Michael Koehn, a member of Team Genie, teaches us a simple way to reduce your stress level at work. The BC Association of Clinical Counselors and Sahali Center Mall paired together with Michael to do a public education seminar. Monitoring your heart rate and nervous system is one subject he spoke about. If you want to learn more check out this video!

Fast Tube by Casper

Once again we are reminded that Kamloops is full of creative entrepreneurs and incredible talent.  Choosing the finalists for the Fast Pitch Competition at Aberdeen Mall for this coming weekend has not been as easy as we had anticipated.

There have been many great submissions but we have finally come to our top eight who will be pitching their creative business ideas and start-up businesses on Saturday to our expert panel of judges.

1. Kids Coffee & Tea Company – Team Genie from Race to a Million will be pitching their long awaited business model which supports children’s charities including the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The Kids Coffee and Tea Company plan on measuring their success by the health and wellness of local children in the community. They maintain that every aspect of their operation from their suppliers, to their roasters, to their customers will be approached with a goal of supporting kids’ programs and enrichment opportunities in a sustainable and effective way. With an exciting distribution program already underway and plans for future retail outlets and franchises, Kids Coffee and Tea Company aim to be so much more than a great cup of coffee.
2. Agile Schedule – Jarrod Goddard from Net Shift Media will be pitching his web-based personal scheduling system that solves the problem of checking multiple calendar sources for your own calendar of activities. Personal schedules, work schedules and school schedules are all combined into a single calendar system to save time and frustration for users, business owners, and schools. Agile Schedule will combine a unique approach to serving the business community, post secondary schools, and individuals while integrating social media and communications tools with this unique approach that Jarrod believes is poised to become a prominent personal scheduling system and a single definitive source for managing our daily lives.
3. HeatPads.ca – Team Alpha from Race to A Million will pitch their latest business idea for reusable heat pads.   Team Alpha’s Heat Pads are reusable self-powered heating devices.  Popular uses for the pads include warming your hands, soothing tense muscles, and a variety of other applications. Team Alpha believes they have developed a business model capable of providing significant return on investment. Team Alpha plans to sell the business for what they believe is a low cost opportunity to have a great money-making small business.
4. The Ripcharger Supercharger - Dennis Smith will present the world’s first commercially available super-charger for 2 stroke engines. Starting with the snowmobile market and expanding into other power sports markets, the Ripcharger Supercharger provides more power, better handling and increased fuel efficiency. Dennis and his business partners at Ripcharger have been getting a lot of practice pitching with their recent entry into the New Ventures BC Competitions so get ready to see a rip roaring presentation as they set their sites on impressing our great judges.
5. Spark Your Imagination Story Starters – Tamara Vukusic will pitch her collection of 52 scenarios to kick-start imagination, encourage problem-solving and get families talking. Only recently launched, in December, Spark Story Starters are already being retailed across Canada as both a deck of cards and an App available for iPhones, iPods, iPads, and Android devices. Spark Your Imagination Story Starters inspire kids to think beyond the boundaries of what is. Tamara says “The future needs our creative kids. Get your kids to think outside the box with Spark Story Starters and empower them to hone an increasingly valuable skill.”
6. Cell Pods – Matthew Muzzillo will unveil and pitch his rapid charging “vending” machine for providing a quick charge to mobile and hand held devices. This technology will service people in public locations who are on-the-go. Matthew says “Let’s face it, cellphone demand and usage is on the rise each and every single day. Keeping in touch with friends and family, surfing the internet and snapping pictures can take a lot out of your battery. On-the-go is when you need access to your cellphone the most, so don’t get stuck without power. Utilize a CELLPODS Rapid Charging Machine to ensure that you’ll always have power.”
7. Wild West Adventure Vacations – Larry Foss will pitch an adventure vacation package he claims to be the only package like it in North America. 6 Days and 6 nights of adventure, visiting historic ranches in the interior of BC. Amongst the unique memories created for a lifetime vacationers will experience robbing a stage coach and a train and they will take a DVD recording of their adventure to share with friends and family. Larry plans on serving 108 clients from late June to early September with 5 days of “old west” combined with one day of “new west”.
8. ShareMy360.com – Jason Wassing from Greater Than Technology will pitch to our esteemed judges (and unveil to the public for the very first time) a new software platform which has been in development for almost 2 years. Nearing completion this new web based virtual tour online platform will provide an easy and unique way of marketing businesses and sharing information with the world through social media. Jason says there is already significant demand from many sectors including real estate, hospitality tourism, retail marketing, education, and manufacturing.

