreneurs and do a lot of networking plus like learn a lot from all like the speakers and all the different events if they’re kind of just getting into entrepreneurship, so I think it’s really good learning experience.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome, and what would you tell a first-time startup week attendee? What would be your advice to them?

Steven Dourmashkin: I would say that it’s really. I think it’s good to plan out what you want to be seeing kind of plan out the day before you get there because there’s so many different things to choose from and yeah, just do a lot of networking because you end up meeting like a lot of other entrepreneurs there and for me it was a great networking experience.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome. What do you hope for the future of Northern, Colorado?

Steven Dourmashkin: Yeah, I just hope that it continues. So part of the reason I moved here was because it’s a really great entrepreneurship community. So I just hope that it continues to grow and yeah, especially in like in regards to like new tech & hardware.

Vanessa Pagan: Thanks for listening to Startup FoCo Podcast. If you like our show and want to know more check out startupfoco.com Fort Collins Startup week this year is February 23rd to March 2nd.

Sign up for our newsletter and join us for our next podcast episode when we talk Founders and Food.

In this inaugural episode, we have an in-depth conversation on what Revolution means with Charisse Bowen. We go into the lasting message in the lyrics from the Beatle’s song from 1968, Revolution that apply to current events happening today and how we can make change happen right in our part of the world.

Episode Notes

Watch Beatle’s Revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw

Charisse Bowen’s Tedx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urFYIxw0AkU

See Charisse at Startup Week! 

Tuesday Feb 27 9:30 am Resilience in Business 

Tuesday Feb 27 3pm Business Model Canvas Workshop

Episode 1 – Charisse Bowen Transcript – StartupFoCo Podcast

Vanessa Pagan: Today for the Fort Collins startup week we’re joined by a Charisse Bowen who is the director of strategic initiatives for Blue Ocean Enterprises based here in Fort Collins, Colorado her current strategic initiative is developing forage International a new entrepreneurial training center and co-working community located in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

She was invited to build and lead the institute for entrepreneurship at Colorado State University this new calling became the Strategic shift in her life that sent her on a new professional course of teaching business and cultivating communities as a self-proclaimed entrepreneurial activist teaching and supporting start-up entrepreneurs as they achieve their goals is her life mission.

In her roles at CSU and later Galvanize and then Blue Ocean Enterprises Charisse has worked with over 300 startups from around the world and in just about every industry her unwavering desire to make the world a better place through business continues with her newest role at Forge. Where she is focused on bringing transformative change and guidance to the gifted entrepreneurs of the British Virgin Islands. Charisse, welcome.

Charisse Bowen: Thank you so much for having me so today.

Vanessa Pagan: We’re going to be talking about your experience and bringing in revolution and the guiding messages going to be through music.  Can you talk a little about before we get to the music, what is revolution about? When you say that what does that mean?

Charisse Bowen: I really want people to think differently about what it means to be revolutionary, and I do truly think that all entrepreneurs are revolutionary and their own rights whether they see it that way or not. I see when somebody can embrace being a revolutionary. It’s an incredibly powerful empowering term that hopefully lets them realize their full and truest potential to make great impact in the world.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s awesome. In order to get that big understanding of what Revolution means for entrepreneurs and Innovation you’re going to guide us through clips of Beatles songs.

Charisse Bowen: Yes, yes because John Lennon knew it. He knew it right.

Vanessa Pagan: He did and that message is so timeless, right? That music speaks to us today the same way it did 10 years ago, twenty years ago. The first song that we’re going to play a clip from is ‘You say when a revolution’. Charisse, can you tell us a little bit about what this first audio clip means to you.

Charisse Bowen:  Webster’s defines revolutionaries as somebody who does something radically new and Innovative outside or beyond established procedures or principles, and you know when The Beatles kick off by saying, “You say you want a revolution, we all want to change the world” that feels really big. This concept around changing the world but I want to encourage people to not see it that way. I think if we start to recognize our own ability to change the world that we live in and without feeling the need to change the entire world at one time it starts feeling achievable like something we can actually wrap our hands around.

And I encourage people to start by looking at their communities and looking in their own backyard and what positive impact can they make right here and in doing so they are truly changing the world. It’s their world. Which is inevitably all of our world. That concept around a ripple effect, and what that small change for the better can do for the greater good has this magnifying capabilities and so I want us all to believe that we all can change the world. If we want to.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s wonderful. It reminds me of a quote from Mother Teresa who talks about if everyone would just sweep the front of their door the entire world would be clean.

