80. Infusing Creativity Into Every Part of Your Business with Shelly Bell

There is a currency even more valuable than the money that holds our industry together, that not many people truly understand.  It’s what makes the most noteworthy events, it’s what makes attendees say “Wow! That was the best speaker I have ever heard.” It’s what keeps your ads working and virtual events engaging.  What is that currency? It’s creativity.  Creativity is the most essential skill to hone, own and implement in your business. When reading that sentence you may have the knee-jerk reaction to say “But I am not creative?” Let us assure you that if you are an entrepreneur, speaker, business owner, or meeting planner, you are the most creative of us all.  Creativity goes so much further than how well you can paint, draw, sculpt or take a picture. Creativity is more than just the arts.  Creativity goes to the core of who you are.  Today we welcome speaker, computer scientist, entrepreneur, and influencer Shelly Bell Inside The Greenroom! Shelly is a master of weaving creativity with professionalism. She has gone from poet, computer scientist and entrepreneur. If there is anyone that could teach us how to toe this line; it’s her.  Named as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 100 Powerful Women in Business, Shelly Bell is a computer scientist, system disruptor, and business strategist, who moves ideas to profit, while empowering people to live, build, and foster better relationships. Listen in to the real and raw conversation with Shelly and Blair and learn how to start infusing creativity into every part of your life and business.  More of What We Cover: The #1 reason you should hire someone Why every entrepreneur should be delusional Shelly’s impressive start-up story  How to give yourself permission to create Shelly’s partnership with Nike™ How every entrepreneur is an artist The toughest crowd to speak too How Shelly blends computer science and art Where creativity and money-making meet Sticking to the core of who you are Finding common ground with everyone   LINKS: Connect with Shelly: Website: www.iamshellybell.com SM Links: @IAmShellyBell Facebook: @IAmShellyBell Twitter: @IAmShellyBell Insta: @IAmShellyBell   Connect with Blair: [email protected]  Connect with us: Facebook: ​​www.facebook.com/advanceyourreach Website:​​ advanceyourreach.com Email​: ​[email protected] Learn More About our Stage Agency:  https://elitespeakersagency.com/ [email protected] Episode Minute By Minute: 0:23 Welcome Inside The Greenroom! 0:34 Meet Shelly 1:36 How Shelly started her business 10:06 Create your own playbook 15:49 The secret sauces to growing your business 17:55 The power of mirroring 20:36 How Shelly creates opportunities for underrepresented voices 23:13 Who are you to your company? 25:08 How Shelly has leveraged stages to build her business 31:22 Shelly’s favorite success stories 35:08 How the murder of George Floyd affected Shelly’s founders 37:55 Winning tips to keeping a virtual audience engaged 42:35 The speakers who have impacted Shelly the most 45:02 You can make people uncomfortable and not hurting their feelings.  More About Shelly: Named as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 100 Powerful Women in Business, Shelly Bell is a computer scientist, system disruptor, and business strategist who moves ideas to profit while empowering people to live, build, and foster better relationships. She connects entrepreneurs, investors, and corporations in order to diversify their talent pipeline, increase equity, and grow their brands.  About Black Girl Ventures: Black Girl Ventures, founded in 2016 as a solution to wealth disparity and lack of access to capital. We began with our signature event, the BGV Pitch Competition. Since then we have traveled to 4 cities, raised over $30K, funded 10 founders, created a pipeline of over 300 black/ brown women founders, formed over 20 partnerships, and engaged a following of over 20K people with diverse backgrounds. BGV believes that the best way to engage Black/Brown founders is by using intense short-term learning experiences followed by an online peer to peer mentoring with experts available to guide and coach when necessary. Our approach is to create fee-based engagements in increments of two hours, half-day  (4 hours)  and (8 hours) full day with specific tangible outcomes to cater to the lifestyle of Black and Brown women founders. Black Girl Ventures has made a national footprint by creating uniquely engaging crowdfunded pitch competitions in Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Austin, and NYC.  About Black Girl Ventures: Black Girl Ventures, founded in 2016 as a solution to wealth disparity and lack of access to capital. We began with our signature event, the BGV Pitch Competition. Since then we have launched chapters in 5 cities, raised over $1M, funded over 130 founders, created a pipeline of over 300 black/ brown women founders, formed over 20 partnerships, and engaged a following of over 30K people with diverse backgrounds. BGV believes that the best way to engage Black/Brown founders is by using intense short-term learning experiences followed by online peer to peer mentoring with experts available to guide and coach when necessary. Black Girl Ventures has made a national footprint by creating uniquely-engaging, crowdfunded pitch competitions in Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Austin, NYC, Miami, Houston, and Detroit.