Contribute your expertise to the (Brain)FoodBank

The Center for Business Ownership Inc., in cooperation with the “digital diner” at BrainFoodToGo.com, has embarked on a mission to create the Bank of Lists for Business Owners as the principal depository for the knowledge and know-how that is key to the success of business owners and entrepreneurs.

The primary vehicle that’s being used to collect and distribute this knowledge is the High Five List. Click on the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) below to learn more about High Five Lists and how they can benefit you.

WHAT'S A HIGH FIVE LIST?
WHY LISTS ?
WHAT'S THE BENEFIT OF LISTS?
WHO ARE THE “DEPOSITORS” OF LISTS?
HOW ARE LISTS “WITHDRAWN” FROM THE BANK?
HOW DO “DEPOSITORS” BENEFIT?
HOW CAN I BE A DEPOSITOR?
DOES THE BANK PAY INTEREST?
OK, OK, WHY FIVE?
DOES THE BANK OFFER OTHER KINDS OF LISTS?

WHAT IS A HIGH FIVE LIST?

A High Five List^TM is simply a short itemized list that contains five important, actionable “nuggets” of advice or information on a specific need-to-know topic. They're distillations of the five important insights provided by experienced business owners, entrepreneurs, authors, consultants and educators. Each list contains only five items …. the five that rank highest in the opinions of the list creator. Printed High-Five Lists are from fifty-five to five-hundred-and-fifty-five words long; audio and video High-Five Lists run from fifty seconds to five minutes. Click here to “taste” a sample. Return to the FAQs.

WHY LISTS?

In the good ol’ days, insights were passed "from them who had 'em to them who needed 'em" by way of books, journals, seminars and lectures. Today, those media are "inconvenient" for our "hustle generation." Newspaper circulation is in decline, academic journal content is obsolete before it's published, podiums go unused, and long-winded e-mails pile up unread. Today's – and tomorrow's – leaders have to get to the point quickly. They want inputs of real value that can be readily understood and immediately implemented. And that's what High Five Lists provide.

High Five Lists employ a powerful model for condensing and illuminating the essence of a topic in an entertaining and engaging way. Since each High Five Listfocuses on a narrow topic and contains only five items, list-compilers must focus and prioritize, they must be on-point and succinct so that their deposits can be easily found, withdrawn, and put to work. Return to the FAQs.

WHAT'S THE BENEFIT OF LISTS?

High Five Lists™ enable experienced movers-and-shakers to share practical bits of insight, advice and information with individuals who have similar interests, needs and experiences. High Five Listsprovide valuable input for ambitious business owners and entrepreneurs, as well as for their family members and the professionals who serve them. A wide range of valuable topics are covered by these lists, including information on: Starting a business, Successfully leading a business; Profitably growing an enterprise, and harvesting the personal wealth a business represents. Potential list topics are virtually unlimited. Click here to see some suggested topics.

These handy lists provide continuously refreshed, real-world know-how to over twenty million business owners and entrepreneurs in the United States alone. State of the art technology allows for wide distribution of High Five Lists, enabling business owners and entrepreneurs to easily find and download what they want quickly and effectively.

List creators also benefit from the process of building the Bank of Lists since they can learn, network and gain experience as they compile. Return to the FAQs.

WHO ARE THE “DEPOSITORS” OF LISTS?

These energizing distillations are compiled in various ways. Some are deposited by list-creators who are experts in a particular field of endeavor. Others are accumulated by list-compilers who solicit insights from other recognized authorities. These are people just like you. You can easily deposit High Five Lists that you've created or collected in the Bank of Lists. Click here to find out how you can participate.

Our list-makers understand that "experience is the best teacher, but shared experience is the best education," so they blend morsels of advice and wisdom into concise written or recorded (audio or video) list of BrainFood®for entrepreneurs and business owners. These creators and compilers include students, teachers, authors, journalists, bloggers, consultants, professionals, SCORE volunteers, and business folks who've been there; done that. They all want to share what they've learned with others. It's the easy way to share stuff that's learned the hard way.

Depositors gather their input from their own personal experiences, the experiences of others, and from interviews, books, speeches, blogs, web sites, and other, often-overlooked, troves of know-how. These list-makers "boil" it down to its essence and re-present it as a simple listing of profound knowledge. As a consequence, a wide and deep flow of knowledge finds its way to the Bank of Lists. Some list-makers contribute to more than one list; to more than a single topic. Conversely, a single topic might be covered from many perspectives by a number of list-makers. A significant amount of content is also provided by the Center for Business Ownership Inc., a long-established “think tank” that specializes in providing practical, need-to-know information to business owners and entrepreneurs. Return to the FAQs.

HOW ARE LISTS “WITHDRAWN” FROM THE BANK?