Charisse Bowen: Yes. Yeah, it’s so true so true.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome. The next song that I’d like you to guide us through this revolutionary change is ‘But when you talk about destruction don’t you know that you could count me out’. What does that mean?

Charisse Bowen: Yeah that lyric ‘When You Talk About Destruction Don’t You Can Count Me Out’ is incredibly powerful today. I feel, unfortunately, we live in a world where it’s quite easy to find cases in situations of people being bullied. People feeling like they’re getting deep down or shut down or shut out of their opportunities and the concept of being a revolutionary has everything to do with building each other up not tearing each other down that we grow and we rise by lifting others along our way.

I love if you look at the word revolution. The word love is so perfectly placed in the middle of it. Written backwards are e v o l, and if you look at the love within the revolution you actually can understand that love is actually a key part, a key function of what it means to have a revolution. And in this world especially in the business world which can be highly competitive and highly cutthroat.

I truly believe that if instead of focusing on how we can take our competition out of the equation we can truly find a way to actually help one another on our various journeys. We will find our own pathway to success without needing to take other people out along the way. And at the heart of that ‘Destruction and don’t you know that you can count me out’.  That’s the key message there. It’s we’ve got to rise by lifting each other. We’ve got to stop tearing each other down.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s a great message. It applies not only in how a company can serve its customers, or its audience, but also how the company culture is built internally by who joins the mission.

Charisse Bowen: Absolutely, I mean if you look at the internal strife oftentimes that employees will feel as they work their way up the ladder per se and you hear about people acting as mentors or acting as advisors for maybe a younger or new employee to have joined the team and actually help them navigate their ways up the food chain at their various companies. I do truly think that that person that reached down to give a helping hand themselves rises with this young person as they go and when you hear examples of people who are protecting their place at the top by pushing others out of the conference room or pushing others out of the equation. I think it’s to their own demise. I think it crosses over into the corporate world as well as in entrepreneurial world quite well.

Vanessa Pagan: That reminds me of the work that you’re doing in the BVI. Can you talk a little bit about how you’re lifting up the people of BVI?

Charisse Bowen: Yeah, it’s hard to even wrap your head around the amount of destruction actually that has come upon the British Virgin Islands and the Caribbean as a whole. Obviously they were heavily affected by Hurricane Irma and Maria last fall and the destruction that mother nature brought on has truly put them in a in a difficult position spending months on end really just working on having a roof over their heads and food and water and what they need to survive and I think I as I look at those that are the most resilient the ones that have bounced back and the ones that are thriving amongst a lot of this hardship have been the people who started this journey back from destruction with hands outstretched to one another. They’re the ones who look to their neighbors first to say what can I do to help you before helping themselves and as we look back here six months later now, I see those with their outstretched hands having found their ways to a much better place than some of the ones who spent little to no time looking to see who needed them. Who they could help at that time of need even though they themselves were in such a place of need. So, this I do think it is it’s like the secret to success focusing on helping one another before helping yourself.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s wonderful as a real-life example of what’s happening in our current reality of natural destructions that happens all over the world, and then we have complete demise and then we come together and rebuild.

So, in this next lyric ‘You Say You’ve Got a Real Solution. We’d All Love to See the Plan’ could tell us a little bit about what that line means?

Charisse Bowen: Yeah, as we revolutionize our worlds that were in it’s important that we focus on solving real problems. It’s not just about the fact that these real problems need solve, but I do truly think that when you’re solving problems that will help a lot of people that the collective energy of all of the people whose problem will be solved via the solution that you’re bringing are going to help carry your innovation, your business, your solution to fruition. That there’s this collective need and when they find that you’re bringing the solution to light they’re going to find a number of different ways actually help assist you in solving that problem.

People generally are going to want to help you and your desires to get this problem solved. And in creating a real logical plan, and it’s one thing to come out and say yeah, I’m going to rid the world of breast cancer because it’s a real big problem, and that’s important to me, and I know it’s important a lot of people and I’m going to go out and find a way to solve it but without a logical plan it’s not going to go anywhere. It’s just a desire. It’s just a wish, right. So building a plan around solving that it maybe it’s I’m going to create a nonprofit that supports various research agencies that are on the cutting edge of these new clinical trials that are in need of financial support that they don’t have it, and I’m going to create a platform that will help get draw attention and awareness to the this these research trials because believe that they may have the answer and I’m going to play my one little part and helping solve breast cancer through this non-profit I’m going to invent to then support these various research groups that are underfunded and need our help. And so, creating a logical plan that goes along with this problem that you’re trying to solve is important.

