This is Capitalism: CEO Stories

I'm Patricia O'Connell for This is Capitalism. Today I'm talking with Brian Lipton, who is the Chief Theater Critic for Cititour.com and the former editor-in-chief and currently a contributing editor to TheaterMania.com. He is going to take us behind the scenes at Broadway and give us a little bit of a look at what's going on with Broadway, the return to Broadway for both actors and theatergoers. Key Takeaways:   [:29] Patricia O'Connell introduces Brian Lipton, a theater critic for Cititour.com and contributing editor to TheaterMania.com, and welcomes him to This is Capitalism. [1:01] What does the closing of Phantom mean after 35 years? Is it just time? It has made its money back so many times that its lead producer, Cameron Mackintosh, could run it as long as he wanted to. With its closing notice, its grosses have soared to their highest in years. Winter is not the tourist season, and COVID-19 is still a factor. [3:01] All Broadway shows are capitalized, which is really the amount of money it takes to put the show on from start to finish: rehearsals, scenery, rent, and things up until day one. For a large musical now, $15 to $25 million is not an unusual capitalization. You have to make that money back during the run to get a profit. [3:38] Then you have the weekly running costs. The set's already done, but you still have to pay rent, actors, and union people every week, and make that money back. For a musical like Phantom, that's estimated to be in the $750,000 to $1 million range because Phantom is a very elaborate show to make every week just to break even. [4:17] If you're doing a limited run, it's often built in that you need to be running at pure capacity. Into the Woods is still at the St. James, but it was originally scheduled for an eight-week run, and the only way that could've made money at eight weeks is if, for eight weeks it ran 100 percent. It did come close to that, but it's no longer coming close. [4:45] The longer the run goes on, sometimes the less you have to make that 100 percent. But you can't do badly; you have to still pack a fair amount of the house at full-price tickets if you're going to meet your running costs. And the minute you don't do that, you run the risk of being in the red. [5:05] Discounting tickets is a major factor. If you're selling 1,000 seats at $60 or $70, you're making $700,000 a week instead of $2 million a week. The Music Man doesn't discount, so it is taking in over $3 million every week. That will help it to be profitable by the time it closes. If they discounted by 50 percent, they wouldn't have a chance. [5:51] The Music Man had the option of running after Hugh Jackman decided to leave. And he is staying a few weeks past his contract. This has been done before when you have a star who is so powerful. Maybe the wisest business move, even if you could still make money — it's an expensive show with a large cast — is to take the money and go. [6:23] Hugh Jackman is one of those rare people who is a true movie star and a true theater star even though he has only been on Broadway three or four times, most notably, of course, in The Boy from Oz, his big Broadway debut. But he has created a huge following. Some people go back to see him four to six times. [7:04] There are shows that have always done stunt casting. You'll see, for example, Pamela Anderson doing Chicago. She was quite good. But more to the point, she brought in business. She had the highest grosses for Chicago in many months, if not years. And that was a perfect example of the right way to do stunt casting. [8:08] A lot of Broadway will be dominated, especially straight plays maybe more than musicals, by star casting, whether it's stunt casting or not. In a lot of cases, they're going to look for that star power to motivate the box office. [8:27] Now conversely, the musical, Some Like It Hot, stars Christian Borle, Adrianna Hicks, and J. Harrison Ghee, who, their talents notwithstanding, are not known stars. They are banking on the property and the careers of Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, who wrote the score. They have Tonys for Hairspray and they're very well known. [9:00] Brian doesn't think we're going to see a lot of truly original work on Broadway for a while. Everything will be based on a movie or a book or is a revival of a famous play. Theater that comes from scratch is few and far between. [9:21] This '22 to '23 will be the first “normal” Broadway theater season that we've had in several years now. I mean the 2019 to 2020 season got cut short, of course, because of Covid. What we're seeing now is a lot of flux. [9:42] This is a very unusual year in that a number of shows opened in December, including one, The Collaboration. It's an imagined conversation between Andy Warhol and Jean-Paul Basquiat. It's also being filmed simultaneously and it's coming in for a limited run. By the end of 2022, Broadway will be surprisingly full. [10:12] But January will bring the closing of Beetlejuice, after eight months. A Strange Loop, which won the Tony in 2022, for Best Musical, is closing on January fifteenth, which will make it, depending on how you count things, either the shortest or the third-shortest running Best Musical ever. There are also some limited runs now. [10:43] Phantom closes in February. But spring is usually the more prominent season than fall. Again, better weather, maybe more tourists, and closer to Tony time. Almost all of the big musical houses, The Winter Garden, the Marquis, and the St. James, are vacant for the spring. Brian wonders if the producers are hedging their bets. [11:20] Back to the Future, for example, is the kind of show that would probably have to take a million to a million-and-a-half every week just to be in break-even territory. [11:31] There is a symbiotic relationship between the New York City economy and Broadway. In the last full theater season, 2018 to 2019, Broadway ticket sales were $1.8 billion. That is more than the ten major league sporting teams in the New York City area, which is staggering, because what's more popular, sports or Broadway? [12:05] Can Broadway rely on locals? This fall, Broadway is doing surprisingly well without a huge tourist influx. There is a very strong local audience — New York City and the tri-state area, that will come to Broadway for something they want to see. The tourists augment locals in any season and are most important in spring and summer. [12:53] If we looked at a forecast and said that nobody is coming in the summer of 2023, that may be why spring producers are hedging their bet. You're never going to be able to run big, expensive shows without the tourist base. You can run Laura Linney for 16 weeks, and it's probably not a big deal because that's not what the tourists flock to. [13:37] When the tourists come, they want to see musicals. Broadway has some very long-running musicals like Hamilton, that's still bringing in insane amounts of money, Lion King, that's doing super well, and Wicked, that's still close to $2 million a week. They're there for the tourists. [14:01] A lot of tourists only come to New York once in their life and the one time they're coming they want to see Hamilton, The Lion King, and Wicked — the big, long-running shows. They don't necessarily want to see the hot, new show. Book of Mormon is running still on tourists. Chicago has run this long because tourists go see it. [14:33] What show will be the next “Phantom”? Chicago and Lion King, which opened in 1997, have run for 25 years. Will they run another ten? Lion King might. Its enduring popularity is because it is child-driven while pleasing to adults. There are always children being born. So Disney may have a chance to break the Broadway record. [15:27] Nobody would've bet on Chicago running 25 years. Chicago has the advantage of having made its money back so many times that its producers, led by Barry and Fran Weissler, if they want to just do this for the sake of doing it, they can run it. [15:34] Chicago is a very minimalist show; its running costs are very small, probably half a million or less. And so all you need to do is break that every week, give or take, and you can keep running. So those two have the chance to be the new Phantom. [15:55] We've seen recent revivals of the King & I, Carousel, Oklahoma, My Fair Lady; and South Pacific. How many of the great classic musicals are there left to recycle? The Sound of Music hasn't had a major Broadway production in around 25 years. So Brian won't be shocked if that comes down the pike. [16:35] We may be getting revivals featuring people of color or other non-traditional castings. There's a buzz for the first real revival ever of Kiss of the Spider Woman, which provides roles for three Latinx performers. Chita Rivera originated it but she was the only Latinx lead of the original threesome – we could easily have a revival of that. [17:14] All of the Lomans in Death of a Salesman, the five family members, are Black. The rest of the characters, who were always white, have remained white, which gives the play another dimension because we see interracial relationships and how that plays into the text. [17:40] There may be a way to breathe new life into “old shows” or revivals and bring new life to them in an interesting spin. Death of a Salesman is color-conscious casting. You know the Lomans are Black even though they have not changed the text. In the more popular color-blind casting, you're not supposed to think about their color at all. [18:16] There are producers that are in this for the glory and they'll produce things so they can get their Tony award. And there is the larger group of producers who treat theater as show business, not show art. They want to make money. If a particular type of play is not making money, you're not getting more of it. That's how this works. [18:45] If Brian could produce any show he wanted, with any star, in the world of show business, he would produce Audra McDonald in anything she wanted to do: Gypsy, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd. Audra McDonald and Stephen Sondheim are probably Brian's dream combination. [19:39] Patricia thanks Brian Lipton for joining us today on This is Capitalism and asks him to give our regards to Broadway!   Mentioned in This Episode: This is Capitalism Brian Scott Lipton Cititour.com TheaterMania.com Phantom of the Opera The Music Man The Boy from Oz Chicago Into the Woods Some Like it Hot The Collaboration Hairspray Back to the Future The Musical Hamilton The Lion King Wicked Beetlejuice the Musical A Strange Loop the Musical The King & I Carousel Oklahoma My Fair Lady South Pacific

The art market is big, unpredictable, and endlessly fascinating, not just to potential buyers and sellers but to art lovers the world over. The art market is also big business. One estimate put the sales number for 2021, the third-best year for sales on record, at $65.1 billion. Here to paint us a picture of the intersection between art and commerce is Kathryn Tully, who's been covering the art market for 15 years.   Listen in to learn about the fascinating art market and how you can be involved in it. Key Takeaways: [:21] Patricia O'Connell introduces Kathryn Tully, freelance journalist, and welcomes her to This is Capitalism. [1:14] Kathryn has been a financial writer since she graduated from college. Fifteen years ago, Kathryn started writing about the art market, around the time when she started freelancing. [1:30] Kathryn holds that too much of the press coverage is about big auctions of multi-million-dollar artworks sold in New York. It suggests prices always go up, which is not the case. The art market is a pretty difficult investment market. [2:02] Kathryn felt that writing about the art market enabled her to put non-nonsense articles out there that aren't being written otherwise. [2:20] The multi-million dollar works that sell for high prices comprise a tiny sliver of the art market. There is incredible art being produced all the time that you would love to have in your home. Most art produced is not going to be sold for a profit. The art you buy devalues by 90% when you take it out the door, so you will not resell it at a profit. [3:03] You read about Basquiats, Warhols, and art that's sold at a profit between high-net-worth individuals at auction, for transparency. You would have to spend $500 thousand or more to get a good shot at reselling art for a profit. Most art doesn't have a release value. For the art that does, the art market is not brilliant, considering the risks. [4:40] Commercially-valuable art can take months or longer to sell through a dealer or an auction house. You're not guaranteed to find a buyer. It's not just an illiquid market, it's a tiny market. In 2021, the third-best year for the art market, the overall sales were $65.1 billion. Compared to the daily trading volume of stocks, that's tiny. [5:18] There are holding costs in owning art. You have to pay for insurance and storage and there are buying and selling fees. Art is a good investment if you buy something you love and you find that it's gone up in value. Kathryn's friend bought a signed Banksy screenprint in 2003 for £150. In 2020, a dealer estimated its worth at £150K. [6:55] Kathryn's friend didn't buy the print because she thought it was going to go up in value. She fought it as a gift for her husband. Pricing in the art market is very subjective. No two artworks are the same, except for prints and multiples. Artworks are unique objects. Artworks from the same artist can sell for different prices. Pricing is subjective. [7:54] Artists go in and out of favor. The Banksy print market goes up and down. There's a very thin part of the market, with a very small amount of transactions, that generates the most value. Are you going to find a buyer? There may only be ten people in the world that are interested in buying your expensive Warhol or Basquiat at a certain price. [8:49] The print market is an area where you can acquire artwork by those artists at a cheaper price point. There is a bit more data about prints and multiples because of their higher volume, and because they aren't unique; they are one of an edition. You can see what they are selling for. You can get a sense of what the resale price may be. [9:34] The art market is opaque, besides art indices that show the records of public art sales at auction. Auctions are the most successful part of the art market. The majority of global art sales don't take place at auction houses but through galleries and dealers but through galleries or dealers who don't reveal their transaction information at all. [10:16] Artworks sold through galleries or dealers are not revealed publicly. The art market can be a vehicle for pricing fraud because they are no public records of gallery and dealer transactions. [11:44] Contemporary art is in vogue at the moment. The old masters and the impressionists don't necessarily stay in favor because the generation of art buyers that did buy them is dying out. [12:52] Art value is driven by subjective factors, not just supply and demand. You can't see the demand a lot of the time because so many of the transactions are not disclosed. It's different from a stock or a commodity that you can sell on any day at the price listed. In the art market, you can't see the price or the fundamentals driving the price. [13:40] During the pandemic, a lot of the art fairs started going online with virtual viewing rooms. Dealers at art fairs started revealing more of their prices, creating transparency. [14:42] As a prank, a Banksy piece at auction was shredded the minute it was purchased. The piece is said to have increased in value, though, after the prank. [15:27] Kathryn's suggestions for investing in the art market: 90% of art sold does not have a resale value. For prints and multiples, an accessible part of the art market, you can get a sense of resale value through price indices. You've got to buy art because you enjoy owning it. You don't know if or when you can sell it for a profit. [16:36] Kathryn has not sold any of the art she has bought because she loves it. There is so much art she would have loved to have bought that got away. She buys artwork she loves that her friends have produced or that was created in her neighborhood, to support their market. The internet has opened up the market for new original art. [17:40] Kathryn's dream artwork would be any Basquiat work. She would be over the moon to own even one of his sketchbook drawings. She would never sell it! [18:07] Kathryn's newsletter, Priceless, is linked below. [18:37] Patricia thanks Kathryn and the listeners for joining us today on This Is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: This is Capitalism Kathryn Tully Priceless.substack.com Basquiat Warhol Banksy “Banksy Artwork Shredded After Auction May Have Increased Its Value”

 Like a lot of aspiring actors, Gabrielle Kurlander came to New York City at 18 with stars in her eyes and a dream of making it big. It turns out, there were stars in her future and she did make it big, though her dream got a rewrite along the way. She's still active in theater but the best part she's ever played is as President and CEO of The All Stars Project. The non-profit teaches young people from disadvantaged backgrounds how to use the power of performance to help them navigate new experiences, such as summer internships or interacting with a group of people they're completely unfamiliar with. Gabrielle joins us on This Is Capitalism to talk about The All Stars Project, why she's a big believer in non-government-funded programs, and the true meaning of philanthropy.   Listen in to learn about the partnership between corporations, donors, and teenagers working toward a path for growth. Key Takeaways: [:21] Patricia O'Connell introduces Gabrielle Kurlander, CEO of The All Stars Project, and welcomes her to This is Capitalism. [1:23] The All Stars Project is a national non-profit for youth development, using a performance approach on stage and in life, to help young people growing up in places of poverty, go on and pursue their hopes and dreams, learn more about the world, and create a place for themselves in it. [1:59] Performance gives you a way to create new versions of yourself. Young people who are growing up without a lot of opportunity, and without much experience of things outside of their neighborhoods need a tool or mechanism to build confidence and get over obstacles. Performance helps to do that. [2:42] Gabrielle uses the example of applying for an internship. Use performance to practice how you meet the interviewer and behave in the interview. In performance, you can make mistakes. There's no right or wrong. It helps free people up. In The All Stars Project, young people are directed in creating new performances to recreate their lives. [3:28] The All Stars Project uses old-fashioned grassroots outreach to bring young people in. They walk through their neighborhoods, even the most violent neighborhoods, and talk to young people. They bring other young people to the neighborhood to create a performance there. [3:57] Young people can join The All Stars Project, regardless of their grades or how they are doing. If they are looking to grow as leaders and experience new opportunities, they can come in and The All Stars Project will use performance to help them to grow. [4:15] The All Stars Project specializes in upper teenagers, 16 to 21, and even into their early 20s. There are some opportunities for people after graduating from college. There are performance programs for kids in middle school and grade school. [5:03] Gabrielle shares her experience growing up. Performance helped her be a successful and confident person. She moved to NYC to pursue acting when she was 18. She met The All Stars Project as a grassroots project with no funding and she became the founding CEO. Being a performer helped Gabrielle do new things. [6:12] The All Stars Project is 100% privately-funded. Gabrielle had never asked people for $50K or $10K. She used her performance background to invite people to donate. The same performance skills help the youth. The All Stars Project is a partnership between caring, affluent adults and young people from underserved communities. [7:02] It's about doing. With performance, you can start right now. Performance gives you the freedom to act as you will. You can take everything that you are and also try some new things. Performance is a freeing mechanism. [8:03] Gabrielle tells how she created her approach to potential donors. Being a CEO in her 20s was intimidating to her. Performance helped Gabrielle create a version of who she wanted to be as a CEO that was true to herself. [8:54] The All Stars Project does the same thing for young people. It's an important key to issues of diversity and belonging. Performance gives a person a version of themselves that they choose to be, a new creation of their own making. [9:43] Performance enables, empowers, and encourages young people to write their own scripts. Young people growing up in a place of poverty get messages that work against their success. They are taught in their neighborhoods they have to be perfect to succeed. But perfection is the enemy of growth. [10:46] Gabrielle shares a success story of a young woman raised in poverty and violence. The young woman came into the intern program at a partnering corporation. Gabrielle says the corporate professionals also receive performance training. [11:41] Thousands of individuals donate to The All Stars Project. Philanthropy is exerting yourself on behalf of your fellow man. If you would like to be involved, start at allstars.org and select an opportunity to volunteer. You can bring The All Stars Project into your corporation, You can become a development coach. [12:56] The All Stars Project has offices in Dallas, Chicago, New York, and Newark, New Jersey, with virtual programs in more than 20 states. They have another program called Operation Conversation. Small groups of diverse individuals use performance in a series of exercises to connect with and learn about each other. [14:16] Virtual programs have been amazingly effective. The All Stars Project is about relationships and connecting different kinds of people — wealthy people and people growing up in poverty, people of different ethnicities, preferences, ages, political beliefs, and ideologies. They build community with diverse people. [14:52] They found that virtually they could create contexts where there was a lot of intimacy and new kinds of discoveries being made. [15:19] The more people you want to reach, the more funding you need. The All Stars Project has big corporate partners, community college networks in Dallas, and police, in Operation Conversation Cops and Kids in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. [19:55] The All Stars Project is looking to partner with bigger institutions to scale and impact in new ways. [20:17] Gabrielle reflects on the career she has made and the stage career she dreamed of as a child. While working with The All Stars Project, she continues in theater and is about to start in her 40th production. [21:01] Gabrielle talks about the benefits that have come through our capitalism in science and medicine. But in the poor areas of our country, we haven't made as much progress as we need. Poverty is just not economic but also social.[21:34] Dr. Raj Chetty at Harvard conducted research that found that people with lower incomes were more likely to improve their financial situation over time if they were connected to people with higher incomes. The All Stars Project creates those relationships to expand the opportunities and growth for everybody involved. [22:46] A poor person needs to see the opportunity and then needs to be surrounded by people who support them in various ways so they can get on the path and pursue their dreams. Gabrielle also says we can all volunteer and we should volunteer about things we feel passionate about. [23:50] Gabrielle's last thoughts for listeners: We need to not only drive things through data, economics, success, and money, we need to look at people's hearts and minds. Data and money can do a lot, but we need creativity, human relationships, and new opportunities for people. Find something you're passionate about and go do it! [24:41] Patricia thanks Gabrielle Kurlander for joining us today on This Is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: This is Capitalism Gabrielle Kurlander on LinkedIn The All Stars Project Operation Conversation Antoine Joyce Raj Chetty

Kait Hill faced a tough decision in 2021 — finish college or start her own business after two years of doing corporate sales. She chose to start her own business, and thus was born Rock City Digital. The digital marketing agency leverages its young staff's familiarity with new ways of creating and consuming content to help companies and individuals build brands and create identities that resonate in today's dynamic market. Kate joins us on This is Capitalism to share her journey from working in politics to going into sales to being her own boss, and why the future will belong to content creators of all kinds.   Listen in to learn about digital marketing. Key Takeaways:   [:22] Patricia O'Connell introduces Kait Hill, Founder and CEO of Rock City Digital, and welcomes her to This is Capitalism. [1:23] Kait started working when she was 15 years old. At age 20, she had her first corporate position. She saw a lot of issues with how things were run and cultures weren't tended to. When she was mistreated at the agency at age 21, she saw she could run a company better, so she started one. [2:05] Before starting her business, Kait was going to school online and working. She wasn't learning a lot and wasn't giving her all at work, so she made the decision to quit school and the job to start a business. She had the passion and drive and knew what she wanted to do so she decided to start the company. [2:51] No one ever told Kait she had entrepreneurial traits, but she has been finding ways to make money since she was eight years old, so she sees she has always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Her first “job” was a lemonade stand. She also helped her neighbor with their garage sales on commission. [3:35] Kait explains how she went from political science and politics to digital media. She had convinced a man in the media to sign a petition. In their conversation, the man introduced Kait to digital media and later helped her get into it. Kait had wanted to get paid for being a high performer, and digital media sales was a good way to do it. [4:44] Kait put out applications and one agency didn't reply to her. Her new friend advised her to find out who was the person in charge, call them, and ask for an interview. She did and ultimately got a job with that agency. [5:13] Kait has been running Rock City Digital for about seven years. The most surprising thing to her is how much time you spend handling problems. There's always something you have to learn. The biggest lesson she has learned is that developing yourself is your best investment. With training, you can handle anything. [6:10] COVID-19 was an unsettling time, not knowing if they would lose clients. Kait's clients decided how they would work, which also meant how Kait would work with them. Kait worked on the finances, and if anything needed to be cut, she got rid of it. She met with other business owners and compared notes. Everyone was willing to share. [7:09] Rock City Digital has always been a remote office, so that was a leg up that was extremely helpful during the pandemic. [7:38] Kait started developing herself after reading The Miracle Morning, by Hal Elrod. Following the practices listed in the book, she started meditation, exercise, reading, affirmation, visualization, and journaling. These practices helped her find clarity to handle hard conversations and see the root causes behind problems. [8:41] Kait finds the time for her morning practices by waking up early. These practices improve the way she lives her life. Her clarity helps her move forward and not return to old routines and old ways of thinking that are not beneficial. [9:31] Kait talks about current conditions in B2B marketing, including TikTok. Which led to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and Facebook growing more videocentric. TikTok has niched down how video is offered to you. Their algorithms show you what you want to see before you know that you're interested in it. They build niche communities online. [10:33] You are seeing a change to personal brands becoming the next cornerstone of marketing. Kait is starting to build a community around her personal brand on LinkedIn. If you can build a community around your brand, and tie it to your business, it will follow you “for life.” [11:08] Kait tells how the influencer space is changing. The number one thing is authenticity. Instagram is known for beautiful content. TikTok is known for more casual and natural-looking content that adds value to the users. Creators will be the new influencers. Software solutions will make it easier to connect with creators and brands. [12:25] It's important to be active as a brand on social media. If you are not on social media, you are not going to be a credible brand for Millennials and younger generations. People are now searching for businesses on Instagram and TikTok. That's how Kait searches, because the results are visual. [13:10] Building a brand personally applies not only to the CEO or owner but also to employees who can post on their personal brand on behalf of their company brand. [14:11] The way people consume content has shifted. The type, length, and content of videos have changed dramatically. If you're not leading the changes, your brand will not get a lot of exposure. The algorithms are not chronological but are based on what the viewer watches and the comments they post. [15:17] Some of Kait's clients are interested, while some do not get it yet. As long as they are on social media, that's what matters. When Kait is on a business website and clicks out to their Facebook page, if they haven't posted in a couple of years, she thnk's they're probably not operating. [15:54] Kait grew up poor. She had no resources, connections, or college degree. What helped her was seeing what successful people were doing, and doing as they did. She heard you need a mentor. So she found a businessperson she enjoyed talking to and asked him to be her mentor. They met up for dinners and talked business. [16:29] In those chats, her mentor gave her life-changing advice. Having him there helped her stay focused on her business without being distracted by new ventures. That made Rock City Digital grow a lot better. There's always somebody above you that you can learn from. Mentors have played a massive role in Kait's life. [16:52] Books have also helped Kait tremendously. Some of the greatest thinkers, operators, and business owners have written books telling what they've learned and how they do it. She reads a book and extrapolates the information to her business. [17:35] Kait's initial drive was not wanting to struggle as her family did. She decided she would provide for herself. Besides wanting to earn money, Kait always had the drive to help people succeed. She wanted people to be treated fairly and right. She tried to be good to people at work, and it didn't make sense to her when she was mistreated. [18:29] In one job, Kait was working in politics, seven days a week, over 80 hours a week.She was sick one day and had to go to the doctor. She called in, and was 20 minutes late for the morning huddle and got yelled at. She quit not long after that. A month or two later, she got into marketing. [19:30] In her marketing job, Kait was mistreated by an older man. She made a sale and he bullied her about her commission. Kait went to an executive who told her he couldn't do anything because the man was a high performer. So she decided if they could run a company, she could, too. She quit within a month or two to start Rock City Digital. [20:52] Kait's advice is to ask yourself “What's the worst that can happen?” If the worst that can happen is you failing, that's OK, because you're going to learn something from that to take to your next venture. Also, ask a person you admire to be your mentor. Kait was shocked by how readily people help. What's the worst that could happen? [21:51] Kait says Rock City Digital's biggest goal is spreading workplace and culture awareness. They treat people with the respect and autonomy they deserve. In turn, the people help build an amazing business that everyone wants to be a part of. [22:09] Find Rock City Digital at Rock City Digital on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn and find Kait Hill on LinkedIn. [22:25] Patricia thanks Kate for joining This Is Capitalism: Extraordinary People, Extraordinary Stories and thanks the listeners. She invites you to join us again.   Mentioned in This Episode: This is Capitalism Kait Hill on LinkedIn Rock City Digital on LinkedIn Rock City Digital on Facebook Rock City Digital on Instagram Rock City Digital on TikTok The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8 AM), by Hal Elrod

A couple walks into a real estate office in Napa Valley, looking to buy a second home. If you guessed the next sentence would be, “And instead, they bought a winery!” you'd have the story of Laura Swanton, owner of Laura Michael Wines. Laura, a former high-tech exec, knew nothing about producing wines back in 1999 but she did know what it took to make and sell a product. And that's what she's been doing ever since, with her award-winning cabernet and zinfandel. In this episode of This is Capitalism, Laura talks with Patricia O'Connell about her journey from wine lover to wine producer. She shares the mistakes she made on the way, and how she arrived at the sweet spot in the volume of sales for Laura Michael Wines.   Listen in to learn about running a small winery and producing premium wines. Key Takeaways: [:24] Patricia O'Connell introduces Laura Swanton, owner of Laura Michael Wines. [:39] Laura, a former high-tech exec, knew nothing about producing wines back in 1999 but she did know what it took to make and sell a product. [1:03] Patricia O'Connell thanks Laura for joining This Is Capitalism, the podcast, extraordinary stories of extraordinary people. [1:33] Laura shares how she got into the wine business. She and her second husband purchased a winery on an impulse, then added a second property! Laura continued in tech while her husband quit his job to run the winery. After three harvests, her husband left so Laura bought him out. She left her career to become a winery owner. [3:10] Being a single woman winery owner was unique at the time. Laura married again, and they run the winery as a couple. Self-funded winery owners, as opposed to a multi-generational business, are also rare.[4:09] When Laura was working in tech in San Francisco, she only got involved in the business on the weekends in the tasting room. When her second husband left, in August of 2002, the first harvest was coming in “like a freight train,” and she had to be there full-time for that. [5:09] Laura's high-tech career of 17 years, with manufacturing, had taught her about product distribution. Her college degree in organizational management taught her how to run a company. The big difference for Laura was that it was wine. [5:53] Her first hire was a consulting winemaker, through a local winery. He taught Laura all about growing grapes and making wine. Laura has been training on the job for 20-plus years. [6:20] In the world of wine, mastery is something you hope to achieve, but there is so much to it, you are always learning. Laura manages the relationships and farming practices of the places she purchases fruit from, while her husband manages their vineyard. They produce wine and sell it directly to consumers, not to distributors. [7:57] Only one of the producers Laura buys from is 100% allocated to her. Laura contrasts the competition in the high-tech world to that in the winery world. Napa Valley growers believe that helping each other and maintaining a high level of product quality benefits the entire valley. Patricia comments that a rising tide lifts all boats. [9:16] For eight months of the year, Laura is a farmer, and she shares workers, soil, air, water, and intelligence with everyone around her. If you've got a blight or pest, it's not going to stay in Napa. It's going to travel to the neighboring counties. Everyone needs to be very cooperative with each other to maintain the health of the industry. [10:09] Laura talks about the humility and hard work that both sets of her grandparents showed. Her paternal grandfather was also a farmer who kept a large garden. Laura helped her grandfather in that garden. That background has helped her stay humble. [11:04] Laura explains how she deals with natural problems. She tries not to worry about things she can't control. She mitigates as much as she can any negativity that comes because of drought, wildfire, or a bug. The plants are resilient enough to get through the weather. It just causes major fluctuations in your yield. [12:01] Lower yields can produce higher quality fruit. [12:26] The quantity of production is legislated and requires a use permit. Laura has a small permit for 5,000 gallons. Laura is doing 1,600 cases a year, as opposed to the 15 million that others produce. Some producers only make a few hundred cases yearly. Laura is making a living at it; some wineries are passion projects. [14:30] Laura tells how she started in distribution according to the conventional wisdom of the time. Distribution meant she could not sell to stores, restaurants, or stores in other states but only to a third-party distributor. It's an expensive model to follow. Laura would bear most of the risk and little monetary benefit. [16:18] It took Laura 10 years to realize she was not going to make the volume of product to make up for the low margin. Her husband, Michael, pointed her toward setting up a tasting room and selling directly to the consumer. That's when the winery became profitable. [16:59] It had become so ingrained in Laura that she wanted to be successful at running the winery that failure wasn't an option. She had been building inventory (which takes years) for distribution and there's a lot of cash involved in making inventory happen. Her biggest challenge as a business owner was managing cash flow. She was cash-poor. [18:11] It's not easy even now that she is selling direct, but she's gotten better at managing the cash flow and the winery has gotten a little smaller. They were not selling the product fast enough to justify making as much inventory as when she was in distribution so they reduced volume by 25%. [18:40] Now she concentrates on relationship-building with their wine club members and their extended families. They have been on Highway 29 for 20-plus years, so the visibility draws people to the winery. Laura makes friends with every concierge, limo driver, and hotel person that she can so they will send customers to the winery. [19:29] Laura is a Calistoga Chamber member and her marketing is word-of-mouth. They are members of other industry groups, as well, with programs Laura Michael Wines participates in for more visibility. Being a community player is an important part of marketing, too. [20:11] Laura Michael Wines has found its sweet spot and is not looking for a lot of growth. It would be very expensive to grow past the use permit they have. They would have to re-outfit their winemaking facility at a cost of millions of dollars with financing. They are living comfortably and enjoying life. Bigger is not necessarily better. [21:09] Laura tells how the sales territory training she received in the high-tech world served her in the winemaking world. Only the product was different. [21:59] Laura advises if you want to learn a new industry that the best thing you could do is to find a job in that industry. Laura would have learned a lot more and learned faster if she had been part of a winery administrative team or sales team before buying a winery without industry knowledge. Study and immerse yourself in the industry. [22:40] Laura didn't make the best financial decisions in the first years of her winery ownership. She's thankful she was able to survive that lesson and get out of the financial sinkhole of distribution. She notes that in the last 15 years, most states' laws around the industry have changed, to the benefit of tiny wineries like hers. [23:57] The national recognition that premium wine could be shipped directly to homes was a game-changer for the industry. The larger wineries have to be in distribution. They cannot ship directly to consumers so she does not have to compete with them. The laws for the bigger wineries are different than for the smaller wineries. [24:38] Laura's succession plan is not in the family. Laura will sell the winery when she and Michael are ready to retire. Today, you can't build what they have, so it will be a very interesting sale when it happens. Laura and Mike hope to find someone who loves the industry as much as they do. But there is a lot of consolidation happening. [25:48] Outside of her product, Laura loves sparkling wine, whether from France or down the road. She and Michael also visit the neighboring wineries and take advantage of some of the varietals they don't grow themselves. Laura has a California palate. Her ongoing mastery is in trying different wines from different countries. [27:08] Patricia thanks Laura for joining This Is Capitalism: Extraordinary People, Extraordinary Stories.   Mentioned in This Episode: This is Capitalism Laura Swanton Laura Michael Wines Napa Valley Yountville Calistoga San Francisco California State Route 29 Calistoga Chamber of Commerce

Patricia O'Connell interviews Mac Gardner, CFP®, Founder and Chief Education Officer at FinLit Tech about teaching children financial literacy to help eliminate the wealth gap. Mac shares his vision of financial literacy for elementary school students, and how parents can teach it in the home. He describes new technology parents can use with their children. Mac shares what he learned growing up with a father with an MBA in Finance.   Listen in to learn more about the link between financial literacy and financial wellness. Key Takeaways:   [:25] April is Financial Literacy Month in the United States. Fewer than half the states require any economics or financial literacy. According to Mac Gardner, we are missing a huge opportunity to help close the wealth gap. [:45] Patricia O'Connell introduces Mac Gardner, CFP®, Founder and Chief Education Officer at FinLit Tech. Mac joins the podcast to talk about why financial literacy matters, how to increase awareness in children about the power of money, and the relationship between financial knowledge and financial wellness. [:56] Patricia welcomes Mac to the podcast.[1:11] Financial literacy plus financial capability — the tools — equals financial wellness. [1:50] Mac founded FinLit Tech to build a bridge between financial literacy and financial technology. Financial technology tools allow people to utilize financial education to achieve financial wellness. [2:23] Florida has just announced a requirement for a half-credit in economics or financial literacy for high school seniors to graduate. [3:29] There are 23 states that offer or require a class in financial literacy by the senior year in high school. According to a Cambridge study, a child's connectivity with money starts as early as age seven. That leaves ten years without teaching financial literacy. [4:24] If a child has no access to financial literacy technology, most of their financial education comes from what they observe among their family members and peers. [4:42] If parents never learned financial literacy, how do they teach their children to use money? This is why Mac wrote the book, The Four Money Bears. Mac teaches about three “Rs” of money: First, you realize what money is; second, you recognize the function of money in your life; and third, you rationalize how to use this tool in your life. [5:34] If your only awareness of the function of money is about spending and saving, you're limited in what you believe it can do for you. The idea behind The Four Money Bears is to open up the minds of young people that you have four options: you can spend it, save it, invest it, or give it away. [6:16] Children often identify with one type of Money Bear, more spending, saving, or giving than investing. Mac tells about an Investing Bear kid. If we start kids thinking about investing and growing their money long-term, we can see good things happen. [8:18] Will children resonate more with their parents' behaviors with money or with what they read in The Four Money Bears? Mac gives his thoughts on the new Berryville app. It uses the TAT method to teach, analyze, and track.[9:03] Financial wellness is developed over time by things you do regularly. Most young people absorb how their parents talk about money. They see how they shop at the grocery store. Are they looking for the better price? [10:04] Our society shies away from talking about finances. You need to be intentional about having the conversation. We live in one of the strongest economies. We need to teach our children how to use the tools that got us here. [10:38] Mac addresses parents who have different money personas. One may be a Spender Bear but the other is a Saver Bear. The important principle of The Four Money Bears is making young people aware they have options. When you invest, your money works for you. Giving harnesses the power of altruism. [12:04] The four rules of The Four Money Bears are Spend Cautiously, Save Diligently, Invest Wisely, and Give Generously. Mac explains. The big issue in our country is overspending! [13:14] Do parents have to agree in terms of teaching their children about money? Who teaches children about money? Why isn't financial literacy talked about in society? [14:58] How do you teach young people about money in a digital world where they may not even hold physical money? Most elementary school children still get money, because they don't have credit. Mac's older children use a Greenlight account for their allowance, debit card spending, and more. [16:00] It's so important to start the educational process early. If you have a debit card instead of cash, you'd better know how to use it! With the technology, young people can even buy fractional shares of stocks. [17:39] Mac talks about FinLit Tech's Berryville app in development. It will provide an on-ramp to a child's ongoing financial education journey into the four options they have with money. What if we could get children to start investing at age seven? [19:37] Mac shares what he learned about money at home. Mac grew up in Antigua. His grandmother didn't have a lot but she was able to make the dollar stretch. His dad had an MBA in Finance and taught him young about assets, liabilities, and balance sheets.[20:51] Where's the Earning Bear? Mac hears that question a lot. The Berryville app teaches both sides of the personal finance fence, including how to earn money and run a business. Look at TheFourMoneyBears.com to learn more about the mission to teach kids money. You can download the demo of the app from Apple or Android. [22:03] Patricia thanks Mac for joining This is Capitalism, the podcast, during Financial Literacy Month.   Mentioned in This Episode: National Financial Literacy Month FinLit Tech Mac Gardner The Four Money Bears Greenlight

 Patricia O'Connell interviews Tom Stewart, Chief Knowledge Officer at AchieveNEXT® about the 2022 CFO-CHRO Sentiment Study. They discuss the top concerns of middle-market companies.   Listen in to learn more about middle-market company plans for 2022. Key Takeaways: [:36] AchieveNEXT® specializes in helping businesses grow by sharpening their focus on human capital. [:58] Patricia O'Connell introduces Tom Stewart, Chief Knowledge Officer at AchieveNEXT®. [1:18] Tom describes AchieveNEXT®'s CFO-CHRO Sentiment Study. AchieveNEXT® surveys CFOs and CHROs at the beginning and end of each year. As 2022 began, CFOs and CHROs looked back on 2021; 40% said their performance was very much better than the year before. Looking forward, 46% expected 2022 to be even better. [1:41] A total of 77% of CFOS and CHROs surveyed said that they expected 2022 to be much better or better than 2021. Of course, businesses fell off a cliff in the Spring of 2020 from pandemic issues. Many of them rebounded in late 2020. Businesses entered 2021 with confidence in a good year; 2021 turned out to be better than expected. [3:16] At the beginning of the year, AchieveNEXT® asked CFOs and CHROs what their biggest challenges and concerns were. The number one risk was talent and the number one obstacle was talent. They were looking at the Great Resignation and wondering where the people would come from to execute the companies' growth plans. [3:47] AchieveNEXT® has just completed 10 roundtable meetings of CFOs and CHROs from New York to Orange County. Talent remains the number one issue, with two nuances: Can they get the talent, and how much will it cost to get the talent? [4:30] Some of the CFOs are worried more about the cost of talent. Others are worried about how to get critical technical employees that are hard to find. The power in the labor market has shifted to the employee. Tom addresses the reason employers think employees leave vs. the reason employees leave. [7:49] Companies are starting to think about succession planning, and leadership development to improve retention. They are also working on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues to build a sense of belonging. [8:32] The question of diversity that came up a few years ago has expanded into a larger question of does the employee have a feeling of belonging and a voice and is the company listening to that voice? Do employees have a sense they can learn and grow, and that there is a career path for them? [10:09] Money matters, but it's not the deciding factor in recruitment and retention. A sense of belonging matters more. Before the pandemic, employers were competing with each other for talent. Now they are also competing with life choices such as flexible hours, working from home, or part-time work. [11:27] Tom shares some of the thoughts he hears from mid-market companies at the roundtable meetings. There is concern about competing with large corporations and their pay packages but that is balanced by a better quality of life and personal attention. They don't have to be rigid and bureaucratic. [12:48] Tom discusses supply chains and supply chain disruptions. A lot of the middle-market companies are tier-one and tier-two suppliers to large companies. Going with supply chain disruptions are concerns about costs of talent, fuel, materials, and components. CFOs have to change their budgets dramatically. [15:00] As the pandemic sent everyone home, officers couldn't walk down the hall to talk to everyone. Suddenly, processes were needed to catch up with people. Processes and structure are now needed at mid-sized companies to recruit and retain talent. [15:56] Tom talks about the training offered by AchieveNEXT® in sales, sales and relationship building, customer experience, and the alignment of the employee experience and the customer experience. Tom says that fast-growing companies are 25% more likely to say that they had a formal customer experience process. [17:35] People are still expecting a strong 2022, but are looking to the second half of the year and thinking maybe it's going to be a bit tougher, especially the cost issues. Tom is hearing from CFOs that they have a Plan B budget for “tougher sledding.” Most of them are on plan or ahead of plan but see headwinds coming up. [18:49] Tom Stewart gives the link to find more about the survey. [19:10] Patricia thanks Tom for being on This is Capitalism, the podcast.   Mentioned in This Episode: Tom StewartAchieveNEXT AchieveNEXT 2022 CFO-CHRO Sentiment Study McKinsey & Company