All the print, audio and video content that is deposited in the Bank of Lists is passed-on through the venues of both old and new media. Some Bank of Lists “customers” prefer to have their lists written in the form of books, articles, newspaper columns, or Tip Sheets. Others favor the Internet and electronic media, and choose printable downloads and audio or video podcasts.

High Five Lists are available, internationally, through:

The BrainFoodToGo.com "digital diner" at http://www.BrainFoodToGo.com Web based audio and video podcasts and printable lists can be downloaded anytime or subscribed to (free of charge) through "RSS" feed technology. Through this powerful Internet portal, a High-Five Lists becomes a chain letter, cheat sheet, séance, instant message, tip list, mini-wikipedia, and brainstorming session all rolled into only one degree of separation.
The BrainFoodToGo opt-in e-mail list delivery service
A syndicated radio program – Live from the Digital Diner….BrainFoodToGo!
BrainFoodToGo, High Fives,and LotzaLists ^TM books
Syndicated BrainFood, BrassTacksTips, and Minding Everybody's Business^TM newspaper columns and magazine articles
Education resource packets that are made available at no cost to teachers, lecturers and seminar leaders.

All printable material published on the web portal is provided as a PDF file or Microsoft Word Document so that it can be cut and pasted into blogs and e-mails and passed along to others who can benefit.

Credit is always given to both list-providers and content sources. Such attributions can feature a contributor’s e-mail address or a link to his or her proprietary web site.

BrainFoodToGo.com is not a blog. All submitted material is screened for originality and relevance, and sources are validated before their contributions are displayed. Return to the FAQs.

HOW DO “DEPOSITORS” BENEFIT?

High Five Lists are the product of interactive participation that creates unique benefits for all involved.

List creators get great satisfaction from knowing that their hard-earned knowledge is becoming part of a valuable, timeless archive and will be put to productive use by other ambitious business leaders. They also get deserved recognition for their efforts and experiences.
List solicitors learn, make valuable personal contacts, get prominent exposure in the business world, establish visible links to their web sites, gain professional recognition, earn product discounts, obtain cash grants for their organizations, and become personally eligible for High Five Awards.

Most importantly, both list-creators and list-compilers get supreme “warm and fuzzies” from providing really meaningful, readily actionable, insights and inspiration to others. How’s that for a payoff?!

Everyone gets to share in the excitement of creating something that’s truly new, different and HUGE! Never before has there been anything like a Bank of Lists. List-makers everywhere have an opportunity to participate in creating a resource of tremendous value to venturers throughout the world.

A lot of people can learn a lot in the process of creating the Bank of Lists.

Students, especially, can derive big benefits. They can arrange interviews with mighty moguls to get their feedback on one or more list topics. In the process, a student will learn real-world lessons and make important contacts in the business world. Moguls get a chance to share valuable experience, something they might otherwise be too modest to do. The publication of resulting HighFiveLists also affords a student important public recognition (students can even insert links to their creations on their resumes!). Faculty members often use this process to give their students an opportunity to learn first-hand and become known in the business world (and job market). This is also a great tool for connecting students with alumni.
Start-up entrepreneurs can get first-hand tips from accomplished venturers. The quest to share know-how produces both knowledge and inspiration, both valuable commodities for the hopeful, nouveau entrepreneur.
Employees can benefit also. For example, a request for assistance in compiling a list can afford an aspiring employee an opportunity to meet with more senior leaders in his or her enterprise. It’s a great way to connect with a mentor. In turn, the leaders get opportunities to meet with and evaluate young talent within the company.
Authors and publishers can use High Five Lists as a platform to showcase books of relevance to owners and entrepreneurs. Helpful snippets extracted from a book provide immediate insight and encouragement to learn more by reading the entire tome. Each High Five List of abstracts from a book is accompanied with a web-link that facilitates purchase of the book.

Great “dividends” are earned by all customers of the Bank of Lists. Given the ubiquity of the web, the power of search engines, and the inclusiveness of social networks, a fitting HighFiveList is always just a click away. No wonder High Five Lists are becoming the new medium of choice for today's meritocracy. Return to the FAQs.

HOW CAN I BE A DEPOSITOR?

Please, please, please (did we say "please?") sign on as one of our depositors. If you've got a list of tips you'd like to have included in our High Five collection, e-mail it to us today. If you're "dry or shy" but know someone else who has some smarts to share, go out and get 'em and pass 'em on to us. We'll take as many High Five Lists as you'd like to compile or collect.

Ideal HighFiveLists run from fifty to five-hundred-and-fifty words. (We can go as high as one-thousand words or more, if you're really on a roll. All supplementary content will be added as More Lore, an annotation to the list that provides "the rest of the story." Deposits can be submitted as text (i.e. Microsoft Word documents or PDF files) or in the form or audios (MP3 or WAV files) and MP4 video interviews. Recorded interviews should run no longer than three to five minutes. But, don't be shy about sending longer ones. All additional material will be referenced from each list and offered as More Lore. Printed lists can include hyperlinks from key words in the text to supplementary material on relevant web sites.