I’ve often talked about how with entrepreneurs when they come up with their great big idea that if that they really need to start by studying the problem that they’re solving. Is it a real problem? Is it truly a problem that causes a lot of pain? Or is this just kind of an additional convenience factor and asking themselves that if the pain or the problem that they’re solving isn’t significant enough it’s going to only make it easier for them to lose the desire the interest, the drive when they lack investor interest or customer interest or it’s that much harder to try to convince somebody to use your product or service. Because they don’t really see what the need is and that’s something that you just don’t ever want to be in that position as an entrepreneur. Really starting with solving real problems. These big ideas that we have and then focusing on building really solid plans and that’s going to get us there.

Vanessa Pagan:  That’s great. It reminds me of Dave McClure of 500 Startups. He says pitch the problem. Not the solution. Yeah, yes, they so true so and starts yeah, and I wanted to say one more thing about this plan. So, I think planning is entirely required. Now, how detailed that plan looks is questionable. So, I would like to invite everyone to attend, if you can. Charisse is doing a business model canvas workshop Tuesday February 27th at 3 p.m. Charisse, can you talk a little bit about what that workshop will entail in related to planning?

Charisse Bowen: Yeah, it’s a great planning session. In fact, business model canvases have been time tested proven tools for laying out your initial plans for your big idea. It doesn’t have to be like a full business you may even just have a good project that you’re taking on and I recommend still putting them through a business model canvas. You’ll walk away with a one-page visual canvas of really all the key concepts that are needed for understanding to get you to know what your next step is past that that big idea. And you may actually already be on your way with their business as well and putting it into a canvas format can really help you identify the holes and the areas that you need to focus your attention on or that you don’t have the answers quite figured out for yet. For visual thinkers, like myself, a 15-20 page business plan does nothing. It becomes a big stack of paper on my desk that doesn’t ever get looked at or referred to. For me, the canvas was always this great big kind of eye-opener because I could take whatever wouldn’t be in those 25 pages and put it on one 11 by 17 piece of poster board in front of me and hang it on my wall and look at it every day and live it every day. Way more powerful to present the new business I would be working on in that format. Versus a big stack of papers. Business plans are just so antiquated.

Vanessa Pagan: I hear you, and I’m really a big proponent of business model canvas, lean canvas because it’s the idea of having the whole picture and then you can see what do I need help with and this doesn’t just apply to companies like you said or startups this can be a project this could be an art exhibit, this can be a music project. I’m a big proponent. I hope people will be able to take your workshop.

The next lyric that we’re going to ask about and discuss is ‘You ask me for a contribution. We’re doing what we can.’

Charisse Bowen: Yeah, when we look at contributions, I really want to encourage listeners to ask themselves are they truly doing what they can? Are they truly contributing what they can to their various communities? I think that it was something that I learned early on in the Fort Collins community that this concept around giving before you get is incredibly important. Our startup equity around here I feel like is based on how much we give of ourselves to our communities without expecting anything in return, and it always comes back around 10-fold. I’ve never seen it not.

They say that your greatness is not based on what you have, but what you give and that is truly at the heart of the contribution. And it’s not always about money. Often times it’s about time. It’s about expertise. Do you have a skill or do you have an expertise that you can share with somebody or a group of people in the community because chances are they probably have some expertise or something that you might need as well, and it’s only through your own personal desire to share with them what you have that you will be then receive what it is that they have.

It’s interesting to go back to the BVI and what’s going on in the Caribbean right now. Right after the storms it was one of the things that was quite shocking was the lack of access to cash into money. You know the banks were closed. There’s no electricity so you can go to ATMs and get money out. And the only money that was still making its way through the country was whatever money was out and in people’s pockets at that time. And you started seeing this kind of emergence of the barter system and the ways of the old world before we had you know cash money to buy a purchase things. You started finding people, because there was no access to cash, offering food or various things in exchange for something that they may need.