Patricia O'Connell interviews Drew Russell, EVP of Sports Properties & Media Assets at Intersport about how the recent rulings that permitted Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals directly between collegiate athletes and sponsoring brands have affected college sports and individual branding for collegiate athletes. They discuss the legal background, the choices athletes have now, and any effect NIL deals may have on how collegiate games are played.   Listen in to learn more about this exciting development for college athletes. Key Takeaways: [1:13] Patricia O'Connell introduces Drew Russell, Executive Vice President of Sports Properties & Media Assets at Intersport, a Chicago-based sports and entertainment marketing company. [1:35] Drew is a big-time fan of college sports. [2:12] Court cases opened the door for collegiate athletes to monetize themselves, starting with the lawsuit brought by UCLA player Ed O'Bannon over an EA Sports video game that used his likeness and the likenesses of other players in its NCAA games. [3:01] The courts allowed the institutions and the states to determine monetization opportunities for college athletes. For the first time, college athletes can monetize their name, image, and likeness (NIL) in various ways. College athletes cannot be paid for performance or paid to play. [5:28] Each athlete is their own brand. There's a female gymnast at LSU with four million followers. This rule has been very helpful for Olympic athletes and female athletes. [6:26] The average of athletes' NIL deals has been in the range of $2,000 as social media influencers to amplify a local or national brand's message. [7:23] A lot of brands jumped in right away. A number of deals were struck at midnight the day NIL became legal for college athletes. The brands were looking for PR value more than an immediate return on their investment. [8:53] A variety of brands are getting involved. Footwear and apparel companies and sports beverage companies, that have long been linked with collegiate sports are now starting to jump into NIL deals, not just with the star quarterback or the center. [9:59] The larger brands that go for the professional athletes have been strategic with their approach to collegiate NIL deals. [10:51] Collegiate athlete NIL deals present a great opportunity for local businesses that might not be able to afford to buy a sponsorship campaign with the university. [13:51] Drew talks about how the athletes benefit from this NIL initiative. They are being educated about brand-building and opportunities and with whom they want to align. What are their social causes? What do they advocate? NIL is part of the recruiting pitch, so the universities are assisting the athletes in the area of branding. [14:52] The universities are getting assistance from third-party consulting companies and collectives. [15:43] For some athletes and some sports, college playing is the pinnacle of their sports career. The ability to build a social media presence and content offerings is a great benefit to their growth. [16:44] Drew discusses the positive sides of athletes' NIL campaigns. Athletes have learned to be selective in choosing where they want to be aligned. [18:37] Are there downsides to allowing college athletes to participate in NIL campaigns? They have to be sure they are generating a return for their investors. Drew is not aware of any situations that have gone South, relative to either the brand or the athlete, after almost a year of campaigns. [20:04] The disparity in resources for universities is the biggest downside for schools. There are only a small number of universities that are making money from college athletics. Only the larger institutions are going to be able to supply support resources to NIL programs. This is no different from the past differences between schools. [21:35] Drew discusses his experience as a college sports fan. The NIL campaigns have not affected his enjoyment. It's an opportunity for the athletes and the institutions to perform on the biggest stages. It may even encourage the athletes to perform to their best ability. [23:00] Old-school thinkers may object that this is not the college sports they grew up with. It's true that we're living in a different world. This is not the downfall of college athletics. It hasn't had the negative impact that some predicted would occur. It's been good for everyone involved. [24:52] Patricia thanks Drew for being on This is Capitalism, the podcast.   Mentioned in This Episode: Drew RussellIntersport Ed O'Bannon EA SportsEd O'Bannon vs. NCAA

Patricia O'Connell interviews Ron Jaworski, the CEO and Co-Founder of Trinity Audio about how a website can be “audified,” how audio increases the stickiness of a website, and some of the other use cases of audio powered by AI. Listen in to learn more about engaging your audience with a new channel for consuming your content. Key Takeaways: [:26] Patricia O'Connell introduces Ron Jaworski, the CEO and Co-Founder of Trinity Audio. [1:45] Ron describes the audience for audio content; particularly audio content converted from print through AI. [2:47] Ron says AI voices are being created to sound more human, while human ears are becoming more tolerant to AI voices. He shares how people were given eight separate voice samples to rate between mechanical and human, and only 25% rated them all correctly as AI. Half could not be certain and 25% rated them all incorrectly as human. [5:54] Men tend to prefer female AI voices; women are split between a preference for male and female accents. [7:11] Localization of accents is a developing issue. Trinity Audio has just one U.S. accent, not separate accents for U.S. regions. The U.S. accent is separate from the U.K. and Australian accents. There are several Spanish accents, by country. [9:11] What is the business case for content creators to use AI to create audio content from print? There is a boom in audiobooks, which can be consumed while doing another activity. Everybody is looking to consume audio. You should give them an audio option. [11:49] How does Trinity Audio work? Ron gives a short explanation of how Trinity Audio can “audify” the written content on your website. Trinity also offers other robust products to deliver a larger audio experience. The basic building block is having the option to listen to an article. [13:14] Ron describes how monetization and ads work with Trinity Audio. [16:13] Before AI, hiring a narrator was the easiest way to convert text to audio. Ron estimates AI could audify the New York Public Library in a couple of weeks, rather than the years it would take for narrators to read all the content. [17:59] The business case for periodical publications to audify their content is that it provides a channel to engage their audience with a new option to consume content and stay significantly longer on the page. Audio is about stickiness. [20:09] There are use cases beyond audifying websites. Ron shares examples of sending audio messages and memos. [24:00] Content that relies heavily on graphs and charts does not turn easily into audio form. But the audio portion can refer to visual components to be considered separately. [25:22] The use of audio content will increase but there will continue to be a need for written content. Ron shares another use case of AI live interactivity in a classroom.[27:38] Ron reveals the genesis of the name Trinity Audio. [29:34] Patricia thanks Ron for being on This is Capitalism: CEO Stories.   Mentioned in This Episode: Ron JaworskiTrinity Audio MIT WhatsApp

Patricia O'Connell interviews Beverly Behan about boards. They discuss Beverly's books, her work with boards and directors, and her advice for newly recruited directors who want to become stars in the boardroom. Beverly's experience with boards and directors has given her the knowledge of what makes a board run and what makes a star director, and she shares bits of that knowledge in this interview.   Listen in to learn more about reaching your potential as a boardroom star. Key Takeaways: [:26] Patricia O'Connell introduces Beverly Behan, a governance expert and author of several best-selling books on the subject, including Great Companies Deserve Great Boards and Becoming a Boardroom Star. [:46] Patricia welcomes Beverly to This is Capitalism: CEO Stories. [1:03] Boards have evolved since the fall of Enron around 20 years ago. Before the Enron scandal, being on a board was considered an honor. Boards, whether in private or public companies, were more decorative than functional. Beverly was shocked at the country club nature of boards when she got interested in boards as a young attorney. [2:17] Directors have never worked harder than they are working today. Being on a board is not only a privilege but also an important job to protect the company, its employees, and its investors and to leverage their expertise to guide the company through tough times. [3:07] The board sets the tone and culture of the company. They choose the CEO. They approve the strategic direction of the company. [3:41] A board member brings value by fulfilling two roles: a watchdog, raising tough and important questions, and a sounding board, bringing expertise to guide management through the challenges the company faces. That second role is where Beverly would like to see boards add more value even than they do today. [5:24] Board composition is the single most important factor in board effectiveness. You want people with experience relevant to the issues they will confront on the agenda. A company needs one or two board members with industry expertise at the table but not all board members should be from the same industry. [6:29] Bev offers suggestions for the types of experience that would be important to have on a board, depending on the size and type of company. Someone with a lot of industry experience has the credibility to challenge management. You want people who have run comparable-sized organizations. Expertise in finance and tech is important. [8:40] On top of the various areas of expertise, consider diversity. [9:28] In the past 12 to 18 months, there had been unprecedented recruitment of diverse board candidates, many of whom had no board experience. Bev started getting calls from women who were being recruited to a board for the first time. They all wanted to be great directors and wanted help to know what to do and what pitfalls to watch for. [10:26] Bev drew on her thousands of interviews of directors and boards around the world to come up with things that make a difference for the new directors who were calling her for help. What do boards hold in high regard, and what detracts from a director's credibility? This is how Bev came up with Becoming a Boardroom Star. [11:07] What does it take to become a boardroom star? Bev shares a few ideas. The first thing is to learn as much as you can about the business. Go beyond the “Executives on Parade” meeting with each of the C-Suite members. After the director orientation, do site visits. Be diligent in your preparation; your work ethic shows. [14:02] Injecting new people into a board with new and better behaviors can change the norms of the board in a good way. [14:42] New directors often struggle with learning the line between governance and management. Directors don't run the company, they oversee the people who run the company. A board may have a “Board Buddy” program where a new director is paired up with an incumbent director to review board materials together before the meeting. [17:31] Bev lays out a case where the best choice for a director is to resign from the board! If a board votes differently than a director advocated, the director can either support the board's decision or resign from the board. It is no use trying to revisit the decision and becoming a problem director. [19:46 How long will it take for “new blood” to have an influence on the board? Bev shares her thoughts. It depends on the director. The better the director prepares for the role, the sooner the influence of that director will be felt. Credibility is key. [21:59] Bev discusses how virtual board meetings have worked. She brings up the value of board evaluations, a tool to take a board from good to great and keep great boards vibrant. How is a board evaluation done by video conferencing? As boards return to meeting in person, what will change? What about board committees? [25:36] Patricia thanks Bev for sharing her great insights with This is Capitalism: CEO Stories.   Mentioned in This Episode: Beverly BehanGreat Companies Deserve Great Boards: A CEO's Guide to the Boardroom, by Beverly Behan Becoming A Boardroom Star, by Beverly Behan Enron Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Patricia O'Connell interviews Ramy Gafni about Ramy Cosmetics, LLC. They discuss how he began in law school but realized his heart was in beauty school, how he started his career in photoshoots and retail and moved to an upscale salon until cancer and chemotherapy changed his appearance and cost him his job. Ramy discusses the steps he followed to continue receiving an income, including opening a private studio, creating a product line for cancer patients, and writing two books on beauty, how he won over a manufacturer and landed his first cosmetic client. How did Ramy become the “go-to guy” for brows? Listen in to learn more about Ramy Cosmetics LLC and the surprising path to becoming a cosmetics entrepreneur. Key Takeaways: [:29] Patricia O'Connell introduces Ramy Gafni, makeup artist, author, and CEO of Ramy Cosmetics, LLC, a company that uses cosmetics to bring out your best eyebrows. [:52] Patricia welcomes Rami to This is Capitalism: CEO Stories. [1:21] Ramy dropped out of law school and moved to Australia, where he went to beauty school. His parents were hoping he would go back to law school. He wrote a letter to his parents about going to a beauty school. He talked to his parents after sending the letter and they were very supportive. He took his studies seriously. [2:11] Ramy returned to New York to pursue a career as a makeup artist in photoshoots and retail. He got hired as makeup director at a Fifth Avenue salon. That was the job that put him on the map. He started doing eyebrows and working on celebrities. He developed a makeup line for the salon. [2:45] Vogue wrote Ramy up in a story about eyebrow obsession. The article dubbed him the “go-to eyebrow person” in New York. Other articles linked him to eyebrows, so he went with it. [3:24] Then Ramy developed Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He worked every day during five months of chemo. He was about to start radiation when the salon fired him because of his changed appearance. Another top salon called him. He went to meet them, but having gone through chemo, he didn't look like his picture. They didn't hire him. [4:33] Ramy realized no one was going to hire him while he looked like a cancer patient. He had taken his Rolodex of clients with him and started mailing to his clients to come to his private studio. Many of them came. [5:45] Ramy kept getting written up in different magazines and newspapers as the eyebrow guy. That sent new people his way. His business was thriving; he was never busier. Ramy was also working as a freelance makeup artist and he got a gig for ABC Television doing makeup for a PSA for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. [6:17] Ramy decided to create a makeup line, using his experience of creating a makeup line for the salon that had hired him. He started with 12 products, selling them to his brow clients. He called the department stores, and Bergdorf Goodman returned his call. They called him in for a meeting every three months. [7:03] Ramy was doing the eyebrows for the editor-in-chief and the staff at InStyle magazine and they gave a placement to his product line in the “What's Hot Now” feature of the September issue. Ramy took it into Bergdorf Goodman and asked for a counter. They gave him one. [7:45] Ramy talks about spending a year of his life going through cancer. You have to forge ahead, one day after another. He felt that if he could get through cancer, he could get through anything. He was happy to be alive; he was happy to be working and have an income. [8:05] The buyer at Bergdorf Goodman asked about his numbers. Ramy didn't know what she was talking about. Bergdorf was good to him and gave him an education about running a counter. [10:02] Ramy talks about Ramy Beauty Therapy. It began with a concealer he used to hide the effects of his chemotherapy. This led him to write a book to address the appearance of the physical effects of chemotherapy. [11:49] Cosmetics are often superficial, but for a mother to be able to make her skin look healthy for her children while she is taking chemotherapy is incredibly empowering. Beauty Therapy came in to meet that need. When you look good, you feel good. [13:20] Ramy.com is what saved Ramy during the pandemic. Ramy has always been known for eyebrows; his top seller is the Perfect Brow Wand. The online sales never slowed down for that product. Ramy also sells a mask gel to prevent acne from masks. It was featured on the Today Show and was a big hit for his business. [14:50] Ramy has been in business for almost 25 years. He was sometimes torn between continually working with clients and focusing on his product line. A collision where he was run over by a moped required therapy and surgery for him; for some time he was unable to work with clients. So he relied heavily on the product line. [17:18] As a diabetes patient, Ramy is also nervous about getting COVID-19 from a client, as it is very close work. He has caught the flu several times from clients who assured him they were “not contagious anymore.” [18:27] Ramy started his business on a frayed shoestring budget. There was no capitalization. Ramy tells how he sold his plan to a Canadian manufacturer. It was a husband-and-wife team and the husband was also a cancer survivor. After three solid days of negotiation, they had a deal if Ramy didn't come back tomorrow! [21:15] On the same trip to Toronto, Ramy also landed his first client, an upscale hair salon, that dropped a high-end product for Ramy Cosmetics! They threw a huge launch party for Ramy Cosmetics, which was amazing! It was a nice beginning for his business! [23:02] Ramy comes up with the clever names for all his products, except for two names he got from a close friend when he was having a creative block. [25:48] Ramy's business began as something to do until he could find another salon job. Eventually, he found his business was his job. Ramy never had a business plan, but a lot of “dumb luck”! As he started with Bergdorf Goodman, the salon that had fired him went out of business. Ramy is the last man standing! [27:24] Patricia thanks Rami for joining This is Capitalism: CEO Stories.   Mentioned in This Episode: Ramy GafniRamy Cosmetics LLC (Ramy.com) Vogue InStyle Ramy Beauty Therapy Ramy Gafni's Beauty Therapy: The Ultimate Guide to Looking and Feeling Great While Living with Cancer, by Ramy Gafni How to Fake Real Beauty: Tricks of the Trade to Master Your Makeup. By Ramy Gafni

Patricia O'Connell interviews Mac Gardner about FinLit Tech. They discuss Mac's two books, and how his career in financial planning led him to write these educational books and start FinLit Tech to promote financial literacy for children. Mac discusses the lack of financial education in the American education system, the tremendous cost to society of financial illiteracy, and the role parents can play in providing financial literacy for their children. He explains the educational offerings he has in place and planned roll-outs for children and adults.   Listen in to learn more about FinLit Tech and teaching financial literacy. Key Takeaways: [:22] Patricia O'Connell introduces Mac Gardner, Founder of FinLit Tech, a company that uses the four money bears (Save, Spend, Invest, and Give), to teach children financial literacy. [:50] Mac Gardner's first book was Motivate Your Money! The book shared wisdom Mac had gathered in over 20 years in the financial industry. One of Mac's clients then asked him to write a similar book for elementary school children. He did so and called it The Four Money Bears, using bears to teach about spending, saving, investing, and giving. [2:28] The book is about a family of bears, Papa, Mama, and the Baby Bears, with Papa teaching his children the four functions of money. It is the story of Mac teaching his children to manage money. [4:40] To introduce investment to students, Mac holds up a $100 bill and asks how they would use it. After the students talk about what they would buy, Mac asks if they knew they could use it to buy the companies that make the things they buy. He introduces the concept of reward and risk and the potential of growth by investing in stocks. [6:38] A child's first concept of giving may be of giving to a family member. Parents may teach children about giving to a church. Mac placed worksheets in the back of the book giving examples of giving money to different places and people. There will always be someone in need, and we can give money or give time to help them. [7:39] Mac talks about the example his businessman father was to him growing up, and how he learned about the uses of money. Mac has worked with many people who had plenty of money but little understanding of personal finance, including the difference between permanent insurance and term insurance.[8:44] Only 22 states require students to be taught financial literacy by high school. Mac saw a lot more could be done and wrote The Money Bears to help meet that need. The curriculum requirements vary by state. [9:28] A Cambridge study shows that a child's connectivity with money starts by age seven. A child of seven can understand the conversations Mom and Dad are having about money. The first habit a child picks up is their parents' spending habit. If schools aren't teaching financial literacy until late in high school, that's a 10-year gap. [10:32] It has been very challenging trying to get this book into public schools. Most of Mac's success with the book has come from grassroots efforts. A few years ago, eMoney, a large fintech company, connected with Mac to collaborate on CFP® CE courses for financial advisors across the country. [12:01] Elementary teachers and students are using technology. There is tech available to help you use your money, but not a lot of tech that teaches you what to do with your money. FinLit Tech builds a bridge between financial literacy and financial technology. They consult with different fintech companies interested in educating their clients. [13:09] Mac is working on developing a multimedia financial education platform from his book, Motivate Your Money, incorporating videos, interviews with fintech and financial services leaders, and gamified options for financial education for adults. [14:42] Mac is working on The Four Money Bears Go to Bank, introducing additional characters and principles of banking, credit, and the hierarchy of financial needs. [16:23] A 2018 statistic showed that the cost of financial illiteracy to our society is in the billions. There are so many people in our society that aren't getting this education, and it perpetuates their sad financial states. If a parent never learned financial literacy, how can they teach their child? The Four Money Bears is a way to start the conversation. [18:25] Mac likes to hear about children starting to connect with specific bears because of their own habits with money. Parents tell Mac they like the worksheets and how they help teach the principles. [20:00] Mac expects to have the children's app with the Bearberry Farms entrepreneurism platform, online by the end of 2021. [20:35] Mac shares links for more information. [21:03] Patricia thanks Mac for joining This is Capitalism: CEO Stories.   Mentioned in This Episode: Mac GardnerFinLit Tech Motivate Your Money!: Plan, Spend, Save, Invest, Gift, by Mac Gardner The Four Money Bears, by Mac Gardner TheFourMoneyBears.comHabit Formation and Learning in Young Children, by Dr. David Whitebread and Dr. Sue Bingham, University of Cambridge eMoney

Patricia O'Connell interviews Nick Childs about DIRT. They discuss what the company does, why it was started, how it relates to Nick's earlier careers, and how biometric neuroscientific testing can help you connect deeply with your audience through content that reaches them emotionally.   Listen in to learn more about DIRT and content improved by biometric science for your audience. Key Takeaways: [:25] Patricia O'Connell introduces Nick Childs, filmmaker, producer, director, and writer of film and digital experiences, as well as a Co-Founder of DIRT. [1:19] Nick and three co-founders started DIRT during the pandemic. They built a platform for neuroscientific research for consumer insights. DIRT stands for Discover and Illuminate Real Truth. They dig in the sandbox with their clients to build connecting content and experiences together through a better understanding of their audiences. [2:42] DIRT research tests the emotional responses of subjects to the things they are observing by measuring their galvanic skin responses. The responses show when people are paying more attention to what they see. DIRT creates a report for the client that helps them focus on what content had the most impact. [4:31] Why doesn't DIRT use surveys or focus groups? [6:40] DIRT also uses eye-tracking with galvanic skin response. They measure attention and extrapolate emotional connections based on the content itself. A timeline of the responses with the content shows where the audience's attention is spiking and where it is flagging. This is very valuable knowledge for content makers. [8:15] The power of infinitesimal improvements over time. [8:31] Patricia and Nick discuss a hypothetical, concrete example of evaluating a sneaker ad. What is the level of detail they can test? Nick recommends picking at least 50 to 100 people from the client's audience and getting an aggregate test score.[10:50] Almost any industry that connects with an audience through content or an app can benefit from this research. [12:04] How does DIRT fit into the future of making decisions about content? Neuromarketing growth is compounding at 16% annually over the next five or six years. Nick sees NaaS (Neuroscience as a Subscription) as a growing market. What about costs? [13:57] Are there privacy issues? DIRT does not need demographic information from people to gather galvanic responses. They invite people to opt-in with some data but testing can be done completely anonymously. People are invited in and compensated for their time. DIRT is open about what they gather and what they do not. [17:03] Can biometric neuroscience be used for nefarious reasons? Not at DIRT, anyway, as they maintain anonymity from audiences that opt-in to the experience. The goal is a better connection with the audience the client is serving with their offerings. [18:36] Nick would have loved to have access to this biometric neuroscience research back when he was making content to make better connections with his audiences. [21:14] Does biometric neuroscience divide the “poets” from the “quants”? Nick has not been in a situation where the quants get it but the poets don't. Everyone gets it. The research bridges the gap and delivers value to all of the stakeholders as DIRT helps the client focus on creating something that connects with their audience better.[23:29] How to make a new translation of Beowulf culturally significant. Understand where your audience is now. Crime author Elmore Leonard followed the rule to try to leave out the parts that readers skip. DIRT tries to leave out the parts of your content that your audience skips. It makes for a better experience. [24:49] What can a client apply from one study of one piece of content to develop future content? Nick talks through the process. What insights can a client build? [25:50] Is this research only for large corporations? DIRT is working on how to put this into the reach of more influencers and companies. [27:46] Contrasting the creator economy and the attention economy, and how DIRT is involved to help build connections. [28:44] Nick shares his contact links. [29:09] Patricia thanks Nick for joining This is Capitalism: CEO Stories.   Mentioned in This Episode: Nick ChildsWeAreDIRT.com Twitter: @NickChilds Maria Headley's translation of Beowulf Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf Elmore Leonard

 Patricia O'Connell interviews Nick Araco, CEO of AchieveNEXT, and Tom Stewart, Chief Knowledge Officer, about AchieveNEXT and recent data they have collected from middle-market CHROs and CFOs regarding where they see business heading for the rest of the year.   Listen in to learn more about AchieveNEXT and projected upcoming mid-market growth. Key Takeaways: [:28] Patricia O'Connell introduces Nick Araco, CEO of AchieveNEXT, and Tom Stewart, Chief Knowledge Officer. [1:09] AchieveNEXT helps emerging and middle-market CFOs and CHROs to gather and assemble data, to benchmark, and to share best practices, and do it all better, faster, and smarter. [1:54] Most of the middle-market companies are private. There is not a lot of benchmarking data on which to rely. AchieveNEXT combines a peer network, data from research with CFO and CHRO alliances, and a suite of human capital and performance solutions that will help CFOs and CHROs improve the performance of their companies. [2:50] Nick talks about capturing data from CFOs and CHROs of 200 private companies about what they are committing to, how they are doing, and what they project for the next six months. The data shows that optimism abounds for recovery. Top-line and bottom-line performance is up in these mid-market enterprises in 2021. [4:34] Nick and Tom have spent decades working with mid-market enterprises. For most of that time, CFOs and CHROs made conservative projections of nominal, single-digit growth. Their current projections are for more than 10% growth, which is very different from their past projections. [5:20] Some hospitality and other businesses are constrained by the impacts of the pandemic; they project negative growth. This group is relatively small compared to the mid-market enterprises that project high growth. The bell curve has shifted to the right. People have more confidence. [6:22] During Q3 and Q4 of 2020, the mid-market was concerned that even if they were up and running, their customers and vendors would not be financially fit. Now, they are worried about retaining talent and finding new talent to sustain and drive their growth. [7:35] With the expectation of revenue growth, there is an expectation of employment growth. The data gathered by AchieveNEXT shows that 57% of mid-market enterprises say attracting and retaining top talent is one of their top three challenges. It's the #1 challenge. [8:42] One of AchieveNEXT's secrets is that the relationship between the finance leader, the HR leader, and the CEO is the trifecta. That relationship and the functions behind finance and people drive the success of the business. Companies that thrive have brought the numbers and acumen of finance together with the people side. [9:32] At their highest levels, the CFO and the CHRO are responsible for the development of financial and human capital. That's what makes the enterprise a combination of financial and human resources. [10:47] Most of the enterprises surveyed said they are not shifting their strategy. They are focused on doing what they do well, and it seems to be meeting the market's needs and demands. So they are looking for talent like the talent they already have. It's a battle for talent. [11:46] Most enterprises are reporting that the supply of talent they are seeking is either not out there, or hard to find, or is not moving. There is not enough talent. They will either have to create or develop new pools of talent, or pay more and steal them from somebody else, or win them with something that doesn't involve money, like culture. [12:42] Enterprises were surveyed about actions they are taking for all their priorities for the remainder of 2021. The most important was increasing efficiency. Right under that was addressing talent issues. Workplace flexibility was highly regarded among women CFOs. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are also high priorities for expanding talent pools. [14:08] Mid-market enterprises are investing and doubling down on technology to fill functions that can be automated. Instead of eliminating people, they are working to upskill people to work on higher-value functions that cannot be automated. [15:05] “Technology is my friend,” is the message that middle-market CFOs and CHROs have been telling AchieveNEXT. 78% say that technology is providing a positive benefit. They are not buying new tools and equipment, but focusing on getting the most out of what they have and getting the stacks they have to communicate better. [16:32] Nick and Tom are hearing almost daily stories of CFOs announcing a deal was done. The Alliance of Merger and Acquisition Advisors (AM&AA) says there is about $1.6 trillion available for M&A. Capital is not particularly hard to find. About 21% of mid-market companies are looking for an acquisition. [18:39] The private equity timelines are compressed. What was once a five-to-seven-year threshold of buying, developing, and selling a platform has come down to 2.5 years from buying to selling. There's an attitude of bullishness and excitement. Tom sees cyclical and structural issues creating this increasing M&A. [20:36] Most private companies expect to stay private. When would a company want to go public? [21:35] Nick mentions some concerns that exist in the mid-market regarding projected top-line revenue performance: capabilities, cost, and COVID-19. These three dark clouds do not cover up the confidence the mid-market has in their companies, industries, cities, and the U.S. economy. [24:01] Nick shares helpful links and a peek at their upcoming study on mid-market talent acquisition, compensation, and culture. [25:26] Patricia thanks Nick and Tom for joining CEO Stories on This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Nick AracoTom Stewart AchieveNEXT AchieveNEXT on LinkedIn AchieveNEXT on Twitter Alliance of Merger and Acquisition Advisors

Patricia O'Connell interviews Dee Brown, President and CEO of The P3 Group about what a Public-Private Partnership (P3) is, and what impact P3 development projects have on under-served communities. Dee talks about his career in real estate, infrastructure development, and P3 real estate development. He shares his early history and the duty he feels toward the communities he serves. Dee is always learning, always growing, and always getting up at 3:30 a.m. because he always wants to do better at the work he loves. Listen in to learn more about entrepreneurship in under-served communities in the P3 space with Dee Brown. Key Takeaways: [:29] Patricia O'Connell introduces Dee Brown, President and CEO of The P3 Group. [:34] The P3 Group is the nation's largest minority-owned real estate developer that focuses exclusively on Public-Private Partnerships. Dee has nearly 30 years of experience in real estate sales, development, construction, and management. He is also the host of The Sky's the Limit podcast, produced by Forbes Books. [1:41] Dee used his “stick-to-it-ness” to move past some challenges and technical difficulties that might have prevented today's episode from being recorded. In business, almost all the time, the first answer is “No,” so Dee has always found a way to overcome objections and push forward to get to the goal. [2:45] Dee describes his response to hearing “No.” He tries to understand the reason behind the “No,” to determine how to move forward. There are a variety of reasons a person might object. [4:04] Dee sometimes has to educate agencies and leaders of organizations that The P3 Group's model and execution strategy is a superior delivery method. [4:36] Dee explains the meaning of a Public-Private Partnership between a private-sector company and a unit of government. Dee talks about the goals of a Public-Private Partnership agreement. The P3 Group provides all the expertise and carries the risk. [6:33] Dee describes the several risk mitigation tools The P3 Group uses to mitigate their risks as developers. [8:55] The team at The P3 Group has expertise in business development, business operations, administration, client services, and client relationships. Dee's son has recently been promoted to President of Client Services. [10:56] Dee has a goal to pass the business along to his son and future generations. [11:47] Dee shares how he migrated from traditional real estate and real estate development to the P3 world. When the 2008 recession hit, he moved into highway, street, and bridge construction by acquiring a construction company. As his business grew, he started doing work for federal agencies. [12:50] After working on infrastructure construction projects, Dee began to apply his new knowledge of Public-Private Partnerships to real estate development. [13:26] Many of the projects The P3 Group executes, such as fire stations, municipal courthouses, public safety complexes, and more, are in under-served communities. Any type of government organization may use its services. The P3 Group has about $1 billion worth of projects in planning or in process in its pipeline. [14:35] Why does The P3 Group concentrate its work in under-served communities? [15:26] Dee tells what it means to him to be the largest minority-owned developer in the P3 space and the duty he feels to the communities he serves. These projects are transformational in the landscape of a community. [16:30] Dee grew up in a very impoverished community in the Mississippi Delta. He beat the odds to get where he is at The P3 Group. In the community where Dee was raised, there is still a lot of need and hopelessness. Dee goes into a community and provides services that bring hope and that inspire. [17:28] The P3 Group has donated money to community colleges for scholarship programs. Dee and his team try to be good examples of what you can do if you put your mind to it and make good, sound decisions. They try to be visible in the community. They run a math and reading academy for K‒3 through their non-profit organization. [18:44] The non-profit foundation at The P3 Group has been organized as a 501(c)(3) for two years. The foundation was started in 2014. Dee tells of some of the work the foundation does. Currently, the foundation is partnering with The P3 Group to develop student housing and student unions on HBCU campuses. [20:05] Dee, from his childhood, always had the mindset that he wanted to be successful. He was always looking for entrepreneurial opportunities to make money. Because of that, he has never punched a clock for anyone. He has always “eaten what he's killed.” [20:56] Why the lion is the king of the jungle: When the lion sees an elephant, he thinks about lunch. When the elephant sees a lion, he thinks about running. Dee has the mindset of a lion. He always looks for ways to succeed. He gets up at 3:30 every morning to work. Some people do not have the discipline to succeed. [23:12] Dee recommends three habits for highly successful people. Success is not a smooth journey but a series of failures that you have to overcome for some period. You can't start at the end. You start at the beginning. Do more than you get paid to do. [25:46] Follow your dreams. Find something that you're passionate about, something that you believe in, something that inspires you, and then use that to build your business model around. Dee doesn't have a problem with working every day because he loves what he does. He loves the impact that his business has on communities. [28:36] Patricia thanks Dee for appearing on This is Capitalism CEO Stories.   Mentioned in This Episode: Dee Brown DeeBrownCEO.com The P3 Group Brown Foundation Community Development Corporation HBCUs Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life, by Spencer Johnson

Patricia O'Connell interviews Kevin Dawidodicz, serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of CoachMePlus. They discuss the CoachMePlus product in its market, the limitations of fitness apps used alone, and how CoachMePlus developed from a high schooler's workout notebook. Listen in to learn more about fitness training accountability for athletes and clients. Key Takeaways: [:26] Patricia O'Connell introduces serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of CoachMePlus, Kevin Dawidowicz, to talk about the fitness tool CoachMePlus. [1:18] CoachMePlus is a tool for coaches and trainers of athletes and exercise program clients to improve fitness outcomes. CoachMePlus started with professional athletes, providing in-person and remote experiences. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the app was used remotely also by personal trainers and their clients. [3:55] CoachMePlus uses various connectivity tools to manage the relationships of coaches and trainers with their athletes or clients. The tools include texting, fitness programming, nutrition and hydration tracking, weight tracking, and integration of the clients' wearable fitness devices. [6:44] CoachMePlus is working with the National Guard and the Reserves to embed a culture of fitness in these branches of the military and deliver fitness programming when they are away from the base. [8:21] Kevin defines fitness as a holistic mindset that includes sleep, nutrition, and mindfulness as well as physical fitness. Coaches can use CoachMePlus to engage the athlete or client in all aspects of fitness and wellness.[9:09] Kevin explains how CoachMePlus is more of a tool than an app. There is no accountability with an app. With CoachMePlus, there is somebody on the other side to hold the athlete or client accountable. [11:12] Wearable fitness devices constantly stream information into the system and that becomes available to the coach in a usable way. How the coach uses the information depends on how the relationship between the coach and the athlete works. [12:24] The information collected from the athlete is for the coach and the athlete. CoachMePlus does not mine the data for advertising purposes.[12:53] Kevin tells the evolution of CoachMePlus starting with making training CD-ROMs for Coach Doug McKenney of the Buffalo Sabres. [16:27] Kevin and his co-founders spent years brainstorming ideas and rapidly prototyping apps for a scalable company. He advises entrepreneurs to get out of the analysis mindset and start doing. Get it into the hands of customers, get feedback, modify, iterate, and repeat. [18:14] Before CoachMePlus, Kevin tried online retail and a site to track collectibles online. Discovering their limitations in these projects helped them go in a different direction. [19:54] Kevin has a well of optimism and energy that keeps him going. He's also pragmatic and realistic about his projects. [21:43] Kevin was surprised when he got into the market space, that within a couple of years, he had three or four competitors that all started right around the same time. If he had delayed launching until his product was “perfect,” he would have been behind. Get out there as quickly as possible.[23:07] CoachMePlus with its remote use case had an advantage over the fitness market during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the fitness market was located inside the gym. The pandemic broke that model. This year, the number of gyms and personal trainers that use CoachMePlus has doubled and is accelerating. [24:30] Kevin has other ideas percolating in the middle of the night. He's never short of ideas; everything's just a matter of resources. The job is to be nimble enough to accept the new tech as it comes in and make it useful. It's an interesting challenge. [25:52] Patricia thanks Kevin for joining This is Capitalism CEO Stories.   Mentioned in This Episode: Kevin Dawidowicz CoachMePlusTwitter @CoachMePlusApple WatchWhoopBuffalo Sabres Doug McKenney Philadelphia Eagles Stephen Ostrow

Patricia O'Connell interviews Cher Grant, CEO and Founder of software development company Wazzio. They discuss how Wazzio was launched, how it serves schools and parents teaching at home, and how Cher became a technology provider after being a sales rep. Cher stresses the importance of financial literacy for children growing up in a world where spending happens on a keyboard.   Listen in to learn more about providing innovative solutions through cloud services. Key Takeaways: [:27] Patricia O'Connell introduces Cher Grant, CEO and Founder of Wazzio, a software development company, and welcomes her to This is Capitalism CEO Stories. [:48] Cher launched Wazzio in 2013 with cloud software services. Since 2013, the company has pivoted into the educational space to offer technology to help students. [1:12] Their latest application is Wazzcards, an online virtual interactive classroom. A question is posed by teachers or parents on a card that appears on-screen. Students answer it in real-time as teachers or parents observe how the students answer. It can be used in class or remotely. [2:07] Wazzcards has many subjects but one of the main purposes of the program is to encourage students as young as possible to learn about financial literacy. Wazzcards is intended for classes from Grade Three through Grade Eight. The subjects are Science, Math, English, Geography, History, and Financial Literacy. [3:35] Cher talks about the extreme importance of financial literacy and why it should be taught in school. When you buy everything online, how do you keep track of how much money you are spending? It doesn't even seem real if you don't hold the cash in your hand.[5:19] Cher wants children to learn now what happens when you borrow money, what debt means, what it does to your credit score, how interest works, and how debt follows you until you pay it off. [5:47] Cher markets Wazzcards through social media, Google Ads, and existing partnerships with schools and other companies in the education sector. Wazzcards is marketed both to schools and parents teaching their children at home. The collaborative nature of the cards helps keep the attention and focus of children. [6:48] Wazzcards presents a complete curriculum that parents can use for teaching at home. Parents select the decks they want to use for their children. Parents can apply motivational treats for the number of questions answered correctly.[7:33] The pandemic gave parents access to how well their children were doing or how they were struggling in school.[9:14] The technology industry is predominantly male-dominated. Cher has met some challenges throughout her career but her love for technology has kept her going. Technology is innovative and always changing. Solving business challenges for customers is what excites Cher about technology. [9:48] Cher had learned in previous jobs to act like Teflon and not let sexist attitudes and comments stick to her. She eventually left being an employee when she found too many obstacles to innovation in the companies that employed her. She decided to launch a company where she could innovate to meet the needs she saw.[11:05] Cher had always felt a “burning flame” to do something on her own. The fear factor of failing kept her working as an employee for years. When she launched Wazzio, it was profitable in its first year. [12:00] Cher describes the role having passion for your work plays for people whether working for a company or as an entrepreneur. We don't often hear the phrase, “I love my job. I love what I do.” Passion gets you up in the morning to push through the highs and lows of the day. An entrepreneur works many hours to succeed. [13:34] With a Wazzcard subscription, a school has the opportunity to get a discount on Chromebook devices. So far, Wazzio has neither sought nor needed outside capitalization. They may look for funding later on for growth. [14:55] By not relying on investors, Cher has been able to control the company as she wants. This has been an advantage so far. [15:53] The most important thing when you partner with an investor is to align with an investor who has the same vision you have for the company. It's almost like a marriage. [16:33] Wazzio has also created a company called Riley in Canada as a market for small contractors in the beauty and household service industries. It may expand into the U.S.[18:02] You can purchase a Wazzcards software subscription anywhere in the world. The Chromebook discount is only available in the U.S.[18:35] Cher's advice for female entrepreneurs going into technology fields is not to fear the tech but embrace it. We use it every day, all day. Don't be afraid of getting into this space. There are huge opportunities in different tech areas for providing solutions and services to different businesses. Push forward and take a look at technology. [19:23] Cher started in the tech space as a sales rep at large American companies. When she saw the possibilities in the technology field, she was very excited. She has stayed in technology ever since.[20:37] Cher received a lot of great training in tech while she worked for those large companies. She received various certifications any time she saw an opportunity to learn more. She also researched to find as much as she could about technology she didn't understand. As she went through different types of jobs, learning became easier for her.[21:10] Cher became a cloud specialist when she saw the industry was moving into cloud technology. Learn while you are earning a salary, then apply your knowledge in a company you launch. [22:01] Wazzcards is preparing an offering for the corporate space for corporations to teach their employees about the different solutions they offer. [22:39] Patricia thanks Cheryl for sharing her story and telling us about Wazzio and Wazzcards.   Mentioned in This Episode: Cher Grant Wazzio.com Wazzcards.com Chromebook