Tickets for the Fast Pitch Business Competition and more information can be found at http://www.racetoamillion.ca/events

Episode 18 of the Race to a Million is dedicated to Marc Pouliot and his parents Melanie and Leo. Their message of inspiration and hope inspires us even more to continue our message that businesses should not only focus on making money but also on making a difference for it’s there that we find more passion and reason for life. In business we sometimes say “Seize the day!” but Marc would have us “Squeeze The Day” instead … Squeeze every ounce of awesome out of it that you can get! Thank you Marc.

http://www.racetoamillion.ca/sponsors/full-shows-on-shaw-tv/

Episode 17 of the Race to a Million can now be viewed on the website.  This week we have a TRU theme to the Race.  We take a look at what’s happening with the teams, what it’s like to be a student and a participant in the Race, the Associate Dean of the School of Business and Economics joins us in the study to talk about sponsoring the upcoming Art of Doing Business Series, and we head up to TRU for International Days and speak with TRU World about their marketing efforts to International students.

http://www.racetoamillion.ca/sponsors/full-shows-on-shaw-tv/

Follow the latest strategy’s, get up to speed and stay on top of all the hard core business action that these teams have been doing as we take you on the ground and follow two business meetings to show you the leg work these three teams have been doing. Which team is leading the pack? Find out in this Race update!!!

Fast Tube by Casper

Episode 13 is now airing …

This episode is running on Shaw TV on the following dates: Thursday January, 20th at 8PM, Saturday, January 22nd at 5PM and Sunday, January 23rd at 5PM (Moved from 3PM)

If you can’t catch it on Shaw TV in the local Kamloops market you can check out the entire episode here on this website through our Vimeo channel in full HD by following the link at the end of this post!

In this episode:

1. BIZ APPS:  Great applications for mobile smart phones and devices. Dean and Peter do battle to see who has the better application. Who do you think better this week? We’d love to hear from you. Vote for your favorite in the comments section of this post!
2. BIG IDEAS:  Bryan Wickham from Dragon’s Decorative Concrete joins us in the studio for a segment we like to call BIG IDEAS. Where we talk about one of his former inventions called the Umbrachipin… A Golf Umbrella that doubles as a putting and chipping practice tool.
3. PARTICIPANT SPOTLIGHT:  Local Realtor, Mike Harrison, from Team Alpha joins us in the studio for a participant spotlight.
4. SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT:  We head up to Aberdeen Mall and interview Trish Baldwin to talk about the mall, its connections to the community, and why they became a Race to a Million sponsor.
5. RACE UPDATE:  We tune into to watch Team Genie, Team Alpha and Team TRU with a race update. Team Genie works on their marketing for the Kids Coffee and Tea Company while Team Alpha and Team TRU team up to “pitch” the Kamloops SPCA on a great business idea which can also help the BCSPCA with a great fund-raising program.

Check it all out at the following page:

http://www.racetoamillion.ca/sponsors/full-shows-on-shaw-tv/

Get the full Race Update from Episode 8 here!!!!! Team Alpha talks about three different investment strategies… From Team Nexus is Professor Investor who promotes healing with the top five products on www.dealsvm.com… Matrix and their new website along with the distribution of Vatahealth… We went up to TRU to get an update from Bernie Warren and Usman Vahidy for Team TRU… and lastly Team Genie’s Michael Koehn came into the studio to talk about Kids Coffee and Tea Company!

Fast Tube by Casper

Since you’ve been inviting us into your home for the last few months we thought we’d invite you into one of ours.  Join us at Peter’s home, decorated for the holidays, as we talk review what has happened with the teams so far in the Race To A Million.