It was quite interesting because I, for a just a quick second I kind of, could see what a barter driven society actually looked like. It was quite bonding from a community centric standpoint. There was such a tremendous amount of exchange of love and care when people are giving of themselves or opening up their homes to people who then in turn are going to help fix their roof and giving them a place to live and there’s this value exchange that actually seems so much more powerful than money. And it’s something that I think only in the absence of money being in existence do you really get to the heart of what do I have that I can contribute. And recognize that in doing so I will then be care for and get what I need and return.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s wonderful. Oftentimes with money, we are so narrow minded in terms of amount of money means what reach I have. Well, a barter system encourages the view to go from this vertical definition of money to a horizontal definition of how wide is my reach in different areas. And that can go with time, resources you have, things you have in your home, and suddenly you’re more empowered to share and exchange things beyond the narrow definition of units of dollars. Especially in a situation like the Caribbean where there wasn’t a banking system in place after the hurricane and people still need to survive and live and eat and drink water.

Charisse Bowen:  Yeah, it was a great lesson in that. I think as a really strong startup community, that idea of contributing what we have to the betterment of the community as a whole is key. It’s key.

Vanessa Pagan: Charisse, earlier you had mentioned to me that you are bringing in entrepreneurs from the British Virgin Island to Fort Collins. Can you talk a little about? What that is and what that looks like yeah?

Charisse Bowen: So, with my program and in the BVI the Forge I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the best entrepreneurs down in the BVI currently. I look at these are my rock stars, my unicorns. These men and women are the future of the entrepreneurial communities down there. And last year we brought Akeem Lennard to Fort Collins to experience startup week. He was the winner of our biz pitch competition that we did and as part of his winning we brought him here to work on startup week to experience it and he had a fantastic time, and I know everybody that got a chance to meet Akeem really loved getting to know him, and it was incredibly rewarding all around.

Well Akeem has been talking about startup week ever since he left Fort Collins and has really got a number of people excited about it back home, and so this year I’m excited that we’re actually going to have six BV Islanders here in Fort Collins for startup week experiencing and taking it all in. Akeem is coming back because he said he couldn’t let a year go by that he didn’t.

We have everything from a fashion designer to a gelato maker to a skincare company to a promotions and event management group, and it’s just it’s going to be incredible for them to all pay witness to and to experience startup week. I think we take for granted here in Fort Collins and in Colorado how lucky we are to have such an abundance of access to workshops and great content. I don’t think we truly understand how lucky we are to have something like startup week where we’ve got 130 plus free sessions for people to learn and grow and build their businesses. And for this group of entrepreneurs from the BVI something like 130 free sessions in a row is remarkable. And it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. And in its a game-changing opportunity lifetime where they’ll be exposed to new ideas they may not be able to have paid for in other ways.

And I think our community, I hope that the Fort Collins community, the Colorado community who get to meet the BV Islanders that are coming, take the time to get to know them. To hear their stories. They all have some real amazing stories of survival.

They’re going to be on a panel on Tuesday morning. I’m talking about resilience and talking about sharing their survival stories and the stories of how they come to put the pieces back together after being surrounded by such extreme adversity. Many of these lessons I think we all can learn from. I think we all go through our own battles in various ways and having some tools and tips and notions and even just hearing what these young people went through and overcame can really help put things in perspective for us. I’m thrilled to have them here and I’m optimistic that what they’re exposed to and what they see is going to end up carrying back, and have its own ripple effect through the BVI.

Vanessa Pagan: That’s wonderful. I know that the community that I found in Fort Collins has been very welcoming and accepting and I know that I’m going to be an absolute ambassador of welcome to all of the BVI attendees at startup week and I encourage everyone to do the same.

The next lyric I wanted to ask you about is the lyric, ‘but if you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell you is brother you have to wait’.

Charisse Bowen: Yes, yes, this is this lyric is so true. Everybody’s heard the saying you know haters the going to hate and I truly think that as revolutionaries we can’t let that get to us. We have to let that go. I’m convinced that the self-destructive nature of hate that these people carry with them towards us as revolutionaries making our way is way more detrimental to them and their and well-being than it ever would be to us.

It was once said that success brings scrutiny, and if you don’t have scrutiny then maybe what you’re doing isn’t impactful enough. That people oftentimes well this is that good kind of goes back to that tearing down lyric. Jealousy, envy can sometimes override people’s own ability to see how somebody else’s success can still be a positive for them.