Patricia O'Connell interviews Christina Elson, Executive Director for the Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest University, and Patrick Reasonover, the lead producer of the movie, They Say It Can't Be Done. They discuss the movie, innovation, and the proper role of regulation in a free market capitalist system. Listen in to learn more about innovation and regulation and how you can promote innovation in the market. Key Takeaways: [:21] Patricia O'Connell introduces Christina Elson, Executive Director for the Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest University, and Patrick Reasonover, the lead producer of the movie, They Say It Can't Be Done, and welcomes them to This is Capitalism. [1:34] Patrick discusses innovation, regulation, optimism, and pessimism as themes of the movie They Say It Can't Be Done. Innovators are working on problems that people believe cannot be solved, such as global warming. Regulators use an outdated industrial model and not the digital, innovative model of capitalism we see today. [3:30] We have to decide between optimism and pessimism. Can these things be done? Should we regulate and stop them from moving forward? [4:00] Christina addresses the roles of regulation, both positive and negative, in a capitalist free market economy. Regulators do not fully understand the new technology economy they regulate. We need to protect people when it's appropriate without creating issues that are difficult to resolve in our economy. [6:12] Patrick speaks of the histories of capitalism and regulation since the Industrial Revolution. With industry, came regulation. Regulation trails innovation as the future is unseen. The ultimate decider of an industry's success is when the consumers choose them in the market. When regulation tries to manage innovation, it's a problem. [7:34] Regulations should not solve problems; they should empower and facilitate the innovators and businesses that are solving the problems. [8:04] Patrick searched on Google to find the four companies he followed in the film They Say It Can't Be Done. They began by finding the biggest problems everyone shares. When they settled on the problems, they went researching and found organizations that had been working on these problems for years or even decades. [9:16] Patrick and his team talked to many people in the process. The four companies that the film follows are symbolic of multiple others working on the same problems, such as, how do you solve global warming? One person, Klaus Lackner, has developed a plastic tree to suck CO2 from the atmosphere at thousands of times the rate of a living tree.[10:35] Wake Forest University has been working at the forefront of personalized medicine for over a decade. They are working on growing bones, organs, or other tissues you may need from your existing cells. This works with 3-D printing technology in biomedicine. The medical regulatory system is not based on personalized medicine. [12:01] A business that builds organs needs to scale its ability for the hundreds of thousands of people that need organ donation. The process of scaling has been extremely complicated because of the regulatory system. The innovators spend many hours trying to work through very complicated regulations, instead of innovating. [14:31] Most of the regulatory agencies and the acts which created them are decades old. They are outdated. There needs to be a fundamental revisiting of how we regulate any of these businesses, particularly new ones. New businesses are particularly vulnerable at the start. Once they are global, they are not as vulnerable.[16:17] Do we trust that most innovators are devoting their time and resources trying to contribute and do good? Or do we look at the world with fear?[16:48] We need to encourage innovation and new businesses in the US. Patricia talks about Eat Just, one of the businesses in the film, producing chicken meat. They have a great product with some important breakthroughs. They launched in Singapore instead of the US because of Singapore's clear regulatory system. [19:20] What about the workers displaced by the creative destruction? What happens to the food processing workers when we grow meat from cells? Many companies are heavily involved in retraining workers. Our schools are emphasizing training for the new economy. There are always jobs that will be replaced by other, better jobs. [22:16] Animal husbandry and slaughter are jobs that are not pleasant. Other jobs will appear that are less hazardous, better paying, and better for the environment as well. The American beef industry is trying to use the regulatory apparatus to delay and shut down Eat Just and its competitors from launching this product. [23:30] Instead of trying to regulate them, Tyson invested in Eat Just. Tyson has an international distribution system. Eat Just does not. By working together, and producing a better product, they both profit. Eat Just has made meat better and less expensive. [26:07] We are ready for permissionless innovation. We are responsible for the government we have. We need to have advocacy for the kind of world in which we want to live and take the steps to figure out how to get there. As consumers, we can demand products that we believe will provide us with a better, healthier lifestyle. [28:20] Advocacy is based on need. If enough people demand 3-D printed organs, the system will eventually provide for them to be made. The first step is awareness. The movie presents real solutions that address real problems. [29:20] Christina tells why she is an optimist. Optimists believe in a locus of control and are natural leaders. There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic today. Patrick is an optimist but he says we all need to be self-aware. Sometimes, you need to be cautious. The negativity of the media makes people overly cautious. [31:35] We have a tort system in the US. Why not let this meat go to market? Why does the FDA need to approve foods that we eat? If it is harmful, they will be sued. We are in Innovation Land. Capitalism has freed people to create new things. The future is always going to be different and when people are free, it is going to be better. [32:33] Be optimistic when it is called for and be cautious when it is called for. There are millions of people all around the world, working on amazingly cool stuff to solve the problems you are worried about, right now. The best thing you can do is to help them. [32:58] Patricia thanks Patrick and Christina for giving us reasons to be optimistic and for being on the podcast; This Is Capitalism CEO Stories.   Mentioned in This Episode: Christina Elson Patrick Reasonover Wake Forest University Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest University They Say it Can't Be Done Eat Just National Cattlemen's Beef Association Tyson

Patricia O'Connell interviews Tiki Barber, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Thuzio, on how his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut evolved into playing for 10 years with the NY Giants, entering broadcasting, and co-founding Thuzio, a sports events and media company. Tiki discusses his varied careers, his family, and what motivates him to succeed.   Listen in to learn more about taking advantage of opportunities and pivoting as needed. Key Takeaways: [:25] Patricia O'Connell introduces Tiki Barber, Co-chairman of Thuzio. [1:10] Patricia welcomes Tiki Barber to CEO Stories on This is Capitalism. [1:15] As a child, Tiki Barber was so strongly affected by the 1986 Challenger disaster that he wanted to be an astronaut. His mother suggested that he go to a college where he could study to be an astronaut. He studied engineering at the University of Virginia and played college football. In his first semester, he fell in love with computers. [3:03] Tiki's dream of becoming an astronaut fell by the wayside. He left the engineering school and joined the business school to study management information systems, which is database design and programming. His new dream was to work for Oracle or Microsoft as a tech entrepreneur. [3:27] In Tiki's junior year, his football skills had become so good that playing for the NFL was a realistic plan. [4:20] Tiki explains how his 10-year career with the NY Giants prepared him to become an entrepreneur. His first years in the NFL were tough and he was just hanging on. After a coaching staff change, he was used more and he began to excel. In business and entrepreneurship, even with the greatest idea, you will still take missteps and pivots. [6:10] You will have success when you work with a team and a mentor. Tiki tells how he and entrepreneur Mark Gerson partnered to form Thuzio as a marketplace for athletes to engage with their communities. Kiki believes that partnering with the right person is paramount to success. There has to be collaborative energy that exists between you. [8:14] Tiki explains how he met Mark during a transitional time. Mark's brother, Rick, was a college friend of Tiki's. Rick reached out to Tiki when Tiki wasn't working, and suggested Tiki and Mark should get together and “figure something out.” Six months later, Tiki and Mark launched Thuzio and it is still going strong. [8:46] Keep up with your relationships. Check in with people just to ask how they are. Tiki has found that being a people person has been extraordinarily beneficial to his entrepreneurial career. [9:58] What kinds of things have helped Tiki to transition from athlete to entrepreneur? Tiki's twin brother always said they would succeed because they don't believe that they can fail. They don't give up. Tiki has the utmost confidence in himself. If you believe that it's going to be OK, you tend to find the positive and you tend to find the next steps. [10:44] Tiki shares an anecdote from his brother and his life. While they were in college, their mother developed breast cancer and needed a double mastectomy. She told them, “I have to get busy living or I have to get busy dying. And I'm choosing to live.” She is now a 26-year cancer survivor. Her positivity stayed with Tiki. [12:02] In the early '70s, Tiki's father had left the family and was out of Tiki's life for decades. After Tiki's second marriage and their first child, Tiki's wife sent his father a Christmas card. Tiki's father came to visit the next March and met Tiki's five children. They drank wine together and reconnected after years. Then his half-sister connected. [12:37] Tiki has a great relationship now with a half-sister he didn't know for most of his life. You never know when reconciliation is the right thing for all. Now Tiki's children have a grandfather. Tiki says his wife Tracy is a wonderful teammate for him. [14:31] The name Thuzio comes from enthusiasm. They provide events with personalities about whom people are enthusiastic. Besides athletes, they work with authors, actors, musicians, and celebrity chefs. [15:46] Thuzio started as a marketplace to meet sports figures individually. It turned out to be unscalable. So, they created a membership base that could engage with the athletes in groups. They held 150- to 200-person events once or twice a month in major sports market cities. The events were engaging. [18:04] Then the pandemic happened. Thuzio had to pivot. As a live-event company, there was the risk of going under. Live events were impractical with social distancing. Then they were asked to host a virtual event. It worked and they realized they had a solution. [19:28] Now, instead of doing one or two events per market each month, they are hosting three or four events a day through Zoom and other virtual platforms. [20:00] Thuzio plans for a dual business model when in-person events are more practical. There is a significantly larger margin for an in-person event, while virtual events are more scalable and have a larger reach. Ultimately, having the in-person experience matters to the clients. [20:50] Troubled times create opportunities. Tiki talks about acquiring a Canadian company, Robin, for their live-event ticketing technology and as a second product offering. While the pandemic damaged the business model of Thuzio, it became an opportunity to expand its business model. [22:17] Tiki credits Thuzio CEO, Jared Augustine, with a great mind for seeing a business opportunity and making the decision to go after it aggressively.[22:43] Thuzio has been able to pivot in real time to survive another year and get closer to profitability. [23:16] Tiki describes splitting Julius Works from Thuzio. Julius Works finds influencers for client campaigns. Thuzio became the event company. When that split happened, Thuzio became a startup. They brought on new investors just before the pandemic hit. They created a Kickstarter campaign. Going to a virtual model helped a lot. [26:02] Tiki talks about when they will reach profitability. He foresees it in a year or so, given their history of innovation. They need to invest in growing their divisions and their clients. [27:28] Where are the astronaut influencers? Tiki thinks that is a great idea. Tiki talks about his sci-fi passions and natural geekiness. He is doing a visual podcast called Display TV, interviewing experts in certain fields. [29:46] Tiki talks about the children's books he and his brother, Ronde, wrote, starting with By My Brother's Side. They did a total of three picture books and nine chapter books. He still gets comments on these books from people who read them growing up. [32:11] What's next for Tiki? He has always been an opportunist and has never been afraid to try something new. You never know when that's going to ultimately be your passion. His friends told him never to be afraid to diversify his income streams. Diversification creates redundancy in success. [34:19] Patricia thanks Tiki for being on the podcast; This Is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Tiki Barber Thuzio Challenger disaster University of Virginia Oracle Microsoft NFL NY GiantsToday Show FoxNews CBS Sports Radio Kinky Boots Mark Gerson GLG Zoom Robin JuliusWorks.comBy My Brother's Side, by Tiki and Ronde Barber

 Patricia O’Connell interviews Alaina Love, CEO of Purpose Linked Consulting, about passion and purpose. They discuss how passions express purpose, the ten archetypes of passion, and about learning your top three passion archetypes. They explore how to link an organization to a meaningful purpose.   Listen in to learn more about your passions and purpose and how to express them in your life and career. Key Takeaways: [:22] Patricia O’Connell introduces Alaina Love, CEO of Purpose Linked Consulting, and her message of following passion with purpose, for individuals, companies, and teams. [1:15] Patricia welcomes Alaina Love to CEO Stories on This is Capitalism. [1:26] Alaina explores what it means for an individual to have purpose and passion. She begins by sharing her experience of walking away from an executive opportunity at a large organization where she had been climbing the ladder of success. [3:58] Alaina had to ponder to discover why being successful and being rewarded for the work she was doing was not enough for her. She didn’t want to spend the next 85,000 work hours doing work she didn’t see as deeply purposeful. Alaina began to realize that purpose and passion are connected. [5:07] Alaina has interviewed people for 20 years about finding purpose in work. Most people spend their lives trying to find out exactly what their purpose is. Most people believe they will be satisfied sometime in the future, after finding their purpose. [6:26] Alain found that people who have figured out how to weave who they are into their roles, where their passions can “come out to play every day,” are the folks who feel that their roles were aligned to a deeper purpose that they are here to achieve.[6:50] After many years of wrestling with this issue, Alaina realized the passions people exhibit are the outward expression of the deeper purpose that drives them. [7:43] With researchers from the University of Michigan, Alaina developed The Passion Profiler, which identifies how a person resonates with each of ten passion archetypes that are present to a degree in each of us. It is useful for us to understand what our top three passions are, and how their strengths and vulnerabilities drive our behavior. [8:27] The ten passion archetypes arose from Alaina’s structured interviews with high-potential folks from fourteen industry segments across the globe. Alaina observed that certain patterns of behavior showed up consistently, over and over again, across industries. Alaina had been seeing these patterns throughout her corporate career. [9:33] Alaina found these behaviors organized themselves into ten categories. Through her research, she identified what each of these passions looked like. [9:59] The ten archetypes are Creator, Conceiver, Discoverer, Processor, Teacher, Connector, Altruist, Healer, Transformer, and Builder. Alaina describes each archetype. [11:40] Understanding your passions provides you with a roadmap to understand where you can contribute beyond your skill set alone. [11:57] Alaina suggests designing our organizations to leverage the passions our team members are wired with, giving them opportunities to utilize their passions in their assigned roles, and putting them in a cultural environment where their values are honored. This extends beyond hiring someone for a particular set of skills. [12:27] Alaina tells how an individual can benefit from the knowledge of their top three passion archetypes. When an individual applies their passions to the role they hold, their level of engagement becomes higher, and their role becomes an expression of who they are more than a responsibility they have to accomplish. [13:05] The team leader, with a knowledge of the passion archetypes of their team members, understands each of those team members on a much more intimate level. A leader can put the right people on the team to create the correct passion composition. [14:05] A Gallup poll found that only about 30% of employees are genuinely engaged at work. Alaina thinks that is directly correlated to a lack of understanding of passion and purpose. Alaina also mentions the Happiness Curve and how it applies to the drop in work engagement. At more mature ages, meaning begins to matter over money. [17:12] Alaina describes a confluence of self-actualization at both ends of the generational spectrum. Millennials and Gen-Z-ers have been raised to find what their passion is and make a career of that. Older workers have learned that the financial plans of their youth have not worked out, and they are starting to search for meaning. [19:25] How do you match your passion archetypes to your career? There are myriad ways to express them. A teacher archetype will not always stand in front of a class. Alaina uses Oprah Winfrey as her icon for the teacher archetype. [20:16] The pandemic has cost millions of jobs, and people are afraid they won’t have work. Employers wonder what the new normal will be. Alaina says people she talks with worry about what their lives will be like going forward. They are asking themselves if they are doing what matters, every day, to make the best contribution they can. [22:26] We may have people in roles that aren’t their dream jobs simply to survive. Alaina suggests looking for what they can do to make a contribution to their work that is unique to themselves. How do you bring you to your job? To answer that question, you need to know who you are, and what your passions are. [23:24] Alaina once worked with a hospital team of people from nurses to foodservice. The goal was to leverage their passions to improve patient satisfaction. As they reviewed patient satisfaction, the scores were highest on the floors where one man mopped the floors. He had a healer archetype. He spoke with the patients and families. [25:55] How do you figure out passion and purpose? Alaina wrote a book, The Purpose Linked Organization, with a chapter on each of the passion archetypes. The hardcover book has a code that allows you to take an abbreviated version of the Passion Profiler and find your top three passion archetypes. [26:33] Alaina has also created a public website so others can have access, Mypassionality.com. There you can purchase a code for under $15.00 to take the Passion Profiler and find your top three passions. That will give you the information you need to start sorting out the places where those passions might be applied. [27:24] How do self-reflection and meaning-making relate to the Passion Profiler, professional version? Work-inspired reflection tends to drive up engagement. Reflection is extremely important. If you understand your passions, as you reflect on your life, you will observe when your passions “came out to play.” [30:08] Patricia thanks Alaina for being on the podcast; This Is Capitalism. Learn more at ThisIsCapitalism.com.   Mentioned in This Episode: Alaina Love ThePurposeLink.com University of Michigan Gallup The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50, by Jonathan Rauch Oprah Winfrey The Purpose Linked Organization: How Passionate Leaders Inspire Winning Teams and Great Results, by Alaina Love and Marc Cugnon Mypassionality.com

Patricia O’Connell interviews Howard Breindel, Co-CEO at DeSantis Breindel. Patricia and Howard discuss the meaning of brand, how companies may need help clarifying their brand story, and why brand matters. They also touch on some of the changes the COVID-19 epidemic has forced onto B2B businesses.   Listen in to learn how you can strengthen your company brand in any environment. Key Takeaways: [:27] Patricia O’Connell welcomes Howard Breindel to CEO Stories on This is Capitalism. [:48] DeSantis Breindel is a B2B brand strategy and brand experience firm working with companies going through critical inflection points. They help companies maximize their brand. Brand is the promise a company makes to all of its key stakeholders and the experience it delivers to fulfill that promise. [2:09] Younger companies may need help to define their value proposition beyond their product to focus on what they enable the stakeholder to reach. More mature companies may need help with business strategy as their offerings evolve. [3:00] DeSantis Breindel helps companies translate their business strategy into a valuable brand strategy for their partners, influencers, customers, investors, and employees, making sure that everyone understands the value proposition for them.[3:37] Howard studied accounting in college and started in that world. He soon found he was more interested in how companies presented themselves to the world than in their numbers. He saw branding and marketing as a career that would leverage his financial background and his interest in the image a company presents. [5:05] Howard recalls getting exposure to many different kinds of industries and people from all walks of life and all the countries of the world as he grew up in New York. That exposure gave Howard the sense that everyone is driven by different values and needs. That informs Howard as he helps companies understand all their important audiences. [6:40] In the branding business, curiosity about businesses is critical. To do the job well, you need to understand deeply and be good listeners. You need to keep asking questions, listen to the answers, and connect the dots. Successful people in this industry have had exposure and experienced diversity, and they apply their knowledge to a complex world. [7:40] At DeSantis Breindel, a mid-sized company, people wear many hats and are agile. There is not a playbook for everything. They need to be innovative and thoughtful. [8:07] The stakes are much higher in B2B marketing than in B2C marketing, with more widespread ramifications. For DeSantis Breindel, research across audiences is critical to understand more deeply what drives decision-making and what’s on people’s minds. [10:05] Howard tells how branding and marketing are linked. Branding is about an operating philosophy and marketing is about putting all that out there in the world. [10:59] Howard sees challenges in how companies define and tell their story. Companies need to understand their brand proposition for all stakeholders. The story is really about the brand experience. How companies craft the stakeholder journey with their brand determines how stakeholders will perceive their story. [12:43] Howard believes culture eats brand for breakfast, especially in B2B. What a company’s employees say, think, and feel every day cannot be paid for in marketing. Make sure your employees truly understand your value proposition — what it means to them and the experience you expect them to deliver to your customers. [13:56] A brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what your stakeholders say it is. You might have a “brand gap” between what the employees think the brand is and how the customers perceive it. If you understand the gap, the brand strategy becomes clear. [14:42] You cannot go through a branding exercise without engaging the employees and listening to what they say. Curiosity and listening are the two most important parts of the exercise. [15:44] Brand is the one strategic asset that is shared across the C-suite. [17:44] The COVID-19 pandemic has required companies to become more comfortable with digital interactions within the company and with external stakeholders. It has been a big adjustment. If this pandemic had happened before digital tools were available, it would have been much more devastating to businesses. [19:26] Creativity is critical in every business. Working remotely, you have to work harder to make creativity happen. DeSantis Breindel has created online workshops to replace workshops that were held in person. They are using technologies to whiteboard things online and share files more quickly and easily for rapid-fire interaction. [20:40] At DeSantis Breindel, every interaction with clients and each other is held over Zoom. They have no phone calls. They hold regularly-scheduled group meetings. In some ways, people are more engaged because their camera is on. However, everyone misses the casual interactions that happen in a business office environment. [21:50] Howard looks forward to when they can go back to an office, whenever that will be. When it is deemed safe, they will go back. They surveyed the staff and 95% said they were not prepared to go back to the office before there is a vaccine. Some didn’t want to go fully back to the office the same way as they did in the past. [24:21] Patricia thanks Howard for being on the podcast; This Is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Howard Breindel DeSantis Breindel Peter Drucker Zoom

Patricia O’Connell interviews Cortney Stapleton, Partner at Bliss Integrated Communications and one of the Founders of Exponent Women. Patricia and Cortney discuss why women in the dealmaking community benefit from networking and having a place where their voices are heard and their power is raised exponentially.   Listen in to learn how this networking organization can work for the dealmaking women in your organization. Key Takeaways: [:31] Patricia O’Connell welcomes Cortney Stapleton to CEO Stories on This is Capitalism. [:57] Cortney and nine other women co-founded Exponent Women for senior women in the dealmaking community as a place where they can find content and partner with like-minded women to change the face of dealmaking. [1:35] They wanted a place for senior women to come together in a trusted environment. The founders had done business with each other. They brought their networks together with trust in each other for deeper, more meaningful networking. [3:06] Exponent aims to exponentially raise women to a new power within this industry. The dealmaking community is heavily weighted towards men, so they wanted to make sure women have a voice and meet like-minded senior women in these companies. [3:44] Cortney and the other founders believe we don’t see women networking the same way as men. Men network with the same people they knew in college, play golf with, do business with, and go to the gym with. Women have separate networks of friends that don’t mix and they don’t tend to do business with them. [4:59] Women often have deeper relationships within their networks and larger networks than men do but are uncomfortable asking their friends to do business. Exponent gives dealmaking women a safe space to talk about things they have a passion for in their careers and do business together. [6:04] Exponent facilitates dealmaking women to feel comfortable making the “ask.” All events, whether in person or online, have the main event and then breakout rooms where a leader, usually a founder, asks the women to introduce themselves, what they do, and what their ask is — what they are looking for. [7:00] Cortney describes some of the events they have sponsored with authors and facilitators, such as workshops on making the ask. Exponent focuses on bringing women together in inspiring spaces. [7:58] An early deal in Exponent Women resulted in a $1.5 million commission for one of the members. The Exponent website displays testimonials of women who have made important deals through the network. [9:05] Cortney’s main career is in integrated marketing communications. She has had lots of asks for organizational marketing help and individual marketing for women. Cortney has brought her network into Exponent to their benefit. [9:55] When Cortney has a virtual “coffee” after an event, she comes away with one to three things to do to help the person she spoke to, such as connecting them with someone. Cortney focuses on strengthening connections. [10:31] Exponent opens the way for speaking spots, going into companies to help them with executive visibility or marketing. [10:48] Current Exponent events focus on deals that will be made despite COVID-19. Upcoming areas of focus are healthcare, technology, and the economy. [12:00] Dealmaking always requires caution in choosing who is trusted around the table. Dealmakers also want to be around the table with people they like. In this virtual environment, it is necessary to have trusted connections because you are not sitting across from the person. [13:22] Cortney feels more comfortable with her asks, being very overt about what she wants, and asking others about their asks, outside of the Exponent network. Exponent is a catalyst for senior women to make deals in their environment and workplace. [15:11] Everyone wants to connect as much as possible, including by giving advice. There has to be a clear line for when advice is a service. It’s important when you’re putting down a specific idea to move a business forward to state that the relationship is moving into a consultative phase and you have a service offering. [18:39] Exponent Women was formed for East Coast women. Women have flown in from Chicago and California for live events. With the shutdown and virtual tools, Exponent has been able to broaden nationally. [19:30] Exponent is launching a new sector, Momentum, for junior women looking for mentorship from senior women in the dealmaking spectrum. Junior women have from two to ten years in the dealmaking community. Senior women have been in the industry for a couple of decades. Momentum will focus on topics more valuable to junior women. [21:36] Every panel, including the annual Exponent Exchange, is very diverse, and includes speakers who are persons of color and LGBTQ persons, talking about investing in deals that are particularly focused on diverse markets. [22:47] Cortney stresses the importance of diversity of thought, background, skin color, experience, incomes, and more. Clients include every form of diversity. Cortney’s firm, Bliss Integrated Communications, has focused on inclusion for years. [24:16] Cortney notes the difference between lip service and a focus on diversity. It is important to hold brands accountable for their actions, not just for what they stand for. [25:33] The world has become completely transparent. It’s so transparent now that you can see people’s living rooms! All of your information is out there. Brands can communicate more easily with their audiences. [26:42] Cortney wants people to know about what Exponent is doing to bring senior women in dealmaking together. She wants to highlight the whole spectrum of people it takes to make a deal successful. Exponent brings women together to widen their circle of trust. [27:42] Cortney talks about the role men play in Exponent Women on panels, such as Exchange. You need men to be a part of the change and the dialog. [28:45] Exponent Women may move into other specialties beyond dealmaking, depending on where the women who are members take it. Right now, dealmaking seems inclusive enough for the women who participate. [29:45] Cortney shares the website and LinkedIn links for Exponent Women. [30:04] Patricia thanks Cortney for being on the podcast, This Is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Cortney Stapleton Bliss Integrated Communications Exponent WomenExponent Women on LinkedIn Zoom Microsoft Teams Exponent Momentum Series Black Lives Matter

Patricia O’Connell interviews Jill Houghton, President and CEO of Disability:IN. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Patricia and Jill discuss the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the variety of Disability:IN programs promoting inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace.   Listen in to learn what your company can do to accommodate your employees with disabilities and serve your customers who have disabilities. Key Takeaways: [:26] Patricia O’Connell welcomes Jill Houghton to CEO Stories on This is Capitalism. [:57] Disability:IN is a global nonprofit that empowers businesses to achieve disability inclusion and equality. The organization grew out of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). [1:16] The primary sponsor of the ADA was Congressman Tony Coelho. He recognized that the ADA could not legislate attitudes, but businesses have the power to employ and shape our workforce. [1:37] Disability:IN is the place where talent with disabilities and business intersect. Businesses respond to their professional peers. When they know that disability inclusion makes good business sense, they’re very responsive and competitive. [2:10] Disability:IN partnered with the American Association of People with Disabilities. They created a benchmarking tool called the Disability Equality Index to help businesses take a deeper dive into their policies and practices and identify opportunities where they could be better. [2:42] The Disability Equality Index is a tool that looks at leadership and culture, employment practices, enterprise-wide access, community engagement, supplier diversity, and Non-U.S. operations. Companies answer the questions and substantiate their answers. [3:14] Disability Equality Index scores are from zero to 100. Scores of 80, 90, and 100 earn a designation of being a Top Place to Work for People with Disabilities. There is no such thing as perfection. A score of 100 means that they’re on the journey and committed to doing better. Disability:IN helps companies do better. [3:50] Jill discusses the wide variety of programs at Disability:IN including mentoring, consulting, and certification. [5:00] Jill has a learning disability. She grew up embarrassed that she didn’t read well or test well. She didn’t get into law school so she went to Washington D.C. and interned for Senator Robert Dole during the passage of the ADA. That led her to work in the disability field. [5:49] Jill married a man who has a spinal cord injury. She has an 11-year-old who has ADHD and an anxiety disability. Her home is a “trifecta.” Jill was not diagnosed until after she failed the LSAT, but all her life she had trouble on timed standardized tests. [8:00] Some companies have presented objections over the cost of accommodating workers with disabilities. It’s important to recognize that one in four Americans have a disability. As well as recruiting talent with disabilities, companies need to retain their currently employed talented people with disabilities. [9:10] We encounter disability as we age. This COVID-19 pandemic with remote work exposes disabilities like depression and anxiety disorders. Before the pandemic, we had not talked about these taboo topics in the workplace. [9:42] The ADA was passed 30 years ago. Twelve years ago, the ADA was amended to broaden the scope of covered disabilities to include such things as ADHD. Business is beginning to see a competitive advantage to include all people with disabilities in their business. [11:44] How businesses that are inclusive of people with disabilities fare better than those that are not. It pays to be inclusive of people with disabilities. [12:23] Accenture and Disability:IN teamed up to create the Disability Equality Index (DEI). Many best practices were mined from the index, including setting goals for your hiring and accessible technology and including businesses owned by people with disabilities in your supplier diversity program. What gets measured gets done. [13:48] The DEI emphasizes leadership and culture. You can call accommodation a productivity tool, assisting an individual to perform the essential functions of their job. It’s important that all employees know how to request accommodation and for managers to know who pays for the accommodation and how the process works. [14:42] It is a best practice to have a centralized equality fund so that managers know where that expense comes from. Data shows that on average, accommodations cost less than $500. [15:29] The Board Chair at Disability:IN is the Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft and is deaf. The Board Treasurer has a global business role at Accenture. He is an amputee. These are senior leaders, identified as being people with disabilities. Disability is just part of their identity. [16:33] Anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, autism, diabetes, and other disabilities may be invisible to others. The global pandemic has created an opportunity to lead with humanity and to get to know our team members and check in with each other. [17:34] It’s a personal choice to identify as having a disability and it can be scary. Jill shares a personal experience from a recent virtual event where a senior leader in a multi-national company came out as an individual who has dyslexia. A leader sharing their story creates a culture that frees others to share their circumstances. [19:11] Jill would advise companies starting to look at their disability practices to start an Employee Resource Group for people with a disability. Your greatest resources are your people. Don’t talk about people with disabilities without involving people with disabilities. Then leverage tools like the DEI. Participate in the Disability:IN campaign “Are You In?” [21:36] “Are You IN” is more than a pledge; it’s a commitment backed with measurable actions. These are companies that have participated in the DEI that are calling on their peers to take this critical step. [22:23] Jill recaps the progress in the public space in the 30 years of the ADA, and where we go from here, including mobile devices, the Cloud, and remote work with virtual platforms, meetings, and file sharing. Companies are starting to acknowledge that this is an area where there is great room for improvement. Engage your people. [24:03] A more inclusive workforce allows you to relate better to your customers. Use focus groups. Jill uses as an example Marriott International’s engaging with professionals with disabilities who travel to make sure their hotels are accessible to all. Do the right things for your customers; your employees with disabilities will help. [25:08] Patricia thanks Jill Houghton for being on the podcast, This Is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Jill Houghton Disability:IN ADA Tony Coelho American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) Disability Equality Index Robert Dole The ADA Amendments Act Accenture Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage Are You IN Marriott International

Patricia O’Connell interviews Joe Strechay, an entertainment media consultant for blindness and disability employment initiatives. They discuss Joe’s childhood, his interest in representation and inclusivity for persons with blindness, low vision, and disabilities, his career, and the opportunities in entertainment today for persons with low vision, blindness, or disabilities. The door is open but we have further to go.   Listen in to learn what your company can do to foster representation and inclusivity in your hiring practices and your products and services. Remember all your audience. Key Takeaways: [:21] Patricia O’Connell welcomes Joe Strechay to CEO Stories on This is Capitalism. [:50] Joe is in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in quarantine, preparing to get back to Season 2 of Apple TV+’s See. Joe was an associate producer on Season 1. He was in-charge of the blindness-related aspects of the show. He has been promoted to Producer. [1:15] See is a science fiction show set hundreds of years in the future, in a world with a small population and universal blindness caused by a viral apocalypse. It tells the story of a family with a set of twin children born with vision. [2:51] Joe grew up in New Jersey. Joe and his mother were both diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative eye condition. At 19, Joe was legally blind. Joe did not have the services that most people have in preparation for school, education, and life.[3:27] On leaving college, Joe sought help and was taught orientation and mobility (O&M), which is traveling with a white cane or with a guide dog, daily living skills, technology, and all the things that help you become a successful and independent individual who is blind. [4:13] As a child, Joe had an IEP for school, but his vision deteriorated gradually from the outer edge, eventually narrowing to a small spot, but within that spot, he could see clearly. By his first semester in college, he had lost most of his vision. He tried to get help, but no one was available to help him. [5:29] Joe did get some assistance from the Disability Student Services at East Carolina University where he was a college student. [6:10] At age 19, Joe had low vision, and was legally blind. It was like looking through a straw. When he was 18, a doctor told him off-handedly at the end of an appointment, “Yeah, you’ll probably be totally blind by the time you’re 25. Pay at the front. Have a good day.” [7:56] Joe’s career plan was to go into public relations and professional sports marketing. He had played a lot of sports growing up. Joe got involved in public relations with the East Carolina communications organization doing PR and marketing work for nonprofits in North Carolina. He enjoyed it. He sought internships and jobs. [8:35] Joe went to New Jersey and New York City to intern and finish his degree. He interviewed with pro hockey and basketball teams. He interned for a marketing firm that worked with the NFL, racing, pro golf, and more. Then, there was 9/11 and the economy dropped into a recession. There was no opportunity to be hired by the company. [9:27] Joe started to face the fact that he was visually impaired as he went on interviews. He was still learning the skills to become independent. He searched for any job to pay the bills. [9:44] He went in for a substitute teaching job at the Calais School. They offered him a teacher’s assistant position in physical education. Joe did that for two years. There were two students with visual impairments. Joe started working with them, which started him thinking about working with visually impaired individuals. [10:08] Joe was already getting services from the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. They talked to Joe about fields in education and rehabilitation of disabilities. Joe wanted to give people the opportunity for services that he hadn’t had. [10:29] Joe went to Florida State University in Tallahassee and studied visual disabilities and teaching people who are blind or low-vision how to travel, how to access their education, and to transition from school to employment. He wanted to make an impact for individuals. Employment became a passion for him.[11:14] With his media background, he started looking at portrayals of minority characters and blindness and disability in movies and on television. He did a study about minority and gender portrayals on the Disney Channel. Joe had always been obsessed with movies and television but hadn’t imagined working in the industry. [13:23] Joe found a job working in the U.S. and abroad advising around employment and services for people who are blind. As a hobby, Joe started writing about the portrayal of blindness and critiquing it in blog posts and articles. [13:55] Some media companies started contacting Joe’s employer for casting assistance for commercials and documentaries. Joe helped the writers’ room for three episodes of the USANetwork show Royal Pains, regarding a character who was blind. [14:35] Next, Netflix called about an anonymous project, Marvel’s Daredevil, for consulting around the main character. Most consultants around blindness issues for television or film are people who are sighted. Netflix interviewed and hired him for Season 1 as a show advisor. He advised on scripts and props and helped actors. [16:44] Joe teaches people on a show how to identify individuals. The first method is to put the person before the disability: a person who is blind (or low-vision) or a person who has a disability. The second method is for someone who chooses to identify as a blind person or a disabled person. Allow them to say how they choose to be presented. [17:55] Joe is a person who is blind. He is more than just his blindness. It just means he does things in a different way. He is not offended if you call him a blind person. [18:58] Joe found working on Daredevil very enlightening. After Season 1, he continued on his work with professionals serving the blind community. He became Director of the Bureau of Blindness & Vision Services for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Thursday before he started he got a call to help with Netflix’s The OA. Because of his new job, he commuted to work every weekend with them. [21:02] Joe enjoyed consulting but he had a full-time job. He kept getting offers that he turned down because they weren’t the right opportunity for him. He wasn’t looking for another job. [21:17] Joe got calls from the executives, directors, and creators of Peaky Blinders, Hunger Games, and other shows, about an opportunity they were developing with Apple. Joe started consulting and eventually chose to leave his employment running services for Pennsylvania and moved to British Columbia to start working and prepping. [22:15] The opportunity was for See. Joe started as a blindness consultant and the role grew. The executives believed in Joe and the work he did. He advised choreographers and actors. He had an assistant who audio-described for him what was going on. That is a personal assistant who helps with the organization, and describes the sets for Joe. [23:40] By Episode 3, Joe stood near the director. For Episodes 4 and 5, there was a new director, who told Joe to be next to him for every shot. He helped block every scene, figuring out what the actors might be paying attention to in the environment and thinking about things that should be included. [24:20] From the beginning, Apple was committed to hiring people who were blind or low-vision as actors and background performers. Joe became responsible for accessibility and assistive technology, including Braille labeling and signage for the employment office and accessible scripts. [25:42] Actors who are blind or low-vision bring authenticity. They have to be authentic to the world of See. A civilization built without vision for hundreds of years does not have eye contact. Personal space is different. There was a team of people working together to develop this world. [27:06] Apple is committed to making sure that persons who are blind are represented responsibly. Blindness is not all one flavor. It comes in shades and sizes. [28:37] There is a process from representation to inclusion. Joe studied that in his undergraduate work at ECU with Dr. Linda Kean in the communications department. First, Persons with blindness, low vision, or disabilities are presented as characters in the show. Then, they are provided professions of legitimacy and authority. Then they move into general character roles. [29:40] Joe would see himself represented in the media most often as a person with blindness lying in a bed in a hospital or walking by on the street. He wondered when he would be represented as a character. Apple TV+’s See is a story of a world almost entirely of people with blindness, as villains, heroes, warriors, lovers, parents, etc. [30:30] People with blindness are in the world doing great things. Joe’s friend, Erik Weihenmayer, summited Mount Everest, climbed an ice peak, and kayaked the Colorado River — totally blind. Joe has friends who are blind who work as mechanics, carpenters, and in all kinds of professions. [31:47] There are more portrayals of blindness and visual impairment and other disabilities in the media now than there used to be. Actors who are blind or low-vision are getting opportunities, and they are now being cast for their talents as well as their physical traits. [32:40] People who work on See move on to other shows and give more opportunities to persons with disabilities. Joe gives an example.[34:09] Allie Strucker played Ado Annie in a wheelchair in Oklahoma on Broadway and won a Tony Award for it. [36:29] Persons with disabilities are still under-represented in television and movies. Joe says “We don’t see ourselves as often, getting those opportunities within those portrayals.” The numbers are growing thanks to the work of a lot of people. [37:45] Meaningful representation in media matters, such as showing people who are blind or low-vision doing different types of professions, not just lying in a bed or walking by. There is a lot of disbelief and misconception about what persons with disabilities can do. Media changes perceptions.[38:48] The production of See has zero tolerance for disrespect for persons with blindness or disability. They have built an inclusive environment to make sure all cast members can get to difficult locations with the accommodations they need. [41:22] If you have a business, you want to have a company environment where people are comfortable to disclose their disabilities because they might need accommodations and tools to do their job successfully. 20% or more of your customers are persons with disabilities. Consider the whole population with your products or services. [44:53] If you’re not sure if your website is accessible, it’s probably not. You need testers who are blind or low-vision. Joe recommends working with Disability:IN and the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation. [47:28] When you hire a person with disabilities, accommodations are not a huge cost. Persons with disabilities stay longer in a job and get there on time. They put in the work. They make sure the quality of the work is up to specifications. They appreciate the opportunity. [48:19] Disability touches everyone in the world. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). [50:59] Patricia thanks Joe Strechay for being on the podcast, This Is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Joe Strechay See Retinitis Pigmentosa Orientation and Mobility SkillsWhite CaneGuide Dogs IEP East Carolina University The Calais School New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired Florida State University Disney Channel Royal Pains USANetwork Marvel’s Daredevil The OA Apple TV+ Peaky Blinders Hunger Games Movies Dr. Linda Kean, East Carolina University Erik Weihenmayer mountain climber This is Us The Politician Away Fox Corporation Netflix The Old Man Ali Stroker Oklahoma! Revival Glee Paralympics Disability:IN Disability Equality Index Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) American Printing House for the Blind

