The Man Behind The C-Note Enterprises Vision
There is no place exactly like the United States of America…long known as ‘the land of opportunity’ for generations of Americans seeking a better life. But we all know that it is not the big labels but the small victories that really make America great.
Carlton Franklin’s story is the story upon which the ideas of this country are based. Known among some of his lifetime friends as a ‘dreamer,’ it turns out that Carlton was actually a VISIONARY. He saw his future in his head and devoted his life to manifesting that vision, deliberate step by deliberate step.
It would be impossible to tell the story of C-Note Enterprises without telling the story of Carlton Franklin at the same time. They are one in the same.
Carlton Franklin is his name. If it sounds like a man who is determined to “live full and die empty” when it rolls off the tongue, then he was named well. Carton has the buoyancy of a man who understands life and intuitively knows that he has to constantly make lemonade out of life’s circumstances so that he can grow and prosper from its gifts.
Somehow Carlton knew that where he was in a given moment of life was not where he would always be; and that what he dreamed was within his grasp. A triumphant wisdom in the face of harsh realities. Those who once called that “dreaming” now call that successful. There is a lesson for all of us embedded in the story of Carlton Franklin.
A native of Oakland CA, Carlton was brought-up In a tough inner-city childhood— replete with taunts whose sting lingers until today. Carlton turned to sports, where he learned about team work and to be competitive. It taught him that “in life we win some and lose some, but you don’t stop playing.” As he says, “during the 80’s, the statistics were stacked against us. The average African American male did not life past 25 years old.”
Knowing those odds, his mom made tremendous sacrifices to send both Carlton and his brother to an Art school on the opposite side of town. That was Carlton’s rebirth. There he began to be “exposed to so much more than our living environment.” He knew then that he not only had to “see more,” but he “had to be more.”
Carlton had a decision to make. What he did not know when he made that decision is that it would determine the trajectory of the rest of his life. Plagued by the issues of the past, the present and the unknowns of the future, he decided that if life was going to keep “beating me up, I was going to start fighting back.”
That decision manifested into his own business, his own vision, and his dreams realized. That decision changed Carlton’s life. “When life knocked me down” he says, “I struggled but I got back up and I’ve been getting up ever since. “
A series of ever better jobs culminated into a job in software sales, where Carlton found his career niche. The transition from top software salesman to burgeoning entrepreneur was not a huge leap; and Carlton made it not so much with ease, but with what has now become his trademark determination.
He named his new company C-Note Enterprises because C-note was the nickname some of his friends gave him because he always used to sing or hum a song when he walked…so it seemed the perfect way to combine the past with the future and to keep the integrity of his journey as the foundation of what he was building. C-Note Enterprises encompasses Carlton’s entire personal and professional journey. C-Note Enterprises it was!
Being in software sales meant that Carlton had his fingers on the pulse of the exploding tech industry. To Carlton, apps seemed to be the no-brainer bridge to the future because there are almost as many cell phones in the world as there are people! Do the math…with BILLIONS of cell phones in the world and only 3 million apps on the market, focusing his new company on that market segment not only made business sense, but also tapped into the storehouse of creative ideas that he had been developing for years!
WHY THESE APPS?
Carlton’s goal in life is 2-fold. The first is to live his life with purpose and the second is to give back. And the first three apps he created meet those duel criteria:- His first app, IP-IDEA PITCH is to help people (like him!) who have a great idea but have no clue about how to go about developing and marketing that idea. IP-IDEA PITCH addresses the confounding problems of networking your new idea, sharing and comparing the idea with others, getting feedback and the accessibility to sponsors who can help you make it happen.
- BL-BOX LOADER in an environmentally-conscious game that was developed after Carlton read some stats that really alarmed him: DID YOU KNOW that the average person generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day??? “Where does it all go” he asked. Appx 55% of 220 million TONS of waste generated each year in the US ends-up in one of the over 3.500 landfills. He discovered that we are basically our planet when much of what we throw away can be recycled. So he created BL-BOX LOADER to promote a healthy habit that we can all adopt and do easily!
- WW-WEATHER WIGGY is an app that Carlton created to make something we do every day more fun and uplifting. We all check the weather every day, so why not make it an opportunity to put a smile on our face—regardless of the weather? It is the little things that make your day!