Don't miss OC's first big eSports Fast Pitch, Conference and Tournament TODAY (Friday, Feb. 28th) from 10am-5pm at the Garden Grove Community Center.  Or listen to this week's OC SPOTLIGHT where we talk with Scott Kelly from Black Dog Venture Partners about how and why they started this event (and what comes next!)  Here on Orange County's only community radio station, OC TALK RADIO.

Toby Corey, former President of TESLA, is on our OC SPOTLIGHT discussing his upcoming TEDx IVC talk for Irvine Valley College, March 6 at Yost Theatre (in Santa Ana) and the lessons he learned as a long time entrepreneur working with Elon Musk. On Orange County's only community radio station and live podcasting channel, www.OCTalKRadio.biz.

Check out our interview with Stephen Silver from SoCal Startup Day, Orange County's first big startup event being held at Hangar 244 at The Great Park this Wednesday, Feb 26 from noon-8pm.  Sponsored by everyone from the Tech Coast Angels to Tech Coast Venture Network, OCTANe, WeWork, Gigasavvy, the OC Startup Council and many, many more, this is the event for you if you're interested in the growing OC Startup scene from VCs and Angel Investors to Accelerators, Incubators and meeting many startups themselves (pitching and competing for over $100,000 in prizes).  Get your tickets at www.SoCalStartupDay.com.

If you think that politics is just too polarized and tribal to even talk anymore (much less tackle the real issues facing us today), then you'll be encouraged by the quiet work of the Citizen's Climate Lobby, a non-partisan group with chapters across the country that is designed to bring all sides together around constructive climate change legislation (like their innovative carbon tax and dividend idea to help us wean ourselves off fossil fuels, using the increasing carbon tax to provide a "carbon dividend" back to ordinary people to help pay for this transition from one energy source to another).  They've even created bi-partisan House and Senate CLIMATE CAUCUSES with members like Democratic Senators Debbie Stabebow and Tammy Baldwin (from Michigan and Wisconsin) along with Republicans Marco Rubio from Florida and Susan Collins from Maine to talk about these issues and consider bi-partisan solutions. Amazing!  Learn more about all that they're doing by tuning into this week's OC SPOTLIGHT here on OC TALK RADIO including their upcoming Southern California Regional Conference Saturday, Feb.21 and Sunday, Feb. 22 at Cal State-LA.  Or visit their site www.citizensclimatelobby.org

Why just cover up or mask smells when you can actually kill them completely?  That's what serial entrepreneur JC Baselli asked himself when he stumbled into the smelly world of "odor control".  He'd seen the cheap "christmas trees" people hung in their cars or the heavy sprays they used to mask cigarette smells or other innumerable odors that just wouldn't go away. And what he discovered was the stuff places like fish canneries and slaughterhouses use to kill smells (chlorine dioxide, ClO2). And a triple patented, proprietary process he calls CLO2-DMG that allows the chemicals to remain in their solid, stable state until you mix them together (sort of like a Tide Pod does in washing clothes).  Giving the public access to this amazing compound in a safe, easy and affordable way for the first time that can be shipped on Amazon or sold at places like Home Depot and WalMart.  And thus was born an empire of "smell solutions" from his Auto Shocker and Home Shocker to newer RV Shockers and Marine Shockers as well.j

If you want to hear an amazing entrepreneurial success story in the most unlikely industry, then you'll love this one!  It has that sweet smell of success. As heard on Orange County's only community radio station, www.OCTalKRadio.biz #OCTalkRadio

Listen to 3 Time Cancer Survivor Ali Becher talk about how cannabis helped her. Courtesy of MY JANE and OC TALK RADIO.

Check out this amazing, inspirational story about a new school that's just opened here in OC (modeled on the first successful program of its kind in the country in LA) that teaches autistic and other special needs kids STEM.  That's right.  The most rigorous curriculum for a class of kids most other people give up on, proving that there is potential in all of us to excel (if only someone believes and gives us the chance). It's the innovative STEM3 Academy here in Irvine now open to all parents with special needs kids with a qualified IEP (Independent Educational Plan) as determined by their school district.  Or for private enrollment as well.

Having done this interview, I still can't believe it! This is an amazing story you'll want to share with others.  Particularly those in our thriving tech community.

Freelance Car Designer Bryan S. Thompson (formerly w/Nissan) talks about growing up a gay kid in rural Arizona and dreaming of being a car designer. How everyone told him he "didn't fit" and could never get into this industry. And how he persevered and literally knocked on doors of major car design studios in Europe until someone finally came out, took a look and told him how to do it.

Which is why he's creating a special scholarship for LGBTQ kids (like him) who are "driven by design".

Tune it and share his amazing story with anyone who's ever felt "different" or that they "didn't fit" and how incredible it is to find your true passion and "tribe".  And join him for his special fundraiser at the Liberace Estate in Palm Springs this Friday, Oct. 18th for a night of eating and dancing and raising funds for this very personal cause.  And who knows?  You might even win one of his cars?  Dreams can come true. It can happen to you.  If you have the drive (and talent) to succeed...