Patricia O’Connell interviews returning guest, John Byrne, CEO and Founder of Poets & Quants and CEO of C-Change Media, Inc. They discuss what is happening in business schools and what applicants, students, and graduates can expect in the near future and beyond.   Listen in to learn about the prospects for business school graduates in the pandemic and resulting economic depression. Key Takeaways: [:25] Patricia O’Connell welcomes John Byrne back to CEO Stories on This is Capitalism. [1:05] For the past four to five years, we’ve seen a significant decline in applications to full-time MBA programs. But the better schools are starting to see a boom in applications during the pandemic recession. This year could be one of the most competitive, ever. [3:00] There has been tremendous growth in online MBA programs. You can still maintain your job and get your MBA. If you don’t have a job, you might be better off going to a full-time program. You’ll have the opportunity to meet a parade of employers who come to campus for interviews. You can do summer internships.[4:26] In an online MBA, what you sacrifice in in-person learning and networking, may not be as great as a lot of people think. Surveys show that people who go to an online MBA program are pretty happy. [4:49] Most business schools are trying to go hybrid with a combination of in-person classes and online. Some schools, such as Wharton, Stanford, Georgetown, Michigan State, and others, have already had to cut back on planned in-person classes because the novel coronavirus is not allowing them an alternative to ensure safety and health. [6:08] These full-time programs will be largely remote instruction, not designed as online classes. John explains some of the differences between a well-designed online course and remote learning in a full-time program. [7:53] The pandemic is temporary. John discusses choosing between a designed online MBA and a two-year MBA program that is restricted for one year to remote learning classes. Remote instruction has evolved over the summer to be better than the suddenly remote classes with glitches students experienced in the spring of 2020. [9:37] During the summer, schools have trained their faculty to use the remote technology up-to-speed. Professors have practiced and tested it with volunteer “guinea pig” students. That will make a difference. [11:42] Wharton planned its return in the fall without consulting its students. There were no students on any committees. They announced their plans with no outreach to the students. This was before Wharton decided to go fully online. Students felt disenfranchised. [12:28] Stanford organized panels to plan for the return to school in the fall, and students formed the majority of the panel participants. They were actively engaged in all the decisions. The school made many changes that would otherwise not have been done, because of the students’ involvement. That was stakeholder involvement. [15:02] John doesn’t think schools will return to the way they operated before the pandemic. Remote technology has become easier to use and much more effective. There are things you can do virtually that are more accessible for greater numbers of people than you can do in person, such as small group virtual meetings for applicants. [16:16] Admit weekends, where you tour the campus and admit students, can be done virtually. Guest speakers are much more accessible through virtual sessions. [17:36] John explains the concept of flipped classrooms. There has been a lot of talk about them but few teachers put them into practice. John says there will be more use of them as we go forward. John details the benefits of flipped classrooms. [18:53] The pandemic will inform what is being taught in B-School, including how we manage people and organizations through a crisis. There are long-term impacts of remote work. John would not want to be an investor in commercial real estate right now. [19:56] As companies return to work, John foresees employees working three-days in the office and two days at home, and staggered schedules. John expects to see changes to urban centers where young people want to be. John thinks people will move away from congested, expensive, and problematic cities. People will work remotely. [22:07] The business school community is extremely important because you create connections with people you will network with for the rest of your life, based on friendship and encouragement, that are going to help your career. They may be your future employers, co-workers, suppliers, customers, or investors. [22:51] Community is essential to the value proposition of what an MBA is, particularly at a good school. John does not see that disappearing. It will still be very desirable to attend big-city schools. [23:52] Everyone is risk-averse. A good business school typically expects you to have gone to a highly selective undergraduate school. Employers look at graduate school as a filter that produces only the most select employees. John talks about how a business school education smoothes the rough edges of their students. [25:44] Employers look at the business school from which you graduated. Very few people get into a top business school whether attending virtually or in person. Remote learning at a world-class business school is not inferior to attending in person, as far as employers are concerned. A virtual global curriculum may even be better preparation. [26:53] A lot of the high-value activity at a business school occurs outside of the classroom. Much of that is student-centered, organized, run, and led by the students. Students are going to have to re-imagine all the extracurricular activities so that the virtual models of what happened on campus may be of comparable quality. [28:21] How will the pandemic affect business recruiting as they move into a fully-virtual environment? [29:36] A lot of getting a job is about story-telling. Upcoming MBA graduates will have powerful success stories to tell! [30:58] How the B-School application essay questions may change, related to working through this unprecedented confluence of a recession, a health crisis, racial injustice, and a highly polarized political society. [32:05] John discusses the current application essay questions. They are open enough to include discussion of crisis navigation. [33:28] Despite the challenges, this is also a time of great opportunity. Adversity, such as unemployment, inspires people to stand up and do new things that can be wonderful and magical, which benefit many and generate meaningful employment for others. [34:13] Education is essential to social mobility in our country and to live a more fulfilled and productive life. A graduate degree provides another level of productivity. John shares his thoughts about the importance and value of a business degree. [37:17] Why is immigration in this country so important? America has been able to attract the world’s best and brightest, decade after decade. They’ve come here, they’ve created businesses, and they’ve sought higher education to make themselves live a better life than they otherwise would have. Immigration is vital. [38:52] International attendance at B-School is way down. It’s been more difficult to get a student visa. Gaining employment after graduation has become more difficult. Many schools have started a STEM designation program that allows two additional years of employment in the United States on an H-1B visa. [40:11] Patricia thanks John Byrne for being on the podcast and John shares website information.   Mentioned in This Episode: Poets & Quants The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Stanford Graduate School of Business Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Michigan State Eli Broad College of Business Google McKinsey J.P. Morgan Goldman Sachs Apple Procter & Gamble

Patricia O’Connell interviews Sara Hurst, CEO of Bella’s Kitchen, on the origin of Bella’s Kitchen, how Sara runs it, and Sara's plans for it. Sara shares more about her family background of successful entrepreneurs in El Salvador. Sara is grateful for her family, friends, and professional resources that help her to succeed in this new venture.   Listen in to this encouraging account of growing a business by meeting a real food need for busy mothers. Key Takeaways: [:29] Patricia O’Connell welcomes Sara Hurst to CEO Stories with This is Capitalism and asks about Bella’s Kitchen. [:53] Bella’s Kitchen offers convenient, healthy meals for kids and families. It is based on baby-led feeding. Babies try different foods with this method. This also avoids overfeeding babies when they don’t want to eat anymore. [1:35] Sara started the business in April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. Sara came up with the idea when she started feeding solid foods to her daughter, Isabella. She started researching how to introduce new foods to her baby and she found the concept of baby-led feeding. She decided to feed Isabella with that method. [2:35] Sara found out that baby-led feeding takes a lot of cooking and meal preparation for one baby. [3:18] Sara found canned or frozen choices, mostly pureed foods in the grocery store but she wanted fresh foods for Isabella. She also wanted Isabella to have a variety of foods to develop her palate and not become a picky eater. [3:57] As she was introducing Isabella to solid foods, Sara was going to the office daily, and Isabella was spending the day in daycare. Sara explains how the business idea of a meal service for busy mothers came out of her food preparation experiences for her baby and her experience serving healthy foods at parties. [6:16] Sara had seven children, from babies up to age 11, at her first photoshoot for Bella’s Kitchen. It was a scary moment for her; Sara knew that if the children didn’t like the food, it would show on their faces. They all liked it and the photoshoot went well. [6:55] Sara had her friends and their children try different recipes for taste and serving size. Sara also used her background in marketing to conduct surveys to make sure she was serving the needs of other parents, not just her own needs. [7:44] The more Sara thought about bringing her recipes into a business, the more ideas came to her for new recipes and products. She was determined to make a business out of her concepts. Her husband and friends also encouraged her. [8:45] Sara worked the numbers to see what she could afford to lose if the business didn’t work out. [9:10] Sara decided three months would be the appropriate trial period to test the business model to see if she would start making a profit. She knew the worst that could happen would be losing her startup money and having her pride hurt. [9:27] Over the last year, Sara worked on branding, the marketing plan, recipes, packaging, and permits. One big step was finding a commercial kitchen. She set a launch date in March, and then COVID-19 hit. [10:00] Sara explains how she went from hesitation over starting a business during a pandemic to moving ahead with her launch in April. [10:52] Sara works full-time outside of her role at Bella’s Kitchen. She explains how she fits everything into her schedule. Sara’s mother had raised three children as a single mother, working full-time while running a side business; she was a great role-model for Sara. Sara’s husband takes care of their children while Sara runs meal production. [13:17] Sara always wanted to be an entrepreneur like her mother. She loved cooking, but having worked in the food industry, she noticed that there’s not a lot of margin in a restaurant, so she knew she didn’t want to have a restaurant. [13:45] When Sara thought of Bella’s Kitchen, she knew that was the business she wanted. [14:09] Sara has noticed that sometimes both men and women think the idea of Sara running her business is “cute.” They underestimate her business vision and drive because she is a woman. They think it’s a hobby. [15:38] Not just for Bella’s Kitchen, but also for different caterers, people think the business is a little thing, run out of a kitchen. Sara works out of a commercial, licensed kitchen. Sara prices her meals just as any business prices their products and services. [16:29] Sara took business classes to learn about a business plan. She reads a lot and listens to a lot of podcasts. Sara worked with the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center; they helped her with local market research, what license she needed, and how to get licensed. [17:52] Sara’s advice to people looking to make a business: you need to have more than an idea. There needs to be a problem and your idea needs to solve that problem. Some great ideas don’t necessarily serve a market purpose; you might not be able to find the customers you need. Don’t just think of your idea, but your clientele. [19:09] Sometimes people with good ideas don’t give enough time for the idea to flourish. [19:57] This is Sara’s first business. She doesn’t know if it will be her last. [20:21] Sara is doing the recipes and the cooking, in a commercial kitchen. [20:34] Sara wants Bella’s Kitchen to get as big as it can get. Sara credits the CEO of First Orion, where she works full-time, with understanding that people have their own passions. If Bella’s Kitchen gets so big she has to devote her attention to it full-time, then so be it. Sara talks about giving her full attention to each career. [21:52] Sara organizes her vacation schedule on a spreadsheet! Sara took the Birkman personality assessment at work and she is completely a “doer.” [23:06] Sara’s mom is proud of all her children’s success. She set a great example for them. Sara’s maternal grandfather is also a successful entrepreneur who now owns a coffee plantation. Sara shares his story. [24:34] Bella is 21 months old, so she has time to develop her entrepreneurial streak. She is already a photo model for Bella’s Kitchen. [25:10] Sara says you can’t have it all. Each decision is a deliberate choice. WIll she workout or will she work on her friendships? Each day she devotes time to what matters for that moment. You have to make time for yourself. Sara takes at least an hour every week to think just for herself, not for her family and business roles. [26:55] Sara reviews the support she has received from family and the Arkansas Small Business Center. Sara’s sister and nephew are the best trial customers for Sara. Sara thanks her friends, and her monthly book club where Sara shares ideas for honest feedback. [28:04] Sara hopes one day to have Bella’s Cookbook. [26:23] Sara shares Bella’s Kitchen website (bellaskitchenus.com), Facebook (@bellaskitchenus), and Instagram (@bellaskitchenus) links (links below). [28:31] Patricia thanks Sara Hurst for being on the podcast — This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Bella’s Kitchen Bella’s Kitchen on Facebook Bella’s Kitchen on Instagram Sara Hurst on LinkedIn Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center Arkansas Department of Health First Orion Birkman Personality Assessment  

Patricia O’Connell interviews Tom Stewart, Executive Director of the National Center for the Middle Market on their latest survey of middle-market businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tom describes the work of the National Center for the Middle Market and then explains how the middle market has changed between the March survey and the June survey. Tom suggests what the recovery will look like and that we should expect a ‘new different,’ not a ‘new normal.’Listen in to understand what middle-market businesses are experiencing now. Key Takeaways: [:34] Patricia O’Connell introduces Tom Stewart and asks him about the work of the National Center for the Middle Market. [1:10] The National Center for the Middle Market is a research group at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University and is the nation’s only academic research center focused on mid-sized companies with annual revenue between 10 million and a billion dollars a year. [1:34] That group is the middle third of the U.S. GDP. It’s a couple hundred thousand companies, and as the Center has documented over the years, actually the most dynamic part of the U.S. economy in terms of growth, as measured by the middle market indicator, a repeated survey of 1,000 middle-market companies. [2:20] Middle-market companies are one-third of the private sector and produce 60 percent of new jobs, much faster than small or large businesses. The middle market is more resilient than small businesses. [3:26] The Center took a survey of 600 companies during the first two weeks of June. Tom describes some of the differences between the same businesses’ responses to the June survey, the March survey, and the December 2019 survey. [4:10] The pandemic lockdown began in March 2020 and Tom compares it to a terrible accident or falling off a cliff. There was tremendous uncertainty. In March, 25 percent of businesses said the impact could be catastrophic. In June, only 13 percent said it would be catastrophic. [5:39] In March, 76 percent of businesses said that the single biggest issue for them was uncertainty. In June, that number went down to 66 percent. [6:38] In June, operational continuity is still a big concern. The second and third concerns were managing employees and managing customers. They wondered how to get customers back and how to work with them either virtually or in person. [7:51] A new survey question in June was whether companies asked for a PPP loan, a bank loan, or others. 25% of the companies surveyed had received a PPP loan. Others had applied for but not yet received it. 11% each were drawing on an existing line of credit, getting a new bank loan, or getting an SBA loan. [9:15] Existing financial relationships were very important. 85% of middle-market companies are private, split between family businesses, private equity investment, and sole proprietorships and partnerships and other structures. They can’t raise capital by issuing stock. [11:04] Some companies have prospered during the pandemic, such as companies that make restaurant take-out clamshells. Most retail businesses were “clobbered,” especially hotels and restaurants. Wholesalers supplying retailers experienced a big impact. Elective healthcare stopped. Many physician offices closed. [14:41] Manufacturing had less impact. Construction re-opened in the first or second phase of re-opening business. [15:53] How much are you going to restructure your business and your operations? [16:30] The three industry sectors impacted the most by COVID-19 are retail, wholesale, and healthcare. The technology sector is projecting stronger growth in the coming months than other industries. Changes are happening in how we sell and buy things and in how we communicate. [17:41] Going into the June survey, the Center hypothesized that deals would get put on hold. They were right. They surveyed about six transitions: selling the business, merging, bringing in a major investor, making a transformative acquisition, senior leadership transition, and restructuring, whether they would be more or less likely. [18:39] The Center for the Middle Market routinely asks about plans to make an acquisition or sell a part of their company in the next 12 months. The Center will follow up with the same companies in six or 12 months to see how these plans trend. [19:30] The Center for the Middle Market started operating in 2011, after the financial crisis, so this pandemic is the first crisis they have surveyed. Things started to change for businesses in March with the beginning of the shutdowns. [20:47] In June, one out of four businesses said they were less likely to make a transformative acquisition. In March, four out of 10 businesses had said they were less likely to make a transformative acquisition. That showed that businesses in June had more confidence in acquisitions than businesses had had in March. [21:31] Private equity is sitting on a trillion dollars of “dry powder” they’ve got to put to work. As people start getting ready to sell there is pent up demand. Now might be a good time to sell for an attractive offer. [22:15] In June, by 10 points, people surveyed said a CEO transition was more likely rather than less likely. Tom describes why this may be, but the Center is still studying the data. [23:37] By three to one, people said in June that restructuring was more likely rather than less likely. Some restructuring may be in the form of on-shoring previously out-shored processes and supply chains. [25:06] The way we work will go to a new ‘different.’ Some things we see, like plastic shields at the checkout; some changes will be behind the scenes. Worker safety and productivity will change. Split shifts, school two days a week, remote work, temperature checks, and other changes will come. How do you bring remote workers on board? [27:33] Changes required in a pandemic are time-consuming and expensive. Who will pay the difference, the customer, or the investors? Will companies pay for wi-fi for remote workers? [28:45] Universities are still deciding how to handle changes. School starts in August, but classes will be different and professors will spend less time on campus. Lectures will be remote. Labs will be in class. People will have to certify they have no temperature or symptoms before they can come onto the campus. [30:58] In March, 39 percent of the companies surveyed said they would be back at full capacity within a month. Nineteen percent of the companies said it would take six months or longer to be back at full capacity. In June, only 23 percent said they would be at full capacity within a month and 40 percent said it would take six months or longer. [32:17] In March, people thought business would come back like turning on a light switch; now it’s more like a cloudy January dawn — slow. [33:22] The Center asked companies to grade themselves A to F. Companies that were more prepared with ready capital, investment for the long-term, a three-to-five-year strategic plan, ability to keep talent, and strong marketing and communications, were less likely to say the pandemic had a big impact and they projected a faster recovery. [34:39] Companies with those five strengths have a strong foundation for a well-operating company, even in times of crisis. Other strengths were not as critical. These lesser strengths were operational excellence and efficiency. Marketing and sales capability mattered more than salesforce efficiency. Ants outperform grasshoppers. [36:28] Patricia looks forward to more reports from the National Center for the Middle Market. You can reach them at Middlemarketcenter.org. [37:02] Patricia thanks Tom Stewart for being on the podcast — This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Thomas A. Stewart on LinkedIn Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University MiddleMarketCenter.org SBA PPP Loans

As this is being recorded, on the 11th of April, 2020, what good news we see and hear is almost entirely in the context of people making extraordinarily good things happen in the face of what, for most Americans living today, is the worst crisis we’ve ever faced. So, especially now, it’s good to be reminded of how, at its core, the U.S. economy, in its essential design around the free and voluntary exchange of goods and services — including research, technology, and good ideas — is the perfect and proper vehicle for leading us out of this. And so, it’s extremely valuable to have new research to not only show how the coronavirus is affecting business but also to show how business people already are looking toward the day when this is all behind us.The National Center for the Middle Market at Ohio State University conducts a quarterly survey to establish a benchmark. It’s worth taking a look back at the surveys it conducted in the summer and fall of 2019.Listen to Ray Hoffman’s conversation with Tom Stewart, Executive Director of the National Center for the Middle Market. Key Takeaways: [1:39] Ray Hoffman asks Tom Stewart about business optimism in late 2019. Every quarter, the National Center for the Middle Market surveys 1,000 companies with revenues between $10 million and $1 billion. In the third quarter, they saw a sudden drop in confidence and projected sales after a long expansion. [2:18] In the fourth quarter, those numbers came back up but the trendline showed slowing rates of growth. Projected rates of growth were dropping from a pretty high level. [3:00] Tom contrasts the projected confidence number of 90% in the first quarter of 2017 and 83% in the fourth quarter of 2019. The projected confidence plunged to 60% in the first quarter of 2020 with the pandemic. Growth rates drifted down from before the pandemic and within the pandemic. More companies reduced their workforce. [4:20] Tom shares his experience as the pandemic started showing up. He saw that planes went from full to empty in March. The National Center for the Middle Market commissioned a “pulse” survey of 260 mid-sized companies from March 23 to 25. [5:43] These were private companies, not directly impacted by the stock market. That group of companies had said in December that they expected to grow at 5.8% in the coming 12 months. On March 23, 78% of them said growth will decline in the coming 12 months and 64% said employment will shrink, instead of growing. [6:36] Twenty-five percent of the 260 companies surveyed said they believe the impact of the virus will be catastrophic for their business. Eighty-one percent said there would be an impact on payroll. Eighty-four percent expected an impact on revenue and operations. [7:02] Ray comments that the S&P 400 Mid-cap Index fell 40% from February 19 to March 23, and the S&P 500 Large-cap Index was down 34% in the same period. Tom discusses the risks to private companies and public companies. How much access to capital they have, in the short run, plays a role. [8:15] Tom mentions survival rates from the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Small business takes the biggest hit. The survival rate for middle-market companies is comparable to that of large companies. They have pretty strong resilience. In the crisis, surviving private middle-market companies added jobs, looking forward. [9:35] One of the questions on this pulse-check survey was “How quickly do you think you’ll be able to get back to business at full capacity?” Thirteen percent said, immediately. Twenty-six percent said, within a month. Eighty percent said they would be up and running at full capacity within six months. The measure of full capacity varies. [10:40] The National Center for the Middle market will ask these same questions in June. Tom will see whether more companies express confidence in their resilience, or whether more people say it will take a little longer than expected. Companies were asked in March how big the impact will be. Some companies said it would be positive! [11:07] Zoom’s stock has zoomed in the first quarter of this year. [11:57] The companies’ biggest negative impacts were on operations, revenue, payroll, employment, supply chain, and working capital, in that order. The companies’ biggest struggles were supply chain, cash and working capital, customer experience, and operations, in that order. The supply chain is out of the companies’ direct control. [13:44] Only 9% reported any new problems with information technology. The great technology available allows us to look optimistically at this entire situation. Before the internet, our ability to communicate was so much less than it is today. The IT industry is taking the strain of capacity pretty well in this pandemic crisis. [14:42] Of the 260 companies surveyed, their sales expectations collapsed 46% between December and March; demand for their goods and services went down 25%. The owners’ perception of the business climate went down 9%. Companies can’t sell, but demand is still there. When business comes back, there will be residual demand. [16:23] Some of these data are available on their website at MiddleMarketCenter.org. The following observations on business transformations are not: Significantly fewer companies are considering making a transformative acquisition, bringing in a major investor, merging with another company, or selling the business. [17:21] About 35% say they are more likely to have a senior leadership transition, which is a higher percentage than normal. Twenty percent said they were less likely to restructure. Forty-four percent said they were more likely to restructure, with remote work, fewer employees, fewer lines of business, more digitalization, or a new start. [18:45] Tom has heard since the survey that many organizations are planning new ways to navigate financially, from SBA loans to subsidies and how to work with the CARES Act. Companies are starting to get some advice on how to move on. [20:30] Sixty percent of the companies surveyed expressed any level of confidence for their future. It’s a relatively low number, but Tom had feared it would be worse. Confidence numbers were like that in 2013. Sixty-nine percent of the middle-market had some level of confidence in their local economy. [21:06] There is an underlying belief that the U.S. economy is flexible and that investment and performance go to places where there is an opportunity for return. Secondly, built into the rich and diverse U.S. economy are a lot of intermediaries and advisors. [21:38] A study at Harvard Business School looked at obstacles to growth in emerging markets. They found that your ability to get access to intermediaries and business services, such as third-party logistics (3PL), determines your rate of growth. The absence of intermediaries slows down growth. [22:56] You can take it from Tom Stewart: When at last we’re ready, there will be reason for optimism and plenty of it. This is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Thomas A. Stewart on LinkedIn Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University MiddleMarketCenter.org SBA Loans CARES Act Harvard Business School

Rachel Klausner would agree the first thing you need to know about her is that she’s a millennial — a 30-year-old product software designer from Boston, who has found her calling with an app called Millie, as in millennials. In the world of 2020, it’s a vehicle for her fellow millennials to make contributions to charities and other nonprofits. But as it grows, it could well become the dominant platform for givers of all ages. If you can use a dating app, you can use Millie. Key Takeaways: [:22] Ray Hoffman introduces Rachel Klausner, Founder and CEO of Millie. [:57] Rachel doesn’t mind when people compare Millie to a charitable version of Tinder. Rachel has never used a dating app. Millie matches users each week with nonprofits that match their profile. The user swipes right to donate, just like on a dating app. [1:39] Rachel’s parents had tried to instill into their children a passion for giving. Rachel is grateful for that influence. She refers to her Jewish practice of tithing to set aside a portion of her income to give to charity. Rachel says that for many years she was not thoughtful about where she was giving. She created Millie for thoughtful giving. [2:33] Millie is short for millennials, the core target market of the app. Rachel wanted an app for the millennial generation to feel good about their contributions. [3:22] Rachel feels very connected to others in her generation, the first kids with tech before the world knew how to handle technology. [4:26] Millennials are very different from their parents in how they give. Their baby boomer parents give more traditionally and thoughtfully, Rachel says. The data shows millennials give most of their money through their peers, for run/walk/ride fundraiser events and unvetted campaigns through sites like GoFundMe. [5:43] Millennials give a big portion of their wealth, but their giving doesn’t necessarily match the causes about which they care. Rachel believes this is because millennials are approached daily for donations through their social media, and it is hard to refuse. [6:20] Rachel realized when she was doing her taxes that most of the money she was giving was going through her friends. That struck Rachel, who had grown up with her parents being very thoughtful about giving. [7:13] This realization lit a fire under Rachel to ask how we can get people to be more thoughtful and be more empowered to give to causes that are important to them. [7:30] Rachel was working on a different startup with a friend. It wasn’t a passion project for her. She was working on a charitable event on the side because she cared about it. As she spent more time on her side event, she realized she had to choose one or the other. [8:14] Rachel realized she could use her software product-design skill set to scale the work she was doing for her event into an app for other events. She shifted her focus from the startup to developing the Millie app. Rachel explains what it took to develop the app besides designing it — amazing people, advisors, mentors, engineers, and more. [9:53] Rachel’s first big error was in underestimating the time for the Apple Store to approve the Millie app. They didn’t approve it but demanded changes to the app that were not detailed in the Apple Store guidelines. It took weeks to get approval, which delayed the roll-out. Rachel notes there were other mistakes along the way. [11:34] Rachel had about 100 nonprofit profiles in the beta version of the app. The nonprofits were excited because they were not engaging millennials through the traditional channels. They knew this app would reach them. [12:41] Since the app was released, it has grown organically. Millie doesn’t do any more outreach to nonprofits. Every U.S. nonprofit has a base profile Mille has pulled from the nonprofit’s IRS 990 form. The nonprofits come to Millie to clean up their profiles with photos, videos, and content for the web and mobile app. [13:36] To get the first 100 nonprofits, Rachel set up a Calendly link for people to sign up. Rachel did back-to-back calls all day for the first few months. Rachel loved talking to the nonprofits about their pain points, challenges, and successes. Best Friends Animal Society was one of the first nonprofits on board. [14:43] Rachel was able to get donor-advised funds on board. It took a lot of long, hard conversations with a lot of funds. There is still a lot to be done to democratize giving. [15:34] Getting into a donor-advised fund (DAF) on Millie starts at only $20, compared to a $5,000 minimum donation to a traditional DAF. Most DAFs are not looking for everyday donors. They want to service high-net-worth individuals. [16:21] Millie is launching an employee giving program with employee donation matching from the employer. They are in the pilot stage now. [16:43] Rachel explains that operating costs are covered by a 5% fee on every donation on the consumer side. On the corporate employee side, the company pays Millie to operate their account, so there is no transaction fee for employee donations. Eventually, Rachel expects to shift the consumer transaction fee as well. [17:39] Companies of every size are thinking about how to engage with the community, what their social impact is, and how they give back as a company. Rachel is excited to have a platform that can service companies with 10 employees, 1,000 employees, or 10,000 employees. Earlier giving software was focused on Fortune 500 companies. [18:55] The app has five stars in the App Store. Rachel acknowledges there are pieces to the product that they want to improve. Rachel is excited about building out new features for companies as they come to the Millie platform, such as competitive engagement for employees and teams. [20:02] Rachel talks about the risks she has taken in going from the employee world to the startup world. She compares the first startup she abandoned to her experience with Millie. You must be passionate about the startup. There is so much risk. If it’s the right path for you, and you have the passion, it’s okay to feel scared sometimes. [22:15] Rachel has big dreams. She always thinks of Millie as being the future home for giving through your employer or on your own. Millie is a connector for people to understand nonprofits better and find great nonprofits. There is scalable growth for Millie, for which Rachel yearns. She is excited to do good in the world. [23:12] Millie’s growth means bringing on more dollars for nonprofits and that is what excites Rachel. They want to make a huge impact. [23:26] Ray Hoffman gives the address of Rachel Klausner’s website, MillieGiving.com. This is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Rachel Klausner on LinkedIn Millie Giving Tinder GoFundMe Apple App Store Calendly Best Friends Animal Society Donor-Advised Funds Fidelity Donor-Advised Funds Vanguard Donor-Advised Funds Fortune 500

It would be hard to get an accurate count of the number of lives that Dr. Geoff Tabin has either saved or improved, often by his own hands. The figure is in the thousands because he and Dr. Sanduk Ruit are co-founders of the Himalayan Cataract Project. As its website name, cureblindness.org suggests, the project provides high-quality eye care in some of the most remote or under-served parts of the world. And, as Geoff Tabin, Professor of Ophthalmology and Global Medicine at Stanford, will happily tell you, this project, his life’s work, never would have happened had it not been for some serious serendipity. Key Takeaways: [:23] Ray Hoffman introduces Dr. Geoff Tabin, Co-Founder of the Himalayan Cataract Project. [1:05] In the poorest countries, 85% of blindness is preventable or treatable. Of all cases of blindness, 50% are from treatable cataracts. [1:52] Dr. Tabin was specifically inspired by a Dutch ophthalmologist running a humanitarian program called Eye Care Foundation Himalaya doing lens implants in Nepal. These implants altered lives and the welfare of families. [2:34] Dr. Tabin talks about his educational path and what inspired him at Yale and Oxford, England. On a mountain-climbing scholarship named for Andrew Irvine, he went to Asia and Africa to climb. He observed first-hand the disparity between the haves and the have-nots, regarding medical care. [4:24] Dr. Tabin matriculated at Harvard Medical School with the intent of working in global medicine to bridge the gap in care between the wealthy countries and the poor countries. [4:47] In 1988, Dr. Tabin climbed Mt. Everest while he was working as a general doctor in Nepal. He was searching for a way that an individual doctor could make a difference. He saw the Dutch ophthalmologist team set up and give new hope to cataract patients. He was amazed by how the surgery could change lives. [5:45] Dr. Tabin immediately found an ophthalmology residency at Brown University in the States and came back to enter the residency. [6:21] At the same time, Dr. Tabin’s future partner, Dr. Sanduk Ruit, was finishing his training in Australia. Dr. Ruik came from a small village in Nepal with no running water, electricity, or schools, a three-days’ walk from the road. After a house fire, his parents had taken him to a monastery in Nepal where the monks saw he needed an education. [7:03] As a child, Dr. Ruik’s father walked him 11 days to Darjeeling, India to an English Jesuit school. Dr. Ruik only spoke his native language. He emerged from the education with a full scholarship to one of the best medical schools in India. He got top boards. He trained as an ophthalmologist in Delhi and did a cataract fellowship also in India. [7:42] Dr. Ruit returned to Nepal and caught the attention of the same Dutch ophthalmology group Dr. Tabin had seen. Dr. Ruit went to the Netherlands for training in microsurgery and to Australia for a two-year fellowship. He came back to Nepal as a world-class ophthalmologist, looking to bring high-quality eye care to Kathmandu. [9:20] Dr. Tabin spent a couple of weeks during his fellowship working with Dr. Ruit. He told Dr. Ruit he wanted to work with him. When he finished his fellowship, he moved to Nepal to work with Dr. Ruit. [9:36] This project wouldn’t have come to pass if not for Dr. Tabin’s passion for mountain climbing, and a lot of help from great mentors. Dr. Tabin explores the serendipity involved. [11:03] Dr. Tabin learned hiking from his father, a nuclear physicist who worked with Enrico Fermi on the Manhattan Project. Dr. Tabin tells how his father hiked with Enrico Fermi and later, with him when he was a teen. Dr. Tabin started studying as a teen about the great mountaineers and explorers. [12:14] In Dr. Tabin’s later teen years, he focused on tennis and was recruited to play tennis at Yale. At Yale, he started rock climbing with a friend. [12:56] Dr. Tabin tells how he and Dr. Ruit co-founded the Himalayan Cataract Project. It started with transferring skills to doctors, ophthalmic nurses, ophthalmic technicians, and ophthalmic assistants. They taught primary health care workers a basic understanding of eye diseases. They created a teaching system. [13:39] Dr. Tabin and Dr. Ruit took the best cataract surgeons and sent them to specialty surgical fellowships for pediatric ophthalmology, glaucoma, retinal surgery; all the sub-specialties. Once they had the full range of specialties, they had a world-class residency program. [14:07] They were not getting funding from the U.S., so they turned to other countries, but they were also skeptical. To gain credibility, Dr. Tabin took an assistant professorship at the University of Vermont. The doctors decided to incorporate as a 501(c), named the Himalayan Cataract Project, with a website cureblindness.org. [15:32] They started raising funds to support the work. After two years, they hired their first full-time employee. They started in Nepal, then brought Bhutanese doctors into the program, then doctors from Tibet, then Indonesia. [16:42] In 2006, Dr. Tabin took a professorship at the University of Utah. By that time, the surgeons in the program were better than Dr. Tabin, so he was confident for them to continue without his presence. One of the doctors in the cataract project, Dr. Alan Crandall, went to Ghana and was one of the highest-volume cataract surgeons there. [17:26] Dr. Tabin started going on missions to Ghana with Dr. Crandall to see about extending the program to meet the need in Africa. [17:41] In FY 2014, the organization had $8 million in assets and did 78,000 sight-restoring surgeries. In FY 2016, they did 97,000 surgeries and treated over one million patients. In FY 2018, they performed 123,000 surgeries with assets of $12 million. Besides these procedures, their focus is on training local providers to perform the same procedures. [18:58] In 1996, when they started with $100,000, Dr. Tabin never expected to grow into the success they have had to this day. In that period, Nepal went from 0.88% blindness down to 0.2% blindness, today. Nepal is the one poor country that has reversed its rate of blindness. [20:43] Dr. Ruit instilled in Dr. Tabin that they were looking for the next young superstars. In 2007–08, Dr. Tabin started the first global ophthalmology fellowship in American academic ophthalmology. Now there are eight universities that have a global ophthalmology fellowship, following Dr. Tabin’s example. [21:20] Dr. Tabin is proud of his former fellows who, as early career ophthalmologists, are pushing ophthalmology forward in Asia and Africa. [21:56] Dr. Tabin reflects on the expansion and success of the program and discusses potential future expansion in Africa. It is estimated that it would take $100 million to completely reverse blindness in Ethiopia and Ghana. Similar changes need to be made in other African countries. Dr. Tabin names some amazing doctors from the program. [23:58] Based on the progress of the program, Dr. Tabin sees a realistic goal of turning the tide on needless blindness. The program has brought the material cost of a cataract surgery down to under $25. 12 million people could have their life completely changed from a $25 surgery. [24:42] Dr. Tabin hopes that Melissa Chen or Mark Zuckerberg will listen to this podcast and be inspired to donate to CureBlindness.org. Blindness is a low-hanging fruit to cure, as diseases go. Dr. Tabin tells about his role as a fundraiser. He speaks about donors. [25:43] Three years ago, Dr. Tabin went from the University of Utah to take an endowed chair for ophthalmology and global medicine at Stanford University. In Silicon Valley, Dr. Tabin has exposure to a lot of people who could potentially make a huge impact on global blindness. [26:33] Over the last few years, fundraising has been extremely successful. They always spend less than they secure. They have had USAID grants for big capital projects. Dr. Tabin wants it to be a $30 million charity to fully address blindness in Ethiopia and Ghana. Funding is half from grants and half from private philanthropy. [27:48] Studies have shown that restoring sight gives a direct impact of four-to-one to the local economy. Dr. Tabin would like to see more direct investments from governments and global funds like the World Health Organization. [28:29] 88% of their funds go directly into programs. Will that efficiency continue while scaling up? Dr. Tabin explains how it can. Dr. Tabin doesn’t want to spend a lot of money on fundraising. [30:17] Dr. Tabin talks of the 5,000 cataract surgeries they have done recently in Ethiopia. They are reaching out to Eritrea and are taking Eritrean doctors into their Ethiopia training program. [32:17] In 2019, Dr. Tabin traveled to Ethiopia, South Sudan, Bhutan (where they just opened a new state-of-the-art eye hospital), and Nepal, while working about six months at Stanford and six months between Asia and Africa. [32:55] Dr. Tabin hopes people in America realize we are all one world and one human race. It does matter what happens in Africa and Asia. Once someone has the cataract surgery, they are no longer “a statistic” but a person cured 100%. [33:58] In six years, the organization will be 30 years old. Dr. Tabin hopes that in six years, Ethiopia and Ghana will have followed Nepal and Bhutan in reversing their backlog of blindness and sustaining high-quality care for all their people, and the programs will be expanded into other African countries in great need. [34:41] Dr. Tabin also wants to be closer in six years, in connection with other organizations, to reversing blindness for the two greatest populations, China and India. [35:39] Dr. Tabin acknowledges he was in the right places at the right times with some incredible mentors. [36:15] Ray Hoffman provides the website name, CureBlindness.org and signs off.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Himalayan Cataract Project (CureBlindness.org) Eye Care Foundation Himalaya Dr. Geoff Tabin Dr. Sanduk Ruit Yale Oxford Andrew Irvine Harvard Medical School Mt. Everest Brown University Professor Hugh Taylor University of Chicago Enrico Fermi University of Vermont University of Utah Melissa Chen Mark Zuckerberg Stanford University World Health Organization Nobel Peace Prize Sick Kid’s Hospital, Toronto

