Left to right: Kelvin Harris of Kel-Star Consulting, Talayia Kelley of Virtegrity, Frances Reimers of Firestarter, Dawn Peters of ConneXion Hub, and Robert Slawinski, serial entrepreneur and Certified Financial Educator.

Jim Rohn famously said that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. That's a pretty strong top five above. And a pretty good-looking top five, too! These all-stars assembled on Thursday for a Small Business and Entrepreneurs Forum organized by Kelvin Harris of Kel-Star Consulting. I know Kelvin from another event I attended a few months ago in my relentless pursuit of improving myself and upgrading my top five.

Kelvin is the kind of person that we all need in our top five. His business is teaching and implementing wealth building and wealth management strategies. Kelvin teaches you the strategies that the millionaire and billionaire classes use to protect and grow their wealth and pass it on to the next generation as tax-efficiently as possible. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have an advisor like Kelvin in your circle of regular contacts. If you're not regularly talking about your money with someone who knows more about money than you do, you're not setting yourself or your family up to be wealthy. Generational wealth is where it's at. Each generation in your family should not have to start from scratch.

Establishing a relationship with a financial advisor is something you really should do today, not tomorrow or one day. If you don't believe me, run some numbers through a retirement calculator like this one and see how you fare. Unless you're already on track for a wealthy retirement, the numbers you see will get worse with each passing day, so your best move is to get started today. I encourage you to reach out to Kelvin for an initial consultation to find out more about what he and his company can do to help set you up for financial success. You can reach him on the web at www.kelstarconsulting.com.

Here are a few more images from the forum. I've included links to the websites of all the speakers in the caption of the image at top of this post. I encourage you to visit their websites, as well, to see if there's an opportunity to expand your network and do business. I definitely benefited from being in attendance and made at least one connection that I envision becoming quite mutually lucrative. Shoe leather networking: a tried and true method of achieving success.

This panel came together to give advice on how to succeed as a small business owner.

Kelvin moderated and the four panelists shared business advice from the perspective of each of their areas of expertise.

There was so much great advice given, it's impossible to recount it all. One pearl of wisdom that was shared that I can relay pertains to marketing. As a business owner, you have to market at least four hours per day to be successful. McDonald's and… — There was so much great advice given, it's impossible to recount it all. One pearl of wisdom that was shared that I can relay pertains to marketing. As a business owner, you have to market at least four hours per day to be successful. McDonald's and Coke were used as examples. Those companies are global icons. Everyone knows about McDonald's and Coke. Yet you still see them marketing relentlessly.

At the end of the event, the discussion shifted to financial literacy.

There's a corollary to that Jim Rohn quote I started this post with: "If you hang with nine broke friends, you're bound to be the tenth one." Who's in your top five? And are these the people you need in your life to help you accomplish what you're seeking to accomplish?

If you know someone who we would all do well to add to our network, shout them out in the comments and tell us why. I'll get the ball rolling with one of my top five. Her name is Deirdre Brown and she's a settlement agent in Washington, DC. If you have any real estate questions, this lady knows the answer. Take a look at one of the videos I shot for her.