How to Increase Your Natural ‘Star Power’- Even if You’re Not Famous

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Star power is like many other things: you know it when you see it. But how can you ensure that people are seeing you as a power player?

A recent Forbes article discusses just that: how to own a room when you first walk in, how to emanate confidence — in other words, how to increase your “star” power. The author, Rob Asghar, provides several tips on how the common man can help himself come across like the President and CEO.

His first suggestion is to take an acting class. Learning to act can help timid or humble businessmen and women express themselves outwardly, displaying the positive aspects of their persona hidden by doubt or insecurity. This ability, Asghar argues, can go a long way to enhance and promote a career.

Next he says, is to try an improvisation class. Forcing yourself outside your comfort zone, improvisation can help you think on your feet, extemporaneously. Asghar writes that you’ll thank yourself for it the next time you have a high stakes job interview, sales presentation, or earnings call.

Perfecting the pause is another skill, Asghar argues, that can help you seem like all-star. He writes that the ability to sit silently and contemplate, during a meeting or a conversation, will improve your presence dramatically from using space holders like “um.”

Asghar’s next tip is to “ask for what you want.” Don’t be passive. It’s not rude to assert yourself to get what you want; it’s what successful people have been doing for years.

And don’t apologize or make excuses – stars don’t do that. If they’re late, you wait.

Perhaps his most important tip is to trust yourself. Act on your instincts, Asghar writes, because they’ve been honed over mankind’s many lifetimes to steer us in the right direction. Having the confidence to act on a gut feeling is one of the biggest assets of a star.

Overall, there is one comprehensive theme when it comes to star power, according to the article. It is not so much about branding yourself with your words or work, it’s about managing your own energy. If you can do that, Asghar says, you’re one giant step closer to being viewed as a star.

via Bevans Branham http://bevansbranham.org/how-to-increase-your-natural-star-power-even-if-youre-not-famous/

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Music With a Message About Poverty

Art and activism have always had tangible histories. Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel, The Jungle, was a fictional work that changed the face of American labor . At the turn of the 20th century, Nellie Bly and fellow muckrakers used photography to shed light on poverty and poor working conditions, both in New York City and around the world.

And today we have the Global Citizen Festival.

An article was recently published in the New York Times entitled, “Music With a Message About Poverty.” In the article, author Nate Chinen explores the role that the Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park, has in making a difference.

The program, the author writes, was hosted in September, and for the second consecutive year drew a full crowd of 60,000. Focused on the mission of ending poverty in the world, the program is not only a behemoth musical concert, but an informational, powerful congregation, timed (no doubt for the symbolism) to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly and the annual gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative. Featuring artists like John Mayer, Alicia Keys, The Kings of Leon, and Stevie Wonder, the Festival brought national attention to issues that might otherwise be ignored or minimized.

Interestingly, Chipen told readers, most of those 60,000 tickets were not purchased, but rather earned. Anyone who wanted to attend the concert could register on the organization’s website, and rather than pull out their credit card, was prompted to complete tasks related to building awareness around the Global Citizen Festival’s primary goal, to end extreme poverty.

In his review, Chipen praises the artists for their meaningful lyrics and powerful presence, noting John Mayer’s timely performance of “Waiting on the World to Change,” and Alicia Keys’ strong presentment of the lyric, “I’m here to make a statement.” But most notable, he argues, was Stevie Wonder.

Poverty wasn’t the only issue on Wonder’s agenda, however. According to the article, he told the crowd, “We must do something about the gun laws in this country,” before diving into a cover of John Lennon’s quintessential reflection on idealism, “Imagine.”

According to the article, Wonder proclaimed to the crowd, “We are global citizens, we’re gonna change the world.”

via Bevans Branham Non-Profits & Humanitarian http://bevansbranhamnonprofit.com/music-with-a-message-about-poverty/

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Venture Capital Deals Jump 12% in Q3: Uber Leads the Way

From Bevans Branham of Palm Springs, CA:

Uber, a popular on-demand car service company, has a bit more cash-on-hand after this year’s third quarter investments.

According to an article posted on VentureBeat.com, Uber received $258 million in the third quarter of 2013, which made the organization #1 for venture capital raised in that time period; this in a market where over 10,000 startups received $7.8 billion in funding from venture capitalists.

The article goes on to break down VC spending by industry, but overall, the author writes, the market saw a 12% increase in investment from the second quarter, as well as a smaller increase when compared to 2012 numbers.

But the most important statistic, he argues, came out of the software industry, which received more investment money than in any quarter during the last 12 years. This record number manifesting in $3.6 billion in investments, which, according to the article, shows a 23% jump from the second quarter.

Why such a large increase? VentureBeat attributes some of the leap in funding to major deals such as $196.5 million for Palantir, a data analysis software company; $80 million for Clarabridge, which provides software to analyze unstructured data; $70 million for an organization called Deem, responsible for making business management software; and $65 million for Toa Technologies, a firm the produces mobile workforce software.

The article also discusses a report conducted by PriceWaterhouseCooper, The National Venture Capital Association, and Money Tree, in which Mark McCaffrey of PwC told reporters, “It’s an exciting time to be an entrepreneur with a software company… The continued increase in valuations for innovative and disruptive technologies in software-related companies, coupled with the increase in exit activity, is driving venture capitalists to make more investments in this space.”

And investors are even more optimistic about the future. According to the article, not only will 2013 investment numbers likely trump the previous year, but many of these investments, particularly in software fields, reflect early-stage funding. In other words, there’s good reason to believe the numbers will be on the rise in the near future.

“We are balancing this optimism, however, against the recognition that VCs are still trying to gain exits for the previous generation of companies,” John Taylor of the National Venture Capital Association told reporters. “There is some improvement on that front, but we would like to see it strengthen even further.”

Biotech was a distant second in terms of industries, the author writes, raising $852 million in the third quarter.

via Bevans Branham Venture Capital http://bevansbranhamvc.com/venture-capital-deals-jump-12-in-q3-uber-leads-the-way/

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