Karla Mora fully expects to have a major impact on the apparel industry, the clothes we wear, and where we dispose of those clothes after we wear them. She is a self-described impact investor, and her venture capital fund, Alante Capital, co-led by former JP Morgan executive, Leslie Harwell, and backed enthusiastically by women’s fashion legend Eileen Fisher, is investing in a future in which landfills won’t be overloaded with yesterday’s throwaway polyesters — meaning a future of sustainable apparel. Alante Capital is investing in young companies that are offering a better process for making and re-making apparel. The road that Karla Mora took to this went by way of a United Nations Compound in Kabul, Afghanistan and a neighborhood in Costa Rica, Barrio Escalante. Listen in for her story. Key Takeaways: [:23] Ray Hoffman introduces Karla Mora, Founder and Managing Partner of Alante Capital. [1:14] Karla Mora’s background was in international political economics and improving livelihoods in emerging markets. She worked for a while at the UN, looking at inefficiencies in the coffee sector, then Peace Dividend Trust (Building Markets), to build vibrant ecosystems where people can lift themselves out of poverty. [2:06] In Kabul for six months, Karla collected data and wrote a report. She returned to California to finish writing the report. She ran into a person running an impact investment fund and she was inspired to start a fund in 2012 to invest with purpose. [2:44] Karla describes the challenges of living in Kabul. She was not able to exercise outside, but the Afghan people were amazing and resilient. [3:57] In Karla’s off hours, she kept in touch with an agricultural investor in New York who was helping small farmers reach farmer’s markets in communities without access to fresh food. She worked with him every evening while her days were spent working on the Kabul impact report. [4:33] Karla enjoyed back-country skiing in the mountains in Bamyan, Afghanistan. [5:28] Karla came up with the name for Alante Capital while she was living in Barrio Escalante in Costa Rica. Alante is Spanish for moving forward. It took Karla about a year to make the decision to move forward with Alante Capital. [6:35] Karla started the idea that became Alante Capital with a friend from San Francisco. They both were in impact investing and they talked about starting a fund in fashion. They studied the idea for about eight months but didn’t launch it together as they were in two different geographies and had different ideas. [7:03] After all her research, Karla had fallen in love with the concept and the industry. She knew she wanted to move forward. She had already been introduced to Leslie Harwell by a graduate advisor. Karla and Leslie had also been at JP Morgan. They became fast friends and thought partners. [7:32] Karla’s husband noticed how Karla felt when she got off the phone with Leslie and he suggested they partner to achieve their goals. Karla wrote a job description for Leslie and convinced her to leave the bank and work with Karla. [7:46] Leslie had been at Credit Suisse for years and had moved to JP Morgan because of her passion for impact investing and social finance. Leslie had been observing a trend of industry-specific systems-change funds starting up. She had not seen one in apparel. When Karla showed up with her idea, Leslie was excited to get started. [8:21] Alante Capital began in Costa Rica. Her husband consulted with her on the ideas and put data in spreadsheets for her. As a new wife starting a new financial venture, it was a scary time for Karla. She made sure not to make decisions based on fear. She kept seeing signals from the industry that she was on the right track. [9:18] After starting Alante Capital, Karla and her husband moved back to California. About a year ago, Karla became pregnant. Karla came off maternity leave two months before this interview. Then they had their first close for the fund and their first investment. It was a busy and exciting time. Every day is a juggling act for Karla. [9:53] Karla and Leslie are on opposites sides of the country. They had done so much pre-planning work together that once they joined forces, they had a great rapport. Leslie came to Santa Barbra for a few months at the beginning to work side-by-side with Karla. That’s when they brought on their anchor investor, Eileen Fisher. [10:20] Karla and Leslie message each other and talk throughout the day, as though they are in the next room from each other. They may exchange hundreds of messages in a day, chatting while they’re working. They feel very engaged with each other. [10:48] Eileen Fisher is their anchor investor and general partner. She was a critical part of getting the fund launched. Leslie knew someone at JP Morgan who was working with Eileen to help her put her capital into investments for the sustainable apparel industry. [11:08] When Karla sent out an announcement about Leslie joining the team, it circulated and was shared with Eileen who saw it as the investment she had been seeking. It was humbling and exciting for Karla and Leslie that a major figure in apparel was interested in their startup. [11:99] Karla and Leslie had been looking for funding for their startup. They had a list of potential general partners and Eileen Fisher was number one on their list. [12:02] Alante Capital works very closely with large brands. When consumers race to find the cheapest products possible, brands are under a lot of pressure to provide them. Polyester is cheap and it ends up in landfills. [12:30] Alante Capital just invested in Mango Materials, a company started by two women from Stanford who figured out a way to create a biodegradable polyester fiber that’s not made from plastic. It breaks down in the environment. [13:00] Tyton Biosciences is another company in which Alante Capital has invested. They break down polyester-cotton blended garments using a clean process. About 80% of clothing is a cotton-poly blend. Brands can use the fibers from this process again in new clothes. [13:34] Karla sees a good level of scale in each of these companies within three to five years. At that point, there will be a couple of directions to take to accelerate their scale greatly. [13:51] Karla predicts that in 18 months to two years, we will start seeing collections of clothes made from post-consumer garment waste — old clothes. [14:09] Alante Capital is looking at about 140 companies that fit squarely into their thesis. As their first two investments are in fibers, next, they are looking at the garment rental and resale industries. Karla likes to talk to companies in the early stages. If it’s not a fit, she wants to let them know as early as she can. [15:03] Sustainability is the direction the industry is taking. You can see articles in industry and mainstream media every day talking about sustainability in fashion. It’s driving more investment of capital and time into investment practices, new consumption models, and sustainable production. [15:47] The big brands will be a major part of the solution. Karla goes to them in the spirit of collaboration with an approach of being helpful in achieving their sustainability goals. She seeks to understand the true operational hurdles they face in doing so. Then, she introduces them to startups that will help them achieve their goals and innovate. [16:30] Conversations with brands often go into what rental or resale can do to decrease waste and dependence on virgin fibers. Brands like working with Alante Capital to help them think outside the box. Alante Capital is up-to-date on the newest innovations. Alante Capital can help drive early interactions between brands and startups. [16:53] Karla loves working with brands because she gets to learn about the companies in the pipeline, and figure out which ones are viable and solve problems identified by the market. [17:15] Karla talks about the five-year outlook for Alante Capital. She hopes for a portfolio of 15 companies. In five years, the apparel industry will have made significant improvements in the use of recycled fibers. All brands are looking at recycled fibers. Consumers will see lots of recycled fabric garments in the stores. [17:52] Karla expects over the next five years to have the security that comes from leaving startup mode, knowing her company is funded, operational, and successful, including having a set salary and the ability to make plans and control her schedule. [18:15] Karla Mora is Capitalism. Alante Capital is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Karla Mora JP Morgan Alante Capital Leslie Harwell Eileen Fisher United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Barrio Escalante, San José, Costa Rica Peace Dividend Trust (Building Markets) Bamyan, Afghanistan Credit Suisse Santa Barbara Mango Materials Tyton Biosciences LA Times NY Times

To equate the world of entrepreneurism with football, most of the cheering comes when a quarterback throws a touchdown pass to a wide receiver. In business, those are the billion-dollar IPOs that gain most of the media attention. But entrepreneurism — capitalism – is mostly a ground game. Put your head down, start a business, commit yourself, and pick up maybe three yards or five yards at a time. Much in the way that Natalie Mangrum, a teacher from Baltimore has, after a rough start, been steadily adding parents as customers and fellow teachers as after-hours tutors for her increasingly successful business, Maryland Teacher Tutors. Natalie tells about her struggles in getting the business running, and what its current success feels like to her. Listen in for her story. Key Takeaways: [:22] Ray Hoffman introduces Natalie Mangrum, CEO and founder of Maryland Teacher Tutors. [1:11] Natalie, as a seven-year-old child in Sunday School, naturally took to gathering her peers around her and being in the role of teacher. [1:34] Natalie’s natural desire to lead and help, motivate, and inspire prompted her to want to teach as her career. [2:01] Being the oldest child in her family, Natalie modeled behavior for her siblings and told them what to expect in kindergarten when they started to go to school. She credits God for giving her a teaching personality. [2:33] Natalie talks about a favorite fourth-grade teacher of hers that she wanted to emulate and a favorite high-school English teacher who made literature come alive in new ways for her. Everyone in the class was engaged in and excited about what they learned. [3:10] Ray and Natalie reminisce about their favorite teachers who influenced them for life. Everyone Natalie talks to has a favorite teacher whose name they remember. [3:32] Natalie never had a thought of starting a business. She thought of moving up to administration. She was happy to be a teacher. Natalie’s father was a contractor, so she knew a little about entrepreneurship from watching him. [4:51] Natalie was a reading specialist in Baltimore City Schools. The reading specialist would pull a struggling student out of the classroom for a lesson. Natalie asked the principal if a class of 10 to 12 students could be taught at once, during language arts. That would prevent the stigma of the students being pulled out of class. [6:10] It would also allow Natalie consistent time to work with the students on their reading skills. A couple of hours a week of being pulled out of class wasn’t enough for students with academic deficits. The principal agreed to support Natalie. She selected small groups of students from the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades for her classes. [6:46] These students were behind their classes. Natalie worked with them in groups and on average, the students started making academic gains of two-and-a-half to three years in just a few months. The sixth graders started at a fourth-grade level and moved to at or above a sixth-grade level in less than a year. [7:14] That is when Natalie started to realize the power of having an expert teacher focusing on a small group or a single student. One seventh-grade student was at a fourth- or fifth-grade level when she started, and was “nailing” 11th-grade SAT questions when she left. Students were leaving her class a lot above their grade level. [7:56] That planted the seed that one-on-one teaching is powerful. Natalie was still not thinking of becoming an entrepreneur at all. Several months later, a parent who was a friend, asked her if she could help her child who was struggling with reading. Natalie started working with that child and got a referral from the parent to other parents. [8:25] Natalie’s schedule quickly filled up. She had two small children and a husband who was only good at making toast. Her husband needed her at home before 8pm. Natalie didn’t want to turn families away, so she reached out to a colleague for help. When the colleague’s schedule filled up, Natalie reached out to another teacher. [9:07] That’s how the company came to be — not with a business plan, but as people coming together with a solution to a need in their community. Once Natalie had a fifth teacher, she decided to make a company out of it. She wanted parents to pay a company, not to write checks to her. It needed to feel official and legitimate. [9:47] Natalie never intended for the company to be large. She named it just what it was, Maryland Teacher Tutors. [9:58] Ray notes that this company was created only because there were a couple of men who could only make toast! [10:15] Before Natalie was a reading specialist she was a regular classroom teacher. She had the knowledge of what it looks like to be an effective teacher. Before she started as a reading specialist, she spent a summer researching blogs, articles, and resources on helping kids who struggle with reading. [10:52] Natalie came across a resource that she decided was the approach for her. It looked like a very consistent way to get kids from point A to point B. The approach was always the same from the beginning but Natalie got more effective in it, over time. [11:28] Even more than the approach, when you give a student one-on-one attention for their specific problem you have identified, five days a week, over time, the child will improve and learn more. [12:00] The technique, added to the teacher inspiring the student to do better, combine to a successful outcome for the student. Working hard, the students became smarter. They start with low self-confidence and low skills, and as they learn, they grow confident in their abilities. [13:33] Around the time that Natalie created the company, the snowball effect had tapered off and she found that she needed to start marketing. So Natalie started learning about entrepreneurship, getting around people who were successful, joining entrepreneurial groups, and calling business owners she knew. [14:34] Natalie started forming a strategy for growing her business. She is still in that process. It will never end. For the first year of business, Natalie felt she was constantly pushing it uphill. After a couple of years, they seemed to hit the top of the hill and start rolling down the other side. Systems and processes in place are working well. [15:36] In the first year it was really hard to carry on! There were days Natalie wanted to cry and pull the blanket over her head all day in bed. Entrepreneurship can really be rough. [15:53] Natalie started the company in 2015. Most of 2016 was not easy for her. [16:10] There came a time when parents started calling again after being referred on Facebook, LinkedIn, or by a friend and Natalie felt like she could pull back somewhat on the brand exposure and marketing. All of the work was starting to pay off. People were starting to recognize that they were really good at their work. [17:36] The company was founded with $100. That was the amount needed to open the company bank account. Natalie never sought capital investors or loans. They built the company from the ground up, without debt. [18:32] On the website there is a statement, “We are 100% confident in our business model.” In terms of the competition that naturally goes with entrepreneurism and capitalism, they maintain that their model of using only certified teachers working in the student’s home, delivers better results than other mentoring business models. [18:56] Teachers are trained effectively to pass along and deliver information in a way that makes the most sense for the student. Early on, people Natalie trusted told her that her business model would never work. They recommended hiring college students instead of certified teachers to save money. As a teacher, Natalie disagreed. [20:02] Natalie was never going to change from using certified teachers only. Another huge aspect is one-on-one teaching. Progress happens fastest with an expert teacher identifying exactly what the problem is tripping up one student and addressing those areas with that student individually. That’s what teachers do. [21:04] Maryland Teacher Tutors contracts with about 45 certified teachers. They all teach in a classroom during the day and are 1099 contractors in the evening. Natalie is the only staff person. She contracts with marketing companies as needed. [21:42] Natalie has a new book on Amazon, Owning It. The book is a compilation of stories from Natalie’s life where she walks through the difficult times she says she brought on herself. She wants the book to be empowering for herself and others, about rising above mistakes to doing well. [22:53] Natalie tells of a business mistake — isolating herself. On her own, she almost called it quits for the business and put it behind her. She had not reached out to anyone or asked for help. Fortunately, that’s when the calls started coming in and she saw success on the horizon. She wishes she had not let herself feel so alone. [24:02] Natalie would advise entrepreneurs to have conversations with other entrepreneurs. As a new entrepreneur, Natalie didn’t know what questions she should ask or things she should consider. It is important to put yourself around people who have successful businesses. They were able to draw out of Natalie what she needed. [24:50] Natalie is hearing from other teachers around the country, and in the Bahamas, who hope to duplicate the business model of Maryland Teacher Tutors. Natalie has given information to others, but, so far, no one has followed through to do it. When it comes to being an entrepreneur, you have it, or you don’t. [25:51] What is Natalie’s vision for growth? Natalie believes it should be nationwide. As long as Natalie is the CEO, she would like to see it become a strong Mid-Atlantic brand. Natalie would love to expand into Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia. That is where her plans are. At some point, Natalie will want someone to take the reins. [26:47] Natalie cannot see herself being CEO of the company if it went nation-wide. [27:10] Natalie has some clients in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Those clients are working with the company online. Eventually, Natalie wants certified teachers contracted in different states. They want to move slowly but surely and they’re making their way there. [28:09] Natalie’s children are now 17 and 15. [28:31] Natalie has recently identified the biggest reward she gets from her company — having a company that is outstanding in the way they do business, where both teachers and parents praise the experience Maryland Teacher Tutors has created. Teachers love the work and parents give testimonials of the results. [29:35] Natalie compares her company to Chick-fil-A, that really stands apart in how they do fast food. They go above and beyond and excel at everything. That’s how Natalie wants Maryland Teacher Tutors to be seen. [30:28] Ray wishes Natalie Mangrum continued success and hopes to follow this company for years to come. This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Maryland Teacher Tutors Baltimore City Schools Owning It: It’s My Story and I’ll Share If I Want To, by Natalie Mangrum McDonald’s Wendy’s Burger King Chick-fil-A

It was probably inevitable that as his career as an economics and finance writer evolved, Chris Farrell would be drawn, ever deeper, into matters of age. After all, for the past quarter-century, the dominant theme in personal finance has been about savings, IRAs and 401(k)s, and the fact that most Americans haven’t saved enough money to retire on. In economics, there’s a parallel strain that centers around the aging of the U.S. population and how an economy with fewer younger workers and more and more retirees living longer could reach a tipping point. Chris Farrell doesn’t think it needs to turn out that way. His latest book, Purpose and a Paycheck, is about the too-often-ignored realities and the still largely-unappreciated potential of older people in the workforce. People are living a lot longer.Chris Farrell is the Marketplace Senior Economics Contributor for American Public Media Group, Economic Commentator for Minnesota Public Radio, Columnist for PBS’s Next Avenue, Columnist for the Minneapolis StarTribune, and for many years, a colleague of Ray’s at Business Week.   Key Takeaways: [:22] Ray Hoffman introduces Chris Farrell. [1:34] Chris proposes that people who exercise their education and skills throughout their lives have a greater life expectancy. Chris developed skills during his time on merchant ships. His first job was as a wiper, cleaning the engine room and the bathrooms. He joined the Coast Guard and was a Merchant Seaman. [2:41] Chris learned from people with incredible knowledge and skills onboard ships. Chris’s degree was in History. [4:02] In 2035, for the first time, the number of people over 65 in America will be greater than the number of people under 18. Employers do not appreciate the knowledgeable and skilled employee. Productivity peaks at around age 65. [5:15] Management can best use the older worker by creating opportunities for experienced workers to exercise their creativity and be productive on a multi-generational team. Research shows that the most productive teams are multi-generational. [5:32] One of Chris’s motivations for writing the book is that for the past 30 years, there has been this strand of economic commentary that the demographics of aging is a bad thing. The story was that a dependent older generation would be supported by too few young workers, which would lead to stagnation. [6:04] Steve Jobs gave the Stanford University commencement address in 2005. He talked about how important it is to connect the dots. You don’t know how to connect the dots looking forward. You connect the dots looking back. [6:31] Manufacturing research from Europe shows that the experienced worker makes more mistakes than the younger worker, but they are smaller mistakes. When the unexpected happens, the experienced worker is more calm about it. They draw on their experience and connect the dots and help solve the problem much more quickly. [7:02] Younger workers have seen less. They run around causing commotion, but not solving the problem. Putting experienced workers with younger workers leads to a more productive team. [7:33] Germany has an older workforce than the United States. BMW wondered what the older worker meant for their assembly line and productivity as the workforce ages. They created “The Pensioners’ Line,” to reflect the workforce in Germany in 10 to 15 years. Initially, the productivity of the pensioners’ line was way below their other lines. [8:01] They spent $50,000 on barbershop chairs, bigger computer screens, corkboard and bamboo floors, meditation, and yoga. Now, BMW’s pensioners’ line is as productive as their other lines. [8:21] “The Forgotten Man,” showed up in the 2016 vote: the mill workers and mine workers from Southwestern Pennsylvania. Chris points out that U.S. businesses do not have a good record of training and retraining. They neglected it because they didn’t want to train somebody to go work for someone else. [9:19] Training is picking up because of the tight labor market. Chris cites a case study from a former program in Danville, Virginia. It was very successful, but it ended when funding stopped. When people work longer and labor force participation goes up, more taxes are paid, and the age to claim Social Security is delayed. Everyone wins. [10:55] Look at the aging of the population as an incredible opportunity to get this economy to a higher growth path. 27% of new businesses was formed by the 55- to 64-year-old age group in 2017. That’s up from 14 to 15% in 1996. These are mostly small businesses. [11:27] Ray notes there is a lot of risk involved in starting a business. People over 55 are more willing to experiment. They take risks that younger improvisers don’t. [11:58] The risks of starting your own business as an older person are less as you have knowledge and experience to guide you. You draw on contacts you developed over the years. Because of your time in business, you can identify problems that need to be solved. [12:18] You probably own your home. The home is your office. Technology has lowered the overall cost of doing business and managing your business. A lot of times, starting a business means working on weekends or in the evenings, testing out the business idea before committing to it — this is a good thing to do. [12:39] It’s a good idea to join a co-sharing workspace or an incubator where you can get feedback. [12:45] Most small businesses are started with $5,000 or less, according to Steve King, a small business consultant in the Bay Area. You can easily test a business in the market. Do not use your home or 401(k) for collateral. Chris wants to be very clear on that point. [13:11] People have knowledge and skills; they also have a sense that this is what they want to be doing. That is where your purpose comes in. [13:27] Chris quotes over 100 people in the book. He recalls interviewing Rick Harris, who grew up in segregated Texas. He went to the Bay Area in his 20s and built a commercial interior design business. Later, he moved to Minneapolis and tried to start over, but it was hard to break into the market. Then, his son asked to join him in his business. [14:10] Bringing his son into the business rejuvenated Rick Harris. There was no inter-generational conflict. They shared the values of working together, doing a good job, and building a successful business. [14:27] Ray loves the story of Tim Carpenter in Burbank with his various senior art centers that create a wonderful sense of purpose for people. Chris notes that the center in Burbank is low-income affordable housing with arts courses modeled after a college curriculum. People are thriving in that atmosphere. [15:05] Tim Carpenter was moved to start his centers after visiting nursing homes and observing dim arts and crafts rooms with people gluing wooden sticks together. Tim found that people love the opportunity to learn and create something. Purposeful activity counters age-related depression. [15:34] In general, working longer makes you healthier. [16:06] Chris Farrell, who has hit 65, has realized he wants to always be learning. He writes a lot about work, using your skills, and passing your skills along. Whether at a job or doing something else, it is important to learn. The idea that we stop learning at an arbitrary age is wrong. [16:32] We age, and we can’t do certain things. But we can do other things that we didn’t know enough about when we were young. Keep learning. Never stop learning. When life becomes the couch and TV, it slows down a lot.   [16:49] Chris Farrell, sharing his purpose in his new book, Purpose and a Paycheck. This is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Chris Farrell American Public Media Group Minnesota Public Radio PBS Next Avenue Minneapolis StarTribune Business Week Coast Guard Seafarers International Union Merchant Seaman/ Merchant Marine Steve Jobs Stanford University, 2005 Commencement Address The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, by Amity Shlaes Steve King Rick Harris Tim Carpenter

Ray Hoffman introduces the guest for this episode. John Byrne and Ray Hoffman have known each other for so long that they refer to each other as old friends. John is one of the most significant business journalists of his generation, having written over two dozen cover stories for Business Week, where eventually he became Executive Editor. He also was Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company and the author of some major business biographies of such figures as Jack Welch of GE and the Whiz Kids, including Robert McNamara, who reshaped Ford Motor Company and industrial America after World War II. He’s probably best known and most highly regarded as the go-to journalist on all matters relating to MBA programs and graduate business schools. That began at Business Week in 1988 when he compiled the first ever published ranking of graduate business school programs. Today, that continues within his second career as an entrepreneur. He’s Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of California-based C-Change Media, which operates five websites, including the number-one source for information about MBA programs, Poets & Quants.Listen in to hear more of John’s journey from journalist to journalist-entrepreneur.   Key Takeaways: [:22] Ray Hoffman introduces John Byrne for this episode of This Is Capitalism.[1:41] Did John imagine he would always be a professional journalist for a major publication? John describes the magazine publishing environment of Business Week twenty years ago and how he loved it. Then came the internet. [2:43] Business Week went online for the first time in 1994. AOL gave Business Week a $1 million contract for its content. John built out a Business Week community online. It was clear that this was something that was going to be a major change in the way we thought about what we create, how we create it, and how our audience interacts with it. [3:52] John created the first regularly-published ranking of MBA programs in the world in 1988. John was the Management Editor at Business Week at that time. He created the ranking to entice schools to seek to be included. It began as a biannual feature. [4:52] Companies had been complaining for years that MBA graduates had ‘quant’ skills but were challenged in the area of soft, people skills, which were not being taught in schools. [5:59] John’s idea was to hold schools accountable to their two primary audiences: the graduates and the people that hired them. [7:17] The business school issue was the best-selling cover of the year in 1988. It became immediately controversial and it gathered a lot of attention. John explains how the coverage expanded over the years to an online community in 1994. [7:51] Guidebooks were published by owner company McGraw-Hill. The guidebooks covered all aspects of MBA education and they became very big sellers. [8:11] Toward the end of John’s career at Business Week, John was the Editor-in-Chief of online operations. The average monthly unique visitor at Business Week looked at 1.8 pages; the average monthly unique visitor to the business school section looked at 58 pages. That was an eye-opener. [9:24] The first survey was a consumer satisfaction survey looking for opinions of graduates and the companies that hired them. John wanted it to be simple and pure. Business Week did not tell the survey respondents that it was for a ranking. [10:01] Now, when you survey alumni or companies, there is an inherent bias to the results because they know that the survey will impact how their school fares on the ranking. There is a lot of ‘cheerleading.’ [10:40] The survey was a true labor of love. Back in 1988, there was no internet or email. John collected the names of the graduates, printed out surveys from his home Mac and printer, and stuffed, labeled, licked, and sent out the envelopes. His family helped, in front of the TV watching Yankee games. It took a month of nights. [11:55] Ray notes that the first J.D. Power surveys were also sent from Power’s living room with the Power children helping. [12:17] John tells about the creation of the Poets & Quants website. Quants & Poets was a common term in business schools but unknown outside of the field. A good business school brings together Liberal Arts majors and Science majors, so they can build on each others’ strengths and minimize weaknesses. [13:49] When John thought about starting his company, he remembered this phrase. It is popular lingo to anyone in that world. About nine years ago, Bloomberg bought Business Week. It seemed like the right time for John to go on his own, online. [14:51] John looked at the importance of engagement with his audience. Online content provides a very different level of engagement. John knew there was a market for his planned business from the business school section of the Business Week website. [15:08] In John’s last few years at Business Week, the management did not understand all that John was doing. The average age of a Business Week reader was in the early fifties. John wanted to convert twenty-somethings who visited the website into readers. [16:13] John’s idea was to do a Huffington Post for business. He talked to the former publisher of Forbes.com and to Andy Serwer, who was then Managing Editor of Fortune. John suggested that the three of them get together to build up this company with 10 microsites around businesses that were under-covered in journalism. [17:41] The content would connect to a mega site that would cover business and the economy more broadly. They expected to rely heavily on contributions from consultants and professors with an editorial staff to create original content. Due to different individual financial goals of the group, it never happened. [18:34] Instead, John went to California and started his first website, contracting with a web developer and a designer to create the site, while John created content and enlisted freelancers to help generate more content. John wanted the site to live with a fairly significant amount of journalism in place. [19:13] In those days, Google might take months to recognize a site, but they were very quick to index social media like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, so John created channels on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook using the new Poets & Quants logo before launching the site. He curated existing content to build an audience. [19:51] When the site was launched nine years ago, in August, they already had an audience from social media, with Google helping their SEO. [20:12] John did it on his own. John’s biggest investment was his time spent reporting and writing for several months to launch. John has not borrowed a dollar or taken a dollar of investment. He owns 100% of the company. [20:35] John has five websites run by 12 full-time employees with benefits and 401(k) plans. The main Poets & Quants site gets 35% of its traffic from outside of the United States. One of the sites is a global conference business. [21:06] John talks about the feature, The Best and the Brightest, about MBA graduates from various programs. John praises Senior Writer, Jeff Schmitt, who created the feature. John explains how they get nominations and pick the best and brightest. [22:29] The feature puts a face on the program and the school and shows the graduate’s motivation and their journey. It is meant to inspire and motivate others to get more education in a program that is right for them. [23:12] John brings up student debt and employment out of college. He discusses the value of MBAs and the market for them. John says 60% of MBAs don’t borrow for their degree because they get scholarship help but those that borrow can pay it off quickly. [24:37] People look at the tuition and fees and get sticker shock but, in some schools, 100% of the students are on scholarships; many are on full scholarships. [25:18] The average class at Harvard Business School is 930 students in a two-year program, so 1,860 are enrolled. 50% get scholarship help. The scholarships are based on need, not merit. Harvard spends $36 million a year on scholarships to 930 students. [26:17] Stanford gives the same level of support to their students, individually. Many other schools are in an “arms race” to give out scholarship money. The MBA is a flagship program. The higher they can rank, the better it reflects on the entire school. So schools are willing to use the MBA program as a loss leader for their other programs. [27:15] For MBA students who pay full price, John says they will have no problem paying off the loan quickly, with an employment sign-on bonus and a salary of $140K, depending on the field they choose. [28:44] In our strong economy with virtually full employment, applications to MBA programs have fallen sharply. Sticker price and a decline in international candidates into the U.S. are other reasons for the dropoff. The documentation to get a visa can be burdensome. Also, good online MBA programs have become very popular. [31:50] There are also specialized Master’s programs such as business analytics, supply chain management, HR management, healthcare administration, and others, that people are choosing right out of college. [32:21] Young people often choose a one-year specialized Master’s or an online MBA. [33:03] Across all the students, the discount on a Harvard Business School degree is 40%. Other schools vary. John cites major school offerings. [33:28] Destination websites with a lot of content and advertising support are like gorillas in a cage that need to be fed a lot of bananas every day. Content is very important. John says content is the campfire around which you gather an audience that has a conversation that creates unity. [34:29] The content has to be new, updated, creative, smart, insightful, valuable, and produced daily. If the content gets old, the traffic starts to fall. It’s a big, serious job. [35:40] In addition to writing every day, editing, and publishing, John also has a company to run with all the money and management concerns running a business involves. John recruits clients from the business school community. Right now, John is considering investing in a customized software platform to do one thing for the site. [37:03] Most of John’s life, he covered management and leadership. Now, he has a real P&L and it is work to get stuff done on a daily basis. [37:44] Ray and John discuss their years of study of Frank Sinatra the performer. Sinatra recorded commercially in seven decades. John compares the body of Sinatra’s music to the work of an entrepreneur. John thinks Sinatra’s biggest regret might be the years he didn’t record. John sees and contrasts three phases of Sinatra’s work. [40:07] John Byrne’s C-Change Media is capitalism — journalistic entrepreneurial capitalism. This is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com John Byrne Business Week Fast Company Jack Welch The Whiz Kids Robert McNamara Ford Motor Company C-Change Media Poets & Quants AOL McGraw-Hill J.D. Power Huffington Post Forbes.com Fortune Andy Serwer Yahoo Finance Business Insider Poets & Quants on Facebook PoetsAndQuants on Twitter Poets & Quants on LinkedIn Bloomberg survey on grads from the biggest business schools Harvard Business School Stanford Graduate School of Business Yale School of Management W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University Frank Sinatra

Ray Hoffman introduces the guest for this episode. How did Amazon do it? And how is Amazon going to continue to do it? John Rossman has the answer to both questions. He joined Amazon in 2002, after 23 interviews, and he led the creation of the Amazon Marketplace, with all the third-party sellers that came in, which is what lifted Amazon from being just an online seller of books and videos to a seller of everything. In fact, the operation he created between 2002 and 2005 accounts for over half of all the merchandise units sold on Amazon today. He then went on to lead the Enterprise Services Business at Amazon, and there he helped build brands such as Target.com and NBA.com. So, having had a front-row seat to the ways and strategies of Amazon’s creator, Jeff Bezos, John Rossman has gone on to advise a lot of young startup companies on how to think like Amazon, which just happens to be the title of a very readable new book by John Rossman.Listen in to hear more of John Rossman’s story of innovation in capitalism.   Key Takeaways: [:22] Ray Hoffman introduces the guest for this episode of This Is Capitalism.[1:23] John was always interested in efficiency, integration, and how processes and data worked in making commerce more effective. In the early 2000s in Seattle, a former colleague of John’s was in the Finance Group at Amazon, and called John as a candidate for “an interesting idea” they had. John interviewed over a few months. [2:05] John thought it was a great fit because the Marketplace business at Amazon, which was the division John was hired to run, with third parties selling merchandise on Amazon.com, really is about integration at a maximum scale. It required a lot of metrics and procedures that had to be put in place to scale that business. [2:36] John launched 14 categories. When John started at Amazon, 90% of the business was books, music, and video. The first holiday season John was there, in 2002, was the first $1 billion quarter for Amazon. Today, Amazon is a $260 billion organization. [2:55] Categories John launched included Apparel, Sporting Goods, and Home. They did it by leveraging partners. They expanded categories and geographies. [3:19] John had 23 hiring interviews with people from departments all over Amazon. He learned that the Marketplace was the third iteration of a third-party selling program. The first two, Auctions and zShops, had failed. By the time John started, he knew where they were going, what the vision was, and the people who were involved. [4:09] The slow hiring process led back to Jeff Bezos’s desire not to be in too big of a hurry to hire. This is also covered in John’s books. The biggest business mistakes John has made have revolved around hiring in a hurry. When you have an urgent need, you are prone to hiring the first person who has the qualifications and is available. [4:44] At Amazon, they look to hire for the role at hand, plus what the future might hold. [4:52] Amazon uses a bar-raiser, a person independent from the team who evaluates the candidate on their potential to do other profitable things for Amazon. The bar-raiser has veto power that is not subject to appeal. It really helps Amazon not to hire in a hurry. Hiring in a hurry can lead to very hard situations. [5:46] John’s book is about the tools you can take from Amazon for your own business. One of those tools is a ‘flywheel,’ which tends to maintain momentum. In business, the concept of a flywheel is systems modeling: understanding the system you are operating in and your various levers for creating change in your business. [6:32] A flywheel is a really simplified version of your systems model and it’s a great way to summarize your strategy. [6:42] Amazon continues to refer to their flywheel, which is about improving the customer experience by having more selection and more sellers, which lowers cost, all on a fixed-base platform. That flywheel has been a key way to simplify and keep the whole organization on the same vision and mission page. [7:13] Everyone at Amazon has to demonstrate how their programs, proposals, and investments feed into the flywheel. [7:34] As Director of Merchant Integration, John brought in third-party sellers with millions of new items to make the flywheel generate more sales in more areas from more customers. The concept was that by bringing in more selection, the customer experience, over time, is that they can search, discover, and buy anything on Amazon. [8:07] The key design principle for Marketplace was to get the customer to trust a third-party seller as much as they trusted buying from Amazon the retailer. That was a very different model from eBay. From day one, Amazon took full accountability for customer trust. That mandated a special relationship with their sellers. [9:14] Amazon was constrained by their circumstances in the early 2000s. They wanted to build relationships with sellers who were much more stable than Amazon was at that time. [9:40] Headcount was flat at Amazon. John had to ask for headcount from other areas of the business to get a team together to help launch the Marketplace business. That constraint forced John to innovate in ways that they wouldn’t have done with more employees and a bigger budget. [10:00] A lot of third-party sellers said “No,” to Amazon, but a lot of great brands did sign on to have better e-commerce access to the Amazon customer. [10:32] The flywheel started to gain momentum. Four or five years after Amazon launched the Marketplace, Prime membership and the Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) program were created. The triangulation between Marketplace, Prime, and FBA accelerated the growth of the Marketplace business. [11:04] Amazon’s growth and Amazon’s stock price growth mirrors the growth of the Marketplace. Jeff Bezos released a shareholder letter this year graphing how the Marketplace has grown by year. Today, the Marketplace accounts for 58% of all units shipped and sold. [11:32] John believes the opportunity today is bigger than it has ever been. Develop your perspective of how change happens and what your digital e-commerce strategy looks like. The key ingredient is patience. None of this happened overnight. [12:07] The part of Amazon and Jeff Bezos’s story that doesn’t get told enough is how he bet everything on himself by walking away from a great job. He stuck with it when everybody was a naysayer about Amazon. He was always optimizing for long-term enterprise growth based on great customer trust. [12:51] For nine years, the Amazon stock was flat. That includes the four years John was there. As a senior executive, his compensation was tied to the stock growth and he wanted to see better performance. He lost patience and left. He didn’t see the future growth coming. [13:50] Everybody wants good outcomes. What you have control of are the inputs. Think Like Amazon is about the controllable inputs, how to create innovation and how to grow your business. Patience is a required input. [14:02] Idea 1 is “Your Journey Will Not Be Short by Taking the Long Strategic View.” Amazon evaluates many of its programs and investments over an eight-to-ten-year period. They are able to rationalize things that other companies can’t. [14:48] Some of Amazon’s current big initiatives include healthcare and logistics. Those are eight-to-fifteen-year investments. Most companies are not willing to be that patient. [15:14] Jeff Bezos always had it in mind that Books was going to be the first of many categories that Amazon opened. Amazon was always going to be a multi-category retailer. Jeff Bezos was open to finding opportunities. [16:04] PillPack was a nice acquisition for Amazon. It creates custom packets of your medication. It has 50 state pharmaceutical licenses. PillPack thinks things through from the customer’s perspective. That makes it a great alignment with Amazon. Amazon has always been willing to rethink traditions because of the customer perspective. [16:59] Amazon’s innovation approach is called “Start With the Customer and Work Backward.” They have a daisy chain of things they do to help build ideas before they go forward with them. [17:27] You need a big vision for your idea but you need to bring it back to incremental steps with testable hypotheses, minimally viable products, and agile methodology. Don’t confuse thinking big with betting big. Amazon has done things that didn’t work out, but they daisy-chained some concepts from failures into later successes. [18:18] Idea 16 is “Make It Easy.” Friction is everywhere. John cites Pink Floyd: We have grown “comfortably numb” to so many things. Amazon recently released a great feature in Prime Day. The customer can select the day they want their packages delivered. That shows an understanding of customer friction. [19:28] That’s the backbone of innovation. We’re all looking for the big idea, but reducing customer friction and striving for operational excellence are the places where most companies have the opportunity to excel in innovation. [19:46] That represents 80 to 90% of how Amazon innovates - through operational excellence and reducing small points of customer friction. [19:56] Rossman Partners is based in Southern California. John helps enable young disruptive companies to move forward. Ray Hoffman gets advice from John on moving his “young disruptive company” forward. [20:30] John advises companies in a relationship over a long period of time. Often the business concept is successful but the hard part is getting it to scale. You can scale operationally or scale horizontally into new adjacent markets. It’s about narrowing down options and proceeding on a small basis. [21:10] Strategy is about being deliberate. You have to know what to say “Yes” to and what to say “No” to. Many executives forget to say “No.” That takes resources away from being able to say “Yes” effectively to the best ideas that you have. John helps teams set practical strategies and see when to say “Yes” or “No,” and how to proceed. [21:48] “Failing fast” is not about failure but about learning in a very disciplined way - setting and testing hypotheses, “failing” and then adjusting to go forward. That is John’s typical work with teams. [22:13] Idea 20 is “The Two-Pizza Team.” This is how to create small, cross-functional teams that own and obsess over a core capability over a long period of time. It is a mini-business. It helps grow leaders while they focus on a concept and a market over a long period. Their ability to innovate and operate is greatly accelerated. [23:30] A two-pizza team has no more than 10 members so they could be fed with two pizzas. Amazon is full of clever names that they constantly use and refer to. They are masters of strategic communication. Another term Bezos has used for years is ‘Day 1.’ Amazon is a ‘Day 1’ company where today’s business does not define their future. [24:12] Jeff Bezos recently said a ‘Day 2’ company optimizes for today’s business. They can be very successful today but they’re not testing and innovating for tomorrow. They are static in the type of business they are in. [24:45] To avoid being a ‘Day 2’ company: 1.) Don’t manage by proxy. Stay in touch with your customers by having direct customer contact and direct customer metrics. 2.) Pay attention to the megatrends that you may not feel impact your business today. In five or ten years, they present both big opportunities and big threats to your business. [25:24] Amazon is paying a lot of attention to the megatrend of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Depending on your industry, there are probably other big trends today that may sound like they are not for mature businesses. Educate yourself and prepare your company for a pilot or a trial so you are ready when the time is right. [26:10] Amazon wanted to put a second headquarters in New York. Their biggest constraint is being able to attract more world-class talent. They can’t do that at scale in the Seattle market. HQ2 was an effort to act in advance of the situation. They don’t kick big issues down the road. [27:19] How much more bureaucratic has Amazon become since John was there? Becoming a bureaucracy was Jeff Bezos’s biggest concern in John’s day. He doesn’t want to slow down decision-making speed. He doesn’t want to dilute accountability. Relative to scale, Amazon is significantly less bureaucratic than most other companies. [28:28] Amazon is about operational excellence but also about working in the future. The Future Press Release is one of the tools they use to envision the future, announce it to a team and get everybody on board with the vision for the project with a very clear articulation of what the customer experience is going to be and the issues to tackle. [29:14] Amazon gives the accountability for the Future Press Release to one person and everyone in the organization knows that they work for that person to help make that vision happen. It reduces bureaucracy and forces decisions and gives better speed to the organization. [29:57] John thinks there’s more opportunity today than there has ever been, largely thanks to many of the tools, especially Amazon Web Services, that Amazon provides to innovators, inventors, and people who want to try new things. It has never been easier to build a new company or to try a new concept than it is today. [30:17] On-demand services, cloud computing, and access to logistics and data take less time and capital than before. There are lots of great companies coming along that may disrupt Amazon. John doesn’t think it will be one company that will disrupt Amazon. Amazon in all of their businesses has great competition today. [30:48] John doesn’t think Amazon will “fall in love” with their current business to the point where they aren’t actively working to expand it or disrupt it themselves. [31:11] Sears, Roebuck and Co. is an example of an era-based organization that had a tough time adapting to new eras; they stopped reinventing themselves. [31:44] John is an Advisory Board member to companies like Decisiv, Modjoul, and Terbine. He describes these disruptive companies and what he likes about them. [33:53] John considers that these companies can take the long, strategic view. The timescales of venture capital funding are expanding out, while they shoot for bigger market disruption. It’s not just Amazon that is taking the long perspective. [34:20] Idea 50½ is “Principles are Not a Poster.” The ‘half-idea’ is the essence of John’s book. The book is not about Amazon; it’s about real tools and real strategies that you can put to work. [34:52] John doesn’t recommend that you take on 50 ideas. Take two or three. Be patient. Try to make the ideas you choose both a personal habit and a team habit, and see what sort of change they make in how you operate together. [35:09] Everybody wants the outcomes of innovation and growth. It’s about the inputs of hard, everyday, consistent efforts of where you are willing to put in the resources and new habits that you are willing to create. The ‘half’ idea is the challenger question back to the reader: What are you willing to do to get the types of results that you want? [35:31] John Rossman, former Director of Merchant Integration at Amazon.com and today, Managing Partner of Rossman Partners. This is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Amazon John Rossman Amazon Marketplace Target.com NBA.com Jeff Bezos Think Like Amazon: 50 1/2 Ideas to Become a Digital Leader, by John Rossman Oregon State University Arthur Andersen Borders.com (Now Barnes & Noble) eBay D.E. Shaw PillPack Pink Floyd Future Press Release Amazon Web Services Sears, Roebuck and Co. Decisiv Modjoul Terbine Eric Martinez AIG This Is Capitalism