It’s been quite an adventure so far in the race and since we are switching the calendar over to 2011 we thought we’d share some of our candid thoughts on some of the strategies employed by the teams so far and what we think, straight shooting from the hip.

Where did the idea of the Race to a Million come from? Who is watching? Where are the teams at? What are they doing? Do they have a chance of getting there?

Fast Tube by Casper

When Dean and I started the Race to a Million we did a little research. We wanted to know what the average person thought about business and entrepreneurs. We knew that people, including ourselves, have a tendency to socialize and interact with like minded individuals who think like they do.  We needed to know what other people thought about business that were not necessarily like us, others who were not part of our sphere of influence.

Boy, did we get a shock! We managed to find a lot of people who were neither business people nor entrepreneurs, but we thought they should be. These people, like us, love to be creative. They care about their friends, family and community. They are enthusiastic. They like to have fun. These people work tirelessly on school PACs, cadets groups, card making and scrap-booking groups, and fund-raising committees for children’s sports groups. What we learned from many of them contained some surprises for us.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was that many of these enthusiastic, creative, and caring people truly believe that you can not succeed in business without being ruthless, cutthroat and self-centered. They had stereotyped business people according to the negative and sensational examples of the heartless, cold and calculating millionaire celebrities we all love to hate. I heard time and again that these people wouldn’t want to enter into business because they wouldn’t like the person they would have to become.

95% of our economy is driven by small business entrepreneurs.  What would our economy look like if these people didn’t feel like this about the prospects of starting a business? They’re the creative backbone of our society! They care about people! They’re the business owners that every potential customer and every potential employee is looking for! If we could find a way to show these people that nice people don’t have to finish last – it could be a game changer.

This is one of the reasons why we started the Race to a Million and also the reason why we chose our slogan, “Nice People Can Finish First”.

Yesterday, I was a little disturbed with a related sentiment posted by a reader on our website. It was in reference to Team Genie’s project which they have apply named the Kids Coffee and Tea Company. Here’s what the comment says:

• “Are they using sympathy for children to cash in? Boo. What a sick program all together. Shame on all of you sick people. Money is your god.”

Here was my response:  (click here if you want to see the full dialogue – it’s at the bottom of the page when you follow the link)

• In my opinion I believe Team Genie has chosen a good avenue to align and promote their brand of coffee. They have chosen to support causes for children in three different ways: 1) in support of children from farming families where the coffee comes from … 2) in support of Make-A-Wish foundation (Team Genie’s primary charity of choice) in order to grant wishes for children with a terminal illness and 3) as a fund raising opportunity for kids school, sports and recreational groups. Are they using sympathy to cash in? I don’t think so. Rather I believe they are giving consumers a choice to support a coffee brand that does more than just line its shareholders pockets with money. Money is not their God. They are making a difference and I for one am proud to be associated with what they are attempting to do.

I think this is another example of people assuming that making a profit and running a business is dirty. We should not be shying away from realizing our dreams of supporting our families and making a difference in the world. We should be embracing it! While the concepts of socialism and communism have the greater good in mind; it’s a proven fact that they just don’t work! Communism has been a cause of oppression and hardship for millions of people generation after generation.  I think where people go wrong with capitalism is the idea behind what a business is and is not.

Look at Natalie Peace in the business tips interview we recently did. She started Booster Juice because she wanted to make a difference in the world! Who says you have to wait to become a successful millionaire before you can become a philanthropist? Why can’t we find smaller but consistent ways of making a difference as we progress in our businesses and give back to social and environmental causes as we’re on the journey? Why do some individuals assume that our motives aren’t noble?

The good news is not everyone feels this way. The face of business is changing in the world… it’s becoming social… it’d becoming about more than the bottom line… as Natalie says… it’s about multiple bottom lines. I invite everyone to join us! As Shaw TV’s campaign recently said “Together is Amazing!” … Together we can make a difference… contact us if you’d like to find out how you can help. We’d love to hear from you.

