Incomia

How do you get the biggest names in publishing, marketing and business to return your calls? How do you get them to join you for an intimate evening? How do you pack a private event with more than 40 top-tier journalists? If you asked Sol Orwell, founder of Examine, he’d tell you it comes down to one ingredient: cookies. Well, maybe two: cookies and a cause. On November 4, 2017, Sol Orwell and Tammy Tibbetts, CEO and co-founder of She’s the First , played host to a veritable who’s who of influencers at the first annual NYC Charity Chocolate Chip Cookie Off . Notable attendees included best-selling author Seth Godin; personal finance guru Ramit Sethi; Nick Ganju, whose company ZocDoc was valued in the billions; Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of No t Giving a F*ck ; and the king of food-related networking himself, Keith Ferrazzi. Part media event, part philanthropy, the Cookie Off reveals two ingredients perfect for not only leading your own networking event but also for networ...

Jessica Baum, licensed mental health counselor and author of the book Anxiously Attached: Becoming More Secure in Life and Love , believes that developing a meaningful connection with yourself will provide you with a deeper understanding of your patterns and habits so you can better understand how you show up in your relationships.  In this week’s episode of In the Details , Baum and host Karen Allen dive into how to create awareness for your behaviors, build compassion and reaction time to emotions and how to reframe trigger moments as awakenings. Understanding our own paths All humans go through different levels of pain , suffering and trauma. When we experience these things when we’re young, we adapt, and keep those adaptations as we move into adulthood. Most of the time we’re not even conscious that any of this is occurring.  Grief can sometimes be an amazing path, and can act as a catalyst to an expansion. Baum dealt with anxiety and depression, and during that time ...

I’m driving home from one of Atlanta’s popular new restaurants. For the past few hours, I have been gabbing and sipping French wine with 15 friends. We covered everything from the latest binge-worthy shows to hilarious dating adventures. While the posh setting complete with crystal chandeliers and plush velvet club chairs is what Instagram dreams are made of, everyone was more interested in creating something with their fingers than they were scrolling technology with them. It was the inaugural Stitch Club Atlanta meeting of 2022, a group that meets the third Thursday of the month to needlepoint with each other. Needlepoint is a centuries-old craft dating to ancient Egypt. It became a prominent domestic pastime in the 16th century, and eventually worked its way into home decor through elaborate tapestries and detailed upholstery. The hobby is traditionally thought of as being passed down from one generation to another, with family heirlooms like Christmas stockings being among the mos...

The next time you’re standing at yet another industry happy hour, put down the Chardonnay and try these tips to start meeting people outside your niche. Networking is about building relationships , sharing information and finding sources of support. Often people play it safe, staying inside their industry walls, failing to pop that comfort-zone bubble and venture into unknown territory of new faces and new ideas . It’s time to go beyond the familiar to expand your network and knowledge and meet more contacts who could help get you that much closer to your goals. We asked eight entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to give us their tips for mastering the art of meeting people beyond the boundaries of your business interests and connections:   1. Volunteer. Find an organization working on a cause you care about and volunteer a few hours a month. It’s great to step outside of your day-to-day work and contribute to a different mission, and you’ll meet peop...

The Restart Roadmap: Rewire and Restart Your Career By Jason Tartick For anyone who has ever heard, “it’s never too late,” this is the guidebook for turning that advice into an action plan. Written by motivational business speaker, investment banker and life coach Jason Tartick, The Restart Roadmap is for those feeling lost in their pursuit of happiness in their career or personal life. Tartick, who also hosts Trading Secrets , a podcast about how to navigate the financial world as a consumer, employee or investor, shares steps to help individuals define their own version of financial, professional and emotional success . And from Selling Sunset’s Chrishell Stause to Shark Tank’s Daymond John, readers believe in Tartick’s blueprint for change. Make No Small Plans: Lessons on Thinking Big, Chasing Dreams, and Building Community By Elliott Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal and Jeremy Schwartz Authors Elliott Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal and Jeremy Schwartz are the...

You work with these people eight hours a day, five days a week. But do you reach past your office doors or cubicle boundaries to see your co-workers at 5 o’clock happy hour or a weekend baseball game? Would you go so far as to call your fellow employees friends? There are ups and downs to forming work friendships that carry past the office parking lot. Nine entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) chime in, sharing their takes on whether calling your cube neighbor your BFF is a good or bad thing: 1. Collaboration and job satisfaction Team members should definitely hang out outside of work. It makes working together more enjoyable and helps co-workers stay motivated during crunch time. These types of relationships fuel open communication, a good work ethic, flexibility and a better understanding of each person’s roles and expectations. If you hire the right professionals, workplace drama will be minimal. —Stephen Ufford, Trulioo 2. Potential disaster Employee frie...