Ray Hoffman introduces the guests for this episode. “Is there such a thing as entrepreneurial love? After visiting Thibault and Lola Manekin, I’m inclined to think there is because in talking to Thibault, Co-Founder of a remarkable property development firm called Seawall, and his wife, Lola, who created a wildly popular space known as Movement Lab, I learned about an entrepreneur’s love for the city of Baltimore, an entrepreneur’s love for teachers and abandoned buildings from the 19th century, and for clients and residents of all shapes, colors, and sizes. I first met Thibault and Lola outside of R. House, which used to be a car dealership in the North Baltimore neighborhood called Remington. Upstairs is Lola’s creation, Movement Lab. Downstairs, on the ground floor, is a kind of food court, Thibault’s creation. But, really, it’s a concept kitchen for 11 up-and-coming local chefs. It’s all quite an entrepreneurial love story.”Listen in to hear more of Thibault’s and Lola’s social entrepreneurism.   Key Takeaways: [:22] Ray Hoffman introduces the guests for this episode of This Is Capitalism.[1:21] Thibault describes the strong entrepreneurial spirit of his wife, Lola. [1:50] Lola immigrated to the United States and started working in restaurants, cleaning houses, and babysitting. Following her vision of success was a slow process. [2:25] Lola’s first memory, growing up in Florianopolis, Brazil, was making bracelets with her cousins and selling them door-to-door. Lola was the middle child in her family. [3:14] Lola came to the U.S. through a program in Florida that brought in immigrant students from around the world for four-month jobs. After her four-month program was over, Lola had finished her college degree in natural therapies, so she decided to stay. She went to massage school in Florida and got licensed to do massages. [3:50] Lola tells how she met Thibault in Brazil when she was visiting her family. Then, they began a long-distance relationship between Baltimore and Florida. Thibault eventually convinced Lola to move to Baltimore. [4:36] Thibault’s first renovation project was Miller’s Court; it is Lola’s favorite. Lola describes how it came to be developed from an old building in a dangerous area into a specialized teachers’ apartment building. It set the pattern for future renovation projects. [5:56] Thibault explains how he got involved in teachers’ housing and how Miller’s Court was created from an abandoned tin-can factory with broken roofs and large rats. [8:55] After Seawall bought the property, they moved quickly to finance it, design it and build it, all in about two years. [9:05] Thibault co-founded Seawall Development with his father in 2006. Thibault says he has a vision of uniting the world and bringing people together. Real estate touches everyone. Thibault wants to fight against the division of communities by real estate and reimagine the power of the built environment to unite cities and launch powerful ideas. [10:56] Thibault’s grandfather and his brother started a real estate company in Baltimore at the end of the Second World War. For them, it was never about the transaction; it was 100% about the relationship. People started to really trust them and ask them to do things way outside their comfort zone. [11:32] Thibault’s grandfather and his brother were two of seven children growing up in a two-bedroom apartment above the grocery store their father ran on the first floor. They believed that if they treated people fairly, at the end of the day it would work out. [11:55] Thibault’s father graduated from college with the intention of going into public education. He first took an internship with his dad in the real estate firm and saw that the business was not about earning money at all costs, but about creating deep relationships and helping companies grow. [12:36] Thibault tells how his father had just retired in 2000 when he was invited to be COO of the Baltimore City School System. After his time in real estate, he realized it was time to pursue his lifelong dream. He committed to working long hours, seven days a week to help kids and education. [14:00] He brought together a competent team of people from different sectors with different experiences that touched the school system in some fashion. They went to work and turned the budget from red to being in the black. His position was a two-year interim position so he hired his own replacement. [15:06] Inspired by his father’s work with teachers, Thibault went into business with him to create centrally-located, affordable housing set aside for teachers new to the area who didn’t know the neighborhoods. They also wanted to find a centralized space for education nonprofits. [16:44] The goal was a 5,000 square-foot building. They renovated a 100,000 square-foot building that was more than they expected. It provided a great space for both teachers and nonprofits. [17:03] Teachers were able to design their own apartments and amenities, and choose their own rent. Based on the rent the teachers said they could afford, Thibault and his father reverse-engineered the project to come up with a budget. The budget turned out to be $6 million, which was $14 million short of costs! [17:48] They figured out how to get the $14 million to be able to provide affordable housing for teachers and nonprofits. [18:19] They created a movement by building from the inside-out - from the teachers and nonprofits to community associations, to a team of guardian angels made of attorneys, accountants, banks, and lenders. They found creative financing solutions that fit the needs with historic building tax credits and city, state, and Federal assistance. [19:55] People were helping this project because it wasn’t a “real estate deal.” Thibault and his father led with their purpose. It wasn’t their idea; it was the idea of the teachers and nonprofits. It was such an easy story to tell. Lenders wanted to get involved. [20:26] Not only did their lenders and team want to bring the first project to life, but they also wanted to be part of so many more of these projects and replicate the model across the country. [20:56] Thibault shares some background to his story. Thibault had graduated college and was in touch with a friend of his in Northern Ireland, Sean Tuohey, who was working in a program to bring Protestant and Catholic children together through basketball. Sean was invited to bring the program to post-apartheid South Africa. [21:24] Sean came home to D.C., and he and his brother helped start a nonprofit, at the time called Playing for Peace, and later called PeacePlayers International. Sean went to Africa and Thibault reached out to him by email. Sean replied he was on his way back to D.C., and they had a three-hour lunch discussing the success of the program. [22:20] Thibault helped raise $3,000 from friends and family and went with Sean to South Africa to help. Thibault worked behind the scenes with Sean to help the idea come to life. Nelson Mandela and his organization were their largest supporters and the floodgates were opened. [23:14] PeacePlayers International replicated the model in the Middle East with Israeli and Palestinian children and in Cyprus with Greek Cypriot children and Turkish Cypriot children. Thibault and Sean were living out of their suitcases all this time. [23:34] At 21 years old, Thibault didn’t have any confidence in himself as a leader. He worked with PeacePlayers for six years and learned a lot about himself, about life, about inspiring people, and leading. This translated into Thibault’s professional life, marriage, and family. [24:20] Thibault and his father started their development business in 2000. They knew there would be risks. They closed financing on their first project, Miller’s Court, three months before Lehman Brothers collapsed. Thibault is confident those three months were the key to succeeding instead of failing to launch their first project. [25:08] Seawall wasn’t interested in leasing space to national credit tenants. They wanted to support small nonprofits and teachers. Thibault compares Seawall’s passion for this first project to the passion of a teenager in love for the first time. They were committed to this idea to help the teachers, and so, the children, of the city. [26:10] Thibault talks about the Union Mill project. Everything Seawall does is driven by the community. After Miller’s Court, they had a waiting list of over 300 teachers and 12 nonprofits. They took a larger team of professionals and helpers and started looking for another building. They were armed with all their experience from the first project. [27:09] They knew instantaneously that the Union Mill building was right, that they could do it, and that it would be the next project. [27:16] Thoughtful and inclusive real estate should be able to bring people together. Thibault talks about the R. House project, which is more than a food hall; it’s a launchpad for Baltimore’s most creative chefs. It was renovated with purpose first. [27:45] The Lexington Market downtown is Seawall’s current project. Thibault says it will be the most significant project they will ever do. The challenge is proving a single building that can really unite an incredibly divided city. It’s about massive job creation. It’s about making the city fall in love with a historic, iconic place that has fallen off the radar. [29:07] As Seawall has really dug in and listened to the communities that surround it, they believe Lexington Market needs to become a place where everybody in Baltimore feels welcomed into in a beautifully diverse way. Thibault describes the project details. It will be the main public market in Baltimore with startups and new diverse vendors. [30:20] Thibault explains the process of deep listening they are doing for Lexington Market. They hold a series of town hall meetings city-wide where they discuss important topics such as crime, safety, the environment, recruiting of vendors, diversity of vendors, support to be given to vendors through implementation, vendor selection, and more. [31:20] Seawall’s vision is to be invisible in the Lexington Market project. It should come together organically, led by the people of Baltimore for the market of Baltimore, in Baltimore’s longest-running, most iconic institution. [31:48] Thibault considers working on Lexington Market to be one of the greatest honors and the most significant project in Baltimore to be brought to the Seawall team to bring to life. Thibault predicts that somewhere else, around the world, they will work on a more significant project in the future. [32:24] If Seawall stays true to their purpose, there is an opportunity to help other developers understand that when you lead with your purpose and when you are a part of creating movements, and when you build everything from the inside out, that so much more is possible. [32:42] Movement Lab is Lola’s business. Thibault discusses the space, the amazing, eclectic people, and the inspiring exercises they do. It is a unique space. [33:51] Lola did a TEDx talk, Taking Movement Beyond. She tells about redefining the conversation around fitness. Instead of thinking about a beach body or a weight loss goal, think about fitness being the consequence of moving. Lola describes the various activities available at Movement Lab. [34:51] Lola is from an island in Brazil and movement has always been important in her life - running, dancing, wakeboarding, and being in nature all the time. When Lola moved to Baltimore, walking a treadmill in a gym was not right for her. [35:16] Then Lola learned of the NIA movement and signed up for training right away. She felt completely at home in her body from the first exercise. In Baltimore, there were no NIA classes being taught, so she started promoting it to gyms, yoga studios, church basements, and offering free demo classes. NIA is dance, martial arts, and yoga, to music. [36:18] Fitness is the consequence of all the movement in NIA. Everybody can do it. All the classes in Movement Lab are classes Lola has taken and enjoyed. People of all ages and sizes do it. There’s a sense of accomplishment when people realize that they can hang upside down in an Antigravity® Hammock and flip out of the hammock. [37:17] Thibault tells when he realized there was a business to build out of NIA and movement. Lola taught classes to one, two, a few, or even nobody as if there were 100 people in the room. When she started getting 100 women in a class, Thibault knew she needed a space of her own. [39:00] They started to find the right space for the studio. Lola was focused on reinventing what movement meant, with alternative forms of movement from around the world. Thibault encouraged her to start with yoga that was familiar and she asked why Thibault didn’t start building Walmarts and strip centers. She embraced her differences. [40:00] Seawall doesn’t use the word development. They are social entrepreneurs that happen to use the built environment to empower communities, unite cities and help to launch really important ideas. They will hire people from any field other than development. They are reimagining the industry. They don’t want real estate baggage. [41:41] Thibault Manekin of Seawall; Lola Manekin of Movement Lab, and the world; This is social capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Seawall Development Movement Lab House City of Baltimore Florianopolis, Brazil Miller’s Court Baltimore City Public Schools Baltimore Urban Debate League Playworks SunTrust USBank Enterprise PeacePlayers International Nelson Mandela Foundation The Union Mill Lexington Market Taking Movement Beyond, Lola Maniken, TEDx NIA Walmart Yoga Martial arts This Is Capitalism

Ray Hoffman introduces his guest Veronica Dagher in the form of a note: “I like your work, Veronica Dagher. I like your Wall Street Journal columns on successful women, your Secrets of Wealthy Women podcasts, as well as your new ebook based on the columns and podcasts. It’s called Resilience, and it offers a lot of lessons in life. And, take it from me, not just lessons for other women. And you and I would both agree, the timing is perfect for the column, the podcast, and the book.”Listen in for fascinating stories of women overcoming challenges.   Key Takeaways: [:20] Ray Hoffman introduces Veronica Dagher. [:53] Veronica says there is a current wealth transfer of about $33 trillion from one generation to the next in America. Women will inherit a lot of that money. Veronica shares stories about wealth, success, and entrepreneurship, featuring some very well-known women in her Wall Street Journal columns and podcasts. [1:10] Maria Sharapova, Josie Natori, and Rebecca Minkoff are a few of the subjects of these stories about how they built their successes and the obstacles they overcame. The book Resilience came after the columns and podcasts. [1:33] All the women in the book Resilience have overcome obstacles such as bankruptcies, difficult divorces, loss of a child, or business difficulties. Some faced people telling them they would never be successful. They didn’t listen to those voices. When they were knocked down, they just got up faster than other folks. [2:31] Veronica’s optimism and faith come from her family background and personal experiences of overcoming the devastating loss of her father and still pushing on. Her mother instilled in her from a young age the desire to be a financially independent woman while relying on people she trusts among family, faith community, and friends. [3:37] Veronica took leave for four months when her mother grew suddenly very sick. Veronica watched her mother face illness and unanswered medical questions, and come back to good health. This experience helped Veronica to grow tougher and more assertive. [4:20] When Veronica’s father passed, they were able to keep the house and lifestyle, with very careful management of their resources. The constant conflict between how her mother managed the budget and how her father had regarded money more casually informs Veronica’s work today in her attention to family dynamics. [5:41] Veronica studied finance in school, with no thought of journalism as a career. It seemed to be a solid choice, given her family background. [6:53] The subjects of Resilience range in age from Ayesha Curry, 29 when interviewed, to Mary Higgins Clark, “90-something.” Veronica shares her ideas on how their age demographic affected the choices of the women interviewed. [7:44] The “entrepreneurial gene” is not found just in America. Josie Natori came to America from the Philippines and is very proud to be an American. The Natori Company is known around the world. She has the attitude that as a woman it is okay to be successful. It’s okay to believe that anything is possible. Don’t limit yourself. [10:03] The Philippines has a huge matriarchal, entrepreneurial culture. Josie Natori was a working mom from the beginning. Josie and her husband worked together and had an agreement that their marriage and family would take precedence over the company. They’ve been married for over 50 years. Their son is taking a big role, now. [11:37] At age 91, Mary Higgins Clark, the Queen of Suspense, is amazing. Veronica taped the podcast with her in the Clark home in New Jersey, and Mary told Veronica she had enjoyed the process immensely. [12:01] Mary Higgins Clark did not have an easy life. Her father had died when she was young. Her first husband died suddenly when she was in her thirties with five children to raise. Her short stories, a popular form of the day, were rejected “something like 50 times.” Editors told her she would never be successful. She didn’t give up. [12:37] Mary Higgins Clark eventually became a best-selling novelist — one of the highest-paid women and highest-paid novelists in U.S. history. She stays very humble. [12:57] Mary Higgins Clark and Veronica Dagher are both Fordham graduates. They had met at a Fordham event several years ago and Veronica had asked Mary for writing advice. Mary shared that at one point the family was almost on food stamps. She needed to write for money. Obviously, that worked out. [13:46] When Mary Higgins Clark had first submitted a short story to Cosmopolitan Magazine, an editor called it light and trite. Years later, a Cosmopolitan editor called asking for her to write something for them and Mary told her agent, “Tell them yes but make them pay.” [14:14] When Veronica started the podcast, she wrote names of women to interview. Oprah topped the list, but that one hasn’t happened yet. Maria Bartiromo was taped “today.” Maria Sharapova was on in the fall. Bobbi Brown was another name on the list. [14:58] Using a Google Docs spreadsheet, Veronica had put together her list of dream people for the podcast and the people she knew who could connect her to them. She did a lot of pitching people trying to make connections and attended a lot of events to introduce herself to people. [15:36] Veronica is still going to events, tracking people down and trying to meet them but now she is getting a lot of high-quality incoming pitches from big names. [16:00] The common thread between the millennial entrepreneurs and the older entrepreneurs is the resilience. The younger entrepreneurs see opportunity everywhere. They are not limiting themselves to one sector or area of business. For example, Ayesha Curry is into cookware, media, and other ventures. She leveraged her network. [17:49] Ayesha Curry faced the criticism of having opportunities through her husband. Other women Veronica interviewed also faced criticism because of the advantages of their family circumstances. Yes, certain doors were opened, but they had to walk through the doors, to follow up, and to build the companies and brands they have. [18:41] Loreen Arbus is the daughter of the founder of ABC. She is a philanthropist, a programming executive, and she has her own production company. She does so much, and she didn’t have to do any of it for the money. She works for the sake of work. [19:13] The first daughter of Loreen’s father, Leonard Goldenson was born with cerebral palsy. In those days, the family was turned away from hotels and restaurants because of her disability. This was an important influence in Loreen’s advocacy for people with disabilities. Loreen helps people with disabilities to become successful in media. [20:09] Loreen deliberately changed her last name as a young teenager to avoid riding on her father’s coattails. Veronica was at a party at Loreen’s NYC apartment recently and it is incredible in its decoration and style. Loreen is not afraid to take risks. [20:55] Barbara Bradley Baekgaard of Vera Bradley told Veronica she wasn’t very good at math and didn’t have an MBA, but she and her friend had an idea for cute luggage. They borrowed $500 from their husbands, bought some fabric, and hired some people to sew the bags. They knew nothing of marketing or finance. [21:50] They learned everything they needed from SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), which is a huge resource for entrepreneurs who want to learn. [22:14] An unexpected lesson for Veronica in her interviewing came from Bonnie St. John, an Olympic athlete with a disability, who had suffered childhood abuse. Bonnie said that, as a child, you have a lot of people around you who push you. Her success, as an adult, has been from seeking out people who helped push her to the next level. [23:17] Veronica thinks that lesson, to seek out people who are going to challenge you and push you to the next level, is really important for entrepreneurs and for women in business. [23:31] Many of the interviews in Resilience touch on work-life balance and being a working mother. Katia Beauchamp, co-founder of Birchbox told Veronica the whole idea of work-life balance is a myth. You’re never going to feel fully in balance. The best scenario is that you love what you do at work and you love your home life. [24:11] Katia Beauchamp told Veronica that there are certain times when a mother is going to have to focus on her career more than on her home life. As a mom, you don’t have to be perfect all the time. No one is perfect. Just do your best and focus on the good that you are doing and the things you are doing right. [24:44] Kate White would leave her office at Cosmopolitan at 5:00 p.m. and have the babysitter make dinner while she spent time with her children. After dinner and more time with the children, she went back to her office. [25:01] Veronica knows a lot of women today who are logging back on after they put the children to bed. It’s not the ideal situation, but there are times when the work has to get done. It’s a way to work things out. Hopefully, the boss understands that you need to leave sometimes at 5:00 for the soccer game or whatever. [25:40] Veronica has learned not to be afraid to ask for what you want. The stories in her interviews have reinforced that principle for her. It’s not always easy to tell people what your expectations are. There is a way to do it that suits you as a person, even if there is pushback. You’re never going to get what you don’t ask for. [26:31] Next for Veronica is a video series, more on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, a lot more of the Secrets of Wealthy Women podcasts, and hopefully, branching out into more stories on women in finance and the workplace. [26:56] You can download Veronica Dagher’s ebook, Resilience, at WSJ.com. This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Veronica Dagher The Wall Street Journal WSJ Secrets of Wealthy Women Resilience, by Veronica Dagher Maria Sharapova Josie Natori Rebecca Minkoff Ayesha Curry Mary Higgins Clark The Natori Company Fordham University Oprah Maria Bartiromo Bobbi Brown Google Docs Stephen Curry Loreen Arbus ABC Leonard Goldenson Vera Bradley Handbags SCORE Bonnie St. John Katia Beauchamp Birchbox Kate White Veronica Dagher on Instagram Veronica Dagher on Twitter Snapchat This Is Capitalism

Tom Stewart is Executive Director for the National Center for the Middle Market, which is part of the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. It’s the leading source of information and research on the companies whose output accounts for one-third of the private sector in the U.S., the middle third of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. These are firms that have grown out of being small businesses but with their revenues running between $10 million and $1 billion a year, they’re still a long way from being in the Fortune 500. And no one shines a brighter light on the middle market companies than the National Center’s Tom Stewart, “Mr. In-Between.”   Key Takeaways: [:20] Ray Hoffman introduces Tom Stewart. [1:15] Tom Stewart defines the middle market as companies with annual sales between $10 million and $1 billion. These range from the largest of small businesses to companies that start to resemble the Fortune 500. There are some interesting transitions along the way as companies grow. [2:21] The National Center for the Middle Market considers these companies in three different revenue groups: Between $10 and $50 million, between $50 and $100 million, and between $100 million and $1 billion. [2:41] Somewhere around $50 million in revenue, companies begin to need to create functions. They can no longer make do with the accountant at the accounting firm that they use; they need a Chief Financial Officer. They need a person to be in charge of HR. [3:16] At a little over $100 million in revenue, the functions get deeper with more expertise in HR beyond a couple of generalists doing payroll and job descriptions. The same goes for finance and other functions. Along the way, you are likely to get more P&Ls. You get functionalization and divisionalization. [4:06] They may begin to think about international expansion and what that means in terms of the skills and capabilities they will need to enter those markets. [4:20] Since the center started in 2011, they started with these three logical revenue differentiations. Over time, it has become evident that the differentiations roughly correspond to major inflection points in a business. [5:04] Within the group of roughly 200,000 middle market companies, only about 15% are public. 85% of middle-market companies are private. About a third of the 85% are family businesses; about a third have private equity investment; about a third are “other,” which may be sole proprietorships, partnerships, or closely-held corporations. [5:55] 65% of family business owners expect to pass the business to their children; only about 30% pass the business to their children. The next generation is down to about 12%. Family businesses often cease to be family businesses. They may get sold. [6:34] The median age of middle market companies is 31 years. There are transitions that occur as they grow and age. [7:03] During the financial crisis, middle market companies were much more likely to survive than small businesses. The vast majority of middle market businesses that survived actually added jobs while big companies were cutting. [7:30] 60% of net new job growth in the U.S. is in middle market companies. They are the forgotten middle child of job creation. It’s a mostly untold story of capitalist success because they are not found making moves in the stock market. [9:01] Most businesses die within six years of their founding. [9:30] Every three months, the center sends out a survey to middle-market companies in all industries, in all parts of the country. They get 1,000 responses. The questions are about top-line and bottom line, revenue growth, employment growth, investment plans, investment results, and biggest challenges. The center has eight years of data. [10:11] The center recently took data from five years (20,000 company surveys) and did a factor analysis and a Bayesian statistical analysis. They were able to identify the key factors that drive growth for these companies. They created a cluster analysis for types of growth coming from various factors. [10:54] The center created ‘portraits’ of the styles of growth of these successful middle market companies, based on the decisions the companies make or the paths they follow. [11:20] The beginning of the National Center for the Middle Market came from GE Capital coming out of the financial crisis with a lot of interest in the middle market. As there are only 500 Fortune 500 customers, many financial services companies wish to work with the potentially lucrative middle market. [11:44] GE Capital approached a number of business schools, including Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University to do a study of the middle market. Fisher replied, “We see you, and raise you. Anybody can do a study, but why don’t we actually create a research center so that there’s an ongoing stream of studies?” [12:08] GE sold off most of its Capital division, starting about four years ago. Now the center is sponsored by Cisco Systems, GrantThornton, and Chubb Insurance. The center works with outside organizations like Brookings. [12:27] Middle market companies have ‘big-company’ problems and ‘small-company’ resources. Finding the ‘stuff’ that really helps them address their challenges is one of the most important contributions the center makes. [12:48] Tom Stewart talks of his background working with large companies. When he moved to the National Center for the Middle Market, he discovered an extraordinary universe with some of the most interesting companies with interesting challenges. Middle market companies generally outperform S&P 500 companies by up to 2%. [15:00] Some companies move up in the middle market. Tom calls them the ‘graduating classes.’ [15:14] Tom Stewart and Ralph Greco reported on a study about if companies are keeping up with digitalization or falling behind. Getting up-to-speed is time-consuming. Tom shares the percentages of digital spending, past and predicted. There are four types of companies: strategic, advanced, defensive, and deniers. Strategic is best. [17:51] In the 4th Quarter of 2018, 71% of middle market companies were planning to invest, with a large percentage of investments going toward IT. Cybersecurity is the biggest technology priority for many of them. Companies that prioritize cybersecurity for customer data grow faster than those that do not. [20:08] People are now distinguishing between three things: digitization from legacy data on paper, digitalization of the whole business process, and digital transformation in which you think of the whole business as being digital, first. More companies are moving from one level to the next, connecting the dots to arrive at digital transformation. [21:48] As executive teams age, they sometimes may also be more interested in harvesting than in planting. That’s when private equity investors start coming in to grow them. [22:46] Middle market companies that are using technology as a cornerstone grew at an average 10% rate in 2018. The ‘laggards’ who haven’t connected the dots grew only at a 6% rate. As the years pass, growth rates and the advantages of the technology will compound for the forward companies. Tom gives examples of high-tech companies. [24:14] Tom reflects that before he started with the center he was unaware of the landscape of middle market companies that opened before him. He says policymakers don’t understand and are not being told the stories of middle market companies. [25:15] 47% of mid-size companies report that the lack of talent is restraining their growth. Google doesn’t have a shortage of job applicants. Everybody knows about Google. There are some extraordinary opportunities in mid-market companies and that story needs to be told so the talent can find the opportunities in these companies. [25:38] Varidesk furniture, every sports team, craft brewers, and more are all found in the middle market sector. [26:29] Tom looks forward to more interactions between companies to use tools, create knowledge, and share knowledge. The center can provide academic rigor but also an opportunity for people to share and talk. Tom wants to see more talking about the data while continuing to create a body of knowledge about middle market companies. [28:01] Tom wants to apply this body of knowledge to help these companies perform even better. Tom’s third hope is for more connections with policymakers, on one hand, and the global community of middle market companies, on the other hand. [28:57] The core work of prosperity in communities and cities is helping the companies that are already there to grow. Part of that is identifying the middle market companies. Public investment is needed there to help everybody living in those communities. [29:28] This is Capitalism, with “Mr. In-Between,” Tom Stewart.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Thomas A. Stewart Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University Fortune 500 Bayesian Analysis Cluster Analysis GE Capital Cisco Systems GrantThornton Chubb Insurance Brookings Booz & Company (now Strategy&) Harvard Business Review Fortune S&P 500 How Digital Are You? A conversation with Thomas A. Stewart and Ralph Greco, on YouTube 5G GPS Lyft Uber US Small Business Administration (SBA) K Street Varidesk Germany's Mittelstand This Is Capitalism

Darrah Brustein asks a lot of good, pointed questions of herself as well as others. In part because of the questions she has asked herself since graduation from Emory University in 2006, she has gone from the fashion world to building a payment processing system for merchants, to event planner and networking guru, children’s book author and advocate for teaching young people about personal finance, and now, co-host of a video series with Deepak Chopra, Diving Deep with Deepak and Darrah.   Key Takeaways: [:23] Ray Hoffman introduces the guest, Darrah Brustein. [1:00] Darrah began at about eight years old on her path to become an entrepreneur. It started with crafting jewelry, then selling candy bars, and then partnering with her brother to sell wrapping paper for a school fundraiser. She is in business with her brother still; they work great as partners but they are not great friends! [3:25] Darrah double-majored in Religion and Italian at Emory University. Darrah believes you can understand people and what makes them tick by learning what they believe. She tells how her own early conversion experience led her to want to learn more. A holistic view of the world’s religions has helped her to “get” people. [4:36] Darrah decided to major in Italian, being one of the three fashion languages after French and English, which she already knew, to launch a career in fashion. She did start in fashion but never needed Italian. In her liberal arts education, she learned to expand her mindset. She studied abroad for one summer in Italy. [6:12] Now Darrah spends about 60% of her time traveling for pleasure, and she works wherever she is. Her first job out of college was as a sales rep for a Los Angeles-based wholesale jean company while she was in Atlanta. She covered seven Southeast states working with boutiques and department stores in her territory. She beat her sales goals. [7:23] The company went under about a week before Christmas in 2007 and Darrah lost her job. She had bought a home three months earlier. Darrah next tried different things for work, and got laid off or downsized several more times, in the thick of the economic recession. Her inner voice kept guiding her to owning her own business. [9:03] Darrah started a credit card processing company with her twin brother, Garrett. Garrett had been researching the merchant services industry and found an unrepresented contingent of brokerage models he could apply to the credit card processing industry. Darrah’s first reaction was, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” [10:14] Darrah didn’t have any other ideas what to do, so she flew to San Diego to work with Garrett. Garrett had already gotten started with a small team. Darrah shadowed them and looked for problems in the business plan. After a week, she flew back to Atlanta and connected with as many of her former clients as she could. [10:43] Darrah asked her former clients about their current payment systems and what it would take for them to switch. She kept hearing the same story. The merchants had been sold a “bill of goods” with costs that were different from what they had expected. They would switch to a provider with honesty and transparency. [11:12] Darrah had not been initially enthusiastic about this service of credit card processing but she could get really excited about the way in which she could interact with and help these small business owners. So, she became really excited about the service. Now, Darrah calls herself the Chief Curiosity Officer of her company. [11:47] Building the business was a lot harder in practice than in theory. Small companies are tied into their merchant services provider by contract. Many of them believe the pitch they were sold by those providers. Darrah almost felt like the Robin Hood of financial services. It took longer than she expected, but over time, it worked. [13:08] Darrah tells how she started Network Under 40 and then Network Over 40. She just wanted to meet the need of a friend and she was already a success at networking. It snowballed to an event a month, and she expanded it to other cities. In eight years they have served over 30,000 people. It’s about building real relationships, not selling. [16:29] Darrah explains how she established “Friends first and then networking.” From the first event, Darrah stacked the room with people she knew would embody that idea. She told them it was not going to be a place where it’s just a business card exchange or the first question is “What do you do?” They were prepared to work the room as friends. [17:03] As it grew, Darrah used ambassadors in a shirt with the event logo and colors and the slogan, “Let’s talk.” They act as event concierges. They set the tone and help keep the culture alive. People engage on a human level before involving their professional life. [18:08] About two years ago, Darrah had an enduring, intuitive feeling that there was a new incarnation of her career on the horizon; she had no idea what it was. It was her job to figure it out. For six months she dug deep and reflected on what it could be that was coming next. She realized that people kept asking her how she lives the life she does. [19:01] Due to the path she had followed, Darrah had the freedom to travel when she liked and work beside high-profile people. Had she followed a traditional “success” path, she would be asking the same questions her friends asked her. She knew her best skill was connecting people to people and to resources. She felt the need to create a blueprint for others. [20:06] She decided to do a virtual summit so anyone with an internet connection would have access to all her peers and mentors who have helped her along this journey. She broke the summit into three categories: 1) What do I want out of my life? 2) How do I build a career or business to include that? 3) How do I develop a support community? [21:18] Darrah organized 45 speakers with 20 hours of content. The summit ran live online over three days and now is available online for purchase. Each category took one day. The speakers were assigned according to their unique talents, ideas, and skill sets. Darrah interviewed half of the presenters; the rest went solo with resources for action. [22:21] Darrah sees her essential self as the exact person she was ten years ago, but some of her characteristics have changed a lot. She went from being reactive and stressed about “résumé virtues” to being more secure and understanding of her intrinsic human value apart from her career and accolades. [23:22] Darrah explains why she is proudest of her emotional journey and how she can use her vulnerability to help others learn they are not alone, wherever they are in their journey. Close to 10,000 attended the virtual summit. [24:18] Darrah releases a weekly conversation with Deepak Chopra. Darrah says that Deepak Chopra was not chasing a fortune. It came as a secondary component to utilizing his gifts in service to the world while having fun and feeling joyful. In the same way, Network Under 40 was Darrah doing what she loved. Money was a by-product. [25:34] Darrah suggests that when you can understand your unique gifts and skills, and with whom you empathize enough to help them on their way from A to B, that is a melding of who you are as a spiritual being with how you can grow something in a capitalistic way. [26:00] Darrah talks about the shared insights between entrepreneurism and team sports that she observes from her many celebrity interviews. Founders are not lone wolves. The people around you make you a success. [26:57] Darrah wrote Money-Making Sunny after watching the market collapse and seeing how much debt her high-earning friends had accrued. She saw a global epidemic of financial ignorance. Darrah’s parents had taught her very early about money, investing, compound interest, and giving back. She wanted to help others. [28:33] Darrah saw very little children’s literature on financial responsibility. Parents weren’t successfully teaching financial literacy to their children on their own. So Darrah used her writing talent to create a story that includes an appendix of resources for parents to use for teaching. [29:51] There is a downloadable picture to color on the website FinanceWhizKids.com. Parents send her videos and images that show how their children are finding excitement around financial responsibility. They are learning it doesn’t just pop out of an ATM. There are consequences with money. Demonstrate them for your children. [31:37] Darrah’s plan is to let life unfold as it should, following her instincts and seeing where doors are opening. In 2018 Darrah had no goal to do a video show with Deepak Chopra. But then it presented itself, and Darrah is so grateful that it has happened. [32:51] Darrah had assembled a wish list of mentors and people she admired for their expertise that she wanted in the summit. For many of them, she was a student of their work from afar. Deepak Chopra was one of them. Darrah connected with his publicists and shared the vision of the summit but they were on the fence about it. [33:36] Darrah had a hidden connection. She reached out to a friend, who was also Deepak Chopra’s COO. Within hours, she had an invitation to interview Deepak in New York the following week. It was an incredible opportunity and experience. [34:31] Three months later, Chase Bank had hired Darrah to be an onsite correspondent for their Atlanta conference at which Deepak Chopra and Cam Newton were speaking. So she met Cam Newton and had a delightful second interaction with Deepak Chopra. [34:48] This led to two additional interviews of Deepak, arranged by his publicists. Darrah later sent him an email thanking him and offering her cheerleading support for whatever he needed in 2019. That led to the video series. Darrah never engineered the circumstance to happen, it just unfolded naturally from her generosity and work. [36:04] This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Darrah Brustein Emory University Diving Deep with Deepak and Darrah Equitable Payments Network Under 40 Network Over 40 Inc Magazine Dale Carnegie Life by Design, Not by Default Virtual Summit World Economic Forum in Davos TED The U.N. Deepak Chopra Adam Grant Robert Herjavec Shaquille O’Neal Forbes Gary Player Cam Newton Bobby Brown Money-Making Sunny: Finance Whiz Kids: Book #1, by Darrah Brustein FinanceWhizKids.com This Is Capitalism

Charles Morgan is a lot of fun to be around and to learn from. He learned about business first from working with his father, starting when he was a little boy. As IBM’s top systems engineer for the entire state of Arkansas, Charles sold Sam Walton his first IBM System 360 Mainframe, which allowed Walmart to take off. He’s a pioneer of big data, having built one of the first companies in the industry, Acxiom Corp. And now, at a time when most of his contemporaries are retired, he’s having fun being a very hands-on CEO at First Orion, whose Privacy Star app is blocking literally billions of scam calls. But then, he has also driven the 24-hours at Daytona, and at most of the other major tracks around the U.S., too. He has the X-rays to show for it.   Key Takeaways: [:25] Ray Hoffman introduces the guest, Charles Morgan, First Orion CEO. [1:30] What shaped Charles and gave him the confidence to take on the risk that allows the reward in capitalism? Charles credits the DNA he inherited from his father and grandfather. He says a family history of starting businesses helps. He wasn’t afraid of entrepreneurism and worked in the family business. [2:32] Charles doesn’t think it was courage that drove him but just the understanding that entrepreneurism is what he ought to do. [2:39] Charles sees capitalism as the freedom to pursue your own talent and interests in a business sense that allows you to be all you can be for yourself, for your creative side, and for your family. That is also, for Charles, the essence of the joy of life. [3:09] Charles would not do well in a controlled environment with little or no self-direction. [3:30] Why is Charles, at age 76, still heavily involved as a CEO? He says his wife is pleased that she is free to do lunch with whomever she wants, as Charles is at work! [4:18] Charles is a geek at heart and loves problem-solving. His enjoyment in racing comes from the technical problem-solving of getting a car setup right. Charles has designed some race cars. [4:39] Charles likes people problem-solving and business problem-solving; coming up with a really good organizational strategy can be an exciting thing. Innovation, producing results for the customer, and putting the right person in charge of each area, are important for small companies like First Orion or large companies like Acxiom. [5:09] Business is and always has been a ‘people game.’ [5:12] Charles still loves technical problems. He is still programming prototype software for the solutions First Orion offers. Charles wakes up at 5:00 a.m. and goes to his computer to work on the current problem for an uninterrupted couple of hours. Then he goes to work at 9:00 a.m. [5:57] Charles says we all decide what to do with our lives. He believes retirement is the freedom to be able to get up every day and do what you love to do. Everybody’s job ought to be retirement every day, from the age of 21 on. [6:32] In Charles’s first book, Matters of Life and Data, he said his businessman father understood reward but not risk. His father had the vision for opportunities but did not understand how to make them happen —  how to get the right people doing the right things, and where to take the right risks. He didn’t achieve the level of focus he needed. [7:23] In his father’s hardware business, he diverged from hardware to wood doors and frames, aluminum windows, and plywood. He tried to be all things to all people. He didn’t have the discipline to decide how his business would grow and where he would get the resources to grow it. It was helter-skelter. [7:59] His father knew the reward he wanted was a successful business but he couldn’t organize it very well. [8:16] At age 17, at the direction of his father, Charles took a truck and drove his 15-year-old brother from Fort Smith to the Andersen Window factory in Philadelphia for Charles to pick up a load of windows and pitch to the Andersen brothers an improvement on their window design. His father had sent a letter to Andersen about it.[9:44] The Andersen brothers had a conference room prepared for them, with the company engineers ready to hear his presentation. Charles explained it to them and they were very interested to see if they could incorporate the idea into their windows. [10:12] That night, Charles and his brother headed on a train to New York City for two plays their father had bought tickets for them to see. They picked up the tickets at will-call. After two nights in New York, they took the train back to Philadelphia and drove back to Fort Smith with their window order. [10:52] In 1966, Charles started his first career job at IBM. He was made the top systems engineer for IBM for Arkansas. [10:59] In Charles’s book, What Now?, he recalls a lesson he learned early on from a senior IBM executive. He was told never to burn bridges with someone at work, whether it’s a poor employee or a bad boss. Respect them as human beings. Circumstances change and you may work together again. Decades later, that advice still serves. [12:05] Charles made his first investment in First Orion/ PrivacyStar when a representative presented it to him as a concept of putting software into the switching systems of telecoms’ networks to allow individual customers of the telecom to block numbers that they didn’t want to call them. [12:43] The obstacle ahead of them was that the telecoms weren’t interested in granting network access to outside software engineers. So that idea didn’t work. [12:56] The idea came at a time when Charles expected he would be leaving Acxiom and he was looking for something “to dabble with.” Charles moved to Dallas and invested in First Orion with $1 million with Jeff Stalnaker, the COO. At first, Charles was not expecting to become extremely involved with the investment. [13:44] Charles talks about how he left Acxiom, as the face of the company. He had been getting tired of the process of running a company of that size and new regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, added to the burden. A large investor, Jeff Ubben, brought a proxy battle, then joined the board and started trying to oust Charles. [15:58] Charles was tired of the conflict. He invested in First Orion to get his mind off the struggle on the board at Acxiom. [16:24] Going into First Orion/ PrivacyStar, Charles didn’t keep in his mind how long it took and how difficult it was to build up Acxiom. But he did remember some of the things that didn’t work, so he was able to avoid some of the early mistakes. [17:27] As the most dominant company in the direct marketing industry, Acxiom got a little cocky at the influence they had. As CEO, Charles could call on executives at any level and knew all the senior guys at major corporations. His son tells him, “You were kind of a big deal!” [17:50] Charles wrote in his first book, “A good entrepreneur knows what he doesn’t know.” At the beginning of his involvement with First Orion, Charles didn’t know the telecom industry, nor did he know how little the man dragging him into it knew about the telecom industry; most of his claimed knowledge was actually stuff he’d made up. [18:28] Charles asked his friend, Bill Connor, to meet with the man from First Orion. The meeting didn’t happen until after Charles had put in the $1 million. Bill told him “Well, I hope you’re successful,” but didn’t say what he thought — that the man was a fraud — until Charles cut off the relationship with the man. [19:31] Charles wrote in his book that “We had no idea of the vastness, the complicatedness, the downright convolutedness of the systems that we were stepping into.” Charles says the networks pre-date IT. There is layer upon layer of technology that all has to work together. Somehow, phone calls get through. [20:25] First Orion has had to integrate their technology into those networks, thanks only to a bunch of amazing people. The systems, to this day, are very complicated. First Orion interrogates every single phone call to every user of T-Mobile today, to see all its characteristics, to try to figure out if it’s a scam call. It’s a complicated process. [21:19] Today, PrivacyStar is able to block or identify about 90% of scam calls. If you used to get 30 scam calls a week, that cuts it down to three scam calls. They’re heading to cutting it down to one or fewer a week. They are covering 62 million customers and they see every call that is made to them. [22:08] There is about 2K of data for each incoming call. This includes where it came from, where it’s going, and the routing that gets it there, the equipment that sent it, and other characteristics of the call. [22:28] PrivacyStar does not get involved in the voice call itself, and they are careful not to transmit outside of the network the call is being made to, to protect personal information. The only data they take outside the network is not identifiable to the person receiving the call. [22:53] In ten years, First Orion has come a long way. Eighteen months after Charles’s initial $1 million investment, the company was out of money. Charles had a big decision to make. His gut told him to put more money into it. His worst-case scenario told him he could lose another few million and it would not impact his lifestyle significantly. [23:53] Charles doesn’t make decisions out of fear, or because he has to. He says people make terrible decisions at times of dissolution of marriage or bankruptcy or another financial nightmare. People should not make decisions at the time of trouble. [24:25] Charles made the decision that he believed in First Orion for the long-term. The idea was adapted to mobile technology instead of the originally planned wire-line network software. [24:38] In 2000, Charles started getting excited about mobile technology. In 2009-2010 Charles realized that this little computer you put in your hand was going to change the world. They started with a Blackberry app and realized there would be a lot more mobile devices. [25:19] A successful entrepreneur or executive needs to be inspired by dealing with multiple difficult issues. If problems worry you to death, you probably ought to be doing something else. When Charles sleeps, he does not want to lay awake worrying. [25:53] Don’t sit and mope about something — do something about it! Sometimes it’s better to do something, even if it’s wrong. You can’t be frozen by indecision. Take action to move toward a solution. Hit problems head-on. [26:37] A good entrepreneur has got to move quickly — measuredly but quickly. [26:56] Charles describes how he went from observing to taking over the company. It came down to the decision to either stop putting money into it to lose or to take over with a plan to turn the company around. He planned for First Orion to make a profit by December of 2013, and they did it. [28:19] You can’t direct that kind of change from over the fence. [28:24] It was a problem for Charles to win over the non-believers at the company. Charles came up with a very specific plan with the detailed changes he was going to make in how they organize and approach things. He declared he would take on the task cut their IT cost in half. He delegated other problems at the company to other staff. [29:19] Charles cut the IT cost by more than half, trading pay cuts for stock options. He wants everybody to be a partner and not an employee. Putting stock in their hands with options does that. [29:39] You can’t just have good technology. You can’t just have good people. You need good products, good service, and other things. For a small company, these are even more important. [29:51] Charles is audacious, meeting with senior people like he has a right to have a relationship with them. In the early days at Acxiom, Charles took it on himself as a challenge to meet with senior people at Citi. He kept pushing the relationship higher and higher to the head of the credit card department. The relationship is important. [31:27] Now, First Orion’s service is important to the senior-most people at T-Mobile and the carriers. So they are getting the same kind of relationship with them. John Legere, T-Mobile CEO, knows very well who First Orion is and has some dialog with First Orion President, Jeff Stalnaker. There is regular communication with top executives. [32:00] First Orion first thought they were providing a service. Now they see themselves as a data analytics company, using data analytics to make the phone experience better. Charles compares the services of Acxiom and First Orion. It’s all about the data. [33:26] First Orion uses a massive AWS footprint to do a lot of analytics. They use software in the network that takes the AWS data and builds a knowledge base to compare each phone call against. They do this comparison about 175 million times a day. They send the results of the comparisons back into AWS to update the analytics. [34:24] They update the analytics every six minutes. It is very challenging to stay ahead of the scammers. The carriers themselves built into the system, for their own reasons, the ability to obscure the source of a call. This was before scam calls were common. [35:42] First Orion has 50 people continually iterating the software. It can never stop. [36:02] Scammers today are sending texts and emails with a scam fraud alert phone number for the recipient to call and get scammed. People fall for it in amazing numbers. [36:29] First Orion has blocked or tagged 10 billion calls. The savings to the customers at T-Mobile is now in the billions of dollars. [37:08] Charles talks about how he recruited some of the early employees to Acxiom, telling them they would have fun and he would do everything he could to make sure they became millionaires. [37:24] A lot of the reward Charles got between Acxiom and First Orion is being able to help people out. Acxiom made quite a few millionaires. At First Orion, Charles has given out 25% of the company as stock options to the employees. Stockholders will make a lot of money if First Orion is successful. [38:01] First Orion is looking to monetize. They are generating good cash flow. Charles would like to start buying people’s stock back from them and allow them to monetize significant numbers of dollars and not have to wait until the company is sold. Charles does not really want to run a public company again. [38:38] What is it about Arkansas water or the soil that has nourished a disproportionate number of very successful entrepreneurs, including the Fords, the Waltons, the Stephens, the Tysons, the Dillards, the Murphys, and the Morgans? Charles used the working title “It’s in the Water” for his book, Now What? as he was fascinated by that. [39:12] Charles did research the topic and interviewed some of the big names. There is something about the culture of Arkansas that allows success to happen. Charles doesn’t want to preview his next book, but that will be in it! [39:54] Charles Morgan is capitalism, and This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Charles Morgan IBM Sam Walton Walmart Acxiom First Orion PrivacyStar App for iPhone PrivacyStar App for Android 24 Hours at Daytona Matters of Life and Data: The Remarkable Journey of a Big Data Visionary Whose Work Impacted Millions (Including You), by Charles D. Morgan Andersen Windows Now What? The Biography Of A (Finally) Successful Startup, by Charles D. Morgan Jeff Stalnaker Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Jeff Ubben Bill Dillard T-Mobile Citi John Legere Amazon AWS Companies based in or started in Arkansas This Is Capitalism

