Vera Fischer began her career in residential real estate, working her way up from Leasing Agent to Property Manager. She segued to Operations Manager for the first privately held Cognitive Rehabilitation clinic in Austin, Texas. In 1993, Vera launched her career at GSD&M, an internationally known advertising agency. After various positions within several Austin area agencies, Vera went client-side to Forgent Networks. There she managed and implemented a multi-million dollar marketing budget for several years.
In 2004, Vera founded her agency, 97 Degrees West known as The Brand Marketing Agency. Since 2004, the agency has survived both recessions and shown significant growth since 2012. Clients include: LS Tractor USA, United Heritage Credit Union, FirstCare Health Plans and several area small businesses in real estate, oil & gas and speciality medical practices. 97 Degrees West has been the recipient of 15 international creative and marketing awards including a Stevie Award from the American Business Association.
Vera is a member of the University Area Rotary Club, a member of the Advisory Board for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University, a Mentor at Capital Factory and most recently, was accepted to the Masters program at Texas State University in Strategic Communications.
Dave Gardner has spent over 25 years as a professional in the Real Estate industry as Professional Land Surveyor, Builder, Residential and Commercial Investor, and Mortgage Advisor. From early on, he built a career serving others. In his role as a Mortgage Advisor, Dave helps purchasers with much more advice than just their rate and the cost of their loan. His resume spans many years and experience in all aspects of real estate.
Wendy Keller is an award-winning former journalist, a respected literary agent, an author, speaker and acclaimed book marketing consultant. She got her first job as a newspaper reporter as a 16-year-old college freshman. Since then, Wendy worked for PR Newswire; the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain; as managing editor of Dateline magazine; and as associate publisher of Los Angeles then-second-largest Spanish-language weekly, La Gaceta. She founded what is now Keller Media, Inc. as ForthWrite Literary Agency in 1989.
She has sold an astonishing 1,500 rights deals worldwide, including 17 New York Times best-sellers and 9 international best sellers.
Wendy was 26 when her own first book was published. Today, she is the author of 31 published books under 9 pseudonyms and 11 self-published books.
Her next book, “The Ultimate Guide to Platform Building,” will be published by Entrepreneur Press in Fall 2016.
April Taylor, Co-Founder and Owner of Enginuity Advantage, Advantage Staffing Group, and Enginuity Virtual Recruiter, has, with her business partner, created and developed three successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with the top organizations. With 17 years in the human resources and staffing realm, April has experience, knowledge and a love for people and aims to offer solutions to all who are served. Being a natural problem solver, she prides herself on developing and leading a team of recruiting professionals whose mission is focused on connecting people to opportunity. Through creative and exhaustive methods, the Enginuity Group successfully matches the right talent with the right businesses each and every day.
Stephen Woessner is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the brilliant Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, “The Small Business Owners Handbook to Search Engine Optimization” and “Increase Online Sales Through Viral Social Networking.” His digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Inc. Magazine and more. His agency blends education in very transparent ways for clients.
David Mammano is the Founder/CEO of Next Step Education Group, entrepreneurial coach and professional speaker.
He has created five companies from scratch and has become known as a successful, serial, grassroots entrepreneur. He loves helping other entrepreneurs shorten the learning curve.
David’s mission in life is to help people realize their highest potential through education. To accomplish this mission, David founded what has become Next Step Education Group, in 1995. Next Step Education Group is a multi-media enterprise with digital, mobile, video and consumer products and has grown to become a nationwide resource that helps millions of students a year with college, career and life planning.
In 2004, David published his first book, "101 Things You Can Do To Become an Outstanding Young Adult." His second book, "Make Love in the Workplace," a guide to awesome culture in the office, was published in 2014.
David has spoken at hundreds of high school, college, business and EO events. In June 2012, he was able to check something off from his bucket list and spoke at a TEDx Conference.
Kelly Hatfield is co-founder of Enginuity Advantage, Advantage Staffing Group, Enginuity Virtual Recruiter and Impact Real Estate Real Estate Group based in Everett, Washington. She has been in the recruiting and HR field for over 20-years and loves serving others. Kelly and her business partner have built three successful companies with the purpose of helping others succeed and delivering remarkable results. Kelly and her team strategically align themselves as “The Partner of Choice” with clients and strive to be the first place clients call when they are looking for extraordinary service, quality, and reliability. The result outcome has been an outstanding referral network that has built and continues to build their companies.
As Co-Founder and Owner of Enginuity Advantage, Advantage Staffing Group and Enginuity Virtual Recruiter, April (together with her amazing partner) has created and developed three successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with the top organizations. With 17 years in the human resources and staffing realm, April has experience, knowledge and a love for people and aims to offer solutions to all who are served. Being a natural problem solver, she prides herself on developing and leading a team of recruiting professionals whose mission is focused on connecting people to opportunity. Through creative and exhaustive methods, the Enginuity Group successfully matches the right talent with the right businesses each and every day.
David Long is a Speaker, Author, World Class CEO and Student of the Game of Business. He is the Founder and CEO of MyEmployees, a 27-year-old firm in the Top 1% Worldwide in the Employee Engagement and Recognition industry. His firm specializes in helping managers build stronger, more engaging relationships with their team members while linking the rewards and recognition program to the desired goals of the company.