Walking with a special word (whether I choose it or it chooses me) gives me a guiding virtue and helps me stay focused on the ways I want to show up in the world. One word I always keep close is a mundane, utilitarian conjunction that keeps me out of the illusion of limitations, helps me transcend the trap of duality and opts me out of polarity’s tug-of-war. I love the little word “and.” These three simple letters strung together are a superpower. Liberation from polarity, poor choices and victimhood is found in the word “and.” This little word eliminates helplessness , expands your mind and opens the heart. It connotes endless possibility, which sparks creativity and fuels innovation. It’s the quickest possible fix to the stickiest of dilemmas, providing instant reframes and fast relief from judgment and suffering. “And” can be represented by a singular symbol—an ampersand, a plus sign. Yet like a single cell, it can grow into something large, complex and beautiful. This word is mu...

Traditional networking is mostly ineffective. We’re either time poor and don’t know where to find quality connections , or we leave a networking event with a stack of business cards but no solid relationships. Here are eight unconventional strategies to nurture a powerful network: 1. Do the work. No magic fairy will wave her wand and give you quality, reliable contacts in a short time. I have a saying: “You can get rich quick, but nobody gets wealthy quick.” Having a great network is wealth. Creating an extensive valuable network will not happen overnight or even quickly. You can speed things up by attending the right kind of events. One reason I created 10X Growth Con—a large networking event for entrepreneurs—was to bring like-minded people together. Just attending an event will not create a network. You must still do the work: Reach out, be social and have sales skills . The right event can exponentially enlarge your network quickly and [you can] solidify your contacts by followi...

In 2017, I read an editorial in The New York Times with one eye on the paper and the other one rolling in the back of my head. (Metaphorically, that is. Do not try this at home!) The piece, written by Professor Adam Grant of the Wharton School, is called “ Networking Is Overrated .” The essence of Grant’s opinion piece is it’s not who you know, it’s what you do . In other words, accomplishments are more effective calling cards to success than a business network. He notes the grassroots success stories of Justin Bieber and Adele, whose talents shone through on social media and caught the attention of music executives, and SPANX founder Sara Blakely, whose product rose above all the rest when Oprah Winfrey chose it as one of her favorite things of the year. Grant’s thesis is that great ideas and great work find attention. To quote one of my son’s favorite movies, Field of Dreams , “If you build it, they will come.” I would love to live in that world, where talent, ingenuity and skil...

When I was 6 years old, my father bought me a violin. It was a life-changing gift. I wouldn’t say I was a mind-blowing talent, but I was good with music and I enjoyed spending time studying it. At the age of 10, I started to perform small concerts. At first, they were just for my family and our circle of friends, but months later, I was playing the School of Fine Arts scene in my hometown. I can recall how nervous I was before every single concert. But once I started to play, I entered a state of ease and flow, and my violin became my best friend. Years later, I was working for a multinational corporation, first in Romania and later in Sweden and China. During my time with this company, I was involved in a lot of business projects and my leadership role required me to speak both in front of my team and in management meetings. And I have to confess: It wasn’t always easy. Speaking in public was very different from playing an instrument onstage. At concerts, my violin was there with m...

Since starting my own company in 2014, networking has been the lifeblood of my new business development , and online networking has been a huge component. By online networking, I don’t mean seeing how many LinkedIn connections you can get, “liking” lots of other people’s posts or having accounts on every new social media channel that launches—I’m talking quality over quantity. Now, to some extent, networking of any kind has a numbers component—you meet and talk to many more people than actually become valuable contacts or clients. However, by applying a targeted, thoughtful and authentic approach, you can make your online networking much more successful . Here are five tips to help you make the most of online networking: 1. Start local. This one may seem counterintuitive when using a global tool like the Internet, and in many situations it makes a lot of sense to reach beyond your immediate geography. However, when you’re getting started with online networking, connecting with peop...

Sunbathing while tending to his garden, house music playing lightly in the background while the leaves dance to the beat. His definition of success? He pauses and answers questions thoughtfully, giving off the same ease as a musician playing his biggest hit. “Waking up in the morning with nothing hurting too bad.” Has Ron Finley mastered the art of just being? He calls himself a professional breather. “No, but what do you do for a living?” people often ask him. It’s a question all-too familiar to the frequent networker, or online dater. “I tell them I breathe for a living to make people pause so it can sink in,” Finley says. “ Your job is not your life .” Known now as the Gangsta Gardener after his 2013 TED Talk on urban gardening went viral, Ron Finley is a man on a mission that’s not for the faint of heart: to make people “give a f—.” In the age of social media and confirmation bubbles, getting people to care about something new or contrary to their existing beliefs often boils do...

Working for someone else often comes with stability and security. Yet as a management consultant, Kate Flynn was slipping further away from her core desire: time with family and friends. She also found the work unfulfilling and often logged long hours. In 2017 she drove a few hours south of her San Francisco office to Esalen Institute, a retreat center in Big Sur. Redwoods towered above her and the Pacific Ocean coastline’s soaring cliffs were a balm to her frenetic mind. It’s also where Flynn heard, for the first time, what she needed for a happier, calmer life . At the end of a guided yoga and meditation class, the instructor asked participants to walk to the end of the bridge, gaze at the waterfall and exhale out everything that doesn’t serve you. For Flynn, it was the job. After that, she quit her job in San Francisco, moved to Santa Barbara and became an accidental entrepreneur, launching Sun & Swell Foods , a line of healthy and organic snacks. “It’s really common to come...