There aren’t many 32-year-olds in any profession who have assumed the kind of leadership role that Stacy Lewis has in the world of professional golf. Not only by her 12 LPGA tournament wins so far, including two majors, or the fact that she was the first American woman in more than 20 years to win the LPGA Triple Crown — no, there’s more to it. Because a girl who grew up in a back brace, as she did, would not be a prime candidate to turn pro, let alone become number one in the world. She has stepped into controversy — less as a disruptor and more as a leader. She has inspired change and driven change. The companies she represents as a brand ambassador, such as KPMG, Marathon Petroleum, and now, Stephens, Inc., know to turn to her for much more than just club selection and putting tips.   Key Takeaways: [:19] Ray Hoffman introduces the guest, Stacy Lewis. [1:15] Stacy has a degree in Finance and Accounting from the University of Arkansas. This is a good qualification for talking about the business of being a professional golfer. [1:28] Stacy had planned to get a regular job after school and not play professional golf. [1:40] Ray lists some of Stacy’s many college golf awards that pointed her toward success as a professional golfer. [1:54] Before college, academics was her focus. In the last couple of years of college, she started considering a professional golf path. [2:13] How does Stacy apply her finance and accounting knowledge? It feels like her own little business. She talks about hiring, firing, and payroll, and accounting. Her classes prepared her for it. She pays another person to do her taxes. [2:55] Stacy is CEO of Stacy Lewis. She runs her business on an Excel spreadsheet. [3:19] Professional golfers are independent contractors. Stacy explains what that means. No one else is making decisions for you. A lot of people are not prepared for that. There’s a lot of pressure to play well because you have a lot of people to pay before you get the money, especially if you have no sponsorships. [4:28] In college, Stacy did not know how much of a team she would need to employ as a professional golfer. She keeps her team really small. She wants people she trusts to tell her if she needs to change anything. She has a caddy, a swing coach, a trainer, an agent, a financial adviser, and an accountant. Plus her husband and her parents. [5:50] Stacy contrasts the PGA and LPGA purse payouts. Stacy does not ever see the purses being equal in the twenty or thirty years she has left in her career. She expects the gap to get smaller. For now, women are making about a third of what men make. Today, women can make a living out of playing professional golf, more than before. [7:23] Women tennis players have reached parity with men players. Venus Williams was a driver of that. It helped that men and women play at the same courts at the same time. It would take bringing the PGA and LPGA together to the same course to create change like that. The European Tour and the LPGA met at the Vic Open in Australia. It’s progress. [9:15] What would it take to make a joint PGA/LPGA tour? A lot of money is needed to make the two purses equal. [9:56] A smaller number of golfers from each organization would probably play, for a smaller purse. PGA players and audiences are sometimes surprised by the level of play in the LPGA. [10:38] LPGA play is more relatable for the average male amateur player who does not drive as far as a PGA player. There is more finesse to the women’s game and more feel in the wedges and putter. [11:10] Stacy would like to see a joint tournament at a Links course in Scotland, but it could be done anywhere. The biggest issue would be the course setup with tees. Links Golf is Stacy’s favorite style of golf. [12:11] Stacy had a drought from 2014 to 2017 where she didn’t win a single tournament. In 2017, when she won a $195K purse, she donated the check to Hurricane victims in Houston. The Tuesday before the tournament the thought came to her, and she called her husband to discuss it. He said, “Let’s go win the thing!” It gave her a focus. [13:04] Stacy is a fiery player, but that week she felt calm. She knew the outcome had already been decided and all she had to do was be there for it and enjoy it. It was a surreal week and a surreal experience. It’s been so cool for her to see the impact of that money, helping rebuild houses in Houston for eight families. [13:53] Stacy tells how the donation was made to the St. Bernard Project to distribute the money in Houston for Hurricane Harvey relief. [14:19] Last year, Stacy worked more on motherhood than on golfing. It has completely changed her world. It forces her to be more focused when she practices, and then get home to be with her daughter. Stay played a tournament in January, and her baby came with her, going to daycare while Stacy played. The LPGA Tour has daycare. [15:14] There were four or five babies born to LPGA golfers last year. One of them also will come to a summer tournament. After success on the golf course, Stacy was ready for the challenge of motherhood. She still feels she can play some pretty great golf, coming back from this, as well. [15:43] Stacy Lewis and Phil Mickelson are the principal faces of golf for KPMG. Stacy wears a blue hat, as for every blue hat KPMG sells, they donate five books to children in need as part of their campaign for literacy. [16:17] Written into each KPMG sponsorship contract are things like wearing the logo, which everyone sees, and service days. Stacy and her instructors spend a full day with about 25 women clients invited by KPMG for instruction, playing nine holes, a scramble for fun, and a time to network. Other sponsors may ask for different services. [17:04] There are five to six days a year that Stacy spends in service to KPMG and their clients for their sponsorship. There are also other meet-and-greets, social media posts, videos, and other things behind the scenes. Every sponsorship Stacy has requires at least a couple of service days, so they add up to quite a bit. [17:28] Stacy’s agent is concerned about her time. She cannot take on any more sponsors and have time to play 25 tournaments in a year. [17:50] Logo placement on shirts and hats determines how much they are seen on TV. The front of the hat is the number one location, then right chest, side of the hat, collar, and sleeve. The golf bag is low on the list. Camera angles are important. [18:29] Stacy’s clothing sponsor is Antigua. To start the year, they send her a big box of shirts and update them if needed in the summer. In the fall, they have a new line of colors and designs, so Stacy gets another big box. Antigua does a tremendous amount of work in women’s golf. Stacy has worn Antigua for eight years. [19:16] Stacy recently added Stephens, Inc. as a sponsor! Stephens has a soft spot for Razorback golfers like David Lingmerth and Stacy Lewis. Stacy was excited when Stephens Inc. reached out to her after she had seen the logo on the guys. [19:41] Over the years, Stacy learned that she represents her sponsors wherever she goes. She chooses sponsors that share her values and make sense for her. [20:19] Stacy has invited some of her sponsors to sponsor LPGA tournaments. She likes to push the envelope and increase the purses. Stacy pushed the idea both with KPMG and Marathon. [21:37] Stacy received a phone call from KPMG, her lead sponsor, that her contract would be paid in full during her maternity leave, without playing the full year. Stacy remembers the phone call which she received sitting in the parking lot of Wilshire Country Club in LA. At first, she thought something was wrong. The call left her in tears. [23:02] Most of Stacy’s other sponsors did the same thing, starting a trend. Stacy hopes the trend continues to support women having babies in the future. Lynne Doughtie, CEO of KPMG is passionate about women in the workplace speaking up for causes. She is amazing as one of the first women CEOs in her industry. [23:42] Stacy’s high profile as number one in the world helped create a major precedent in sponsorships. She says she likes to change things! We can always make things better. She even got the maternity policy on the LPGA Tour changed. She wants girls to see that they can have families and play professional golf. [24:24] The travel for the LPGA is harder than PGA travel, even in the last 10 years, with events in Australia, Asia, and Europe. As Stacy gets older, she won’t play as much internationally, with enough events in the U.S. to play a pretty full schedule. [24:57] Stacy has not played the Evian Championship for two years. She told them she would not return until they made changes. They have made changes to the design of the greens. The big change is putting it in July when it is dryer. Stacy is excited to get back there. She feels like it will be a better championship, this year. [26:40] Stacy takes leadership roles easily. It’s who she is. She’s the experienced voice on the tour. KPMG comes to Stacy after their tournament every year for her suggestions on what to do better next time. The LPGA Tour asks her the same questions. She continues to push the envelope. Some things may be out of reach but may work later. [27:44] What one person does Stacy see as someone she wants to emulate as she moves forward? Stacy looks toward Karrie Webb, who is an unbelievable advocate for women on and off the golf course. She does a lot to support Australian girls coming up in golf. [29:06] Stacy would love another dozen tour wins. She feels like she has a second start to her career after the baby. She asks, who knows what the second half has in store? [29:20] Stacy Lewis is a CEO, professional golfer, and leader. This is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Stacy Lewis KPMG Marathon Petroleum University of Arkansas Arkansas All-American Golfer Stacy Lewis at University of Arkansas Dinah Shore Trophy Award Excel LPGA PGA Babe Zaharias Mickey Wright Ben Hogan Jimmy Demaret Venus Williams Vic Open European Tour Golf Links Golf Course St. Bernard Project Hurricane Relief LPGA Tour Daycare Phil Mickelson Antigua Clothing David Lingmerth Wilshire Country Club Lynne Doughtie Evian Championship Karrie Webb This Is Capitalism

For Rosina Samadani, New Year’s Eve — the fireworks, the ball drop, the champagne — came on December 28, 2018. That’s when her company, Oculogica, received FDA approval to market a major tool — a breakthrough algorithmic neurodiagnostic tool for determining whether a person has had a concussion. Oculogica’s EyeBOX® does that by a modern variation on what doctors used to do as a matter of course in head injury cases. The EyeBOX® looks into the patient’s eyes to see how they move. Only, the EyeBOX® can do that and analyze over 100,000 data points in the space of less than four minutes. That’s a breakthrough. And that’s what Rosina Samadani’s company, Oculogica, has done.   Key Takeaways: [:18] Ray Hoffman introduces the guest, Rosina Samadani, CEO of Oculogica. [1:06] There is a dire need for an objective diagnostic. Rosina hopes we are entering a new era in concussion diagnosis. Oculogica sees itself as part of a multi-modal assessment of a concussion. There should be multiple objective assessments that are performed simultaneously to understand your concussion. [1:45] Rosina tells how the FDA informed Oculogica of authorization to market the EyeBOX®. Oculogica’s 950-page submission needed one punctuation change, and then it was officially approved and authorized. [2:27] Oculogica’s EyeBOX® is the only non-invasive, baseline-free aid in diagnosis of concussion. One other test, the ImPACT® Test, is authorized as an aid in diagnosis of concussion but it requires a baseline and is mostly used on sports teams. [2:59] The EyeBOX® can be used in the clinic and emergency room, and it’s a lot faster than the ImPACT® test. [3:06] Rosina discusses what Oculogica has learned about concussion and physicians. Concussions manifest in many different ways. Not every person’s concussion is the same. The symptoms are subjective. Rosina lists symptoms that can mimic other conditions under stressful environments. [4:26] There has not been an objective diagnostic for concussion until now. [4:33] The speed of the test is great. Oculogica wants to get to an even faster test. A test where you don’t need a baseline means that you can’t game the test. Rosina describes how athletes and military personnel have been able to game previous tests to get back into action. EyeBOX®, with no baseline, removes the ability to game the test. [5:22] The idea was developed by Rosina’s sister, Uzma Samadani, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Samadani was looking at cranial nerve palsies, and she correlated eye movements to the cranial nerve palsies of cranial nerve three and cranial nerve six. [6:01] Dr. Samadani knew that these nerves are implicated in a concussion. She had a hypothesis that eye movements correlate to a concussion diagnosis. She did a study to test the hypothesis and it was shown to be correct by the data. [6:18] Before an objective test, the main test was to observe eye movements following a finger. [6:37] Dr. Samadani discovered this connection in 2011 and wrote up patents, did a couple of publications, and licensed the patents into a company that she founded in 2013, Oculogica. Rosina joined the company as CEO in 2015. [7:04] Rosina had always thought she would like to run something and take something to the FDA through the authorization process. She has been a management consultant for a very long time and wanted to get into the work of it. She did not think she would be doing it for a company based on technology that her sister had developed. [7:58] Rosina studied mechanical engineering and earned a doctorate in biomedical engineering. Then, she went to McKinsey & Company for six-and-a-half years, where she worked on engagements for a number of larger companies. [9:42] Rosina talks about the learning experience of spending every single day and weekends working extremely hard for two-and-a-half years on getting the FDA authorization to market EyeBOX®. [10:34] The execution requires you to go to the FDA with a discussion of what you are going to do, and then, go out and do that by a study, finding four to six medical centers that are willing to do this study. You have to design the study. You have to get IRB approval. You have to get your patients enrolled. [11:03] You have to make sure the data is collected in a fully FDA-compliant manner. When you are a small company, everybody is engaged in the process. They had just a handful of people and they all had to make sure it was happening. [11:19] The strategic element came on top of the execution. There is not a definitive diagnosis of concussion, so when you’re setting up a clinical trial, what do you compare it to? That is a separate discussion with the FDA. The clinical reference standard is a full-on set of multiple discussions with the FDA. [11:44] There is an FDA review team for these discussions. Ideally, the team is steady, but people come and go with job changes. Rosina found the FDA to be very reasonable and logical in their requests. Everything they asked for made sense to her. Oculogica was very transparent with the FDA and they saw that and appreciated it. [12:26] How did Rosina come to be CEO of Oculogica? She explains the history. Rosina was helping them look for a CEO. When Uzma offered the position to her, at first, Rosina resisted because of the family relationship. That made Uzma even more sure Rosina was right for the position. They talked seriously for three days before she accepted. [13:43] The full company team is six people, working as a virtual company scattered around the country. There is a Minnesota office that serves three of them. There is a New York office for one. Rosina works from home, and another person works from San Francisco. [14:07] Oculogica found the people where they already were. Three engineers were in Minneapolis and they found other engineers. None of them wanted to move to New York, so they found a clinical operations manager there and an analyst in San Francisco. [14:36] The tools that are available today to help people work virtually are phenomenal. Zoom and Slack are maybe even more efficient than being in the next room. [14:49] Every single day, the company has a Zoom video call. Rosina has asked the team to get on Zoom rather than a phone call whenever they can. Everyone has their own Zoom room. They use Zoom with all of their physicians and partners. Looking at somebody is so different than just being on the phone with them. [15:13] In 2018, Oculogica received the Luis Villalobos Award from the Angel Capital Association for outstanding ingenuity, creativity, and innovation. One of the members of the selection committee said “This is a company that has done everything right. … It is hard not to get excited about Oculogica.” [15:38] Rosina talks about receiving the award, which seems like a lifetime ago. Uzma and Rosina have talked about mistakes they have made. You can make mistakes; they just can’t be fatal mistakes. The mistakes were tiny enough that Oculogica could overcome them. [16:11] Rosina talks about her father, a physician, who told her, when they got the FDA authorization, “The biggest accomplishment is that you have made a difference for patients - that will always be there. This change will not go away.” Oculogica can build from here, making a difference to people. [16:31] Everywhere Rosina goes talking to investors, they know someone who has had a concussion, and this will make a difference. [16:37] Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of disability and the leading cause of death for young adults. Undiagnosed and diagnosed incidences may be as high as 10 million a year in the U.S. [16:55] Almost half of people will incur a brain injury at some point in their life, according to Dr. Uzma Samadani. Every person Rosina talks to knows someone who has had a blow to the head. Rosina and Ray exchange their own stories of blows to the head. It’s so easy to happen. [17:44] 100% of the concussion headlines are about sports. Only 18% of concussions are related to sports. [17:51] Rosina mentions upcoming uses for the EyeBOX® technology. Oculogica will go after elevated intracranial pressure next, Then, they will go after the various subtypes of concussion they are also exploring, and cranial nerve palsies. There are a number of other areas that are of interest to Oculogica and other companies. [18:14] Ray and Rosina discuss pricing. They will get to an accessible price solution to benefit more patients, but it will take time. [18:33] This interview is being held at the Golden Seeds Summit. Golden Seeds had expressed an interest in Oculogica. Rosina recommends that if you are going to pitch to Golden Seeds, be thoroughly prepared and know your market — what you are trying to do, and how you will go to market. [19:04] You need to understand your technology, how your IP lines up against your competitors, your licensing arrangement, the number of people that are affected, and the unmet need. Golden Seeds wants to know everything. They will talk with you and with regulatory folks, physicians, and patients. [19:33] In the end, Oculogica had an investor and a network of related people. Half of the benefit from the arrangement has been having access to Golden Seeds’ network. On the day of this interview, Rosina was meeting with people because of Golden Seeds. Golden Seeds has been very generous. [19:57] Oculogica has been in touch with sports teams and leagues even before they received FDA authorization to market EyeBOX®. Since the authorization, they have had some discussions with major sports leagues and also with some of the team doctors. [20:28] Oculogica did some extensive testing with two high school teams in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin over the course of a season. They did find a false positive rate in kids before the season started. They also found out that concussions get a little worse before they get better. [21:01] You can be tested on the day of a concussion and be a little fuzzy. Three to seven days after the hit, you will get a little worse, before you get better. [21:20] What is planned for Oculogica by January 2024? Rosina anticipates they will have two products dealing with concussions; one with therapeutic implications and one as a portable triage device. There may be a version that is more portable than the one they are planning now, depending on how the technology of phones and tablets progresses. [22:07] The products address a market of over $1 billion. It’s a very large market. [22:16] It’s a very large development! This is capitalism. Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com This Is Capitalism Rosina Samadani, Ph.D. Oculogica/EyeBOX® FDA The ImPACT® Test Uzma Samadani University of Minnesota McKinsey & Company American Public University System (APUS) Institutional Review Board (IRB) Zoom Slack “Oculogica receives Luis Villalobos Award for Innovation", by Marianne Hudson Golden Seeds NFL MLB

They’ve only been business partners since January 2017. When they’re not on the road, usually in two different cities, their homes are about 1,200 miles apart. Yet, Joe Gilliland and Larry Lemons have a knack for finishing each other’s sentences. They share a vision of a somewhat disruptive, more comprehensive approach to sports management. They call their company Anth3m because they and their affiliated firms give voice and management to the longer term of-the-field and off-the-course interests of rising stars such as golfer Austin Cook, and Oakland Raiders tight end, Jared Cook. Too many Cooks? Not in the case of Joe Gilliland, Larry Lemmons, and Anth3m, which is based in Miami Beach.   Key Takeaways: [:18] Ray Hoffman describes Anth3m sports management company and introduces Joe Gilliland and Larry Lemons. [1:15] Joe and Larry explain why Anth3m is based in Miami Beach. Athletes love the beach. It’s easy to get an athlete to come to visit Miami Beach for a meeting or an event. [1:25] Joe and Larry are basically on the road all the time, visiting athletes. They have partners spread out across the country to meet any athlete’s needs at any given time. Larry is in Miami Beach every other month, while Joe is there as little as he can be. [1:56] There are two full-time employees in Anth3m headquarters in Miami Beach. Larry and Joe are primarily on the road meeting people. [2:09] Joe lives in Dallas, Texas. Larry lives in Cleveland, Ohio. [2:20] Joe and Larry always have something new and exciting happening daily. They think outside the box and they want their company to find new and innovative ways to strategically align with their clients and partners. [3:08] Larry explains how he was doing business development for about six years with a couple of athletes. His business partner was his first client. As Larry was developing the model of Anth3m, he knew it was important to find someone who had actual management experience. [3:40] Larry was looking for someone who could bring traditional aspects of management to his athletes in a non-traditional situation. His partners introduced him to Joe. Larry laid out the vision for him and he just got it. They’ve been going ever since. [4:08] Larry has an economics background with JP Morgan Private before branching off on his own. Joe started at UBS and moved to UBS Private Wealth. At the same time, he founded a digital media company in the golf space, with two friends from college. It grew into something far bigger than they had anticipated. [4:43] Joe gives the shortened version of his career. He and his friends created a YouTube video that got 30K views. That led to a second video that got 100K views and it continued. They started getting contracts in the mail to monetize the video and build the platform. [5:09] Joe looked over the contracts and they filed an LLC, looking to make a little bit of money. Golf Digest wanted to do a full series. Callaway Golf called. That led Joe to full-time management representation as well as business development for athletes and consulting on behalf of digital content marketing strategies. [5:49] Larry and Joe were both willing to take on mitigated risk. You have to have an entrepreneurial spirit to launch a business. That was what drew Larry to Joe. They had both built a business from the ground up. [6:08] Larry says you need to understand what it means to go into the trenches and build something that certain people may see as taboo or different. They were taking on an industry that had set ways. You need people who will understand the vision and the struggles you have to go through to get where you want to be. [6:41] Joe illustrates the biggest difference between sports management today and the past by contrasting Michael Jordan, who was untouchable, with Lebron James, who is fully accessible. You feel like you have a personal relationship with him, day in and day out, from everything he’s been putting together. [7:29] The industry has been focused on sponsoring an athlete and getting them as much money as they can in return for as little value as possible. At the end of the day, the sponsorship doesn’t provide value to the company that you work with. [8:07] There is limited space available during the athlete’s performance. You have to find a way to create engagement opportunities for the brand. Today, you need to have a story about the brand’s association with the player and you need to tell the story by way of digital content, social media strategy, and public relations for audience engagement. [8:50] Athletes are not experts on marketing. They don’t understand that on Instagram and Twitter, they are shaping how people see them. Anth3m helps athletes make that communication intentional by matching an athlete’s message with a brand that aligns with their values and products they legitimately use. [10:05] Anth3m is telling authentic stories — the athletes don’t mind doing it and the brands get more out of it. They’re creating lasting, organic partnerships. [10:29] Joe points out that Anth3m is not an agency. They don’t handle player sports contracts or team-related businesses. A lot of times, they align strategically with agencies to help support the players in these other areas. Anth3m is unique in the style of relationship they have within the business development sector. [10:58] Anth3m is partnered with an actual public relations company, with a digital media and social media company, and a strong content creation company called Ideas United. They are partnered with a franchise and business development company, Apex. That is not common in the sports management industry. [11:44] Anth3m’s goal is to help their clients, the athletes, develop their own personal anthem. A lot of athletes have unknown talents they want to use and passions to pursue. The average NFL career is three years. It’s a job, not a career. Anth3m wants athletes, after a long career, to have their sport remembered as a footnote to their lives. [12:51] Anth3m’s goal is not to get athletes to the top but to guide them down into the next phase of their career, as well. It’s a full journey. The athlete is their own personal business. They hire Anth3m, to be the ‘CEO’ of their company. When they retire from their sport, they’ll be ready to step into a role in their business. [13:53] Larry says it’s come a little faster than anticipated. The firm was two years old in January. Both Larry and Joe have been working with athletes for a number of years. [14:25] Joe brings up a client case study, Brice Butler, who has proven himself to be a very capable receiver. What makes him a fit for Anth3m’s model is who he is as a business professional. He is into fashion. Last year at Men’s Fashion Week in Paris, he was voted as one of the top eight best-dressed athletes at the shows. [16:12] Joe was heavily focused on golf before he met Larry. Larry loved the model Joe had put together of building brands and platforms for the athletes away from their sport. Larry said, “Let’s do it for the NFL.” It took Joe time to become fully aware of how the NFL works. Now they are branching into the NBA. [17:21] Larry had just taken the dive into golf and wanted to learn from Joe. Both Joe and Larry had some learning to do about the NFL space as a whole. Relationships with individuals have helped them pick it up quicker. Bringing on NBA athletes will be different from either golf or the NFL. [18:30] It was a surprise to Larry what the learning curve for Joe was in the NFL space. It took Joe some time to catch up to Larry. Larry and Joe talk about when you can call an NFL player vs. a golfer. Golfer Austin Cook will pick up the phone every time Joe calls. If Joe called an NFL player four times a day, they wouldn’t answer for a month. [19:57] Ray recently saw a 1960s video of Palmer, Niklaus, and Player on the Perry Como Show, playing an edited round of golf. These were agent Mark McCormack’s big three. Joe believes that Arnold Palmer made sports marketing cool. Mark McCormack was revolutionary. He wrote What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School. [21:09] The lessons Mark McCormack learned in the 1960s are still applicable today. Joe talks about the thousands of dollars Arnold Palmer won playing golf in contrast to the millions of dollars athletes make today. Arnold Palmer became a multi-millionaire through marketing his story and brand. [22:31] Larry talks about how Anth3m works to understand the important parts of an athlete’s business off the field and turn that into something that fulfills their hopes and dreams. [23:03] Ray notes the Barclays Center in Brooklyn was sold out for a couple of days recently for video gamers. Larry and Joe have considered taking on video gamers. Their aligned strategic partners understand sports but don’t have active backgrounds in sports. Anth3m didn’t want their clients to be put into a box that their sport dictates. [24:08] There are a number of things Anth3m has on the table, with which they are looking forward to testing their model. E-gaming happens to be one of them. Joe has a couple of friends who have moved into the representation of e-gamers full time. [24:37] Joe feels that the driving force of Anth3m’s success is going to be in creating opportunities for athletes to invest more toward their future career and business after their sport. One way they inspire that opportunity is through their relationship with Apex for business development work. [25:27] Joe and Larry are in New York the week of this interview to meet with Jared Cook of the Oakland Raiders, and a partner in a high-fashion men’s apparel line. Jared came up with the idea of starting his own line. Larry helped him pick the right strategy, designers and partners, took over as CEO of the company and has developed it. [26:21] Larry thinks that what needs to change in the representation field is the idea that agents, financial advisors, or managers have direct control over an athlete. Athletes should hire the specialists they need to help them for specific jobs. A financial advisor should not give legal advice. Everybody should do their specific job. [29:14] Joe says they are talking now with a company that has a phenomenal indoor play concept about bringing in a unique ambassador specific to the business and developing a relationship with that group, owning a piece of it, and doing appearances and events that will draw people and grow the business. [30:33] Jared Cook is a unique individual. That is what Anth3m is looking for. Anth3m can help all athletes build their anthem, unique to the individual athletes. [31:19] Joe suggests Anth3m should become the first sports management group to step in and own a franchise of some sort — it may be an Ultimate Frisbee franchise! [31:42] Larry says they are excited and happy that people are starting to take notice and ask questions about how Anth3m is doing what they do. That’s the dream. [32:09] Larry Lemons and Joe Gilliland, of Anth3m. This is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode:   Stephens.com This Is Capitalism Austin Cook Jared Cook Joe Gilliland Larry Lemons Anth3m JP Morgan Private Golf Digest Callaway Golf Michael Jordan LeBron James Ideas United Brice Butler Arnold Palmer Jack Nicklaus Gary Player Mark McCormack What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School: Notes from a Street-smart Executive, by Mark H. McCormack The Barclays Center Apex Business Development Ultimate Frisbee

The organization known as SIFMA goes back to 1912. It is a trade group which was first known as the Investment Bankers Association of America, then for many years, the Securities Industry Association, and now, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). SIFMA may be best known for a game played by middle school and high school students that represents the only economic education that some of them ever get before going out into the working world — The SIFMA Stock Market Game™. SIFMA’s CEO is Ken Bentsen. He’s a former member of Congress, who, in a relatively short eight years in the House, compiled a rather lengthy resume of bipartisan financial solutions. Meet Ken Bentsen.   Key Takeaways: [:19] Ray Hoffman describes the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and gives background on its CEO, Ken Bentsen. [1:09] Ray introduces Ken Bentsen. [1:11] Ken comments on SIFMA’s mission statement, “SIFMA exists to advocate that America’s capital markets operate effectively and efficiently to the benefit of all market participants.” Ken describes the maturity of the U.S. capital market system and its correlation with the U.S. economy. [1:51] Ken notes that the capital market system is one of the most highly-regulated industries in the United States. While regulations ensure a level playing field, it is also important that markets are able to operate efficiently and effectively. If not, credit will not be allocated to the best ideas — the great innovations that create jobs. [2:33] The U.S. capital market has created an upward sloping chart in terms of the growth of the U.S. economy, going back 200 years. Even coming out of the 2008-2009 Great Recession, the U.S. came back more quickly than other jurisdictions around the world. Ken credits the resiliency of the U.S. capital market system. [3:34] Ken’s covers his career path, from his Master’s degree in public administration to working as a Congressional staffer, to following Congressional finance committees, to working in public finance in New York, to the House of Representatives working on financial services legislation, to consulting, to running a trade association, to SIFMA. [6:06] Ken served for four terms in Congress from Houston. He lists the committees on which he served, all tied to finance and budget. [6:18] Ken discusses the public’s general understanding of finance today vs. 20 years ago when he was in Congress. People feel pressure from the financial issues that impact them personally, whether that’s housing, cost of living, healthcare, or the effect of trade on jobs. People can get more for their dollar today, including new technologies. [8:01] It is most important to grow the economy as much as we can, to be able to solve fiscal issues. [8:33] Capital markets definitely play a role in growing the economy. Ken says, “We’re not the end — we’re the means to the end.” [8:42] The Stock Market Game™ is run by the SIFMA Foundation, which has been in place for 40 years. The Stock Market Game™ is the premier program that they do in thousands of schools across the U.S., touching hundreds of thousands of students every year. [9:27] The SIFMA Foundation built on the game over 40 years with programs like InvestWrite®, and Invest It Forward™. The results are amazing to see. They impact middle school and high school students, their teachers, and parents. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in the programs do research reports. [10:05] This is important not only from the standpoint of financial literacy, but it also goes toward understanding the structure of the American economy, built in part on our financial system, which makes our economy stronger in contrast to other economies. [10:26] 12,000 schools in all 50 states participate in the programs every year, involving 600,000 students and 15,000 teachers. In 40 years, 18 million students have gone through the program. The SIFMA Foundation is working harder every year to increase participation. [10:47] SIFMA works with The SIFMA Foundation every year to do a competition to bring the top 10 schools to Washington D.C. to meet with their Representatives and Senators. This underscores to the students coming from all over how big and diverse this country is. [11:18] Students from all walks of life come in and talk about portfolios they’ve put together, the things that worked, and mistakes they made. They talk about looking at price reports every day, and research reports. It’s just amazing. [11:34] The top 10 winners of The Stock Market Game™ 2018 Capitol Hill Challenge came almost equally from areas represented by Democrats and areas represented by Republicans. Ken says it is really refreshing to see what The Stock Market Game™ does with these kids from all walks of life. [12:11] “To the benefit of all market participants” - Ray quotes the SIFMA mission statement. In the truest sense of the U.S. economy, we are all market participants. This is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: SIFMA The Stock Market Game™ Ken Bentsen Drexel Burnham The SIFMA Foundation InvestWrite® Invest It Forward™ Capitol Hill Challenge Stephens.com This Is Capitalism