We just can’t we can’t let it get to us you know and there’s a lot of hate in this world today. Unfortunately. And it’s been quite a political environment that drives hate, and there’s just a lot of other social factors that are causing hate to be a part of our daily conversations. As revolutionaries, I think it’s okay for us to acknowledge that it’s there, but we can’t let it hurt us. You can’t let it penetrate our own selves because as soon as it does their winning. The hate is winning and is going to be able to actually slow us down or stop us or caused doubt in our own minds, in our own abilities to revolutionize the little corners of the world that we’re trying to change. And we can’t let that happen.

Vanessa Pagan: I agree. The idea that we can get rid of hate is beyond our reach, but what is within our reach is how we respond to the hate. In true music format. I am going to give two more supporting themes and one is Jay Z’s Brush the dirt off your shoulders and the second is Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off.  There may be hate but you don’t have to keep it with you.

Charisse Bowen: Right, and we can’t it. I think hate is poisonous. I was telling my daughter actually just this morning I said at the heart of hate is the stuff that causes cancer. It’s the stuff that makes people sick, it’s the stuff that can really eat our insides out and carrying hate inside yourself can be such a poison. We just have to deflect it, and we just have to keep going. I’m learning to feel really sorry for people who carry a lot of hate in their heart and can be sad for them, but not let them stop me and definitely not let them get in the way of revolutionizing my little corner of the world.

Vanessa Pagan: Well done. Our last lyric is “You say you’ll change the constitution. We all want to change your head. You tell me it’s the institution. You better free your mind instead.”

Charisse Bowen: Yes, oh yes, and how interestingly when John Lennon wrote these lyrics the institution of that time and the institution that we were faced with today have such similarities. Stephen Covey said, “you’re not a product of your circumstances, but a product of your decisions”.

It’s easy sometimes to look around and say our circumstances are keeping us down our government and the things that they’re doing are oppressing us. You know my family and the things that they’re limiting me or my friends or lack thereof are disabling my ability to get this done, and we have to change our mindset on this we can’t allow all these external situations drive the decisions and drive our own free will to accomplishing what we know we need to get accomplished.

Unfortunately, with a lot of our current institutions and bureaucratic institutions we see the problem. And as a group we might say look at that problem. Look at that problem like how it’s tearing us down like healthcare. Let’s just use as an example. You know we look at it aa great big group, point at the problem, point the problem, but I challenge us to say what are we doing to fix it.

Pointing at a problem all day long is not going to get you anywhere. Getting up and voting. Running for office so that you can overturn some of these decisions. Creating alternative, innovative ideas that actually help solve maybe some of these, using the insurance example, insurance problems. Ways around it. I’m seeing people coming up with new and innovative ways of doing private, practicing private medicine and doing it an almost like a CSA format where you get a membership to a doctor’s office, and you pay a monthly fee, and you can see this doctor once a month as many times as you need to. Or you know, I saw that and I was like, god, that’s a great. These people are being so innovative and revolutionary solving a problem like access to health care and being able to meet this health care system and what it is, and that’s at the heart of changing your head and not looking at the institutions and looking at the way that the world is writing the book and saying that’s the book that I’m going to live in. Really writing your own book for your own life and just keep going.

Vanessa Pagan: Charisse, your revolutionary inspiration to action is living proof of the quote from Gandhi of be the change that you wish to see in the world.

Charisse Bowen: Yeah, absolutely he was one brilliant soul. He was.

Vanessa Pagan: Awesome. Charisse, you have been a wonderful inspiration taking us along this journey of what revolution looks like. And what revolution looks like not just in music in, our life, in startup week, at the British Virgin Islands and in Fort Collins in the world that we live in. Thank you for this interview and sharing your time with us.

Charisse Bowen: Thank you so much for having me. I look forward to changing the world with all of our startup week attendees here.

Vanessa Pagan: Wonderful. Is there anything you’d like to tell someone if they’re attending Fort Collins startup week for the first time?

Charisse Bowen: I think startup week is such an incredible opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and meet people that can really help further your business and help you take your ideas to the next level. I really want to encourage people to come to startup week with an attitude of openness and sharing and be ready and be excited about telling people who you are and what your big ideas are and not fearing somebody questioning or stealing your idea, but just really come at it with an open heart and open mind and sharing mentality because it’s part of the special sauce. It’s part of what makes that week amazing.