What’s New for You & Me in 2021

“I didn’t get an email telling me what’s happening with the Paparelli Zoom Chat for Entrepreneurs,” Ricky said. “So I went to sign in on Wednesday morning at 9 am, and there was nothing. So I tried it again for a couple of other Wednesdays. Nothing. What’s going on?” he asked.

Good question!

Here’s the email about what’s happening at Paparelli.com.

I started the Paparelli Zoom Chat for Entrepreneurs as a forum to discuss the early Covid-19 confusion. I had a few entrepreneurs contact me wondering what other entrepreneurs were doing on questions like:

• Should I cut my staff? 

• Do you believe the VCs that say I need two years of cash in the bank?

• How do I apply for a PPP loan? 

• Where is the best place for a loan?

• What are the best tools for work-from-home?

• How do I hire, onboard, and manage my WFH employees?

• Can I keep my culture intact with everyone everywhere?

• What is the new model for enterprise selling?

And the list went on from there. We were all trying to find our new business model. And this was tough because our prospects’ business models were changing every day. We were real-time, in a real mess, playing with real companies and our real money. 

That was the Paparelli Zoom Chat for Entrepreneurs.

As the year progressed, many of us realized the pandemic and social distancing actually was a shot of adrenaline for our businesses. It changed the culture quickly and created accelerating markets in education, work-from-home, healthcare, media, logistics, and retail to name a few. But it crushed the travel and leisure, live concert, oil, on-site retail, and restaurant industries to name a few more. 

The year 2020 was one for the books. There will be a lot of Harvard business cases written and studied for years to come. We lived this chaos in our work and on the Paparelli Zoom Chat for Entrepreneurs.

We were entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs.

But as the year progressed, the business models became clear. The decisions became clear. We fell into day-to-day execution. So I moved more and more to an interview format. I slowly changed the show to include entrepreneurs’ stories and focused less on topics of the day. 

The last Paparelli Zoom Chat was mid-December. I interviewed Jack Rogers who, at 16 years old, started a non-profit called FoodFinder.us. I think it was one of the best interviews I ever did as I was inspired by this young entrepreneur and how he is changing people’s lives. I loved it when he said, “I never dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur. I just knew, after seeing that 20/20 segment, that I had to do something.” 

I struggled over the Christmas break.

This was my planning period.

One of the things I loved about the Zoom Chat for Entrepreneurs was the audience, you. I loved the fifteen minutes we had together before the “show” began. It was a time to catch up with friends from around Atlanta and the United States and to meet new friends. We were all housebound and looking for community. 

I miss this camaraderie.

I miss the community we built over those thirty-two shows. 

What I didn’t miss was being time-bound on the interview. 

The conversations seemed to just be getting good when I had to end the show and go to Q&A. Some of the Q&A discovered great new experiences we could all build on. Some of it was suggestions on making new connections. But I came to the conclusion, the Q&A was not as high a value to the audience as was the interview. 

So I decided to leave Zoom and go to a long-form interview. I was used to doing these long-form interviews over my angel investing career. When I would meet with entrepreneurs in the past, they would expect a thirty-minute meeting. They were surprised when we would spend up to two hours together. 

I always left those meetings thinking, “If there were other entrepreneurs listening in on our conversation, they would have learned a ton. Maybe one day I’ll do a podcast.” 

A few years ago I even bought the podcast equipment. But with everybody so busy, including me, there never seemed a good time to start. So I sold the unused equipment to a friend and forgot about podcasting. 

And then Covid hit. On-line conferencing replaced meeting face to face. Our productivity increased. We were housebound. And we were all looking for deeper and more meaningful connections. 

The new plan…The Charlie Paparelli Show!

So starting January 2021 I made the decision to do long-form interviews with entrepreneurs without the pressure of a set broadcast time and a live audience. This allows me to invite people to join me when it is convenient to their schedule. The greatest benefit is I am able to go deeper with each guest. My rule is simple: “As long as what we are talking about is helpful and interesting to entrepreneurs, we will keep talking.” No time constraint. 

But I miss the live audience.

To get us back together from time to time, I intend to do The Charlie Paparelli Show live and include Q&A. These shows will be topical with a guest who is addressing the issue realtime in their business. I’m planning on doing the first live show in early March. I hope you can make it.

Thank you.

I am so grateful for all the men and women who agreed to be on the 2020 Paparelli Zoom Chats for Entrepreneurs. You helped hundreds, maybe thousands, of entrepreneurs think through the issues of the day and make better decisions. Your investment in our community did not go unnoticed by your peers or by me. And what made it all work was your transparency. 

You didn’t have the formula or the recipe for success. You simply shared your business challenges and how you were addressing them. It takes a confident entrepreneur to share with others publicly when they are still not sure if what they are doing will be successful in the end.

And thanks to you, my audience. You showed up every single week. You gave your time and attention and brought some of your entrepreneur friends to the Zoom Chat. It grew my audience, but more importantly, it grew our community. A community of…

Entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs. 

Here is my publishing schedule:

• Blogs every Tuesday morning on paparelli.com

• Video interviews every Friday on paparelli.com and my YouTube channel

• Paparelli Podcast of the interview every Friday on your favorite podcast listening app

• Live interviews to be announced in early March