Ray Hoffman interviews Mike Iiams. The first thing you should know about this particular entrepreneur CEO is that his name isn’t what you think it is. If you’re looking casually at an article about the important social work being done by a Denver-based company known both as SCRAM Systems and Alcohol Monitoring Systems, you’d probably think the CEO’s name was Mike Ilams. Mike Iiams has a long list of credits working for the accounting firm Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. in Alaska, during the building of the TransCanada pipeline; working for an oil and gas company in Colorado; a long senior executive role with the maker of accounting software JD Edwards, which is now part of Oracle; and now is the CEO of SCRAM Systems, whose ankle bracelets are keeping a lot of dangerous, habitual drinkers off the highways. Mike describes the career that led him to SCRAM as a wonderful learning experience — a wonderful ride!   Key Takeaways: [:22] Ray Hoffman introduces Mike Iiams. Mike says many people mispronounce his name. [1:38] Mike’s career has taught him product development skills, sales and marketing skills, and business process re-engineering skills. When Mike left JD Edwards, he found a unique project that a couple of guys were working on in their basement to measure alcohol as it evaporates through a person’s skin. [2:04] Mike was intrigued by the project for personal reasons. His mother’s father was a “Skid Row” drunk for a big part of his life. Through a number of events, he ended up sobering up and he lived to be just short of 100. Sober, he was a wonderful person. Drunk, he was a fight looking for a victim. [2:34] When Mike found these people who were trying to figure out a way of tracking people for extended periods of time to see whether they were drinking, in the back of his mind, a picture of his grandfather kept tugging on him. Eventually, Mike thought this would be a good project to invest his time and money in, with the money from the software. [3:09] Fortunately, the company survived to the point where it is a viable entity today. [3:17] When Mike worked in Alaska, there was risk, but he thought of it as a great opportunity to see and be part of a huge construction project, the Trans-Alaska pipeline. [3:48] Ray notes that there is risk in putting your money on the line for an opportunity like SCRAM Systems. Mike says for the first four years of SCRAM Systems he paid himself $1 a week, to qualify for healthcare coverage. [4:23] For the first four years, Mike wrote a check of $100,000 or $200,000, each month, to keep moving the company forward. That felt like risk at that time, but the opportunity to bring something new to the marketplace, to create a new market segment and make a difference in lives always drove his desire to figure out how to make it work. [4:57] Jeff Hawthorne, the inventor and co-founder who had been working for several years on a monitor to keep track of habitually drunk drivers, filed a patent in 1991 and the company — at first, named Alcohol Monitoring Systems — wasn't founded until 1997. [5:26] There were two co-founders. Jeff Hawthorne was an electrical engineer and Kirby Phillips was an entrepreneur. Kirby and Jeff had started a company to build small, portable, hand-held alcohol breath testing devices. At an event, one of them walked past someone who had had so much to drink they smelled it just walking past. [6:04] That spawned the idea to take breath-testing technology, redesign and repackage it, and get it to the point where you could measure the alcohol as it evaporates through a person’s skin. That was in 1991 and they filed a patent for the idea. Then they pursued funding sources but did not find people to back the project until 1997. [6:48] The two people that started backing Jeff and Kirby ultimately found Mike and looked at him as a “new victim” to join the funding cause. Mike started investing in 1999 and then the investment started scaling up in 2001 when they completed a proof-of-concept project and a clinical research study showing the device could work. [7:30] It was an interesting journey, from the creative idea to exploration in a basement or garage investing their own time, capital, and resources, to finding people to join the cause. [7:57] When Mike joined them, he brought the skill set of the background of large software systems that could host all the data and provide a meaningful solution to probation and managing the data of the population of people that are being monitored. [8:24] The stars aligned. Everybody came together and they found enough capital to get the company through the early stages. It took $20 million to fund the company until they got to the point of positive cash flow on customers’ money, not investors’ money. [9:07] In the early days, they had a total team of seven employees and a couple of subcontractors. It was clear that they could get the technology to monitor alcohol but they had to find a customer to work with that would start putting the software and hardware products into play and help work to develop a complete solution. [9:48] They got lucky with the Michigan Department of Corrections Electronic Monitoring Group for people on probation and parole. The group has always been innovative and willing to try new approaches and technology. Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS) asked Michigan if they would do a beta test with them. [10:23] AMS would do the beta test for free if Michigan would help provide the guidance and the response to get the product past proof-of-concept to industrial-ready. They ran the project for about two years before they fine-tuned things to the point they could take the product and make it revenue-ready. [10:52] Today, Michigan is one of AMS’s top five customers. They are a valued partner in helping AMS build the right kinds of products and solutions that effectively work for them and other agencies like them. [11:16] It’s not just the capital or the resources. When you’ve got disruptive technology, you’ve got to find that early customer that dreams about what your product could do and holds you accountable to get there. [11:32] This all came from a patent application in 1991. [11:38] Mike provides an executive summary of what the SCRAM Systems technology does. It measures a person’s blood alcohol content as that alcohol evaporates through the skin. You may have been close to a person who smells like alcohol as it comes through their skin. [12:08] 1% of all the alcohol you consume leaves your body through that constant perspiration process. About 5% of the alcohol that you consume leaves your body as you exhale. Your lung lining is a thinner tissue, so it’s easier for the alcohol to pass through it as you breathe. It takes more effort for the alcohol to evaporate transdermally. [12:48] As 1% of the alcohol you consume exits through the skin, Alcohol Monitoring Systems developed a sensor mechanism in a device that’s securely attached to a person’s ankle. It continuously monitors a person’s BAC and it wirelessly moves that data to a website that AMS hosts. [13:12] The website is intended for audiences where a court, for example, would take a repeat drunk driver and order them to abstain and do this kind of monitoring in lieu of incarceration. Once you send somebody to jail, they lose their job, they can’t pay rent for the family — everything starts to cycle down very quickly. [13:43] The intent of AMS is to work with agencies to build alternative programs. If a person isn’t drinking, they’re not drinking and driving. If they’re not drinking and driving, we’re meeting that public safety need to make sure these people aren’t posing a risk to society. [14:02] If they’re not drinking, then the money the courts spend on treatment and other services has a better chance of helping this person learn to manage this part of their life. [14:15] Mike says AMS got lucky because a lawyer called them up, and said they had a celebrity who just got out of rehab, and the lawyer wanted their client to be monitored for a host of reasons. That celebrity was Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay Lohan proudly wore the bracelet for weeks, with paparazzi following her all over. [15:02] In a short period of time, SCRAM Systems had hundreds of television-based news segments all over the world talking about them, their technology and Lindsay. That just propelled them to a level of prospective customers calling them for information about the systems. Lindsay Lohan helped SCRAM Systems more than she knows. [15:34] Lindsay Lohan, with a surfboard and a bikini, made their bracelet look good. [15:40] There was a treatment provider in Orange County, California, that looked at the technology, found SCRAM Systems on the web, called out of the blue and said, “You need to help us.” [16:02] Judges all over started having repeat high-risk drunk drivers in front of them and calling AMS for help. Mike tells of one offender arrested in Texas, from Tennessee, who was sent by court order to Denver to get a SCRAM Systems bracelet. [16:43] AMS got a number of one-off cases like that from individual judges who would call and say something like, “This person worries me. I need to do something. I can’t keep them in jail. Let’s give this a try.” And it worked. [16:56] SCRAM stands for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor. The company’s legal name is Alcohol Monitoring Systems, but the marketplace never called them by that. People say, “You’re the SCRAM guys!” SCRAM resonated with people, so the whole product line today is SCRAM ”something.” [17:52] The products include GPS monitoring, home arrest monitoring, unsupervised breath testing, and the continuous alcohol monitoring with the ankle bracelet. This year, AMS is launching a completely new software experience for the probation officer called Nexis that is focused on what AMS has learned over the last 15 years. [18:32] Probation officers have very complicated jobs and very complicated caseloads. The requirements for supervising people vary from person to person. There are no software tools that do a good job of helping that probation officer make decisions day by day on how to react to the behavior that they see from their caseload. [18:59] AMS has worked with leading researchers and behaviorists for the last five years. Nexis, to be launched this year, is an evidence-based practice tool to help probation departments and officers make better decisions on how to incentivize and sanction people who are under their charge. [19:28] Mike talks about the future. AMS has garnered international interest. They have pilot projects in eight different locations around the world. This is a chance to expand their role in probation and in location monitoring. They have a chance to expand their role internationally and become a global player in this marketplace. [20:02] AMS is at “a fun stage” right now. They have a lot of risk, executing across all these fronts, but they’ve built a wonderful team that’s very excited about stepping up and managing these risks. [20:19] AMS has about 300 full-time employees making them a medium-sized entity today. When Mike became CEO 15 years ago, there were 10 employees. That is considerable growth. [20:42] AMS makes extensive use of blogging. One blog is Sobering Up, Covering drunk driving, alcohol addiction, and criminal justice. When AMS started, they looked for thought leaders to create a discussion around the issues of alcohol and crime. They tried a couple of approaches toward creating awareness and a forum for debate. [21:25] That blog has resonated for a number of years and it helps AMS stay in touch and get people to share the ownership of moving this journey forward. [21:42] AMS publishes case studies from areas where the SCRAM CAM (Continuous Alcohol Monitoring) has been heavily adopted, including one from Louisiana, which has the highest incarceration rate in the U.S. [22:09] We’re at a stage in the country where the criminal justice system is re-evaluating the policies that define whether somebody goes to prison or jail, or they don’t. It began with the War on Drugs. The unintended consequences of this movement was an explosion of the number of prisons and the number of people incarcerated. [23:00] The criminal justice system today is moving more to models that say, let’s separate the people we’re mad at from the people we’re afraid of. Violent criminals that harm society need to be in prison. Repeat drunk drivers (that haven’t killed anyone), if they are not drinking, do not need to be feared and do not need to be in prison. [24:00] AMS has projects in virtually every state focused on keeping people out of jail or prison, as long as they can demonstrate that they successfully do not drink, at the time that they’re being monitored. [24:19] The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) looked at the project six or seven years ago and looked at data on 1,000 people that had been monitored for more than a year. Almost all 1,000 had drunk every single day on average for 10 years before they were put on SCRAM. [25:16] The data on this population for the year they were monitored showed that every single day 99.3% of them did not drink. Even if they had a drinking event one, two, or three times during that year, it was a person who had been drinking every day, before being monitored. The monitoring allowed the treatment service to discuss it with them. [26:25] The hope is that as AMS helps people not drink for extended periods of time, the treatment services that are attached to these people can help them wrestle with ‘their demons’ and figure out better ways to manage their life stresses. Stress is never going to go away; they just need to find alternative outlets to manage that stress. [26:55] Keeping in mind that success, Mike estimates AMS is still in the early stages of marketplace adoption. Mike cites Scotland as an example, where the alcohol problem is so bad that the life expectancy of a male in Scotland is 58 years. You have alcohol issues throughout Europe and Asia. [27:43] The lessons AMS has learned in the States, and the research that has been wrapped around projects using SCRAM technology, clearly show that they need to be knocking on doors around the world and helping other markets come to grips with the drinker that turns into violence, whether with a car or in brawling. [28:26] There is a lot of correlation between people walking out of bars late at night and knife fights on the streets with guys that have just had too much to drink. The market opportunity for AMS is pretty big, if you think globally. [28:44] AMS has about 25 patents on these devices, some of which don’t expire until after 2030. Is there corporate complacency from all this patent protection? Mike doesn’t look at it that way. Their single biggest competition is the environment that says, “I don’t need to change.” The do-nothing decision is their single biggest competitive factor. [29:19] Patents don’t help with the do-nothing mindset. [29:24] The only thing that helps with that do-nothing decision is great people at the field level who knock on doors and wrestle with the marketplace over the magnitude of the problem and the options to deal with it. Mike and AMS keep focused on how to compete with that do-nothing decision. [29:46] AMS has a wonderful, diverse group of people that come from government and research organizations, that are continually carrying their message at the research level, the Federal policy level, state and local policy level, and then, of course, at the judicial level, and in sheriff's offices and probation offices. [30:20] There’s no shortcut to covering all the bases. [30:27] Mike says AMS has been extremely lucky in their workforce. Mike feels he has been lucky to be able to meet and convince people to come join the cause. [30:40] A lot of people at AMS have stories like Mike’s, with a close family member or friend that struggled with drug or alcohol addiction. They’ve seen the destructive impact on families. They look at what AMS is doing and say, “Yes! I’d like to join your team! Let’s figure out how to make a difference.” [31:06] Mike says, behind every good drunk is his grandfather waiting to be rediscovered. [31:16] As Mike looks back over his career, would he have imagined the course he took? He recalls his college days at the University of Colorado during the time of race riots and the unsuccessful experience in Vietnam. There was lots of social unrest. Mike’s generation wanted to find a way to make a difference. [32:23] With AMS, Mike lucked out. He found a project that is personal to him, that gives him a chance to make a difference. It challenges him to figure out how to make money and make a difference at the same time, and that’s a challenge worthy of his time. [32:50] Call it SCRAM Systems, or Alcohol Monitoring Systems, either way, what Mike Iiams is building is an important part of modern criminal justice technology.   Mentioned in This Episode: Mike Iiams SCRAM Systems Alcohol Monitoring Systems Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (Now KPMG) TransCanada Pipeline JD Edwards (Now part of Oracle) Trans-Alaska Pipeline The late Jeff Hawthorne Michigan Department of Corrections Electronic Monitoring Group NIAAA HHS University of Colorado Stephens.com This Is Capitalism

Ray Hoffman interviews Dr. Christina Lampe-Önnerud. You might say there’s electricity in her blood. Long before her reputation was established as one of the world’s foremost experts on power storage, her father, Wolfgang Lampe, was world-renowned for building power stations and power transmission lines. After earning her doctorate in her native Sweden, Christina came to the U.S. and started her first company, Boston-Power, in 2006. In 2012, she and three of her former colleagues, one of whom is her husband, started Cadenza Innovation. It’s a Connecticut-based firm, which has developed a fireproof lithium-ion battery. It can be snapped together like LEGO® bricks to store virtually infinite amounts of power and sold cheaply. In 2018, this Cadenza Innovation story turned into a fast-moving one, which is why, after one long interview with Christina Lampe-Önnerud, Ray had to go back for a major update just six months later!   Key Takeaways: [:21] Ray Hoffman introduces Dr. Christina Lampe-Önnerud. [1:22] A lot has happened. Cadenza Innovations has gone from being a technical promise, through the demonstration at Fiat Chrysler earlier this year, into having initiated the program with New York State and the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the biggest public utility in the United States coming into New York City. [1:48] Cadenza Innovation is constructing a public demonstration of what the Cadenza technology can do for the United States, with the specifics of the New York City grid. That’s going live in the summer. The stakeholders have all started their work. [2:12] The Fiat Chrysler demonstration came from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which recognized the Cadenza opportunity as associated with the lowest cost, highest safety, and highest energy density per volume. [2:26] Fiat Chrysler then signed up to be the champion. The demonstration happened in Q1 2018, which was on the heels of an over-three-year-long program with lots of third-party testing and validation, under the supervision of Fiat Chrysler, then being incorporated into the Fiat 500E. The test was run in Los Angeles. [2:58] Cadenza Innovation demonstrated the Cadenza cell could go in as a retrofit. They demonstrated blocks that stack like LEGO® bricks. They demonstrated very aggressive goals set out by the U.S. DOE. The battery industry had said they could not do it but Cadenza met the goals, which included targets for range, safety, and cost. [3:27] The cost is incredibly interesting because Cadenza is using supply chain assets, today. [3:37] In June, Cadenza was given funding by NY State to do this clean energy storage demonstration project in White Plains, NY. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud tells how this happened. New York State, through NYSERDA, invited Cadenza to be part of an evaluation where they looked at multiple ways to meet energy efficiency. [4:21] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud explains the old system of centralized power plants, distribution, and deployment. She outlines the future course of power distribution with multiple points of power generation paired with storage, almost like the internet where you trade energy where it’s most efficient. [5:02] The battery and storage are critical for that arbitrage. Batteries significantly also replace climate change threats. New York looked at policy, incentives, and technology. Cadenza scored highly in the technology category so they were invited to give a demonstration. [5:29] The demonstration will be hooked up to the NYPA’s headquarters in White Plains. It will be in a public space next to a bus stop. There is a potential for the demonstration to include generating data to show peak shifting in real-time and peak savings, including the reduction of CO2 and other climate gases. [6:20] The state has designated a pad outside the building, roughly the size of a storage container with air conditioning and the hand-off between the battery and the grid. The battery takes up a small area. The container is partly to prevent battery theft. [7:28] The demonstration will be for at least three months. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud is very hopeful that NYPA will pick up more units very quickly and deploy the technology. [7:51] Cadenza has received funding in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. The team has only 30 people. They have received support from the battery industry ecosystem. Cadenza serves as a demonstration that new technology is not dangerous. It has moved the needle a little bit into acceptance, also thanks to low pricing. [8:42] Cadenza is interested in playing in multiple states but as engineers, they work hardest on execution, to make sure every demonstration is successful. Cadenza technology is less dangerous than legacy systems. [9:04] Another success point in the past six months is that Cadenza has engaged with the Department of Defense (DOD), who have done their best to blow up the technology. The standard industry test, thermal runaway, did not happen with the Cadenza cells. That garnered quite a bit of interest and a lot of curiosity. The results are remarkable. [10:30] The jelly roll cell technology of encased cells prevents thermal cascades as a short will shut down the cell. The DOD warned them “We’re going to blow up your cell.” The engineers replied “Thank you, ... but we don’t think it will.” It didn’t blow up. [11:37] In 2012, when Dr. Lampe-Önnerud founded Cadenza Innovation, she was very committed to the tripod of safety, cost, and performance. Nobody thought it was possible. She notes the technical achievement of her team and also points out the business innovation of putting together a very safe and collaborative system to succeed. [12:28] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud elaborates on the recent news that China’s Shenzhen BAK Power Battery and Cadenza Innovation have announced that they will co-manufacture lithium-ion cells and modules based on Cadenza Innovation’s supercell architecture. BAK is already one of the biggest suppliers of jelly rolls in China. [13:48] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud tells how lithium-ion jelly roll technology improves on the earlier lithium-ion technology. The jelly roll is easy to manufacture and you can have it manufactured locally, close to point of use, so your battery factory only needs to do final assembly. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud talks of BAK’s success from startup to a major manufacturer. [15:14] Cadenza was also honored in Tianjin, China, by the World Economic Forum as a 2018 Technology Pioneer. Four of the team had already been acknowledged for the same award in 2010 for a different technology. The four, including Dr. Lampe-Önnerud, have been working together for 20 years. [16:05] Boston-Power innovated in the portable power arena at a time when the industry had a lot of safety issues. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud had been at Arthur D. Little (ADL) and the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) had engaged ADL as an independent advisor on how to treat these 20 million recalled batteries. [16:44] Boston-Power stepped up the game by cleaning up some of the safety idiosyncrasies and pioneered cleaning up some of the greenhouse gases. Boston-Power was a green company before it was cool to be green. They fueled the paradigm where the battery had to last the life of the laptop. [17:06] Boston-Power also pioneered the paradigm of fast charging. Their battery was capable of the longest run-time and also charged to 80% capacity in 30 minutes, which was unheard of in 2005. [17:22] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud knew with a little group — 10 people out of her garage — a little bit of confidence, and a lot of friends, they could become a player. [17:36] The World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Award is a recognition from global industry leaders, including Fortune 50 companies in the forum, and heads of states. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud had previously been recognized as a pioneer entrepreneur. [18:08] As a tech pioneer, you get invited to share a story or vision, which can become part of the content for the World Economic Forum agenda. As a two-time winner, Dr. Lampe-Önnerud has also been invited and has accepted to be a co-chair for The Future of Energy Committee to help drive the discussion. [18:29] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud also was in Nice recently to address the International Energy and Power Supply Conference (Batteries 2018) on The Role of Energy Storage in the New Economy Paradigm. Two macro-trends she covered are the rate of technological change and climate change. [19:46] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud worked with the Club de Madrid and the United Nations from 2009 to 2011, and with Condoleezza Rice and the President of the European Council to try to facilitate a data-driven global agenda. They developed a model for watching temperatures and predicting problems. The model has been a good estimate. [20:55] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud sees hesitation around global collaboration. You have to be rather stubborn that you want to keep the door open. It takes a lot of positive force. [21:47] Since starting Boston-Power in 2004, Dr. Lampe-Önnerud has learned that it was not as hard as she imagined it would be to raise capital. She didn’t have time for a process, she just needed investors immediately. Over the years, she raised almost $360 million and the company had a chance to grow. [22:37] With Cadenza Innovation, Dr. Lampe-Önnerud is more knowledgeable and she invented a new security that aligns investors and the management team for a ‘long play.’ She is determined to try to stay courageous for global markets. She is trying to stay very true to doing good and doing well, at the same time. [22:59] With Dr. Lampe-Önnerud’s new investment security, there is no artificial driver for the investor to get out. The intent is not to flip the company in two years. If they sold it, it would be for a remarkable opportunity. [23:13] The strategy is actually to deploy great technology into a vacuum that is huge. And with that, they will do a ton of good, and make a lot of money in it, as well. [23:26] It is very difficult to make transformations within a year or two. Most policies call for four years or less of effort, which is still too short. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud says it is basic to commit to something that is over 10 years. 10 years is very fast for technology shifts. [23:49] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud got investors to sign on from the beginning. She went only to ‘angels.’ She told them they may make 10X or 20X their investment, but it will take 10 years. She told investors liquidity may be available in Year Six, but not in Year One. [24:32] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud could spend all her time in music because she loves it so much, but she loves equally this exciting game of trying to make a difference. She dedicates her music time to Silk’n Sounds, a Connecticut female a cappella chorus. [25:47] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud approaches the group with her CEO mindset. She sees it as providing empowerment!   Mentioned in This Episode: Dr. Christina Lampe-Önnerud Cadenza Innovation, Inc. Fiat Chrysler NYPA Department of Energy (DOE) NYSERDA Department of Defense (DOD) Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) Arthur D. Little Club de Madrid United Nations Silk'n Sounds Stephens.com This Is Capitalism

Ray Hoffman interviews Jennifer Collins, President and CEO of JDC Events. Jennifer’s first events were her own family reunions which she evolved from cookouts to city tours and dine-arounds. She worked on social events while in college, and when she started working at PR firms, she saw how they were handling events and felt that she could make a business of it. She turned to business events, and then to government contracting. Jennifer has taken what she has learned through planning purposeful events over the years and written it in her book, Events Spark Change. She shares the importance of the mission statement for every event and how events bring about change.   Key Takeaways: [:21] Ray Hoffman welcomes Jennifer Collins and asks about her book, Events Spark Change: A Guide to Designing Powerful and Engaging Events and the journey that brought her to becoming an event planner. [:34] Jennifer planned reunions for her family and felt she was good at it. [:43] About 100 people would normally attend the family reunions, held in Boston, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and other locations, first where they had a majority of the family and then where they wanted to go. [1:05] From that experience, Jennifer saw that she really loved the effect that the reunion had on the family — so joyful and so much of a connection. People felt that they were able to bond deeper on another level. That sparked Jennifer’s thought process about planning events, that she enjoyed it and she might be good at it. [1:38] These thoughts came to Jennifer while she was a college student at American University. After she graduated, she got jobs with public relations firms in Washington, D.C. [1:56] The first family reunion she planned was when she was around age 19 or 20 as a sophomore. Her grandmother from Atlanta and her siblings had originally organized the reunions as cookouts. The importance of families coming together is the impetus for Jennifer’s involvement in the reunions. [3:17] Later reunions included zip lines, tours, travel to different cities for activities, dine-arounds, and a lot more than cooking out. [3:37] The first professional event Jennifer planned was a 60th birthday party for a dear friend. She wanted to bring around 30 of her closest friends to Jamaica to celebrate it. That was during a time when Jennifer’s company was doing more social events. [4:10] Then Jennifer started getting away from social events and moved into corporate events. [4:17] When Jennifer started her company, she was employee #1 and the only employee for a while, in her basement apartment near American University. She enjoyed doing the work and was looking for events to plan for people who really needed the support. [4:43] From there, she was able to develop it into more, still part-time, in connection with her full-time work in the public relations firms. As the PR firms started doing events, Jennifer realized she could make that into a business. She wanted to develop something even more professional. [5:13] Jennifer managed her business on her own for four years, part-time. When she found it was too difficult to do part-time, she had to ‘fish or cut bait.’ [5:34] She went full-time on her own when she got one of the largest nursing home companies in the U.S. at that time as a client, who wanted to celebrate their sales team and build an incentive program. [5:48] That helped Jennifer to get out on her own. It was also two weeks before September 11, 2001. At that time, events stopped. Hospitality stopped. People stopped traveling and getting on planes. Jennifer lost the account, although they did pay her. The client felt, given the tone of the country, it wasn’t the best time to celebrate. [6:20] It took about three or four years for the industry to come back. So Jennifer was doing other things, such as substitute teaching, to stay on her own. She built up again, getting referrals from her former co-workers in the public relations firms. She decided to shift into the government contracting market for longer-term, higher-value contracts. [6:54] You have to ‘have a stomach for it’ to get into government contracting. Jennifer learned what kinds of certifications would be helpful to compete with other companies. She had to go to industry days to meet with contracting officials and small business representatives and figure out what agencies were buying. It was a lot of footwork. [7:29] Meanwhile, Jennifer continued in substitute teaching and started working with other companies as an onsite event manager. She got projects from a temp agency for event professionals. [8:09] Jennifer thought she knew a lot then, but she knows a whole heck of a lot more now. Jennifer has a very curious attitude. She always wants to know more — how to do something different, better, how to build it. [8:38] Jennifer got involved in industry organizations and became a certified meeting professional. She kept up with professional continuing education to learn how to plan events better. [9:13] UC Davis was looking for a planner in the D.C. area. They had a campus building in D.C. They wanted a planner for a cocoa symposium in partnership with Mars, Inc. Jennifer answered their ad, met with them, and “the rest is history.” [9:57] That was Jennifer’s breakthrough moment. It was the largest event and relationship she was able to develop up to that time, in 2005. [10:20] In 2005, Jennifer was just learning the extent of running a business with all its parts. She realized she could not do everything by herself. She had to bring in partners. She played many parts in her business to bring people together to build it. [11:20] She hadn’t accounted for the politics of dealing with different organizations and cultures to bridge people together to produce what they needed. Jennifer describes event building as a puzzle and the event planner as a conductor leading an orchestra. [12:10] Earlier in her business, Jennifer just looked at it as a task. She had a list and she had to check things off the list and get things done. She didn’t yet look at it as the picture of how everybody needed to work together. [12:34] Jennifer wrote in her book that an event without a mission statement is susceptible to failure. She explains the importance of the mission statement. Many organizations decide to have an event, but don’t work out what it takes to produce it. There are so many factors that go into it, especially money. [13:06] If you want an event to do something, you have to really get at the why, what it’s going to change, and whom it’s going to impact. [13:15] You have to set measurable goals. It’s like looking at a map. If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know that you were successful? [13:30] You have to really use this event as a way to drive your message. Events drive messages. If you’re not really able to drive it in a way that people will receive it, or understand what you want to impart to them, then it’s not going to be successful. [14:09] The cocoa symposium was an event where UC Davis and Mars Inc. wanted to be seen as the leaders within the cocoa science field. This symposium helped them position themselves as such. They took the symposium to Ghana where the majority of cocoa is grown.[14:51] From the symposium, the first plan was developed for Africa on how to make the cocoa farms more productive — how to provide the farms with the tools and skills needed and to make more money while all parts of the cocoa product chain could flourish. It was a defining moment for the partnership and for Jennifer to take part in it. [15:35] There are some who think the big, glitzy, glamorous events are only the most impactful. No matter how many people are involved, what’s most impactful is the event purpose — how they bring people together and create certain connections — how they can create engagement that can change lives and organizations. [16:25] The stakeholders of an event bring sponsorships, money, and credibility. Having a variety of event experts together creates impact. [17:06] What is the SPARK model? Sensory — engage the five senses to create a much more memorable and engaging experience. Purpose  — identify why you are doing this and what you want to achieve. Activations — put everything into motion. Resources — use the time, talent, funding, and venue. Know-how — bring experts and expertise. [18:49] Jennifer has spent the last 15 years learning the power of connections and that all it takes to create a change in this world is one person or one community at a time. Events help you to think differently and bring that change to help someone else. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It’s what you can take away to help another.   Mentioned in This Episode: Jennifer Collins, JCD Events American University, Washington, D.C. Events Spark Change: A Guide to Designing Powerful and Engaging Events, by Jennifer D. Collins JDC Events UC Davis Mars, Inc. Stephens.com This Is Capitalism

Ray Hoffman interviews Steve Odland. Steve Odland’s career has taken him from oatmeal to auto parts, from Sara Lee to the U.S. Commission on National Transportation Surface Policy. Today, he’s CEO of one of the nation’s premier business research organizations, The Conference Board - year after year, the source of a lot of great insight into the economy and human behavior.   Key Takeaways: [:44] Ray Hoffman welcomes Steve Odland to the podcast. Steve reflects on his career path. He views it as a long hallway with some doors open and some doors shut. His career has been made by doors opening occasionally so he could walk through. [1:19] So many people struggle with closed doors instead of using the doors that are open. Steve says he has been blessed with a great and interesting career mostly by saying yes to things that seemed strange, odd and new. [1:42] Steve’s career started at Quaker Oats. His first CEO position was at Tops Friendly Markets. Steve had worked as a bagger in a supermarket as a youth. His first job was a paper route. Most of what he learned in business started in these early jobs. [2:37] Everyone has to eat. The supermarket is a great industry for getting close to your customer. Frequent user cards started in the mid-nineties. Supermarkets were using big data 20 years ago. [3:43] Steve cut his teeth in an industry with really narrow margins. In the supermarket industry, you count your pennies, starting with how you price. A couple of cents difference will change how people buy a can of corn. You have to provide the best value for your customer. [4:14] The experience at Tops Friendly Markets led Steve to his first major CEO position at AutoZone in January 2001. Then came 9/11 and the economy toppled. Steve says the auto parts industry is surprisingly insulated from recessions. People have to keep their car running. [5:52] Going through a recession is scary. You don’t know when it’s going to end, how deep it’s going to be, or what’s going to happen. [6:11] Steve also mentions the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. We didn’t know if the banking system would survive or what would happen to the global economy or the dollar. You learn as you go. [6:35] When Steve joined AutoZone in 2001, it had culture problems and merchandising problems. Steve explains how AutoZone had begun as an offshoot from a supermarket company. Steve says any time someone is brought in from the outside, it is for a turnaround. AutoZone was not happy with where they were. [7:06] The turnaround starts with people and then goes to processes and how you interface with the customer. Steve says they changed a lot of things and it worked very quickly to bring AutoZone stock from about $20 to over $100 a share in a couple of years, as they expanded margins. Their customers were happier than ever. [7:29] AutoZone is still a great company. Steve’s old team is still running the company with Bill Rhodes as the CEO. [7:44] The AutoZone share price topped out at $103 while Steve was CEO, and continued to climb. It peaked at over $816 in 2016. Steve credits the current management team for that but Ray notes that Steve laid down a foundation for growth, similar to the turnaround Alan Mulally executed later at Ford. [8:35] One of the things Steve did was to bring in every senior executive to go over the books, all the time. Steve has always found that people respond well when you bring them in to share the good news as well as the bad news. That served Steve well during the financial crisis. [9:09] Steve also says Office Depot was an incredible experience when people didn’t know if they were going to lose everything. Office Depot was headquartered in Florida, the epicenter of the housing crisis. There were 200 retail bankruptcies in that period. [9:36] During the crisis, Steve brought all senior executives together every week at first, and then monthly, sharing everything. Steve went to D.C. to meet with the Secretary of the Treasury and people from the Fed to share data and then report it back to his team. [9:59] This is leadership through communication and involvement.[10:02] Ray revisits the AutoZone share price. Ray asks about ethical changes that Steve brought into the culture and how they affected the share price. Steve mentions that AutoZone is located in Memphis, Tennessee, where there is a background culture of ethics. Steve says the group responded very well to leadership. [11:06] AutoZone is customer-oriented. The ethics of the highest level of leadership led to empathetic and ethical customer service. Steve doesn’t take credit for the ethics but agrees it is critical to a company’s success. [11:32] Steve gives the story of becoming CEO of The Conference Board. Relying on his public policy experience as a CEO for different organizations, Steve had moved to Washington, D.C. to run the 75-year-old Committee for Economic Development. A couple of years later, they merged with The Conference Board and built up from there. [12:10] When the CEO of The Conference Board retired, Steve moved up into that role. [12:25] Steve notes that the merger of two not-for-profits is unusual, as no money changes hands, but they thought they would work better together and Steve sees that both organizations have become stronger from the merger. [12:41] Ray talks about the public policy book, Sustaining Capitalism, that Steve co-authored with Joe Minarik. Ray wanted to read that book in light of his involvement in this podcast. Steve praises capitalism as the greatest economic model, and part and parcel of our form of democracy. [13:20] Steve cites Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations as the form of capitalism around which our government was built. Many regulations have been imposed upon capitalism since 1776, and Steve sees us at a new juncture where trust in industry has eroded following the financial crisis and the scandals that preceded it. [13:58] It is up to the business community to deal with these issues of trust and address issues of inequality and social issues. [14:14] If we want to sustain capitalism, we need to evolve it and we need to address these issues as business leaders. [14:21] Ray brings up the crony capitalism that exists between lobbyists and government regulators and influential people in Washington. Crony capitalism is used to skew the system to bring benefit to your company or yourself. [14:42] Capitalism is about making the system work, in total, as a rising tide. Capitalism has its faults. It’s not perfect and we need to address it and make it better, but our form of capitalism has caused global trade to increase and has taken more people out of poverty around the world than any other economic model. [15:07] Ray calls capitalism “Human endeavor with rule of law.” [15:10] Ray cites the subchapter, “The economic cost of crony capitalism.” Steve comments if you skew the system for the benefit of one group, it is a tax on other groups. The same issue applies to short-term value versus long-term value. If you shift value to the short term, it is not present for the long-term benefit. [15:47] Steve explains that you need long-term thinking, with a view to the benefits for all, to make capitalism sustainable. Steve learned to see his CEO title as representing customers, employees, and owners. Those all were his constituents. He also added in community and environment. [16:35] If you just took care of customers, you would give it away for free. If you just took care of your shareholders, you don’t take care of your customers or your employees. If you’re only there for your employees, you pay them whatever they want. It’s not one, but it’s the balance of the needs of all three groups you need to serve. [16:59] Ray brings it back to Steve’s work with AutoZone and Office Depot. Steve says what every good business leader tries to do is strike that right balance so that it all works for all the constituencies that they serve. [17:14] Steve makes a distinction between a pro-business government policy and a pro-market policy. The whole point of lobbying is to game the system with laws to the benefit of one company or regulations to the detriment of their competitors. [17:48] You should want to be governing yourself and influencing the government in a positive way for the benefit of all. At Committee for Economic Development (CED), they talk about reasoned solutions in the nation’s interest, not for ‘parochial’ interests. [18:07] As CEO of The Conference Board, what surprises Steve about the rip-roaring economy in the U.S. in 2018? Steve reminds us that it will change, and we need to look at when and how it will change. When economic lessons are not learned, and we don’t understand why things are so good, they can go bad quickly. [18:52] It applies to companies, too. We always study what went wrong, but we rarely study what went right, so we can create repeatability of it. A diagnosis of what got us here — it’s not a politician, it’s policies and regulations and the business environment — and the study of everything involved is really important. [19:18] Ray remembers the early months of 2008, where a lot of LBOs were still being squeezed in at the eleventh hour. They almost all turned out to be really terrible LBOs. Ray kept quoting people saying the world is awash with liquidity! [19:40] Steve talks about being at an event in the province of Chengdu, China when he was CEO of AutoZone. The mayor turned to him and asked how Florida real estate was doing. Steve asked why he would ask that, and the answer was that Goldman Sachs had just been in and sold them a lot of Florida real estate mortgage derivatives. [20:28] Mortgage derivatives had been sold all across the world, and that was the beginning of the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. [20:33] The Conference Board periodically takes a survey on job satisfaction in the U.S. It shows a big improvement in 2018 on how we feel about job security. Job confidence is very high and the change in the numbers has been most prominent in the lower earning groups. This shows wage improvement. [21:07] ‘Work’ goes to the core of who we are. People want to be productive. We have wage movement and people moving up in jobs now, and this is what we want. [21:24] Minnesota is the happiest employment state. They have one of the lowest unemployment levels. They have lots of businesses, big and small. The balance is agriculture. It’s a great balanced economy, so they surveyed as the happiest. [21:58] Minneapolis-born Steve Odland, CEO of The Conference Board. This is capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Steve Odland The Conference BoardQuaker OatsTops Friendly Markets AutoZone William “Bill” Rhodes Alan Mulally Ford Committee for Economic Development Sustaining Capitalism: Bipartisan Solutions to Restore Trust & Prosperity, by Steve Odland and Joe Minarik The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith Washington, D.C. Chengdu, China Goldman Sachs Job Satisfaction 2018 — The Conference Board Minneapolis, Minnesota Stephens.com This Is Capitalism

Ray Hoffman introduces Kara Trott. Kara Trott does very well by her clients and very well by her clients’ employees. She’s the Founder and CEO of Quantum Health, based in Columbus, Ohio. For companies like Hertz, Dillards, and American Honda, and hospital systems like Houston Methodist, Quantum offers a remarkably personalized approach to healthcare cost containment. It is personalized in the sense that when any of Quantum’s 700,000+ members encounters a medical problem, Quantum steps in almost immediately to help guide each patient through what it calls the healthcare journey, assisting and often intervening from that point on. While using its care coordinators — known inside the company as healthcare warriors — to simplify and clarify this journey for patients, Quantum delivers markedly lower healthcare costs for clients.   Key Takeaways: [1:15] Kara notes the savings Quantum clients see in their first year, from 5% lower claim spending. For large companies, this can be hundreds of millions of dollars. Individuals receiving healthcare conserve more of their out-of-pocket costs. It’s a win-win. [1:41] Kara graduated from law school and worked for Bricker & Eckler, a prestigious Ohio law firm. Before law school, her undergraduate study was on politics and philosophy, particularly Marxist theory. She worked for a marketing, design, and research firm before going to law school. [2:48] Kara had come of age during the Cold War; she thought it would be interesting to study a different way to think and look at macroeconomic matters. It gave her entrepreneur father a fit. She learned a different view but is a firm believer in the free-market system and capitalism. [3:34] Kara’s ex-husband was one of the first Americans to go into Russia to work in 1992 as part of the USAID program after Russia opened up. He and his partners formed a food distribution system in Russia. He and Kara adopted a Russian boy. [4:17] Kara saw in the demise of the Soviet Union that ‘command and control’ is not an effective way to govern large groups of people. You’re always better off freeing the intellectual capacity of the people and empowering them with the freedom to decide. It may take generations for Russia to find the kind of spirit we have in the U.S. [5:24] For Kara, marketing research was finding interesting problems to study and identify solutions. Kara ran strategic projects to help companies understand what people actually do, versus what they say they do. This helps companies rethink their marketing. [6:06] Kara didn’t feel that retail marketing was where she could make the kind of difference she wanted to make so she went to Ohio State Law School and then joined Bricker. She was assigned to the healthcare practice, which was growing. They created a consulting subsidiary to advise provider organizations. [6:43] Kara became one of the leaders of Bricker’s consulting practice, in spite of not knowing much about healthcare at the time. She spent a lot of time with physicians and hospital administrators. Kara learned that patients are not often compliant with their doctor’s treatment plan. [7:44] It was clear to Kara that this was a classic consumer pathway problem that she had seen solved in many other industries. She imagined a strategy for healthcare that had worked well in other industries. It started with studying the consumer journey and how things unfold, then figuring out what the critical intercept points are. [8:25] In Kara’s retail experience, this approach had led to a 20-30% bump in market share, or same-store sales, when executed properly. She figured for healthcare, there would be an extraction of as much as 20% of the unnecessary costs. Based on what doctors and hospitals told her, there was a lot of duplication and waste in the system. [8:59] Kara proposed a two-year research study to track people as they entered the healthcare system for a variety of reasons. Eight healthcare systems were interested in participating. They were able to triangulate the consumer's journey through their interactions with the physicians and compare it to secondary data. [9:41] Kara’s intent was to see how the journey unfolded, what kind of support was needed at what point, and where you would house it. The firm didn’t see it leading to legal fees, so they opted out. Kara had to make a decision to put her livelihood at stake, split from the firm, and embark on a two-year study, before starting a company. [10:43] The survey was a behavioral mapping study. Kara compares it to a study she had done for KMart about which aisles people went through within the store on a visit. Consumers of healthcare reported back to Kara, just as they had about their retail trip. [11:22] Kara says no other company was looking at the problem from the consumer’s standpoint. Even today, she sees no one else studying the consumers’ experience. The healthcare industry doesn’t understand the consumer. [12:05] Kara says she can’t do a single job at Quantum. So, she started with five employees and within a year there were probably 10. She bankrolled that. Quantum now has close to 800 employees and will be adding a couple hundred more between August and November. [12:38] Quantum manages about $7 billion in claims and serves over 1 million people. [13:07] For the first year, because of payroll, Quantum was losing about $40,000 a month. That is the element of risk in starting a company with employees. [13:43] Quantum associates consider themselves as warriors for people going through one of the most difficult times of their life. People on a healthcare journey are seeking a safe place and if you open up that conversation, and you turn it over to them, you have no idea where that call or conversation is going to go. [14:18] Quantum associates need to be prepared to deliver immediate expertise. They have the expertise to be able to navigate between all the different parties. Normally, when somebody’s stuck there are multiple points of failure. Quantum takes those issues on so the person going through the healthcare journey can focus on the journey. [14:45] The Warrior Creed on the wall is a vital piece of the Quantum culture. [15:11] It takes intent to hard-wire brand values into a culture. There are three tests to take before interviewing for a job at Quantum: the Wonderlic test, a test of “what feeds and starves you?” (similar to DISC or Myers-Brigg), and an empathy test. Few are hired from call-centers or insurance companies. Most are from service occupations. [16:18] Quantum has translated the “I care” values into attributes and competencies that form the basis for leadership development and team development. 84% of Quantum managers and above are promoted from within. There is a strong leadership development program at Quantum Health. It’s very much a servant leader organization. [17:13] Quantum has developed their own technology system. The system necessary to see the journey longitudinally, mine the information, see what they needed to do right away and have the expertise available didn’t exist when Quantum Health started. It aggregates data from all different sources. It’s an open system that can pull in any data. [17:47] The biggest thing Quantum Health does differently is to mine data directly from the providers in real time when they’re seeing those patients. The system uses an expert routing approach that gets a healthcare expert on the phone to join a conversation. [18:37] Natural Language Processing mines data and creates a consistent record of everything in the person’s healthcare journey, providing a 360-degree view, to be able to identify and queue up opportunities and ways to assist them. [19:14] Quantum Health has been on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing small companies 11 years in a row. Fewer than 50 companies have been on it for 10 years. They are experiencing 30 to 40% annual growth. [20:06] Quantum Health has just entered into a relationship with City of Hope to share the expertise of a few facilities with a nationwide network of doctors who don’t have access to that kind of front-line research. [20:36] Kara talks about changes happening in the field of behavioral health for substance abuse challenges and new methodologies for musculoskeletal care. Clients are ever seeking to make their benefits simpler for employees. Quantum makes sure the patient has a comprehensive solution. [21:42] Quantum Health is the leader in this space. Only a few carriers serve the market, but the market is huge. The clients Quantum Health carries cover over 60% of the people who receive healthcare benefits through employer-sponsored plans. [22:07] The industry is expected to grow dramatically over the next five years. It’s being noticed as a way to create a much better experience and really support people. Not only does it help people through their journeys but it produces a powerful economic result for the client and for the individuals. [22:36] Just an entrepreneur solving a problem. Kara Trott. This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Kara Trott Quantum Health Hertz Dillard’s American Honda Houston Methodist Bricker & Eckler LLP Cold War USAID Citibank Ford Walmart KMart Coca-Cola Wonderlic DiSC Myers & Briggs Inc. 5000 City of Hope Stephens.com This Is Capitalism