Lists can be created from your knowledge and experience, or of insights you collect from others. Authors and publishers are invited to contribute list-abstracts from their books. We also encourage students, writers, public relations pros, book reviewers, and educators to solicit list content from other accomplished business people they know (or would like to know). For list-compilers, it's a great way to get to wangle one-on-one meetings with movers-and-shakers … and to reward them with an important opportunity to help others.

Click here for tips on preparing and submitting your content. Click here to see samples of other High Five Lists.

Keep in mind, there are various methods for originating lists. For example, multiple High Five Lists can be submitted under the same heading, each with a unique contributor. A single contributor can contribute multiple High Five Lists on the same topic or on various topics. Or, a third-party list-compiler can engage two or more folks with differing takes on the same subject. There are a lot of provider permutations to keep the vault full.

e-mail your content and any attachments to info@BrainFoodToGo.com or snail mail it to Box xxxx, Naples FL 34119. If you've got questions, call us at 239-455-9393 or use the form below. All submissions become the property of BrainFoodToGo.com according to simple terms and conditions. Return to the FAQs.

DOES THE BANK PAY INTEREST?

The Bank of Lists affiliates with one or more commercial enterprises (“sponsors”) and professional / student organizations or educational institutions (“hosts”) in designated geographical “communities” throughout the world. Sponsors and advertisers in each community provide funding to support their local “bank builders.”

Representatives of these sponsors and hosts help solicit High Five Lists from “depositors” in their community. For each High Five List published, the Bank of Lists contributes $5.55 to its contributor’s favorite charity, student organization, alumni association, poor relative, etc.

Each “community” is provided with a “click-to” Bank of Lists home page on the BrainFoodToGo.com web portal that highlights information about related activities in that area. Accepted High Five Lists will be prominently offered on this home page along with other helpful “deposits” of knowledge. This locally-branded, “click-to” web portal also provides advertising display opportunities that can generate revenue for sponsoring and hosting organizations. Click here to see what a portal looks like.

In addition, the lists gathered in each community are used to compile, publish, and regionally distribute a “bank book” of locally generated lists, e.g. High Five Lists for Business Owners in Buffalo, New York. Hosts and sponsoringorganizations are entitled to the entire profit on each book they sell. Books are sold directly or via the Internet.

In addition, High Five Awards are periodically given for ingenuity, creativity, incisiveness, and content quality and relevance – among other attributes that strike the fancy of our “vault keeper.”

All these features are especially rewarding for young entrepreneurs since they provide academic and operational experience as well as abundant inspiration! Return to the FAQs.

OK, OK, WHY FIVE?

By keeping lists short and succinct, list-makers and their sources are compelled to provide terse, on-point input, the kind that is easy to understand and readily actionable. High Five Lists convert the archetype of traditional information dissemination in the world of business to a more modern model that is in keeping with the contemporary pace and pattern of life in the business world. Movers and shakers want their BrainFood now; they want it in a “nutshell;” they want it readily digestible; and, they want to be able use it -- and benefit from it --immediately. They want to get to the celebratory “high five” phase of their tasks as soon as possible… so it’s only logical to start with High Fives.

The number 5 has additional significance. In the early systems of numerology, the number 5 was representative of man’s attempt to rise above the chaos of the present age. Five was considered “good in the making.” “Five was called the dual number because it represents two natures, the higher and the lower, which contend for supremacy in the life of man. In his struggle between these two conflicting natures, man must contend with nervous, restless energy. His environment undergoes constant change. Life being his supreme teacher, he is brought into touch with many places, personalities and problems, each of which all yield their quota of experience and supply an abundance of material out of which to extract the qualities that make for wisdom, character and the growth of the soul.” (From: Corinne Heline, Sacred Science of Numbers) Return to the FAQs.

SOME SUGGESTED “HIGH FIVE LIST” TOPICS

To see hundreds of suggested list titles you can use to create your “deposit” of High Fives, click here Return to the FAQs.

DOES THE BANK OFFER OTHER KINDS OF LISTS?

Given the extremely positive reaction to its High Five Lists for Business Owners, the Bank of Lists is “branching” out to serve other types of knowledge-hungry customers as well. In the works are High Five Lists for New Mommies, High Five Lists for Real Estate Agents, High Five Lists for EMT’s, High Five Lists for Teachers,High Five Lists for Returning Veterans, and others. Return to the FAQs.

To become a bank-builder, depositor, host or sponsor, simply e-mail our “head teller” at info@BrainFoodToGo.com or fill out the form below. You’ll hear immediately from our “bank president” with more details and answers to any questions you might have.

Everyone who participates is designated an honorary “vice president” of the Bank of Lists (since every bank needs lots of ‘em!).