Smooth coffee with no bitter after taste … there’s a great reason why one of the brands for Kids Coffee and Tea Company is called the “Time Out”. Team Genie takes you into the Roasting Room and a little further behind the scenes with their custom blending and roasting process. Get acquainted with their Roastmaster as he introduces you to some of the steps. Organically grown Kenya, Guatemala and Sumatra beans are roasted individually and then blended together to create this unique taste. But, according to Team Genie, it’s more than just custom roasting and a wide variety of blends… it’s also more than the environmentally conscious packaging… but it’s nothing without you. With you Team Genie says “together we can provide the support that the Make-A-Wish foundation really deserves”.

Get to know Team Genie and their Kids Coffee and Tea Company by watching these three great videos:

Video: Team Genie Launches Kids Coffee and Tea Company – Race Update – Ep. 7

Fast Tube by Casper

Video: Behind The Scenes with the Kids Coffee and Tea Company – Custom Roasting

Video: Rich Coffee With Gold Nuggets? Race Update – Genie Ep. 8

We got out on the streets of Kamloops in this video segment of “Feet in the Street” and asked some fans in Kamloops a few questions.   Is it possible to turn $500 into $1 Million?  How would you do it? Is being a nice person good for business? What’s your big idea?

Fast Tube by Casper

Time for a Race Update from The Race To A Million teams. Team Nexus is down a little (again) after purchasing software for their online store… Pete says “I’ll eat my hat if the site is up in time”. Team Matrix hasn’t yet moved from their $755 mark. They’ve lost a couple of members but they’re in the process of adding replacements. Matrix assures us, however, that they are getting ready to move forward with their strategies. Third place has Team Genie who also has lost a member but they are very excited about their upcoming product launch. In second place is team Alpha who has added their first sponsor, Brian from Home Pro Inspections Service and they’re dropping the cost of the car they have for sale. In first place is Team TRU still meeting weekly… still innovating… the business community seems to really buying in to this team while they leverage all of their ideas.

Fast Tube by Casper

Here’s an EXTENDED team updates video from October 25, 2010 with members of each Race To A Million Team checking in via video to tell us what’s happening in the race.

Regan Hayes from Team Genie talks about their upcoming plans to launch something VERY BIG and include their charity in an equally BIG way.

Gregg Murray from Team Matrix speaks to some of the challenges their team has faced but believes the members of the team are still “game” for the game.

Lisa Ottenbreit from Team TRU feels confident that their team is increasing their social media following and is embracing the lead that her team has over the others cautiously but also with optimism. They are enjoying the opportunities to try different business ideas and they are excited about what’s to come. Lisa tells us a little more about their TRUly Fresh Personnel strategy and their partnership deal with Kamloops Night Out. They are also looking for more partnership opportunities with other businesses in town.

Team Nexus tells us to remember, remember, the 5th of November… DealsVonMastermind.com is launching on that day! A one stop shopping portal for electronics, vacations and lots of great deals on many other items.  These guys are hilarious and entertaining!

And don’t forget Team Alpha who speaks to us about their ups and downs and the way they are turning things around… The Car, Star Wars collectibles, Mosaic picture software and a contest that has something to do with counting noodles.

Fast Tube by Casper

Get to know Mickael Maddison. Dean Pierson interviews Mickael in this Contestant Spotlight for Race To A Million. Mickael is the owner of Silver Servers located in Kamloops, BC, Canada and a member of Team Genie. He’s also an accomplished singer, songwriter and musician. Michael started in the world of music by accident but since 2005 has been getting attention from the industry which has spurred him on to accomplish more. Working in the fields of both music and technology Michael has some interesting things to say.

Fast Tube by Casper

Join us behind the scenes in the audio and video editing bay at the Race To A Million where we update you on the latest happenings from the teams.

Team Nexus is still wearing Star Wars helmets and they are still launching their dealsvm.com electronics online store on November 5th, 2010… don’t forget to check it out.

Team Matrix announces a partnership with both Vata Vibe for selling Healthy vibration machine technology and Simply Communicating for business employment relations services

Team Genie is launching their SECRET strategy very soon and all we can say at this point is that it will be a great opportunity for community groups as a potential fund raiser

Team Alpha is still trying to sell their car

AND … Team TRU is leading the pack in a partnership with Kamloops Night Out and an Art show coming up at the Commodore.

Fast Tube by Casper